The Americans Seek A Sensor From A Sensitive Old Contact

The previouslies remind us of a couple of things that happened before the season premiere: that Stan wanted to get out of counterintelligence; and that Stan had an asset named Sofia who married a guy named Gennadi, who was a courier and who volunteered to do a whole thing with diplomatic pouches. So: uh, spoiler, those people and things are going to come up.

Philip's leaning over the kitchen island reading the paper like he doesn't have a perfectly comfortable table just steps away where he could sit and read like a normal person and still be within sight of the stairs so he could see when Elizabeth comes padding down -- which she presently does, in her Person With Depression uniform: oversized cardigan (gray); baggy sweatpants; slippers; cigarette. She scuffs straight out to the deck without greeting or even acknowledging Philip, leaving him to stare his concerns into the middle distance.

Next we head over to the FBI, where we see that Stan has, in fact, moved into the Criminal Investigative Division and is working on a drug case when he gets an urgent call and takes off...

...BUT NOT BEFORE THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF OUR OLD PAL THE MAIL ROBOT. Oh my god, I never realized how much I was hoping we'd get a chance to say goodbye to this guy in the farewell season. Like maybe more than I care if Pastor Groovyhair comes back? Let's call it a tie. Anyway, Stan goes back down to Counterintelligence, where it seems as though Aderholt has been promoted to Division Head; Stan comments on the emptiness of the office, and Aderholt says everyone's out due to all the Russians in town for the summit. They head into the Vault, where Aderholt tells Stan, "Teacup called the ops line. Didn't sound good." Aderholt doesn't know what's wrong, but he told "him" that Stan would see him that night at 6. Stan mildly crabs about pissing Renee off by being out late before Aderholt sits to deliver the rest of his news: Oleg's in town. MAYBE GOOD OLD OLEG SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SO COCKY TELLING PHILIP HOW SURE HE WAS THAT HE HADN'T BEEN MADE. "You're shittin' me," says Stan, sitting and commencing his face twitch protocol. "At his old job?" Aderholt says he's at the Potomac Inn, on a tourist visa. The FBI's on him, but intermittently, since they're stretched thin with the summit, and to their knowledge Oleg's been out of the KGB for three years and working in Transportation; in fact, Oleg told Customs he was in Washington to take a course on urban transport planning at George Mason University, which seems to be true in that he did actually register for it. They agree that doesn't sound very KGB-y, and end things with Aderholt telling Stan that, if he happens to go by and see Oleg, Stan should tell Aderholt what he thinks. Sounds like Stan's going to piss off Renee with his lateness at least one other night soon.

At his desk, Philip does paperwork, either not crazy about the numbers his calculator's showing or distracted by that whole thing where his wife might be trying to sabotage the peace process and he's been tasked via back channels to stop her. Maybe both!

Speaking of Philip's wife: Elizabeth is sitting in a parked car in what is honestly one of her worst lace fronts ever.

When she sees your classic generic old white dude go by on the sidewalk -- my dude's wearing a trench coat, carrying a briefcase, and checking his watch like he's in a comedy sketch or something -- she waits a moment as he steps into a bookstore and then goes in after him, soon effectuating a very convincing chance meeting. This turns out to be the McCleesh from the Department of Energy who was mentioned in the last episode; he evidently knows Elizabeth as Megan, from the State Department. They're both very busy with the summit -- "Exciting times, though," he says; "If we don't kill each other!" she cracks -- and we see this guy seriously has no chill as he immediately barely lowers his voice to say he's heard things are a little hot at State. "More than a little!" she chuckles. He waits for a bookstore employee to pass before pulling her next to a shelf -- where literally anyone could be standing on the other side to eavesdrop on their completely audible conversation, like, this sloppy motherfucker just keeps demonstrating all the reasons he's been targeted by the Centre -- to ask "how much of the rank and file is with Shultz." She says maybe half the people she talks to: "My boss, yes. His boss, no. The problem is, he thinks Gorbachev is the second coming. You can't go into a negotiation like that!" McCleesh says that a few people on his side are wondering what they have to do to get out of this. Someone named Harrington has already invited Gorbachev out for a strategic weekend at a lake house, he says, adding, "Realistically, I don't know what we'd have to do to roll back INF on this, but by the time the Russians head back home from this summit, START'll be a done deal too, and if that happens--" He leans in to whisper (loudly), "It's no secret that the Russians want to deal -- they can't afford an arms race -- so we're holding most of the cards." "You think Reagan's just going soft?" Elizabeth squints. McCleesh says he might be worried about his legacy, but it's frustrating, because the summit could win the Cold War for the U.S.: "But Weinberger and Gaffney, they've got to keep Reagan true to himself." Yeah, God forbid that guy consider any new ideas. Heading for the door, McCleesh says he's going to be at State in a few days and proposes that they have lunch. Elizabeth suggests a steakhouse nearby, but he's going to have meetings all day and won't have time to go further than the cafeteria. Elizabeth agrees, and then curses how much more complicated this stupid meeting is now going to have to be for her.

It's still VERY bright at 6 PM in October when Stan meets Gennadi in a park so that Gennadi can bitch to him about how bad his marriage is. Stan, sighing deeply, asks what Gennadi did; Gennadi claims to have done nothing: "Watch games! Relax!" Uh oh, replace "games" with "Teen Mom" and that sounds a lot like my marriage. However, there was apparently an incident when Gennadi asked Sofia to bring him another beer -- but in his defense, she was already up! Honestly, in that case she should have asked if he wanted anything; it's called THE SOCIAL CONTRACT, LADY, OR DON'T YOU HAVE THAT UNDER COMMUNISM. Anyway, Gennadi's sorry he called Stan about this, but Stan is the only person Gennadi can call. Stan tries to turn down the temperature on the situation, reminding Gennadi that there's a lot at stake: not just Sofia and Gennadi's marriage, but Ilya, Sofia's son, and...you know, Gennadi's work with the FBI! Totally in that order as far as Stan is concerned, I'm sure! Stan gets up to extricate himself from this uncomfortable conversation, but Gennadi's not about that and stops Stan, inflicting upon him a hug to which Stan very stiffly submits before exiting with half a dozen manly arm pats.

At the Haskards', Erica is loudly suffering and begging, "I need it." "It's not time yet," says "Stephanie." "SCREW YOU IT'S NOT TIME," groans Erica, not seeming comforted by Elizabeth's attempts to soothe her by putting a cool washcloth on her forehead. "It's killing me! Give me my goddamn morphine!" Elizabeth tries to talk her through some breathing exercises, but Erica is wild with pain and screams for her husband. When he runs in, Elizabeth tells him she can't administer Erica's next dose for another hour or she'll develop a tolerance, but he shoves Elizabeth aside, fills a syringe, and squirts it directly into Erica's mouth before sitting on the bed and petting her head to calm her down. "I can't go on like this," Erica gasps. "I can't, I don't-- I don't want to. I don't want to. You-- You need to do it. You need to do it! We need to end this, end this!" "We will," Haskard assures her. "We will. Soon." Yeesh.

Some time later, Haskard is working at the dining room table when Elizabeth comes down to bring a tray into the kitchen. She stands in the doorway next to him and says his name, but he asks her to hold on for a second as he listens to the baseball game on the radio. When a cheer goes up, Haskard apologetically tells Elizabeth, "Big play." She asks if he wants to talk later, but after a moment he says they don't have to wait, and snaps the radio off. "So...what you said up there," she starts. "Are you two planning on ending her life?" Haskard gives his head a short shake. "I know how hard this is," says Elizabeth. Haskard rubs his forehead and sighs before saying, "She's...suffering. She can't go on like this. She doesn't want to." "I know people who have done it," says Elizabeth. He just exhales again, so Elizabeth asks, "What are you planning to use?" "We don't need to talk about this," says Haskard. "It can go wrong, if you don't do it the right way -- it can be worse," says Elizabeth. "I've been keeping a little bit of morphine each time we throw away a bottle," says Haskard. "I figure by early next month--" "That's not good," Elizabeth intones. "It could just put her into a coma, or leave her brain-dead." After a beat, she offers, "I could help you." Haskard shakes his head and chokes, "I could never ask you to do that." "You didn't ask," says Elizabeth evenly. Haskard looks back over his shoulder at her, lost; she is serene and resolute before moving back into the kitchen to let the seed she planted germinate.

Then Elizabeth's at Claudia's, apparently having just finished recounting the story and ending with "I suppose she would have just drifted off." Claudia takes a sip of tea and notes, "It's not usually that easy." "Well, she's really going to suffer now," says Elizabeth bitterly. "You just have to keep her alive through the summit," says Claudia, before asking, "What does she draw?" "People, faces -- kind of strange," mumbles Elizabeth. "I don't know." "You don't like her work," Claudia interprets. "I don't know why people spend their life doing that," Elizabeth spits contemptuously. "At least her husband's doing something." Claudia blinks her disappointment at Elizabeth's philistinism. Elizabeth changes the subject to her upcoming lunch with McCleesh, and the inconvenient location where it must take place. "I keep asking myself what the odds are," Elizabeth muses. "Well, don't do that," Claudia drawls. There's no time, anyway: Elizabeth has to get back in touch with Lyle Rennhull -- who was a colonel back when we last saw him in the Season 2 premiere, killing the KGB informant who'd recruited him, but is now a general, so that whole murder thing must have worked out okay for him. Pointedly leaving open all the holes in the story of Elizabeth's work for/with Kovtun, Claudia says that Elizabeth needs Rennhull to get her a lithium-based radiation sensor. "Well, that's a new one," says Elizabeth drily. In the go-go '80s I have to think every "one" is a new one! I wish the show could have lasted long enough for us to see Philip and Elizabeth working from home in mellow semi-retirement, seeding torrent sites with malware.

Elizabeth gazes down at the table before speaking again: "The way Paige has taken to you -- if something were to happen to me at any point, I think you could finish with her." Claudia smiles, and faintly sighs. "She'll have it better," Elizabeth opines. "State, or even if it's the CIA, she will go to work in the morning and she'll come home at night." "You'll be fine, Elizabeth," Claudia says, a little too long after Elizabeth's "if something were to happen to me" to be very convincing. "Both of you will."

Elizabeth just gazes back at Claudia, looking exactly as unconvinced as she probably should.

Then we're with Stan as he tries to smooth things over with his other Bickerson, but Sofia's spitting mad about Gennadi's infidelity, drinking, and general piggish laziness; she's determined to get a divorce. Her nice friend Bogdan at TASS is totally on her side! Stan, naturally, is suspicious about the true nature of this friendship; Sofia insists that she and Bogdan aren't having an affair, but it's clear from the way she talks about him that she likes him likes him. Stan tries to appeal to Sofia's willingness to continue being part of the "important work" Gennadi's doing for the FBI. "You will figure it out, okay?" Sofia replies firmly.

Chez Jennings, Philip looks through a cabinet before glancing to the side and seeing Elizabeth back on the deck, back in her mopey clothes, and with a cigarette back in her face. Reluctantly, he decides to try talking to her again even though the last time he did it was FUCKING TERRIBLE, starting out by noting that she got home pretty late the night before. "I tried not to wake you," she replies. "It's fine," says Philip, keeping the martyr out of his voice a lot better than I would. Wake me up and I pretty much feel entitled to Hanley you right in the neck, so: fair warning. Haltingly, Elizabeth says she's sorry "if [she's] been...just so busy." Wow, two qualifiers in a single nahpology! Impressive. "Wanna tell me about some of it?" offers Philip, caaaaaaasually. "I think Paige is, uh, pretty good at this," she dodges. "But she made a mistake the other night. Got someone's name wrong." "It happens," says Philip gently. "Happened to us. You grow into it." "I learned fast," says Elizabeth, the long, regretful drag she then takes on her cigarette keeping it from sounding like a brag. "Don't tell her we talked about this," adds Elizabeth briskly before stalking back into the house. Philip: you don't still got it.

Then we're back at the FBI, where Aderholt is summoning Stan back to the Vault like now. Stan's about to have a meeting, though, so they just go into a file room, where Stan recaps the state of play with Gennadi and Sofia. Stan doesn't know if it can be fixed -- "I'm not a marriage counselor" -- and he's definitely concerned, since Gennadi is supposed to fly the next day. Aderholt muses that nobody's life was at risk when he left his wife (Bill Hader As Keith Morrison Dot Gif), and Stan says the same was true when Sandra ditched him. "Would've slowed her down, right?" Aderholt guesses. Stan keeps the conversation on the potential adulteress at hand, replying, "I'm not sure. Her being who she is? Her new friend could find out everything at lunch one day." Aderholt thinks Sofia is tricky, but that she's not going to get Gennadi killed. Stan just raises his eyebrows, and honestly, I'm with Stan. This one's a wild card! Aderholt wraps it up: "He goes, we work on her, and we sleep like shit as always." Stan semi-cracks that he really prefers dealing with murderers, drug dealers, and corrupt politicians.

So then it's time for Elizabeth to re-ruin Rennhull's life, assisted by Paige and Marilyn. Rennhull's just minding his own business walking someplace when Elizabeth catches him up and murmurs, "The future looks bright, don't you think?" He stops, and Elizabeth recaps, "You met with one of my colleagues in 1981. You wanted to warn us against an arms race in space." Rennhull nervously looks around, telling Elizabeth, "This is not a good idea....I'm not interested." Elizabeth says she understands, but still barrels forward with her ask. He's like, "Do you even know what that is?" and for our sakes she exposits, "A sensor that detects a nuclear blast very quickly and can be mass-produced." Rennhull snits that there are channels for communications between their countries, and that he isn't one of them. She says he has been, and that this is something that has to happen "quickly and quietly." Rennhull orders her not to contact him again, and starts to continue on his way, but of course Elizabeth follows, saying this is something he needs to get for them. She ends by giving him the place and time of their next meeting, and takes off to leave him wondering whether a lopsided arms race would have really been that bad after all.

Then we're at the airport, where it's Diplomatic Pouch O'Clock.

As "Slippery People" by Talking Heads plays, we watch a montage of the process: Stan observes from a safe distance while Gennadi, pouch in hand, descends an escalator to a men's room, a guy we don't know close on his heels. Gennadi enters a stall next to one where an FBI agent has already posted up (pulled down his pants, sat on the toilet, and set up an x-ray camera with its lens pointed at a Pan Am sticker on the shared stall wall); Gennadi also assumes the position and starts carefully peeling off a TWA sticker on his opposite stall wall, revealing a small hole. The guy who followed Gennadi into the can stands guard by the sinks. Outside, another extremely FBI agent-looking FBI agent rolls up, making eye contact with Stan, who scratches his earlobe in a deliberate way; the other agent notices and heads into the bathroom (but doesn't end up interacting with anyone else in there in any way so I guess he's just backup for the backup? idk). In Gennadi's stall, we see that Gennadi has stuck a pen in the hole we saw plus another one since uncovered, and carefully hangs the pouch by its handle on the pens.

The camera cuts to an overhead shot so we can see that, as Gennadi flushes his toilet, the agent in the next stall starts snapping. NOT AN ASSIGNMENT FOR A GERMOPHOBE. After a moment, Gennadi leaves the stall, handing off the pouch to his lookout while Gennadi washes his hands, and then taking it back to exit the bathroom. From his seat in a waiting area, Stan watches Gennadi go on about his business. Shout-out to two dead airlines for their complicity in this process.

"Slippery People" continues to play as we move to another spying location: Elizabeth, in a stringy blonde wig and an appliance that gives her an overbite, accepts a visitor's badge, passes a guard's cursory inspection of her purse, and joins the 11 o'clock tour of the State Department. Anyone who would take a tour that boring probably should be automatically assumed to be a spy, right? But the tour guide somehow has no such suspicions and doesn't try to keep tabs on Elizabeth as she slips away from the group, dropping her badge in a garbage can before heading for the ladies' room.

Philip's just finished using an ATM, and perhaps it's his seeming alarm at what he sees on the receipt that sends him chasing after a guy named Jeremy that he sees behind him. Jeremy is a client -- or, to be precise, he's a recent ex-client: Philip finds out that he decided to book his family's annual vacation, this one to Italy, with a discount agency. Philip assures Jeremy that Dupont Circle Travel can always make adjustments to the packages they assemble when budget is a concern (uh...I would hope so?), and Jeremy says, "We'll come back," but I am not so sure he means it. "Next time just tell me," Philip urges. "We'll always take care of you -- you know that." Jeremy's like, totally, practically already backing away and leaving Philip to take another searching look at his ATM receipt. Time to hit up the KGB for more funds to keep up the old front business, man?

At the State Department, Elizabeth emerges from the bathroom in Megan drag, and if you ever wondered why reversible coats were so big in the '80s, here's your answer: it's so a Soviet spy can join a State Department tour with the beige side showing, and then flip it inside out to black to sneak down to the cafeteria. By this point, the guide is ready to move on to the diplomatic reception rooms, but asks the group if any of them noticed where that blonde woman took off to. He is, of course, too slow: by the time he gets to the hallway juncture where the bathroom is, she's already disappearing around the far corner, and a brunette.

Philip returns to the travel agency and calls Stavos -- who we saw in the last episode, and who I think is the only legacy employee from before the time jump to 1987 -- into his office to tell him about his run-in with Jeremy. Stavos does remember talking to Jeremy about a trip to Italy, but says the last he heard was that Jeremy was going to get back to him after he'd talked about the package with his wife; he's regretful when he hears they lost the business. "Should've stayed on top of it," says Philip wearily. "Should've checked in with him." Stavos says that Jeremy was "hard" (sure, what with all the "talking" he was going to do with his wife about "the package") (sorry) (not really), and that he was really Philip's client: "He kept asking me, 'What does-- What does Philip say?'" Philip, getting a little heated, says that Stavos should have told Philip that, to which Stavos replies that Philip's always telling them to "take personal responsibility." Okay, but so then call the guy? "You've been so busy!" Stavos lamely adds. "I didn't want you to lose the client," snaps Philip. Stavos nods. Seriously, guys: Directorate S orders some package tours to Vladivostok for a busload's worth of people. No one even has to use the tickets. This isn't hard.

"Megan" and McCleesh carry their trays of sad cafeteria lunch to a table, McCleesh mildly bitching about government bureaucracies. He's recommending that she broaden her horizons by pursuing a PhD as she looks over his shoulder at some security guards at the other end of the cafeteria, clearly asking around about the woman who ditched her tour group. As the guards start walking toward them, Elizabeth brightly suggests that they enjoy the pleasant day by taking their lunches outside, and McCleesh lets her talk him into it. I guess the guards have no jurisdiction out of doors.

At a picnic table, McCleesh tells Elizabeth he's looked at transcripts from meetings that indicate Reagan thinks the U.S. has "a complete missile defense." "That's disturbing," says Elizabeth. This messy bitch McCleesh then goes on to preface some goss he just got from one of Don Regan's aides just that very morning by insisting that Elizabeth must not repeat it: "He said that Regan has been complaining about how crazy things are getting around the Oval Office....The president's been forgetful. Not focused. Almost a different person lately." ("Lately," is it? Because we've established that it's October 1987 and Regan got fired as Chief of Staff eight months before that, in February. But sure.) Anyway, McCleesh isn't finished: "The man I talked to said he thinks that the president might be going senile." WOW WHAT MUST IT HAVE BEEN LIKE TO LIVE THROUGH A PERIOD IN HISTORY WHEN THE U.S. PRESIDENT WAS SECRETLY SUSPECTED BY THOSE CLOSEST TO HIM OF LACKING THE MENTAL FITNESS FOR THE JOB, I MEAN LIKE I JUST CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE.

Well, Megan may have promised not to tell anyone about Reagan's probable inability to draw a clock, but Elizabeth didn't, and Claudia is shook: "I can't even fathom the implications of this." Elizabeth asks what they can do, and Claudia admits they probably can't do anything: "Weinberger and his cronies are even more hardline than Reagan. And if he's slowly losing his mind...." SO AN ADDLED PRESIDENT IS SURROUNDED BY SCARY HAWKS WHO KNOW HE'S MENTALLY COMPROMISED AND MIGHT USE THE SITUATION TO THEIR ADVANTAGE TO PUSH ILL-ADVISED MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC STRATEGIES, WOW THAT MUST HAVE BEEN NUTS, BACK THEN. Claudia and Elizabeth take a silent moment to ponder how bad this could actually get -- on a world scale -- before Claudia changes the subject to the summit. Elizabeth's still following Haskard's group, but her next move is interrupted by Paige's entrance. Claudia calls out a greeting, and asks Paige, "You know Tchaikovsky?" "Oh gawd," says Paige, teenagerishly. Elizabeth says Paige isn't big on classical music, but Claudia says that's because she doesn't know Tchaikovsky, and is putting an album on when Paige makes her way into the room, recalling that Tchaikovsky wrote The Nutcracker. When Elizabeth fondly says she took Paige to see it when she was little, Paige remembers. "He's one of Russia's greatest composers," Claudia declares. "His mother died when he was young, and his life was full of loneliness. This is the first record I ever bought." She sets the needle as she goes on: "For a long time after the war, it was the only music I could listen to."

Paige and Elizabeth respectfully let "None But The Lonely Heart" wash over them even though Paige, as stated, doesn't like classical music, and Elizabeth, as we learned earlier, thinks all the arts are dumb.

The opus continues to play as we see Paige and Elizabeth walking up a block toward Paige's apartment, Paige soon asking, "Do our people ever use sex to get information?"

Elizabeth manages not to bark out a guffaw, instead furrowing her brow and neutrally asking, "What?" "I'm reading a book about the organization," Paige explains, "and it says that sex is one of the techniques." I mean, I only know what I know from pop culture, pretty much, but I think that's probably true of spies from all nations and economic systems? "There's a lot of bullshit out there, Paige," says Elizabeth curtly. "Doesn't sound like bullshit," Paige replies. "Well, they can make anything sound believable, that's what sells books," Elizabeth counters. I might also add that any Russian conspiracy can sound credible to an audience primed by paranoia to believe it, as anyone can attest who's checked out the brain worm victims on Twitter's #TheResistance hashtag lately. "So that never happens," Paige presses. "No," says Elizabeth firmly. Paige purses her lips, as Elizabeth gives her a sidelong look to see if she bought it. They walk a few more paces in silence before Elizabeth decides to build herself a little plausible deniability: "Look, I can't speak for every officer, but those relationships could turn into something different. You get very close to people, get to know them very well, and in certain circumstances, if the information's critical enough, people may cross lines sometimes." Oh, is that what you were doing before you were Cloroxing your genitals in that hotel room in the season premiere? "And then that gets twisted by whoever wrote that book," snits Elizabeth. "Have you heard stories of this happening?" gawps Paige. Elizabeth once again manages to hold in an "LOL" as she reminds Paige that she's cut off from everyone else: "I don't hear stories." "I AM THE ONE WHO STORIES," she does not add. Trying for breezy, Elizabeth asks where Paige found this book, and Paige says she won it in a truth-telling contest, two towns over. JK, it was in a used bookstore on Capitol Hill, and Paige adds before Elizabeth asks that she bought other books on espionage in the same transaction, for which she paid cash. Elizabeth cautions her never to go to the library for that, and Paige is like, duh. By now they've reached the front door of Paige's apartment building, so Elizabeth decides to send her in with One To Grow On: "It's easy to see things as very black and white. But the world's complicated, and the more that you get that, the better off you'll be." Paige nods. "A bookstore out of town would be better," Elizabeth concludes. MOMS.

That or possibly some other night, Marilyn and Paige once again back up Elizabeth as she goes to meet Rennhull in a park and finds him just hanging out under a street lamp.

My dude doesn't even put on a hat? smh. "How are you," she says, and he shoots back "I don't think you give a shit about that," possibly because neither he nor I heard a question mark. "I suppose you're right," says Elizabeth. "I give a shit about my country, and it's in trouble right now." "And whose fault is that?" Rennhull asks. Sounds like SOMEone wishes he could quit the armed forces and go hang out with Paige in Pinko School! "I can hardly tell you how much I never want to see you people again," Rennhull adds. "I can imagine," says Elizabeth wryly. "If you say so," Rennhull replies. "You know, the last time you came to me, a man wound up dead," Rennhull tells Elizabeth, in the process helpfully reminding the viewers who might not have full recall of Season 2, but as I already said...like, the guy "wound up dead" because Rennhull killed him, so: nice use of the passive voice, guy. "I have nightmares about it," Rennhull continues. "All those people I killed in Korea, and this is what I have nightmares about." Was it because he was your first white victim? I AM JUST ASKING BECAUSE THAT'S KIND OF HOW IT SOUNDS. Elizabeth just blinks and patiently waits for him to get through his old business, but that's all there is, as he announces, "I'm not giving you the goddamn sensor, or anything else." "You should give it some serious thought," says Elizabeth evenly. "Yeah," drawls Rennhull. "You may think I'm a traitor, but I thought I was-- I, I, I was trying to do the right thing last time. Now I see how idiotic that was. That you used me. That's not going to happen twice." "I don't think you're an idiot," says Elizabeth, without much conviction. "If you don't give it to us, my people are going to expose what you did. You'll go to jail. You'll be disgraced." Rennhull sets his jaw. "If you bring us what we need, it's over," says Elizabeth. "You'll retire from the Air Force. We have no reason to come to you ever again. This will be it. I think you're smart." Rennhull blinks and looks down. Elizabeth doesn't give him another chance to refuse, ordering, "Saturday night. 7:30 PM. Huntley Meadows Park. Southeast corner, by the trail head." She turns and leaves him to his pool of light, and his deep, deep regrets.

It's daytime at the Haskards' when Elizabeth makes it down to the dining room table, where Haskard -- another fucking idiot who's never heard of OPSEC -- has left papers strewn about. She only gets a chance to photograph one before she hears the toilet flush and quickly puts it back where she got it.

Elizabeth returns with a pile of folded linens to Erica's room, where Erica is sitting up sketching -- not in pain but still at her baseline level of mad as hell, which one can understand. Elizabeth asks if she needs anything, which question Erica ignores. Elizabeth has just set the laundry down on a loveseat when Erica starts at a pain, breathing through it and returning to her work. But then another spell hits her, this one worse. "Goddammit," she spits, barely audible. Elizabeth watches as Erica braces herself, breathing with difficulty. Having recovered, ish, Erica turns over her drawing and asks Elizabeth what she sees.

Elizabeth gets the basics right: "A woman?" Erica stares at her in disbelief before impatiently waving her hand and demanding, "What else?" Elizabeth takes a moment to study the drawing before offering, "She's upset?" "Nothing else in there?" asks Erica, disgustedly. Elizabeth just gawks. (If you have more thoughts on these sketches and paintings, they were actually done by an artist named Alyssa Monks; you can follow her on Instagram.) Erica turns it back over and regards it herself, commenting, "Well, you're not the first. But you're never going to really see 'til you try to do it." She points to a pad nearby, ordering Elizabeth to turn to a blank page. Elizabeth is stunned by this request, but goes over to the pad. Erica points to her pencils, at which Elizabeth tries to escape: "Trust me, I can't draw." "Oh, that's not your problem," Erica intones. She tells Elizabeth to sit, take a pencil, and look at the mug on the hospital table currently pushed down at the foot of the bed: "It's not really a mug. It's light, and dark. Just-- That's all. Stare at it." Elizabeth squints a little to prove she is. "Just draw the dark parts," Erica directs. "Don't draw the light parts." Elizabeth opens her mouth but takes a long moment before saying, "I really--" "Shut up," Erica snaps. "Just draw what's dark." Elizabeth acts like she's been ordered to draw a photorealistic self-portrait in order to sneak herself through Customs -- like, it's not that serious, and would you rather be doing laundry? -- but she does set herself to the task. I'm going to say this right now: if we don't eventually get to see Elizabeth's drawing of just the dark parts of this mug, it's going to be this show's missing "Pine Barrens" guy.

Then we're watching stupid Henry tell a stupid story, on a pay phone in his dorm talking to Philip, who's alone at the office long after dark. Henry asks why he's still there, and Philip eventually admits that he doesn't know. Henry jokes that Philip sounds like he's about to jump out a window, but Philip denies it before telling an abridged version of how the agency lost Jeremy's business after a five-year relationship. Henry asks why Philip had passed Jeremy off to Stavos, and Philip mumbles, "We're bigger now -- I can't deal with every single customer." Henry notes that Jeremy sounds like he was Philip's customer. "You sound like Stavos," Philip kvetches. Henry puts on a passable Greek accent to mimic, "Meester Pheelup, Meester Pheelup." Philip laughs that Henry sounds nothing like Stavos. I mean, it's not close enough for Henry to get accepted into the Spy Babies program like Paige, but it's not bad.

And then we're at the park, where Marilyn and Paige signal Elizabeth that she can proceed to her meeting with Rennhull. At the appointed spot, Rennhull steps into a clearing and...pulls a gun on Elizabeth. I'm shocked that this shocks me, but it's true that few of their blackmail targets do this shit, I guess because they're too freaked out about exposure for it to have occurred to them? I don't know and plan personally never to find out. Elizabeth freezes, and as Rennhull takes a couple of steps toward her, she tells him, "This is a mistake. You know that if you hurt me, they'll kill you." "I'm not going to jail," Rennhull replies. "And I'm not going to betray my country." He cocks the gun, and Elizabeth changes tack, holding up her hands and begging him to wait: "Maybe I pushed too far." "Dudn't matter," he says, shaking her off. "It's too late." Elizabeth tells him it's not. "You people don't pray, do you," muses Rennhull. Elizabeth looks quizzical at this before admitting that they don't. Rennhull trains the gun on her, and she kneels, keeping her hands in front of her: "Please. Please. I'm a mother. Really. I ha-- I have children. Please, you don't have to do this." Her voice breaking, she babbles on: "I have two children! Please, I'm sorry, whatever I did, it's not their--" And just like that, mid-sentence, she's on her feet and diving for Rennhull -- who gets off a couple of shots, neither of which hits her before she's tackled him onto his back and knocked the gun out of his hands. He manages to roll over and the two grapple in the leaves, both straining for the gun. Rennhull gets his hands on it first, and though Elizabeth does her best to try to choke him out or at least distract him before he can do anything, he is able to press the barrel under his chin and fire. Elizabeth falls over to the side, the contents of Rennhull's skull sprayed all over her face. She's just moved over to Rennhull to see how bad the damage is -- this isn't really the most effective way to commit suicide by gun because sometimes people fire at the wrong angle and survive, but...you know, Rennhull has presumably had firearm training, and he dead -- when Paige comes running up, breathlessly calling, "Mom!" "GO BACK TO YOUR CAR, NOW," Elizabeth snarls.

Paige is (understandably) frozen in dumbstruck terror at the state of Elizabeth's face and head, presumably uncertain how much, if any, of that viscera originated in Elizabeth herself, and thus forces Elizabeth to repeat her order: "Follow the plan. GO!" Paige finally recovers her senses and takes off running, and let's hope Marilyn's not within earshot or "Julie" is never going to be taken seriously again. Elizabeth does damage control, wiping off the gun, grabbing her purse (I think?), and fleeing into the night. And that's a series wrap on General Rennhull! Farewell, Airman. You had to generate a lot of gooey red in order to Cross Into The Blue.

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