In this week’s episode of The Company You Keep, Emma confronts her fear of commitment as she gets closer to taking down Daphne. Meanwhile, Charlie and his family work to pay off their debt while also gaining leverage on Daphne. As Emma and Charlie’s missions collide, it gets harder and harder to keep their lives separate. Read on to see what happened in “A Sparkling Reputation”!
Done With Love
Mason gently teases Emma about a calendar notification that implies she has a hot date after work. Turns out, she and Charlie are headed to a fancy restaurant for their first real night out. Emma insists it’s just casual, while Mason cheers her on for “dating your rebound.”
Charlie doesn’t help his case by showing up late to their dinner. The conversation quickly falters as both she and Charlie are careful about answering personal questions, though Charlie opens up a bit more about his family without mentioning the whole con artist wrinkle. Eventually, they give up on dinner and make out in Charlie’s van. This quickly turns awkward when Emma spots her brother’s campaign ad on the side of a bus. Charlie clocks that she is a member of the Hill family, who is very politically connected. The sexy mood is definitely killed by the family talk; they decide to call it a date when Charlie gets a message from Birdie asking him to head to the bar right away.
When Emma gets home, she finds David’s entire campaign staff working in the living room. She’s recently moved back in with her parents, a clear sore spot for Emma but a source of happiness for her father. It’s revealed that even Emma’s family doesn’t know that she’s in the CIA, believing the same lie about her being a data analyst that Charlie does. Her powers of observation allow her to zero in on a major problem in David’s campaign strategy, piquing his interest. The next day as Emma heads out the door to work, she is stopped by Grace, who wants the whole family in a photo shoot for David’s campaign. Not wanting to be on camera, she pretends she’s in a rush.
Emma chats with Mason, who reminds her that if she goes on a second date with Charlie, she’ll need to fill out an external contact form acknowledging the relationship. This spooks Emma, who has been fooling herself into thinking that what she and Charlie have is just casual. He’s waiting for her at her door, wanting to continue their date. They have a passionate night together, but the second Charlie asks questions about her family, Emma shuts it down. She tells Charlie that they don’t need to “pretend” to care beyond their sexual relationship and explicitly calls him a rebound. Charlie calls her out on pushing him away, noting that he also pulls the same trick often. Emma simply heads out, telling him not to pretend he knows her.
At work, David shows up in the lobby unexpectedly. He asks her to join his campaign. He feels like she’s the only one who sees things clearly and not from an image perspective, which he thinks is more important in connecting with voters. Emma tells him she’ll think about the offer, not revealing her actual job.
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That night, David apologizes for ambushing her. They drink in their parents’ wine cellar like when they were teenagers, with Emma finally revealing to him that she works for the CIA. She claims this is the reason for her closed-off nature, but David teases her by saying she’s always been this way. This lands with Emma, clearly thinking about what she said to Charlie.
She calls him and apologizes for calling him a rebound. Emma reveals that the reason she was uncomfortable with Charlie is that she feels like he sees through her more than most people do. She’s scared, but she’s willing to try if he is. He agrees.
Two Worlds (Almost) Collide
Daphne visits Patrick in prison, posing as his lawyer. He berates her for not doing everything exactly the way he would, especially noting that they are now down $10 million with no distribution. She informs him that she’ll prove herself and that it was Connor who was easily taken in by the Nicolettis. Meanwhile, Emma notices the connection between this “lawyer” and Daphne, asking her boss to plant a bug in her hotel room in the hopes of finding out more about the Maguire family’s next move. He reluctantly agrees.
While Charlie snoops in Daphne’s room with Birdie’s help in order to get leverage to protect Ollie, Emma has the same plan and heads to the hotel room. This leads to a tension-filled moment as both realize they’re not alone but can’t see each other. At the last minute, Birdie is able to unlock the door to the adjoining room to allow Charlie to escape undetected. The only thing out of place is a bottle on the counter. Emma is able to plant her bug in the room while Charlie gets an interesting old photo of a pregnant woman, thinking it may be the connection between Daphne and the Maguires that they’ve been seeking.
Daphne gets back to the hotel and notices the misplaced bottle. Realizing that she’s likely being watched by the CIA, she loudly talks about an upcoming shipment. Since Emma didn’t touch the bottle, she doesn’t realize that Daphne is playing her. She calls the FBI and joins them for the takedown, but the shipping container is empty except for the bug that was planted in the room. Daphne calls Patrick, informing him that Emma Hill is the enemy trying to take them down.
Gaining Control
Looking to pay off their debt to Daphne, the Nicolettis go undercover at an auction looking for a mark. While Charlie is off his game thinking about his upcoming date with Emma, they manage to spot their target: a wealthy woman who purchases a necklace for far more than the asking price. Some quick digging by Birdie reveals that she and her husband are the Ellsworths and that the necklace belongs to her husband. They realize money laundering is their real purpose for auctioning the diamond necklace. The Nicolettis have their mark.
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Back at the bar, Daphne shows up and surprises Birdie. She casually asks how Birdie’s daughter is doing … in ASL. This threat does not go unnoticed by Birdie, who is terrified that the Maguires might come after Ollie. Daphne reminds Birdie and Charlie that they have three days to come up with their first payment. The family strategizes a way in via Leo’s friendship with the man who made the safe that the necklace is being kept in. The only problem is that the safe is biometric, meaning they’d need one of the Ellsworths’ fingerprints to get in. Realizing they will need to prey on the vanity of the couple to get the necklace out of the safe, the team uses Leo’s character Milos, a larger-than-life photographer, to get the couple to believe they’re being featured in a magazine story about the necklace.
Charlie and Birdie talk about Tina, with Birdie empathizing as she also fell for Tina’s lies. She laments that they’ll never have what their parents have, even if they do have each other. Ollie arrives and gleefully pickpockets Charlie’s wallet, informing him via ASL that he’ll be paying for her lunch. Birdie warns her not to learn too much from Grandpa while Charlie proudly observes that she’s a natural. Birdie gives Charlie Daphne’s hotel address. If she’s going to exploit Ollie, they need to figure out what Daphne’s hiding as leverage.
Best Laid Plans
Leo and Fran head to Mrs. Ellsworth’s hair salon in character. Leo loudly talks about how his major photo shoot subject canceled last minute. Wanting the publicity, Mrs. Ellsworth takes the bait and offers her own home for the shoot. Working quickly, the Nicolettis pose as members of Milos’ crew. The goal is for Birdie to swap out the necklace for a fake, but the Ellsworths won’t let anyone else touch the necklace. Quickly pivoting to plan B, Birdie gets Claude’s fingerprint for later use while Charlie engineers a distraction with the electrical cables to switch out the necklaces in the safe.
Unfortunately, their dog Duchess ruins the plan by barking and alerting the Ellsworths that something is amiss. Pivoting once again, he manages to get the fake necklace back in the safe while hiding the real necklace in Duchess’ fur and collar. When he is searched by the security guard, they find nothing. Claude still kicks the crew out, but Charlie is able to get the necklace off the dog.
They don’t have much time to celebrate as Birdie finds that the diamond in the necklace was already stolen. They can’t fence it, though it is more valuable than they thought. Charlie realizes they have one last card to play. He heads to the Ellsworths, full of bravado, revealing that he has the necklace. He brings up its history of being stolen and their intention to use it to launder money. Ellsworth tries to threaten him, but then Charlie reveals his plan. He’s already called the news about Ellsworth’s generous offer to return the stolen necklace to its rightful owners, framing it as a human interest story about returning a culturally significant item to India. If Ellsworth declines, their image will suffer in the community. Backed into a corner, he pays Charlie $500,000 to return the diamond and keep quiet about their true intentions.
They hand the money over to Daphne, who is pleased. Birdie asks that she leave Ollie out of their fight, showing her hand uncharacteristically. Daphne simply smiles and tells her that her father once said that there was nothing more dangerous than a single mother with everything to prove. After Leo spots an Irish landmark in the background of the photo Charlie stole from Daphne’s hotel, they realize that Daphne is Patrick Maguire’s daughter. They have the leverage they need.
The Company You Keep airs Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on ABC. You can find our other coverage of the series here!
