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Episode 216: Relevance[]
2011
The Machine shows a relevant conversation, where a man calls to inform another man that Daniel Aquino has been asking too many questions. They figure they have a solution on hand.
Drone footage then shows someone assassinating Daniel Aquino in a parking lot.
2013[]
In Berlin, an unknown woman enters a building but is confronted by two men accusing her of following them. A policeman enters and tries to pacify the situation but the two men draw their guns on him and her. One of the men tries to dial a number but she shoots him and his friend dead. She then knocks out the stunned policeman and contacts her technician Michael Cole.
Cole traces the signal from the phone of the man that Shaw killed and he takes Sam to the building where he traced the signal. They go to the roof and Cole lowers a microphone down into the apartment. Their target Bekhti and his team are making a dirty bomb. Shaw calls Control and requests permission to engage. Control gives her the go ahead and she goes down to the apartment.
Cole lowers a gas line into the apartment, Shaw tapes the door shut. The terrorists inside pass out and Shaw dons a gas mask and breaks into the apartment. She removes the Cesium from the bomb but one of the terrorists, Bekhti, regains his consciousness and attacks her. After a brief struggle Shaw manages to kill Bekhti with Cole's help.
Outside the building Cole informs Shaw that they have a new number in New York. Shaw tells Cole that she will meet him there. As they both walk away Bekhti's apartment building explodes.
A day later, Shaw arrives in New York City and meets with her superior, Wilson. He's unhappy that she blew up Bekhti's apartment but Shaw insists it was the best way to cover their tracks. Wilson then gives her a new Number, written on a newspaper.
The next day, Shaw watches the new Number, James Mercer. While following Mercer Shaw sees a good looking guy in a suit seemingly watching her. The man, Reese, walks away and Shaw goes back to monitoring Mercer. That night, while watching Mercer's apartment Shaw and notices that Cole is upset. He wonders how Research gets the Numbers and wonders if sometimes they're wrong. Cole says that the man they killed two years ago, Aquino, was innocent. Shaw points out that Aquino was selling centrifuge details to Hezbollah but Cole explains that he had a friend in the agency check the money transfer to Aquino and confirm that it came from the U.S. government. She insists that Research was right and that they get the Numbers from people they torture. Cole says that they were wrong that time. He's requested an internal investigation from Wilson, but insists that he kept Shaw out of it.
Mercer leaves his apartment and Cole and Shaw break in. Cole checks Mercer's computer and immediately realizes that their names are all over the file. Someone fires a gun outside and a message window comes up on Mercer's computer, telling Cole and Shaw that it's a trap and they need to get out. Cole yells a warning to Shaw and knocks her to the ground as men fire through the door. Shaw takes them out and grabs one of their radios and tells Cole that they need to move. He says that he was just trying to cover her back and be her hero, and then dies.
Shaw takes out the other members of the hit squad just as Reese steps out of the shadows and tells Shaw that he is there to help her but Shaw shoots him. Shaw jumps out of the window and while getting away sees the other members of the hit squad kneecapped and wounded. Wilson steps out from around the corner, sees Sam, and shoots at her but Shaw manages to escape even with Wilson clipping her. He calls Special Counsel and says that they have a problem.
Wilson makes a full report to the Special Counsel . Meanwhile, Root comes in, still posing as Special Counsel's secretary Miss May, and makes sure the Special Counsel has everything he needs. She then goes to her desk and listens in as the Special Counsel tells Wilson that Sam has information that endangers the project. Wilson figures that Shaw will need weapons and transportation, but is sure that he clipped her.
Shaw steals a car and kidnaps a drug dealer. She then takes him to his dealers apartment and has him tie himself and his dealer up. Shaw takes out the bullet and passes out. When she wakes up she finds the drug dealer's supplier beating him up. She manages to kill him and his men with her hidden gun but lets the drug dealer who helped her, leave.
Hersh meets with the Special Counsel and tells his superior that Shaw is one of the best and that he trained her himself. Hersh says that she'll look into the Aquino situation and come after them at the same time. He says that he's already confirmed that Cole's CIA contact is Veronica Sinclair. Root listens in on the whole conversation.
At the apartment, Sam brings up Cole's pen drive and calls Veronica when she finds her phone number on the computer. Veronica insists that she can't be involved in it but Sam tells her to meet her at the Suffolk Hotel the next afternoon.
The next day, Shaw calls Wilson and says that she will only turn herself in to Control. She tells Wilson to have Control meet her at 11 that night or she will go public with the Aquino files. After setting a location, Shaw goes to Veronica's hotel room... where Root lives under yet another alias. Root explains that Cole sent her wire transfers that went to Aquino, and she confirmed that someone in the government electronically spoofed the transfers. The group responsible was the Intelligence Support Activity, working out of the Pentagon, and Sam says that she worked for them. Root says that the budget stretches back five years and is coded as something called Project Northern Lights. Aquino was part of it and they built a research facility, but Root has been unable to find out anyone else who worked there.
Shaw hears a noise from the bathroom and goes to check it out. She finds the real Veronica tied up in the bathroom. Before she can react Root tasers Shaw and drags her away, explaining that she interrogated Veronica but got nothing. Root cuffs Sam to a chair, she explains that the Numbers didn't come from Guantanamo. It came from something else and she is searching for it. She takes out a heating iron and unbuttons Sam's blouse. As she works, she tells Sam that she wants the name of Aquino's contact so she can find the facility. Sam tells Root that she enjoys this kind of thing and Root says that she glad because she does, too.
Before Root can torture Shaw, an alarm goes off on her PDA. She checks the video feed and discovers that Wilson's men are coming. She tells Sam that they'll do it again soon, sure that Shaw is capable of getting out of her bonds, and slips out the side door as Wilson's team barges in. The leader calls Wilson for instructions. He then takes out a syringe and prepares to inject her. Shaw manages to free her hand, grab the leader's gun, and kill three of the four men. Reese kills the fourth man before he can shoot Sam. Sam considers shooting him but Reese points out that the leader managed to jab her with the syringe. He carefully removes it and tells Sam that he has a friend who wants to talk to her.
Reese takes Sam to the empty floor of an office building where Finch is waiting. He explains that they help people in trouble and they know that she worked as a counter-terrorist. Finch knows that she only receives SSNs and the information is never wrong, and gives Sam her own and Cole's number. He admits that they were unable to save Cole because of their initial unfamiliarity with the situation. Sam wonders who they are if they're not with the program, but Finch simply says that they work for the same entity and it wanted them to help her. Shaw says that she only wants to live long enough to find Control. Finch says that she'll never succeed and that Cole began to suspect the truth about Research: that they don't exist. He asks her to stop running so they can help her, and Sam tells Finch that Cole was one of the few friends she had and he deserved better. Finch warns her that she may very well make things worse and gives her his number in case she changes her mind. Sam gives it back to him and walks away.
The Special Counsel tells Wilson to get a team ready and end it once and for all.
Shaw tracks the Special Counsel to a party where they agreed to meet. She says that he is not Control and the Special Counsel says that he is as close as she is going to get. Wilson and another aide come up behind her and the go somewhere more private to talk.
As they walk away, the Special Counsel explains that the program is the reason they haven't had another major attack. They can't let the public know because they'd lose the program, and they killed Aquino because no one person is as valuable as millions of Americans. Shaw admits that she would do the same thing and hands over Cole's pen drive containing the Aquino research. She then tells Wilson that he could have warned Cole and her but instead decided to kill them. In the process he killed the only person that Shaw ever cared about. Wilson says that they brought it on themselves and that it needed to be done. Shaw then shoots Wilson dead, avenging Cole's death.
Seemingly impressed, Special Counsel lets Shaw walk away. Shaw dumps the gun, and blends into the crowd. Suddenly, Hersh grabs her from behind and injects her with poison and walks away. Shaw collapses on the sidewalk.
Later, Carter and Fusco are on the scene. They tell the officer on the scene that it was an overdose and tells him to get some coffee. The officer leaves and they tell Leon, posing as an EMT, to haul the body away.
The next morning, Sam wakes up in an ambulance as Bear licks her face. Outside, Leon complains to Reese and Finch for giving him such a dangerous job. Leon moves away as Shaw walks up to them. She says that they showed up late and Finch points out that they wanted her superiors to believe she was dead. She draws a hidden gun and tells them to hand over their phones. They do so and Finch gives her his card in case she changes her mind. She accepts it, smiles and drives off in their ambulance, with Finch wondering to Reese if she will call them a taxi.