The Past and the Furious

Dex enters a church while working a case

**The Past and the Furious** is the eleventh episode of the first season and the 11th overall episode of **Stumptown**.

## Short Summary

With Sue Lynn's help, Dex works to find a fellow veteran's birth parents after he discovers that he's adopted. Meanwhile, Ansel creates a birthday bucket list for turning twenty-one and enlists Grey's help to complete each item. Elsewhere, Grey continues to work with Hoffman and goes undercover to infiltrate a car ring operation.

## Full Summary

Dex mingles around a wild party at her place. She tells Cash that no one wants to see him naked. Tookie then arrives with tacos for the party. He's concerned by what he's seeing.

Tookie and Dex sit down and Dex tells Tookie about Ansel moving out. She tries to pretend she's happy with him gone, but when the song changes to a sad song, she disparages it and takes the phone from someone else and puts on an upbeat song. She starts to dance as Tookie looks on.

Dex wakes when a man comes into her house and calls her name. She's surprised at him calling her ma'am when she says the party is over. He introduces himself as Staff Sergeant Jeremy Stevens, United States Air Force. He was looking for her at Bad Alibi, but the bartender sent him to her house. He would like to hire her to find his parents. Just then, Cash comes in with only a bag of chips covering him. He offers them both the chips.

Dex struggles to make coffee as Jeremy explains that he took a DNA test as a joke and found out that he's 48% Native American, while both his parents are white. He asked his mother about it and then she and his father came clean about him being adopted. They never told him. He just wants to learn where he came from. The coffee starts bubbling out of the coffee maker. Dex agrees to take the case if he stops calling her ma'am.

Grey finds Ansel putting together a chair and then sees that he has a list in front of him. It's a list of things he wants to do now that he's 21. He's done some with Grey already. Just then, Dex comes in. She came over for a cup of coffee. Grey reminds her that she has coffee at home, but Ansel says he always made it. Grey tries to reassure Dex that Ansel living with him is only temporary. He just wants independence. Dex thinks she can handle being alone. Then they talk about the work he's doing with Miles and Dex teases him.

Dex talks to Jeremy's parents. They say they miss him. He hasn't spoken to them since they told him. They don't know much about the adoption. The birth father took off shortly after he was born and birth mother was a drug addict. She asks for the name of the company that handled the adoption.

Dex asks for all the records for Graceful Heart Adoption Agency. Laurel tells her to take a number. She pulls the number 273 and then hears 146 get called. A man comes to the desk and says about time. Laurel tells him to take a seat. She calls the next person, who has sweets for her. Laurel says she's vegan and sends the woman away. She calls 148. Some time has elapsed and she calls Dex's number. Dex comes to the desk with a box. Laurel says she's vegan, but Dex says so are the treats. And she brought a coffee with oat milk. Dex then asks for the records and Laurel pulls them up. It's shut down now, but she has some old records.

Dex calls Miles and checks how unusual it is for all the adoption records from an agency to be sealed. He says that's pretty unusual. He doesn't know what it means. He's familiar with the church Dex is looking into. They're outside Portland, near a reservation, and used to be an evangelical megachurch. But they've dropped off the radar.

Miles says the carjacker, Sean, agreed to set up a meeting with the guy he works for, Scuzzy. He wants Grey to go in and take a look around. He asks if Grey can handle it. Grey wants to know what he gets out of it. He did time with some informants before. He knows how it works. Miles says he'll make it worth Grey's while. They shake on it.

Dex enters the church just as they're finishing.

Dex is asking a man about the adoption agency, when Betty Welles interrupts and sends him outside to help a congregant. She tells Dex she's the pastor's secretary. She tells Dex Graceful Heart is no longer operational. She can't answer any questions. Dex asks if there's someone else who can. Dex pretends to be a prospective adopting parent, but then confesses she wants to find out why all the records are sealed. Betty says she doesn't know and Dex is essentially forced out.

At night, Dex goes back to the church. It's unlocked, so she goes inside. When she sees the Jesus statue, she starts talking to it. She knows she's made mistakes, but she's helping people now. She then asks if he had anything to do with Ansel moving out, she's sorry about the one time she said she didn't want to take care of Ansel. She was upset with her parents, not with him.

Dex then goes into the office and while she's looking in one filing cabinet, a light is cast on another one, which is labelled Graceful Heart. She says thanks for the tip and then pulls out a file for birth mothers during the time Jeremy was adopted.

Grey meets Scuzzy, who asks him a trick question about cars. It's a My Cousin Vinny reference. When Grey gets it, he gets Scuzzy's approval. Scussy asks Grey to steal a car to prove his skills. As Grey walks away, he asks if Miles heard that.

Grey's upset because they didn't quite get the right car. Miles tells him to take it for a spin while he does paperwork. Grey takes off in the car and Miles asks Officer Hawkins if she put in the tracker, which she did.

Ansel gives Dex a beer and she asks him when he's coming home. He says he isn't. He's staying with Grey until he gets his own place. Jeremy comes to Dex and she has to tell him that his birth mother, Sherri Fisher, died three months ago of a drug overdose.

A man lets Jeremy and Dex into a room which contains Sherri Fisher's belongings. They look through things and find out she was an artist. Jeremy is upset that his parents didn't tell him in time for him to find his birth mother before she died. Dex says parents are human, even though it's hard to see them that way. Her own mom was an artist, too. She used to color Dex's sneakers with colored sharpies. Then her parents ended up taking off while she was oversees and left Ansel in a home. A door slams in the distance, startling Dex. Jeremy notices and asks about her time overseas. He tells her ignoring the PTSD won't help. She says talking about her feelings really isn't her thing. Dex then finds a book with pictures of Jeremy as a baby. The record also contains the name of his father, Tim Scott.

Tim comes into Bad Alibi. Dex introduces him to Jeremy and then soon after leaves them to talk and get to know each other.

Dex puts on music and cleans the party mess up. While putting blankets in a closet, she pulls out a box with colored sneakers in it. After cleaning, Dex sits on a bean bag and calls Ansel, but gets his voicemail.

Grey pulls into the garage with the car. He's early, but the car isn't quite right. Grey gets him to agree to accept it anyway. Scuzzy introduces Grey to Rico, his brother; Chaz, a college kid; and Max, who is under a car working on it. Grey offers to help her up, but she says she's dirty. Max goes to check out the car Grey brought in. She looks where Hawkins said the tracker was, but finds nothing. Then she tells Grey they're going for a ride. He gets in and she takes off.

Miles is waiting in the car outside. He starts to eat his sandwich, but then notices the car is on the move. He goes to follow the car.

Max drives and Grey asks what she wants to know about him. She says she already knows a lot. They arrive at their target.

The car has stopped and Miles calls for help.

Max shows Grey her lair.

Miles follows the tracker.

Max introduces Grey to Leo. Max says she swept the car.

Miles follows the tracker to an ice cream truck, where two stoners are sitting. He has them move and finds the tracker.

Miles is upset with Grey for taking off the tracker. Grey defends it, saying if he found it, they would have, too, and he would have been made. He didn't want to risk it. They argue over the issue. Miles threatens to drop Grey from it and Grey tells him to do it.

Tim goes to Dex and says he has to leave town. He wants Dex to tell Jeremy. She wants him to tell Jeremy himself. She understands that he was young, but he signed an infant over to his drug-addicted mother. He can make everything right now. Tim says he'll let Jeremy down eventually. Better now than later. Dex disagrees, but Tim can't do it. Before he leaves, he tells Dex Sherri wasn't a drug addict. He was the screw up, which is why he signed his rights off to her. Whoever said she was a drug addict was lying.

Ansel has successfully changed a tire. Grey gets a call and steps away to take it. It's Max, with a job.

Sue Lynn says they're not affiliated with the Inland Indian Community, but Dex is hoping she can help because they won't be happy having an outside poking around. She's looking into it because her client's mother was a member and the details aren't adding up. She was hoping someone on the reservation could help. Dex explains that Jeremy was adopted and the adoption agency isn't forthcoming. Sue Lynn is familiar with Graceful Heart. They used to target vulnerable tribe members and take their children away. The Indiana Child Welfare Act doesn't work as well as people like to think it does. They were aggressive and knew exactly who to target and when.

Dex finds Betty Welles, maiden name Paley. She tells Betty she did some digging and found out she used to work for Child Protective Services. She was responsible for taking Jeremy away from Sherri Fisher. She can prove it. She wants to know why. Betty says she doesn't owe Dex an explanation. Dex believes she owes one to Jeremy. Betty says she was saving him as he was born into an impure family. She found good, Christian parents for him. Dex says she was stealing babies with Native families and giving them to people who were none the wiser. Betty says it was the Lord's work. Dex thinks she got kickbacks, from families' child tax credits. She has no regrets. Dex is glad to hear her say that, because she's been recording the whole conversation. Betty asks her to delete it, but she won't. Clifford then asks her to delete it and pulls out a gun. Dex pretends to hand over the phone and then disables him and disarms him. She takes the magazine out of the gun and leaves.

Grey and Max spot the car. Grey has a plan to get the keys so they can steal the car. Max wants to be bolder and distract the valet while he breaks in. Grey tries to stop her, but can't, so he breaks in. He can't hot wire it, so she pulls out her own kit and uses that to start it. They take off as the owner comes out and yells at them.

Jeremy's parents, Diane and Bill Stevens explain that they'd been trying to have a kid for so long. Then Graceful Heart said they had a baby and they didn't ask questions. They were suspicious. Jeremy is upset and says he needs some time and leaves the table.

Grey checks in with Miles. Miles says he did five years undercover in vice. He doesn't want Grey to get tempted to go back. The people will start to feel like his friends, but they are not. Leo has been arrested in three states for grand theft auto. Scuzzy did time for pulling a gun on his neighbor. Rico gets arrested constantly, mostly for petty theft. Chaz is facing a disciplinary hearing at his school for selling fake IDs. And Max will screw with his head. Grey says he's just working the case, trying to get them to trust him. Max has enough felonies to go away for 30 years, Miles says.

Grey and Max talk about the rush of stealing a car. Max has been working for Leo for a while. Grey asks if they do anything other than cars. He's done it all and he's wondering about them. Max asks why he's only been busted for boosting cars. She did her homework on him. He says he has contacts in and out of prison and skills beyond cars. He asks Max if she ever thinks about getting out and leaving it all behind. He sometimes wonders if he could live without the hustle. Is that something she'd ever want, a real life. She says real life is boring.

Dex tries to tell Jeremy that his parents made a mistake, but they're still his parents. He asks what she would do if her parents came home tomorrow. Would she forgive them? Dex says it's different because they left and don't want to be anywhere near them. Jeremy says his parents stole him from a woman who loved it, a whole family he'll never know, and they lied about it. He wanted to go backpacking in Asia and now seems like a good time to go. Dex says he can't run away from it. Jeremy tries to pay Dex, but she says they're good. He insists anyway and gives her the payment and a peer-to-peer group. He says it's not touchy-feely and she should come. He goes to leave, but she tells him to wait. She has some people for him to meet, his family. Sue Lynn introduces him to his great Aunt Jacinda, called Grandmother, and his great Uncle Beau, whom they call Grandfather, plus their son, Evan, his cousin. Jacinda shows him the family tree, which shows him as well as his mother. Jacinda says they've been waiting for him. He gives her a tearful hug.

Grey is teaching Ansel to make hamburgers to grill. Grey then checks out what else is on Ansel's list and finds out that he wants to ask a girl out, Lila from his soccer team. Grey says he'll help Ansel ask her out. Ansel wants to finish the rest of his list first. He wants to be a man first, like Grey. Grey says he doesn't have to finish the list first. He knows guys who haven't done half that stuff who ask out girls all the time. Being a real man has nothing to do with that list. A real man keeps his promises and does little things to let people know he cares, like making Dex coffee every morning. He says Ansel is already a man. Grey gets a call from Max.

Dex watches the newly-reunited family from afar. Tookie tells her she did a good thing. He asks if she's okay, if there's going to be more parties he needs to avoid. She says the house is quiet. It reminds her of the desert, with enemy combatants everywhere. Tookie says it might not be the worst thing, learning to be on her own. Dex pulls out the card Jeremy gave her and looks at it.

Grey goes the to the lair. The others aren't sure they can trust Grey, but Max says they can. Leo says Max told them he knows people. They boosted a truck and thought it might have phones or something in the back. They found something else, something above their pay grade. It's heroin, a bunch of it.

## Cast

* Dex Parios
* Grey McConndell
* Sue Lynn Blackbird
* Ansel Parios
* Tookie Alvarez
* Miles Hoffman
* Maxine Beck
* Jeremy Stevens
* Leo
* Scuzzy
* Diane Stevens
* Betty Welles
* Bill Stevens
* Tim Scott
* Charles "Chaz" Wyatt (right)
* Rico
* Laurel
* Jacinda
* Carjacker Sean
* Court Representative (right)
* Cash
* Stoner #1 (right)
* Officer Hawkins (left)
* Grumpy Man
1/24
### Main Cast

* Cobie Smulders as Dex Parios
* Jake Johnson as Grey McConnell
* Tantoo Cardinal as Sue Lynn Blackbird
* Cole Sibus as Ansel Parios
* Adrian Martinez as Tookie Alvarez
* Camryn Manheim as Lieutenant Bobby Cosgrove (credit only)
* Michael Ealy as Detective Miles Hoffman

### Guest Stars

* Inbar Lavi as Maxine Beck
* Robert Adamson as Staff Sergeant Jeremy Stevens
* Ryan Dorsey as Leo
* Chuck Filipov as Scuzzy
* Eileen Grubba as Diane Stevens
* Deborah Strang as Betty Welles
* Byrne Offutt as Bill Stevens
* Keith Allan as Tim Scott

### Co-Starring

* Tommy O'Brien as Chaz
* Michael Hudson as Rico
* Eileen Fogarty as Laurel
* Sheri Foster Blake as Jacinda
* Ramon Camacho as Carjacker/Sean
* Harvey J. Alperin as Court Representative
* Josiah Lipscomb as Cash
* Jono Cota as Stoner #1
* Mercy Malick as Officer Hawkins
* Art Bonilla as Grumpy Man

## Notes and Trivia

* This episode scored 2.49 million viewers.