The action picks up with Jess (Lisette Olivera) deep in thought trying to decipher the message she heard from none other than Elvis Presley (in episode three) as Disney+’s National Treasure: Edge of History episode four begins. A knock at the door interrupts her concentration, and it turns out that Ethan’s apologizing via cupcakes.
Oren (Antonio Cipriano) is deep in his own investigation and asks Ethan (Jordan Rodrigues) if he wants to help. It’s a no-go for Ethan; he’d rather spend time with his new girlfriend.
Meanwhile, Jess is getting frustrated that she can’t figure out Elvis’s riddle. Tasha (Zuri Reed) is there helping by talking her through it.
Elsewhere, a familiar face is getting off a private jet. Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), who played a key role alongside Nicolas Cage in the National Treasure movies, is on the phone with Ben (Nic Cage’s character). It sounds like there won’t be a reunion anytime soon.
Liam (Jake Austin Walker) is texting with Jess when his mom tells him to invite whoever he’s texting to his grandpa’s wake. After he invites Jess, she and Tasha debate whether this is a date. (A date to a wake? To each their own.) Jess decides it’s too soon to go to a funeral because it’s just a year since her mom’s death. Tasha is about to take matters into her own hands when Liam invites her and Oren as well.
Billie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) attends a board meeting and one of the men involved has concerns about her. She lost a brother while searching for the treasure and she almost lost a relic to a girl. Billie reminds him they have two relics because of her and insists everything is fine. When the man brings up the infamous Salazar, she cuts him off, assuring him she’s not afraid of Salazar.
After playing the Elvis recording for the board, Billie and Kacey (Breeda Wool) are confronted by a man named Charlie in the parking garage. Charlie has two armed men backing him up as he demands the relics. Kacey is easily able to take the men down.
The mysterious Salazar stakes out Peter Sadusky’s wake.
Liam and Jess go over all the clichéd sayings people spout when someone passes away as Oren spots Riley Poole and geeks out. When Riley comes over to pay his respects to Liam, Tasha hits him with the treasure talk and enlists his help.
Jess tells Riley the riddle and he tries to work it out, but it’s obvious he’s got nothing. Just then Riley’s interrupted by Agent Hendricks (Armando Riesco).
Oren’s running home to retrieve his books written by Riley – so Riley can autograph them – when he runs into a half-naked Ethan and his girlfriend, Meena (Salena Qureshi). He tells them about Riley attending the wake and, apparently, Meena wants to meet him.
Agent Ross (Lyndon Smith) is also at the wake asking questions when she spots Jess and Tasha talking to Liam. She wonders what happened with their kidnapped friend and the relic. The girls try and explain it away and seem to succeed when Ross spots her boss (Agent Hendricks) and wraps up the conversation.
Next, Ross looks through Peter’s study and discovers a poisonous plant in his office. She bags it up to have it analyzed. As she’s leaving the study, she runs into Agent Hendricks and he informs her that he knows she went ahead with the toxicology report on Peter. Surprisingly, he apologizes and lets her know he has her back if she wants to pursue Peter’s death investigation.
When Oren, Ethan, and Meena show up at the wake Ethan spots Salazar. He yells, “Who are you?” at him and Salazar takes off in his car. Ethan then tells Jess and Tasha the guy they saw on their way to Graceland really was following them; he was just there watching them. They assume it’s Billie’s doing.
Riley is just about to text Ben to ask him about the riddle when he decides against it. He spots his own books on Peter’s bookshelves and discovers a secret locking mechanism. Jess finds him in Peter’s hidden room and explains it holds clues to a secret treasure.
Riley spots familiar glasses that once helped him and Ben solve clues, but he sets off an alarm when he picks them up. He and Jess have been locked in the room and the air supply is dwindling!
Jess decides she and Riley need to figure out the code to get out. Riley guesses wrong and that leaves them with just four more tries. Riley seems to have lost his touch when it comes to cracking codes while Jess seems to be working it out. After spotting the FBI logo above the keypad, she believes the code has to do with the FBI motto: Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity.
Liam has a conversation with Peter’s nurse and learns his grandpa always listened to his music. He has a change of heart and decides to speak at the wake.
Tasha realizes if Liam is there, then where is Jess?
Jess and Riley are starting to become weak from the lack of oxygen when Tasha begins searching for her friend. Tasha tries to open the secret room but can’t.
Liam performs an original song and his mom confesses that she regrets telling him not to pursue music. Their heartfelt moment is interrupted when Tasha informs Liam that she can’t find Jess, and someone is locked in the clue room.
A weak Riley spots Sadusky’s Silver Star (for bravery) which has a number on it. He tells Jess to try the number on the keypad.
Liam informs the gang that not only are Jess and Riley locked in the hidden room, but they could also suffocate to death. He thinks he can get in with a secret watch of his grandfather’s.
Jess and Riley have one more clue to try to figure out: Integrity.
Liam finds the watch, but it requires a thumbprint to turn it off.
Riley asks Jess how long she’s been trying to crack the clue. He scoffs when she says three days, reminding her that Ben’s family was attempting to crack a code for three generations. Riley’s pretty proud that although Ben assumed Charlotte in the clue was a woman, he helped him realize it was a ship. That gives Jess an idea. She had been assuming the twin-tongue serpent was Malinche, but after remembering seeing an Indigenous woman in the books, she figures out that it was Sacagawea.
Jess spots a drawing of a snake that has eight sections and letters all around the sections. Riley and Jess realize they spell numbers, but both come up with different ones…180 and 81. Jess thinks they should go with Riley’s number, but Riley believes Jess thinks like Ben – and Ben is always right. They go with Jess’s number and it works. They’re freed!
Jess tells the gang that she figured out the clue. Sacagawea was an interpreter for her people, and she hid a clue in one of the expedition journals.
Jess and Liam are on a roll figuring this out but Ethan the pessimistic doesn’t believe that could be it. They ignore him and keep going. Fair weather isn’t weather, it is a person: American explorer Meriwether Lewis. Sacagawea hid the clue in the journal Meriwether dedicated to his Newfoundland dog because she knew the journal would be preserved.
Riley joins in and suggests York, a man enslaved by Clark – as in Lewis and Clark. He navigated trails, bartered for food, and saved them a time or two. Tasha points out York was another Black hero forgotten by history. Riley says York also hid clues in the journal, but on his way to his wife in Kentucky he succumbed to cholera in Tennessee. Who else was from Tennessee? Elvis’s great-great-great-grandmother, Miss Morning Dove White. That journal is on display at the governor’s mansion in Tennessee.
Liam and Jess are alone when Liam asks her how she’s feeling. He adds, “There’s no greater treasure than lost time, so I’m not going to waste any more.” He pulls Jess in for a kiss.
Riley calls Jess and informs her someone else knows about her clue. Ben Gate’s mom was approached by someone who played her the recording of Elvis.
Jess’s romance with Liam appears to be short-lived. Episode four ends with Jess explaining that only she and her friends know about the recording. Riley believes one of her friends isn’t really her friend. She zeroes in on Liam.
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 1 Recap: “I’m a Ghost”
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 2 Recap: “The Treasure Map”
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 3 Recap: “Graceland Gambit”
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 5 Recap: “Bad Romance”
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 6 Recap: “Frenemies”
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 7 Recap: “Point of No Return”
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 8 Recap: “Family Tree”
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 9 Recap: “Meeting with Salazar”
- National Treasure: Edge of History Episode 10 Recap: “Treasure Protectors”
- Interview with Series Stars Antonio Cipriano & Zuri Reed
- National Treasure: Edge of History Stars Jake Austin Walker and Lisette Olivera Interview
