Philip and Elizabeth bring Paige into a new operation (plus a Martha cameo!)
Were bowling with the Morozov family, and Alexei is griping about Russia again.
Philip and Elizabeth are barely holding their tongues.
Credit: Patrick Harbron/FX
Again with this, Elizabeth whispers.
Youre the one who destroys, she snarls at him in Russian.
They would have shot me, he tells her.
You should have told us that before dragging us to this miserable place like your luggage.
After the fight, Alexei tries to explain his hardline attitude to Russia to his two nice American friends.
We had different time growing up.
When I was 14, they dragged my father out of apartment.
He tells them of traveling for days to go visit him, only to be told: no visitors.
He died 15 years later, Alexei says.
That is the Soviet Union I know.
Sounds like she didnt know Alexei was going to defect, Elizabeth says on the drive home.
How could someone do that?
How would we have done it if we had to go back?
Tell em first or when we got there?
Its different, his wife says.
Alexei didnt have to run.
He wanted to come here and be a big shot.
He buys them a big meal at Bennigans and is starting a famine back home.
That was smart, throwing the gutter balls to make Pasha feel better, she says.
The kids got great instincts, Philip agrees.
That leads them back to their actual daughter, Paige.
She cant handle this.
Any of it, Philip says.
What if we tell her about this operation?
Its a good thing.
Plus, it could help draw her away from the FBI agents son.
Compared to this, Matthew Beeman wont seem so important.
We think the U.S. government is planning to attack the Soviet Unions grain supply, her father says.
We found a greenhouse where theyre testing pests that can destroy entire wheat crops.
I know thats shocking to hear, but thats something they do.
They go after us any way they can, including the food people eat, her mother says.
If we stop this, a lot of people wont have to suffer, her dad adds.
How can they stop something like this?
Their daughter is aghast at the danger of the undercover work.
Arent you afraid someone will call the police on you?
We dont tell them our real names, her father says.
So they just think youre like other people?
Are you… pretending to be his friend?
Sometimes we do that, yes, to get the information we need, Elizabeth says.
Is it hard pretending to be other people?
Its really hard, her father answers.
Upstairs, later that night, he stares into his bathroom mirror.
We see a memory of his childhood: his mother in a grimy apartment in Russia.
His father brings home a single pair of pants.
They look grateful for it.
Maybe sometimes pretending to be someone else is easier than being your true self.
You dont have to be nervous, he tells the manger.
I just want to understand how your department works.
How do you get your products?
These tangerines look delicious, he says, lifting one out of a crate but not eating it.
Most stores dont have fruits and vegetables like this.
Youre doing what you must to survive, Burov says.
Do you think its fair how hard most people have to struggle just to get food for dinner?
How do you think it will ever end if you dont speak up?
As he leaves, empty handed in every way, the manager offers him a gift.
kindly take the tangerines.
Burov says no, thank you.
As he leaves, the viewer gets a little surprise.
We know this face.
It is Martha, Philips wife, former secretary for the FBI counter-espionage chief.
She has been relocated to Russia to save her life.
But what kind of life is this?
Perhaps well be seeing more of her again.
The check-ups are fewer and further between.
The Americans dont consider the family to be in much danger.
Tuan expresses contempt for Pasha.
Hes always picking at his food while his mother tells him what to eat, like a baby.
Back home, I ate garbage off the streets.
Most days I never ate at all.
My father died when I was six, Philip says, absently.
Before he died there wasnt enough food…
Since Tuan harbors intense bitterness, he adds: Not as bad as you.
But we went hungry a lot.
Its hard to forget that empty, hopeless Russia that Alexei described.
Its related to a kind of midge that has never been seen out of Australia.
This pest released into our grain supply could destroy us.
He tells them a shipment of midges was sent to a business address in Oklahoma.
Maybe theyre infecting the grain shipments.
Maybe the bugs are intended to attack our own harvest, he says.
When Philip and Elizabeth tell him that they brought Paige in on the operation, hes alarmed but understanding.
She doesnt like people being starved, Elizabeth says.
She feels closer to you?
In that case, I think it was a good idea.
Paiges mind is elsewhere.
The world seems so messy right now.
Its hard to know what we can do about it.
Well theres nothing we can do about it, her boyfriend says.
You really feel that way?
She kind of likes that her parents think otherwise.
Later, Paige tells her mother what happened.
I looked him right in the face and lied about why I was so tense.
He had no idea.
It felt… gross.
Do you think it would have been fair to tell him the truth?
To put that burden on him?
So, thats how its going to be?
For the rest of my life Im going to be fake with my boyfriends?
Its not being fake.
A relationship is complicated.
You dont share everything.
You hold back what you better, her mother says.
The people he reaches are not the original contact his mother intended.
That person has been arrested.
But… apparently he is on his way to America to find his dad.
All this land out here, you know what it looks like?
But hes not just homesick.
Hes sick of what he remembers.
Weve got this, too, he says.
Why cant we grow enough grain ourselves?
After a long silence between them, she puts on the cowboy hat and makes her way before him.
You think theyre gonna make me queen of the rodeo this year?
she asks, playfully.
She puts a hat on him.
Probably more happens after that.
Elizabeth the kids got great instincts.
Back in Moscow, Burov gets a package left by a friend of Stan Beeman.
Back then, he and Stan had the shared goal of saving Ninas life.
Shes now dead, but this tape lives on.
In one atrium, they find a bizarre array of midges.
He notices the insects are all stirred up, and almost instantly Philip and Elizabeth are upon him.
He thinks hes being robbed, but we know hes already dead.
And money isnt what theyre after.
What kind of work do you do here?
Elizabeth demands of the labs deputy director.
Im not allowed to talk about the work we do here, he says.
To get it through his head, they plow his face into one of the glass cages.
He confirms that theyre developing genetically engineered midges.
Its a Wheat-eater… he says, adding that the lab has a contract with a company called AgriCorp.
Theyve sent about 40,000 eggs to them so far.
Another shipment is due in two weeks.
But what are they being used for?
We dont ask those questions, the man says.
We just breed the bugs they tell us.
An instant later, she is flipping him back into Philips arms, and he breaks the mans neck.
