"And all of us want a better future, just like you. Peace. Food to eat. All the same things. Do you think it doesn't matter who our leader is? I'm telling you this is why I'm here." ― Oleg to Stan
Jennings, Elizabeth is the ninth episode of the final season of The Americans on FX, and the seventy-fourth episode overall.
Synopsis[]
Elizabeth wrestles with competing loyalties, and Philip has an encounter that turns into much more than he had bargained for.
Plot[]
While Elizabeth continues to watch over Nesterenko to stop any attempt on his life, Philip leaves a dead drop for Oleg with Elizabeth's message about the KGB's anti-Gorbachev coup plans. Stan continues to investigate the Jennings, searching their names and Dupont Circle Travel on an FBI database (with no matches for Elizabeth and an obvious false positive for Philip), dropping in on Philip at work, and noting Elizabeth's absence.
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Stan calls Pastor Tim in Buenos Aires, who does not reveal the Jennings' secret despite the aggressive nature of his questioning. He then tells a skeptical Agent Aderholt about his suspicions, including William Crandall's dying comments describing the Jennings family and how Gregory Thomas had a girlfriend with beautiful hair who smoked heavily. Aderholt incredulously asks Stan if he really thinks Elizabeth was Gregory Thomas's girlfriend. When Stan doesn't back down, Aderholt flatly tells him that Philip and Elizabeth are not Russian spies. Aderholt and Agent Wolfe question Father Viktor who believes that Father Andrei is associated with the KGB.
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Oleg picks up the dead drop, which is suspected by the FBI agents surveilling him. Agent Loeb tells Aderholt about Oleg who orders he be stopped and searched. The FBI finds the dead drop and arrests Oleg for spying. Elizabeth remembers being instructed as a trainee not to leave a comrade to die in the streets of Moscow, despite her mission. While following Nesterenko, Elizabeth notices a suspicious woman approaching him and kills her with a silenced gunshot to the back at point-blank range. The woman is a disguised Tatiana, armed with a cyanide gun, who was sent as the substitute assassin. Elizabeth escapes into the crowd.
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In an FBI interview room, Oleg refuses to respond when Stan accuses him of being part of a wave of Soviet spying related to the summit. Later, in a holding cell, Oleg tells Stan that he was in the USA to preserve the summit by protecting Gorbachev from a KGB coup and that Stan needs to send the encoded dead drop message to the USSR. When Stan balks, Oleg says, "You think it doesn’t matter who our leader is? This is why I’m here." After Stan says that Oleg is facing serious prison time, Oleg says he would gladly stay incarcerated if it meant a better life for his family back in Russia.
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Elizabeth notifies Claudia that she foiled the murder, and also informed Nesterenko's people of the assassination plot, thus foiling any future attempts on his life. Claudia expresses her indignation and sadness at Elizabeth's final betrayal. Claudia taunts her by saying that all Elizabeth has left now is Philip and their American children.
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After meeting Father Andrei at a park and talking about his home life, a disguised Philip asks why Father Andrei signaled and learns that Father Victor talked to the FBI. Alarmed, Philip tersely tells Father Andrei to flee America as soon as possible, and immediately walks out of the park at normal speed, then begins running, closely followed by two FBI agents. Through a rapid change of clothes and removal of his disguise, Philip barely avoids capture and catches a taxi. Paige confronts Elizabeth about her friend Brian's story of intern Jackson Barber having been seduced by an older woman for information, which Elizabeth unconvincingly denies doing.
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Paige disgustedly calls Elizabeth a whore and adds that Philip can't stand to be in the same room with her. Elizabeth then erupts over the differences between Paige's privileged American life and the Jennings' impoverished Soviet ones, and Paige wordlessly leaves. At the FBI, Aderholt re-assigns all agents, including Agent Brooks and Agent Ganzel, to surveil garages suspected of being used by the Illegals. Philip calls home to say that things are "topsy-turvy" at the office, and Elizabeth promptly cleans out the hidden basement compartments into a "go bag" and flees the house.
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Notes[]
- The Counter-Intelligence Division is shown on a sign in the hallway to be on the 5th floor of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. Other divisions on this floor are Criminal Investigative, Training, Human Resources and Records Management.
- Henry does not appear in this episode.
- "Previously on The Americans" voice: Paige.
Videos[]
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