The Summit
Elizabeth takes center stage in one of the most riveting episodes and we get a huge character pivot.
Right away, we get down to business. Philip admits to Elizabeth that he’s been informing on her (he doesn’t reveal that it’s Oleg). It goes about as well as you think it would. Elizabeth is furious that Philip has been lying to her. It was at this moment I realized the full scope of the emotional shift that happened when Philip left the spy game.
More than losing a co-worker (so to speak), they each lost someone they could talk to. A big theme of the show has been how brutal espionage is. It’s utterly lonely in that you can’t really trust anyone, you lie to everyone, and you have to sacrifice anything resembling a normal life. Your life, whether that be death or no freedom because you will never be let out of prison, is constantly at risk. Elizabeth and Philip always had each other since they’ve been in the US. More than just a husband and wife role, they literally could talk to each other about anything because they were a working team. The only other people they could talk to (and never be completely open to like they could be with each other) was their handlers and the occasional fellow operative on a mission. Without that link, there is no one they can be honest with. This change meant they were either withholding information from each other or outright lying. That’s poison.
And it got worse when Philip tried explaining himself. “I want you to think…like a human being.” “I’m not a human being?!” A brutal insult Philip didn’t intend but came out like a razor blade. Their facial reactions to each other tell it all. It’s one of the most brilliant acting scenes between these two and the way it’s shot, you barely see them on screen at the same time. It’s a harsh reminder of their ideological, emotional, and physical separation.
Moving on, Elizabeth goes to the Haskard’s for her phony nurse duty. She’s still desperate to get information on what’s being said at the summit (which is now happening) so her main goal is to get a bug in Glenn’s briefcase. But as all things have gone for Elizabeth this season, disaster strikes. Glenn tried to let his ailing wife go, giving her a super dose of morphine he’s been saving for awhile. It doesn’t work and she’s suffering even more. Elizabeth’s body count is so high already, we’ve seen her do crazy stuff recently and her killing Erica is one of the most brain searingly intense scenes in the series. Glenn is done with work, there’s no point in bugging his briefcase. Elizabeth settles for taking pictures of some documents she has and Glenn tells her to take one of Erica’s paintings. She takes one of the larger canvases.
In the first major Elizabeth character battle, she debates what to do with the painting. She’s been totally dismissive of art (as talked about in the first few episodes of this season) and Erica did manage to open Elizabeth’s mind up. She takes the canvas off the frame and prepares to burn it. It’s evidence of where she’s been. She wrestles with herself (I can’t accurately describe how good of an actor Keri Russell is, so I won’t even try. You have to witness it) and decides to stash it away. As she walks away her soldier mind clicks back into place and takes over. She pulls the canvas back out lays it out and lights it up without a second thought. With that avenue of intel shut, she has to move on so she sets her sights on using intern Jackson.
In another reoccurring theme this season, Elizabeth remains reckless because she’s under the gun time-wise. (Sidenote: Philip is taking risks too. He rents a Russian movie and watches it in the living room. Considering the scene a while back with Elizabeth bringing him some food from the homeland, this is shocking.) She has to get a recorder into the room at the State Department where her mark, Nesterenko (the Soviet negotiator her people think may be a traitor) will be having a meeting. Elizabeth honeypots this kid into doing what she wants, putting a recorder into the meeting room using an okay excuse (my client needs this box of paperwork and I can’t get it there because all this stuff happened, would you do me a favor?) that’s really not a good plan. It’s risky. She has to roll the dice. Jackson does it and later on, when he comes back out with the box, he looks like he’s seen a ghost. He found the recording device hidden in the box because things didn’t line up with what she said. Elizabeth is caught off guard but recovers pretty fast, telling him this is how business is done in Washington. He doesn’t buy it. This throws us into character battle #2. Again to all of Keri Russell’s credit, we watch Elizabeth internally debate on how she’s going to kill this kid. It’s another event that has spiraled out her control and she has to do something. She lets him go. I thought for sure he was dead. I’m sure he thought he was dead when she grabbed his arm to keep him from getting out of the car. He’s petrified and she rolls the dice that he won’t tell anyone out of fear that he’ll get into serious trouble for doing so super shady stuff in the State Department for someone who he now knows isn’t legit. If she didn’t have to kill Erica, I wonder if he would have let him go. The weight keeps getting heavier on Elizabeth’s shoulders and it’s eating her alive.
Meanwhile, Philip is a walking bummer. He’s frowning so much now it looks like his face is melting. He tries to talk to Henry at school and he isn’t around to take his call. He goes to buy a new suit and he looks miserable. He can’t enjoy buying stuff anymore (especially since he has no money). On a pity parade he goes to Stavo’s apartment to apologize to him for firing him because the business is tanking. Stavo’s isn’t moved by what Philip says and instead lets Philip know he’s an even bigger failure than he ever thought. Stavo’s has worked for Philip for years and noticed all the shady secrecy he and Elizabeth have done in their office all that time. He’s loyal though and never told (never even considered it!) anyone. Philip is a fantastic spy but it turns out he’s been sloppy the whole time. His secret really isn’t that secret. That’s a rude awakening. As a side note, in the “previously on” section at the start of the episode, they showed Philip in the van with Harvest when he dies and Philip is looking at the cyanide neckless around Harvest’s neck. I think Philip took it. So now he and Elizabeth have one. Philip is really worried about what’s coming.
And the Jennings’ are still in the dark about another thing they should be worried about: Stan. He’s still suspicious and doing his groundwork to see what he can dig up. He goes to meet an old contact, and I didn’t recognize him so I had to look him up (Curtis, I think. From a few years ago). This guy met Elizabeth when she was working over another guy. There was fall out and Stan kept Curtis out of serious trouble. Stan shows him a picture of Elizabeth to see if he recognizes her and while he doesn’t confirm anything he says some things take keeps Stan from letting it go. While Renee gets a job interview at the FBI (thanks Dennis! And is she a Soviet operative? I honestly have no idea. They keep her so murky there’s no definitive answer aside from saying “yes” because why else does she keep popping up?) Stan is obsessed with the Jennings. Getting ready for bed, he’s staring out his window trying to catch a glimpse of anything (Elizabeth is coming home late again, hmmm.)
Back to the Plot A of the show, while Jackson turned out to be a short-lived asset, she did get a recording out it. She hears Nesterenko discussing what the Soviet Union (Gorbachev) wants and it’s clear he isn’t a traitor. When Elizabeth hands off the tape to Claudia, she’s told to “take care of” Nesterenko. This strikes Elizabeth as strange (me too) as Claudia, and no one they work with have heard the recorded discussion. Elizabeth bails on the assassination attempt (holy animal, was that dangerous) she goes to confront Claudia about things not adding up.
And here comes the pivot! Elizabeth hasn’t been working for the state in some time. Claudia has co-opted Elizabeth to basically work on behalf of a small, rouge sect back home. No matter what Elizabeth found out, they were going to burn Nesterenko, ruin Gorbachev, and alter Elizabeth’s reports if need be to make the rationale to get away with a coup d’etat. Elizabeth hates lies and this is like the ultimate. Perverting her work and beliefs! Being used like this makes her furious. She’s done horrible things since meeting that military guy in Mexico and it was all pointless.
Elizabeth goes home and tells Philip she wants to talk to the contact he’s been passing her info to. He’s shocked and she tells him about Claudia’s deceit. While this may put Elizabeth and Philip on the same side, I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive him for being a snitch. Meeting Oleg will be difficult, he’ll be able to get the info into his hands by the early morning. While Elizabeth deals with this, she tells him he should handle the communication from Father Andrei (he’s the one that married them. He has the most info on them outside of probably Claudia). That seems like an easy meet up but they don’t know that the FBI has been sniffing around Russian Orthodox priests for a few weeks.
The Jennings’ are dangerously close to being caught. Only 2 episodes remaining.
