The Company You Keep – Episode 2 “A Sparkling Reputation” Recap & Review

A Sparkling Reputation

Episode 2 of The Company You Keep starts with the Nicoletti family at an auction. They are trying to mark their next target, but need to return the money they stole from Maguire since Daphne is threatening them. Their plan is to steal a highly-priced necklace but the necklace has to be sold first.

The diamond necklace is bought by the wife of Claude Ellsworth for half a million. However, Birdie finds it weird that Claude is selling and rebuying an expensive necklace he already owned. Claude has an impeccable reputation, he was once an ambassador to Russia. It is clear that he is laundering money and the  Nicoletti’s are looking forward to stealing the necklace from the Ellsworths’.

Concurrently, Daphne visits Maguire in prison in the guise of his lawyer. Maguire is worried about the state of their business. He threatens to call his son Connor to run the business while he is in prison but Daphne asks him for a chance to prove herself. She promises she will figure out a way to fix and expand their business.

On the other hand, the CIA is watching Maguire in prison and Emma is adamant that Daphne is dangerous. She thinks Daphne is still in town, to plan the syndicate’s business. She asks her boss to allow her to plant a bug in Daphne’s hotel room and she gets the approval. She also tells her fellow staff member about her date with Charlie. The lady thinks Emma is brave for dating her rebound.

After work, Emma waits for Charlie who is running late for their date. Charlie arrives and apologizes saying he got caught up in something at work with his family. He admits it can be messy working with family but he is all good. He asks Emma about her job and she lies to him and tells him she is a data analyst at a logistics firm.

They decide to skip dinner and have sex in his minivan. However, Emma is distracted by a bus billboard of her brother announcing he is running for a senatorial seat. Charlie also gets a message from Birdie that Daphne is hounding them. They agree to take a rain check and they each head home.

At home, Emma finds her parents working with her brother’s David campaign team. Her mom is on a roll to make sure he is elected. Her mom thinks that David is having trouble with the current poll numbers because he is unmarried. Emma just recently move back in with her parents and her dad is glad she is home.

On the other side, Charlie arrives at their family bar and finds Daphne getting on Birdie’s nerves. She wants to know when she will be getting the 15 million. She gives them 3 days to make their first payment.  Daphne threatens to get Connor to help collect if they fail to deliver.

After Daphne’s visit, the family study the schematic for the Ellsworth safe. The safe is biometric, opened only by the owner’s thumbprint. They only have 3 days and worry if they can pull the case.  Leo says they should prey on Ellsworth’s vanity to get the necklace and suggests they use his old fake identity Milosh.

The next morning, Emma tries to leave for work but her mom asks her to remain behind to take photos to help with David’s new campaign. Emma says she is not interested in being a prop and offers to help David in another way. She points out that people don’t think David is Asian enough.

Meanwhile, Birdie expresses her worry about pulling a high-profile job without enough preparation. She also tells Charlie that she is sad that it didn’t work out with his fiancee. She also informs him that she followed Daphne to the hotel she was staying at. They are hoping to break in and find her weak spots.

Using Birdie’s hacking skills, Charlie gets into Daphne’s hotel room and finds a notebook hidden under her bedside table. He sees a picture Daphne keeps of her mom and sends it to Birdie. In the meantime, Emma also breaks into the room and places a bug. She doesn’t see Charlie who is hiding thinking that Daphne is back. Birdie helps him escape through a door in the adjoining room. He also fails to see Emma.

As they work the Daphne angle. Their parents pretend to be high-end magazine photographers looking to quickly find a worthy home to be covered. They openly talk about this at a high-end salon where Claude’s wife overhears them and offers to help.

Later that night, Emma meets with Charlie and her co-worker reminds her that the CIA demands they fill out a form if they fill an external contact form if they go on two dates with anyone Emma insists she is not in a relationship. She meets with Charlie and they have sex.

After, Charlie asks about how it is going with her family and Emma tells him they should stop acting like they are in a relationship. She says that he is simply a rebound and he is shocked. He accuses her of throwing a grenade into their relationship because she is scared.

The next morning, the Nicoletti family work their ruse as magazine editors in the planned photoshoot at Claude’s house. Charlie manages to steal the necklace and after later inspecting it, Birdie realizes that the diamond used was stolen from India. It was an important cultural artefact that was stolen during colonization and India is currently looking for it. This poses a problem because they can’t sell a stolen cultural artefact, they won’t be able to fence it and get the money.

Emma is also having a dilemma of her own, her brother visited her at the office and asked her to join his campaign team. She declines but he asks her to take some time and think it over.  She later turns him down again and tells him the truth about her job. Her brother is surprised but says the job suits her.

On the work front, they are not getting anything from Daphne. The rest of her team thinks her hunch was wrong and the Maguire family are not planning anything big as they initially suspected. It turns out that Daphne made them after noticing something off in her room.

Daphne uses the fact that she knows the authorities are watching to lure them to a dead end. She acts like she is planning to receive a big shipment but when Emma and the FBI arrive they find the bug they had placed in Daphne’s hotel room.

Meanwhile, Charlie finds the solution to their problem. He visits Claude and tells him that he knows he has been laundering money. He also informs him that the necklace is a stolen cultural artefact and he has already notified the media that Claude intends to return the necklace to India.  He decides to sell the real necklace back to Claude or destroy his impeccable reputation. Left with no choice, Claude buys the money for half a  million and Charlie leaves happily.

He later gets a call from Emma apologizing for what she said and admits she was just scared. She is scared that he sees through her and no one has done that before.

Later that night, Daphne visits the Nicoletti bar and picks up the money. Birdie promises to do her bidding as long as Daphne doesn’t subtly threaten her daughter, Ollie again. Daphne leaves and calls Maguire through a secret phone she snuck in for him. She tells him that she has identified their enemy as Emma and managed to bring in half a million without selling drugs. She asks him if he believes in her and trusts her to run the business.

Birdie and Charlie also make a discovery that Daphne is Maguire’s daughter. They wonder why everyone is being so quiet about it.

The Episode Review

Emma and Charlie are moving too fast, they are barely three days out of their last relationship. I guess for them, love hit as quickly as lightning but they are lying to each other. How can they build a relationship with so many lies?

It is also surprising that the Nicoletti family are not on any authorities’ radar. They have been pulling heists left, right and centre. Either way, given the rate they are working, they will soon trigger an investigation into them. I wonder what will happen when the truth is laid bare!