- Michael tries to foil a hit that he was hired for by an old spy colleague he thought was dead, which becomes more complicated when he discovers that there is more than one contract out on the target.
- Michael and Sam find Carla's favorite hit-man 'Bill Johnson'. Meanwhile Larry Sizemore, a ruthless spy who staged his own death, recruits Michael for a hired killing. The target, nurse-widow Jeannie Anderson, stands in the way of coke-addicted son Drew's fat inheritance. Michael pretends to agree to prevent the murder. Larry wants to kill everyone if anything goes wrong. It does surprisingly, so Michael, Sam and Fiona fight on several fronts.—KGF Vissers
- Michael and Sam rolled through an upscale neighborhood as Michael's voice-over explained that spies make great neighbors because they're always trying to avoid calling attention to themselves. That makes hunting for one very difficult. Flash to a list of "Bill Johnsons" with different addresses next to them.
They pulled up to a corner and Michael quipped, "That's Bill Johnson's house." Sam said, "Yup. That gets funnier every time." They went through the trash from the house to figure out if they had the right Bill Johnson. They found laundry bluing, a synthetic dye that's used by spies as "a poor man's dye pack" because it stains anyone who goes through your trash. Michael wanted to know everything there was to know about Bill in order to get some leverage against Carla, his new handler.
Larry, the undead spy: Back at the loft, Larry (who used to be dead and was being played by Tim Matheson, who also directed the episode. Woo!) showed up. Michael was suspicious. Larry asked Michael to help him on a job, paying him "a lot of money to kill a lady."
Larry "heard" Michael had been burned and Michael, of course, wondered if Larry had anything to do with it. Larry said he realized he was just a government weapon and decided to "put some people down, put some cash in his pocket. So what?" He now kills people for money. Michael said that kind of business is a slippery slope. "Well, slippery slopes can be fun, like water slides," Larry said. He showed Michael the "dead-ee," a cancer nurse who married one of her sick patients who happened to be rich. He got better, then got sick again and slipped into a coma. "But, she is going to die first," Larry said. Michael wanted to know who didn't want her to have the rich guy's money. Larry wouldn't tell him. He wanted Michael to do "this one" solo to re-establish trust with Larry to see whether they could work together again. The job paid $20,000.
Michael's voice-over said spies are bound to get offered bad jobs and have to make a choice: pass and watch the operation go down, or take the job and make sure the op gets blown. "Make it 30 (thousand)," Michael said. Larry was happy, but warned Michael that "if a cop comes within a mile of this, I kill everybody."
The boyfriend: Michael met Fiona's new boyfriend Campbell, who said Fiona had told him Michael was a soil scientist. The three of them were supposed to have breakfast together, but Michael told Fi about the woman he'd been asked to kill and told her he needed her help finding out who wants her dead and why. "Fine," she said. "You owe me." They left, leaving Campbell inside the restaurant looking at a menu.
Jeannie, the Dead-ee: On the way to tracking down Jeannie, the woman Michael was asked to kill, Michael explained to Fi (and us) that everyone thought Larry was dead because 15 people had watched him walk into an oil refinery right before it blew up. "Apparently it was his way of taking early retirement," Michael said.
Fi worked a scheme to get Michael alone in a restroom with Jeannie. There, he covered Jeannie's mouth telling her not scream, that he was a friend. "I'm here because someone was hired to kill you," he told her, calmly. "Who?" she asked. Michael paused for a moment before saying, "Me," which prompted another round of muffled screams. "But I'm not going to." Jeannie suggested that Drew, her husband's son from his first marriage, might want her dead. She said she didn't care about the money and that she'd just give it to the son. She wanted to go to the police, but Michael told her they'd all die if the cops got involved. Michael told her that Fi would watch over her and act as an old friend.
A new outlook: Michael's mom told him she'd been seeing a counselor, "and he's pretty sure you're the one that's got problems." She guilted him into it and he relented.
Sam pulled up some military info on the Bill Johnson they'd been looking for. Michael told Sam about Larry, who Sam said he hates. When Michael told Sam he's working against Larry, Sam wanted to help.
Michael's not alone: Fi was at Jeannie's house and Jeannie seemed genuine in her concern for her ailing husband. Fi went through the room of Drew, the old guy's son, when Drew got home and Jeannie told him she had a friend staying with her. Fi made a quick exit out of Drew's room but planted a cell phone there and Michael and Sam soon overheard a conversation where Drew was telling another hitman that the killing of Jeannie could not go down in the house because Jeannie had a friend at the house.
Long time, no see: Larry showed up at the loft and came face to face with Sam, who asked Larry if he's "still drinking the blood of children." Larry told Michael about Jeannie's "house guest," and Michael told Larry that Drew "double booked" the job. This made Larry very upset. He grabbed a screw driver and started twirling it angrily, and Michael quietly grabbed one of his own. Larry talked about killing everyone involved. Michael said he'd go to Drew and tell him to call off the job. Larry agreed to let Michael handle how he wanted to, but that if it came back to bite him, Larry would come back to say -- jamming the screwdriver into a countertop -- "I told you so."
Michael posed as Larry and confronted Drew, with Michael's voice-over explaining that it's dangerous to assume someone else's identity because there's too much room for error, but it helps when the person you're duping is terrified of the person you're pretending to be. Michael, as Larry, threatened Drew and told him to call off his cocaine dealer and anyone else he'd hired to do the hit on Jeannie. Then Michael went to family counseling with his mother.
Structurally unsound: The counselor told Michael that trust is a bridge that needs a strong foundation. "And you can't build a bridge out of pain and fear, can you?" he asked Michael, who was sleeping. "No," Michael said, "because that was be structurally unsound." The counselor asked Michael and his mom to make a list of five things they were grateful to the other person for.
Pest patrol: Michael showed up to Bill Johnson's house in an exterminator's uniform -- on his mom's recommendation (which resulted in the first entry on his list of things for which he's grateful to her: "Outfitting me with a cover ID") -- and convinced Bill's wife that something toxic had spilled and she should go get herself and her dog checked. She did, figuratively (and almost literally) opening the door for Michael and Sam to go on in and get to know Mr. Johnson. They broke into the house, planted some bugs and dug through Johnson's things, and Michael found a crossword similar to the ones Carla gives him.
The best offense...: Michael came back to visit Drew, with his voice-over explaining that a pro takes advantage of the element of surprise by taking an aggressive, offensive stance. An amateur, on the other hand, takes a position of defense and is operating from a position of weakness. As Drew hid behind a door with a small handgun, Michael walked in, slammed the door on Drew and picked up the gun, which had fallen to the floor. Drew said he tried to call off the hits. He got through to one guy, but didn't get through to the other. He said that hit might be going down right now. Drew explained that the hitman was going to hit Jeannie with a dump truck and make the whole thing look like an accident. Drew said he tried to warn Jeannie after Michael threatened him, but he said the hitman put a cell-phone jammer in Jeannie's car to block her calls. Michael told Drew to run.
Michael tried to call Fi, but the call wouldn't go through as Fi was in Jeannie's car. Michael stole a truck and headed toward Jeannie's house. It was a race against the dump truck as Michael tried to prevent the truck from swerving into Jeannie's car, which was traveling the opposite direction. He maneuvered in front of the truck and slammed on his brakes, forcing the dump truck to rear-end Michael's stolen truck as Fi and Jeannie drove by slowly. The accident left Michael shaken up and Fi put her arm around him as they walked away.
Michael explained to Larry what he did and tried to convince him that he'd saved Larry a bunch of hassle. They laughed as they realized they wouldn't be working together. Larry shook Michael's hand as he left and Michael wiped his hand on his shirt.
Michael got a frantic call from Drew, who promised he'd run far away. Drew, still believing Michael was Larry, said that "a guy" showed up insisting that the job to kill Jeannie was still on. It was Larry, posing as Michael.
The real Larry set up a plan to poison Jeannie at a benefit luncheon. Fi spotted him and saw him spray some concoction onto Jeannie's fork before people had taken their seats to eat. Fi cleaned Jeannie's fork and told Jeannie to take a couple of bites and excuse herself and pretend like she'd been poisoned, which set off an elaborate 911 plan. Fi's paramedic boyfriend and Sam were standing by so they could be the first to arrive and cart Jeannie off. Afterward, Larry went outside to collect the money from Drew for the hit. Michael was on a nearby rooftop, waiting to take a shot at Larry with a sniper rifle. Drew couldn't get Larry to come out into the open and Larry figured out that Drew had brought "a friend." Larry broke Drew's neck, then called Michael and told Michael that he didn't have the guts to kill his old friend. Michael told Larry to leave, go to Buffalo for his next job and never come back.
Thanks, mom: At one last counseling session, Michael read from his list of things he was grateful to his mom for, and the last included "great eyesight." She was upset that Michael thought she was a terrible mother and said "no wonder you ran away." Michael explained that he didn't run away, he joined the military at 17 because his dad signed a form. Maddie revealed that she signed the form, forging Michael's dad's name, because she was afraid that Michael could have gone down a bad road at that point in his life. She kicked the counselor out of her house and stormed out of the room. "Mom," Michael called out. She stopped and turned and Michael said, "Thank you."
Puzzle pieces come together: This season's big story, in which Carla's asked Michael to get a security access card forged and help hijack a shipment that included a sniper rifle, started to crystalize as Michael and Sam watched this mysterious Bill Johnson head into a building with the forged security card and carrying the sniper rifle on his back. "Everything I've done has been tactical support for one big op," Michael told Sam. "I think I know how to find out what she's planning."
That was too quick. The season finale comes up next week.
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