The Trader - Recap

It’s been three days and twenty-one hours since the Drexler bombing, and Tyler is having a horrible nightmare. As he tosses fitfully in the passenger seat of his car, images race through his mind: the explosions of the Drexler and the Maya, the race through the woods to escape Ellington, the library in New Haven where they were nearly captured. The sounds of gunfire and their pursuers serve as a frightening commentary to the images that aren’t just a nightmare—they’re all things that have happened since Tyler’s life has been turned upside down. He is startled out of his sleep by a pair of homeless people who want to earn some money, but the frustration and rage are so evident in Tyler’s demands for them to leave that they don’t ask any questions.

Tyler shakes the sleep from his system and notices that Jay isn’t there with him. After scanning the area, he finds him standing over near a pay phone up the block. He goes over to him and asks what he’s doing, but Jay stops him cold. “Whose turn was it to keep watch last night?” he asks. When Tyler protests—he’d merely closed his eyes for a second—Jay points out that not only was he not supposed to sleep, but that they’re back in New York: home of the Drexler and where this whole nightmare began. It’s not likely the people of New York have forgotten what happened nearly four days ago, cautions Jay, and then starts making his way towards Three Continents Investing. When Tyler points out that the building they need is in Midtown and they’re in Queens, Jay simply tells them that taking the car isn’t an option—they’re lucky they didn’t get caught a day ago inside of it. Tyler, defeated, falls in step with Jay as they walk towards the building they need.

At FBI headquarters, Chambers is slowly changing his shirt for the day in his office. It’s obvious he’s no stranger to difficult situations—the bullet wounds in his back are evidence of this—but he looks as though everything he thought he knew has been shaken to the core. Marlow gets a lead—the boys were spotted in Boston—and grabs Borjes to go with her, but Chambers stops them, keeping Borjes for another project. Back in his office, Chambers asks what they know about the man who escaped custody the night before, and Borjes says that they don’t know. The man refused to give a name, so his booking slip reads John Doe, and all of the fingerprints they took from him have vanished. Incensed, Chambers tells Borjes to do whatever he has to to find out who this mystery man is—he’s responsible for the death of one of their agents as well as a co-conspirator in the Drexler bombing.

In Deer Harbor, Will is surveying the damage left by Tyler and Jay’s investigation. He sees the charred wreckage of the Maya in the harbor, and goes to Maya’s house only to find the key he left her missing. As he prepares to leave, another man—likely one of Will’s associates—attacks him inside the kitchen. Will makes quick work of the man, telling him to convey a message: “You tell them I’m coming.”

In Boston, Marlow meets with an Agent Watkins, who brings her up to speed: the boys were spotted by security at Boston Hall leaving the area in an SUV. Cameras were able to get a photo, and while it can’t give them plates, it does place Jay and Tyler at the scene. Watkins tells her that the Boston office is already pulling feeds and photos off all the major highways and tollbooths so as to determine where the two might be headed. Marlow opts to go over to Boston Hall to try and determine what it was they were looking for—the information might give them a clue as to where they’re going next.

Jay and Tyler finally manage to make it to the building on 52nd St.—the home of Three Continents Investing. They make their way up to the suite the company was housed in, only to find it lacking. The room consists of a desk, a chair, a single desktop computer, a printer and several piles of shredded paperwork. “Looks like a high-class operation,” Tyler says dryly of the space.

In the forensics section of FBI headquarters, Chambers walks in on Borjes and a forensic tech fuming the dead agent’s body with superglue so as to find a print from their escapee. The two are relieved when they manage to come up with a single print.

Boston Hall has become a busy place—first Will goes in to check the contents of his locker, which is now empty, and then Marlow and Watkins come in to grab surveillance footage and determine who he locker belonged to. Will manages to “lift” a couple of wallets, including Watkins’s credentials, before he leaves the building.

On 52nd St., Tyler tells Jay that the only thing accessible on the computer is the operating system. Jay checks the phones, but the line has been cut. All they’re left with are the mounds of shredded paperwork lying behind the desk. Tyler begins going through a few of the shards when he notices something: a ticker symbol for Holloway Insurance. It crops up several times in the shredded paperwork, leading Tyler to believe that insider trading was definitely taking place here. Tyler’s mind wanders back to the hours after the bombing, when his father had tipped him to the sale of the insurance stock. He tells Jay that even though it’s in shreds, the paperwork proves that someone else knew about the bombing before it happened.

Just then, there’s a sound coming from outside the door and the two dive into the storage closet. Two men enter, discussing their instructions to clear out and destroy everything. One of the men heads straight for the closet, and the boys, panicked, launch out from their hiding place and race out of the room, dodging bullets as they go. They run into an alley, diving behind a pair of dumpsters for cover. “Who were those guys?” wonders Jay, and Tyler replies that they were likely “more friends of Will’s.” Jay is frustrated—that was their last lead towards clearing their names—but Tyler is more optimistic: they have the information on the stock sales, which will have a public record. All they need to do is access those records and determine who stood to profit from the sale. Jay knows that Tyler wants to go back to his dad, and flatly vetoes the idea, but Tyler proposes an alternative: Eddie Hahn, a grad school classmate of his who got a job with Carlton on Tyler’s recommendation. Jay likes this idea even less—after all, Eddie Hahn lied and cheated his way through grad school—but Tyler tells him that they’re running out of options when it comes to getting help.

Marlow and Watkins are going over the surveillance footage from Boston Hall, and find the part where Tyler is going through the research locker. Watkins notes that the locker doesn’t belong to him, however—it was rented under the name D. Taft, and they’re still trying to determine who that might be. They speed the footage up to that from an hour ago, and they notice a young man who adeptly keeps his face hidden from the cameras. They play the tape and find that the young man also has a knack for picking pockets, and suddenly Watkins reaches for his credentials only to find they’ve been swiped. Marlow tells the tech to freeze the tape—she thinks she’s seen their pickpocket before. Watkins asks if she knows him, and Marlow does. Holding up Kim Doherty’s drawing next to the screen, she says, “Hello, Will Traveler.”

Will, meanwhile, is on a pay phone. He’s asking his contact if he’s “still in business,” and is pleased with the response.

In New York, Borjes is running the escapee’s print through their database when the tech hits a roadblock: the identity attached to the print is classified, requiring counter-terrorism clearance. Borjes happens to have that clearance, and swipes his ID to grant them access, but another wall pops up. Whoever this guy is, he has stratospheric-level classified clearance in the system.

That night, the boys wait outside the Fog building for Eddie to leave. Jay complains about the long wait—after all, the market closed hours ago—but Tyler explains that Eddie is quite the suck-up and will stay until just after his boss leaves. A few minutes later, Tyler sees the head of Eddie’s division leave for the night, and like clockwork, Eddie show up a few minutes later. Tyler sidles up next to him, telling him he needs a favor repaid, but Eddie will have none of it. When Jay enters the picture, carrying the gun from Will’s locker, his attitude changes a bit and he grudgingly takes the two up to his office. He accesses the information on Holloway Insurance, and is eager to leave, but Tyler and Jay keep him a bit longer. Tyler notices that there was a small spike that Monday in sales of the stock, but nothing that would set off any alarms. He looks at the names of the sellers, but doesn’t recognize any of them. Eddie, in an attempt to show-off, tells the two that if one was to distance themselves from insider trading, they would funnel the sale through a corporation or foundation. Looking at it from that angle, there was one large foundation that dumped stock on Monday—the Hadley foundation, a non-profit that counts Carlton Fog on their board of directors. Jay sees this as proof of Carlton’s involvement, but Tyler vainly tries to believe that his father couldn’t be a part of something like the Drexler bombing.

Jay finally asks Tyler why it is he always seems to cover for his dad, and Tyler explains, very simply, that it’s because it’s his father. Furthermore, he reasons, why on earth would Carlton have told the two about the stock sale in the first place if he was behind it? Jay tells him that it’s very likely that both he and Tyler were never supposed to make it out of the Drexler alive—but they did, creating a problem for those who are responsible. He also reasons that Carlton decided to “fix” the problem by having them come up to Elysium and send them off to be murdered. Tyler, however, is still incredulous—he simply cannot believe that his own father would not only set him up, but then try to have him murdered. When Jay tries to reason with Tyler and talk some sense into him, Tyler grows upset, punches Jay out on the floor, and leaves, stating that he needs to hear Carlton tell him to his face that he’s behind this.

The next morning, Eddie is obviously pissed as he tries to figure a way out of being gagged and tied to a chair, while Jay wakes up in fright after hearing a passing siren. The two have moved to Eddie’s apartment, and Jay takes the gag out of Eddie’s mouth—with the warning that if he screams, it goes right back in. Clearly worried about Tyler, he tries out the phone, only to find that it works. Eddie tells Jay that “people like Tyler” don’t call, but Jay tells him that he obviously doesn’t know Tyler very well at all. Eddie retorts by saying that he spends upwards of twelve hours a day with people like Tyler—and that he’s not coming back. What’s more, if he doesn’t show up to close a deal in twenty minutes, people will begin looking for him. Tired of hearing Eddie go on, Jay snaps at him to shut the hell up, but Eddie merely asks what he plans to do if he doesn’t—wave his gun in his face some more? Jay merely picks up his bag and begins repacking his things while Eddie tells him to give it up. “I’m innocent,” Jay says. “Not from where I sit,” retorts Eddie. “There’s no one left to help you.”

“You’re right,” says Jay, taking a long look at Eddie. “Tyler is gone. But I’m not alone.” He picks up the phone and calls Kim’s gallery, only to find that she’s been fired. Jay then strips the phone of its battery to prevent Eddie from calling out, and refuses to release him from the chair. “I’m not gonna call the cops,” Eddie protests, to which Jay responds, “Yes, you will. And when they do get here, make sure you tell them what we found out about Carlton Fog.” He then replaces Eddie’s gag and heads out of the apartment.

Downtown, two agents are keeping close tabs on Carlton’s car, which is parked outside his club. Tyler manages to sneak inside the car, startling the driver, Charlie. Tyler assures Charlie that he isn’t responsible for what’s happened, and that he knows he’s no criminal. Charlie agrees, but tells him that “the papers have already tried and convicted you.” Tyler says that he needs to speak with Carlton, and that the visit is “kind of a surprise.” They watch as Carlton exits the club with another man—the agent from Homeland Security—and when Tyler asks who he man is, Charlie doesn’t know…only that he must be from D.C.

The agent is making his exit from the city, telling Carlton that he’s “held up his end of the agreement” and that “no one questions your commitment.” He then tells Carlton that he’ll see him in Washington, and leaves.

Carlton gets into his own car, only to be surprised to see Tyler sitting next to him. At first, Carlton seems pleased to see his son, but Tyler simply tells Charlie to drive. “You knew,” he tells his father, and when Carlton questions him, Tyler elaborates: “All of it. The Drexler, me and Jay, the whole setup.” Carlton rolls up the window, asking Tyler to explain so he can help, but Tyler’s done with his father’s lies. Carlton explains that he’s been “helping” Tyler through one thing or another for most of his life, but Tyler tells him, in a quiet but very firm voice, that he doesn’t need help—not from him. “I just want to know why,” he asks. Carlton claims that Tyler isn’t making a lot of sense, so Tyler calmly elaborates: “Two years ago, you cut me off. You forced me into university housing. Now, that was the plan, wasn’t it? To get me and Jay into that house together? With Will?” Carlton explains that he merely wanted Tyler to “find his own way,” but Tyler holds up the evidence of the stock sale. “I know about Holloway Insurance. I know. The stock sale you made for Hadley Foundation.” Carlton wants to see the slip of paper in Tyler’s hand, but Tyler’s not biting. “You cashed out before the bombing. You knew what was gonna happen. You offered me up, and then you made a profit from it.” Tyler’s calm carries as he voices the one question that’s been bothering him: “Just tell me, Dad, that you didn’t try to have us killed.”

Carlton’s easy demeanor vanishes, and his face stiffens into a cold, careless mask. “This is the real world,” he tells Tyler, and there are decisions that have to be made. “Some of those choices are bigger than you,” he says icily. “Choices about what?” Tyler asks. Money? Surely the life of his child is worth more than some stock portfolio…

Carlton’s answer to Tyler’s question is that it doesn’t have anything to do with money---but everything to do with “making it right.” In Carlton’s mind, everything that’s happened was done to secure the future of the Fog legacy. “Without me,” notes Tyler sadly. “You’re not strong enough, Tyler,” says his father flatly, citing Tyler’s “weakness” as his flaw and the fact that Carlton has had to shelter him for much of his life. “I’ve known since you were a child that you couldn’t lead this family forward,” he snaps as he rolls down the window and tells Charlie to pull over.

The look on Tyler’s face is telling as the car shifts toward the curb: it’s one of disbelief, mixed with hurt and devastation. “And just like that, you can wash your hands of me?” he says, trying to keep his composure. Carlton says simply that the tail on him failed to make the last light, and that they won’t catch up for a couple of blocks. “I would use those few seconds, if I were you,” he says crisply, throwing open the door and forcing Tyler out. He then tells Charlie to drive; never looking back at the son he set up, nearly murdered, threw away and left behind.

In Boston, Marlow and Watkins have distributed photos of Will Traveler all over the board, and learned that the locker in Boston Hall was registered to a Daniel Taft, though the address and contact info were phony. Watkins also has photos from the tollbooths on the Mass Pike of Jay and Tyler heading west. They got off around route 128, and never went back a toll road, so speculation abounds: did they go north, to Canada? Not likely, since they haven’t heard from Border Patrol. They obviously did not go back to the Fog estate in upstate New York, because their agents would have spotted them. Watkins then recalls that the connector to the 495 north-south is dug up—no photos. Considering that they haven’t headed north, there’s only one way they must have gone…

Chambers takes Marlow’s call, and notes that they need to narrow down the location the boys might be in—after all, New York City is a big place. He also tells his agents to get extra eyes on both Kim Doherty and Carlton Fog, and tells Marlow to return as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Will meets with his contact, a local fence. The man balks when Will tries to pass off credit cards to him, explaining that he has no cash, but makes a compelling case for the man to let him do business. Will strolls towards the back of the man’s car, and begins selecting an assortment of firearms. Once he finishes, he asks for one last favor—the whereabouts of someone named “Alex,” which the man says he can help with.

As she readies to leave, Marlow instructs Watkins to keep the bulletin on Burchell and Fog running; they’ve doubled back before, and they’re still wanted for questioning. She also tells him to add Will Traveler to the most wanted list, and keep distributing his photo. Watkins assures her they will comply, and she leaves. She calls Borjes, and he tells her about his mysterious escapee. The two agree not to bring up this latest bit of information to Chambers just yet, and Marlow offers up a contact at NSA to help get the identity unlocked.

Outside Kim’s apartment, Jay is receiving a nasty shock: the sight of Kim’s things being packed into moving vans and her father taking out the last few remaining items. There’s also a federal tail posted nearby that makes it impossible to ask someone where Kim might be going. His mind flashes back to a few days before this all began, when Kim announced she was moving and she’d be waiting when Jay got back from his trip. He watches helplessly as the little caravan begins to pull away, leaving Jay with no options or friendly faces left.

In Boston, Will strolls through a park and stops near a couple sitting on a bench. The woman, Alex, says to her husband that she’ll see what he wants, and the two continue their stroll. It appears that Alex trained with Will several years ago, and she tells him that it seems their associates have killed Maya. She chides him for “going off book” with the Drexler assignment, stating that while he was at school, she’s been playing “house” with her “husband.” Whatever the assignment is, she’s going to keep at it until the job’s complete. Will tells her flatly that he signed on to serve his country, not murder civilians. She tells him that they both are “soldiers,” and that not following orders comes with repercussions. With that, she begins attacking him with a knife. A scuffle ensues, and Will finally gets the drop on Alex with his pistol. Shot in the shoulder and on the ground, Alex complies with Will’s demand for information: word got out that Will had gone rogue, and that they need to bring him in at all costs. She doesn’t know who gave the order, but he apparently has something their associates want.

Marlow and Borjes confer quietly about the escapee—apparently, according to Marlow’s contact, he’s not a suspect in the system…he’s an agent, like them. Marlow tells him to keep digging while Chambers calls out for her: they’ve picked up the boys’ trail. Apparently an acquaintance of theirs, Eddie Hahn, had a $100 million deal to close this morning at Fog Financial and never showed up. There were no calls, either—something his assistant says is very suspicious. At his apartment, the agents find Eddie—still tied down to that chair—and nothing else.

Outside Eddie’s apartment, Tyler sneaks a look around a building to see the place crawling with feds. He looks on, hoping not to get caught but hoping more that Jay has gotten away. Chambers notices Tyler and warns Marlow to alert their people without spooking him, but Tyler realizes he’s been spotted and begins running Chambers calls out to his agents and they all give pursuit, but Tyler has a bit of practice and a considerable lead in his favor…







Share this article with your friends