- Michael plays a heroin dealer from his past against Serbian mobsters so that he can help the agency retrieve a stolen predator drone. However, his plan threatens to put Sam in serious danger.
- Michael stalls with CIA agent Pearce as the team must, before she's shown the at first sight incriminating security videos, Westen's near-dead-ringer, obviously part of an elaborate setup. Pearce herself offers an alternative priority: saving an informant who infiltrated a Serbian gang by finding a way to turn the police on them red-handed before her superiors order arrests which are bound to expose her source. To this end, Michael instructs Sam's alter-ego to deviously approach ruthless drug baron Carmelo Dante by car-crash to ultimately make the notoriously violent drug-fiend believe the Serbians stole from him, which the team must itself.—KGF Vissers
- Voiceover Michael tells us about the long history of using doubles in espionage as he, Sam, Fi and Maddy look at the bodega surveillance tape that appears to show Michael buying the cell phone the killer used in framing Michael for Max's murder. He gets a call from Agent Pearce wanting to meet about another high-priority CIA job the next morning.
She tells him an arms dealer is about to sell a stolen predator drone to a Serbian syndicate group. The deal might be going down the next day and the CIA has to get the drone before the Serbians do. They'd like to have someone not on the books do the job. Michael gets to work, trying to get to a courier who's staying in a Miami hotel, and wants to get it done before the hotel pool opens.
Michael climbs up the outside of the hotel to the courier's balcony. The courier says he's already sold the drone and Michael sees a briefcase with a million dollars in cash on the bed.
Pearce is pissed on the phone and she tells Michael that her bosses want to interrogate some Serbs about the drone. She says if they do that her asset on the inside of the Serbian organization will be killed. She says this happened before -- her fiance was exposed because the bosses got impatient about an operation. She buried him a month before their wedding date. Michael offers her a chance to get the drone if she can buy a little time from her bosses. She also wants Max's killer.
Michael, Fi and Sam stake out some Nasty Serbs. Michael wants to enlist the help of a notorious heroin dealer who has "an army." He and Michael aren't on good terms. Carmelo threatened to kill him. That's why Michael wants to send Sam to Carmelo. The plan is to rip off Carmelo, leave Sam as a witness to the crime. Carmelo will question Sam, who will lead Carmelo to the Serbs. Instead of finding his heroin, Carmelo will find the drone. "And if we don't play it right, we find out if Sam's bulletproof," Fi says. Sam's willing to do it for the chance to save a CIA agent and keep the drone out of the hands of the Serbs.
Fi goes to visit Michael's former neighbor, Sugar, who is trying to smooth talk some women at a club. She asks him about Carmelo's heroin shipments so they can steal one. Sugar resists, but then tells Fi that Carmelo's guys take a rental car to a stash house in the sticks.
Michael tells Pearce about the plan so they can use a listening device. She doesn't like it, but gives in. After Sam leaves, she asks Michael about the surveillance footage. He asks her for some advanced facial recognition software.
The drug heist is on. Fi shoots out a tire on the car with the drugs and when the men get out they shoot up the car. The men run away and Michael and Fi take the drugs. They dress Sam up like a tow truck driver who was nearly shot by the thieves. Carmelo the drug lord comes out and finds Sam, who plays up the role and mentions something about "the Serbians." Sam is tossed into Carmelo's car and taken away. Michael's worried, but pleased that he got his asset into the enemy's circle.
Sam is taken to a big mansion and when Carmelo threatens him, he claims he knows some info about the Serbians and that if he's hurt the Serbians will take off.
Back at the loft, Michael and Fi catch Jess up, telling him he needs to convince the Serbs they have a new enemy named Carmelo.
Jess shows up at a restaurant appearing to be high out of his mind. He sits down with the Serbs, Djovic, and tells them that his dealer, Carmelo Dante, is "coming" for them. Jesse tells them he wants money for the information.
Maddy and Fi are at the local county clerk's office, posing as mother and daughter. They give an apparently helpful clerk a picture of Michael and say they're looking for him. They give a big story about how this man, "Dave," took all of Fi's money. They play on the woman's maternal instincts and convince her to help them by letting them looking through the driver's license photo database to find this "Dave." She tells them to come back Saturday.
Sam leads Carmelo out to the Serbs' warehouse. Michael and Fi, hiding in the distance, set off a gunfight between the Serbs guarding the warehouse. Carmelo grabs a Serb and runs away. Fi is worried that Carmelo is going to figure out Sam's whole story is a lie. Michael thinks -- or hopes -- Sam can make it work.
Back at Carmelo's place, Sam hears the Serb being interrogated. Sam asks one of Carmelo's men what the Serb is saying, and the man says something about a marina by the Port of Miami. Michael and Fi hear this and Fi wants to go get Sam. She doesn't think Carmelo's 20 guys can handle it. Michael says he can ask Pearce for support.
He asks Pearce if she can have agents ready to pull Sam out and she reminds him of when she said she didn't like the plan. He asks for her backup in case things go bad with Sam. She says they need to talk about Sam (who told Michael earlier that he had some issue in the past with Pearce's boss, Manaro). We and Michael meet Gabriel Manaro and Matt Bailey ("Not fans of Sam Axe"). Michael asks for more info, and they tell him Sam endangered them and other agents five years earlier in Colombia by compromising a mission. Michael says he's sure Sam had a reason. Michel leaves.
Carmelo begins beating Sam after learning that the Serb was talking about a weapon, not Carmelo's drugs. Sam asks Carmelo for a chance to talk to the Serb, promising that he'd get the guy to change his story. Carmelo agrees to give him one chance.
Fi goes to the county clerk's office. Michael is worried but knows there's nothing that can be done for Sam now. At the clerk's office, the helpful clerk takes Fi and Maddy to a computer where they can search driver's license photos. She says it could take days to go through the thousands of photos, but they only have until 2 o'clock. She leaves the room to keep watch and Fi begins downloading all the images while Voiceover Michael tells us that "unless a photo is taken straight on, under direct lighting, facial recognition software is near worthless" and that fortunately, driver's license photos are taken this way for that exact reason. At first, there are more than 62,000 matches, but Fi narrows it down to 86. Meanwhile, she tells Maddy that Sam is in danger.
Michael and Jess listen while Sam talks to the Serb, and gets the Serb to fess up the hotel where he's staying. Sam says the drugs are there, at the Sun View Motel. Michael realizes Sam is "calling his shot" and wants Michael and Jess to meet them there. Sam says the room has lots of drugs, guns and yogurt -- blueberry yogurt. Hearing all this, Michael and Jesse pack a duffle bag with a scale, some guns and blueberry yogurts from Michael's fridge. Pearce helps navigate the way for Michael and Jesse to beat Carmelo and his men to the motel.
When Carmelo walks into the motel room and sees the bag with a scale and the blueberry yogurts, but no drugs, he's convinced Sam was telling the truth and the drugs were moved to the marina. Sam asks if he's free to go and Carmelo reminds him that Sam was to stay by his side "until this is over."
Michael goes back to Pearce's bosses to get the support that's needed at the marina. When Carmelo's guys attack the Serbs, he wants to grab Sam and get him out. Pearce agrees they can make it look like a gunfight broken up by the cops. Her bosses say that many boots on the ground could compromise the mission. Michael is upset that Manaro and Bailey won't take the steps to protect Sam when Carmelo's men realize there are no drugs and only a drone at the marina, and Manaro tells Michael that Sam is "not mission critical." As Michael leaves, Pearce tells him she's sorry. Michael asks her to keep her bosses off his back and he'll handle it himself.
Carmelo and his men approach the marina. Michael, Fi and Jesse are waiting. When Carmelo's SUVs approach, there's a gunfight. Meanwhile, Michael is swimming over to the stash house in an attempt to get Sam. Carmelo is upset when he finds a weapon and no drugs. Sam says there might be a second stash house. Carmelo asks Sam, who's been playing Chuck Finley the whole time and is being held at gunpoint, who he is. Before Sam can answer, Michael steps up and says, "That's my friend, Sam, and I'm appreciate it if you'd stop pointing that gun at him."
Carmelo immediately recognizes Michael, who asks Carmelo if he hears the sirens approaching. Michael tells Carmelo he can either try to explain "double homicide and a stolen weapon" or take his offer: A new friend in the CIA. Carmelo offers another suggestion: He can kill Michael and Sam and leave before the cops get there. Michael agrees that's a good plan, except he has a sniper nearby who kill Carmelo as soon as he leaves the building. Fi lets Jesse take the warning shots, which he does by shooting a frowning face into the wall behind Carmelo.
Carmelo decides to be a "hero" who found a stolen weapon and seized it for the American government. Carmelo shakes Michael's hand and tells him, "Seriously, I will kill you if I ever see you again."
"Yeah," Michael says, "I've heard that before."
Manaro and Bailey are annoyed that Michael cut a deal with a heroin dealer, but Pearce just finds the whole thing amusing and says their good work will be noted in their files. When Manaro asks Sam for the glasses, which has the high-tech listening device in them, Sam claims he lost them.
In the car, Michael tells Sam that Sam owes him one. As they drive away, Michael then admits he owes Sam 50.
Michael goes to meet with Fi and Maddy about what they found at the clerk's office. First, they want to talk to Michael about the big risks he's taking, putting Sam in danger and getting the CIA involved in a murder investigation that could lead back to him. Maddy tells him not to play with fire. Michael agrees.
Fi hands Michael the file of a guy named Jacob Starky -- an organ donor with no criminal record. Michael tracks Jacob to an isolated spot near some railroad tracks. While he and Sam watch, a car drives up and the driver hands Jacob a gun. Jacob tucks it into the back of his pants and walks away. Michael doesn't know what's going on but thinks "it's about to get interesting."
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