Riley runs down a hallway and finds Jack, and says that they got made. She tells him that Mc is upstairs uploading a virus into an office computer. As the guards break through the door, Mac makes a smoke bomb with baking powder and vinegar. He then gets to the exit vehicle and tells Patricia, who is waiting with Jack and Riley, to drive.
Back in LA, Mac returns home and his team waiting with Wilt. When he asks what's going on, Wilt says that they're there because they're worried about him. Mac's friend and ex-girlfriend Penny is also there. Once Mac sits down, Wilt says that he got locked out of his Netflix computer and borrowed Mac's computer. He has a search program up looking for Nikki, and he tells Mac that he should let go of the past. Wilt asks the others to help intervene, the others point out that Mac went behind their back. As they talk, Patricia gets a call. She interrupts and says that they have a departmental meeting, and Wilt and Penny excuse themselves.
At the Foundation, Andie says that one of their agents, Bannister, found Vladimir Sevchenko. Sevchenko is a Russian colonel who has been trying to restart the Cold War and Bannister has found evidence that Sevchenko has assembled a private militia of ex-Spetsnaz soldiers. Bannister calls in and says that she has entered Sevchenko base to scan for radiation. She finds high levels and asks for permission to breach the lock and investigate further. Mac warns against it, but Patricia tells Bannister to go ahead. She shows them the lock on the vault, and Mac realizes that it's easy to bypass. He walks Bannister through using a bullet to make a wrench. Bannister gets it open and finds a ten-megaton nuclear warhead inside. Soldiers break in and capture Bannister, and Sevchenko shoots Bannister when she refuses to talk. He then addresses the camera, unaware of who is at the other ends, and says that they should have minded their own business.
The team rewatches the video and Patricia warns that Sevchenko is ex-military and highly dangerous. Mac admits that he doesn't know if he can defuse the bomb, and points out that the control computer was custom-made. Riley has never seen an operating system like it before. Mac sees some writing and Riley confirms that it is Russian for "firebird": the name of a secret Soviet weapons program. A defector, Alexander Orlov, gave the U.S. intel on hundreds of Soviet weapons programs and was Firebird's chief engineer. Riley confirms that Alexander is alive and living in Virginia, and Patricia tells the team to find them and meet her in Moscow. She says that she recruited Bannister and is going to bring her back.
Alexander is in a retirement home forced to watch a game show because the remote is broken. As he fixes the TV remote using a knife and a pin, the nurse takes it away from him. The team arrives and Jack complains that Mac was keeping secrets from them. Alexander hears them and assumes that they're Spetsnaz, and runs for it. He uses a TV cable to seal the door behind him and gets to the parking lot, and tries to hotwire a car with a steak knife. Mac arrives and tries to grab him, and Alexander punches him and starts to run... until Mac says that he's there about Firebird and needs his help.
Back at Alexander's room, the trio tells him what is going on. He explains that he wanted to give his country cheap power but the Kremlin wanted bombs. Alexander says that the bomb was supposed to be decommissioned, and confirms that he created the programming language on the Firebird computer. He warns that once the device has been activated, they'll need the passwords and his handler, Viktor Levkin, was the one who had them. When Mac asks if they can take him to Viktor, Alexander says that he needs a phone.
Outside, Alexander dials a number on Jack's phone and says that Viktor won' come if he knows that it's him. Viktor pulls up, sees alexander, and draws a gun. Jack disarms him and then disarms him again and again when he draws two more guns. Viktor figures that they're KGB and starts arguing with Alexander. Mac finally pulls them apart and Jack explains that they have to go to Russia to defuse Firebird.
The team is still on the way to Russia with the two Russians. Riley tells Alexander that he needs to teach her about the computer on the device. Meanwhile, Viktor says that he and Alexander used to be partners, but after 40 years they hid secrets from each other. Patricia calls and says that Sevchenko is taking the bomb to somewhere in Serbia, and she's interrogating his courier at his apartment. Alexander says that they need a Cheget computer to talk to the compute on the Firebird, and Mac tells Patricia that they need to stop somewhere. Even though they were supposedly destroyed, Viktor says that there should be one left.
The team goes to a town near Moscow and Viktor takes the team to an old safe house that he uses. There's a photo of Viktor and Alexander on the wall, and behind it is a safe holding one of the computers they need. Alexander complains that his former partner didn't tell him about it, and Viktor points out that Alexander defected without telling him. The computer runs on 240 wall current, and they need to figure out how to make it portable. Mac uses Riley's backup laptop computer, while Alexander explains that he defected when he saw the results of the bomb he detonated. He couldn't stop thinking of his nephew dying in a similar blast and defected because they wouldn't let him go. Mac hooks up the laptop battery to the Russian computer, and Alexander admits that his keeping secrets cost him his friend.
Patricia calls from a bar and says that she's watching the courier. She tells Mac that she'll know where the bomb is in a few minutes. Once she hangs up, Alexander confirms that the Cheget works. A perimeter alarm goes off and Jack spots Spetsnaz soldiers moving in. The soldiers open fire and Viktor leads them out through a pantry, and Mac grabs an alarm clock and bags of flour. They continue through the tunnel and the Spetsnaz break in behind them. As the team runs, mac cuts open the bags of flour that Jack is carrying. He then uses the alarm clock as an improvised timer and they get through the door at the other end. The clock sets off the flammable combination of flour and air. When they get outside, they find Viktor lying on the ground. He says that they knew about the escape tunnel and took Alexander.
The next day, the team meets Patricia at an airfield and Viktor tells her that he failed his partner. Riley got an encrypted phone off of one of the Spetsnaz and says that she can hack it. Patricia gives them a flash drive and says that she took it off of the courier, and Riley accesses it. She confirms that a U.S. Army base outside of Kosovo is the target, and Mac realizes that Sevchenko sent it to warn his people because he's going activate the bomb that day.
Sevchenko takes Alexander to the device and congratulates the old man on his artistry. He wants Alexander to build him more, and plans to use them to finish the Cold War with Russia as the winner.
Patricia calls the base and has them begin evacuation processed. Mac warns that the bomb doesn't have to be physically there. Riley pulls up satellite image of the area and Jack spots an abandoned factory with fresh tire treads nearby. The team goes there with Viktor and spot the Spetsnaz patrolling outside. Mac figures that the bomb is on the top floor, and Viktor wants to go on. Jack points out that they can't walk in through the front door, and looks at the truck with the empty crate that held the device.
Sevchenko has his man beat Alexander. When that doesn't work, Sevchenko promises to kill Alexander's nephew and his family, and activates the device. As they prepare to head out with 15 minutes until detonation, Jack drives the trunk in and opens fire on the Spetsnaz. Mac and the others get out of the crate on the back and the team heads for the top floor. They find the bomb counting down, and Jack covers Mac while Mac ties a winch cable to a trolley and then rides forward on the trolley. Once he gets Alexander, he puts Alexander on the trolley and has Riley pull it back with the winch. Sevchenko leaps out the window to make an escape route, and Jack and Patricia go after him..
Viktor runs to Alexander with Mac and Riley, and they discover that the computer keyboard was destroyed in the shootout.
As Jack chases Sevchenko, he radios to Mac who warns that things aren't going as planned. His friend says that he believes in him, and Mac grabs an electrical cable and hooks wires up to three grounds. He then attaches them to the keyboard and starts "typing." A Spetsnaz wakes up and tries to shoot Alexander, and Viktor takes the bullet meant for his friend as he shoots the Spetsnaz.
Patricia flanks Sevchenko and takes him down.
Viktor gives Alexander the password, but Alexander warns that they don't have enough time. Mac suggests that they use the Y2K glitch because the timer on the bomb only has two digits. Alexander convinces the bomb that it's 1916 instead of 2016, and Alexander goes to his dying friend. Viktor says that there is no time as Jack and Patricia arrive. He says that he was hurt because Alexander didn't trust him enough to tell him his plan, and says that he would have gone with him. When Alexander says that he was trying to protect his friend, Viktor says with his dying breath that was always his job.
As the U.S. soldiers take Viktor's body away, Mac tells Jack that he lied about looking for Nikki because he didn't want Jack to worry about him. He insists that he's done with Nikki and promises no more secrets, and Jack tells Mac the honest truth about his horrible fashion sense. Mac says that he hates Jack's singing, and Jack proves he's a good singer by bursting into song.
Riley takes Alexander back to the retirement home, and promises to call him the next time they need a Russian genius. He settles in and Riley sits down to watch TV with him.
Jack drives Patricia to the Bannister's home in Studio City to tell her parents that she's dead. He points out that Patricia's decision saved millions of lives, but Patricia isn't comforted.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 15, 2016