Elizabeth and Philip tell Paige a little more about what they do, including their new mission to stop the Americans from contaminating their wheat supply, and she is impressed by them. Paige also uses the technique Elizabeth talked her so she can lie to Matthew about her feelings, though she later tells Elizabeth she hated doing so. As far as Elizabeth and Philip's mission, they go in disguise to the same lab Elizabeth was in before, and Philip sees the insects (called "Midges" for himself. Unfortunately, a worker from the lab comes in, and Philip ends up killing him to keep from blowing their cover, though not before finding out how the insects are sent.
Oleg begins his job in earnest, questioning the head of a grocery store that has more food than is normal, and refuses a bribe offer from the woman. He also gets met again by Stan's contact, who passes him a tape Stan had made of him.
Elsewhere, Mischa continues his journey to Philip, meeting with a contact in Yugoslavia (who turns out not to be the contact he had expected) who will take him to Austria.
This episode contains examples of:
- Back Story: Tuan tells Elizabeth and Philip about his life as an orphan in Vietnam during The Vietnam War.
- Alexei admits to Elizabeth and Philip he didn't tell Evgheniya or Pasha his plans to defect beforehand, which is the possible cause of the tension between them.
- Book Ends: The episode opens with Roxy Music's "More Than This" playing while Elizabeth, Philip and Tuan are out bowling with Alexei, Evgheniya and Pasha. Near the end of the episode, after Philip kills the man at the lab, the song kicks in again.
- Call-Back: Matthew tells Paige about his father seeing Renee.
- Flashback: Philip has memories of life when he was a child and his family was living in poverty.
- Foreshadowing: Aderholt and Stan are assigned to approach Soviets assigned in the U.S. to become an FBI source, which is an important operation throughout the season.
- Jerkass Has a Point: At least according to Philip; while he hates Alexei for the fact he's working on a project to contaminate grain, and also hates the way Alexei is always putting down the Soviet Union, he admits Alexei's criticisms of the country are on target.
- Reveal Shot: When Oleg leaves the grocery store, we see Martha is there, buying groceries.
- Shout-Out: Paige watches a rerun of M*A*S*H on TV (the episode "Iron Guts Kelly").
