John's cell phone rings. Violet guesses that it's her mother again. After some encouragement from Violet, John answers and quickly explains that he's taking Violet along to a conference he was just invited to in Seattle. He mentions how lovely the Puget Sound is, and then covers the phone and whispers, "Good detail?" to Violet. She gives him a thumbs-up. John returns to the phone and asks if Violet can stay a while and make up for her missed visit next month. After a pause, he smiles: "That's wonderful, Barbara. Thanks so much!" Then we see the other side of the conversation, featuring John's very confused doctor. The doctor says, "I called because your work said you'd left town, and I wanted to make sure you had enough meds while you were traveling." He stresses that the meds are "the only thing buying [John] time." John whatevers and tells "Barbara" to call anytime, then hangs up. Violet expresses her amazement at John's prevarications, and John smiles, "I had a great teacher."

Alex walks toward the Challenger, stunned, while Not-Poole goes on about how they had this little intervention to get at who Alex really is. Alex notes that it's a little counterproductive for his sponsors to take him off the road for several hours. Not-Poole notes that Alex wasn't making much progress before they picked him up. He says, "The old Alex Tully, the real Alex Tully -- he'd be [at the checkpoint] already." He hands Alex the key to the Challenger. Alex asks where Corinna is. Not-Poole tells Alex not to bother about her, adding, "Save your wife. Leave the other one to us." Alex starts to get in the car and notes that a police escort would help get him to the checkpoint in time. Not-Poole says, "I know you've had several blows to the head lately, but dude, get with the program: I'm not a real cop." I'm paraphrasing a little bit. After a second, Alex says that this isn't really his old car. Not-Poole walks over to the car, insisting that it is. Alex says, "No, if it were --" and then flips open a panel in the dash. A very large knife drops out into his hand. Alex smoothly puts the knife to Not-Poole's throat and confesses, "Guess it is mine." He asks about Corinna again, and Not-Poole starts in about what the real Alex Tully would do. Alex says, "The real Alex Tully never left his partners behind. And you don't wanna meet the real Alex Tully. Promise." So this one is still the fake dude? Wow, don't mess with landscapers.