The Americans 3X9: Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?

OMG. How is this show so very consistently so good? I don't know exactly what we were going for with all the Elizabeth and old lady scenes, but regardless, they were awesome.

Okay, so a majority of this episode, we're busy following Elizabeth and Philip to the building where the mail robot is getting serviced so we can plant a bug in it. (Or previous one had been discovered). Philip and Elizabeth are not getting along really well. And she's trying (I think) to broker peace by telling him it's natural that some feelings for Martha have cropped up and she understands. He snaps at her that he doesn't need her permission. She's taken aback and tries to explain. But, we here a toilet flush and it's obvious we're not alone.

Elizabeth tries to find the source of the noise and runs into a fairly elderly woman who works there. She's just doing bookkeeping and claims she works better at night. Elizabeth tells her they are here to fix one of the machines and the lady tries to make a call, but she's stopped. Hanging up the phone, Elizabeth informs her that there will be no calls. And, as long as she doesn't start screaming, there will be no reason to bind and gag her. She takes the phone and then heads back down to Philip.

She clues him in on what's going on upstairs, and asks how long it might take until he's finished. He, again, snaps at her. And again, she tries to apologize. She's really not looking for a fight and seems like she's just trying to connect with him, but he's so not here for it today. She leaves him to his project and heads back upstairs. The lady asks if she can continue working and Elizabeth allows it. But, they end up chatting about their lives. And, when Elizabeth tells her her mother lives in Russia, the lady seems to to know what's up. She accepts her fate as Elizabeth has her swallow all of her medication. Before she dies though, she tells Elizabeth that she's evil and is not making things better. For whatever reason, this sort of destroys Elizabeth. We've seen her kill plenty of people and not give it a second thought. Are we trying to show she's getting soft? Last episode she let the kid go, now she's upset that she had to kill this lady? Or was this more about getting her to think about her own relationship with Philip and what it means? It's interesting. Elizabeth hasn't been acting very Elizabeth lately.

Back downstairs again, Philip is finished and Elizabeth tells him the lady is dead. She's got her back to him and is crying, but refuses to let him know this. The bug installed, they head out.

Before all this happens, Elizabeth meets with Hans and tells him it's over for him. He might have been spotted by guy whose name I don't remember. He's adamant that he wants to continue, but Elizabeth shut it down. So, he goes and kills the guy. It is super messy. He shoots him right in the eye, but the kid won't die. So he ends up having to strangle him. I thought Elizabeth would be against this (mostly because it was unplanned and messy, not because she cared that he killed him), but she was pretty fine about it. But, we don't get anything definitive about whether Hans is back on the team.

Stan and Oleg decide that Z defector might be a spy after all and concoct a plan to try to figure it out. After a meeting, Stan brings her back to the hotel, he 'sweeps' it and heads out to get her dinner. However, Oleg is inside and tells her if she doesn't recant her statements about Russia, he'll be back to kill her in two weeks. But, if she does, she'll be welcomed back home as a hero (I highly doubt that- I mean, it's not really, but still, why would she believe that?). She shows pretty much no emotion and they can't really tell if it worked. Also, Oleg beat up Stan during his 'escape' from the room.

And Philip has finally had it with Gabriel (whose name I now know, so I assume he'll be dead soon). It seems like Philip is hell bent on keeping Paige out of things and is pissed that Gabriel has Elizabeth wrapped around his finger.

Ugh. This show is so good. Even if you suck at history like I do.