In which Alice takes a trip. We find out Christopher‘s real name; from that point on, I will be referring to him by that name, wherever possible. Christopher‘s new con proceeds with some twists, and Agent Dao is still after Alice to share information. We meet Val‘s cheating and soon to be ex-husband Gordon (Alan Ruck) and his sister Susan (Amanda Foreman).
Christopher and his new mark, the Princess Zara, are enjoying a cocktail in the lounge, chatting like old friends, while Qasim and the bodyguards are keeping a close eye from the bar. The Princess wants one last round, but Qasim tries to break it up, explaining that his job is to see to it that the Princess is not taken advantage of, all the while giving Christopher some serious stink eye. The Princess orders the round anyway, and Christopher throws down one of his credit cards so as to not take advantage. Qasim goes back to the bar, and the Princess insists on paying.
Sophie has been tracking the Micheal Thorne name and social security number and has found out that 3 credit cards have been opened in that name. She calls Alice at home to tell her. Now all they have to do is wait for activity on any of the cards. Agent Dao is still camped outside of Alice’s house and is listening in. He has his contacts run the name for bank and card activity.
Gordon, Val’s husband and also a lawyer, shows up at the firm with a case. The case involves his sister Susan who has MS. The normal medications for MS were not helping Susan, so she had signed up for a clinical trial sponsored by pharmaceutical company Medgenix. She and 16 other participants had ended up in the ICU after taking the test drug, but Medgenix is claiming no fault because they all signed waivers. Susan says she signed the waiver based on the claims that there were no adverse effects in the previous trial; and believes that Medgenix has misrepresented those results. The firm takes the case on.
Meanwhile, the con is on. Reggie poses as a real estate photographer, and shows up at the Brandeis Properties satellite office overlooking the construction of the Runyon Towers. One thing leads to another, and Reggie steams up the office windows by seducing the real estate agent, thereby getting her access card.
Later, in a conversation between Margot, Reggie and Christopher, Christopher warns that a man like Qasim will require much more detail to convince him. Reggie thinks he is just jealous that he is not running point on this one. Margot says neither of them are running point – she is, and tells Ben to stop micromanaging. AHA!!! Reggie insists that he is up on the details, so Ben gives him a fun fact to chew on. Qasim, former Kuroq Major General, beheaded 18 dissidents last year while protecting the Royal Family.
Ben returns to his hotel room where he finds it trashed and Qasim and bodyguards waiting for him. Qasim has checked up on Micheal Thorne.. He can’t find any record of him anywhere, including at the front desk, online or even in his own wallet, which only contains 3 suspiciously new credit cards. He threatens to find out who Micheal really is, and expose him. He suggests that Micheal might want to disappear before Qasim sees to it himself.
Alice and Gordon speak after the meeting; Gordon takes all the blame for his and Val’s breakup. He wants to know how Christopher is and says they should get together. Alice remembers a dinner party when Susan had told them she was going for an interview at a new job. Christopher said he would call the boss and tell him to hire her.
Alice’s team discusses how best to proceed with the case. They decide they need to see the raw data collected by the head of the clinical trials, to compare it with the published data. Sophie and Danny attend a lecture on MS and the clinical trials given by Dr. Watkins (Derek Webster). During the lecture, and thanks to some quick thinking by Danny, Sophie is able to hack the Doctor’s laptop and downloads the raw data. It turns out that the raw data and the published data are exactly the same, which means that the drug batch used in the second trial has possibly been tampered with. Now they need to figure out who could possibly have tampered with it. Security is tight where the trial is going on, and the only way to get in to obtain a sample of the drug is for Alice to go undercover as a patient.
Sophie has received notice of activity on one of Micheal Thorne’s cards, and gives Alice the address. Alice runs into Agent Dao on her way to the elevator. Dao wants to share the truth about Christopher Hall, who murdered someone. That stops her in her tracks. She sits down with Agent Dao to listen to his story. It seems that during a previous con, a woman named Natalie was shot in the back on her way home from her job at a flower shop. Christopher was a regular at that shop. Dao had convinced Natalie to help him because he had a personal connection with her, so he too has a personal reason to catch Christopher. The feds do not know this. Alice considers. She remembers Susan coming to the door with a bottle, announcing that she got the job.
Meanwhile, Ben is taking the Princess to see the investment property. The con is being set up in the satellite office of Brandeis Properties, complete with people being brought in to play potential investors. Ben is also playing the part of a potential investor. They all listen to Reggie’s spiel, Ben asks questions, Margot turns to Qasim and wishes she could make that idiot go away. She says that she will take the South Tower, and Qasim jumps in to speak for the other two towers, cutting Ben/Micheal out.
The Princess and Ben have another friendly conversation, during which it becomes apparent to Ben that Qasim is skimming. The down was $5 million per tower, Qasim has told the Princess it is $8 million per tower.
This could be a way to get rid of Qasim and con the Princess further to pay off all their debts to their mysterious backer. However, Ben can’t be the one to spill the beans, it has to be Margot.
Alice is at the clinical trial, and signs the waiver to get into the secure patient area. Dr Watkins informs them that once they have received the drug, they will need crackers or cookies, and juice before they are allowed to leave. Alice tries to get the drug prior to being hooked up to an IV, but fails. The nurse hooks her up, Alice pinches the line so that she doesn’t get much of the drug. She receives another card activity alert from Sophie. Once the nurse leaves, Alice unhooks herself from the IV, grabs the bag and tries to leave. Dr Watkins catches her, and insists she have juice before leaving. Outside the clinic, she passes the bag to Val and Danny, and takes off for the restaurant that the credit card has been flagged at. Meanwhile, Agent Dao is in traffic when he receives the activity alert from his people.
While Alice is busy at the clinic, Ben and the Princess walk into the lobby of the Brandeis satellite office in time to overhear a distraught Margot on the phone, allegedly with her lawyer. Margot tells them that the real estate agent who took their money doesn’t work for Brandeis Properties, the property company has never heard of him, and they are all out $5 million per tower.
The Princess summons Qasim to meet with her in the hotel lobby. She confronts him with bank statements and contracts, and tells him he can explain his actions to her brothers when he gets back to Kuroq. His services are no longer required, and her men will see him to his room.
Alice gets to the restaurant, and sees Ben with the Princess, having dinner at a window table. She covertly takes pictures with her cell phone, but all is not right. She is experiencing MS like symptoms, complete with limbs not working properly, blurred vision and dizziness. She drops her phone, but when she retrieves it, Ben has disappeared. We find him in the bathroom, washing his hands when Qasim enters with a gun, telling him he will now confess to the Princess. Ben and Qasim fight. Margot busts in and shoots Qasim. Reggie and Margot handle the cleanup, Ben needs to get the Princess out of the restaurant. On the way back to the Princess, Ben sees Alice, and calls her on her phone. He tells her to leave, it’s not safe in the restaurant. She runs to the back of the restaurant, and slips in the blood trail left behind by Qasim’s body as Margot and Reggie drag him out to their car, which is parked in the alley. Alice sees a body being loaded into the trunk of a car. She rushes back to the front of the restaurant in time to see the Princess and Ben driving away. She loses consciousness and falls to the ground. Agent Dao catches her before she hits. When Alice is feeling better, and they are talking- WHY wasn’t she taken to a hospital? – she decides it may be time to compare notes.
Cut to Margot, Ben and Reggie. Reggie is packing to go to Mexico under the name of Qasim Halabi, wondering how his part of the con could have ended with him burying his mark’s body and having to leave the country. Using Qasim’s credentials will make the Royal Family think that Qasim has run, diverting attention from their con.
At the firm of Alice and Company, the test results of the IV bag show that it is completely clean, no drugs, no toxic substances. Alice realizes that the substance she was drugged with had to be in the juice. They get the police involved, and the samples of the juice turn out to have been doctored with Belladonna, which in small doses will mimic the symptoms of MS. This means that Dr. Watkins tanked his own trials, because the drug wasn’t working. Susan and the 16 other participants have a case for a class action suit.
Val excuses herself, not having looked at or talked to Gordon throughout the whole case. Gordon gives Alice the divorce papers, signed. And tells her that he will assign an associate to work with them in the future. Alice gives the papers to Val. Val is upset, and Alice asks her if this is really what she wants. Val wonders how she could even wonder after what Christopher has done to her. Alice says that she needs to believe love is possible especially after what Christopher has done.
Later that night, Alice is in bed, looking at couples pictures of her and Christopher. Ben is in bed looking at couples pictures of them as well. He calls her to ask if she is alright. She wants to know who he is, but he tells her she knows who he is. She asks him if he killed Natalie. He tells her not to trust Dao. She wants to know why he got Susan the job. He begs her not to come looking for him for her own safety. She says she won’t. They hang up, and then she adds that she won’t come looking because she has already found him.
My Favorite Moments:
Surprisingly, my favorite moment this week was all Margot. This is a character that I would have liked to get to know more about.
That’s it. That is the only favorite moment I have. Although this show has so much potential, it just isn’t living up to it, and I am disappointed. There are too many characters running around doing too much stuff that is absolutely not important, and are nothing more than distractions. Regular characters should be developing each and every episode. For instance, Val as partner, going through her own marital difficulties should be more than a by the way type of character. The Danny character also feels totally wasted, in this episode especially. I had hoped that this episode would change my mind from last week, but it has not. I will most likely watch it through to the end of season, but I will not continue to review it. There are too many other shows out there that I would rather spend the time on.
Thanks for reading! And if you enjoy The Catch, it airs on Thursdays.