The CNU resolves a hostage situation when a corporate executive takes 16 hostages in the company's boardroom. A second crisis involves a domestic situation that results in Matt and Emily questioning a decision they had made during the standoff. The second crisis soon turns into another crisis when the wife of the second crisis'hostage taker holds her husbands mother hostage in exchange for her "lover"who she supposedly was having an affair with. Matt is assigned to one scene and Emily who is no longer on the same hostage negotionating team takes the other as they attempt to solve both conflicts.
A hostage situation arises at Dunne Hill Juvenile Detention Center when its inmates take several of the guards hostage. However, the teenage inmates'intention is not to escape from prison but to obtain the attention of the Senator to request the prison to be remained open thereby avoiding transfer to a Supermax facility. After Matt risks his job to help the kids Matt and Emily decide its best if they see other people.
The key witness in a federal money-laundering case and his wife are kidnapped and held hostage during the trial. Knowing the witness'value to the prosecution, the hostage-taker demands a $2 million ransom from the federal government. Matt and Emily, under Cheryl's leadership, join forces with Cheryl's ex-boyfriend, Sam, who is the FBI agent working on the case, to resolve the crisis.
A young boy is kidnapped from his parents at a fair and used as a ploy to obtain the attention of Emily after the hostage-taker sends a videotape to the media, showing the boy with a sign Ëmily Lehman did this". It becomes evident that the hostage-taker is looking for revenge as he uses the media to embarrass and humiliate Emily. He gives Emily and Matt a 24-hour deadline to find the boy. When the hostage-taker reveals more personal details about Emily's past, Emily decides to visit her sister, Allison, who is incarcerated at a federal prison. Allison refuses to help Emily, who had refused to use her FBI position to help her get out of her prison sentence.
As Darah, daughter of polygamous cult leader Warren Keegan, attempts to escape from her father and reunite with her sister, she is abducted by Warren and his three wives. Warren Keegan is wanted by the FBI after he assaulted a federal officer. By tracking the satellite dish Warren installed on his recreational vehicle, Matt and Emily are able to locate the hostage and her hostage takers. They find out from Darah's sister, who was Warren's wife before she escaped, that Warren believes that he could be saved from the apocalypse if he had four wives. However, Warren's actual reasons behind his marriages are unknown to Matt and Emily, and Warren's wives.
Matt and Emily negotiate with two armed bank robbers who take a subway full of hostages. During the negotiation Matt is pulled away to deal with an hostage taker who Matt has met and successfully negotiated with, who has taken a therapist and the therapist's husband hostage. Matt talks the man who believes that an Evil Psychic Agent has taken the form of the therapist husband.
Matt and Emily negotiate with a U.S. Customs Agent at San Pedro who takes his co-workers hostage after apparently trying to smuggle in a crate full of illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, Emily contemplates accepting a one-year special assignment that would mean being separated from Matt and is disturbed by his response.
A father turns to CNU to prevent a hostage situation after finding his teenage son's notebook full of violent images, but Matt and Emily arrive at the school after the hostage situation begins. The situation turns when one of the four gunmen shoots a hostage and takes his three comrades hostage as well.
Matt Flannery and Emily Lehman, two FBI agents specialized in crisis negotiation, are negotiating with a television soap opera actor who is about to lose custody of his sons. After it is resolved, they are sent to negotiate with the son of a state senator who takes hostages inside of a coffee shop using a home-made suicide bomber vest.