Rubicon has been working with an intense, slow-burning formula for a while now and that’s been wonderful to watch. The pieces have been slowly coming together in the background while individual episodes have focused more on the quirky characters working at API. That’s been an effective strategy on an individual episode level, but really rears its awesome head here in “A Good Day’s Work,” where the puzzle finally comes together in what is certainly the most exciting episode yet.

It is now when we realize that every little beat and moment leading up to the events of this effort had a purpose and it makes the outcomes of the episode even more intense and exceptional.

Things are finally and truly coming into place. Will figures out that not only are the Atlas McDowell people aware of numerous world disasters, wars, etc. of recent years, they’ve been instrumental in organizing them so that they could individually benefit financially. But the problem with Will’s current predicament is that though he’s uncovered one of the biggest conspiracies in our nation’s history, he can’t really do anything about it. He’s just one middle manager at a think tank. Hell, he doesn’t even have any friends to really tell this news to, so much so that he has to track down Katherine Rhumor and break her vow of silence just to get it out there in the world.

But even though he hasn’t told a bunch of people, Will’s too far deep in this to get off of Truxton’s radar. He’s being followed at every turn, the bugging continues and now, Truxton’s checking up on him at work as well. Once he figures out that Will has been snooping around in the personal histories of Atlas folks, including himself, Truxton’s had enough. He likes Will, appreciates his work, but can’t have him around anymore, so he orders the hit.

What’s great about the episode is that we know much, much earlier than Will about Truxton’s decision, so he’s walking around for a third of the episode as an unknowing dead man. We see Bloom set the stage in the apartment to make it look like a drug overdose. We watch the ridiculously good conversation between Will and Truxton where they are both attempting to hide major secrets. Again, Truxton really does like Will and his work ethic and he probably does feel a little sorry for having David killed as well, but at this point, it’s just business. He’s part of a major machine and he can’t take any chances. And of course, Will thinks he’s about to bring the house down on Truxton. It’s an intense scene, one that Truxton’s probably experienced multiple times in his life.

And then it all comes to a head in what’s probably the best sequence of events the series has done thus far. Bloom waits for Will to come home before attacking, but of course Mr. Travers somehow gets out of the choke-hold, pulls out his gun and puts one right between his assassin’s head. Then Will calls up Kale, who quickly arrives with a cleaner in-toe and takes care of business. Will is left alone, covered in blood in his bathroom, drinking a glass of water. He’s trapped in silence as the heavy rock music drowns out the sounds of the saw presumably cutting up Bloom’s body for disposal.

It’s at this moment when Will finally breaks. He’s been teetering on the edge of sanity all season, and I’m not too sure how he comes back from something like this. He’s so used to people following him around every corner, but this is something totally different. He killed a man, and whether in self-defense or not, that’s a tough thing to deal with. Andy comes to the door to apologize for an earlier fight, but he can’t even look at her, he can’t even think about that weird relationship. He trusts no one, wants no one around and probably only has one final desire before he goes into some sort of hiding: bring down Atlas. But how in the hell can he do it?

I am especially concerned about Will and the rest of New York after the Kateb story also comes to a head in this episode. Grant comes up with the great point that because no one has heard of him before 2004, there’s a good chance that Kateb is a new identity for someone else, probably an American, and damnit if he’s not correct. What’s worse? That man, Joseph Purcell, is now in New York City.

With Truxton particularly antsy to off Will and this development about Purcell also seeming to be of high interest to the API boss (it sure seemed that way in the final scene between he and Grant), it looks as though the two arcs are coming together nicely. I know that this whole thing wasn’t planned out to just eliminate Will, but after Purcell takes care of whatever he needs to in NYC (bombing a financial institution perhaps?), isn’t it likely that they’ll stick him on Will since the Atlas folks know he’s a sure-fire killer?

Maybe, maybe not, but now everyone’s cards are on the table and there is absolutely no going back. Will knows Truxton tried to kill him, just as Truxton knows that Will is about to take him down. It’s all a matter of who gets to reach their final goal first. And I can’t freaking wait to see how it all plays out.