Episode Summary: Agent Burke and his team inconspicuously await the jewel thief that stole a hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry from Bloustein’s. Essential to the handoff is Neal Caffrey who was assigned to make the exchange. Curiously, Caffrey tries to dissuade the apprehensive thief from going through with the handoff. Having run the license plate on her car, the FBI has no doubt that they found their thief as it belongs to Catherine McMillan, Bloustein’s assistant manager. Despite his subtle urging for the woman to back off from the deal, Catherine McMillan demands the money in exchange for the stolen jewels. Caffrey is left with no other choice, but to call it in, and in a few seconds the cavalry arrives with their guns ready to shoot. Caffrey reaches in for a child’s toy that’s in the front seat of the car, and tells the FBI to drop their weapons for Catherine McMillan has her sleeping son in the backseat of her car.Continue reading...
Neal Caffrey finds Mozzie in his apartment with fantastic news about the cockpit recording on the plane that exploded and ended the life of Kate Moreau. Mozzie using a thermal scope that showed the residual heat from Sara’s fingers as she punched the code that opens her apartment, the ingenious man was able to enter her home without a hitch. Thanks to his efforts, Neal is now in possession of the elusive recording that would unravel the fatal event that took the life of the woman he so loved. Surprisingly, Neal sets aside the recording as he meets with Peter.
Neal is not convinced that Catherine McMillan is a jewel thief, and a request from the woman to speak with Agent Burke could prove him right. According to McMillan, she had adopted her son, Olly, through Luke Donovan, an international adoption lawyer. A month after the adoption was finalized, Donovan informs her that Olly’s Chechen birth mother had come forward and demanded her son’s return, but is willing to make a deal. According to Donovan, the birth mother is demanding fifty thousand dollars in exchange for her son to which McMillan complied. Later, the woman had demanded more money with a tight deadline. Although McMillan had reached out to the State Department to verify Donovan’s story, she was left with no choice but to push through with the payoff without getting confirmation. Catherine McMillan did steal the jewels, but only to assure her adopted son’s safety.
Agent Burke pays Luke Donovan a visit, and the man washes his hands from Catherine McMillan’s actions. Although he confirms the demands of the birth mother, Donovan was not able to provide proof of any of it. Agent Burke smells something fishy, and bumping with Clark the Shark Maskhodov on his way to Donovan’s office validated his suspicion for Clark Maskhodov is the enforcer of the Chechen mob boss Kaz Abramov.
Agent Burke receives an unannounced visit from Sara Ellis. The livid woman accuses Neal Caffrey of breaking in to her house, and demands that Neal undergo a polygraph test so much so that she brought her own equipment with her. Much to Agent Burke’s surprise, Neal agrees to the test. Neal with the help of a pushpin passes Sara’s voice stress analyzer with flying colors. Certain that the package from the FAA has something to do with the jet explosion that claimed Kate’s life, Agent Burke is sure that Neal is guilty of Sara’s accusation.
Agent Jones tails Clark the Shark to the old New York Room, and informs Agent Burke about it. Learning that Donovan won a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament in Macau the previous year, Agent Burke believes that gambling is the connection between the adoption lawyer and the Chechen mob. With the establishment guarded by a bouncer that requires a password, Neal hatches up a plan to get inside the Old New York Room. Seeing Bernie Buryatskiy, the mob boss’ right arm, outside the establishment, Neal asks Peter to call his cell phone, and in a few seconds bumps into Bernie Buryatskiy and drops his phone in the man’s suit pocket. With the line still open, both Neal and Agent Burke hear the password as Bernie relays it to the bouncer. Knowing what the password is, Neal Caffrey enters the underground casino without a hitch.
Using his Nick Halden alias, Neal manages to get a seat for Friday night’s game. He retrieves his cell phone from Buryatskiy before the man even finds it in his pocket, and finds that Peter has been listening in the whole time. Both of them hasn’t heard anything about Donovan, but Neal manages to take a peek at the account list while the woman checks that the account and routing number he gave her for the buy-in has sufficient funds. Neal finds that Donovan has a two hundred thousand dollar debt with the Chechen mob’s underground casino. The woman returns with news that his account doesn’t have sufficient funds, but Neal was able to charm his way into being allowed to bring the money right before the game.
Agent Burke is sure that Donovan is involved with the extortion scam despite his team confirming the legitimacy of his adoption cases including the story about Olly’s birth mother. Thanks to Neal’s snooping, they know that Donovan owes the mob a ton of money, which they believe was the cause of his resort to scamming McMillan. Moreover, Neal thinks that Donovan will try to win his money back in Friday night’s game. Unfortunately for him, Neal will be there to ensure that he doesn’t win in order to force him into extorting another one of his clients. Meanwhile, Agent Jones and Agent Barrigan are to go undercover as a couple in desperate want to be adoptive parents, making them the perfect patsy for his extortion scam.
Agent Jones and Agent Barrigan assume the identity of Tanya and David Mayburn, a couple who desperately wants to adopt, Samira, a 6-month-old baby from Al-Fashir, Sudan. After getting a runaround from the adoption agency in Al-Fashir, the couple decided to enlist the services of Luke Donovan following the recommendation of Gilbert Lowenstein of Hemmingson Institute. Donovan, aware that the FBI is on to him, quizzes the couple about the man who referred them to him. Agent Jones and Barrigan did well with facts about Lowenstein, but were caught off-guard with Donovan’s questions about the man’s divorce and his requirement for them to give him an answer before he decides taking their case. Donovan takes the bait, and informs them of his retainer fee. Agent Barrigan believes that the man took the bait as insurance in the event of him losing the poker game. The gambler took the risk of an FBI setup knowing the certainty of his demise if he fails to pay the mob the money he owes them. Meanwhile, Sara Ellis arrives at Neal Caffrey’s apartment with a search warrant for the stolen FAA package, and the recovery team soon finds the package.
With a boy’s life at stake, Neal Caffrey would like to be certain that he has an upper hand on Friday’s poker game, and knowing Donovan’s tell would give him that. Agent Burke calls in Donovan into his office with the goal of identifying Donovan’s tell. With a few questions that drew a couple of outright lies from the lawyer, Agent Burke has nailed the man’s tell. Luke Donovan blinks twice when he is lying. All is set for that night’s poker game, but Sara’s discovery of the stolen package in Neal’s apartment resulted in his arrest. Agent Burke arrives supposedly to prevent his arrest, but much to his surprise, the FBI agent lets the detectives take him in. Agent Burke, however, informs Sara that the package they found in Neal’s possession has something to do with Kate Moreau. Moreover, he informs her of the case they are working on whose success relies on Neal Caffrey.
With Neal back at the FBI office, Sara appears to have dropped the charges against him. Neal arrives at the New York Room where Abramov announces the game to be a no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em where they will play until only one is left standing. Donovan wins a number of games until all who is left is him and Neal. Donovan bets all his money on his hand, but when Neal asks him if he has the inside flush, the man blinks twice. Neal calls his bet leaving them with nothing else to do but to reveal their cards. Despite Donovan’s impeccable hand, Neal beats him with a King of spades, and with that Donovan just dug himself a deeper hole.
Neal returns to the FBI gloating about his win, but Agent Burke is not impressed knowing that Neal must have cheated, leaving nothing to chance. Just as they expected, Donovan is once again turning to his extortion scam to get him out of the hole. Agent Barrigan receives word that the man has called the Sudanese adoption contact they provided him; the contact of course is an FBI linguist expert who relayed to Donovan that the hold up with the adoption is nothing more than a paperwork mix-up. The FBI believes that Donovan will make up a story about the child’s birth mother demanding money in exchange for her child, but until the man makes his move, the FBI is left with nothing to do but wait. Luckily, Donovan is so desperate that they did not have to wait too long. Donovan calls who he believes to be the Mayburn’s to inform them that the birth mother of the girl they desperately want to adopt has come forward demanding two hundred thousand dollars for her daughter. Moreover, they need to have the cash ready by noon the next day.
Agent Barrigan having received a call from Donovan requesting a change in time for their meeting makes her believe that the man is up to something. Agent Burke believes that the man is spooked and sends Agent Barrigan alone knowing that Donovan will be more at ease with only her around. Neal Caffrey confirms Agent Barrigan’s hunch having found out that Donovan has purchased tickets to Buenos Aires. Agent Burke believes that Donovan plans on taking the money and fleeing the country. He supposes that Abramov knows the time of the meeting, which prompts Donovan to change it at the last minute to buy time for his escape. Unfortunately, Abramov’s men confront Agent Barrigan as she makes her way to Donovan’s office. They’ve learned about the man’s plan to escape with the money, and are now demanding that she give them the money. Agent Barrigan follows Agent Burke’s instructions to stall, but one of Abramov’s men grabs the bag from her leaving her to reveal herself as an armed FBI agent. The other FBI agents arrive, but Agent Burke instructs them to hold fire. He appeals to Abramov’s men, assuring them that they are only there to catch Donovan. He cuts a deal with Abramov in exchange for not interfering with their case. Agent Burke offers to shut down the mob boss’ underground casino, but promises not to make an arrest. Abramov confident that his lawyers will get him out of the mess refuses the deal, but Agent Burke appeals to the Chechen man’s heart informing him that Donovan has been using Chechen kids in his scam, and surprisingly the heartless mobster gives in to his appeal. Moreover, Abramov lends a hand in bringing Donovan down.
Abramov’s men bring him in an abandoned warehouse where he is surprised to see Nick Halden in the same predicament as he is. Abramov demands his money, but Donovan swears that his men picked him up before he even received it. They bring Neal in another room, but Donovan clearly hears his groans as Abramov’s men give him a beating. Little did he know that Neal, Agent Burke, and Abramov’s men were in cahoots in staging a believable torture. Abramov returns for Donovan, and the man fearing for his life negotiates a deal with the mob boss where he confesses to extorting money from adoptive parents, and offers to cut Abramov a portion of his profits. Abramov presses on with details of the scam wanting assurance that Donovan can do the job to which Donovan divulges that he has succeeded in extorting money from his clients several times. Thanks to Abramov who agreed to wear a wire for the FBI, the bureau has Donovan’s confession on tape. With Donovan’s scam uncovered, Catherine McMillan was able to get a deferred prosecution with minimal punishment. Moreover, Olly remains in her custody.
Peter confided to his wife who is out of town for business about Neal’s troubles with Sara. Peter believes that the attention Neal is getting from Sara actually thrills the young man. Later, Sara having learned the story behind the stolen FAA package reaches out to Neal desiring to know more about Kate Moreau. Moreover, she hands Neal the recording he desperately wanted. Neal with Mozz finally gets the courage to listen to Kate’s last words. In the recording, Kate makes a call informing the person on the other line that Agent Burke is at the hangar, and asks the person whether his presence demands a change of plans. Neal Caffrey would like nothing more but to know who was on the other line.
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