Thirty thousand feet and rising above Europe, Mac, Jack, and Riley are clinging to a trampoline tied to balloons. Riley points out that they were lucky to get out, and points out that the wind is blowing them toward the ocean. Mac says that they should start popping balloons, and Jack shoots the balloons.
Later, Jack returns to his apartment and discovers that the door is open. He draws his gun and goes in, and finds Dawn waiting. She apologizes for breaking in and says that everything is wrong. Jack takes her to Phoenix and she says that Matty set her up with the CIA so she wouldn't go to prison. The Agency assigned her to the LA office creating cover identities, and her supervisor Paul Carter was killed in a car accident. Dawn figures that someone murdered Paul because the day before the crash, he told her that an agent was creating fake IDs to bring people into the CIA without the Agency knowing. He wanted to go to his superiors, but Dawn told him to wait until he knew who was doing it. Dawn figures that if Paul hadn't listened to her, he'd still be alive.
As Jack walks Dawn out, he says that they'll figure it out. One she leaves, Mac and the others figure that they have to determine if Dawn is telling the truth. Riley points out that Dawn is a conman, but Jack insists that she's retired. Jack admits that Dawn didn't tell him that she was in LA after they returned. Mac points out that it looks like Paul was driving too fast and went off the road. Matty says that Dawn's story is worth checking out.
Jack and Dawn go to the CIA field office and Dawn says that she would have called but then he would have wanted his stolen TV back. She tells him that she needed a little more time. They go to Paul's office and Dawn downloads the case files. Dawn looks at Paul's photos of his family, and Jack tells her that the best way to help Paul's family is to find his killer. She accesses Paul's computer and discovers that someone wiped the hard drive. Jack suggests that they take the computer out, and Jack tosses the computers into the bushes below the office window.
At Phoenix, Riley checks the hard drive and discovers that someone wiped the hard drive two hours after Paul was killed. She runs a recovery program and finds 40 fake passports. Paul was trying to track down "Echo", the code name for the dirty agent Paul was hunting. Matty wants to know what the hell is going on and sends the team out to investigate.
Mac and Wilt drive to Lone Tree, Colorado, to talk to one of the people on the fake passports, Carolina Grant. Jack and Dawn are going to Lincoln, Nebraska, to talk to the other person Riley has identified. Matty tells them to proceed carefully and hangs up. Mac figures that Dawn will break Jack's heart and Jack doesn't need someone encouraging him to be less responsible.
Jack and Dawn drive to the house of the second man, Robert Kemp. They talk about how they grew up and Dawn says that she grew up in foster care. She tells Jack that she made the best of it and never understood why people want normal lives. Jack agrees, and Dawn says that when Paul talked about his wife and kids, she wondered if she missed out on something great. Jack tells her that it isn't too late to start, and suggests that she stay in LA for a while.
At the CIA field office, Matty goes into a conference room where Julian Halsey is meeting with his people. He dismisses them and Matty figures that he knows why she's there and has been expecting her. Julian received surveillance photos of Jack entering the field office, and Matty says that she's there to reveal a corrupt officer. She wants Julian to give her the dossiers of everyone in the office.
Mac and Wilt talk their way in claiming to be gas inspectors. Caroline's husband Eric comes down, and Jack calls Mac. Kempt is shooting at him, and shoots Jack's phone. Mac goes out and sees Caroline and Eric preparing to shoot Wilt. He yanks Wilt to cover and Mac plugs his phone into a speaker and tosses it out into a hall. When the opera singer on his playlist hits a high note, the window behind the couple shatters, distracting them so that the two agents can tackle them.
Jack subdues Kemp, and Dawn searches the place. She points out that the people stayed to fight, meaning that they're protecting something. Mac sees the bullet holes in the wall and points out that one of them hit something that wasn't a stud. He pulls out a hundred-dollar bill and tells Jack to search behind the walls. They find stacks of money and Jack says that their bills are all one-dollar bills. Dawn figures that it's a counterfeiting ring, and counterfeiters bleach the ink off of one-dollar bills and counterfeit them as hundreds using the original paper. Mac uses bleach to remove the ink from one of the hundreds, revealing the one-dollar bill beneath.
Mac and Wilt bring the money back to Phoenix, and Riley tells them that there were at least 40 more fake passports that Paul couldn't find. Mac tells Matty that he has an idea to find out where the money is being made. They take the money to the lab and Mac hopes that Jill can identify the germs on the bills to determine where it was. Jill analyzes the paper and places the fungal sample to determine that the fake money was made near Lima, Peru. Matty has Mac and Wilt rendezvous with Jack and Dawn and get to Lima.
On the plane, Mac asks Jack how things are going with Dawn. Jack says that Dawn makes him younger. Mac says that she's exciting and asks if that's the excitement Jack needs. Jack figures that Mac doesn't like her. Meanwhile, Riley runs video-image processing on the bags the counterfeiters use. Jack sees them together and figures that Riley doesn't like Dawn either. Billy calls Riley and Dawn asks who he is. She says that she can tell that Riley is dating and it's pretty new, and Riley hasn't told Jack yet. Riley says that she has a problem with Dawn, and explains that Jack is a good guy who looks for the good in others. Dawn swears that she likes Jack and doesn't want him hurt. Riley promises to tie Dawn to every open homicide in the country if she hurts Jack. The video-image processing gets a hit.
Wilt is in the war room checking CIA agents who have been in Lima. Matty promises to nail the agent to the wall, and Wilt figures that it's personal. She says that she hates someone using the Agency to hurt someone. Wilt asks why she left, but the compute comes up with eight matches before Riley can say anything. He narrows it down to three people who were in the building and could have wiped Paul's computer, and Matty calls Julian and tells him to hold the agents until she gets there.
In Lima, Riley tracks the counterfeiting mule with the bag of money via satellite, and the team follows him it but will soon lose him. Mac asks for someone's phone and Jack has Dawn give him hers. He pulls out the GPS tracking card and says that he'll stick it on the car at when he stops at the next light. The mule drives off before Mac can get out of the car, and the police cut them off and order them out at gunpoint. They figure that Echo knows that they're there and called the police on them.
Once the team makes bail and leaves the station, Matty calls them. Matty warns that her investigation was the reason they got investigated, and tells them to get back on the trail fast. Mac checks a bus transit map and they figure that when the police arrested them, they were near the money mill in a residential area. Riley hacks into the city power grid, figuring that the money mill would draw more power than the families.
Matty and Julian start by questioning one of the agents, Alvarez. They have learned he has a secret bank account in the British Virgin Islands, and Alvarez says that it isn't his. Alvarez says that he was friendly with Paul and insists it has nothing to do with him. Outside, Matty figures that Alvarez is telling the truth but Julian isn't so sure.
The team rives to a house and spots the mule's car. Jack tells her to wait in the car and points out that they have one gun and ten bullets. Mac leads them in through a back window and they discover the counterfeiters have left with their equipment. As they search the place, Jack tells Riley that it's funny Riley is trying to scare Dawn off so he'll be with her mother. Riley says that she just wants Jack to be happy. The agents hear a drill whirring and find a man drilling hard drives. Jack goes in, gun drawn, and the man shoots at them. Mac grabs a water hose and wraps it around a ceiling support, and uses it to make a battering ram, then shoves it into the man when he approaches. Mac checks his phone and discovers that he got a text from a LA number saying to burn it all down.
Riley confirms that it's a burner phone and can't trace it. They call Matty and tell to check the phones she has while they call them. Julian's phone rings, and Julian aims a gun at Matty and tells her to hang up or her people are dead.
Riley calls Wilt and confirms that he's heading to the CIA office with a tac team. However, the agents there have already searched the building and discovered that Julian and Matty are gone.
Julian drives away with Matty, holding a gun on her. She points out that he used to be a good man, but realized he was never going to get to DC and decided to prove to everyone how smart he is. Julian figures that she's going to offer him another way out, and says that he has had the same training she did and her tactics won't work on her. He tells her that no one is coming, and Matty secretly pushes in the cigarette lighter. Matty then asks if it bothers Julian that he murdered an innocent man, and Julian insists that he tried to get Paul off the investigation. The lighter pops up and Matty jams it into Julian's leg. The car flips over, leaving Matty and Julian unconscious.
Later, Matty wakes up in the hospital and finds the team in her room. She says that it's good to see them and Mac says that he's a fan of her work. Wilt calls her "Matty the Hun", and Matty promises to hurt him if he ever says it again. Julian is down the hall in another room and when he heals up, he'll be prosecuted. The counterfeiting operation in Peru has been shut down. The National Police confiscated $4 million in real one-dollar bills. Mac points out that they found $5 million, and they realize that Dawn took it. Matty tells them to find her and get the million dollars back.
A woman at an orphanage finds $1 million in boxes on the front steps. There's a note from Dawn saying the place was the closest she had to a home, and Dawn watches from down the street. After a moment she drives away.
Written by Gadfly on Apr 7, 2018