Elizabeth unravels the secret American agriculture plan… and suspicions build about Stan’s new girlfriend.
None of these guys are hungry, Stan says.
What are the odds they give us something that makes all this worth the effort?
Credit: Eric Liebowitz/FX
If nothing else we keep the KGB busy and irritated, their boss says.
Well, were certainly busy and irritated, Stan replies.
Thats a good joke, his boss says.
So funny, he forgot to laugh.
As teased in the previous episode, Henrys teacher calls in Philip and Elizabeth for a conference.
Its been a while.)
Turns out, the boy isnt in any trouble.
Rather, hes brilliant, and the teacher wants to place him in advanced math classes.
This surprises Philip and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth also uses this as chance to tell Philip what she has learned from Alexeis wife.
Theres a chance we could get every officer theyre training for Moscow, she says.
She notes that he seems preoccupied, stressed.
But he cant tell her whats happening at work.
Cant you be, I dont know… vague?
I was a little aggressive with this thing with my boss.
I may have said a little too much.
Itll work out, Stan says.
Theyve been seeing a lot of each other, he says.
Weve been giving the Center a lot of detailed reports about Stan.
They know hes recently divorced, they know hes vulnerable.
They know hes a loner who would go for her bang out.
Thats crazy, Elizabeth says.
Theyve certainly pulled off crazier in their day.
Back in Moscow, we see Burov pursuing his investigation into corruption in the Russian food markets.
He and his strong-arm partner threaten a distributor by mentioning his son fighting in Afghanistan.
The man doesnt break.
You son of a bitch, he tells them.
You want to arrest me, arrest me.
Otherwise leave me alone.
Burov has other problems waiting at home.
How could you think I want any of those silly young girls, he tells his father.
I can find my own dates.
Theyve been tracking every signal Philip gets since Mischa disappeared from Russia.
How did he get here?
Im sure it wasnt a walk in the park, Gabriel says.
Hes unstable, she says.
Are we talking about Mischa or Philip?
The boy, she says.
Hes already been in trouble for speaking out against the war.
Its a complicated war, Claudia.
He fought in it.
Hes not mentally ill.
His mother defected.
He got himself arrested.
And now hes coming to see a father hes never met.
I doubt hes stable, she insists.
Hes his son, Gabriel says.
Its too risky, she says.
You dont trust Philip?
Its not about me.
He already has entries in his file that dont look good, she says.
Claudia puts a finer point on it.
You care about him.
The thing is, we know that shes right.
For a good long time, Philip has been suffering from a debilitating case of Are we the baddies?
Back home, Philip confesses to Elizabeth: Ive been having these memories of my childhood.
My father, bringing home food and clothing.
So, good things?
She doesnt get it.
It must be very hard.
But if you love him, you must forget this.
You cannot see him, Gabriel says.
Ben Stobert is cooking her meals, and making jokes, and winning her heart.
What is it you do exactly?
she finally asks, over fireplace smores.
Right now Im working on saving the world, he says.
Good luck with that, she laughs.
Half their crops were lost before they were harvested.
But if there was a grain that could resist pests, fungi, drought…
The poorest people in the world could feed themselves.
A single pest can cause mass starvation.
Youre a real idealist, she says.
No, Im a realist.
We need to develop crops that can withstand almost anything.
Elizabeth wants to know how.
And he tells her the plan:
We take the strongest wheat plants from around the world.
Were close to developing the strongest strain of wheat the world has ever known.
And when you have it?
I work for a company and they sell it, he says.
But it would make food supplies cheap and more reliable around the world.
In Africa, Asia, places were people suffer through cycles of famine.
It might never happen again.
Back home, Philip has sought refuge in an EST self-help meeting, but its only making things worse.
Old patterns between parents and children create barriers.
They keep us from seeing whats really there, the instructor says.
In this case, its not his relationship with his mother, but rather Mother Russia that is strained.
When Elizabeth gets home, she also makes his self-recrimination worse.
We got it wrong, she says.
Stobert isnt looking to poison us or our food.
He wants to save people.
He wants to develop a wheat that can grow anywhere.
He wants to feed the world, she says.
So the guy in the lab, the one we…
He cant even bring himself to say killed.
We didnt know, she says.
But once there, he cant hide from his own agony with an airline pilot disguise.
Tuan, sensing danger, excuses himself.
That guy in the lab.
Ever again, Philip says.
Well be more careful, she says.
Philips not buying it.
This has been hard for me.
For a long time.
You know that right?
I do, she says.
Look, when we know this kind of thing is coming up, maybe it can just be me.
No, its us Elizabeth, Philip tells her.
Its us, he tells her again.
