In Episode 3 of “The Company You Keep,” after a successful heist in which the family had conned a fellow con artist, they had handed off their share of the debt for the week to Daphne. However, her attitude did not sit well with the family, and thus both Charlie and Birdie decided to make sure Daphne ended up in a fix. They called up Connor and informed him about Daphne’s pursuits, knowing Connor would soon fly in to keep her in check. Later, while Charlie was on a call with Emma, his face was swiftly covered with a black bag as he was carted off in a mysterious van as Episode 3 ended.
Spoilers Ahead
The Mystery Van Was Related To The CIA
Just like the FBI and the CIA, we got a tip off too. The mystery van that suddenly took off after kidnapping Charlie off the road indeed belonged to the CIA. The CIA had brought him in for questioning to check up on his identity and make sure that he would not trouble them later on. Charlie was hooked up to a polygraph and interrogated over the next hour. Charlie answered all of the questions confidently, yet his expression betrayed how violated he really felt. He had fallen in love with Emma, and this interrogation had made him realize that if he wanted to pursue this relationship, he would need to clean up his act, and to do that, he and his family would have to pull off just one last heist. This heist, according to Charlie, would let them make $10 million in one fell swoop. As soon as Emma dropped him off at the bar, Daphne walked in, and Charlie was able to negotiate with her and bring down the previously decided amount of 14 million to 10 million. Daphne agreed to drop the extra $4 million after Charlie convinced her to let him bring the money to the table by the end of the week.
What Did Claire Fox Want?
Emma’s brother David had enlisted Claire Fox’s help when he saw his campaign was tanking and the parties were giving him the cold shoulder due to the public opinion turning against him. With no other way to help save his career, David’s only hope was to depend on Claire. However, everybody from his campaign as well as his father seemed to be wary of her. She remained an unknown quantity till she arrived at the charity event hosted by Emma and David’s parents, celebrating the return of success to his campaign with credits to Claire. Claire blended in pretty well with the crowd, but David finally got to know what she wanted as she introduced Jennifer West to him. She insisted on letting Jennifer assist David in his campaign as the price of her favor. Meanwhile, at the charity ball, Emma had invited Charlie to meet her parents as the next step in their relationship. As luck would have it, Charlie coincidentally met with Robert Renway at the same party, right after he had secured his path to Renway’s VIP casino party. He had to slip into the character of Ernesto Ricci he had posed as earlier while also keeping up his identity as Charlie Nicoletti in front of Emma’s family. This slip-up might just come back to bite him later on in the series.
What Was the Moonshot Mission? Did Charlie Successfully Get the Money?
Charlie had had a discussion about pulling off the Moonshot heist with his family a long time back. They had shot it down due to the various loopholes in their plan. They had not been able to secure a safe way back with the money, which had made this heist potentially dangerous, which is why the Nicolettis had thought to wash their hands off the heist. Charlie, after the interrogation, had decided that he would tackle the impossible mission of getting Daphne off behind their backs for good. He successfully got her to drop $4 million off their debt as he started brainstorming ideas with his father to successfully secure the heist. He had hinted to his father about his plans for the future, and they included Emma. Leo had supported his son and had also advised him not to let her go. Thus, the whole Nicoletti family got on board with the plan as they targeted their golden goose, Robert Renway.
After the charity event, Charlie made his way to the back of the yacht, where Robert hosted his casino party. Here, Charlie successfully secured an alibi when Robert escorted him outside after he threw a tantrum over losing his money. As soon as he was escorted outside, the Nicolettis got to work. They secured the money kept on the table while Robert was distracted by Birdie’s hack, as she had sent him an urgent message from his pregnant wife, Tanya, pretending that she was having contractions. With the heist successful, they walked off the yacht with the money intact and without drawing any suspicion. However, Leo had almost blown their cover due to the early onset of his Alzheimer’s, but Fran and Charlie quickly handled it.
‘The Company You Keep’ Episode 4: Ending – Did Daphne Get Her Share?
They managed to secure the money; however, in the previous episode, Charlie had tipped off Conan about Daphne’s ventures. So, to make sure she does not stray and take over his rights as the heir, Conan flew down to keep an eye on Daphne. He quickly got to work as he questioned Daphne’s right-hand man with his fists and forced him to divulge Daphne’s secret financier. Daphne had almost won over Conan with her business ideas; however, her arrogance in securing financial aid did not sit well with him. He immediately cornered Charlie as soon as he had been on the way to drop off the money at Daphne’s. Charlie surrendered the money but got stuck on the radar of the CIA and the FBI. He made his escape with his mask down, but Emma and her partner from the FBI, Vikram, had caught the drop on their stakeout. Charlie had come clean about the drop with his family, yet he failed to mention anything about the charity event. Emma later visited Charlie to tell him of the new lead, but Charlie had seen Emma and seemed to have a sinking feeling in his gut that the lead was him.
Final Thoughts
The scriptwriters have seen fit to keep the romance in short supply in “The Company You Keep” Episode 4, mainly focusing on the dynamics that are set after Charlie has been interrogated. At this point, it just feels that the relationship is being a tad bit too forced. Because even after going through a violation of trust and privacy, Charlie still wants to pursue a relationship with Emma. Meanwhile, Emma knows nothing about him being a con artist; she is still under the impression that he is a bartender and that his family owns the bar in Baltimore. It also could mean that Emma is simply pretending to remain in the dark after “The Company You Keep” Episode 4, where she got a new lead; however, that is something that might be explored in the later episodes.
Meanwhile, I think Charlie’s going to have to get another 10 million and also deal with Daphne because of the situation he got his family into. Connor’s arrival had been inevitable, but Charlie and Birdie’s intervention made him arrive earlier, and due to this, Daphne needed money, and she needed it fast, which gave them an opportunity to bait her into dropping a few million. However, they rushed in too fast, and the family might have just bitten off more than they could chew. Connor had indeed kidnapped somebody, but that just turned out to be one of their rival dealers, who later ended up dead as a warning to Daphne. Here’s to hoping Charlie does not get killed, but then again, it wouldn’t be called plot armor if it didn’t protect the male leads.
