Life Episode 2.12 Trapdoor

On their way to a murder scene, Reese tells Crews that she's taking the lieutenant's test. He's happy for her. At a construction site, three men lie dead of gunshot wounds, shot execution style. Two of the men have Russian mob tattoos; the other is a clean-cut young man. Away from Reese, Crews calls Rayborn to remind him that a week ago, Rayborn told him about FBI Agent Bodner being in the pocket of Russian mobster, Roman Nebekov. Now, he's standing over the bodies of some dead Russian wise guys. Crews thinks they're connected, so Rayborn tells him to do his job and find out why they're dead.

Reese and Crews examine the bodies. Two have their fingerprints burned off with acid. The Russian mobsters have rough calloused hands while the kid's hands look like he's never done hard labor in his life. Reese asks Crews if it's true about Ed being in prison for parole violation. In the prison yard, two inmates pick on Ted, thinking he has money. Just as they're about to beat him up, a huge inmate and his buddy approach and confirm he's Ted Earley. The huge inmate then tells Ted that Charlie Crews said not to worry, and advances on Ted's would-be attackers.

At the station, Crews and Reese brief Tidwell on their findings. One of the Russians had a partial print that Interpol returned as belonging to Pyotr Lavroff, and they think the other one is his brother Dmitry. Both had no record of entering the country and are low-level mobsters who did enforcement, collections and protection. The clean-cut man is still unidentified. Crews says no one will miss the wise guys, but that someone is definitely missing the kid. While Crews looks at Roman Nevikov's file, Reese gets a hit through Missing Persons on the third victim, who's named Paul.

Flashback to Officer Stark being questioned about a case that happened a year ago, where a Russian girl was thrown out of a window to her death. Stark confirms he was the responding officer. The interviewer asks if the LAPD ever caught the killer. Stark says Reese and Crews brought him in. The interviewer says the case remains open. Angrily, Stark says that Roman Nevikov was the killer. They had a witness who saw him do it. Stark says they found that witness in a dog cage that Roman had him in before the LAPD rescued him.

At a coffee shop, Crews and Reese talk to Liza, who says Paul befriended her when he saw her struggling with her math homework on break. They show her pictures of Dmitri and Pyotr, but she's never seen them before. Liza never learned Paul's last name and confirms he was Russian. She praises Paul's smarts and says he worked in construction. Crews asks about her bracelet that has Cyrillic writing on it. It was Paul's good luck charm which he gave to her because he saw her as his new good luck charm. She agrees to let them borrow it for their investigation.

At the station, Reese and Crews tell Tidwell what they learned from the bracelet. Paul, last name Rosdivinsky, won the engineering prize from the Moscow Polytechnic Institute three years in a row. Until a few months ago, he lived in Moscow and worked at the University. Then, he quit his job and moved to Los Angeles, but immigration has no record of him entering the country. Crews sees that the other two did enforcement in the construction industry which gives them a connection, but doesn't explain what they were building or why the three were killed.

Crews is studying Nevikov's picture on his conspiracy board when he hears Rachel scream. She saw a man with something in his hand run down the hall. Gun drawn, Crews sees the man bolt in the dark and shoots him in the leg. His father yells, incredulous. "You shot me?" Turns out he was there to deliver Crews an invite to his wedding. Tidwell and Stark arrive, appalled at Crews for shooting his own father. Crews introduces Rachel to Reese. Rachel reacts to Reese's last name. Reese says Rachel looks familiar. Rachel plays it down. Tidwell puts Crews on administrative leave and tells Reese to find out what the Russians were building.

Even though on leave, Crews accompanies Reese to Roman's nightclub. The last time they saw Roman he threw a woman out a window and got away with it. Roman emerges from a back room, sweaty and post coital. He shows them a live video on a handheld video screen of the two women he was having fun with. They show Roman Paul's death picture and he claims not to recognize him. He jibes Crews about shooting his father, then takes Reese off guard when he whispers to her that he bet she thought it was her father Crews was going to shoot. Crews asks what he said, and Reese tells him, "Something in Russian."

They see a discarded "Pardon Our Dust" sign and ask a bartender about it. She says they closed for three weeks for remodeling but when she came back to work everything looked exactly the same. Crews asks if she would look at some pictures, but she gets frightened and leaves. Roman is standing behind them with his handheld device again, a live shot of them at the bar. Crews asks him where he got it. "Aftermarket," Roman says, and then asks them to leave. He tells Crews he should be more careful with guns in his house, especially with Rachel living there.

Another flashback to Ted being interviewed about Rachel living in the house. The interviewer asks if he thinks it's strange that Rachel Seybold is living in Charlie's house after thinking for so long that Charlie killed her family. Ted thinks both Charlie and Rachel were wrecked by that crime. Two people who go through something dark like that, it bonds them.

Rachel tells Crews his dad is doing okay, but he already knows since he called the hospital. Rachel points out that he didn't call his dad. Crews has packed her bag and tells her it's time to go. In the car, he hands Rachel a ticket, her passport and a lot of cash, saying it's not safe for her here anymore. She doesn't want to go, saying she can deal with what happens here. She tells Crews he shouldn't be alone and that he doesn't have to drive around in a car full of bullet holes. "Yeah I do," he says. "For just a little while longer."

At Tidwell's house, Reese tells Tidwell to quit worrying about her safety in dealing with Nebikov. As Tidwell showers, he says he can't believe that Crews shot his own father and didn't seem upset about it. He wouldn't stop crying if he'd done it, then says she'll love his dad. Reese finds vodka in the freezer, then shows up at Crews' house drunk. She's put together that Crews is hiding something from her about the case, and asks about the phone call he made to Rayborn, which he admits was about Roman. She scolds him for not telling her, but something else has driven her to drink.

The next day, Tidwell tells Reese to get back into meetings and says he thought things were going well. She says they were; that's when she screws up. Tidwell, Crews and Reese serve Roman a warrant to search the premises. Roman watches the action on his gadget as the cops don't find anything. Crews notices that it's more than just a video device. Bodner shows up and says Roman belongs to them, and they're making a mistake. Crews tells him about the three deaths.

At the jail, Ted is still enjoying the protection of his Crews-appointed bodyguards. When Ted is still hungry, the huge convict makes Ted's would-be tormentor give him his pie. Ted asks him how long he's in for. The convict tells him not to worry, he's in for three life terms, one for each murder. Ted asks him if he misses the world. The convict says this is the world. Ted says that sounds like something Charlie would say. The convict says that Charlie Crews taught it to him.

At the coffee shop, they give Liza back her bracelet and ask if she's ever seen Roman. She hasn't, but they learn that she and Paul went to a downtown coffee shop to watch the people. They go downtown and see the new Federal building is being built directly across from that coffee shop, and figure that's what Paul was watching. After calling the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Bodner shows up at the station. He asks Liza if Paul ever photographed the construction site. He did, and talked to the workers about stress loads, levels and tolerance. Bodner tells them to back off the investigation.

Crews asks Rayborn if Roman is a terrorist. Rayborn asks the same thing. Crews visits Liza and finds engineering sketches in her book that Paul drew of Roman's club. On their way to raid the club, Reese learns that Liza and the cops who are guarding her have gone missing. During the raid, Crews grabs Roman's electronic device, and realizes Paul built it. He guesses the trap door password, keys it in, and a video of Paul reveals the location of the hiding place under the club. It then cuts to a live shot of it where several people, including Liza and the policemen, are hostage.

At the mansion, Crews's recovering father asks him if he hates him because he wouldn't allow his mother to visit him while he was in prison. Reese arrives, admitting she drank because she needs Crews to tell her what he knows about her father and what he's done. Charlie Crews Sr. interrupts, asking who Reese is. As she's introducing herself, the doorbell rings again. Crews answers, thinking it's Olivia. A shot rings out and Crews is shot in the chest. He falls, and as the ambulance sirens are heard in the distance, Crews clings to life.