At a frat house, Mac assures Wilt that he can do it. Wilt isn't sure if he can do it, but Mac tells him that he trained him and asks if he's ready. His friend finally says that he's ready, screams, rips off his shirt, and runs through the partying frat boys to a keg. Leanna and Riley join Mac, who says that they need to move while Wilt does a keg stand.
12 Hours Earlier
Riley sits in a car with Billy on a stakeout, eating fast food. They kiss and he tells her to think of it as a taste of working with the Coltons. Jack gets in the back seat and says that Riley missed their weekly pizza date so he had the techs track her down. Riley says that she tried to leave him a message but his voice mail was full. Billy gets a text from his mother that their skip is on the move, just as Matty sends a message to Riley to come in for a briefing. Jack discovers that he's not invited, and Riley suggests that Jack and Billy work together. Jack agrees and Riley quickly leaves, and Jack jumps in the front.
The team meet at the war room, and Matty Skypes in and says that in the last 24 hours, two "transparent" bombs exploded in Morocco. Transparent bombs are made from clear explosive materials that can be molded to fit on any surface. Kyle, Caroline, and Nick are the three suspects, and all three graduated from Western Tech. After graduating they were all hired by R&D firms that were recently robbed for the explosive components. They graduated different years and never crossed paths, and 48 hours received emails giving them a green light to proceed with their mission. Someone is planting sleeper agents, and all three students were murdered. Mac suggests that they thought they were recruited into a secret society and didn't know they were being used to help manufacture dangerous bombs, and Matty says that all of the emails were sent from Western Tech. The team has been accepted as transfer students at Western Tech. Matty makes it clear that they're there to find terrorists not party.
The four agents go to Western Tech and wilt figure that it's dope. Mac says that it's weird being back on campus, and explains that he dropped out before he joined the Army. Leanna was studying all the time and never partied, and Wilt jokingly says that it was boring. While Leanna stands lookout,, the others break into the college server room. Mac and Wilt stage an argument when two security guards come along, and assuming that they're pledges. Riley gets to the server room and afterward gets back to other and says that the emails were definitely sent from Western Tech. The sender covered his electronic tracks, and Riley found more emails to other sleeper agents, and the person responsible has been doing it for years.
Back at the dorm room that they're using as a home base, Leanna studies. Wilt points out that they're only supposed to be there for two days but Leanna says that she's trying to blend in. Riley sends the emails to Matty, and the students in the neighboring room crank the noise up. Irritated, Riley goes over and claims that she has a test in an hour, and asks them to keep it down. The guy there invites Riley in for a drink. Riley storms back to the room and a frat boy drops by an invitation to a keg party. He makes it clear that the invitation is for Leanna and Riley only. Matty reads the emails and says that an email has gone out 24 hours before bombing going back 10 years. The techs have come up with a suspect, Elliot Lambeau, Professor of Material Science and Engineering. He's been erased a dozen times at protests that have turned violent. Mac goes to Elliot's class to check him out while the others find evidence against Elliot.
Mac arrives in Elliot's class and Elliot points out that Mac is 32 minutes late. He tells Mac to demonstrate the slope stability principles that he's been lecturing about, and Mac uses fluidization to liquefy the sand, drills a hole in the side of the tank, pumps in water, and raises the duck under the sand to the top. Elliot is impressed but says that it's not the right way to do it and has Mac take a seat.
Riley, Wilt, and Leanna break into Elliot's office and search for evidence. Leanna spots a wired cabinet drawer, and Wilt improvises a block to the sensor based on what he learned at film school.
Jack and Billy are tracking a man, Victor, and Jack points out that Victor has only committed felonies. Billy insists that a criminal is a criminal no matter what, and Jack notes that Victor had no parental guidance. The bounty hunter tells him not to humanize the skip. He was hired to track down Victor, not understand his personal life, and Jack asks if his detached emotional attitude applies to Riley as well. He questions Billy about his relationship with Riley, and Billy says that he takes their relationship very seriously and he convinced mama Colton to offer Riley a job. As Jack takes that in, Victor goes to his car and Jack follows Billy instead of helping him cut Victor off.
As Mac listens in, Riley finds Elliot's hidden brank account and there's a lot of money in it. Elliot's class lets out, and Matty tells Mac to stall Elliot. He goes over and apologizes to Elliot for arriving late, and Elliot says that most of his students don't show up their teacher. Elliot wonders why Mac is taking his course at his age, and Mac says that they have a lot of interest. Mac tries to stall with some questions, and Elliot swings at him with a microscope and then runs. Improvising an explosive, Mac throws it at Elliot and knocks him out. Riley calls and says that Elliot has been embezzling departmental funds to fund his liberal causes. She got an alert that their recruited sent out another email, meaning that something is going down in 24 hours.
Back at the dorm room, the team talk to Matty. Riley says that she was able to pinpoint the dorm where the email was sent from. It's the Zeta Kappa Tau frat house where the party is. There are sixteen members, and wilt suggest that the party will cover them cover. Riley hands out flash drives that they can plug in and the program will run automatically and tell them which computer sent the email.
That night, the team arrive at the party and wilt says that he missed the partying. Matty tells them to the earbuds to stay focused, and Wilt figures that they need a distraction. Mac sees trophies on the wall and tells Wilt that it's time to demonstrate his keg stand skills, and Leanna and Riley jokingly say that they're impressed. Wilt not-so-reluctantly gives in and yells that he was put on the planet to drink beer and kick ass. He insists that he'll be the new keg stand keg.
Now
As Wilt keg stands, the others place the flash drives. Matty has returned to the war room and crosses off the suspects on the big screen as the team eliminates each one. Mac calls Jack and says where they are, and Jack explains that he lost the skip and says that the Coltons are trying to get Riley to leave Phoenix and join them. Mac hangs up when he gets a positive hit on their suspect: Simon Jones.
Wilt beats the old record and everyone cheers. The team return to the main room and spot Simon heading for the door. Leanna nerve-pinches him unconscious and they take him upstairs, and Wilt follows. They tie Simon to a chair and wake him up by throwing a beer in his face. They threaten to send him to prison because he's been working with domestic terrorists, and Simon says that he's been working with the CIA. He was never given the name of the agent who recruited him, and were supposed to pick up the package that night. All Simon has is a set of GPS coordinates, and Mac figures that they need to get to the meeting.
The team drive to the coordinates with a drunken Wilt. Matty confirms that there's no officially sanctioned op. Matty monitors the site by satellite and confirms that there's no one there, and they figure that the terrorist let when Simon didn't show up. They arrive at the woods that belong to the college's meteorology department, and spot a weather balloon in the air. Mac runs a jumpstart cable to the mooring line and brings down the balloon with a spark, and checks the thermal camera attached to it the students were using to monitor a nearby cornfield. They check the automatic photos it was taking and find a car that parked there for five minutes and then left. There's no heat signature, meaning it was an electric vehicle. Matty runs the profile and compares it to the university records to see who owns such a car.
Billy and Jack drive to a pawnshop, and Billy warns that Mama will be pissed that Jack lost Victor. Jack says that he's pissed that Mama tried to recruit Riley, and Billy says that he doesn't want to consider a future without Riley. Hue tells Jack that whatever Riley decides is up to her. Victor walks up and Jack and Billy agree on a plan. When they get out of the truck, Victor runs and Jack cuts off victor while Billy continues chasing the skip. Jack corners Victor in an alleyway and advises him to turn himself in. Victor says that he had to do it and warns that he won't know what will happen to his mother if he's arrested. He explains that 24-hour care isn't cheap and is behind in payments, and he needs the money to get her square by selling everything he can. Victor says that he'll turn himself in once he gets the money, and Jack lets him go before Billy arrives. Once Victor leaves, Billy shows up and Jack claims that Victor escaped and he didn't see him.
Matty confirms that Julian Sloane owned the car, and the agents capture Julian and tie him up. They set up a laptop and Matty interrogates him. She knows that he's really Mischa Burov, born in Moscow and joined the KGB in 1981. He was sent to the U.S. in 1985 and joined the tech department at the college. Then in '91 the USSR crumbled Julian turned his spy ring into a private income source. Julian has hand-picked who he wanted from the university records. Riley has all of the emails that Julian sent and has confirmed that the last three emails that Julian received came from the same place. Matty figures that Julian was hired to set off three bombs, and asks where the third one is. They figure that he's planted it himself since they haven't found it. Julian tells them to turn on the news at 9.
It's 8, meaning they have an hour before the third bomb goes off. The GPS in Julian's car has been turned off. The time stamp on the weather balloon photos show that he drove two and a half hours either way. They review the MO and confirm that Simon had access to the Shanghai National Bank and their corporate services branch is near western Tech. They figure that without Simon's access, Julian hid the bomb somewhere easy to access like the lobby.
The team drive to the bank, Mac bringing a microwave oven from Julian's house along with them. As they drive, Mac builds an induced secondary emission generator out of the microwave parts and explains that that it will cause the transparent bomb to glow orange. They enter the lobby and Mac starts scanning the area. Leanna sets off the fire alarm but there won't be enough time to get everyone out. Mac finds the bomb in the garbage can and realize that there's too many redundancies and too much explosive to contain the blast.
Mac realizes that the building is ecofriendly and has solar panels. He picks up the garbage can and heads to the roof and explains that he's going to use the panels' hydrogen fuel cells to get rid of the bomb. He inflates a garbage bag with hydrogen from the cells and then lets the balloon take the garbage can up. It detonates harmlessly several hundred feet up as the agents look on.
That night at the house, the guys are playing "soda pong" with the girls. Matty arrives and asks whose idea it was to use soda, and says that they confirmed that the Moroccan government was stepping up its efforts against terrorism and got a loan from the Singapore bank to fund a training center. The local radical group went on the run when Julian failed, and all of the students Julian recruited will need to be debriefed.
Jack arrives and riley asks how he lost the skip. He says that skip chasing isn't his thing and walks away, and Riley is surprised that he didn't say anything about Billy. Matty gives Mac a package that western Tech sent: a diploma of graduation in honor of his services. Jack says that he doesn't need a piece of paper to prove how smart he is, and Matty jokingly insults him and asks who is going to take her on in soda pop.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 13, 2018