Running from the past never leads to a brighter future.
After handling a case of a hitman replicating old mafia murders, the FBI: Most Wanted team took on a deadly con artist whose house of cards was collapsing.
Meanwhile, Ortiz found himself in a tight spot involving Hana’s own family, making Inheritance a tricky case for the team.
A murderous con
At a nice East Hamptons home, Cassandra Mason (Caroline Rose Kaplan) was leading a yoga class of women. She told one of the house owners that she had hoped to open her own studio, but the deal had fallen through.
The other woman, Molly Forde (Elizabeth Ingrahm), offered to pay for it herself and said her husband Steve (Jason Schuchman) didn’t need to know.
Later that night, Cassandra was surprised by the Fordes, with Steve saying the space was still open. He began pressing Cassandra on her past with some lies apparent, demanding his money back or they’d go to the cops.
As Steve snapped at his wife for being conned, Cassandra wrote out a check and when Steve brought up her lying about her past, she pulled a gun to shoot him and Molly.
Ortiz and Hana’s brother George were playing rugby as George talked to a man about needing time to finish a deal. Ortiz was concerned but had to answer a call.
The Forde murders were front-page news, making catching Cassandra a priority. The team caught the case as Cassandra’s passport was a very expensive fake, the kind used by crime cartels.
Cassandra’s landlady said she couldn’t believe she’d do this while the team searched Cassandra’s place. They found a closet packed with expensive clothing. The Fordes’ daughter, Emma (Abby Glover), revealed her parents had been arguing about Molly giving Cassandra money. Remy brought up his history with his brother to comfort the girl.
Molly’s friends were horrified, only to reveal each of them had also given Cassandra money for her “studio.” It also came out Cassandra had told each of them a different sob story about her background.
One woman realized her mother was a fan of Cassandra’s and might have helped her. The team arrived at the address to find it empty and her car gone.
At a mall, Cassandra was trying out a wig and dress while telling the mother, “it’s fun to pretend to be someone else.” When a security guard recognized her, Cassandra grabbed a bunch of clothes to run, then pulled her gun to hold the guard off while she escaped.
It turned out Cassandra had told the truth about attending Treetop, a school with a controversial background. The principal Angie Gates (Joanna Feurer), the daughter of the school’s founder, claimed to not recognize Cassandra.
She admitted her dad had subjected students to drugs but was moving past that. Remy was interested in a bench that bore the name of a student named Jenny who’d drowned in the pond in 2004. He and Gates exchanged barbs before the agents left.
Ortiz is in a spot
Ortiz was interrupted by a phone call from George on how he owed a guy $12,000 for selling pills at a show. He asked for a loan and not to tell Hana. Ortiz was not happy about either.
At a country club, Cassandra scammed a valet into giving her the keys to an expensive car to steal. Hana found out Jenny Betz had been a classmate of Cassandra’s, and her death had been ruled an accident.
However, two guys running a true-crime website believed Cassandra stole Jenny’s identity, killed her landlady, and then went on the run. Hearing about Cassandra stealing the car, the team figured she was targeting the two men from the true=crime website before they could reveal her true identity.
Rather than be upset, the two goofballs were willing to offer themselves as “bait” just to be part of the case. They talked of the vanishing of the landlady, Lisa Fanelli, whose body was found six months earlier. The cops had been looking for “Jenny” and began pulling apart her identity.
The real Jenny’s mother, Erin Betz (Rachel Harker), wasn’t happy about her daughter’s name being dragged into this but was thrown to hear of the identity theft.
Lisa’s son, Andrew (Curran Connor), had never trusted “Jenny” as he shared his mother had given her a lot of money. He showed a photo of “Jenny” with her little sister, which was signed “Rose.”
Erin identified Cassandra as Delia Holby, a classmate of Jenny’s, who was in trouble from things like drugs to sleeping with a teacher. Erin was convinced Delia pushed Jenny off the boat as the pair had hung out a lot, but the school offered her money to keep the teacher affair quiet.
Erin shared Delia had a terrible mother as well as a younger sister. Remy theorized Delia was running from something in her past and wanted to be someone else.
They found a hit on the sister, Rose Holby (Lea Claire Zawada), who was returning home from work and was shocked to find Delia on her doorstep.
Ending the cons
The team arrived at Rose’s home to find the women gone. Hana shared that Delia’s father had died when they were kids and their mother Sylvia had moved into a posh house shortly after Cassandra left. They found a card from lawyer David Gates, the brother of the school founder.
Delia and Rose were driving, with Delia apologizing for leaving but spinning a story of being a homeless drug addict to excuse herself. She said just needed some money to start a new life in California and Rose bought it.
David Gates (Kevin Hogan) tried to brush off the agents, but they pushed him on how Delia had been sleeping with the headmaster and David’s brother, so they paid a lot to hush it up. Gaines made it clear she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
Rose exited the bank with the cash, but Delia was upset to find it was a low amount. She became more upset to hear of their mother getting a huge “inheritance” right after she was left at Treetop. Delia lost it, insulting her sister and refusing to answer to her name. She finally pulled a gun on Rose.
David admitted Adam and Delia had been involved and Sylvia knew. So they paid Sylvia $2 million to keep it quiet and Sylvia had gotten remarried to live in a posh Massachusetts neighborhood.
The agents found Sylvia’s husband, who had no idea Rose had a sister, and his wife had gotten a call to meet at the family cabin.
At the cabin, Delia was holding Rose and Sylvia (Maureen Mueller) at gunpoint, angry about her mother ignoring her pain from the affair and then abandoning her for money. Rose was stunned to realize both her mother and sister had been lying to her about so much.
The agents entered with a team of cops, Delia holding Sylvia at gunpoint. Remy asked who she was and Delia said she was the girl whose teacher raped her and claimed it was love. She’d told Jenny and Adam killed her to keep it quiet, forcing Delia on the run.
Remy reached out to Delia, saying whatever else, she was a survivor who loved her sister and just wanted “all the lies and the pretending to be over.” He shot the gun out of her hands to subdue her, Delia sobbing as she was arrested.
The team watched an irate Rose turn Syliva away to check on Delia, with Remy musing, “I thought I had mommy issues.”
Ortiz confronted George, showing a photo of a man beaten in jail for selling drugs, and if George kept this up, he’d end up like this or worse. George promised he would get out as soon as he cleared his debt when Ortiz gave him the money.
But Ortiz snapped he wasn’t going to keep this quiet as George would have to tell Hana about this as “there’s no secrets in family.” He also put George to work paying off the debt at the local boxing gym.
It was a tough hunt to show that hiding a life of lies never works out well.
FBI: Most Wanted Season 3 finale airs Tuesday, May 24 at 10/9c on CBS.