Sue gets her first experience as a handler when Jack and Bobby drag in Howie Fines, a small-time crook they arrested for drug-dealing, and Howie takes a shine to her. His information is helpful, and the FBI is even hopeful that it can help take down a hijacking ring. However, Howie quickly gets too close for the more senior agents' liking. While they're dealing with this, the others wrestle with disliked bureaucrat Randy to get new offices.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Beef Bandage: A variant; Howie hurts his nose trying to escape after being busted and Sue asks for a bag of frozen peas for him to put on it. She has to tell him not to press on it when he complains of it hurting.
- Blackmail: Knowing that Myles wants him to get their old office back, Randy makes him read a congratulatory speech describing bureaucrats as the FBI's real heroes to his mom's club.
- Brick Joke: Midway through the episode, Randy notes a trophy on Myles' desk. When he comes back from making another (Randy-scripted) speech in order to get back their office, he has another trophy for "Best Speaker". Despite Myles' irritation with the event, he also puts that trophy on the desk.
- Converse with the Unconscious: After being cut from the case, Howie vows he's going to prove himself, and he gets beaten nearly to death as a result. After Howie is left in a coma, Sue goes to the hospital to visit him. She gently orders him not to die on her, saying that she's going to need him. Sure enough, Howie wakes up later, battered but essentially normal, and proudly declares that they got the crime boss.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Bobby slips in some Aussie slang at multiple points.
- Hypocritical Humor: Looking at Myles' desk, Randy finds a trophy displayed on it. He loftily says that he doesn't need to engage in such self-aggrandizement. However, at the end of the episode, he makes Myles read a speech praising bureaucrats in general, and him in specific, to his mom's club.
- Like Brother and Sister: When Jack and Bobby confront him about getting a little too personal with Sue, Howie protests that it's nothing weird; they're just like siblings. Bobby immediately tells him that Sue isn't his sister and he's not even allowed to think about her unless it's something to do with their agent/informer relationship.
- Meaningful Echo: Giving Sue advice about handling her first informant, Jack tells her that the way to win over an informant for life is to figure out what the informant wants and give it to them. When he later tells her it's a mistake to get too personal with informants, Sue answers that she's just doing what he said. What Howie wanted was a chance to be seen as something better than a dime-store Con Man.
- Nasal Trauma: Howie causes himself massive pain to the nose after running into a phone pole trying to evade Jack and Bobby. He groans that he thinks that it's broken.
- Pun: Howie introduces himself to an undercover Jack with a pun on his last name: "You need it; Howie Fines it." He says he does it to break the ice every time he meets someone.
- Pun-Based Title: The title is a pun on "a stitch in time."
- Simple Solution Won't Work: After the team has put in for the new offices, Lucy reveals that they're actually getting the cubicles; the offices went to another department. Dmitrius says that in that case, they'll just stay put. However, Lucy says that they can't because a third department is already scheduled to take the old office.
- Tracking Device: During Howie's "special mission", he plants a tracking device on a crime lord the team is trying to bust, allowing them to raid his operation and collar him. Bobby admiringly calls him a "sneaky little yabbo."
- Unwanted Gift Plot: Downplayed. Midway through the episode, Howie turns up at a restaurant with a gift for Sue, a necklace. He tells her it's legally bought, and he just wanted to say thanks for believing in him. Sue has to insist she can't accept it, and when she tells Jack about it, he hits the roof.
- Video Will: Before trying to get a confession and/or slip a tracker on a crime boss, Howie records a video for Sue in case he doesn't make it out. At the end, he confesses he never returned the "thank you" necklace he bought for her, and he wants her to have it if he dies on the case.
- Watch Out for That Tree!: When Jack flashes his FBI badge after Howie tries to sell him a steroid kit, Howie gets nervous and ultimately bolts. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't see the pole in his way.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Though there isn't a speech about it, the thing that draws Howie to Sue after their first talk is that she treats him like he's capable of being something better than a low-level crook. He develops an interest in helping the FBI out of a need to be part of something, and when he's gearing up for his "special mission", he tells Sue that he's going to make her proud.
