In Sarah’s story, Sarah (Lena Headey) and John (Thomas Dekker) have an argument over Riley (Levin Rambin). The next morning, Cameron (Summer Glau) tells Sarah that John won’t be seeing Riley anymore. When Cameron leaves, Sarah is ambushed by Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt) and dragged upstairs to John’s room. Sarah’s lies tell him she doesn’t know where John is.
In Cameron’s story. Cameron semi-undresses on the bed with John and tells him he is a danger to Riley. The next day, she drives to a supply shed for ammo and runs into Derek (Brian Austin Green). He gets a phone call from a strange man speaking Spanish and he tells Cameron that John is in trouble.
In John’s story, John runs away with Riley after his talk with Cameron and they go to Mexico for the Dia de Los Muertos in the town he grew up in. Everyone is dressed as skeletons. At dinner, a man who knew him as a child (Danny Moira) takes a picture of them. John tries to get rid of him, but he wants money. Riley grabs the camera, and they are arrested. The Mexican Police Chief (Emilio Rivera) tells John that if his mother or uncle come for him, he will be let go. They call Interpol and put him in a cell with Riley. As they try to escape the next morning, they hear gunfire.
In Sarah’s story, she is tied up in the back seat of Cromartie’s car. He tells her it was the thief she saved from Cameron that led to her capture. She tries to escape and is put in the trunk. When the trunk opens, Agent Ellison (Richard T. Jones) is there with John.
In Ellison’s story, he gets a call from the FBI that John is being held in Mexico. He goes there to talk to the police, knowing that John is in danger. Cromartie turns up and a gun-battle begins at the police station. Ellison, John, and Riley drive off in Ellison’s car. Shot at by Cromartie, they find Sarah and hide out. Sarah calls Derek to come, but he is at the jail, surveying the damage.
In Cromartie’s story, he kills everybody in sight, except for two cops. One of them tells him that John and Riley ran out, and he sees John running. There is a car chase, and he sees Ellison walk into a church with guns. He walks into a trap. Sarah and Derek fire on him from above, followed by Cameron with a Benelli M1 Super 90 Shotgun with depleted uranium slugs, with which she shoots off most of his face. Helpless on the ground, he records them all walking over to him and John shooting him in the head. In the Conclusion, the group buries Cromartie. Sarah smashes Cromartie’s chip over and over and over again in hysterical tears. Ellison walks away.
The first line Cromartie said in the first episode of the series, when he appeared as a substitute teacher in John’s class, was, “Mr. Ferguson is ill today.” His death is similar to that of Alex J. Murphy in Robocop. Much of the episode must remind us of the Terminator movies. I don’t know who is coming apart faster—Sarah, John, or Cameron. I’m seriously impressed by the acting and the action in this episode, which is actually less confusing than this synopsis must sound.