Regarding DJ being the Master Codebreaker all along, I wonder if you could do it without the whole red plom bloom thing.

Idk, I was thinking that maybe the Abednedo guy that gets them arrested could be working for DJ. Like, when we first see him talking to the cops, we could give him an alien dub and subtitles that say, “He heard they might be coming. Find them!”

Then in the casino, he could say, “There! Put them in cell 38!”

This would make them finding him less coincidental. Maybe Max contacted him to let them know they were coming, and then DJ had his person bring them to him.