Lines Crossed
S3 episode 6 Aired on July 26, 2018

Bob Lee Swagger (Ryan Phillippe) and Isaac Johnson (Omar Epps) engage in some cloak and dagger to meet the real Ramon Gutierrez at a secret location, where he tells them he’s been in hiding since Earl Swagger was assassinated. It turns out Patricia Gregson (Beverly D’Angelo) was right: Bob Lee doesn’t like what Gutierrez has to say about his father. Meanwhile, the rest of the team tries to make progress on cracking the decryption card.

Trying to figure out what exactly the card decrypts

Carlita Cruise and Nadine Memphis (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) prep Harris Downey (Jesse Bradford) for an ostensible dinner date with an old college friend of his, Rebecca. She works at Titan Incorporated, the company name on the decryption card and happens to be a dead ringer for Memphis. Harris makes small talk in the restaurant then brings out the card. Rebecca is alarmed he has it. Atlas operative Jack Long watches from across the street as another operative makes a move in the restaurant with a syringe for Harris and Rebecca. Cruise comes from nowhere to fend off the attacker and hustle the couple out.

Gutierrez fills in the blanks about Phoenix, but it’s not pretty

Gutierrez explains that Atlas killed Earl Swagger because he was going to expose them and how they made money. As Phoenix, they got orders from a shadow faction inside the Pentagon represented by a woman named Katherine Mayfield. Earl taught her how to plan more effective missions in Vietnam, knowledge that she put to use for the next 40 years for Atlas. One night, with Earl’s input, their unit targeted a man who was supposedly a Viet Cong general, but once inside his house, Gutierrez could tell the man wasn’t military and hesitated. So Earl shot the man and then a woman who ran. As Gutierrez wrestled with guilt, Earl warned him that collateral damage was part of the deal and he’d better keep his mouth shut. Instead of being complicit, Gutierrez shot himself in the leg on purpose and Earl signed the paperwork to say it happened during the mission. Gutierrez went home. Years later, he learned the “general” was actually a drug smuggler who wouldn’t share his routes and the woman was a prostitute. Gutierrez suggests they talk to Mayfield, who retired abruptly from the Pentagon years ago. She’s committed to a mental institution, likely for protection.

Julie gives Red Bama Sr. another Swagger to worry about

Julie receives a summons for Bob Lee to be interviewed about the disappearance of former prison warden Rick Culp, the man on duty when Jimmy Poole walked away years ago. She starts digging and discovers that Red Bama Sr. (Gerald McRaney) is footing the bill -- which is ironic, given that he killed Culp. Julie visits the Bama ranch, and realizes that by pointing questions at Swagger, Bama has set the Culps up as likely suspects if anything happens to him. She also finds out that three months after Earl died, Red got a sweetheart deal for 2,000 acres of government land and within a year was appointed undersecretary of the Agricultural Department. Later, Julie gets an unwelcome visit from both Bamas at Sam Vincent’s office about the wrongful death suit Sam is filing. Senior threatens to make Julie sorry if she proceeds.

Memphis poses as Rebecca to breach Titan

Back at the bunker, Rebecca explains that the card decrypts a government communications network, but you have to access Titan’s internal system to know which one. She rejects Memphis’ offer of protection and leaves -- but not before Carlita swipes her Titan access card. Later we see that leaving was a bad call: Jack Long is waiting for her at her house. Later, Memphis poses as Rebecca and goes into the Titan offices and up to the secure seventh floor. She uses the decryption card to get into the computer and is able to access evacuation routes for the president and other high level officials. She takes pictures as Harris and Carlita wait outside. But when she’s ready to leave, she finds the door is locked.

Titan goes on lockdown with Memphis trapped inside

In the Titan offices, Jack Long gets by security as police pull up outside. Swagger and Johnson arrive just in time. They realize the police outside are really Atlas, so Swagger calls in a bomb threat to 911. An alarm overrides security and Memphis is able to leave the locked room. Swagger rushes in posing as Homeland Security. Long makes it to the computer room and sees what Memphis was looking at. From the parking lot, Carlita sees Long leave the building and knows the Atlas playbook of sending agents in followed by an extraction team. Inside, Memphis sneaks across a cubical farm as an agent searches for her.

Atlas closes in, leaving Memphis with no good options

Outside, Johnson and Cruise take out Atlas operatives posing as police while Memphis continues to try to escape. As she passes through the kitchen she grabs a knife, going for his knee. Swagger tries to find her inside and they end up on opposite sides of a cube farm. Swagger is about to take out the Atlas agent tracking Memphis when a squad of real police arrive. But Memphis see an Atlas operative approaching her, with nowhere to run, so she throws up her hands and surrenders to the real police. Back at the bunker, Team Swagger tries to come up with a way to rescue Memphis, knowing that Atlas will be all over her. Inside the jail, two guards come for her and knock her out. They carry her out of the jail and throw her in the back of a waiting SUV.