"And you need to tell me something, Philip. Are you falling apart?" ― Gabriel
One Day in the Life of Anton Baklanov is the eleventh episode of Season Three of The Americans on FX, and the thirty-seventh episode overall.
Synopsis[]
Philip and Elizabeth's home and work lives collide in new and dangerous ways. Nina struggles to figure out her next steps. Arkady assigns Oleg and Tatiana to an operation with uncertain potential.
Plot[]
Paige comes to breakfast and bombards her parents with questions, including whether they are actually married, if the travel agency is real, why they don't have accents, and what their real names are. Philip and Elizabeth tell her, but urge Paige to keep her voice down until Henry comes down for breakfast and asks what's up with Paige. At the FBI, Agent Gaad makes a list of everything he can remember was said in his office that should have been said in "the vault" and discusses it with Stan. Gabriel arrives home to find Philip and Elizabeth waiting and they tell him Paige knows. Pleased, he expresses concern for them, gives Elizabeth another envelope with a recording from her mother and says they're won't be many more. Leaving Gabriel's, Elizabeth asks Philip to take Hans with him to run surveillance the next time he visits Martha.
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At the Soviet research facility, Anton tells Nina that he needs the photos of the stealth aircraft in order to make progress. He confides that his biggest source of despair is that his son doesn't know whether he's alive or dead. Disguised as "Michelle", Elizabeth visits Lisa in the home where she's letting her stay, and finds Maurice there too. He tells "Michelle" they want to give intel about Northrup for money but because of Lisa's high security clearance, they want double what "Michelle" says she gets. "Michelle" feigns trying to talk them out of it, but says she'll speak to "Jack". Once Maurice has "Michelle" alone, he tells her he knows she's really the head of the operation. At the FBI, Taffet asks to interview Martha again and says he'll need a few hours. Gene tells Martha he actually enjoyed his time with Taffet because he's brilliant and understands how to analyze information.
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"Scott Birkeland" and Yousaf meet and talk about Annelise. Yousaf asks Scott how he can live with himself and do his job. "Scott" responds that he's been doing it a very long time, and it doesn't get any easier. Yousaf tells him that the Mujahideen commanders coming to the US will be convincing the US government to give them new weapons, Stinger missiles. Yousaf says there are some reasonable men among the Mujahideen in Afghanistan but describes one of the men that ISI is sending as radical and savage. Finding Paige seated in the car in the garage, Elizabeth apologizes for the shock learning the truth has caused her. She talks about her parents but Paige wonders whether she can believe anything she says. At the Rezidentura, Arkady's office is filled with stacks of typewritten pages obtained from the bug in the Mail Robot. He hands a stack each to Tatiana and Oleg and asks they start working on reading them.
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Getting the all clear from Hans, "Clark" visits Martha and finds her frantic about the interview with Taffet. Believing he knows she's guilty, "Clark" shows her various interrogation techniques and has her practice them until she's more confident. A disguised Elizabeth meets with Neal, the manager of the Clayton Hotel, that the Mujahideen will be staying at. They have sex, although Elizabeth has some hesitation. Nina goes into Anton's bedroom and and finds a stash of letters to his son hidden in his mattress which she reads and smiles at. Arriving home, Elizabeth sits in the garage for a long time, unhappy. Philip tells Gabriel he wants Elizabeth to be able to see her mother before she dies. When Gabriel says that's not possible, Philip complains that the Center cannot continually ask them for things, and always turn down their requests. Gabriel questions whether Philip can still do his job.
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Taffet questions Martha, focusing on her lack of a significant other. Using the techniques "Clark" taught her, she lies convincingly and steers the conversation to her relationship with Agent Amador. Taffet thanks her and lets her leave. In the cafeteria at the research facility, Anton expresses his disdain for the Israelis who traded him like a slave to the USSR. Nina is able to relate and tells him how she was traded and used while working for the KGB. Vowing that he won't let the Soviets decide who he is, Nina confesses she read Anton's letters and that his son Jacob would be proud. Shocked that his contraband has been discovered, Nina says the letters are beautiful and promises she won't tell anyone, though she doesn't know why.
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Neal shows Elizabeth his office, including the computer reservation system. Hans arranges a distraction at the front desk so Neal gets called away, giving Elizabeth the opportunity to find the room number the CIA agents will be staying when they are guarding the Mujahideen, and she makes an imprint of the room key. She turns Neal down for sex when he returns. Aftering reading through many pages from the Mail Robot bug, Oleg and Tatiana see it's chit-chat and has little value. They laugh over the counting of the beeps the Mail Robot makes. The next morning, at home in their bedroom, Philip tells Elizabeth he's found a way for her to see her mother one last time. Paige interrupts and asking what they're talking about, they tell her. Asking if Elizabeth can see her mother, she says no.
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Notes[]
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Russian: Оди́н день Ива́на Дени́совича Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha) is a novel written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in November 1962. The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the 1950s and describes a single day in the life of ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. The book's publication was an extraordinary event in Soviet literary history since never before had an account of Stalinist repression been openly distributed.
- The whiteboard calendar in Neal's office indicates the episode takes place in February 1983.
- "Previously on The Americans" voice (in Russian): Nina.
Videos[]
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