We’re getting closer to learning Alice’s dark past in ‘The Catch.’ Hopefully.

For a couple of episodes now, there have been subtle hints that Alice Vaughan (Mireille Enos) is not the good girl we think her to be. She apparently has some sort of checkered past buried deep somewhere, and we’re just wondering when it will finally come out. Tonight’s episode, “A Family Way” (Mar. 30), took one baby step closer to that hopefully juicy reveal.

We jump back into the same night we left off on last week, with Alice and Ben (Peter Krause) pointing guns at each other, struggling for the Cartel’s $3 million. Alice wants it to give back to the Cartel to get them off Tommy’s (T.R. Knight) back, and Ben wants it so Rhys (John Simm) doesn’t die of blowfish poisoning after being stabbed by Jesse and his henchwoman — heads of the Japanese smuggling ring they’re trying to take down for the FBI. In compromise, Alice comes up with the idea to borrow an extra $3mil from Margo (Sonya Walger), which leads to Margo and Ben’s first encounter since their split. It’s a fiery treaty, to say the least.

But it works. Ben and Rhys get the money, and are back in the good graces of the teen smugglers. And now that they have their confidence, Ben and Rhys get to work on their Hijinks of the Week: Pitting the two youths against each other to provoke them into handling the diamonds personally. The FBI can step in and catch them red-handed, avoiding the international incident that a blanket accusation would provoke.

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

Alice’s plan to keep Tommy safe, meanwhile, has backfired a little: Thinking she’d get the Assistant D.A. to arrest Tommy and just keep him in a holding cell for a while, Alice’s gambit actually ends with Tommy being charged for the double murder of the Parkers, since there was just too much evidence to think otherwise. Understandably freaked, Tommy manages to escape police custody by calling on the mysterious Ethan… Presumably, a long lost lover of Alice’s.

Enter Alice’s sketchy past. At the very mention of Ethan, Alice practically dry heaves and immediately changes the subject. Who is this dude, and what happened between them? Both Tommy and Val (Rose Rollins) seem to know he’s a sore spot for her, but we know scant else. Except that when he does someone a favor, he expects something in return. OMINOUS!

But since they’re already dealing in the Dark Ethan Arts, thanks to Tommy’s bail, Alice hatches yet another plan to get him clear of the Cartel. Ethan apparently has connections at the SEC, and calls on them to freeze all the shell companies and assets in the Cartel’s name. This forces their Los Angeles kingpin to choose between letting Tommy go — or having whoever’s actually in charge of the Cartel come after him.

He makes the smart choice.

Now actually in the clear, Tommy is 100% ready to split. He snags the money from Alice’s desk and is about to cross through security to his flight to freedom, when Alice shows up with a final plea: Stay and work for Alice, and become a good person, or never contact her again. For anything. Tommy makes a less smart decision.

Claiming he knows who he is and can never change, Alice reminds Tommy that she wasn’t always good, but look at her now. Yet another hint at the Alice we have yet to meet — what is this sketchy past we keep hearing about?!

RELATED: There’s never a bad time for a Cookie Lyons wardrobe retrospective

Back at AVI, the squad has tracked down the mystery woman in the red hat to a swank hotel, where they find she’s been tracking just about everyone in the office, “Homeland” style… But particularly Margo. Realizing all her clues are going to soon lead her a Kensington Firm safe house inside the rectory of an old church, the squad decide to cut her off at the pass.

Catching the mystery woman in the act, the squad force her to reveal her actual identity. In a very Miranda Priestly move, the woman pulls off her large sunglasses and lets down her pony tail, snarling at Margo with a very menacing response that immediately feels just right:

“I suppose it has been a long time. But don’t you recognize me… Mother?”

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

Source link