Original subtitles

Previously on The Equalizer... Make sure you send me that.

[people screaming, gasping]

Call 911!

Private school got you spending your sneaker money already.

[Cam chuckles]

Yo. What the hell, Ty? Hey, yo, man!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

MEL: But I'm curious

why you didn't want me to go after that guy.

He doesn't need jail. He needs help.

I probably should have been straight with you this morning.

Wait, so you are dating Detective Dante.

We are Instagram official.

And when the time is right, I would love

to bring him by to meet you.

I would love that.

VI: Me, too.

I will make him a dinner he will never forget.

[laughs]

♪

[panting]

[keys jingling, door unlocks]

[locks clicking]

[thumping]

[gasps, yells] [silenced gunshots]

[body thuds]

♪

♪

[gasps softly] Don't tell me you baked.

Kouign-amann cakes. How many do you want?

[sighs]

None.

'Scuse me?

I'm grabbing breakfast with Dante this morning.

Okay, isn't this, like, your fourth breakfast date

in a row with him?

Are these breakfast dates or...

breakfast dates?

Aunt Vi, stop.

[laughter]

Well, then invite him over.

I'll cook up something special for us to enjoy together.

No. That's okay.

[chuckles] But thank you.

[clears throat] Aunt Vi,

does that offer extend to both me and Cam?

VI: Sure. How is it

that the teenager's happy to bring her boyfriend around

but her grown mama

is still hiding her man?

You both have known Dante for years.

Mm-hmm. But you never had him over.

Now you're dating. So what is it exactly that you're afraid of?

Marcus Dante's an important part

of your life, and so are we.

Come on, now. Invite the man over for dinner.

And have him bring his sons, too.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I know we haven't met them yet.

Exactly.

It's way past time for the families to meet.

[phone buzzing]

Mm. Harry.

Here you go.

Share it with your man.

Oh, I got to go.

[Vi and Robyn laugh]

That was a good one, Auntie. [laughs]

Well, the police think my father was a random victim

of a home invasion crew.

But you don't think so.

Someone wanted him dead.

Did he mention any specific threat

or anyone he had problems with?

I don't know.

Um, my father and I, we haven't spoken for...

many years.

What happened between you two?

My mom died suddenly

when I was ten, and, um, honestly,

a piece of my dad just died along with her.

I'm sorry.

Mom was his everything.

They were history professors at Hempstead U.

That's how they met. [chuckles softly]

Just two history nerds

with a passion for the Revolutionary War

and big dreams for funding a scholarship program

for underprivileged history majors.

[chuckles]

Sounds like they were made for each other.

Yeah.

When she died,

my father just... he couldn't deal with life in the present,

including raising his daughter.

All he did was study the past.

He was obsessed with it.

Right up until the day he knew

he was going to be killed.

Well, what makes you think that?

Yesterday, I received three boxes my father mailed,

like, an hour before his death.

What was in the boxes?

His research.

And this note.

"Dearest Ariel, Truss..." "Trust."

I think he meant "trust,"

like he wrote it in a hurry.

"Trust no one. Shortface's contingency went to Percival.

Your loving father."

What does it mean?

I don't know.

Look, I get how all this sounds, but,

in my gut, I j... [sighs]

I just know that...

his murder wasn't random.

I'm gonna find out who did this.

Dr. Johan Kincaid.

A history professor at Hempstead U.

Good yearly evaluations. Decent scores

on those teacher ratings websites.

Any threats? I mean, one student said

taking his class was like having a root canal performed

with a melon baller.

But, you know, nothing that would lead to murder.

And there has been a rash of brutal home invasions

in the professor's neighborhood.

So, yeah,

that note is suspicious,

but there's a chance he could be

just another unlucky victim

of this heist crew. Look, you know

I had to live without knowing my father's killer for years.

I don't want Ariel

to go through the same thing.

Let's be sure.

Sure. Now, I know

who we should talk to first...

Dr. Kincaid's boss.

Check out these emails he was sending his dean,

going on and on about needing personal security.

ROBYN: Can you two look into that?

See if you can find out what the professor was so afraid of.

And can you send a police report to Dante?

We're having a breakfast date.

I'd love to know what his take is on this.

Oh, eggs with a little side of murder.

That's romantic. Stop it.

It's cute.[scoffs]

Okay, you have fun, now.

Oh.

[indistinct chatter]

[chuckles]

Sorry I'm late.

Mm.

Worth the wait.

Got something for you.

Check this out.

You do know they have food here, right?

Yeah, but just try this.

Mmm.

Aunt Vi's baking?

You've been holding out on me. I mean,

we can fix that. [chuckles]

[laughs] Come over for dinner one night.

You know?

Bring Kyler and Stefon.

Be nice to get our families together.

Yeah.

Sounds like fun.

Um, so, I had a chance to, uh,

review Professor Kincaid's case file,

and I don't think

he was a victim of that same home invasion crew.

Why? M.O.'s off. They target high-end homes.

You know, the ones with safes filled with cash and jewelry.

And even though the professor's place

was ransacked like the others,

it doesn't appear anything was actually stolen.

But I might have a lead for you.

Because I'm the perfect boyfriend.

I'll be the judge of that.

I called the detective working the case.

He'd just re-canvassed.

Found a neighbor who remembers a dark van outside the professor's

during the time-of-death window.

No plates yet, but I've got my tech at the FTF

scrubbing through traffic cams.

Like I said,

perfect boyfriend.

Oh, come on.

You're getting there.

[both laugh]

RADCLIFF: Professor Kincaid was the most talented

historian I've ever known.

Also the most paranoid.

Maybe for good reason,

considering he was killed.

So what happened? You know, last month,

he published an article with some audacious claims

about the location of...

Captain William Kidd's buried treasure.

- Really? - Really?

Supposedly, a few

unsavory fortune hunters took notice,

which is why he requested security.

So the professor might've been killed over some fairy tale

about pirates' treasure? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

The story of Captain Kidd's treasure is real.

No, no, no, it was. It... [stammers]

Before he was executed, Captain Kidd revealed

that he had buried gold somewhere in the 13 Colonies.

I was really into pirates as a kid.

Okay, but you're an adult now,

and you know that all of that is legend.

Right?

RADCLIFF: Actually,

there are written accounts

of Captain Kidd burying

gold ingots he plundered.

[clicks tongue] See?

Dean, are there also written accounts

of the Loch Ness Monster?

[sighs]: Okay. Where did Professor Kincaid

think the treasure was buried?

Well, he hypothesized that Benjamin Franklin

secretly found the gold

after the Revolutionary War.

And Professor Kincaid

concluded that he then hid the gold

in case the British invaded again

and the debt-ridden United States

needed to finance another war.

Hid the gold in case,

which is synonymous with contingency.

Look, uh,

Professor Kincaid wrote Ariel, his daughter,

this letter before he died.

[chuckles softly] What?

He figured it out.

U-Uh, you see,

"Caelia Shortface"

was a pseudonym that Benjamin Franklin used.

And "Percival"

might possibly be a reference

to Percival Smith.

Wh-Who's that? [stammers]

John D. Rockefeller's go-to guy.

He-he was well-connected. He was a dedicated Freemason.

Of course there's a Freemason angle to this.

No, no, no. See, that follows.

Uh, BenjaminFranklin

would have entrusted the safety of the gold

to his fellow Freemasons.

And Professor Kincaid was probably tracking it

o-over the decades, from Freemason to Freemason,

until it was in the safe possession of Percival.

By chance,

are you in possession of Professor Kincaid's journal?

Contained all of his conclusions.

Who else knew about this journal?

Well, everyone, I think.

Rumor was that he wrote

his deductions in riddles.

Which I could decipher for you.

Give us a second.

Yeah.

[quietly]: That's got to be why the professor was killed

and why his place was ransacked.

They were after that journal.

HARRY: The professor sent a bunch of boxes of research to Ariel.

Bet it's in one of the boxes.

Which means she's in danger.

I'll call Rob, see if she can get to her.

Okay.[beep, line ringing]

ROBYN: Sorry breakfast

was interrupted.

Duty calls. I get it.

So...

about us getting our families together

for dinner.

Why don't you want to do it?

I never said that.

Yes, you did.

With your body language.

[chuckles] Damn.

It's really not easy dating a former CIA operative.

Not when you lie to her.

I never lied to you.

Look, I'm down with the family dinner.

But my boys,

especially my youngest,

probably won't be.

Somehow, Stefon's equated me moving back

to New York with me getting back with his mom.

So he's hoping his idea of the perfect family

becomes a reality.

[sighs]

Ariel's front door is open.

♪

ROBYN: Hey.

That detective said the neighbor saw

a dark van outside his house.

There's one in the alley.

Ariel.

Ariel? Hey.

MAN: Drive! Go, go, go! [engine starts]

I'm going after them.

[engine revving, tires squealing]

Thank you. [groans]

They were after my dad's journal.

I took them to it, and bam, everything went dark.

NYPD is assigning a squad car to sit outside your place

until we catch these guys.

Just in case. And they found the van.

It was abandoned about a mile away from here.

It was stolen.

They're fingerprinting it, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

ROBYN: Ariel, the men who killed your father

believe that his journal will lead them to a hidden treasure.

Wait.

That's what he's been working on?

Some kind of treasure map?

Yeah. Now, we can track these guys down

by going to where they're going.

So, can you tell us anything about

what's inside that journal?

He never showed it to me.

He never shared any of what he was working on.

Actually, I... I might have something.

All I wanted was waffles and bacon.

Next thing I know, I'm chasing masked men down an alleyway.

Well, like you said,

it ain't easy dating me.

Yeah, but it's worth it.

Here. This is from my tenth birthday party.

Hey, Daddy, check out this new dress Aunt Sascha got me.

Who was the first person to sign the U.S. Constitution?

George Washington.

JOHAN: The date?

ARIEL: September 17, 1787.

ARIEL: After my mom died,

my father was so disconnected from reality.

All of our real communication happened

in these tedious pop quizzes. [laughs]

Look. You can see it.

His journal. Crap. You can't make anything out.

I have someone who can help with that.

DELILAH: So,

what'd you do last night?

I just hung out.

Yeah? With who?

Tyrese.

That's my boy.

Who pulled a gun on us. And you know

how pissed off I was at him for that.

It's inexcusable.

But he apologized to me, like, a million times.

Well, I'm glad you two worked things out.

Ty wants to apologize to you, too.

I mean, that's what we were talking about

last night. I don't care.

Come on.

He's like my brother.

Can you at least hear him out?

Please.

Fine.

But just know, he won't be the only one

with something to say.

Ah. "The path to Shortface's contingency

begins with..." Dot, dot, dot.

Yeah, that's very suspenseful.

HARRY: I know. It's killing me.

Is this a glimpse into young Harry, the pirate fan?

[laughs]

Okay, but you know that this is not real, right?

[British accent]: Ye of little faith.

Wow. Yeah.

There's more - where that came from. - Babe.

[computer chimes]

"Rockefeller's Board...

"an envoy's finale where Legall devoted his life,

"leads to triumph over illusions and morals

of slight." What the hell does that mean?

Well, hold on a sec.

So, we know that Percival is Rockefeller's go-to guy, right?

So what if it has something to do with the board of directors?

But what's "Legall"?

Is that a person? I don't know.

Let's see.

Okay, Legall de Kermeur

was an 18th-century premiere French chess player.

Chess! Rockefeller's board must mean his chessboard.

Man, I married a smart lady.

Yeah, you did. Um, okay.

Wait a minute. "Envoy" is synonymous with "ambassador."

And we both know who the first U.S. ambassador

to France was. We do?

It was Benjamin Franklin. Um... Benjamin Franklin.

Okay, so if we cross-reference all these variables...

Okay, okay. So, Legall owned a Parisian chess club

that Benjamin Franklin used to frequent.

And it was infamous, apparently,

for some sort of chess-playing automaton,

although it was all an elaborate hoax.

"Illusions and morals of slight."

HARRY: But it says here that Benjamin Franklin

beat it, and that must be... that must be the "triumph."

- Okay. - Okay.

HARRY: So how does all of this

lead us to the bad guys and the gold? I don't know.

But John D. Rockefeller's chessboard will.

Right. Okay.

[muttering] Oh.

- Oh, yeah. Okay, okay. - What?

So, Rockefeller's favorite chessboard

was gifted to him from his faithful employee...

BOTH: Percival Smith!

Right? And Percival probably put a clue

in the chessboard for his fellow Freemasons. Mm-hmm.

And he gifted it to Rockefeller

'cause he knew it would stay in the family estate.

Okay, so, all we have to do is find the chessboard

before the killers do.

Right. Okay.

Okay. All right, easy.

So, the chessboard is the property

of the Rockefeller Historical Society.

But wait a minute. A week ago,

it was sent on loan to the New York Museum of History.

Really? Who requested that?

I did. As museum curator,

I have lots of contacts when it comes to antiquities.

Professor Kincaid knew this and asked for my help.

Did he say why he wanted

to examine Rockefeller's chessboard?

No, he was a bit cagey, though.

But the professor was my doctoral advisor.

How could I say no? [laughs]

Um, do... do you mind if we have a look?

Mm.

The professor came by to study it,

what, three days ago, Fenton? Yes.

Dr. Luttrell was in a donors' meeting,

so I showed him the set.

And what-what did he do with it?

He requested to study it alone.

Do you mind if we have a look?

Please. Careful with it.

I'll be at my desk.

The professor probably found a clue on this board,

wrote it in his journal, which the killers have.

Right. So, they're still ahead of us.

Man, we got to solve this puzzle, and quick.

Okay, so we know it has to do with Benjamin Franklin

winning the chess game.

HARRY: "An envoy's finale."

Franklin's the envoy. If we re-create

his last move, we'll unlock the clue.

I got it.

Okay. Automaton king to G8. All right, then let's see.

LUTTRELL: Excuse me.

What exactly is going on here? Okay, pawn.

You said you were looking into the professor's murder

on behalf of his daughter?

We are, Dr. Luttrell.

A couple more moves, and we should know

where to look for his killers.

If we re-create

Franklin's game, this last move

is going to...

unlock a message that's embedded

inside this board. Okay.

You guys ready? Okay. Yeah.

Here-here we go. MEL: Okay.

Checkmate. [laughs]

This, uh, was wrong.

No, you were right.

It's Morse code.

I need a... Do you have a...? Yeah.

MEL: Okay. See, the-the circles are dots,

and the rectangles are dashes.

So, when you put all the pieces, they spell "P, Q,

"four, five, five,

"four, dot,

one, nine, one, four."

Is that me, or does that look

like a Dewey decimal number from a library?

Yeah. It does.

Pretium Revolutionis. It's in the secure section

of the public library main branch.

The killers could already be there.

Rob and Dante are closer. Okay.

Um, okay. Oh. [line ringing]

[birds chirping]

What's up, man?

[sighs]

Hey, Dee.

Appreciate you coming.

Heard you've got something to say?

What I did,

stealing that money, that's not me.

And-and pulling guns on people,

that's not me, either.

But desperation can...

sometimes turn you into someone else.

I just want you to know...

I'm sorry.

That wasn't the first time a gun was pointed in my direction.

Last time...

my friend Jason was killed.

Right in front of me.

It is seared in my memory.

I will never forget it.

Just like how I'll never forget that you put a gun in my face,

threatened to take my life.

I was never going to pull the trigger. I swear.

Is that supposed to make me feel better or you feel better?

You have no idea of the damage you caused.

And if you really think

that a few remorseful words are just gonna make everything okay,

then you need a whole lot more than my forgiveness.

I just want to make this right.

Please?

How can I make this right?

Actions, Tyrese.

Not words.

[phone buzzing]

Sorry. It's my little sis.

Hey.

Where is Mom at?

Chill. No one's going to foster care.

All right? I'm coming now.

CAM: Hey, what's going on?

Neighbor called my sis to say our social worker's doing

a surprise visit two floors down.

That mean your place is next?

And Moms up and disappeared, so my sisters are alone.

Look, I've got to go.

Um, okay,

I'm gonna get you home, and then I have to go help him out.

No, no, there's no time. I'll go with you.

- Okay. Yeah. - Come on.

DANTE: Sorry about earlier.

Not being upfront when you invited my boys to dinner.

Ah, Marcus, it's okay.

My gut says to just lay it out to Stefon.

Let him know I'm not getting back with his mother,

and that's that, but...

ROBYN: The lock. Someone beat us here.

[phone camera clicking]

[phone whooshes]

♪

[line ringing]

MAN: Found the book. Get the pictures?

Roger that. Headed out now.

DANTE: Federal agent! Freeze!

Get down! [gunfire]

[grunting, panting]

Good timing.

I aim to please.

Hmm.

Only a couple calls.

All sent to the same number he sent the photos to.

I'll have Harry check it out, but...

I'm guessing it's another burner.

You find anything else?

Just cash, no I.D.

Combine that with his skills with a weapon,

the way he moved?

My opinion, he and his crew are mercenaries.

Operatives.

So you think someone might've hired them

to kill the professor and steal his journal.

[phone trilling]

ROBYN: Harry, I just sent you a set of prints.

I need you to I.D. the dead guy and his employer.

HARRY: Employer? These guys are pros?

I think former military?

Uh, former mi... uh, okay.

Here it comes, your stiff is...

uh, Aaron Drake.

Former Special Forces, so you're right about the military.

Looks like he's currently a gun-for-hire

with a variety of skills, all of them deadly.

I'm gonna look into his bank account.

According to Drake's balance,

I am in the wrong line of work.

Harry!

I know, I know, we're the good guys.

So he's made a couple of withdrawals recently.

But two days ago,

a "CK Incorporated"

made a $10,000 deposit.

[stammers] I bet you that's a shell corp.

Maybe it stands for "Captain Kidd."

10,000 doesn't seem like very much.

Could be a down payment, and the rest is

you know, his share of the treasure.

Um, you know, I'll tell you what.

I'm gonna look into his known associates.

And, uh, I'm gonna set

a program trying to track down who-who made that deposit,

but it, you know, it's gonna take a while.

I got a phone number to send you. [phone camera clicking]

Harry, there are two more mercs out there,

and they already have the first clue.

We have to get to them first.

Well, can I just say that-that we are hunting

for Captain Kidd's treasure? I mean...

Do you realize that this is, like,

a dream come true for my 12-year-old self.

I'm happy for you, Harry.

I'll be happier when we catch

the professor's killer. All right.

I'm sending you a picture of the manuscript. [phone camera clicking]

[sighing]

Honey, you do realize

this could all be some made-up scavenger hunt

created by a bored 19th-century rich boy, right?

Well, then my inner 12-year-old's

heart will be broken.

But it really doesn't matter

if the treasure is real or not,

as long as the professor's killer

thinks that it is. Yeah.

You know, I found something.

It's just not what we're looking for.

What?

See these designs?

Flowers and vines?

They're actually Latin phrases from a poem

called "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley.

So you're an authority on pirates,

and now you speak Latin, too?

Well, no one speaks Latin.

But Google Translate does.

Okay.

So what does Google Translate

have to say about "Invictus"?

That it's a poem about strength and willpower

in the face of adversity,

which are common themes with the Freemasons.

So we're on the right track.

I don't know, maybe, it's just...

i-if there's some sort of hidden clue

or-or meaning in these words...

or the letters or the poem,

I-I just, you know, I can't see it.

Aw, baby.

You can't see it yet. You can't see it yet.

Don't forget, it took the professor

a lifetime of research to get here.

Yeah.

Hang on, the professor's research.

Ariel said that there wasn't anything else in the...

in the boxes that her... her father sent her

about Benjamin Franklin or treasure.

She didn't know to look for "Invictus."

I think we need to take another look in those boxes.

Yeah. Come on.

ARIEL: I didn't see anything about "Invictus" in the researh

my father sent, but you're welcome

to go through it yourselves.

Have you translated the shorthand yet?

I wouldn't know shorthand if I saw it, which I obviously did.

My father made me learn it when I was young,

along with about a million other useless skills.

Not so useless, if it's in a hidden code.

It says "Cincinnatus

"and Blueskin oversee

the key to victory."

Please tell me that means something.

Well, Cincinnatus was a Roman statesman

who was famous for his selfless devotion

to the Republic in times of crisis.

And George Washington was known

as the "American Cincinnatus."

Mrs. Brown, junior year,

American history, she was brutal.

Uh, but Blueskin?

Was his horse. Okay, so Washington

and his horse are overseeing the key to victory.

That could be a reference

to the gold that, uh, Benjamin Franklin

squirreled away for a rainy day.

MEL: Ariel, I want to ask you something.

So...

all those useless facts

your father made you learn, you know, the...

obscure history facts, the quizzes. [sighs]

Do you ever think that maybe that was his way of

trying to connect with you?

He could have just talked to me.

Yeah, that's what I thought, too, about my father.

That he could have just talked to me.

[sighs]

Turns out...

he didn't know how to talk to me.

I don't know, just maybe...

your father sharing his work with you

was his way of telling you

that he... loved you.

I got it. The equestrian statue

of Washington in Union Square Park.

MEL: Okay, but what's the key to victory it's overseeing?

Um, actually, in 1929, they moved the statue.

And before then, it was in the southeast corner of the square.

Okay, uh, so, all right, the manuscript was painted

in 1914, at which point Washington and his horse

would have been overlooking...

the Masonic temple built by John D. Rockefeller,

which was overseen by Percival Smith! Percival Smith!

So the key to victory is in the Masonic temple.

Yeah. Let's go.

Thank you so much.

DELILAH: Okay.

You good? CAM: Yeah.

DELILAH: Yeah. Here.

Thank you. Mm-hmm.

[laughing] [Tyrese humming]

Hey.

Hi. I like your braids.

Tyrese does it better than our mom.

Oh, really?

That makes me wish I had an older brother.

Thank you. You're welcome.

How old are you girls?

I'm eight. Tonya's only seven.

Hey, now.

You know the rules.

No arguing when Ms. Howell gets here.

TONYA: Be polite.

Only tell her good things.

And no talking about Mom.

Okay, then.

Go play.

So, um...

I take it the social worker has been here before?

On the regular.

We usually have it down, but today was a surprise.

Thanks for helping out.

[scoffs] Always, man.

If any little thing goes wrong,

Social Services can take the girls away.

No foster care, Tyrese!

You promised! You're right.

I promised, so quit worrying.

I won't let that happen, okay?

ROBYN: Okay, Harry, we're here.

HARRY: Okay, just tell me anything that you see.

Whole lot of things that don't look like keys.

I heard that. Listen.

This is a treasure hunt, so remember,

just take nothing at face value.

ROBYN: Okay.

I'm looking at some Masonic symbols.

Square and compass.

Okay, searching.

And got it: it represents

judgment, balance and stability.

I got a beehive.

Searching, and...

beehive is just a beehive.

It represents strength in unity.

A judge's gavel?

All right, judge's gavel, let's see.

That's Hiram's Gavel. It's one of the most important

artifacts in Freemasonry.

It should have a square and compass engraved on it.

It's also got a chopped-up snake on it.

Wait a minute.

Rob, this could be it. A dismembered snake

is a Revolutionary War symbol for the Colonies.

ROBYN: "Join or die" is engraved by the snake. HARRY: That's it.

That's got to be the key. Just grab that gavel

and look for anything that it opens.

Um, I just got a ping.

That number you gave me was a bust,

but "CK Incorporated" just popped.

Offshore account,

shell corp, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But who are you? Who are you?

Looks like we got the Earl of Bellomont.

MEL: Who's that?

The colonial governor of New York.

He-he betrayed Captain Kidd.

Just like Dr. Luttrell

betrayed her professor.

Our helpful curator is the one

who hired Drake and the other mercs. [doorbell rings]

Ariel... I heard about your father.

I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.

No wonder you were my father's favorite student.

[laughs]

Uh, I'm sorry.

Who are you? Friends of mine, dear.

Why don't we all get acquainted?

♪

Any idea where to start?

Well, we don't even know if that key

opens something in this building.

Good point.

And since we're not actually looking for the gold,

I say we forget about whatever this key fits

and stake out this place instead.

Yeah, waiting for them to catch up to us sounds a lot better

than looking for a lock in a haystack.

Yeah.[phone ringing]

It's Ariel.

Ariel, we have the key.

LUTTRELL: Congratulations.

You're much smarter than I gave you credit for.

Who is this?

The person our dear professor

should have shared his discovery with.

But enough about me, let's discuss his ungrateful daughter.

What have you done with Ariel?

I spent years helping her dad

when no one else believed him.

Now she's helping me get what I'm owed.

The gold for her life.

And if we don't find the gold?

Didn't I just compliment your intelligence?

Let me know when you have it, and I'll tell you where to go.

An encrypted number.

We better find that gold.

Otherwise, they're gonna kill Ariel.

[knocking at door] Ms. Howell.

This is a surprise.

Well, that's the point, Tyrese.

Although I have a feeling your neighbors tipped you off.

HOWELL: Friends of yours?

Yes, ma'am.

This is my friend Cam.

We came up together, but now he's a big entrepreneur.

And...

his girlfriend Dee.

She goes to private school.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

It's nice to meet you both.

Hello, ladies. How is school?

I got an "A" on my math quiz.

Tyrese helped me study.

And what about you, Tonya? School going well?

Yes, ma'am.

I studied, too, but I got a "B."

She has a real hard-ass teacher. S-Sorry.

A real hard teacher. HOWELL: Listen,

I understand that, and "B" s are still good grades.

Now, tell me, what did you have for dinner last night?

Anything yummy?

Tyrese made us grilled cheese sandwiches

and tater tots.

Delicious.

And what about your mother?

Did she help Tyrese make dinner?

Where's your mother, Tyrese?

She went to the store.

Wasn't she at the store the last time I was here?

TYRESE: I don't remember, but we're having lasagna

for dinner, and she had to pick up some stuff.

That's why me and my friends are here with the girls.

[whispers]: Don't worry.

Tyrese said he wouldn't let her take us.

And Tyrese is the best big brother ever.

Tyrese,

I know how much you love your sisters.

How much you do for them.

I'm on your side.

But please, have your mother call me.

VENETTA: Told you.

You know what?

You're right, Venetta.

Tyrese is the best big brother ever.

ROBYN [over phone]: Anything else on Ariel's phone?

HARRY: Not a peep or a ping.

That SIM card must have been destroyed.

Dr. Luttrell and her boys know what they're doing.

So the only way to save Ariel is by finding the treasure.

Harry, any idea what we're looking for?

I mean, the gavel is the "key to victory."

So you're looking for "victory,"

whatever that means.

Was there anything else in the manuscript that might help?

No.

What about "Invictus"?

Babe, you're brilliant. "Invictus."

ROBYN: What's that?

"Invictus" is a late-19th-century poem

about triumph over adversity.

I found it.

What... what, the-the lock?

No. "Invictus."

The word written on a pillar.

Not a lock?

- Harry, I know I'm right. - This it?

Yeah, but there's no place for a key.

Yeah, but it's not a key, it's a gavel.

A hammer.

Harry, we found a secret compartment.

That's got to be it. That's got to be

where Percival hid the gold.

Okay, I admit it.

You are the perfect boyfriend.

HARRY: Okay, very sweet. Did you find the gold?

It's empty.

It's empty? It's empty?

Babe, you were right. This was an elaborate hoax.

Rob, if there's no gold, how do we save Ariel?

ROBYN: We get creative.

It's time to call Dr. Luttrell.

Tiffany Luttrell. Where's Ariel?

Where the hell is my treasure? There is no treasure.

DANTE: That story about Captain Kidd and his buried gold,

that's all it is... a story.

You're lying. The professor's research was...

A desperate fantasy of a grieving man

who'd lost his wife.

None of it is real.

How about we call it even?

You give us Ariel,

and you can walk away.

Tempting, but I can't leave anyone alive

who knows about the professor's murder

or the treasure.

There is no treasure.

You're wrong. [door opens]

I'm almost sorry that you won't be here

when I prove it.

♪

Let me guess.

Dr. Luttrell promised she was gonna pay you for your service

with a percentage of the gold, right?

But like I said, there is no gold.

But... easy...

I got 25 grand, cash, for each of you,

if you work for me.

And there's more coming.

Now!

[grunting]

That was a warning.

Move again, and I'm aiming for you.

Where's Ariel?

Thank you for finding my father's killer.

And for saving me.

I know it won't bring him back, but...

I hope it helps knowing that his killer will be behind bars.

And you, y-you really helped me see my father in a new light.

I wish I'd understood him sooner.

And I wish the treasure was real.

[both chuckle] Me, too.

That he didn't waste his life on a wild-goose chase.

Yeah, the-the story, the hunt, it... was incredible.

HARRY: You guys, I...

I think I figured it out.

Hmm?

The last message that the professor

sent Ariel before he died,

"Truss no one," okay?

I-I don't think it was a misspelling.

So it wasn't a warning?

No, I think the professor was

sending Ariel the-the last clue to the treasure.

Just meet me at the Masonic temple.

So, if you look at the meeting room

from the entrance to the altar, this...

is the first pillar in the room.

And "truss," T-R-U-S-S,

is a support beam, aka a pillar.

What is your point, Harry? Okay. What if...

"Truss no one" isn't a mistake, it isn't

"Trust no one"?

What if I add a period right there,

and it's an abbreviation for "truss number one,"

meaning pillar number one.

Baby, I know you want the treasure to be real,

but this is really... It's-it's possible.

[laughs softly]

It's probable.

It's engraved with a laurel wreath.

That's the Roman symbol of victory.

ROBYN: Go ahead.

It's what your father would have wanted.

♪

MEL: No way. [laughter]

No way! ARIEL: Oh, my God!

What?

Yes!

So, Ariel and the Freemasons

are giving part of the gold to a museum,

and using the rest to fund a scholarship

in her parents' name.

Just like they would have wanted.

Yeah. It's great.

To pirates.

[laughter] Arrr.

To pirates. Cheers. To pirates.

To pirates.

Mmm.

And to the greatest treasure

that 12-year-old me could have ever dreamed of.

[laughs]: Oh.

I am sorry I doubted you, and I'm very happy for you

that your pirate story was real.

Well, you know, and I'm glad I'm, you know, too mature

to say "I told you so."

So, the way I see it, we have two hurdles.

Two? Mm-hmm. The first

is getting Stefon to accept the fact

his parents aren't getting back together.

And the second

is letting him adjust to the idea

that his father is in a romantic relationship

with a woman other than his mother.

Neither of which will be easy.

I'm not complaining.

I'm just laying out the issues.

Issues we will get over.

Together.

Thank you.

You are...

The perfect girlfriend?

Ah.

That's it.

Thank you for today.

Thank you for hearing me.

And thank you for hearing Ty's apology.

It really meant a lot to him.

And me.

I'm glad I did.

I guess I thought

I understood his situation...

but I didn't.

Not really.

Um...

How's his mom doing?

The, uh, the bipolar thing,

it's-it's the-the meds.

If the cocktail isn't right

or the side effects are too much, it just...

everything falls apart.

Like today.

And Tyrese is left to clean up.

Exactly.

Well...

I told him to reach out if he ever needs me to babysit.

I just wish there was more we could do to help him.

Yeah, me, too.

Hey, you know that dinner we talked about,

with Marcus and his boys? Mm-hmm.

Well, it's just gonna have to be Marcus for the time being.

Why is that?

Because I'm dating someone with children and a past,

and so is he.

Marcus and I are easy, but the rest of it is...

it's complicated.

And life is, right?

I, uh...

I spent the day with Cam and one of his friends.

I saw that life really can be complicated.

And hard.

Yeah.

Just because it's complicated, though,

doesn't mean it's not worth fighting for.

[laughs softly]

Now, that's my auntie.

Okay, yeah, you ate that.

[laughter]

I love y'all. And we love you.

We love you.