The hints at a Red-Dembe reunion only get bigger as the episode moves on. The next insight comes when the leader and mastermind of the four goniffs, Quinton Dodd “The Claw” (Jacob Pitts) is taken into custody and questioned at the Post Office. The Claw is clever, of course, and knows enough about the penal code to get him kicked back to freedom quickly–or so Director Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) thinks and subsequently informs Red by phone. As soon as Red hangs up from the call, he turns and we all see that The Claw is still handcuffed and now in Red’s custody.

Enter torture guru Teddy Brimley (Ted Colaluca) and his metal cart of bone nibblers, shaping mallet and the fearsome Gigli saw. When has Brimley ever not been successful at getting words out of those he “interrogates?” Brimley doesn’t even have to smell any bone dust to get The Claw to reveal the location of the man who blackmailed the four goniffs into collusion with his plan to fire a stolen Secret Service weapon at Panabaker. As soon as Red obtains that information, who swiftly busts into the assassin’s lair? The FBI—led by Agent Dembe Zuma.

The FBI soon learns that the assassin is a former secret service agent and marksman, Lucas Roth (Neal Huff), who didn’t miss when he hit Panabaker’s agent in the shoulder–that was intentional. He wasn’t aiming at the Senator at all. Instead, his purpose is only to wound so that the other agent on Panabaker’s detail, Will Strickland (Guy Lockard), is assured to be on duty when Roth strikes again. Roth is not an assassin, but a gazlan, willing to lay down his life to make public the shanda (shameful scandal) of a corrupt Secret Service that sacrifices the sanctity of the presidency and democracy for power and political gains. The actual target of Roth’s wrath? Special Agent Will Strickland.  

In addition to Red and Dembe finding a way to play on the same team from different sides of the field, there is yet another joyful expedition underway throughout this episode. Red procures a poison book from the very private collection of a bookseller and has it delivered to the jail cell of his old pal and mentor, Robert Vesco (Stacy Keach). While breaking a friend out of jail by nearly killing them may not sound like an act of charity, it’s safe to say that Red and Vesco embrace a complicated relationship. These two have double-crossed each other for decades. First, when Vesco brokered Red’s trust in him by convincing Red to invest in a lucrative project in Paraguay that ended with Red broke and abandoned in an Asuncion brothel. Vesco claims he was simply teaching Red the ultimate lesson: trust no one.

Yet, Red is full of laughter and good energy over a shared cracker of caviar with Vesco on the private jet. Perhaps Red’s gift to Vesco, the book Treasure Island, is a foreshadowing of a future excursion that will once again have them decoding clues and discovering riches together.