Following Callen's arrest and Hetty's retirement, both of their lives are endangered when Israeli agents seek them out to confirm the identity of agent Cherokee.
- Check and Mate: To mirror Janvier putting Callen in "Check" last episode, Callen tells him "Checkmate" when they pass each other as part of an exchange between NCIS and the Israeli representatives, the latter of which now believe Janvier had conned them.
- Faking the Dead: It turns out near the end of the episode that NCIS had faked Janvier's death, giving him a bulletproof vest before they went out and then medicating him to appear dead, as part of a plan to fool Israeli agents into believing the information he gave them was part of a government conspiracy instead of the actual identity of a US agent
- Once More, with Clarity: The episode ends with Hetty and Granger having a drink and debriefing the operation, flashing back to previous scenes but then extending them or revealing new context, like how Deeks swapped the Cherokee file before intentionally letting it fall into Israeli hands and showing that the cops that arrested Callen were NCIS agents that were part of the con.
- The Reveal: When Callen's subjected to Israeli Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique and they threaten Hetty's life too, he suddenly "admits" that there is no agent Cherokee and it's all one big conspiracy to fool foreign governments. He then states that there's someone that can verify this information: Janvier, revealing that everything since the climax of the previous part has been part of a NCIS gambit and Callen shooting Janvier on live television wasn't merely him engaging in vigilante justice.
