Working at home, Syd significantly gives Vaughn a drawer in her bureau. While poring over records, Syd notices 3 calls to Caplan's house at odd hours and traces them to Gregory Ivanov, a reporter working for an organisation known to give cover to Russian SVR agents. After Ivanov is put under surveillance, she discovers that he has just received a fax that says "endgame." Later Elsa admits that Ivanov was her handler and that she married Caplan in order to monitor him. She also implanted in his arm a cyanide pill, and the meaning of the fax is that the pill has been activated and will kill her husband in 42 hours. She tells Syd that she really does love Caplan.

According to Elsa, the pill has a tracking chip that's activated by a code that she knows. If they can get a locating device from a black-market contact in Moscow who deals in SVR contraband, they can enter the code and find Caplan. Jack doesn't trust Elsa, given her similarities to Irina, and refuses to act on the information even though it could lead them to Sloane. Syd secretly tells Elsa that she'll get the device herself. Elsa gives her the code.

Caplan attacks Irina in an attempt to escape. Sloane shoots him in the leg and threatens to waste him, but Irina says Caplan is still needed. Later, Sloane contacts Francie with a request.

Dixon confers with his wife Diane about his reassignment. He wants to do it for the sake of their marriage. She pledges her love and loyalty to him.

Jack has Syd trailed. She notices the agents and pulls into a drugstore where a group of Sigma Gamma sorority girls shop and chat. As Syd phones Vaughn and relays a coded message, she buys random items — wrapping paper, tape, a wig. She ducks into a back room and, using the purchased goods, disguises herself as a one of the girls, and joins them on the way out. Vaughn, meanwhile, decodes Syd's message. She's going to Russia.

Jack confronts Vaughn. He intercepted the message and refuses to send Sydney backup. In Moscow, Syd, disguised as a cowgirl, meets the black-market dealer in an ersatz honky-tonk bar. Before he'll listen to her, she must prove her worth by riding the mechanical bull for 8 seconds, which she does. She then pays fifty thousand dollars for the locating device. Syd calls Vaughn and tells him to meet her in Saria, Spain.

Francie, who has altered Will's phone, calls him at the CIA and asks him to pull up a recipe on a Web site. As he does it, she somehow uses him to hack into CIA computers and downloads the surveillance tape of Emily's death. Sloane then identifies Dixon as Emily's killer.

Vaughn and Syd arrive at an office building in Saria and overpower the guards. They find Caplan, who says Sark is in the area. He also tells Syd that he's an NSA agent and he knows that his wife is a Russian operative. Sark eludes Vaughn as Syd extracts the suicide pill.

Back at the CIA, Caplan and Elsa reunite. Convinced of their love, Jack has granted Elsa defector status. Syd says the data Caplan has decrypted gives them leads on Sloane. Unswayed, Jack says that Syd will be transferred if she disobeys him again. Marshall finds that the satellite footage from Tuscany has been downloaded from the CIA computers — and that it was an inside job.

At dinner with his wife Diane, Syd, and Vaughn, Dixon announces that he has rescinded his transfer. The group leaves the restaurant and Diane gets into her car to pickup the kids, saying she'll meet Dixon at home. As she drives off, the car explodes. Francie leaves the scene.