The Catch recap: 'The Cleaner'

OMG.

Seriously… Oh. My. God.

There was no shortage of jaw-dropping moments in the penultimate episode of The Catch‘s second season. First, Yanic Truesdale (a.k.a. Gilmore Girls fan-favorite Michel Gerard) makes a surprise cameo as The Cleaner, a corpse-removal specialist with a penchant for dissolving bodies and literally flushing the remains down the drain. Then, Felicity shoots Sophie (whose fate remains uncertain at the end of the hour) and kidnaps Tessa, the sassy and maybe-homicidal teenager everyone loves to hate. And, finally… TOMMY IS MOCKINGBIRD?!

Yeah, there’s no doubt “The Cleaner” was the best installment of the season so far. Without further ado, let’s break down every heart-stopping minute.

The honeymoon is over

After last week’s realization that Felicity is both alive and a threat to the Kensington firm, Margot and Rhys join forces to find out what she’s planning. Of course, Margot wants her trusty private investigators to help track her down, so she pays the AVI gang a visit to deliver instructions. The place to start is with the firm’s corpse-removal service (are they listed in the Yellow Pages?) that Rhys called the night he thought he killed Felicity. Since The Cleaner was the last one to see Felicity’s body — at least, he was supposed to be — Margot assumes they’ve partnered up.

Much to Val’s chagrin, she agrees to take the case but insists AVI is done working for Margot when the job is over. Alice readily agrees, believing Ethan will pay them more and, as an added bonus, won’t ask them to hunt down people who make human Drano for a living. I mean, that’s a reasonable thing to ask a potential employer during the interview process, right?

Back at the Weatherby Hotel, Margot tells Tessa they have to play along with Felicity until they unravel her devious plot. When Felicity shows up, Margot divulges what happened during her meeting with Keegan last week: how he’d already made a deal with a mystery man known only as Mockingbird, how she’s trying to figure out who else knew Keegan was in the market for a new supplier, etc. Felicity plays dumb, of course, and pretends she’ll help Margot negotiate with Mockingbird so everyone wins.

But Rhys has another idea. Wanting to put a permanent end to his former lover/prized assassin, he confronts her in the hallway outside Margot’s suite. Knowing the jig is up, Felicity seems to accept her fate… until Tessa walks out and provides the perfect human shield for Felicity to escape Rhys and his silencer-equipped murder weapon. This is Rhys’ first time meeting his niece, who hilariously tells him to put a bullet in her shoulder next time if it means getting a clean shot at “that bitch.” Unsurprisingly, Rhys likes her immediately.

Margot is less than thrilled that Felicity’s onto them, of course, which means the clock is ticking on their window to find her before she makes her move. Since this is an all-hands-on-deck situation, Margot brainstorms how to lure Mockingbird out into the open, while Rhys offers his services to AVI in their search for The Cleaner. After his first couple of leads hit a dead end, he comes up with the idea to have Raymond Taggart — who’s now under Margot’s thumb — hire The Cleaner for a job at his home, where he and Alice will be waiting.

The scheme works, and I couldn’t be happier to see Michel waltz onto my TV screen, even if he did go from working the front desk at the Dragonfly Inn to, um, less sanitary work. It’s even funnier when Rhys, posing as the corpse that needs liquefying, jumps up and causes The Cleaner to faint in shock. Though he’s uncooperative at first, Alice proves to be quite persuasive as she mixes a few chemicals in a thinly veiled threat to give him a taste of his own liquid medicine. (*shudders*) The truth is The Cleaner never saw Felicity’s body at all — by the time he arrived at Weatherby’s just 90 minutes after Rhys’ call, she was already gone.

Margot’s idea, of course, is a bit more dangerous than what Alice and Rhys are up to: She wants Tessa and Danny to help her hijack Mockingbird’s first delivery to Keegan so she can use it as leverage. Just before they leave, Sophie arrives to access the Weatherby’s servers in hopes of spotting whoever it was that rescued Felicity. Still smarting over Danny’s dalliances with their criminal client, Sophie tells Margot she knows what’s up and asks her not to get Danny killed. It seems Margot took her advice to heart when, once they’re in position, she unexpectedly tells Danny to get Tessa out of there so she can finish the job alone. She doesn’t want to put either of them in danger, suggesting she may care about Danny after all. Luckily for her, Danny refuses and saves her life during the heist, after which they essentially agree to “go steady.”

Back at the hotel after a job well done, Tessa rudely dismisses Sophie’s sweet but misguided offer of protection in AVI’s security wing. But when Sophie goes to leave, she finds Margot’s hired guns lying dead in the hallway. Having chosen this moment to make her move against the Kensington firm, Felicity appears, shoots Sophie in the stomach, and kidnaps Tessa. Whaaaat?!

Danny shows up to meet Margot for a little rendezvous after her meeting with Mockingbird, but instead finds a bloody and unconscious Sophie and immediately calls 911. She’s still in surgery when the AVI team arrives at the hospital, each one blaming themselves for what happened. Thinking he’s the one who’s really at fault, Danny makes an ill-timed confession about his relationship with Margot, news that leaves Val and Alice speechless.

Speaking of Margot, Ben tries frantically to reach her after learning Felicity’s taken Tessa. Margot, waiting in an empty restaurant for Mockingbird to arrive, declines the call… and seconds later, we hear a familiar voice apologizing for keeping her waiting. That’s when a suited-up Tommy — whom we last saw disappearing on a plane and leaving Alice brokenhearted — comes into view and asks where Margot’s hiding all his drugs. Yep, TOMMY IS THE MOCKINGBIRD. Mind = blown.

Alice’s boyfriend’s back and Ben’s gonna be in trouble

In tonight’s B story, a worried (and jealous) Ben convinces Justine to help him investigate Ethan, convinced he’s a bad dude who only spells trouble for Alice. Though Justine initially finds evidence that Ethan may be illegally funneling money overseas through a nonexistent resort in Cozumel, Ben notices the signature on the resort approvals doesn’t match Ethan’s handwriting. Justine says it’s still enough to take him down, since he’s the head of the company — but Ben changes his mind after talking to Alice, who admits AVI is accepting Ethan’s offer of exclusivity so they don’t have to work for Margot anymore.

Ben and Justine pay Ethan a visit, explain what they’ve discovered, and offer to help him catch who’s really laundering the money. Ethan agrees to work with them, despite his suspicions about Ben, and the three start their search in the development firm’s commercial division. Using a phony birthday card as a ploy to collect everyone’s signatures, they quickly identify the culprit as one Carol Cooney, an unassuming middle-aged woman who probably doesn’t even have a parking ticket on her record.

Under the guise of promoting Carol, Ethan takes her to a restaurant and introduces her to Ben, who’s posing as a buyer interested in purchasing the fictional Cozumel property. When they suggest taking a quick flight to check it out in person, Carol gets nervous and tries to flee the scene, only to find Justine waiting for her out back. She quickly tells them the whole story: One day, an envelope mysteriously appeared on her desk containing $10,000 in cash, along with instructions for creating the resort on paper and moving funds through Ethan’s company. If she cooperated, she’d get another $10,000 every week, money that comes from a fund called… wait for it… the MOCKINGBIRD TRUST. Again, I repeat: Whaaaat?!

Ethan and Ben are having a drink at Rhys’ when Alice, having learned Ben was looking into Ethan (thanks for spilling the beans, Rhys!) shows up to get some answers. After spending the day with Ben and realizing he’s a good guy who’s truly in love with Alice, Ethan rescinds his offer to hire AVI exclusively and quickly makes his exit. Confused, Alice follows him outside to ask why he’s changed his mind, at which point Ethan professes his undying love for her and says it’s not a good idea for them to work together.

She walks back in the house and asks Ben what, exactly, happened with Ethan. He doesn’t get a chance to explain, as I’m assuming that’s when they get the call about Sophie and head to the hospital to wait for news. When Danny says Tessa wasn’t at Weatherby’s when he found Sophie, Ben figures out that Felicity has snatched his daughter and recruits Rhys to join the rescue mission.

By the time the credits roll, we’re left with far more unanswered questions than answers. Will Sophie survive? Is Felicity working with Tommy, a.k.a. Mockingbird? Why is Tommy setting up Ethan, not to mention targeting the Kensington firm, when he probably knows of Alice’s connection to the organization and definitely knows about her history with Ethan? Will Margot escape her meeting with Tommy’s alter-ego unscathed? WHERE THE HELL IS TESSA?!

Hopefully, everything and more will be revealed in next week’s season finale.

Odds and Ends

• “What, you think it’s somehow more civilized to hack a body into pieces and carry it around in a sack?” —Margot to Alice and Val, when they recoil at The Cleaner’s technique of choice
• “Sometimes before they kill you, they get cocky and monologue a bit. And then bam, you kill them.” —Margot to Tessa, giving her daughter some Kensington-style life advice
• “Am I the only person in this family you haven’t slept with?” —Tessa to Felicity
• Felicity: “If you are planning to shoot me, there’s something you should know.”
  Rhys: “What’s that?”
  Felicity: “Your sister… was much better in bed.”
• Val: “If this is you trying to win me over, it’s not working.”
  Rhys: “Oh, well, give it a sec. It takes a while to kick in.”