Numb3rs (2005–2010): Season 5, Episode 7 - Charlie Don't Surf - full transcript
The father of a childhood friend of Don and Charlie asks for Don's help when his son, a former pro surfer, is found dead.
♪ ♪
♪ Careless in our
summer clothes ♪
♪ Splashing around in
the muck and the mire ♪
♪ Careless in our
summer clothes ♪
♪ Splashing around in
the muck and the mire ♪
♪ Now, hang me up to dry... ♪
MAN (over radio): The
National Weather Service
has issued a high surf advisory
for Southern and
Central California.
Large swells generated by a
powerful North Pacific storm
will approach the
California coast
during the next 24 hours.
♪ I'm pearly like the white,
the whites of your eyes ♪
These swells will cause
dangerous high surf
along all west- and
northwest-facing beaches.
Beachgoers should be vigilant
in avoiding large
breaking waves.
Idiots.
Inexperienced
surfers and swimmers
are urged to stay
out of the water
until these hazardous
surf conditions subside.
♪ Now hang me up to dry ♪
♪ You've wrung me out
too, too, too many times ♪
♪ Now hang me out to dry ♪
♪ I'm pearly like the white,
the whites of your eyes ♪
♪ Now hang me out to dry. ♪
Nathan!
He wasn't a daredevil.
He needed to be in control.
I know, I... I knew Nathan.
He... He was like
that even as a kid.
(door opening)
Oh, hey, Keith.
I am so sorry.
CHARLIE: Hey, Keith, sorry.
Thanks.
Saw that piece in the Times.
CHARLIE: It must be some
comfort knowing that he died
doing what he loved.
Yeah, and in the...
the that place he loved.
DON: The high dive.
When we were kids,
I'd be up there doing back flips
off of the thing and
Nathan would be
frozen stiff. CHARLIE:
I remember that.
I jumped in before he did.
He told me
that I had courage.
He used a more colorful term.
(chuckling)
Don...
I was hoping
you'd look into it...
Nate's death.
CHARLIE: Keith,
wasn't it an accident?
His thing for big waves...
you know, it wasn't
a death wish.
He never took stupid chances.
The bigger the surf,
the more cautious he got.
He had enemies in
the Channel Islands.
Some of the people he arrested.
He told me he had threats.
You know, Keith, if it
looked like a crime at all,
we would be all over it.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, I understand.
Yeah, well, maybe you
can, uh, take a look at the file,
see if they haven't
overlooked anything.
Yeah, I mean, we could do that.
Absolutely.
Hey, man, I didn't know
you were into surf videos.
I grew up with this guy.
Really, you grew up
with Nathan Watts?
Yeah, played baseball together.
Look at that, just a
born athlete. Yeah, man,
you could see that
when he competed.
This guy could out-hustle
anybody in a heat.
What do you know
about it, Idaho?
I learned when I was
on Oahu at Schofield.
I mean, I got all right at it.
You know, nothing like this guy.
This guy was nuts, huge cojones.
Yeah, I'll say. When he dropped
off the pro tour and took that
Channel Islands ranger job...
Must have been like
five years ago now...
The surf mags were all over it,
how he was out there surfing
these giant, perfect waves
by himself.
You got anything to it?
I'd say Park Service
looks like they did a good job.
Blow to the head matches
a dent in the board.
He's got fiberglass in his hair.
Swell of the decade.
He wipes out and gets
conked and drowns.
What a waste.
Wait a minute, man, Nathan
Watts wasn't a goofy foot.
I remember 'cause there
was this famous shot
of him pig-dogging this
backside rail grab drop
on the left at Mav's.
Goofy what?
He surfs with his
left foot forward,
which means that
he'd put his leash
on his right ankle.
That's the wrong ankle.
I mean, you always put
your leash on your back foot.
Always, unless
you're a beginner.
Someone put it on him?
Not a beginner.
If you had to label Watts,
would you, uh, call
him a cop or a surfer?
Oh, he'd have called
himself a surfer, for sure.
Most surfers do.
Nathan was a serious
ranger, especially when it came
to protecting the
Channel Islands.
He loved this place
like nobody I've ever seen.
Made a lot of busts,
including some folks
maybe shouldn't
have been busted.
Yeah? Thing about having
a giant moat
surround your park...
cuts down on the crime.
Even this close to L.A.?
As far as L.A. is concerned,
might as well be the moon.
Suppose that's a good thing.
We've got five islands,
hundred and some-odd
thousand acres,
no roads.
Got endangered species,
burial sites, a
marine sanctuary.
But most of our visitors
are the kind that tread lightly.
We get a few
idiots, but compared
to other national
parks, this place
is a church.
One question for you.
Who was Watts busting
if there wasn't anybody
out here to bust?
Otter killers.
Ought to what? Don't.
We did the Marx
Brothers thing already.
Sea otters... they're
federally protected.
Nathan saw a
couple of urchin divers
gun one down offshore.
NIKKI: Yeah, Nathan busts them,
the divers made threats.
Yeah, these guys work
out of Ventura Harbor,
so I figured we'd head up there.
(door opening)
DON: What's up? Hey, Don.
CHARLIE: Here's
what I was thinking.
With the proper data,
I should be able to
pinpoint where he drowned.
It's just a relatively simple
analysis of near-shore currents.
It might help.
DON: All right,
that sounds good.
And, uh, David's
on his way back,
so I think I'll go see if I can
find, uh, Melissa Conroy.
Melissa Conroy?
COLBY: Nathan's girlfriend.
Surf instructor and
part-time bikini model.
Nice of him to take
the tougher interview.
Took me years to
coax him into the water.
Scared him bad at first.
Well, he clearly outgrew that.
After the divorce,
that's when it changed.
He'd paddle out on days
that would scare
the hell out of me.
It would be a different
world if I hadn't torpedoed it.
Cecilia and me.
The marriage.
Oh, so he didn't have
a fairy-tale childhood.
I mean, who does?
He was a good boy; a good man.
Because of you.
I'm not sure I
buy it, but thanks.
Well, stuff rubs
off on our kids.
Most of the time, we
don't even know what stuff.
NIKKI: How could
anyone kill a sea otter?
They're so cute.
The little whiskers;
little smile.
Little teeth.
Those things are voracious.
They'll eat like 50
sea urchins in a day.
50 urchins... one otter?
Yeah, which is why
the urchin divers
don't get too weepy
when one turns up dead.
Problem is, they were almost
wiped out for their fur coats,
so Fish and Game
transplanted a few dozen
to the Channel Islands
to try and repopulate.
And these guys get caught
trying to take out
the competition.
Hey, guys, FBI... need to talk
to you for a minute.
Go, go, go, come
on, come on, come on!
Come on, come on.
Oh, whoa. No, no, no, no!
Thanks for running.
It's easier to tell
who's guilty that way.
Turn around.
(camera clicking)
PHOTOGRAPHER: Oh, my God...
(sighing)
Like that. Better.
This is not how you
hold a surfboard.
Why don't you
take a little break,
see if we can come
up with something new.
Let's.
Sorry.
Hack.
That's okay, don't
worry about it.
It sounded on the phone
like you were thinking
maybe this wasn't an accident?
Well, you know, it's possible.
I mean, I'm just
trying to be thorough.
How long were you guys together?
Couple of years.
You spend a lot of time
out there? Wasn't really
supposed to, but
you know... love.
It's a beautiful place.
We pretty much
had it to ourselves.
Not many visitors,
anything like that?
This guy making a movie
about big-wave riders came
out once, did an interview.
Surprised me
'cause Nathan usually
gave the finger
to the surf media.
Did he ever talk about
any crimes or investigations,
anything like that? Not really.
I know he nailed a few poachers
and sometimes boaters
would come ashore
without permission.
Did he ever tell you
about anyone who might
have a reason to go after him?
We broke up a few months ago.
I haven't been out there
for a while. Yeah?
Different paths, you know?
Nathan lived the life
that surfers pretend
to dream about,
but don't really want.
He hates this stuff.
You mean all the
PR, stuff like that?
Nathan had a
lot of words for it.
Riding waves,
living in the ocean...
it was like a religion almost.
That's why he
moved off the grid.
But... a girl's got to eat,
and Nathan, he
wasn't gonna feed me.
I had to choose.
His world or the real world.
How about we lose the board?
Fine.
COLBY: So your urchin
license has been pulled.
But somehow your hold is full
of spiny round purple things.
Well, no license doesn't mean
I don't got a mortgage to pay.
You must've been
plenty pissed off
when Nathan ran you in.
Pissed don't cover it.
Like getting busted
for killing a rodent.
They're in the
weasel family... Otters.
When was the last
time you saw him?
Hell, I don't know.
When'd he pop us?
It must've made your
life a whole lot easier
when Watts turned up dead.
My kid lost his
medical insurance
'cause of that Nazi.
But I don't go
out to the islands
when the swells are big...
especially when it
happens the same day
as my wife's birthday party.
Got a computer?
I'll show you the photos
she posted online.
Fish and Game will chew 'em up,
but these guys
didn't kill any rangers.
NIKKI: Hey, any luck
on determining
where Nathan died?
No, not yet.
CHARLIE: Given the complexity
of the currents associated
with this particular
part of the island,
it's actually a very, very
difficult problem to solve
without any direct data.
We know Nathan
was a big wave surfer,
so can't we assume that he was
where the biggest
waves were that day?
That's exactly what you said.
So I started
building an analysis
of the wave heights
around that island
on the day that Nathan died.
How can you do that
when the swell's gone?
Magnifying glass.
It's transparent, right?
But when light
passes through it,
the focal point becomes
encircled by shadow.
You see that there?
The curvature of the glass bends
and focuses the light waves
away from the dark areas
into that one blinding point.
COLBY: There's a science behind
fried grasshoppers. Ocean waves
are quite similar to light waves
in that they can be
refracted or focused.
So, I used the swell data
from NOAA buoys, combined that
with detailed
bathymetric readings,
and I was able to create
a color-coded, time-lapse
animation of that swell
on Nathan's island.
Yeah, the surf forecasters
do that on their Web sites.
What do the colors mean?
What are they, wave heights?
Yeah, you see, light blue
means flat or small waves
up to a meter.
Ankle-slappers.
In surf-speak. Thanks.
Yeah, like here...
Kraken Cove...
The ocean was totally
flat that day. Yeah?
How does that work?
It's the underwater topography.
Now, purple are medium waves,
they're up to two meters.
Head-high.
Yellow are big waves,
those are up to four meters.
Double-overhead.
Red means waves
that are over ten meters.
Those are as high
as five-story buildings.
And what's that in surf-speak?
Clench time.
DON: So this would be the spot
that Nathan found a
couple of years ago, right?
COLBY: Yeah, that's Wilma's.
And there were a lot of surfers
out at that spot that day.
And no one saw Nathan.
All right, so...
Where was he?
Charlie?
I'm going to need a
more hands-on approach.
That's surfboard fiberglass,
hardened by polyurethane resin.
Found in the
victim's head wound.
We matched it to the surfboard.
Now look here.
This came from the same wound.
Small, harder to
find, uh, deeper...
Under the surfboard residue.
That's an aircraft-grade
epoxy-carbon mix.
Well, I seriously doubt he was
hit in the head by an airplane.
Aircraft-grade.
Found in many products.
We think it came from a paddle.
Like a canoe?
Kayak, more likely. All right,
so he was hit by the
paddle, then he was hit
again by the surfboard to
make it look like an accident.
CHARLIE: Yeah,
yeah, this is weird.
You said that already.
Yeah, last time you said that,
we dropped another
six sensors in the ocean.
Well, there's got to be some
factors I'm not accounting for.
I mean, the waves
are still pretty big,
so the currents must be similar
to the way they were before.
What's the glitch?
Well, according to this
data that I'm getting back
from the sensors,
the spot where
Nate's body was found
experienced an eddy effect.
So, his body circled
in the same area for hours.
You're kidding me.
What? What does that mean?
Well, his body was
found in Kraken Cove.
CHARLIE: And since the current
kept him in the same place...
That's got to be
where he was killed.
Kraken Cove?
Isn't that the place where
there were no waves?
Exactly.
So you're telling me
the guy who surfed
this island more
than anybody else
paddles out on the
swell of the decade,
with his big-wave board,
to a spot that has no waves?
What the hell was
he doing out there?
Hey. Hey.
So I tracked down the
guy that interviewed Nathan
for his surf flick...
Check this out.
INTERVIEWER: We never
see you out there at Wilma's,
uh, do you ever get
out there anymore?
Yeah, only on the
junky off-days when...
when nobody
else wants it, really.
INTERVIEWER: Must be kind
of a bummer to see this place
that you love so
much turn into a circus.
Oh, it happens.
I mean, really, there's
nothing you can do.
I mean, for me,
really, it's kind of dead.
I heard you, uh, you chased
off a pretty famous tow-in surfer
on the best day of the
year, uh, last winter.
Pat Drummond.
Uh, well, he came...
coming through the
line-up with a Jet Ski.
It's just... that place
is a marine sanctuary.
There's no Jet Skis allowed.
I mean, he's lucky I
didn't arrest him really.
Did you guys have
any sort of altercation?
Nothing physical, but,
uh, definitely something verbal.
Words were exchanged.
Words were exchanged.
So, I asked around.
And it turns out that
Nathan and Drummond
were ships on a
collision course.
And the day that Nathan
was killed, Drummond
was completely off the map.
What do you mean? How
so? Wasn't there at Wilma's;
wasn't at Maverick's.
Ghost Trees, Todos... none of
the places he should've been.
Well, so what? I mean,
he could've sat it out.
No.
Big-wave surfer like
that, a swell that big...
There's no way he stayed home.
He's going out,
hunting down big waves,
and getting photographed...
That's how he makes
his sponsors happy.
He's got a little surf
shop out in the Valley.
I figured I'd go surprise him.
All right, that sounds good.
You know, I can't see
him playing baseball.
Yeah, well, neither could he.
Gotta hand it to him, though.
Sure found a way to get
paid to do what he loved.
Yeah, we had a
couple of confrontations.
But if I got hurt or
something, you know,
I knew Nathan'd help me out.
I'd do the same thing for him.
Even if you hate a guy, it's...
you know, it's like a code.
I actually drove
my Ski in one time
to grab him before he got washed
up into the rocks at Maverick's.
That was heavy.
You both almost got clipped.
And where were
you on the 18th...
The day of the big swell?
Ready to kill myself.
Yeah, we tried like hell to
get out to Channel Islands
that day, but, uh,
our engine died.
And, uh, we ended up at Rincon,
of all places, just before dark.
Rincon must've been crowded.
No, not as bad as you'd think.
Even a zoo like Rincon,
a triple-overhead swell...
It's gonna thin the herd.
Clench time.
You surf?
Charles, did you
know that a cork
bobbing on the ocean
describes a near-perfect circle
when a wave passes beneath it?
I did know that.
And that same cork
will return to its original
position no matter
how high the wave...
One foot, hundred feet,
because the ocean
is merely the medium.
Waves aren't the
result of moving water,
they're the result of energy
moving through water.
That's that.
So is it also fair to
say that ocean waves
resemble sound waves,
light waves? That's fair, yes.
Sound waves travel
at 761 miles per hour.
At sea level. Light
waves travel at...?
186,000 miles per second.
An ocean wave... near shore...
moves at just about the same
speed as that of a running man.
Put that man on a
surfboard, on a wave,
and he enjoys the
unique experience
of being propelled
by an individual pulse
of wave energy straight
through the universe.
Given our disparate
investigations...
One cosmic, one criminal...
Might it be in
our joint interests
to spend some time among them.
Uh, time among "them"?
Waves.
KEITH: If someone would just
say something.
I mean, I don't
know what to believe,
what not to believe.
Hey, Keith, uh, how
old was he here?
Sixteen.
(chuckles)
It's Baja. Mm-hmm.
Our last father-son trip.
It's strange, you know,
the day you realize your
son surfs better than you do.
You're proud, you
know, but, um...
Mm... it's humiliating.
Yes, I'm very
familiar with that one.
Charlie was only four years old
when he first
embarrassed me at chess.
Don, 11, when he first said
that he needed a "real
pitcher" to toss batting practice.
Don... he reminds me of Nate.
Focused.
Fearless.
Yeah, well, maybe
a little too fearless.
You worry about him? No.
What's to worry about?
He only gets shot
at once every week.
Our kids...
they're not supposed
to die before we do.
It happens, you...
you can't help but
think, you know,
if you'd just done
one thing differently,
he'd still be here.
If I had just called
him, you know, maybe...
Keith, Keith, you can't
go down that path.
This, uh, magical
thinking business.
You...
It was a bad guy.
Nathan was killed by a bad guy.
You know that.
Dorsal not ventral.
What are you talking about?
I'm fairly certain the
zipper goes in back.
Well, whatever, I...
I know it's irrational, but...
I can't stifle the image
of, like, a gigantic wave
appearing on the horizon
and crushing us both.
Listen, that fear may
not be totally irrational.
I mean, physical
events can occur
which are beyond our current
ability to explain or quantify.
Yeah, your "meaningful
acausal coincidences."
John Eccles wrote of the
"profound and enduring link
"between the dynamics
of consciousness
and the structure
of the cosmos itself.”
Right.
So, in other words, if I
think of a gigantic wave,
I may cause one to come?
Eh, well, something like that.
Well, fortunately,
the waves look small.
Yeah, I suppose all the real
surfers have ventured elsewhere.
It's nicer this way, isn't it?
Just kind of having
the ocean all to yourself.
Nathan's life revolved
around that idea...
Having the waves to himself.
And when the hordes
descended on a
favorite surfing spot...
A place where he had
surfed alone for ages...
He opted to remain.
It's kind of strange, isn't it?
Maybe not so strange.
Turns out, at least
one of Nathan's enemies was
the focus of a DEA investigation
up until about six months ago.
Drug task force had
Pat Drummond pegged
as the man behind
a major pot-growing
operation up in Humboldt.
Oh, yeah? What,
the Emerald Triangle?
Yeah. Now, they couldn't bring
the hammer down.
DEA figures he got spooked,
took his cash and
opened up the shop.
Yeah, word is he traded in
his overalls, moved
into distribution.
COLBY: Yeah, and
here's the kicker...
Local dealers have been
buzzing lately about an influx
of high-grade weed
from the Channel Islands.
We know that it's
all over federal land,
but there's no signs it's moved
out to the Channel Islands...
At least not yet.
Yeah, there's
nothing in Nathan's file
about a marijuana farm.
He never said anything to you?
About pot?
Never.
All right.
Drummond.
Hey.
Whoa.
Look what we got here.
Yep, somebody's
bagging up some pot.
Looks pretty small-time.
(clattering)
(tires screeching)
Hey, dude, gnarly wipeout.
You did not just say that.
Selling pot by the baggie?
That's practically
legal in California
You're in it up to your neck
and you don't
even know it. Right.
All it's gonna take is
us finding Drummond
and him rolling over on you.
Murdering a federal
law enforcement officer
is not practically
legal anywhere.
Pat was getting weed
from the Channel Islands.
I helped him move it.
I don't know nothing
about how Nathan died.
Drummond have a
farm out there? No.
(pounds table)
No, he ripped it off.
Which island? He never said,
I never asked.
Pot farmers, man.
They're not a bunch of
tie-dyed stoners anymore.
They catch someone messing
with their plants, you
don't find the body.
Did Drummond kill
Nathan? I don't know.
He went out there that
day, during the swell,
the day Nathan died.
Got back late in the afternoon,
was all, like, panicked.
Was all, “Let's get out
of here, go to Rincon."
Remote public lands
in Southern California...
That's where most pot in
the state is grown these days.
Couple of years ago,
National Park Services
raided 250 pot farms
on California parkland alone,
and not all mom-and-pop either.
You got booby traps, guns...
COLBY: And very few arrests.
I mean, the main
guy'll generally hire
a bunch of illegals
to do the grunt work,
and then if the farm gets raided
and the workers get
arrested, he's still protected.
And even if they do
bust the ringleader,
he skirts property-forfeiture
law because he used public lands
instead of his own
backyard. But I don't see
anything here saying it
was definitely being grown
on the Channel Islands.
WILSON: Not yet.
Done some flyovers, but
there's an awful lot of terrain.
Very few roads.
Well, you know, I've consulted
with Homeland
Security in their attempts
to locate specific plant types
using airborne spectral-
sensing equipment
combined with a
cultivation-site prediction model.
Specific plants. You mean...
The kind used to
make illegal drugs.
Well, keep working that, and
I guess we should re-interview
some of these people, huh?
You guys want to fight it
out for Melissa Conroy?
DAVID: I always
lose when we do that.
You know? I think you cheat.
How do you cheat at
roshambo? DON: Hold on, hold on.
Let's see. Maybe Charlie...
Well, no, uh, I
wouldn't call it cheating.
But chaos school advocates
a purely random distribution
of rock, paper, scissor,
while probability analysis
has shown that a mixed strategy
of preconceived gambits...
You know what?
(chuckles)
I'm gonna keep my
roshambo strategies to myself,
just in case I
have to throw down
with one of you guys someday.
Did he just say "throw down"?
KEITH: Marijuana.
O-On the Channel Islands.
Yeah, I mean, I have to ask.
Is there a chance...?
That Nate was involved
in some pot farm? No, no way.
Don! Look, I know
that you didn't agree
with some of his choices.
Keith, that's not what this is about.
He was a priest
when it came to drugs!
You ask anybody who knew him.
And that's the way I read
it, too, but I have to ask.
I mean, you asked
me to look into this.
You're wasting your time, Don.
That's what you're doing,
you're wasting your time.
Keith, he's trying to
find your son's killer.
He has to look under every rug.
Now, that's what he does.
I'm sorry.
I know, I know.
If someone made
the same accusation
about one of your boys...
Good point.
LARRY: Huh.
The spectral range
of a marijuana leaf is...
Is often not that different
than native species
growing nearby,
and that's why it's so hard,
using spectral imaging,
to pinpoint them.
So, deconvolution algorithms?
Yeah, I combined those
with the hyperspectral
aerial images.
I mean, I was able to
identify several large areas
on that island that might
contain marijuana fields.
That is a lot of land.
I know, I know.
I need a new idea.
Well, I'm thinking maybe
we need to go surfing again.
Did we surf?
'Cause I wouldn't call it that.
I feel like we kind of
just bobbed in place.
Yeah, I think maybe we were
more like buoys.
Yeah, like...
like buoys.
Dude.
I thought models didn't
need to have real jobs.
NIKKI: L.A.'s a competitive
market for hotties.
If you stop at your
knees like this,
you'll never get all the way up.
Words to live by.
I'll be right back.
I already talked
to some FBI guy.
Yeah, he sent us.
Did Nathan ever mention anything
about a potential
marijuana bust?
Pot?
No.
How often did
you visit the island?
When Nathan first
got the job, a lot...
Like, every couple weeks.
Less toward the end.
I'd always hoped it
was a temporary thing,
him living out there.
Turned out he wasn't
going anywhere.
He have other
visitors? Not really.
Nathan was the kind who
didn't mind being alone.
Look, I'm sorry.
I don't know anything
about pot farms
or any stuff like that.
I better get back
before they bail.
Sure.
You say anything
about pot farms?
Nope.
Me neither.
INTERVIEWER: This is a
painful question, but it's something
everyone's asked about,
and you and the tour and...
people really want to
know why you dropped off.
NATHAN: I just lost interest.
INTERVIEWER:
Tahiti, Indo, J-Bay...
I mean, how do you
lose interest in that?
NATHAN: I mean, the truth is
I just got tired of
surfing for points.
INTERVIEWER: You know,
all kinds of pros these days...
They don't surf contests, but
they still make good money.
Well, really, I got tired of
surfing for the corporations,
like selling their T-shirts
and flip-flops and...
the little watches
with the tide calendars.
The only reason
to turn pro is to...
surf good waves
and get paid for it.
I mean, out here, I get
all the good waves I want.
I get paid to protect a
beautiful, spiritual place.
INTERVIEWER: You
got to be stoked on that.
NATHAN: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: There was this
rumor that you had a fear of big waves.
So how did you
overcome that fear?
NATHAN: Well, when
I was a kid, I was...
I mean, the ocean
scared me to death.
It was my dad who
got me into the water,
taught me how waves work,
how to relax when things go bad.
You just... you really have
to just go out there and do it.
Be alone and, um,
you make a lot of mistakes,
and those mistakes
are things that you
learn... You learn from that.
That's why someone can't just...
be a good surfer in six months.
But if it weren't for
my old man, I mean,
I'd probably be driving
a bread truck in Wichita.
(interviewer laughing)
CHARLIE: So,
my initial analysis...
A relatively simple filtering
of hyperspectral images...
Produced several
large areas on the island
that most likely
contain marijuana farms.
That's still a lot
of ground to cover.
Hence the term
“initial.” It occurred to me
that spectral images
are merely an imprint
of electromagnetic waves...
In this case, light
reflecting off of leaves...
And as we know, light
waves work the same
as ocean waves.
And as with all waves,
it's very difficult to detect
a significant pattern...
What surfers like to
call the dominant swell...
Amid other swells.
Now, what surf forecasters
do is they use math
to filter out noise of
surface chop from buoy data
to detect serious ground swells.
In a fundamental
way, it's similar
to how polarized sunglasses
filter out reflected sunlight.
So I applied a
deconvolution operator
to filter out
spectral interference
from other plants known
to grow on the Channel Islands,
and then created a
neural network algorithm
to learn to recognize
known spectral patterns
based on training sets.
(chuckling): That
was the cool part.
Yeah. Sounds cool.
Anyway, um...
(typing)
There's your marijuana farm.
Five miles from Kraken Cove.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
NIKKI: Not exactly organic.
Better bag anything that
even looks like evidence.
Already harvested.
You guys, over here.
Kind of looks like
evidence, huh?
NIKKI: He was shot.
Execution style.
Hmm.
Take a look at this.
Maybe he was planning on
opening up a second store...
Drummond's Surf and Toke, huh?
Looks like our guy here
was trying to mix some
business with pleasure.
Seems he missed out
on the pleasure part.
Yeah, we'll turn it over
to the techs... maybe they'll
be able to tell us something.
Wait a minute.
Maybe it already has.
DAVID: Ah.
This is a clean-air
thing, I just got certified.
Nope. Nothing like that.
Did you shape this board?
Unless some idiot's trying
to sell knockoff Hagens.
That'd be a good
way to go broke.
So, there's a number
on the stringer.
Five, eight, four, three?
5,834th board I shaped.
I'm up over six K now.
Any idea who you made it for?
If it's a custom order,
I'd know for sure.
I keep the dimensions
of all the boards I shape.
In case someone wants you
to replicate their magic board?
Surfing G-man.
So, why does the FBI want
to know who I
shaped a board for?
It's part of a crime scene.
Plus, I figured while
I was down here, I'd
put in an order for a fish.
Maybe a six-oh, six-one.
Yeah, good choice.
Fish are my specialty.
Yeah, I know.
All right, here we go.
Yeah, 5843. Okay.
Yeah, I remember this
guy. Cameron Wilson.
Made him a seven-foot pintail.
Park Service ranger?
That's him. Yeah,
said he needed a board
that could handle some juice.
You know him?
I checked with the Park Service.
They said Wilson's gone AWOL.
Hey, I need to point
something out to you guys.
Yeah? What's that?
All right... this is Wilma's
the day that Nathan died.
Yeah, but Nathan
never made it out there.
Right, so I expanded
this animation to include
more of that island
during the swell.
This spot right here
experienced bigger waves
than Wilma's that day.
Nathan had another
spot besides Wilma's.
Right.
I mean, look, you'd have
to go by here.
DAVID: Right, okay.
We know that Drummond
was out by that way.
So, maybe Nathan
runs to Drummond.
Drummond hits him in
the head, knocks him out,
drops him in the ocean to drown.
Wilson keeps a
sailboat in Ventura.
Harbor Master checked. Gone.
Now, he's probably
halfway to Fiji by now.
DON: I don't know. Look.
I mean, as far as he knows,
we didn't find the farm.
DAVID: He's in the wind.
He knows we're
monitoring his credit cards.
What, you think he goes
back for the dope, tries to turn it
into cash?
Well, the forecast calls for
another big swell tomorrow.
So, that's the perfect
time for someone familiar
with that spot to go
grab the hidden stash.
DON: I mean, he's spent his
whole life out on these waters.
NIKKI: He'll know where to land.
Somewhere sheltered
from the waves.
CHARLIE: Yeah, you know,
and this wave animation
does more than show
us previous swells.
It shows us what incoming
swells are gonna do.
It's like, for
instance, let's say,
there's a big storm
below New Zealand.
Okay, and it's
headed the right way.
Southern California's
almost guaranteed
to have a major swell
about a week later.
As long as you know
where the wind's blowing,
for how long, and
in what direction...
And that's all readily
available data from satellites...
You should be able to predict
whether the surf's
gonna to be big or small.
And this is the only place
on that side of the island
that's gonna be protected
from the surf tomorrow.
It's the perfect
place to go ashore.
(engine revving)
Stop!
Cut the engine.
I'm thinking "circumstantial"
probably isn't the right word.
And I'm thinking you didn't
need to blow me off my Ski
with a bean bag round.
We've got your
fingerprints all over the
marijuana operation, and we have
the bullet that killed Drummond.
Now how much you want to bet
it matches one of the
guns on your boat?
Then what do you
want from me then?
Nothing, really.
Now, see, we know why
you killed Drummond,
and we got a pretty good idea
why Drummond killed Nathan.
Maybe I can give you something.
Yeah?
What?
Drummond didn't kill Nate.
Are you confessing to
killing a federal officer?
No. Not me.
Drummond had a
partner out there.
Didn't you guys know that?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think we did.
Nice. Good job. That was great.
DON: Melissa?
Sorry. One second.
Can we can make this quick?
I don't know, Colby, can we?
So, we executed a search
warrant on your apartment.
Forensics found blood
specks on your shoes.
And we're pretty sure we know
whose it is. Nathan found out
you and Drummond were
ripping off Wilson, is that it?
Now's the time to make
it easier on yourself.
Pat tried to talk him
into a three-way split.
I knew Nathan wouldn't bite.
So, instead, he arrested you.
Just like that.
Didn't matter how close
we'd been, how much we'd shared.
He knew how things were for me.
All the stuff I was
doing to try to get by.
I'm just trying to make
a little cash without
hurting anyone.
Pat saved his life once.
I was his damn girlfriend.
Tell us what happened.
Nathan had his gun on Drummond.
He turned his back to
me to grab the kayak.
Like I didn't matter.
Like I was zero threat.
I mean, the-the
paddle was in my hand.
What did he think
I was gonna do?
Just go off to prison quietly?
(handcuffs rattling)
Next thing I know,
Nathan's facedown in the water.
And Drummond...
He's freaking
like a little bitch.
(handcuffs clicking)
A real good thing you
did for Nathan, huh?
For Keith.
You know, when he
quit baseball for surfing...
I told him he was
making a mistake.
Turns out to be the
thing he loved most.
I got that wrong, huh?
Telling you, Larry, I got
another board in my car
if you want to give it a shot.
LARRY: Nope. Today I
choose to experience the raw
power of waves, free
of all accoutrements.
Uh, is he about to get naked?
(laughing)
You know, Timothy
Leary said that
surfers represent the
pinnacle of human evolution.
Only a surfer
truly lives in the moment,
riding that ever-moving
wave between past and future.
Dancing with the Universe.
LARRY: Yeah. Hey, who said that?
Was that Feynman or Penrose?
I think it was Bodhi.
Bodhisattva.
Patrick Swayze.
Point Break?
The movie?
Colby, what are
you doing? Come on!
CHARLIE: All right, dudes.
We gonna surf or not?
Show us how it's done, Colb.
INTERVIEWER: Your worst wipeout.
NATHAN: That's Jaws.
INTERVIEWER: I've seen the film.
Seen the footage of that.
NATHAN: Couple
years ago, I got spanked.
I mean, the thing wouldn't
let me up for a long time.
And I'm almost at the surface,
and boom, the second one
just shoves me even deeper.
INTERVIEWER: So, wait,
wait... two-wave hold-down?
Wow!
The second one
won't let me up, either.
And now, I'm... I'm thinking,
you better get up there soon,
'cause the third one...
I mean, I never met anybody
who's lived through three.
So now I'm starting to thrash.
I mean, what you
don't want to do...
Panic.
And, uh...
And then I hear my dad's voice,
like, right here, like...
I mean, like I'm
wearing headphones.
"Relax, son.
"Every wave lets
you up eventually.
Only way to get
through it is relax."
Once he said that to me in Baja.
So I relaxed,
it let me up,
I got a breath.
Saved my life.
INTERVIEWER: Your
dad saved your life?
Yup. My dad.
♪ Careless in our
summer clothes ♪
♪ Splashing around in
the muck and the mire ♪
♪ Careless in our
summer clothes ♪
♪ Splashing around in
the muck and the mire ♪
♪ Now, hang me up to dry... ♪
MAN (over radio): The
National Weather Service
has issued a high surf advisory
for Southern and
Central California.
Large swells generated by a
powerful North Pacific storm
will approach the
California coast
during the next 24 hours.
♪ I'm pearly like the white,
the whites of your eyes ♪
These swells will cause
dangerous high surf
along all west- and
northwest-facing beaches.
Beachgoers should be vigilant
in avoiding large
breaking waves.
Idiots.
Inexperienced
surfers and swimmers
are urged to stay
out of the water
until these hazardous
surf conditions subside.
♪ Now hang me up to dry ♪
♪ You've wrung me out
too, too, too many times ♪
♪ Now hang me out to dry ♪
♪ I'm pearly like the white,
the whites of your eyes ♪
♪ Now hang me out to dry. ♪
Nathan!
He wasn't a daredevil.
He needed to be in control.
I know, I... I knew Nathan.
He... He was like
that even as a kid.
(door opening)
Oh, hey, Keith.
I am so sorry.
CHARLIE: Hey, Keith, sorry.
Thanks.
Saw that piece in the Times.
CHARLIE: It must be some
comfort knowing that he died
doing what he loved.
Yeah, and in the...
the that place he loved.
DON: The high dive.
When we were kids,
I'd be up there doing back flips
off of the thing and
Nathan would be
frozen stiff. CHARLIE:
I remember that.
I jumped in before he did.
He told me
that I had courage.
He used a more colorful term.
(chuckling)
Don...
I was hoping
you'd look into it...
Nate's death.
CHARLIE: Keith,
wasn't it an accident?
His thing for big waves...
you know, it wasn't
a death wish.
He never took stupid chances.
The bigger the surf,
the more cautious he got.
He had enemies in
the Channel Islands.
Some of the people he arrested.
He told me he had threats.
You know, Keith, if it
looked like a crime at all,
we would be all over it.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, I understand.
Yeah, well, maybe you
can, uh, take a look at the file,
see if they haven't
overlooked anything.
Yeah, I mean, we could do that.
Absolutely.
Hey, man, I didn't know
you were into surf videos.
I grew up with this guy.
Really, you grew up
with Nathan Watts?
Yeah, played baseball together.
Look at that, just a
born athlete. Yeah, man,
you could see that
when he competed.
This guy could out-hustle
anybody in a heat.
What do you know
about it, Idaho?
I learned when I was
on Oahu at Schofield.
I mean, I got all right at it.
You know, nothing like this guy.
This guy was nuts, huge cojones.
Yeah, I'll say. When he dropped
off the pro tour and took that
Channel Islands ranger job...
Must have been like
five years ago now...
The surf mags were all over it,
how he was out there surfing
these giant, perfect waves
by himself.
You got anything to it?
I'd say Park Service
looks like they did a good job.
Blow to the head matches
a dent in the board.
He's got fiberglass in his hair.
Swell of the decade.
He wipes out and gets
conked and drowns.
What a waste.
Wait a minute, man, Nathan
Watts wasn't a goofy foot.
I remember 'cause there
was this famous shot
of him pig-dogging this
backside rail grab drop
on the left at Mav's.
Goofy what?
He surfs with his
left foot forward,
which means that
he'd put his leash
on his right ankle.
That's the wrong ankle.
I mean, you always put
your leash on your back foot.
Always, unless
you're a beginner.
Someone put it on him?
Not a beginner.
If you had to label Watts,
would you, uh, call
him a cop or a surfer?
Oh, he'd have called
himself a surfer, for sure.
Most surfers do.
Nathan was a serious
ranger, especially when it came
to protecting the
Channel Islands.
He loved this place
like nobody I've ever seen.
Made a lot of busts,
including some folks
maybe shouldn't
have been busted.
Yeah? Thing about having
a giant moat
surround your park...
cuts down on the crime.
Even this close to L.A.?
As far as L.A. is concerned,
might as well be the moon.
Suppose that's a good thing.
We've got five islands,
hundred and some-odd
thousand acres,
no roads.
Got endangered species,
burial sites, a
marine sanctuary.
But most of our visitors
are the kind that tread lightly.
We get a few
idiots, but compared
to other national
parks, this place
is a church.
One question for you.
Who was Watts busting
if there wasn't anybody
out here to bust?
Otter killers.
Ought to what? Don't.
We did the Marx
Brothers thing already.
Sea otters... they're
federally protected.
Nathan saw a
couple of urchin divers
gun one down offshore.
NIKKI: Yeah, Nathan busts them,
the divers made threats.
Yeah, these guys work
out of Ventura Harbor,
so I figured we'd head up there.
(door opening)
DON: What's up? Hey, Don.
CHARLIE: Here's
what I was thinking.
With the proper data,
I should be able to
pinpoint where he drowned.
It's just a relatively simple
analysis of near-shore currents.
It might help.
DON: All right,
that sounds good.
And, uh, David's
on his way back,
so I think I'll go see if I can
find, uh, Melissa Conroy.
Melissa Conroy?
COLBY: Nathan's girlfriend.
Surf instructor and
part-time bikini model.
Nice of him to take
the tougher interview.
Took me years to
coax him into the water.
Scared him bad at first.
Well, he clearly outgrew that.
After the divorce,
that's when it changed.
He'd paddle out on days
that would scare
the hell out of me.
It would be a different
world if I hadn't torpedoed it.
Cecilia and me.
The marriage.
Oh, so he didn't have
a fairy-tale childhood.
I mean, who does?
He was a good boy; a good man.
Because of you.
I'm not sure I
buy it, but thanks.
Well, stuff rubs
off on our kids.
Most of the time, we
don't even know what stuff.
NIKKI: How could
anyone kill a sea otter?
They're so cute.
The little whiskers;
little smile.
Little teeth.
Those things are voracious.
They'll eat like 50
sea urchins in a day.
50 urchins... one otter?
Yeah, which is why
the urchin divers
don't get too weepy
when one turns up dead.
Problem is, they were almost
wiped out for their fur coats,
so Fish and Game
transplanted a few dozen
to the Channel Islands
to try and repopulate.
And these guys get caught
trying to take out
the competition.
Hey, guys, FBI... need to talk
to you for a minute.
Go, go, go, come
on, come on, come on!
Come on, come on.
Oh, whoa. No, no, no, no!
Thanks for running.
It's easier to tell
who's guilty that way.
Turn around.
(camera clicking)
PHOTOGRAPHER: Oh, my God...
(sighing)
Like that. Better.
This is not how you
hold a surfboard.
Why don't you
take a little break,
see if we can come
up with something new.
Let's.
Sorry.
Hack.
That's okay, don't
worry about it.
It sounded on the phone
like you were thinking
maybe this wasn't an accident?
Well, you know, it's possible.
I mean, I'm just
trying to be thorough.
How long were you guys together?
Couple of years.
You spend a lot of time
out there? Wasn't really
supposed to, but
you know... love.
It's a beautiful place.
We pretty much
had it to ourselves.
Not many visitors,
anything like that?
This guy making a movie
about big-wave riders came
out once, did an interview.
Surprised me
'cause Nathan usually
gave the finger
to the surf media.
Did he ever talk about
any crimes or investigations,
anything like that? Not really.
I know he nailed a few poachers
and sometimes boaters
would come ashore
without permission.
Did he ever tell you
about anyone who might
have a reason to go after him?
We broke up a few months ago.
I haven't been out there
for a while. Yeah?
Different paths, you know?
Nathan lived the life
that surfers pretend
to dream about,
but don't really want.
He hates this stuff.
You mean all the
PR, stuff like that?
Nathan had a
lot of words for it.
Riding waves,
living in the ocean...
it was like a religion almost.
That's why he
moved off the grid.
But... a girl's got to eat,
and Nathan, he
wasn't gonna feed me.
I had to choose.
His world or the real world.
How about we lose the board?
Fine.
COLBY: So your urchin
license has been pulled.
But somehow your hold is full
of spiny round purple things.
Well, no license doesn't mean
I don't got a mortgage to pay.
You must've been
plenty pissed off
when Nathan ran you in.
Pissed don't cover it.
Like getting busted
for killing a rodent.
They're in the
weasel family... Otters.
When was the last
time you saw him?
Hell, I don't know.
When'd he pop us?
It must've made your
life a whole lot easier
when Watts turned up dead.
My kid lost his
medical insurance
'cause of that Nazi.
But I don't go
out to the islands
when the swells are big...
especially when it
happens the same day
as my wife's birthday party.
Got a computer?
I'll show you the photos
she posted online.
Fish and Game will chew 'em up,
but these guys
didn't kill any rangers.
NIKKI: Hey, any luck
on determining
where Nathan died?
No, not yet.
CHARLIE: Given the complexity
of the currents associated
with this particular
part of the island,
it's actually a very, very
difficult problem to solve
without any direct data.
We know Nathan
was a big wave surfer,
so can't we assume that he was
where the biggest
waves were that day?
That's exactly what you said.
So I started
building an analysis
of the wave heights
around that island
on the day that Nathan died.
How can you do that
when the swell's gone?
Magnifying glass.
It's transparent, right?
But when light
passes through it,
the focal point becomes
encircled by shadow.
You see that there?
The curvature of the glass bends
and focuses the light waves
away from the dark areas
into that one blinding point.
COLBY: There's a science behind
fried grasshoppers. Ocean waves
are quite similar to light waves
in that they can be
refracted or focused.
So, I used the swell data
from NOAA buoys, combined that
with detailed
bathymetric readings,
and I was able to create
a color-coded, time-lapse
animation of that swell
on Nathan's island.
Yeah, the surf forecasters
do that on their Web sites.
What do the colors mean?
What are they, wave heights?
Yeah, you see, light blue
means flat or small waves
up to a meter.
Ankle-slappers.
In surf-speak. Thanks.
Yeah, like here...
Kraken Cove...
The ocean was totally
flat that day. Yeah?
How does that work?
It's the underwater topography.
Now, purple are medium waves,
they're up to two meters.
Head-high.
Yellow are big waves,
those are up to four meters.
Double-overhead.
Red means waves
that are over ten meters.
Those are as high
as five-story buildings.
And what's that in surf-speak?
Clench time.
DON: So this would be the spot
that Nathan found a
couple of years ago, right?
COLBY: Yeah, that's Wilma's.
And there were a lot of surfers
out at that spot that day.
And no one saw Nathan.
All right, so...
Where was he?
Charlie?
I'm going to need a
more hands-on approach.
That's surfboard fiberglass,
hardened by polyurethane resin.
Found in the
victim's head wound.
We matched it to the surfboard.
Now look here.
This came from the same wound.
Small, harder to
find, uh, deeper...
Under the surfboard residue.
That's an aircraft-grade
epoxy-carbon mix.
Well, I seriously doubt he was
hit in the head by an airplane.
Aircraft-grade.
Found in many products.
We think it came from a paddle.
Like a canoe?
Kayak, more likely. All right,
so he was hit by the
paddle, then he was hit
again by the surfboard to
make it look like an accident.
CHARLIE: Yeah,
yeah, this is weird.
You said that already.
Yeah, last time you said that,
we dropped another
six sensors in the ocean.
Well, there's got to be some
factors I'm not accounting for.
I mean, the waves
are still pretty big,
so the currents must be similar
to the way they were before.
What's the glitch?
Well, according to this
data that I'm getting back
from the sensors,
the spot where
Nate's body was found
experienced an eddy effect.
So, his body circled
in the same area for hours.
You're kidding me.
What? What does that mean?
Well, his body was
found in Kraken Cove.
CHARLIE: And since the current
kept him in the same place...
That's got to be
where he was killed.
Kraken Cove?
Isn't that the place where
there were no waves?
Exactly.
So you're telling me
the guy who surfed
this island more
than anybody else
paddles out on the
swell of the decade,
with his big-wave board,
to a spot that has no waves?
What the hell was
he doing out there?
Hey. Hey.
So I tracked down the
guy that interviewed Nathan
for his surf flick...
Check this out.
INTERVIEWER: We never
see you out there at Wilma's,
uh, do you ever get
out there anymore?
Yeah, only on the
junky off-days when...
when nobody
else wants it, really.
INTERVIEWER: Must be kind
of a bummer to see this place
that you love so
much turn into a circus.
Oh, it happens.
I mean, really, there's
nothing you can do.
I mean, for me,
really, it's kind of dead.
I heard you, uh, you chased
off a pretty famous tow-in surfer
on the best day of the
year, uh, last winter.
Pat Drummond.
Uh, well, he came...
coming through the
line-up with a Jet Ski.
It's just... that place
is a marine sanctuary.
There's no Jet Skis allowed.
I mean, he's lucky I
didn't arrest him really.
Did you guys have
any sort of altercation?
Nothing physical, but,
uh, definitely something verbal.
Words were exchanged.
Words were exchanged.
So, I asked around.
And it turns out that
Nathan and Drummond
were ships on a
collision course.
And the day that Nathan
was killed, Drummond
was completely off the map.
What do you mean? How
so? Wasn't there at Wilma's;
wasn't at Maverick's.
Ghost Trees, Todos... none of
the places he should've been.
Well, so what? I mean,
he could've sat it out.
No.
Big-wave surfer like
that, a swell that big...
There's no way he stayed home.
He's going out,
hunting down big waves,
and getting photographed...
That's how he makes
his sponsors happy.
He's got a little surf
shop out in the Valley.
I figured I'd go surprise him.
All right, that sounds good.
You know, I can't see
him playing baseball.
Yeah, well, neither could he.
Gotta hand it to him, though.
Sure found a way to get
paid to do what he loved.
Yeah, we had a
couple of confrontations.
But if I got hurt or
something, you know,
I knew Nathan'd help me out.
I'd do the same thing for him.
Even if you hate a guy, it's...
you know, it's like a code.
I actually drove
my Ski in one time
to grab him before he got washed
up into the rocks at Maverick's.
That was heavy.
You both almost got clipped.
And where were
you on the 18th...
The day of the big swell?
Ready to kill myself.
Yeah, we tried like hell to
get out to Channel Islands
that day, but, uh,
our engine died.
And, uh, we ended up at Rincon,
of all places, just before dark.
Rincon must've been crowded.
No, not as bad as you'd think.
Even a zoo like Rincon,
a triple-overhead swell...
It's gonna thin the herd.
Clench time.
You surf?
Charles, did you
know that a cork
bobbing on the ocean
describes a near-perfect circle
when a wave passes beneath it?
I did know that.
And that same cork
will return to its original
position no matter
how high the wave...
One foot, hundred feet,
because the ocean
is merely the medium.
Waves aren't the
result of moving water,
they're the result of energy
moving through water.
That's that.
So is it also fair to
say that ocean waves
resemble sound waves,
light waves? That's fair, yes.
Sound waves travel
at 761 miles per hour.
At sea level. Light
waves travel at...?
186,000 miles per second.
An ocean wave... near shore...
moves at just about the same
speed as that of a running man.
Put that man on a
surfboard, on a wave,
and he enjoys the
unique experience
of being propelled
by an individual pulse
of wave energy straight
through the universe.
Given our disparate
investigations...
One cosmic, one criminal...
Might it be in
our joint interests
to spend some time among them.
Uh, time among "them"?
Waves.
KEITH: If someone would just
say something.
I mean, I don't
know what to believe,
what not to believe.
Hey, Keith, uh, how
old was he here?
Sixteen.
(chuckles)
It's Baja. Mm-hmm.
Our last father-son trip.
It's strange, you know,
the day you realize your
son surfs better than you do.
You're proud, you
know, but, um...
Mm... it's humiliating.
Yes, I'm very
familiar with that one.
Charlie was only four years old
when he first
embarrassed me at chess.
Don, 11, when he first said
that he needed a "real
pitcher" to toss batting practice.
Don... he reminds me of Nate.
Focused.
Fearless.
Yeah, well, maybe
a little too fearless.
You worry about him? No.
What's to worry about?
He only gets shot
at once every week.
Our kids...
they're not supposed
to die before we do.
It happens, you...
you can't help but
think, you know,
if you'd just done
one thing differently,
he'd still be here.
If I had just called
him, you know, maybe...
Keith, Keith, you can't
go down that path.
This, uh, magical
thinking business.
You...
It was a bad guy.
Nathan was killed by a bad guy.
You know that.
Dorsal not ventral.
What are you talking about?
I'm fairly certain the
zipper goes in back.
Well, whatever, I...
I know it's irrational, but...
I can't stifle the image
of, like, a gigantic wave
appearing on the horizon
and crushing us both.
Listen, that fear may
not be totally irrational.
I mean, physical
events can occur
which are beyond our current
ability to explain or quantify.
Yeah, your "meaningful
acausal coincidences."
John Eccles wrote of the
"profound and enduring link
"between the dynamics
of consciousness
and the structure
of the cosmos itself.”
Right.
So, in other words, if I
think of a gigantic wave,
I may cause one to come?
Eh, well, something like that.
Well, fortunately,
the waves look small.
Yeah, I suppose all the real
surfers have ventured elsewhere.
It's nicer this way, isn't it?
Just kind of having
the ocean all to yourself.
Nathan's life revolved
around that idea...
Having the waves to himself.
And when the hordes
descended on a
favorite surfing spot...
A place where he had
surfed alone for ages...
He opted to remain.
It's kind of strange, isn't it?
Maybe not so strange.
Turns out, at least
one of Nathan's enemies was
the focus of a DEA investigation
up until about six months ago.
Drug task force had
Pat Drummond pegged
as the man behind
a major pot-growing
operation up in Humboldt.
Oh, yeah? What,
the Emerald Triangle?
Yeah. Now, they couldn't bring
the hammer down.
DEA figures he got spooked,
took his cash and
opened up the shop.
Yeah, word is he traded in
his overalls, moved
into distribution.
COLBY: Yeah, and
here's the kicker...
Local dealers have been
buzzing lately about an influx
of high-grade weed
from the Channel Islands.
We know that it's
all over federal land,
but there's no signs it's moved
out to the Channel Islands...
At least not yet.
Yeah, there's
nothing in Nathan's file
about a marijuana farm.
He never said anything to you?
About pot?
Never.
All right.
Drummond.
Hey.
Whoa.
Look what we got here.
Yep, somebody's
bagging up some pot.
Looks pretty small-time.
(clattering)
(tires screeching)
Hey, dude, gnarly wipeout.
You did not just say that.
Selling pot by the baggie?
That's practically
legal in California
You're in it up to your neck
and you don't
even know it. Right.
All it's gonna take is
us finding Drummond
and him rolling over on you.
Murdering a federal
law enforcement officer
is not practically
legal anywhere.
Pat was getting weed
from the Channel Islands.
I helped him move it.
I don't know nothing
about how Nathan died.
Drummond have a
farm out there? No.
(pounds table)
No, he ripped it off.
Which island? He never said,
I never asked.
Pot farmers, man.
They're not a bunch of
tie-dyed stoners anymore.
They catch someone messing
with their plants, you
don't find the body.
Did Drummond kill
Nathan? I don't know.
He went out there that
day, during the swell,
the day Nathan died.
Got back late in the afternoon,
was all, like, panicked.
Was all, “Let's get out
of here, go to Rincon."
Remote public lands
in Southern California...
That's where most pot in
the state is grown these days.
Couple of years ago,
National Park Services
raided 250 pot farms
on California parkland alone,
and not all mom-and-pop either.
You got booby traps, guns...
COLBY: And very few arrests.
I mean, the main
guy'll generally hire
a bunch of illegals
to do the grunt work,
and then if the farm gets raided
and the workers get
arrested, he's still protected.
And even if they do
bust the ringleader,
he skirts property-forfeiture
law because he used public lands
instead of his own
backyard. But I don't see
anything here saying it
was definitely being grown
on the Channel Islands.
WILSON: Not yet.
Done some flyovers, but
there's an awful lot of terrain.
Very few roads.
Well, you know, I've consulted
with Homeland
Security in their attempts
to locate specific plant types
using airborne spectral-
sensing equipment
combined with a
cultivation-site prediction model.
Specific plants. You mean...
The kind used to
make illegal drugs.
Well, keep working that, and
I guess we should re-interview
some of these people, huh?
You guys want to fight it
out for Melissa Conroy?
DAVID: I always
lose when we do that.
You know? I think you cheat.
How do you cheat at
roshambo? DON: Hold on, hold on.
Let's see. Maybe Charlie...
Well, no, uh, I
wouldn't call it cheating.
But chaos school advocates
a purely random distribution
of rock, paper, scissor,
while probability analysis
has shown that a mixed strategy
of preconceived gambits...
You know what?
(chuckles)
I'm gonna keep my
roshambo strategies to myself,
just in case I
have to throw down
with one of you guys someday.
Did he just say "throw down"?
KEITH: Marijuana.
O-On the Channel Islands.
Yeah, I mean, I have to ask.
Is there a chance...?
That Nate was involved
in some pot farm? No, no way.
Don! Look, I know
that you didn't agree
with some of his choices.
Keith, that's not what this is about.
He was a priest
when it came to drugs!
You ask anybody who knew him.
And that's the way I read
it, too, but I have to ask.
I mean, you asked
me to look into this.
You're wasting your time, Don.
That's what you're doing,
you're wasting your time.
Keith, he's trying to
find your son's killer.
He has to look under every rug.
Now, that's what he does.
I'm sorry.
I know, I know.
If someone made
the same accusation
about one of your boys...
Good point.
LARRY: Huh.
The spectral range
of a marijuana leaf is...
Is often not that different
than native species
growing nearby,
and that's why it's so hard,
using spectral imaging,
to pinpoint them.
So, deconvolution algorithms?
Yeah, I combined those
with the hyperspectral
aerial images.
I mean, I was able to
identify several large areas
on that island that might
contain marijuana fields.
That is a lot of land.
I know, I know.
I need a new idea.
Well, I'm thinking maybe
we need to go surfing again.
Did we surf?
'Cause I wouldn't call it that.
I feel like we kind of
just bobbed in place.
Yeah, I think maybe we were
more like buoys.
Yeah, like...
like buoys.
Dude.
I thought models didn't
need to have real jobs.
NIKKI: L.A.'s a competitive
market for hotties.
If you stop at your
knees like this,
you'll never get all the way up.
Words to live by.
I'll be right back.
I already talked
to some FBI guy.
Yeah, he sent us.
Did Nathan ever mention anything
about a potential
marijuana bust?
Pot?
No.
How often did
you visit the island?
When Nathan first
got the job, a lot...
Like, every couple weeks.
Less toward the end.
I'd always hoped it
was a temporary thing,
him living out there.
Turned out he wasn't
going anywhere.
He have other
visitors? Not really.
Nathan was the kind who
didn't mind being alone.
Look, I'm sorry.
I don't know anything
about pot farms
or any stuff like that.
I better get back
before they bail.
Sure.
You say anything
about pot farms?
Nope.
Me neither.
INTERVIEWER: This is a
painful question, but it's something
everyone's asked about,
and you and the tour and...
people really want to
know why you dropped off.
NATHAN: I just lost interest.
INTERVIEWER:
Tahiti, Indo, J-Bay...
I mean, how do you
lose interest in that?
NATHAN: I mean, the truth is
I just got tired of
surfing for points.
INTERVIEWER: You know,
all kinds of pros these days...
They don't surf contests, but
they still make good money.
Well, really, I got tired of
surfing for the corporations,
like selling their T-shirts
and flip-flops and...
the little watches
with the tide calendars.
The only reason
to turn pro is to...
surf good waves
and get paid for it.
I mean, out here, I get
all the good waves I want.
I get paid to protect a
beautiful, spiritual place.
INTERVIEWER: You
got to be stoked on that.
NATHAN: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: There was this
rumor that you had a fear of big waves.
So how did you
overcome that fear?
NATHAN: Well, when
I was a kid, I was...
I mean, the ocean
scared me to death.
It was my dad who
got me into the water,
taught me how waves work,
how to relax when things go bad.
You just... you really have
to just go out there and do it.
Be alone and, um,
you make a lot of mistakes,
and those mistakes
are things that you
learn... You learn from that.
That's why someone can't just...
be a good surfer in six months.
But if it weren't for
my old man, I mean,
I'd probably be driving
a bread truck in Wichita.
(interviewer laughing)
CHARLIE: So,
my initial analysis...
A relatively simple filtering
of hyperspectral images...
Produced several
large areas on the island
that most likely
contain marijuana farms.
That's still a lot
of ground to cover.
Hence the term
“initial.” It occurred to me
that spectral images
are merely an imprint
of electromagnetic waves...
In this case, light
reflecting off of leaves...
And as we know, light
waves work the same
as ocean waves.
And as with all waves,
it's very difficult to detect
a significant pattern...
What surfers like to
call the dominant swell...
Amid other swells.
Now, what surf forecasters
do is they use math
to filter out noise of
surface chop from buoy data
to detect serious ground swells.
In a fundamental
way, it's similar
to how polarized sunglasses
filter out reflected sunlight.
So I applied a
deconvolution operator
to filter out
spectral interference
from other plants known
to grow on the Channel Islands,
and then created a
neural network algorithm
to learn to recognize
known spectral patterns
based on training sets.
(chuckling): That
was the cool part.
Yeah. Sounds cool.
Anyway, um...
(typing)
There's your marijuana farm.
Five miles from Kraken Cove.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
NIKKI: Not exactly organic.
Better bag anything that
even looks like evidence.
Already harvested.
You guys, over here.
Kind of looks like
evidence, huh?
NIKKI: He was shot.
Execution style.
Hmm.
Take a look at this.
Maybe he was planning on
opening up a second store...
Drummond's Surf and Toke, huh?
Looks like our guy here
was trying to mix some
business with pleasure.
Seems he missed out
on the pleasure part.
Yeah, we'll turn it over
to the techs... maybe they'll
be able to tell us something.
Wait a minute.
Maybe it already has.
DAVID: Ah.
This is a clean-air
thing, I just got certified.
Nope. Nothing like that.
Did you shape this board?
Unless some idiot's trying
to sell knockoff Hagens.
That'd be a good
way to go broke.
So, there's a number
on the stringer.
Five, eight, four, three?
5,834th board I shaped.
I'm up over six K now.
Any idea who you made it for?
If it's a custom order,
I'd know for sure.
I keep the dimensions
of all the boards I shape.
In case someone wants you
to replicate their magic board?
Surfing G-man.
So, why does the FBI want
to know who I
shaped a board for?
It's part of a crime scene.
Plus, I figured while
I was down here, I'd
put in an order for a fish.
Maybe a six-oh, six-one.
Yeah, good choice.
Fish are my specialty.
Yeah, I know.
All right, here we go.
Yeah, 5843. Okay.
Yeah, I remember this
guy. Cameron Wilson.
Made him a seven-foot pintail.
Park Service ranger?
That's him. Yeah,
said he needed a board
that could handle some juice.
You know him?
I checked with the Park Service.
They said Wilson's gone AWOL.
Hey, I need to point
something out to you guys.
Yeah? What's that?
All right... this is Wilma's
the day that Nathan died.
Yeah, but Nathan
never made it out there.
Right, so I expanded
this animation to include
more of that island
during the swell.
This spot right here
experienced bigger waves
than Wilma's that day.
Nathan had another
spot besides Wilma's.
Right.
I mean, look, you'd have
to go by here.
DAVID: Right, okay.
We know that Drummond
was out by that way.
So, maybe Nathan
runs to Drummond.
Drummond hits him in
the head, knocks him out,
drops him in the ocean to drown.
Wilson keeps a
sailboat in Ventura.
Harbor Master checked. Gone.
Now, he's probably
halfway to Fiji by now.
DON: I don't know. Look.
I mean, as far as he knows,
we didn't find the farm.
DAVID: He's in the wind.
He knows we're
monitoring his credit cards.
What, you think he goes
back for the dope, tries to turn it
into cash?
Well, the forecast calls for
another big swell tomorrow.
So, that's the perfect
time for someone familiar
with that spot to go
grab the hidden stash.
DON: I mean, he's spent his
whole life out on these waters.
NIKKI: He'll know where to land.
Somewhere sheltered
from the waves.
CHARLIE: Yeah, you know,
and this wave animation
does more than show
us previous swells.
It shows us what incoming
swells are gonna do.
It's like, for
instance, let's say,
there's a big storm
below New Zealand.
Okay, and it's
headed the right way.
Southern California's
almost guaranteed
to have a major swell
about a week later.
As long as you know
where the wind's blowing,
for how long, and
in what direction...
And that's all readily
available data from satellites...
You should be able to predict
whether the surf's
gonna to be big or small.
And this is the only place
on that side of the island
that's gonna be protected
from the surf tomorrow.
It's the perfect
place to go ashore.
(engine revving)
Stop!
Cut the engine.
I'm thinking "circumstantial"
probably isn't the right word.
And I'm thinking you didn't
need to blow me off my Ski
with a bean bag round.
We've got your
fingerprints all over the
marijuana operation, and we have
the bullet that killed Drummond.
Now how much you want to bet
it matches one of the
guns on your boat?
Then what do you
want from me then?
Nothing, really.
Now, see, we know why
you killed Drummond,
and we got a pretty good idea
why Drummond killed Nathan.
Maybe I can give you something.
Yeah?
What?
Drummond didn't kill Nate.
Are you confessing to
killing a federal officer?
No. Not me.
Drummond had a
partner out there.
Didn't you guys know that?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think we did.
Nice. Good job. That was great.
DON: Melissa?
Sorry. One second.
Can we can make this quick?
I don't know, Colby, can we?
So, we executed a search
warrant on your apartment.
Forensics found blood
specks on your shoes.
And we're pretty sure we know
whose it is. Nathan found out
you and Drummond were
ripping off Wilson, is that it?
Now's the time to make
it easier on yourself.
Pat tried to talk him
into a three-way split.
I knew Nathan wouldn't bite.
So, instead, he arrested you.
Just like that.
Didn't matter how close
we'd been, how much we'd shared.
He knew how things were for me.
All the stuff I was
doing to try to get by.
I'm just trying to make
a little cash without
hurting anyone.
Pat saved his life once.
I was his damn girlfriend.
Tell us what happened.
Nathan had his gun on Drummond.
He turned his back to
me to grab the kayak.
Like I didn't matter.
Like I was zero threat.
I mean, the-the
paddle was in my hand.
What did he think
I was gonna do?
Just go off to prison quietly?
(handcuffs rattling)
Next thing I know,
Nathan's facedown in the water.
And Drummond...
He's freaking
like a little bitch.
(handcuffs clicking)
A real good thing you
did for Nathan, huh?
For Keith.
You know, when he
quit baseball for surfing...
I told him he was
making a mistake.
Turns out to be the
thing he loved most.
I got that wrong, huh?
Telling you, Larry, I got
another board in my car
if you want to give it a shot.
LARRY: Nope. Today I
choose to experience the raw
power of waves, free
of all accoutrements.
Uh, is he about to get naked?
(laughing)
You know, Timothy
Leary said that
surfers represent the
pinnacle of human evolution.
Only a surfer
truly lives in the moment,
riding that ever-moving
wave between past and future.
Dancing with the Universe.
LARRY: Yeah. Hey, who said that?
Was that Feynman or Penrose?
I think it was Bodhi.
Bodhisattva.
Patrick Swayze.
Point Break?
The movie?
Colby, what are
you doing? Come on!
CHARLIE: All right, dudes.
We gonna surf or not?
Show us how it's done, Colb.
INTERVIEWER: Your worst wipeout.
NATHAN: That's Jaws.
INTERVIEWER: I've seen the film.
Seen the footage of that.
NATHAN: Couple
years ago, I got spanked.
I mean, the thing wouldn't
let me up for a long time.
And I'm almost at the surface,
and boom, the second one
just shoves me even deeper.
INTERVIEWER: So, wait,
wait... two-wave hold-down?
Wow!
The second one
won't let me up, either.
And now, I'm... I'm thinking,
you better get up there soon,
'cause the third one...
I mean, I never met anybody
who's lived through three.
So now I'm starting to thrash.
I mean, what you
don't want to do...
Panic.
And, uh...
And then I hear my dad's voice,
like, right here, like...
I mean, like I'm
wearing headphones.
"Relax, son.
"Every wave lets
you up eventually.
Only way to get
through it is relax."
Once he said that to me in Baja.
So I relaxed,
it let me up,
I got a breath.
Saved my life.
INTERVIEWER: Your
dad saved your life?
Yup. My dad.