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The Americans recap: ‘Travel Agents’

“I’ll scream… And then everyone will know you’re KGB!”

That’s where we left things last week, dangling off a cliff, and episode 7 of this season of The Americans has the KGB and the FBI trying to track down poor Martha, who was last seen hollering that line at Gabriel.

The KGB plan, orchestrated by Oleg and Tatiana, is kind of a five-point turn to get her out of the grasp of the United States government: Martha gets on a plane, small enough to literally fly below the radar. She lands in Key West, gets on a boat to Cuba, and from there the Soviet Union brings her to Prague and then on to Moscow. Continue reading The Americans recap: ‘Travel Agents’

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Filed in Articles & Interviews The Americans

The Americans recap: ‘The Rat’

Calling this episode “The Rat,” is a little mean to Martha, but okay…

The feds are close on her trail, and Philip is the only one in the KGB who is convinced her cover has been blown. “I brought her into this,” he tells Elizabeth. It’s fascinating to see how much she means to him. This “fake” wife is not so fake after all.

Martha packs her handgun and turns off a Today show broadcast featuring a woman talking about how she no longer feels the need to be married. That has never been the case with Martha. Throughout this series, we’ve gotten the sense that this unwitting KGB asset was something of a lonely heart.

When Stan Beeman and Agent Aderholt go through her history back at the office, we get confirmation: Only child. Never married. Engaged to a high-school sweetheart, but that was long ago. “He dumped her after she got pregnant,” Aderholt says. Continue reading The Americans recap: ‘The Rat’

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The Americans recap: ‘Clark’s Place’

“Clark” owes Martha an apology. “Where have you been for the last two days?” she asks.

He can’t tell her he was holed up in his handler’s apartment with his wife undergoing antibiotic treatment to stave off a potential bio-weapons infection. So he gives her the typical, vague “something came up” excuse.

Martha clues him in to Agent Aderholt’s dinner and the fact that the FBI knows the counters on her office copy machine are off. She thinks she is under suspicion. She felt alone and abandoned when she couldn’t reach him.

Clark gives her an operator number for the Center, who can contact him any time, day or night. “I will need that back tomorrow morning,” he says — so she needs to memorize it.

“Of course,” Martha says. “Why would I expect to keep anything?” Continue reading The Americans recap: ‘Clark’s Place’

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