Yahoo News The Irrational Recap: Claim to Frame
What Dr. Alec Mercer does is both a science and an art. But this week’s The Irrational concerns itself primarily with the latter.
Well, fake art. Actually, real art but with fake pedigree. You know what? Let’s just let the recap explain everything. Read on for the highlights of “The Real Deal.”
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ALEC GETS BACK OUT THERE | At their respective homes, Alec and Marisa get ready for a night out. But — fakeout — it’s not with each other. Marisa meets Kylie for dinner. Alec greets Rose, the corporate fixer from Episode 5, with tulips at the start of his latest research endeavor: a 24-hour date. “Anyone can make a good impression after an hour or two over a couple of cocktails,” he reasons. The ground rules: They’ll spend the entire time together, but sleep separately, and their work days will be included in the day-long date. The endeavor “will give us a chance to really know each other,” he reasons. But as Rose gently teases him, he acknowledges that their date is his first since his divorce.
As Alec gets to know Rose, we learn that she used to be part of Great Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service but had to leave two years prior when her cover was blown. At one point during dinner, Rose gets a text from a client who needs her immediately. So she and Alec head to a mansion where a tipsy divorcee named Blair has just learned that a painting she thought was an original Cezanne might be a fake.
Henry, the gallery owner who sold the divorcee the painting, swears it was the real thing. But he also won’t buy it back, despite the piece’s appreciation in the intervening years, because he says he can’t vouch for whether the painting she wants him to take is the real thing. So Rose and Alec stake out the gallery owner’s office when he meets with someone. Though they don’t get a good look at the other person from their vantage point on the street, they witness a shoving match. And when they rush in, Henry is dead.
Alec theorizes that whoever killed Henry also is involved in the alleged forgery. Then, given the late hour, he and Rose part ways until breakfast.
PAGING MR. Z | The next day, another art expert named Evan tests Blair’s painting and determines that it is not, in fact, a real Cezanne. And Rose and Alec think that Henry sold more fakes, and one of his customers was a “dangerous” mystery man known only as “Mr. Z.” Thanks to some hacking from Kylie, they realize that Mr. Z is laundering money through art.
As they continue to work the investigation, Alec and Rose meet at one of the university’s lecture halls for take-out Chinese and some real talk. She confesses that not being in the field sometimes feels harder than when she was pretending to be other people. He tells her that he rarely shares the real cause of his scars. They don’t get too far into it, though, before two men show up. “I understand you are looking for Mr. Z?” one asks.
They wind up at an estate where a woman announces that she is Mr. Z and wants to know why they’re looking into her. The news of the forgery doesn’t seem to bother her; Henry “helped me make a lot of money,” she says. In fact, she was interested in buying Henry’s last Cezanne — but the existence of the painting is news to both Alec and Rose.
They find a secret room hidden in Henry’s office, but they realize that someone destroyed the last fake Cezanne in his possession. Then Rose gets an alert: Someone broke into Blair’s house.
WHO’S THIS TOOLBOX? | Alec and Rose find Blair there, being comforted by her ex-husband, Carson. Alec warns her not to let herself see her former hubby as her savior in the situation, even though her nervous system has her primed to do so. Blair thanks him and says she’ll take it under advisement.
Nothing is missing, because the forgery was tucked away in a safe. Carson tells Alex and Rose that everyone is talking about the fake paintings, which leads them to believe that the would-be robber knew that the painting wasn’t an original and was trying to cover the forger’s tracks. (Side note: These two relying on the word of one floppy-haired tech bro is a little sketch, no? Like, shouldn’t they call someone to verify or something?)
They visit a bunch of forgers until they arrive at the last studio, where the forger’s father informs them that she died two weeks before. There are a few steps between here and there but ultimately all you need to know is that Alec realizes that sentimental value tied to the late forger, Bridget, likely is the killer’s biggest motive.
THE KILLER REVEALS HIMSELF | So they set up an auction where the forged painting that was in Blair’s possession is up for sale, and the highest bidder… is Evan, who was in love with Bridget. He wanted to buy the same painting that Mr. Z did, to have a piece of work done by the woman he loved, but Henry destroyed it in order to get rid of evidence of the forgery ring. And when Evan saw that, he killed him.
With the truth out, Blair no longer wants her forged painting. So she gives it to Rose and Alec. The next day, before Rose jets off to Paris for another client emergency, they agree that they want to keep seeing each other.
MENDING FENCES | At Kylie and Marisa’s dinner, we see that their friendship is strained; they used to be closer, but Marisa’s filing for divorce really had a chilling effect on their relationship. Later, when Marisa swings by to see if Kylie wants to go to the Kennedy Center with her, Kylie calls her out for having more of an interest in Alec’s dating life than she pretends to.
They eventually meet up and confess to their real feelings. Kylie is mad at Marisa for leaving them. Marisa says she needs to find out who she is without Alec. “We were family. You were the closest thing I had to a sister. And you just stopped talking to me. I miss this. I missed you,” Marisa says. Kylie says she feels the same, and they hug.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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