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Since the FBI now wants Briggs in connection with the murder of fellow agent Juan, it would make sense for him to go on the run, no? That's civilian thinking, rookie. Rather than running, Briggs hands off his emergency fake IDs to drug dealer Quinn, then skulks around the greater Southern California area, very inconspicuous in a hoodie and a pair of shades.
Here's the real reason Briggs didn't leave: he's convinced Jangles is around, and after Jakes lets it slip, via Johnny, that Charlie has been palling around with a Mexican cop, Briggs is sure Charlie's in trouble. Because he knows how dumb she is. He follows Cortes home and they fight, which Charlie interrupts, almost getting both herself and Briggs sliced into tiny pretty ribbons, because Charlie is an idiot.
But! Mike is there to save the day. See, Briggs gave Jakes a phone number, which Jakes passed off to Mike and Mike used to track Briggs to Cortes's house. Mike arrives just in time to shoot Cortes through the heart and free Briggs and Charlie while they're still unjulienned.
And so all the mysteries are laid to rest: Cortes/Jangles was responsible for burning down the Estate and killing Briggs's girlfriend, Lisa, and Briggs also manages to pin Juan's death on the now-dead Cortes. Nobody cares about Odin Rossi anymore, apparently. Mike gets his promotion and gets transferred back to DC, and everyone else at Graceland gets to keep living together and stealing Jakes's orange juice while they hunt for illegal pot growers. Until some kids find Juan's tape recorder in a pawn shop…
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Graceland: Once upon a time, a bunch of improbably pretty federal agents lived in a house together. One of them is a junkie. One is a rat. A few of them don't own shirts. And one of them just wants to go to Bora Bora with his parrots.
We pick up with Briggs taking his last looks at Graceland. He stares meaningfully at the hole he punched in the drywall and walks out the door. His phone rings; it's Mike, but he doesn't answer.
Paige and Mike -- who just didn't find the recording in the Crown Vic -- argue about whether Mike should alert their superiors that Briggs might be running. Paige still wants to think Briggs is innocent and misunderstood, but Mike calls in a BOLO.
At the house, Briggs greets Johnny in the living room. Before he can make his escape, Johnny gets a text: it's a "detain on sight" order. Briggs lies that it's part of his cover with Clayton's gang, the Mongrels, and he and Johnny joke around about the possibility of Johnny tackling him. They agree to play ball tomorrow and Briggs moves to go, but then Johnny gets a wee tickling of conscience and makes a tiny motion toward his gun. Briggs shames him into believing that he's telling the truth, and then leaves.
Out front, Briggs gets into Jakes's truck and they go. At the Port of Los Angeles, he thanks Jakes for his help and apologizes for maybe getting him in trouble. Jakes agrees to keep an eye on the other housemates and Briggs hops out to go become a gentleman hobo, traveling from steamship to steamship, merrily shoveling coal to pay his way to Australia.
At the house, Mike and Paige regard the hole in the wall while Mike dresses Johnny down for not detaining Briggs. Jakes arrives home and says all he did was give a friend a lift. Paige points out could get him three years in jail as an accessory. Such a buddy, that Briggs! Mike tells him they didn't find the recording, which makes Briggs look even guiltier, and Johnny expositions about Charlie's partnership with Cortes. It doesn't particularly alarm anyone to hear that Charlie's working with a federale.
Briggs: not on a boat. He's at a bar with Quinn, who's all hoarse and bruised. Briggs doesn't appear to be undercover as "Eric" anymore, so it looks like Quinn is a CI? Or an undercover agent? This is never resolved. He tells Briggs he thinks Jangles is after him. Briggs plays dumb about the whole Jangles matter. Turns out what Quinn really wanted was a new identity, and Briggs hands over the documents he took from the wall at the house: passport, driver's license, credit cards, a burner phone that can work in South America. Quinn's new name is Tony Busca and Briggs found him a spot on a ship headed to Ecuador. Quinn hands over a pile of money, and why do I think this is how Briggs will lead the feds off his trail?
Briggs drives out to the desert and starts digging Juan up. He uncovers the belt of keys Juan was wearing and pulls out the key labeled "Apt. 3."
Briggs talks Jangles with a young guy. The guy has no intel, but Briggs pays him anyway. His phone rings; it's Jakes, who tells him Mike doesn't have the recording. He also mentions Charlie's work with Cortes, and then Briggs rubs the phone against his beard to feign static (that's a neat trick) and hangs up.
FBI office. The roommates all testify on the record about Briggs's disappearance. The agent interrogating them spills Mike's investigation of Briggs to Charlie. Blah blah blah, can't-believe-you-were-a-rat cakes. Mike tells the agent about Jakes's role in Briggs's escape, and blah blah none of the others can believe Jakes was involved. Charlie's all, murder who in the what now? The agent threatens to shut down Graceland unless they find Briggs. Ooh. No. Please, Mr. FBI Agent, don't threaten something I love so much.
Back at the house, the roommates are sequestered while FBI investigators sweep the house for evidence. When Mike arrives, Jakes and Johnny needle him for being a rat. Charlie jumps in to defend him and everyone bickers like irritable toddlers. Johnny still thinks Briggs is innocent, but Paige seems to have come around on the whole it-sure-looks-like-our-friend-is-a-drug-dealer-who-murdered-a-federal-agent thing. The evidence guy tells them they can go back upstairs, but Charlie mutters pessimistically that they won't be living there much longer. Well, duh. Mike thinks if they find Briggs they can keep their precious Real World house.
Johnny goes to Jakes's room and asks why Briggs asked him for help fleeing rather than Johnny. Big-eyed baby Johnny is practically in hurt, jealous tears, and Jakes tells him to grow up and maybe one day a close friend will con him into being an accomplice to murder.
In his room, Mike taps away on his computer and flashes back to Juan telling him that they can prove Briggs was responsible for the fire at the Estate that killed five agents. He goes to Briggs's room and picks up a charred piece of wood. He flashes back to Briggs on the beach, the night he confessed his heroin addiction, telling him obliquely about Lisa, then to Juan filling in the gaps.
Paige comes into Mike's room. He tells her about the Estate and about Briggs's relationship with Lisa. He hands over Lisa's dossier and suddenly says he knows Briggs never left California. He just doesn't think Briggs would ever leave without getting to Jangles. Paige stops his rambling and tries to soothe him by flattering his FBI agent ego, telling him what an awesome job he's done, but Mike just protests that if he'd been doing his job well, Briggs wouldn't have gotten away. Well, he had help. She says Briggs fooled everyone in the house, and then Mike kisses her, as has been ineptly foreshadowed all summer. Paige kisses him back, with all the electricity of rubbing a wet sock against a rutabaga, then breaks it off and tells Mike she knows what he really wants is to distract himself with sex. She leaves.
Briggs, sequestered in his new fugitive war room, has a map and a Post-It with Charlie's name on it. He calls up a contact with the Mexican police and asks about any federales working in his district: there's a Mendez in Long Beach, a Munoz, Cortes, and two others. He looks up the agents in a database and finds that Rafael Cortes's photo, when he just looks at the eyes, bears a disturbing resemblance to his memories of Jangles.
Briggs shows up at Daniel's soccer game. Jakes, who's there to watch creepily from afar, yells at Briggs for getting him suspended and possibly brought up on charges. Briggs tells Jakes about his suspicions re: Charlie and the federale, and Jakes replies that he can't really intercede with Charlie on Briggs's behalf, on account of how she thinks he's Odin Rossi. And maybe this would be a good time for Briggs to confess that, since Jakes already thinks he's a murderer?
Jakes asks point-blank if Briggs is Odin Rossi. Briggs deflects and says he just wants to help Charlie, but Jakes has really lost his patience with this. (As have we all, Dale.) Briggs gives Jakes a phone number and asks him to keep an eye on Charlie. Jakes is all, "I HATE YOU I JUST WANT TO WATCH MY KID WHO DOESN'T KNOW I EXIST PLAY SOCCER AND THEN GO TO BORA BORA WITH MY PARROTS".
Charlie meets with Cortes, who says he has to go back to Mexico tomorrow. She's disappointed, and says in a flirty manner that she's just starting to like him. She asks if he's ever had an agent turn to the bad side, and Cortes tells her no, never any corrupt cops in Mexico! He brings up Briggs and says he's heard how respected he is. He asks if she and Briggs were lovers, and Charlie confirms it. They drink a toast to Briggs. "[You] took a chunk of my heart with you, you son of a bitch," Charlie says.
Beach. Mike finds Jakes, who's staring at the ocean having a beer. Mike says he knows Briggs is still around and then tells a rambling story about how he was suspected of a theft in high school. Rather than running away when his grandfather tipped him off, he went to the home of a friend who lived close enough to Mike's parents' house that Mike could watch the police looking for him, all to prove the point that Mike is a control freak just like Briggs. Jakes snaps that he's not helping Briggs, and he doesn't want to be part of Mike's rat show. He excuses himself, but after he leaves, Mike finds a piece of paper on the rock where Jakes was sitting—it's the number Briggs gave him for his burner phone.
Charlie and Cortes leave the restaurant and as they're saying good-bye, he invites her to his lovely house on the beach to have some farewell champagne. And some farewell boot-knockin', he implies. She says she's tempted, but thinks it's a better idea to stay platonic. He gives her the address in case she changes her mind. Briggs, in a hoodie and sunglasses, is watching very, very subtly from a car parked across the street.
Paige and Johnny apparently still have jobs, because they're somewhere in tactical gear. Mike calls Paige and tells her about the burner and says he's tracking Briggs.
Cortes's house. He puts down his sleek leather travel bag o' knives and goes upstairs. Briggs has followed him and is walking across the beach toward the back of the house.
Charlie arrives back at an empty Graceland and pours herself a glass of wine while she contemplates getting back in the car and driving down the coast to have sex with a torture killer.
Briggs lets himself into Cortes's house. Upstairs, Cortes takes the bandage off the wound on the back of his shoulder. Briggs finds the bag o' knives, and the jangly keys inside it. Cortes hears him, cocks his gun, and starts stalking quietly down the stairs. Briggs lines up one of Cortes's keys with the one he took off Juan's body. Making a ton of noise, he hooks Juan's key to Cortes's ring. Cortes comes downstairs and they fight. Briggs manages to get Cortes in a chokehold, and just then Charlie comes in and points her gun at Briggs while he yells that Cortes is Jangles.
Briggs lets Cortes go after Charlie threatens to shoot him. He pleads with her, explaining how he set the motel-room trap where Charlie met Cortes. Cortes gasps for air and then clubs Briggs over the head with the champagne bottle, knocking him unconscious. She stops him from bashing Briggs's head in and tells him to call an ambulance. He's all, "Yeah, of course, I'll call the FBI in just a minute after you put him in zip ties!" Charlie cries and curses at Briggs as she cuffs his hands behind him.
Mike's driving when his phone beeps, indicating it's tracked Briggs's burner to a house by the ocean.
At the house, Cortes tells Charlie he called an ambulance. Liar! She asks why Briggs came to the house, and he's all, who the hell knows. He opens the champagne and drinks from the bottle. She asks why Briggs called him Jangles, and he says he doesn't know, then cozies up to her, calling her Catherine. She says she told him she didn't want to be called that, and clubs him in the head with the bottle. (So impressive that none of the wine spills when she does that)? She doesn't do it quite hard enough, because he grabs a knife from the floor and holds it to her throat.
Briggs comes to on the floor. Cortes walks through a puddle of champagne and then kicks Briggs in the face into unconsciousness again. And Mike drives toward the house. He doesn't seem to be in a huge hurry.
Cortes puts on his murderin' music and walks around the master bedroom, jangling his keys and talking all murder-y. Charlie still has her I'm-confused face on, while Briggs (hands still bound with the zip ties) is all, this seems like a shitty way to die.
Cortes confesses to murdering all the agents at the Estate, saying he robbed Briggs of the chance to see his friends die once, but now he'll give him that opportunity. Charlie blusters that Cortes better kill her. Cortes would be more than happy to do that! He puts his hand over her mouth and cuts her shallowly above her breast, then runs the knife all over her face. Because everyone prefers an situation that's easy to escape involving an overly elaborate and exotic death! Then Cortes hears the sound of a car outside.
Savior Mike has finally arrived. Inside, Cortes tells Charlie and Briggs to be quiet, then cranks the music all the way up so no one will hear them if they scream. He cocks his gun and goes looking for Mike. And Briggs is awfully nice not to point out to Charlie just now that she's a complete idiot. Charlie bellows her head off, to no avail.
Cortes creeps downstairs while Mike lurks in the dark kitchen. They stare at each other, Cortes at the top of the stairs, Mike at the bottom. They both draw, and Mike shoots Cortes right through the heart. He tumbles down the stairs. Mike calmly looks for a pulse, then goes upstairs, gun still drawn. He finds Briggs and Charlie, kills the music, and frees them. On the way out, Charlie gives Cortes's dead body a good kick.
Outside, Mike and Briggs lean against the truck. Mike says he knew Briggs wouldn't give up on hunting the man who killed Lisa. Briggs muses that he loved her. But he only told Mike part of the heroin-in-Mexico story. He resumes narrating: while Jangles was interrogating him, the only question he asked was who the Caza mole was. When he stopped giving Briggs heroin, the withdrawal got so bad that Briggs eventually told him it was Estate housemate Roberto Ganzia, Briggs's training officer.
Jangles, of course, killed Roberto and the rest of the agents in the house. Briggs relives escaping from the heroin shack and finding the burned-out shell of the Estate. "He knew that living with what I had done would be worse than any death," Briggs tells Mike. "And he was right."
FBI building. The agent who interrogated the Gracelanders tells Mike the bureau is proud of him and they're offering him a position as special assistant to the deputy director—in DC, where Mike wanted to be all along. The agent says he'll look him up time he's back east. Mike asks if Graceland is getting shut down, and the agent says he doesn't think it is. Mike wants to talk about Briggs.
He watches through a two-way mirror as the agent tells Briggs they've discovered that Cortes is the one who killed Juan. Briggs, who's still handcuffed to the table, picks up the key the agent dropped in front of him. Whenever El Hombre Llave killed someone, the agent says, he took a key as a trophy, and they found Juan's front door key on Cortes's ring. Ahhhhh. The agent tosses it on the table in an evidence bag. In another bag: the key to Lisa's room at the Estate. So the bureau has deduced that Cortes committed those murders too. Well, they're half right.
Further, as regards Odin Rossi, the agent says, they've been tracking a guy named Anthony Busca in South America. Mike, watching from the other room, leaves. I can't tell if he's disgusted or impressed. Possibly both.
Charlie is waiting in the parking lot when Briggs gets out. He plops into the passenger seat and asks how she's doing. Well, she should at least be under review for having such spectacularly bad judgment, right? She cries about how she trusted Cortes and not Briggs, and says she can't even look at Briggs. She wants to turn in her badge. That seems like an excellent idea! Briggs tries to talk her out of it, and she asks with teary eyes if he can forgive her for getting things so wrong. Apparently he can.
Graceland. Briggs and Charlie plod through the front door and find Jakes in the kitchen. Everyone else is at a bonfire down on the beach, he says, after Mike told them the whole story. Charlie goes down to join them while Jakes pulls beers from the fridge and asks Briggs to hang back. He tells Jakes the whole Juan deal is done as they pack up the cooler, and they're more than even. I don't see how Jakes got anything good out of this deal, unless he had a lifelong ambition to have his record as a federal agent tarnished. Nevertheless, Jakes says that's good, and now Briggs has to fix Graceland.
Bonfire. Johnny hugs Briggs and manages not to call him "Dad." Paige just grins. She's wearing a shirt, surprisingly. Briggs grabs a beer and tells everyone about how he was addicted to heroin five years ago. (So it's great that he almost let Charlie get addicted in order to preserve his cover with Quinn! Unless I'm totally missing the point of that scene? It's possible). He says he forgot about what mattered: the people, and home. They toast and drink, and then Paige makes a toast to Mike and his DC promotion. "We are going to miss you," she says. Johnny calls him Levi. Everyone chuckles and Briggs and Mike stare meaningfully at each other. See, there's the real missed opportunity for romance on this show.
Washington. Mike, his hair now nation's-capitally short, daydreams about riding with Briggs and about the dog that stole his flip-flop while the agents around him discuss a beach-side op. Another agent asks for Mike's opinion and he offers some constructive criticism without missing a beat, because Mike is just creepy good like that.
Marina del Rey, pawn shop. A couple of boys look at the junk that's on offer and stumble across an elaborately old-fashioned recording device.
Mike's phone rings. It's Briggs. Mike asks after the house, and Briggs says they miss him.
One kid presses play. Juan: "You're looking for me, right?" Briggs: "This place…burned because of us." The boys listen to Briggs and Juan's fatal confrontation. One pops the tape out and takes it with him.
Briggs asks Mike how he feels about taking a vacation, and then continues: "Listen, Mike. I haven't told anyone else about this…"
…And that's it till summer. Did the magic last for any of you guys?