Episode Title: “The Deal”
Writer: Angelina Burnett
Director: Dan Attias
Previously on “The Americans:”
Episode 2.04 “A Little Night Music”
They wanted a brilliant physicist but what Phillip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) get is the “Kenny Rogers of Tel Aviv.” Actually, it’s Haifa and he’s also a Mossad agent.
Despite the FBI’s best effort, led by Agent Beeman (Noah Emmerich) going off information from Nina (Annet Mehendru), the rezidentura successfully brokers a deal with the Israeli government: the Mossad agent in exchange for the physicist. But both the spy and the scientist both some parting words for Philip that really hit home.
It all comes down to the fact that Philip and Elizabeth are living a lie. The Mossad agent explains that he may hide what he does, but not who he is, unlike his Russian counterpart. And as the scientist puts it as he’s begging Philip not to send him back to Russia, he’s a “monster” whose “humanity has been trained out of (him).”
Though Philip is stone cold throughout the proceedings with both men, afterward he reminisces about the icicles back home with Elizabeth, something the Mossad agent brought up earlier. The couple isn’t supposed to talk about such things but it’s a sign they haven’t quite lost their humanity, as the scientist suggests.
But one could argue that they’re awfully close. While Philip is wiping the Mossad agent’s ass in a filthy safe house bathroom (when he asks him for privacy Philip reminds the trained killer that he wouldn’t grant him the same request if the roles were reversed), Elizabeth is letting the young sailor down easy after he hands over the files on the SEAL believed to be behind the murders of Emmett and Leann and doing damage control with Martha (Alison Wright), who’s on the verge of jeopardizing “Clark’s” identity.
At least with the sailor there are some shades of who Elizabeth really is, as she recounts the trauma of the rape she actually did experience. The sailor is intuitive enough to know he won’t see her again and Elizabeth doesn’t toy with him, admitting that she has nothing to offer. She’s telling the truth and it comes across as such.
As for Martha, she’s not getting off so easy. After getting a call from “Columbia House” tipping her off to the situation, “Clark’s sister, Jennifer,” pays Martha an impromptu visit in an attempt to stop her from putting Clark down as her husband on a job application. Some bonding over a couple bottles of wine gets the job done but not before Jennifer gets an earful from Martha about her brother’s “wild” side in the sack. If “The Americans” is ultimately about Philip and Elizabeth’s marriage, how does enthusiastic sex with Philip’s other wife affect it?
Another relationship takes a hit in this episode, as well when Oleg (Costa Ronin) leads Agent Beeman on a wild goose chase to a port in Baltimore. Beeman expects to learn the whereabouts of the scientist but instead Oleg tells him he knows about Beeman’s relationship with Nina. The revelation sends Beeman into a state of shock as Oleg suggests they make a deal to ensure Nina’s safety.
“The Deal” directly refers to the brokering of the Mossad agent in exchange for the scientist as well as Oleg’s proposition regarding Nina but much of this excellent episode is also about the “deal” Philip and Elizabeth made with the Motherland. It also touches on Beeman’s relationship with his wife, who fills the void left by her husband with the ‘70s era New Age movement, est. And there’s relationship between Elizabeth and her daughter, Paige (Holly Taylor) to consider. Elizabeth tells her she doesn’t care that she’s reading the Bible but rather that she lied about it. Lying isn’t part of the “deal” between mother and daughter. But more accurately, it’s not the lying but getting caught that’s the deal breaker here, at least for Elizabeth and Philip.
