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"Reagan wants to turn Afghanistan into our Vietnam." Gabriel

EST Men is the season premiere of Season Three of The Americans on FX, and the twenty-seventh episode overall.

Synopsis[]

Things are tense between Elizabeth and Philip as they have differing opinions over how to handle orders coming from the Centre.

Plot[]

Elizabeth recalls a young Paige tip toeing to the edge of a public pool, and turning back, afraid. Scanning the room and observing the other parents, Elizabeth suddenly grabs Paige and tosses her, screaming, into the deep end of the pool. In a restaurant, a disguised Elizabeth meets with a CIA source named Charlotte, who hands her a list of CIA Afghan agents. Charlotte uses the restroom and, suddenly having regrets, calls the FBI. Philip accompanies Stan to an EST meeting led by Lawrence as Stan wants to better understand Sandra. Elizabeth suspects she's about to be made and hurriedly leaves the restaurant. Agent Loeb questions Charlotte and the FBI starts sweeping the area.



Lawrence in EST Men
You're living in the realm of non-experience.
Returning home from EST, Stan tells Philip that it's stupid and they go to a bar. Agents Gaad and Aderholt locate Elizabeth who breaks Gaad's nose and Aderholt's arm. Her shoulder is injured and a back molar cracked in the scuffle and, she loses the list. A dazed Gaad draws his weapon which Elizabeth takes and knocks him out with. The staff at the Rezidentura view footage of Mujahideen executing a Soviet soldier. Arkady indicates the videos are used to recruit in Saudi Arabia and they must stop the CIA from supplying the Mujahideen. Oleg opines the USSR should not be involved in Afghanistan. Arkady later pulls him aside and warns him to be cautious around Nina's replacement, Tatiana Vyazemtseva, until they know her better.



S03E01-Aderholt Liz struggle1
The struggle.
At home, Elizabeth ices her shoulder as Philip and Stan enter, somewhat drunk. Philip makes an excuse so Stan will leave and Elizabeth tells him she lost the list. The next day at the FBI, Stan stares at Gaad's broken nose and learns of the attack by a female KGB agent. Gaad tells Stan that Nina was found guilty of treason. Aderholt reports that the CIA took the list before it could be dusted for prints, a sketch of the woman is being made and that an alert for a woman matching the attacker's description has been sent to all medical facilities to report if a woman seeks treatment for jaw or teeth injuries.



Est men gaad
They make them tough over there.
Elizabeth attends the Reed Street Church with Paige and sings hymns. (♫ What a Friend We Have in Jesus ♫) They then fold pamphlets for a peace rally. Philip and Elizabeth meet with Gabriel, their handler before Claudia. They greet him with warmth and deference, having served together for many years. Gabriel has come out of retirement to work with the Jennings and acts as a father figure to both. Over a dinner he's prepared, Gabriel discusses the Afghan war and that the Center still wants Paige recruited. Elizabeth gives positive indications that they are getting her ready which greatly concerns Philip. As Gabriel and Philip play Scrabble, Gabriel tells Elizabeth that there's an envelope for her.



S03E01-Gabriel reunion
Welcome back.
Leaving Gabriel's, in the car, Philip accuses Elizabeth of lying to him and developing Paige. She indicates that she told Gabriel what he needed to hear, however, Philip isn't convinced. At a firing range, Stan helps Martha target practice with the gun she bought for self-protection. At the Rezidentura, Oleg expresses his anger over Nina's sentence. Arkady tries to calm him and detailing some items Oleg was unaware of, says it's possible she loved Stan. Still wanting to help her, Oleg says he begged his father, the Minister of Transportation, but he wouldn't get involved.



S03E01-Oleg Arkady
Do you still want to help her?
Posing as "Scott Birkeland", Philip continues to use Annelise to get information from Pakistani ISI officer Yousaf Rana. He asks her to have Yousaf come back to Washington so the Jennings can see which CIA agents he meets with. At home in the laundry room, Elizabeth opens the envelope Gabriel gave her and listens to a cassette tape from her mother and learns she is dying of cancer. After having sex with "Scott", Annelise says she might be love with Yousaf. Stan sees Sandra and reveals he went to EST. She's able to get him to admit he hated it and realize that he was avoiding conflict in their marriage. "Clark" and Martha have stimulating sex.



S03E01-Clark Kama Sutra
Yes?
At night, as Stan is leaving a video store, Oleg surveils him. The next morning at Dupont Circle Travel, Philip is icy towards Elizabeth until she reveals that her mother is dying. At the FBI, the Deputy Attorney General gives a briefing on Zinaida Preobrazhenskaya, an official from the US-Canada Institute who is defecting. The FBI is assigned to protect her and Agent Brooks asks Stan about the Institute. That evening, Elizabeth trains a young South African agent, Hans, how to tail a car without being spotted. After Henry gives control of the TV to Paige, she briefly sees a newscast that Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, has died. As "Scott" listens in a hotel room next door, Annelise and Yousaf have sex and he proposes that she leave her husband and move to Zurich. She starts to tell him about her spying on him and he strangles her to death. "Scott" enters the room and finding Annelise dead, tells Yousaf he can make the problem go away.



EST Men
My Mom, she's dying.

Notes[]

Music[]

Song Title Performer(s)
What a Friend We Have in Jesus Cast

Videos[]


Season Three
#301 "EST Men" #308 "Divestment"
#302 "Baggage" #309 "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?"
#303 "Open House" #310 "Stingers"
#304 "Dimebag" #311 "One Day in the Life of Anton Baklanov"
#305 "Salang Pass" #312 "I Am Abassin Zadran"
#306 "Born Again" #313 "March 8, 1983"
#307 "Walter Taffet"
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