S05E07 - The Network

"The Network" is the seventh episode of Season 5 of We Can Fix Pawbert.

Synopsis

O'Brian cracks the Hyenahurst relay encryption, revealing that Icener's vessel MV Frost Crown is coordinating his arrival through an Otterdam shipping facility. After a highway ambush targeting a retired engineer, Nick proposes bringing in Precinct 99 for an infiltration mission outside Roskova's surveillance.

Plot

A weather demonstration hits Sahara Square, and Luther, Nick, and Judy race through the district as temperatures climb fifteen degrees above baseline. O'Brian traces the control signal to a Palm District rooftop, where the team storms the building and engages two operatives guarding a portable transmission array. Luther kills a wolverine who draws on them, and the musk ox operative charges after absorbing multiple rounds before being brought down by combined fire. O'Brian remotely kills the signal, and Sahara Square returns to normal parameters. Nick notes the twenty-minute response time is their best yet.

At the CCC debrief, O'Brian reveals she has cracked the full encryption on the Hyenahurst relay captured during the previous warehouse raid. The communications show the relay was receiving arrival logistics from a vessel: MV Frost Crown, registered to Arctic Meridian Shipping out of Vladifrostok. Shaw identifies the vessel from intelligence databases as an ice-class cargo ship built for polar transport routes. The data points to a private shipping facility in the Otterdam district that is coordinating Icener's arrival schedule, handling customs documentation and berth scheduling. Costa designates it as their priority target, but Luther and Shaw warn that raiding it openly would tip off the entire network, and Roskova's surveillance means she would know they were coming before they arrived. Costa orders continued intelligence gathering while they find an approach Roskova cannot see.

Meanwhile, Costa assigns Nick and Judy to escort retired weather wall engineer Keni Loggins to ZSI for a briefing on Lynxley-era system vulnerabilities. On the Canopy Expressway, a coordinated ambush unfolds: a gray sedan and a black SUV converge on their vehicle. The sedan clips their rear quarter panel and opens fire, shattering the driver's side window. Nick maintains control while Judy returns fire, disabling the sedan. When a polar bear in the SUV aims an automatic weapon at Keni in the back seat, Judy throws herself between the engineer and the window, firing four rapid shots that drive the attacker back. Nick brakes hard, and the SUV crashes into the median after overshooting. Keni is terrified but unharmed.

Back at the CCC, Costa draws the grim conclusion that the ambush was not a demonstration but an attempt to eliminate a witness. Keni, wrapped in a shock blanket with trembling paws, walks the team through his knowledge of Lynxley-era weather wall infrastructure: twelve junction stations, backup access points, maintenance tunnels, and emergency overrides that the family never truly decommissioned. Luther finds access points in Keni's old notes that ZSI has not yet documented. When Judy raises Milton's hints about deeper infrastructure beneath the weather walls, Keni says he worked inside every junction station for fifteen years and never encountered anything like what Milton described. Pawbert dismisses it as Milton's lifelong pattern of dangling secrets to make himself seem important, though the team acknowledges they cannot rule it out.

Judy reframes the problem: Roskova is watching ZSI and Precinct 1, but not every precinct in the city. Nick proposes Precinct 99: Jake Peralta and the squad have experience with infiltration from their Halloween Heists and are completely off Roskova's radar. That evening at the mansion, Nick calls Jake on a personal line while the pack watches. The split screen reveals Jake at Shaw's Bar with Rosa and Charles, while Hitchcock and Scully arm-wrestle over nachos in the background. Jake's excitement at hearing from Nick evaporates the instant he reads Nick's tone. When Nick describes the ambush and asks for a real heist against a shipping facility, Jake goes completely serious, then agrees without hesitation. Costa authorizes the operation.

After the call, Pawbert grows quiet. The ambush on Keni—a retired engineer targeted for thirty-year-old knowledge—weighs on him. He voices the guilt that everything Icener's network is exploiting traces back to his family's infrastructure, his family's records. Judy kneels in front of him and draws the distinction: Milton sits in a prison cell playing manipulation games, while Pawbert sits in this room helping stop the people Milton enabled. Nick promises that in three days, with the Nine-Nine's help, they will know exactly when Icener arrives. Luther echoes the resolve.

In the tag, the MV Frost Crown cuts through dark international waters. Mikhail Icener makes his first full appearance on the bridge: tall even by polar bear standards, pristine white fur with gray at the temples, pale blue eyes. Roskova reports that ZSI is adapting faster than expected and that the engineer survived. Icener is unmoved. He studies a coastline map with marked approach routes and instructs Roskova to continue the demonstrations, keeping ZSI focused on the surface network while the real plan remains hidden. A navigator confirms arrival in five days.

Key Moments

• O'Brian cracks the Hyenahurst relay encryption and identifies the MV Frost Crown as Icener's vessel
• Luther, Nick, and Judy neutralize two operatives on a Palm District rooftop during a Sahara Square weather demonstration
• Response time reaches twenty minutes, the team's fastest yet
• Nick and Judy survive a coordinated highway ambush while protecting Keni Loggins
• Judy shields Keni with her own body when a polar bear aims an automatic weapon at the back seat
• Costa identifies the ambush as a witness elimination, not a demonstration
• Keni provides access point documentation for Lynxley-era weather wall maintenance tunnels
• Pawbert dismisses Milton's hints about deeper infrastructure as manipulation
• Nick proposes bringing in Precinct 99 for the Otterdam infiltration
• Jake Peralta drops all humor and agrees immediately when he hears the stakes
• Pawbert voices guilt over his family's infrastructure enabling the crisis
• Judy draws the distinction between Milton's manipulation and Pawbert's contribution
• Icener makes his first full on-screen appearance aboard the Frost Crown bridge
• Icener orders Roskova to continue surface demonstrations as misdirection

Key Lines

Characters Introduced

Locations

• ZSI Headquarters - Crisis Coordination Center; analysis room; conference room
• Sahara Square - Weather demonstration district; sand accumulation on streets
• Palm District - Apartment complex rooftop; transmission point location
• Canopy Expressway - Rainforest District elevated highway; ambush site
• Pawthorne Mansion - Living room; pack's private strategy session
• Shaw's Bar - Where Jake receives Nick's call; B99 hangout
• MV Frost Crown - International waters; Icener's ice-class vessel

Items

• MV Frost Crown — Icener's ice-class vessel; registered to Arctic Meridian Shipping; coordinating arrival through Otterdam
• Keni Loggins's folder — Yellowed maintenance schedules, access protocols, and junction schematics from thirty years of weather wall service
• Palm District transmission equipment — Collapsible antenna, ruggedized laptop, cables; captured intact
• Icener's coastline map — Approach routes and landing points marked; on Frost Crown bridge chart table

Notes

• Icener's first appearance is deliberately withheld until this episode, building tension through his shadow presence across the first six episodes.
• The decision to bring in Precinct 99 sets up the B99 heist crossover in the following two episodes.
• Jake's line about family echoes the series' central theme about chosen family and parallels his own coining of the word "pack" during his first crossover appearance.
• Keni Loggins's name is a play on musician Kenny Loggins.
• The script references "Hitchcock" and "Scully" (sea lion and walrus) arm-wrestling over nachos at Shaw's Bar, a classic B99 background gag.