Tonight on ABC’s The Assets continues with a new episode called, “Trip to Vienna.” On tonight’s show Edward Lee Howard is hunted by the FBI and the CIA after being identified as the mole, but Sandy is still worried about leaks while trying to prove an asset’s importance. Elsewhere, Ames bonds with Yurchenko on a trip to Canada.
For those of you who are new to The Assets, the show takes place in the year 1985 that serves as the backdrop to the final showdown of the Cold War when Sandy and her partner Jeanne Vertefeuille (Harriet Walter) vowed to find the mole who would turn out to be the most notorious traitor in US History, Aldrich Ames (Paul Rhys). Sandy is in a race against time to save the Soviet intelligence officers from being caught and killed. Living her own double life at home, this beautiful wife and mother vowed to stop at nothing until she uncovered the truth.
On tonight’s show after Yurchenko’s shocking disclosure, the CIA and FBI mobilize to bring the brilliant Edward Lee Howard to justice. Despite Howard being fingered as the mole, Sandy remains concerned about potential agency leaks and works tirelessly to prove that her asset, General Polyakov, is attempting to establish contact with the CIA. With the rest of the CIA distracted by bigger matters, Ames develops an unlikely bond with Yurchenko during a trip to Canada
Tonight’s The Assets is going to be exciting, and you won’t want to miss it. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of the show— tonight at 9 PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know how excited you are about the show?
RECAP: Wallace prays for the lost asset as Arthur approaches. He congratulates him on his promotion. They meet at Langley with Waters. They say they can’t proved Howard behind the leaks but was set to go to Moscow before he was fired. They think he knew some of the high level intel. They say they need to move quickly. They want 24 undercover surveillance and Wallace tells Waters that Howard is out of their league. Waters says he’s a drunk and they tell him he’s a genius and says even his wife has been trained. Wallace says he’s sure the FBI has it well in hand and Waters leaves.
Arthur wants to know why they are letting the FBI handle it and he reminds Wallace they have no powers to arrest anyone. He says the order to do it this way came straight from the director. Yurchenko plays solo chess when he is told they are ready to debrief him. He asks when he will go to Montreal and Aldrich and Mack say it’s a challenging request. They say they are working through the red tape.
They tell him it’s safer to stay there and he asks what they would do if he stopped the debrief. He asks if they would shoot him like a dog and Aldrich says, this is America, we don’t do that here. Sandy says they need all the info on Top Hat (aka Polyakov) and the analyst says he went dark five years ago. She says he writes for Russian hunting magazine and says she thinks they are encrypted. She offers him football tickets and he agrees.
Wallace looks at the file on Edward Lee Howard. There’s a new story on about Soviet missiles and a guy at the bar laughs at the Soviet efforts. Edward says he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and the guy says he works for Grumman and they can obliterate Soviet missiles. Edward asks how they would do that and he says our military would obliterate them.
Edward runs through some scenarios that show how they would take them on land, sea and air. The guy says we can go nuclear and Edward says everyone would die from the blasts or fallout. He asks if that’s the future he’s looking forward to. He walks out and gets in his truck. The guy follows him and grabs him and goes to punch him. Howard jams a gun in his stomach and the guy panics.
He moves the gun to his head as surveillance snaps photos of the exchange. Edward notices the camera guy and comes for him. He gives chase through the woods but can’t find him. He does find a cigarette butt still smoldering. Later, he drives his truck home and unplugs the phone. His wife asks what he’s doing and he unscrews the earpiece. He tells her they are being watched.
Edward comes out of the house and notices a guy standing in the distance and then a boat on the nearby water. He goes back to the house in a hurry. Sandy is looking through the magazine Top Hat wrote for as the guy brings in another giant box of magazines. She starts to flip through them.
Yurchenko sips coffee as Mack hands him some papers. Aldrich says he will get one million dollars tax free plus and annual salary to get him to debrief. Yurchenko says this must be in place of going to Montreal and they tell him that will take time. He says he would like a color TV and they agree. Wallace watches Yurchenko saying there are compromised assets in all the armed forces and says not to underestimate the KGB.
Grimes shows Wallace a recipe that Top Hat wrote. She says this article doesn’t fit and says she thinks he was trying to send a message. She asks for a few days to run it down and he grudgingly agrees. Mack brings Yurchenko the color TV and he says it’s a good set and rattles off the specs and says it cost $1,500. He asks why they have so many TVs and Aldrich says Americans like choice.
Yurchenko says democracy is a ruse to make the proletariat think they have free will. Mack says he’ll go set the TV up in his room. Aldrich goes to Yurchenko and says if he believes all that, why defect. Why risk your life to come here. He asks if was money or revenge. Yurchenko says he has cancer and is dying but Aldrich says the doctors say it’s just an ulcer.
Yurchenko says he met a woman when he was assigned in Washington. He says he was in love with her and she was married to a high ranking Soviet diplomat. He says he has to see her again before he dies. Aldrich asks if she lives in Montreal and he says yes. Aldrich says he’ll talk to his boss and try to expedite things.
At the Howards’, Edward plays with the phone and listens to the police channel. His wife asks what’s going on and she says if the feds are following they won’t use local PD. She says she can’t live like this and he says you’re right. He heads out into the field to confront the woman with the basket. He says he’s ready to talk and she says she’s sorry he must be mistaken. He says he’s not then yells that out.
Edward says he’s never seen him before but all of a sudden she’s out gathering firewood 24/7 and says she’s FBI. She goes to lie again but then her earpiece crackles and she tells him to meet at Monday at the High Country Inn at nine am. He walks away. At the hotel, Edward asks if the agency got a defector and someone blabbed his name as a possible mole and they are there to rattle his cage.
The guy says if that did happen, they ask how the KGB would know his name. Edward says defectors aren’t heroes and says he never sold secrets. They ask if he’ll take a polygraph. He reminds him that he was the one who asked to talk to them. Edward asks what happens if he doesn’t. Waters says if he doesn’t, they will crawl so far up his butt he won’t walk straight for a year.
They ask again if he has sold secrets. Two years earlier, we see him out for a walk. A man with an earpiece watches him then whispers. Another guy in a track suit gets up to follow. Edward goes into a shop and looks at a jacket. He looks around and tells the sales guy he saw the guy in the track suit stealing something. He walks to the escalator as the guy is surrounded by security.
He’s at an outdoor jogging track and meets with a CIA rep. He says that was a good move. Edward says that he’s not the usual rookie and says he’s top of his game and is ready. The CIA guy says if he passes the polygraph, they’re moving to Moscow. He whoops in delight. In the present, Edward consents to a polygraph. He’s asked if he has sold secrets, used drugs or abused alcohol. He says he hasn’t abused alcohol.
They ask if he has trouble with drug or alcohol abuse. They ask him to wait there a moment. Back in the day, he’s handed a resignation letter to sign. He looks at it angrily and says this is because of a little booze and dope and the guy asks if he wants to see the tox screen. Edward says if you rejected every agent that boozed you would have an empty building. The guy hands him a pen and he signs the paper.
Two months later, we see him drinking and shooting bottles when his wife yells at him. She asks where he’s been all week and he says here and there. He tells Mary that he went to DC and almost walked into the Soviet consulate. He says he knows enough to bring Langley to its knees. Mary says he’s drinking too much and needs counseling. She says she’s afraid for him. He tells her not to worry and says he’ll be fine. They hug. He says he has it all planned out.
A month after that, in Vienna, he’s drinking coffee at an outdoor cafe. He asks for a strudel and asks a guy nearby if he can borrow the jobs section of his paper. He hands it back and says he has to go. Inside, he left a CIA file for the guy. In the present, the clock ticks and Edward says he wants to know if he passed secrets to the KGB. Edward says it’s none of his damned business. He stands and says to call his lawyer and walks out. Waters stares angrily.
Arthur works out boxing when Wallace comes up and says the DCI wants an after action report on Howard. Wallace says they want to hear that they caught the bad guy, etc. Art says since Howard lawyered up, they have nothing. Wallace goes to leave and Arthur says he wants to go work Howard over with a couple of guys. Wallace says the CIA can’t spy on US citizens and Art isn’t a field officer. He telsl him to write up the report by the end of the day. Art is pissed off.
Edward grabs stuff out of his car and comes into the house. He looks through the papers he pulled out while Mary plays with the baby. He asks if the sitter is there and she says in five minutes. She asks if he can stay and fight and he says one man can’t take on the CIA and their billions of dollars. He kisses his daughter and tells Mary in a year or two they can join her. He gives her the keys and says they need to move.
Down the road, a surveillance van waits. They see the car leave and then another unit sees them and follows. All the units pull out to follow and Mary says they have a tail. Edward says when you don’t see them, it’s a problem. They splash a huge puddle and blind the car behind them. They pull up on a car in front of them and then go around it.
Mary drives aggressively and gets ahead of the guy. She stops and waits for the tail to pull up on her. He does and she just sits there. She waits and watches and says this is Oak Lane. She looks out the window and tells him she loves him. A semi is coming and he says he’s sorry. She waits and then at the last minute pulls out in front of the semi and speeds off. The guy lost them.
He calls back to the other unit to tell the bad news. She drives on and Edward opens the door and rolls out. He tied a cloth to the door so she could slam is shut and a fake head pops up so the agent thinks Edward is still in the car. He jogs to a barn and looks around, sees nothing and walks up a road.
At the CIA, Art stalks into Wallace’s office. He says Howard fled the country. Wallace asks to have the room and Art says he’s going to be in a parade in Red Square. Wallace says he just broke protocol because he doesn’t know the security level of the people in the room. He tells Art to let it go and says the DCI wants them to focus on new assets. Art says screw the DCI and Wallace threatens his job. He says he’s management now and tells him to do his job or lose it.
In Montreal, Yurchenko waits with Aldrich and Mack. Aldrich tells him he looks like a million bucks and tells him to break a leg. The guy gets out of the car and walks to the house. Mack says Aldrich likes him and he says they are both die-hard romantics. A woman answers the door and Yurchenko says he still loves her. She asys her husband is inside and asks how he’s there in Canada.
He says he defected to be with her and hands her a gift. He asks if she remembers and asks if she still loves him. She says she has loved two men in her life. Her father and and him. She says her father is dead and he is now dead in her eyes. She hands back the trinket and says the man she loved was a KGB colonel, not a traitor. He begs Vanya to listen, but she shuts the door in his face.
Sandy unwraps a bird when someone comes in and asks if it her windshield. She tells Louisa it’s a common coot and says she had to have it shipped in. She asks what she’ll do with it and we see her at home cooking it when Gary come sin.
Yurchenko tells Mack he has to go to the bathroom when they’re out to dinner and then Mack panics and goes after him. He realizes Yurchenko is gone and searches the restaurant cursing. He runs into the kitchen and looks around. He notices a back door and races out into the alleyway. He doesn’t see him anywhere.
At the Soviet Embassy, Yurchenko gives a press conference. He gives his name and says he was in Rome working for the KGB when he was abducted by force by American CIA agents. He says they drugged him and brought him to America and tortured him repeatedly. The reporter says this case will haunt the CIA for years to come. Wallace says he was told Yurchenko was depressed.
Sandy comes in and says the soup recipe was also a recipe for invisible ink. She says he was asking them to write a letter to the editor with a message in invisible ink. Art tells her it could be a trick and she says what happened to the Art she used to know. He says he’s management and she disses him and walks out. He looks thoughtful.
Art lights a candle and then goes and calls Sandy, Aldrich and some others in to talk about cultivating new assets. In Moscow, Edward gets out of a taxi. Art says there is not telling the extent of the damage inflicted by Howard. He says they have to figure it out. Art says he’s starting a task force and the four of us will work on it as they can and says he will bring in an officer to investigate how they lost the people. She asks who it is.
In Gabon, an encoded transmission goes through and it says there will be a reassignment. A woman reads it with surprise.
