The faculty council of V.I.L.E. are being briefed by Dr. Bellum at V.I.L.E. headquarters on former Interpol inspector-turned-A.C.M.E. Agent Chase Devineaux, using the information gathered from Dr. Bellum's decryption of his access card. The faculty connects Chase's former assignment at Interpol's offices in Poitiers, France to Carmen Sandiego's heist of Countess Cleo's residence six months prior, the same amount of time that has passed since Chase was mysteriously pulled from all known Interpol operations. Coach Brunt and Countess Cleo point out other times where Chase has been involved in their affairs that also saw the involvement of Carmen Sandiego, which draws a line between Chase and Carmen. Rationalizing that Chase must be working with Carmen to disrupt V.I.L.E., the faculty plots to capture Agent Devineaux in order to flush out Carmen. Not treating the situation as a mere V.I.L.E. mission, Shadow-san offers himself as the operative for the capture.
Meanwhile, at a secret location, Chase and fellow agent Julia Argent are being addressed via holographic transmission by A.C.M.E.'s chief. The Chief is coming down hard on Chase for his recent bumbles as an A.C.M.E. operative, driving two agency-issued vehicles into the water and losing his ID card in the line of duty. The Chief issues both Julia and Chase A.C.M.E.-tailored suits while also praising Julia on her work securing the Magna Carta from the heist in India. Julia modestly turns down all the credit for the successful retrieval but Chase storms out of the room, revealing they're in the Interpol car park at Poitiers. Chase grumpily accuses Julia of being helped by Carmen which finally prompts Julia to stand up to Chase and state her mind about Carmen's real intentions. Despite Julia getting fed up with Chase's extreme focus on Carmen Sandiego in light of the possibility she has been working against V.I.L.E., Chase still suspects Carmen is up to something and is dead-set on finding out what it is.
Elsewhere, Carmen is sitting on a serene beach, looking out over the water. However she pesters her friend and hacker Player to give her a new objective, saying she's not the type to just idly relax. Player informs her that the hard drive she stole from V.I.L.E.'s headquarters containing intel on potential targets has been combed through and that to continue disrupting the organization, they would need to acquire another such drive. Carmen, however, has no interest in returning to her childhood home. Back at said home, Shadow-san is preparing to depart when Coach Brunt steps in and says she'll take to the field to put down Carmen Sandiego. Shadow-san objects on the basis of Brunt's favoritism towards Carmen as a child but Brunt vows that she is past all her sentimentality and will do whatever necessary to finish Carmen once and for all. The faculty votes to send both instructors to handle the situation.
That night, Chase is in his apartment reflecting on his earlier argument with Julia and starting to feel remorseful for being so unfair to her. As he brushes his teeth, a strange drowsiness sets in before he passes out entirely, the toothpaste he was using being laced with a sedative. After he faints, V.I.L.E.'s "Cleaners" enter the room and kidnap the unconscious agent. Back at the beach, Carmen is finally starting to enjoy her vacation when Player tells her that a message he uncovered on the dark web is calling her out. The message is a ransom demand that she show herself in order to save Chase. Both Player and Carmen agree that the entire setup is a trick to trap her but Carmen commits to saving Chase anyway.
Chase regains consciousness being handcuffed to a chair. Coach Brunt and Shadowsan are standing before him and are mistaken by Chase to be with A.C.M.E. They interrogate him about the organization he works for and any affiliation he might have with Carmen Sandiego. Realizing he's being questioned by V.I.L.E., Chase turns it around and tries to claim Carmen is working with them but Coach Brunt fits him with a device that will forcibly extract anything he knows. Just outside the window, a floating drone is filming the scene inside and relaying it back to Carmen's crew members Ivy and Zack, who are helping Carmen plan her infiltration to save Chase. Chase tries to distract himself to avoid telling V.I.L.E. anything critical but Coach Brunt warns him that their device will permanently destroy his mind if he doesn't comply quickly.
Unfortunately Chase is unsuccessful in staving off the effects of the device and begins divulging A.C.M.E.'s purpose and function as an information-gathering network targeting a group he refers to as "BILE". Ivy's drone deliberately alerts Brunt and Shadowsan to Carmen's presence, which sees Shadowsan go out alone to deal with the matter and leaves Coach Brunt by herself with Chase. However Brunt doesn't like taking orders from Shadowsan and goes out herself, spotting Carmen as she walks the city streets. However in reality the "Carmens" that Shadowsan and Brunt are chasing are the siblings wearing wigs and Carmen's usual red accessories to act as decoys. Brunt catches Zack but immediately realizes she's been had and rushes back to the building where Chase is being held.
Meanwhile, the real Carmen has managed to enter the building successfully and releases Chase from the effects of the truth device. Chase, exhausted from trying to resist the effects of the device, collapses but manages to activate his holographic pen communicator before passing out, giving the Chief her first real glimpse of Carmen Sandiego. Not wanting to be seen, Carmen destroys the communicator but the Chief immediately contacts Julia to let her know that Chase is down and that she has dispatched the authorities to his location.
As Carmen tries to get Chase out of the building, a familiar Texan voice is heard. Coach Brunt corners Carmen and traps her inside the room, using her brute strength to seal the lock on the door. Carmen is unfazed and attempts a getaway but is unsuccessful in evading Brunt's gargantuan strength and is forced into a fight. The fight is hopelessly one-sided, despite Carmen's effective use of agility and gadgetry to try to evade Brunt's overwhelming force, and Brunt manages to separate Carmen from all her gadgets and renders her defenseless. Coach Brunt offers Carmen one last chance to repent and rejoin V.I.L.E. but Carmen remains defiant, forcing Brunt to try and shatter Carmen's spine with a tight bear hug.
Just when things seem darkest, however, an unlikely ally comes to Carmen's rescue and neutralizes Coach Brunt: Shadowsan. He knocks her unconscious with a nerve hold but Carmen refuses to go along with Shadowsan any more than she was willing to with Coach Brunt. He unsheathes his sword and lunges at Carmen but instead of striking a fatal blow, he simply destroys the lock preventing access to the floor grate. He orders Carmen to follow him into the grate. Carmen is highly skeptical of his intentions but Shadowsan reassures her that he is not here to do her harm and that he wants her to escape from capture by the police. Carmen comes to an epiphany by talking with Shadowsan: he was the one who originally rescued her as a baby and has been looking out for her all her life, hence why he was coming to her aid now.
The police arrive on scene as Coach Brunt regains consciousness and she sees that Shadowsan and Carmen are gone. Taking the V.I.L.E. truth extractor, Brunt escapes into the sewer system below the building and calls into the Cleaners for pickup, learning that Shadowsan was not with them. Across the rooftops of Poitiers, Shadowsan and a wounded Carmen manage to evade the perimeter and are given a chance to rest. Carmen demands to know from Shadowsan what he has to say about how she was found in Argentina and why he treated her so harshly in the academy.
Shadowsan has nothing more to add about her origins, saying she was simply an abandoned orphan that he happened upon in Buenos Aires. He explains that he was torn between his duty as a V.I.L.E. instructor and someone who wanted to see Carmen live a life away from the work that they did. So he rigged the final exam against Carmen to prevent her from passing and being forced to either accept her role as a V.I.L.E. operative and all it came with or face the consequences, vindicating Carmen's theory about why she failed. The mission he sent Tigress on in San Francisco was his way of letting Carmen prove to herself and Tigress that she was always the superior pickpocket from their class.
Shadowsan tells her on the night of her escape from V.I.L.E. island, his attempt to run to the docks where the boat was departing was not with the intention of capturing or eliminating Carmen but to try and escape with her. He had his weapon out in order to appear as though he was pursuing Carmen but Carmen, interpreting it as a threatening gesture, pulled away from the dock before he could make it to the boat. Shadowsan also reveals that he was the reason the Cleaners' helicopter was sabotaged, preventing any air support. Shadowsan was relieved when Carmen took it upon herself to leave V.I.L.E. but was surprised to find when she reemerged, she had become their antithesis dedicated to ending their machinations, putting Shadowsan in a compromising position.
Back at the crime scene, Julia is watching the situation unfold from a nearby alleyway and conversing with the Chief, updating her on Chase's condition. The Chief is certain that whatever happened to Chase, Carmen Sandiego must have been the one who subjected him to it. She theorizes that Carmen stole the ID card from Chase in order to lure him to the building and, having seen Carmen standing over the unconscious Chase, deduces that she is the one who interrogated Chase. She is adamant that Carmen is not going to get away with such a heinous act against one of their own.
Player expresses his confusion to Carmen over the events that transpired, reminding her that her original mission was to rescue a dogged investigator who has the wrong impression of her and made her escape with the help of her least favorite V.I.L.E. instructor. Carmen remarks that she wants to learn more from Shadowsan but when she looks behind to where he was standing, he was already gone. However, as a parting gift, Shadowsan drops a new V.I.L.E. hard drive, giving the team a new start for future jobs.
Tropes
- And the Adventure Continues: Before vanishing into the night, Shadowsan drops off a new V.I.L.E. intel hard drive, allowing Carmen and company new opportunities to mess with V.I.L.E. in the coming year.
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant:
- Shadowsan intends to use the fear that Carmen has joined with a police detective, and possible secret government agency, to invoke this trope and justify his excursion to investigate and probably join her.
- However, Coach Brunt supports the concern he shows and joins him in taking the fight to Carmen and her supposed ally.
- Body Double: Carmen uses the fact that her outfit is very distinctive and has Zack and Ivy wear copies. When Brunt and Shadowsan coming looking for Carmen after she announces herself to them, they both run off in different directions, allowing Carmen to try and free Chase.
- Brick Joke: Carmen again accuses Shadow-san of his coat being empty for her final initiation test. Shadowsan finally admits that it's true.Carmen: I knew it!
- The Cavalry: Chief calls in the local police to where she tracks Chase's pen to so he can be rescued and hopefully apprehend the criminals behind it. They only succeed in the former.
- Defiant to the End: Carmen does this twice:
- When Coach Brunt offers her an olive branch to return to the V.I.L.E. Island or continue being devastated, Carmen stares her surrogate mother in the face and refuses.
- Once Shadowsan stops Brunt's Bear Hug, Carmen presumes the same threat from Shadowsan and still refuses to relent. Shadowsan simply states he has no intention of taking her back to V.I.L.E. Island.
- Determinator: Chase continues to show this as one of his defining traits. When he has a memory scrambler helmet on his head, all he does is scream sing the French national anthem to defy V.I.L.E the chance of learning his secrets. He lasts for several hours and only just breaking a little when Carmen's team arrives.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Shadowsan is one of the five heads of V.I.L.E but he couldn't bear to just abandon Carmen and, later, let her become a heartless thief.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: Coach Brunt attempts to kill Carmen by crushing her lungs with a lethal Bear Hug. You can even hear Carmen's bones cracking and popping.
- I Have Your Wife: Or as Brunt calls it, "Plan B as in Bait." They plan to use Chase as a hostage to lure Carmen into a trap.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Carmen risks her life to save Chase, but because he believes she is working with her kidnappers, once he gets a chance he activates his pen to call in Chief and the Calvary. This not only exposes Carmen's face to Chief but she too thinks Carmen is working with V.I.L.E.
- Once More, with Clarity: The final part of the episode reveals key scenes from "Becoming Carmen Sandiego (Part 2)" through Shadowsan's eyes.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: For the first few seconds after Chief answers Chase's call she thinks it is some plea to get his spot back. However she quickly sees Chase is down on the ground and sees Carmen right there. Even after Carmen breaks the communication pen, Chief calls in local police and alerts Julia to Chase's situation.
- The Reveal: Shadowsan has been Good All Along and deliberately flunked Carmen to ensure she didn't go down the path of a thief.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The teachers presume there is some secret partnership between Chase and Carmen based on how she delivered Crackle to him and provided a distraction while she reclaimed the Vermeer paintings. So, they kidnap him in hopes of leveraging her into coming to save her "ally." They are wrong about the partnership, but Carmen's sense of decency and respect for law enforcement compels her to rescue him from their clutches regardless.
- Slipping a Mickey: V.I.L.E replaces the toothpaste Chase uses with a VILE brand sedative which causes him to blackout allowing VILE to kidnap him.
- Super-Strength: Coach Brunt displays this twice by crushing metal bars with no show of effort on her part.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Coach Brunt asks Carmen about her "partnership" with Chase Devineaux. Carmen doesn't bother to correct Coach Brunt and instead snarks that she prefers working with the law than with evil villains.
- Wham Episode: Both Carmen and V.I.L.E learn about ACME, Shadowsan defects from V.I.L.E and also reveals that he's been keeping an eye on Carmen for a long time.
