The Fugitive

Leo has at last completed his primitive tank invention. Piero is not pleased to find that Leo thinks of the machine as more of a deterrent than a super weapon. In turn, Lisa is not convinced that Piero's designs are unselfish. She is correct as Piero plans to ride out to war with Duke Rocco and dispose of him on the battlefield. 

"Pretty snazzy, Leo!"

Meanwhile, the town's Milanese population is being persecuted. Their shops are ransacked, their belongings are stolen and they are thrown from their homes. Leo, Tom and Mac come on a group of men robbing Lucia Rossi and her Milanese grandmother Carla. Leo chivalrously slings one of his inventions (an all-natural alternative to tear gas) at the thugs and rescues the family from their clutches. The leader of the thugs Alberto is humiliated by his defeat at the hands of children and spreads a rumor that Lucia is a spy from Milan.

Unlikely spies

The Rossis takes shelter at Mac's house and Leo decides to ask Piero for help so they don't have to leave Florence. Piero agrees to rein in Alberto, but it turns out that he is actually Placidi's cousin and is terrorizing the townspeople on Piero's orders. Placidi almost tells Alberto about the staged assassination of Rocco's father, but Piero stops him. Alberto whips the Florence populace into a frenzy over the Milanese "spy" Lucia and Leo decides that they must smuggle the pair out of the city as soon as possible. Piero's secret campaign backfires in a small way when the propagandized Lorenzo fires his skilled Milanese tailor and walks around wearing slipshod outfits made by "good" Florentine tailors. 

Florentine worksmanship wins every time!

 Leo and Tom convince Verrocchio and the other workshop apprentices to help them rescue Lucia and her grandmother. 

 While they are coordinating an escape attempt, the haphazardly attired Lorenzo bumbles into Mac's home where the fugitives are hiding. He recognizes Lucia instantly despite her quick lie that she is "Imelda" and puts her to the question. 

The question

He just has time to alert Alberto before Tom collars him and hides. At first he refuses to believe that Lucia is being framed although Tom assures him she is just a scapegoat. He decides to give her a chance and orders Alberto to leave. 

"Um like there are like totally no spies in Mac's house. Like nuh-uh."

Leo gives Carla and Lucia fake papers to get out of Florence, but they must separate. Mac sprinkles the city with posters declaring Alberto a double agent for Milan. Tom safely escorts Carla out the city gates while Leo goes with Lucia. At the last minute Lucia panics and Leo must hide her at Verrocchio's workshop. He then comes up with a brilliant plan to help Lucia over the city gates. They rush to the church tower with Leo's wings and fly over the city walls. 

Like pigs, Florentine guards seem incapable of looking up

 On the outskirts of the city Lucia is reunited with her grandmother and they flee to safety. Alberto is furious that Lucia has escaped, but with posters labeling him a double agent all over Florence his thugs soon turn on him. 

"Oh, bollocks!"

 They also turn on Placidi when Piero declines to protect him, seeing an excellent opportunity to rid himself of a man who knows too much. Betrayed by his employer, Placidi reveals Piero's true schemes to Leo. Duke Rocco prepares to march on Milan and cordons off Verrocchio's workshop to prevent the theft of the weapon.

Moral of the story: Make sure your lieutenant is really dead before he can spill the beans

One nice thing about this week's episode is how all of the friends pulled together to help out Lucia and her grandmother. Even the usually reticent Verrocchio was guilt-tripped into helping by Leo, who successfully pulled his remember-when-you-were-falsely-accused-and-I-saved-you card.

"What can I say? My bark is worse than my bite."

This week after having had lots of storylines and dialogue in the past few episodes, Mac is back to his traditional role as occasional background helper. 

"Is it just me Tom or do I only have around two lines in this episode?"