The Equalizer Season 5 Episode 3, “Just Fans,” starts rocky when we see a woman chained to the floor being dressed by another woman. As the episode progresses, we discover what’s going on, but at first, it’s startling to watch this scene. Even though we know eventually Robyn (Queen Latifah) will save the day, we fear for that woman.
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For those of us who were afraid Robyn might have to work this case alone, Harry (Adam Goldberg) doesn’t disappoint. He joins her on the street and even goes undercover to help solve the case and bring Lily home.
The Equalizer, “Just Fans”
Robyn is approached by a woman who claims her friend Lily is missing. Lily left her daughter with her friend the day before and never returned for her. Even though, as a social worker, she works crazy hours, her friend guarantees Lily would never go away for that long without calling her daughter. However, she can’t go to the police because she is currently in the middle of a custody battle.
To get the case started, Harry tracks Lily’s phone, and they discover that it pings at a transitional home. Looking at the ex-husband, they can quickly tell he isn’t to blame. But they find a report from an altercation between Lily and an ex-con who lives in the transitional home the phone is pinging at.
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When they arrive at the transitional home, they discover Lily’s purse is still there, but her phone isn’t with it. To better understand what is going on, they talk to the man from the report. The only way they get answers out of him is by threatening him with going back to prison. All he can reveal is that Lily saw something that shook her up and ran out the backdoor.
Sadly, there are no security cameras near the backdoor, so nothing can help them see what happened the night before. But as they continue to look around, they discover shoe prints of someone being dragged away and tire tracks of where the car was waiting. That is the spot where they find Lily’s phone and discover a video she left saying someone was coming after her.
After discovering that video, Harry decides to look into Lily’s finances and discovers she has been earning a lot of extra money. Lily had recently started working for an adult subscription service and using a management company.
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Harry Goes Undercover
To get the information they need, Harry goes undercover at the management company and talks to the COO about potentially working with them. While another influencer is giving him a tour of the office, Harry finds Lily’s cubicle and creates a distraction to install the hacking system they need to access her phone. That is when he discovers a photo of Lily with another woman and a picture of her daughter with a threatening message.
Luckily for Robyn’s case, Harry is able to find a fingerprint left on the message. It belongs to Jake Marshall, who had an account on the website Lily used to post her photos and videos. Robyn decides to kidnap Marshall and get as much information from him as possible. However, this leads nowhere. All he can tell them is he threatened Lily because he was stealing another model’s followers, but he wasn’t near the area when she was taken.
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Robyn discovers a photo of a woman arguing with Lily and decides to pay her a visit. That is when she discovers that the woman in Lily’s photo is Sarah, who works for the same management company and has been missing for three months. Her mom isn’t much help as she has no information on Sarah’s whereabouts. She was more concerned with what her church friends had to say about Sarah’s photos than with her daughter’s disappearance.
As Harry looks into Sarah’s disappearance, he discovers her account is still being used for profits, so the management company’s COO becomes the main suspect. Looking into her finances, they discover she received two big payments around the time of both women’s disappearances.
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Robyn Saves the Day
As the case is coming to an end on The Equalizer, Harry visits the management company again and begins asking the COO questions about Lily and Sarah. At first, she refuses to answer, but she ends up talking when Harry threatens to call the DA. A fan paid her to give up the women’s real identities.
That is when we see Lily chained and Sarah telling her to do what he says. When the kidnapper is taking her to another room, Lily attacks him with her champagne glass and tries to run away, but he manages to capture her again.
Harry looks into the man’s DMs and discovers he told Lily and Sarah what he would do with them. By listening to Harry read the messages, Robyn realizes there must be a store selling the nails and hair he promised to give them. When they find the right store, Robyn can get the man’s name from them.
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Once again, we see Lily on the floor, but this time, she has bruises and blood on her face. As she tries to convince Sarah to run away with her, the man shows up again to hurt her. However, that is when Robyn shows up to save the day. She pushes the man into a fight that she eventually ends up winning.
As Robyn is helping Lily, Sarah picks up the gun and threatens to shoot them if Robyn doesn’t uncuff the man. Robyn appeals to Sarah by talking about her mom, dance, and her dreams. That is what makes Sarah put the gun down, allowing Lily to be reunited with her daughter.
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Aunt Vi’s New Love Interest
Aunt Vi (Lorraine Toussaint) and Evelyn (Michael Michele) attend an event at the police station. She quickly realizes that Evelyn wants to attend because she finds the captain attractive. When he approaches them, Evelyn claims to have made the scones, but Aunt Vi has to share the recipe with him.
As the PCA meeting progresses and people start asking questions, the captain mentions that “The Equalizer” has crossed a line and behaved like a vigilante. At that moment, Aunt Vi starts defending Robyn and her job, getting mad at the captain for calling her a criminal.
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When the meeting ends, Evelyn tells Aunt Vi that the captain couldn’t stop asking about her. He later approaches her, claiming he enjoyed their exchange of ideas because friction gets the conversation going. He also lets her know that he is aware she made the scones and uses this opportunity to flirt with her.
Later that night, when Aunt Vi tells Robyn and Delilah about this encounter, they ask him if she finds the captain cute. When Aunt Vi tries to talk about Dante and how Robyn feels, her niece tells her she should go after the captain and not wait until it’s too late.
Mel Goes to Therapy
After their yoga session, Mel (Liza Lapira) and Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes) talk about therapy. While Dee mentions how much it has helped her, Mel talks about how scared she is to go. That is when Delilah encourages her to go because it might help her the way finding yoga has helped Dee.
Later, we see Mel during a therapy session, and it is clear that she is very uncomfortable. She becomes defensive while talking about her life and what is going on. Even though she recognizes therapy might not be for everyone, the therapist recommends Mel tries an artistic expression to deal with her trauma.
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As she starts setting up for the open mic, Mel begins to work on writing a song. When Harry approaches her at the open mic, she hides the song from him. However, she tells him that she is working on something and will grab the mic on the night she is ready. That is when he surprises her by singing a song about her.
Dante Makes a Choice
As always, we see Dante (Tory Kittles) working in Los Angeles. This time, he is on FaceTime with his son, talking about them moving to LA soon, but his son is not too happy about it. Before they can discuss it further, he gets interrupted by his coworker with a new case. The same coworker points out that raising kids on the job they have can be hard.
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Because he knows she will understand, Dante calls Robyn to ask about her perspective. All Robyn can do is share her experience with Delilah and hope her advice helps him. It clearly does because when we see him again after the case, he tells his son that he has decided they won’t move to LA for now but that he will visit them soon.
The Equalizer airs on Sundays on CBS.
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