Vargas & Shane (Season 6)

The sixth season of Vargas & Shane will premiere on September 2035 and conclude on May 2036 on NBC.

Premise[]

Cast[]

Main Cast and Characters[]

Victoria Justice as LAPD Detective Ariel Vargas
Elizabeth Gillies as Deputy District Attorney Morgan Shane
Stark Sands as LAPD Detective Cole Larsen
Jamie Bamber as DA Investigator Richie Lowry
Boris Kodjoe as ATF Special Agent Jerome Chapel
Clayne Crawford as ICE Special Agent Owen Scott
Katrina Law as DEA Special Agent Alexis Lee
Troy Winbush as CHP Sergeant Aaron Hobbs
Jennifer Love Hewitt as FBI Special Agent Carly Reese
Michael Kelly as Deputy US Marshal John Jennings
Mike Vogel as NCIS Special Agent Danny Burnett
Sophia Bush as CBI Special Agent Faith Scalieri
Tony Todd as US Attorney Clyde Forbes (Episodes 1–13)

Special Guest Stars[]

Recurring Guest Stars[]

Recurring Co-Stars[]

Episodes[]

#1 - "A New Normal"

Four-and-a-half months after the corruption scandal, the LAPD and the city of Los Angeles adjust to a "new normal" as every police officer is now under tight watch. In South Central Los Angeles, Vargas attends her therapy session, but becomes distracted as she recalls the events of the past year, including Shane's post-partum depression, the discovery of Neve and nearly getting killed by the now defunct Anti-Crime Unit while trying to expose their corruption. When Vargas' therapist Dr. Judy Malloy (Olwen Fouéré) mentions Thomas, she refuses to discuss him, but Dr. Malloy reminds her about her recent nightmares regarding him. Vargas admits that she wishes that she could've saved him and she has been tormented after seeing him gunned down in front of her. Dr. Malloy suggests that she open up to her family and friends about her on-going issues, but Vargas rejects this, explaining that she has already been the center of attention for her family for the past couple of months and doesn't want everyone to be worried about her again. She then ends the session and walks out.

Later, Vargas arrives at JACTF HQ and starts work, but soon has a flashback of Thomas being gunned down by Santana. Then, Shane gets her attention but notices that she is spooked about something. She reminds Vargas that she can talk to her if she is struggling. However, Vargas assures Shane that she is fine and believes she shouldn't worry so much, reminding her about her post-partum depression battle. Shane then share her concerns about Scalieri after Thomas's death, explaining that Scalieri has been primarily doing desk work for months. She suggests Vargas to speak with Scalieri, but Vargas refuses, explaining that she wouldn't be the best person to give advice following a death. Lee then enters and says some opioid-related deaths have occurred at a party and two of the fatalities are members of the US Navy, and Forbes wants them to meet with Burnett to investigate. Then Jennings came over and tells Vargas that she and Larsen are being assigned to report to an LAPD station to investigate a boy's claims about his older sister being wrongly sentenced.

At the top floor apartment, Chapel, Reese, Lee, Scott and Hobbs arrive and met up with Burnett. He reveals that seven are so far dead, including two discharged Navy Petty Officers. Lee asks if they found anything significant regarding the opioids and Burnett replies that they found a logo on the baggies of drugs that he hasn't seen before. As no one recognizes the logo, Chapel has Astrid run it through every database. Costas says that these type of opioids are hospital grade and they likely killed those people in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. Reese contacts Forbes about what is going on and Forbes tells them to work with their contacts from other agencies so they can see how the opioids are getting in. Meanwhile, Vargas and Larsen arrive at the LAPD station. Just as they entered, she asks Larsen about Scalieri's well-being; he replies that she has been distancing herself from talking about Thomas's death. The officer in charge leads them to where the boy, 12-year-old Frederic Hutchinson. Hutchinson had caused the scene at the station to get their attention and they've asked Vargas and Larsen to investigate since they are shorthanded due to the aftermath of the corruption scandal. As they question Frederic and coaxing him, he reveals that his 17-year-old sister Jill was a victim of abuse by her boyfriend and she killed him in self-defense, but on her trial, she was harshly sentenced to incarceration until age 25 by a judge name Ginger Cromwell. Larsen has heard of Judge Cromwell's history of giving harsh sentences to minor juvenile offenders. Vargas suggests that they should investigate the judge based on Frederic's claims and what Larsen heard about her, feeling that there's more to her than meets the eye.

At the crime lab, Shaw speaks to Chapel, Lee and Scott about the results of the opioids. He confirms that they are hospital grade oxycodone pills tainted with lethal doses of fentanyl and carfentanil and believes the victims, including the two Navy Petty Officers all likely overdosed themselves with up to the first few pills, due the tainting. He also is checking the logo on the baggies of the drugs with Astrid's help, with the two searching within DoD and such for any matches. Lee asks how they got the baggies and Shaw believes that someone might've delivered them from medical facility that makes them, or made them in a secret drug lab. Meanwhile, Shane speaks to Forbes at his office as she shares her concerns about Scalieri. She explains that Scalieri has been isolating herself in the months since Thomas's death, to the point that she hardly leaves her office anymore. She wants to do something to help Scalieri, but Forbes warns her that she is too emotionally involved and reminding that all of their colleagues have dealt with Thomas's death differently, and she should let Scalieri grieve at her own pace. He also tells Shane that the best thing she can do is just be there for her and don't try to rush her. Later, Shane bumps into Scalieri, who is still working on paperwork. She tries to assure her that she's not alone in her grief, but Scalieri still doesn't wish to discuss it. Vargas and Larsen came to Shane and ask for her help about the case with the Hutchinsons.

At the station, Chapel, Burnett and the others talk to Forbes and Jennings about their findings on the opioids case; it's also revealed that the two Petty Officers were the ones who provided the drugs. Forbes suspects that something about those opioid bags feels off, especially the mysterious logo on the baggies. He recommends that they call anyone they know in the military to see if they can find anything that could be connected to all this. Chapel, Burnett and Scott go out to make calls to their military contacts. As everyone else heads out to make waves on the opioids case, Vargas, Shane and Larsen enter Forbes's office, looking to discuss about the case involving Judge Cromwell. Forbes has heard of Cromwell's reputation and suspects her decisions on minor juvenile offenders are questionable and maybe improper, but she is getting serious coverage from somewhere. Shane admits that she even has a theory as to what's going on, but they need more proof first.

Meanwhile, Scott met up with CGIS Agent Amy Wright (Lauren Cohen), who previously investigated the two Navy Petty Officers for causing a ruckus on a ship a few months ago during a joint assignment with the Coast Guard. She notes that the two were amped up and the disagreement was allegedly over a perceived minor insult, but she and NCIS always thought there was more to it than that. Meanwhile, Chapel and Burnett speak to a find in the Navy about the two petty officers and asks about their history before their discharges. It's revealed that the two POs, identified as Conway Noonan and Harris Beltran, had both tried out for the SEALs but failed to make it; neither ever got over their failure, and they continued to pick into fights and cause trouble up until they were discharged. Meanwhile, Shane questions Jill about Judge Cromwell's decision. She reveals that she and her boyfriend were busted for drugs in her car, and even though he copped to owning them, the judge kept her charged as an accomplice, found her guilty, and gave her her unjust sentence. With this information, Vargas and Larsen go undercover as parents of a daughter under the guise of their daughter's boyfriend totaled her car with her in it. Riley looks at Cromwell's financial records and it reveals that she is receiving kickbacks from a facility run by her cousin for each juvenile offender she sentences there, Jill's sister being one of them. Both Vargas and Larsen ask the judge to take their daughter's boyfriend, Thomas Napier, hard, pretending that they know how she is with juvenile offenders. Attorney Frank Anderson is called in to defend the Napier boy (who is actually undercover FBI agent Jack Meyers) with the undercover Reese posing as the defendant's mother and Lowry as the defendant's father. Shane pretends to be the prosecutor on the case. Luckily, Cromwell played right to their act and remands Napier/Meyers to the same facility, exposing her in front of everyone. Vargas and the others move in, placing Cromwell under arrest for official misconduct, bribery and multiple charges of unlawful imprisonment.

At JACTF, new LAPD Chief Bryson Simmons (Isaiah Mustafa) visits Forbes to discuss the matter of restoring the trust between the department and the JACTF again following the exposures of the Anti-Crime Unit and the Blue Forge. Forbes notes that they've taken Cooper, the only non-corrupt member of Anti-Crime on to the task force, and recommends they hold frequent in-person meetings to discuss how to handle the remaining issues. Meanwhile, the rest of the JACTF is able to trace the drug baggies back to a street dealer nick-named Scoreboard. However, when they bust into his residence, they find his dead body hanging from his ceiling. Initially believing it to be a suicide, Costas discovers via some inconsistencies that Scoreboard's neck was broken first and he was strung up post-mortem, making the death a homicide.

Later at HQ, as Chapel, Burnett, Scott, Lee and Hobbs share their findings with Forbes and Jennings, the former advises everyone to do whatever it takes to track down the people distributing these opioids and keep in touch with their military contacts for more information. Vargas, Shane, Larsen, Reese and Lowry then return and Forbes congratulates them for exposing and arresting Cromwell. He announces that Cromwell will be tried in federal court, all of her cases will be reviewed by other judges and the facility she sentenced juvenile offenders to for kickbacks will be under federal investigation. Jill Hutchinson has been released and her record will be expunged. Jill and Frederic thank Vargas, Shane and Larsen for exposing Cromwell and getting Jill out of.

Later, Larsen checks on Scalieri, trying to persuade her to take a break and come home, citing that the kids miss her. She notes that she's scared to face her grief over losing Thomas, but Larsen points out she can't avoid it for ever, and assures her that he'll be with her. With that, the two leave together. Forbes and Jennings go over the case files on the opioids case, Lee returns home to her family, and Chapel and Burnett go target shooting at the HQ's firing range.

At the end, Vargas and Shane are at Santa Monica Pier at night. Vargas admits that she's been feeling a bit down since the corruption case almost destroyed her life and caused Thomas's death, but doesn't mention the flashbacks of Thomas being shot by Santana that she's been having. Shane comforts her that they have been through some terrible times in the past, including Gordon. Vargas admits that the case took a lot out of her, and Shane assures her that it took a lot out of everyone. After a moment, Vargas asks Shane how she is feeling after her post-partum depression and Shane says that she is over it now thanks to the care she has gotten. Vargas admits that she feels extremely bad for not being there for her when she was going through it, but Shane assures her that she never had post-partum depression, and thus wouldn't have known what was going on with her. Vargas says that while that is true, she could have done something more instead of going on the run when she was set up and marked for death. Shane assures that she is okay and that they will be okay, no matter what. After a moment, Shane says that they should have some fun at the attractions and Vargas agrees that they should. With that, the two head to Pacific Park and ride on the West Coaster, enjoying their time on the ride as best friends.

#2 - "Lining the Ranks"

After a few days, the JACTF continues to investigate the opioids case, but nothing much turned up recently. Forbes informs that they are getting help from agents from Army CID, Air Force OSI and CGIS since the cases are link to military personnel. Chapel asks who they are sending and Shane tells them they've just arrived, which is revealed to be CGIS Agent Amy Wright, Army CID Agent Harmon "Mac" McCandless (Nathan Parsons) and Air Force OSI Agent Jabari Solomon (Sahr Ngaujah). Forbes tells everyone they will be assisting on the opioids cases whatever possible. Then, Lowry got a call from Ashley Jefferson, an office clerk at the DA's office and a friend of his, who hysterically reveals that her son Daniel has been abducted. He informs Forbes about it and he has him, Jennings, Reese, Larsen and Hobbs take the case and find Daniel. He sends Vargas, Chapel, Burnett, Scott and Lee check out the most recent opioids case in northern Los Angeles and says he will call them if they need assistance on Daniel's abduction.

At the mall where Daniel was taken, Shane and Lowry come to Ashley and ask her what happened. She explains that went to use the restroom and told Daniel to wait on a nearby bench. When she came out, she saw a man taking her son into a teal-colored van and speed off. A witness who saw them says that she got a partial plate number of the van and only saw the back of the guy and he had dark blonde hair. Reese has Fox track the van down through traffic cameras. Later, the van is found ditched in an abandoned car wash, leading the investigators to believe that the abductor switched vehicles. Jennings has Riley check out the traffic cameras in the area to see if anything turns up.

At the home in northern Los Angeles, Vargas and the others see the bodies of five people, one of them a former Air Force Senior Airman, at the scene. Costas say that all five of them overdosed since the night before. Vargas asks if the drugs were tainted. Shaw believes so since the drugs are confirmed to be the same hospital grade oxycodone pills tainted with lethal doses of fentanyl and carfentanil, like the others before; there is also heroin cut with fentanyl present, and the baggies have the same logo as before. Lee theorizes that they must be looking at a sophisticated drug ring in business. Chapel, Burnett and Scott state that at times, some ex-military members, particularly those who are given bad discharges and thus lose access to their benefits, have turned to drug smuggling and other illicit activities to finance themselves. Vargas asks who could have smuggled these types of drugs. Lee and Burnett says that it has to be someone with knowledge of how to cover their tracks and to elude the authorities well enough. As Burnett goes to investigate further, Lee notices Vargas seems a little off and asks if everything's okay; Vargas says that she's been going a lot after the Blue Forge case, but doesn't elaborate further.

Back in HQ, Lowry says from the traffic surveillance system, they identify the abductor as Douglas Leland Fiedler, a pedophile with two known priors for molesting a 6-year-old boy and indecent exposure to kids at a park. Jennings admits that he hates those type of people, at which Reese notes that feels the same way. Larsen, with Fox's help, tracks Fiedler's last known address. Upon arriving in the last known address, they breach and they find Fiedler's mother, Cheryl, there and defends that her son is no pedophile. Then Jennings and Lowry find Fielder hidden in a back bedroom as he makes a break for the back door. to the back yard. Reese runs after him and Jennings and Lowry going around to the side. As Lowry cuts him off, Jennings grabs Fielder and demands to know where Daniel is, as do Reese and Lowry, but he refuses to talk. Hobbs then approaches over and reveals they found Daniel in an abandoned house, next door, along with more children, with a search dog having tracked Daniel's scent to the front door. As Fielder is taken in custody, Hobbs shows Jennings, Lowry and Reese Daniel and around five other children (two other boys and three girls) whom they had found locked in the house's basement, much to their shock.

Afterwards, Shane prosecutes Fielder on multiple charges, managing to convince the judge to remand him. Cheryl continues to defend her son, much to everyone's disgust, especially Jennings. Jennings suspects that Cheryl knows even more than she seems. He has Astrid and Benji look into her finances, and finds that she was in the process of trying to purchase the house next door; this makes him realize that she has known about what her son was all along, and that she's been enabling him and his "urges" the whole time. Jennings angrily berates Cheryl for enabling her son's crimes and arrests her on charges of accessory and aiding & abetting, among other charges. After the testimonies from the children and other witnesses, Fielder testifies, admitting that his mother talked him into doing what he did to the children he had on the house next door, promising she would make sure he was never caught, as long as he didn't seriously harm or kill the children. Enraged by Fielder's mother enabling her son's kidnapping and such, Ashley attacks Cheryl and attempts to strangle her, before being held back by Jennings, Lowry and the bailiffs. Afterwards, both Fielder and Cheryl are both found guilty of their crimes.

Meanwhile, as everyone continued to investigate the opioids case, Vargas and Lee speaks to a CI of Lee's about his knowledge of the drugs. He only reveals that the baggies with that logo are only handled by someone who is either current or ex-military; this means that whatever that logo is, it's something from the military world, although he doesn't know any names involved. The CI also reveals that one of them talked about how one of the leaders is likely ex-CIA, which surprises them. After the meeting is done, Vargas suspects at least a few people involved in the ring are former CIA. Once everyone returns to HQ, they inform Forbes about their findings. Forbes says if someone is involved with the CIA, then the drug smuggling ring is a lot more sophisticated and drawn out than they imagined. Chapel notes that he and Burnett worked with CIA officers during their time in the SEALs and notes that they are intelligent, highly-trained and with a lot of resources and connections, which often remain even after they leave the agency. He notes that as such, the task force must be careful as they go along in this. Forbes tells everyone to watch themselves while working on the case.

During the trial, Reese gets a call from Theodore that T.J. is being bullied at school by a bully whose father always gets him out of trouble often by using intimidation tactics with his relatives. Reese, deciding to take matters into her hands, goes to the man's house and confronts him. She warns him that she is a FBI agent and that if his son continues to bully T.J. or any other students at his school, she will make it her life's mission to go after him and his family with the FBI's support since he and his entire family have criminal records, and she will get him dead to rights and ensure that his son will go into foster care by using his family's rap sheets to prove that they are incapable of caring for him properly. Intimidated himself, the man asks what she wants, and Reese tells him to pull his son out of school now, or she will call Social Services to take his son away from him and have him place in foster care due to his and his relatives' criminal past. With that threat, the man submits that he will pull his son from the school. Satisfied, Reese leaves his house.

At the end, Shane finds Jennings at a the bar. After finishing speaking to Vargas via phone about the opioids case, she ends their call. She tells Jennings that she noticed her was taking the case personally and knows something about it has been bothering him. After a moment, Jennings reveals that years ago, he helped the FBI arrest a serial pedophile who had not only raped at least four girls, but had created and run an international network of pedophiles, where they traded kiddie porn, bragged about their crimes, and even provided each other pics and video of their offenses. Although they had the guy dead to rights, an overly-ambitious Assistant United States Attorney, who was looking for a leg-up, opted to give the man immunity for all of his crimes in exchange for using his network to bring down the members of his network who were part of various terrorist organizations. Jennings informed the father of the first of the man's rape victim, and the father, unwilling to accept that his daughter's rapist was going to get away with his crimes, assassinated him on the day he was to give grand jury testimony, and was in turn killed by federal agents. The AUSA confronted and blame Jennings for this, and Jennings broke his nose in retaliation. The AUSA was later demoted after the botched case. Shane says that she heard of the AUSA Jennings mentioned, and notes that he cared more for his ambitions over justice. Jennings says that he couldn't let the pedophile get away because of the AUSA's ambitions, but he never thought that the victim's father would take justice into his own hands like that; this was why he took the case personally and did his best to made sure Ashley didn't end up like that father. The sympathetic Shane tells him that he should go on home to his family, which he agrees to do and leaves the bar.

Scalieri doesn't appear in the episode.

#3 - "If You Dare"

One early morning, Vargas and Shane meet outside of a café to have coffee. As they talk about recent cases, Shane asks Vargas about recent update of her family life. She reveals Hector is in first grade now, Caterina is doing fine, Neve is doing well working in Force Investigation, Eve Is working freelance as an IT expert, Angela is clean again and has started her new job, Leo is starting his junior year of high school and her parents' marriage is flourishing. Then Vargas notices Shane acting weird and become concerned that her postpartum depression is back. Shane admits Delgado called her, expressing his concerns after seeing Vargas talking to herself downstairs one last night, very upset about something. Vargas explains that she has been having trouble with sleeping recently, and she was having her hormones. She quickly brushes Shane's worries and promise her that she is fine. Shane then spots blood on Vargas's right hand, but she says that it is not her blood. The two then become horrified when the body of a teenager boy wearing a skydiving suit and parachute lands right in front of them. As the public reacts in horror, Vargas calls for back-up and paramedics. She then finds the boy's broken camera lying on the ground.

Later, Larsen, Reese, Lee and Scott arrive at the scene and are horrified to see the body themselves. As Reese comforts an upset Shane, Larsen and Lee talk to to Vargas about what happened. She reveals the victim just fell out of the sky and from what it looks like, it might be a skydiving accident. Larsen asks Vargas if she finds out the victim's identity but Vargas didn't find any identical information on the victim's body. She also reveals some of the victim's blood landed on her right arm and figures something bad may have happened before his death. She then shows Larsen and Lee the boy's broken camera; Larsen decides to send it to HQ to see what they can retrieve. Then, Scott then gets Vargas, Larsen and Lee's attention when he notices that several victim's parachute lines have been cut and also finds that the victim was stabbed and bleeding out, making the case a homicide.

Afterwards, Vargas, Larsen, Lee and Scott arrive at HQ while the task force work on the victim's camera and the coroner deals with the body. As they discuss the investigation, Vargas and Larsen see Scalieri back, after taking some time off to spend time with her children to help her cope with Thomas's death. Then, Burnett gets Vargas and Larsen's attention, wanting to talk to them about the opioids investigation, but Larsen tells him it is not good time because they have another case at the moment. However, Burnett tells Larsen it can't wait. As Larsen heads off with Burnett, Vargas tells Scalieri about the moment of the body landing outside of café. Scalieri responds that she and Shane is lucky that the victim didn't land on top of them. She then share her suspicious of why the victim was skydiving in the middle of the city Los Angeles as she points out most skydiving activities takes place in much more open spaces, but Vargas reveals the victim was stabbed beforehand and suggests he was pushed to his death. Then, Costas calls Vargas to inform the victim's identity as Neville Patterson after running a DNA check through the databases. She also reveals stab wounds from Neville's body took place days before his death. At the same time, Larsen talks to Chapel and Burnett, who share new information of opioids case and reveals that they've tracked down a former Marine who was dishonorably discharged over a year ago after testing positive for and being caught with a similar brand of heroin. The two then head out to speak to the man. After Vargas finished her call with Costas, she tells Scalieri that she plans to notify Neville's family, but Forbes interrupts and reveals another teenager has been found dead. Vargas is annoyed that the team has to deals with two deaths at the same time, and is torn over her decisions, but Scalieri suggests Vargas go to the crime scene of the second teen's death while she and Larsen visit Neville's family.

As everybody heads out, Shane and Reese arrive at HQ hours late. When Forbes confronts Shane and Reese about their lateness, Reese admits that she was trying to convince Shane to go home, but she refused. As Forbes gives Shane and Reese instructions, Shane notices Jennings isn't at work. Forbes reveals Jennings is taking time off after the events of the Fielder case. Shane tries to call him, but he doesn't answer. Lowry sees Shane is trying to call Jennings before tells her to leave him alone until he is ready to talk. Later, Chapel and Burnett spoke to Shane, Reese and Forbes about the leads they're are chasing down leads on the opioids case. They have questioned street gangs, low-level dealers and even military connections. But despite that, nothing has turned up so far. Burnett expresses his disgust that military service people are involved in drugs. Shane and Reese try to calm him down, saying that they may have not served in the military, but they agree that selling drugs is intolerable. Burnett responds that any current and ex-military people selling drugs or committing any kind of crimes stateside is an insult to both the oath of the military and the honor of serving America, which Chapel agrees. Forbes tells them to take it easy, focus on the opioids case and find any leads to track the smugglers down. Both Chapel and Burnett willingly agree to do so.

Meanwhile, Vargas, Lee and Scott arrive at the house of Tyler Restin, another teenage boy found dead in his dad's car in their garage, but is confused to see Costas and her team there. Costas reveals that the death is being investigated as possibly connected to Neville's. As Lee and Scott heads downstairs to speak to Tyler's parents, Vargas helps out with Costas as they investigate the crime scene. Costas suggests Tyler died hours before Neville and notices strange coloring on his skin. She takes a skin sample to analyze. Then, Vargas finds an another camera at the garage. When she plays the video, she see Tyler run his dad's car engine and locked himself in for several hours, flooding the garage with exhaust. Later, he attempted to stop everything, but was overwhelmed by the fumes, and subsequently collapsed and died. Lee and Scott speaks to Tyler's parents and questions them about any suicidal thoughts he might've had, but they refuses to believe that their son killed himself. Gaining a permission of Tyler's parents, Vargas later heads upstairs where she search Tyler's room. When she looks through his computer, Vargas finds other footage of Tyler performing more risky stunts such as cannonballing into a swimming pool from a third story apartment balcony and scaling the wall of a large condominium. Vargas then finds messages from unknown person on Tyler's social media, asking Tyler if he is still alive to post his new video for the website. Elsewhere, Scalieri and Larsen arrive at Neville's family home where they inform them about his death. They started to question them about Neville and the moments before his death. Neville's mother reveals her son was depressed, but never thought about killing himself, citing that she had checked his personal journals and all his social media accounts, and that she would've gotten help had she noticed any inkling of Neville wanting to end his life. His father then notes a website his son had been frequenting in the time leading up to his death.

Meanwhile, back at HQ, the JACTF struggle to determine the connection between Neville and Tyler's deaths. Riley notes that it seems both of them were into performing extreme and dangerous stunts for social media clout. Forbes askes Vargas and Larsen if they've found the website Neville and Tyler frequented before their deaths, but she reveals they couldn't find anything. However, she suggests Tyler and Neville may have erased that "website" from their research history to stop their parents from finding it, and promises that the techs will find something. As Vargas and Larsen walks out of Forbes's office, Vargas noticed missing calls from Delgado on her phone. When she calls him back, Delgado informed her that Leo has been suspended from school due he caused a fire at his science classroom. When she asks for Leo's whereabouts, Delgado reveals that Neve is looking after him and that she was one of the investigating officers at Leo's school; Vargas becomes surprised about hearing her daughter's involvement. Delgado tells her that Neve tried to call her, but Vargas reveals her daughter has never attempted to call her. As she then ends the call, Shane notices she is upset. Vargas tells her that she need to deal family business before heading off.

Later, Vargas arrives at her house where she finds Neve and Eve looking after Leo, Hector and Caterina. As Eve heads upstairs with Leo, Hector and Caterina, Vargas confronts Neve for not telling her about Leo causing an incident at his school. Neve tells Vargas that Delgado informed her the news, but Vargas points out Neve was investigating officer of the incident and she should've told her the news herself. Neve tries to share her concerns about Leo as she points out that it's not first time that Leo has pulled a stunt at school. Vargas asks what else has happened, and Neve reveals that Leo climbed the school's flagpole once, and another time, tried jumping cars on his bike. As Vargas and Neve continue to argue, Delgado, Angela and Ellis arrive house and walk into the argument. Neve accuses Vargas of not paying enough attention, and Vargas furiously lambasts her daughter for telling her how to parent and tells her to leave. As Neve heads off, Delgado tries to comfort Vargas, but she is furious with Delgado for talking to Shane instead of her first, and reminds her husband about Shane's recent heath issues. Delgado explain Vargas hasn't been the same since the Anti-Crime corruption case, but Vargas responds that she is fine. She then answer a call from Larsen who reveals a young teenage girl has disappeared. Vargas is annoyed at dealing with a disappearance case while investigating two deaths at same time, but Larsen tells her that the girl's parents found a note from their daughter, who is planning to swim far out to sea at Santa Monica Beach.

Later, Vargas meets up with Larsen, Reese, Lee, Scott, Scalieri, Shaw and Astrid at Santa Monica Beach where they start their search. Reese and Lee talks to the parents of the girl, Katie Minowski, who express their concerns about their daughter endangering herself. Lee asked Katie's parents about her behavior before her disappearance; they explain that she had been pushing herself in swimming, her favorite sport, lately. Shane and Reese then find Katie's car which contains her clothes, some bags and a computer. As Lee continued to talks to Katie's parents, Reese takes a look at Katie's computer which opens a website game named Extreme Risk; they note that it is has many videos with links to social media sites. She alerts Shaw and Astrid's attention and they start to research the website. They then find a live video from Katie who is seriously in hurt and far away from the beach; he promises her viewers that she won't give up and continue her quest to swim down the coastline. Reese alerts Vargas, Larsen, Scott and Scalieri who are in a boat about less than a mile from Katie's last known location. Astrid then answer the call from Riley and Cooper, who reveal they have found something else about Tyler and Neville. Vargas talks to Calvin Drew; the leader of rescue operation about the search for Katie on radio. Calvin informs Vargas that his team spent hours to search for Katie, but they can't find anything. When Vargas asks Calvin which part of area at the sea that his team has searched, he revealed they went west mostly. She tells him that her team must have found something that is directly to Katie's whereabouts. Later, Vargas, Larsen, Scott and Scalieri arrive at the same location where Katie was last seen, but Reese informed them that Katie's camera has turned off. Larsen warns Vargas that they can't wait for the rest of the rescue operation to get there, and that they need to work to find Katie themselves. Larsen and Scott both don diving gear and go underwater to search for Katie as Vargas and Scalieri wait anxiously. As Calvin and his team arrive, Larsen re-surfaces and re-board the boat, but Scott is nowhere to be seen. Seconds later, everybody spots Scott re-surfaces with Katie's body in his arms. As he carry Katie's body onboard the boat, Calvin's colleagues tried to perform CPR on her, but they are unable to revive her.

The next day, Vargas and Larsen arrive at the hospital mortuary where Costas and her team conduct an autopsy on Katie's body. Costas believes Katie died of drowning which was caused by exhaustion from her excessive attempt to swim up the coast, but also finds traces of sedative in her bloodstream too. Back at HQ, Cooper and Riley share their information about Tyler and Neville to everybody as they explains that both were stun performers trying to get social media clout and fame. Cooper also revealed the website, Extreme Risk, which apparently has a "secret game". Reese suggest they find the owner of the website and have it shut down. Following their visit to the mortuary, Vargas and Larsen returns to HQ and revealed Katie's cause of death to Forbes, who realizes that someone is tracking down the kids doing the most extreme stunts and killing them during said stunts. After a quick search, Astrid find the owner of the website named Milton Grimm, a former stuntman and magician but Lee quickly recognize his name and revealed her history with Grimm; she busted him for drugging other stuntmen with PCP to steal their jobs. She warns Grimm is dangerous, psychotic and has a history of mental health problems. Astrid finds a link to Grimm's "secret game" on the website; the game is about encourages teens to commit such extreme and harmful stunts with the promise of a big cash prize for the one with the most views. Astrid looks at every video, but is horrified to find one that features Leo starting the fire in his science classroom. When she shows Vargas, she is mortified that her brother is part of the game. Then, a new live video appears on the website showing Leo talks about his plan to hang from a plane while it takes off, as he reveals that he is outside of Los Angeles International Airport. Vargas and Larsen head out to find Leo, while Lee figures that she knows where is Grimm and Reese, Scott and Hobbs join her in the quest.

Meanwhile, Leo climbs on top of a private plane as passengers boards their flight. He noticed Vargas and Delgado is trying to call him but they ignore their call. At the same time, Vargas talks to Delgado over the phone about the situation while Larsen takes a short cut. Vargas is annoyed with herself for ignoring Neve's warning, but Delgado promise it isn't her fault and promise her that Leo will be safe. Elsewhere, Reese, Scott, Lee and Hobbs arrive at an unknown location outside of Los Angeles where they find Grimm's secret warehouse. As they bust into the warehouse, the four corners Grimm and his men at gunpoint and confronts them for being involved in Tyler, Neville and Katie's deaths; Grimm smugly denies being involved in anything criminal and refuses to take down the website. He then recognizes Lee as the one who busted him, and snarks at seeing her again after years. Lee tells Grimm that she is not here for reunion, she is here to stop innocent people from getting hurt. Grimm sneers that his website is protected by Freedom of Speech and he once again refuses to let anybody trying to stop him before more of his men arrives and tries to shoot Reese, Lee, Scott and Hobbs, who forced to take cover. A shootout occurs, three of Grimm's men are killed and the remaining three continued to fire at them.

Meanwhile, Vargas and Larsen finally arrives at the airport and tries to alert security about the situation, but they sees the plane which Leo is on is already moving. Vargas quickly runs outside where she grabs control of a mobile stairway and chase after the plane on the runaway. She tries to alert the pilots but they refuse to listen to her, thinking that she is trying to board the plane. Then, Vargas quickly gets Leo's attention and tries to convince him to get off the plane, but he refuses to listen to her. She tries to tells him the game is scam and he will get seriously hurt. She moves closer to the plane and tries to grab her brother, but is forced to jump on the wing of the plane when mobile stairway is crashed into a car. As she moves to the roof to gets closer to Leo, Delgado and Neve arrive on the runaway via the former's pickup truck, with Neve riding in the back, and follow the plane. Vargas grabs Leo despite his attempts to fight her off, telling him that she loves him and refuses to lose anybody else. She then sees Delgado and Neve by the side of the plane before throwing Leo into Neve's arms. As she was about to jump towards Delgado's car, Vargas hears a bang sound, causing her to panic and then falling off the roof, but manages to hangs onto the wing of a plane. Delgado drives closer to the windshield where he managed to alert the pilots' attention. They are able to get the plane to stop, but this causes Vargas to accidentally gets thrown off of the plane and be injured. Larsen, Delgado and Neve quickly run to Vargas' side as she slowly opens her eyes, but struggles to move. Delgado tells her not to move as Larsen calls an ambulance, and Neve tries to stop Leo from seeing his injured sister.

Back in the hideout, Scott takes out the fourth henchman, while Hobbs and Reese shoot down the fifth one. After Lee kills the last henchman, she and the others aim their weapons at Grimm, telling him to surrender. But he points his gun at them and all four of them shoot Grimm dead. Lee sends a link the website to Riley and Astrid, asking for their help to shut down the site. Shane tells them that they have a declaration from a judge's consent to commence the shutdown. With that, Riley, Astrid and Fox help Lee and the others find a list of people who were conned into participating, then shut down Grimm's website. Forbes calls the police and the FBI to find the rest of the participants to prevent their deaths. Shane then gets a call from Larsen that Vargas has been injured and is on route to the hospital.

Later, after a long wait at the hospital, Grace tells Vargas's colleagues (except for Chapel, Burnett, and Jennings, who is absent) and family that she is stabled and wake after her surgery, revealing that Vargas had a broken ankle, wrist, two broken ribs and a concussion. Grace also points out she was lucky she didn't injure her back, explaining the situation could have been seriously worse. As Vargas's loved ones takes turns to see her at her bedside, Chapel and Burnett arrive at the hospital, along with McCandless, Solomon and Wright. They reveal to the others that they visited one group of dealers who admitted that they got their opioids from a group that they don't know and have not seen, but one of them said the group referenced the codename "Patriot". At same time, Delgado, Neve, Larsen and Ellis visit Vargas, who is in bed and wearing a neck brace. She asks where Leo is, and Delgado promise her that he is safe and Angela and Eve is looking after him. He also reveals Leo feels terrible for what happened. Ellis reveals she informed Diego about what happened and he demanded to see Vargas and Leo, but was forced stay in prison as the warden was worried about his stage of mind. Vargas turns her attention to Neve and apologize to her for not listening her warning. Larsen then asks about the details of the incident, and Vargas explains that she was trying to jump towards Delgado's car but accidentally slipped and fell off the plane's roof. She attempted to hold on the wing of the plane until the moment when pilots stopped the plane which threw her off at the last minute.

Later, as everybody heads home, Shane visits Vargas at her bedside. Shane reveals Chapel and Burnett share information about recent opioids case but Vargas tells Shane that she isn't interested of hearing new information right now as she reminds Shane that she risks her life to save Leo. Shane then tells Vargas that she is grateful that she is still alive. After Shane leave, Vargas calls someone, asking them to come to the hospital, while explaining that she need to talk to them about something that has been bothering her recently. Outside the hospital, Scalieri bumps into Neve and asked her about Leo. Neve promise Scalieri that Leo is fine but still traumatized. Scalieri then asked Neve if Vargas share anything about what happened to her. Neve share same details that Vargas told Larsen but started to share her concerns about Vargas following recent months. Then, Larsen see Scalieri and Neve talking. As Neve heads off, Larsen notices Scalieri is acting strangely but Scalieri tells Larsen that she was worried for Vargas. Larsen promise Vargas will be fine.

At the end, Vargas' mysterious guest is revealed to be Dr. Malloy, who arrives at the hospital and visits her in her hospital bedroom. Dr. Malloy is surprised to see Vargas following their disagreement at last session, but Vargas admits she can't ignore her recent issues. Dr. Malloy then asks how Vargas is coping; she admits that she is relieved to have saved her brother, but is exhausted and exasperated from constantly having to save her family all the time. Dr. Malloy notes that it's her duty as a cop and the sense of guilt she feels over her various past traumas and losses. Vargas asks how she can come to terms with it, and Dr. Malloy notes that it's going to take time and support and she must be patient.

Jennings doesn't appear in the episode.

#4 - "Bound By Duty"

Flashfoward: At the hospital, Larsen and Burnett comfort a stressed Chapel and instruct him not to say anything until speaking to a lawyer or bureau rep, but they then see Vargas, who was stopping by and has overheard their conversation. As she demands to know what's going on, Larsen reveals there has been an incident. Vargas worries one of her colleagues is hurt; Larsen promise everyone is fine, but reveals they have an even bigger problem to deal. Chapel is seen looking at his right hand, shaking in fear...

24 hours earlier: Shane visits Vargas in the hospital, since it's been over two weeks since her injuries. She says her concussion is mild and her broken wrist and ankle are healing as she is wearing casts on them. Shane says that she was lucky since she could've gotten even worse injuries from falling from a moving plane. She then gets a call from Forbes, saying that several teenagers, including the daughter of an U.S. Army colonel, have fatally OD'd at a house in Melrose Hill and they are responding to it. Shane tells Vargas that she has to go since JACTF is responding to another set of overdoses; Vargas tells her to go check on Leo and see how he's doing afterwards, which Shane replies that she will as she heads out.

Meanwhile, at the house in Melrose Hill, Chapel, Burnett, Lee, Reese, Scott and Lowry examine the scene together, with McCandless, Solomon and Wright present. Costas believes the teenagers overdosed themselves the night before, while Shaw confirms that it is the same batches of laced oxy and poorly-cut heroin that the previous victims used. McCandless says the colonel, Jerry Rayder, wants answers over his daughter's death. McCandless takes Chapel and Lee to talk with Rayder, who admits that his daughter Gwen had fallen into serious drug use to cope with her resentment at him for his dedication of serving his country and missing out on many of her milestones. Chapel says that several of his SEAL comrades have dealt with the same thing with their families and McCandless notes that he's one of the lucky ones to not have family problems; but he too has seen servicemen and women's family members come to resent them foe their time away from them. Lee asks the colonel if he knew anyone whom Gwen would use drugs with; Rayder states that there was one guy she hung out with and suspects he was her boyfriend. After giving the general description, Riley eventually identifies the boyfriend's name as Kenny Voss. Shane remembers the guy's brother Chaz, whom she prosecuted on drug and arson charges. Forbes and Scalieri tells everyone that they should follow the two brothers. Jennings says there's nothing on the term "Patriot" through data analytics and that they might need to expand the search, but that will take some time. Solomon says that they are searching for it as well through the military personnel databases, but nothing has turned up in them either. Forbes suggests the task force tail the brothers to see if they will lead them whatever military personnel who might be involved in the drugs.

At one of Chaz's hangouts, Chapel, Burnett and McCandless stake the place out. Burnett notes that according to Lee and Shane, the Voss brothers are deeply involved in the drug trade, and very well might have the connection the task force need to find who is behind the fatal drugs. Then Chapel spots Chaz leaving and starting his car. They decide to tail him, with Lowry, Lee, Scott and Wright joining. As Chaz parks at an abandoned oil refinery, Chapel and the others follow. Larsen, Reese, Hobbs and Solomon then arrive moments later. Chapel and Burnett spot Chaz speaking to two men, whom McCandless recognize as Army Rangers. They see the same baggie of drugs with the logo. Chapel gives the order and the task force moves in to make the arrests. They see several more men and Wright says that they look like civilian dealers. They breach the refinery and every one aims their weapons at the dealers. As the Voss brothers, the two Army Rangers and a couple of civilian dealers try to get away, a few others are detained by Reese, Lowry, Larsen, Hobbs and Solomon. Chapel pursues one of them while Burnett, Scott, McCandless and Wright pursue the others.

As the JACTF members manage to apprehend and arrested almost all the dealers, Chapel finally corners his main suspect, one of the rogue Army Rangers named Craig Stamper, in an alley after a long chase. Stamper pulls a knife and tells Chapel that he doesn't know who is dealing with, threatening Chapel with the knife. Chapel tries to negotiate with him to surrender, but Stamper refuses. As he tries to stab Chapel, Stamper snarks that he doesn't have the guts to fight back. He makes another attempt to stab, but is knocked backwards with a roundhouse kick from Chapel. The two then gets in a scuffle, and Chapel manages to wrestle Stamper's knife out of his hand and kick it away from him. He then tries to arrest Stamper, but Stamper tackles him into the ground. The two wrestle for a while before Stamper kicks Chapel away. As they stand up, Stamper walks towards Chapel and laughs at his fighting style. Chapel responds by hitting Stamper in the chin with a swift uppercut, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head hard. He walks towards Stamper and starts to finally arrest him, but as he turns him over, he is horrified to see Stamper's head split open, bleeding heavily. Then, Larsen arrive at the alley and is shocked to see Chapel with the unconscious Stamper. Chapel explains that Stamper resisted arrest with a knife and he had to fight him off, before knocking him out with a single punch.

At the hospital, Stamper is treated in the ER. Everyone searches the alley for the knife, but nothing is found. Larsen and Burnett instruct a stressed Chapel not to say anything until speaking to a lawyer or bureau rep, but they then see Vargas, who is stopping by and has overheard their conversation. As she asks to know what's going on, Larsen reveals there has been an incident. Vargas worries one of her colleagues is hurt; Larsen promise everyone is fine, but reveals they have an even bigger problem to with before telling Vargas that Chapel got into a scuffle with one of the soldiers involved in the drug ring and he uppercut him, causing Stamper's head to head split open. Chapel says that Stamper had a knife, but they have yet to find it. Vargas tries to assure him that everything will be fine and they will find Stamper's knife. Grace then comes in and informs Larsen, Chapel and Burnett about Stamper's condition; she explains that he is stable but in a coma ans still critical. When Burnett asked Grace about if or when Stamper will wake up, Grace point out around 33 percent of people with severe head injuries do not survive, but some can make full recovery. However, she reveals the situation with Stamper is serious because he had a massive brain bleed in his head. As Chapel starts to fear the worst, Lowry and Hobbs arrived at the hospital and hear what happened with Stamper. As Lowry talks to Larsen and Burnett about the situation, Hobbs comforts a stressed Grace. Grace points out her job as nurse is very different than being a cop, explaining that she has responsibilities of trying to save the lives. Hobbs assures her that she is doing a great job before hugging her as she gets emotional. As Grace heads back to work, Hobbs notices Lowry has been watching him and her and inquires about it; Lowry explains that he hasn't even dated since his husband Percy was killed almost four years ago, having chosen to focus on their three children. Hobbs then suggests Lowry find a new man, Lowry isn't sure about getting back into the dating game.

Meanwhile, Jonathan calls Shane at work, ask for her some advice; he explains he and Chelsea have been lacking in their bedroom life as of late, but Shane tells her son that she is busy before hanging up. As Jonathan becomes annoyed at his mother, Emily gets his attention after having overheard his phone conversation with his mother. Jonathan reveals that he and Chelsea have hit a dry spell sexually and that he has tried to talk to Shane and Finn, but they are busy with work. Emily guesses they might also be embarrassed that they've been asked to answer such a question. She then suggests doing roleplay for Jonathan and Chelsea, which shocks her nephew, who isn't too sure about the idea. Emily notes that it's just a suggestion and roleplaying fantasies is a good way of snapping out of a dry spell.

At the hospital, Shane, Jennings, Scalieri and Forbes arrive. Chapel fills them in on what happened and on Stamper's condition. Jennings asks Chapel what type of knife Stamper had and where it went after Chapel kicked it away; he tells them everything he recalls. Forbes informs him that there's a good chance Internal Affairs will investigate and he is benched until further notice. Scalieri says that both LAPD and ATF's Internal Affairs Divisions will want to question him when they arrives. Shane advices Chapel advises him to hire a good lawyer or bureau rep. Then she stops by to see Vargas, who is back in her hospital room. Vargas asks how Chapel is doing and Shane explains it's been hard on him. Vargas continues to ask questions about the situation, but Shane thinks she shouldn't be worried and tries to assure her Stamper will recovered. However, Vargas points out Grace's concerns of Stamper's condition due to the amount of bleeding from his head and warns Shane that Stamper's chance to survive is unlikely. As Shane tries to brush off Vargas' concerns about the situation, Vargas reveals she overheard Larsen and Burnett's conversation with Chapel, and she believes they are trying to persuade Chapel to keep quiet about what happened until he sees representation.

Meanwhile, outside of hospital, Hobbs talks to Lowry about their earlier conversation. Hobbs remember Larsen, Scalieri and Scott mentioned about Lowry seeing businessman Louis Acosta whom Lowry met in Dirga Manor months ago. Lowry admits that he did plan to call Acosta, but he become distracted of recent events and lost Acosta's number. He is upset that he lost a chance of finding new love, but Hobbs advises him to not give up. Lowry quickly change the subject and asked Hobbs about his feeling for Grace, questioning if she's is right woman for Hobbs, given that he was torn between her and Della before. Hobbs reveals he turned Della down and he and Grace are giving things another try. However, he admits that he is scared of ruining things with her, like during the last time that they were together. Elsewhere, Shane confronts Larsen and Burnett about their earlier conversation with Chapel. Larsen reveals he and Burnett was trying to calm Chapel down and convince him to not say anything about what happened until he speaks to a lawyer, confirming Vargas's theory. Shane is upset that the two tries to persuade Chapel to keep his colleagues in the dark, but Larsen and Burnett both deny this, citing that Chapel is not in a right frame of mind at the moment and he could say something that could be used against him. At the same time, Jennings gets Forbes' attention and tells him that Manning has called and revealed that his team has looked up Stamper's past but they couldn't find anything illegal. As Forbes suggests the JACTF investigate Stamper's past themselves, Jennings reveals they got an even bigger problem to deal with, revealing there is a witness who claims they saw Chapel trying to kill Stamper deliberately. As Jennings tries to find Chapel in the hospital, Forbes interrupts Shane, Larsen and Burnett's argument and wants to know where he is. Scalieri then comes in again and reveals that she has seen a police car outside of the hospital.

Meanwhile, Chapel heads to the hospital parking lot and share moment to himself near his car. He then calls his wife Annette and tells her that he loves her and their children. As Chapel hangs up, Lowry gets his attention and comforts him over recent events. Chapel says that he didn't plan to hurt Stamper and that he was acting in self-defense, but Lowry assures him that his colleagues believe him. Lowry then answers a call from Larsen who wants to know Chapel's whereabouts. As Lowry informs Larsen, armed LAPD police officers arrive at car park and order Chapel to get out of his car. Shane, Larsen, Jennings and Scalieri run to the car park as Chapel follows the officers' instructions and exits the car. Shane and Jennings argue with the officers' actions, but LAPD Sergeant Barry Haines informs them that a warrant has been issued for Chapel's arrest and orders his officers to arrest him of attempted murder. They handcuff Chapel and take him to one of their cars as Shane, Larsen, Jennings, Scalieri and Lowry watch on in shock.

Meanwhile, Chelsea arrived at Shane's house with Willow. As she gets Willow settled, she hears noises in the bathroom before heading upstairs. She then walks into Jonathan and Emily dressed up in clothing, and asks what is going on. Jonathan quickly explains to Chelsea that Emily has been setting up role-playing to help them to spice up their bedroom life. Chelsea tells Jonathan that she had been looking after his little sister all day and she can't think of sex right now, but Emily promise Chelsea that she will looks after Willow while Jonathan and her take some personal time in the bedroom. Surprised by this, Chelsea agrees and Jonathan leads her to his bedroom.

At the end, Shane, Larsen, Scalieri, Jennings, Burnett, Lowry and Hobbs are at hospital canteen, talking after Chapel's arrest. Jennings promise Forbes will speak to Manning and they will sort out things to get Chapel out of trouble, but Burnett points out about how the situation has become complicated because a witness has come forward and lied. Vargas then arrives at the cafe and is shocked to see her colleagues. As she is informed about Chapel's arrest, Vargas believes there is more going on than they realize since Stamper is involved in the drug ring, likely with help from someone from the CIA, not tot mention with someone claiming that Chapel tried to murder Stamper, the knife missing, and such. She theorizes the ones behind the ring are covering their tracks and using Chapel's situation to their advantage. Forbes then arrives at the cafe and reveals Manning and Internet Affairs won't allow them to get involved because of IAD's still being under the microscope by the brass due to the corruption that leaked over from Santana and Anti-Crime. Vargas then expresses her theories about the current situation. Forbes agrees with her, but notes that they don't have any solid proof; they need more evidence that proves all this legally. He also reminds them of the recent mistrust of L.A. law enforcement after the corruption scandal, which does nothing in their favor. Burnett suggests that they work covertly and find evidence to prove Chapel acted in self-defense. Scalieri says that Internal Affairs will not allow it, but Vargas notes that someone is trying to railroad the investigation and the task force by using Chapel as a scapegoat, which Shane and Burnett agree with. Forbes says that even if it is true, they need iron clad proof that will supersede Chapel's actions. Jennings suggest that they should find the so-called witness and find out what they said and find out if anyone else was in the alley when it happened. Forbes tells everyone that that they are going to need to work covertly for the time being to prove Chapel's innocence and find the drug smuggling ring.

#5 - "The Day After"

The day after his arrest, Chapel relives the whole incident with Stamper in his mind as he waits to be interrogated by LAPD detectives.

Meanwhile, LAPD Chief Simmons arrives at the JACTF HQ and speaks to Forbes, Jennings, Shane, Larsen, Reese, Burnett, Manning, Blue and Addison about Chapel's situation. Forbes angrily confronts Simmons over LAPD's decision to arrest Chapel, but Simmons reminds them of the witness who claims they saw Chapel deliberately trying to kill Stamper. As everybody expresses their own opinion of the situation. Jennings and Burnett defend Chapel's actions, explaining the drug raid at Chaz Voss's hangout and the arrests of nearly all the dealers. Simmons wants to know if the dealers arrested mentioned Stamper's involvement but Reese reveals some of them are refusing to talk, while others are denied that Stamper was involved in the deal. Shane then shares Vargas's theory, suggesting someone is trying to railroad the investigation and set Chapel up as a scapegoat, and they're likely paying this witness to lie about Chapel trying to kill Stamper. Simmons, however, isn't convinced and reveals the witness shared share a video of the incident with the police. He plays the video for the others, which shows Chapel attacking Stamper and knocking him out with a single punch, but Larsen figures that the video was edited, which Jennings concurs after noting the video switching between Chapel's movements too often and too fast, meaning that certain moments, likely Stamper's, were cut and Chapel's were pasted together, though they'll need an official analysis and confirmation. As Simmons leave, Jennings, Reese and Burnett talks about getting their hand on the video but Shane warns them that they could risks their career if they goes against LAPD's order and reminds them what happened with Anti Crime and Santana. Forbes speaks to Manning and Blue about Internal Affairs' investigation of the incident, but Manning reveals that they've been trying to find additional footage of the fight, but with no luck. Addison also warns if Stamper does wake up remembers the fight, and is able to talk, chances are he will corroborate the lies to get himself off, and if he dies, the truth will die with him and Chapel will most likely be left to face the consequences.

Meanwhile, Lowry and Lee arrived at the hospital. Lee refuses to believe Chapel would hurt Stamper deliberately, but Lowry believes the truth will come out. They then speak to Grace, who tells them Stamper's condition is still the same. They see Stamper's family visiting him at their bedside, but Lee quickly recognize Stamper's father as Frank Stamper, a decorated Army Major whose daughter Shannon is a DEA agent that Lee has worked with in the past. She tells Lowry and Grace this information and Lowry hopes that they can use Lee and the Major's prior rappaport to keep things peaceful. Then Grace sees a woman angrily arguing with a nurse. As the woman leaves the hospital, Grace approaches talks to a nurse, who reveals the woman was furious with the nurse for she calling her boyfriend againsts her wishes. At the same time, Delgado and Ellis visit Vargas at her hospital bedside. She asks them about Leo; Delgado tells her that Neve, Angela and Eve is keeping a close eye on him. Ellis asks if Vargas has spoken to her father recently, but Vargas admits that hasn't had the chance to, explaining that she has been focus on her recovery. Ellis informs that Diego's prison arranged for home visits for him to visit Leo. As Delgado asks Vargas if she's OK, she reveals that she haven't been herself recently and blames her state of mind for her fall. Delgado tells Vargas it wasn't her fault that she ends up in hospital, but Vargas admits she had lost her focus prior to her fall. He reminds her that she slipped and fell off a plane's roof; as he comforts her, Scalieri is shown outside of Vargas's hospital room, having overheard their conversation.

Meanwhile, Grace follows the female patient named Elaine Kotter to hospital parking lot. She asks Elaine about her boyfriend, but she denies she's seeing anybody. She answers a phone call from unknown person, telling them to leave her alone or her worst secret will be exposed. Elaine tells Grace that she made a mistake with somebody years ago which cost her everything and fears for her safety because he knows said secret. Grace tells Elaine about the JACTF and explains they will protect her, but she warns Grace her situation is very complicated. Then, a masked motorcyclist drives through the hospital parking lot, draws a machine gun, aims at Elaine and opens fire at her, hitting her repeatedly as Grace ducks for coves. As the unknown assailant flees the scene, Grace tries to help Elaine but she already passes away. Later, Larsen, Reese, Lee and Hobbs arrive at hospital car park and investigate the crime scene. As Lee and Hobbs questioned Grace about what happened, Larsen and Reese takes a look over Elaine's body, finding multiple bullet holes. Reese struggles to understand on why the shooter used a machine gun for drive-by shooting, but Hobbs points out machine gun is one of the deadliest weapons and can cause up to thousands of casualties. Reese then find a photo of Elaine's scan, confirming she was pregnant while Larsen finds her broken phone. Later, Reese, Larsen, Hobbs and Lee are in the hospital's CCTV room where they watch the footage of the shooting. Larsen notices Elaine was speaking to somebody on the phone moments before her death. Hobbs reveals what Grace told him; Elaine was involved with somebody who could take everything from her. He points out a nurse called Elaine's "boyfriend" which cause her to freak out at the hospital. Reese and Larsen looks at Elaine's phone as Reese asked Larsen if the task force can able to hack the broken phone. Larsen isn't too sure, noting that a broken cell phone could be very difficult, but he is willing to let the analysts give it a try.

Meanwhile, Chapel is grateful to see Wilson turn up in the LAPD interrogated room. She reveals Shane called her for a favor since the JACTF has so far been unable to find a decent lawyer and promises Chapel she will help him out, but she can't represent him temporarily because the D.A.'s office makes it a conflict of interest and the task force has eyes on them as part of Simmons's corruption clean up. She also warns Chapel there us strong evidence against him, but assures him the JACTF is searching for the truth. Then, two LAPD's detectives named Mitch Groves and Tora Grimshaw enter and questions Chapel about the incident with Stamper. He explains Stamper refuses to stand down when he chased him down the alley, then pulled the knife and tried to stab him. Chapel managed to fight back before knocking Stamper down with a single punch. When he saw how bad Stamper was injured, he started life-saving measures immediately. Wilson questions the detectives about the unidentified witness's claims of see Chapel attempting to deliberately kill Stamper, suggests the story is missing key details and the witness was paid to lie, but Groves reveals the witness was with other people when it happened and they are willing to back up the story. Wilson notes they all could've been paid off a collective. At the same time, Riley copies the video with Chapel and Stamper onto a portable hard drive. She then goes over the video and notices something off about it: the movements behind it don't fit to some of Chapel's story. She and Fox run through some programs and discover that the video has clever deepfake programming within it; particularly the background of it was added later on, indicating that the video is a forgery.

Later, Wilson speaks to Shane over the phone, revealing there could be more than one witness; they were with the main witness and are willing to back up their story. Wilson share two theories; the witness spent the night with friends or they all were paid off as a collective. Shane tells Wilson to get Chapel released, but she warns her it may not be easy because of the evidence against him. As Wilson hangs up, she saw Groves speaking to a mysterious woman. She then bumps into Finn who wants to know why Wilson is at LAPD HQ. Wilson tells Finn about Chapel being arrested and interrogated by LAPD detectives. Finn refuses to believe Chapel would attack a suspect deliberately and figures the JACTF will find a way to clear Chapel's name. Wilson then asks him for a favor. Elsewhere, Larsen and Reese visit Elaine's parents and inform them of their daughter's death. As they reel over the news, Larsen tells Elaine's parents about her last day; they admit they saw her the day prior when she had dinner with them and she acts as a normal person. Larsen then tells the Kotters that Elaine was pregnant at the time of her death. They are shocked to learn that their youngest daughter was pregnant as Elaine's father explains he and his wife knew nothing about it. When Reese asks to know about Elaine's personal life, her mother reveals Elaine was a very private person and didn't often let her parent know what she was up to. She also reveals that Elaine was staying with roommates at an apartment and she believes they might know her better than her own parents. As Elaine's mother give out the names of her roommates, Larsen asks if Elaine has ever been in trouble in the past, but her father denies this, citing that she was a good kid.

Later, Larsen and Reese arrive at the apartment where Elaine was staying and speak to her two roommates named Dante Olivera and Tina Hopkins. As they are informed of Elaine's death, Larsen asks Dante and Tina their alibis for when Elaine was killed; Dante says he was out with his boyfriend, and Tina was at her supermarket job. When Larsen asks if Elaine was seeing somebody, Dante reveals Elaine wasn't into dating all that much, as she'd had bad luck with men in the past. He also revealed Elaine was starting to work for the law firm, Nance, Ziggler and Associates, as a new attorney. Two weeks before her death, Elaine quit the firm for "personal reasons". Dante give Larsen and Reese details about the firm. As Larsen and Reese leaves, Dante is annoyed with himself for not telling Larsen and Reese the truth about Elaine, but Tina reminds him that they are protecting Elaine, not wanting people to shame her after her death.

Meanwhile, Chapel's wife Annette arrives at JACTF HQ and speak with Forbes, Burnett and Jennings about the situation with her husband. They tell her that who ever is behind this is gunning for the entire task force. Annette is furious that JACTF is not doing enough to get her husband out, but Forbes promise her that they are dealing with it and she just needs to be patient. At the same time, Shane received a call from Wilson who tells her the name of the witness as Ana Padilla. When Shane become curious on how Wilson finds out the witness' identity, Wilson admits she asked Finn to look up the witness on Groves and Grimshaw's files. Wilson also reveals she saw Groves speaking to Ana outside of the station. Shane asked Wilson about other witnesses; Wilson says that she is looking into them yet. Riley then arrives at Shane's office and reveals what she finds at the video with Chapel and Stamper; she figures that it'll be more than enough to break the frame job against Chapel, and Shane decides to tell the others. Also, Scalieri finally arrives at JACTF HQ; Forbes confronts her about her tardiness, but she informs him that she had trouble to find babysitter for her twins. As Forbes heads back into his office, Scalieri calls a mysterious person on her phone as she requests the incident involving Vargas at the airport to be investigated.

Meanwhile, Larsen and Reese arrived outside of Nance, Ziggler & Associates office as they speaks to Lee who reveals information about law firm that she find. Lee reveals the firm is owned and run by the well-connected Nance and Ziggler families, and that it has lots of top lawyers and judicial and political connections. When they enter, Larsen and Reese meet Toby Nance, the youngest son of the current generation of Nances, and question him about Elaine. Toby says Elaine was good and honest woman who loved her job and want to help other people. Toby then realizes Larsen is a LAPD detective and asks him if he want to know about the missing money. This confused Larsen at first, until Toby reveals Elaine was fired two weeks ago; he explains money was missing at law firm's account and evidence pointed directly to Elaine who denied any wrongdoing. Toby's father and older brother threatened to come after Elaine if she didn't return their money without getting police involved. Larsen then informs Toby that Elaine was murdered and gunned down at hospital carpark. Reese notices Toby's strange reaction of the news about Elaine's death, suggesting he is hiding something. She tries to question him further, but they are interrupted by Toby's father Andrew who orders Larsen and Reese to his office. As they enter into the office, Larsen and Reese also meets with Toby's other son David and his wife Karen. Larsen and Reese questions Andrew, David and Karen their alibi for when Elaine was killed; Andrew reveals that the he and David were in a meeting regarding making a new associate partner. David confirms this and Karen says she was out getting her hair done and the salon she was at can confirm. When Larsen asks about Elaine stealing money from the firm's account, Andrew tells him that Elaine Thad skimmed it in small amounts over the time that she'd worked there, which is why it took them so long to discover the theft Larsen and Reese continue to ask questions, but Karen defends her family and their innocence. She believes Elaine had come clean out of her 'agonizing guilt'. As Larsen and Reese head out, they share their suspicious about Andrew Nance and his family being involved in Elaine's death. Reese, however, notes that they need hard evidence before making any arrest. Reese then recieve call from Lee who revealed that he located the shop where machine gun; same gun which killed Elaine was brought.

Meanwhile, Shane sees Scalieri speaking to two investigators at her office and confronts her. Scalieri refuses to tell her anything first, but is forced to come clean when Shane decides to tell Forbes: she believes Vargas wasn't telling the whole truth about her fall. Shane reminds Vargas says she slipped, but Scalieri thinks Vargas is covering up and wasn't in the right state of mind. Shane defends Vargas's side of the story and points out she isn't like Thomas. Horrified about Shane's comment, Scalieri snaps that Thomas has nothing to do with the situation, but Shane counters that he has everything to do with it. The shouting of their argument attracts Forbes's attention, and he confronts Shane and Scalieri. Shane assures him everything is fine and they've got this handled. As Forbes heads back to his office, Shane tells Scalieri to drop the investigation, but she refuses. Later, Shane informs Vargas about Scalieri's investigation into her fall. She suggests having the investigation dropped, but Vargas advises Shane to stay away and reminds her about their bigger troubles with Chapel and the opioids case; she notes that she will talk to Scalieri about her actions. Elsewhere, Grace speaks to a nurse named Verna who was treating Elaine hours before her death. Verna revealed Elaine was found unconscious with a head injury and somebody left her outside the hospital. Grace later goes to CCTV room where she saw an unknown driver pushes an unconscious Elaine out of their car outside the hospital. Hobbs then arrives and finds Grace watching the footage. The two struggle to catch a license plate number as the driver drove off in the hurry. Hobbs expresses confusion, believing that the mystery driver and the shooter may be different people, explaining the shooter was waiting for Elaine in the moments before her death, while the driver never returned to check if Elaine was alive or not, but Grace isn't too sure about Hobbs' suggestion.

Meanwhile, Wilson calls Shane and tells her that she has managed to get bail for Chapel. As Shane expresses relief, Burnett informs Forbes, Lowry and Jennings that he find Ana Padilla's address as he suggests that he speak to her. Lowry warns about the consequences of speaking to the witness, but Forbes reminds Chapel's future is at stake and they need to get ahead of things while they have the chance. He sends Burnett and Jennings to Ana's house, just as Riley arrive and share her discovery about the video: there are definite signs of deepfake tech but she needs a little more time to confirm; Forbes gives her until the end of the day. Later, Burnett and Jennings arrive at Ava's address where they knocked the door, but nobody answer it. Jennings and Burnett then hears a woman scream inside of the house. Jennings quickly breaks the door and he and Burnett enter the house only to find everything trashed. They head to the kitchen where they find a terrified Ana in the kitchen, pointing the knife towards Jennings and Burnett. As the two order Ana to put the knife down, Ava yells out and scream for help. Then, two men arrive at Ana's house, confronting Jennings and Burnett who try to explain why they are here, but the men refuse to listen to them. A fight breaks out, and Burnett and Jennings kick the men out of Ana's house and hold them at gunpoint as the police arrive and more neighbors gets involved in the argument. Jennings and Burnett tries to defend themselves but Ana accuses them of being the ones who assaulted her after breaking into her house, with the two men backing her story. Despite their protests, the police disarm and detain Jennings and Burnett for questioning.

Later, Forbes and Shane visit Burnett and Jennings, who are being held in interrogation rooms. As Forbes demand to know what happened with Ana, Jennings assures him that he and Burnett never touched her, believing somebody warned her of their arrival. Shane informs the two that Chapel has already been released and promises they'll get them out too. Shortly after, Shane talks to Finn about Groves and Grimshaw; the detectives of the investigation of Chapel's assault on Craig. He reveals Groves and Grimshaw were forcefully transferred to IAD from Vice after one too many complaints of brutality and theft, and they're both quite bitter about it all. Shane reveals Wilson saw Groves speaking to Ana outside of the station and shares her suspicion that he could be involved in the plot against Chapel. Finn warns Shane not to go after other detectives, reminding her about what happened with the Anti-Crime situation, but Shane points out Chapel's future hangs in the balance and refuses to let her colleagues be framed; she decides to go straight to Manning himself about this.

Meanwhile, Reese meets up with Scott and Lee outside of the gun shop. They speak to the shop owner, Bert Macum, who shows Reese, Scott and Lee different weapons that he has provided. As Reese, Scott and Lee looks over the weapons, Bert becomes particularly impressed with their knowledge of guns. When Reese asks Bert about any customers who purchased the same model machine gun that killed Elaine, he reveals a man turns up at the shop and suggests a weapon that is a powerful to kill. Reese shows the images of Andrew, David and Toby to Bert, but he denies that any of them came into the shop. He explains the man looked younger than the three Nances and his accent sounded like he was from a different country. As the three leave of the shop, Reese receives a call from a worried Tina who tells her that there are men at her and Dante's apartment. As she hides in her bedroom, Tina admits she and Dante weren't truthful about Elaine in their earlier conversation. She explains Elaine got herself in a serious situations and started making bad decisions which cost her her life. Tina is horrified to hear the men trying to break into her bedroom, before hiding under her bed. Elsewhere, Larsen arrives outside of the hospital where he speaks with to Hobbs and Grace about what they found in the CCTV footage. Hobbs believes that at least people are involved in Elaine's murder. As he agrees with Hobbs' suggestion, Larsen figures one of the Nance family could have hired somebody to kill Elaine, but Grace isn't convinced and points out that Larsen and Hobbs doesn't have any evidence. Larsen then answers a call from Reese, who informs him about the situation with Tina. As Larsen heads to his car, Grace tries to warn Hobbs that she believes there is more to story about Elaine's death, but Hobbs warns her to stay out of it. Larsen later arrives at Tina's apartment while Lee and Scott search for the men and Reese comforts an upset Tina; Lee reveals that the men got away before they arrived.

The next day, Larsen and Reese question Tina at JACTF HQ about the men who broke into her apartment. She explains they were looking for something that Elaine had. Larsen and Reese suggests the men might've looking for the law firm's missing money but Tina reveals that Elaine was involved in a major criminal case weeks before her death; she was David Nance's assistant while he was defending a client's son who allegedly caused a massive accident while street racing. Dante tells Hobbs, Lee and Scott what happened to Tina and is worried the men will come after him and her again, but Lee assures Dante that the men won't. Then Toby suddenly shows up at HQ, explaining he has something to share. Larsen tells Toby that the team know Elaine's involvement about in the street racing case but Toby revealed that he want to share something else and shows Larsen, Reese, Hobbs and Lee a DVD. Larsen plays it and it shows Elaine in her room; she reveals she wants to open up about her troubles: Elaine talks about her involvement in the street-racing case; she handled David's files, keeping him on track during the case. She admits she regrets taking the case because the client turned out to be guilty and they helped him get off; she wanted out of the case, but Andrew threatened to fire her if she pulled out. Then Elaine reveals she and David had had an affair for months; she explains things got serious between them, and at one point, David promised he'd leave his wife, but this turned out to be a lie. After months of stringing her along, Elaine reveals things turned sour between her and David before she called it off. After her affair with David ended, Elaine tried to resume her normal life but then one night, a man came to her apartment and violently raped her. Elaine refuses to names her attacker, believing he would manipulative the situation so that the blame point directly at her, before briefly breaking down and lamenting her bad decisions. Weeks later, Elaine learned out she was pregnant, but refused to say who the father was. She admits she was scared for her safety as she began to receive threats, and admits she stole money from law firm's account in order to finance an escape, but was caught and fired her job. She refused to give money back and went into hiding for a while. However, Andrew and David knew where Elaine was staying and threatened to ruin her life if she didn't return their money. Elaine points out she is not a bad person, just someone who was pulled into bad situations. Larsen asks Toby where he got the DVD; Toby admits he found it in the house where Elaine was staying, and also reveals when he arrived at the house, it was clean. He admits he tried to find Elaine before his father and brother did, but was unsuccessful. Larsen asks Toby for David's whereabouts; Toby reveals he is in a meeting with a client. He tries to protest David's innocence, but Larsen believes he may know something about Elaine's murder.

As Larsen, Reese, Scott, Lee and Hobbs head out to detain David for questioning, Shane arrives at JACTF HQ with Wilson and Manning. Manning speaks to Forbes and Lowry about the situation involving Chapel, Burnett and Jennings; he is trying to arrange release for the latter two and has spoken to the former, noting he is trying to keep his head down. Lowry suggested to find a way to speak to Ana, but Manning warns the task force to stay away from her, believing she may make things worse by trying to set up the rest of the JACTF as corrupt. He also points out Ana may be involved with somebody who is "spying" on the investigation, and who might be looking to take down, or at least, discredit the task force. Wilson tries to argue against Manning's advice to not speak to the witness but Manning points out there are another way to work out Ana's story is false without even contacting her or tipping off the leak who tipped her off trying to manipulate the situation again. As Manning suggested to find the mole, Forbes suggests that they might be in Manning's division, which he can't believe since he spent months cleaning up after Salamone and Anti-Crime's mess. When Lowry asked Manning about Groves and Grimshaw, he admits that he begrudgingly took them from Vice in the hopes that working in IAD for a while would straighten them out; Wilson points out that it might have just incited them to become dirty. Considering this, Manning decides to keep a personal eye on both of them.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Frank Stamper speaks to Grace about his son's condition at the hospital, but she warns him that the doctors have said is too early to bring him out of the coma, explaining the serious details of Stamper's injuries. Frank can only stand and continue to look over his son. Then, as she heads out for lunch, Grace sees a man snooping around an empty hospital bedside. She angrily confronts the man, who claims that he lost his charger when he was at the hospital last night. She responds that no charger has been found, but he should report the issue to the nurse station. As the man heads off, Grace realized that the man was the one who fatally shot Elaine outside the hospital, having recognized him from the CCTV footage. She follows the man as he leave the hospital, and overhears the man's conversation as he talks to unknown person; telling him he can't find it at the hospital. The man drives off, without knowing Grace has followed him. Elsewhere, Larsen, Reese, Scott, Lee and Hobbs arrives at at Nance, Ziggler, & Associates main offices where David is meeting with a client and arrests him for Elaine's rape and murder. Later, Larsen and Reese questions David about Elaine; he denies raping or murdering Elaine but Larsen reveals the team knows about his affair with Elaine. David admits it was a mistake and he loves Karen, but he does still care about Elaine despite what happened. Reese then asked David about street-racing case; he revealed the client was the son of a family friend and had a problem with drinking as well as racing. He admits it wasn't his decision to get involved of the case; his father Andrew wanted him and Karen to get involved since they are the among the best at the firm. At the same time, Hobbs receives a call from Vargas, who informs him that she saw Grace fleeing out of the hospital in distress and a hurry. Vargas admits she tries to follow, Grace but she quickly sped off. As she suggests Grace is going to pick Nathan, Hobbs reveals Nathan doesn't finish school until later. At the same time, she continues to follow the same man from the hospital until they arrive outside a warehouse. She sees the man, Preston Sims, meet up with Andrew and his men. It revealed Sims is a brother of client from Andrew and Elaine's street-racing case. They enter the warehouse and Sims demands money for which Andrew had hired him to kill Elaine. As Andrew gives him the money, Sims warns him the police is snooping for answers, but Andrew points out he isn't scared of the police, blaming Elaine for causing trouble for his family and law firms. Sims asked Andrew if he knew about Elaine's pregnancy. Andrew opens up about confronting Elaine on the day before her death; she told him that she was pregnant with his child and threatened to expose the truth about what he did to her, confirming that Andrew is Elaine's rapist. Andrew subsequently violently attacked Elaine and later dumped her outside of the hospital and left her for dead. The next day, Andrew discovered Elaine was still alive and ordered Sims to go and finish the job.

Meanwhile, Hobbs interrupts Forbes's conversation with Shane, Wilson, Lowry and Manning about their plan to find the leak in Chapel's investigation. Forbes tries to tell him that it is not a good time, but Hobbs reveals Grace may have put herself in danger, believing she has chased after someone who may be involved in Elaine's death. As Forbes tries to quell Hobbs's worries, Lee gets everybody's attention and show them the live video footage from Grace's social media account; it shows Andrew and Sims talking about their involvements of Elaine's death. As Hobbs and Forbes are horrified at this, everybody struggle to work out the location until Wilson quickly recognize the location as an abandoned warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, where a homeless encampment used to be. At the same time, Grace continues to film Andrew and Sims's confession, but then one of Andrew's man finds and confronts her. As she quickly puts her phone away, Grace reveals she is Andrew's doctor and she want to find him because he left his medicine in the hospital. The man isn't convinced of Grace's story, but she explains some people don't like the experiences of being hospital; thus she is making a "house call". The man then gets Andrew and Sims's attention as he brings Grace to them. As he leaves, Sims quickly recognizes Grace when he saw her at the hospital while Andrew confronts her over her being there, but she informs that she is just a doctor and doesn't want any trouble. She then opens up about tragically losing a patient to a crime of violence. Grace tells Andrew and Sims that her 'patient' was pregnant at the time of her death. As she blame herself for failing to save her 'patient', Andrew brutally mocks her comments, but Grace reminds him that her 'patient' was pregnant. Andrew argue with Grace, citing that she doesn't know anything about her patient's personal issues which confirms to Grace that he knew Elaine. Before anything can be said or done, the JACTF bursts into the warehouse. Andrew quickly grabs Grace and flees in a hurry while Sims and Andrew's other men face off with the JACTF and a shooting breaks out. Sims and three of the men are killed and the remaining two quickly surrender, while Hobbs, Lee, and Scott pursue Andrew and Grace.

As they head to a busy traffic street, Andrew tells Grace that he knew her "patient" as Elaine and they had history. She then asks Andrew why Sims was at the hospital; Andrew admits he sent Sims to find the DVD on which Elaine revealed her secrets, figuring that she might've left it there before her death. When Grace asked Andrew about what happened between him and Elaine, he denies that he's the bad guy of the situation, claiming that things got out of hand between them. Andrew then sees Grace's phone, pulls it out of her pocket and realizes she has filmed his and Sims' exchange about Elaine's death. Grace tells Andrew that Elaine deserve justice, but he badmouths Elaine, blaming her for ruining his family's lives and name by having an affair with his married son. She snaps back that Elaine didn't deserve to be raped or murdered, and implores him to turn himself in and plead for a lighter sentence, but he refuses to listen. Reese and Lee then appear and aim their weapons at Andrew, who attempts to use Grace as a hostage. But before he can, Hobbs comes out of nowhere, tackles him down and beats him up before arresting him.

Later, at the hospital, Vargas, Larsen, Forbes and Hobbs check on Grace who is relieved that Andrew has been caught and Elaine will get justice. As Hobbs shares a moment with Grace, Vargas and Larsen bump into Scalieri who tells them that David has been released, while Andrew has been charged with Elaine's rape and ordering her murder. Scalieri then talks to Vargas about her fall at the airport; Vargas tells her that she slipped off the plane's roof because she lost her footing as she was about to jump into Delgado's car. As Vargas insisted there is nothing more about it, Scalieri realizes that Shane has already spoke to her about the case being investigated; she tries to advise Vargas not to let Shane boss her around and speak for her. Vargas tries to defend Shane, but Scalieri argues back and believe Shane should mind her own business. Then, Shane arrives and overheard Scalieri's conversation with Vargas, and angrily confronts the former for her comments against her. Scalieri tells Shane that Vargas is a grown woman and can make her decisions, doesn't need a sidekick siding her. Shane is furious with Scalieri, pointing out she has known Vargas longer than her and that Scalieri being a hypocrite with her recent behavior. As Larsen and Forbes intervenes, Shane and Scalieri continue to argue as the later orders the former to get out of her face. Vargas then angrily lashes out towards both of them, confronting them over their argument. Both try to talks to Vargas, but she orders them to leave her alone and explain she need a break from all of the arguing. As Vargas heads back to her hospital room, Shane tells Larsen to stop Scalieri from interfering with Vargas's career, but Larsen defends Scalieri and believes she and Vargas should sort things out themselves without Shane being involved; he also advises Shane to look after herself, instead of worrying about everyone else all the time.

Meanwhile, Lowry, Reese and Manning speaks to Burnett and Jennings, who reveals they are still being investigating by the LAPD due of Ana's complaint against them. Manning promises Riley's discovery about the video with Chapel and Stamper contains deepfake footage may clear Chapel's name, but he warns about the impact of the situation; he's dealing with more corrupt detectives and lying witnesses, and all this could be coming from a third party. He advises Lowry, Reese, Burnett and Jennings to stick to and follow the evidence, and not to get in contact with any of the other witnesses or anybody else who may have a connection to the case. When Lowry questions why, Manning expresses his worries that one of the witness could twisted the story, make things complicated for the case and Chapel if a member of JACTF speaks to them like Ana has. As everybody agrees with Manning's instructions, Reese asked him about his plan to deal with Groves and Grimshaw; he reveals he and Blue are working on a way to catch them both, with full backing from Chief Simmons. Elsewhere, Shane returned home to her family, who are having dinner. Gabrielle and Emily suggests Shane to eat, but she tells them that she is not hungry, and goes went upstairs. Finn follows and asks Shane if she is OK; she promises her husband that she is fine before heading to her bedroom. Then, Shane decides to call Vargas but she quickly change her mind and sent a text message instead so as not to stress Vargas again after what happened with Scalieri; in the text, she apologizes for her argument with Scalieri and getting Vargas caught in the middle before sending it. Seconds later, Shane receives a reply from Vargas, who says she accepts her apology and needs to rest.

At the end, Reese and Lowry visits Chapel and his family; Lowry give Chapel updates about the case, but warns him about the repercussions of the investigation, which could affect Chapel's career. Then a brick gets thrown through the front window. Reese, Lowry and Chapel rush outside to find a group of masked people who confront Chapel about his attack on Stamper, throwing stuff at him and filming him on their phones. Reese and Lowry chase after the gang, but quickly lose them, while Chapel heads inside, feeling shaken over recent events...

#6 - "Judge Not"

Nearly fully recovered from her accident, Vargas attends another therapy session with Dr. Malloy. When Malloy asked Vargas for update about her progress, she reveals she has spending time in injury rehabilitation since her release from hospital, and she is set to return to work in the coming days. She also reveals Leo is seeing a psychologist and with the prison's permission, their father Diego has been allowed to visit them at home twice a week. Malloy then asks Vargas about her personal and work lives. Uneasily, Vargas reveals one of her colleague has been investigated after an incident with a suspect and two others aren't on speaking terms with each other over her accident at the airport. Malloy points out ways to recover from a traumatic event, but Vargas points out her situation is very different than before and she is worried about being “trapped in trauma" for the rest of her life. After the session, Vargas headed for her car, when spots a young teenage girl running out of a store and being grabbed by someone. She rushes to the girl's aid and pushes the man off of her. Then she throws him to the ground, kicks him in the face with her good foot and draws and aims her gun at him. Then she calls the attempted abduction in.

Later, as the LAPD secures the area, Larsen and Hobbs speak with Vargas about what happened. The girl is revealed to be Barbara Givens, the daughter of Judge Glenn Givens, who is currently preceding the high-profile trial of crime boss Randolph Snyder on racketeering, extortion, bribery, murder, kidnapping, arson and drug dealing. Vargas suspects the attempted kidnapper to be one of Snyder's associates. Judge Givens asks them to provide protection for his daughter and prove Snyder's involvement if possible, which they agree to do. Later, back at JACTF HQ, in interrogation, Vargas and Larsen question the kidnapper, but he refuses to cooperate. Lee reveals the suspect is Oswald Benedict, a criminal-for-hire; Vargas believes that Snyder hired Benedict to kidnapped Barbara. Shane points out that they need more proof to verify that and Riley says that she'll look into Benedict's financial background. As Lee and Lowry take first shift to guard Barbara, Forbes tells everyone they are shorthanded with the situation with Chapel, the opioids case and other matters and advises them to divide the workload. Jennings comes in and says that the grand jury hearing on Chapel is about to start. Forbes reveals whom the AUSA is: Tobias Dutton, which displeases Jennings since Dutton has had it in for him for breaking his nose and putting a dent on his career for that serial pedophile case years back.

At the grand jury hearing, Dutton makes the case to prosecute Chapel, citing that he acted recklessly and in anger and caused Stamper grievous injuries, while Wilson defends Chapel, citing that he acting in self-defense to. Wilson makes her case about the deepfake video to the judge, Elvis Gates, pointing out the flaws in it and even independent investigators agree that the video is a deepfake. Dutton argues for the credibility of the video, also noting that there are witnesses to support it, but to no avail, as now the alleged witnesses' credibility is in question as well. He also points out that Stamper has been in a coma since the incident and warns his recovery could take ages, if he recovers at all, citing him remaining comatose could be a sign that he may never wake up. After hearing arguments from Dutton and Wilson, Gates labels the video as fake and suppresses it, much to the chagrin of Dutton.

As Vargas checks in on Barbara on the phone, she says that she hopes that she is still safe. After she finishes the call, Scalieri looks on and walks away. Then, Shane comes over to Vargas and suggests that she should return home since she is not 100% ready to return to work yet. Vargas agrees and says that she'll be back the next day, and to keep her updated on the case. As she leaves, Scalieri comes to Shane and asks about why Vargas was in the area where Barbara was nearly kidnapped. Shane only states that Vargas is in therapy and she shouldn't be watching her every move. Scalieri vehemently argues that Vargas hasn't been right in a while. Shane refuses to hear it, citing that the corruption case and Thomas's death took a lot out of everyone, especially Vargas, but warns that Scalieri shouldn't be watching every move Vargas makes because she blames her for her brother's death. Scalieri denies this, but tries to warn Shane that something isn't right with Vargas. Shane refuses to listen, citing that Scalieri blamed Vargas when Thomas was presumed killed in the warehouse shootout the previous Christmas, and it would make sense that she would blame her again. Scalieri notes that Vargas and Thomas were a lot alike, and she's just trying to stop her from self-destructing the same way her brother did. Frustrated by Scalieri's behavior towards Vargas, Shane informs Forbes about her behavior towards Vargas and how it's affecting the morale of the task force, along with the situation with Chapel. Forbes admits that Scalieri has been off-base since Thomas's death and believes that she is out of line when it comes to Vargas, but states that they need to sort out their issues themselves before they can come to him. Shane warns that if Scalieri can't pull herself together, Forbes needs to make her take leave, or she'll go over his head and have Scalieri removed herself.

Meanwhile, Reese and Jennings take over for Lee and Lowry to guard Barbara. Givens returns home and asks if there's been any activity. Jennings says there hasn't been any so far. Riley calls Reese and reveals that Benedict was been paid $200,000 to kidnap Barbara on the off-shore account that belonged to Snyder. Fox came over and reveals that Snyder also paid four other known criminals-for-hire, and sends their info to their phones. Barbara says that she saw one of the guys walking by her house earlier today, which means the man was scoping out the area. Jennings calls Lee and Lowry back over since they are not that far out. Givens says that he knew the risks when he presided Snyder's trial and he personally had Snyder's original lawyer removed from consul and disbarred for lying about Snyder's health declining, after the prosecution proved this wasn't true. He also knows about other crimes Snyder has committed and is determined to ensure he gets convicted fairly and by-the-book; Jennings notes he is doing the right thing. Givens says that he heard about their colleague Chapel and he knows Gates is a fair judge; Reese hopes for the best for Chapel as Lee and Lowry return. Jennings shows them the four men hired to get Barbara and Givens recognizes them as local thugs he has all prosecuted in the past: Randy Macon, Clete Beasley, Mervin Hoss, and Johnny Friessen. Barbara recognizes Hoss as the one she saw walking by her house. As Lowry informs Vargas of this, she reveals that she is already heading towards the Givens residence to check on Barbara. While keeping guard, they hear the doorbell ring and Jennings peeks out the window, and sees Macon about to fire a shotgun at the door. He tells everyone to get the Givens family in the basement. As Macon blast opens the door, Jennings shoots him in his right kneecap, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain. Beasley and Friessen enter through the back while Hoss enters via the front. As Friessen heads upstairs, Lowry shoots him down, causing him to roll down the stairway; Lee signals him to remain upstairs. Hoss heads down to the basement, while Beasley patrols the main floor. As Hoss walks down the basement stairs, Jennings and Reese shoot him down from below while Givens and Barbara hid nearby. At the main floor, Lee knocks Beasley down from behind, causing him to lose his gun and they fought. Before Lee can draw her gun, Beasley kicks it out of her hand. He then shoves her to the kitchen, she uses the freezer door to knock him backwards and kicks him to the wall. Beasley the grabs two steak knives and Lee grabs a frying pan. After avoid two slashes, Lee hits Beasley's left arm with a pan, causing him to drop one knife, and then pushes him down the ground. She throws the frying pan at Beasley's right hand, knocking the other knife out of it. She then jumps on top of him and punches him twice in the face before Beasley hits her with the cabinet door, forcing her off him. He then grabs a plastic bag inside the cabinet, punches her in the abdomen and puts the bag over her head, trying to suffocate her with it. As they struggle, Vargas shoots Beasley from behind, killing him. Lee quickly removes the bag from her head and gets her breath back. As everyone is relieved that it was over, Snyder is later successfully convicted at trial and is facing sentenced to a supermax prison.

Elsewhere, Scott and Burnett give Chapel support as the deepfake video is suppressed and the so-called witnesses creditability is called into question. Chapel wonders if this is enough to clear him, and Wilson notes that it more than likely is, but she reminds him that Stamper is still in coma and it could take ages for him to wake up, if he ever does. Then, Astrid reveals some dirt they found on Ana. At the grand jury hearing, Dutton has Ana testify to it. Ana is forced to admit to having embezzled money at a previous job and lied about it repeatedly; she only escaped prison time since the company decided to settle the case. She is also confronted about multiple payments of $40,000 made to her account in the days following both Chapel's fight with Stamper and the encounter at her house. Gates strikes Ana's testimony as irrelevant and untrustworthy due to her history of lying and stealing, and orders an investigation into where her recent funds have come from.

Meanwhile, Vargas arrives at Forbes' office where he wants to talk to her about Shane and Scalieri. Vargas tells Forbes that she already explained to Scalieri about her story of her fall at the airport, but Forbes tells her it is about something else. He then asks her about Scalieri's behavior towards her in recent weeks. She points out Scalieri is still struggling with Thomas's death, but they have been cordial for the most part, promising that they are fine despite recent issues. Forbes warns Vargas that she can't get in the middle of the argument, explaining that Shane has already shared her concerns about Scalieri. Vargas promise she will speak both to Shane and Scalieri and try to sort out the situation before things gets out of hands between them. Later, Vargas visits Barbara and her father after recent events, Barbara is greatful for Vargas saving her when she was almost kidnapped. Vargas assures her that she was just doing her job and Givens tells her to let the task force know that they have an ally in him for what they've done. Elsewhere, as the grand jury hearing reaches its conclusion, the majority of the grand jury votes not to press criminal charges against Chapel. Chapel, and all his colleagues become relieved at this, although they recognize that their problems aren't over yet.

Later, after a long day, some of the JACTF head to a bar to celebrate the charges being dropped against Chapel. Burnett and Jennings enter and reveal that as a result, the charges against them have also been dropped and Ana and her fellow witnesses are being questioned by LAPD. They also reveal that Groves and Grimshaw have been suspended pending a full investigation. As everybody started to celebrate, Vargas bumps into Shane and talks to her about Scalieri; Shane notes that she needs to look at Scalieri, not her. As Vargas notes she doesn't want to get in the middle of an argument, Shane defends herself and explains Scalieri started it first by suggesting Vargas's fall to be investigated. Vargas reminds he that she already explained everything to Scalieri and tells Shane not to make things worse. Then, Scalieri arrives at the bar and bumps into them. She confronts Shane for trying to cause trouble, reveals that she knows Shane reported her to Forbes. Shane points out that she is standing up for her friend, but Scalieri argues back citing that she's just enabling her to not properly take care of herself and Shane is constantly trying to be Vargas's "bodyguard". Furious at Scalieri's comments, Shane snaps and tells Scalieri that Thomas would be ashamed of her behavior if he is still alive. An angry Scalieri takes a swing at Shane, but accidentally punches Vargas in the face, knocking her to the ground. As everybody rushes towards Vargas' side, Scott and Reese notice Chapel is having a panic attack after experiencing a flashback of his punch on Stamper. Horrified at her actions, Scalieri tries to help a stunned and bloodied Vargas out, but Shane criticizes her for not learning from what happened with Chapel and Stamper. As Scalieri leaves the bar upset, Shane suggested Vargas go to the hospital, but she refuses, opting to go home instead.

Meanwhile, Hobbs visits Grace at her room. As he check on Grace and Nathan, Hobbs asked Grace if she is OK after what happened with Andrew Nance; she confirms she's okay. Elsewhere, Lee, Scott and Reese takes Chapel back to his house despite their concerns about his mental health. Chapel assures them that he is fine and he just wants to focus on his family. Reese suggests Chapel should follow Forbes' suggestion to take some time off. As they go up to of the house, Lee, Scott, Reese and Chapel is shocked to see Stamper's sister Shannon waiting at front door. Shannon angrily confronts Chapel for put her brother in a coma, but he defends his actions and explains Stamper was deeply involved in their opioids case, plus he resisted arrest. But Shannon refused to believe her brother is involved in anything criminally; Lee continues to try to make her see that her brother was up to no good. Shannon tells Lee that she looks up to her, reminding Lee of how they work together in the past. Lee acknowledges this, but reminds her that she is a federal agent too, and needs to look at her brother through the eyes of a fed instead of a sister. As Shannon heads off distraught, Scott gets a call from Fox, who discovers something about Ana: she has a brother, an ex-Marine named Matteo Padilla. Going back through one of their previous surveillance images on the opioids case, they see Matteo on it, meaning that he is involved on drug smuggling ring. Scott realizes that Ana lied and took the payouts in order to protect her brother and derail the case by testifying against Chapel. Forbes orders warrants for the arrests of both Padillas, and Burnett introduces the theory that whoever is running the opioid ring could have connections in the local, state, and federal governments as well as all military branches.

Meanwhile, Leo talks to Diego on the phone as Delgado and Ellis watch; he tells his father about his school project and his sessions with his psychologist. Diego blames himself for not protecting his son, but Leo reminds him that Vargas risked her life to save him. As Vargas arrives home with Shane, Delgado and Ellis is shocked to see her face bruised. Vargas reveals Scalieri punched her by accident while trying to hit Shane. Ellis is furious at her daughter for getting involved in a fight after her fall at the airport, but Shane points out Vargas was trying to stop her and Scalieri's argument from getting out of hand. Delgado then notices Leo and Hector watching by the stairs, wanting to know what is wrong with Vargas after seeing her bruised. As Delgado and Ellis escort Leo and Hector out of the room, Shane apologizes to Vargas for getting her hurt, but Vargas believes Shane should apologize to Scalieri instead. However, Shane refuses and becomes annoyed at Vargas for standing up for Scalieri. Vargas reminds her that Scalieri is still grieving for her brother and she want to looks out for her, not let her go off the rails. Shane then admits that she blames herself for not being there for Vargas when Santana and Anti-Crime targeted her, but Vargas reminds her that she wasn't well and was dealing with post-depression. She also notes that she has always found a way to get herself out of situations despite occasional setbacks. Shane then notices her phone ringing but she decided to ignore it, and Vargas assures and advises her that she doesn't need to worry about her all of the time. Shane nods as Vargas puts her arm on her shoulder and the two friends sit together on the couch deep in thought...

#7 - "Sudden Death Penalty - Part 1"

Reese and her family attend a Los Angeles Kings hockey game in Crypto.com Arena, where she later discovers that terrorists have infiltrated the arena and taken the governor hostage. As Reese works to stop the terrorists, her JACTF colleagues, along with LAPD and the FBI try to figure out a way to get inside the arena.

Chapel and Scalieri don't appear in the episode.

#8 - "Sudden Death Penalty - Part 2"

Reese continues to try to stop the terrorists in the arena, but they go to great lengths to try to get her. As Vargas and the other JACTF members work to form a strong plan to get inside the arena, Reese has to find a way to end the threat before the end of the game.

Chapel and Scalieri don't appear in the episode.

#9 - "Vanishing Act"

Two weeks after the terrorist situation at Crypto.com Arena, on a rainy day, the JACTF personnel are getting back to their routine. Vargas spends some time with her family at home with Shane present. Shane speaks with Jonathan over the phone about his life with Chelsea. After the call, Vargas and Shane head to work, with the former driving. During the drive, they discuss about Reese's semi-celebrity status due to the media coverage of her stopping the threat in the arena; Vargas says that Reese told her that she is more than over all the fame. Then she reveals that Scalieri is coming back to work this same day, which Shane is not too happy about; Vargas advises Shane to work things out with her. Meanwhile Larsen and Scalieri help their twins as he advises her to work things out with Vargas and Shane. Reese notes that she is still getting a lot of emails and calls from reporters for comments about her heroic actions in preventing the terrorist situation in the arena. She is revealed to have gotten autographs from hockey players from the Kings and the Ducks, the news is still talking about her, she is receiving letters and emails from people who have praised her for stopping the threat and saving so many people from the Sons of Reich's scheme, and the owners of the arena have given her and her family free admittance to all Kings games for life. Reese notes that her family might start attending the games more often possible.

Meanwhile, Forbes visits Chapel at a safehouse apartment as they discuss his return to work, but Chapel reveals things got even worse; he explains his family has been getting threatening phone calls and letters, and their house was recently broken into and trashed; as such, they've been forced to temporarily move to the safehouse apartment as a result. As Chapel shows Forbes the letters, he reminds him that he has been cleared of any wrongdoing, but Chapel points out Stamper is still in the coma. Forbes asks about his recent meeting with his new lawyer about the situation; the lawyer notes that Chapel has been cleared criminally, but could still face a civil suit. Chapel tells Forbes that he needs to focus on protecting his family, which Forbes understands. Back at HQ, Vargas bumps into Larsen and Scalieri, who has turned up. Scalieri asks Vargas if she is mad at her after the scuffle at the bar, but Vargas assures Scalieri that she is not mad and doesn't blame her. Scalieri apologizes Vargas for punching her by accident. As Vargas accepts Scalieri's apologies, Shane arrives and tries to talk to her, but Scalieri brushes her off and heads to her office; Larsen tells her to give Scalieri some time. As Shane walks off, Larsen expresses his concerns about Scalieri. He is worried about the continued impact on the task force if Shane and Scalieri can't work out their differences, but Vargas assures him that they will find a way. Then, a woman turns up at the HQ and got Vargas and Larsen's attention. The woman, Beatrice Turner, told Vargas and Larsen that her 18-year-old daughter Jill and her friend 18-year-old Stacy Pendry failed to return home after going out the night before. Larsen theorizes the girls could be avoiding home to hide their hangover or don't want to get in trouble for staying out late, but Beatrice reveals that nobody has heard from them. Then, she shows them what she and Stacy's father found in their college dorm: baggies of cocaine and ecstasy pills with the same logo on it as the opioids the team have been tracking. Beatrice says that the Jill she knows would never do drugs, and she believes that the girls might be in some kind of trouble. Larsen tells Beatrice that the team will find Jill and Stacy, but doesn't inform her about the task force's current opioids case. As Beatrice heads to an interview room with Lee, Scott and Scalieri, Vargas asks Larsen why he didn't ask Beatrice about her daughter and her friend's disappearance may be connected to their opioids case. Larsen admits he doesn't want to scare her or give her the wrong picture about what her daughter could be involved in without any proof. Vargas isn't sure about that, but Larsen assures her that he will come clean with Beatrice when the time is right.

Upon learning about Jill and Stacy's disappearance and the connection to the opioids case, Forbes tells them to follow leads on the two girls since there might be more to the case than they might expect. Lee reveals Beatrice says Jill and Stacy were headed to a bar at Spring Street on the night they disappeared. She decides to visit the bar, with Vargas and Larsen volunteering to come with her. Lee agrees, but feels they should be as incognito as possible to avoid spooking any suspects. As Vargas, Larsen and Lee head out with Hobbs, Burnett, and Wright who joins in, Jennings, Scott, and Lowry go with McCandless and Solomon to find a connection to the baggies both parents found by hitting up their informants for whatever information they can get. While most of their informants come up empty, one, an informant of Scott's reveals that some guys came around pushing some new product, and several had a unique-looking tattoo on their arms, which McCandless identifies as an Army Special Forces tattoo. Elsewhere, Shane and Reese visits Forbes at his office where they give him a update about Jill and Stacy's disappearance case but they noticed he is distracted. Forbes reveals he went to visit Chapel, but notes that he isn't ready to come back to work, revealing he and his family had to move out of their house after they were targeted. Shane and Reese are left shocked to hear this and Forbes also tells them that Chapel has hired a new lawyer, who reveals that he could still face a civil suit despite being cleared. Shane want to know who is Chapel's lawyer is, but Forbes says Chapel didn't mention who they are.

Meanwhile, a disguised Chapel goes to a law firm office where he meets up with his lawyer, Rupert Borden, the lawyer who represented Stanley Fowler the year before. Borden is uneasy to see Chapel wearing a disguise, but he explains he doesn't want anybody to recognize him in public, which Borden understands. Chapel asks for any updates about his case, Borden reveals Stamper's family plan to make a public news announcement citing new 'evidence' against Chapel and the announcement of a civil suit. Chapel is upset and demands Borden put a stop to it, but Borden shows him a letter from a lawyer of Stamper's family who confirms they have permission and neither he or Chapel can't do anything. Chapel fears Stamper's family will ruin his and his family's life if Stamper doesn't wake up. Borden reminds him to stick to the story, avoid any slip-ups and promise him that he will do any damage control. Chapel then receive a call from Annette who reveals their son JJ has been involved in a fight at school. Chapel decides to see what's going on and heads out, and Borden picks up a newspaper and started to read; he sees Reese on front page which talks about her heroic actions in the arena, which he is already aware of after having hearing about it on the news. Elsewhere, Vargas, Larsen and Lee visit The Cavern Tavern bar on Spring Street where Jill and Stacy were last seen. They questions bar manager Lucius Gold about the night before. He reveals the girls came in together and left after about a couple of hours or so. When Vargas asks him about Jim and Stacy, he admits he hardly see them as he explain the place was busy. Then, as Wright looks over the CCTV footage, Burnett and Hobbs both arrive and inform their colleagues that they didn't have any luck on speaking with anybody else who was near the area the night before, but they did find a witness, who reveals he saw Jill and Stacy leave with somebody else at a cafe not far from the bar. Vargas leave the bar with Burnett and Hobbs as they head to the cafe to speak mystery witness. When the three arrive at the cafe, Vargas talks to a man named Earl who reveals the two left with a white man in his 20s with a military style buzzcut and a scar on his neck. Burnett asks for the cafe's CCTV surveillance, sends a copy back to HQ, then calls the analysts at HQ back and informs them of the description of the man to look for in the footage.

Meanwhile, as Reese heads to her car, she is shocked to see Borden waiting for her outside. He tells Reese that he heard about her heroics and praises her. As Reese angrily confronts Borden for turning up outside of the HQ, Borden tells Reese that he does still care for her despite their past differences. Reese is uneasy over Borden's comment towards her, but he promises her that he won't do anything stupid. She then realizes Borden must be Chapel's new lawyer. Borden warns her that Stamper's family are out for blood and determined to get their "pound of flesh". Reese reveals her team already know everything about Stamper and his family, but Borden points out the JACTF doesn't know full story. He then reveals Stamper's family has top connections in the military, and the government, noting that they're even connected to the CIA. Borden also tells Reese that Stamper's family plan to make an announcement about Chapel on national television, showing her the letter from the lawyer of the family. When Reese want to know what new "evidence" they have against Chapel, Borden admits he doesn't know but promise he will try to control whatever fallout happens noting that Stamper's family will do anything to ruin Chapel's life. At the same time, Stamper's father Frank arrives at the HQ to speak to Forbes. Frank confronts Forbes for continuing to work alongside the man who try to kill his son, but Forbes defends Chapel's action and reminds Frank that he was cleared of any criminal charge. However, Frank reminds Forbes that his son is still in a coma. As Forbes try to persuade Frank to leave Chapel alone, he reveals that he plans to ruin Chapel, starting with his career, by turning the court of public opinion against him; then he will dig up whatever personal dirt on him and use it destroy him as he leaves. Forbes snarks that that they'll just see about that. As Frank leave the office, he receives a mystery call, which leaves him smiling in joy.

Meanwhile, Vargas receive a call from Scalieri who tells her that a young woman's body has been found. Vargas and Larsen then meets up with Scalieri at the street near downtown where half-naked body was found dumped in a dumpster; it is soon revealed the body is Stacy's. Costas also arrives at the crime scene but struggles to analyze Stacy's body, noting how tragically young she is. Then, Vargas, Larsen and Scalieri visit the shop where they watch the footage of somebody dumped Stacy's body in the dumpster. They see it was at least two men, one of whom matches the description of the man Stacy and Jill were last seen with, who did it. Elsewhere, back at HQ, Burnett talks to Fox who tells him that the analysts are struggle find the identity of the mysterious man and Shaw reveals that facial-rec software hasn't turned up any ID for him. As Burnett becomes annoyed with the setback, Astrid reveals the analysts already send the footage to the CIA. Jennings, Lowry and Scott share their discovery to Forbes: the drugs are being pushed through air, sea and ground shipments and one informant witnesses a deal go down at the Los Angeles Port, and the man in charge was wearing an all black suit and seemed like the "official type". Then, Shane interrupts Jennings, Lowry and Scott's conversation with Forbes and she informs them that Stacy has been found dead. As everybody is left reeling over the news about Stacy, Forbes askes Shane about Jill, but she reveals Jill hasn't been found yet. He is relieved since she might still be alive, but now wonders how he's going to break the tragic news to Stacy's father.

Later, Lee and Hobbs arrive at the scene where Stacy's body was found and help Larsen and Scalieri, who are still investigating the crime scene. As they analyze the scene, Larsen shares his suggestions to Scalieri about his plan for a night out for them. She becomes annoyed at discussing the wrong thing at the wrong time, but Larsen argue back and tells Scalieri that they hardly go out anywhere together and have never had the time to talk about it. He also points out that Scalieri has been distracted recently. She acknowledges this, explaining she want to focus on them, and not anybody else. As Scalieri's comments leave Larsen uneasy, he receives a call from Burnett who inform him that CIA officials haven't found any information on the man's identity. Larsen is confused and suggests the analysts and CIA officials keep trying, but Burnett cites that the results will say the same thing. However, Burnett does believes the man change his appearance to cover up his true identity. Then, Astrid interrupts Burnett and Larsen's phone conversation and reveals she may have something on the man's car; the car is registered under the name "Jim Shorts". Astrid admits she's had no luck of searching that name because it sounds too much like a stage time, but she believes the team may have a chance on finding him because they can locate of his car. Meanwhile, Vargas is at the morgue as Costas and her team continue to analyze and autopsy Stacy's body. After a while, Costas reveals her team had found something in Stacy's body: several undigested ecstasy pills. Costas theorizes she overdosed on the same drugs the task force have been chasing, and she was likely dumped in the dumpster out of panic. Later, Larsen calls Vargas about the information of the mystery man. Despite his identity remaining unknown, Larsen tells Vargas that he has a plan to catch him.

Meanwhile, Reese and Borden arrived at the restaurant where news reporter Sheldon Chase is having dinner with his family. Borden reveals he has information about Chase's personal life that could be useful for counteracting Stamper's family's public statement. Reese is furious and uneasy regarding Borden's dark tactics. As she tries to argue back, Borden reminds Reese that she herself wasn't perfect in the past, pointing out that he protected her secrets. Reese tells Borden that she is a different person now and warns him off from making trouble with his plan, but he reminds her that Chapel's reputation and future are at stake and warns her the consequences if the public statement from Stamper's family shaming Chapel goes through. Then, Reese and Borden enter the restaurant and follow Chase into the bathroom; he is shocked to see them and tries to leave but Borden blocks his path, noting that Chase has a wife and two young daughters at home. As Chase confronts Borden over the threat against his family, Borden tells him that he know his dirty secret: he has been having multiple affairs with both women and men for years behind his wife's back, including several of his colleagues. Chase defends his actions and explaining he has been fighting an addiction to sex, and he needs the money the Stampers are paying him to get counseling sessions due to problems with his job's insurance. Borden understands Chase's reasons, but warns him about the consequences that he and his news station will face if Chase's secret is exposed and even points out Chase won't be only one person who may get in trouble, revealing his colleagues' involvement in the secret, since workplace affairs are prohibited. Chase begs Borden not to ruin his life because of his "weakness", and proposes a deal to keep it quiet. Borden agrees to keep his secret and even pay what the Stampers have if he backs off from helping them; Chase reluctantly agrees. Later, as they're leaving the restaurant, Borden celebrates his achievement, but Reese is furious with herself for getting involved in Borden's games once again. He reminds her about their "secret partnership" in the past; Reese brushes it off as them being amateur vigilantes. Reese try to warn Borden that they will get in trouble if they're discovered to have done this, but he promise her no one will ever know.

Meanwhile, Vargas, Larsen, Lee, Burnett, Scott and Hobbs spend their night watching a bar via their surveillance van. They observe "Jim Shorts" talking to another woman outside; Vargas notices Jim looks different, noting that he no longer has his scar. As Jim heads to his car, Larsen opts that they tail him and his movements. Vargas isn't sure about this, but Lee and Burnett support the plan as they think Jim may have Jill hidden somewhere. Larsen starts to drive the van and follows Jim around the street. When Vargas asks him if he's spoke to Scalieri, Larsen promise her that everything is on track. Hobbs and Scott try to find out what Vargas and Larsen is talking about, but they quickly change the subject to avoid any suspicion. As everybody leaves Los Angeles, Vargas and Lee notices Jim isn't stopping. They are worried that he has noticed them tailing him and is driving in a different direction to lose them. As Larsen continues to follow Jim to the highway that has a massive traffic jam, Vargas calls Forbes and explains the situation. Forbes notes that he has already sent back-up and other colleagues will keep a track of their movements back from HQ. With that, the group continues on. Hours later, Vargas, Larsen, Lee, Burnett, Scott and Hobbs arrive in Westchester, but have lost in the road. As everybody struggles to work out where they are in Westchester, Lee then saw a sign confirming that they are heading towards LAX. Later, everybody finally arrives in LAX, but they still unable to find Jim. Vargas suggests they to split up. Lee notes that if either group find anything, they are to inform the others immediately. Burnett, Scott and Hobbs head to Terminals 4 to 8 while Vargas, Larsen and Lee head for Terminals 1 to 3, with both groups keep an eye out for Jim. While Burnett, Scott and Hobbs fail to find anything, Larsen came across Jim in Terminal 3. Upon informing the others of this, everyone suspects he might be looking to board a flight at LAX. As Vargas enter Terminal 3, they saw Jim talking on the phone. They both overheard the conversation but Jim speak in different language. Vargas quickly works out Jim is Albanian after spotting eagle tattoo on his wrist. Larsen suggests to call it in but Vargas decided to follow Jim to his flight which annoyed Larsen at first, then decided to get involved with Vargas's plan.

At the same time, Lee struggle to find Vargas and Larsen at the airport. When she calls the former, she learns that they are in the Terminal 3 keeping an eye on Jim. Larsen share his suspicious about Jim's possible involvement in Jill's disappearance and Stacy's death; he notes wondering how the girls could've been caught up in this. He also expresses hope that Jim can provide much needed answers for the opioids. Vargas and Larsen then notices Jim's flight is heading to Sacramento; they realize they could lose him should he board. Larsen suggests stopping Jim from boarding the flight, but Vargas believes he can lead to Jill's whereabouts. After having their service weapons checked into weapons cases, the two boards the plane after Jim. Back at HQ, Jennings gets other colleagues' attention, showing them a video of a teenage boy shooting off fireworks with his friends in the street. Everyone is confused about this until he has them focus on the background; they see another man exiting an apartment, dragging a distressed Jill into a car and driving off in hurry. Jennings reveals the video took place on the night of Jill and Stacy's disappearance and possibly Stacy's death. As everybody watches the footage, Forbes believe something happened at that apartment, and sends the task force to investigate.

Meanwhile, Vargas and Larsen arrive at Sacramento International Airport at the same time as Jim's arrival. After retrieving their service weapons, they later rent a car and follow Jim to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. They become confused why Jim travel to Sierra Nevada until Vargas realizes that there is wide open wilderness all around, the perfect place to disappear or to conduct shady business of all kinds; she also points out there is farmhouse in the mountain range. Larsen warns Vargas that they could be walking into a death trap, but Vargas tells Larsen that she refuses to give up on searching for Jill. As they follow Jim, Vargas receive a call from Shane who reveals the task force is investigating an apartment at Alameda Street where Jill was last seen. She also reveals that Jill was seen with another man who dragged her into his car. Vargas suspects that this man might be Jim's accomplice and she could still be hidden away in Los Angeles. Vargas tells Shane that she believes Jim is of Albanian descent as she sends her recording of Jim's voice conversation. Shane see Scalieri and Jennings arrived back at HQ after searching the apartment. She overhears Scalieri and Jennings speaking to Lowry: they reveal that Jill put up a fight against the man and even managed to make him bleed; they are currently running the blood samples taken from the apartment through the DNA databases. They also seized a few weapons and about $100,000 cash from the apartment. When Lowry asks Scalieri and Jennings if there's any evidence that Stacy was in that apartment, Jennings reveals they found a charm bracelet in the bathroom, that matches the description of Stacy's which she were wearing on same time when she possibly killed.

Later, Vargas and Larsen arrive at farmhouse near Sierra Nevada Mountain where Jim meets up with another man; the same man from the footage with Jill and he is also Albanian descent. As Vargas and Larsen follows them inside of the farmhouse, they saw Jim whose real name is Clay Kosta and another man named Michael Novic who is the leader of vicious gang entering the living room and confront an alive Jill, who is seriously hurt. Jill tries to persuade both men to let her go, but Novic refuses as she'll run straight to the police. Jill points out this whole thing is on Novic for giving Stacy the drugs that killed her; Novic slaps her, citing that Stacy is the one who sniffed too much cocaine. Novic then asks Kosta if he dealt with the mess back in Los Angeles; Kosta reveals he dumped Stacy's body blocks away from the apartment, and expresses confidence that the cops won't be able to trace it back. Then, Vargas hears her phone ring, and she and Larsen forced to hide when the two men hear the ringtone; they quickly run and hide in a nearby shed. He asks about her next plan, but she isn't sure yet; she suggests she and Larsen must be careful and not risk Jill's life. Vargas then notices Novic's gang searching every area outside of farmhouse. Larsen points out he and Vargas don't have back-up yet as he warns of possible dangers that they could face. She reminds him that they've dealt with gangs before, but Larsen points out Novic's gang is seem very dangerous than other gangs from the past. Vargas, however, notes that they can't wait too long or Jill might meet the same fate as Stacy. As Vargas and Larsen are prepare to exit the shed and engage the gang, they hear gunshots from outside. They peak outside, and see a team of what seem to be trained mercenaries masked and dressed all in black taking out the gang one by one. They then enter the house, after which more shots are fired and everything falls silent. After a while, the team exits the farmhouse and drives off in a pair of SUVs, leaving their leader, a man dressed all in black behind. Vargas and Larsen then rush to the farmhouse, aghast at the dead gang members bodies outside. When they enter the house, they find the rest of the gang, including Kosta and Novic, dead as well. Jill, however, has been left alive but shaken up. Stunned, the two cops then escort Jill outside before calling to inform the backup of the situation. Larsen confronts the leader of the team, "Cooley" (Tom Burke), whom he also guesses is CIA, for killing Kosta and Novic and ruining the crime scene, explaining they could have been lead to the FJU's opioids case. Cooley defends his actions and explains Kosta and Novic were CIA assets who went rogue several months before and returned to the comforts of their old gang. He also reveals that they also had connections into drug and sex trafficking, which Larsen points out could've helped the task force. As Larsen continues to argue with Cooley, Vargas gets everybody's attention as she shows them a passage to the farmhouse's cellar, which reveals a group of women being kept locked up.

Meanwhile, back at Los Angeles, Reese visits Chapel at heis safehouse apartment. When Reese asks Chapel about his recent issues, he tells her that JJ has been involved in the fight at the school and his two daughters are being bullied; he then reveals that he and Annette decided to pull their children out of school for the time being. Reese tries to assure him things will cool down, but Chapel feels the situation may get worse before it gets better. As she starts to leave, Reese receives a call from Borden who tells her that Stamper's family's public statement has been pulled. She becomes relieved by the news, but is uneasy for going with Borden's plan; Borden points out it wouldn't have worked without her involvement. As he promise Stamper's family won't cause trouble again, Reese sees a post online from Stamper's father; he has written about Chapel, calling him a "thug" and a "dirty fed" and how the task force and the government is covering up for him. He also claims that the task force is wrongfully slandering his son's name to destroy any credibility he has. Reese is horrified to see this and becomes worried that she and Borden might've made things worse, but Borden assures her it that he will have the online post squashed as well.

Meanwhile, back at Sierra Nevada, Vargas and Larsen visits Jill in the hospital. She opens up about her ordeal: she reveals that Kosta brought his and Novic back to their apartment to party privately, with them providing alcohol and drugs. But things went wrong after Stacy OD'd; Jill tried to call an ambulance, but Kosta took and smashed her phone, and when Stacy died, Novic forced him to dump her body and kidnapped her to the farmhouse. She also reveals that they were planning to lose her in their trafficking network to silence her for good. Jill blames herself for what happened to Stacy, but Vargas assures that it wasn't her fault. As Vargas and Larsen exits Jill's room, Cooley catches their attention and asks Vargas how she knew how the farmhouse that Kosta and Novic were keeping Jill and other girls hostage had a trapdoor which led to the cellar but Vargas denies having prior knowing anything and explains she found it by chance. Then Forbes, Burnett, Shane and Scalieri arrive at the hospital and are relieved to see Vargas and Larsen alive. When Forbes asked Vargas and Larsen about Kosta and Novic's whereabouts, Vargas reveals they are both dead. Forbes at first becomes furious with the two over the shooting and nearly endangering Jill's life, until Cooley steps in and clear everything up, informing Forbes of what he and his team done. Forbes then angrily confronts Cooley for interfering in his investigation and robbed Jill and Stacy of getting justice, but Cooley tells him that Kosta and Novic ruined so many other women's lives and the girls did get justice in a way. He then reveals about what the logo in the opioids baggies are: it's an insignia for Shadow Corp, a former black-ops unit run by the CIA and all branches of the military that was supposed to have been disbanded years before. Forbes remains convinced that Cooley should've taken Kosta and Novic alive despite their evil action, but Cooley defends his decision to have them killed. As McCandless, Solomon and Wright arrive after having heard what the insignia is, Forbes demands to know if Stamper was involved in Shadow Corp. Cooley says he can neither confirm nor deny it. Vargas and Shane show their displeasure about it considering what's going on with Chapel; Cooley notes that Frank Stamper is a proud man who would rather blind himself and blame someone else than accept the possibility of his son disgracing the family name.

Later, Scalieri speaks to Larsen about their plan to night out; Larsen suggests he has a restaurant that his father frequented. Scalieri agrees with Larsen's suggestion but then becomes confused when she overhears Vargas talking to Shane about going to same place they just decided. When she realizes Vargas and Larsen are planning to get her and Shane to settle their differences, Scalieri angrily confronts both of them. Vargas tries to persuade her to end her grudge with Shane before things get out of hand again, but Scalieri argues back, citing that going behind her back like this has only made her feel worse. As she walks off, Shane is upset with Scalieri's rejection, but Larsen suggests they should give Scalieri more time, believing she is still feeling down following recent events. Shane finally agrees to give Scalieri some space until she is ready to forgive her. As Shane heads off, Vargas blames herself for Shane and Scalieri's falling out, but Larsen tries to assure her it isn't her fault. However, Vargas points out that she has struggled so much in dealing with the aftermath of the corruption scandal, being haunted by the memories including those Santana, the Anti-Crime Unit and Thomas's death, and now two of her best friends are at each other's throats over her. Larsen assures her that they both care for Vargas; their methods of caring have just conflicted with each other, but they'll eventually work it out. However, Vargas expresses worry about how this whole thing has played out since she cares for both Shane and Scalieri. She also admits that she lied about her fall, confessing she froze in the moment beforehand and she doesn't know why. Vargas is worried that if she doesn't get to the bottom of it, she'll no longer be able to effectively serve on the JACTF or as a cop in general...

#10 - "Gift of the Murder"

Three days before Christmas, Vargas, Shane, Larsen, Reese, Tiffany and Hobbs are at a supermarket, doing their own shopping for Christmas. Hobbs suggests the team could plan a surprise holiday party for Chapel and his family but Vargas, Shane and Larsen aren't too sure, reminds him about the conflict between Chapel and Stamper's family. Reese also notes that Chapel and his lawyer still doing damage control from the online article Stamper's father had posted. Hobbs points out Chapel is their colleague, and he and his family deserve some happiness during this time of year. Shane, however feels that trying to push a celebration on them might things worse; Reese stops the argument and says they will discuss the matter further at work the next day. Vargas and Shane talks about their daughters Caterina and Willow's first birthdays and Christmases, noting that they are both excited and so are the rest of their families for the occasion.

As they pay for their shopping, Tiffany talks to Reese about her son's first Christmas. Reese asks Tiffany where she went after Corvo's funeral, Tiffany reveals she stayed with her older brother, even after giving birth, and she cut off all contact with everyone because she needed a break from all of it. She also revealed she named her son after his father, and has also tried getting in touch with the grandfather of Corvo's older son to invite them over for the holidays. Reese reveals she kept Tiffany's place at JACTF HQ open despite not knowing if she would return or not; Tiffany is grateful to Reese for keeping her seat warm, admitting that while she wasn't sure whether she'd be back or not, she's glad she did return. Vargas then receive a call from Forbes who tells her about an emergency call from Beverly Hills, explaining that a congressman's aide collapsed during a holiday party. As Vargas tries to tell Forbes that she is busy, he reveals a brawl broke out in the panic after the collapse; some guests and the responding paramedics got caught up in the violence. He also informs that LAPD and BHPD officers are already at the scene calming down the situation, but he also wants people from the task force to get involved too in case the congressman is in danger. Vargas agree and promise Forbes that she will alert their other colleagues. She then informs the others of what's going on, and they all agree to drop off their purchases at home and meet each other at the congressman's house. Later, Vargas, Larsen, Reese, Burnett and Jennings arrived at Beverly Hills and the congressman's house. As Larsen, Burnett and Jennings gets involved and calm down the situation outside where the argument still going on, Vargas and Reese went inside of the house where paramedics is still working on the congressman's aide, whose name is revealed to be Bailey Walton. One of the paramedics reveals that Walton has been down for about ten minutes since before they arrived; according to what they got from the people, he just collapsed for apparently no reason. Reese quickly alert Vargas' attention when she sees bruises on Walton's neck, indicating a physical struggle might have occurred. After another two minutes of attempted resuscitation, the paramedics declare Walton dead, leaving Vargas and Reese gutted over the news. Vargas then receives a call from Shane, who is on her way and wants an update on the current situation but Vargas tells her that Walton is dead, and there are signs of foul play. Later, Forbes and Shane arrive at the crime scene and find Vargas, Reese, Larsen and Burnett analyzing the scene. Vargas and Larsen search Walton's body and find something inside of his mouth. Vargas pulls it out of Walton's mouth, revealing into to be a piece of paper with several number sequences on it. Later, Neve, one of LAPD officers on duty who was involved in handling the fight outside, informs the team information about what happened leading up to Walton's collapse: that the man seemed fine, then went missing for a couple minutes, before staggering back in and collapsing. As he arrives at the house with Hobbs, Jennings revealed a new discovery about Walton's death: his cell phone reveals he got a call shortly before slipping out of the party. Hobbs then shows footage of Walton rapidly staggering back to the house in distress, which suggests that he was running from somebody; they immediately figure whoever was running from had a hand in his death. Forbes warns about public attention as he explains that the press is going to be all over the case.

Meanwhile, Emily and Chelsea speaks to Chelsea's father and Emily's husband Patrick Morris, who is in prison via video call. They update to Patrick about recent development of their personal lives: Emily notes that she's holding on until Patrick's release from prison, and Chelsea reveals that things are going well, and Jonathan was recently promoted at his job at an advertising agency. They wish each other a happy holiday and end the call. Emily sees somebody calling her but she decides to ignore it. Chelsea tells Emily that she misses her dad and hopes just as much as Emily does to see him released one day; Emily agrees with her. Emily heads outside and talks to her unknown person; she promises she will sort her issues out, but expresses concerns of her family finding out what she had been doing. She reminds them the consequences if their secret is exposed. The next day, when things have finally calmed down, Vargas, Larsen, Reese and Burnett start questioning the guests. Vargas and Larsen talk to Congressman Chandler McDowell about Walton's death; he reveals Walton was one of the most efficient aides he'd ever had, and that he'd hoped to start his own political career someday, and can't fathom as to who would want to kill him. When Vargas asks McDowell if he had any suspicions of Walton's behavior before his death, he reveals that Walton seemed worried over the past couple of weeks, as if he were burdened by something but doesn't know what it could be. Reese then got Vargas and Larsen's attention and told them that she spoke to one of the guest who reveals Walton confided in her that he was about to expose something big in McDowell's ranks.

Meanwhile, Scott and Lee visit Chapel and his family at their safehouse apartment; it's revealed they've hardly gone out since Stamper's father made the Internet the post about Chapel. Chapel's children, Madison, J.J and Nicki are annoyed of being isolated and want to see their friends, but Chapel refuses, not wanting them anywhere out of his sight. Lee is concerned about Chapel and Annette keeping their kids inside, but he refuses to let his children to be targeted because of his actions. Scott tries to assure him that the team will find the way to restore his reputation and stop Stamper's family, but Chapel then reveals his lawyer - Borden - is already on the case, which shocks both Scott and Lee. Scott is furious that Chapel would hire Borden as his lawyer, reminding him about Borden defended Stanley Fowler several years before, but Chapel defends his choice and explains Borden was the best chance he had due to his knowledge of how to spin press and situations. Lee then figures Borden may be of good use, but Scott still isn't sure. Elsewhere, upon arriving at HQ, Larsen asked Vargas if she is OK after what she recently told him, but she assures him that she is fine. He tells her to consider getting more help than a therapist, but Vargas explains that she's doing well where she is right now and asks him not to tell anybody what she told him. Shane walks by and asks Vargas and Larsen what they're talking about after having seen their conversation, but they tell her that they're discussing a case. Then, Lee and Scott arrive at the HQ, still feeling over Chapel's bombshell about Borden. Scott informs Vargas, Larsen and Shane that Chapel has retained Borden as his lawyer, which shocks them. He explains that Chapel figures Borden is the best one to help fend off the attacks from Stamper's family on Chapel's family and reputation. Scott then asks the trio if they knew about Borden's involvement in Chapel's case, but they assure him that they didn't. Shane is confused by Chapel's decision to hire Borden as his lawyer, pointing out Borden previously accusing Chapel of "violent behavior" and tries to implicate that he deliberately tried to kill Stanley during the fire. Lee sees Reese arrives at the HQ and remembers she has past history with Borden, revealing they used to have a relationship years ago. She and Shane then confront Reese, asking about Borden and revealing his involvement in Chapel's case. Reese denies that she has even heard from Borden since the Fowler trial. Shane asked Reese about her relationship with Borden, but Reese reveals it wasn't serious and was just a fling. As they head off, Shane believe Reese is lying about Borden, but Lee advises her to stay out of Reese's personal business, worried that Shane's meddling could make things worse for Chapel.

Later, Jennings gets everybody's attention when Astrid and Fox make a discovery about Walton, revealing his involvement in a campaign against attempts to teardown homeless encampments which were controversial to the public as Astrid points out the campaign has met with backlash due to people wanting the homeless out of the area to preserve property values. She also reveals that Walton had been pushing for a proposition to build more affordable housing and homeless shelters in the area. Vargas wonders if Congressman McDowell was also involved in the campaign, but Fox isn't too sure and informs there is no information suggesting that he is. Astrid and Fox shows the team photos of a rally for the proposition, but Larsen and Scott notices somebody familiar in one of the photo: Louis Acosta, a businessman whom Lowry met at Dirga Manor months ago. Hobbs quickly remembers Lowry told to him about Louis, but that he also lost his number. Then Lowry, who has arrived at work very late due of a family emergency, enters after having overheard the conversation about Louis. Scott tells Lowry that he found his mystery man, as Vargas and Larsen informs him about the recent development in Walton's death. Shane asked Lowry about his relationship with Louis, but he explains that he misplaced Louis's number not long after they met each other, and with all the recent craziness at work, he never had the chance to look him up and things just snowballed from there. When Vargas asked Lowry if he knows where Louis works, Lowry believes he might. As several of their colleagues head out, Lee and Scott discuss about helping Chapel; Scott feels that the only way to clear Chapel is to prove Stamper and his family's malfeasance. As he suggests to find information about Stamper's family and more dirt on him, Lee recalls her history with Stamper's sister, Shannon, who she worked with in the past in the DEA. When Scott asked Lee if the DEA keeps personal information on their agents, she reveals they do, but she doesn't have clearance to access it. Scott asked Lee if she knew anything about Shannon's family but she denies this, citing Shannon was a very private person. He then suggests tailing her and finding out if she's potentially dirty herself.

Meanwhile, Vargas, Larsen and Lowry arrive at CaliGold Investments where Louis works, but Lowry is uneasy about of seeing Louis again, fearing that he won't forgive him for not contacting him. As Vargas and Larsen head inside to speak to Louis, Lowry quickly changes his mind and decides to wait in the car. Vargas and Larsen heads to Louis' office where they informs him about Walton's death, which shocks him. When Vargas asks Louis about his involvement in Walton's campaign for defending homeless encampments, he denies being involved and explains that he was trying to research about Walton's idea more, admitting he visits Walton's promotion party months ago. He also reveals there was incident at the party where Walton was involved in an altercation with protesters. Larsen asked Louis the name of protesters who clashed with Walton, but he doesn't know them. However, he does know one protester involved named Milton Dorn. At same time, Lowry sneaks around the CaliGold Investments office, quickly hiding when Louis walks in with Vargas and Larsen. When Larsen asked Louis about his personal life, he become confused, pointing out it isn't related to Walton's death but Larsen explain he is curious to know. Louis reveals he openly gay, but makes it clear that he and Walton, who was straight, were not involved like that. Larsen then asks if he is seeing anybody; Louis admits that he was interested with a man who he met in the manor, but the man "ghosted" him. As Larsen suggests the man might've been busy with his own personal and work life, Louis quickly remembers Larsen was at Dirga Manor months ago and works with Lowry. Larsen admits the truth and assures him him that he wasn't causing trouble. As he watches Louis and Larsen talk, Lowry tries to leave discreetly but is caught off-guard with Louis' boss, Clive Pallister, who angrily confronts him. Vargas, Larsen and Louis witnesses the argument and explains the situation to Pallister who quickly apologize for the confusion. As Vargas, Larsen and Lowry head outside, Louis follows them and confronts Lowry for ghosting him after their meeting. Lowry says that he meant to call, but the corruption case and aftermath took up most of his time, during which he misplaced Louis's number and didn't realize it until after he was finally free to contact him again. As Lowry assures Louis that he did intend to see him again, Louis admits he is still annoyed, but understands the reason. He then gives Lowry his number again, and tells him to try to not lose it this time; Lowry assures that he will and will call him this time before he, Vargas and Larsen leave to find Dorn. Later, Vargas, Lowry and Larsen arrives at Dorn's house where they questions him about Walton's death; he denies being involved in the murder. When Vargas asks Dorn why he and other protests had altercation with Walton at his promotion party months ago, he starts to talk about Walton's plan to build affordable housing and homeless shelters, but then reveals Walton was actually a con-artist, explaining he embezzled money from the campaign for himself. Dorn explains he and his follow protesters wanted to expose the truth, but they were threatened by Walton who say he would come after their family if they dropped any allegations against him. Dorn strongly continue to deny any involvement in Walton's death, but he believes Walton's shady dealings got himself killed.

Meanwhile, Scalieri arrives at the HQ, looking for Larsen but Tiffany informs her that he went out with Vargas and Lowry. Tiffany notices that Scalieri is acting strange, but she assures she is fine. Tiffany comforts Scalieri over her worries, noting that celebrating Christmas can't be easy due to Thomas and Corvo both dying in the warehouse shooting the previous year, not knowing of Thomas's intial survival. As Tiffany heads off, Scalieri bumps into Reese and tell her about her and Tiffany's conversation, including her comments about Thomas's "death" at Christmas. Reese believes Tiffany isn't aware about Thomas's survival because she cut off all contact with everyone in the aftermath. As Reese promises that she will talk to Tiffany and explain everything, Scalieri is upset about Thomas's name being mentioned. Shane witnesses Scalieri and Reese's argument and tries to get involved, but the former orders her to stay out of her business. As Scalieri walks off, Reese tells Shane that Tiffany mentioned Thomas's "death" in last year's warehouse shooting, not knowing full truth about his surviva. Reese isn't too sure on how to explain to Tiffany about Thomas and is worried that she will take it badly because he survived the shooting while Corvo didn't. Shane promise Reese that Tiffany will understand everything. Reese then heads to her office, but is shocked to see Borden waiting there. Reese takes Borden to other room where she confronts him over his presence. He tells Reese that he want to talk, but she refuses to hear him out and tells him to leave her alone. Borden reminds her that they still have a history together in both the personal and professional sense. Reese gets annoyed with Borden as she tells him that she is not the person she was back then, but Borden reminds Reese that he protected her in the past, confirming he took the blame for her "mistake"; reminding her about one specific case in her rookie year which nearly ended in tragedy: she unwittingly allowed a hacker to steal information to wear a witness was stashed by inputting the information into her personal cell phone instead of her secure bureau-issued phone. The hacker sold the info to a crime boss and the witness was nearly killed. Borden, who was working in the US attorney's office at the time, took the blame to protect her, and was subsequently fired. Reese admits that regrets her mistake and how it caused problems for the case. But she reminds Borden that he isn't perfect too and reminds him that he's gotten her involved in the shady side of his business couple of time, including confronting news reporter Sheldon Chase and blackmailing him into counteracting Stamper's family's public statement. She reminds Borden that it's one of the reasons why they didn't work out: while he did her a favor by taking the blame for causing her security breach, he also seems to always look for shortcuts, even unethical ones to make his cases, even back then. Borden admits his shortcomings, but switches the subject back to Reese, accusing her of being overprotective about people finding out the truth. Reese then asks Borden why he really took the blame for her; he confesses his feelings for her and explains he's still in love with her even now, which leaves Reese shocked. She then apologizes to Borden for how things went bad between them, but asserts that she is now happily married, and begs him to not cause trouble for her again. As the two comfort each other, unknown to them, Shane is revealed to have overheard their conversation and is shocked at what she has learned.

Meanwhile, Vargas, Larsen and Lowry return to HQ where they share their discoveries about Walton with Hobbs, Jennings and Burnett. Hobbs theorizes that someone discovered Walton's two-faced dealings, and killed him for it. As everybody searches Walton's personal bank accounts and social media pages, Vargas heads to Shane's office, but notices Shane is acting strange when she sees her researching something on her computer. Vargas gets Shane's attention and tells her about recent development of Walton's case; they are looking to find anyone who could have discovered Walton's embezzlement and might have been affected by it enough to kill him. Vargas asks Shane's help to find more evidence to prove their theory. As Shane joins rest of her colleagues, Vargas sneaks into her computer and tries to found out what Shane research but finds her history has been cleared. Worrying that Shane might discover her secret, Vargas asks Larsen if he said anything to anybody about her worries, but he assures her that her secret is safe. After a while, the task force discovers that Walton was in the process of forging financial records in the hopes of framing McDowell's other aide, James Buxton for the embezzlement as well as transferring the stolen money into an off-shore bank account in Buxton's name. Then, Louis arrives at the HQ and share his discovery about Walton: he has been making large investments coming from sudden influxes of cash that he has inexplicably acquired over the past few months. Louis hopes that his discovery can help to catch the killer, but Vargas tells him that he has done plenty already to help. He and Lowry share a knowing glance before he leaves.

Later, Burnett and Larsen bring in and question Buxton, who, while shocked at Walton's crimes, denies any knowledge of them or having killed them. However, in a shocking move, Buxton's father and McDowell's Chief of Staff Henry Buxton, enters and confesses: he had stumbled onto Walton's embezzlement and his attempt to frame his son, and confronted him at the party; Walton tried to reason with him, citing he needed the money to kick off his own career and reasoning that James had a better chance of surviving a scandal due to his connections which Walton did not have. Henry, however, refused to hear this, flew into a rage and killed Walton. Henry is then arrested for Walton's murder. Later, as everybody finished the case, Lowry bumps into Louis and share update about Walton's death's case; informing him that Henry has been arrested. Louis is left stunned over new development at Walton's case but Lowry promise him that he was very greatful for his help around the case. Back at HQ, Lee and Scott arrive and gets Burnett's attention. They tells them that they have new information about Stamper's family: Stamper's brother Richie was busted as part of joint LAPD/DEA raid three years before, but the charges against him were dropped due to several clerical errors showing up paperwork for the evidence, despite the arresting officers' insistence that everything was done correctly. Lee also reveals Stamper's sister Shannon was one of the lead agents on the case. Scott suggests they need to inform their colleagues about his and Lee's new discovery, but Burnett suggests they keep the information to themselves until after Christmas, explaining he doesn't mess up his colleagues' holidays, which Lee and Scott agree with.

The episode flash-fowards to days later on Christmas Day, which is also the anniversary of the warehouse shooting. The task force pays tribute to their colleagues and friends lost in the shooting, with Shane also unexpectedly paying tribute to Thomas despite his actual death occurring months later. Scalieri is surprised and touched by the tribute to her brother; she then has a private conversation with Shane, citing that while she's still not quite ready mend fences yet, she appreciates the gesture, and the two shake hands. The task force splits up and goes home for the holidays. Later, Vargas and Shane celebrate their daughters' 1st birthday together with their family and friends; Ellis, Angela, Leo, Delgado, Finn, Jonathan, Chelsea, Emily, Neve, and Hector all attend, as do other friends of the two. Larsen and Scalieri then get Vargas's attention as they present gifts that were mysteriously left at their doorstep, though they don't know who sent them. Vargas quickly recognizes the gift and tells Larsen and Scalieri that somebody left her a similar gift at her doorstep. As Scalieri convinced Shane sends them the gifts, Vargas takes a look at the three letters which was left with the gifts and quickly recognize the handwriting on all of them as Thomas's; it turns out Thomas, having anticipated he might not live to see another Christmas had arranged for the gifts to be sent to them as a last gift. Meanwhile, Shane bumps into Emily in the kitchen and notices her sister is looking stressed; Emily tries to assure Shane that she is fine. But then, Shane notices something dropped out of Emily's pocket, which turns out to be a baggie of heroin. Shane angrily confronts her sister over the discovery, but Emily claims the drugs aren't hers. Shane warns her not to lie and Emily sticks to her story. She begs Shane to don't report her to her colleagues and promise her sister that she will get rid of it. Shane decides to trust her, but warns her that if she's lying, it won't end well for her. As Shane heads to living room with rest of her family members, Neve goes to the kitchen and confronts Emily over their situation, confirming Neve she's mystery person that Emily was speaking to her days before. Neve warns Emily she can't risk her career to help her, but Emily reminds her that things are complicated because of her past. Emily then ask Neve about Daisy; Neve reveals she is stable at hospital and has been asking about her.

Meanwhile, Lowry returns home from the party and is shocked to see Louis waiting for him. Louis reveals he looked up Lowry's information and home address, having decided he would not let him slip away again. Surprised and delighted, Lowry decides to invite Louis to meet his family and stay for dinner. Elsewhere, Burnett, Scott, Reese and Hobbs talk to Chapel, who is spending Christmas with his family at the safe house apartment, via video call; Chapel notes that the kids aren't too happy since they're not home and they aren't with family this year, but they're making the most of it. Hobbs is upset that Chapel is celebrating Christmas with just his immediate family and believes he should have some relatives or friends there too, but Chapel retorts that his family is number one priority. He assures his colleagues that he and his family are safe and expresses confidence that the new year will be better, before ending the call.

Later, at midnight, a mysterious person enters Chapel's apartment to find that he and his family are gone. They pick up a tablet, which plays a message left by Chapel explaining he has decided to leave Los Angeles with his family because the apartment had come under threats and the front was recently vandalized. Chapel admits he hasn't told his colleagues what happened because he didn't want to cause them any more strife, like what happened with Stamper. He also reveals that somebody sent him a message, threatening him to get out of Los Angeles or they would come after his family. A flashback shows Chapel, Annette and his children leaving the apartment and Los Angeles hours earlier. Chapel reveals he doesn't want anybody to find him and his family, worrying he may be putting them and others in danger. He explains he protect his family and promise he will come back when it's safe, and if he doesn't, then this message is his goodbye. As the video ends, the mysterious person delete it from Chapel's tablet and then leaves the apartment...

#11 - ""

The JACTF investigate an unthinkable crime that involves a family member of a rich and powerful winery vineyard owner. Meanwhile, Forbes clashes with Mayor Burke and Chief Simmons about their new plan for LAPD protocol, while Chapel's colleagues become worried for him and his family's safety when they fail to return to Los Angeles after Christmas. Also, Shane reels following her recent discoveries.

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Los Angeles is placed on lockdown after an assassination attempt on Mayor Burke during his birthday party. As the JACTF tries to find the shooter, they are worried that an LAPD officer may be involved of shooting because of Burke and Simmons' controversial reforms over LAPD protocol. Meanwhile, Chapel's brother Ronnie pays a visit to HQ and demands information about Chapel and his family's whereabouts. Also, Grace tells Forbes that the hospital is planning to bring Stamper out of his coma.

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As the team deals with recent setbacks, Reese is forced to confront her past when a criminal from an old case of hers is found dead. Meanwhile, Vargas is worried about Shane when she noticed something isn't right with her and then is left shocked when she makes a huge confession. Also, Forbes and Jennings open up about their troubles and Lowry bags himself a date.

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The JACTF make a breakthrough in the opioid ring case after a discovery is made. As the team put their plan to action, they receive shocking news which ties back to a past enemy and possibly hits close to home. Meanwhile, Vargas and Larsen investigate a domestic incident between a federal judge and his wife, but discover things are not as they seem. Also, Shane takes action over her situation and Reese come clean to her husband about her past with Borden.

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Vargas & Shane (Season 6)

Contents

Premise[]

Cast[]

Main Cast and Characters[]

Special Guest Stars[]

Recurring Guest Stars[]

Recurring Co-Stars[]

Episodes[]

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