I went back and watched the entire sting sequence, along with the earlier briefing scene, seeing as, like y'all, it was confusing as hell and the whole thing was bugging the heck out me. I realize a lot of this has already been touched on, but just so it's crystal clear, here's exactly what went down…

- Toward the beginning of the episode, during the sting operation briefing, Aleah holds up, in a plastic evidence bag, Ray Lyman's "confiscated burner phone" (which indeed looks to be the same black/standard/touchscreen phone we saw during Lyman's interrogation last episode). She then explains to twenty+ agents that "Cliff believes he's been communicating with Lyman about the meetup." Grasso then follows with: "When Cliff enters the park, I'll send him a message instructing him to approach the picnic area. Once he's outside his vehicle half the team will take the target and bravo will hit the car."

- That night, as the team is in position for the sting, as the first white car approaches, Grasso texts "Is this you?" from what looks to be the same black/standard/touchscreen phone shown during the briefing. While there is no receiving phone number/contact shown on the screen (it only says "AT&T Mobility Service" at the top), Grasso definitely hits send on the text, and we see that the text registers as sent. From there, Grasso is adamant that the team should take the car, then he expresses what feels like legit exasperation at Brandis' hesitation. To that end, it appears as though Grasso believes he's texting Cliff, and seems genuinely perturbed that they're not acting fast enough to take him. In other words, there is zero indication that Grasso is a mole in on the ruse, at least as presented to the audience.

- After the task force realizes they took the wrong car, we cut to Cliff driving, obviously not at the park. He looks to his flip phone where he has typed "here" to a contact that clearly says "Ray" at the top of the screen. He then sends the text and "here" registers as sent on his screen. It is at this point that we cut to Jayson in the truck, who is revealed to be holding Lyman's ACTUAL phone. This is obvious because of A) Cliff's "here" text popping up, thus obviously confirming that Jayson is holding/using Lyman's real phone, and B) the Philadelphia Flyers logo on the home screen we saw last episode (it's unclear whether the Philadelphia Flyers logo exists on the home screen of the decoy phone Grasso was holding not one minute earlier, but the model/shape looks to be the exact same).


What all of this means/implies:

- Lyman's phone was stolen from evidence/the task force at some point between the morning briefing and the sting that night, and a decoy was left in its place. Seeing as Cliff never received Grasso's "Is this you?" text, the decoy phone obviously didn't send from Lyman's number, nor was Cliff's number the contact Grasso was texting. IMO, this leaves two options: 1) Grasso never double checked the decoy numbers planted by the mole in the decoy phone (and why would he if he didn't suspect anything?), or 2) Grasso switched out the phones himself, but then knowingly/performatively went through the motion of sending a text from a fake Lyman phone to a number that wasn't Cliff's. Personally, I'm leaning toward the first option, seeing as Grasso likely wouldn't have even sent a text if he was in on the ruse, nor would he have seemed so genuinely perturbed when Brandis hesitated to take the first car.

- Regardless, whoever stole Lyman's real phone from evidence gave the phone to Jayson who, at some point between the morning briefing and the sting itself, posing as Ray via text, changed the location of the drug deal with Cliff, from the park to the designated side-of-the-road spot.

- Watching all of this again, I think it's clear that McGinty is in on all of this. At first I thought she might be a red herring/audience fakeout, but she simply looks way too suspicious throughout the sting sequence, never mind the "It's me. We have a problem" call we see her make earlier in the episode. IMO, the only question is, is she acting alone or is there a second mole within Brandis' immediate task force who's helping her? If the latter, at this point I would all but rule out Grasso and instead suspect either Lizzie or Aleah.

I'm guessing there is a second mole working with her. Just seems way too heavy handed to keep hinting it's her unless they aren't interested in a big reveal/plot twist later. Great breakdown though.

SoTxAg said:

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So Mcginty is the mole but do you think she is in it for individual gain like money, meaning helping bad guys because she is getting paid, or is she doing it for some larger law enforcement purpose, like trying to bust the whole motorcycle gang in a larger ongoing investigation?

Trying to figure out the reason she picked ruffalos character to run the task force, knowing he's distracted and probably wouldn't do a great job. Not sure which of the above scenarios fits that rationale the best.

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Yeah, it's so hard to say at this point.

In episode one, the first time we met her, McGinty *did* express frustration to Brandis at being forced out of her position or forced into retirement or something. I can't remember the exact details, but either way she might have a vendetta against the bureau for forcing her out? Granted, that seems a little too petty/overboard on her part, like, "Oh, yeah, then I'm going to join forces with the Dark Hearts! That'll show you!" Still, when a character gives news like that the very first time we meet them, I feel like it's going to come back into play at some point.

So maybe she does need in the money in that regard?

Or maybe the Dark Hearts simply have something on her and she's been compromised?

Regardless, yeah, I definitely think she picked Brandis knowing he's distracted and wouldn't do a great job. There was also the scene this episode where Brandis asked Grasso who he interviewed with for the task position and while Grasso didn't remember her name he seemed to be describing McGinty. Meaning, if so, she assembled the entire team to her own advantage, increasing the chances of one of them helping her/being co-mole.

So the adopted black teenage daughter is a mole for the racist biker gang? Just making sure I understood you correctly.