"I'm a douche on the side of the angels," Reese tells his half-siblings, Randy and Blair (hello, Kat Dennings), as the episode opens. He explains that Sloan uncovered their hostile takeover plot and that he plans to thwart it. He tells them that the Atlantis company could be more profitable, but that they have a news division, implying that delivering the news is noble and that turning a profit is not.

"Great day in the morning! Randy and Blair are in the house!" says Charlie, interrupting Reese's meeting with his half-siblings. Charlie asks what their plans for the news division would be once they take control, and Blair tells him that they're likely to shut it down.

That news division, which took quite the credibility hit last season, is in trouble again, as Will and Neal meet with Atlantis's attorney, Rebecca Halliday. "I would love it if you guys would stop committing federal crimes," Rebecca tells them.

Halliday tells Neal that he can't reveal his source to her under any circumstance, and that attorney-client privilege could not be invoked if he were to do so.

"I put away bad guys, Halliday. I locked up mafia dons," Will says, assuring her that he's prepped Neal for what he's about ot face. "And now, when you go to work, you put on makeup, just like me," she counters.

Neal clues Rebecca in on the details of the documents he read, laying out how the PR firm contracted by the DOD started riots that led to the death of 38 people. He also lays out how he instructed his source to steal more documents and how to transmit them to him. "You've committed espionage," Rebecca tells Neal.

Will and Rebecca seem to think that everything will be fine, as long as ACN doesn't run the story. "We are going to run the story," Neal insists. "A truth that matters can't stay hidden."

Counters Neal, "It's a lot more complicated than that, and I decide what goes on the air."

Mac meets with an FBI agent friend at a gun range. She lays out Neal's situation to her, and asks what might happen if they were to run the story. Contrary to what Rebecca just told Will and Neal, the agent tells Mac that no reporter has ever been charged with espionage, and that at worst, he could be looking at six months in jail. A far more likely scenario would see him serving just 10 days in jail on a contempt charge, she tells Mac.

Next, we see Maggie on a train, where she spots an EPA official having a phone conversation with a reporter. With some help from a stranger on the train (played by Lyle the Intern from The Late Show with David Letterman, AKA Jimmi Simpson), she records the official's conversation, where he rips the president.

Sloan and Don are having brunch together. If this were the focus of this show every week, or if it were its own show, I'd watch. "Crab claws as far as the eye can see... and I can't emphasize this enough, Waffles," Sloan instructs Don to order for her.

Don thanks Sloan for making him some money on a stock tip (Chipotle), which technically was an illegal tip, as he acted on the information before she reported it on the air. "Congratulations, we're white-collar criminals," she tells him. They decide that they need to tell Rebecca about this. The insider trading, that is, not the waffles.

As if two crises weren't enough, back at ACN, Hallie tells Jim that she posted an irresponsible tweet the night before, taking a dig at Republicans from the official ACN Twitter account. She deleted the tweet 27 minutes after she posted it, but she fears that a media outlet will find it and run with it. "I came in today to get fired," she tells him.

Mac gets back to ACN and tells Neal, Rebecca and Will what her FBI source told her. Everyone exchanges some colorful language about integrity and courage that is not fit for print on this website. "There's no question, we have to do the story," Mac insists, siding with Neal over Will and Rebecca. You know, Will and Rebecca, the lawyers. This scene was worth the price of admission this week.

Back on the train, Maggie confronts the EPA official. She tells him that she heard his phone call, ripping the president, and uses that as leverage to get him on the record with some of his concerns about how the president is overseeing his agency. Maggie backs down, considering her actions, while legal, were less than ethical. But the official offers to trade her another story for assurances that she won't go public with his comments. She offers him those assurances regardless, but he still offers her a story and an exclusive interview.

Lyle the Intern turns out to be a law professor who teaches ethics, and he's smitten with Maggie. "Can I point something out? You're giving a monologue," he tells Maggie. "Everyone does where I work," she replies. (This breaking the fourth wall stuff is something else. It's as though Sorkin has read every criticism of this show and decided to acknowledge every point, one by one. Coupled with the parody on the Seth Meyers show last week, I'm not sure what to make of this suddenly self-aware Sorkin.)

Back at brunch, Sloan and Don banter about whether or not they're a couple. They decide that they are. Probably. Yes! Yes! Yes!

"That's just lame," Charlie tells Jim as he tries to defend Hallie. A website did eventually run with a story on her tweet, leading to the RNC demanding a public apology from ACN. (Lots of acronyms in this episode.) Charlie, weary from trying to convince Blair and Randy not to dismantle his news division, and with Republicans breathing down his neck, fires Hallie.

(This served to write out an ancillary character on a lame duck show that is working in more new ancillary characters with each episode, and also allowed Sorkin to get in his weekly jab at Twitter.)

Charlie and Reese continue going around and around with Randy and Blair, when Jane Fonda's Leona arrives to save this storyline. She goes into a diatribe about the common misuse of the word "literally," a subject that further endeared her to me, before offering to beat the financial terms of Randy and Blair's deal with the firm that would give them control of the company. The kids tentatively accept the deal, but Leona still needs to raise $4 billion in 10 days.

"Four billion dollars for a $62 billion company? It's a steal," Leona tells Reese. "How much do I have?" she asks. "I don't know, but it's something in the ballpark of nothing close to $4 billion," Reese says.

While Mac and Rebecca and Don and the ACN crew continue to debate whether or not to run the story, Will looks at Neal, and somehow realizes that Neal has already lit the fuse on the story by calling BCD, the PR firm, for a comment. Will pulls Neal aside. Seeing how much Neal believed in the story swayed Will, and he's ready to press forward with it. He asks Neal to give him his source, then to get out of town for a few days, if Will gives him the signal. The FBI will be showing up shortly, Will surmises.

He was right. The FBI shows up with warrants to search every hard rive in the building and demand to speak with Neal. Mac's agent friend, Molly, is involved in the raid, and steps into a room with Mac, Charlie and Will. She tells Mac that the assurances she gave her earlier regarding jail time for Neal might not be accurate given the magnitude of the story. Neal is looking at federal prison.

Will uses a carryout menu to pass Neal the written signal, "Neal Run," as the FBI begins tearing apart ACN.

So, with four episodes left, we have our two key storylines. If Neal's actions don't bring ACN down from the inside, Randy and Blair might destroy it from the outside. It's hard for me to get excited about either one, as ACN seems to shoot itself in the foot at every turn, but at least we have a clear direction heading into the stretch run. And at worst, there's enough light-hearted stuff on the periphery, with Don and Sloan and Mac and Will, to keep us entertained.