Sam enters the loft in his Chuck Finley suit and hair, reporting that he came up empty at the county records office, describing the woman he tried and failed to shake down: "She's 65, a widow, and completely immune to my charming ways." How can all three of those things be true? Unless Madeline is moonlighting at the records office. Fi gives Sam a hard time about his failure, like he wasn't doing this as a favor for her in the first place, but Sam assures Michael that he's already got a plan B in mind. "But you're not going to like it." Someone else is going to like it even less.

Cut to Michael at his mom's kitchen table, as she turns out to be kind of resistant to this new chance to be part of the team. "You want me to lie to some woman at the county records office?" she protests. "What did she do?" Michael explains that she has access to information they need, and Madeline's in the target demographic. Michael assures her that it's for a good cause. Madeline's only answer, for now, is to take a drag on her cigarette.

"Ironic" cut to the no-smoking sign at the county records office as Madeline enters the next day. Michael VOs, "Human intelligence can often be collected with a cover identity. There are times, though, when a cover ID has more to do with who you are than how you act." And then we see Madeline in the office, sitting on the other side of a desk from none other than Tyne Daly. Yes, it's that much-ballyhooed Cagney and Lacey reunion! Which, I confess, I'm not all that excited about, having never watched that show. I can never even remember which of them was which. In fact, having just seen a twentyish Sam Axe in Evil Dead a couple of weeks ago, I'd almost rather see a reunion of Bruce Campbell and several hundred gallons of fake blood. The ladies seem to be getting along fine, laughing and everything, but when Madeline asks for some records, she hits a brick wall. Tyne Daly isn't about to share, even though she seems to buy Madeline's cover story about records lost in a hurricane and her dead husband. Although you'd think that if an older lady came in to ask for the same records that a smooth-talking dude asked for the day before, maybe a red flag would go up. Madeline gets up to leave, but slows down a few steps away. With her back to Tyne Daly, she struggles to work up some tears as Michael VOs, "Working an intelligence asset is part acting, part strategy. Some people don't have the talent and some people do." He doesn't say whether it's genetic, but judging by Madeline's timing and tears as she pathetically turns to thank Tyne Daly for her time, it just might be. She comes back and sits down again as Tyne Daly hands her a tissue sympathetically. And Tyne Daly offers to do even better than that. "Let me see what I can dig up...don't get me fired." Madeline puts on a big show of acting grateful, completely missing the foreshadowing that just clocked the rest of us upside the head.