USA Network/Getty
The episode opened like the previous one ended, with Agent Siegel’s body on the ground. Surveillance video showed an image of a hooded person walking away. These were on a projection screen in the FBI meeting room 15 days later, during which Agent Peter Burke admitted that while this investigation needed as much manpower as it could, there were caseloads that still needed to be handled as well..
After the meeting Agent Clinton Jones asked Burke if Neal Caffrey was off house arrest, since Siegel was his handler and he’s…well…dead. He also told him that he still needed a new handler, a rather broad hint that Burke should resume his previous duties. Burke merely smirked.
Cut to Mozzie staying at Caffrey’s, still trying to figure out how to get back on his feet. He seemed to be doing everything possible to annoy Caffrey, including asking him if he could air dry his body out on the terrace after showering, earning him a rather terse “No.” Caffrey was still feeling guilt about Siegel’s death. and he was wondering if he was to blame. Maybe he had inadvertently pointed him at his nemesis, Craig Hagen, who still has Caffrey under his thumb.
As Caffrey and Burke talk at work, Burke says he’s taking over cases. Of course, a guy walked in three seconds later with blood on him and said that he needed to confess to a crime, while holding a plastic baggie of stolen money. It never takes long to prove Caffrey wrong. In the interrogation room, the guy said he got the head wound from being hit by a cab…and that he can’t remember how everything happened. It’s too bad he didn’t write tattoos on himself like Guy Pearce in Memento.
After that, Caffrey talked to the guy, named Nate Griffith, and tried to bond. It started off badly when Griffith called him “Mr. Caffrey,” something he bristled at. Burke felt the money and realized that it was probably stolen once before. Burke and Caffrey visited the robbery site and the manager played dumb and didn’t let them look at the vault that was supposedly broken into. So…Burke and Caffrey went outside and made fake ID badges for the company and then went back in. They badgered a new employee there into making paperwork for a new account and while the guy was away from his desk. Neal looked at the work computer to determine who the vault belonged to: Nightowl Holdings. It was a shell company but the person behind it, Shane Jacoby, had ties to someone who Giffith has been seeing: psychiatrist Mara Summers. Both of them attended a lecture of hers, with Caffrey deciding to go undercover as her patient.
After a bit of cat-and-mouse, she agreed to sessions with Caffrey. In private, Burke warned Caffrey to not allow her to get into his head. “I’m a wall,” Caffrey scoffed. Yeah, we could see where this was going, couldn’t we?
Caffrey and Summers squared off in her office, interspersed with a scene of Burke rattling Jacoby’s cage, with Summers making some points that Caffrey was a sociopath who was incapable of changing his ways. After a bit, Caffrey started getting woozy. Apparently she drugged his drink, leaving Caffrey reeling. Soon, he blacked out and was prey for her to ask him any questions. Later he woke up after she gave him smelling salts and he left in a state of utter discombobulation. He returned to the FBI office and they found out how she had tumbled on to Caffrey and Burke so fast: Griffith had innocently slipped to Summers after the first interrogation that he was being asked questions by FBI agents.
Later, Caffrey and Mozzie (there were no bad wigs in this episode, though he did have a ridiculous shower cap in the beginning) were talking about what happened in the psychiatrist’s office and were puzzling out the drug. Mozzie correctly identified it as some sort of date rape cocktail and then mentioned Recovered Memory Therapy, which would let them find out what exactly Caffrey had blurted out to Summers while under the influence. The situation would have to be recreated, which meant Neal would have to drink it again. Mozzie made the drug, with some tweaks. We all know how well things go when Mozzie tweaks things, right?
While under the influence, Caffrey pointed out Mozzie could understand who he is, still a criminal himself. A bit perturbed, Mozzie left the room to think and came back to find his zonked-out subject gone, to Burke’s where be is ready to confess.
This scene was pretty amusing: Caffrey was sitting on Burke’s sofa, barely coherent and hugging a pillow. After a few puzzling minutes, Mozzie just strolled in through their front door. After explaining what exactly was going on, they decided to keep asking questions about the session before the drug wore off. Caffrey remembered a phone number she called. It was Jacoby. Mere seconds later, he was asleep.
Jones and Burke, sensing that Griffith was in danger, went to his place and found out Jacoby was holding his kid hostage there. They played dumb and pretended to leave, bringing Jacoby down and quickly arresting him. Now they needed to tie up Summers with a nice, neat bow tie. But how? There was no real evidence against her except for the word of two felons, Griffith and Jacoby.
The solution: Neal met with Summers and planted the same drug in her drink, causing her to confess and they arrested her. She sneered that Neal would never be more than he is. “I’m free, which is more than I can say for you.” was his quick reply. Lady…you were Caffrey-ed.
Afterwards Griffith reunited with his family and left. Caffrey commented that the case was closed. Burke wasn’t so sure; the money that Summers confessed to was gone. Caffrey just shrugged and played dumb. Of course, he wound up giving the money to Mozzie to gets him out of his place, probably before he wound up killing him for being the world’s most annoying roommate. Of course, Mozzie had to stir the pot, asking him if he was tired of serving so many masters. Caffrey ended the episode on an ominous note, saying that he wants to cut all strings to puppet masters. Which means again, he’s thinking of letting Burke down again. Dun Dun DUNNNNNNNNN.
