Warning: Spoiler Alert
The tension among the housemates on the USA Network Original Series “Graceland,” over the last few episodes has been as thick as pea-soup, as all the agents’ had secrets and personal agendas that they hid from each other. This episode saw many of those secrets exposed and possibly irrevocably damaged one special relationship. However there was positive news in the episode as well, concerning the Solano Cartel’s mole in the Los Angeles Police Department, as Lieutenant Sid Markham, opened up to undercover agent Paul Briggs and the money from his safety deposit boxes is currently unavailable for him. That development could cause the detective to get involved in the Solano’s new smuggling operation and give agent Mike Warren a chance to catch him with his hands dirty.
The episode opens on the same scene that closed the previous episode, with Briggs listening on his cellphone to the tape that FBI agent Juan Badillo recorded the night he was accidentally shot in a scuffle with Briggs. As the tape ends and the caller hangs up, Charlie walks back into the kitchen and Paul fakes finishing up a conversation. He’s visibly shaken and Charlie asks him what’s wrong, but he plays it off and tells her it was Markham saying they’d talk in the morning.
Mike sees Paige tinkering with the ballerina music-box he gave her earlier in the season and asks what she’s doing. Paige replies that she got the ballerina to spin around once more, but realized she preferred it when it didn’t spin. Warren tries to spin the last few weeks positively, talking about getting the foreign young women out of Sulla’s sex-trafficking operation, Briggs getting tighter with Markham and Solano choosing Johnny and Jakes to “smuggle” his guns and drugs over the border to the USA. Arkin, brings up Lena, the young woman who Sulla murdered and Mike burned her remains in a blast furnace to cover it up. He tells Paige that they’ll find her and Arkin tells him that she’s writing a letter to her parents and asked if he’d like to help. Mike readily agrees and they say they’ll talk about it that evening.
Briggs meets with Jakes on the beach and tells him about the tape, he believes that Markham was the caller as the call came on the phone he uses in his cover of LAPD detective Paul West. He anticipates having to take the cop down to protect himself from blackmail and gives Dale a credit card and tells him to use it to buy two breakfasts at a local diner for an alibi.
Paul drives over to Markham’s home and waits for his wife and son to leave, before he rings the doorbell. Markham answers the door all smiles and glad to see him, then invites him to the backyard so they can talk. Briggs quickly figures out that Markham had no knowledge about the tape, he wanted to bring Paul into the know about his relationship with Carlos Solano. He tells Briggs, that he first encountered Solano right after he made detective, 20-years earlier, when he busted him on a narcotics charge and the Cartel boss served a ten-year sentence. However, he had a rapport with the criminal and Solano started giving him information on rival gangs. This served a two-fold purpose, getting Markham on the map with a string of huge busts, while eliminating Solano’s competition in the bargain.
After Solano got released, the relationship continued, but Markham told Briggs that every once in a while Solano gets too greedy and needs to get slapped down, hence the reason his squad shot all the employees of the sex-trafficking operation in the previous episode. He told Paul he couldn’t turn a blind-eye to the operation and his squad killing all the employees sent Solano a message.
Paul meets back up with Dale and tells him that Markham’s not the guy with the tape and now he’s sure Warren’s got possession of it. Jakes replies that if Mike had the tape, Briggs would already have handcuffs on, but Paul responds that Warren still needs him to take out Markham and he set him up to kill the detective, then pin two murders on him. Dale realizes that Briggs wants to gun down Warren and tells his housemate he’s on his own. As Jakes leaves he sees a bunch of posted signs announcing they’ll be filming in the area he’s in for the next few nights. One conversation with the location director later, he’s got the shoot moved to right in front of the bank Charlie and Amber plan to rob.
The serving of Charlie’s grandmother’s marinara sauce usually is a time of celebration and connecting for the housemates; this time however it served as an appetizer to a screaming match, as Briggs and Charlie, Mike and Paige and Jakes and Johnny unloaded on each other with both barrels. Perhaps the only reason punches weren’t thrown was a call from Amber to Charlie, telling her about the movie shoot in front of the bank, shutting down their robbery attempt.
The crisis causes the team to work together to come up with an alternative to giving up robbing Markham’s safety-deposit boxes. Briggs suggests that they do it during the day and Charlie responds they’d need a crew to pull that off. Warren says they can be the crew and the lot of them drive over to Amber’s so she can meet them. After they are all introduced the bank robber says that they’ll be called animals from then on and produces a bunch of animal Halloween masks.
There’s some bickering between Mike and Paul over who’ll bring the money to the van, when Amber says that Paige will carry the cash. She then points a gun at Briggs and Johnny and Paige immediately draw weapons and point them at her. The bank-robber tells the agents she’s impressed with their reflexes and tells them to go home and learn the layout of the bank backwards and forwards.
Mike and Charlie didn’t want Briggs involved in the robbery, but Amber insisted that there’d be four people to cover the hostages. Briggs standing on the landing above them hears their conversation but disappears by the time they look up. Paul goes into bed alone and tries to sleep but he hears the tape being played elsewhere in the house, he gets out of bed and walks to Warren’s room, where the noise emanates from. He forces open the door and Mike closes his laptop, that had played the recording. Briggs asks Mike if he’s doing this just for fun or for a purpose and Warren responds both, he wants Markham dead. Paul tells him that he’s not a killer, but Warren responds that Briggs is. Paul then tells Mike he knows he hasn’t shared the tape with headquarters, because Warren needs him.
The two then go at it like Ali and Frazier, trading blows and kicks, with each combatant gaining then losing the advantage. They tumble over the railing to the wood floor down below, then Briggs drowns Warren in the house’s indoor pond. We start to realize it’s a dream sequence as Briggs digs a grave in the living room floor with a pick-axe and drops Warren’s limp body inside it. We get confirmation that it’s indeed a dream when Charlie appears in the room in a long black negligée carrying their baby, who was just conceived six weeks earlier. Paul wakes up in the living room with Charlie wearing the same negligée, he apparently had gone sleep-walking and Charlie takes him back upstairs.
The following morning Briggs shows up early for the heist, which unnerves Amber, but he tells her he came early to share some info. He then says that the Rabbit (Mike) has a bad reputation, his buddy pulled a job with him and the Rabbit split with the cash. Amber tells Paul that Charlie hired him and she trusts Charlie and Briggs responds that he was also hired by Charlie.
The seven pull up in a truck each wearing masks and carrying automatic weapons. They quickly subdue the bank’s security officers and bring all the hostages into a room. Johnny then takes off his mask and flashes his FBI credentials, he tells the hostages to stay quiet and calm and they’d be alright. Charlie and Amber blow the safety-deposit boxes and gather the money and Paige starts to leave the room to transport the cash, but Briggs stops her telling her to keep an eye on the bank’s security guard.
He steps out of the room and tells Warren the hostage situation’s tight and Paige can’t leave, so either Briggs or Mike needs to grab the money. Warren says he’ll get it, walks into the vault and grabs the money saying he’s taking it to the van. Amber believes Mike’s about to take off with the money and goes after him, but locks Charlie in the vault. Amber’s about to shoot Warren in the back when his phone rings and it’s the tape, causing Briggs to realize Mike doesn’t have the recording and shoots towards Amber to stop her from killing Warren and she runs out of the bank.
Out in the bank parking lot, all of Markham’s cash sits banded on tables, Briggs sees Markham arriving and tells Charlie they have to leave. Warren’s being dressed down by an FBI superior, because he never got clearance from the bureau for his escapades. Just then Mike sees Markham approaching the table his money’s on and Warren leaves the superior telling him he just needs to trust him. Mike tries to get the detective’s goat by chiding him for putting the safety-deposit boxes under his own name, while Sid counters that he’s still not wearing handcuffs.
It’s later that evening and Briggs and Charlie are in the Jeep, when she notices Paul missed their turn. Briggs informs her he’s taking her to the desert to show her the truth, when he accidentally hits a deer. He jumps out of the Jeep and sees the animal’s still alive and tells Charlie to call animal control, but Charlie tells him to drive her home. Paul says the animal can be saved, but Charlie pulls out her pistol and shoots the deer in the head killing it instantly. She then screams to Briggs that he lit the match, causing him to realize that Charlie has the recording.
She asks why he couldn’t be honest with her and she tells him she realizes he was trying to get Warren killed by Amber. She makes it clear their relationship had ended and when Paul asks her what she’ll tell their child one day about its father, she spits out the words he’s a coward and drives away in the Jeep, leaving Briggs stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Graceland can be seen Wednesday nights on the USA Network.
