American Odyssey Episode 1.05 Beat Feet

The action picks up right where it left off, with Odelle on the phone with Colonel Glen in General Diallo's Malian Army vehicle. Although shocked to hear her voice, Glen covers during the call and insists she head to a designated safe house instead of Bamako's American embassy, which requires her to lose Diallo. She slips out of the vehicle during a chaotic street protest and sneaks her way to the safe house where she debriefs with Rich, a CIA middle manager. Rich remains skeptical about many of the details Odelle reports, until they discover media coverage of Odelle's own funeral in the U.S. - attended by none other than Colonel Glen. This spurs another phone call with the colonel and, despite his refusal to provide her with the plan he contends exists for her extraction, he urges her to trust him. Yet moments later, Glen instructs Rich to keep Odelle contained at the safe house by any means necessary.

Rich locks Odelle in a room and rejects Odelle's pleas to understand the gravity of the situation. When the so-called extractors arrive to transport Odelle, Rich's naivete results in his quick neutralization as they make their way to Odelle. Desperate, she breaks through a window and leaps into a trash bin - and lands on discarded rebar that rips through her knee. Odelle avoids gunfire long enough to hobble onto the back of a moving truck where she removes the rebar and creates a temporary patch for her wound. But with a wound like that, her escape may prove futile.

General Diallo, feeling futile himself, retreats to Shakir Khan's apartment, defeated by his failure to contain Odelle. Shakir expresses his immense distress: not only did Diallo allow Odelle to slip away, now Aslam is missing. How will they find Shakir's nephew? Diallo suggests Shakir leverage his show's audience to help locate Aslam, an idea that seems to bring a twinkle to Shakir's eye.

Meanwhile, Luc tosses Aslam in his truck, intent on finding out what's on the mysterious flash drive. He escorts Aslam to his girlfriend Selena's house. She owns a working computer that allows Luc to peruse the unencrypted files. Combined with a few quick online searches, Luc arrives at the obvious conclusion: Aslam's thumb drive contains classified information that belongs to Sgt. Odelle Ballard. This could be worth a serious payday.

In New York, Harrison confronts Bob with the note he slipped him during the funeral. The man Bob contends killed Harrison's father is David Tenant... a man who means nothing to Harrison. Bob offers to help Harrison on one condition: no reporters and specifically no Ruby Simms. Once Harrison agrees, an elated Bob informs him that Tenant, a vice president at a major infrastructure company that often works with the government and does business in Mali, talked to Harrison's father four hours before he died, the last person alive to do so. Bob asserts that Tenant must have a role in all this and when Harrison consults his father's notes, he learns Tenant appears to have an association with something called "Black Sands." Anna and Harrison corner Tenant on the street, and he gruffly deflects any questions - including those about his conversation with Randall. But later, an agent pulls Harrison off the sidewalk, right in front of Anna, and tosses him into his limousine. Terrified, Harrison listens to Tenant strongly advise against any further investigation. Let it go... or prepare to meet your father's fate.

Harrison's abduction causes Anna to panic and she contacts the police in her search, for once happy to see Ruby arrive unannounced at her apartment. After she learns of Harrison's disappearance, Ruby steals away for a private phone call to an Osela agent named Michael Banks, certain that he played a role. He denies it and, realizing her mistake, Ruby dials down her frustration and ends the call in her usual calm demeanor. Harrison returns soon after - both unscathed and disinterested in communicating to the police what happened.

Communication plays a center role in a meeting between Peter and his boss at Simons-Wachtel who encourages him to repair his relationship with Societel CEO Alex Baker. The first step includes an interview with the outside consultants Baker hired to investigate recent sniffs of illegal activity. But when they chat with Peter, he quickly realizes that the consultants prefer to ignore any aspects of the Gentry murder and instead focus their energy on a different target: Joe. They pin Joe with stolen files and arrest him as a scapegoat, a move that angers Peter to no end. He voices this opinion to Joe in jail, only Joe counters with a confession of his own: he spied on Peter at the behest of both Societel and Simons-Wachtel. This devastates Peter, but not nearly as much as Joe's rash decision to admit guilt (despite his innocence) rather than fight off the corporate army with Peter in his corner.

With Joe's situation heavy on his mind, a frustrated Peter returns home to discover his daughter missing and a stranger answering her cell phone. Before Peter decides to escalate the issue, Maya walks in the door with a college kid named Cameron and says she lost her phone. Either way, Peter zeroes in on Cameron and, suspicious of the kid's association, shoves him out the door, demanding he stay away from his family. Maya and Sarah react with horror. Is Peter's paranoia destroying his family?

The Ballard family weathers its own storm as Suzanne continues to cling to the idea of her mother's survival while Ron attempts to deal with the loss of his wife. Ron organizes a dinner with other mourning and frustrated military widows, several of whom question the government's secrecy - and Odelle's death. Ever pragmatic, Ron maintains that everyone should accept the current situation, a point of view that irritates Suzanne. She accuses him of moving on prematurely and their discussion ends without resolution... until Ron breaks down in the kitchen, overcome with grief. Later, Suzanne leaves her mom a voice mail message - and once again hears the clicking. It seems clear - someone is listening.

No stranger to eavesdropping herself, Ruby returns to her apartment to find an unexpected visitor: Michael Banks. He questions her resolve regarding her mark - is she containing Harrison or protecting him? She assures him it's the former, but Banks still reminds her that if Harrison learns about Black Sands, Ruby will receive explicit orders to kill him. Rather than flinch at the news, Ruby pulls Banks into a passionate kiss and the two agents pull off each other's clothes...

Back in Bamako, Odelle limps around in a marketplace, her wound difficult to hide. A kind produce vendor recognizes her as an American and offers help. After rejecting a ride to the hospital, she agrees to accompany the man to his home. Moments later, she sits in his living room and dresses her wound. A television happens to play Shakir Khan's live talk show, which catches Odelle's eye when Shakir mentions Aslam. Odelle watches, both stunned and elated, as Shakir appeals to his fans with a photo of Aslam and a call for his return. Now Odelle knows Aslam survived the gunshot from the Ansar Dine, but the real question is - can she find him?