Driving over to his mom's, Michael VOs about how one of the nice things about being a spy is you can disappear for a month and no one's surprised. As a civilian however, "eventually, people expect a good explanation when you disappear, whether or not you have one." Indeed, Madeline's gotten over the initial relief of seeing Michael alive, and is a little grumpy and sarcastic when he comes in. She says she's gotten used to having him gone, so that wasn't as bad as "having an FBI agent in my house telling me that you're a monster. I still don't know what's going on." Michael explains about how he was after Simon, who did all the stuff Michael was burned for. Madeline brings up the more recent accusations that Michael blew up a bridge and shot at the police. "I had to get Simon," Michael said. "I did it because I had to." Madeline asks if it's that simple, and Michael admits he doesn't know. "When I caught Simon, he laughed. He said it was a matter of time before I was just like him." The thought is clearly getting to Michael, and he looks so vulnerable that Madeline obligingly gets up and hugs him, telling him Simon was wrong. "That's not the son I raised." No, that would be the son who blows up bridges and shoots at police.

Fi drives Michael, in a suit and tie, up to a big white building. They argue a bit about this, as they do, but Michael's going ahead with it because whoever let Simon go needs to be stopped. She reminds him that she's driving the getaway car, so he at least thanks her before heading inside.

As Michael is inside the building, going through security, he VOs about how military bases have a civilian admin center nearby. "They're simple places, just office buildings filled with cubicles. Still, they're not places you just want to walk into causally as a burned spy." But his card from Vaughn gets him through the interior security door. So far so good. He ducks into an office, punches some access codes into a computer terminal, and starts downloading some files while on the phone with Fi. She says there aren't any alarms going off, but tells him to get out.