Upon realizing that both were suspecting each other as being C.I.A informants Charlie reveals to Lou that he checked upon Lou's past jobs just to make sure he actually worked at those places. Charlie reveals to Lou that the programming manager Mr. Coleman, who fired Lou, Mary, Murray, and Sue Ann in the last episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, was shortly fired by the owners of WJM due to his incompetence in managing the station seemingly vindicating that the gang were actually doing a good job their and we're wrongly let go.
The plot has similarities to the case of Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee, later dramatized as The Falcon and the Snowman.