The Equalizer Season 5 Episode 14, “The Grave Digger,” starts with Robyn (Queen Latifah) and Melody (Liza Lapira) running around in a field while Harry (Adam Goldberg) tries to guide them with the security cameras. They come across the Grave Digger’s van but don’t see him around. Robyn finds a grave that’s already been dug, and when she opens it, she sees a woman inside.
The suspect comes over and hits Robyn with a shovel, but she manages to kick him down and rescue the girl. The man says that even though he is going to prison, he will make Robyn suffer.
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The Equalizer, “The Grave Digger”
A year later, Dante (Tory Kittles) walks into a crime scene because they found a woman who was buried alive following the Grave Digger’s MO. Dante notices that she has the same mark on the back of her shoulder that all the other victims had, so he believes there is a copycat who chose the year anniversary of the arrest to celebrate.
Later that day, Dante meets with Robyn, Mel and Harry to tell them about the copycat and everything he found in the grave. He also tells them he visited the original killer, and he tells her he knows who the copycat is but will only tell Robyn about it. They visit the prison and meet with the Grave Digger’s psychiatrist. Robyn pretends to be a criminologist working with the NYPD.
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The psychiatrist mentions he has been working with the inmate since he arrived, but he never mentioned the copycat and hasn’t had outside contact.
Robyn and the Grave Digger meet, and he claims that all he was trying to do to the victims was purify their souls. He rambles about rituals, names and pain to say he was redeeming the women he killed. When Robyn tries to walk away because she thinks he is wasting her time, he mentions the last victim’s name and her cats. He claims he is the one who picked the victim and told the copycat to do it. The Grave Digger also claims he has picked out his next victim, and his goal is to consume Robyn’s existence because she won’t be able to stop him.
A Custodian With Notes
Mel arrives at the prison to help Dante and Robyn, while Harry looks into the Grave Digger’s life to find who the acolyte could be. Robyn returns to the interrogation room to talk to him and tries to get under his skin to reveal information. When she states the acolyte has all the power, he gets angry.
Mel and Dante talk to the psychiatrist and accuse him of being the one passing notes or even committing the killings. He defends himself by stating he is writing a Grave Digger biography. Harry verifies this information, so he is no longer a suspect. He does tell them about the custodian cleaning the cell and possibly leaving notes.
Dante and Mel find the custodian and catch him after he tries to run off. He tells them that one day, he received a phone call about making money on the side. When he agreed, they told him where to find the notes and the money. He tried to read the notes, but he found they were only random numbers. They now believe they are communicating through an alphanumeric code.
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The Real Killer
Robyn lets the Grave Digger know that they have the custodian so that he won’t receive any more notes. That is when he says that the acolyte will continue his own work without him, and Robyn realizes they made a mistake. The inmate receives the orders because he is actually the acolyte, and the real Grave Digger is still outside.
A woman walks out of her diner shift to find a flat tire. A man walks behind her and says he can help her because he has the tools in his van.
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The team tries to figure out where the acolyte and the Grave Digger met, so they look at the acolyte’s professional experience. They discover, at some point, that he worked as a gardener for a rich family. When they look into the family, they find out the mother was almost killed by her son, and she looks a lot like the victims. Charles Winston now works as a Medical Examiner Assistant, and Dante realizes he saw him at the crime scene that morning.
Their theory is that Charles tried to kill his mother and has been trying to recreate that with every victim. They also discover he has a warehouse, so they decide to check it out. Dante and Robyn find Charles while Mel looks around the warehouse. He tells them they are too late because the newest victim has already had her soul redeemed.
A Game of Chess
Robyn talks to Charles, trying to get under his skin. He compares their interactions to a chess game. To get him to cooperate, Robyn tells him he has five minutes to ask her anything he wants. In return, he tells her she can ask questions as well. The first thing Charles mentions is that he knows Robyn is the vigilante, so they have more in common than she thinks because she also kills people.
When Robyn tells him they know he tried to kill his mother and continues to do it with every victim, he says she got it all wrong. Instead, he wants to talk about why she is the vigilante. She tells him it’s because she carries the guilt over a family who helped her overseas being killed. Charles doesn’t believe her, and he gets mad at her.
Dante and Mel visit Charles’s mom and mention that he is the Grave Digger. Even though she doesn’t believe them, she ends up letting them take a look at his room. They discover it’s still decorated as if he was a child.
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A Stargazing Truth
Harry tells Robyn there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with Charles’s past. She decides to shut off the communication and tell Charles the truth about why she became a vigilante. Robyn tells him she truly was in a dangerous country, but she was on a mission with her partner. When the mission went south, she had to choose between her partner and completing the mission. She decided to complete the mission.
Charles gets mad that Robyn left her partner, and she realizes that is his trigger. Robyn asks Harry to look into the maid, whom Charles considers to be his mother, and he discovers she has returned to El Salvador. Dante and Mel ask the mother about her, and she tells them she fired her because she was taking Charles out at all times of the night to stargaze. That is why he attacked his mother when he was a teenager.
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They start looking into popular stargazing parks and discover those are the places where he had buried his victims. Dante and Mel find the closest one to the warehouse, and they are able to dig up the latest victim, who is luckily still alive.
The Grave Digger is arrested, but before he goes, he tries to get under Robyn’s skin one last time. When Dante asks about it, Robyn tells him it’s just a story she made up to get him to talk, but it seems she is now lying to Dante.
Dee Goes Partying
Earlier that morning, Dee (Laya DeLeon Hayes) tells her mom she will be meeting Cam for dinner and then going to a Peer Ear meeting. However, when she is out with Cam, they run into Tyrese, who mentions there is a party that night. Dee decides to skip the meeting and go to the party with them instead.
When the three of them arrive at the party, Tyrese’s friend meets them outside with drinks. While the boys refuse the drinks, Dee says she wants one. Later, Cam walks a very drunk Dee home. Aunt Vi (Lorraine Toussaint) meets them at the door and thanks Cam for bringing her home safely.
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Aunt Vi tells Dee she is acting out of character and wonders what’s going on with her. Dee tells her that maybe this is her new character because she no longer wants to be dull. She has done everything the way she is supposed to, but one mistake erased all of that. Her aunt tells her she can choose to be a victim or own up to her mistakes because that’s what being an adult is. She also tells her she will have to tell Robyn she got drunk.
The Equalizer airs on Sundays on CBS.
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