Mutually Assured Destruction (The Americans)
| "Mutually Assured Destruction" | |
|---|---|
| The Americans episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 8 |
| Directed by | Bill Johnson |
| Written by | Joel Fields Joe Weisberg |
| Featured music |
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| Production code | BDU107 |
| Original air date | March 20, 2013 |
| Running time | 47 minutes |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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"Mutually Assured Destruction" is the eighth episode of the first season of the period drama television series The Americans. It originally aired on FX in the United States on March 20, 2013.
Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) returns from a game of racquetball with Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), when Elizabeth (Keri Russell) informs him that they have a job - stopping a contract assassin who has been hired by the KGB to kill American scientists. The KGB changed their minds on the mission, but give Philip and Elizabeth no information on what he looks like or who he will kill first.
Philip and Elizabeth monitor the house of one of the scientists. They plant a bomb under his car and kill the engine in the hope that he notices the bomb, which he does, and gets his wife to safety. Philip blows up the car, forcing the government to give the scientists protection. Elizabeth meets Claudia (Margo Martindale), where Claudia informs her that Philip did in fact sleep with Irina, despite Philip telling Elizabeth that nothing had happened between them.
At the FBI headquarters, Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas) has instructed the agents to find out who blew up the scientist's car. He gives Stan the keys to a safe house so that he and Nina (Annet Mahendru) can meet in private. Elizabeth, in disguise, goes to the contract killer's only US contact. Before she can interrogate him, his young daughter draws a shotgun on Elizabeth. Philip takes the gun from the girl and they find out that the contact sold explosives to the assassin, whom he describes as a "chubby," "friendly guy". He gives them pictures he took of the assassin when he visited his house.
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