Ben & Rhys are pretty smooth operators in episode 3 of ‘The Catch’

If there is a major takeaway from “The Catch” at this point in the season, it’s that we should probably be getting into the P.I. business, because it looks like it’s all fun romps and hijinks while spending other people’s money.

Watching Ben (Peter Krause) and Rhys (John Simm) sit around scheming up cons for the FBI whilst sipping cocktails and wearing fancy suits makes the hoodie we’ve been wearing for the past 7 days suddenly seem… gross.

But anyway, the con du jour in Thursday’s episode, “The Dining Hall” (Mar. 23), is a fancy dinner party to help draw out the smuggler of the diamonds found in the fish belly last week. Thanks to Rhys’ “Wellsian” camera placement in the sushi restaurant, it appears that the Japanese Consulate to the U.S. is in on the illegal racket, so treading lightly is now key for the FBI, lest they set off an international incident. It’s time to go rogue!

RELATED: Episode two of ‘The Catch’: Mystery assassins and life-changing sushi

The fancy party is meant to draw the Consulate to their house, curry her favor, win over the smuggling job now vacant by the missing sushi chef, and then catch her doing something slippery so they can bust her. Easy stuff for our dashing professionals. And in order to get the Consulate over without suspicion, they target her party-hopping son who is a man about town in L.A. To entice him, they have to invite everyone but him via an exclusive e-vite, forcing him to show up and essentially pull the “My mom is in the government, can I come play?!” card.

Meanwhile, still nervous about her brother Tommy’s (T.R. Knight) connection to the drug cartel, Alice (Mireille Enos) tells Tommy she’s going to call a friend at the FBI to help her out in keeping him safe, ostensibly to put him under protection so no one can get to him. This freaks Tommy out because, as it turns out, he’s actually been working with the Cartel as a delivery guy, and intentionally took the $3 million from his now dead “friends” the Parkers. As soon as Tommy hears the letters F.B.I. he splits, thanks to his new buddy Rhys.

It just so happens that Rhys is an expert at helping people disappear, and this is exactly what Tommy needs to do. Against his better judgement, Rhys agrees to get Tommy the necessary documents for his new life in Latvia (naturally), charging him the “Friends and Family” rate because, well, friendship!

And, because she’s now occupied by this new turn of events with Tommy, Alice sends our arguing lovers Danny (Jay Hayden) and Sophie (Elvy Yost) to deal with Margo (Sonya Walger) and the next step in her caper with The Hammer (Ismael Cruz Cordova) and whoever wants her dead. Margo is disappointed to see the “B” team instead of Alice herself, but makes do nonetheless. If they can figure out how to trace the payments The Hammer has been receiving for his mission to kill Margo, they might be able to figure out whodunnit. The payments are, of course, untraceable. Hacker Sophie to the rescue!

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Impressed with Sophie’s ability to at least track down the payments origins – a bank in downtown L.A. – but unimpressed with Danny’s surveillance skills, Margo takes matters into her own hands, using Danny and a briefcase full of smoke bombs as a decoy inside the bank to crack into the camera system. Sometimes the oldest tricks in the book are the best ones. Now able to see everyone who comes in to make a deposit, Margo takes everyone to lunch… except Danny.

Now, back to the dinner party! As things heat up, the Consulate proceeds to get a little tipsy, and a whole lot handsy with Rhys (again, not a bad job!) before he and Ben decide it’s time to make their move — presenting her with the poisonous and super illegal blowfish the missing sushi chef used to provide, proving they can smuggle anything into anywhere. But, twist, the kingpin isn’t in fact the Consulate but the Consulate’s party-hopping son! After shoving his drunk mom in a car home, the son comes back to talk business.

Having cleared out the room, it’s now just Ben, Rhys, the Consulate’s Son and his very “Kill Bill”-reminiscent henchwoman. The Consulate’s Son is willing to discuss Ben and Rhys taking over the sushi chef’s duties, but needs to make up for $2 million in lost business since the went missing. Rhys offers up $3 million — the $3 million he happened to scam off Tommy while he was busy looking over his new identity.

“Old habits,” he winks to Ben (Excuse us while we go learn to be this charming). While outside grabbing the cash from Rhys’ car, Ben stumbles on Alice (surprise!) doing the same thing, having found Tommy and gotten the hot tip on where the cash was. Guns drawn, we leave the two covert lovers — and this episode — with a classic stand-off.

Ben and Alice aren’t going to shoot each other, right?

“The Catch” airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

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