LONDON
The team is holed up in a safe house on Liverpool Street. Ethan sits at a desk, looking at a Bible and sending another message to Max. Franz sits in another, having a drink. Y/N paces around the office Ethan is in.
Franz: You contacting your buyer?
Ethan remains silent and continues to type.
Franz: Ethan.
He types a message to Max based on Job 3:15, the sendee being Max@Job 3:15. Franz gets up and walks into the office, stopping in the doorway.
Franz: Ethan. Oh, excuse me. Mr. Hunt.
Nothing. Y/N watches and smirks in amusement at Ethan's silence and Franz's frustration. Franz walks behind the desk, puts down his drink, and pushes the Bible onto the floor. Y/N's smirk fades.
Franz: You're not going to any meeting without me.
Ethan: My contact is extremely shy.
Franz chuckles and walks away from the desk.
Franz: I don't think you're in any position to give orders. Do you?
He takes a disc out of his pocket.
Franz: Not while I'm holding this.
Claire: Krieger...
Franz: Ta gueule.
Y/N: (Quietly) Damn.
Ethan takes another disc out of a briefcase.
Ethan: Don't you mean this?
Franz: That's not the list.
Y/N looks back and forth between Ethan and Franz wondering who has the genuine list.
Ethan: Oh, what's the matter? You... You've never seen this trick?
He uses sleight of hand to make the disc seemingly disappear into thin air. He pretends to be confused, Y/N chuckles in amusement, and Franz gives a blank stare with his mouth slightly agape.
Ethan: Where'd it go?
He pretends to look around and steps away from the desk.
Ethan: It's gone.
He looks at Y/N.
Ethan: Did you...?
Y/N smiles and raises his hands up in defense.
Y/N: I didn't touch it.
Ethan points at Claire.
Claire also smiles and looks down at herself.
Claire: What?
Ethan: You...
Claire: No.
Ethan: No?
He steps closer to her and reaches inside her coat.
Claire: Oh.
He pulls his hand out and the disc reappears.
Y/N chuckles. Ethan turns back to Franz with a big smile on his face.
Ethan: But not too far.
He gets closer to Krieger and taps his forehead with the disc a few times.
Ethan: I know what you're thinking, Krieger. You're thinking, "Back in the computer room, I was up here, he was... he was down there. Yes, and he was...
He steps away and makes the disc disappear again.
Ethan: "...he was carrying two discs."
He turns around and Krieger continues to stare at him.
Ethan: It's so hard to keep track of these things.
Krieger: Where is it?
Ethan reaches behind his back and makes the disc reappear one more time.
Both Y/N and Claire laugh.
Ethan: Do you actually think I'd let you have the NOC list?
Franz: Try any sleight of hand with my money, I'll cut your throat.
He walks out of the room, throwing the disc he had in a small trash can. Ethan picks up the Bible and looks at the title page. The hard side reads, "PLACED BY THE GIDEONS IN DRAKE HOTEL, CHICAGO." Ethan hears back the words during the mission briefing.
Jack: Were you off on one of your cushy recruiting assignments again?
Ethan: Yeah, where'd they put you up this time? The Plaza?
Jim: Drake Hotel, Chicago.
He is snapped out of his thoughts by Claire.
Claire: I'm so sorry.
Ethan slowly looks at her. Claire steps towards him.
Claire: Krieger was my call.
She stops right in front of him and touches his cheek.
Claire: I'm sorry, Ethan.
Ethan shakes his head.
Ethan: We did what we had to do.
Claire gives a small smile.
Claire: I'm going to try and get some sleep.
Ethan nods and Claire kisses his cheek. She walks away. Y/N stares and thinks about the scene that unfolded in front of him.
Y/N: (Thoughts) She brought Krieger on? I don't know why, but I feel as though there's something bigger going on here. But what is it?
Ethan goes to the trash can that Franz threw the disc in. He takes it out and throws the other one in it. Y/N and Luther watch and realize the truth at the same time.
Luther: Krieger DID have the NOC list?
Ethan steps up to Luther's desk and holds the disc up to him. Luther laughs.
Ethan: Now, I want you to hold onto it.
Luther: What makes you trust me?
Ethan: Because if you knew what you were getting into, you never would've done it.
Luther hesitantly grabs the disc from Ethan's hand.
Luther: I'm not going to let this get out in the open.
Ethan: Exactly. That's your job tomorrow on the train. Don't let this NOC list get out in the open.
He grabs a phone off of Luther's desk.
Ethan: What is the range of this thing?
Luther: It's hard to tell. I'm gonna have to be close.
Y/N: Hey, Hunt?
Ethan turns to Y/N.
Ethan: Yeah?
Y/N: Can I ask you something?
Ethan sets the phone back on the desk and approaches Y/N.
Ethan: What do you need?
Y/N pauses for a second and sighs. As they talk, Luther tries to mimic the tricks that Ethan did when misleading Franz.
Y/N: You trust her, right? Claire, I mean.
Ethan raises an eyebrow.
Ethan: Of course I do. With my life. Why? Don't you? You've known her for a while. We both have.
Y/N: Yeah, but I just have a weird feeling.
Ethan tilts his head slightly.
Ethan: What kind of feeling?
Y/N shrugs.
Y/N: It's just... a feeling I've got. Like there's something bigger going on.
But I don't know what.
Ethan: Well, can you TRY to explain?
Y/N opens his mouth, but their conversation is interrupted by Claire.
Claire: Ethan, I need to talk to you.
They look at Claire, then back at each other.
Ethan: We can talk about it later.
Y/N nods.
Y/N: Sure thing.
Ethan nods back and walks away, joining Claire in the other room. There is a news broadcast playing on the TV.
Male News Anchor: The unlikely setting, a farm in the heartland of North America, the state of Wisconsin, where federal agents claim to have found the brains behind an international drugs ring. The operation was masterminded by Margaret Ethan Hunt and her brother-in-law, Donald Hunt. They were arrested this morning by drug enforcement officers in a major sting operation designed to expose the illegal manufacture of the drug methcathinone, known as khat.
Ethan watches in disbelief.
Male Officer: I'm afraid what we have here is a case of a naïve and lonely widower...
Ethan: Kittridge.
Ethan is seen walking away from the safe house towards Liverpool Street Station. Claire watches him from the window. Inside the station, Ethan goes into a phone booth and dials a number. Kittridge picks up.
Kittridge: Kittridge.
Ethan: I see you've been out visiting the folks.
Kittridge covers the phone.
Kittridge: It's Hunt. What do you need for a pinpoint? (On phone, stalling) You've been watching a little TV, have you?
Ethan: Hauling Mom off to jail in shackles was an especially nice touch.
Agent: He's in England.
Kittridge: (Covering phone) Get MI5. (On phone) Ethan, I wanna assure you that my first order of business after you come in is to have these ridiculous charges against your family dropped and eliminated completely from their files. Look, if you, uh, if you come in now, we can plea down the charges against you as well.
Ethan: Can I ask you something, Kittridge?
Kittridge: Certainly, Ethan.
Ethan: If you're dealing with someone who's crushed, stabbed, shot, and detonated five members of his own IMF team, how devastated do you think you're gonna make him by marching Ma and Uncle Donald down to the county courthouse?
Kittridge: I don't know, Ethan. Why don't you tell me?
Ethan looks at the clock in the station and waits until it's at 23:10:27, or 11:10 PM. He pushes the phone receiver, hanging up the call.
Barnes: Lost him. We needed three more seconds.
Kittridge: He wanted us to know he was in London.
A man at another phone booth turns to Ethan, showing himself to be Jim. He's alive. He steps out of the booth and steps into Ethan's.
Jim: You're a hard man to catch up with.
He starts coughing and Ethan grabs his shoulders. Ethan is in complete shock that Jim's still alive. Some time later, the two sit in another room.
Jim: Next day, I managed to drag myself back to the safe house. I must have just missed you. Anyway, I checked our aliases.
Ethan: And that's when you picked us up in the States.
Jim: But you left before I could get there, and I could check just so many places.
Ethan: Smaller countries don't computerize customs records.
Jim: So I watched Europe. Once you turned up in England, it was easy.
He smirks and Ethan returns it.
Ethan: You knew I liked the rentals at Liverpool Street.
Jim: Hey, I showed 'em to you.
Ethan laughs silently.
Ethan: I remember.
Jim starts coughing again.
Ethan stands up and reaches for him.
Ethan: Jim, look, who do you think you're kidding here? A doctor's gotta look at that. You can't sit up straight.
Jim: I CAN sit up straight. I just can't sit up straight very well. Sit down, sit down, it's not important.
Ethan sits back down.
Jim: Ethan... I saw who shot me. I saw the mole. It was Kittridge.
Ethan: Kittridge.
Jim: Kittridge, Ethan.
He chuckles. Ethan stares off into space.
Ethan: Kittridge is the mole. My God, of course, you're right.
Jim pops a couple pills in his mouth
Ethan: He was at the embassy that night.
Jim takes a drink of water.
Ethan: First, he took out Jack at the elevator.
A flashback shows that it was Jim who rigged the elevator from the computer and caused Jack's death. Jim shakes his head clicks his tongue.
Ethan: He shot you on the bridge.
Another flashback shows that Jim also faked him getting shot and covering his hands with fake blood.
Ethan: He must've had backup take out Golitsyn and Sarah at the fence.
Another one shows that the knife that Franz was the one who killed Golitsyn and Sarah with the same knife he had at the CIA heist.
Ethan: How did he do Hannah?
Another shows Hannah getting inside the car and Claire using a remote detonator to blow it up.
Ethan: No, no, he could've done Hannah himself.
Jim sighs. One more shows Jim crawling out of the river he fell in. Ethan looks up at him.
Ethan: Why, Jim? Why?
Jim: When you think about it, Ethan, it was inevitable. No more cold war.
He chuckles.
Jim: No more secrets you keep from everyone but yourself. Operations, you answer to no one but yourself. And then, one day, you wake up, the President of the United States is running the country without your permission. The son of a bitch, how dare he? Then you realize it's over. You're an obsolete piece of hardware not worth upgrading, you've got a lousy marriage and 62 grand a year. Kittridge. We'll go after the no-good son of a bitch big time.
Ethan looks at him and leans back in his seat.
Ethan: We won't have to. He'll come after us.
Jim: What's gonna make him do that?
Ethan: What he didn't get in Prague. The NOC list.
Jim: Whoa. Jesus, Ethan. Good for you.
Jim whistles.
Ethan: I'm meeting him tomorrow on the TGV en route to Paris.
Ethan takes a drink from a mug.
Jim: Tight security, no guns. A real plus.
Ethan: If I supposedly deliver the NOC list to Max, Max has agreed to deliver Job to me. I'll have Claire, Y/N, and Luther Stickell with me on the train, Krieger is gonna have helicopter transport waiting in Paris.
Jim looks off into the station.
Ethan: Jim?
Jim looks back at him.
Jim: I was in a cafe waiting for you, Ethan. And there she was, standing in the rain, alive and beautiful, thinking I'm dead and gone. God knows what she's had to do to forget me, to keep going, get the job done.
He sighs.
Jim: She can't know about me, Ethan. No one can. Not until this is over.
Ethan: You're probably right.
Jim: There's too much at stake.
Ethan: Once we leave the safe house, Jim, you get in there and crash. I'll call you from Paris.
Jim: You got it.
Back in the safe house, Ethan finally sends Max the message, which reads, "Max, with rulers who had gold, who filled their houses with silver... Meet on TGV, noon tomorrow. Take seat 27. Bring our mutual friend Job." Claire sits in a corner of a room and Ethan steps inside, closing the door behind him.
Claire: What happened?
Ethan shakes his head.
Ethan: I sent the message to Max.
He steps closer to her.
Ethan: We're on for tomorrow.
Claire stays silent for a moment.
Claire: Okay.
She holds her hand out to him and beckons him to come closer.
Claire: Come here.
He slowly gets closer to her, taking her hand. She pulls his hand to her face and starts nuzzling into it with her eyes closed.