Jennings, Elizabeth

The walls are closing in.

I’d imagine that for a real spy, this episode was a living nightmare to watch. We’ve reached the point where the only choice for Elizabeth and Philip is to run. Without the kids.

Let’s condense this down to the nitty-gritty. The FBI is following all the right leads and Stan can’t let go of his Jennings hunch. Looking into the church brought Father Viktor in for questioning and he was quick to name drop Father Andrei so they go look for him…at the same time he requested to meet with Elizabeth but Philip went instead because Elizabeth had to go keep an eye on Nesterenko.

Stan brings his Jennings suspicions to Dennis who doesn’t believe him. While he thinks Stan has the wrong idea he doesn’t do anything to convince Stan otherwise. With the dirt they’ve been getting lately, I think Dennis is simply happy with all the progress they have been making so he sees no real reason to fall down the rabbit hole with Stan. Stan talks to the only possible rabbit he could know: Pastor Tim! In a rather cryptic conversation, Tim keeps his vow of confidence and gives Stan no information to follow up on.

Elizabeth’s hunch that Nesterenko is a marked target turns out to be right. She intercepts an assassination attempt (Tatiana!?) in public, in broad daylight. She power walks her way out of there but she’s clearly rattled and goes to Claudia to tell her. If stopping that murder wasn’t enough of a clue, Elizabeth comes right out and says it to Claudia: I’ve chosen my side and it isn’t yours anymore. Claudia manages not to outwardly freak out, it’s more of an inside, boiling kind of rage. I got the clear impression that she’s more disappointed in Elizabeth than anything else. She turns to shame Elizabeth pretty quickly: all of your work his has been for nothing and you’ve ruined it all and I thought I knew you after all of these years. Even when our relationship was at it’s worse, I knew I could depend on you to get the mission done. Elizabeth has a quick answer: If you knew me, you’d know never to lie to me. Claudia has no alternative but to run so this might be the last time we see her.

Speaking of lies, not long after getting chewed out by Claudia, Elizabeth gets round two from Paige. She’s been seeing the college kid she likes and Jackson showed up at a party. He’s all screwed up and the story Paige gets second-hand fits the honeypot scenario she read in one of the books earlier the season. You know, the one where Elizabeth lied to her about that stuff being made up to sell books. So the lies come flying back into her face, in her own kitchen no less. Paige straight up confronts her about her being the woman who seduced Jackson and Elizabeth does a really poor job of lying to Paige. I guess she’s so exhausted that her defenses are barely functioning now. So Paige doesn’t believe her and completely flips out. In the middle of the brutal dressing down, Elizabeth gets fed up and just gets steamrolled as she tries to defend her work. “I should have done what Harry did and gotten as far away as possible from here.” The battle between Elizabeth and Claudia is heavily mirrored here, but with Elizabeth switching roles. The Jennings household is in shambles. And it gets worse.

Oleg gets caught red-handed with a dead drop and then–

Philip meets with Father Andrei in a park and it goes okay until the reason why Andrei wanted to meet. He got word that Father Viktor is meeting with the FBI. Is that a problem? Philip gets really worried and starts glancing around for tails. So when is this guy meeting with the FBI? Now. Philip goes on code red alert! “I’ve been really careful.” Not careful enough dude! Philip hurridly tells him he’s got to book a flight out of the USA immediately and takes off. On his way out of the park, Philip notices he has multiple tails and he has to run for his life. He manages to lose them and he calls home to deliver a coded message to Elizabeth: Our cover is blown. She grabs the bug out bag with clothes, weapons, passports, and money.

We are down to the wire and I am dreading the end. There is no way for Elizabeth and Philip to stay in the US. I don’t know if either of them will get out alive and I have my doubts who could make it alone at this point. Henry is at school, they can’t get to him and what would they tell him? They could get to Paige or at least get word to her but I have no idea what she could or would do. If Renee is a sleeper I can see the end like this: she does nothing. She lets things happen and the final moments of the show we see her get in contact with her handlers. Their big illegal network might have just collapsed, but Renee could be the genesis of the next cell. After all, she does have her FBI interview coming up. She’s an older version of what Elizabeth wanted Paige to become.

Burned by her loyalty to her homeland, I don’t think Elizabeth is going to make it. If the scenario presents herself, she will sacrifice herself for her only other love: her husband.