In a very dangerous part of the world, Jack is in an interrogation room with a sodium pentothal IV drip in his arm. He sings until a terrorist Hasan comes in and questions him. Jack cheerfully tells him who he is and who he works for, He finally gets around to describing Mac, and Hasan asks where he is. Jack says that Mac is outside the room's door, and a letter comes under the door. Hasan reads it and it says, "Let him go." Another note comes in: "And surrender." The terrorist fires through the door and blood puddles underneath it. When Hasan opens the door, Mac punches him out and explains that he made fake blood. He ties up Hasan and frees Jack, and assures him that it doesn't matter what Jack said because Hasan is going to jail. Still high on the pentothal, Jack hugs his friend.
Later back in LA at home, Mac is working on a motorcycle and Jack does a Cosmo quiz. The doorbell rings and Jack says that he won't answer it. Mac finally convinces him to get it, and Jack opens it and is stricken speechless. When Mac comes over, he discovers that it's Sarah Adler. Sarah reviews Nikki's history with Mac and the organization, and Jack says that she found Nikki.
Later at Phoenix, Sarah tells the team that the CIA intercepted a message that has been traced to Nikki. She was assigned to bring in Nikki, then tracked down Jack and Mac to recruit them to her op. When Jack says that they'll handle it, Sara tells them that it's he op and because of their relationship, she's inviting them along. Patricia asks Jack if there's a problem, and Jack says that Sara is getting married that weekend. Sara and Jack start arguing about why he didn't respond to the wedding invitation, and Jack walks out. Sara goes after him and keeps arguing, and figures that he's upset, and insists that she's there to get Nikki. Jack accuses her of being there to see him, and Sara insists that there's nothing personal. Jack goes back into the conference and tells the team that Sara is coming with them.
Later at a small church in northern California that Nikki is using for the drop, the team arrives two hours early and secures the place. Sara tells Jack that her fiancé Jeff doesn't know that she invited Jack, and insists that she isn't insecure about having Jack there. Jack asks about the wedding dress and they banter back and forth until Mac comes over. Riley and Wilt are at Phoenix, and Riley gets an overhead satellite view of the area. As Mac and Jack hide in a confessional, Jack says that he doesn't know how much longer he can pretend he's okay with Sara's wedding. He tells Mac that he threw it out, and Mac figures that he still has feelings for her. Mac tells his friend to tell Sara how he feels.
Riley reports that a vehicle is approaching, Nikki comes in and Jack steps out. When she runs, the trio chases her down into the basement. They split up to search the place, and Nikki approaches Mac. Jack and Sara arrive and arrest her, and Nikki rattles off a code phrase. Nikki explains that it means Nikki is a deep-cover agent for the CIA.
Upstairs, Nikki says that six months ago she was recruited by the CIA for a deep cover op. She had to convince the organization that she was sincere, and the WMD virus was her initiation. The CIA okayed it because Nikki assured them that Mac would never let them release the virus. There's a mole in the government feeding intel information to the organization letting them keep ahead of everyone. The closest she's gotten is that the mole is someone code named Chrysalis. When they hired Murdoc to kill Mac, Nikki realized that it had gone too far and contacted her handler to be pulled out. Two days later he died in a car accident, and she's been on her own ever since. Sara realizes that Nikki set it up so that they'd intercept the message, and Nikki asks them to help her find Chrysalis. All of her evidence is in a lockbox four hours away, and will prove her story.
Mac figures that they need to investigate, and tells Wilt and Riley not to tell Patricia. He figures that if they tell her, she'll figure Nikki is playing mind games and order them to bring Nikki in immediately. Riley agrees and says that she'll dig up while her can, and Mac says that they're taking Nikki to the lockbox. Once Riley signs off, Wilt suggests that they start with someone who was inside Nikki's organization. They talk to Murdoc in an interrogation cell, and they explain that Wilt now works with Phoenix. Murdoc asks why they're there.
Mac and Jack go to a convenience store to gather supplies. Jack wonders why they're following Nikki's lead, and warns that she's playing Mac. He refuses to leave Mac.
In the car, Nikki says that Jack used to talk about Sara all the time as "the one who got away." Sara isn't impressed and tells Nikki that she could have found a way into the organization without shooting Mac. She warns that she still doesn't trust Nikki.
Jack warns that Nikki is Mac's weakness, but Mac isn't convinced. Mac buys some cheese puffs and smashes them, and then sprinkles them on Nikki's phone. He dusts the screen for fingerprints to reveal the code, and realizes that it's his birthday. Login codes for Langley come up, like a deep-cover undercover agent would have.
Riley asks Murdoc about Chrysalis, and he says that he may have heard the name. He agrees to help in return for a book, the original print of Paradise Lost. Murdoc refuses to say why he wants it and goes silent.
The team goes to Nikki's safehouse--a cabin where she and Mac spent a lot of their time together--and Nikki directs them to the lockbox. Mac uses the key she gave him to open it, but the box is empty. Nikki appears shocked and says that Chrysalis got there first and destroyed the evidence. As Sara figures that it's a trapped, operatives outside open fire through the windows. Everyone takes cove and Jack warns that they're facing six men. Nikki insists that she didn't lead them into a trap, and Mac climbs over to an old stove and unfastens it. He then goes to the cabinet and grabs some kitchen supplies and tin foil, and crawls back to the stove. Mac loads the stove with the contents and rolls it to the door, and tells Jack to open the door and then he'll shove out the stove and it will explode. He says that he needs someone to shoot a bullet through the stove grille to trigger the explosion. Sara says that she has it and Jack opens the door. Jack and Sara both fire and the stove explodes, stunning the mercenaries. The team gets to the car and drives off.
Nikki is wounded in the shoulder, and Mac wraps it. She points out that if it was a trap, she was the only one wounded. Sara admits that it was a kill squad, not a rescue team, and Jack wonders how Chrysalis knew where the lockbox was. Mac confirms that Nikki can still contact Chrysalis, and says that they have to blackmail him and have Nikki claim that they have another copy. She'll say that she has to go on the run, and will offer to sell the evidence for $2 million. If Nikki demands a face-to-face meeting, Chrysalis will show up to kill her.
Wilt and Riley give Murdoc the book, and Murdoc gives them the international bank account that the organization used to pay them. He says that he's done and has the guards take him out. As Wilt drives her off, Riley finds the financial information the Organization is using but can't hack in. the bank deletes its financial records every 24 hours, Wilt confirms that it's located in New York, and says that U.S. law requires financial institutions to keep records for three years. He figures that there are hard copies of the records there,.
The team gets a hotel room to meet with Chrysalis. The clerk, Charles, gives them a room: the honeymoon suite. Nikki sends a message to Chrysalis and they settle in to wait. As night falls, Jack finds Sara outside on the balcony. They discuss a mission in Naples and Jack remembers owing her dinner in Positano for saving his life, and says that she's going there for her honeymoon. Sara says that she wanted to go there with Jack, and Jack starts to kiss her. He then says that he should check the windows, and Sara agrees.
In the bridal suite, Mac changes Nikki's dressing. She apologizes for shooting him and says that she couldn't pretend that she stopped loving him. After a moment, they kiss.
In NY, Riley steals an employee ID. She and Wilt go in wearing disguises and pass the facial recognition scan.
The team goes back to the lobby to meet Chrysalis. Jack points out that Mac looks dead, and Sara suggests that they keep it quiet except for mission-critical information. Soldiers come in, guns drawn, and Jack and Mac recognize them as Phoenix soldiers. Patricia walks in and tells Jack and Mac that whatever they're doing is over.
Riley hacks a door and the security cams, and they find themselves in a room filled with millions of files. Wilt goes to work on the filling system.
As the soldiers arrest Nikki, Patricia tells the team that Phoenix intercepted six encrypted messages between Nikki and the Organization. She says that the whole thing was a ruse created to destroy their careers. Jack says that Nikki has been lying to them all along, and Patricia says that Nikki is going to prison and the agents will be in mandatory briefings for weeks. When they return to Phoenix, they find Wilt and Riley waiting. Riley says that they found proof that the Organization has been paying the mole for at least three years. When Jack points out that Chrysalis never showed up at their sting, Mac says that he knows who the mole is.
When Patricia returns to her office, she tells Mac and Jack that Oversight is coming in to oversee their situation. She wishes them luck, and they say that Oversight is coming for them. The others come in with Nikki. Mac points out that Patricia did show up at the sting. They figure that Patricia was listening in where Mac called Riley and Jack. Patricia tracked them when Mac turned on Nikki's phone, and the only person who knew about the cabin and its connection to Nikki. She sent operatives to destroy the evidence, and Riley brings up the Cayman Island account that the Organization uses to pay the mole. Thanks to Sara's connections in the NSA, they've learned that the account belongs to Patricia.
Sara turns off the security blinds on the windows to reveal armed operatives outside. Nikki handcuffs Patricia and leads her out. Jack figures that she won't say anything, and Mac points out that he fell for Patricia's act for years. Wilt wonders what happens next, and Mac says that it's up to Oversight. Nikki comes back and the others leave her with Mac. He asks what her current status is, and she says that her job is to take down the entire Organization, not just Patricia. Nikki suggests that they take their relationship one day at a time and they kiss, Once she leaves, Mac sees Jack watching.
At the chapel, Sara is going down the aisle in her wedding dress. Jack and Mac ae watching from the audience, and Mac asks Jack if he's okay. Jack says that he isn't fleeing a wedding because he's uncomfortable. The preacher asks if anyone wants to speak now or hold their piece, and Sara glances at Jack. He says nothing, and the preacher pronounces Jeff and Sara husband and wife. Jack wipes away a tear and applauds with everyone else. As the couple leaves, Jack tells Mac that the week has sucked for him. Mac suggests that they order pizza and watch Die Hard, and Jack agrees.
Written by Gadfly on Jan 7, 2017