Recap: Under the cover of darkness, two men clad in black shoot out the tires of a transport truck. When the rig skids to a stop, the perplexed driver climbs out to see what in blazes just happened...and the camera pans away as bullets are fired. The next day aboard the Riptide, Murray is urging Nick and Cody to accompany him to a seminar that focuses on strengthening relationships, adding that he's been reading a book authored by the seminar's speaker, Ann Fisk, titled Human Harmony. When Nick looks less than thrilled at the thought of sitting through a seminar on how to better harmonize with fellow human beings, Cody weakly suggests that maybe there'll be some cute women there. At the seminar, Ann Fisk is blathering on about relationship interfacing and harmonization. One of the attendees, Lyle Alzado, stands up and sanctimoniously shares that he turned to the seminar when his life at home and at work had "melted into a vacant cosmos of self worthlessness and alienation", prompted by his lack of self esteem and ability to harmonize relationships. When he smugly adds that he considers himself a relationship preservationist, Ann beams happily and says she's absolutely thrilled with his wankery. She then scans the audience, singles out Nick, and asks him to elaborate on what brought him here, and he glances around uneasily and curtly replies, "I'm Nick Ryder and I'm here with a friend." Cody offers much the same level of brevity in his introduction, while Murray gaily identifies himself as "the friend" who urged them both to attend. He explains that he, Nick, and Cody run a small detective agency and he figured that this seminar would help them harmonize their relationships as they work cases. Ann calls that an admirable objective - but then chides Nick for his obvious lack of enthusiasm in harmonizing relationships and asks him if something in his childhood is rooted to his hostility to human-to-human interfacing. As Nick mutely stares back at her in bewilderment, Lyle Alzado interjects and agrees that, yep, Nick definitely does seem openly hostile to the idea of honesty and sharing. A peeved Nick retorts that he doesn't give even the tiniest of rat's asses what any stranger in this stupid seminar thinks of him, and Lyle Alzado mockingly calls the trio "gumshoes in trench coats" and says they're no doubt embarrassed by their jobs as glorified peeping toms. Nick warns him to shut it or risk a punch in the face...and when Lyle Alzado snarls, "You don't have the guts", Nick springs out of his chair and delivers a face punch. Lyle Alzado punches him back...and within seconds the entire room has erupted in violent chaos. Ann Fisk looks delighted by the contrived pandemonium, cheering, "Bravo! This is exactly how the process of relationship building occurs!"
As the trio slinks out of the venue and into the parking lot, Murray admonishes Nick for his boorish behavior in initiating a fist fight among a group of harmony seekers. Nick argues that Lyle Alzado was the one who baited him, and that he thinks Ann Fisk is a phony nutcase. As they're about to climb into the Jimmy, a woman who had attended the seminar rushes over to them, introduces herself as Sara Rafferty, and says she was so intrigued when they introduced themselves as PIs that she'd like to hire them. Aboard the Riptide, Sara tells the trio that she suspects her husband Chris (of three months) of having an affair 'cause 1) he gives her strange answers whenever he's late for dinner, and 2) slips out of the house in the middle of the night and never explains where he's going. She then gives some context to their relationship: they met at Bel Air Industries, and he works a very high stress job in the company's Design & Engineering Division. She says that since she's assuming the stress of the job is getting to him, she thought it might help to attend Ann Fisk's wacky seminar to see if she could learn how to better communicate with her uncommunicative spouse. She sheepishly says she never imagined she'd ever hire anyone to spy on her own husband - but lately she's become extremely desperate to learn the truth and find peace of mind. The next day, the Riptide trio stakes out the Rafferty apartment...and when Chris emerges from the building, they follow him to a nearby hotel. While en route, Nick mutters about what a farce the notion of total honesty is - but Cody disagrees and suggests they each reveal an honest feeling about the other. He tells Nick he finds it highly annoying that he never ever shuts the wheelhouse door whenever they leave the Riptide together, and Nick rolls his eyes and asks, "You feel better now?", then shares that his biggest annoyance is that he (Cody) always borrows his 4-inch tape without asking and never replaces it. Cody denies ever doing that and dismisses the accusation as "a distortion of the truth". The two then watch as Chris Rafferty and an attractive blonde woman exit his car and link up with three men before entering a warehouse. The trio quietly exit the Jimmy and follow them - but a few seconds later, a car carrying Chris, the attractive blonde, et. al. squeals off. Murray urgently calls Nick and Cody over to where he's standing and solemnly points at the dead body of one of the three men who had just entered the warehouse with Chris and Blondie. The next morning, Lieutenant Quinlan arrives on the scene and demands to know what happened to the dead guy. The trio recaps that they alerted police to a homicide, but can't further explain what they were doing when they stumbled upon the corpse. When Quinlan gets angry at that non-answer, Nick calmly explains that when they found the dead man they were working a case and have to respect the boundaries of client-PI confidentiality - but that if their client gives them the green light, they'd be more than happy to share everything they witnessed. When Quinlan snarlingly asks him what he's trying to pull, being so uncharacteristically agreeable, Nick amiably says he's merely trying to foster honest and open communication. Quinlan chews on that weird retort for a few seconds, then grumbles about how he has a body with no ID, and that the unfortunate John Doe will likely have to be buried in an unmarked grave. Murray applauds Nick for handling Quinlan so politely, while Cody chortles about how his "honest, open communication style" is obviously some kind of stunt. The two then start bickering about whether or not it's a stunt...blah blah...as they all climb into the Jimmy to meet up with Sara. A mile or so away, two men in a van have wiretapped the trio, but are struggling to understand the gist of the nonsensical argument they're having. One of the men cryptically says that since the police now have the body, and the PIs are off to meet with the Rafferty woman...they're gonna have their hands totally full with that. Cody shows Sara the photos they took of the attractive blonde woman they saw with Chris, tells her the two met up with three men, and that one of them was promptly shot to death. Sara looks aghast and says she can only hope that Chris wasn't the one who pulled the trigger...then studies the photos carefully and says that the blonde woman somehow looks familiar to her. Nick, who continually cuts Cody off during the information exchange, urges her to hang onto the photos to see if anything jogs her memory...and then Murray informs her that the police have asked them, as part of their murder investigation, to share what they witnessed while surveilling her husband. Sara's all, "Ack!" and says she doesn't want anyone in law enforcement to learn about Chris's involvement in whatever he's involved in, 'cause they might arrest him - but Murray argues that perhaps Chris being in police custody is the safest option for him. He then hands Sara a micro transmitter and asks her to sew it inside a piece of Chris's clothing so that they can keep tabs on who he talks to and what they talk about.
Once Sara is out of hearing range, Cody asks Nick whassup with him cutting him off every time he was about to say something to Sara, and Nick chuckles as he openly confesses that he's been making a mockery of this episode's whole "relationship harmonization" subplot, and that he thinks the Human Harmony seminar they attended is nothing more than a scam. The two men in the van are continuing their surveillance of the Riptide trio...and when the trio drives by in the Jimmy, the men follow behind. The trio arrives at the police station, where Lieutenant Quinlan informs them that the body they recovered in the warehouse has somehow vanished into thin air, along with all of the documentation related to the incident. He nervously concludes, "Whoever these people are, they're using heavy artillery. I, for one, can take a hint." He advises the trio to do the same, then orders the three of them to get the hell out of his office. Back at the Riptide, the trio is with Sara, listening (via the micro transmitter) to Chris as he laments to Blondie that he doesn't want anything to do with murder. Blondie tells him they had no choice, then makes arrangements for them to meet up later at a fish market (Santiagos). Murray points out that at least they know Chris wasn't the killer, and that he didn't seem to be aware that anyone was going to be murdered. He then says that the blonde has a distinctively sounding Swiss accent, and Sara says she's pretty sure she once met her at a party that the Bel Air corporation threw around six months ago...and that Chris introduced her as a Swiss woman named Carla. Murray mulls that over for a few seconds, then says he'll try to hack into the Bel Air computer system and cross his fingers that something useful comes of that. Sara suddenly requests an aspirin 'cause she has a terrible headache, and Nick says that his head is also throbbing. This alarms Murray, who glances over at Roboz, who's exhibiting signs of electrical interference, leading him to suspect that a bug has been planted on the boat. They take Roboz out for a walk along the pier to see if he can pinpoint the location of the transmitter...and after a few minutes, Roboz points them toward a nearby building. They sneak inside what looks like an information hub filled with sophisticated computers and surveillance equipment, along with a bulletin board containing photos that document all of their interactions with Sara Rafferty. Cody asks Sara to go home and call them when Chris leaves for Santiagos...and then Nick and Cody somehow think this is the time and place to loudly rebuke Murray for roping them into a ginormous mess of a case when he dragged them to the Human Harmony seminar. When the bickering deteriorates into an all out scream-fest about the deep-seated disdain they each feel for one another, Nick angrily vows to move off the Riptide once they wrap up this case, and an incensed Murray says that he too is outa here. Later, the trio arrives at Santiagos just as Chris meets up with Carla. The two then disappear behind the building...and the trio eavesdrops (via the micro transmitter) as they meet with a man, who opens a crate and says that, yep, he's definitely satisfied with the exchange. When they promptly disappear, the trio sneaks over to where Chris et. al. were just standing...and Murray peers into the crate, sees a fancy looking satellite, and says that it is indeed impressive. A few seconds later, FBI agents swarm onto the scene, blind the trio with bright lights, and inform them that they're under arrest for conspiracy and espionage in a sinister operation known as Aries. In an interrogation room, the Feds shine a lightbulb at Nick and demand to know 1) how long he's been conspiring with foreign powers, 2) how he knew that Claus Myer was one of their operatives, and 3) if that's why he killed him. Nick bellows, "I didn't kill anybody!" and adds that he's Vietnam vet who was honorably discharged from the military. When it's Cody's turn to sit under the glare of the bright lightbulb, he tells the FBI that this is all a big misunderstanding, and explains that he's merely a PI who was hired to follow Sara Rafferty's husband around to see if he was being unfaithful. When the FBI question Murray about what he knows about Aries, he scrunches his face perplexedly and says very little, given that he's a Capricorn (LOL), then starts to detail "how boss" it is that he was able to detect that the blonde woman had a Swiss accent - until the exasperated Feds order him to shut it, then throw him into the same windowless cell that Nick and Cody are languishing inside of.
Murray complains that the Feds are violating their civil rights, and that he intends to notify his U.S. Senator once he's released and/or go to 60 Minutes, haughtily adding, "Morley Safer would never stand for this!" As they explore the cell, they soon realize that there's a recording device in the light fixture, and accurately assume they're being surveilled. Which one should probably generally assume any time they're inside an FBI holding cell. Murray whisperingly tells Nick and Cody that he suspects Operation Aries involves a satellite (that was developed in Chris's department at Bel Air) being sold to foreign agents, and that they need to escape FBI custody asap so they can stop Chris, Carla et. al. from selling this type of advanced American technology to the highest foreign bidder. In the next scene, Cody loudly says it looks like the entire operation is down the drain, and Nick concurs and says they're going to need to come clean about everything they about Aries. A few seconds later, the Feds escort them out of their cell, and Murray rushes over to the nearest fire alarm, then yanks it and yells, "Fire!" so that he, Nick, and Cody can get lost in the crowd that's heading down the stairwell and befuddle the FBI agents, who are clearly too bumblingly inept to prevent them from leaving the building. The trio rushes over to Santiagos...and across the pier they notice that Carla, Chris, and some other bad guys are loading crates onto a fishing boat. Nick says that, yep, Aries definitely appears to involve a transfer of the satellite to some foreign buyer once they hit international waters...and Murray concurs and warns that they're probably heavily armed. Nick's like, "That's OK - I have grenades!", then hands a gun to Cody and explains that he was somehow able to sneak into the guard armory on his way out of the FBI building and loot it of its supply of grenades and firearms...'cause, yeah, that seems entirely plausible. Nick then orders Murray to call Lieutenant Quinlan, and Murray rushes off while grumbling about always getting the mundane tasks. Carla tells Chris they're almost done loading up the satellite, and that once they've completed Operation Aries, he'll be a wealthy man. When Chris admonishes whichever bad guy fatally shot Claus Myer, Carla explains that he was a double agent working for the Americans and therefore needed killin'. Nick and Cody, meanwhile, sneak closer to the fishing boat with their guns and grenades...and then Nick abruptly leaps up and faux identifies himself as a government agent and orders them to put down their weapons. In response, the bad guys open fire on him, and Cody lobs grenades onto the boat, causing several massive explosions. Chris cries, "No more!" as he, Carla, and the bad guys quickly surrender, just as..
The trio explains to Quinlan that the Feds want to bust them for espionage, even though the actual crew doing all the espionaging was just caught in the act on the fishing boat. Cody fibs to the Feds that Lieutenant Quinlan was the local mastermind and great patriot behind the operation to stop foreign spies from stealing American technology, and that he enlisted them to help out. Quinlan's like, "Er, yep, sounds like something I should definitely get the credit for" ... and as he basks in the undeserved glory of catching a group of espionage level conspirators, Nick and Cody start bickering about which of them most deserves the credit for escaping a re-arrest.
Aboard the Riptide, Murray and Nick are packing up their stuff, bickering about who owns what. They pause when Sara comes onboard to pay them, thank them, and announce that she's decided to stick by Chris despite no matter what. She credits their teamwork as her inspiration for not abandoning her idiot husband, and lays it on thick about how deeply they understand what matters most in life in order to "cut through the nonsense and get the job done". She then envelopes them in a group hug, calls them terrific, and departs the boat...and the trio glance at each other before the tension is broken when they simultaneously burst into laughter and decide to celebrate the end of Season 2 with a drink at Straightaways. As they gaily head above deck, Nick once again forgets to shut the wheelhouse door...and Cody has to backtrack and close it, light-heartedly chuckling to himself. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
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