- Title: Graceland – Connects
- wiki: link
Choosing to allow Briggs (Daniel Sunjata) to go into Mexico to talk with the leader of the Caza Cartel helps Mike (Aaron Tveit) gets a lead on who put the hit out on him but their decision also puts them both in the dog house with Charlie (Vanessa Ferlito). Briggs finally discovers the guilt which has led Charlie to stakeout Pantillo’s widow Kelly (Brianna Brown) and decides to do a little recon of his own by introducing himself to the woman he made a widow as a fellow AA member struggling with sobriety.
Discovering that Carlos Solano, the head of the Solano Cartel, is the man behind both the hit and drug smuggling through passenger buses from Mexico into the U.S. the team gears up for the big win they all need. Before the team can begin, however, each agent needs to finish up their individual projects including Paige (Serinda Swan) who has hit a brick wall on a 4-month investigation. With her short stint as the sexiest pizza deliveryman ever and Mike’s help she manages to close the case and nab a big fish further heating up the sexual tension between the pair.
The musical chairs in Graceland continue as Mike moves back into his old bedroom, Zelanski (Deniz Akdeniz) moves into Jakes‘ (Brandon Jay McLaren) room, and Jakes moves out of the house in his attempt to leave field work behind and reconnect with his and son. Sadly for Jakes, his estranged wife’s (Ciera Payton) legal maneuverings leave the Customs Agent completely blindsided.
Although the emotional arc behind Jakes’ storyline works, it leaves the character in a bit of a nebulous space concerning the rest of the cast and ongoing storylines. Also Cassandra’s actions, inviting Jakes over only to serve him with a restraining order and have him arrested (with force on a fellow law enforcement official that seems completely out of place) all feels a bit overdone. It will be interesting to see where Charlie and Briggs’ collected guilt leads them, especially with the tape still out there (which is teased again here, but the more pressing concern is how Charlie’s guilt gets in the way of the job and costs Mike his inside man inside the Solano Cartel who he needs to connect all the dots and give the house its second big bust in two years.
