“I can help you make things right, Herman. But you gotta trust me.”
- Reese
This week’s new number is a cab driver named Herman. At first glance he seems like a standup guy. He pays his bills on time, has good credit and no complaints from anyone. He’s driving a passenger who tells him to wait for a call and he’d get the second half of $500 (literally ripped the bills in half). Finch and Reese weasel their way into his cab to plant tracking, video and sound. They’re going to try to keep an eye on all of his customers since they don’t know where the threat could be. Finch also learns that Herman defected from Cuba and was a really good baseball player but missed his chance at the majors when he hurt his arm, ending his career five years ago. He’s been driving the cab ever since. Finch has Carter checking his GPS log against the police scanner for the last couple days to see if anything pops. Meanwhile, Simmons and the head of HR are chatting. They need back in Elias’ good graces. So Simmons is going to set up a meeting and poor Lionel is getting dragged along for the ride.
Reese is tailing Herman and realizes that he’s emptied out his entire savings and is carrying it around in a garbage bag in the trunk of his cab. He goes to meet a guy named Mr. Mendoza and hands over the money. Looks like Mendoza is a coyote to getting people out of Cuba. And the prick has just upped the price. Herman will need twice what he has (so $80,000) to get Herman’s wife and son out of Cuba and into the country. Herman is getting desperate now. He goes to a former baseball buddy and fellow defector and asks for some money. Obviously it isn’t anywhere near enough what he needs to save his family.
Lionel is a little annoyed he has to go meet Elias’ guys but Simmons twists his arm. It looks like things may be looking good for HR when Elias agrees to put everything in the past if they bring the last mafia Don to his boys (out of Witness Protection). Carter is continuing to dig into Herman’s route the previous couple days and ends up at a crime scene in Morning Side Park. The guy from the start of the episode, a Russian national is dead. Carter is going to have to stick close to this one since the Secret Service is involved. Meanwhile, a Russian woman gets in Herman’s cab and after making him drive to an isolated location, asks what happened to her friend Mr. Bullet Hole. Herman denies knowing anything and she gets out. Reese climbs in and they narrowly escape as two cars try to box them in and shoot them.
Herman is understandably freaked out by all of this but Reese finally gets him to admit that the Russian left a laptop in the car and seeing as Herman needed the money to get his family out of Cuba, he sold it to a friend. Unfortunately, when they go to talk to the friend to get the laptop back, the laptop is gone, the store is trashed and the friend is dead. They need to figure out where it went and what the hell is on it. Finch works his magic and discovers that the shop owner sold the laptop online to someone named Demon Eight. So now Finch just has to track it down. He’s discovered that the Russian probably put a beacon on the laptop that activates when it’s loaded. He assumes the woman (part of the Estonian mob) has the access code and has been tracking it as it moved along. Carter helps put more of the puzzle together when she feeds some intel to the Secret Service. She learns that the reason the government was so interested in the Russian is that he’s a high grade hacker who stole drone codes and sold them to someone in Pakistan. But they don’t know what’s on the laptop. Carter invites her Secret Service contact to the crime scene at the computer store.
Reese and Herman have a little heart to heart in the cab. Reese understands why Herman did what he did but it obviously isn’t working for him. But Reese wants to help. Herman just needs to trust him. And shortly thereafter, Finch not only finds Demon Eight, but sets up a buy for the laptop. And he’s figured out what’s on it. There are thousands of IDs stolen from the government. If terrorists got their hands on it, they could sneak into the country using stolen credentials. It would be way more than just bad. It would be catastrophic. Finch sends Reese to the buy but the place is empty. It’s wired with surveillance. So creepy.
At the precinct, Lionel gets a call from Simmons. He’s being ordered to go get the last mafia Don. Lionel wants out, though. Not likely, Lionel. Especially when Simmons emails him video footage of the file he stole last year and the fact that there are people missing. Lionel tries to call Reese but it’s not a good time. Finch tracked the laptop to a pool hall but Reese gets held up by some Estonian thugs. Lionel calls Simmons back and says he’s in. Meanwhile, Carter watches surveillance from the computer shop and see our blond woman. Finch heads out to the pool hall with Bear and ends up making Demon Eight disappear. Unfortunately, Ms. Estonia shows up.
Reese and Herman show up just in time to deliver a smack down. Even Bear gets to take down a bad guy. Carter calls saying they need to get out of the pool hall since the cops are on the way. Meanwhile, Lionel has an awkward conversation with Reese when Reese calls him back. Reese is a little concerned. Lionel is edgy about what’s going down with HR and Elias. Turns out, Elias tipped the don off and he wants Lionel to go back to HR with a message (after shooting the new guy that Lionel was with).
Things seem to be going well. Reese and Finch manage to hook Herman up with Carter and she gets his family in the country. We leave them as father and son play catch. Unfortunately, Lionel delivers the message to Simmons and pretty says he’s out for good. And then Simmons makes a call to Carter, telling her that the IA investigator from last year (who caught Lionel stealing recorded) was murdered by a cop. That is not going to end well. Sadly, I don’t think
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