In this week’s episode of The Company You Keep, Charlie finds his two worlds colliding as he and his family attempt to pull off their most audacious con yet. Daphne and Connor continue their power struggle while Emma finally introduces Charlie to her family. Read on to see what happened when the Nicolettis go “All In” on their latest con!
Q&A
The episode opens with Charlie being interrogated by an unknown woman. It turns out that Charlie’s abductors were Emma’s CIA coworkers. Their background check on him turned up some serious red flags, including unexplained time in Nicaragua several years ago. Emma’s boss tells her they need to make sure his history won’t cause problems for the agency. Charlie’s interrogator tells him that Emma is CIA, which makes him realize the reason behind the abduction. He numbly tells the interrogator that the seven months he spent in Nicaragua were a result of a prison stint for punching a military official. He stares at the two-way glass, knowing that Emma is there.
In the car afterwards, Emma apologizes for the abduction as she expresses relief. Now, they both know each other’s secrets. While Charlie tells her it’s fine, they part ways awkwardly. Charlie struggles to put the incident behind him as his worried family asks where he’s been. They also offer assurances that they liked Emma, which doesn’t give him much comfort. It’s clear he hates lying to her.
Brother and Sisters
Acting on the intel from Charlie about Daphne’s mother, Connor returns and tells her that this is his game now. He mentions that he knows she’s his half-sister, which surprises her. Wanting to make a big move to prove herself, she goes to the Nicolettis and demands more money. Charlie agrees with one condition. They have a shot at getting $10 million from one job this week. They owe Daphne $14 million. If he can get her the $10 million by the end of the week, they wipe the debt clean. Doubtful they can pull it off, Daphne agrees.
David asks Emma to bring her new mystery man to an upcoming campaign event, giving Charlie an opportunity to meet the family in a setting where her parents will want to be on their best behavior. Emma isn’t so sure Charlie will want to go after what happened, but when her father finds out, he insists she invite him. Joe also notices that Claire Fox is donating to David’s campaign, and he warns his son that her support comes with a price.
While they start to plan the con, Emma calls and leaves a voicemail asking Charlie to David’s campaign event. Leo probes Charlie for what’s bothering him, and he confesses that he can’t stand lying to Emma about the con part of his life. He says he never wanted to go straight until he met her. This gamble for the $10 million is his way of getting out as soon as he can so that he can stop lying to her. Leo agrees to help him go “all in” on both the con and Emma.
The CIA realizes Connor is back in the country as Daphne proposes a partnership to her brother. She lets him in on her plans for the organization and emphasizes that she’s not the enemy. She wants to make a lot of money, and she wants to do it with him. He agrees reluctantly. He realizes that the only way her current business plan can work is if she has a cash stream he doesn’t know about, deciding he’s going to find out.
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
Charlie and Leo present the plan to the family. Robert Renway owns a private security firm. Once a month, he has a high-stakes poker game on his yacht. Their plan will need to get all the cash off his yacht without anyone noticing. To do that, they score an invite to one of Redway’s less exclusive events to sneak their way into his circle. Charlie will be playing the character of Ernesto while his father is a dealer. “Ernesto” will use the last of the Nicoletti cash to buy into the game. He’ll play with enough flair to get an invite to the main table with Renway, while Fran will make his alias impressive enough for Renway to want to do business with. He’s successful, scoring an invite to the yacht party.
Charlie goes to David’s event with Emma, who makes sure to smooth over his introduction to her parents. Grace immediately takes Charlie away for questioning over drinks while Joe notices Claire Fox has arrived. David and Claire chat, with Claire introducing him to a young protégé she insists would work well on his campaign. Charlie’s doing well (even gaining Grace’s approval) until one of the other attendees recognizes him as “Ernesto.” It turns out Renway is there, and Emma comes back just in time for Charlie to have to explain himself. He pretends to not know what Renway’s talking about before making his escape.
He finds Joe in the kitchen, who calls him out on his smooth answers. While Grace was impressed with Charlie, Joe was not, thinking that he’s hiding something. He also looks down on Charlie’s job and tells him he wanted more for Emma before she arrives with Grace. Angry at her father, she tells Joe that Charlie has more integrity than most of the people at the party despite Charlie telling her to stop. She asks to leave, and Grace gives Joe a dirty look as they go. Not wanting to keep Emma from the party, Charlie tells her to go back inside. He catches a glimpse of Renway as he leaves.
Rocking the Boat
The next night, it’s time to pull off the yacht heist. While Leo and Charlie run their poker con at the table, Birdie looks for leverage on the guard watching over the money. Fran is their cue to start a distracting fight over “Ernesto” losing yet again. Leo almost blows their cover when he calls Fran by her real name, but they are able to play it off. When Charlie starts a fight, he gets taken outside for a breather. During this time, Birdie makes it seem like the guard’s pregnant wife is in labor. While he runs upstairs, they steal as much money as they can. Leo warns them when the guard is coming back, and they successfully steal almost all the money in the room before he can stop them.
“Ernesto” returns to the game while Fran and Birdie release an escape boat from the yacht. This fools the guards into thinking the money is on it, but no one is piloting the vessel. Instead, the women sneak the money out in a cart using their waiter disguises. The family regroups with the money, with Fran calling out Leo for breaking their cover. She gently tells him they can’t keep pretending that he’s not slipping, but he brushes off her concerns.
Close Call
When Charlie tries to leave the scene, he’s boxed in by Connor and his crew. Connor realized that the Nicolettis are the source of Daphne’s revenue stream. They take the money, and Charlie tells him about the deal with Daphne for the $10 million. Connor has no intention of honoring it. He wants Charlie dead for what he did. Meanwhile, Emma and her FBI counterpart Vik watch the deal go down while they tail Connor. She can’t see Charlie from her angle, but she does tell Vik to stand down and not arrest Connor so they can get him for bigger crimes later. This directly benefits Charlie, as they notice they’re being tailed and leave before they can take him out as planned. Everyone escapes, but Charlie makes eye contact with Emma while wearing a face covering as he’s driving away.
Charlie tells his family what happened, leaving out the fact that he saw Emma. He hears a knock at the door, and it’s Emma. She tells him she finally got a lead in her case, and he feigns happiness for her. It seems she didn’t recognize him, and despite clearly wanting to be honest, he holds back.
The Company You Keep airs Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on ABC. You can find our other coverage of the series here!
