25 Alive

O’Rourke informs Bao that she and Joe have been charged with the deaths of three citizens after the recent shootout. Joe is being held in jail awaiting charges, while Bao is being taken back to San Francisco. Bao becomes distraught, fearing that the Diablo cartel will murder Joe in his cell.

Lindsay visits Claire, admitting her anxiety about Joe’s situation. Claire shows her the body of the latest victim, Caroline Ford, who was strangled, and she tells Lindsay that Caroline was pregnant. The killer’s signature phrase is written on her forearm in lipstick. Lindsay decides to send the fork she got from Brett Palmer to the DNA lab for comparison to samples from Caroline’s body.

In San Francisco, Bao meets with Chief Steinmetz, who says diplomatic negotiations are underway for Joe’s release. At her apartment, her driver leaves a dog named Pete, a gift meant to comfort and protect her.

Cindy investigates Brett Palmer and locates the Vallejo address of his second wife’s parents. The mother, Joann Kinney, agrees to an in-person interview.

Steinmetz receives a manila envelope and immediately instructs his assistant to prepare its contents for urgent delivery to SFPD Lieutenant Brady.

At the Garza trial, Yuki gives her opening statement again to a new jury and judge. She announces that the key witness, “El Gato,” will testify remotely and details how Dario Garza shot and decapitated his friend Miguel.

Dario Garza leaps up, calls Yuki a liar, and threatens to expose the witness’s identity. Judge Walden restores order by banging her handgun on the bench.

Yuki resumes, pointing out that several women Dario has dated have disappeared. The judge sustains the defense attorney’s objection. She concludes her opening statement, and the defense attorney prepares to speak.

Cindy interviews Joann Kinney, who is convinced Brett Palmer murdered her daughter Angela and was also involved in his first wife’s death.

Joann gives Cindy a digital voice recorder that Palmer accidentally left at her home. She mentions that Palmer’s volatile stepbrother, Nate Miller, lives in San Francisco, making Cindy wonder about a possible connection to Warren Jacobi’s murder.

Lindsay is awake early, consumed with worry for her husband. She comforts Julie, who is also upset about Joe’s absence.

Cindy listens to the recorder and hears Brett Palmer say, “I said, ‘You dead,’” and Nate Miller replies, “Good job, bro” (273). When Rich comes home from work, she plays the recording for him. Seeing the exchange as a confession, he immediately calls Brady.

Lindsay meets Cindy and Rich at the Hall of Justice and listens to the incriminating recording. Brady assigns Lindsay to partner with Bao, who has related intelligence about Judge Orlosky’s murder.

In the task force’s “war room,” Brady introduces Bao to the task force, announcing she will partner with Lindsay and has new information.

Bao presents FBI intelligence, including security photos of a suspect in a gardener’s truck parked outside the judge’s house before the murders. She identifies the man as Santiago “Tiago” Garza, a notorious former cartel boss and assassin, and Dario Garza’s father.

At the trial, the defense attorney claims Dario has an alibi and implies that the state’s witness, El Gato, is the real killer.

In the war room, officers identify two ex-police officers in one of Bao’s photos. Using a magnifying glass, Lindsay sees that the murdered Warren Jacobi was speaking with them.

Over lunch, Bao recounts the Mexico ambush to Lindsay. She calls Steinmetz, who reports that diplomatic efforts to free Joe have stalled.

Brady has Lindsay and Bao observe an interview with one of the two ex-police officers in Bao’s photo, Doug Bernardi. He denies involvement in Jacobi’s murder and demands a lawyer.

The task force agrees Bernardi seems to lack a motive. Brady assigns Lindsay to review Jacobi’s old files. Steinmetz calls to warn them that the Diablo cartel has discovered the Garza trial’s location.

Cindy and Rich give Palmer’s digital recorder to Lieutenant Brady. After hearing Palmer’s confession, Brady logs it as evidence and orders Lindsay and Rich to arrest Palmer.

At the Ritz-Carlton, Lindsay and Rich learn that Palmer just left. The maître d’ confirms that Palmer had been seeing Caroline Ford at the hotel and identifies a morgue photo of her as the same woman.

Tiago Garza flies toward his son’s trial in a stolen helicopter as “Folsom Prison Blues” plays over the speakers.

On a video feed in the courtroom, masked and with his voice distorted, the witness El Gato identifies Dario Garza as the killer. Dario erupts in anger as a loud rumbling sound begins from outside.

A helicopter lands on the roof, which collapses into the courtroom. Gunfire erupts between officers and the helicopter’s occupants as people escape the wreckage.

In the destroyed courtroom, law enforcement removes the body of the deceased Dario Garza. His father Tiago has been captured and grieves uncontrollably.

At Susie’s Café, Yuki recounts the courtroom attack, revealing that Tiago Garza has confessed to murdering Warren Jacobi for following him and Frances Robinson to confuse the police. Claire then shares that DNA from the fork Lindsay recovered is a perfect match to the DNA found on Caroline Ford, definitively tying Brett Palmer to her death.

Lindsay partners with FBI Agent James Walsh, an old acquaintance of Brett Palmer. At the Ritz-Carlton, they approach Palmer and arrest him without a struggle.

Joe is released from jail in Mexico. He calls Lindsay, but the call is interrupted by gunshots. Joe gets back on the phone, reassures a crying Lindsay that he is safe and promises that he is on his way home.