- Michael meets his new "wrangler"/"rodeo clown". Also Michael's childhood friend Ricky needs help proving his innocence to his boss, Valantine.
- Michael's new handler's, or wrangler's, approach to his duties is more stick than carrot, and he's not above interfering with the new case if it infringes on the time he believes should be spent on Michael's newly assigned task. Unfortunately, that may endanger the life of one of his childhood friends.—layle
- Carla sends a new, domineer 'wrangler' to put Michael's talents 'to good use'. Meanwhile youth friend Ricky Watkins asks Michael to help him break in to steal the accounts. He needs to prove that not he, but lieutenant Eddie Ash, is stealing from gangsta rap star and fashion mogul, Valentine. Michael poses as an investor-launderer. The wrangler complicates this operation further. Meanwhile Sam also minds ma Weston.—KGF Vissers
- Michael opened by explaining that when meeting with a covert op for the first time, the arrangements can tell you where you stand. A map and a photo means they trust you. A place and time means they want to check you out before the meeting. A cryptic clue, in this case, "Tidy pelican, Lummus Park," means "they've just got an irritating sense of humor. After putting together his latest crossword puzzle clue, Michael found a mysterious new guy at a chess table who wanted Michael to call him Victor.
He said he was a sort of wrangler, or a rodeo clown, as Michael suggested. Victor wanted to keep Michael busy with a new operation, especially in light of Michael's poking around town and breaking into offices. He passed Michael a cell phone that he was to use, but Michael refused to accept the phone or the job until he found out what it was. He made a quick move, grabbing Victor's wrist and threatening to cut it open with the top side of the chess board's king. Victor's subtle, "just-two-guys-sitting-in-the-park" response: discreetly pulling a gun under the table and pointing it at Michael's king, if ya know what I mean. Michael backed off, but found it useful to see how far Victor was willing to go. He took the phone.
Michael came back to their meeting place to find Sam polishing a new "pre-owned" Buick that he bought because Veronica got the Cadillac in the breakup. Michael told Sam the "errand" that the people who burned him wanted him to do seemed pretty heavy, based on Victor's tactics. He knew if he refused to do it, "they'll work their way through my friends and family with a 9 millimeter -- until I change my mind." He told Sam "this could get bad" and asked him to watch his mom until he figured out what was going on. Sam went along, telling Michael's mom that he needed to stay with her to help get over the breakup. He went to the house and found a guy crawling around the floor so, naturally, he pulled a gun on him. The guy said he was a friend of Michael's. The story was true, and the guy, Ricky, was just there installing a "home theater system" for Michael's mom. She was surprised to realize that she ought to upgrade from the dusty old VCR she dug out of storage. She should find out more about the digital conversion in February, too.
Ricky and Michael met up and Michael found out that Ricky's brother Andre is serving 25-to-life. Ricky said he's on the right track and is the head accountant for a hip-hop mogul named Valentine. There's $2 million missing from a charity account and Ricky's name is all over the account. He thinks he's being set up, possibly by Valentine's right-hand man, Eddie Ash. He's the only person with access to the accounts. Ricky thinks he'll be killed if Valentine thinks he's stealing from him. Ricky said if he could to Eddie's books, he could show Valentine what's really going on. But Eddie keeps those books locked up in his office.
Fiona can't believe Michael's never heard of Valentine. They were staking out Valentine's office when he and and entourage walked out and ... YES! ... Valentine is being played by Method Man. This is gonna be awesome.
After getting a call from Victor, Michael met him at the beach. He explained part of the mission is to hijack a shipment. Michael asked for more information and Victor diagnosed Michael with "a case of the 'need to knows,'" which he warned could be fatal if untreated. He then effectively told Michael that he was being tracked through a GPS device in the phone. As he tried to disable the GPS, risking disabling the phone completely, he found a note that was hidden inside the phone, warning him to leave the GPS alone. As an alternative, Michael the phone to forward calls to another phone.
Fiona came back with intel on Valentine's office building and demanded a pair of shoes. She said she needed more shoes now that she's "back on the market." That's gotta sting. Fi called in a bomb threat to the building next door, which set off a perfect storm of opportunities for Michael to get into Valentine's building. The bomb squad set up an RF jammer, which blocks nearby radio frequencies, including cell phones and the type of wireless security cameras surveilling Valentine's building. Michael walked in. Doors within the office: easy. Massive steel bars keeping the file cabinets closed: potentially more difficult to open, but made easier because Michael easily picked the padlock holding the bars together. "People have too much faith in padlocks," he said.
Michael breezed through files, taking snapshots of a bunch of stuff, as Eddie drove up and railed on his building security guard for standing outside because of the bomb threat. He told him to get back inside. Three guys with guns came in and heard Michael closing the lock back up. He hid in the sub-ceiling.
Michael showed Ricky the files, which showed nothing. But it was clear that Eddie was trying to find a front business to make it look like he earned the $2 million. Michael planned on convincing Eddie to wash his money with him. Michael met with his friend Barry, the money launderer, to see if he could arrange a meeting with Eddie Ash. Barry went for it, charging Michael $5,000 to set up the meeting, $3,000 if he could promise nothing would happen to the guy. "Five it is," Michael said.
Michael came to his mom's house to find Sam fixing up some Madras curry in the kitchen, something he learned while watching cooking shows with Michael's mom. Sam gave Michael his cover ID for his money launderer meeting: Jimmy Glinn from Boston. Michael went to a club to meet with Eddie, coming on strong with Eddie, with a suspect New England accent. Michael threw some big numbers around, offering not just to clean Eddie's money, but to get him a 30- to 40-percent return, untraceable, minus his cut. He asked for $2 million by the end of the week. Michael showed Eddie an empty condo, which he claimed he'd buy and flip to clean up the cash. Eddie had to run to an emergency meeting with Valentine.
Ricky, worried about the meeting, called Michael and he and Fi waited outside, listening to the meeting on Ricky's cell phone, which he left on. It turned out Valentine was angry at one of his producers for trying to take one of his artists to another label. He called the guy a thief and cracked him in the back of the head with a glass-encased platinum album. Fi heard this commotion and grabbed a shotgun and headed toward the building with Michael trying to stop her. Inside, Valentine asked Ricky to stay behind after he cleared the room. He asked about the missing cash and Ricky claimed it was a bank error. Valentine told him he had two days to show him the money was intact.
Michael as "Jimmy" met with Eddie at the club again, but Victor interrupted the meeting with Michael's cell phone in hand. He told Michael he'd been spreading himself too thin, then killed Michael's deal with Eddie, saying that the feds were all over him after he made a deal with Jimmy. Eddie walked out.
Michael broke the news to Ricky, who got nervous. Fiona took the opportunity to ask Ricky if he gets discounts on Valentine's clothing line.
Michael, again as "Jimmy," made a new move on Eddie, ambushing him in a parking garage and claiming that the feds were all over him after the two of them met. He pulled a gun on Eddie and made him swear he hadn't talked to any cops. Michael told him to look out for them and had Sam follow him around taking pictures to keep Eddie on his toes. Sam brought Michael's mom along, convincing her he was taking snapshots of condos but couldn't bring himself to go inside one because he was still reeling from the breakup.
Victor took Michael to the dock where the shipment they were looking to hijack would be delivered. Michael learned that the shipment was coming in a crate and was not explosive, but he also learned that he wouldn't be allowed near it. He would sit in the car and be a lookout while Victor took the crate and put it into the trunk of the car. Needing to know what was in the crate, Michael went back to make his trunk into an impromptu X-ray machine using an old TV tube and a Taser that would provide the electricity needed to kick it up a notch and make it X-ray worthy. Just then, he got a call from a frantic Eddie.
Eddie was convinced the feds were following him, taking pictures. He asked "Jimmy" to help him get his money into an offshore account. He said he had one "loose end" to tie up before he could move the cash and that he was "taking care of it right now." Knowing that Ricky was the loose end, Michael called Fi and asked her to go keep an eye on him without shooting anyone or making it look like she was helping him.
As gunman circled Valentine's office building in the dark, Fi drove up wildly and they scattered. She got out of the car, dressed in cut-offs and a tied up T-shirt, acting like she was a disgruntled ex, demanding for Ricky to come out. She threw a rock through a window, setting off the building's alarm and scaring the hitmen away.
The next day, Michael and Fi told Ricky that Eddie wouldn't move the money until Ricky was dead. Michael, of course, had a plan. He asked Sam to stash his mom "somewhere safe" for a couple of hours. Michael found Eddie in the parking garage and told him the source of his FBI problem was "an accountant named Ricky." Michael told Eddie he had to take care of Ricky to fix the problem and goaded Eddie into "manning up" enough to do the job himself. Michael even had to purposely lose a scrap with Eddie, which proved difficult, in order to give Eddie the confidence that he could take care of his own business.
Back outside Valentine's office, Sam and Fiona knew what time Valentine was leaving and set up a little ruse to kidnap him. Sam made fun of Valentine's music, annoying him just enough to have his two bodyguards take him away. Meanwhile, Fi, who was watching the scene unfold, walked up behind Valentine and put a gun to his head while Sam took care of the two bodyguards and pulled a gun on them. "Want to take a ride?" Fiona asked Valentine.
Michael was with Eddie outside of Ricky's house as Eddie set out to take care of Ricky. Eddie barged in and pulled a gun on Ricky, telling him that he built Valentine's company into what it had become and that's why he deserved the money. He nervously fired the gun, which was filled with blanks. He kept firing and nothing happened to Ricky. Valentine, then, walked in from another room with Sam and Fiona behind him. "Everybody out," Valentine said. "Everybody except Eddie." That wasn't going to end well for Eddie.
Ricky later told Michael and Fi that Eddie went for a ride on Valentine's yacht and never came back. He offered money, but Michael wouldn't take it, accepting only enough for Fi's new shoes and to cover their expenses.
Fiona gave Michael the incendiary rounds he'd asked for and she asked what was going on. Michael explained he wanted to see what was in the box that he and Victor were stealing "without this thing turning into a bloodbath." Fi suggested shooting Victor and taking a look, "What's the problem?" Michael said if he took out one of their operatives everyone he cared about would be in danger, including her.
At the dock, Michael pulled out a shotgun to stand guard while Victor broke into the cargo bin that held the crate he wanted inside. When security drove by, Michael shot the car's tires with an incendiary round, setting the tires on fire. When the guards saw Victor breaking into a bin, they ran toward him and Michael shot some vats of water sealant, which is extremely flammable. The explosions gave Victor the cover he needed to get in and out. Michael and Victor drove away as guards shot at their car, but not before Michael gave his makeshift X-Ray machine a push to get an image of the crate Victor had put in the trunk.
A frustrated Victor told Michael he didn't like his "field tactics," to which Michael said he didn't like Victor's whining. "A little harmless gunfire attracts less attention than a double homicide," Michael told him. Victor, a little crazed, laughed maniacally as he told Michael that his "little stunt" had great style. He asked Michael if he was dying to see what was in the crate. Michael passed, saying, "You know what you're meant to know." "You're learning," Victor replied, then drove away after moving the crate into his van.
Osso bucco, Sam's latest culinary creation, was served up back at the house before Sam ran off to check out a townhouse that looks right into a yoga studio. Michael's mom gave Sam a couple of bullets that she found in his pants after hearing them rattling around in the washing machine. "I don't know what to say," Sam told her. "I'd say nothing, nothing's good," Michael said. "Go with nothing." Sam left. Maddie told Michael that the next time he wants someone to babysit her, just to tell her. Then she thanked him for taking care of her "from whatever it is."
Fi came back with the X-ray negative, which showed a sniper rifle. "It's an awful lot of trouble to go through for a gun," Fi said. "Must be for quite the occasion."
Michael, staring at the image, replied, "And they sure don't want me to know about it."
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