Disney+’s National Treasure: Edge of History episode two ended with a very shocked and confused Jess (Lisette Olivera) learning her mother was the author of an unpublished academic paper that provided Liam’s (Jake Austin Walker) dad with information on rare artifacts. Episode three opens with Jess confirming she now believes her mom knew about the treasure.
Jess, Tasha (Zuri Reed), and the gang’s newest member, Liam, show up at Ethan’s place to use Oren’s (Antonio Cipriano) old camcorder. They watch a tape and Jess acts as interpreter, explaining her mom is delivering a lecture about women fleeing as war broke out. They brought with them sacred objects so their history would be preserved.
One brave woman, Malinche, risked her life to save the treasure from the Conquistadors. Her name was dragged through the mud for what others perceived as helping Cortes, but she was actually keeping an eye on the Conquistadors while her underground alliance of women smuggled the treasure away.
Tasha points out that all the women in the drawings are wearing the same necklace as Jess. Jess has a quick flashback to Peter Sadusky telling her the necklace is a secret oath.
The tape continues, and Jess’s mom explains the women created a treasure map and broke it into three pieces.
Jess’s mom’s lecture is disrupted by a man who claims everything in her dissertation is a fantasy. The three tribes that had the maps never associated with each other, and Malinche wasn’t a hero; she was a traitor.
Jess is once again shocked when her father appears on the video, adamantly defending her mother and saying he and her mother will prove it’s real by finding the treasure.
Jess needs a moment to collect herself after seeing her father in the video. Liam, too, has a moment and comes to the realization that their families weren’t crazy; the treasure is real.
Ethan (Jordan Rodrigues) shows up during the Scooby gang’s meeting and questions Jess. He thought she was done with this treasure stuff. (He’s wrong.)
Over at the FBI, Agent Ross (Lyndon Smith) receives a call from the coroner’s office which verifies she went against her boss’s orders and asked for a toxicology report on Peter Sadusky. As Agent Ross hurriedly gets off the phone, her boss stops by and delivers a pep talk about wanting her to be eager and assuring her that he believes in her.
After going over everything with Ethan, he becomes the newest member of the treasure-hunting group.
They meet up in Peter’s secret room and Oren geeks out over the artifacts, realizing Liam’s granddad is the redacted FBI agent referenced in Riley Poole’s podcast. Liam says his dad had one of the relics but died in a diving accident a few days later. No one knows where the relic is, but there was a clue that his dad and grandpa couldn’t figure out: “A message was passed to Sun King born to Peace.”
Jess and Ethan bounce ideas off each other and come up with King Louis and the Louisiana territory. And Tasha finds a note to beware of someone named Salazar.
Liam disagrees with the King Louis thing; he thinks it’s a different kind of king – Elvis. Elvis had a label called Sun Records and Oren chimes in that Elvis was a Freemason. They explore this theory and figure out Elvis’s great-great-great-grandmother was Cherokee. Her name was Morning Dove White, and that’s why “Peace” was capitalized in the quote. (Dove is a sign of peace.)
More and more clues seem to be pointing to Elvis. They realize they need to go to Graceland, break into a hidden room that Oren knows about, and retrieve a secret guitar that no one knows about.
One of Billie’s minions, Kacey (Breeda Wool), goes over Jess’s history with her boss. Another of Billie’s associates, Nate (Patrick Brennan), is about to open the relic they took from Jess when Billie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) realizes the clues with the map are on the inside of it, not the outside. She has someone bring her another relic now that she knows what to do with them.
Meanwhile, the coroner questions Agent Ross about investigating the death of a decorated FBI agent. She comes clean about how her boss wanted her to cancel the toxicology report. The coroner reveals much of the report is inconclusive. There were a lot of unknown substances in his system. And in a bizarre twist, Peter’s hand was stained orange as though he was clutching something.
Billie and her team seem to think that because they have two-thirds of the map, it will lead them to the other relic. Billie’s certain it’s in Mexico.
As Jess and her friends go over their plan to steal Elvis’s guitar, Oren’s busy freaking out. He believes they’re being followed and thinks it could be Salazar. It turns out he’s wrong and they make it into Graceland. Once there, Oren releases moths that get inside a display case, and Liam and Ethan show up posing as exterminators.
Graceland’s head of security asks Liam and Ethan to split up to check for moths anywhere else on the property. Ethan is led to the secret underground room and the head of security informs him he’ll need to sign a non-disclosure agreement before he leaves.
Ethan spots the guitar with the dove on it.
When the real exterminator shows up, Oren is given the task of stalling him.
Ethan shares photos of the guitar and Jess realizes they have to go back in when she spots Elvis’s gold record of “La Paloma.” Aside from the fact the name translates to “the dove,” what catches her eye is that song never went gold. Why would a gold record of it be hanging on the wall?
Jess and Liam head in, but Jess is momentarily stymied when she doesn’t know the code for the access panel. Ethan says he couldn’t see what the man entered to get in, and Liam helps out by borrowing a man’s guitar and singing an Elvis song, drawing attention to himself.
Jess manages to enter the secret room and plays the record that was hanging on the wall.
Unfortunately, Liam’s plan isn’t working and the head of security is on his way down in the elevator. A suspenseful moment passes when he examines the room and notices the record on the wall is crooked. However, he’s drawn back to Liam who’s now causing a scene to allow time for Jess to get out safely.
Tasha successfully wipes the security footage.
Jess plays them what she recorded, and it sounds like distorted voices. Liam thinks they can mess with some music software to try to clean it up.
Billie and her team are in a cave in Iztaccihuatl, Mexico, where she finds drawings of Incan, Aztec, and Mayan symbols on the walls. As Nate’s trying to fix the drone they’re using, Billie realizes this is a trap. She’s too late and Nate plummets to his death.
Ethan shows up at the bar to talk to Liam, hoping he understands they all have to be careful with Jess and not let her break the law. Liam reminds him that Jess let herself into Graceland. “How about I do me and you do you?” isn’t something Ethan wants to hear from Liam, and it seems to upset him. After Liam tells Ethan if he can’t handle it maybe he should bail out, Ethan blurts out that Jess is undocumented which catches Liam by surprise.
Ethan, visibly upset, shows up at Jess’s place and tells her what he did. She brushes it off like it’s not a big deal.
Jess goes to see Liam and tells him she knows what Ethan told him. He is her oldest friend, but she wishes he hadn’t done that. Liam admits if he knew that, he wouldn’t have let her go inside Graceland. Jess confesses that’s exactly why she doesn’t like to tell people right away.
Jess thought she knew all there was to know about her family, but now knows she was wrong. She believes the only thing that can help her figure out her family is finding the treasure.
Liam’s able to clean up the voices on the recording and it’s Elvis Presley claiming to have a message from Miss Morning Dove White: “The twin-tongued serpent’s tail is revealed in fair weather by the bend in the new found land.”
Kacey suggests to a sulking Billie that maybe there isn’t any treasure. Maybe the Daughters of the Plumed Serpent put these clues out there to keep the Conquistadors busy. After quoting Nelson Mandela, they raise a glass to Nate. Just then Billie receives an alert on her phone. She listens to the recording of Elvis…the same one Jess and Liam just heard.
Sulking time’s over for Billie.
- 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 4 Recap: “Charlotte”
- 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
