Take Two – The Devil You Know

By: Gladys Luna

The episode opens with an inmate taken to a prison in plain midnight when suddenly he manages to escape hurting the cop that was with him at a time. The next day, Eddie (Eddie Cibrian) and Sam (Rachel Bilson) arrive at the office after rescuing a puppet called “Smartums.” Sam takes the opportunity to tease Eddie with the puppet and chase him through the office when all of a sudden, he stumbles against another person that skillfully takes his gun out of him. Eddie recovers it in a swift move and sort of a fight takes place between the two until he is able to recognize the person he is fighting against to as Piper Mannox (Tattiawna Jones), a bounty hunter that seems to have come a long way with Eddie. The man doesn’t seem happy to see her but the woman has returned to ask for his help. She lets him know about the inmate that had escaped the prior night and how she wants to team up with him in order to capture the man and get the half million dollars reward that has been offered. Eddie refuses to collaborate with her having as a reference their disastrous previous experiences, but Sam encourages him to take the job. When Eddie finally gives in, Piper identifies the inmate as Ryan Conrad (Leo Rano) and she knows that after he escaped he went to his last foster mother’s house and stayed there. So, maybe, if they get lucky enough he might still be there, and they can capture him.

Berto (Xavier de Guzman) is at the office working on the case when Monica (Alice Lee) shows up and asks him about what he is doing. He explains the Ryan’s case to her along with the reward they will be getting in case they catch him, and the girl seems to be suddenly very interested in helping them with the case.

Eddie, Sam and Piper arrive at the place and spot Ryan’s mother Janice (Naomi Simpson) watering her plants. Piper tells them that she will be on guard on the back of the house in case that Ryan is there and attempts to escape while Eddie and Sam go and try to get some information out of the woman. The couple pretend to be movie producers that want to rent the house for an upcoming project, but Janice seems to be well informed about who they are and assures them that her foster son is not there and also threatens them to call the cops in case they don’t leave.

Sam and Eddie immediately take off and meet with Piper who, as always, did things on her way and informs them that she just broke into Janice’s house and found Ryan’s prison jumper, dinner leftovers and some beers so she is now sure that he had spent the night there. Piper tells them that she will send the fingerprints on the beer bottles to be exanimated and see what comes out of it. They go back to the office and Berto presents them the information he had found on Ryan but still it doesn’t make sense to any of them what he is after. Right in the middle of their conversation Piper gets a call and she is told that one of the fingerprints match with the ones of a guy named Jimmy Tobin (Scott McNeill), a very notorious gunrunner on LA. So, they start to work on finding out where Jimmy might be hiding.

Eddie manages for Detective Rollins (Aliyah O’Brien) to give them Ryan’s call logs information even though she doesn’t trust a bit on Piper and definitely does not agree on Eddie working with her. In the meantime, Sam and Piper are having some conversation when the latter is informed that they have seen Tobin hanging out at The Pistol Room, a biker bar to where Piper is determined to go without letting Eddie know about it. So, Sam decides to go with her since they are working together on the case.

The two women enter the bike bar and are immediately met with a bunch of curious eyes. One of the bikers (Tony Kazoleas) recognizes Piper and attempts to stab her with his knife. She is dragged out of the place and, suddenly, Sam is left alone and surrounded by several angry men. She tries to escape but Jimmy spots her from the other side of the room and asks to be left alone with her. Sam is truly scared of what the man may do to her, but it turns out that he is a big fan of her and has her face tattooed on his right bicep. In the meantime, Eddie is sleeping when he is abruptly woken up by loud knocks at his door. When he opens, Sam and Piper enter laughing and telling him everything that happened at the bar. Sam also tells him that the reason why he met with Ryan was to give him a beater car and a gun for him to go after his ex- girlfriend. Eddie realizes that the other person that Ryan had called aside form Janice had been Gina Martin (Brandi Alexander) who they presume could be said “ex-girlfriend.” Eddie is so mad that Piper had put Sam into danger that he decides to not to continue working with her.

Eddie and Sam go to meet Gina who is aware of Ryan’s situation. She confesses to them that she is pregnant with someone else’s baby and when Ryan had found out, he called to tell her that she will pay for it. Eddie recommends her to stay somewhere safe and not to go back to her home as Ryan would go look for her in there. She tells them where he might be hiding so the couple start their search for him. In the meantime, Berto and Monica go to run surveillance on Gina’s house in case Ryan decides to show up.

Sam and Eddie arrive at the motel where Ryan might be hiding. Eddie decides to go and search the place while Sam awaits for him in the van. All of a sudden, she spots someone that might look just like Ryan and decides to follow him. He gets into a dark alley of the place and so does Sam. Then, he comes from behind her and pushes her against the wall, but she pretends to be a tourist and manages to escape from him. After a while, she meets with Eddie and tells him what just happened. A few minutes later, they get a call from Berto that informs them that Gina just showed up at her house, so Eddie and Sam go there. When they get in, the woman comes out of the kitchen holding a gun and it is revealed that is no other than Piper disguised as Gina. While the three of them are arguing, Ryan comes from behind Eddie, but Sam lets him know about it so the fight begins. Sam takes the blender and punches Ryan right on the head and he falls to the ground. Eddie calls Detective Rollins and informs her that they have catch Ryan and tells her where they are. Then, Piper points her gun at them and tells that that she can handle the situation herself. As they are not working together anymore, she will take Ryan.

Sam and Eddie are tied up and Piper had taken Ryan with him. They manage to untie themselves and leave Gina’s house. Eddie calls Det. Rollins and tells her what happened, but she confirms that Piper never showed up with him. They believe she might be in danger, so they go to their office to see what Berto has found. Berto tells them that a group led by Judge Chambers (Brian Markinson) had requested to transfer Ryan to LA County Jail so Eddie pays a visit to the judge who is well informed about the situation. What he doesn’t know is that Piper was with Ryan and he seemed pretty upset when he found out about it, so he asks to be taken back to his cell. But, before he goes, he provides Eddie with a date: November 2^nd, 2014. Back at the office, all of them start to search for something that may give them a lead on what might the date mean and Monica finds that was the date that a woman named Sierra Parker was killed and that Ryan was a person of interest in her case. So, Sam sees the picture of the woman and realizes that she is wearing a pendant similar to the one that Piper has so she believes that Sierra was the woman that Piper was in love with and what she is seeking now is revenge and not exactly the reward.

Eddie and Sam find Piper while she is making Ryan to dig a hole where she plans to bury him. Sam tries to stop her, but the woman doesn’t seem to give in. Eddie jumps on her and after a while, he ties her up to her truck and finally Ryan could be transfer to L.A County Jail by the duo.

Detective Rollings updates Eddie on the Judge Chambers’ case and she lets him know that there’s a witness that might help a lot in the process. Still, the whole transfer from Ryan to one prison to another doesn’t make total sense for Eddie so he asks Det Rollins to give him a copy of the updated case and to see if he can find something useful. He and Sam go to his office and are practically scrutinizing every detail on the case until Sam finds that the witness that will testify against Judge Chambers. It is a guy named Alex who is the father of Ryan’s ex-girlfriend baby that happens to be in the same prison Ryan was finally transferred to so is very likely that Judge Chambers wanted Ryan to kill him so they don’t have anything against him and he can be free. Eddie tells Det. Rollins about it but when they arrive it is already too late and Alex had been killed by Ryan. Eddie decides to visit Judge Chambers and exposes what he believes it happened, but he denies everything and assures Eddie that he is the one responsible behind Alex’s death since he helped Ryan to be taken to the same jail.

Eddie is watching the news where it is announced that there’s a very good chance that Judge Justin Chambers may be released from prison soon, so he decides to turn the tv off. He hears a knock at his door and Sam shows up bearing food and movies. She tells him that even though they were fooled by the judge, soon they will put him away for good.

It seems like bigger troubles are coming! Please make sure to stay tuned and watch Take Two next Thursday at 10/9c on ABC. ¡Hasta la próxima!