Litvinov's Trick

Carrie Matheson ( Claire Danes ) explains to Saul ( Mandy Patinkin ) the connection she found between Allison Carr ( Miranda Otto ) and Ahmed Nazari. Needing strong evidence of her betrayal, they make a plan with the intention of getting Allison to bring them to her curator, in collaboration with the BND . First, Saul visits Ellison at night, stating that he has come to say goodbye since he was granted asylum in Israel. Sol spends the night with Allison, and while she sleeps, he sets a bug in her cell phone and puts a microphone with a GPS tracker in her purse.

The next day, BND officers Astrid ( Nina Hoss ) and Adler ( Martin Wuttke ) meet with Dar Adal ( F. Murray Abraham ) and Allison, reporting that a senior SVR chief has deserted and that he has documents about how the CIA station in Berlin was undermined. After the meeting, Allison uses her phone to send an encrypted warning and book a trip to Copenhagen. When Carrie, Saul, and BND staff follow Allison through a drone and GPS, they see that she is not following her planned trip, but instead is going to a shelter. When Astrid identifies Ivan Krupin ( Mark Ivanir ) as the person greeting Allison there, Sol orders them to be arrested immediately. Krupin becomes furious when he realizes that she was outwitted, but Allison reassures him and says that she has a plan. They give up peacefully. In the interrogation room with Dar Adal, Allison defiantly claims that Krupin was her agent, and not vice versa.

Dr. Aziz (Rashid Sabitri) tells Kazim (Alireza Bayram) that he has built a pressurized chamber in which they can test the effectiveness of their mixture of sarin gas, and that Quinn will be a test subject. He also shows Kazim the antidote to sarin, which they can use to limit its effect if a leak occurs from the chamber. When Kazim brings food to Quinn ( Rupert Friend ), Quinn describes the terrible consequences of Sarin and tries to convince Kazim to prevent an attack on innocent people in Berlin. When Quinn is taken to the cell, Kazim gives a signal to run. When he escapes, Kazim grabs him and secretly injects an antidote to him. Quinn is then closed in a chamber and gas is started. Quinn begins to leak foam from his mouth and cramps when the episode ends.

Tucker Gates became the director of the episode. The plot of the episode was invented by executive producers Howard Gordon and Patrick Harbinson, and the television script was written by show runner Alex Gans .

Reviews

The episode received a rating of 100%, with an average rating of 7.7 out of 10, on the Rotten Tomatoes website, whose consensus reads: “Litvinov’s trick” is a classic of “Motherland” with a dense spy plot and a first-class game at its core. ” ^[1]

Joshua Alston of “ The AV Club ” rated the episode “A-” and wrote about Allison’s latest gambit: “This is a terrific twist that elevates the character and makes me excited for the last three episodes.” ^[2] Cynthia Littleton of Variety praised Mandy Patinkin’s performance, as well as Sol’s introduction of the bug into Ellison’s purse as an outstanding scene, paying tribute to the frame structure and sound editing, which contribute to “crazy tension”. ^[3]

Ratings

During the original show, the episode was watched by 1.42 million viewers, ^[4] down compared to last week’s audience, which was 1.47 million viewers. ^[5]

• "Livtinov's Trick" on Showtime
• " Litvinov’s Trick ” on the Internet Movie Database
• “Litvinov's Trick” on TV.com