'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wAARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFgABAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMI/8QAIBAAAQQBBAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQACAxEEBRITMSGBof/EABUBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMF/8QAFxEAAwEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECIf/aAAwDAQACEQMRAD8Az7oU8UepQlkO19GiXX5Avr19Vcl0E+RLLwAb3l1X1ZtEVmVgzP/Z'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
CBS's The Equalizer aired its Season 5 Episode 16 episode titled "Sins of the Father" on April 20, 2025. The official synopsis of the episode, per CW reads:
McCall is contacted by Samantha Reed, whose father, ex-CIA agent Elijah Reed, is missing. While Samantha joins forces with the Equalizer team to track down the agency legend, she learns more about her family’s past in the Dominican Republic.
Here's everything that happened in the thrilling episode of the crime drama The Equalizer.
The Equalizer Season 5 Episode 16 "Sins of the Father" recap
The episode opens with an old man who finds out he's being followed by three guys. The man lures them into a warehouse and starts fighting them. He almost defeats them, but is intercepted by a fourth man with a tranquilizer. The mysterious man asks the guy to kill him, but the guy tells him he won't be killed until they get what they want out of him.
Samantha reaches out to Robyn, CIA style
As Robyn is talking to Aunt Vi about Delilah in the artist retreat in The Equalizer, she receives a mysterious phone call on her CIA phone. On picking up, she finds out an even mysterious AI voice giving her directions to a place in the form of coordinates. Robyn gets to that location to discover a bunch of women talking to each other about their kids, among whom one is looking for Robyn, and even has a picture of her.
The woman tries to find Robyn, only to discover that The Equalizer is standing behind her, holding a gun to her head. They get into a physical altercation as the other woman defends herself, quite skillfully, but Robyn wins in the end. She asks the woman who she is. It is at this point that the woman introduces herself as Samantha Reed and tells Robyn that she needs her help to find her father, Elijah Reed.
Long story short, Samantha tells Robyn that she and her father had been on the run from the CIA because he witnessed a bombing by the CIA, which killed a lot of people. But now, her father is missing, and Samantha is sure that the CIA has him.
A Symbol of Hope, or maybe not
The gang finds out that somebody reported an elderly man being followed into a warehouse, and so they check out the warehouse and find a symbol there. Samantha recognizes this symbol to be one that her father taught her when she was a kid, and it meant that he couldn't protect her any longer, so she should take care of herself.
Samantha is sure that the CIA is responsible for her father's missing, but The Equalizer finds out through her contacts at the CIA that this isn't true. Samantha finds herself vulnerable and lost in childhood flashbacks, as they don't have any leads on how to find her father.
However, looking at the video footage of Elijah being taken, The Equalizer and Harry notice another man in a car that Elijah was going to get into, but changed his mind when he found himself being followed. The man in the car is another ex-CIA agent, so the team rallies to the restaurant that this man owns, just to find the place crawling with the police, as the man has been killed. They are too late yet again, back to square one.
Samantha starts looking around the scene, pretending to be a detective, and spots a pendrive inside a light switch. A man intercepts Samantha and almost gets away with the pendrive if she hadn't managed to kill him before he killed her. Harry looks into the man and the pendrive and discovers a picture of the person who kidnapped Elijah, Cardozo, as well as surveillance pictures from the CIA agent who was killed.
The Equalizer finds Elijah, but he's not relieved
In the pendrive, the gang discovers another warehouse and goes there to find Elijah tied up. Elijah is not relieved to be rescued, but instead gets angry at Samantha for not running away. He tells her that she's the one Cardozo is after because he's her biological father.
Just then, Cardozo's people come an nd try to stop them, but The Equalizer gets Samantha and Elijah to a safe location. There, Elijah tells Samantha that her father was an asset he was sent to evaluate and plant a bomb against. Elijah reveals that he fell in love with her mother there, and they wanted to run away, but Cardozo killed her. He promised her that he would take care of Samantha, and that's what he's been trying to do all this time.
The Equilizer, Elijah, and Sam end up finding Cardozo through a tracker planted by Elijah and confront him. Cardozo tries to emotionally trick Samantha, telling her that Elijah was lying, her mother was alive, and that her real name is Delfina. When Samantha calls his bluff by asking him to call her mother, he tries to grab his gun, but Samantha gets to him first.
The Equalizer and their team had successfully completed another mission, but for Elijah and Samantha, the future was just as unpredictable as everything they knew to be true was now gone. Robyn offers Samantha a position on her team, saying she could use her help in these missions. However, Samantha decides to go back to Atlanta and do what The Equalizer is doing here in New York.
Trending
The Equalizer episodes air on CBS on Sundays, and if you miss them, check us out at Soap Central for more such detailed recaps!
Your perspective matters!
Start the conversation
