The Equalizer season 5 part 1 recap: All to remember before part 2 arrives

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 premiere aired on December 2024, thrilling fans with an intense start to the season. From February 16, 2025, The Equalizer season 5 part 2 will air again on CBS. This new group of episodes will air once a week, each lasting for an hour. It will likely build on the intense storyline from the first part and give Robyn McCall and her friends new problems to solve.

Fans of The Equalizer season 5 part 1 were taken on an emotional and action-packed ride in the first part of season 5. The first episode, The Lost Ones, made several changes. Robyn's team was now only made up of herself and Harry. Robyn was having problems in her personal life, and Mel was dealing with trauma while taking a break from the equalizing work.

From Robyn's personal relationships, how she deals with trauma from the past, and how important it is to save an 11-year-old girl who has been kidnapped, the entire season 5 part 1 depicts several life-changing moments for her. Robyn was in even more danger by the end of part 1 because her enemies had gotten stronger.

Here's a detailed breakdown of The Equalizer season 5 part 1 to revisit the story’s pivotal moments before part 2 kicks off.

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A detailed look into The Equalizer season 5 part 1 recap

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 episode 1: The Lost Ones

Robyn McCall and her team are going through big changes at the start of The Equalizer season 5 part 1. Dante, who was close to Robyn, leaves for a job with the federal government in Los Angeles. Their relationship problems become less important after that.

While this is going on, Mel takes a break from equalizing work to focus on yoga and healing from her trauma. Robyn has to deal with her problems from the past and the present when she wakes up from a nightmare in which a scary version of herself has tied her up.

The case is about the kidnapping of a girl who is 11 years old. Sarah, the girl's guardian, comes up to Robyn and tells her that the girl's brother stole a truck full of weapons, putting them in a dangerous criminal network without knowing it.

Diego Sueño leads a group of thieves who demand the truck be returned and threaten the girl. Robyn takes the lead. When she finds out the truck has been impounded, she pays a police officer to let her get to it, but the boy tries to trade himself for his sister. The bad guys betray him, and both of his kids disappear.

Robyn's search takes her to a warehouse, where she meets Diego's man, Paco Alvarez. Angel Salazar, the boss of the cartel, captures Robyn after a tense fight and tells his men to torture her.

The kids who were taken come up to save Robyn just as Angel is about to corner her, which is a thrilling rescue. Angel promises to get even at the end of the episode, which sets up the intense cliffhanger for the rest of the season.

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 episode 2: Haunted Heights

Robyn investigates the suspicious death of Priscilla in The Equalizer season 5 part 1, episode 2, Haunted Heights, a spooky mystery. The episode begins with Priscilla running through her apartment building, seemingly chased, before falling to her death.

Robyn, Aunt Vi, and Delilah discuss her senior picture day and boyfriend Cam. Robyn and Delilah don't know Aunt Vi's unsettling medical news.

Priscilla's granddaughter Karla contacts Robyn, worried that her grandmother died intentionally. Karla believes Priscilla was stalked and the murder was never properly investigated after the police closed the case. Robyn volunteers out of guilt over her father's death.

Harry and she visit the building and find that tenants are afraid to stay due to strange events and a haunted apartment. AJ, the building owner, is unaware until his tenants suspect a ghost killed them.

Robyn finds a hidden camera that may hold the answers, but the footage is inconclusive. Harry decides to investigate at night after questioning the tenants, who mostly describe eerie events. He realizes the building has dangerous carbon monoxide levels after strange hallucinations. Robyn thinks someone is poisoning tenants to evict them.

Harry finds a group trying to buy the rent-controlled building. It turns out AJ's girlfriend is connected to this group and used his credit card to buy carbon monoxide, causing the deaths. Robyn saves AJ in time. Robyn calls Karla to update her after the case is closed.

While Delilah struggles with her relationship, Aunt Vi struggles with her health, and Mel struggles with her past trauma, the episode becomes more emotional.

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 episode 3: Just Fans

The Equalizer season 5 part 1, episode 3, Just Fans, begins with a tense scene of a woman chained to the floor and dressed by another woman. Soon, Robyn (Queen Latifah) takes on the case with help. Harry (Adam Goldberg) joins her undercover to find Lily.

After Lily, a social worker, disappeared the day before, her friend contacted Robyn. Lily left her daughter with a friend but never returned. Robyn discovers Lily is in a custody battle and cannot call the police. Harry follows Lily's phone to a transitional home, but she's gone. Her purse is found, but not her phone. A criminal from the home tells them Lily ran after seeing something disturbing.

Harry discovers Lily works for an adult subscription service to make extra money. He infiltrates Lily's management company for more clues. He hacks into Lily's phone and finds a photo of her with Sarah, a woman missing for months.

The case changes when Harry discovers that the company COO is connected to both women's disappearances. After Robyn confronts the COO, she admits to selling the women's identities to a fan. Robyn finds the kidnapper, fights him, and rescues Lily, reuniting her with her daughter.

Meanwhile, Aunt Vi (Lorraine Toussaint) develops feelings for a police captain, and Mel (Liza Lapira) attends therapy for trauma. After consulting Robyn, Dante (Tory Kittles) in Los Angeles stays with his son instead of moving.

In this intense episode of The Equalizer season 5 part 1, Robyn balances detective work with emotional support for her team while Aunt Vi and Mel face personal issues.

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 episode 4: Sacrifice

At the beginning of The Equalizer season 5 part 1, episode 4 named Sacrifice, the story goes back three months to when Harry (Adam Goldberg) and Fisk (Donal Logue) are on a secret mission to stop a cyberweapon. Harry is caught while they are trying to get away, but Fisk saves him.

Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes), who is in the present, is having trouble with a college essay because she feels stuck in her responsible life. She chooses to be more careless during her senior year.

At the same time, Harry breaks into an encrypted drive and finds a distress signal from Jason, a young hacker who seems trapped and forced to work against his will. Harry wants to help him because he feels they know each other, but Fisk needs to focus on the mission.

While Harry tries to figure out what the hacker's message means, Mel (Liza Lapira), who is having problems with therapy, leaves her session. She later goes back to Harry's lair and offers to help. They work together to find Jason and quickly go save him.

When Harry doesn't answer the phone, Mel decides to step in because she feels close to Jason. She gets there just in time to keep them safe during a shootout at the warehouse.

As the team finds out that Fisk hired Jason to spy on the Dragonfly Collective, it makes Harry, Robyn, and Fisk angry. As the mission goes on, Fisk gives up his life by handing over the hard drive so that Jason can be saved. The boat that Fisk was on explodes, and he is thought to be dead.

After the event, Mel returns to the team, and Dante (Tory Kittles) comes to town to see his sick father. Robyn tells him they should get back together, but she doesn't know how she feels about it.

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 episode 5: Take My Life... Please!

The team is called to protect Craig, a comedian who is being stalked by someone who wants to kill him in The Equalizer season 5 part 1, Episode 5. Robyn and the team find out that Craig's job has made a lot of people angry.

Not only did he not talk to his first wife, Markesha, anymore, but he also made fun of her job when they were together. A lot of people were mad about this, but Craig is most worried that the threats against him might be true. He feels bad about the enemies he made along the way.

When Robyn and her team look into it more, they find that Craig's rise to fame may have been a major reason why people were trying to kill him. Craig's big break came when he filled in for another comedian on a comedy tour.

The first comedian felt betrayed and left behind by the change. This hurt comedian thought Craig stole his career and had a deep grudge against him. He thought the only way to get his career back was to kill Craig and get rid of the competition.

Before one of Craig's shows, when Robyn and her team get ready to protect him, things get really tense. Before they can catch the bad comedian, though, someone shoots at Craig. Craig is lucky that the bullet only barely misses his shoulder, and he lives through the attack.

After the attempted murder, Craig knows he needs to be nicer to the people in his life. The events make him think about how he has been acting and help him see the results of his choices. He promises to change his ways from now on after coming to this realization.

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 episode 6: The Fight for Life

In The Equalizer season 5 part 1, episode 6, Robyn gets into a fight inside a prison. It starts with a fight between prisoners in the cafeteria. The episode tells us about the things that happened before her hidden mission.

Before Robyn, Delilah, and Miles eat breakfast together, Robyn has to leave because of work. A man comes up to her and says that his sister Jenna disappeared after being freed from prison. Jenna's records are missing, and Robyn quickly learns of this. They also find the body of a woman reported missing.

As the investigation goes deeper, Robyn goes to the prison as a prison guard while Mel acts like a prison guard. Robyn goes into the prison to seek information about where Jenna is. A prisoner named Bianca tells her that Jenna might be locked up alone because she crossed Bianca.

Robyn makes threats to get someone to speak up in order to make things worse. In the meantime, Mel sneaks into the warden's office to look for useful files. It's not easy because she has to avoid security and make noise.

Robyn is still on her undercover mission when she ends up in a dangerous fight cage where prisoners are forced to fight for the entertainment of people outside the cage.

Robyn finds out that Jenna is one of the fighters in the end. Jenna and Robyn try to get away, but Bianca challenges Robyn to a fight, and one happens. They fight back against the guards with Mel's help and run away. Just as things look bad, Dante shows up with federal agents to save Robyn and the others.

In the end, Robyn and Jenna are reunited with her brother, and the guards who were being dishonest are arrested. In the end, Robyn and Miles have a quiet dinner together while Dante watches from afar. The Equalizer season 5 part 1 keeps following intense moments with a strong team dynamic.

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 episode 7: Slay Ride

The Christmas season gets crazy in The Equalizer season 5 part 1, Episode 7 called Slay Ride. A couple is arriving at a Christmas-decorated house at the start of the episode. A woman starts shooting at the man just as they are about to enter. She threatens to kill Dante, who quickly steps in and shoots her.

Meanwhile, Robyn is making Miles's Christmas dinner since he is on call. Although Delilah is nervous about meeting Cam's family, Robyn reassures her.

At the hospital, Dante and Shaw are watching over La Maldad, a member of the cartel who has agreed to assist the FBI in their investigation against her father. Still, she wants to kill Dante for shooting her. Dante warns Robyn about a possible threat before she arrives to bring Miles dinner.

Later, she sees two paramedics with cartel tattoos and calls Dante. This causes a shooting at the hospital. Robyn and Dante team up to keep Miles, La Maldad's surgeon, safe.

Additionally, Harry breaks into the security system and informs them that hitmen from the drug cartel are attacking hospital staff. As things get worse, Mel steps in to help and kills some of the attackers when the sicarios demand La Maldad's release.

As the tension rises, Robyn figures out that La Maldad is hiding the fact that she is in pain to keep her transport from leaving, which is a trick to get the sicarios to save her. Daringly, Dante and Mel fight the sicarios, and Robyn tricks their leader into shooting him.

When the sicarios finally get to the rooftop to catch a helicopter, Dante has to face Shaw, who is holding Miles hostage. Within a dramatic standoff, Robyn kills Shaw, which protects Miles.

Ellie, Cam, Aunt Vi, and Delilah watch the news at home because they are worried about Robyn. Although Delilah tells Cam he should go to his family's party, he chooses to stay with her. Meanwhile, Robyn and Miles talk about their relationship, and Mel and Harry exchange Christmas gifts.

Delilah and Cam kiss at the end of the episode while they drink a holiday drink at the bar. The Equalizer season 5 part 1 keeps packing exciting moments and touching character growth.

The Equalizer season 5 part 1 is available to stream on CBS.

Edited by Bharath S