- An Air Force colonel offers to sell SDI secrets to the KGB. Viola reports the bug in the Weinberger home. Phillip agrees to marry Martha hoping she'll continue spying while Nina confesses to spying for the Americans.
- Moscow orders to spare no risks to buy priceless SDI secrets offered by a US colonel in gambling debt, even after an unrelated arrest. Philip moves into his own apartment and wins FBI secretary Martha's full trust by secret marriage to convince her to plant a bug in Beeman's boss Gaad's office. Tipped off by remorseful cleaner Violet, the FBI learns about the KGB bug in Defense Secretary Weinberger's home office and, instead of removing it, decide to feeding false information through there. Nina no longer believes Beeman's extraction promises and confesses her high treason to the new KGB rezident, and her new lover, Arkady Zotov.—KGF Vissers
- One of Elizabeth's agents has key intel for sale, but she and Philip find themselves taking increasingly greater risks for what could well be a set-up. Meanwhile, Stan's pursuit of Directorate S suddenly begins to yield unexpected results.
- Previously on 'The Americans': Phillip coerced Caspar Weinberger's maid to plant a clock with a listening device in his office. Meanwhile, Martha, his FBI contact , is falling for him and introduced him to her parents. Stan started an affair with Nina, his KGB source. Phillip and Elizabeth's marriage is falling apart and they're separating. The kids aren't happy. Stan killed a KGB office worker named Vlad a friend of Nina's to avenge the killing of his partner, but he claims to Nina that he doesn't know who killed Vlad. Elizabeth got some info from a source named Sanford about a "breakthrough" by a team at Livermore labs.
'The Oath': Sanford meets with Elizabeth to tell her he recruited someone, a colonel in the Air Force intelligence. He says he did it the way Adam Dorwin recruited him, but Elizabeth tells him Dorwin followed their instructions throughout. He offers some information for $50,000. She tells him she needs to know what she's buying.
Arkady calls Nina in and asks her to help with the instruction of Directorate S. He asks her to read "the oath" that, among other things, vows that she'd be willing to die before revealing any of the secrets entrusted to her. He places a pin on her lapel.
Phillip warns Elizabeth that "gamblers are unreliable," referring to Sanford. She thinks Sanford could have landed them their highest source in the Reagan administration, but he's worried they might be getting set up. They talk about their living arrangements and the kids. Phillip asks Elizabeth if she's OK with it and she says "absolutely."
In Caspar Weinberger's home office, we see his maid take a look at the clock in which she planted a listening device.
Elizabeth goes to a sketchy part of town and sees Sanford's signal that he's dropped something for her. She grabs a jar from the hood of a car and bring it home to examine it. She peels back a corner of what looks to be a post card and finds a tiny chip that shows some schematics for the U.S. missile defense system.
Weinberger's maid is in church looking stressed as the pastor gives her sermon.
Claudia intently plays Pac-Man when Elizabeth shows up at a restaurant to meet her. Claudia says Elizabeth's info from the colonel is "10 years ahead" of anything they'd already had in the field. She thinks U.S. intelligence wouldn't give up anything that valuable as a trap, so the colonel must be real. Claudia says Sanford doesn't strike her as the type that would turn them in. Claudia says the colonel has set the meeting time and that a trap is always a possibility, but it's worth the risk.
Elizabeth goes back to Phillip and complains about Claudia. She wants her gone. Phillip suggests they put a bug in Agent Gaad's office to find out if they're running an operation. He says Martha will plant it. Elizabeth isn't so sure.
Claudia is packing Vlad's things and she and another woman talk about him a bit. The other woman tells Nina that Vlad had a crush on Nina, but he knew that she was out of his league.
Phillip and Paige are having fun tossing grapes into each other's mouths when Elizabeth knocks. Paige seems a little bummed to have to leave. Phillip then rushes off to meet with Martha. At dinner, they talk about a trip Phillip wants to take with her. He orders champagne. He tells her to close her eyes, then traces in the palm of her hand, "Marry me." She excitedly says yes and they toast and drink.
Nina meets Stan at their safe house. She tells Stan that Sonia met a deputy chief at the French embassy and Arkady thinks the diplomat is "vulnerable." They hug, then she starts to take her clothes off and tells Stan she had a dream about him. She was in a burning building, maybe the Rezidentura, and then he showed up. She doesn't know if he saved her, though. She woke up, was safe and he was gone.
"It was you," she says, as Stan is kissing her nearly naked body. "Did you kill Vlad?"
He tells her he would "never do anything" to hurt her. She continues kissing him.
Back at her place, Martha tells Phillip (who she thinks is named Clark) that she wants to take his name. He tells her she can't and there's no need. She notices his "Martha, I need to ask you something important" look on his face. He asks her to place a pen (which includes a listening device) in Gaad's office the next time he's out. He asks her to keep the other end of the transmitter with her because he'll need to check it when they meet. She asks him to assure her that everything's going to be alright. She tells him she trusts him and loves him.
Weinberger's maid, Viola, is in his study again. She pulls Weinberger's wife aside to talk privately. We next see her revealing the information about the bug to Gaad and Stan at the FBI. She said she was afraid for her son, Grayson, whose life was being threatened. Stan asks her if she's be OK with him calling in a sketch artist. Outside the room, Stan notes to Gaad that it's "no coincidence" that the CIA agent who was kidnapped at The Wheelhouse bar was also taken by a couple.
Paige is at Matt's house watching his band practice when another girl named Sarah shows up. She plays guitar and Paige gets jealous. Later that night, Paige tells Elizabeth about it. Elizabeth assures her daughter that "we see what we need to see in people things that aren't really there." Paige asks if that's what happened with Elizabeth and Phillip, but Elizabeth says no.
A technician checks the bug in Weinberger's office with Weinberger's wife watching. He confirms it works, and Gaad says they're going to leave it. "Now that we know they're listening, we'll know what to say," Gaad tells Weinberger's worried wife.
Gaad startles Martha as she brings some papers into his office. He leaves and she takes the opportunity to drop the pen in his office.
That night, she calls Phillip over to her place. She's made a pro-con list about their relationship and tells him it's odd that she can't even tell her parents about them. He tells her he could go to jail if their relationship were revealed. He tells her "no one can know about this not for the foreseeable future, anyway." She says she can't do this if she can't tell her parents, then he relents and says it's OK to tell them if they can trust them. She says she doesn't want to wait and wants to get married that weekend.
Elizabeth and Phillip listen to some of Gaad's conversation and there's no mention of an operation to trap them. He also tells her the wedding is the next day and he needs her to be there and pose as his family.
Sanford is frisked by a cop as he heads to his car on a snowy night. Claudia tells Elizabeth the next day that he was arrested by local cops for failure to pay child support. Elizabeth worries about going into the meeting with the colonel while Sanford is locked up. Claudia is annoyed that Elizabeth went over her head to confirm the orders to meet with the colonel. This conversation happens as they're waiting for the wedding to happen. Phillip brings Martha to meet his "mother" and "sister."
The wedding happens and congratulations are passed around. Elizabeth quietly says, "That was beautiful." She later tells Phillip that it was "touching," and is serious. She says she didn't expect it to be. She notes that he and she were "never really married." She asks him if things would have been different between them if they'd said those words. He says he doesn't know.
Gaad shows sketches of the couple that abducted the CIA agent (Patterson) and who poisoned Viola's son to Stan and other agents. One agent thinks the sketches of Elizabeth are two different women, but Stan says the differences are superficial. Gaad says they're looking for a caucasian man and woman in their 30s or 40s. Stan says he's certain the same couple abducted Patterson and poisoned Viola's son.
Nina drops in to Arkady's office at night. She announces that she's been spying for the Americans. She admits to having sent things back home and was turned in exchange for avoiding trouble. He asks if she's the mole and she says, "Yeah."
She tells him she deserves to be sent home and punished for her crime. He asks why she's telling him now and she admits that the FBI agent who turned her as become her lover. She tells him he can kill her, "or let me redeem myself in the eyes of our beloved Russia."
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