Perception (2012–2015): Season 1, Episode 4 - Cipher - full transcript
While Pearce reads the newspaper, he sees a cryptographer who tells him that there's a secret message in the paper. Pearce looks at a letter sent to the editor and sees something and goes to Kate. The message says that he killed someone and four more will follow. Initially she's not sure but they get word that a lawyer was killed. They assume that it may have had something to do with one of his cases but can't find it. So Daniel decides that he should send a letter saying he's a fan of the one who sent the letter. The guy responds but when Pearce assumption of the man's motivation is wrong, the man cuts off contact. But the cryptographer shows up again and points Daniel in the right direction.
Subs created by: David Coleman.
Hmm.
Check out this letter to the editor.
Apparently, you're not the only guy
who thinks big media and big business
are crushing the
humanity out of humanity.
I'm gonna crush the humanity out
of you if you don't stop talking.
No, seriously. Sounds like
you on one of your rants.
Listen to this.
"When you devote not even a single
page to anything other than your"
"slavishly fawning so-called 'news ',
pandering to corporate advertisers,"
"you destroy all hope of tomorrow
for honest, hardworking Americans".
"Wow! How intriguing, Max".
"Thank you for sharing something
you thought would interest me".
"Oh, and thank you so
much for the papaya".
"It's delicious".
Actually, it could use a little lime.
You know what?
Get it yourself.
- I beg your pardon?
- You heard me.
And as of right now, your
assistant is officially on strike.
If this is about a raise,
you might want to consider
a slightly less melodramatic approach.
It's not about the money, Doc.
It's about the working conditions.
Okay, it's about you showing
me a little common courtesy.
What are you.. Lewicki!
All right, all right.
I'll read the damn letter.
Who are you?
Oh, uh, I'm afraid
my identity is classified, old boy.
You're a hallucination.
Whose assistance you'll require if you
have any hope of cracking that code.
What code?
Come now, old boy.
Surely you noticed the awkward syntax.
"Slavishly fawning so-called news"?
Clearly the words have been twisted
around some sort of hidden message.
- Holy sh..
- There's my boy.
It's steganography.
Hidden writing. Look.
If you read every 10th
word, look what you get.
"You'll be proud of me".
"Front-page news tomorrow.
One down, four to go".
"The butcher told me where to start".
It's how The French
Resistance communicated
with British Intelligence
during World War II..
With messages in the newspaper,
right where anybody could see.
French resistance?
Wow.
Meanwhile, back on the plane of
reality, some of us have work to do.
Think about it, Kate.
What ends up on the front page?
- World news, politics..
- Or crime.
I'm guessing whoever wrote this is
sending a message to an accomplice.
"One down, four to go".. That could be..
What? Banks to rob
or victims to butcher.
Do you think that this might be you..
Making connections where
possibly there aren't any?
What are the chances of every 10th word
in some random piece of
text making this much sense?
Or it could be something
completely innocent.
Then why hide it in a code?
Look at the guy's name.. James Smith.
It's got to be the most
common name in America.
It's obviously an alias.
And why use an alias unless
you're doing something illicit?
All right, look, the letter
probably came in via e-mail.
There might be some
way to trace the I.P.
But it could be from an
Internet cafe in Singapore.
You're actually
taking this seriously?
I want to be there when you tell
the boss that we're taking on a case
that Dr. Strange found with
his secret decoder ring.
Moretti.
What?
Okay, we'll be right there.
That was the CPD. They need our help
with a possible terrorist attack.
A lawyer downtown opened up a package
and got sprayed in the face with Sarin.
Died before paramedics got there.
Of course, a lawyer, because the
butcher told him where to start.
What the hell are you talking about?
It's Shakespeare.. "Henry VI, part 2".
Dick the butcher says, "first thing
we do, let's kill all the lawyers".
A Sarin attack.
That sounds like front-page news to me.
1x04
Cipher
Normally, I open
Mr. Scantlin's mail myself,
but there was a box marked "personal".
And, he thought someone sent him
a present, so he opened it himself.
And there was a pop, like a firecracker,
and some kind of spray came out.
And he started twitching.
I tried to help him but..
There's nothing you could
have done, Miss Benowitz.
Sarin is more toxic than cyanide.
Can you think of anybody who
might have had a reason to do this?
Tom was a mensch. Everybody loved him.
But he was a trial lawyer.
He won a lot of cases.
I mean, the.. The losers weren't happy.
There is nothing on the package.
No prints, no return address.
All right, well, we'll talk to his
friends, relatives, acquaintances,
but I think we should
start with his case files.
Farrington v. Awakama Sushi.
Scantlin got Awakama for 7 mil
for a single case of E. Coli.
Here's something.
Miller v. Klausner extermination.
Klausner was ordered to pay $70,000 in
medical expenses, $1.4 million punitive.
This could be our guy.
Why him out of all these cases?
Sarin's a nerve Agent, but it was
originally developed as a pesticide.
An exterminator would have everything he
needed to mix up a
batch, right on the shelf.
Yeah. I hate Tom Scantlin.
I built my business from nothing.
32 trucks, 58 employees.
Contracts with every school
district in the County.
Not bad for a guy who never
got past eighth grade, huh?
And that S.O.B. took it all away.
Actually, it was a jury of your
peers who decided against you.
They decided wrong.
LBJ Elementary had roaches
the size of chipmunks.
So my guys sprayed with a very reliable
pesticide I imported from Mexico.
Which you had to do because it
wasn't yet approved here in the U.S.
They use that stuff
like ketchup on fries
South of the border,
and no one's complaining.
Someone North of the
border sure complained.
One kid cries sick,
and his parents get a
fast-talking lawyer who
sues the crap out of me.
On the news, he made it sound like I
deliberately set out to
poison schoolchildren.
You know, it's funny that
you should mention the news,
because there was a letter
to the editor in today's paper
about how the media is
stacked against the little guy.
You might find it interesting.
Go ahead. Read it.
Sorry, I don't have my reading glasses.
Maybe you don't need
to read it because you
already know what it
says because you wrote it.
What are you talking about? I
don't write letters to the papers.
Listen, just because I hated Scantlin
doesn't mean that I killed him.
Sorry to interrupt. I wanted to
offer Mr. Klausner reading glasses.
Yeah, uh, I probably got
a different prescription.
All right. I think I
understand what's going on.
Do.. Do you have Dyslexia, Mr. Klausner?
How did you..
It would help explain why a man
as smart as you didn't make it
past eighth grade, and why you
don't want to read the letter.
It's nothing to be ashamed of.
It just means you're not our man.
Just because he's
dyslexic doesn't mean he's innocent.
Probert, for him, words and
letters swim around the page.
So, sadly, he avoids reading
and writing altogether.
It's not like he suddenly woke up one
morning and decided to start communicating
by constructing elaborate codes
buried inside letters to the editor.
So it's back to the
needle-in-a-haystack strategy.
Actually, I've been thinking.
There may be a way to get
the needle to come to us.
In his code, the killer
says, "you'll be proud of me".
He's looking for approval.
If I write him back,
tell him what a great
job I think he's doing,
maybe he'll talk to me.
You plan on making
friends with this lunatic?
We're peas in a pod.
"You think you have guts, but
all I hear is whining and self-pity".
What are you trying to do, get
him to Sarin-gas the whole city?
I thought this was
supposed to be a fan letter.
Have you considered
requesting a new partner?
You're just trying to
get his attention, right?
Exactly. If he's as smart as I think
he is, he'll see the hidden message.
Every 10 words, you said?
"Great move".
"I wish I had your guts".
"Just one question".
"Out of all the lying,
cheating lawyers, why that one?"
"Your friend, kindred spirit".
"Kindred spirit". I like that.
We should rush a copy of this to the paper
so they can get it in tomorrow's edition.
Maybe we could bring it over
there in a horse and buggy.
Is that supposed to be funny?
Listen, papers have online editions.
I'm just gonna post this as a
comment to the original letter, okay?
Maybe he's not checking the comments.
Maybe he doesn't even own a computer.
You know, maybe he's like me.
Some people still like the feel
of a newspaper in their hands.
What are you, a Luddite?
The Luddites were onto something.
You know, studies have shown that
people who spend too much time online
lose the ability to
identify simple emotions
expressed in photographs of human faces.
I mean, computers may be the
greatest technological advance
of the last 100 years, but
this whole Internet thing is..
Invaluable in making
instantaneous contact at crucial times?
He answered? What did he say?
"Hey, kindred spirit. Glad
to know I'm not alone".
"You'll get your answer tomorrow
when the next bastard gets his mail".
"But if you're as smart as I think you
are, you can be there when it happens".
What the hell is that?
It's another cipher.
He wants to make sure I'm the
only one that gets the message.
Can you decipher it?
That's a nasty one.
And it's only, what?
Six hours before the
morning post comes 'round.
Not sure if we can crack it in time.
No. No. No.
It's not a Vigen?re sequence.
And it's not a polyalphabetic
substitution, either.
What the hell is that?
What difference does it
make if it's not what it is?
Traced the I.P. address the
guy used to send the reply from.
Came up empty.
Code breakers at the NSA
come up with anything?
Nothing yet.
Well, then he better hurry up,
because the Chicago postal workers
are about to have their morning coffee!
Yeah, do you not think I'm
excruciatingly aware of that?
I can't.. Don't.. I can't..
I can't do this with
everybody hovering around me.
What are you doing here?
Thought you could use
a little bit of help.
Yeah, you've been a big help.
What fun is there playing a game
if the other fellow hasn't
got a sporting chance?
You're talking in riddles.
I have enough of those.
I'm simply saying it wouldn't be
cricket for this fellow to write
a code without sending along at
least a hint of how to crack it.
You think the killer hid a
key within the code itself.
Well, if he had..
He'd likely open with it..
Wouldn't he?
Look at the numbers, Pierce.
Look very closely at the numbers.
What is the relationship
between the groups of figures?
14, 41..
No. 144. 12.
144 is the square of 12.
225 is the square of 15.
Squares and their roots.
Well, that's got to mean something.
What? What? Square.. Square roots.
Squares.
N.. Not "root" like a potato.
A Route.. Like a highway!
It's a Route cipher.
Squares and their roots..
The numbers were the tell.
Squares and their roots.
But the three stood
apart, meaning you break
each string of letters
into three equal rows.
Then you just.. You just
have to figure out the Route.
It could be up and down
columns or in a spiral pattern..
Daniel, this is fantastic, but
can you just tell me what it says?
Here. "You'd better hurry".
"First Monument Bank.
105 Couch Place".
Call First Monument Bank,
have them clear the building
and warn their employees
not to open any mail.
I'm gonna get an ambulance over there.
Tell them to bring Atropine and
Pralidoxime Chloride to treat for Sarin.
We're too late.
President of First Monument Bank
opened a package 10 minutes ago.
He got blasted with Sarin.
His name's Russ Anderson.
He's on his way to the E.R.
If I'd been 10 minutes faster, he would
not be lying in there on life support.
Daniel, this is not your fault.
Okay, you didn't poison those men.
And we can still catch the guy who
did this before he hits someone else.
Have you gotten a hold
of Mr. Anderson's wife?
She's on a plane. She'll
be here in an hour.
I don't know if he'll last that long.
Can we talk to him?
He's gone into a coma.
That doesn't necessarily mean we
can't try to ask him some questions.
Mr. Anderson, my name
is Dr. Daniel Pierce.
I'm so sorry about
what's happened to you.
You've been poisoned. The Doctors here
are doing everything they can to help you.
Your wife is flying in
from Colorado right now.
In the meantime, we need your help
catching whoever it is
that tried to kill you.
I'm gonna ask you a series of questions.
When you want to answer "yes,"
think about throwing a baseball.
And for "no," think about
singing "Happy Birthday".
Do you understand?
That's the cerebellum, the region
of the brain responsible for
hand-eye coordination. He's
thinking about throwing a baseball.
This is extraordinary.
So he's saying "yes".
Do you know who attacked you?
That's the medial pre-frontal Cortex.
Where we store our memories of music.
He's thinking about
singing "Happy Birthday".
So he's saying "no," he
doesn't know who attacked him.
Do you know a lawyer
named Thomas Scantlin?
"Yes".
Do you know Mr. Scantlin
in a personal capacity?
"No".
In a professional capacity?
"Yes".
Mr. Scantlin was attacked
yesterday the same way you were.
Do you have any idea why?
"Yes".
Mr. Anderson, I'm gonna ask
you to spell out that reason.
I'll run through the
alphabet letter by letter..
And when I say a letter that's correct,
I want you think about
throwing that baseball.
Do you understand?
Okay. Here we go.
"A"..
"D"..
"E"..
"E". Got it.
"Da-foe". "Dafoe". I mean,
it could be a last name.
Is that right, Mr. Anderson?
Is Dafoe somebody that you..
Code!
Clear!
Clear!
His heart's stopped.
It's over.
Time of death, 10:47 P.M.
Mr. Dafoe, thank you for coming in.
Of course. Yeah.
I just can't believe
Russ Anderson's dead.
He had children.
Tom Scantlin, too.
You were friends?
More business acquaintances, really.
A lunch or two a year and share a table
at a charity event, that sort of thing.
We asked Mr. Anderson if he had any idea
why he and Mr. Scantlin were targeted,
and the only thing he could give us
before he died was your name.
My name?
Wait, you don't think I
had something to do with..
No. No. The killer seems to have
a grievance against powerful men.
Your being the C.E.O. of a Global
agricultural conglomerate
certainly puts you in that club.
But the killer's also made it clear that
he has three more victims on his list.
Oh, my God.
What we need to do now is determine
what possibly connects the three
of you so we can get a better
idea of who this killer might be.
Well, Chicago's ultimately a small town.
We've done so much business
together over the years.
Did any of that business
screw somebody so badly that
they'd want to see all
three of you fat cats dead?
I.. I'm sorry, who are you again?
Sorry. This is Dr. Daniel Pierce.
He's a special consultant
helping the FBI with this case.
He gets a little passionate sometimes.
What he's trying to ask is,
could any of your dealings
with Mr. Scantlin or Anderson
have possibly given
anyone motive for murder?
Well, Scantlin's firm drew up
the I.P.O. that we did last year,
and a division of Anderson's
bank handled the offering.
And what about that would
have set someone off?
We had to lay off 13 executives
and about 250 low-level employees.
Sure, nothing like a little corporate
downsizing to pump up the stock price.
Getting your fiscal house in
order is standard before an I.P.O.
Can't make an omelet without
breaking a few eggs, right?
No, you can't.
All right, well, we're gonna need
a list of those 263 employees,
including the low-level ones.
Another needle in another haystack.
Meanwhile, the killer
could be at The Post Office,
dropping his next delivery
down the mail slot.
I'll send him
another fan letter.
Maybe he'll send me another clue.
Maybe this time I'll
figure it out fast enough.
All right, I'll log
back onto the thread.
Okay. Uh, no code this
time.. Just message.
Uh, "now I understand".
"You're downsizing the bastards
the same way they downsized you".
"Who's next? Yours, kindred".
Okay. It's sent.
Now we just got to hope that
he's monitoring the thread.
I'm pretty sure he's monitoring.
Four..
Three..
Two..
"You're not as smart as I thought you
were. You don't understand me at all".
"I'm finished with you. Goodbye".
Daniel, what are you doing here?
Why aren't you helping Kate?
I.. I couldn't.. I couldn't
think in that place.
You know, I.. I had to talk to you.
How can I help?
I thought I'd made a
connection to the killer.
You know, but I.. I must have
guessed wrong about his motive,
and now.. Now he's cut me out.
Did you try contacting him again?
Not until I have a better guess.
But if he's not angry about
being downsized, what is it?
You hear those sirens?
It sounds like it's right next door.
Oh, sorry. Sorry.
I work.. I work here.
Kate?
What the hell is going on?
Let me know when you get it.
Okay, Daniel, listen.
It was Sarin again.
It was packed in a canister
like the others with a
charge to release the gas
when the package was opened.
- Who opened it?
- Nobody.
Looks like it was dropped
and went off accidentally.
The victim was Kelly Owens.
She was working part-time
in the faculty mail room.
Oh, that poor girl.
And her parents.
Well, obviously she wasn't the target.
Who was the package addressed to?
Mailing label was incinerated
in the explosion. We don't know.
Actually, I'm pretty sure we do.
Our mad scientist here made the paper.
What?
"Anonymous sources report
that Dr. Daniel Pierce of CLMU"
"has been helping the FBI decipher
the killer's coded messages".
He found out his kindred
spirit's talking to the cops.
"Anonymous sources". What, have
you been blabbing to the press?
Me? There's dozens of
agents working on this case.
And if you think that I
would jeopardize my career
to get your name in the paper,
you're crazier than I thought.
Listen, there will be an
investigation into the leak.
What matters now is
that you're in danger.
No, no, I don't buy it. I don't buy it.
This guy's a methodical
killer with an urgent agenda.
He's not gonna waste
time on some detour just
because he finds out
I'm not his best friend.
We need to err on the side of caution.
I'm taking you home and
having you guarded, all right?
- What?
- Come on.
No, no, I don't want some
stranger lurking around my house.
Okay, fine. It'll have to be
someone who you already know.
You got cable?
That package wasn't meant for me.
Daniel, maybe you don't want
to accept it because then you'd
have to take responsibility for
what happened to that poor girl.
No, that's not what I'm
saying. I.. I responsible.
I mean, if I'd caught the
killer already, that girl..
Sorry to interrupt.
Do you mind?
Oh, I thought you were
talking to someone.
What do you want?
Mustard.
What?
You know, Grey Poupon, yellow?
I'm making a sandwich.
Lewicki!
Yes.
Would you get the good
Agent some mustard?
Uh, I'm on strike, remember?
Lewicki, I don't have time for this.
Then I suggest you say "please".
And I suggest you get the damn mustard.
Fine.
But not because you ordered me
to.. Because I'm a nice person.
Right this way.
If the package wasn't
for you, who was it for?
I don't now.
Someone on campus who is somehow
connected to Anderson, Scantlin, and Dafoe.
Well, let's take them one at a time.
What field is Dafoe in?
He's a C.E.O..
Where the hell is my faculty directory?
In here, under the gong.
Under the gong.
College of agriculture.
Arthur Wei..
Holds the distinguished Frederick
James Dafoe professorship
of genetic engineering.
Probert!
Can I help you?
I'm Dr. Daniel Pierce,
Department of Neuroscience.
This is Agent Probert of the FBI.
FBI? What's this about?
This conversation is private.
I assume you heard about Kelly Owens,
the girl who died on campus today?
Yeah, it's terrible.
It should have been you.
- Excuse me?
- You were the target.
What's your connection
to Frederick Dafoe,
apart from the fact that you hold a chair
generously endowed by his foundation?
What the hell is this?
Look, either you talk to me,
or I get that guy out there
to phone his buddies
at the Bureau, and then
it's the handcuffs, the
all-night interrogation,
sweating in a damp cell until you
finally break and spill it anyway.
All in all, I'd say your
best bet is talking to me.
Now, what did you do for Frederick
Dafoe that got you the endowed chair?
I'm an agricultural geneticist.
I created a new strain
of corn for his company.
Why would someone try
to kill you for that?
Look, while I was working on the gene..
I realized there was a possibility..
Of a troubling collateral effect.
What "collateral effect"?
My strain of corn was
genetically dominant.
If the seed blew into
the neighboring farm.
It would wipe out the native corn and
take over the other farmer's field.
I was trying to re-engineer the seed
so it could achieve harmony
with the other strains.
But Dafoe ordered me not to.
Why?
At the time, I didn't know it,
but once the gene spread
to the neighboring farms,
Dafoe started suing the
farmers for selling his corn..
My corn.. To the consumer.
On what grounds?
Copyright infringement.
He held the patent on the gene.
He sued them for selling a strain
of corn that blew in on the wind?
Are you kidding me?
Look, they didn't realize
they were growing it.
A lot of them went into foreclosure.
Oh. Of course. Let me guess..
Dafoe started buying up
their farms on the cheap.
I went to Dafoe. I told him
if he doesn't drop the suits,
I would inform the
Department of Agriculture
that he'd planned the whole thing.
Right, and then he offered
you the endowed chair
and maybe a little
grant money as a kicker.
Look you're a scientist.
You know how hard it is to get funding..
Spare me that crap.
You took your 30 pieces of silver,
and those farmers lost everything.
No, you don't understand.
No, I think I understand just fine..
Professor.
Kevin Lang, Cal
Bowden, Ray Donaldson..
Any of these names mean
anything to you, Mr. Dafoe?
Uh, no, I've never heard of them.
Of course not. You got lawyers for that.
Lang, Bowden, and Donaldson
were three of the farmers
whose lives you ruined
when you sued them
for copyright infringement
for unknowingly taking corn
containing the Dafoe gene to market.
That gene was patented.
Yeah, and designed to obliterate
every cornstalk in its path.
Scantlin handled the lawsuits,
and then Anderson fast-tracked
the farms to foreclosure,
so you could snap up those
properties for pennies on the dollar.
Yes, that's called good business.
U.S. Attorney's gonna call
it conspiracy to commit fraud.
All right, listen, Sweetie,
I'm not gonna say another word
to you without a lawyer present.
That's fine.
But in the meantime..
The killer is still out there.
It's a pretty good bet
that you are on his list.
So I suggest you tell us which of the
farmers you ruined might be doing this.
Okay, there was an incident
at the shareholders meeting.
A very angry man stormed into the room,
yelling threats and obscenities,
and he had to be escorted out.
I need a name.
I don't know. Maybe my security
people might have it. Look..
Are you going to be
able to keep me safe?
Oh, yeah. U.S. Marshals
will protect you.
After all, we wouldn't want
anything happening to you
before you can start
serving your sentence.
Got the name of the farmer that stormed the
shareholder meeting and threatened Dafoe..
Paul Levasseur.
Great. Let's go pick him up.
He's serving 8 to 10
in Stateville Prison.
Been there three months.
Not our guy.
But maybe he can tell us who is.
How do you figure that?
Why did the killer put
his message in a newspaper?
Maybe because he was
sending it to somebody whose
letters get opened and read
before they're delivered.
Someone in prison.
My great-great-grandfather
homesteaded that land.
My family..
Farmed it for 100 years.
After the lawsuit, I tried
other things to get by.
Sold tractors.
Dug ditches for the County.
Nothing stuck.
So you robbed a bank.
Just trying to keep
my family above water.
Losing the farm, seeing me behind bars..
Broke my wife's heart.
She hung herself nine weeks ago.
I'm so sorry.
Listen, Mr. Levasseur, we're here
to talk to you about your son, Eddie.
The coded
message in the newspaper..
He put that there for you, didn't he?
"Front-page news".
Just like he said.
I tried to call him after
I read about Scantlin.
But his phone was turned off.
You could have called the police.
I know I should have, but..
He was your boy. You
couldn't bear to turn him in.
After..
After this all went down,
something in him broke.
But I swear to you, he's a good boy.
A brilliant boy.
Finished college in three years.
Couldn't wait to get
started in on his PHD.
But he had to drop out
after you lost the farm.
I couldn't send him a dime.
He's been teaching
high-school math in Harvey.
Actually, he hasn't been
there in over a month.
He hasn't been back to
his apartment, either.
We need to find him
before someone else dies.
Do you have any idea where he is?
There's a.. There's a place
he used to like to go to think.
On the back acreage of our old farm.
Look at this. He knew we were coming.
"Hey, kindred, my life's an open book".
"When you crack this one,
you'll know everything".
"But search your mind".
"Do you really want to stop me?"
What is it with this guy?
First he blows you off, then
he leaves you another clue?
He wants to avenge the injustice done
to his Father and the other farmers,
but he did not mean to kill
an innocent college student,
so maybe he's feeling
guilty or conflicted.
Some part of him wants to get caught.
Let's give him what he wants.
"My life's an open book".
"Open book". It's a book cipher.
Look, the numbers are
in groups of three.
The first one corresponds to a
page number in a particular book,
the second one.. Second number
to.. To a line on that page,
and the third number
to a word in that line.
You find the words, you put them
together, you get your message.
- What book?
- It could..
It could be any book in the world.
You're not listening, old boy.
He's telling you
everything you need to know.
What do you mean? What
are you talking about?
I didn't say anything.
"Search your mind," Pierce.
I am. I am.
It's not helping!
Daniel, you all right?
Yeah. Don't.. Don't worry about me.
Okay? I'm f.. Fine.
Just don't worry about..
Me.
You need to take me home.
This is our key.
"The Mind: Knowing The Unknowable".
By Dr. Daniel Pierce. I love this book.
- But what do you..
- He's not saying "search your mind".
He's saying "search your mind".
- He means the title of your book.
- Yeah.
Go to page..
312.
Second line, third word.
"Today".
Page 57.
17th line, 12th word.
14th line, 9th word.
"Family".
"Today I destroy the villain the same
way the villain destroyed my family".
"Destroy the villain".
Who's he talking about?
It's got to be Dafoe. I mean, he's..
He's the main villain in
this whole sordid story.
Dafoe is in protective custody.
How's the killer gonna
destroy him there?
There are a million ways to destroy
someone whose only priority is profits.
I mean, you could take out
their processing plants,
or their warehouses or
their grain elevators.
Yeah, it's a huge company.
We don't have the manpower to
protect every one of his facilities.
But we can try. Just get
the boss on the phone.
A word with you, old chap?
What do you want?
"Today I destroy the villain the same
way the villain destroyed my family".
Yeah. So?
Perhaps there's another code
buried in the message itself.
Daniel, you don't
have to listen to him.
Each letter represents a number.
You don't need his help.
Perhaps it's an address.
You've cracked the ciphers.
Now it's about cracking Eddie.
What do you mean?
What did Dafoe do that really hurt him?
Did he take away his
farm, his livelihood..
Or something more important to him?
I love you, Natalie Vincent.
I did it. I.. I solved the riddle.
- I know what Eddie's doing.
- So do we.
Our agents found a truck
bomb full of fertilizer
just outside Dafoe headquarters.
What? No. No, no, no. That's a decoy.
Remember the original message..
"One down, four to go".
That makes five victims.
Now Eddie's telling us..
"Today I destroy the villain the same
way the villain destroyed my family".
H.. His Father's in prison, his Mother
took her own life, all because of Dafoe.
Three of the victims are
dead. Who are the last two?
Dafoe's parents.
He's in there with the Dafoes.
Question is, what's he waiting for?
He's waiting to talk to me.
Want to give this a try?
No, it's got to
be face-to-face.
Daniel, you're not going in there.
He told me how to find him.
He must have something to say to me.
All right, well, I'm going in with you.
And you're wearing a wire so
SWAT can hear what's going on.
Look, if you can get
him in front of a window,
one of my snipers can take him out.
Uh, Eddie..
I'm Dr. Daniel Pierce.
May I come in?
Just him.
And if you or anyone else
so much as rattles this
doorknob, I press this button,
and we all go up together.
Do you understand?
- Daniel.
- I.. I can do it.
There's a way out of this, Eddie.
There's no other way out for me.
If you believe that..
Then why did you tell
me where to find you?
I mean, the puzzles were clever but..
You knew I'd be able to solve them.
Yeah. I wanted you here..
Because you said you were my kindred
spirit, and I wanted to believe
that there was someone out
there who understood me.
But you've been working
for the cops the whole time.
You're gonna have to die with me.
Get him out of there right now!
No, if we storm in there,
he pushes the button.
Your guy's all on his own.
You know, I knew I was taking a risk
when I came through that door but uh..
- I came anyway.
- Why?
Because I am your kindred spirit.
- Bullshit.
- No, it's true.
Yeah, I'm working for the cops,
but I believe in what
you're fighting for, Eddie.
I hate lawyers, Eddie, and
.. And.. And corporations
and the way they screw over
hardworking, honest people.
What Scantlin and Anderson and the rest
of those bastards did to your family..
Is unforgivable. It's.. It's evil.
I understand why you'd
want to make them pay. I do.
- But these people didn't do anything.
- Yes, they did.
They raised a monster.
They raised a son that
has no conscience at all.
And your Father raised you,
and you do have a conscience.
And that's the real reason that
you brought me here, isn't it?
Because deep down, you
want me to stop you from
- killing anyone else.
- You're wrong.
You started this, Eddie, because you
wanted to make your Father proud of you.
He still can be.
Nobody else has to die. You've
already finished the job.
What are you talking about?
Dafoe and Wei are going to jail.
You're lying.
No, I'm not.
Thanks to you, I figured
out what they were doing
to your Father and the other farmers.
The U.S. Attorney is gonna indict
them. There'll be lawsuits, Eddie.
Some of those farmers
will get their land back.
It's too late for my Father and me.
Well, maybe you could still be together.
How?
In hell?
I'll talk to the U.S. Attorney about
having you sentenced to Stateville.
I promise.
Now..
Why don't you put down
that detonator and..
Let's walk out of here together.
If I go out there, the only cell they're
gonna put me in is one on Death Row.
And I deserve to die.
I killed an innocent girl.
Yeah, and you can pay for that
crime, Eddie, but not with your life.
There were mitigating circumstances.
You were traumatized by what Dafoe
and his cabal did to your family,
and I'll testify to that.
You lied to me before.
How do I know you're
not lying to me now?
I got the shot, Sir. Take it.
Eddie, get away from that window!
God!
Why the hell did you do that, huh?
Why didn't you just let them kill me?
Because I meant what I said, Eddie.
Nobody else has to die.
I could still push this button.
Yeah, you can.
But I don't think you're going to.
Come on. Come on. Come on.
What the hell is going on?
Hold your fire!
Hold your fire!
He's surrendering!
He left the detonator inside!
Go! Go! Go! Go!
You did the right thing, Eddie.
Daniel!
- Are you okay?
- Yep.
You sure?
Yeah. That.. That could have
gone a whole different way.
I knew you were crazy. I
didn't know you were that crazy.
Yeah. Me neither.
What is a conscience?
Is it something we can locate on an MRI?
Studies have shown that people with damage
to the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
are actually more willing
to sacrifice a human life
as long as they perceive that
it's for some greater good.
But what about people
who have no trouble
sacrificing others to
their own selfish ends?
Is heartless cruelty our true nature?
And empathy the aberration?
My Grandmother used to
say, "it's nice to be nice".
And that may be true.
Or are we better off spending every waking
moment tending our own selfish needs?
The good news is, it turns out
there's an evolutionary advantage
to simple human kindness.
We couldn't get through a cold paleolithic
winter without a little cooperation.
Still, on some prehistoric
level we're all lone hunters.
So it can feel dangerous to show any
softness to other members of the tribe.
But if we manage to lay down our
clubs and our sharpened rocks,
answering the call of the
altruistic imperative..
Can be its own reward.
Subs created by: David Coleman.
Hmm.
Check out this letter to the editor.
Apparently, you're not the only guy
who thinks big media and big business
are crushing the
humanity out of humanity.
I'm gonna crush the humanity out
of you if you don't stop talking.
No, seriously. Sounds like
you on one of your rants.
Listen to this.
"When you devote not even a single
page to anything other than your"
"slavishly fawning so-called 'news ',
pandering to corporate advertisers,"
"you destroy all hope of tomorrow
for honest, hardworking Americans".
"Wow! How intriguing, Max".
"Thank you for sharing something
you thought would interest me".
"Oh, and thank you so
much for the papaya".
"It's delicious".
Actually, it could use a little lime.
You know what?
Get it yourself.
- I beg your pardon?
- You heard me.
And as of right now, your
assistant is officially on strike.
If this is about a raise,
you might want to consider
a slightly less melodramatic approach.
It's not about the money, Doc.
It's about the working conditions.
Okay, it's about you showing
me a little common courtesy.
What are you.. Lewicki!
All right, all right.
I'll read the damn letter.
Who are you?
Oh, uh, I'm afraid
my identity is classified, old boy.
You're a hallucination.
Whose assistance you'll require if you
have any hope of cracking that code.
What code?
Come now, old boy.
Surely you noticed the awkward syntax.
"Slavishly fawning so-called news"?
Clearly the words have been twisted
around some sort of hidden message.
- Holy sh..
- There's my boy.
It's steganography.
Hidden writing. Look.
If you read every 10th
word, look what you get.
"You'll be proud of me".
"Front-page news tomorrow.
One down, four to go".
"The butcher told me where to start".
It's how The French
Resistance communicated
with British Intelligence
during World War II..
With messages in the newspaper,
right where anybody could see.
French resistance?
Wow.
Meanwhile, back on the plane of
reality, some of us have work to do.
Think about it, Kate.
What ends up on the front page?
- World news, politics..
- Or crime.
I'm guessing whoever wrote this is
sending a message to an accomplice.
"One down, four to go".. That could be..
What? Banks to rob
or victims to butcher.
Do you think that this might be you..
Making connections where
possibly there aren't any?
What are the chances of every 10th word
in some random piece of
text making this much sense?
Or it could be something
completely innocent.
Then why hide it in a code?
Look at the guy's name.. James Smith.
It's got to be the most
common name in America.
It's obviously an alias.
And why use an alias unless
you're doing something illicit?
All right, look, the letter
probably came in via e-mail.
There might be some
way to trace the I.P.
But it could be from an
Internet cafe in Singapore.
You're actually
taking this seriously?
I want to be there when you tell
the boss that we're taking on a case
that Dr. Strange found with
his secret decoder ring.
Moretti.
What?
Okay, we'll be right there.
That was the CPD. They need our help
with a possible terrorist attack.
A lawyer downtown opened up a package
and got sprayed in the face with Sarin.
Died before paramedics got there.
Of course, a lawyer, because the
butcher told him where to start.
What the hell are you talking about?
It's Shakespeare.. "Henry VI, part 2".
Dick the butcher says, "first thing
we do, let's kill all the lawyers".
A Sarin attack.
That sounds like front-page news to me.
1x04
Cipher
Normally, I open
Mr. Scantlin's mail myself,
but there was a box marked "personal".
And, he thought someone sent him
a present, so he opened it himself.
And there was a pop, like a firecracker,
and some kind of spray came out.
And he started twitching.
I tried to help him but..
There's nothing you could
have done, Miss Benowitz.
Sarin is more toxic than cyanide.
Can you think of anybody who
might have had a reason to do this?
Tom was a mensch. Everybody loved him.
But he was a trial lawyer.
He won a lot of cases.
I mean, the.. The losers weren't happy.
There is nothing on the package.
No prints, no return address.
All right, well, we'll talk to his
friends, relatives, acquaintances,
but I think we should
start with his case files.
Farrington v. Awakama Sushi.
Scantlin got Awakama for 7 mil
for a single case of E. Coli.
Here's something.
Miller v. Klausner extermination.
Klausner was ordered to pay $70,000 in
medical expenses, $1.4 million punitive.
This could be our guy.
Why him out of all these cases?
Sarin's a nerve Agent, but it was
originally developed as a pesticide.
An exterminator would have everything he
needed to mix up a
batch, right on the shelf.
Yeah. I hate Tom Scantlin.
I built my business from nothing.
32 trucks, 58 employees.
Contracts with every school
district in the County.
Not bad for a guy who never
got past eighth grade, huh?
And that S.O.B. took it all away.
Actually, it was a jury of your
peers who decided against you.
They decided wrong.
LBJ Elementary had roaches
the size of chipmunks.
So my guys sprayed with a very reliable
pesticide I imported from Mexico.
Which you had to do because it
wasn't yet approved here in the U.S.
They use that stuff
like ketchup on fries
South of the border,
and no one's complaining.
Someone North of the
border sure complained.
One kid cries sick,
and his parents get a
fast-talking lawyer who
sues the crap out of me.
On the news, he made it sound like I
deliberately set out to
poison schoolchildren.
You know, it's funny that
you should mention the news,
because there was a letter
to the editor in today's paper
about how the media is
stacked against the little guy.
You might find it interesting.
Go ahead. Read it.
Sorry, I don't have my reading glasses.
Maybe you don't need
to read it because you
already know what it
says because you wrote it.
What are you talking about? I
don't write letters to the papers.
Listen, just because I hated Scantlin
doesn't mean that I killed him.
Sorry to interrupt. I wanted to
offer Mr. Klausner reading glasses.
Yeah, uh, I probably got
a different prescription.
All right. I think I
understand what's going on.
Do.. Do you have Dyslexia, Mr. Klausner?
How did you..
It would help explain why a man
as smart as you didn't make it
past eighth grade, and why you
don't want to read the letter.
It's nothing to be ashamed of.
It just means you're not our man.
Just because he's
dyslexic doesn't mean he's innocent.
Probert, for him, words and
letters swim around the page.
So, sadly, he avoids reading
and writing altogether.
It's not like he suddenly woke up one
morning and decided to start communicating
by constructing elaborate codes
buried inside letters to the editor.
So it's back to the
needle-in-a-haystack strategy.
Actually, I've been thinking.
There may be a way to get
the needle to come to us.
In his code, the killer
says, "you'll be proud of me".
He's looking for approval.
If I write him back,
tell him what a great
job I think he's doing,
maybe he'll talk to me.
You plan on making
friends with this lunatic?
We're peas in a pod.
"You think you have guts, but
all I hear is whining and self-pity".
What are you trying to do, get
him to Sarin-gas the whole city?
I thought this was
supposed to be a fan letter.
Have you considered
requesting a new partner?
You're just trying to
get his attention, right?
Exactly. If he's as smart as I think
he is, he'll see the hidden message.
Every 10 words, you said?
"Great move".
"I wish I had your guts".
"Just one question".
"Out of all the lying,
cheating lawyers, why that one?"
"Your friend, kindred spirit".
"Kindred spirit". I like that.
We should rush a copy of this to the paper
so they can get it in tomorrow's edition.
Maybe we could bring it over
there in a horse and buggy.
Is that supposed to be funny?
Listen, papers have online editions.
I'm just gonna post this as a
comment to the original letter, okay?
Maybe he's not checking the comments.
Maybe he doesn't even own a computer.
You know, maybe he's like me.
Some people still like the feel
of a newspaper in their hands.
What are you, a Luddite?
The Luddites were onto something.
You know, studies have shown that
people who spend too much time online
lose the ability to
identify simple emotions
expressed in photographs of human faces.
I mean, computers may be the
greatest technological advance
of the last 100 years, but
this whole Internet thing is..
Invaluable in making
instantaneous contact at crucial times?
He answered? What did he say?
"Hey, kindred spirit. Glad
to know I'm not alone".
"You'll get your answer tomorrow
when the next bastard gets his mail".
"But if you're as smart as I think you
are, you can be there when it happens".
What the hell is that?
It's another cipher.
He wants to make sure I'm the
only one that gets the message.
Can you decipher it?
That's a nasty one.
And it's only, what?
Six hours before the
morning post comes 'round.
Not sure if we can crack it in time.
No. No. No.
It's not a Vigen?re sequence.
And it's not a polyalphabetic
substitution, either.
What the hell is that?
What difference does it
make if it's not what it is?
Traced the I.P. address the
guy used to send the reply from.
Came up empty.
Code breakers at the NSA
come up with anything?
Nothing yet.
Well, then he better hurry up,
because the Chicago postal workers
are about to have their morning coffee!
Yeah, do you not think I'm
excruciatingly aware of that?
I can't.. Don't.. I can't..
I can't do this with
everybody hovering around me.
What are you doing here?
Thought you could use
a little bit of help.
Yeah, you've been a big help.
What fun is there playing a game
if the other fellow hasn't
got a sporting chance?
You're talking in riddles.
I have enough of those.
I'm simply saying it wouldn't be
cricket for this fellow to write
a code without sending along at
least a hint of how to crack it.
You think the killer hid a
key within the code itself.
Well, if he had..
He'd likely open with it..
Wouldn't he?
Look at the numbers, Pierce.
Look very closely at the numbers.
What is the relationship
between the groups of figures?
14, 41..
No. 144. 12.
144 is the square of 12.
225 is the square of 15.
Squares and their roots.
Well, that's got to mean something.
What? What? Square.. Square roots.
Squares.
N.. Not "root" like a potato.
A Route.. Like a highway!
It's a Route cipher.
Squares and their roots..
The numbers were the tell.
Squares and their roots.
But the three stood
apart, meaning you break
each string of letters
into three equal rows.
Then you just.. You just
have to figure out the Route.
It could be up and down
columns or in a spiral pattern..
Daniel, this is fantastic, but
can you just tell me what it says?
Here. "You'd better hurry".
"First Monument Bank.
105 Couch Place".
Call First Monument Bank,
have them clear the building
and warn their employees
not to open any mail.
I'm gonna get an ambulance over there.
Tell them to bring Atropine and
Pralidoxime Chloride to treat for Sarin.
We're too late.
President of First Monument Bank
opened a package 10 minutes ago.
He got blasted with Sarin.
His name's Russ Anderson.
He's on his way to the E.R.
If I'd been 10 minutes faster, he would
not be lying in there on life support.
Daniel, this is not your fault.
Okay, you didn't poison those men.
And we can still catch the guy who
did this before he hits someone else.
Have you gotten a hold
of Mr. Anderson's wife?
She's on a plane. She'll
be here in an hour.
I don't know if he'll last that long.
Can we talk to him?
He's gone into a coma.
That doesn't necessarily mean we
can't try to ask him some questions.
Mr. Anderson, my name
is Dr. Daniel Pierce.
I'm so sorry about
what's happened to you.
You've been poisoned. The Doctors here
are doing everything they can to help you.
Your wife is flying in
from Colorado right now.
In the meantime, we need your help
catching whoever it is
that tried to kill you.
I'm gonna ask you a series of questions.
When you want to answer "yes,"
think about throwing a baseball.
And for "no," think about
singing "Happy Birthday".
Do you understand?
That's the cerebellum, the region
of the brain responsible for
hand-eye coordination. He's
thinking about throwing a baseball.
This is extraordinary.
So he's saying "yes".
Do you know who attacked you?
That's the medial pre-frontal Cortex.
Where we store our memories of music.
He's thinking about
singing "Happy Birthday".
So he's saying "no," he
doesn't know who attacked him.
Do you know a lawyer
named Thomas Scantlin?
"Yes".
Do you know Mr. Scantlin
in a personal capacity?
"No".
In a professional capacity?
"Yes".
Mr. Scantlin was attacked
yesterday the same way you were.
Do you have any idea why?
"Yes".
Mr. Anderson, I'm gonna ask
you to spell out that reason.
I'll run through the
alphabet letter by letter..
And when I say a letter that's correct,
I want you think about
throwing that baseball.
Do you understand?
Okay. Here we go.
"A"..
"D"..
"E"..
"E". Got it.
"Da-foe". "Dafoe". I mean,
it could be a last name.
Is that right, Mr. Anderson?
Is Dafoe somebody that you..
Code!
Clear!
Clear!
His heart's stopped.
It's over.
Time of death, 10:47 P.M.
Mr. Dafoe, thank you for coming in.
Of course. Yeah.
I just can't believe
Russ Anderson's dead.
He had children.
Tom Scantlin, too.
You were friends?
More business acquaintances, really.
A lunch or two a year and share a table
at a charity event, that sort of thing.
We asked Mr. Anderson if he had any idea
why he and Mr. Scantlin were targeted,
and the only thing he could give us
before he died was your name.
My name?
Wait, you don't think I
had something to do with..
No. No. The killer seems to have
a grievance against powerful men.
Your being the C.E.O. of a Global
agricultural conglomerate
certainly puts you in that club.
But the killer's also made it clear that
he has three more victims on his list.
Oh, my God.
What we need to do now is determine
what possibly connects the three
of you so we can get a better
idea of who this killer might be.
Well, Chicago's ultimately a small town.
We've done so much business
together over the years.
Did any of that business
screw somebody so badly that
they'd want to see all
three of you fat cats dead?
I.. I'm sorry, who are you again?
Sorry. This is Dr. Daniel Pierce.
He's a special consultant
helping the FBI with this case.
He gets a little passionate sometimes.
What he's trying to ask is,
could any of your dealings
with Mr. Scantlin or Anderson
have possibly given
anyone motive for murder?
Well, Scantlin's firm drew up
the I.P.O. that we did last year,
and a division of Anderson's
bank handled the offering.
And what about that would
have set someone off?
We had to lay off 13 executives
and about 250 low-level employees.
Sure, nothing like a little corporate
downsizing to pump up the stock price.
Getting your fiscal house in
order is standard before an I.P.O.
Can't make an omelet without
breaking a few eggs, right?
No, you can't.
All right, well, we're gonna need
a list of those 263 employees,
including the low-level ones.
Another needle in another haystack.
Meanwhile, the killer
could be at The Post Office,
dropping his next delivery
down the mail slot.
I'll send him
another fan letter.
Maybe he'll send me another clue.
Maybe this time I'll
figure it out fast enough.
All right, I'll log
back onto the thread.
Okay. Uh, no code this
time.. Just message.
Uh, "now I understand".
"You're downsizing the bastards
the same way they downsized you".
"Who's next? Yours, kindred".
Okay. It's sent.
Now we just got to hope that
he's monitoring the thread.
I'm pretty sure he's monitoring.
Four..
Three..
Two..
"You're not as smart as I thought you
were. You don't understand me at all".
"I'm finished with you. Goodbye".
Daniel, what are you doing here?
Why aren't you helping Kate?
I.. I couldn't.. I couldn't
think in that place.
You know, I.. I had to talk to you.
How can I help?
I thought I'd made a
connection to the killer.
You know, but I.. I must have
guessed wrong about his motive,
and now.. Now he's cut me out.
Did you try contacting him again?
Not until I have a better guess.
But if he's not angry about
being downsized, what is it?
You hear those sirens?
It sounds like it's right next door.
Oh, sorry. Sorry.
I work.. I work here.
Kate?
What the hell is going on?
Let me know when you get it.
Okay, Daniel, listen.
It was Sarin again.
It was packed in a canister
like the others with a
charge to release the gas
when the package was opened.
- Who opened it?
- Nobody.
Looks like it was dropped
and went off accidentally.
The victim was Kelly Owens.
She was working part-time
in the faculty mail room.
Oh, that poor girl.
And her parents.
Well, obviously she wasn't the target.
Who was the package addressed to?
Mailing label was incinerated
in the explosion. We don't know.
Actually, I'm pretty sure we do.
Our mad scientist here made the paper.
What?
"Anonymous sources report
that Dr. Daniel Pierce of CLMU"
"has been helping the FBI decipher
the killer's coded messages".
He found out his kindred
spirit's talking to the cops.
"Anonymous sources". What, have
you been blabbing to the press?
Me? There's dozens of
agents working on this case.
And if you think that I
would jeopardize my career
to get your name in the paper,
you're crazier than I thought.
Listen, there will be an
investigation into the leak.
What matters now is
that you're in danger.
No, no, I don't buy it. I don't buy it.
This guy's a methodical
killer with an urgent agenda.
He's not gonna waste
time on some detour just
because he finds out
I'm not his best friend.
We need to err on the side of caution.
I'm taking you home and
having you guarded, all right?
- What?
- Come on.
No, no, I don't want some
stranger lurking around my house.
Okay, fine. It'll have to be
someone who you already know.
You got cable?
That package wasn't meant for me.
Daniel, maybe you don't want
to accept it because then you'd
have to take responsibility for
what happened to that poor girl.
No, that's not what I'm
saying. I.. I responsible.
I mean, if I'd caught the
killer already, that girl..
Sorry to interrupt.
Do you mind?
Oh, I thought you were
talking to someone.
What do you want?
Mustard.
What?
You know, Grey Poupon, yellow?
I'm making a sandwich.
Lewicki!
Yes.
Would you get the good
Agent some mustard?
Uh, I'm on strike, remember?
Lewicki, I don't have time for this.
Then I suggest you say "please".
And I suggest you get the damn mustard.
Fine.
But not because you ordered me
to.. Because I'm a nice person.
Right this way.
If the package wasn't
for you, who was it for?
I don't now.
Someone on campus who is somehow
connected to Anderson, Scantlin, and Dafoe.
Well, let's take them one at a time.
What field is Dafoe in?
He's a C.E.O..
Where the hell is my faculty directory?
In here, under the gong.
Under the gong.
College of agriculture.
Arthur Wei..
Holds the distinguished Frederick
James Dafoe professorship
of genetic engineering.
Probert!
Can I help you?
I'm Dr. Daniel Pierce,
Department of Neuroscience.
This is Agent Probert of the FBI.
FBI? What's this about?
This conversation is private.
I assume you heard about Kelly Owens,
the girl who died on campus today?
Yeah, it's terrible.
It should have been you.
- Excuse me?
- You were the target.
What's your connection
to Frederick Dafoe,
apart from the fact that you hold a chair
generously endowed by his foundation?
What the hell is this?
Look, either you talk to me,
or I get that guy out there
to phone his buddies
at the Bureau, and then
it's the handcuffs, the
all-night interrogation,
sweating in a damp cell until you
finally break and spill it anyway.
All in all, I'd say your
best bet is talking to me.
Now, what did you do for Frederick
Dafoe that got you the endowed chair?
I'm an agricultural geneticist.
I created a new strain
of corn for his company.
Why would someone try
to kill you for that?
Look, while I was working on the gene..
I realized there was a possibility..
Of a troubling collateral effect.
What "collateral effect"?
My strain of corn was
genetically dominant.
If the seed blew into
the neighboring farm.
It would wipe out the native corn and
take over the other farmer's field.
I was trying to re-engineer the seed
so it could achieve harmony
with the other strains.
But Dafoe ordered me not to.
Why?
At the time, I didn't know it,
but once the gene spread
to the neighboring farms,
Dafoe started suing the
farmers for selling his corn..
My corn.. To the consumer.
On what grounds?
Copyright infringement.
He held the patent on the gene.
He sued them for selling a strain
of corn that blew in on the wind?
Are you kidding me?
Look, they didn't realize
they were growing it.
A lot of them went into foreclosure.
Oh. Of course. Let me guess..
Dafoe started buying up
their farms on the cheap.
I went to Dafoe. I told him
if he doesn't drop the suits,
I would inform the
Department of Agriculture
that he'd planned the whole thing.
Right, and then he offered
you the endowed chair
and maybe a little
grant money as a kicker.
Look you're a scientist.
You know how hard it is to get funding..
Spare me that crap.
You took your 30 pieces of silver,
and those farmers lost everything.
No, you don't understand.
No, I think I understand just fine..
Professor.
Kevin Lang, Cal
Bowden, Ray Donaldson..
Any of these names mean
anything to you, Mr. Dafoe?
Uh, no, I've never heard of them.
Of course not. You got lawyers for that.
Lang, Bowden, and Donaldson
were three of the farmers
whose lives you ruined
when you sued them
for copyright infringement
for unknowingly taking corn
containing the Dafoe gene to market.
That gene was patented.
Yeah, and designed to obliterate
every cornstalk in its path.
Scantlin handled the lawsuits,
and then Anderson fast-tracked
the farms to foreclosure,
so you could snap up those
properties for pennies on the dollar.
Yes, that's called good business.
U.S. Attorney's gonna call
it conspiracy to commit fraud.
All right, listen, Sweetie,
I'm not gonna say another word
to you without a lawyer present.
That's fine.
But in the meantime..
The killer is still out there.
It's a pretty good bet
that you are on his list.
So I suggest you tell us which of the
farmers you ruined might be doing this.
Okay, there was an incident
at the shareholders meeting.
A very angry man stormed into the room,
yelling threats and obscenities,
and he had to be escorted out.
I need a name.
I don't know. Maybe my security
people might have it. Look..
Are you going to be
able to keep me safe?
Oh, yeah. U.S. Marshals
will protect you.
After all, we wouldn't want
anything happening to you
before you can start
serving your sentence.
Got the name of the farmer that stormed the
shareholder meeting and threatened Dafoe..
Paul Levasseur.
Great. Let's go pick him up.
He's serving 8 to 10
in Stateville Prison.
Been there three months.
Not our guy.
But maybe he can tell us who is.
How do you figure that?
Why did the killer put
his message in a newspaper?
Maybe because he was
sending it to somebody whose
letters get opened and read
before they're delivered.
Someone in prison.
My great-great-grandfather
homesteaded that land.
My family..
Farmed it for 100 years.
After the lawsuit, I tried
other things to get by.
Sold tractors.
Dug ditches for the County.
Nothing stuck.
So you robbed a bank.
Just trying to keep
my family above water.
Losing the farm, seeing me behind bars..
Broke my wife's heart.
She hung herself nine weeks ago.
I'm so sorry.
Listen, Mr. Levasseur, we're here
to talk to you about your son, Eddie.
The coded
message in the newspaper..
He put that there for you, didn't he?
"Front-page news".
Just like he said.
I tried to call him after
I read about Scantlin.
But his phone was turned off.
You could have called the police.
I know I should have, but..
He was your boy. You
couldn't bear to turn him in.
After..
After this all went down,
something in him broke.
But I swear to you, he's a good boy.
A brilliant boy.
Finished college in three years.
Couldn't wait to get
started in on his PHD.
But he had to drop out
after you lost the farm.
I couldn't send him a dime.
He's been teaching
high-school math in Harvey.
Actually, he hasn't been
there in over a month.
He hasn't been back to
his apartment, either.
We need to find him
before someone else dies.
Do you have any idea where he is?
There's a.. There's a place
he used to like to go to think.
On the back acreage of our old farm.
Look at this. He knew we were coming.
"Hey, kindred, my life's an open book".
"When you crack this one,
you'll know everything".
"But search your mind".
"Do you really want to stop me?"
What is it with this guy?
First he blows you off, then
he leaves you another clue?
He wants to avenge the injustice done
to his Father and the other farmers,
but he did not mean to kill
an innocent college student,
so maybe he's feeling
guilty or conflicted.
Some part of him wants to get caught.
Let's give him what he wants.
"My life's an open book".
"Open book". It's a book cipher.
Look, the numbers are
in groups of three.
The first one corresponds to a
page number in a particular book,
the second one.. Second number
to.. To a line on that page,
and the third number
to a word in that line.
You find the words, you put them
together, you get your message.
- What book?
- It could..
It could be any book in the world.
You're not listening, old boy.
He's telling you
everything you need to know.
What do you mean? What
are you talking about?
I didn't say anything.
"Search your mind," Pierce.
I am. I am.
It's not helping!
Daniel, you all right?
Yeah. Don't.. Don't worry about me.
Okay? I'm f.. Fine.
Just don't worry about..
Me.
You need to take me home.
This is our key.
"The Mind: Knowing The Unknowable".
By Dr. Daniel Pierce. I love this book.
- But what do you..
- He's not saying "search your mind".
He's saying "search your mind".
- He means the title of your book.
- Yeah.
Go to page..
312.
Second line, third word.
"Today".
Page 57.
17th line, 12th word.
14th line, 9th word.
"Family".
"Today I destroy the villain the same
way the villain destroyed my family".
"Destroy the villain".
Who's he talking about?
It's got to be Dafoe. I mean, he's..
He's the main villain in
this whole sordid story.
Dafoe is in protective custody.
How's the killer gonna
destroy him there?
There are a million ways to destroy
someone whose only priority is profits.
I mean, you could take out
their processing plants,
or their warehouses or
their grain elevators.
Yeah, it's a huge company.
We don't have the manpower to
protect every one of his facilities.
But we can try. Just get
the boss on the phone.
A word with you, old chap?
What do you want?
"Today I destroy the villain the same
way the villain destroyed my family".
Yeah. So?
Perhaps there's another code
buried in the message itself.
Daniel, you don't
have to listen to him.
Each letter represents a number.
You don't need his help.
Perhaps it's an address.
You've cracked the ciphers.
Now it's about cracking Eddie.
What do you mean?
What did Dafoe do that really hurt him?
Did he take away his
farm, his livelihood..
Or something more important to him?
I love you, Natalie Vincent.
I did it. I.. I solved the riddle.
- I know what Eddie's doing.
- So do we.
Our agents found a truck
bomb full of fertilizer
just outside Dafoe headquarters.
What? No. No, no, no. That's a decoy.
Remember the original message..
"One down, four to go".
That makes five victims.
Now Eddie's telling us..
"Today I destroy the villain the same
way the villain destroyed my family".
H.. His Father's in prison, his Mother
took her own life, all because of Dafoe.
Three of the victims are
dead. Who are the last two?
Dafoe's parents.
He's in there with the Dafoes.
Question is, what's he waiting for?
He's waiting to talk to me.
Want to give this a try?
No, it's got to
be face-to-face.
Daniel, you're not going in there.
He told me how to find him.
He must have something to say to me.
All right, well, I'm going in with you.
And you're wearing a wire so
SWAT can hear what's going on.
Look, if you can get
him in front of a window,
one of my snipers can take him out.
Uh, Eddie..
I'm Dr. Daniel Pierce.
May I come in?
Just him.
And if you or anyone else
so much as rattles this
doorknob, I press this button,
and we all go up together.
Do you understand?
- Daniel.
- I.. I can do it.
There's a way out of this, Eddie.
There's no other way out for me.
If you believe that..
Then why did you tell
me where to find you?
I mean, the puzzles were clever but..
You knew I'd be able to solve them.
Yeah. I wanted you here..
Because you said you were my kindred
spirit, and I wanted to believe
that there was someone out
there who understood me.
But you've been working
for the cops the whole time.
You're gonna have to die with me.
Get him out of there right now!
No, if we storm in there,
he pushes the button.
Your guy's all on his own.
You know, I knew I was taking a risk
when I came through that door but uh..
- I came anyway.
- Why?
Because I am your kindred spirit.
- Bullshit.
- No, it's true.
Yeah, I'm working for the cops,
but I believe in what
you're fighting for, Eddie.
I hate lawyers, Eddie, and
.. And.. And corporations
and the way they screw over
hardworking, honest people.
What Scantlin and Anderson and the rest
of those bastards did to your family..
Is unforgivable. It's.. It's evil.
I understand why you'd
want to make them pay. I do.
- But these people didn't do anything.
- Yes, they did.
They raised a monster.
They raised a son that
has no conscience at all.
And your Father raised you,
and you do have a conscience.
And that's the real reason that
you brought me here, isn't it?
Because deep down, you
want me to stop you from
- killing anyone else.
- You're wrong.
You started this, Eddie, because you
wanted to make your Father proud of you.
He still can be.
Nobody else has to die. You've
already finished the job.
What are you talking about?
Dafoe and Wei are going to jail.
You're lying.
No, I'm not.
Thanks to you, I figured
out what they were doing
to your Father and the other farmers.
The U.S. Attorney is gonna indict
them. There'll be lawsuits, Eddie.
Some of those farmers
will get their land back.
It's too late for my Father and me.
Well, maybe you could still be together.
How?
In hell?
I'll talk to the U.S. Attorney about
having you sentenced to Stateville.
I promise.
Now..
Why don't you put down
that detonator and..
Let's walk out of here together.
If I go out there, the only cell they're
gonna put me in is one on Death Row.
And I deserve to die.
I killed an innocent girl.
Yeah, and you can pay for that
crime, Eddie, but not with your life.
There were mitigating circumstances.
You were traumatized by what Dafoe
and his cabal did to your family,
and I'll testify to that.
You lied to me before.
How do I know you're
not lying to me now?
I got the shot, Sir. Take it.
Eddie, get away from that window!
God!
Why the hell did you do that, huh?
Why didn't you just let them kill me?
Because I meant what I said, Eddie.
Nobody else has to die.
I could still push this button.
Yeah, you can.
But I don't think you're going to.
Come on. Come on. Come on.
What the hell is going on?
Hold your fire!
Hold your fire!
He's surrendering!
He left the detonator inside!
Go! Go! Go! Go!
You did the right thing, Eddie.
Daniel!
- Are you okay?
- Yep.
You sure?
Yeah. That.. That could have
gone a whole different way.
I knew you were crazy. I
didn't know you were that crazy.
Yeah. Me neither.
What is a conscience?
Is it something we can locate on an MRI?
Studies have shown that people with damage
to the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
are actually more willing
to sacrifice a human life
as long as they perceive that
it's for some greater good.
But what about people
who have no trouble
sacrificing others to
their own selfish ends?
Is heartless cruelty our true nature?
And empathy the aberration?
My Grandmother used to
say, "it's nice to be nice".
And that may be true.
Or are we better off spending every waking
moment tending our own selfish needs?
The good news is, it turns out
there's an evolutionary advantage
to simple human kindness.
We couldn't get through a cold paleolithic
winter without a little cooperation.
Still, on some prehistoric
level we're all lone hunters.
So it can feel dangerous to show any
softness to other members of the tribe.
But if we manage to lay down our
clubs and our sharpened rocks,
answering the call of the
altruistic imperative..
Can be its own reward.
Subs created by: David Coleman.