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Philip and Elizabeth are reunited and couldn't be happier, which is how you know it's about to get awful. Not only do they get this terrible assignment -- sent to assassinate an assassin whom the Center sent to kill 14 American scientists before they changed their mind -- but Claudia has a meeting with Elizabeth where she totally blows the whistle on Philip for sleeping with Irina last week. She warns Elizabeth that it doesn't work if the fake marriage becomes a real one. Elizabeth takes the warning to heart, and she's immediately distant from Philip.
Meanwhile, they're way better at this fool's errand of a mission than you'd think. "Clark" manages to step up his relationship with Martha so that she'll sneak him some of the files on the scientists. The assassin is a round-faced German who's quite ingenious. When Philip and Elizabeth finally get the jump on him, he reveals he's rigged his hotel room with a bomb. And even so, the Jenningses best him with their cunning. Not bad.
The problem is that the assassin was ahead of them, and slipped an explosive onto the person of an FBI agent assigned to guard one of the scientists. The bomb goes off, a house erupts and at the end of the day, one scientist and three agents are dead. The FBI is PISSED, and even though the Reagan administration won't declare war over it, there will be retribution.
In other news, Nina gets promoted at work and decides to step up her spying so that she can get Stan the kind of information that will set her free. Also, the FBI sets Stan up with a safe house/crash pad for the two to meet and, you know, whatever. Also, Agent Chris is now stalking Martha with villainous intent? Stay tuned.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Espionage in the 1980s was all about clandestine sex.
Currently: Elizabeth is writing down code off the reports from the radio. Philip comes home from morning racquetball with Stan and the two are almost immediately gossiping about the marital problems going on across the street. They're also being very flirty/sexy with each other, so I guess they're all well and fully recovered from last week's fighting. Elizabeth has news of trouble at work, though. Seems the Center contracted a guy to kill American scientists in the anti-ballistic missile program, but then they changed their mind and don't have the capability to recall the order. So now it's up to Elizabeth and Philip to take out the assassin. Professional hazard, I suppose. Don't feel too sorry for him. Philip asks if they have a name for this guy or a description or perhaps a schedule of his proposed hits? Nope, nope, and nope! Elizabeth does say they have a list of fourteen scientists who are being targeted, so it's only mostly impossible. Philip is very snarky about how awful the assignment is. "But doesn't it sound fun?" Elizabeth asks with a smile. He smiles back and reminds her of their dinner with the Beemans on Wednesday, where she is expected to bring her meatloaf, while he merely has to bring his "winning personality." Everybody's in a great mood! Can't wait to see what awful thing happens.
That night, the Jenningses are staking out a target, an older couple returning to their car from a restaurant. Elizabeth notes that after 30 years of marriage, they're still holding hands, while Philip is more incredulous that these incredibly important scientists working on an incredibly important national security project have no security at all. Elizabeth remarks that they feel safe. "Not for long," Philip says, as he produces a detonator switch. Hi near-glee at this moment does not fit with his personality -- he's never relished a kill -- so something's obviously up here. Indeed, Philip waits for the old man to try to start his car, check the engine when it stalls out, notice the bomb blinking its big red light from under the hood and pull his wife to safety. Only then does Philip blow the car up. A warning to the would-be victims of this unknown assassin and a signal to the Feds to start protecting their nerds better. And a perfect time to hit the credits.
Indeed, after the credits, Special Agent John-Boy is updating his men on the status of these two scientists and how out of character this attack was. They're not even really thinking it's the KGB because the attack was so brazen. It's akin to the Soviet Union declaring de facto war on the U.S. So the solution thus far is to put all scientists working on the Star Wars program into protective custody. Agent Chris wonders if it should even stop at scientists and they should protect more targets. Agent John-Boy, in his Chris-hating bitchy way, is like, "That would leave us no time to do anything else." All this takes a backseat to the fact that Chris is wearing a red-gemmed pinky ring, however. Does the FBI pay so little that Chris needs to moonlight as a Turkish ruby-fencer? He leaves his agents with the usual boilerplate instructions and tells them to inform their wives they won't be seeing them much this week. Stan's ears perk up at this, for all the obvious reasons.