Carmen Sandiego wakes up in a cold sweat with the sound of her phone ringing. Player, her crew's resident hacker and personal friend, is on the other end of the line and, upon hearing "The coat was empty, wasn't it?!", realizes that Carmen was once again reliving her final exam that saw her failed out of her class at V.I.L.E. academy for thieves. She muses about the reasons for why she would still care about the results of the exam if V.I.L.E.'s approval no longer mattered while glancing out over the foggy San Francisco skyline from her hotel room and discussing her plans for the evening; a charity auction for children's causes.
That night, at the auction, a rare one-of-a-kind postage stamp is up for bidding. Carmen, just having come off winning a famous prop car from a movie, is eager to bid on the item for Player when it's revealed that the stamp has been stolen before it made it to the auction floor. Carmen immediately departs the auction and begins coordinating with Player. Player detects movement outside the city hall building but to learn more, Carmen has to venture out into the thick fog of San Francisco. While scouring the area around the auction house, Carmen bumps into A.C.M.E. Agent Chase Devineaux, who immediately recognizes her. Carmen briefly blinds him so she can duck into the fog, ditching her high-heeled shoes to throw Chase off the trail. Chase runs through the fog only to bump into fellow Agent Julia Argent, having let Carmen slip away into the fog.
Julia expresses her typical doubt of Carmen's guilt, citing Carmen's past history with returning the goods to the authorities that she supposedly stole, but Chase, as usual, is having none of it. Spotting a silhouette of what appears to be Carmen's dress, Chase runs into the murky fog only to stumble on a mime, whom he immediately dismisses from the scene. Julia questions why a mime would be near city hall but Chase is too focused on Carmen to give the mime any thought. However, it turns out that the mime is none other than Mime Bomb, a V.I.L.E. espionage operative, and is in fact the one who stole the stamp and gets away aboard a tram.
Reporting into his superiors at V.I.L.E. headquarters, Professor Gunnar Maelstrom acknowledges Carmen Sandiego's involvement in this latest heist and instructs Mime Bomb to await further instruction. The V.I.L.E. instructors decide a handoff will be required thanks to Carmen's presence and Shadow-san proposes sending Tigress. Coach Brunt expresses skepticism, thanks to her previous failure to stop Carmen's interference in Indonesia, but Professor Maelstrom puts it to a vote and Coach Brunt is outvoted, even if Dr. Bellum is too busy decrypting the A.C.M.E. keycard stolen by Paper Star to pay attention to what is being voted upon.
Back in San Francisco, Tigress receives her orders to retrieve the stamp from Mime Bomb, which is currently being hidden inside a lucky cat statue. However, Carmen is also in the vicinity and spots Mime Bomb, whom she expects is at least involved with an upcoming handoff. Mime Bomb, seeing Carmen lingering in an alley spying on him, grabs the lucky cat statue and runs away just as Tigress reaches the drop site, forcing Tigress to follow him. Mime Bomb ducks into a storefront and comes out empty handed, though not without being seen by Carmen from the rooftops. Carmen casually enters the store after Mime Bomb leaves but discovers the statue was disposed of in a sea of similar lucky cat statues being sold by the store.
After perusing the cat statues, Carmen happens upon one without a sealed coin slot, leading her to determine it is the one housing the stamp. As she buys the statue, Tigress sees Carmen through the shop window and realizes the significance of the statue. She storms into the store and confronts Carmen, resulting in a short brawl between the two rivals that destroys several cat statues. Tigress absconds with what she thinks is the cat statue containing the goods but Carmen is still holding onto the one she came in to get, paying for the damage caused by the fight on the way out.
Outside both Tigress and Carmen look at their finds but neither of them have the stamp, which is still residing with Mime Bomb. Meanwhile, Chase and Julia are discussing the possibility of a handoff in San Francisco, which Chase is eager to tie back to Carmen as per usual. Julia notices Mime Bomb passing nearby and points him out as the same mime they saw at city hall the previous night. Chase writes it off until the mime glances back at him nervously, which immediately gets Chase's attention and he quickly tackles Mime Bomb as Carmen observes the takedown. In a side alley, Chase is digging around in his coat but can't seem to find his keycard, instructing Julia to just use her own. Julia holds her A.C.M.E. keycard up to an innocuous wall, which opens a secret door inside the wall and they lead Mime Bomb inside.
Chase attempts to interrogate Mime Bomb for any connection he can draw to Carmen but is stymied by Mime Bomb's insistence on staying in character. They release Mime Bomb from the handcuffs so he can pantomime his response. Chase is bewildered by the charades but Julia manages to ascertain Mime Bomb's denial of any connection to Carmen. Growing frustrated, Chase attempts to intimidate Mime Bomb but Mime Bomb takes advantage of being close to Chase as he's grabbed by the collar to slip the stamp into Chase's coat pocket. Julia suggests Mime Bomb may be a V.I.L.E. operative and he's immediately released, whom Chase hopes will lead him to Carmen.
Tigress locates Mime Bomb at Fisherman's Wharf, where he warns her of the A.C.M.E. agents nearby. Tigress evasively asks Mime Bomb where the stamp is hidden, which he explains through gestures that it's inside Chase's coat. However his method of communication also clues Carmen in, who was watching the exchange from on high, to the same information. Putting things together, Carmen realizes that Chase and Julia are being led into a trap as Mime Bomb walks down the pier in the direction of Tigress. She tries to rush to the scene but is too late and Tigress slashes off the bottom of Chase's coat and runs away. Carmen runs after her while Chase notices the sudden draft thanks to his damaged coat. Julia points out the reason, at which point Chase catches a glimpse of Carmen pursuing Tigress and gives chase himself.
Tigress runs through an alley and then carjacks a civilian on the other side. She mocks Carmen before speeding off but Zack, one of Carmen's crew, pulls up in the car Carmen won at the auction and takes off with Carmen after Tigress. Chase, having arrived last on the scene, remotely summons his A.C.M.E. agency vehicle to go after Carmen. Julia tries to warn him about using his agency car for a pursuit, given the situation that happened the last time he tried to chase someone in an A.C.M.E. car, but she is disregarded and Chase whips the car around and takes off in the direction of the pursuit.
The trio of speeding vehicles ramp and drift through San Francisco's iconic hilly roads. Tigress reports into V.I.L.E., who instruct her to meet with the Cleaners, a pair of V.I.L.E. agents who specialize in covering up incidents, to make a drop as Coach Brunt expected there may be complications. The chase heads for the Golden Gate Bridge, which Chase orders to have shut down to isolate Carmen. While trying to call up A.C.M.E.'s chief to execute the order, Chase loses his attention on the roadway, which sees him once again drive off the road and plunge his agency vehicle into the waters of San Francisco Bay.
Meanwhile Tigress drives onto the bridge then comes to a stop halfway and calls in the Cleaners. She scales the suspension tower to meet the Cleaners at the top just as Carmen and Zack arrive. Carmen grapples to the top where Tigress is waiting. Tigress taunts Carmen with her failure at the academy and challenges her to steal the stamp off her person. Tigress lunges at Carmen but Carmen slides under her claw and plucks the stamp out from inside her tall boots before swiftly making a getaway off the suspension tower with her collapsible hang glider.
Tigress reaches for her communicator to inform V.I.L.E. that Carmen stole the stamp back but discovers that Carmen also stole that as well. Shadow-san calls in but is confronted by Carmen, who smugly rebuffs being failed by him before dropping the communicator into the bay. A sullen Tigress is scooped up by the Cleaners while Chase pulls himself out of the bay, more determined than ever to hunt down Carmen Sandiego. Back at V.I.L.E. island, Coach Brunt scoffs at Shadow-san for his prized student's inability to complete her mission when Dr. Bellum comes in to inform the other faculty members that she's broken through the encryption on the A.C.M.E. keycard, identifying its owner as Agent Chase Devineaux.
Tropes
- Badass Driver: This is the first episode where we really get to see Zack's driving skills as he races through the chase-friendly streets of San Francisco. Tigress herself is just as good, managing to pull off a drift in her heeled boot and stay ahead of Zack until she stops the car herself on the Golden Gate Bridge. Chase Devineaux...not so much.
- Homage Shot: Tigress jumps into a green supercar, Carmen and Zack pursue in a vintage red muscle car, and Chase chases in his ACME spy car...and recreate the classic car chase from Bullitt down the hills of San Francisco.
- MacGuffin: A rare stamp that is valued at $10,000,000.
