Allegiance Episode 1.05 Tipping Point

Alex is stunned to see his parents waiting for him at the Chinese restaurant.

"It was you, wasn't it?" He asks. "In Philadelphia."

"Yes," replies Katya. "And it's time to tell you everything... so you understand why."

Katya explains that she never wanted this life, but it was forced upon her. She was asked to recruit Mark, but he refused and they fell in love instead. Alex can't understand why she didn't get out, but she explains that they escaped for seven years. Then the SVR came back, this time for Alex. Reeling, Alex calls his parents traitors, but Mark tells him this is about something bigger: Black Dagger. They show their son the intel Natalie's ex-boyfriend extracted from the drive, and he can't believe his eyes. But how can he trust what his parents are saying if they've done nothing but lie to him his whole life? Alex wants to take the data to the FBI, but Mark and Katya tell him they can't - there's a mole inside the U.S. government.

Alex's head is spinning. He's late for a hearing with a FISA judge where his colleagues are expecting him to swear to new evidence that someone broke into City Hall and stole Mikhail's laptop before they did. Then he's asking for a warrant for the Masonic Temple security footage... which his parents will be on. Mark reminds Alex that if he turns them in, he'll destroy his family. Katya begs him to instead help them stop Black Dagger by working together as a family. The moment they have enough evidence to prove Black Dagger is real, they'll take it to the FBI.

At the hearing, the judge is waiting on Alex's statement. He holds up the blurry photo of Mark breaking into the Masonic Temple and asks if Alex believes it's of an SVR operative. After a long pause, Alex responds that many of the task force's leads can be accounted for by other things. After looking at all the possibilities, there's no way he can stand by his original theory. He now is convinced the SVR laptop was never in the vault at City Hall. Michelle, Sam and Brock are furious - how come he didn't tell them this before they stuck their necks out in the hearing?! Alex tries to backtrack, saying he'd rather take the hit than have the judge blame the whole task force and shut it down. His colleagues buy his story, but they certainly aren’t happy with him.

Back at the O'Connor home, Katya and Mark reveal to Alex his first task. They want him to find out who controls the bank accounts listed on the drive, but to do so, he'll need to steal Michelle's access code to track suspicious money transfers on the U.S. Treasury Database. Alex reluctantly agrees, and Katya comes up with a plan for him to bring Michelle a coffee and then accidentally spill it on her, forcing her to go clean up while he accesses the database. Incredulous, Alex studies his mother - how has she spent her life looking the people she cares about in the eye and deceiving them? "You tell yourself it's for the greater good. And you hope that someday they'll forgive you," she explains.

The next day, before Alex can put the plan in motion, Brock calls him over. Special Agent Jason Faber from Internal Counterintelligence has come by to polygraph the entire staff. Alex is terrified - of course this would happen the day he decided to join his family in committing multiple felonies. He stresses out during the entire lie-detector test, unable to answer basic questions such as "Do you like ice cream sandwiches?" without overanalyzing every word. When Faber asks him if he's ever spied on his country, Alex nearly passes out. Needless to say, he bombs the poly, but luckily Faber interpreted "Mr. Twitchy's" wild readings as a byproduct of his neuroticism. Good thing Alex has a reputation as an oddball genius... Faber then conducts tests on Brock, Sam and the rest of the task force, including Michelle, who used to work for him. When Sam asks why one of the bureau's most experienced spy catchers is doing field polygraphs in person, Faber responds, "You're smart enough to know the answer to that question."

Meanwhile, after getting a warning from the Rezident, Victor has to find a new way to bug the O'Connors without them knowing. So he targets the only member of the family without spy training: Sarah. Victor meets her deadbeat boyfriend Ritchie in the park and, after showing him his gun, convinces him to do his dirty work. While the rest of the family is out, Ritchie comes by the house, bringing a few DVDs, one of which is loaded with spyware. He pops it in the DVD player and voila, Victor has eyes in the house again.

Back at the task force, Sam pulls Alex aside with what he thinks is good news: an ex-CIA buddy of his is a Mason up in Philly and managed to get them the surveillance tapes. Alex may have lost confidence in himself, but Sam hasn't. Sam's pal hasn't watched the tapes yet, but he's on his way over with them. Alex immediately calls Katya to warn her, and she hatches a plan. She and Natalie go out and buy up all the magnets they can find, and when Sam's buddy gets on the elevator to hand over the tape, the two women get on as well, standing on either side of him. They're not sure whether the magnets are strong enough, but the hope is that they will erase the surveillance tape. When Sam, Alex and Faber go to watch the footage, the image starts to glitch and disintegrate. Alex breathes a sigh of relief - it worked! Only now, Faber is suspicious of Alex. If the video footage panned out, he'd be back to being the golden boy. Why isn't he more upset that the tape was destroyed? But Alex has more important things to worry about, like hacking into his partner's FBI account.

That night, Alex shares his findings with his family. The account numbers from the drive are controlled by Scott Tolliver, a broker at a Wall Street firm called Hensley Financial Services. It's unclear whom the money is actually going to, as it's chopped up into thousands of transactions to mask its final destination. The O'Connors need to get to Tolliver, and Natalie is perfect for the job. Dressed to the nine, she runs into the playboy broker at a cigar club and expertly flirts her way back to his apartment. As her family listens from their car parked nearby, Natalie seduces Tolliver, and then tries to Taser him, but he grabs her and they struggle. Hearing the commotion, Katya races in, but Tolliver has grabbed Natalie's Taser and uses it on her. Mark is right behind his wife, and when he sees her crumple to the ground, he starts slamming Tolliver's head into the floor until Alex pulls him away. They both look down at the unconscious broker, battered and bloodied on the floor. What have they done?!