Trama

Michael, Fi, and Sam pose as an under boss' crew to bring down a criminal and hopefully get Detective Paxson off Michael's case. Meanwhile, Sam is audited by a humorless, no-nonsense IRS agent.

Detective Paxson's police escort annoy Michael and ruin another of Fiona's jobs. So they decide to earn the MPD's gratitude, hoping to get them off their backs. Sam discovers that another constant focus for Paxson is Rickie Matheson, a parasite who recruits small criminals and kills them after a lucrative job. Mike poses as Milo, an 'admirer' of Tommy T'Antonio, as expected the next Matheson recruit, so the team can set them up. Meanwhile Sam wrestles with meticulous, incorruptible tax auditor Stacey Conolly, who turns out to have a personal logic.—KGF Vissers

Michael talked about the importance of laying out a plan before going into any operation while he and Fi approached a dirtbag's house to collect money for a client for a $5,000 payment. Michael told Fi he planned on using his share of the cash to get back in touch with some of his old contacts.

Fi went inside to get the cash from the sleazebag and Detective Paxson rolled up while Michael waited outside. Michael was trying to smoothly blow Paxson off so he could go inside and help Fi, but when he didn't show up Fi had to escape the house on her own, empty-handed. Paxson took off, but left behind a friend -- a cop who would trail Mike's every move.

Michael and Fi went out to dinner with their cop friend watching from outside. It wasn't much of a date. They went to Carlito's, where they always go. The cop wasn't the only friend hanging around, though. Sam showed up and sat at their table talking about being audited. Sam said he was trying to get some dirt on Paxson, and they needed a new angle.

Mike messed with Paxson by showing up with his police escort to a cafe where she was on a stakeout for a case she'd been working eight months to crack. Mike told Paxson they were "on the same side," and she asked him to prove it to her. He said they should talk later, then called Sam and told him the "new angle" was to get some info on the other case.

Michael went to his mom's house and she told him she was taking up baking cookies, which was supposed to be relaxing. He went out the back door and told her, "If the cops out front ask, tell them I've run to the store." She told him to pick up some eggs and cigarettes. Mike went to a cemetery in a used car (the second-most popular car in Miami, "should make tailing me a little more challenging") and Sam met him there. Mike was watching Paxson, who appeared to be at a funeral, from afar.

Sam told Mike that Paxson had a harassment complaint filed against her a month earlier by a guy named Matheson, who had "a habit of ripping off drug dealers." Sam said Paxson was forced by a judge to back off Matheson after she took some swings at him and missed. She was still trying to work the case, but Sam said Mathison no longer even had to hide. Michael said they should find Matheson for her. Suddenly, Paxson was the client.

Sam went to meet with the IRS representative, Stacey Conolly. He was ready to turn on the "Sam Axe charm" but it turned out Stacey Conolly was a by-the-book man. Stacey was upset that Sam came unprepared and said the IRS wanted the truth.

Michael went to a beach club to observe Matheson and his entourage to see who he might be able to approach to get at Matheson. He found "a frustrated middle manager" named Tommy. Sirens approached in the distance and Fi told Michael the cops were coming for them. They got out of the beach club quickly to avoid Matheson seeing Michael with Paxson.

Sam was giving Mike some "prison ink" in preparation for a meeting with Tommy. Michael had to use the roof exit to get out of his loft without the cops seeing him. He went to the dog track to meet with Tommy, acting like they were the same type of person and that some friends in prison told him to look Tommy up in Miami. Michael worked a nice little accent and got Tommy to invite him over to meet with his crew.

Sam met with the auditor again and couldn't explain away his deductions. His documentation for a trip to the Middle East was a large gun. Sam explained "the guy was done with it." Stacey asked if it was a gift. Sam said it wasn't not a gift. "There was this thing, and then the gun didn't have an owner anymore."

A nervous Stacey said, "I'm just going to mark that down as windfall income." Sam took a cookie from Maddie and spit it out. Stacey said he also needed a breakdown of meals, rent and transportation "provided to you by your lady friends, as you call them." Maddie offered Sam another cookie. He turned it down.

Michael, Fi and Sam went to dinner with Tommy and acted like a band of small-time criminals who were looking to get into bigger business with Tommy. They set out that night to break into a dry cleaner. As Tommy hemmed and hawed inside, the cops came and Mike used his mad skills to get them out unscathed. Tommy was impressed.

Paxson showed up the next day and said she thought of Michael when she heard about the dry cleaner robbery. Fi said the heist cost them $1,000 after they gave the dry cleaner back all of his money.

Mike went to Tommy and said he needed "a real score" because there were people from up north looking for him. Not wanting Michael to get away, Tommy offered to introduce him to Matheson and said they "work together."

Sam and Stacey the auditor were going through some more of Sam's tax deficiencies when Sam realized he knew Stacey -- he'd dated Stacey's mom. Stacey admitted he felt like Sam abandoned him and his mother. Stacey was upset and left, leaving Sam to realize he'd made such an impact on Stacey.

Mike and Fi worked up a bug in a pack of cigarettes to get it on Tommy. They met Matheson, who was suspicious of them at first. Tommy and Matheson talked about a job Tommy's new "crew" could work on. Matheson wanted them to help taking down a meth lab.

Tommy was worried about Michael and his crew and told Michael there was no job. He told Michael that Matheson would have them killed in the meth lab takedown just to make a few bucks. Tommy told Michael he wasn't the kind of guy to do such big and dangerous jobs, then Michael went ahead and told Tommy that they were looking to take down Matheson and needed Tommy's help.

Michael told Tommy the plan for the meth lab heist. They all showed up to do the job. Matheson went inside and Michael and Fi super-glued the door shut from the outside to get Matheson trapped inside. As the gunfire erupted outside, Tommy blocked the back-door exit of the meth lab with a van, completing the trap of Matheson inside. Paxson showed up to arrest Matheson, and another cop told Matheson the getaway car used was the same one that had been stolen the night of the dry cleaning robbery, and there was a block of C-4 explosive found in the back.

Tommy told Michael he was going to stay clean and move to St. Louis to open a dog kennel.

Paxson showed up at a restaurant where Michael was having lunch. She explained the situation with the Matheson case and the C-4 explosive found in the getaway car. She said Matheson had never been tied with any cases involving C-4, but it was the same C-4 used in seven other unsolved cases. Michael suggested she close the Matheson case and stop following him.

"So, I get Matheson and you get a free pass?" she said.

"If I got a free pass, which I'm not saying that I did, it was anything but free," Michael said. "It's like I told you, detective. We're on the same side."

She called off the cops sent to trail Michael and told him, "Just remember where the line is, Mr. Westen. I will be watching."

Michael replied, "I would expect nothing less."

Back at Maddie's house, Sam met with Stacey and shared some drinks.

Michael and Fi went on a real date. Fi tried to tell Michael there was a chance he could change and not want to get back into the spy game. He said he was free of the people who burned him and free of the cops.

"This is the moment I've been waiting for," Michael said.

"This is the moment I was waiting for," Fi replied, wiping away a tear.