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Lucky Jakes gets to sit all this nonsense out. So Bello's break (symbolized by the one-handed hit man he sent back last week) with the Caza cartel has led the cartel to send its vicious hit man, Jangles, north of the border to send some messages of his own. He starts by murdering one of Bello's dealers. So Bello is hiding out, and the rest of his men are uneasily hoping they don't end up horribly carved to death. One of them is afraid enough that he sells Bello out to Jangles.
Jangles goes to Bello's safe house and starts trying to extract Odin Rossi's location from him. Mike interrupts in time to save Bello's life, but Jangles stabs him in the gut before fleeing. Briggs arrives in time to put pressure on Mike's belly wound, and then halfheartedly chases Jangles a little bit. But Jangles gets away.
He doesn't get too far away -- it turns out that Jangles is actually Mike's FBI handler, Juan, undercover with the cartel. (We'll get into all my logistical problems with that in just a moment.) Juan suspects Briggs of selling out a different FBI safe house to the cartel three years ago, when Briggs was taken captive, tortured and forcibly addicted to heroin. The cartel burned down the safe house, killing five agents, including Briggs's girlfriend. Juan goes to confront Briggs, who's drunk and sad after Mike's near-death experience, and they fight. Juan gets shot.
And over on Charlie's side of the ledger, she's still really the only one who gives a shit about Odin Rossi. She partners up with a Mexican cop named Cortez to try and hunt Odin down.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Graceland: Briggs is Odin Rossi, and he's supplying Bello with heroin. Charlie's starting to get suspicious and has roped Johnny and Mike in to help her investigate. But despite their best tactics to trap him, Briggs got away with only a little beating from Mike, although now Mike has a good idea of how "Odin" is built and that he knows how to fight.
Mike runs on the beach, like he's being chased. Briggs is still in bed with his sore ribs (and Daniel Sunjata's six-pack, so thanks for that, USA). He slaps an ice pack on them and winces.
Johnny gets out of the shower to find Charlie in the bathroom brushing her teeth. He yells at her about the rules, and what kind of six-bedroom house only has the one bathroom? After they've settled the question of whether Charlie is impressed with Johnny's wangdangdoodle, the subject turns to Briggs. Charlie's still suspicious.
Paige comes out of the water with her surfboard and commiserates with Mike about his Abby-induced broken heart. Or more accurately, his lying-to-Abby-induced broken heart. Paige reassures him that she's the only one who knows he broke the big Graceland rule, and that she'll keep his secret.
Johnny and Charlie, in the kitchen, talk about the search of Briggs's CI's place while he makes breakfast. They didn't find anything (because Bello now has Briggs's whole stash of heroin). Mike and Paige saunter in, shutting down the conversation. Briggs joins them and they gibe Johnny for his cooking, which includes baloney, pickles, mustard, eggs and beans. He calls it ghetto scramble, and everyone else gags delicately. Briggs asks Mike if Bello's heard anything from the cartel since that message he sent last week. Mike says he has not. They anticipate the Key Man, Jangles, showing up right quick.
Charlie wants to hit Odin, as he's the one holding the whole deal together. Briggs reminds her they don't know what Odin looks like or sounds like or where he is, and tells Charlie he doesn't want to waste energy chasing a ghost. Charlie acquiesces, but she's not happy. Briggs gets a call and he and Mike head out.
Crime scene. Mike and Briggs watch the cops work it: Jangles killed one of Bello's dealers and hung his bloody sneakers over a power line. His feet are still in them.
Beach. Briggs calls a motel and says he and his lady friend want to make a discreet entrance tonight, so he asks to have the keys to his room left in a ceramic planter. The guy agrees after Briggs offers a $100 tip. Motel, nighttime. Briggs retrieves the keys and goes into his room. He hang ups the smoke detector with a camera in it, the feed going to his smart phone. Back at Graceland, Briggs pours himself some tea and watches the feed on his laptop. He watches for a long time, and no one enters the room.
Mike, in a not at all product-placed Kia, cruises past the agents in a white panel van who are tracking him, checks in with them on the microphone in his watch, then parks and head into Bello's safe house. There's a whole lot of glass for a safe house, but Mike seems satisfied with it. Bello hands Mike a cigar and then his men bring out a big box o' guns.
Graceland. Charlie's on the phone with a source. She hangs up and tells Paige she nailed down a Mexican shell company that had ties to Odin; money from the company was used to pay for a motel room in Long Beach. And now she's going to check it out.
Bello wants Mike to instruct his men on how to use the assault rifles in the box so they can protect the dealers on the corner. One of the men is unsure about this whole I-might-get-my-feet-cut-off thing, but Mike shuts down his objections.
Back at Graceland, Mike asks what Briggs can tell him about Jangles. Nothing new. Mike is anxious about Bello's men being on the streets with these big guns, and he wants to go higher up in the bureau and tell them to shut down Bello. Briggs overrules him—he still wants to wait so they can get Jangles. "And Odin," Mike reminds him. Briggs is all, oh yeah, that guy, right, of course I meant Odin. Mike asks if Briggs is in this for justice or revenge, and Briggs admits he's totally on the revenge side of the ledger. He says he's using one monster as bait to get the other monster. Hey, I think I saw that in Pacific Rim.
At FBI HQ, Mike asks Juan why the bureau hasn't pulled Briggs out of the field after what Mike told them about his addiction. Juan reminds him that Mike wanted to help Briggs, and tells him to keep working on the plan. He wants Mike to put a tracker in Briggs's Jeep, because Juan wonders why Briggs would be so cozy in his relationship with the cartel when they're such bad guys. Juan thinks Briggs plans to sell Bello out to the cartel. (To what end, he does not say.)
At the house, Mike goes into his room and smashes the framed photo that Juan gave him, the one his grandfather took. He cuts his finger on the glass—and finds a bug under the photograph.
Paige pops her head into the bathroom, where Mike is holding his bloody finger over the sink full of water. He reassures her that he just broke a frame, no biggie, but Paige's bullshit monitor is going off. She starts counseling him again about how he can trust her and be himself here at the house, and Mike brushes her off. Damn, Paige. Fuck him or shut up, because this repetitive bullshit is so goddamn boring.
Charlie has staked out the motel in Long Beach. She puts down her magazine and knocks on the door of Briggs's room, saying it's housekeeping. Then she goes in. Briggs sees her on his monitor and watches as she searches the room. She sees the second smoke alarm, pulls it off the wall and deactivates the camera. Seems like a rookie mistake not to get rid of the original smoke detector, no? Briggs shuts his laptop. Charlie shoves the smoke alarm in her purse just as a man in a white suit jimmies open the sliding door with a knife and comes into the room.
Charlie and Suit Man point their guns at each other. He says, his voice accented with Spanish, that he didn't expect Odin Rossi to be a woman. Charlie, of course, thinks he's Odin Rossi. The man reaches carefully for his badge—he's a Mexican cop. They warily get closer to each other so Charlie can read the badge. The federale is Rafael Cortez. Charlie reaches for her own ID and Cortez lowers his gun. He says the Caza cartel sent an assassin to kill Odin, and he's tracking the assassin. He points out that they found the motel awfully easily, didn't they, after so many months of no progress on the case? Charlie agrees. Cortez proposes working together, but Charlie is wary and leaves.
Mike confronts Juan about the bug in his room. Juan's all, and you're surprised because…? Juan just wanted to make sure Briggs didn't seduce Mike into his eeeeevil, but Mike wants to know why Juan is so gung-ho on Briggs when he's never met the man. Juan starts a story: there was another house like Graceland five years ago, the Estate, and Briggs lived there as well. Juan hands over a file, showing Mike a photo of Briggs and his training agent, Roberto. Roberto was a friend of Juan's from Quantico, it turns out.
Juan explains what happened three years ago, when Roberto and Briggs were undercover with Caza. The bureau thought the assignment had gotten too dangerous, so they pulled Roberto and Briggs out and told Briggs to go on vacation. But Briggs went to Mexico, as he told Mike. Two weeks later the Estate burned down, killing the five agents inside, including Roberto. Juan says the official explanation was an electrical fire. Briggs returned five days later, Juan says, and he volunteered to be assigned to Graceland shortly after.
Oy. The exposition fairy continues: Juan thinks that Briggs gave Caza the location of the Estate so he wouldn't lose all the progress he'd made on the case. He says the day Briggs returned, a call came in to the main Estate house line, and Briggs was one of the only people who had that number. The call was from a pay phone on the Arizona border, and seconds later another call was made to one of the housemates, Lisa—who was Briggs's girlfriend.
Mike reminds Juan about how Caza held Briggs, tortured him, got him addicted to heroin, and how those events fit into Juan's timeline. Mike can't believe Juan is accusing Briggs of murdering five agents, and he thinks Juan is crazy. He quits his assignment and walks out.
Graceland. Briggs comes into Johnny's room, where Johnny is sifting through tons of dirty laundry (he's planning to steal Jakes's yummy-smelling detergent since Jakes is out on assignment. Poor Jakes gets no respect). Briggs wants to talk about Charlie, since she's acting a bit nuts lately. Johnny reluctantly tells Briggs what Charlie suspects about him being connected to Odin. Briggs laughs at that and says he wants to focus on Jangles. Johnny might have a lead.
Briggs and Johnny head to a bar where the bartender looks like that Teen Mom who did porn, only less like she got punched in the face with a needle full of Restalyne and cum. Teen Mom Bartender shuffles off and Briggs pokes Johnny about keeping his investigation on track. Johnny has it bad for Teen Mom Bartender, though, and she won't date him because she thinks he's a gang member, from back when he was undercover. Ironically, Johnny thinks she'd be more into him if he could flash his badge. Briggs tells him time he should pretend to be undercover LAPD.
At the house, Charlie digs through Cortez's personnel file. Back at the bar, Johnny asks Teen Mom Bartender if she's heard the chopped-off-feet rumors. She has, but just from scummy gang bangers. She reluctantly points out one banger she's heard the rumor from. Briggs orders two more drinks and goes over near said bangers, on the pretense of getting some tacos. Behind him is the Bello foot soldier who objected to the assault rifles, lifting shots with some other Spanish-speaking gentlemen.
Bello's house. Mike brings in a load of Chinese food and fills Bello in on the men's mood: it's dour. They're afraid of getting their feet chopped off, as one might reasonably be. Mike asks why Bello won't give up Odin when the cartel is coming after Bello and his men. Bello says a war is coming and it's worth it to him to be independent of the cartel. Mike points out that Caza might very well kill him, and all his men. But Bello is through with talking and making deals. He's confident in how well Mike has trained the men.
Bar. Johnny tells Teen Mom Bartender he's thinking of joining the LAPD. She's pleased. Briggs collects his tacos, subtly monitoring the conversation at the Bello foot soldier's table. Back at the bar, Briggs tells Johnny that the foot soldier has sold Bello out to Caza, so Jangles knows where the safe house is. He tells Johnny to call in a tac team while Briggs calls Mike.
Safe house. Bello and Mike are talking Westerns again. Bello doesn't care for Butch and Sundance, and he is wrong. Mike agrees with me. The sprinklers outside switch on and Mike goes out to make sure the water doesn't ruin the weapons. He calls in backup as he's switching off the water. In his car, Briggs is trying to call Mike, but getting no answer.
Briggs pulls up at the panel van where the two FBI agents who were monitoring Mike's wire were; they're both in the van, dead. Mike stalks through the house, gun drawn, and hears keys jangling. He whispers this info and Briggs hears it at the van.
Jangles, who has a black bandanna hiding the lower half of his face, has already found Bello, tied him up and cut his face up pretty well. Bello says he's not afraid, even when Jangles threatens to cut out his eyes. Bello points out that he's a fan of chopping off hands, himself. Briggs is running toward the house as Mike, behind Jangles, closes in. Jangles asks where Odin is, and Bello says he won't tell him, of course. He yells at Mike to kill Jangles. Mike and Jangles exchange fire. Mike shoots the wire that binds Bello's hands, and Bello crumples to the floor.
As Mike comes into the room, Jangles stabs him in the gut. Mike falls. Briggs, in the backyard, shoots Jangles through one of those huge windows before he can kill Mike. Jangles flees and Mike tells Briggs to pursue, but Briggs finds a cloth to stop the bleeding as the tac team comes in. Briggs pursues. An FBI team member escorts Bello out, and Mike hisses at one of the others to read him his rights, to preserve his cover. Mike loses consciousness.
Hospital. Mike wakes up to see Paige standing over him. He punches the button for more painkillers and she says the doctors think he'll recover. She's brought her get-well-soon cleavage, so that ought to perk him right up. His room is full of flowers and teddy bears, and he asks if anything is from the FBI, or was anonymous. Is he wondering if Abby sent something, or if Juan did? Paige wants to know what he's talking about, and Mike finally spills why he can't be himself in Graceland: he tells her he was assigned to investigate Briggs.
Paige pulls back and asks, "You're a rat?" Mike protests and says he just needed to tell somebody he could trust. Paige mutters that he needs to get his rest and leaves while he calls after her to stay. Ugh, Paige. You're a jerk.
In his car, Juan is listening to a tape of Briggs (and Mike, I think) talking about Jangles. And then Juan stops the tape, picks up his keys, and raises a black bandanna to cover his nose and mouth, typing it around his head just like the way Jangles was wearing it when he was torturing Bello. I guess this should be shocking. It's not, really.
Charlie meets with Cortez in a diner. He congratulates her on taking down Bello and says his people think Caza will bring Jangles back to Mexico. But Cortez doesn't think Jangles will follow orders. Charlie wants to interrogate Bello to get Odin's location out of him. Cortez is very polite, but he clearly couldn't give a shit about Bello, and they talk about some interagency collaboration. They drink to it. But maybe something is not on the up and up with Cortez? The camera pulls back behind his shoulder but doesn't focus on anything that I can make out.
On the beach, Briggs is drinking by a fire. He pulls a small skull charm out of his pocket and flashes back to a woman who must be Lisa, his dead former housemate/girlfriend.
Juan's car. He says his name into a wire and says he's about to approach Briggs about the fire at the Estate and the deaths of the agents. "I am undercover as the Caza mercenary known as Jangles," he says. Oh, this is going to go well. He puts his keys in his pocket—and it's actually a long wallet chain that makes the jangling noise—and heads down to the beach.
Briggs hears him coming. He laughs when Juan asks, "You were looking for me?" The site where Briggs has made his fire is where the Estate was, it seems, and he says the house burned because of the two of them. Juan reaches for his gun, and Briggs is all, so you don't like knives anymore? He pulls his own weapon. They stumble against each other, Briggs is pretty drunk, and the gun goes off. Juan falls. Briggs falls to his knees to him and just stares.
time: Charlie wants to send Mike undercover in jail with Bello.
Okay. I have some questions. Is there a real Jangles? If not, who did all the torturing of Briggs three years ago in Mexico? Was it Juan, undercover even back then? And if so, why? Did Juan kill that drug dealer? Am I the only one in America who cares about this garbage?