Liza Winter’s defiant clash with Col. Darrow makes life worse for Frank.
Neither really buys that.
She cant have newspapers in the hospital.
Credit: WGN
The one Frank brought was confiscated.
She also cant wear her wedding ring, since they could be choking hazards.
Frank hears a distant woman screaming uncontrollably.
Someone must have shown her a newspaper, he says.
Liza seems content to drift, but Frank vows to bring her home.
Its a great moment not just an example of the tenderness between them, but a metaphor.
The string you tie around your finger is supposed to remind you of something, right?
This is Frank doing something that, despite all his faults, she will never forget.
Atomic energy could become a promising source of fuel in the decades to come.
Frank is blessed and cursed with the ability to see the potential in things.
His wife, for one.
Atomic energy, another.
The latter makes him more afraid than hopeful.
Hitler is already stockpiling uranium, Frank explains.
He knows the scientists who are over there trying to weaponize it.
But remember, its still only 1939.
Even Glen isnt so sure.
Some genies belong in their lamps, he says.
Its all in the wrist, Glen says, making a sweeping motion to the door.
It turns out Glen, one of the Winters best friends, thinks Liza is on a research sabbatical.
Frank asks him to help talk the government into developing work on the atom bomb.
You must know someone with a line to the president.
Cut to Glen and Frank walking up to the door of a house.
The name on the mailbox: A. Einstein.
Darrow confronts Liza at a city council meeting.
Darrow asks for the councils attention and shows her how rough he can play.
Due to new J-1 secrecy restrictions, as of today, the town council is disbanded.
Thats it for today.
Bad behavior, the guard says.
Not your bad behavior, the guard answers.
Operators are banned from listening to his calls, due to national secrecy, of course.
So Oppenheimer and his mistress feel safe indulging in some bondage and submission phone-sex fantasies.
He doesnt want to know and tells her: Stay out of other peoples marriages.
Life is to fragile.
He wants to live in the moment and gives her a decoder ring as an engagement offering.
She says yes anyway, which means she must really love this poor geek with a bad back.
Its a betrayal on two fronts.
None of them made the cut, except for Fritz.
After all he has been through, Meeks seems relieved to not be involved.
Outside the gates of Los Alamos, the reporter who penned that article about Frank has shown up.
Griffin Dunne does a great job capturing the shabby persistence that defines every newspaper scribe throughout history.
Like the rapture, as he puts it.
I imagine you have read the Code of Wartime Practices for the American press?
Im really more of a First Amendment guy, Lorentzen says.
Now we see how it happens.
Darrow decides its a battle that cant be won by fighting, but rather through friendship.
It turns out Liza and the reporter are old friends or, actually, a bit more.
You see the irony here.
Youre asking me to risk my hide so you might be reunited with your husband?
he says when she finds him ensconced in his new quarters on the base.
Bad news: Hes no longer interested in Franks disappearing act.
They sold you the scoop on The Gadget, Liza says.
Is that what Franks life is worth.
Darrow summons Liza and is amused by her anger, but not by her defiance.
He needs to put a lid on her speaking out to those beyond the walls of the Manhattan Project.
I wonder what your husband would feel about your recent visit with an old flame?
Lets call him and ask!
(I love Liza.)
Darrow tries to turn her allegiance.
Yet you persist in agitating for his return?
He has an open line to her sisters home, where her daughter is in hiding.
The daughter is the one who leaked to the reporter.
Darrow instructs Liza to Tell her to be a good girl.
And the leak has been sealed.
Over at the Isaacs household, Abby is busy prepping dinner.
Careers arent made between 9 and 5 theyre made between soup and dessert, Abby says.
It could not play out worse for Charlie.
You work the switchboard, she says.
I bet you overhear all kinds of secrets.
I hear things too.
I hear you like the taste of girls.
I do not need marital advice from a deviant.
Outside, Oppenheimer is expressing boredom with Charlies ruminations on where to test the bomb.
He seems like a man who no longer wants the job of running this project.
Just then, Helen storms into the yard to express her displeasure at being passed over for G-group.
Oppenheimer looks ready to thank Isaacs for a lovely evening and excuse himself.
And you …, Helen says, wheeling on him.
Everyone knows you were the third choice to lead this project.
None of us would even be here if Frank hadnt convinced Albert Einstein we needed a bomb.
This entire project exists because of Frank.
Where is he now?
After Charlie finally forces her away, Oppenheimer coolly says: Remind me of her name.
NEXT: They teach you that in spy school?
Elsewhere that night, Fritzs bachelor party is in full swing.
She strikes up a conversation with the timid turncoat and invites him outside for a walk.
Next we see shes on her knees giving him a blowjob.
Very friendly, this Nora.
After, he tries to clarify if hes on a date or if he owes her a fee.
Ive never been asked if I was a hooker on a first date before, she answers.
She quotes some of Shakespeares Julius Caesar at the theater aficionado, and he is instantly smitten.
Next youre going to tell me you have a copy of Planet Comics #1 in your purse?
he jokes
Nora reaches into her purse, and … pulls out a torn Hersheys wrapper.
Its the one his former Soviet handler told him to watch for when he got a new contact.
Then he gets angry.
They teach you that in Spy school?
Fellatio as a tool of persuasion?
That I learned in high school.
If Stalin has a bomb in his pocket too, its a draw.
Its a stalemate and nobody dies.
Thats actually one of the more noble reasons for betraying your country.
But he doesnt know how much use he can be moving forward, since hes not on G-Group.
Nora thinks the genius can put his mind to work and figure out a solution.
Shes expecting a pink slip but inside is an offer of promotion.
Not only that, he wants Fritz to talk Isaacs into bringing him on board the team.
Bombs away, Fritz says.
In the last month I have fielded recruiting calls from three universities.
My vote is Princeton, but its your decision, he says.
Its your career, she mutters.
Liza, theyre recruiting you, he says.
This this is why she loves Frank, for all his flaws.
This is why she is trying so hard to save him.
He once saved her when no one else would.
She went back East, to find Glen.
He has lost the nanny-goat look, and his new girlfriend is in his office browsing through photos.
You with a beard.
Now thats something Ill never cotton to!
(Sly Gay Joke #2!)
Back then, Frank wanted to start a bomb-making project.
Now, Liza just wants to save him from the fate he created for himself.
A long time ago I was stuck in a place I didnt belong.
I almost forgot who I was, but Frank remembered, she says.
That place, that bomb turned him into someone else.
Glen has one more trick up his sleeve.
You dont have to be Einstein to figure out what happens next.
