R.J. DECKER - “Manos: Hands of Fate” - A missing man, a mysterious item and a dangerous stranger in a pickup truck pull R.J. into one of his strangest cases yet. Meanwhile, someone close to him is caught up in a mystery all their own. TUESDAY, SEPT. 22 (10:00-11:00 p.m. EDT) on ABC. (Disney/Dana Hawley) JAINA LEE ORTIZ, ELAINE HENDRIX
RJ Decker Recap for 9/22/2026
Kayla and Baby Brother, get into an accident while debating about gangsta rock and yacht rock.
What is yacht rock anyway? Everyone keeps talking about it and I feel so old not knowing what it is.
Baby Brother, aka Jake and Kayla end up being shot at and find something in a cooler.
Who would shoot at a pink car covered in poodles? It sounds like a cool car though.
Kayla goes to RJ, who is apparently friends with Jake. She tells him everything, including how the cooler held a powerlifting ring….attached to a hand. Will they google ‘missing hand’ like Lassiter did on that football episode of Psych with the missing foot?
Apparently, Wish knows Kayla too. He warns RJ not to take on a serial killer, even though RJ has been through fifteen million other dangerous situations.
The plan is to find Jake, who has run off and demand he return the hand and ring, the latter of which he was planning to steal…because apparently this dude is Florida’s answer to Neal Caffrey.
It looks like Kayla and RJ had a past….ten bucks says this turns into a love triangle with them and Emi, who just wants to be friends with RJ.
Elaine Hendrix!!!!!! She is working with Emi on her case and is acting exactly how I would expect Meredith Blake to had she become a lawyer. She’s going to ship all the bad guys off to Switzerland.
Emi approaches some dude she thinks is following her and he is like, ‘um, I am just reading my book?’
RJ gets in touch with Jake, who is more afraid of his big sister than the cops and being in possession of a hand with a ring. RJ warns him that he better return it or face the cops, but Jake is like ‘I got shot at, I deserve a prize for dealing with that crap!’ As RJ tries in vain to convince him to do the right thing, the bad guys come and slam into Jake’s car.
A sign spinner witnessed it and says that he got yelled at by one of the bad guys and they looked like they were on ‘giga roids’ while screaming ‘which one?’ Yet, somehow one of the bad guys pulled Jake out of the car since apparently, he can’t make up his mind on if he wants Jake dead or alive.
Mel and RJ team up to put this all together, which leads to RJ going to a bodybuilding gym to find the bad guys. Luckily, he takes Wish with him for backup. Since two ex-cons who look more like they belong in a Lifetime movie are the best choices to question a bunch of Future Mr. Olympias.
A dude who looks like he should be working as the assistant for Sonny Corinthos basically tells the two of them to eff off, but he will call friends of friends of friends and then maybe he will call them back.
RJ goes to check Emi, who tells him about the dude following her and how she thinks it could be connected to her father’s death. There have been a ton of lawsuits against the family company and he is her only hope.
Kayla talks to RJ and Wish, who promise to find the bad guys who went after Jake.
The owner of the hand and ring is John Fender…..and as they try to figure out the connections, the bad guys return to Kayla’s trailer….so RJ does what any guy would do, takes pictures while Wish comforts Kayla while crying like Burton Guster.
The guy in RJ’s picture is none other than John Fender. They debate on if he is looking for his hand or the ring and figure out the ‘which one?’ demand was which pawn shop the ring is at.
Kayla realizes a picture of her from Jake’s birthday is missing from her trailer and thinks she is in more danger.
Mel talks to them and they connect John to a guy named Eduardo and the bodybuilding gym. Wish takes Kayla to his place to keep her safe.
Mel sets RJ up with her friend Trudy so he can run prints on drink cans that could lead to Emi’s stalker. There is some banter between them and between her sass and his smart aleck ways, I can see them being soooo hot together.
Now it is off to the bowling alley where the picture Kayla was in was taken. This is what Eduardo was looking for, the picture, not the pawn shop. The guys channel their inner Shawn and Gus and find where the hand was stashed….but Mel says it wasn’t Eduardo behind it since he has been dead for days and he is also missing his hand.
Katherine and Mel discuss it with RJ with Sofia trying to offer help. As Katherine takes Sofia off to school, Mel teases RJ for looking so nice for Trudy. However, Trudy wants nothing to do with RJ and tells him that she will call him when she calls him if and when she has information.
John Fender is questioned and claims he sold the ring to Eduardo…who stole money from his job to the tune of 23 million dollars. He also proves he was out of town at the time of the murder. Oh, and his hand isn’t missing. I am so confused with all these missing hands.
Mel comforts RJ and says they will get answers as the truck goes into the water.
A guy named Mike is now questioned for giving Eduardo steroids. He tells them about the crypto and how Carmine, the gym owner cut off some dude named Todd’s hands….and of course the mob is involved.
Mel and RJ enjoy beers while piecing everything together and talking about Trudy. This leads them to Miami where Carmine and one of his henchmen break into an office building with Eduardo’s missing hand to get in….only to get caught and arrested. Carmine tries give RJ attitude, but RJ reminds him he is not the one who got caught and knows more than it seems.
Jake seems like he is going to be A-OK!
Trudy says she wanted to help RJ but couldn’t…..but tells him that the guy following Emi is a cop, who arrested her because she killed her father. But how? Wasn’t he killed while Emi was with RJ? Unless she hired someone? Has a twin who was with RJ and she killed him or vice versa? How is this even possible?
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