Danger Close

Season 1, Episode 7

## Image Gallery

**Danger Close** is the seventh episode of the first season of USA Network's *Shooter*. It aired on December 27, 2016, at 10/9c.

## Plot

Bob Lee crosses the country to find the shooter while Julie deals with a family betrayal. Nadine contacts a Ukrainian reporter who can explain the conspiracy. Isaac questions his allegiance.

## USA Recap

We finally meet the real shooter, and learn that he’s more than just a trigger man. He knows Bob Lee Swagger (Ryan Phillippe) is on his trail and he’s not content to just wait to be found. Alliances start to shift as the conspiracy begins to unravel and Swagger isn’t the only one who has to run for his life.

**Payne Won’t Go Away**

After being taken from the FBI by army guards, Jack Payne (Eddie McClintock) is not rotting in a military prison. Instead, he is taken to a private mansion. A mysterious man named Lon Scott tells Payne his cover is blown and it’s time he retire. Instead, Payne demands $10 million or he’ll release the microdrive he took from Dimitri Voydian’s body, which includes video of graves and the classified Annex B file. But Scott calls Payne’s bluff and cuts him loose, daring him to go to the feds. Payne realizes he’s lucky to be alive and slinks off.

**Another Loose End**

Hugh Meachum (Tom Sizemore) tells Isaac Johnson (Omar Epps) that because he brought his friend Colonel Justin Singer into things, Johnson has to be the one to deal with him. “You dug his grave when you asked him to help you, now you’ve got to fill it,” Meachum says. Johnson is defiant and protective of his childhood friend, but Meachum insists. Later, Johnson goes to see Singer, who knows enough to be concerned. But Johnson urges Singer to trust him and says he doesn’t have anything to fear with him. We think Donnie Fenn’s mother would disagree.

**In-Law Out-of-Bounds**

Julie’s (Shantel VanSanten) brother-in-law Jim sees an open email from Swagger on her tablet. Later, Jim asks her point-blank if Bob Lee is still alive and tells her the sooner they get everything behind them, the better. He continues hounding her about it and we understand why Julie didn’t want her sister to tell him the truth.

**The Gun Show**

Swagger searches online for Black Kings and finds an ad for a gun show. At the show, he chats up a seller named Paul Helling, using his good ol’ boy charm to get Helling to show him his Black King. Each one is marked with a playing card; Helling has the King of Clubs. Swagger asks about anyone skilled enough to shoot it and Helling shows him a recent YouTube video of the man Jack Payne just met with, Lon Scott, making six shots from 1,500 yards. As Swagger is talking, one of the other gun sellers recognizes him and prepares to be a cowboy. As Swagger is making his way out, the man stops him with a loaded weapon. Swagger effortlessly kicks the gun and the man shoots himself in the foot. Swagger leaves calmly in the ensuing chaos.

**Searching for Evidence**

Nadine Memphis (Cynthia Addai-Robison) pays Kasper the Russian crime boss a visit asking questions about Karlina Ordenko and showing off her Russian. She wants Kasper to find the missing reporter and set up a meet. When Kasper doesn’t feel like cooperating, Memphis calls in SWAT. They can take their pick on what to charge Kasper with, she owns three beauty salons for money laundering, an illegal casino, two brothels and the entire Russian drug trade in the Pacific Northwest.

**Bozeman, Montana**

Swagger calls Memphis and tells her the shooter is Lon Scott. She recognizes him as the CEO of Anhur Dynamics -- the company the mercenaries who came after Swagger work for. He’s on his way to Anhur headquarters in Virginia. Swagger mentions the “little jam” at the gun show in Bozeman and asks if she can help clean it up. She quickly learns what Swagger was referring to when Agent Renlow calls her into his office about the shooting. He tells her to warn Swagger to be more careful. She starts looking into Lon Scott, but can’t find a home address listed.

**Close Call**

Swagger is pulled over on a remote country road by a motorcycle officer for a broken tail light cover on the truck he stole. He tells the cop he left his wallet back in the motel. He’s playing everything cool until the country cop says he’s going to call it in. Swagger opens his door quickly into the cop to knock him over, grabs his radio, then backs up over the motorcycle so he can’t be followed. The cop is unhurt.

Swagger steals a new car from a church parking lot, pausing to stuff cash in the donation box before he speeds off. He spray paints the car in the woods and removes all the identifying marks.

**‘No government can stand in their way’**

Kasper comes through with Karlina Ordenko, who is in hiding in Russia. She contacts Memphis via Skype. Ordenko tells Memphis the information that Voydian had for her was much worse than just a poisoned town. “They” wiped out entire villages and she saw burning bodies and babies crying for their mothers. “What they did was inhumane. No government can stand in their way,” Ordenko says. She explains that the missing microdrive had classified information including files on US involvement and Annex B. The internet connection starts to go out and Memphis catches only snippets, including the word “CIA.” Then Ordenko screams and Memphis can only watch helplessly as masked men burst into the room and beat Ordenko to death. One of them looks into the webcam and says in Russian: “See you soon, Agent Memphis.”

**Started Out Bad**

Johnson goes to Montana on Swagger’s trail. After talking to Helling about the Black King, Johnson calls Meachum and tells him that Swagger has tracked the shooter. Meachum confirms it’s Lon Scott. “The CIA hired a private contractor to assassinate a foreign national on American soil,” Johnson says. “This thing started out as bad, now it’s gotten worse.”

**Laying a Trap**

Meachum visits Scott, who cavalierly admits he purposefully exposed himself in the YouTube video, to lure Swagger to him. “The trick is to make him think he’s in control, now he does. So the video worked,” Scott says. Then he tells Meachum about Jack Payne’s extortion attempt, and suggests Meachum pay him the $10 million for the Annex B files. We still don’t know much about Scott’s motivation, but we do learn one interesting attribute: he’s missing a leg.

**The Enemy of My Enemy**

Swagger arrives at Anhur Dynamics corporate headquarters in Virginia, and poses as a delivery driver with something he insists is for Lon Scott personally. Johnson has tracked Swagger there and watches from outside, then coolly intercepts Swagger on his way out. Swagger notices that Johnson is alone and calmly walks with him to the parking lot, where the two men pull guns on each other, careful not to make a scene. Johnson says he doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt, but Swagger is disgusted that Johnson killed Donnie’s mom and thinks he’s now only trying to save himself. Johnson warns him the mercenaries in Idaho were just a fraction of the firepower at Scott’s disposal. But Swagger isn’t convinced of his motives. “Just because you realized you’re expendable, doesn’t make us partners,” Swagger tells him.

“It doesn’t mean we don’t need to be,” Johnson says, then he holsters his gun and walks away.

**Jim Rat**

Memphis is surprised at work when Julie Swagger’s brother-in-law Jim drops by. After he leaves, Memphis calls Julie to warn her he sold Swagger out, promising his info won’t go anywhere at the FBI. When Julie hangs up she storms into the kitchen and confronts Jim, holding a knife to his throat like she knows how to use it. She warns him that if he ever puts her daughter at risk again, she’ll bury him in his own backyard. She suggests he leave on a “business trip” and not to come back until things are over. Julie assures him that if his wife Anne knew what he did, she’d help Julie dig the hole.

**Cutting Ties**

Johnson calls his friend Justin Singer who, we’re are relieved to see, is not dead. Instead, Johnson got him a one-year assignment in Afghanistan. It isn’t exactly a gift, but it’s better than death. Then Johnson calls his wife and gives her a coded message. She drops everything, grabs a packed go bag, and walks out of her house with the teapot on.

**Suspension**

Memphis learns from Kasper that someone named Grigory Krukov is behind things, which scares Kasper enough to leave town. He’s a high-ranking member of the FSB. His diplomatic cover is as a senior member of the Russian Ministry of Trade, which is connected to Anhur Dynamics, as is Payne, according to his bank statements. Swagger calls Memphis and asks her to join him in Virginia. Memphis asks Renlow for a favor -- she needs him to suspend her, and trust her.

**Smelling a Trap**

The receptionist at Anhur hands off Swagger’s package to a driver who takes it to Scott’s mansion, Swagger follows the car there. From a lookout outside Scott’s mansion, Swagger calls Anhur Dynamics and asks for Scott, giving identifying himself as Bob Lee Swagger. Swagger watches inside the house through a scope as Scott looks inside the package: the red bullet Scott used to kill the Ukrainian president. Scott answers Swagger’s phone call. “When you set bait, it’s important to clear your own smell,” Swagger tells him, “otherwise even a starving animal will know it’s a trap.”

Just who’s hunting who now?

## Trivia

Coming soon.

 **Season 3** | "Backroads" • "Red Meat" • "Sins of the Father" • "The Importance of Service" • "A Call to Arms" • "Lines Crossed" • "Swing Vote" •"The Red Badge" • "Alpha Dog" • "Orientation Day" • "Family Fire" • "Patron Saint" • "Red Light"