William sends a signal to Philip, bypassing Gabriel, and tells William about a new strain of the Lassa Virus that's so deadly, he doesn't think the Centre should be told about it. Philip reports to the Centre, and comes back to William, telling him the Centre wants the virus despite William's warnings.
Elizabeth takes care of Young-Hee's children while she and Don go away to visit her family in South Korea. While Young-Hee and Don are away, Elizabeth searches the house to see if there's anything incriminating she can use on Don, but all she can find is a porn tape hidden away. Reluctantly, she moves ahead with the next step of the operation, which is meeting up with Don, drugging him, and making it seem like they slept together. Throughout, Elizabeth stubbornly insists there's nothing wrong with her, but afterwards, she admits to Philip she's going to miss Young-Hee.
Elsewhere, Philip teaches Paige how to drive, Oleg and Tatiana are sleeping together, and Pastor Tim plans a trip to Ethiopia.
This episode contains examples of:
- Body Horror: Discussed: William tells Philip the strain of the Lassa virus causes hemorrhagic fever that liquefies organs.
- Foreshadowing: Pastor Tim's trip to Ethiopia becomes important later, as does the Lassa virus William describes.
- Historical Domain Character: After they sleep together, and after watching The Day After (see Shout-Out below), Oleg tells Tatiana about when the Soviet launch detection system identified five nuclear missiles heading towards the country, a Soviet military officer went against orders and decided not to report it to his officers, which turned out to be the right decision, as the "detection" was caused by the sunlight reflecting off the clouds. That officer was Stanislav Petrov
. - O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Elizabeth, who usually is unfailing polite to the people working at the travel agency, snaps at them over a minor mistake, because of her stress over what she's going to do with Young-Hee.
- The Precious, Precious Car: Philip refuses to let Paige drive his Camaro at first, but he changes his mind later.
- Shout-Out: The episode's title refers to the movie The Day After, which was broadcast on ABC on November 20, 1983 (though it was later released theatrically in Europe). The Jennings family (joined by Stan and Matthew), Oleg and Tatiana, Arkady, William, and Young-Hee and Don are all seen watching it, and all of them are visibly affected by it, especially Paige.
- Paige and Matthew are playing Lode Runner at one point.
- Yazoo's "Winter Kills" plays while Elizabeth is going through Young-Hee's house, and Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)" plays during the juxtaposition of Elizabeth making it look like she and Don had sex, and Philip letting Paige drive.
- Slipping a Mickey: How Elizabeth drugs Don so she can get him in bed to make it look like they slept together.
