Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, two Soviet agents living as Americans outside Washington D.C., kidnap Timoshev (David Vadim), a colonel who's defected to the U.S. and is supposedly going to reveal the identity of deep cover Soviet agents inside the U.S. When the plan to drop him off (to a ship leaving for the Soviet Union) goes wrong, the two have to keep Timoshev in their garage (in the trunk of their car). While Elizabeth thinks they should kill him, Philip wants to turn him over to the Americans and defect. However, it turns out Elizabeth and Timoshev have a history.
Stan Beeman, an FBI agent who's also been working as a Deep Cover Agent inside a white supremacist group for the past three years, is back in D.C., working in a counter-intelligence unit at the Bureau. And, as it happens, he and his family - wife Sandra, and son Matthew - move in next door to the Jennings family. Stan gets suspicious initially of Philip, but ultimately decides against it.
The Pilot contains examples of:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Paige hides a shoebox over her face when she sees Philip boot-stepping to Juice Newton's "Queen of Hearts" while they're shopping for shoes.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Elizabeth opens the trunk of the car and looks at Timoshev, after we see their history (see Rape as Backstory below), she asks him, "Colonel; remember me?" Timoshev is too freaked out to reply (though being Bound and Gagged probably has something to do with it, his eyes show how freaked out he is).
- Auto Erotica / Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: After Philip and Elizabeth dump Timoshev's dead body in the river, they have sex in the car (to the tune of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight").
- Being Watched: Timoshev is about to walk into Philip and Bobby when he senses this, and turns and runs.
- Deadly Sparring: In a Flashback, we see Timoshev was Elizabeth's training officer, and there's one session where they're sparring with each other as part of that training, until it turns into this when he rapes her (see Rape as Backstory below).
- False Flag Operation: This episode introduces us to Philip's "Agent Clark" identity, where he pretends to be working in FBI counter-intelligence to quiz Martha about what the FBI counter-intelligence division is really up to in responding to Timoshev's kidnapping.
- Flashback: A few of them, showing Elizabeth being raped by Timoshev (see Rape as Backstory below), Philip being introduced to Elizabeth by General Zhukov, and Philip and Elizabeth arriving in America for the first time.
- Foreshadowing: At the end, when Zhukov asks Elizabeth if the KGB can trust Philip, she says yes, and that she was wrong in indicating otherwise. This becomes very important later.
- We see an indication of the friendship developing between Stan and Henry, as well as the initial attraction between Paige and Matthew.
- Elizabeth insists on never telling Paige and Henry about who she and Philip really are, and brings up the promise she and Philip made about Paige and Henry getting to live normal lives. This becomes important throughout the course of the series.
- While waiting to see General Zhukov, a younger Philip is holding a picture of a woman, and when the general calls him in, he tears the picture in half and throws it in the wastebasket. The woman shows up in future episodes.
- HA HA HA—No: Philip first brings up the idea of defecting, and turning Timoshev over to the Americans, as a joke, to which Elizabeth gives him a stony glance and says, "Very funny."
- Meaningful Echo: When Philip and his colleague are chasing Timoshev, we hear Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" (actually, a remixed version). Near the end, when Stan is leaving the Jennings' garage (after finding nothing) - while Philip waits unseen, holding a gun - we hear the song again.
- Neck Snap: How Philip ends up killing Timoshev.
- Papa Wolf: After a man at the mall makes lewd remarks about Paige, a couple of days later, in disguise, Philip goes over to the man's house and delivers him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, including sticking a barbecue fork in his groin area.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Philip is getting ready to turn Timoshev over to Stan, Elizabeth ends up giving one of these to Timoshev in revenge.
- Rape as Backstory: Timoshev, who was one of Elizabeth's training officers, raped Elizabeth, which we see in a Flashback. After he's been captured, Timoshev admits one of the perks officers had was to be able to have their way with trainees.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Despite the fact it's going to make them late for their drop-off point, Philip insists on dropping Bobby (whom Timoshev stabbed) near a hospital, just in case he's able to survive.
- Shout-Out: In addition to the music cues listed above, in the opening scene, when Elizabeth is seducing a State Department official in a bar, we hear Quarterflash's "Harden my Heart" in the background.
- Stepford Smiler: Both Elizabeth and Philip become like this when they hear Stan is an FBI agent and working in counter-intelligence.
- This Means War!: Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas) gives a speech to this effect to Stan and the other FBI agents:Agent Gaad: The Attorney General and I have just come from the White House. President Reagan is outraged that the KGB thinks it can kidnap someone with impunity on American soil. The President has signed top secret executive order 2579 authorizing the Federal Bureau of Investigation counter-intelligence office to take all necessary measures to neutralize Soviet Directorate S sleeper cell agents in the continental United States. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to war. It is a war that will be fought quietly by the men and women in this room. It will not be short and it will not be easy, but we have truth and justice on our side and we will prevail.
