The episode begins with Charley and Michelle Dixon on the road, filling their vehicle at a remote service station in the desert. Cromartie has followed them and drives away with Michelle while Charley is distracted.
John helps their landlord Kacy get illegal cable television in her bedroom. When the television comes on, it shows a news story about the actor Laszlo, who is blamed for the deaths of the twenty FBI agents and who Cromartie is impersonating.
Charley calls John from the service station, and he gives the phone to Sarah. He asks her for help, but she pretends to deny him for John's sake, since he is standing there listening. After sending him shopping for computer equipment, she packs a duffel bag and leaves to help Charley, telling Cameron to not let John out of her sight. On the way she convinces Derek to go with her, despite his misgivings.
Cromartie is holding Michelle captive in an abandoned warehouse, and is preparing booby traps in preparation for the expected rescue attempt. Michelle manages to get to her cell phone and calls Charley and tells him where she is. At Sarah and Derek's insistence, he makes her prove her identity, after he is told that Terminators can imitate anyone. After the call, Michelle manages to return her phone into her bag before Cromartie returns. Cromartie then secures Michelle to a chair and places the four legs onto four separate mousetraps, which are wired to explosives.
John and Cameron are loading computer equipment into their truck when Riley calls John. He decides to go see her and tells Cameron to drop him off, but she insists that she must keep an eye on him, on Sarah's orders. When Cameron turns her back, John runs away.
Agent Ellison is at home watching television, and it is showing the same Laszlo movie that the news story highlighted when he gets a call from Catherine Weaver. She wants to give him a job and asks him to lunch, where she says she will tell him about who or what killed the FBI strike team.
John meets Riley in a food court. She asks him if he is coming back to school and he says not for a while, his mom is going to home-school him. Riley notices Cameron across the court, staring intently at them. John and Riley quickly run away.
Sarah, Derek and Charley arrive at the location that Michelle provided. They enter the warehouse and find Michelle. The explosives trap looks unbeatable. Derek leaves to hunt Cromartie. Sarah sends Charley out to get some tools while she talks to Michelle. Charley returns with the tools and informs Sarah that Cromartie disabled their car. Sarah has a revelation and yanks the explosives from the chair and they turn out to be molding clay. She says she should have known better when they didn't find Michelle dead that the abduction was a ruse to get them away from John.
Sarah calls John in a panic and warns him to stay with Cameron. He lies and tells her he is with her, while instead he is shopping with Riley. During the call Derek finds some electronic eavesdropping equipment that Cromartie is using to record all their voices and their secret code. He also finds a cell phone wired with explosives that is tied to a local cell tower. The phone rings and a few seconds later explodes, taking down the cell tower. Cromartie then calls John and uses Sarah's voice and their code to send him to the pier and turn off his phone.
The explosion injured Michelle and she is bleeding. Sarah proposes walking out of there but Charley disagrees. Michelle stubbornly insists she is okay enough to walk.
Ellison meets with Weaver to find out her story. She shows him photographs of a plane crash. The photos show pieces of the metal skeleton of a Terminator. She tells him that her and her husband have spent three years and millions of dollars trying to reverse engineer the technology. She then mentions the attack on John Connor that occurred in Red Valley, New Mexico eight years previously. He asks what she wants from him. She accuses him of knowing what killed his agents. She tells him she wants answers, but more than that, she wants his help to find another Terminator.
John arrives at the pier alone, having left Riley behind. Cameron tracks down Riley and demands to know where John is. Cromartie is searching the crowds for John, but John sees him first and disguises himself. He starts fleeing but Cromartie is quickly on his trail. Cameron arrives at the pier and starts searching for John as well.
Sarah stops a cellular service van traveling along the road towards them and takes it at gunpoint. Shortly thereafter, Charley begs her to stop the van as Michelle is in bad shape and the rough road is making her bleeding worse.
Cromartie finally corners John and starts shooting at him just as John leaps off the pier into the ocean. Cromartie quickly jumps after him and grabs his jacket, but John pulls free and surfaces while the heavy Cromartie sinks to the ocean floor. John looks up to see Cameron watching him from the pier and asks for help. She tells him she doesn't swim.
Sarah arrives in the city and picks up John and Cameron in the van. John notices the blood on the floor of the van but says nothing. They head to the hospital where John comforts Charley over the death of Michelle.
At the pier, Cromartie walks out of the ocean onto the beach.
Charley buries his wife, with Ellison in attendance at the funeral. Charley throws his Bible onto the casket and stalks off, with Cromartie watching the service from a distance.
Written by pentar on Apr 13, 2016