Apparently we really did sell crappy wheat to the USSR, but it wasn't necessarily done nefariously, more like we'll keep the wheat, you can have the chaff.

While watching the episode, I thought they were just cold-contacting Soviets in hopes of making new assets (when they contacted Nina they already had something to blackmail her with). But the suggestion about Gaad makes sense. They might have wanted to know what the Aeroflot guy knew about any Moscow-Bangkok flights.

Maybe Martha and Oleg will get together after a meet-cute at the "super"market. "Sorry I bumped into you, I was just looking for a non-rotted cabbage."

In fairness, I think they murdered her before fitting her into the suitcase.

Perhaps he went to the Red Hand wanting to join them, his parents and Broussard will find out, then use him to steal back the gauntlet.

We had PETs at my elementary school in 1982 or '83, so '84 isn't a stretch.

Bennigan's is an Irish-themed restaurant so it probably was standard.

I think it's body wash, shampoo and conditioner. Honestly it seems like an anachronism because my recollection of hotels in the 80s was that they gave you very thin generic bars of soap. The dispenser thing seems like a more recent cost-saving measure. But it was necessary to show you that she was in a hotel.

Not completely gratuitous, it showed her not being at least in her mind able to get all the bugs off.

They were watching the Rezidentura, seeing what new personnel might have been added to the staff. They want to know who might be a recruitable asset.

It's relevant to point out that the Soviets really were getting crappy wheat imports from the US. It's also possible that that USSR suspected sabotage at the time. But I don't know of any actual indication that the US was truly doing anything like that.

Just rub your thumb and forefinger together.

I thought stuffed animal.

I believe it would be highly illegal for the CIA to operate inside the US like that (not that other highly illegal actions haven't been taken by US personnel on the show). There would be a unit within the Justice Department responsible for seeing if Stan has been turned. Like the one that "Clark" told Martha he worked…

Chauncey Gardiner also met with the Russian ambassador..

I think that's just how the writers think special ops law enforcement talk. I don't think it's a sign they're in on the conspiracy. The person in the command center giving them their orders certainly seemed taken aback by Macleish's directive.

I'm saying it's what Putin wants, not necessarily what he can have in reality. Toward the end of the 80s there was an American politician or journalist who travelled to the USSR (can't find the story I'm thinking of online). After experiencing Soviet hotels that had too-short bedsheets, no towels, and ballpoint pens…

It's to fit in with a joke about this episode.

I thought the "America the Beautiful" in Russian was going to be a scene of the Jennings watching "Amerika" the way they watched "The Day After," but then I looked up when Amerika aired. The biggest impediment to your theory is that in both "timelines," the common thread of agricultural corruption and/or sabotage has…