Frank is dreaming. It’s obvious it’s a dream, because his wife and kids have joined Micro and HIS wife and kids for a celebratory dinner to welcome Frank home. And it’s a happy dream until the balaclava squad walks in and holds the oblivious families at gunpoint while Micro is giving an unheard toast and everyone smiles while Frank, suddenly ziptied to his chair, is in tears begging for the soldiers to stop/ He wakes up, sort of, at Micro’s place, covered in sweat from a fever, hearing Gunner in his head asking to be buried. Micro meanwhile, having no real triage training, has come to Curtis for help, showing up at his door, desperate, telling Curtis Frank is dying.
Opening credits.
Curtis is examing Frank, who is again unconscious. Micro says he gave Frank fluids and antibiotics but didn’t know how else to treat him. Curtis says none of that will help until they remove Gunner’s arrowhead from Frank, as it’s considered a foreign object by his body, which is what’s causing the fever and low blood pressure. Curtis makes Micro promise to not lose his shit then goes digging for the arrowhead after cutting Frank’s shoulder open. He extracts it and has Micro keep pressure on the incision while he prepares to cauterize the wound. (Stitches might have been a TEENY bit more practical). Curtis wants to know why Micro went after Frank. He blames Curtis for the state Frank is in, and tells Micro he thinks he’s only in this for himself and that Frank didn’t need to be dragged back into the revenge game.
Dinah and Billy are…. well you can figure it out when you watch it. I’m too uncomfortable to describe it. I’m squicked out by the way the actors are posed and framed showing me there’s no way his bits aren’t for real touching her ass and I just CAN’T. Anyway, when THAT lovely discomfort is over Billy gets up to get dressed and sees Dinah’s bigass file on Frank. He figures out Dinah’s using him to get closer to Frank, and he’s understandably upset. She blows his anger off rather dismissively, saying it’s work and she couldn’t tell him either way. He’s angry, as he still thinks Frank is dead, but then it occurs to him there was never a body found, and she just brushes him off like nothing as he leaves angry.
Micro is administering meds to Frank’s IV when Frank wakes up babbling about Gunner. Micro calms him down and tells him he’ll make sure Gunner is taken proper care of with a full burial. Meanwhile at the Veteran’s meeting, the racist white dude is talking shit about how he doesn’t need support, how the rest of them are all pussies for needing help and he’s just there to give all these pussies a different perspective. Curtis calls him on it. He tells them how they used live goats to simulate IUD injuries in Afghanistan to treat the medics to do field triage. His goat obviously eventually died from the constant mutilation. It clearly haunts him and it shuts the racist douche up.
Micro is watching his family on the cameras, as Leo tells Sarah about the skateboard. When Sarah confronts Zach about it he punches his sister like the angry raging little shit he is and accuses them of being a family of snitches and traitors, smashing the photo one of the cams is hidden behind. Frank watches Micro cry helplessly in frustration and looks sympathetic. Meanwhile reporting to Dinah that Gunner has been found dead on a mountain in Kentucky. And back at Micro’s place as Micro is changing Frank’s dressings, they pick up a radio communication on the bands Micro has bee monitoring, and it’s Billy, calling for “Raven” to respond. Frank recognizes Billy and Micro wants to know why he’d be trying to contact a dead man. Frank says Billy isn’t a threat but Micro remains concerned.
Racist Douche has Louise helping him hand out anti gun control pamphlets, because OMIGAWD DEYTUKARRGUNNNNS!!!! A cop tel;ls them they have no permit and cannot be outside the courthouse protesting. Racist Douche is willing to walk away but Billy tells the cop all the ways he’s abusing his authority. Racist Douche quietly exits stage left while Louise is distracted while the cop does cop shit and lies that Louise reached for his gun when he did no such thing. Cop uses the lie as an excuse to arrest Louise.
Dinah and Sam are examing the crime scene in Kentucky and Dinah pretty easily figures out Gunner wasn’t alone fighting off his attackers. While it seems no other bodies were found she’s NOT stupid and figures out pretty quick there was a hit squad gunning for Gunner and Gunner had a friend. Micro and Frank meanwhile are sitting together at a table and are actually finally bonding, trading Thanksgiving stories. Frank tells Micro how he met his wife. Micro asks Frank about Billy. He says how connected Billy is with his PMC and says he oesn’t think Billy’s the type to reach out to a man he believes is dead. Frank explains that as a soldier he had two families. The one at home and the one he bled with. Billy is part of the latter.
Sam confirms for Dinah that blood at the scene in Kentucky matches Frank. Dinah realizes that someone us trying to clean house to keep the Kandahar incident buried. She tells Sam it’s important now more than ever to track down anyone else connected to Frank. Louise meanwhile is at Curtis’ support group space. Curtis bailed him out. Louise blasts him for ruining his gig with Billy. Curtis says combat is the LAST place Louise needs to be. He also points out that O’Connor, the racist white gun nut, never actually served in Nam. The Silver Star isn’t his. He’s a fraud and doesn’t deserve Louise’s respect. Louise storms out. (Seriously though, faking being a decorated veteran to get shell-shocked soldiers to join in your NRA bullshit? That’s seriously messed up. Especially because I can easily see NRA asshole doing it in real life).
Billy meets Dinah at the waterfront, joking about whether or not this is a clandestine meeting or a mob hit. He says since this obviously not a booty call for make-up sex just get to it and tell him what she wants. She wants him to tell her about Frank. She confirms his suspicion that Frank is alive and tells him she needs help finding him because someone is trying to kill him for his connection to her Kandahar case. She tells him about Frank being wounded on a mountain in Kentucky. He says he’ll see what he can shake loose. He goes to Curtis and bluntly asks if Curtis has seen Frank. He can tell by Curtis’ reaction Curtis knows. He’s not happy that Curtis kept him out of the loop. He tells her about Dinah knowing Frank is alive and that he wants to help Frank get away from all this because he failed him once. But Curtis sticks to his story.
Curtis fills Frank in on Billy and Dinah. He tells Frank he should take Billy up on it. He doesn’t like lying for Frank and tells Frank to think about how close he was to dead. Micro wants to know if Frank trusts Billy, and Frank says yes. Micro says if that’s true then talk to him. O’Connor meanwhile is at home when Louise shows up. He makes prison rape jokes at Louise and OMFG I DESPERATELY WANT LOUISE TO KILL HIM NOW. Louise tells O’Connor he knows he’s a frraud. Douchebag tries to play it off as “Oh the jews run the internet it’s fake”. Louise gives him a chance to prove he’s not a fraud and O’Connor fails. Louise stabs the ever-loving fuck out of the bastard and goes into complete metdown.
Billy is waiting by the river with a couple beers when Frank arrives. He expresses sympathy for Frank’s family and they hug. They sit down to talk. Billy wants to know why Frank never reached out to him. He tells him about Dinah being onto him, and Frank asks how he knows her. He tells Frank about his company running training for her unit and them hooking up. But even though he’s the one who’s seen Dinah naked, Frank is the one she has a mad-on for. Frank tells him what Gunner discovered about smuggling drugs inside dead soldiers. Billy wants to know why Frank doesn’t just let Dinah take the conspirators down. He offers Frank a job overseas with his company and a new name. Frank just stays quiet.
Micro is alone at his base, just kind of wandering. He leaves a file or something on Frank’s cot, then goes back to just sort of wandering around staring at stuff looking depressed. Finally he sits down at his desk and turns on the cameras and sees Frank has shown up at Sarah’s to apologize for missing dinner, saying he had an accident. She’s angry, but she understands. She explains she doesn’t know why but she trusts him. Micro is not happy watching this. He looks paranoid and jealous as Sarah offers Frank a drink and tells him about Zack punching Leo and Leo pushing herself too hard to be a perfect student and how she feels like the grief is making them all crumble. Frank says things will get better for them. While he’s all alone she still has her kids and caring about them is the reason she’ll get through this. She wonders if Frank can find something to care about too. He says maybe, but he has a feeling things will get a lot better soon. Micro looks ashamed of himself and stares at the floor.
Billy is at the waterfront at night, with soldiers for his PMC loading a cargo ship. He looks around, sighs, and enters a nearby black SUV. And for once I’m ACTUALLY shocked by the reveal here because Billy genuinely seemed like he was one of the good guys, but the person he’s reporting to in the SUV is FUCKING RAWLINS.
End of Episode.
