Undercovers Episode 1.06 Xerxes

A mysterious man is on a bus full of tourists traveling through the Australian Outback. After much nervous contemplation, the man puts on a gas mask and opens a mysterious canister. The gas fills the bus, instantly killing everyone onboard except the man himself, who walks off the bus unharmed. He makes a phone call and confirms to the person on the other end that what they ordered works properly. Now he just needs instructions for the delivery.

Meanwhile at Bloom Catering, Lizzy seeks advice from Samantha about a musician who's interested in her. Samantha tells Lizzy to take a leap and not be afraid to fall for him. When Steven interrupts, Samantha remembers they're late for their meeting with Shaw. An impatient Shaw preps the duo on their next mission. Infamous weapons dealer Xerxes has hired a chemist to create a formula for a powerful biological weapon. They believe Xerxes had the chemist embed the formula in a painting he plans to purchase at an art auction in Tuscany. It's Steven and Samantha's duty to identify and acquire the painting before it lands in the hands of Xerxes. However, there's a special twist to the assignment: Samantha learns she'll resume a cover from her past, a woman named Amanda Yorn. In addition, MI6 Agent Clive Garrity will join the mission as her husband. Steven isn't happy about this pairing. He has previously interacted with Clive and feels he can't be trusted.

Now in Tuscany, Steven and Hoyt assume their covers as valet attendants at the villa where the auction is going to be held. Samantha and Clive arrive as Mr. And Mrs. Yorn. Clive seems to be having a little too much fun playing Samantha's husband for Steven's taste. At the storage facility on another part of the property, the chemist delivers the painting containing the hidden formula to the auction staff. Driving away, the chemist comes upon a sedan blocking the road. When he gets out of his car to see what's going on, a man named Anders abruptly shoots him in the chest. Back at the villa, Samantha and Clive check into their hotel room with the assistance of Steven, disguised as a bellman. The three are then met by Hoyt and Tessa, Clive's MI6 partner, with whom Hoyt is instantly smitten. Now safely in the hotel room, the team discusses their plan of action.

Later at cocktail hour, Samantha and Clive mingle with the other guests. Samantha drops a drug into one of the guest's drinks. Moments later, the pill kicks in, and the man appears to have a heart attack. The guard hurries to his aid, which allows Samantha and Clive to sneak into the building. With the help of Steven's interference with security cameras, they make it into the director's office unnoticed. Clive and Samantha wait for data to download from the computer while Steven maintains watch over the security camera feed.

Clive probes Samantha's knowledge of Steven's past. Monitoring the feed, Steven realizes they're secretly discussing something on a different channel, and demands Hoyt connect him. Hoyt fails to appease Steven's lie-detecting intuition, and Steven forces him to follow orders. When Steven hears Clive and Samantha's discussion, he immediately becomes upset, which leads Hoyt to attempt to transfer Steven off the channel. In the confusion, Hoyt accidentally wires Samantha and Clive to the same channel as the security guard, who subsequently hears their conversation. The guards infiltrate the office but Samantha and Clive successfully avoid being caught by hiding in a grate in the floor.

Steven frees Samantha from the grate and confronts her about her conversation with Clive. When Samantha finds out that it was Steven's eavesdropping that led to the communication mix-up, she questions his trust. Steven explains - of course he trusts her! It's Clive he doesn't trust.

Later that evening in the hotel room, Hoyt successfully hacks the auction data taken from the computer to learn that the painting named Decima holds the formula. When Hoyt looks for Tessa to tell her the news, he overhears her phone call. She tells Hoyt that she was talking to her mother about an upcoming vacation. He continues to fall hopelessly in love with her.

Now that they've identified the painting, Hoyt and Steven set up a printer to print an exact replica of it. Hoyt shares his love dilemma with Steven, who tells him to go for Tessa. If he doesn't, he'll regret it in the end. Samantha enters, prompting Hoyt to leave to find Tessa. Samantha apologizes to Steven for discussing his past, and they agree to leave the past in the past, again. With everyone gone, they spend the next six hours alone together. When the replica finishes, Steven and Hoyt leave to switch out the paintings. Unfortunately, they're intercepted by two men, who take them hostage at gunpoint.

The auction begins the next day. Samantha and Clive make their way to the tent. Clive tells Samantha he's forgotten his cell phone and needs to go back to the room. Meanwhile, Steven and Hoyt are tied up in the back of a truck. Steven manages to free them, and they knock out the driver and take over the moving truck. Steven calls Samantha to inform that they failed to make the switch. He describes Anders and Samantha instantly spots him, realizing Anders was the man Clive was chatting with earlier at the cocktail party.

The auction begins and Samantha watches as Anders receives instructions from an earpiece that presumably leads to Xerxes on the other side. Anders is the highest bidder and wins the auction. Steven and Hoyt make it back to the villa and Clive is still nowhere to be found. The team finds out they are unable to trace Xerxes call because he is calling from a high security location. Once they realize the only safe location in the villa is their room it is apparent that Clive may be in fact be Xerxes. Samantha rushes to the hotel room to find him and Steven and Hoyt follow Anders with the painting.

When Samantha arrives in the room she finds Clive laying on the floor, covered in blood. He's been stabbed and can barely speak, but he manages to utter enough words for her piece together what happened. He entered the room to find Tessa on the phone; Tessa is Xerxes. Meanwhile, Tessa drives away from the villa. Anders calls Tessa to let her know he has the painting with the formula, but he soon learns he's been played. She types a code into her cell phone that triggers the painting to explode. The team figures out that Tessa, the real Xerxes, switched out the paintings prior to the auction and successfully escaped with the formula.

Now in Florence, Shaw meets with the team to inform that MI6 is taking full control of the case. Tessa was apparently using assignments and vacations to meet clients and complete deals right under MI6's nose. This piece of info triggers Hoyt's memory of a phone conversation he overheard Tessa having at the hotel. She was getting confirmation numbers from her mother for an upcoming trip she was taking with her sisters. But according to her file, Tessa doesn't have any sisters. Luckily, Hoyt remembers the numbers. When he repeats them, Samantha and Steven realize the numbers correspond to GPS coordinates. They put the coordinates in the computer and discover the purchaser's location to as the Wong Sheung Benevolent Club in Hong Kong.

The team travels to Hong Kong and infiltrates the club. Steven successfully captures the formula from buyer Xu Cheng who gives up Tessa's location with little hassle. Tessa leads the team on a foot chase throughout the streets of Hong Kong. Ultimately, her shots prove unsuccessful. Hoyt takes her down, getting much-needed closure over losing the girl he thought he loved. Back home. Steven tells Samantha the real reason he was kicked out of the elite training program; he broke into the CIA database to find information about her.