Ginger was rushed to the ER in critical condition after being hit by a car. Kevin and a distraught Kelly told Duke how they'd witnessed Ginger's accident. Paige was curious about Spencer's apparent connection to Ginger. Out in the waiting room, Duke questioned Adriana's motives in going to the hospital to check on Ginger's condition. Despite Spencer's efforts to save her, Ginger succumbed to her injuries. Afterwards, Adriana bemoaned the cruel way she had treated Ginger just before she'd died.
Rex headed to Statesville in hopes of lending Bo a hand with the hostage situation. Meanwhile, Carlo issued new orders to his eager cohorts. After Rex was caught trying to sneak into the cellblock, Bo made it clear to the young man how deeply he cared about his welfare. John and Cristian were cornered by two prisoners.
Outside the walls, Rex realized that Haskell might be secretly working for Carlo while Bo argued with the head FBI agent about their next move. Bo decided to make a solo attempt to rescue his detective. Cristian's quick thinking saved John from certain death. Rex trailed Bo into the exercise yard and watched in horror as the commissioner took a bullet to the neck.
Evangeline explained to Michael how his brother and the real Cristian Vega had become trapped in the violence at the prison. Fearing for John's life, Michael comforted an equally frightened Natalie. Hugh offered Evangeline a sympathetic ear and a kindly word to the wise.
Tess told Nash how much she wanted to go back to the happy life they had once enjoyed in Napa. Niki bumped into Tess and Nash at a bar.
Paige watched as Matthew recited the state capitals in front of a still-comatose Nora. Afterwards, Matthew expressed his worry and concern about Bo to Paige. Paige reassured the boy, telling him that the station had just heard from Bo a little while before. Suddenly, Spencer demanded to see Paige in the corridor. He told her that Bo had been shot.
Rex was at Bo's side as he lay bleeding in front of Statesville. Rex refused to leave the commissioner until they got to the hospital, where Matthew ran out and spotted his father on the stretcher. Paige and Spencer sparred over who would operate on Bo, and Paige tearfully yelled at Truman that he wouldn't be laying a finger on her beloved. Spencer insisted that he was Bo's best hope for survival, and Paige reluctantly agreed to do a dual prep for surgery.
Meanwhile, Matthew finally broke down in the face of both of his parents' conditions, and Rex was unable to stop him from fleeing. Matthew made his way to Nora's room, where he implored his mother to wake up because Bo needed them. Meanwhile, Paige and Spencer left the pre-op room and erupted into another argument. Paige claimed that she'd seen what Spencer had done to Ginger, but Truman insisted that he had done everything in his power to save the young girl's life. He swore that he needed to operate on Bo and told Paige that she didn't want to be responsible for leaving little Matthew an orphan. Paige agreed, but decided that she would stand in to observe.
Clint and Antonio were on the hunt for Tess and Niki Smith. They ran into Natalie outside of Rodi's, and Clint was immediately concerned that Natalie had encountered Niki. Natalie hadn't seen Jessica or Viki, and she was stunned when her father informed her that Niki Smith was out, and possibly Tess, too. Natalie had gone through so much over the past 24 hours that she was hardly able to absorb the news. Clint took her inside Rodi's, and Natalie let her father in on the truth about Cristian's real identity.
Clint comforted Natalie, telling her that Cristian had to have thought he'd been doing right by her. He admitted that Cris should never have lied, and Natalie told him that he wasn't the only one; John had also known about Cris for months. Antonio overheard the last part and demanded to know what John knew about his brother. Natalie covered then she, Clint, and Antonio took off in search of Viki and Jessica.
Niki ran into Tess and Nash in a roadside bar and did her best to impersonate Viki. However, Tess saw right through her act and sent Nash away for a moment. Tess told Niki to "cut the crap" and revealed to her that "you're not the only alter in town." Niki was stunned to learn that Jessica wasn't herself, and she claimed to have no knowledge that the young Buchanan heiress suffered from DID. Tess told her that she ought to know, since her very existence was all Niki's fault. Niki said that she would accept blame for a lot of things, but not for Tess's existence.
Tess tried to walk away from Niki, but Jessica made a valiant effort to emerge so that they could get to the truth about what had happened all those years before. As Jessica and Tess fought for control, Nash ran to the side of the woman he loved just as Clint, Antonio, and Natalie arrived on the scene. Jessica woke up in control, and Antonio took her back to Llanfair. Clint confronted Niki and told her she could ride peacefully back to Llanfair or else he would have her committed. Niki threatened Clint, telling him that he was in for "one hell of a fight." Clint replied, "Been there, done that," but Niki insisted that it was going to be far worse than anything they'd been through before.
Evangeline and Layla caught up at Capricorn. Evangeline was shocked by all that she had witnessed at the prison, and she brought her sister up to speed. It was obvious how much she still cared about John as she worried whether he was alive or dead. Layla demanded that Evangeline tell Antonio the truth about his brother, but Evangeline felt too much guilt for how she'd handled Cristian's situation.
Inside the prison walls, Cristian and John were still trapped in the stairwell. Suddenly, Hesser's voice sounded over the intercom, thanking everybody for their loyalty. Hesser also revealed that he was aware that a transmitter had been planted in the briefcase. Hesser had a new demand: he wanted a hostage. Hayes was foaming at the mouth with excitement as Hesser sent him to finish off John and Cristian once and for all.
Hayes had no idea who Hesser had in mind as his hostage. Cristian had had it with waiting, and he abandoned John in the stairwell. At the same time, two inmates joined Hesser to hunt down McBain once and for all. While John waited like a hunted animal, Cristian managed to come up behind Hayes and steal his weapon.
Dorian and Asa spent time together, but Asa refused to listen to her badmouthing David. They continued to wonder about the scene they'd witnessed earlier between Ginger and Spencer, but when Adriana appeared and told her mother that she wouldn't be able to contact Ginger as planned, they learned of her death. Their curiosity was piqued even further when they heard that Spencer had tried to save the girl and thought the scenario was just too perfect. Adriana wondered why her mother was with someone she hated and didn't buy her reason. Asa and Dorian decided to head to the hospital for some sleuthing. Duke stopped by shortly after their departure, upset over Ginger and apologizing for his rudeness to Adriana.
Rex kept Matthew company as Spencer operated on Bo under Paige's watchful eye. They were joined by Kevin and Kelly, who tried to reassure the boy that his dad was in good hands after they learned of his shooting. Dorian and Asa arrived and learned of the shooting, as well. Upset that Spencer was operating, commotion ensued as Asa charged into the OR and ordered his enemy to stop -- or he'd kill him. Paige yelled as the old man was warned that he was ruining the sterile environment.
Kevin rushed in, grabbing his grandfather and trying to get him to leave. Spencer was his usual snide self as he professed that Bo's death would be on Asa's head. Asa stated that if Bo died, Spencer died. Asa berated Kevin for laying his hands on Asa, and Rex learned of Ginger's death. He tried to contact Adriana.
David dropped by to see Blair as she left Spencer a message to call her. After he told her she looked awful in his own inimitable way, she filled him in on Todd and the latest with Jackie. He was there to discuss Spencer, calling him inhuman except for the fact that he loved Blair. He told her he didn't want her involved with him because things never turned out right around him. He continued that he'd blackmailed David into not marrying Dorian, but Blair didn't believe him. Picking up her phone to check for messages, she eagerly listened to the voicemail, assuming that Spencer had returned her call. It was not him but Ginger warning her, "He's not who you think he is."
As he was being ushered out, David warned Blair to be careful, and Dorian showed up. He admitted to missing her every day, which touched the hardened-on-the-outside woman. The call from Ginger was mentioned, but Dorian had to deliver the news of her death, along with details about the girl's argument with Spencer and his ineffectiveness in surgery causing the death. Blair compared Dorian to David, with both of them trying to pass blame for problems onto the wrong people. Things went downhill for Blair when Dorian felt it necessary to warn her about Spencer, pretty much repeating Ginger's phrasing.
Adriana received Rex's call, and she and Duke learned about Bo. They headed for the hospital. Adriana comforted Matthew while Duke spotted his family members. Rex admitted that Bo had been the closest thing to a father that he'd ever had and that he could totally understand how Matthew was feeling. He and Adriana grabbed hands just as Duke was walking over. Everyone waited for some word as Asa said a prayer, though feeling like a hypocrite. In surgery, Bo's blood pressure dropped, and he flatlined.
Natalie got her guard to drive her to Statesville; she wanted answers. She asked for Bo and learned of his shooting, while the guard told her that most likely, John and Cristian were dead. She asked him about his shooting of the prisoner, and the guard shrugged. He asked why she would care, because she was with the cop. Inside, Cristian had the gun and the advantage over Hayes, while Carlo and his cronies encountered John with a hostage.
Since Carlo couldn't care less about the man in custody, he ordered his men to take John, which they did. The tables were turned, but John managed to save himself, temporarily, while reminding Hesser that John was his bargaining chip. Hesser agreed but said that once he got what he wanted, John was dead. John also managed to get Carlo to admit to controlling Cristian to kill Tico, though unfortunately, Antonio was to be murdered, also. Carlo wished to take over the Santi empire, and he'd been betrayed by Antonio, so it was all payback.
There was a microphone hidden under the steps, and the confession was either being recorded or heard elsewhere. Carlo demanded safe passage -- or John was dead. Hayes tried to negotiate with Cristian while enraging him at the same time with his comments about Natalie. Finally, he took him by surprise. The men wrestled, and the gun went off.
Much to the relief of all the Buchanans in the waiting room, Spencer emerged from the operating room with news that Bo had made it through surgery. Leading up to that last-minute announcement, there were many tender moments. Asa kept barking orders and made sure everyone knew who was a real Buchanan and who was not; for example, Matthew was, Kelly was not. Adriana tried to comfort Duke, but he rejected her, only to profess his love for her later. Adriana found Rex, who considered Bo his uncle, and they both took Matthew under their wing. Rex and Matthew went to the chapel. Matthew showed Rex how to pray. "Please don't let me live alone," Matthew said.
Clint took Niki home and almost fell for Niki pretending to be Viki. Niki tried her best to maneuver Clint into bed, but he wasn't interested. "Are you dead or something?" she barked. Clint got a call about Bo, so he headed to the hospital and gave Nash the keys to watch over Niki. Niki offered to make a deal with Nash. Maybe they could both work together to get what they wanted. Nash reminded her that he had made a promise to Jessica. Jessica, Niki reminded him, was sleeping with Antonio. That struck a nerve, but Nash wasn't changing his mind -- yet.
Antonio kept Jessica company in Jessica's room as Jessica tried to explain why they needed to keep Tess and Niki alive to help her. Jessica tried to explain to Antonio that locking her up made the Tess side of her stronger. Antonio confessed that if he didn't watch Jessica, he'd lose her. Antonio was about as confused as Nash had been the previous day. Jessica learned that Viki had let Niki out to help her, and Jessica worried that they might have lost Viki forever.
The violence continued at Statesville. John escaped from Carlo's clutches and literally ran into Cristian who had left Hayes for dead. But Hayes hadn't quite been dead when Cristian had left; in fact, he'd managed to drag himself to the airshaft and set the bomb to go off when Cristian would return. That last act before dying worked. Cristian did trip the wire, and a bomb went off, which left Cristian covered in dust and John pinned under lots of cement wall. John urged Cristian to leave while he could. Though unwilling at first, Cristian left with the tape of Carlo's confession.
Natalie kept getting in the way at Statesville but then got a message from Rex explaining that Warden Haskell was on Carlo's side. Unfortunately, that very warden was watching her when she got the message, and he wasn't about to let her out of his sight. Natalie tried to get away, but Haskell said, as he stuck his gun in her side, "Congratulations, Mrs. Vega, you've just graduated from civilian to hostage."
Marcie and Hugh ran into Michael at the police station. Michael was beside himself with worry about John, but Marcie noticed that he was almost as concerned about Natalie. When Hugh went to visit Todd in his cell, Marcie tried to comfort Michael. He appreciated her words, but it was obvious that their connection had suffered. When Hugh returned, Marcie expressed her feelings of uselessness in the face of Michael's pain. When a call came in to the station, Marcie answered the phone and immediately fell into the duties of her old job as dispatcher. Hugh was impressed with her phone manner and told her that she'd just found a way to not feel useless anymore
Evangeline visited Todd in his cell to let him know that she was dropping his case. She reminded Todd that he had said he would be nothing but honest with her, but the coroner's report had just come back, and it looked like Margaret had already been dead when she'd hit the water. Evangeline insisted that not one, but two different coroners' reports cited Margaret's cause of death as strangulation, not drowning. Todd maintained that a mistake had been made, and he seemed genuinely confused by the results.
Meanwhile, Blair had dropped by Spencer's and interrupted the doctor in nothing but his towel. Once he was properly dressed, Blair told him that she had received a call from Ginger Foley just before the girl's death; Ginger had told her simply that "he isn't what he seems." Blair had thought Ginger might be referring to Todd, but David had suggested that she could have been talking about Spencer. Spencer made up a story and convinced Blair that Ginger had just been upset because he'd told her he wouldn't persuade Blair to give her a good job reference.
Blair seemed to buy Spencer's story, but before they could discuss things further, Paige dropped by. Paige informed Blair that Spencer had saved Bo's life, and Spencer told Blair that every patient's life was of value to him. Once Blair left, Paige couldn't hold back her disgust. She reminded Spencer of the patient that he'd killed years before, but Spencer insisted that Paige was at fault for that death. As Paige headed out, Spencer told her that he'd let her know what the price was for saving her boyfriend's life.
Blair headed directly to the jail, where she told Todd that she still wanted to believe in him. He asked her to marry him that night, knowing full well that a wife couldn't be asked to testify against her husband. When Hugh dropped by, the truth was revealed about Margaret's cause of death. Faced with the seemingly indisputable facts from the coroner's report, Blair stormed off, leaving Todd behind.
Haskell dragged Natalie into the depths of the prison, where Carlo was relieved to see that he had a hostage to help aid his quick escape. Meanwhile, John fought to free himself from the debris from the roof cave-in, but his strength was running out. Two inmates stumbled upon John and attempted to kill him, but Cristian appeared on the scene in time to knock them out and free John from the wreckage. The two men were on their way to the sewer to escape when Carlo spoke over the prison intercom to announce that Natalie Vega was his hostage.
Cristian and John made a last-minute change of plans and headed toward the common area, where they knew Hesser was holed up. They managed to overcome Haskell, but then Carlo appeared with a gun to Natalie's head. He forced McBain and Vega to hand their one weapon over to Haskell then Natalie told the men that Hesser only had one bullet. Natalie and Cristian shared a meaningful glance, each of them overcome to finally be in the face of their true love. Hesser said that he needed Natalie in order to ensure his escape, but his remaining bullet needed to be put to good use. He forced Natalie to choose who he should shoot, John or Cristian.
