Now that the issues with the fugitive scientist and Mossad agents are handled, Phillip and Elizabeth can turn their attention back to finding Emmett and Leigh Anne’s killer(s). Who is this Andrew Lerrick guy and is he really the one behind the murder? If so, are the Jennings the next family in his crosshairs?
Operation: Lerrick
With all of the attention back on Navy SEAL wunderkind, and potential murderer, Andrew Lerrick, the Jennings and Claudia devise a plan to find out once and for all if he killed Emmet and Leigh Anne. Posing as CIA security officials, Phillip and Elizabeth meet Lerrick at a nondescript office building in Reston, VA. They use the files Elizabeth acquired from the Navy sailor in Virginia Beach to give Lerrick the impression that they are U.S. officials and that the CIA is aware of his double agent activities.
This is about to get confusing so bear with me. Phillip and Elizabeth get Lerrick to agree to be a double agent for the “CIA”; he will continue to meet with the KGB and will also meet with the “CIA” through Phillip and Elizabeth. I guess that makes him a not so double agent since both of his meetings are with the KGB? Through their intelligence gathering/slight interrogation, they realize that Lerrick really didn’t have anything to do with Emmet and Leigh Anne’s death, “Someone got to the bastards before I did.” They also become aware of a project called “Martial Eagle”, which Lerrick is hoping will get him back into the CIA’s good graces.
Later, through their new handler Kate, the Jennings discover that “Martial Eagle” is a U.S. initiative to train Nicaraguan Contra leaders at a secret base on American soil. Regardless of the fact that Lerrick was not involved in the murders, Phillip and Elizabeth now need to use him to gather more information on Martial Eagle. They especially need his help after the Center tasks them with assassinating Nicaraguan field commanders at the camp, thus exposing Martial Eagle to the American people. Now the Jennings need to figure out where the camp will be located.
D, I Won’t Do Drugs…
Hey Joe Weisberg, I think you should make a deal with D.A.R.E. to show this episode of The Americans in schools around the country. Yikes.
With Martial Eagle at the forefront of everyone’s mind, Elizabeth teams back up with Lucia, the Sandinista/KGB intelligence agent who is dating Carl, the reckless, drug-addicted Congressional aide. Elizabeth needs Lucia to sneak her into Carl’s office on Capitol Hill so she can secure information about the Martial Eagle camp location. Lucia has sex with Carl while Elizabeth sneaks in and gets the information.
Unfortunately, while the documents provide a lot of intel, the location isn’t listed, so Phillip and Elizabeth need Lerrick to bring them (and potentially Lucia) into the camp himself. This will require them to let Lerrick know their true allegiances, a risky plan for a dangerous man. Elizabeth also has to inform Lucia that she needs to “tie up loose ends” with Carl, KGB speak for “kill him.” After all, the leak will eventually find its way back to the Congressman’s office and Lucia will be found out. Although Lucia does not want to do this because she actually likes Carl, Elizabeth reassures her that it has to be done; in fact, she went through a similar situation and is still able to sleep at night.
Lucia tries to make Carl’s death as quick and painless as possible, though unfortunately it turns into the exact opposite. While hanging out at his apartment getting ready to do heroin – you know, what all the kids are doing – Lucia spikes the drug with a killer cocktail and after he injects it, Carl has a violent death; of course, not before making her feel even more guilty by talking about how much he loves his mother.
Sexy Time
Phew! Tonight’s episode really had its sexy moment, especially in regards to screen time for Keri Russell’s butt and the relationship between Elizabeth and Phillip…errr… Clark. Elizabeth can’t shake the information she learned from Martha about “Clark” being a “wild animal” in bed. She wants to see what it is actually like to sleep with Phillip’s wild side.
For some reason, Phillip seems to have forgotten Elizabeth’s upsetting sexual history and after much insistence on Elizabeth’s part, he shows her what Martha was talking about. Of course, Elizabeth is a lot more fragile than Phillip anticipated and was not ready for the aggressive sexual encounter, which leaves her in tears. Later, Elizabeth apologizes and wants Phillip’s reassurance that he isn’t mad at her for freaking out; of course he isn’t. :sigh: Phillip, I know she was pressuring you to go through with this but couldn’t we all tell where it was going? Aren’t you supposed to be an expert at reading people?
Stan Stan The Loyal (Except To His Wife) Man
Besides Sandra asking a sullen Stan whether or not he liked their house’s new red door, one of the biggest questions of the season is: Just how far will Stan go to “save” Nina?
After finding out that Oleg knows Nina’s nefarious secret, Stan becomes his double agent (at least for a second). Oleg asks Stan to retrieve the FBI’s surveillance logs on him, which I think is more a test of Stan’s loyalty than anything else. Unbeknownst to Stan, however, the FBI has been busy digitizing and OCR’ing their records. Now Stan is able to print out the documents, but will he give them to Oleg?
Meanwhile, Stan lets the cat out of the bag and reports to his boss, Agent Gaad, that Nina has been compromised. When Stan suggests giving the Russians information that would help ensure the safety of Nina and her family, Agent Gaad doesn’t want to hear anything about it due to the impending Congressional hearing. What will Stan do now?
Stan then goes to Nina and tells her he will “get ahead of them”, but he needs her to take a polygraph first in order to show his supervisors they can trust her. In another Oscar-winning performance, Nina screams that she has never betrayed him and can’t believe he doesn’t trust her. She refuses to take the polygraph and says she’s finished with him and the entire spy world. Surely this isn’t the end of Stina, right?!
Not Claudia!
The episode ends with Claudia admitting she may be the one that compromised the identities of her KGB agents. As it turns out, she got involved with a man and told him about her job. Could he have betrayed her and found out the agents’ identities? Claudia tells Elizabeth that she was wrong about Phillip; he is a wonderful man and Elizabeth is lucky to have found him. With that, Claudia says her goodbyes. I only hope the goodbye wasn’t for good.
PS: Can we all talk about how Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell are dating in real life? :swoon:
