Margo Martindale is back where she belongs on Justified… er, make that The Americans. While she may be our favorite person, she is not Philip's and Elizabeth's, but they are forced to deal with her anyway for the Motherland. Currently, though, both parties want the same thing: To find Emmett and Leanne's killer. Unfortunately, the Center doesn't know much, but they have a few ideas about who might have done it. It's Phillip and Elizabeth jobs to round up the suspects.
Elizabeth is tasked with developing a relationship with a sailor who can give them some intel, so she puts on a dark wig and a classical music-loving personality and moves in for the kill. But then something happens and she can't seal the deal. Whether it's acting or real, she manages to play it off as nerves and quirks and runs out. She goes back the day and spins a tale of woe about being attacked by the man who is suspected of killing Emmett and Leanne. The guy offers to get her files, but then he fails and Elizabeth had to put out for nothing.
Know who else is disappointed? Stan. He was expecting a commendation for stopping an assassin, but instead all he got was a lousy joint inquiry by the House and Senate. The FBI higher ups weren't thrilled to discover that there was a KGB agent acting on U.S. soil and taking the would-be assassin out just made a mess, diplomatically speaking. The result is no commemorative plaque and Stan's boss is getting shoved aside in favor of some new head honcho. Stan doesn't take the news well and gets crunk with Philip and ends up confiding in him about killing people … oh and that he's having an affair. Obviously Philip is very understanding about it all.
Clark and Martha have a spat and she has no choice but to get drunk and start filling out federal employment applications that require she reveal her husband's name and marital status.
On the family front, Paige's new BFF has been taking her to church, which doesn't sit well with her communist parents who dutifully consider religion to bet the opiate of the masses.
The Rezidentura has some internal rifts developing. When Oleg wanted them to develop a professor as an asset, Moscow passed, making Arkady the messenger that Oleg wants to shoot. So Oleg pulls some family strings and gets a higher security clearance to make a bigger stink about things. One side effect of his higher clearance is that he'll now know about Nina's affair with Stan and may find out about her Treason Lite, too, meaning that no one is happy on that little slice of Soviet Russian.
When Elizabeth and Philip go to take a scientist for the Motherland, the mission goes awry when their kidnapping is sabotaged by another dynamic duo who steals the car with their intended victim packed in the trunk. Ruh roh!
Come back for the full recap soon, comrades.
Tonight's episode starts somewhere unexpected: A synagogue. A yarmulke-wearing and fake-goateed Phillip sits in the audience as a rabbi or cantor introduces a "renowned physicist" named Anton Baklanov, who is an inspiration to Jewish "refuseniks" still living in Russia. As the man comes out to address the congregation, let's take a moment to applaud the show's wig and makeup department who has managed to make Phillip unrecognizable to the point that I didn't even catch that it was him when I first watched the episode.
Phillip listens as the man tells the congregation that he has found a home in America and is happy to be visible in a country that allows Jews to be open in their faith and lives. He is, like, so over oppression and can't wait to play baseball with his son. Phillip looks on, nonplussed. Bet he will be way plussed when he finds out that Paige is hanging out at church with her new BFF! In a florescent-lit basement, Paige joins in a rousing round of the Satanic verses of "This Little Light of Mine". (You know, the ones where you sing about Satan trying to blow your little light out, not a version of the song written by Salman Rushdie, although that would be interesting.)
Back at the subversive suburban homestead, Phillip is preparing a coded message when Elizabeth joins him. He tells her that the physicist loves America too much to ever be recruited and she shrugs it off. Paige comes home, spouting lies to cover up the fact that she was at church, because apparently youth group didn't cover the whole WWJD thing yet. Her parents suggest she call time she plans to stay out late and Paige looks relieved to have gotten away with going to church, which is kind of the saddest thing a teenager can get away with.
The morning Phillip and Elizabeth make a drop via what looks like the very un-American act of littering. After they leave their message in a garbage heap, they cruise around the block, chit-chatting about how fun capitalism is, but they stop short when they see Margo Martindale making her highly anticipated (by me!) return to FX, walking slowly across the street in front of them. Elizabeth's jaw drops, but she stops for Claudia to get in the car. She tells them that despite what they might believe -- what with the whole almost getting them killed thing -- she is really happy to see that they are alive and well and spying for the Motherland. She feared the worst when she heard what happened to Emmett and Leanne, but didn't know what to do. (Apparently, she missed the Hints from Heloise column that explained that Edible Arrangements are the appropriate present in a sorry-your-fellow-spies-were-assassinated situation.)
She apologizes for everything that happened between them, but that doesn't really cut it for Elizabeth, who is fighting the urge to strangle her with her bare hands. Phillip wants to know what the Center knows about the situation. She admits that they don't know much. Elizabeth wants to know if any of the other embedded spies have had their covers blown, but the Center just doesn't know. She adds, "You're still alive, that's a good sign" -- a motivational statement that undoubtedly still has use today in Putin's Russia. Strangely, Elizabeth doesn't look relieved. When Phillip balks that the Center put a team on their kids and then pulled the team away, Claudia admits that the Center is scared of having their whole operation blown and won't do what it takes to find Emmett and Leanne's killer. She has a few ideas about who that killer might be and she needs Phillip and Elizabeth to help her, off the books. Elizabeth is more than skeptical, but Claudia makes the case that they both owe it to their fallen comrades to track down their killer.
Without really agreeing to the operation, Phillip and Elizabeth relent and Claudia starts handing out details on the man who might be good enough to have tracked Emmett and Leanne down. His name is Andrew Larick, he was in special ops in Vietnam and works at the Naval Academy and because he's a homosexual and it's way before Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Emmett and Leanne were able to blackmail him. He's at the top of the suspect list, but to reach him they will need an airtight cover story. Apparently, the best way to reach a closeted homosexual naval officer is through an *ahem* seaman recruiter. Excuse me as I giggle like a twelve-year old. Okay, then. The seaman recruiter is named Brad Mullen and he is the key to getting to Larick After handing out the espionage goody bags, Claudia reminds Elizabeth that the last time she saw her she was on an operating table and while she knew she would live, she didn't know if she would make it back to the frontlines of the struggle. She's glad to see her. Elizabeth throws Phillip some serious side eye at that.
Over at FBI HQ, Stan is awaiting his commendation for taking out an enemy of the state who dared bad-mouth President Reagan while engaging in his right to bear arms on a Laundromat rooftop. His boss tells him he should expect a very nice letter in a very nice box to decorate his mantle -- whether he wants to display it at his marital home or his mistress's love nest is up to him. An official looking man bustles into the office, shakes his boss's hand and then breaks the news to Stan: Even though he deserves it, there's no commendation coming. Turns out killing a KGB agent on American soil can be a tricky enterprise and both the House and the Senate are now getting together to have a very long, very involved conversation about it. So Stan won't be getting a commendation and his boss will most likely be getting fired, even though he had nothing to do with the action. Stan looks stunned as he is shuffled out of the office and Martha, Phillip's extra wife, looks intrigued by all the commotion. Stan shrugs at her and walks away to think about what he's done.
Elizabeth has no interest in living or dying based on information from THAT woman, but everyone knows she will do whatever it takes to catch Emmett and Leanne's killer and Phillip barely has to nudge her in the right direction before they are arguing over who will take on the challenge of befriending Brad Mullen, seaman recruiter.
At the Soviet Embassy, Oleg wants an update on whether they will be recruiting Baklanov, the Jewish physicist. Arkady tells him that the Center assessed the situation and won't be recruiting him. Oleg completely disagrees with that assessment and thinks they are missing out on an important opportunity to get a scientist and his radar research working for their team. Arkady tells him to get over it, but that seems unlikely to happen. Oleg harrumphs some more about the decision to drop the recruitment campaign and Arkady patronizingly tells him that he wishes he could let him read the Center's decision for himself, but since he doesn't have the security clearance, there's nothing he can do. Then he shuts his door in Oleg's face. Oleg glowers for a moment and then goes to make a phone call.
At FBI HQ, Stan spies his boss making a beeline for the elevator. He chases after him to make sure everything is okay, but it's not. The boss tells him that since Stan killed the KGB agent and the stupid American government is insisting on oversight, there are going to be repercussions on the ground. He's getting "layered," which he explains is "bureaucratese" for him getting a boss. Someone is being brought in over him to make sure Stan doesn't kill any more KGB agents, a fact that would surely warm the cockles of Nina's (and Phillip's and Elizabeth's) heart if she knew about it. Stan feels bad that his actions caused a problem for his boss, but whatcha gonna do when a nutball has a gun aimed at ya? Not much. His boss tells him not to worry about it, because government oversight happens.
Now we head to Virginia Beach, VA for a little espionage via classical music. Elizabeth is in a record shop wearing a brunette bob wig and is rocking out to Beethoven (which she manages not to pronounce like she's seen Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 47 times) as she makes eyes at Brad Mullen, seaman recruiter and noted classical music fan. She "accidentally" bumps into him on the way out of the listening booth and gigglingly explains that she just wasn't that into the album she was listening to. Since iTunes genius playlists won't exist for many more years, Mullen has to actually offer advice and she has to listen instead of rolling her eyes and heading to Spotify. He tells her that she might like the Mozart album and instead of telling the player to slow his roll, she asks if they can listen to it together in the record store's listening booth. He seems surprised that a woman instead of a seaman is paying attention to him but goes for it. They crank up the Mozart and smile at each other.
Back in the D.C. 'burbs, Stan and Phillip are unwinding at a bar after a long day at work. Stan -- who has clearly had a few too many -- is recounting what it's like to kill a man and Phillip is doing a good job pretending to clutch his pearls at the very notion of even the idea of having to kill a man. After Stan's drunken shock and awe campaign against his drinking buddy sinks in, he realizes that he is dominating the conversation and awkwardly segues to asking Phillip about how the whole travel agent thing is going. Phillip offers some lamely tame story about booking tours for Stan's plumber friends. After that story, Stan decides it's enough Phillip Time and blurts out that he's having an affair. Phillip mutters something about how we're all human and promises to keep it to himself while totally planning to blackmail Stan if necessary. Stan sighs that it would be impossible for him to be with his lady love permanently and when Phillip asks why, it looks like Stan is about to admit that he's dating a Russkie, but instead makes up something about her being married. Phillip nods knowingly.
At the Rezidentura, Oleg is finally getting his way. He knocks on Arkady's office door and is invited in only to be ignored by the man with a thought bubble floating over his head that reads: "Eff you in your dumb face, you big suck up daddy's boy dum-dum." Arkady eventually stops what he's doing and goes to fetch a file for Oleg, handing it to him with a very insincere, "Congratulations on your new security clearance." Oleg pretends he totally respects Arkady and wasn't trying to step on his toes. Arkady smirks that he wishes he had family ties to pull on to move up in the chain of command, because it's "very western." As the two men try their best not to strangle each other, Arkady recounts a tale of the humble beginnings of a Soviet leader and Oleg rolls his eyes without actually rolling his eyes, which would probably get him repatriated. Speaking of repatriated, now that he has the security clearance to be taken seriously, Oleg really thinks they need to consider forcibly repatriating the physicist. Arkady smirks that of course they should repatriate him. That's why they are already doing it. Oleg looks taken aback while Arkady revels in feeling smug.
After yelling at Henry about lusting after capitalist goods, specifically Intellivision, and sending him running after his sister, Phillip tells Paige that Stan finally told him about his affair. She's impressed! He also tells her that they are going after the physicist when she is done trying to reel in Mullen. Plus she has to find time to run the travel agency and, you know, run a household and raise a family. Being a spy sure is a full time job!
Arkady has some bad news for Nina. With Oleg's new security clearance he had no choice but to hand over the files on her one-woman operation with Beeman. Arkady was not pleased by it, but he didn't feel like he had a choice. However, he did hold back the files on her initial betrayal. She thanks him for his discretion, but they both know that Oleg has many strings to pull and if he wants to find out more information about her, he will. She knows she's in for it, somehow, but seems unsure of how to proceed.
Phillip stakes out the physicist's house in order to figure out a good place to grab him. He watches from the car as Anton sends his son off to school and kisses his wife goodbye before walking down the little white stairs on his little row house and heading to work. It's all so familiar, but Phillip seems to have no sense of the similarities in their situations.
Down in Virginia Beach, Elizabeth and Brad are making the most of the state's motto that Virginia is for lovers by heading to a hotel room to further their romance. Brad explains that while he personally has never done this before -- the two-star motel is where most of the men take their lady friends for a little bedbug-ridden loving. He apparently prefers to do his seaman recruiting on base. Elizabeth says it's all fine, but Brad still feels the need to justify his existence and his presence in Virginia Beach telling her that he's not the typical military man and had really hoped he would make a friend in the Navy, but failed to find another classical music lover among the gung ho "Neanderthals." Elizabeth doesn't mind that he's not a Neanderthal and in fact would be willing to make sweet, sweet love to him if she wasn't traumatized. She apologizes, but she needs to take things slowly. She promises to call him before running from the room, leaving Brad to wonder about his failings and to get back to his seaman recruiting already. It's a credit to Keri Russell's acting that it's honestly hard to tell whether she (Elizabeth) is upset or if it's just the character she's playing who is upset. At least we know that Brad is upset.
Phillip scopes out the university where the physicist teaches. That's when he sees him make a call, memorizing the numbers he dialed. Phillip has number traced and reports back the findings to Elizabeth. Turns out the physicist has a mistress, which is another great reason not to want to go back to the USSR. They plan to grab the guy soon, but have to figure out how to work it into their busy schedules. Elizabeth says she will make the drop to Claudia, because Phillip promised Martha a "lazy morning," a concept that seems to annoy both of them. Then Elizabeth will make the kids an early dinner and meet Phillip for a little date night kidnapping. Phillip asks how it's going with Brad and Elizabeth brushes him off, because it's as fine as a picking up a man when you're happily married can be.
Elizabeth goes to drop the laundry off upstairs and busts Paige reading the bible. Paige lies and says it is for a class and God doesn't smite her down, which seems unfair. Elizabeth flips through it and figures out that Paige has been going to youth group at a church and she starts hollering about lying and hiding things and Paige starts yelling about privacy and then Phillip busts in and wants to yell at Paige about lying, too, but decides they should all cool off first. Paige slams the door on them as they leave and, yeah, having teenagers does not look fun at all. That's why you should sell children to iPhone factories when they reach 13 and their fingers are still nimble enough to make those tiny little circuits. Or, you know, boarding school.
Elizabeth doesn't have time to sulk or even consult Dr. Spock, because she has a date with Brad down in Virginia Beach. Over a coffee date in full daylight, she tells Brad that she is sorry about the other day, but she really wants to get to know him. She asks where he's from and with that nicety out of the way, she launches into a mega sob story about being assaulted and raped by a Navy SEAL who was hanging out in a bar while on leave. She cries in the coffee shop as she spins the tale about the attack and Brad falls for it all. She explains that the police weren't able to catch the guy because the Navy was protecting him. They said her attacker wasn't on leave but on a top secret mission and no one could get access to him. Brad is unable to resist a damsel in obvious distress and offers to get her his file. He'll photocopy it for her and she can give it to her lawyer to prove that he was in town. The man she named in the assault? Andrew Larick a.k.a. the suspect in Emmett's and Leanne's murder. Elizabeth smiles sadly at poor sucker Brad.
Martha sits in bed in a negligee gabbing away on the landline when Clark a.k.a. Phillip bustles in on a cloud of angry energy. Martha -- who was absent-mindedly fiddling with a glasses case that had a recording device embedded in it -- tells her mom she will call back and then she and Clark get in a big ol' fight. He accuses her of always getting on the phone with her mother when he's around even though they have so little time to spend together and never making their house feel like their house and she accuses him of being a pencil-pushing time-card puncher and he walks out the door. The show is creating an interesting tension between Phillip and Elizabeth and their alter egos, where while it's clear that they need them to get their spying done, they also can't be bothered with them anymore and they seem to be surviving on minimal effort. Personally, I've never been a fan of the Martha storyline because it seems likely that she would show up at Stan's house at some point and the jig would be up. Also, how long is he supposed to keep it up? Forever?
Elizabeth meets Claudia in the park to tell her that she doesn't have the files yet. Claudia nods slowly, already having made her assessment of the situation. After spending three minutes in the car with Elizabeth, she already knows that something is off with her. She's back, but she's not really back because now she is afraid. That fear is affecting her work and while she can take on poor dumb Brad, she can't go at Larick with that fear holding her back. Elizabeth doesn't appreciate the unscheduled job evaluation and will clearly have words for Human Resources later. Claudia claims she just doesn't want to lose any more agents, but Elizabeth thinks there must be some ulterior motive, too. Claudia just looks at her sadly, touches her arm gently and walks away.
Down in Virginia Beach, Elizabeth meets up with Brad. She is so excited to get the files on Larick. Unfortunately, Brad doesn't have the files. In military terms: He chickened out. Every time he went to get the files, he saw guys staring at him and he couldn't handle the stress. Elizabeth subtly makes him feel like a loser for wussing out and failing in his hero turn, but then gives him an undeserved hand job in the front seat of the car on the off chance he'll feel guilty enough about it to steal the files later.
At the Rezidentura, Oleg tells Nina that he read her files. She doesn't want to talk about it with someone who is such a smartass, but he insists that he sincerely admires her schtupping an ugly FBI agent for the cause. She's extremely hard on him, even though he does seem actually sincere when he tells her that it's hard on the soul when you train your heart to deceive. She brushes him off, roughly, which seems both wise (because he's a nitwit) and incredibly stupid (because he seems dangerously cavalier and thus dangerous).
At the dinner table, Paige holds up the chicken eating by saying grace before digging in. Elizabeth and Phillip have no idea what to make of this teenage rebellion, so they say nothing and wait for Paige to be done with it. Henry just stares at her, confused that he is even in the scene.
Martha comes home from a long day at the office looking contemplative. She fidgets with the recording device in her glasses case again and calls Phillip. They need to talk. When he doesn't answer she picks up a federal employment application and starts to fill it out.
As they stake out the physicist's mistress's house, Elizabeth is ranting about Paige's personal prayer circle and how church's in this country swoop in and indoctrinate the young when they are ill-prepared to fend off the opiate of the masses. Paige's interest in church is a sign of personal failure for Elizabeth. If she and Phillip had been paying closer attention to their children then Paige would never have fallen under the sway of the tambourine-wielding Svengali named Kelly. Phillip doesn't think it's so grave as all that, but they will need to discuss later as the physicist has shown up and they need to concentrate on the kidnapping at hand instead of the brainwashing at home.
Martha is chugging wine and filling out job applications and leaving messages for Clark. She needs to talk to him pronto, because her application is due tomorrow and she needs to include her marital status and her husband's name and she isn't going to perjure herself on the form, but she knows that Clark doesn't want her to tell anyone about their marriage. She needs to talk to him. She hangs up and fills out the paperwork.
"Clark" is a little busy right now, Martha. He and his wife are trying to kidnap a physicist and it's not going so well. They managed to grab the man, knock him out and shove him into the trunk of their car, but just as they are about to make a clean getaway, another couple emerges from the shadows and starts to battle them over the physicist's incapacitated body. Without knowing who they are, Phillip and Elizabeth rumble with them in the streets. Phillip manages to knock out the woman, but takes his attention off of her when he notices that Elizabeth is about to murder the male assailant. He goes to slow her roll, which is when the female attacker comes to, slips in to the driver's seat of the car and drives off with the physicist in the trunk, stranding Phillip and Elizabeth with the nearly dead guy and no scientist. They stare at the car's headlights knowing that they screwed up, but having no idea what just happened.