- As Michael tries to gather intelligence on the "agent to the spies" who is offering him work, he comes to the aid of a teenage boy with a violent and abusive stepfather who is trying to take custody away from his mother.
- Tom Strickler's new offer convinces Michael to pressure informer Diego to find out if Tom has the clout to deliver a burn-reversal. He suspends a vital matter after catching Joey (13) stealing his gun, because the kid feels desperately forced to eliminate his abusive stepfather, businessmen Erik Luna, who is likely to get custody of him and his step-brother at their mother's expense. Erik is protected by his gangster brother Quinn Luna, but has a lucrative scam behind his back. So the team tries to scare away Erik, which nevertheless ends up attracting Quinn's attention, so a plan B is improvised.—KGF Vissers
- Michael said spies aren't much for night clubs -- as he was walking through one. He was just trying to get back to the loft, where a woman was waiting for him with a gift: body lotion that she offered to apply, much to Fi's surprise. Mike explained to Fi that the gift was from Strickler, the spy agent who's been trying to recruit him.
Michael explained that there's always a high price to be paid for a well-trained spy. Strickler offered Michael a chance to get back in the spy game if he worked with him.
Elsewhere, Michael told us that any questionable contact with a spy has to be reported, which results in paperwork and general annoyance. With that, he dropped by to say hi to his "point of contact," Diego. He asked Diego to look into Strickler. Diego refused, at first, but Michael left the note anyway and said he told the local homeland security office he was stopping by and leaving the note.
Michael told Fi he needed to find out if Strickler was as connected as he claimed to be. That's when they walked up to Fi's house and noticed a break-in. It was a 13-year-old carrying a dismantled pistol. Michael chased the kid down when he ran. The kid told Michael he was "borrowing" the gun because he had to kill his stepdad.
The kid sat silently in Fi's house while Michael and Fi waited for him to talk. The kid said the stepdad was trying to take him and his brother away from his mother. They wanted the kid to tell them who his mother was, and Michael offered to help. Joey was suddenly the client.
Sam realized the "little kid, abusive dad" thing kind of hit home with Michael. "But when the time comes to rescue a bunch of rich women trapped in a brewery, you better step up," Sam told Mike.
Joey's mom told Sam, Michael and Fi that his her husband, Erik, was probably going to win custody because he was connected. Erik's brother, Quinn, was a gangster and the only reason Erik married her was to "look more respectable." She then told them about how abusive the man had become. Fi asked where they could find Erik and the woman asked what they could do that the police can't.
"You'd be surprised," Michael said.
Sam and Mike watched Erik playing golf at a fancy country club. The gangster brother Quinn was nearby, as well. Sam said the guys were "damn near untouchable."
Maddie helped April, the mother, pack up the car promised her that for two little kids getting knocked around by their father, "Michael would take on the Chinese Army."
Fi asked April if there was anything between Erik and his brother that they could use to break them apart and April said Erik had a side business that he didn't want Quinn to know about.
Sam broke down Erik's side business, which was selling off things -- mostly luxury cars -- that had been seized at the docks and pocketing the profits. Because all of the transactions were anonymous, Michael was thinking he might show up as an unsatisfied customer.
Michael showed Joey some tricks of the trade while assuring him that he'd be able to make Erik run. Michael stalked around Erik's office while voiceover Michael told us how spies often have to work against their emotions. If a job calls for them to be a target's best friend, they do it. But there are times when the right emotion sells your cover. This was one of those times.
He walked into Erik's office and punched him in the stomach, saying he was being threatened after having bought a Lotus from him. Erik said there was a mistake because the sale was anonymous. Michael asked for his money back, then punched and kicked Erik around a little more. Then he gave Erik one day. "You better watch out, because if they're after me, I'll make damn sure they're after you," Mike said before he left.
April said Erik called and was upset. Michael said he thought Erik would leave. April said Erik sounded more upset than scared. Fi said that would all change. The crew set up an elaborate plan to shut off the lights in the parking lot where Erik would be getting his car later. They disabled his car, as well, and jammed the cell phone signals so he couldn't make any calls. Then, in the dark of night, Sam fired up all the headlines in a van they were in and they sped toward Erik with Fi firing gunshots purposely at the ground around him.
Michael immediately got a call from Erik (who was calling "Pete," the angry car buyer), who said, "We need to talk."
Michael met with Erik, who was having a phone conversation about the custody battle. Erik tried to convince "Pete" that they were in this together and they should fix it together. Michael, as Pete, suggested they leave town. Erik said he couldn't leave town because he's got a life there.
In pursuit of Diego, Michael did some fancy computer stuff on an electrical box to see how much heavily encrypted information Diego was conveying, which might give him a sense of what Diego was doing.
Erik then called Michael and said "they" were outside his house. He described the car to Michael, who realized that Joey, the kid, had stolen the car from Maddie's garage. Michael raced toward Erik's house. Michael found Joey aiming a shotgun at Erik, but talked him down. Joey was frustrated, saying Michael only made things worse, but Michael reassured him the plan was working. He told Joey to help by driving the car away quickly, burning some rubber and making noise, to spook Erik a little more. Erik was pacing around with a gun when the car sped by.
Michael met Joey and they listened in on the bug they'd made together as Quinn yelled at Erik about running around with a gun. Quinn warned Erik to keep his nose clean. That made Joey believe the plan was working and he promised to stop getting all mavericky.
Erik hired assassins to take care of whoever was after him and Pete, which could have posed a problem for Michael's efforts -- if he wasn't the one providing the assassins. Sam and Fi rolled up and offered to help take care of the problem for $80,000.
Michael told Sam and Fi that he'd already convinced Erik to skip town if the hit failed. Then the crew worked up some fake blood splatters that would come in handy for convincing Erik of the failed hit. Sam called Erik and told him they'd found the person who was trying to kill him.
As Sam and Fi approached the target, with Michael and Erik watching, they fake gunshots started flying. Fi and Sam were splattered with blood from the shots and as Michael and Erik ran away from the scene, Fi pulled the trigger on the fake gunshots that hit Michael, who crumbled to the ground as Erik ran away hysterically.
Sam listened in on Erik, who was preparing to flee Miami, when he heard Quinn enter the room and tell Erik he couldn't leave. Erik explained he'd seen three people killed that morning and Quinn asked where. They were going back to the scene. Sam told Michael, who turned the car around quickly.
Mike told Sam they should try something they did back in Moscow in 1999. The plan was to quickly clean up the whole area and make Erik look insane by pretending the whole thing never happened. The plan had to work, Sam and Fi said, because if it didn't, Michael would be left alone with Quinn and his gun-toting thugs.
Erik brought Quinn back to the scene and appeared nuts when it was clear nothing had happened there. Erik then told Quinn about the drive-by and appeared even more crazy.
Erik took Quinn and his men to a small store-front nearby where he thought his team of assassins would be hiding. What they found was Michael dressed as a priest, calling himself Father Peter. When Erik told Michael, "I saw you die," Michael said, "Oh, Erik. Has it gotten worse?"
Michael told Quinn that Erik has been "talking about the killers" a lot and was talking about hiring killers of his own. Erik panicked and insisted the priest was lying, shouting, "You're going to get me killed!"
When they walked back outside, Sam was dressed as a fruit salesman at a nearby stand and Erik said he was "one of the killers." That's when Fi walked by carrying shopping bags and Erik said, "She's one of the killers, too!"
Quinn and his guys pushed Erik into the car and Michael winked at Erik just as they drove away.
April told Fi that Erik was locked up in a mental facility and the judge gave her full custody. Fi then gave April the $40,000 in upfront cash Erik had given them.
Michael went back to the airport to check on his computer in the electrical box that was monitoring Diego. Diego snuck up and held Michael at gunpoint, telling Michael how much of a problem and paperwork he'd caused by dropping Strickler's name.
"I just needed to know how connected Strickler is," Michael told Diego. "I'm pretty sure you just did."
Strickler, who was as connected as Michael hoped he'd be, told Michael that if he took a job with him, he'd be on his way back. He promised Michael the job wouldn't offend his sensibilities, but wouldn't elaborate on what it was.
He just asked Michael if he was in or out.
Voiceover Michael explained that sometimes you have to dance with the devil to get what you want.
"I'm in," MIchael said.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content