Backscatter

Synopsis
The Russian mob threatens Don and his family, however Charlie refuses to give up working the case.

Plot
Two men are driving around searching for a signal. They hack into an unprotected connection. The FBI team stops them. They run. David and Colby catch up to one and the other runs into traffic with Don and Megan running after him.

Charlie and Alan are setting the table for dinner. Don and Charlie explain phishing to Alan. Their take out arrives and Don goes to pay for it, but his card is declined. He tries another card. It’s also declined. Alan goes and pays with cash. All of Don’s accounts are empty. He gets a text from an unknown sender saying, 'Eppes you got our guys. we got your money.’

Don is trying to get through to the bank that they’ve been hacked. Charlie and one of the techs are talking about the case. Don joins them.

Megan is interrogating Daniel, one of the men they arrested. She isn’t able to get anything out of him. Don watches them. He turns his attention to the other interrogation room David is having more luck with Whitley. Some Russians found out about the scam they were running and blackmailed them into helping them. Their names are Len and Alex. Megan is now having more luck. Daniel mentions the Russians have a boss, Yuri. The phishing was all of their idea, not the men the FBI have in custody.

Colby doesn’t believe they’re working for Russians, but the others have heard of what they do before. Lt Walker arrives. He’s been tasked to look into the case for the LAPD. Walker has been after Yuri Korverchenko for a couple of years and this recent scam sounds like his work, matching what the phishers told them. He’s linked to eight murders including a doctor he had working for him along with their wife and daughter because he was going to give evidence to the police about an insurance scam.

Charlie arrives at the FBI. Don tells him that the only way he can get his money back is to prove he didn’t withdraw it himself. Charlie and Megan both think it’s weird that they directly targeted Don since that is a sure fire way to get the FBI involved.

At CalSci Amita is looking into the hack job that drained Don’s accounts. She has found the attack. Charlie wonders if she can track the hack, but it’s difficult to do after the fact. They need to do it when an attack is happening. Amita sees a bot in Don’s account, but it’s in everybody’s. Charlie wonders if it’s a fake or not.

At the bank Don and Megan talk to the senior security official, Sam Morton. The tech security team have information ready to help them with the investigation. They ask Morton for the files and fingerprints of the team, including his. Megan gets a call and steps away. Morton offers to help Don get his money back faster since he knows that his account was one of the ones compromised. Don goes to Megan who is upset. Daniel and Whitley made bail and are in the wind. They have been found dead with Daniel’s girlfriend. They have been killed as per Korverchenko’s MO.

Ned Spope posted bail for the hackers using a fake card that used to be one of Don’s. Megan realizes that the name is an anagram for Don Eppes. They still can’t figure out why they’re so focused on Don.

Alan comes down the stairs to the dining room wondering why the internet is running so slow. Charlie and Amita have multiple laptops running to try to find Korverchenko. They discuss the case. Amita finds where the computer that hacked Don’s account is - a warehouse connected to Korverchenko. Charlie is showing the work to some of his students (with pertinent case information removed). The FBI team and Walker prepare to breech. In Charlie’s class a line of code pops up that wasn’t there before. He analyses it as the team enters the building. Nobody is there. Charlie isn’t understanding the string of numbers that the code leads him to. One of his students thinks it could be an alphabet cypher. It reads ‘WE R WAITING FOR U’. Charlie runs out of the room to call Don and warn him. At the warehouse they’re trying to find somebody. Don finds a bomb and gets everybody to duck for cover. After the bomb goes off an armored vehicle crashes through the wall, the occupants firing. David gets hit in the shoulder. The Russians get away.

Megan tells Don that David is ok. Don wants to know what happened to get them where they are now. Charlie comes in telling them that it was a setup. He and Amita didn’t find him. They were led to him. Korverchenko is thinking ten steps ahead of them. Charlie wants to apply a form of game theory called ‘team theory’ to figure out what the end game is.

Walker and Don meet up. Walker doesn’t know why the Russians are targeting Don and suggests he takes special precautions. Don decides to boot Charlie off the case. Charlie and Amita are working in the garage. Don comes in and tells him that he's off the case so so is Charlie. Charlie doesn’t believe this and after Don has left calls the FBI to talk to the lead on the case. They confirm it’s Don. Charlie refuses to stop working.

Don and Megan talk to Morton again. The rest of his team aren’t there. He gives some reasons why and they find out that there haven’t been any other cyberattacks on their system since the one they're already looking into.

Charlie is in the middle of the lecture. He spots two men that are not his students in the back of the classroom. He makes getting security and calling 911 a part of the lesson. They get the hint and leave. Don talks to Charlie about them. Don realizes that Charlie had work at the house and they might go there. They rush out.

Charlie’s work in the garage seems ok. Alan comes in wanting to know what’s going on. None of them smoke, but Don finds a cigarette butt on the floor. An FBI team is combing the house while the three Eppes men argue. Don throws Charlie off of the case.

Walker talks to Don about the recent happenings at CalSci and the Eppes’ house. Colby thinks they should get Charlie’s help, but Don refuses help. Walker says it doesn’t matter.

David is watching over Alan, Charlie, and Amita in the garage. He’s supposed to be keeping Charlie from working on the case, but isn’t doing a very good job of it. Charlie won’t stop working and David lets him continue. Alan and David have a game of air hockey. Alan dekes him out, giving Charlie a brainwave. David tells him he can’t call Don about a new theory and Charlie reminds him that the FBI aren’t the only ones on the case. Walker meets Don at the FBI telling him that he consulted a mathematician (or rather he called Walker). Don gets angry. Walker thinks Charlie can help take down Korverchenko. They join Charlie and Megan in the conference room. Charlie gives his theory. Korverchenko is trying to distract Don and his team from the original phishers and their work. They go back to their original lead of the bank which is what he doesn’t want them to see.

Morton leaves the bank. Two men come up behind him and toss him into the back of a truck. Inside are Don and Walker. They know that Morton’s team aren’t really at home; they’ve been kidnapped and will die if Morton doesn’t do what they say. Don and Walker are able to convince him to help take Korverchenko down.

Things happen as he says they will. A man shows up to get into their system. He takes him to the back and lets him work. Don and Megan are watching from the FBI, Colby is running a team onsite, and Charlie and Amita are in the garage. Morton bides his time and shifts his phone. He sends the FBI a message with the cell phone number. Charlie calls the man at the bank. He taunts him and then the man calls Korverchenko. He wants him to continue to work. The FBI has a location for Korverchenko and Don and Megan rush out. Don gives Colby the green light to move. Just before the man sends the final amount to his boss, Colby and the team stop him. Korverchenko gets another call. It’s Colby. Don and the team breech. Korverchenko runs with Don in pursuit. Walker comes out of nowhere and brings him down. Morton’s team is safe.

At the Eppes’ house Don comes in. David is still there. Alan has cooked dinner and David is staying for to sample Alan’s cooking. Don thinks he should stop getting Charlie’s help, but Alan doesn’t think that Charlie will stop.

Main

 * Rob Morrow as Don Eppes
 * David Krumholtz as Charlie Eppes
 * Judd Hirsch as Alan Eppes
 * Alimi Ballard as David Sinclair
 * Navi Rawat as Amita Ramanujan
 * Diane Farr as Megan Reeves
 * Peter MacNicol as Larry Fleinhardt

Trivia
The deflection of nuclear particles or of radiation in a scattering process through an angle greater than 90°. The term is often used of disruptive and masking processes, particularly for communication or targeting.

Crazy Credits
[This appears on the beginning of the episode] 574 million credit card accounts, 500 million dollars stolen annually, 16 digits, 2 phishers