Numb3rs (2005–2010): Season 5, Episode 6 - Magic Show - full transcript

♪ ♪

Stomp your feet!

Clap your hands!

Riotous cacophony
to accompany...

Talma...

(applause)

into our next phenomenon.

Prepare to be amazed

and mystified by the ultimate

feat of transfiguration!

(applause and cheering)



Now, I ask for only one thing.

Your silence.

Pay very close attention to...

(applause and cheering)

That's good.

SUSANNA: Watch closely and learn

why we call this

Aquarius.

(applause and cheering)

(whooping) (laughing)

SUSANNA: Ladies and gentlemen,

I now give you,

like the mermaids
of legend, Talma!

(scattered applause)



Is she supposed to be in there?

Uh, yeah, looks like it.

SUSANNA: Again, I give you

Talma!

(drumroll)

Man, poor girl. I'm sorry.

I heard they're supposed
to be pretty good, but...

Not so much. SUSANNA:
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I, uh...

Close it.

Close it now!

I don't think this
is part of the show.

No. SUSANNA: Someone call 911!

Excuse me for a minute, okay?

Yeah.

Oh, come on, Charlie,
I can't believe this.

Celtic green in my house!

Those were the stakes,
my friend. I'm sorry.

The Lakers lost
the Finals. No, no.

You will wear it.

You're just not
into b-ball, huh?

Uh, you see how it
brings out the worst

in otherwise reasonable people?

Larry, when you
were in that monastery,

you think you
figured anything out?

I remind you,

I was thrown out
of that monastery.

But what do you mean,
figured things out?

Like, in terms of what?

I went to this temple
the other night.

Really?

Yeah.

And, uh, I hadn't been in one

since my mother's funeral.

Before that, I-I
was probably 13.

That is quite a span.

So, what brought you back?

Well...

(phone ringing)

So it goes.

Yeah, David. What's up?

I thought you were on a date.

Yeah, I'm on my way.

Got to go to the
Tower of Mystery.

The Tower of Mystery.

Tower of Mystery?

One of those LA landmarks
I've always wanted to see.

I got a magician
who disappeared.

ALAN: Magician who disappeared?

Isn't that what's
supposed to happen?

DAVID: Two magicians
were on the stage.

One does patter,
other one does a trick.

Talma, no last name...

She was in that
thing right there,

flowers swirling
around her, then poof,

she's gone, and
it's filled with water.

That's a good trick, I guess.

That's what I thought,

but according to her partner,
The Amazing Susanna,

aka Susie Weisz,

Talma's not
supposed to disappear.

She's supposed to stay
in that thing, Aquarius,

swimming around in the water.

SUSANNA: She's never
supposed to leave the cylinder.

She stays in there for
the entire trick, but...

she just disappeared.

A woman transposed
from air to water,

back to the beginning of life.

Can we please go home now?

Talma is hiding under the stage.

No, she's not hiding
under the stage.

You really want to follow
through with this hoax?

'Cause, I tell you, I've learned

from personal experience...
You don't mess with the FBI.

I'm not sure I know
what you're talking about.

The cylinder looks
complete, but the stage

is actually seven inches deeper
than the proscenium indicates.

Well, yeah, but that has
nothing to do with the trick.

Seven inches is
plenty deep for Talma

to disappear under the stage.

No, you don't understand.

We have rehearsed
this hundreds of times,

and she has always

been in there.

Open the trap door, please.

What trap door?

DON: Hey, if
there's a door there,

buddy, you better open it.

Hey, she may pay you.

Does she pay you
enough to go to jail

for filing a false FBI
report? Open the door!

Okay.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

may I present to you

the vanished Talma?

(gasps)

DAVID: Tell me that blood

is part of the trick.

Our techs put it between one

and two liters of
blood in that box,

so something bad
happened down there.

I mean, we're sure
she was in here?

No one saw her, but our lab
results will tell us something.

All right, let's have it.

Where is she?

I don't know.

You already lied to the
FBI, okay? You told us

that Talma wasn't
supposed to leave Aquarius.

DON: Then we got the trap door.

You want to go for
strike three now?

I think I should
talk to my lawyer.

DAVID: Oh, yeah.

Forgot about my date, Sarah.

I'll be right back, all right?

The blood could be a prop,

could be part of
the act, you know?

Spray some blood on the walls,

vanish, voila, you
got a great trick.

DON: So a hoax? It's
easy enough to figure out.

We'll use an application of
blood spatter trigonometry

to study the correlation

between this blood and then

Talma's probable
position in the box.

Sounds like a place to start.

Now, I would assume, these pipes

are for the pumping
of the water.

Yeah, and I'm thinking
these angled air movers

in the corners
get the air swirling.

Oh, dear.

I'm gonna get some latex gloves.

Professor Charles Eppes?

I'm, uh, Penn Jillette.

Penn and Teller?

I'm a big fan.

You are? Yeah.

I've read everything
you've written.

I even read your book.

Not as good as the
original paper, but, uh...

Oh. I was upstairs

prepping a special and
heard you were down here.

Man, it is so great
to meet you in person.

Well, you know, uh, actually,
I'm a big fan of yours, as well.

Really? Cool.

Yeah, you work with
the other guy, right?

Yeah, yeah. Okay. I
like the white tigers.

(laughs)

I could never get Feynman
to go to Vegas, either.

You knew Feynman?

Really easy guy to fool,
and loved every minute of it.

All right. It was a great
pleasure meeting you.

I've got to get back
to work. Of course.

Uh, I'd love to talk to
you about your paper

about Infinite Series
Cognitive Dissonance

Leading to Semantic
Contamination.

That's not my paper. (laughs)

White tigers.

All right. I heard about Talma.

If you need any help,

well, I know a little
bit about magic.

Thank you, Mr. Jillette.

Sarah?! Excuse me.

Sorry about that.

Got to... It's okay. I get it.

Job comes first.

I'll make it up to
you, okay? Maybe...

You seem like a good guy.

Maybe under different
circumstances.

Let me call you a cab.

Too late.

WOMAN: Excuse me, Agent?

Is the FBI involved in the
case of a missing woman?

Is it true that a large amount of
blood was found at the scene?

I'm sorry. No comment.

We're in the middle of
an ongoing investigation.

All right? So, you guys
excuse me. Thank you.

Excuse... Move.

What we do know right now is
that the magician is missing...

NIKKI: And Talma No-Last-Name

started disappearing
before last night.

DMV comes up empty,
no medical records.

So, I guess we can forget
about a blood match, huh?

What else did you get?

Our lady Copperfields have
a history of fake emergencies.

2007, Boulder, Colorado.

They do this
buried alive illusion.

As they piled the dirt on,
Talma's casket collapses.

It takes emergency
crews 45 minutes

to dig up an empty coffin.

Three months later,

Fairbanks, Alaska... same deal

with an escape
from a fire that failed.

And let me guess.

Both times Talma miraculously
reappeared unharmed?

Uh-huh.

They paid 50 grand in fines,
sold 250 grand in tickets.

That box looks
secure from the inside.

That's what I'm thinking, too.

There's no way she got
out of that without help.

And her partner was
on stage the whole time.

Oh, of course.

That's what magicians do.

You know, make it look like

they're here when
they're not, right?

I saw a special where one
guy made a limo disappear.

Turns out, it was
14 guys, a mirror

and three pieces of plywood
painted asphalt black.

Yeah. Well, I'm
working on a list

of people they've
both worked with.

Figure, maybe one
of them will pop.

Yeah, for a crime we're not even
sure happened, my head hurts.

WOMAN (on TV): Is it true that a large
amount of blood was found at the scene?

Uh, no comment. Uh, sorry.

We're in the middle of
an ongoing investigation.

Ah, Agent Harry
Potter, first on the scene.

WOMAN (on TV): Well, what
we do know right now is that...

If I had taken her
anywhere else, man,

a movie, anything,
there'd be another date.

Stop bitching.

Give her a call.

Right, you're a big TV star
now. She's gonna love that.

So, of course, now I got the
assistant director on my ass

about why one of our
agents has dragged us

into a case that's gonna
make us look like idiots.

Don, I'm sorry. She... We got
to find the girl now, all right?

WOMAN (on TV):
Reporting for News Eight.

CHARLIE: You ever get the
feeling you're searching for an answer

you already have?

Well, so much for an
unbiased search for the truth.

Is Charlie still determined
to predetermine the results?

That's not fair.

AMITA: I think
you're cherry-picking

the data to give you
the answer you expect.

You pick the next batch.

Who doesn't like magic?

Top hats and tails and
pulling bunnies out of thin air.

It's...

Elvis on black velvet.

Well, I love the feeling
of a live audience,

swept up in the suspense

of the show, trying
to figure out the trick,

looking for the mirrors.

Yes, and just a little relieved

when you don't see them.

I'll show you the mirrors.

Oh, no, you don't, Dr. Eppes.

I won't let you ruin
this for me, too.

So, the serology report on
the blood found at the scene

verifies that it is
human, O positive.

There's Barr bodies
in the cell structure

and the Kell antigen,
which indicates

that it's a white
female. And the DNA

in the hair sample that we
picked up in her dressing room

does match the DNA in the blood,
so very good chance it was Talma

in that box. All right, so
let's say it's not a hoax.

Let's say it's real...
Who'd want to hurt Talma?

The partner? Susie Weisz,

a known box jumper,
the beautiful assistant,

but not a real magician

until she she started
working with Talma.

Talma's good-looking,
from all accounts,

the more talented magician.

Why would she switch places,

basically taking
the assistant's job

and put herself in the
cylinder? DAVID: Who knows?

The fact still remains that
Talma was the big draw, right,

so I doubt the Amazing
Susanna would do anything

to try to harm her meal ticket.

COLBY: I've been running down

some more of the
names of the people

that perform with
them... Nobody's talking.

I mean, it seems
like the world of magic

is all about keeping a secret.

I still say this is
just one more stunt.

You know, fake a felony,

get on the news, get famous.

So, what's the blood
supposed to mean?

Well, there's what
it usually means.

CHARLIE: So, blood
spatter trigonometry

suggests the spatter is real.

Uh, it came from a body

being torn by a
sharp force trauma.

So, you know what
happened inside the box?

We weren't trying

to reconstruct the actual event.

We were looking

to validate or rather invalidate

the blood spatter.

It's like when you walk outside

and you notice that
the ground is wet.

The question is: Did it rain

or is the water coming
from somewhere else?

A droplet of water falling in
a vertical line from a cloud

will slam to the ground
and splash outward.

Water from a garden hose

will have an entirely different
mathematical signature.

Different vectors, velocity,
a far more obtuse angle.

So, we compare the rain
triangle to the garden hose triangle

to tell us if it rained

or if your neighbor just
recently washed his car.

Now, we were able to analyze
the pattern of the blood droplets,

as well as the
angle and velocity

of the impact to determine

with fairly high probability

that Talma did
suffer a real injury.

Now, whether it was an accident

or the result of some sort
of struggle, I'm not sure.

I would love to consult

with an expert who
might be able to tell me

which it was.

Yeah, sure, go for it.

DON: Hey, what happened
with your, uh, date?

(sighs)

Did you call her?

Yeah, she's not answering.
Go bring her some flowers

or something... we'll
be all right for an hour.

(sighs)

Hi, uh, I'm David.

I'm... I'm looking for Sarah.

Sarah?

This is, uh, 1F, right?

I... I picked her
up here last night.

We just got back today.

I'm sorry to bother you, ma'am.

Is it... is it possible

maybe, uh, Sarah
is staying here?

Long hair,

African-American?

We have lived here for 33 years.

I don't even know a Sarah.

DON: Whose idea was it to go

to this magic show?

Hers.

And you met her at
the Howling Dog, right?

That's a known cop bar.

A set-up from the start.

A couple of magicians

want to amp up the
disappearance of their main act,

what better way than to get FBI

in on a missing
persons investigation?

Yeah, I hope she was hot.

Hey, don't feel so bad, big guy.

You know, I'm thinking

a night out, no matter
what, sounds pretty good.

DON: And I don't care

what that blood says, I
say we're being played.

Yeah, time to talk to the
Amazing Susanna again.

CHARLIE: You've made a career

of demystification.

But we weren't the first.

Houdini dedicated
his life to revealing

these charlatans that
defraud the human race

with their lies, the
talking to the dead,

the psychics.

LARRY: Yes, well,
the blood spatter

was not faked.

CHARLIE: The FBI
suspects that there

was a third party involved
in Talma's disappearance.

An illusion this complicated,
she would have needed the help

of an artisan. An artisan?

Yeah, the people

who actually build
and design the tricks.

Angel has, like,

30 of these guys
working for him.

You know, we'd both love
to see these blueprints.

Good luck.

A trick like Aquarius
is worth millions

to the guy who creates it.

Once these women
do it, it becomes

public domain...
Within a year, you got

20 acts doing their versions.

The Swimming
Pool, the Water Cube,

the Shark Tank.

Let me show you this thing.

This was a feature
trick 30 years ago.

Done on TV and everything.

Now you can buy
it at any toy store.

That's the way things
work in this business.

Neat trick, huh?

Hydrophobic sand.

You do know your magic.

I know my science.

It's gonna be hard
to find this engineer.

No one will reveal
who the artisans are,

especially not the artisans.

Henning had to deposit money

in an untraceable bank account
to look at some blueprints.

Maybe we don't need to know.

Maybe we can reverse
engineer the trick

on our own and
find out who built it.

Study the architecture
to find the architect.

You do know your science.

Well, no.

I know my magic.

It wasn't supposed
to be like this.

I mean, yes, we made
you part of the show.

I mean, an FBI agent involved...

it adds to the hype,

but that blood was
not part of the illusion.

So... what is the trick?

I mean, uh...

how does Aquarius work?

Well, I... I don't know.

I mean, that's Talma's thing.

I do patter, exhibition.

Misdirection.

Well...

yeah.

I'm gonna...

need the name... The
real name... of my date.

Well, I... I have no idea.

Talma set it up.

She just told me to expect a cop

and to keep him occupied
and away from the box.

When that math guy opened
it, I expected her to be in there.

That was how we
rehearsed it every time.

So, she doesn't tell
you how the trick works.

All right, she lies to you

about the endgame,

then she puts you in the
middle of an FBI investigation?

She used me.

She didn't get out
of that box by herself,

so who besides
yourself would help her?

Garland Saint Michael.

Formerly the Miraculous Michael.

You know your magic.

He's on our list

of Talma's...
past collaborators.

He and Talma were hot and
heavy before he got all mystic-purist.

Uh, he's the guy
who hung himself

from flesh hooks for 24 hours

on live TV.

And that's magic?

He thinks so.

I'll spend six days
in my Dream Cocoon.

Total sensory deprivation.

Do you wish to lay in it?

No, thanks.

On the seventh day, I'll emerge,

an altered state
of consciousness,

unable to take even
the slightest sound

or color for granted.

Yeah, I bet you'll
be hungry, too.

Talma and I remain close,
and I wish her all success.

We differ in tone,

but unite in passion.

You do realize she's missing.

Is she?

Where were you last night?

Las Vegas.

Drove in this morning.

I'm sure Caesar's
has security footage

of me preparing
for my next piece.

Do you know where she is,

what she's planning?

We haven't even
spoken for months.

But I'm not surprised she went

with the classic...
The Vanishing Lady.

That's really the core
of our differences.

Magic isn't magic

until it elevates
the human spirit.

Talma is stagnating,
attempting to make art

from rubbish. Is that why

she let Susie Weisz play
the part of the magician?

Talma needs to be in
the middle of the action.

Touching the trick,
really feeling it.

Oh, on that much we agree.

We found a liter of
blood at the scene.

She's a genius.

No matter how mundane,

Talma would literally
bleed for a trick.

I have faith that when she

reveals herself to the world,

it's going to be beautiful.

Let's consider the Gliederpuppe.

David said the
cylinder was empty.

Then, the lights went
out for a few seconds.

Then, the cylinder was filled.

Well, let's be
conservative here.

How about five seconds?

AMITA: That's a long
time for the audience

to be sitting in the dark.

Let's say 3.5.

CHARLIE: Coming
up through the floor,

fighting gravity, the
water pressure required

to fill that cylinder

in such a short time...

The pressure on the human
body would be enormous.

That makes Talma one tough lady.

It's an amazing feat, really.

I mean, it's almost like

her response to the misogyny

of cutting a woman in half.

She's created this...
this mechanical paean

to the beauty of womankind.

She reverse evolves the female,

surrounded by flowers,

then she drops her right back

into the elegance of the
ocean where all life began.

It's almost like Venus
returning to her clamshell.

You really see all that?

You really don't?

All I see is pipes
and air movers

and flowers and fish being
pumped in and sucked out.

Why can't you accept
magic as an art?

Why allow yourself

to be pummeled by
water pressure every night.

Isn't there an
Occam's razor here?

I mean, you said yourself,

the solutions to magic tricks

are often underwhelming
and simple.

Why do the "reverse evolution?"

Why water coming in every night?

Uh-huh. You see these

and these? Well,

isn't that just where
the glass connects

to the decoration
on the outside?

CHARLIE: I think
Larry's half right.

This isn't a reverse

evolution trick.

This is a woman
coming out of the water.

LARRY: And into the air.

She flies?

She flies.

The micro thin flying
wires for the harness

enter through the
cylinder here and here.

It's unseen by the audience.

She looks like she's flying

in a fully-encased cylinder.

David didn't say

anything about
flying. And we didn't

find a rig in the rafters
at the Tower of Mystery

because that wasn't
part of the trick

that night.

There's a second
part to the trick?

LARRY: Ah, but of course.

The stunning conclusion.

The vanished

woman reappears,

in the glory of flight.

We need to flip

the trick, make it
work backwards.

Yeah, reverse the
reverse engineering.

Worst ways to spend a night.

I'll go put a kettle on.

Hey.

Hey.

Late supper?

On a little break.

Lost in contemplation?

Yeah.

You know, when last we spoke,

you were asking
me about religion.

Right. Well,

at the very basic level,

cosmological quantum
physics suggests

that if this universe here

is as real as we
believe that it is,

it must have been
cast into reality

by an external observer.

God?

And yet paradoxically,

how can there be
anything external

in an all-inclusive universe?

Uh-huh. So, you see?

My own quest for God
has always been inextricably

intertwined with my work.

Does that help you sleep?

No.

It keeps me awake.

(chuckles)

All right, so,

what's the point?

The point

is to keep looking
for the point.

That's what the Rabbi said.

Rabbi? Yeah.

Rabbi.

Well...

I will rejoin Charlie and Amita.

Oh, and I should do that, too.

Tough to track a woman
without an identity,

but I found Talma's corporation.

Two weeks ago, Aquarius
Specialties Limited

rented trucks to load in
at the Tower of Mystery.

Now, where'd the
trucks pick up from?

Movers said that they
picked up two big crates

in the middle of an
abandoned parking lot.

Paranoid magicians. Yeah,

hoax the FBI... I'd
hide my prep, too.

Aquarius Specialties Limited
also rented a storefront

on Hollywood Boulevard.

It's a high traffic area,

lots of tourists,
entertainment seekers.

Charlie thinks there's gonna

be a part two to Talma's trick.

Which is why

I checked into the party
rental agencies in the area.

Two of them have been contracted

to deliver folding chairs, tents

and big screen TV's
to the same location.

Come on.

"Hollywood Brasserie"?

Talma loves her misdirection.

Oh, come on, now, does it
really need to be this dark?

You scared, Granger?

Nah.

I was top of my class
in "Pitchblack Assaults

on Magical Illusions"
back in Quantico.

Let's see.

Lights.

Talma's not coming
back from this one.

Murder?

Well, ME's initial
report is inconclusive.

Talma drowned, but
she has a contusion

on the side of her head, too.

She also had a
laceration on her right leg,

pretty deep.

That explains the blood we found

at the Tower of Mystery.

However she got cut,
accidental or otherwise,

the wound was bandaged,

trace amounts of
blood in the water.

She didn't bleed to death.

According to Charlie's analysis,

this was the master fail-safe...

It's a handle that would release

the water.

Now it was broken
off and wiped clean

of prints, so, definitely
somebody was here.

Hairline fracture in the glass

could match the
contusion on her head.

Yeah, I'm thinking maybe
there was a struggle,

and she got knocked out

against the glass. Yeah,

then the killer dumped
her, unconscious,

in the water to drown.

All right, so they
broke the handle...

That's master fail-safe,

so the internal ones

wouldn't work. It still

doesn't answer one big question.

Who'd want to kill her?

Why can't they just
build a normal machine,

with everything laid out
in an orderly fashion?

Function fit to form.

The magic design
for the magic machine.

Let's take a break
from the flying part.

You know, it's like
a jigsaw puzzle.

You put together
the frame pieces

before trying to work the
more difficult middle section.

You know she's right. If
we could just get a handle

on the cylinder,
we could figure out

how much tensile strength is
needed for these flying wires

and how much for
the common joints

between the glass and filigree.

Uh, the glass.

That's simple. Yeah.

The first question.

How much water can it handle?

Well, witnesses
from the performance

report that it was full.

Talkin' 50 cubic feet of water.

400 gallons.

Water weight 3,300 pounds.

A little over one a half tons.

Wow. That amount

of water...

withstanding that
kind of pressure.

You're not gonna find that
kind of glass at Home Depot.

There are two factories

that produce the
quality of glass

that Charlie says is
required to create the cylinder.

Asahi Glass in Tokyo

and Undverglasen in
Garmisch, Germany.

Undverglasen shipped

four tons of multi-ply
tempered-curved glass

to a Burbank
warehouse last year.

Well, before she
hit the fast track

with Susie Weisz,
she bounced around

for about five years.

Why's that?

Maybe because her previous

boss drowned while was on stage.

Who's the girl in the middle?

That's Drowndini's assistant.

NIKKI: That could be a lead.

Sister blames Talma

for her brother's death.

COLBY: Yeah, same MO, drowning,

could fit for revenge.

That's my date.

Sarah.

Her real name

is Jenny Calandro.

Can't believe
your search led you

to the doorstep of Gage Jones.

Impressive, Dr. Eppes.

Uh, guy is one of
the legendary artisans

of the magic world.

Of course, last I
knew, he was, uh,

working in an abandoned ferry

on Fidalgo Island in Washington.

Is all right that we just
let ourselves in like this?

Oh, I called ahead.

Uh, magic awaits.

Professor Fleinhardt,
if you would, please.

My pleasure. Around here.

The guillotine!

It's a far

better thing I do,
than I have ever done.

The blade

folds up into the trick.

Shh! It's angles.
It's all angles.

That's all I'm saying.

Okay, let's, uh, show
you another one.

How about the Kafka box?

Are you ready to metamorphosize?

Into what, a cockroach?

CHARLIE: So this one is a false

back.

He's still inside the box.

Okay, that's pretty cool.

He climbs in,
Penn spins the box,

engages the catch,

the catch releases two mirrors.

The mirrors fold out
at 45 degree angles.

You think you're looking
at the back of the box,

it's really just reflections.

Hey, quiet you.

Mr. Jillette.

Three guests.

From the FBI.

You're here

because of the lovely and
talented Miss Talma, I take it.

Well, may be a wasted
trip, she's not here.

But she'll turn up in due time

at a place of her
choosing, for the best

possible impact. I hate

to break it to you,
she already turned up.

Oh, was it wondrous?

She was dead.

Real dead. But I...

just saw her.

I mean I built Aquarius.

She was found in the
second part of the trick

on Hollywood Boulevard.

She drowned inside.

No, couldn't have drowned.

We had too many
fail-safes built in.

There was a handle
on the outside

that was broken
off by someone else.

You know a, a girl,

a former assistant...
Jenny Calandro?

Yeah, I know Jenny.

Talma brought her
around a couple times

to look at Aquarius.
NIKKI: You got an address?

We think it may not
have been an accident.

You're damn right it
wasn't an accident.

If Talma's dead,

she was murdered.

Hello.

Hi. Oh, hey.

What's on?

Baseball, basketball,
football, hockey.

Take your pick.

What, you got to ask?

Hockey. That's right.

(sighs) So...

So what is, uh, what is all this

about you, uh, going to temple?

I went once.

Yeah, and?

Thinking I might
take a class or two.

You know, I'd be more than
happy to talk to you about it.

I mean, I've been
to Hebrew school.

I know all the prayers.

Thanks.

(stammering): We'll
see how it goes.

I think I'm okay for now.

Right.

Hockey.

(sportscaster talking
indistinctly on TV)

I know I'm still new and all,

but is this status
quo for you guys?

What's that?

Stalking girls on company time.

My date's home.

Jenny.

You've got to be kidding me.

You do have a
way with the ladies.

(siren blaring)

Oh!

(horn honking)

(tires screeching)

Come on, girl, you are not
playing chicken with the FBI.

(engine revving)

(handcuffs tightening)

Yeah, she is pretty.

I didn't kill Talma.

I swear.

DAVID: You blamed her
for your brother's death.

You wanted revenge.

Anthony was reckless.

He didn't check his gear,

his machines.

He thought that if
they worked once,

they always worked.

That's what killed
him, and I knew that.

Oh, so it was a coincidence
that you were at the show

the night that
Talma disappeared?

I mean, the night
she was murdered.

Talma dealt with my
brother's death differently.

I moved on.

She made it her life's
work to court death.

I brought you to the show,

because an old
friend asked me to.

I was her assistant,

nothing more.

You helped her out of that box?

As soon as you left, I
went under the stage,

removed the hatch.

Talma was covered
in her own blood.

When she fell
through the trap door,

she hit a metal strut,

tore her leg open.

No, we never
found a bloody strut.

She took it, said it
added to the mystery.

Look, I wanted to take her

to the hospital, but she
insisted she was fine.

We bandaged the leg,

I helped her to her car and
she drove off on her own.

Where'd she go?

To Hollywood.

To make sure the second
Aquarius was working properly.

I told you, she learned from
what happened to my brother.

My job was to get back to you.

You were just supposed
to be some... cop.

(chuckles)

I could have gone up
to any guy in that bar.

But I was selfish.

I went up to the right one.

Best sucker in the house.

Not what I meant.

She lying?

I doubt it.

But, hey, I'm the last
guy you should ask, right?

What are you talking about?

You're the only one I can ask.

Don, send somebody
else in there... to talk to her.

Well, either she's very good,

or she does like you.

(sighs) Hmm.

I believe she knew Talma.

I believe she was working
with Talma that night.

And I believe there's
much better ways

to get payback than
to sucker an FBI agent

into watching
you kill your target.

Yeah, I agree with you.
So what do we do with her?

She committed a
crime, and she ran.

You make the call.

AMITA: How much
have they dismantled?

Well, apparently, the
veneer was taken down,

but the guts remain.

The guts, which are
usually under the stage

and lead to a panel offstage

where the technician
calls the shots.

These must be
the fail-safe dials.

Check the glass.

All right, looks like there are

two switches hidden
inside the cylinder:

one high and one low.

Water release valves.

And techs indicate they
have not been touched.

Makes a good argument
for Talma being unconscious.

She couldn't
trip the fail-safes.

One, two, three input pipes.

Reconstruction of the apparatus

indicates there
should be at least four.

Six if they were
playing it safe.

So to fill this cylinder

with three pipes
in five seconds...

Or less. Would require

higher water pressure
than we'd anticipated,

extremely high water pressure.

Where does that leave us?

All right, hey.

We don't think
Talma was murdered.

No, our findings suggest that
higher than intended pressure

was ultimately responsible
for Talma's death.

So this is all an accident?

The flaw was in the machine.
Well, how can you figure

that out if you never even
saw the trick being performed?

We used Design Recovery.

It was originally implemented
to handle secretive

computer software systems
hidden within coding:

illusions, ghosts
in the machine.

To a first-time viewer,

a staple looks like
a tiny piece of metal

holding your papers together.

But pry it loose and
study its dimensions,

how it bends, you
realize at some point

it changed shape
to achieve its goal.

Put it under a microscope

and you see telltale signs

that it was attached
to others of its kind.

Without seeing
the staple's origin,

we reverse engineer the
unseen machine that put

our tiny little piece
of metal to work.

Most likely, Talma climbed in,

and then someone else

started Aquarius.

However, the water
filled up too quickly

and she slammed her head

against the glass on the inside.

Added to the blood loss, it
knocked her unconscious.

Which is why she never engaged

any of the security
devices inside the machine.

DON: Yeah, it doesn't
explain the handle,

the fracture, the other person,

why they didn't let her out...

We think they tried.

They pulled the
handle, but that failed.

CHARLIE: Yeah, they tried

another way: brute force.

We found this fracture

in the exact structurally
weakest place.

It wasn't Talma's head
that cracked the glass,

it was probably somebody
with a sledgehammer.

So all the signs of attempted
murder were actually

evidence that someone
tried to save her.

Yeah, and there was only
one person, other than Talma,

that had inside
knowledge about this trick...

The man who built it.

COLBY: Magicians have something
against track lighting or what?

This place is a
lot less threatening

during the day, trust me.

DAVID: Jones?

Don't make us have
to come get you!

♪ ♪

NIKKI (hushed): I
think we got him.

What's the matter, there
was no bed to hide under?

Got him.

Tried so hard to get her out.

You got to believe me.

An artisan's worst nightmare
is to have a trick go wrong.

You gave us Jenny Calandro,
knowing she was innocent.

Why didn't you tell us before?

I wanted to, it's just...

she was out cold,

laying there as
the water killed her.

The fail-safes... We know.

Her chest stopped moving.

I was inches away from her

when she died. NIKKI:
It was an accident.

All you had to do
was come forward.

Oh, and watch my entire career,

my greatest
invention, die with her?

Nobody buys illusions
that kill you for real.

ALAN: So, hmm, how was that?

Well...

to be honest, Mom's was better.

Oh, come on.

It's the same recipe.
I'm just saying.

That's all, I'm just saying.

Hey, listen, Donny,
um... do you feel

like I cheated you
out of something?

We were never
a religious family.

It's not about that.

I just... I always used to know

exactly what I was
doing, why I was doing it,

you know, what I wanted and...

I just... I feel like I'm
missing something.

So, you, um...

you think, uh, you'll find
it by going to temple?

I don't know.

I just know where it's not.

You know, it's not in the job.

I know, but I... I never...

taught you about,
you know, God and...

or gave you that choice.

No, you did.

You know, look
where I'm looking for it.

Right.

So, um... that's it?

That's all I got.

I cooked, you do the dishes.

(grumbling) Don't
look at your phone

as if it's gonna
ring and save you.

Just do the dishes.

This is hardly a romantic spot.

It's not a romantic spot.

It's a learning spot.

Help me with this.

Amita?

I want to show you
what I see in magic.

Uh, I see a harness. Yes.

Um...

go over there to
the switchboard.

Flip switch seven.

Uh, hey, are we
sure this is safe?

Well, we know the design
better than anybody.

(clanging, rumbling)

♪ ♪

Eight.

♪ The world and everything... ♪

Nine.

Ten.

♪ ♪

♪ At least they
have the stars... ♪

Do you see it yet?

♪ Tonight ♪

♪ At least they have
the stars tonight ♪

♪ At least they have
the stars tonight. ♪