A Long Time Ago
A young Mac is sitting on the front porch of his house when his grandfather Harry comes out and sits down with him. Mac figures that his father isn't coming back, and Harry admits that he isn't. The boy wonders if he did something wrong, and his grandfather assures him that it isn't because of him. He figures that Mac's father is so smart that he's focused on something and has forgotten what is really important. However, he assures Mac that his father will always loves him. He then gives Mac a Swiss knife to bend a paper clip that he's working on, and ells Mac to keep it and remember that it's got a tool for every situation. Mac asks if he can use it to find his father.
Now
Mac looks at his Swiss knife as he waits at a café in France. Jack sits down with him and Mac wonders why he's there. His friend points out that Mac is there to talk to a professor who knew his father years ago, and Mac realizes that Jack tailed him there from the airport. Mac admits that he's grasping at straws, but and he didn't want to ask Jack along on another wild goose chase. When he says that he doesn't need Jack following him, Jack points out that another man is following Mac as well and he already took him out. Jack invites Mac to question his prisoner, but Mac says that he still needs to do it on his own. Insulted, Jack wonders if he should go home and Mac agrees, and his friend walks off.
Later, Mac returns home to LA and calls Jack. He gets his voice mail admits that the professor was a dead-end. There's water on the floor and Mac finds a note from Wilt saying that he fixed the fridge. As Mac fixes the fridge, he figures Jack is letting him go to voice mail and invites him over for beer and an apology. The doorbell rings and when Mac answers it, masked men barge in and taser him.
Later, Mac wakes up in a dark room, handcuffed to a chair with an IV going into his arm.
Jack arrives at the house and soon realizes that Mac is gone. He finds a mask and a bottle of wine on the table with Mac's knife stuck in the cork.
Murdoc enters Mac's room and says that he's missed Mac.
Matty arrives with a team to check the house for clues. Riley asks Jack about the ma he captured in Paris, and Jack figures that it's Murdoc. Sam is skeptical but Jack insists that it's Murdoc. Matty tells him that it wasn't his fault.
Murdoc says that setting the dose was tricky, giving him enough to slow down but not knock him out. He wants to know where his son Cassian is, and Mac tells him that he's wasting his time because Cassian will never want to be with him. The assassin disagrees, and knows all about Mac searching for his father. Murdoc says he's looking for his son, while Mac doesn't want anything to do with Mac. He explains that Cassian's mother was Nadia, and somewhere along the way they fell in love. Mac points out that Murdoc isn't capable of love, and Murdoc admits that he found her less repulsive than most humans. When she gave birth to Cassian, he suffocated her with a pillow because she was his target. Mac figures that Murdoc is lying again, but Murdoc insists that every word is true.
Riley scans the traffic car footage and finds one with a fake license plate. Jack and Sam heads for the car's location outside a warehouse in Sylmar, and Wilt insists on going with them. When Jack reminds him that he can't watch Mac and Wilt at the same time, Sam points out that they're wasting time and Jack reluctantly lets Wilt come along.
Murdoc says that he created new tools out of his old ones, and says that Jack will never find them. He goes to prepare them and Mac uses the needle from his IV to pick the handcuffs holding him.
Sam assures Jack that they're going to find Mac, but Jack just keeps driving.
The door out is locked, and Mac uses the IV pole and a steam pipe to create a makeshift hydraulic jack. He fires the pole at the door and manages to break it open.
Jack and the others enter the warehouse, and Wilt spots the dead men on the floor. Their masks are lying next to them, and they figure that Murdoc executed them. Jack tells Wilt that the trail has gone cold, and Mac is the only one who can save himself.
Mac makes his way through a sewer tunnel and hears screaming in the distance. He's still weak from the IV, and hears Murdoc calling to him. He finds a manhole cover and climbs out on the street, and then collapses.
Pedestrians call 911, and the EMTs get Mac to Phoenix. Mac figures that he's been poisoned, and Jack says that they know Murdoc was holding Mac in an outside room and should follow the back trail. Riley warned that there are miles of sewer tunnel, and Wilt asks Mac what he remembers. Sam asks for a minute alone with Mac and Riley so that everyone else doesn't accidentally alter Mac's memories with his questions.
Once they're alone, Sam has him think back to what he saw when he was a prisoner. She has him remember the visceral and Mac remembers the smell of burnt motor oil and bleach. He recounts his path and hearing church bells and a fire station alarm. Mac works out where he was and Riley determines which fire station had an alarm. From that, Mac works out how the sound traveled and the radius that the sewer tunnel is from the church and the fire station. Riley works out from the direction of the water in the sewer where the torture room must have been.
The team goes in with a squad and finds Murdoc's tools. There's also a message on the wall from Murdoc to Mac: "Be seeing you." Murdoc calls Sam and welcomes her to the Phoenix team. He points out that neither of them are using their real names,, and is fascinated by her. He's clearly watching her, and Sam figures that he's playing mind games with her. Murdoc shoots her with a sniper rifle, and it hits her in the Kevlar vest beneath her shirt. Mac runs in and has agents check all of the nearby rooftops.
The agents find nothing while the team finds a garbage can full of ashes. Mac uses a portable x-ray machine and takes it into the torture room. In the dark room, he explains that if there are any silver bromide crystals in the emulsion of the burned photo paper that they found, and uses a penny to get a higher output of x-rays. He then has Riley clean up the resulting image and she gets a face of a man, a teacher named Henry Fletcher, with the California Department of Education.
Mac and Jack go to Henry's house and tell him that an international hitman is targeting him. He has no idea why someone would want him dead, and they give him ten minutes to pack.
At Phoenix, Wilt, Riley, and Matty study the information on Henry. Wilt suggests that Murdoc is looking for a teacher to homeschool Cassian.
Henry goes to his bedroom to pack, and takes out guns from a hidden compartment beneath his path. He then goes downstairs, fires at Mac and Jack, and goes out. He drives off despite Sam's attempts to stop him, and her teammates join her to pursue Henry. Henry shoots back at them, and wilt searches Henry's house. He finds fake IDs and guns, and Riley determines that someone in a country visited after Henry went there. Matty figures that Henry is a hit man, and tells the trio to catch him.
Murdoc calls Matty and says that it made more sense for them to handle Henry. Matty suggests that Murdoc's clients wanted someone a little saner, and Murdoc wishes them luck capturing Henry. Riley goes to work trying to find him.
Mac tells Sam that he has an idea but they have to get in front of Henry. Sam takes a shortcut while Mac releases the convertible top. It flies into Henry's windshield, blinding him so that he crashes. They arrest Henry and Matty sends them a van for exfil. Mac apologizes to Jack and says that the search for his father is rough. Jack tells him that he's going to keep an eye on him because that's the way that families work, and they head back to Phoenix.
As Jack drives the van back, a missile hits them and knocks the van over. Murdoc strolls over and greets Henry, and points out that he owes him a big final. He explains that he's starting a collective and Henry is his first recruit, and drags him off. Mac is trapped in the wreckage, and Murdoc thanks him and says that he'll be seeing him soon.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 21, 2017