09x11 - All is Bright

[Phnxgirl]

- How's the arm? - Still a little tender.

You took a pretty hard hit.

Well, we knew the risks going in, right?

You don't think it escalated a little quickly?

Well... a place like that can get very ugly, very quick.

It was a Kmart, Beale, not a terror cell.

I called dibs.

Everyone knows what that means.

Well, the lady in the fur coat didn't seem to.

She didn't want the garland, she wanted the glory.

Eh, debatable.

This is not good.

It's a w*r zone out there, Hidoko.

We take what we can get. What is that doing here?

Spreading some Christmas cheer. Warming the hearts of many.

No, you need to make it disappear immediately.

Okay.

This is your first Christmas with us.

We should've warned you.

We tend to lean in to the holidays around here.

Well, I suggest you lean out before Mosley sees this.

She doesn't allow any type of holiday display.

Yeah.

Hidoko, if I've met one Mosley, I've met a hundred.

One glimpse of this dry desert palm tree,

all lit up with the spirit of the holidays,

and that reserved, yet often terrifying shell will crumble

like a Christmas cookie.

I suggest you take a generous step back, as my friend here

ascribes to the Neo-Griswold

school of decorating. Your flint,

my liege. Thank you, milady.

I-I really wouldn't do...

Here we go.

Are you kidding me? Hidoko!

Oh. Tannenbaum.

Come on, come on, come on. We're just gonna

get this out of here real quick.

Go, go, go, go!

Abort mission! You never saw us.

Do you care to explain?

♪ NCIS: LA 9x11 ♪ All Is Bright
Original Air Date on December 17, 2017

Just as we were starting to hit it off with Mosley.

Yeah. Yesterday, she asked me how my sister was.

Last week, she encouraged me to keep my chin up.

Wait. Isn't that because you walked into her

while staring down at your phone?

Can you just let me have this?

Fine.

You know what? This is crazy.

Why don't we just tell her we caused the power outage,

and that we'll assume all responsibility?

No. I'll tell her the truth. I'm to blame.

If she's gonna punish someone, she can punish me.

Okay.

Wait, what?

I mean, I don't want to point fingers or anything...

You're the one who said it could use more bulbs.

This is a tree. Exactly.

Not the Eiffel Tower, Beale.

Wait. What?

This is exactly what she wants.

Oh, my God, you're right.

Screw it. You know what?

We're in this together. Yeah.

It was a good run. We'll always have Ops.

There you are.

I've been looking everywhere for you.

Okay.

So, the power outage...

Will not be used to force a wedge between us.

You can take our Bluetooths.

You can take our jobs.

But you cannot--

ever--

take our bond.

You spent some time

in drama camp, didn't you?

May have dabbled in the arts.

Hmm. Okay, well,

your tree didn't cause the power to go out.

The grid is down all over the West Side.

Well, that's a relief.

But also not the best news,

because an outage of that size

will take hours to repair. Which is why

Mosley wants you guys in Ops to see what you can do.

All right. Let's go.

Wait. If the power stays out,

Christmas as we know it will be ruined!

Let's go!

"Drama camp."

I get it now.

'Sup, brah? Don't call me brah.

Who are you?

I'm Brady. Finn's cousin.

Finn doesn't have a cousin.

Okay.

You're right. Uh...

Yeah. Finn's not here. He's not here.

He's in Palm Springs. He's running an errand,

and with that L.A. traffic, you know how that can be.

You want to leave a message or something...

You know, Brady, I'm getting

a very strong whiff of something here,

and I'm not talking about your patchouli.

This was not in the welcome packet.

Mm-hmm. Why don't you tell me what's going on?

Honestly, I don't know what's going on.

Okay, I just got the place on Airbnb,

I'm renting it for a week.

Finn said that this landlord was a real drag,

but you seem cool to me.

That's not a compliment.

And you're a horrible liar.

Wait. Well,

if it makes you feel any better, he lied to me, too.

Apparently "warm and inviting" is just code

for futon and a bag of Funyuns.

You know what I'm saying?

You hear that, Hidoko?

This feels like a test.

No, it's no test.

There's nothing to hear.

Sometimes greatness

can be accomplished in silence like this.

And now this feels like a TED Talk.

While everybody else in the city was malfunctioning

without electricity, I spent a quiet morning

carving "Leucothea" into a mantel on my boat.

Mortal woman turned protector of the seas.

Doesn't hurt to know someone has your back out there.

Speaking of which, where's Callen?

Marooned somewhere north of the 10.

Kensi and Deeks?

Stuck on Lincoln. It's gridlock

with all the traffic lights down.

I'm actually surprised you got here so quickly.

That's because I swam.

What's with the bells?

I always have them in my go bag.

You don't normally

see those on a survival checklist.

Oh, they're great for announcing locations,

sending messages in Morse code,

leading packs of snow dogs. Needless to say,

you got to see this. Come on.

I think he was trying to ring out an SOS.

Felt more like he was signaling Michael Bublé to take the stage.

So what do we got?

At approximately

8:42 this morning, the entire power grid

from the Palisades to Playa Vista went dark.

Ah. Hot yoga enthusiasts must be up in arms.

I'm assuming this isn't a random outage.

Westside Electric reported an unknown source

gained operational access to their computer systems.

Seems they are the latest victims in a ransomware att*ck.

Hackers identify

vulnerability in the software,

use it to gain access and then take the system hostage.

Only releasing it for a fee.

Well, how much are they asking for?

20 million in Bitcoin.

Hmm.

And if Westside Electric doesn't comply?

They're threatening to shut off power up and down

the West Coast until they do.

Any indication who's behind this?

It seems to have

originated in the Ukraine,

though the exact location is still yet to be confirmed.

Massive outages

like this, they wreak havoc on infrastructure,

banking systems, hospitals.

Not to mention m*llitary facilities.

We have backup power. Not everybody is as lucky as we are.

Which is why DOD

is asking us to treat this as a t*rror1st thr*at.

Right. And with our offices in the center of the blackout zone,

we need to be sure that we weren't

the intended target here.

- Well, Nell, you catch the others up to speed. - Mm-hmm.

I'm-a hit Westside Electric. Jingle Beales.

You're coming with me.

Oh.

Leave the bells.

Sam.

Can I bring my g*n?

What, you plan on shaking someone down

over an old utility bill?

People do really crazy things in the dark.

I should probably be packing.

The only thing you're packing is a computer.

Let's go.

We need to find out exactly who we're dealing with,

before it's lights out for the entire western seaboard.

Grid manager will be right out.

So, boats, huh?

Kids...

Kids are okay?

Eric, what are you doing? I'm connecting.

The good thing about a power outage

is you get to disconnect.

Okay.

Aiden and Kam are coming home

tomorrow for winter break. Okay?

You know what you should do?

You should get a hotel in the marina.

Make a staycation out of it.

No hotels. I'm staying on my boat.

All three of you? All three of us.

The couches double as racks. Huh.

And they must have fantastic back support, but...

seems like a bit of a squeeze, no?

Listen. That's enough connecting.

All right? And never let me hear you say "staycation" again.

It's bizarre.

Gentlemen.

George Forester.

I'm Sam Hanna.

NCIS.

This is... Eric Beale, uh...

I, uh... You know what?

Lost my badge in the chase.

In the big chase. Huge, actually.

Sam, you were there.

Surprised you still have your...

badge.

We should probably cut to the chase.

A hack of this magnitude requires a lot of planning.

Did you notice any suspicious activity leading up to it?

Nothing. We weren't prepared for anything like this.

Of course, we'd have more time to work on fixing it

if we stopped getting calls from every Tom, d*ck and Harry

with a stalled train set.

Okay.

You were the grid manager on duty this morning?

And for the last 30 years.

Also ten-time employee of the month,

five-time captain of the softball team,

two-time winner of the summer concert raffle,

but now, I think I'll be remembered

as the one-time destroyer of the Polar Express.

Well, our best chance at getting those choo choos

up and running is if we have

full access to your systems.

Whatever you need.

Would hate to live in a world

where you can't illuminate a shrub.

Mm-hmm.

I bet he's fun at a Yankee swap.

You wanted to see me?

Yes.

Come in.

Do you have a moment?

You bet.

Care to explain?

Oh, those are just some, um,

old ornaments that Hetty had banished

to the island of misfit decorations.

I found them in the middle of the courtyard.

I was, uh, just taking them back to storage.

I must've gotten distracted with the whole power outage.

Hetty didn't care for the holidays?

Just those ornaments, specifically.

She said they reminded her of a time in her life

when she had lost "Hope."

You know, in our line of business, I'm sure we can all

recall a time where we felt like that.

No.

Actually, "Bob Hope."

Something about a bathtub

full of gin, a promiscuous Christmas goose

and a USO tour gone awry.

That's Hetty.

Do you have an update for me on the origin of the hack?

Yes. The ransom message used a Cyrillic character

unique to the Russian alphabet.

A native would not have made that mistake.

I think that someone's trying to push us in the wrong direction.

So we still need to figure out who.

Yes. I could take

that box for you.

Oh, no, no. That's okay.

I'll make sure it gets exactly where it needs to go.

Okay.

Any way to speed this up?

Do I come to your work

and tell you how to arm-bar?

Right. Whoever did this is advanced.

They bypassed every security system put into place

to prevent these kind of att*cks.

Red alert-- used car salesmen

are rioting over a string of deflated Santas.

Whoever did this

had access to every password at every entry point.

They knew the system intimately.

We have an inside thr*at.

Any of your employees been acting strange recently?

Look at me.

Multiply this by 20

and ask my entire department.

Man, we bleed strange. Anyone familiar

with Eastern European languages?

Yeah, there's this one guy, Carl,

married a Croatian woman.

And then there's Edgar-- international gamer.

Wouldn't be surprised if he picked up

some Russian curse words in a chat room.

We'll start with Edgar. Where is he?

Not here. He went home sick this morning.

Not long after he clocked in.

An hour in the car wasn't enough

to cover this subject? Let's just say that I got you a PlayStation.

A PlayStation, a PlayStation. I don't want a PlayStation!

But if I got you a PlayStation,

wouldn't you want me to get you at least a game

to go with said PlayStation? With the said PlayStation I don't want?

I'm just talking hypothetically.

Well, it's coming across more pathetically.

Hidoko, back me up on this one.

Okay, I've been here long enough to know

that's not a good idea.

My wonderful fiancée, who I love dearly,

has made the decree that this season

we can only give each other a gift.

Guys, I'd really rather not. As I explained to Deeks,

we have to save money, because we have a wedding to plan.

Do you have any idea how much weddings cost?

- I don't spend much time on Pinterest, so... - A lot!

And plus, Deeks, sweetie, the holiday season

is supposed to be spent

with people that you love.

As well as the newest electronics

that you also love.

Which I love along with you.

Does couples therapy count as one gift or two?

Ooh... Oh, look who's

a comedian. Then you're gonna love

my next bit.

What's this? Little gift.

I don't want that.

Possible suspect's name is Edgar Parsons.

Works for Westside Electric.

Edgar Parsons lives in Studio City.

Studio City's across town. That's right.

You want me to spend another hour in the car, with him?

Should give you plenty of time to figure this out.

Whatever... this is.

Baby, I just want you to know

that I've read "The Gift of the Magi,"

and if this ends with you shaving your head...

I may be into that.

Callen.

Hey. How's it going out in the wild?

Not good.

- This city is paralyzed. - What's going on?

We don't fix this quickly, we're gonna start seeing casualties.

Move! How's everything back there?

Oh, great. Now, in addition

to trying to save Christmas,

I now have that fun fact to process.

If you need a break, I know a nice little Airbnb

that's just up the coast.

Never took you as the crowdsourcing type.

Yeah, I'm not. Turns out Finn

has been renting out the apartment that he leased

under Dexter Hughes's name and pocketing the cash.

That's disappointing.

Maybe there's some explanation?

I'd like to hear it, if I could find him.

Don't worry, I will track him down faster

than you can say "en-suite bathroom."

Thank you, Nell. Oh, and, Callen?

Finn's just a kid-- everyone messes up at that age.

Did you?

Well, almost everyone.

That's what I thought.

♪ I believe that there's a toy for every little... ♪

Hi. Hey.

Oh...

Well.

They sure know how to target their audience, don't they?

Oh, my.

You know, between you,

me and the wall, all I read is Redbook,

but, uh...

taking a look at that face, what the hell,

sign me up for Reader's Digest.

Yeah, we're not selling magazines.

We're with NCIS. Oh,

Marilyn, you... you old so-and-so.

You know, I just take one look

at those young blue eyes, and I lose all my wits.

We're looking for Edgar Parsons. Hold on a second.

Marilyn hasn't had a chance to take in these cheekbones.

Some call them "chiseled."

Their words, not mine.

Deeks. Uh, y-you're looking

for my Edgar?

Yes, your Edgar. Um... oh,

you know, you just missed him.

Yeah, h-he's so busy-- he's always

running around, doing so many things for me.

You know, legal things,

of course. Deeks, we got a runner.

Excuse me. Oh, no, what do you want? Edgar!

Oh, Edgar!

Oh!

Run, Edgar!

Hey!

Wow. Talk about an immaculate reception.

Good catch.

I Odell Beckham'd the heck out of that thing. I gotcha, buddy.

Well, first things first.

The shepherds are out of surgery,

should be making a full recovery.

But I think I was goosed by a Wise Man.

Don't worry, I tipped him.

Let's just get this over with.

- Am I franken-sensing some hostility? - I'm so confused

by what I'm about to say-- but that was a good one.

Thank you.

Yeah, I did it, okay? I'm guilty. Take me away.

Whoa. All right.

Lock me up and throw away the key.

Easy. I didn't even get to flip the table over.

You know how long I've been working on that move?

Yeah, a lot of wasted wrist work.

How long will I get? Ten years?

Tell me what I have to do to make it 20.

Okay, the first thing you need to do

is take a seat.

And start from the beginning.

Why did you hijack the power grid?

To feel alive.

Hell, just to stay alive.

Do you have any idea what it costs

just to get by these days? Yeah, you do have

to cut corners if you're gonna save anything.

All right, Suze Orman, pipe down.

I'm 30 years old.

I live in my mother's basement

and exercise to her old Jane Fonda tapes.

We've all been there.

I haven't been on a date

since Iron Man was in theaters. Just to clarify,

'cause there's been a lot of Iron Man movies, which...?

The first one. - Oh. - Oh.

All I ever do is work, and when I'm not at work,

I'm taking care of my mother.

Trips to the pharmacy, to the doctors,

to physical therapy.

I had to take out a second mortgage

just to pay her medical bills.

That's what the ransom was for?

To pay debts?

'Cause $20 million seems a little greedy.

There was never gonna be $20 million.

Didn't care about the money.

They didn't even give me a bank account number.

Whoa.

So this wasn't your idea--

somebody paid you to do this?

All they cared about was shutting down the power.

So the ransomware was just a diversion.

Who hired you? I don't know.

Some woman I met at my mom's rehab facility.

"Some woman"? She offered me 20 grand,

a-and I took it.

I needed that money.

Check the security footage.

You'll see her.

All right. Your help will not go unnoticed.

We'll make sure that the courts show you some...

myrrh-cy.

Huh?

We're gonna go... workshop that with the elves.

I apologize for my partner.

She did her research.

She knew exactly who to target. So it was

a distraction-- we need to figure out for what.

Well, whatever it is, it has to be

in the radius of the downed power grid.

God, that's a lot of ground to cover.

I'll have Nell start with

the high-value properties

in the area.

Greetings, fine people.

Is it me, or is Nell just Hetty

going all Benjamin Buttons on us?

Deeks, I am.

Nell, can you contact the local authorities,

see if there's been reports of any suspicious activity

around the power outage?

Oh, I'm already on it.

So far the only reports

have been about a stolen lamb

from a residential nativity scene.

- Hmm. - All right,

it was cute, it was dirty-- I was gonna wash it and return it.

Get over it. Good to know.

There is this one other thing, and, um,

before I continue, let me remind you

that it is the holiday season after all.

That means it's a time

for giving and... forgiving.

You found Finn.

- Finn is missing? - "Hiding"

feels more appropriate.

Well, I ran some of Finn's financial records

that aren't linked to Dexter Hughes, and it turns out

he is the owner of a shiny, old van.

Ooh, that's not good. Vans are notoriously creepy.

It's been ticketed twice this week in Culver City.

I'm sending you the address now.

Until we meet again.

Oh, no.

You got "mad dad" face.

I am not his dad, and I'm not mad.

Mm-hmm.

Would you say that you've had it up to...

here with him?

Or at least here?

If you k*lled Eric, I suggest you cover it up.

I'm not in the mood for that paperwork.

No, I left him at Westside Electric-- he needed to upload some new software.

And I needed to stop listening

to his Mannheim Steamroller playlist.

How long until the power's restored?

Do you want the Eric answer, or do you have somewhere to be

by New Year's?

Should be two hours.

Great. I hope it doesn't take that long

to discover the mystery woman on the security footage.

I'll check in with Nell and Hidoko,

see if we can get an I.D. Well, good luck with that.

Those two have been acting weird all day.

There's definitely something up.

Well, the unknown can be unsettling to people.

You can be a bit mysterious yourself.

Well, we all put up walls, Sam.

That doesn't mean there aren't surprises behind them.

Oh!

Oh, geez.

Uh, oh. Okay.

What'd you get on your SATs?

1580. Oh, not bad.

Why? I know what

all my friends got on their SATs,

so, uh, now it's official-- we're buds.

Come with me.

Come on. Nell...

rules are in place for a reason.

I can't help you.

Oop. Hold that thought.

Hmm.

Best thing for you right now would be to not be in here.

Of course, I'm not really concerned about

what's best for you.

Time to come out.

You need to tell me what we're doing.

Hidoko, where did you spend the holidays last year?

Stuttgart, Germany,

on assignment with EUCOM.

We lived off brats and mulled wine.

And the year before that?

Bagram Air Base, with 1st CAG.

Turned an MRE into a green bean casserole.

I'll never forget that one.

Well, we don't always get to

spend the holidays with our real families.

Sometimes we spend them with this family.

And this family has been through a lot lately.

Now, I know the holidays aren't gonna be the same

without Hetty and Granger here,

and that is exactly why we need to remind them

how special it was when they were.

And we need that tree, Hidoko.

I need that tree.

Okay, well, how do you plan on convincing Mosley?

I haven't quite figured that one out, yet.

So, I could use your help.

What do you say?

Okay.

Okay.

With the knees.

Thank you.

Okay, you got it? Yeah.

Whoo!

I cannot believe I let you convince me to do this.

What are you talking about? We got through traffic

in, like, half the time.

I'm not talking about the bike, sweetie.

It's Christmas. You look adorable.

You're like a, like a rare, but sexy reindeer.

You look like an elf that feel off one too many shelves.

Oh. You're not wrong about that.

I'm just gonna leave this here. It's probably fine, right?

Yeah, all right.

You're lucky you still have power.

We just need a clear image

of the woman that came in with Edgar Parsons.

Yeah, we'll be out of your hair in a hot minute.

Eh, more time I'm in here, less time I'm out there

with my soon-to-be ex-wife.

She's a nurse.

Oh, well,

not everybody can make office romance work.

Oh, she can.

But with Dr. Tom, not me.

Yeah, that's, uh... tough.

She's quite a looker.

That's good for Dr. Tom, I guess.

No.

The woman you're looking for...

That's her.

We need to know why this woman

took the power out.

You know her?

That's Alicia Fuentes.

You seem concerned.

She's the sister of Jose Fuentes,

heir to the second largest drug cartel in Mexico.

The Morelos cartel.

They've been quiet for quite some time now.

Jose got locked up five years ago.

When he went away, the bloodshed slowed down.

With the kingpin being locked up,

maybe they used the five years to prepare the queen.

If Alicia revives the Morelos cartel,

things are gonna get loud again.

A lot of people will get hurt.

Well, all I want for Christmas is for you to find her

before the bodies start to drop.

I leave you alone for a minute,

and it is lights out for the entire western seaboard.

You hear that, Hidoko?

The silence is officially broken.

Okay, if I carried around

a Swiss flag, would I stop being

caught in the middle of these things?

Don't let me interrupt anything here.

Thank you.

Jose Fuentes,

son of Hector Fuentes

and heir to the Morelos cartel,

one of Mexico's most notorious drug families.

DEA picked him up

five years ago in the City of Industry.

That's right, he was tied to a linens warehouse

that was doubling as a cocaine distribution center.

With the heir apparent behind bars,

it might fall on the sister to run the family business.

Doesn't seem like it.

Alicia Fuentes has been clean up until now.

At least in the eyes of the U.S.

Valid passport, no arrests.

Not even a parking ticket.

Well five years is a long time to go

without your brother footing the bills for things.

Her little nest egg could have run out.

Well, Kensi and Deeks are on their way to her house now.

Looks like we'll be paying Jose a visit.

Where is he now? He was sentenced

to a federal prison outside Fresno,

but was transferred to a private facility last week.

Which one? Barnsworth Penitentiary.

That's three miles from here.

They're most likely on the same power grid.

I'll let them know you're on your way.

Ugh... oh.

I was doing some thinking on the way over,

mostly about my life, which, subsequently,

flew by in its entirety.

I agree to your one-present rule,

as long as you promise to never drive my bike ever again.

First of all, that woman cut me off.

Second of all, please don't be scared.

It does not look good on you.

I'm not scared, but I'm pretty sure that Pomeranian

d*ed of a heart att*ck.

Okay, we don't have a lot of time

to track Alicia Fuentes, so I'm sorry,

we need to cut corners.

Well, and I have to cut coupons for the Ubers I'll be taking

from here on out. Stop being ridiculous.

Stop being Evel Knievel's understudy.

You know, if I wasn't so well-adjusted,

I'd almost begin to think everyone's avoiding me.

Finn's a little kid. Don't take it personal.

Yeah? What's your excuse?

What do I have to do with this?

Christmas dinner?

You haven't responded to my e-vite.

I don't know what's more unsettling,

the fact that you send an e-vite,

or that you're monitoring it.

I got to know how much brisket to buy.

Fine. Don't come for dinner.

But do me this favor.

Stay with me while Aiden and Kam are in town.

I got plenty of room for everybody.

You got plenty of rooms.

My boat is more comfortable than anything in those rooms.

Open it up.

Warden Decker.

Thanks for taking the time to meet us.

Happy to help. Don't mind the lighting.

We're conserving energy.

Well, it seems your systems have stayed operational.

The generators kicked in three minutes

after the lights went out.

There were a few chaotic moments in between,

but nothing we couldn't handle. I assume all inmates

are accounted for? Three times over.

We have protocols we follow in situations like this.

It's a good thing you were able to maintain order.

Uh, I wouldn't exactly say that.

The cable's still out.

Hell hath no fury like an inmate who misses his soap operas.

Jose's in the last cell on the left.

Take all the time you need.

Jose Fuentes.

Need to ask you some questions.

I'm not feeling well. Come back later.

I'd listen to him. He hates being avoided.

Come on, man, not today.

Look, last chance.

Or else I'm gonna get more bold,

and you're gonna get less beautiful.

Who the hell are you?

Jose Fuentes.

The warden said there was three minutes

between the outage and the generator.

That's enough time to pull out the real Jose

and stick in this lookalike. Right.

So, Alicia wasn't planning on taking over the family business.

No, she was breaking out Jose so he could get back into it.

Shortcut.

Like a ninja.

Huh.

Hey. Bearded dragons.

That's cute. They got matching beards, just like us.

And nothing else inside.

Not even a poinsettia.

Does nobody care about Christmas anymore?

I'd say that being a Grinch falls under probable cause...

Don't touch that.

I'd really love to grow old with you,

and if we enter there without a warrant,

Mosley will not let that happen.

Since when do you care about a warrant?

All right. Well,

let's check out the garage.

♪ Run, run, Rudolph ♪ Go!

♪ Santa's got to make it to town ♪

Okay. Stop it. I'm driving.

All right. Fine, I'm Ubering. Deeks, I drive, you sh**t.

Okay, deal. You drive, I sh**t.

Don't k*ll us. Please don't k*ll us. Go, go, go, go.

Yeah!

♪ Like a merry-go-round ♪

♪ A little baby doll... ♪

♪ Run, run, Rudolph ♪

♪ Reeling like a merry-go-round. ♪

Alicia Fuentes. Oh.

Nice sh**ting.

Nice driving.

Do I really need to be here for this?

No, you need to be here to tell us where your brother is.

Why would I help you?

You people put him in jail.

Our family was torn apart.

Do you have any idea what that's like?

Unfortunately I do.

Your brother made a choice.

Now he has to pay the price.

We've been paying the price our whole lives.

We were born into this world.

Do you know my very first memory was watching my father

taken away on Christmas Day

after a raid on our family house?

I was three, Jose was five.

That is a lot for a kid to process.

Children shouldn't have to grow up without their fathers.

You were on your way

to break the cycle.

What changed?

Jose's my big brother.

He's made mistakes, but he's not who you think he is.

He wasn't gonna run the business.

He just wouldn't turn on it,

so he took the fall for our family

and now it's my turn to make that sacrifice.

Oh.

We're gonna find Jose with or without you.

But if you help us, maybe you'll get a chance

to get on the right path one day.

This is your opportunity

to break that cycle...

for good.

Alicia just gave us the address to a house in Hancock Park.

They're having a welcome home party.

That's where Jose's headed.

She's gonna make a call for us, buy us some time.

What did we learn about the man in Jose's cell?

Well, he works maintenance at the prison, and looks like Jose

has dirt on him that he didn't want getting back to the warden.

Well, he must've paid off some of the guards as well.

They delay the generator, he's able to escape undetected.

Hey, guys.

So, it looks like the house in Hancock Park

is owned by LPR Industries, which is...

A shell company, 'cause it's always a shell company.

That's correct.

But its current tenant is Luisa Ruiz,

the longtime girlfriend of Jose and mother of Roberto.

Roberto was born

five months after Jose was arrested.

That would make him about five now.

That's the same age Jose was when his father went to prison.

He's not gonna stick around long.

We need to head out. Nell...

Oh, I'm one step ahead of you.

I suggest you read up on your reds and whites.

And I'm not talking candy canes.

Speaking of candy canes...

♪ Oh, the weather outside is frightful ♪

♪ But the fire is so delightful ♪

♪ And since we've no place to go ♪

♪ Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... ♪

Ho, ho, ho, ho!

What do you kids want for Christmas?

You're the worst Santa ever.

Ugh! Aah.

What did you do? Show them a picture of you in your helmet?

Uh, I told him later on, he's gonna meet a beautiful woman.

He's gonna fall in love with her

and then she's gonna steal all his presents.

I hear marriage counseling works wonders.

Why does everybody keep saying that to me?

There you go.

Pay me $350 an hour, I'll tell you.

That's never gonna happen.

I got eyes on Jose. He's heading back.

Got him. I'm moving in.

We do this as quiet as he lets us.

It's over, Jose.

You don't want your son to see this.

You walk out of here with me now,

he'll never know.

He's on the run, moving towards the front door.

Hi. Would you like one?

They're so good. They'll knock you off your feet.

Papa.

What's happening?

Where are you going?

Ho, ho, ho, ho! Well, listen,

we need your dad back at the North Pole, okay?

There's still a lot of toys that need to get made.

So is it okay if he comes back with us?

Yeah, I guess so.

That's okay?

Mm. That's great.

Okay. Let's go grab some eggnog.

All right.

We know this was about more than your freedom.

All I wanted was to be back with my family,

to be a father.

I was gonna do it right this time.

Breaking out of prison feels like a bad start.

Being away from my son was a t*rture.

You know this is gonna add time to your sentence.

It felt like my only option.

I just want to spend time with him.

It's gonna take us a while to sort this out.

At least 30 minutes.

Stay close.

Thank you.

Roberto.

You got to be kidding me.

It should've been restored hours ago.

This has Eric written all over it.

Sorry to disappoint.

Ma'am, I thought there were rules.

With all due respect, there are rules,

but I also have the power to override them.

Merry Christmas.

This is impressive.

Where did you find all this?

It took a little investigating,

and I had a little help.

Oh, hello there.

Looks like this crowd could use a little drink.

It's an elf with cocktails. Come on.

Your friendly Christmas elf.

Eggnog, huh? Yeah.

I'm gonna give you the full one.

Okay.

This is gonna work out well for me.

Come on,

- eggnog. - Wow.

Thank you. Okay, here.

- I can definitely use a drink. - Enjoy.

Here we go.

Eggnog.

Thank you. Enjoy, ladies.

Cheers, boss. Cheers.

Come here.

So, I was thinking... Hmm?

...this year, we should stack our presents high.

Our wedding is just one day.

We can go without centerpieces.

It's fine.

It's a holiday tradition I'd rather invest in.

Well, I've been doing some thinking, too, some research.

Read some Redbook.

And it turns out

the most successful marriages are based on compromise.

So, I think we should do it your way this year.

You sure? I'm positive.

But that means next year, we're going all-out, my way.

So maybe you want to grab a pencil, take this down.

I was thinking maybe, like, a grill set.

And, as you know, I don't actually have a grill,

so you could get that in addition to the grill set.

We should grab a pen.

Come here. Cheers. Cheers.

I don't want it, eggnog.

Drink it. I don't want it.

All right.

It's a Christmas miracle.

Good one. Ah, you made it.

Hey.

If it were up to me, all of Westside Electric

would be getting coal this year.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I took your advice.

Got a hotel.

Yeah? That does make me feel better.

Yeah, I stand by the fact that my boat would have been fine,

but being in that room with you today

made me realize the importance of space.

That, not so much.

But I'll take it. All right.

Happy holidays, Sam. Thank you.

Enjoy your staycation.

So you take advice from Eric now?

Here we go.

That's okay. It's more brisket for me.

You know,

this first year without Michelle has been hell so far.

I don't know what I'm doing, but...

I do know that the kids and I,

we need room to figure it out on our own.

If you need to talk, you know where I am.

Sometimes, to figure things out, all you need to do is listen.

Another round?

Thanks. I, uh...

I need to make a stop on the way home.

- Mm. Cool. - Merry Christmas, everybody.

All right, everybody ready?

And cheers.

Join us!

Cheers.

Anything else tonight?

No. I was just actually...

finishing up.

Have a good night.

I know bending the rules isn't your strong suit, but...

what you did tonight was important.

For the team. And for us.

Merry Christmas.

Thanks, Hidoko.

Have a good night.

Thought you and Brady

might be halfway to Burning Man by now.

No, we had a little falling out over his opinion of Funyuns.

Well, look, I'm kind of in a hurry. You want to just skip

to the b*llet points of this lecture?

I'm not here to lecture you.

Why were you checking up on me?

I came over to invite you to Christmas dinner.

It never occurred to me

that you were running a Hilton.

I needed the money.

Hmm. You got tired of stealing, huh?

Hey, I paid for all of these.

Okay? They're not for me.

They're for the others.

They're for the other kids at the shelter.

It's not fair.

No.

It's not.

They didn't choose to get passed over,

and yet they get reminded of it every year.

I wanted to give them one year where they weren't.

You're one of those kids.

So are you.

Well...

you need an extra hand passing these out?

As long as your other one

doesn't punch any more holes in the wall.

So what'd you get for that place?

$200 a night.

$200? Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know what that guy was smoking.

$200. I got skills.

Apparently so.