The Americans 3X3: Open House

OMG. DIY dentistry seems like torture. If I was Philip, I don't know if I could have done. I get that the end result is to make your wife be in less pain, but in order to do that, you have to cause her more pain first. Ugh. I'm just glad I wasn't involved in this scenario.

Okay, so I did the world's quickest Wikipedia scan to see if I could figure out what exactly the CIA was doing in Afghanistan during this time. And if my super quick search is to be believed, it looks like the CIA was covertly funding, supplying, and training the Afghan people to fight against Russia. That actually helps a lot.

Philip and Elizabeth are trying to figure out which member if the CIA Afghanistan group is the weakest link, and they decide on one of the guys who has been trying to sell his home. Elizabeth and Philip go to an open house at the property, and Elizabeth distracts the real estate agent while Philip snoops around. He eventually ends up bugging some kind of radio (at least I think that's what ended up happening) and the guy takes the radio and heads off.

The two of them talk the host and head out to the car to eavesdrop on the CIA guy. They are just driving around as close to the car as they can get without being spotted while they listen and Elizabeth suddenly realizes they are being followed. The FBI is on their tail. They keep driving kind of mindlessly, until they take a quick turn and Philip jumps out of the moving car, leaving Elizabeth to keep driving.

Philip gets to a phone and alerts the center that Elizabeth is in trouble, and shortly after, she drives by a guy who tosses a walkie talkie (I think) into the car. The KGB somehow disrupts the FBI's ability to communicate with each other and end up crashing into one another as they get ready to take Elizabeth down. She uses the distraction to run to a waiting car that bring her home. We've had a lot of way too close calls lately.

Once they get home, Elizabeth can hardly even hug Philip as her tooth is causing her so much pain. We've already established that we can't go to the dentist, so they head down to the laundry room, while Philip yanks her teeth out with pliers. It's horrible to watch.

Later, against the wishes of the center, Elizabeth and Philip decide to head out and continue listening to the radio. It sounds like the guy is trying to have sex with his babysitter, who he is taking home. So Philip and Elizabeth think maybe they can nail him on that, but it turns out, she's the perpetrator and he wants nothing to do with this inappropriateness. But, when he drops her off at home, Elizabeth and Philip realize her dad is the head of the CIA Afghan group. Please tell me they are not going to use his daughter to go after him after all the concerns they've been having with Paige.

And, speaking of Paige, we keep claiming that she's going to have a choice in all of this, but I can't see how. What happens when she says, 'I'm American, I don't want to help Russia destroy us.' Are they just gonna go, 'Cool. Thanks for hearing us out.' I don't think so. Also, Elizabeth and Philip both claim that they chose this life. How true is that, actually? They were children. And again, what would have happened if they said no.