Somewhere in Syria, four men are playing cards. A masked intruder drops in through the skylights and takes them out, grabbing gun and shooting one of them in the leg. Once they're down, the intruder looks into a nearby cell and discovers that it's empty. She interrogates one of the men, demanding to know where the former prisoner is.
In Cuba, Mc and Jack are tied up. a man beats them and asks why they're looking for Murdoc. When Jack refuses to tell their interrogator, he draws a knife and goes to Mac. Jack laughs and the interrogator asks them what's so funny, Jack grabs him by the lapels and headbutts him unconscious. Mac has cut himself free using a broke button as a knife, and Jack grabs the interrogator and explains what Murdoc did and how he escaped. The interrogator soon gives up Murdoc's last location, and they go to the garage. The man, Miguel, immediately runs. Mac and Jack take a motorcycle with a sidecar and go after Miguel, and Mac grabs some tools before they go.
Jack drives after Miguel, and Mac rigs a crude harpoon gun he shoots Miguel's bumper, letting them get close enough for him to leap in. Mac yells at Jack to hit the brakes, but they don't work and the car heads for a sea wall.
Later back in LA, Riley picks up Wilt at the hospital after his two weeks of rehab. She "accidentally" shoves him to everything nearby until Wilt gets up. Mac and Jack arrive back from Cuba and greet their friends. They say that Murdoc was just there picking up some money he hid there, and he's disappeared.
As they drive back, Wilt notices Mac wearing a watch. He asks if it's "the watch", and tells Riley that it used to belong to Mac's father. His father taught Mac that with the right parts, someone could make anything. He took it with him when he left, and Mac explains that they tracked him around the world until Matty called them in to deal with Murdoc. Mac worries that he doesn't know where his father is, and all he has is questions.
Matty summons them to Phoenix and brings in a woman, Samantha Cage, CIA. She was with Australian Intelligence until she was reassigned. Her specialty is intel extract, and she says that two years ago she sent a SEAL team to the Middle east on a mission. Everyone got out except Lieutenant JG Samuel Diaz. His body was never founded and he was considered KIA until now. Two days ago a terrorist cell contacted Samuel's parents and demanded $5 million for his release. Everyone is wonde3ring why now, and the government's official position is that it's a hoax. Sam looked on her own, found nothing, and called on Matty for help. The parents have set up an online funding page to raise the $5 million. Since it's been refused through official channels, they have to do it off the books. Mac says that he's in and the others agree as well.
The team flies over the Middle East via private jet, and Jack nervously looks around. Mac tells Sam that they're flying over Egypt, and Jack hates Egypt after what happened in Cairo. Jack insists that they never talk about Cairo, and wants to have Matty Egypt as a no-fly country. Sam asks Mac about the watch, and Jack asks why she's going through so much trouble to find Samuel. Mac wonders if she and Samuel were together, and Sam says that she never gets into relationships with people that she works for.
In Istanbul, a farm truck pulls up to a checkpoint and the soldiers check the back. They let him through and the farmer pulls up at an abandoned building. Jack, Mc, and Sam emerge from the hay in the back.
Riley and Wilt are in the air in a command jet, providing overwatch. After tracking the team's location, Riley tells Wilt that most of Sam's information is above top secret and she couldn't find anything.
On the ground, Jack asks Sam again why she's rescuing him. Sam explains that Samuel had her back when she first joined the CIA. She admits that she knows it could be a hoax, but she figures that even if he's dead then she'll take out the men who tortured him. They find an abandoned car, and Mac uses a nearby discarded electric mini gun to make a started for the car. As it starts up, a hummer pulls up and Sam takes Jack's gun and pretends that they're her prisoners. She tells the arriving soldiers that she caught them trying to steal her car, and that there are other Americans in the nearby building. Once they go in, the team drives off
The trio arrive at the building Riley tracked the terrorists. It has high-security upgrades, and Mac has them help him take a pole off of a fence and use it to help him walk up the wall to the upper floor entrance. Once Mac is in, he lets Jack and Sam in. They clear the place and find the terrorists... dead. Each one was shot two times before they could get a shot off, and there are no shell casings. Mac finds a hidden room and they go in to find a crude cell. There are indications that there was a prisoner there, and Sam sees the number of Samuel's BUD/S class on the wall. She figures that Samuel was there but someone else has him.
Once Mac and the others brief their friends, Riley tracks the abductors' cybernetic footprint. She traces the cell phones that the new killers use, and tracks them to a hisar near Istanbul. Sam and Jack agree that it's a fortress, and Mac figures that they need eyes on the inside. They trio goes to the street outside where kids are playing soccer. Mac buys their ball, puts a cell phone in it, and Jack and Sam argue about who will kick it through a window. They finally play rock-scissors-paper to determine who will do it, and Jack wins. He misses and Sam does it. She succeeds and a terrorist inside it finds it. He takes it outside and yells at the kids that it belongs to him.
The team watch on the camera as the terrorist goes to a room. Riley determines that the prisoner inside is Samuel, and Jack IDs one of them as the Ten of Spades: Tahir Ali al-Tikriiti, a commander in the Iraqi Republican Guard. Sam says that she can get a SEAL team there in six hours, but the Ten of Spades plans to show that America can be defeated by executing Samuel in two hours.
Riley gets schematics on the new security upgrades, hacking the local government computers. They find a likely cell, and a note saying that the foundation was repaired in 1984. Mac has Riley switch to radar imagery and finds the Roman catacombs beneath the hisar. He explains that he'll have to swim, but he'll need a big distraction.
As Riley and Wilt touch down and Wilt heads there, and Sam buys some local clothes from a farmer. She goes to the abandoned garage where Mac is making a diver propulsion vehicle and an air tank, and says that the catacombs aren't underwater... yet. Jack is mixing an explosive Mac has rigged up, and then goes to a nearby dam to plant the crude bomb. Meanwhile, Mac and Sam pry open a manhole cover leading to the catacombs. Sam says that it should be her going down, but Mac points out that they volunteered as well. As Jack arrives, Mac explains that the dam will flood the catacombs, and after 20 minutes the pressure will widen the whole and the whole dam will come down... drowning anyone inside.
The bomb goes off and Mac drops into the catacomb. He enters the water and heads for the hisar, Riley directing him through the catacombs. Mac then blasts his way through the ceiling and gets beneath Samuel's cell.
Dressed in the local clothing, Wilt, Jack, and Sam go in and recon the area. Sam and Jack disarm the terrorists on guard, grab their guns, and open fire on the others to keep their attention as a distraction.
Mac reaches Samuel's room and uses more explosive to blasts down the floor.it falls into the catacombs, and Mac frees Samuel. They run back to the flooded tunnel and head for exfil. Meanwhile, Jack and Sam get inside and the Ten of Spades confronts Jack. He orders Jack to his knees, and Jack says that he was in Iraq to take him out. Wilt knocks out the Ten of Spades from behind, and Jack complains that Wilt came in against orders. However, he admits that wilt saved his life and they hug. Riley directs them to the exfil.
Mac and Samuel reach the manhole just as the dam breaks. Jack and the others arrive, and Mac lifts Samuel up. Jack then reaches down and Mac has no choice but to jump up and grab his hands. Water floods the catacombs just after Jack pulls Mac out.
Later in LA, Sam and Matty take takes Samuel to his parents. The family shares a tearful reunion, Back at Phoenix, Matty tells Jack, Mac, and Sam that Samuel is home with his family. However, they're superiors aren't happy with them and issues an official warning. Mc and Jack don't see the problem, and Matty admits that it's a slap on the wrist for them. The CIA is officially discharging Sam and she may be brought up on charges. Sam admits that she knew what would happen and that she'd do it again. Matty offers her a job with Phoenix, and says that she has a plan to keep Sam out of jail. She asks when she starts, and Matty tells her immediately.
Later, Matty tells Sam that since it wasn't an official mission, she doesn't have to turn over any intel they'll get from the Ten of Spades. Then Matty will trade the information so that the CIA clears Sam. Matty figures that Sam can get the information and wishes her luck.
Wilt and Riley go to Wilt's lab, and he finds his robot waiting for him wearing a sombrero and t-shirt. The robot says that it had an intense road trip with Jack and Mac. Furious, Wilt shuts it down and complains that Jack turned it into a beer bro.
That night at Mac's place, Mac contemplates his father's watch. Jack joins him and admits that Sam is pretty impressive. He tells Mac that she's cool, and suggests that they tell her about the Murdoc situation. Mac agrees but points out that they don't have any intel on him. Jack figures that they're going to keep looking for Mac's father, and Mac says that he wonders if his father would do what Samuel's parents did for him. Jack asks if Mac would do something like that for him. He suggests that he had a good reason for leaving, but regardless there's no good reason to give up on him. As Mac agrees, he checks the watch again and notices that there's a hidden compartment. In it is a photo of Mac that was taken on the day that Mac's father left. They figure that it's a clue.
Written by Gadfly on Sep 30, 2017