'The Messengers' Season 1, Episode 3 - 'Path to Paradise' Recap

This week, the angels split off a bit to take care of business even as their mission became clearer. As such, there were three groups instead of one united team.

Raul

"I'm all for saving the world," Raul says, "but family comes first." It would seem that his unfinished business with his brother goes back to when he and his brother were sold out by a drug lord, which explains why he owed a debt to the FBI. So he and Erin take Nadia with them to figure out where her father is.

Meanwhile, Lucifer is conferring with El Jefe, the guy who sent men to kill Raul, who is disappointed that Raul is still alive. Lucifer tells him that if he brings Raul's brother Cesar here, Raul will come running. Raul is busy following leads to find his brother, including finding the guy that sold him out to the DEA in the first place.

To speed things along, Lucifer just confronts Raul himself and uses Raul's brother as leverage for information. "Your little drinking buddies from the bar," he says, "I want to know their names, where they're from, and what their mission is."

We don't see Raul give up the info, but we assume he does since he tracks down Cesar right away. Unfortunately, he finds Cesar chained up with a bomb on his chest...so Cesar tells him to get out of there and to take care of Nadia for him.

Vera

Joshua tries to convince Vera to stick to the mission, but she's still having trouble believing everything, or at least believing in the mission itself. She storms out of the bar, but some mysterious figure is watching her.

Alan shows up and antagonizes her about running off, but the two decide to get back to their plan. We also get some flashbacks to Vera's past, including meeting Michael's father Leo, who pretty much dumps her right after she finds out she's pregnant. As it turns out, Leo works at a lab that can help them analyze the rock that they got from the impact site. It also turns out that Leo is now in a wheelchair.

Leo was diagnosed with Huntington's disease back then, and actually broke up with Vera so that she wouldn't stay with him. Since the disease is hereditery, he didn't want to risk passing it on. Vera lies and says that he did the right thing, and she's been very happy.

Alan gets some results from the rock, which turns out to have every element known to man in it, plus one other unidentifiable element. The rock also causes a nearby plant to bloom almost instantaneously. Interesting...

Unfortunately, the guy who was watching Vera before steals the rock and runs off. Vera doesn't manage to catch him, but she does discover her power: she can leave her own body and travel around as a spirit, passing through walls and probably doing all kinds of other cool stuff!

The guy who stole the rock brings it back to a lab, where a bunch of other samples from the site are being held, but not before it disintegrates an apple that he was eating. Weird...

Rose, Peter, Joshua and Erin

Peter, Joshua and Rose are still sticking to the plan, and have figured out that the statue in Joshua's vision is right there in Texas. Erin is doing some sleuthing of her own, and finds out that the Middle Eastern man in Joshua's vision is the Afghani Prime Minister.

Rose and Erin go to the mosque where the Prime Minister is visiting and Rose manages to overhear some of his conversation, but not much. What's worse, they see Lucifer shake hands with the Prime Minister as he leaves. Uh oh.

The gang attends the funeral of a soldier that Peter saw in Cindy Richards' campaign ad, and Richards herself is there. As they debate whether or not she could be the Horseman of War instead of the Prime Minister, they see her shake hands with Lucifer too.

At the end, everyone convenes again, and Raul confesses to Rose that he betrayed all of them. Rose seems surprisingly okay with it, but Nadia is distraught over the death of her father.

Things only get worse as Peter, lured away from the bar by the singing of "Amazing Grace" by a homeless woman he seems to recognize, is promptly arrested by police.