Plot

Michael's quest to find out who killed Diego is interrupted as he helps a widow take on a network of insurance scammers. However, the job could be jeopardized when Madeline befriends an "asset" during the mission.

When a recently widowed woman hires Michael and Fiona to get her away from a group of violent con men, Michael turns to Madeline for help - but he may ask her to go too far. Meanwhile, a mysterious contact goes to extreme lengths to get Michael's attention.—USA Network Publicity

Michael not only allows Fiona to invoke her light wound to physically abuse him and Sam for saving her life, she even gets the men to handle one of her cases. Widowed client Calia is forced, by threat to hurt her young son, to act as pawn for Connor and his son Ryan Johnson's insurance fraud gang. Michael infiltrates as 'ambitious replacement' for a killed getaway-driver. In order to establish his cover, ma must do what even Sam can't, win the confidence of 'incorruptible' city records clerk Tina to get access to secret files. But Ryan's initiative to impress his dad perverts the whole plan badly.—KGF Vissers

Previously on Fiona had decided to move back to Ireland, but she didn't make her exit before a bloodthirsty hooligan named Thomas O'Neill kidnapped her. Strickler, Michael's "ticket back in," tried to convince Michael to move on from Fiona and "forget the past," prompting Michael to shoot him twice in the stomach and tell the dead man, "Fiona is not in my past." Fi managed an escape, with Michael's help, but they learned they could never go back to Ireland because O'Neill had blown Michael's cover there. Diego, Michael's agency contact, was upset that Michael got involved with Strickler in the first place. Diego warned that someone was in town and was coming for him and Michael, and not long after that, Diego is discovered dead tossed off a hotel balcony.

The third season's winter installment got started with Michael sewing Fi's stitches back on after she's ripped them apart again! She didn't like his technique, thinking he was making it hurt on purpose. She promised to get him back "when this is over." She didn't wait that long. Once Michael had his guard down for just a moment, Fi punched him in the face, then sighed and went to sleep.

Sam told Michael that when he thought Fi was leaving town, he "actually felt a little bad." Sam was digging up info on Diego's killing, and the one bit of good news was that enough people saw Michael at the scene that he wasn't considered a suspect. The bad news: "Operation: 'Unburn Michael Weston' is officially off." Michael was afraid of that. Sam handed Michael the name of a hotel who might know who threw Diego off the balcony. Michael went alone.

At the hotel, Michael was ready to scam the front desk girl for info, but was thrown when she handed him an envelope that had been left for him. She knew who he was based on his description. Inside, a note simply read, "Room 302."

"In the world of espionage, there are a lot of ways to introduce yourself," Voiceover Michael explained, going on to detail some practical forms of introduction. "Whatever the method, that first contact tells you a lot about a person..."

That's when the room was set aflame just before Michael entered. (Timing is everything.)

"Especially when someone introduces themselves by fire-bombing a hotel room."

Back at the loft, Sam surmised the fire-bomber was trying to send Michael a message that he was involved in Diego's death. Fi asked Michael to take an insurance scam meeting for her. It was a job she'd already committed to before getting shot.

Michael met with Calia, a woman whose husband was killed in a five-car collision. She found insurance documents that were filled out before the accident and realized that a scam was going to pay him to say he hurt his neck. She said a guy came to her house and threatened her family, saying that she had to sue the city for wrongful death and give him the money. Michael immediately called Sam and asked him to check with the county for some insurance records. He told him to use his "Sam magic."

Voiceover Michael told us about how valuable the cell phone call log system is for spies. Even the most cautious cell phone users leave behind a lot of information on them. He was still going through Strickler's phone. Sam ran into a 65-year-old woman at the county clerk's office who was like a brick wall on his way to the records Michael needed. His charms wouldn't work on her. Sam said he had an idea. Cut to Michael asking his mom to befriend the woman and win her trust.

Maddy went to the county clerk's office and met with the woman, Tina, (played by Tyne Daly, giving everyone the pseudo-"Cagney & Lacey" reunion we've always wanted). Maddy worked some tears into her story in hopes of getting a peek at some record and the woman said she'd see what she could dig up.

Sam told Michael that his mom had a gift and brought back everything he'd asked for. They were staking out a clinic where the insurance scammer was shaking hands with a doctor. Sam gave Michael his cover: a friend of the scammer who was killed in the same crash as Calia's husband.

Michael went for a drive, using some bad-ass precision driving to chase down the Corvette-driving scammer, Ryan. Michael introduced himself as Alex and said he was looking for a job, possibly replacing Eric, the guy who'd died in the crash. Ryan was impressed with Michael's driving skills and told him to meet him at a bar the next day.

Michael told Calia they were going to take down the whole scam operation and get them caught by the cops in mid-scam. Calia, who thought Michael and Sam both worked for Fiona, praised Fi for having such good employees. "It's so important to find good help," Fi said, smiling at Michael.

Sam told Michael the feds had ruled Diego's death a suicide. Sam was hinting to Michael that it was a pretty dangerous situation, tracking down a killer who was looking for Michael, but Michael said he couldn't just let it go. Sam then told Michael to talk to his mom about the "proper handling of intelligence assets," meaning her new friend Tina.

Michael went to the house to find Maddy and Tina smoking and drinking gin and tonics. Michael was frustrated and told his mom not to get too close with Tina.

The next day, Michael went to the bar to meet with Ryan, who introduced him to his father, Connor, "the big-bad businessman." Michael pressed for a real job in the organization and convinced Connor to give him a real job if he and Ryan could get $10,000 that was owed to him from an auto body shop. Ryan was upset that he had to bring Michael along, but during the ride there, Michael got him to open up about Calia and the fact that she going to sue the city and get a million-dollar payoff. At the body shop, Michael grabbed an oxy-acetylene torch and displayed his firestarter skills to the bikers who had refused to give up the $10,000 and got them to hand over the cash. He and Ryan sped away as Ryan told Michael he had a job.

Michael was getting ready for a meeting with the boss. Sam wanted Michael to ignore the "whole Diego getting murdered" thing. He tracked down a cell phone that was used in the communication by Diego's killers, but it was too easy and obvious of a target because the phone was in the middle of a stadium that hadn't been used in 20 years. Sam thought it was a setup and told Michael not to go there. Michael went there.

Voiceover Michael explained that there's a fine line between the hunter and the hunted when it comes to covert ops. "Letting someone hunt you is just another way of finding out more about them," he said. Michael walked through the stadium seats and heard a cell 'phone placed there ringing. He answered it and the man on the other end of the line said it was nice to see him in the flesh. Michael couldn't see the guy, who wouldn't say who he was. The man said he was debating whether or not to kill Michael. Suddenly, bullets were hitting stadium seats all around where Michael was standing. Michael asked the man to let him know when he's made a decision, but the man said Michael would know. Michael coolly stood still as more shots landed all around him. He and Sam left after the gunfire was over.

Michael came back and told Fi that the "meeting" was unsatisfying, but the shooting reminded him of a stadium shooting in South Africa a while back. Sam was looking into a connection. He helped Fi finish work on a listening device for his next meeting with Connor.

Michael met with Connor and proposed a scam that involved getting a city vehicle to nudge a stooge's car into a passing train. Ryan didn't like the idea, but Connor did and asked Michael to come back in a few days and he'd have a crew ready. Fi distracted the valet for a minute so she could plant the bug into Ryan's car keys.

Michael was at his mom's house and she was headed to the beach with Tina. Sam called Michael to tell him he heard Ryan on the bug getting ready to pull the whole train scam on his own, likely trying to impress his dad. He was paying some poor guy to get knocked in front of a train. Sam and Michael both took off.

With some precise driving and a handful of wrecks, Michael and Sam were able to thwart Ryan's attempt to drive the city truck into a car that would get hit by a train. Michael stared Ryan down before driving away without saying anything.

No one was hurt in the ordeal, but Michael's cover was blown and Connor stopped all scamming activity, which meant they were going to have to focus on people who they felt already owed them money, like Calia. The only way to build a case against the scammers was to get more evidence about the big scam they were trying to pull, which meant they needed more insurance records, which meant Michael had to ask Maddy to get Tina to turn over more files.

Maddy was upset by the proposal and Michael told her that was why she shouldn't have become friendly with Tina. But he said it would save people's lives. Maddy was afraid Tina could get fired.

Maddy went to Tina's office and played some serious hardball, blackmail-style. Tina cried as she realized what Maddy was asking her to do, and said she could get fired. Maddy kept a stern face and got the documents Michael needed. She wasn't happy, though, opting to take the bus rather than get a ride home with her son.

Michael, Sam and Fi were preparing to do some driving as they staked Ryan out. They sped up to box Ryan's Corvette in as they led him down a street where they forced him to crash into a city vehicle. Fi called the accident in to the police, telling them it looked like he crashed into the city truck on purpose. Michael got out and confronted Ryan as he was getting out of his car to provoke Ryan into a fight while Sam slipped a bunch of the insurance documents into the passenger's seat of Ryan's wrecked car. When all was clear, Michael punched Ryan out and they all drove away. Seconds later, the police showed up and arrested Ryan.

Michael explained to Calia that Ryan eventually turned on his father and they practically handed the case to the city. Calia thanked Michael and Fi.

Fi told Michael that his mom was still pretty upset. She said Tina was going to lose everything, "unless ..." Michael said he would see what he could do.

Michael went to his mom's house early in the morning. She said she didn't sleep well because she kept seeing Tina's face, crying and calling her a monster.

Michael was upset because his mom thought he did his jobs for the money. She said she didn't know why he did it.

"People need me, so I have to," he said, in his first direct statement of his altruistic principle.

She asked why he was there at 6:00 in the morning, and where he'd been. He said he was at the county records office. "There was a break-in," he said, feigning ignorance. "Someone went through all the files. They'll discover it Monday. Your friend Tina will be fine. No one will ever be able to tell that she took any files."

She thanked him and offered him a cup of coffee.

Back at the loft, Sam was waiting for Michael. He said he did some research and he tied together the hotel firebombing and the shooting at the stadium. Both incidents were just like a couple of other ones in other parts of the world that went unsolved, but there was a lot of talk about the same guy possibly being behind them: Mason Gilroy.

Sam said he found a cell phone by the gate to his loft.

"He knows where you live, Mike," Sam said.

Michael figured it was good that Gilroy hadn't killed him yet. He dialed the cell phone and Gilroy answered, congratulating Michael on having figured out his name. Gilroy said the fact that Michael hadn't gone to the authorities was "a promising sign."

Gilroy said they should meet.

"Just give me a time and a place," Michael said.