In present time, Miranda seems to be getting her way at the FBI while Shelby watches helplessly. Back at the Farm, Alex and Ryan have discovered who planted the bug.

At the Farm
The recruits have a new skill to learn – the ability to mask their emotions even when being rattled. They were given watches that monitor their stress levels and told that anyone whose vitals turned red would be cut. The assignment was to mingle with the big shots at Langley and try to keep their vitals green.
Alex had the idea to work a counter-mission – even though Miranda asked she and Ryan to lay low after finding the bug in Alex’s room. She told Ryan to try to get the recruits talking as much as he can (and record the conversations) while she clones Owen’s phone so they can see what made any of the recruit’s stress level spike. Her attempt to clone Owen’s phone is harder than she thought thanks to his no-bullshit attitude. She had to try three times and the second time, he pretty much calls her out for sleeping with Liam.
It turned out that they weren’t just being rattled that afternoon but had been all week
  • Alex was made to believe she was back at the bottom of the murder board and this got her stressed. Owen told her that her weakness that she constantly doubts herself.
  • Ryan believed Liam O’Connor had left him something in a storage unit but when he got there, he saw a CIA cap and a note that read “hope it fits”.
  • Sebastian was asked for his medical records history and he didn’t want that to be public information as he tried to commit suicide when he was 14.
  • Dayana thought one of her clients had chosen not to testify and was mortified at the idea of being disbarred.
  • Leon was made to believe a dangerous man had escaped from prison and was coming after him. That is a pretty good reason to be stressed out.

Amidst all these, Leon and Dayana seem to be bonding. As well as Sebastian and Harry – Harry’s lover had committed suicide so he tried to comfort Sebastian and did such a great job that Sebastian felt the need to clear the air by saying “I’m not gay”. Harry’s response to this was “that’s what he said as well”.
Lydia seems to be playing both sides of the  – she told Director Keyes that she would try to convince her father to drop the notion that he was deliberately burned by a journalist so he’ll be benched in exchange for him letting her back in the field. But she also seems to be interested in helping her father discover who actually burned him.
At the safe house Alex and Ryan meet and Ryan reveals that his weakness is Alex -“Worrying if you’re okay. Worrying if you’re ever really going to trust me, or if we’re going to make it out of this together.” He says if they are going to make it out of the mission, he’s going to have to keep his distance from Alex – so the agency doesn’t discover his true weakness.  
Back to their counter-mission, Alex was able to clone Owen’s phone completely and by comparing the recruit’s stress levels with Ryan’s recording, they were able to find out that it was Lee Davis who bugged their room.


Present Day.
The terrorists are trying to exchange 1,667 hostages for the hacker they had forced the president to pardon – Eric Boyer. Alex (who apparently was able to understand and speak Swahili in minutes) was able to reach Raina and told her that she feels they shouldn’t make the exchange – that the 1,667 hostages are the terrorists' weakness so making them hold on to them longer than planned will make them worked up. Her plan is that when the FBI tries to make the exchange, Raina should give Miranda a code word to warn her not to make the exchange. She also tells Raina to speak to Lydia but when she does, Lydia tells Raina to make the exchange which will save thousands of lives. During this conversation, Lydia also reveals that Alex is not a government agent. So she did cut after all
At the Headquarters, Shelby is briefing the AIC officials and telling them not to trust the terrorists (who she believes to be the AIC). She says everything they do is a distraction and therefore the FBI should not make the trade. Miranda strongly opposes Shelby’s suggestion and says they should make the trade. She receives the go ahead from Paul and arrests Eric Boyd for jaywalking. She has a private conversation with Boyer, reveals that she is on the terrorist’s side and forces Eric to agree to the exchange.
When Eric is alone with Shelby, he tells her he hacked McGregor Wyatt’s email in 2012 Seeing as Eric is walking to his death and has nothing to lose, it was reckless of Miranda to leave him alone with Shelby. Miranda makes the exchange with the terrorists and when Raina tries to warn her, she pretends not to understand the code message. Alex who watches her plan fail from a high point starts shooting in a bid to distract both groups. This plan also fails.
Shelby logs into McGregor Wyatt’s email and in the 2012 folder finds a mail from Eric Boyer titled “Re: Miranda”. The message read “she is one of them”.

Eric Boyer who seems to be in the middle of hacking something important suddenly has a change of heart, says “it wasn’t meant to go this far”, grabs one of the terrorist’s guns and shoots himself.

Questions that need to be asked
  • How on earth did Alex learn Swahili so fast while also fighting for her life and trying to rescue hostages? Once again, the writers attempt to make Alex look like the most badass protagonist ever is a little unreal.
  • What exactly did Alex hope to achieve by shooting crazily at the street?