IHOP is the ninth episode of Season Five of The Americans on FX, and the sixty-first episode overall.
Synopsis
Philip and Elizabeth are thrown off balance when things with Tuan take an unexpected turn. Meanwhile, Henry makes a startling proposition and Stan has a disturbing encounter with Frank Gaad’s widow.
Plot
At the CIA, someone hands Isaac Breland a file. He furrows his brow: “Muj?” He then notes all the blood in the photos and says he’s never seen anything like it. The recording device in his briefcase captures the conversation. Phillip later changes the tape when he brings Kimberly a small cake for her 17th birthday.
Agent Wolfe tells Stan they just translated an intercept from Thailand, showing travel for a group of known KGB officers coming in and out of that country the same time Gaad was murdered. He asks Stan to reconsider his stance on Burov, because anyone could be a target next, even him. Stan then visits Frank Gaad’s widow hoping to gain some insight on whether he should approve blackmailing Oleg. He tells Linh “Revenge isn’t that important, and I don’t think it would be to Frank.” She disagrees, saying “He would want revenge.”
Elizabeth thinks Tuan is lonely, and plans to surprise him with dinner. But when she gets to his house, he’s not there. Finally at 3 am, she goes home. Phillip tells her on Breeland’s tape, he heard discussion about a group of mujahideen dying from a hemorrhagic fever. “So maybe it wasn’t about protecting us after a nuclear attack. Maybe they just wanted to use it in Afghanistan.”
After receiving a call from Joan, Phillip goes to a hospital to meet Father Andrei, one of Gabriel’s former contacts. Phillip tells him his new handler will be here in two to three months.
Henry tells his parents he wants to go to a boarding school in New Hampshire called St. Edward's next year. He thinks if he gets accepted, he can get a scholarship. Phillip and Elizabeth later discuss whether Henry should go. Elizabeth is more inclined to let him. Phillip says "it’s like a fancy orphanage” but Elizabeth says “we have to let him grow up.”
In the Soviet Union, Martha cooks a lonely meal in her dismal apartment. Gabriel knocks at the door and enters. Martha is not happy to see him. She tells him she “understands everything now, all of it.” He tells her that her life will get better when her Russian language skills improve. She asks him to leave and he does.
Oleg gets interviewed by Major Kuznetsov and Captain Staponov. They tell him they will need the names of every foreigner he had contact with in the US. He tells him his primary contact with an American was Stan Beeman. He admits he was unsuccessful in recruiting Stan as a source. They bring up Nina and ask if what happened to her made him angry. Oleg replies “I’m still angry.”
Wanting to figure out what’s going on with Tuan, Norm and Marilyn tail him, watching him hang out with his new “friends.” Later, Elizabeth joins them and they observe Tuan getting on a bus. Phillip then joins them as they follow the bus to Harrisburg, PA. Tuan disembarks and walks to an International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurant.
Oleg arrives home to find his parents arguing about something minor. Oleg tells his dad he knows his mother was in a camp. Igor says “every family has a story like this … you think she was the same person when she came out? All these years, I never saw her again, the girl I knew. We didn’t have children then. I could have moved on. But I stayed with her.”
Oleg visits Dmitri in jail and Dmitri says the people Oleg’s chasing are more powerful than he thinks, more powerful than the KGB. “They control all the food everywhere. They make deals, they take care of each other. Everyone needs them. Even the party.” Oleg shares the story of his brother’s fate in an attempt to further pressure him, saying Dmitri’s worrying about the wrong things and wrong people, by protecting the elite instead of his son. Dmitri gives him the name of Lydia Nicholayvna Formina.
When Tuan arrives back home, Phillip and Elizabeth are waiting for him. Phillip slams him up against a wall while Elizabeth points her gun at him. He tells them his little brother from his adoptive family in Seattle is terminally ill and he’s been going out of state to contact him by phone. Tonight, he caught surveillance, so he didn’t make the call, but ate at IHOP and returned home. He tells them when got the signal for this mission, he “just disappeared” on his former family. He begs them not to put this incident in their reports.
Driving home, Elizabeth says she believes Tuan’s story. She wonders if they put it in their report, he’ll get sent back to Vietnam. Phillip thinks “Maybe that’s what he wants … to be pulled out of this shit, start over." But Elizabeth says “That’s not who he is.”
Music
| Song Title | Performer(s) |
|---|---|
| Forever Young | Matthew Rhys |
| Plaine, ma plaine | Alexandrov Ensemble & Boris Alexandrov |
Videos
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