Fiona and Jesse head down to the Bahamas to get the coroner's report on the body dumped from a plane (as they discovered in the previous episode). When they return, they deliver the news to Michael, very quickly. Sam already did all the legwork, and wants Michael's help with a job. Fi and Jesse go off to hunt down the address of the corpse, Jeremiah Kazar.
Sam's friend Tom got scammed and lost all the money owned by the charity he runs. When they get to Tom's place, his wife lets them know that he's already gone to confront the scammers. With a gun. The situation quickly turns into a hostage situation and the police arrive. Sam and Michael have to find the money, convince the scammer's secretary that he's a con man, and make sure the right man goes to prison.
- All Men Are Perverts: Subverted. Jesse observes that Kendra has a nice body. When Michael tells him to focus, Jesse says he means he finds it odd she would wear a track suit in such heat. He suspects Kendra is trying to cover wounds that would be difficult to explain.
- Bittersweet Ending: Kendra escapes, but Michael obtains the information she wasn't trying to get away with.
- Chekhov's Gag: Josh brought a gun to scare Madison into complying, but he didn't go as far to bring any bullets. Michael and Sam don't learn this, until after the police arrive. It ends up allowing for safely Framing the Guilty Party without risk of getting shot before the police get inside.
- Chekhov's Lecture: Michael's narration notes that spies quickly pick up on details from their surroundings, such as family photos. Jesse uses what he sees to deduce a clerk is divorced and plays to her sympathies. Much later while talking to Kendra, Michael notices the family photos in the background and how she's not in any of them.
- The Con: Josh got played in a traditional scam, made to think his small investments were paying off and then fleeced when making a big investment.
- Crazy-Prepared: When Mike and Jesse search Kazar's apartment at the end, they find it spotless with no clues, so Mike says they'll have to go to the neighbor. Jesse warns him that she's a stickler for ID. Mike pulls out his fake FBI badge.Jesse: You just happened to have that.
Mike: Had a feeling we'd need it. - Dope Slap: Fiona does this to Tom Norris to get him to focus.
- The Easy Way or the Hard Way: Sam simply tried to get the floor safe's combination out of Madison by threatening him. When Madison refused, Sam opted for the hard way with a creative bit of safe-cracking that involved a microwave and titanium golf clubs.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Sam when he realizes how to get into the floor safe without the combination.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In the last scene, Michael and Jesse when they realize Kendra killed Kassar and was hanging around to see who would be looking into that.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Mike spends his time talking to Kendra glancing around her apartment. Takes him and Jesse about five seconds of talking to realize that she's the one who killed Kazar.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Mike is in it to the end with Sam, no matter what.Mike: I leave when you leave.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Madison really did scam Josh and the contents of the floor safe can prove it, but that still wouldn't get Michael, Sam, and Josh off the hook for their own actions. With five minutes before the police breach the building, Michael proposes tricking Madison into taking the gun just before then and making it look like he caused this mess while trying to cover his tracks. To truly cinch it, Michael goads Madison into trying to open fire just as the clock runs out.Michael: He's got a gun!
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: While Framing the Guilty Party, Michael sports a look of irritation over how long it's actually taking Madison to wrest the gun away.
- Friend to All Children: The charity helps families of fallen soldiers. Sam regularly volunteers, saying he dressed up as Santa for the kids. He later cites "the children of dead veterans" when explaining why he wants to take Madison down.
- Friendship Moment: With the cops knowing Michael is in the building, Sam offers to surrender now and just claim he forced Mike into helping. Michael refuses the offer.
- From Bad to Worse: Just as they're about to consult Josh on what to do, Michael and Sam learn he headed down to Blue Crest to confront Madison about being conned. The parking job alludes to Josh's frazzled state of mind, but then Michael finds evidence that Josh brought a gun. Things repeatedly escalate after the police show up (although, ironically, it turns out Josh never had any bullets to begin with).Fiona: Seriously, Michael? You have to stop doing favors for Sam.
- Fun with Subtitles: As always.Michael: [voiceover] As a spy, you don't always get sent to the most desirable locations.
Subtitle: The Bahamas - A Desirable Location - Godzilla Threshold:
- As Jesse scrambles for a hiding spot in the morgue, Michael's narration notes that spies can never be choosy in such situations. Jesse resorts to climbing into a cooler and being ever so careful to make sure he doesn't accidentally lock himself in.
- The reason Josh ultimately takes a gun to Blue Crest is because the cops said it would take months to sort things out and the charity will be bankrupt within days. When Sam tries to reason him, Josh insists he tried doing everything the nice way and that he's out of options.
- Sam ultimately sides with Josh in part because he can see from how empty the office is that Madison was getting ready to skip town. He feels walking away now means no chance of holding Madison accountable.
- In the end, the only way out is for the group to make it look like Madison took the hostages. Michael likens it to the story of Lima bank robbers, but Sam says it's a very risky play and that no one actually believes that story happened.
- Gone Horribly Right: Josh wanted to scare Madison with a gun. It worked, as the police showed up in force, only for it to turn out that the gun was never loaded.Josh: I was just tryin' to scare him.
Michael: I'd say you pulled that off. - Good News, Bad News:
- Looking over the books convinces Michael and Sam that Madison did indeed perform a scam, but they say they still can't prove anything legally here.
- After talking to Casey about sending a van, Michael says the good news is that they've got an escape vehicle and the bad news is that he's been positively identified.
- Got Volunteered: Averted. Sam was fine with barricading himself in to help Josh, but he advised Michael to leave now before it was too late. Michael refused.
- Gut Feeling: When the police arrive, Sam says he's in with Josh and starts barricading the place. As he says, something deep inside tells him that Josh is in the right.
- Hostage Situation: Josh accidentally ends up in charge of one. He charged in with a gun, the secretary called the cops, now they're stuck.
- I Choose to Stay: Sam immediately volunteers to stay by Josh's side and help him through this. When Sam suggests he get out of the building while he can, Michael agrees to stay on Sam's behalf.
- Implausible Deniability: The cop (Tough SOB) in charge, who already knows who Mike is, recognizes at the end that the story Mike, Sam, Nick, and Patty told is complete crap, but he also recognizes that they caught the right guy.Tough SOB: Nick blew up his own safe?
Mike: Maybe he forgot the combination. - Irony: Sam reflects on his Scare 'Em Straight experience, just as he's hashing out the lengthy prison term he'd receive for helping Josh. He finds it somewhat amusing in a dark sort of way.
- It's All My Fault: Josh over being conned by Madison. He's fine with ending up in jail for all this; he just wants the money back to keep the charity afloat.
- It's Personal:
- As Sam notes, being on the verge of losing his life's work has made Josh very quick to anger and frazzled.
- Being a veteran himself, Sam looks forward to interrogating the guy that scammed a charity for families of dead soldiers. Towards the end, he outright threatens to kill Madison; it's mainly a ploy to get the floor safe's combination, but his anger is genuine.
- Master of Unlocking: Fiona not so much. Kassar's door has a type of lock that, while not impossible to pick, takes a lot of time to work on. Between the "nosy neighbor from Hell" and the hostage situation, she just can't get finished. Michael takes over in the final scene, with Jesse pestering him as much as he did Fiona.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Patty is left troubled by how she inadvertently helped Madison ruin people's lives.
- Pet the Dog: Despite his reputation as a Tough SOB, Casey is nothing but comforting to a supposed hostage on the phone and while questioning Patty.
- Properly Paranoid:
- According to Michael, scam artists are never trusting of people who approach them out of the blue, due to a concern the person is either trying to arrest them or angry about a past con. The second Jesse approaches Tom Norris (Madison's partner in crime) is the second Tom starts running.
- After talking to Kendra, Michael can't shake the feeling that something is wrong and neither can Jesse. They're absolutely right.
- Race Against the Clock: By the time the police are ready to breach the building, Fiona estimates five minutes at most to come up with a plan.
- Scare 'Em Straight: Sam says that, as a child, he lifted an air rifle that he really wanted. After being caught, his father had the cops lock him in a cell for a few hours to teach him a lesson. Sams says he hasn't been arrested since.
- Shrouded in Myth: Michael and Sam both know the story of bank robbers in Lima, Peru, that were supposedly able to escape by successfully posing as hostages. Sam points out no one who's heard the tale actually believes it happened.
- Spotting the Thread: Talking to Madison convinces Michael that Sam and Josh are right. As he says in his narration, the cover story had absolutely no holes whatsoever, which typically only happens when someone worried about getting caught rehearses every detail. Most people wouldn't think anything of it (at least in the time it would take for Madison to skip town), but someone trained in the art of interrogation like Michael would pick up the thread.
- Tempting Fate: Jesse says it will be a snap to sneak out of the morgue and meet up with Fiona, only to see the coroner and a cop in the hallway heading his way. Even after hiding in the cooler, he still gets spotted outside and has to outrace the cops to the dock.
- This Is Gonna Suck:
- Michael increasingly, as a "favor" for Sam looks more and more like a job.
- Seeing how many cops are waiting outside prompts Josh to realize just how bad the situation is.
- Madison attacking a screaming Patty causes a window to get broken, prompting the police to get ready to storm the place. Jesse notes this is not good.
- Unwitting Pawn: Patty dutifully works for Madison, completely unaware of the con he was running. Sam is convinced after grilling her for information.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: Just to ensure there's no further trouble for the charity, Michael gives Josh Barry's contact information.
- We Need a Distraction:
- To see a morgue report in the Bahamas, Fiona flirts with a coroner at the beach, prompting Jesse to stumble over acting like a Crazy Jealous Guy and picking a fight. During the scuffle, Fiona lifts the coroner's key and walks off.
- Fiona and Jesse banked on Tom Norris making a run for it when approached. Jesse proceeded on foot, while Fi stayed in the car to pull around and intercept. To keep Tom from just slipping through, Jesse threw a discarded bottle his way, the suddeness of which startled Tom enough for Fi to pull in.
- What You Are in the Dark: When everything's out in the open, Patty has no love for either side, as Madison scammed a charity and attacked her, while the others took her hostage. While questioned by Casey about what happened, she ultimately sells out Madison and blames him for everything that happened today.
- Would Hit a Girl: Upon realizing Madison is dirty, an outraged Patty slaps him. He slaps her right back. He also tries to hurl a piece of concrete at her, although Sam grabs him and messes up his aim.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: After tricking Madison into taking the gun, Michael does this to ensure the deception holds up when the cops burst in. He mocks Madison for being a coward running scams and not having the guts to kill. Michael knows he's safe because the gun isn't actually loaded.
