Michael, desperate to find out who murdered Nate, does a favor for one of Sam’s sources and gets himself arrested in order to win the trust of a Boston mobster who’ll lead him to his associate, a man who has connections to a powerful crime boss needed to close Sam’s friend’s case. Meanwhile, Pearce and Jesse blackmail the man who sold Nate’s killer the rifle used in the crime for his sales records and specs.

A step up from last week’s episode, Unchained has a few good points, and all of them involve the chemistry of Anwar and Donovan. The episode finds Michael and Fiona too tense to revel in their togetherness; Fiona’s haunted by her prison experience (which is handled in an awkward bit of expositional dialogue), and Michael’s stressed out about the lack of progress in the FBI’s investigation.

He becomes intensely protective, and she becomes shockingly altruistic; together, like many a couple who’ve experienced tragedy in the real world, they manage to trudge on through together. Anwar and Donovan shine whenever their character’s romance is front and center; this episode is no exception to the rule. My big quibble? I wish that Fiona had gotten angrier at Michael – this was once a character with a powerful temper, and she’s behaving in far to genial a manner around her boyfriend, understanding over his brother’s passing or not.

The other characters in this episode are somewhat wasted; Sam has a few funny moments working as back-up to his FBI friend, and Jesse and Pearce’s interaction – which crackled with humor and tension in earlier episodes – is dull and lifeless in their mission-driven plotline.

Fun and flashy at times, “Unchained” is still simply treading water until the show kicks its plot back into gear for the show’s summer finale.

LETTER GRADE: C