THE FINDER: “The Conversation” Recap

This week opens with another Walter vs. Leo debate. They seem to do that often. Thankfully the back and forth is soon interrupted by a new prospective customer and her daughter, Marta and Edina Abreu. Theyneed Walter’s help finding their husband/father, Carlos. He left a phone message, then disappeared. Police think he went back to a gang he was once a member of, but his wife is sure he didn’t. Walter notices that at the end of the call, he was talking to someone else. They assume it was probably his best friend, Raul. Walter won’t take the job to find Carlos, but he will find the rest of the conversation, and Leo points out that will lead them to Carlos.

They start the search with Raul, on his job site. Raul denies knowing anything, and Walter doesn’t push too hard because he is preoccupied with watching their boss leading a tour on the other side of the job site. Walter notes he looks like a politician. Leo wants to see the Abreu family back together, their story hits close to home with him, so he urges Raul to call him if he remembers anything. Walter takes his search to the family’s home. He gets barefoot, stands on his head, goes through the medicine cabinets. His unorthodox search is interrupted by an FBI agent, a pretty one, who apparently is filling the gorgeous agent quota this episode, leaving us with no Isabelle. I realize I miss Isabelle when she’s not there. The agent, interestingly named Agent McHottie, exchanges identification with Walter. He assumes Carlos was working with a gang task force and was her informant, and they agree to share info.

Leo looks at photos of his family. His daughter’s birthday is approaching, it’s a rough time for him. He has a gift he bought his daughter for her birthday, he’s been hanging onto it for a long time. Walter calls, snapping him out of his grief momentarily, and tells him about Agent McHottie. Leo tells Walter that Carlos was being investigated by a gang task force. They agree to meet at Meat U Here, the name of a shopping plazalace Carlos had jotted down on a pad in his home. Leo is eating a lot of junk food, and Walter is concerned…he shouldn’t have taken this job, it’s too painful for Leo.

As they roam the shopping plaza, they realize that there are a number of security cameras, and some were bound to have captured Carlos and whomever he was meeting. They need the help of Agent McHottie to get the footage. They set up multiple screens at Ends of the Earth and start searching for Carlos in the video. Walter gives Willa a pot of coffee and a container of sugar, He wants her to find Carlos in that footage for him. It’s going to be a long night for Willa. Meanwhile, Walter goes to check on Leo. He finds him at the cemetery, visiting his wife and daughter. The Abreu’s situation reminds him very much of his family and how much he misses them.

Willa works all night, drinks a whole pot of coffee, and it shows in her hyperactive behavior. But she found Carlos in video, so it was worth it. The person he met was Raul. Also, it turns out Willa can read lips. Raul was telling Carlos not to be an idiot, take the money, think about his family. Carlos said his family is all he thinks about. They need more of the conversation to know what it was all about. Leo tells Willa to get some sleep, and Walter concurs…until Leo is out of sight, then Walter motions for Willa to drink more coffee and get back to work.

Leo and Walter go visit Raul, but they find him dead in his car, an apparent suicide. Walter doesn’t believe it, though, his hands are on the steering wheel and if he had died in the car his hands would have fallen off the wheel. It suggests someone placed him there after he was dead. They call Agent McHottie, and she tells them to make themselves scarce before she calls in the locals, she’ll take care of everything and call them if forensics finds anything.

Back at Ends of the Earth, Willa still hasn’t slept, but she has found something, more pieces of the conversation are revealed through video. Carlos said Marta and Edina are both safe as long as something can’t be found. The most vital part of the conversation couldn’t be found on any of the video feeds they have, but Walter notices a woman with a video camera recording a musician in the background. She may have caught the last part of their conversation in her video.

Walter, Leo, and Willa go to the shopping center again, and they manage to find the woman. She’s a film student doing a documentary, and she’s filming another musician. While Walter talks to her and obtains a copy of her video, Willa talks to Leo and expresses concern for him. She knows someone who can see the future, she’d like to help Leo in some way. Leo goes to see Willa’s tarot card reader, and it’s Timo. For some reason Timo and Leo act as though it’s the first time they met…maybe all that junk food is clouding Leo’s memories. The two are somewhat distrustful of each other, but Leo agrees to let Timo read his cards. The first card he turns over is The Tower, and he says it represents a past to which Leo must not return. The next card is Death, the consequence if he does. The third card is The Devil, and Timo says Leo has murder in his heart, and Leo doesn’t deny it. He needs to know, can he keep it in his heart or will it get out and do harm? The last card is his future, but Leo stops him from turning it over. He wants to know if Timo really has Willa’s best interests at heart, and Timo insists she’s his family. Leo asks what else Timo sees, and Timo talks about Leo’s pain over his daughter, his fear that she didn’t see the man he is now, only the man he used to be. Leo takes the last card with him, without revealing it.

At the hotel where Marta and Edina are staying, Walter and Willa show them the video clips as they sit by the pool. Willa makes a comment about Carlos being a stool pigeon, and the little girl becomes upset and slaps her. Walter says it’s okay, Willa needs a good slap every now and then and it’s against the law for him to do it. He tells them he’s through with the case, he found the conversation, but the little girl protests that Leo promised Walter would find her father. The discussion comes to a halt when their hotel room explodes.

Walter thinks it’s good news that the hotel room was blown up, it shows someone was trying to show Carlos they mean business. He thinks it’s the company he worked for, Everglade Petrochemical. Walter is going to go there and find whatever Carlos was hiding. Leo thinks he should call Agent McHottie, but Walter thinks an FBI agent might have qualms about his methods. Walter gets through the electric fence at the company, cuts a hole in the fence and slips through. In one of the videos, Carlos said videos he hid it in the heart of the company, and the heart of this company is it’s incinerator. He finds what Carlos hid, an invoice, and tries to make his escape. When he returns to the fence, he finds Agent McHottie standing by the hole he cut in the fence and he realizes she’s not FBI at all, she’s with the company. She was once FBI, but now she’s in charge of security at Everglade. She pulls a gun on Walter, she wants the list he found. Walter fakes being electrocuted by the fence when he notices the voltage meter temporarily reads that it isn’t charged, then pushes her into it when she approaches him and the charge has returned. She collapses, Walter grabs the paper and rushes away.

Walter assures Leo that McHottie was alive when he left her. Leo is dressing up in his best duds to pay a visit to the head of the company, the guy Walter was watching when they visited the site to talk to Raul. Leo shows Walter the card Timo said was his future, it’s the Justice card. Leo approaches the Everglades guy, and tells him they have a list of many of the toxic chemicals they burned in their incinerator. Carlos wouldn’t accept his bribe to keep it quiet, and they killed Raul when he failed to get it under control. Leo gives him a huge sumr it will cost to make this go away, and a list of demands. He was wrong to think that losses are acceptable, and if he doesn’t do as Leo says he will face a lawsuit that will bankrupt his company. Leo punches him in the stomach and walks away.

Leo gives Edina the gift he had bought for Ellie, but has a hard time talking about it when the girl asks about his daughter. She opens the gift, and finds a pretty necklace which her mom helps place around her neck. She hugs and thanks him, just as her father walks in. Leo is touched to see the happy Abreu family reunion. He steps outside to talk to Walter. Walter wonders if Leo scared the guy, and Leo admits he’s not always proud of his behavior. Walter wishes Ellie a happy birthday, and leaves Leo alone with his thoughts. Leo wishes his daughter a happy birthday also, as he sits by the pool alone.

The Finder airs Fridays at 8/7c on Fox.