The hangar where the Taelon shuttle stolen by Captain Paul Chandler from Lili was being studied by the Resistance gets raided by two men. In the resulting scuffle, a stray bullet sets of the jet fuel stored there. There's an explosion, but the shuttle manages to fly away. Doors asks Lili and Liam to look into it. Zo'or assigns Sandoval to track the shuttle, whose signature was picked up by the mothership. At the hangar, Lili finds Chandler's dog tags and three badly burned bodies and assumes he died. Sandoval calls Lili and Liam to a new sighting of the shuttle, where the three of them run into a trap set by whoever has the shuttle. Liam, Lili, and Augur learn that a radio DJ named Thomas Payne may have been involved in the raid on the hangar. They confront him, and he confirms to have known about the raid. Sandoval calls them and lets them know that the shuttle thieves have been tracked to a building where they holed up. While Liam is distracting them, Sandoval sneaks in the back, being under orders from Zo'or to take the pilot alive. Lili is surprised to see Chandler as one of them and allows him to escape in the shuttle, while his partner is shot. Lili comes home to find Chandler waiting for her. He explains that he orchestrated the shuttle theft, but he never wanted any of his friends to die. He wants to use the shuttle to fight the Taelons and asks Lili to join him. She says she'll think about it. Sandoval confronts Payne and interrogates him about the shuttle, but Payne doesn't know anything. Augur tells Liam that the shuttle's antimatter containment can collapse at any moment, which could cause an explosion that would put an H-bomb to shame. Lili admits that Chandler tried to recruit her and says he might have a point about fighting back. She contacts Chandler, who takes her to his headquarters. Except it's a trick, and Liam follows a tracker on her person. Chandler sets off an explosion that destroys the headquarters, with Liam and Lili barely surviving, while Chandler flees in the shuttle. Augur figures out that Chandler plans to attack the Taelon embassy in Washington, D.C., and the high-G maneuver is likely to cause the containment to fail, destroying the city and the surrounding area. Liam sends Lili to evacuate Da'an while he and Augur try to intercept Chandler in another shuttle. Da'an refuses to yield to terrorism and stays at the embassy. Liam follows Chandler and knocks him out of ID space early. The embassy's defenses activate, causing Chandler's shuttle to be hit and him to slam into the virtual glass. The resulting explosion is channeled into space, saving the city. Doors publicly questions why the Taelons have built impregnable fortresses in every major world capital.
- Agony Beam: When Sandoval confronts Payne, he threatens to torture him with a device that sets off every pain receptor in his body.
- Collateral Damage: When Lili tells Liam and Augur that taking out the Taelon mothership may be a good thing, Liam points out that there are thousands of humans on the ship and hundreds of Taelons. Lili tries to brush it off as collateral damage, claiming that collaborators are treated as enemy combatants in wartime. Liam counters that they aren't at war. It's clear Lili doesn't really believe that. Later on, though, it turns out that Chandler does believe that there's no such thing as an innocent bystander. He's willing to do whatever it takes to win.
- Lured into a Trap: Chandler comes out of ID space, touches down in a quarry, and then re-enters ID space, leaving a radio set to Thomas Payne's program. When Sandoval, Liam, and Lili show up, he pops out of ID space and strafes them with the shuttle's weapons, although they survive. Zo'or is suitably impressed with the skill it took to perform this maneuver and wants Sandoval to bring the pilot in alive.
- Species Loyalty: While Da'an is sympathetic to Liam and the Resistance, he is a part of the Commonality and cannot allow Taelon lives to be lost. Similarly, Liam will fight for other humans. When asked if he will fight to save Taelons, Liam admits he doesn't know, but he did swear an oath to protect Da'an and will honor it with his life. Da'an concedes that he'll have to be satisfied with that.
- Shock Jock: Thomas Payne seems to be one. He claims to be against the Taelons, although he stops short of actually joining the Resistance, claiming that the "joiners" are always the ones to be rounded up first. Augur points out that a guy like that would've been leading a lynch mob to his house fifty years ago. People like that never change.
- You Have Failed Me: Averted. While Zo'or isn't happy that Sandoval has failed to capture Chandler, he points out that he is always pleased when Sandoval's arrogance causes him to fail. But he does warn Sandoval that he may forego this please at the next failure.
