Stitchers – The Guest

By starrymag | May 21, 2016

By: Lyndsey Nadeau

In the latest Stitchers episode, The Guest, the story unfolds differently than past episodes with a nonlinear narrative. The episode starts with Maggie (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) finding out that someone leaked the Langston case to the press. What is the Langston case, exactly? Fisher (Damon Dayoub) informs her that Cameron (Kyle Harris) is dealing with girlfriend issues, Camille (Allison Scagliotti) is with Linus (Ritesh Rajan) at the hospital and will not disclose Kirsten’s (Emma Ishta) whereabouts. It seems like, for once, the team is more concerned with their personal lives than they are about a case. They certainly deserve a break after the exhausting 24-hour case in Red Eye.

Sisters Sharing Secrets

Kirsten’s half-sister, Ivy Brown (Sarah Davenport), shows up at Kirsten’s door, but she isn’t there for a heartwarming visit with her long-lost sister. She wants to tell Kirsten, in person, so she is not disclosing Daniel Stinger’s location. Although she isn’t there to chat, they bond over a few similarities, including the fact their father abandoned them.

 

Ivy resents Kirsten for being the reason their father abandoned her at a young age and has since reconnected with him. Kirsten warns that the NSA is after Stinger. Ivy knows this, but believes it is because their father is brilliant. Kirsten is the bearer of bad news and tells her that he actually killed three people. If Ivy doesn’t talk to her, the next time they’ll have a discussion is at their father’s funeral. Kirsten flashes her NSA badge and convinces Ivy to accept her invitation for coffee.

 

Ivy knows their father invented a technology that could change the world, but doesn’t know anything beyond that. Stinger plans to look for Kirsten once he knows she’s ready to know the “truth.” They make a deal: If Kirsten tells her about the secret technology, Ivy will tell her where their father is. Since the technology is “complicated,” Kirsten will need to give it some context. The episode jumps back in time to the beginning of the Langston case. Kirsten starts by introducing Cameron, claiming there is no one who knows Stinger’s technology better than he does.

 

The murder victim is 26-year-old Josh Langston who was shot dead in his apartment. There were no signs of a struggle or breaking and entering. He has a clean record, but he’s also Senator Langston’s son. He was a host on Zip Couch, a new couch-surfing app for “adventurous and thrifty young travelers.” A man named Nick Mero (Ashton Holmes) is the creator of the app. On the night of his murder, Josh was expecting a new guest, Denise Buchwald, an attractive young woman who turns out to be fake.

 

Their boss, Mitchell Blair (John Billingsley), demands they remain tight-lipped until the investigation is complete. He also forbids them from continuing to look for Daniel Stinger or speak to Liam Granger (Jack Turner). When he says he is handling the search for Stinger, Kirsten is driven to find him first.

Stitching Together Clues

Kirsten accidentally slips the name of their program when detailing the case to Ivy. She explains that they “stitch together clues that other agencies miss,” and they couldn’t do what they do without Stinger’s technology. This isn’t enough for Ivy, but Kirsten isn’t going to budge until Ivy tells her where her father is. Ivy says that he is west of the Mississippi, which isn’t exactly helpful, but now it’s Kirsten’s turn. She explains that the technology allows them to question people who wouldn’t normally submit to being questioned—and it’s not a form of torture.

 

Kirsten enters a stitch and finds herself in Josh’s apartment. A woman shows up to use his couch for the night. He seems like a great guy, until Kirsten realizes he’s watching her undress through a hidden camera in his living room. Ivy asks Kirsten how she knows what Josh saw through the camera and Kirsten tells the half truth; she was in his apartment and was able to draw conclusions.

 

She jumps to another memory where his phone chimes while he’s checking his camera. It’s a text message from Denise Buchwald, the woman with the fake profile. He goes to the front door to let her in and instead is shot by a man wearing a cleanroom suit. He never turned the camera on.

 

While Kirsten tells this story, she and Ivy start to develop a bond. Ivy is a computer teacher, explaining computers have always been her thing. Kirsten says computers are her thing, too. Another trait they must’ve inherited from their father.

 

Back to the story, Camille finds a number of bad reviews for Zip Couch from the same IP address, meaning someone was trying to sabotage the startup’s reputation. Ivy questions if it’s normal for NSA agents to live together. Kirsten says her relationship with Camille isn’t exactly normal, but she can count on everyone she works with. “They’re like family.”

 

Kirsten and Cameron have a moment where she accidentally says she may not be okay with him dating Nina (Jasmin Savoy Brown). Ivy guesses there’s something going on between the two of them, but Kirsten insists she doesn’t have time for a relationship. She proves this by showing her the walls covered in research, something that Ivy is shocked to see. They realize they both love Math and numbers. Kirsten asks what their father is like and Ivy says he’s a lot like her: smart, driven, and relentless. She believes everything he’s done has been motivated by love, but Kirsten finds this hard to believe.

The Test?

Back in another stitch, Little Cameron appears again to tell her someone is going to visit her to ask a very specific question and her answer will show if she’s ready to hear the truth. Is Ivy’s questioning the test? Ivy doesn’t seem to know what she’s talking about.

 

The team speaks with Nick Mero who says he made Josh Langston a VIP host, hoping the publicity would help Zip Couch. He seems clueless about the murder and is focused on the financial aspect, worried that his investors will lose their money if word gets out. Nick claims he doesn’t have any enemies, but Camille connects the IP address of the bad reviews back to a woman named Jessica Grey (Alison Haislip). Jessica is the founder and CEO of Futon Friends, Zip Couch’s biggest rival.

 

Kirsten leaves to meet up with Liam. Cameron is worried she’s too obsessed with locating her father. When telling the story to Ivy, she says she wants to find her father because she loves him. In reality, she tells Cameron that she wants to bring him to justice for what he’s done. When Kirsten meets up with Liam, she cuts right to the chase and pleads for answers. He walks away.

 

The team learns from Jessica Grey that Nick is a serial entrepreneur and Zip Couch is his fifth startup in eight years. He stole one of her investors, Caleb Jenkins (Bradley White). Caleb, who has deep pockets and is majorly connected, recently reached out to her to say he regrets investing in Nick’s startup and will invest millions in Futon Friends once he gets his money back. When they go to talk to Caleb, they find he was shot twice in the chest.

 

Kirsten stitches into Caleb’s memory. He did some research and discovered that all of Nick’s startups have failed, causing his investors to also lose their money. Fearing he’s being scammed, he demands his money back immediately. In another memory, he was shot by a man in a cleanroom suit. Could it be the same killer?

 

Outside of the investigation, Camille supports Linus as his father is being wheeled into surgery. He remains strong right up until his father leaves the room, then starts crying in front of Camille. Camille reassures him that he’s never been more of a man than he is right now.

Self-Sabotage

Kirsten finishes telling Ivy about the case, but Ivy still wants to know more about the technology. Before she can answer, Kirsten receives a call from Fisher. The murders went public and Nick announced he’s shutting down the app immediately. Ivy hacks into Nick’s financial records before they rush to the press conference.

 

Kirsten and Ivy work together and conclude Nick purposely raised more money than was needed, so when the startup failed—which he wanted it to—he could pocket the money and claim that there was nothing to return. When Zip Couch actually took off, he had no choice but to sabotage the company’s reputation by murdering a VIP host, then killing someone who came close to the truth. They arrest him at the press conference. It seems as if Ivy could be a valuable member to the Stitchers team, but can they trust her?

 

Meanwhile, Cameron and Nina make up after Nina urges him to choose between her or Kirsten. However, he gives off a vibe that he isn’t as into the relationship as he claims. Nina will never catch a break.

 

Kirsten gets a call from Liam and heads off to meet up with him. But before she can find him, she hears him being attacked around the corner. It looks like she won’t be getting anything out of him, and will have to rely on Ivy for more answers.

 

In next week’s season finale, how will Kirsten deal with Liam’s death? Perhaps she has more feelings for him than she let on.