Billy and his gang band together to rob a bank, and Frank finally agrees to help out the now-reluctant Madani.
A year in the past, Madani is in the hospital being interviewed about what happened, but she just wants it over with, sickened that they have to put her in a negative light and Rawlins a positive one to keep her and Frank doing what they do.
Deputy Director Marion James says she's the kind of officer they need, and while Madani feels the truth is needed, James says the lie is their best option. Softly agreeing, Madani continues the interview, which focuses on invasive questions about her and Billy's relationship. She claims she was manipulated and hadn't suspected Billy until he threatened to kill her, but she should have, especially because Sam warned her and was killed. Though James doesn't know what it's like to be shot or pull her gun in anger, she relates to Madani in having sent people on missions to their deaths before, and says if the officer decides to reveal the truth, it'd only affect her and Frank. In the present, Madani rages at Frank for being able to "easily" decide to kill someone and walk away. He states it's actually just him being able to live with it. Annoyed when he calls it war, Madani says their situation has to be different since they're at home, but Frank reminds her of his wife and kids. She denies his belief that he's there to convince her it's okay to kill Billy and she was wanting to in the hospital. Curtis just wants it over and says he has a contact who can find Billy, so Frank agrees to do it, though he feels they should. Later in her apartment, Madani thinks back to her and Russo's physical relationship as well as his betrayal at the carousel.
Dumont and Russo, meanwhile, get physical themselves, with Russo finding numerous scars on her body; she tells him to go ahead and ask about them.
He finally does after she says she scares people away, and she explains she fell as a child and spent two years healing; she hesitates but says it was an accident. He shrugs it off, saying the scars are part of her, and later she smiles at her reflection before preparing to do another of her fear-facing window exercises. Billy enters and she asks where he's going; he explains that he slept great not from therapy, but because of her and the friends he's making. He has determined he was afraid because he was locked up alone, and laments not being able to remember the company, wealth, and power he had before. Angry that he wants to leave, she goes for her gun, but he already has it and threatens her. Though he wants to protect her, she states she won't be the reason he dies. Not wanting to ruin her life, he leaves despite her pleas, and she is left shakily watching him from the window. Madani visits forensics, where motor-mouth analyst Wendy (Kara Young) found nothing on Pilgrim despite running his prints through everything possible. Wendy tells her that someone must've tampered with the system to keep him out of it, and compliments Madani for taking on a menacing individual.
Frank and Curtis break into Jake's apartment but find only drug paraphernalia, as he and the others are with Billy practicing to rob a bank.
One messes up and complains about having to practice for a position he won't be in, and another enters rocking the boat by already wearing his disguise, but Billy and Jake tell them it's so everyone knows each other's positions. The second, Bobby (Charles Brice), goes after Billy in their next attempt, and after knocking him down, Billy says he was playing the part of a helpful vet who would get in their way, and the two have a staredown. Billy runs through the plan and an antsy Jake, complaining about the cold, decides to go to his apartment, but Billy says they stick together until everything is done. Frank gets impatient as he and Curtis stake out Jake's place, and his friend says his problem is he always feels like he needs to be moving. He continues that Frank is denying himself another chance at happiness, so the latter tells him how he met Beth, but helping Amy led to the current situation. Curtis points out that Frank killed someone's men, but Frank claims he couldn't just not help Amy and wasn't going to then spend his life looking over his shoulder. They decide not to follow someone they see and mention Jake does meth; at the moment, he's suffering from withdrawals and leaves the group's base. Madani meets Marion James near the water, and after some small talk, the latter says she understands Madani being upset, as she herself sometimes wanted Billy dead. Along with the CIA not working domestically, she wanted to pin everything on Billy, but he came out of his coma; she says men like him and Frank lose their use after developing their own minds. Madani tells her about Frank being back and asks for advice; James suggests she let Frank and Billy handle each other. Madani is disgusted that James does work domestically, just having someone else do the job, but James shuts her down. Madani then explains that she's just trying to reach her new "normal," like her mom did after her grandma died. She feels she's the right kind of person for this difficult job, and James says sometimes the least-worst choice is to do nothing.
I was glad this episode focused on Billy rather than having parts of the Pilgrim subplot as well, as it gave us time to advance the story individually.
In particular, Billy now has a gang of veterans, which requires development, and he's been experiencing some changes since the start of the season. Back then he was just terrified and confused, but now he's got his group and he's becoming more bold again. His natural charisma is shining through again in spite of his scarred face, with the frustrated vets agreeing to rob a bank rather quickly. My favorite line of this episode came from Billy this episode, when he says "So we gotta get control fast, then we gotta keep it" after knocking Bobby to the ground. On the surface, it's just him telling them they need to be in charge when they rob the bank, but underneath, it's talking about how he's already become the leader. He's only just met Jake, yet he's already sunk his claws in and is going to work making sure the other members of the group listen to him. Frank and the veterans we see here are a continuation of a subject from the previous season about how returning from service can be difficult. Whereas last season Lewis Wilson went off the deep end, most of the veterans around him seemed willing to work with what Curtis suggested. Frank developed his own brand of justice after returning, however, and the veterans under Billy's thumb are looking for excitement like he is, and a sense of self. They now have something bigger than themselves again, and this coupled with Billy's persuasive nature resulted in them joining up easily. After Billy and Dumont's physical encounter, I was glad we got to peel back the layers and learn about her past, particularly with regards to her fear. It's obvious she's not telling him everything about her scars, as she seemed to hesitate when he asked if they're the result of an accident. I get the feeling her immense fear of heights, which seems to manifest as vertigo, will return, and we'll see that someone close to her, maybe her dad, pushed her out a window, but for now we just know she is damaged herself. Madani was a bit obnoxious still in how she is going back and forth on what she wants done about Russo, and comes off sometimes as hypocritical. The only reason she's had Frank involved in all this is to have him do what she couldn't and kill Billy, but she's suddenly having a weak stomach about it. Her disgust with how "easy" it is for Frank to live his life this way seems strange, considering, it's talking about what she wanted him to do. Later on she gets to see him in action, and she suddenly decides to have him stop because she can't handle what she's seeing. There's also the moment with Marion James, where she tries to act superior after learning James wants Frank and Billy to handle each other. It's already hypocritical in that she'd wanted Frank to do her dirty work for her as well, but even more-so since it seems to be the exact thinking she'd had. I know Madani is trying to consider what is truly ethical, but the way she's acting makes me more want to see any other characters than her. With Billy's gang taking action, it's time for Frank to step in, but learning his "brother" scarred him will definitely further confuse and break our psychotic antagonist.
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