Dawn asks to brief Max alone during the ride and leaves Owen behind to figure out his way home on his own. During the ride, Dawn tries to assure Max that she doesn’t want her dead unless she has told Owen the secret she has about her. Max denies ever telling Owen her leverage and Dawn tells her that she needs to pass the vetting at the headquarters before she is reinstated as an asset. In the meantime, Owen texts Not Bob and tells him he has some information for him. He heads over to meet Hannah and Terence for drinks. Terence introduces him to Linus who works in Treasury at the OFAC. He talks to Hannah and apologizes for hurting her and using her credit card. He assures her that Max is an asset he needed to babysit and that nothing more happened. As they talk, they are interrupted by two agents from the Secret Service. They take him to a car waiting outside. Owen asks Not Bob to take care of his subpoena by asking Senator Smoot to stand down. Not Bob agrees in exchange for the information Owen has on the leak. Owen tells him that Xander was the leak. Not Bob is not sure they can trust the source who happens to be Max. Owen tells him that Xander being the leak makes sense because, after he met with Xander in Vienna, someone tried to kill him. Not Bob says he has never met Xander but he will handle it. He also asks Owen to be his spy at the OGC but Owen refuses and says he has too much respect for Nyland to be a snitch. Owen heads to the office to help Max with her verification and vetting process. Dawn and Max discuss the best way to get back into the Russian mob and who will need to be neutralized. Dawn also starts the paperwork process for Max asking her basic question such as her name, next of kin etc. Max fails to tell her that she had a kid and Owen decides that she doesn’t need to know. Owen feels anxious about the vetting process and tries to ask for help from Lester and Violet but they refuse to help him. He asks Nyland how to navigate the process and he tells him that there isn’t much he can do. Owen also tells him about his meeting with Not Bob and the offer to turn him into a spy. Nyland tells him that he knew and that they were just testing him. Owen still feels overwhelmed so he visits Dr Hirsch who is doing the psych evaluation for Max. Hirsch tells him that he plans to pass Max unless she takes a dump on herself on the floor. He tells Owen he should be worried more about the polygrapher Dustin. Dustin has a reputation to be tough and he is more likely to bounce her if she makes a single mistake. Owen asks him about his panic attacks but doesn’t divulge much. Feeling anxious he goes to the toilet, he meets Dustin who tells him that as long as Max says the truth, everything will go well. Owen tries to make small talk with Dustin but it doesn’t go well. As he is leaving the toilet, he remembers the drawing of the scorpion he saw on the train when meeting El Jefe. He takes the drawing to Janus who tells him that the crates have American anti-tank missiles. His spec ops team is smuggling them out of the country to covertly track who buys them. Janus is concerned that this operation will end all their careers. He calls one of the people on his spec team and confronts them for making a deal with a drug dealer. The spec team member tries to deny their involvement but Janus says he has a witness. Backed in a corner, he admits to Janus that they did make a deal with a drug dealer for distribution but disabled the rockets. Janus tells Owen that they are in deep trouble if the operation goes south and they are called to testify about how an unsanctioned covert op led to terrorists getting hold of American rockets. He tells Owen they will both go down for the biggest scandal in their generation once Congress gets a wind of the operation. Owen has another panic attack and tries to calm down in the toilet. After getting himself together, he meets with Hirsch after he evaluates Max. Hirsch tells him that Max will make a great asset but she can’t be trusted. Max tells Owen that he needs to help her pass the polygraph. Owen tells her that he doesn’t have any power to do that and Max reminds him that she will do anything to survive even if that means throwing him under the bus. As they watch Max during her polygraph test, Owen wonders whether Dawn is lying about meeting Max briefly in the past. We see through a flashback, Max was actually recruited by Dawn 12 years ago and she was her first case officer. In the meantime, Dawn asks Nyland to remove Owen from the case as she thinks he has been compromised. She uses the photo taken when Owen and Max checked into a hotel together as evidence. Nyland asks Amelia for her opinion and she says they can’t trust operations. Owen denies that he has been compromised and tells Nyland that Dawn is lying about her relationship with Max. He argues that she is the one who has been compromised. Nyland asks Owen to take a polygraph test and he agrees. Nyland asks Amelia to supervise the test. Dustin asks some intimate questions regarding Owen’s relationship with Max. Owen admits that he has seen Max naked but he has not had any sexual contact with her. After the test, Amelia tells Owen that he and Max passed the tests but she is breaking up with him. She tells him she can’t do a relationship with a wild card. She asks him to be careful with Dawn and Max. With the vetting process successfully done, the next step is to plan Max’s way back into the Russian mob. They need an extra 3 million to have enough money to bribe a high-level, Russian mafia member. Max asks if they can release a sanctioned Swiss bank account. Dawn says it is possible but Owen has to figure it out on his own. Owen goes home and has dinner with Terence and Hannah. He asks for help from Terence on how to unlock a sanctioned bank account. Terence tells him that the only way to do it without raising any alarms is to get the account excluded from the sanctioned accounts list that is updated every morning. He tells him the best person to speak to is Linus He meets with Linus and convinces him that by helping him, he would be helping with a huge national security matter. Linus asks Owen to help him get a date with Terence in exchange for his help. He promises Owen that if he gets Terence to go on a date with him, he will release the account for one hour. Owen meets with Nyland before leaving for the mission, where he tells him the truth about Max being a mom. He informs Nyland that the kid died and he didn’t feel it was important to bring it up as it has nothing to do with the case. Nyland asks why he is not using emotional leverage and letting Dawn know. Owen doesn’t trust Dawn. Nyland asks him to get evidence that Dawn has been compromised. The team prepares to leave the State and Dawn heads to Germany, while Owen and Max head to Geneva to withdraw money from her sanctioned Swiss account. Dawn informs them that Xander will be meeting them in Geneva to oversee the operation. In the meantime, Nyland asks Violet and Lester to go to Geneva to backstop Owen. Should anything go wrong, their job is to protect the agency. He hopes that Owen never finds out that he sent them.
The Episode Review
This episode was packed, and a lot of things went down. It is interesting to see how the meeting with Xander will go. Owen thinks he tried to kill him in Vienna and Max has something on him. Will she threaten to keep him in check or will Xander try to kill them both in Geneva? Is Nyland worried about Owen being compromised or is he sending Lester and Violet to only back him when he needs support? Given Owen’s history, I doubt this operation will go smoothly.
