Hey, kids.
Watch this.
* *
( chuckles )
Not bad.
( gasping )
-Rob...? -My inhaler...
( coughs )
The damn pollen.
Better?
Rob?
Rob!
Rob, oh, my God! Boys, call 911.
Rob!
Somebody help me!
( siren wailing )
-Hey. -MEGAN: Hi.
What do we got?
Rob Evans, 34.
Apparent stroke victim.
What do you mean-- "apparent"?
The National Institute of Health
has identified four unusual seizures
in Los Angeles in a little over two weeks.
So they called us.
They think it's product tampering.
All the victims were on over-the-counter medications
when the seizures struck.
DON: What do you say, David?
Evening.
NIH identified the toxin
as Primalect--
an ephedrine-based pain reliever
known to cause strokes.
All these drugs were poisoned with a different drug?
Yeah.
That's not even the scariest part.
It's not the same product every time.
One occasion was a nasal spray,
another was a cough suppressant
and on two occasions it was an asthma inhaler
called Truften.
So it's random attacks on three totally different products.
Purchased off the shelf at four separate pharmacies
across L.A. County.
So no way to do an effective recall.
Which leaves anyone needing medication
completely vulnerable to a maniac.
We all use math every day...
to predict weather...
to tell time...
to handle money...
Math is more than formulas and equations.
It's logic...
Math is more than formulas and equations.
It's rationality.
It's using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know.
DAVID: Primalect was discontinued four years ago
after clinical trials.
Developed as a basic pain reliever,
it was found to cause strokes and arrhythmia
in a "statistically significant" number of cases.
Know who would have access to it now?
After clinical trials-- pharmacists, doctors,
nurses, hospital staff.
The good news is, I don't think he intended to kill.
Why?
A narrow-gauge syringe
suggests some level of competence.
Wouldn't that make him more dangerous, though?
Yeah, but he could have used strychnine
or cyanide or any one of a hundred toxins
that were available that would have caused fatalities.
Right. So he just chose a product that would only be
harmful to a percentage of those who used it.
Which does not describe a homicidal intent.
It's more like he's trying to communicate with us.
Well, I can't speak
to intent,
but I can shed a little light on the methodology used.
Okay, so start with Megan's assumption
that our poisoner
is trying to communicate with us, right?
He's-He's trying to provide
information by tampering with these medications.
Now, the commonality-- the point he keeps repeating--
is his choice of medications.
DON: Yeah, but we didn't find
a connection between any of the three products.
Three? No, Don, four.
Four.
You guys are forgetting about the contaminate itself.
The Primalect.
Yeah, but they don't even sell that anymore.
Maybe not, but information theory indicates
that there is a connection.
So what's information theory?
Information theory-- it's about getting a message
from point "A" to point "B."
* *
Picture a three-piece jazz combo
playing a certain song.
There are many different ways to hear the same song.
( ring tone playing trio's melody )
( piano playing melody )
Each method will reproduce the music differently,
but the tune-- the tune remains discernible.
Now if tampering medications is our poisoner's music,
then Primalect is the key he's playing it in.
Wait, you think it was more than just a weapon.
I think it's the key to the message.
The Primalect controversy was over four years ago.
We pulled that from the market.
Not before it caused
a significant number of strokes.
Well, that's what clinical trials are for, Agent Reeves.
But it's my understanding that the product tampering
isn't limited to the Truften inhalers
our company makes.
-Please. -Thank you.
No, the product was also used to contaminate
cough syrup and nasal spray.
The patent for the nasal spray
was developed at Tallridge Labs--
a subsidiary of Graybridge--
and the cough syrup is also a Graybridge product.
DAVID: All three products
tampered with and the poison used
can be traced to your company.
You're being targeted, Mr. Brindell.
What would you suggest we do?
What would we suggest?
A total recall of all your products.
You expect me to pull hundreds of medications
over four instances of tampering?
Two kids almost lost their dad.
A college student with a cough
almost never made it back to class.
These aren't instances.
Graybridge develops and manufactures
13% of the nation's vital drugs,
including the most efficient heart medications
on the market.
We provide the Third World
with large quantities of medicine at low and no cost.
That sounds like you have a hell of a press release prepared.
20 million people have asthma.
Nine million of which are children.
You want to do some real damage,
make people so scared
that they don't take the medicines that can help them.
We understand that your company's worked very hard
to keep this out of the news.
To avoid a public panic.
And in the absence of hard facts, the FDA
and the FBI are willing to go along with that.
But if you're stonewalling us, when this news comes out,
that's going to be a big part of it.
I respect your passion.
I respect your job.
I respect you.
But please, don't threaten me...
or my company.
We've done nothing wrong.
DON: The guy's poisoning over-the-counter drugs
and we're keeping quiet
because the manufacturer convinced us to.
I mean, boy, if that doesn't say something.
About?
Corporations-- their influence.
Research costs a lot of money.
Without companies with resources
you can't get any development.
So, what, you think it's okay
for someone like Graybridge to sell drugs
that are potentially harmful to people?
No, I'm saying nothing is completely safe.
Peanuts can kill
some people.
If that were the standard to releasing drugs
then you wouldn't have any drugs--
prescription or otherwise.
Okay, eight-letter word for, uh... egotistical.
"Conceited."
"Conceited" is a nine-letter word.
C-O-N-C-E-T-E-D.
Another person might think that our educational system
has failed you completely, Charlie.
You see, in urban engineering
every time you build a bridge
it destroys someone's property.
Every bypass
hurts someone's business.
I mean, you know that going in.
You just have to weigh the benefits against the risks,
and hope to hell you're doing more good than harm.
I don't buy that.
I mean, there's got to be something we can do.
You know, if it were one drug
believe me, we would put out a public warning,
but the thing is, how do you warn against random attacks?
Well, there's random and then there's random.
The difference being what?
Here,
give me that.
Pencil, pencil.
Okay.
Here we have a stream of information, right?
A string of letters.
Okay, so what is it? It's S-T-E?
All right, so what's the next letter?
Well, that depends on...
seven-letter word for "ciliate protozoan."
Dad, ignore the clue.
Well, it could be anything.
It could be... "stencil..."
uh... "steeple..."
"stellar..."
It could be anything.
Not anything, Dad.
Just... just a lot of things.
See, absent other information-- clues--
we really... we don't know what the next letter's going to be.
But since there are letters that are more likely
to be the next letter in the sequence than others,
like "A" or "E,"
or like "R..."
I see what you're saying.
So it's not completely random.
It's called information entropy.
See, you're bounded by the alphabet.
26 possibilities.
Further bounded by the inventory of the English language.
So what is our poisoner's boundaries?
Right. Well, I mean, look, he only messed
with Graybridge's drugs.
So that's one boundary. Okay.
Now you might make
geographical assumptions as well, right?
I mean, it's not likely
he's going to jump on a plane
to Idaho for the next attack.
Yeah, but you're still casting a very wide net.
DON: Can you narrow it down using your entropy thing
so that we could pinpoint where he might hit next?
Well, given the limited data set you're talking about,
all the work I have to do...
I mean, it's not like I can just, you know...
whip up a magic formula for every single problem.
Well, that's not what you said last Friday.
Well, he did have a couple beers in him, so...
Actually, it was four beers.
And it's "stentor"
What? What is stentor?
The ciliate protozoan.
You know, as a law enforcement officer,
I shouldn't be this shocked at how many people shoplift.
Come on, I'm concentrating here.
I'm trying to find a product tampering needle
in 500 hours of video haystack.
DON: Hey, guys, the Assistant Director
wants this treated as a serious extortion case, okay?
Not as a public health crisis.
Which means total press blackout remains.
Well, someone should have told the bad guy.
DON: What, are you kidding me?
What, he tipped a free weekly?
Yeah.
"The Toxic Manifesto." Part one of ten?!
It lists all the drugs he's tampered with,
plus hundreds more he says he intends on poisoning.
I guess this guy got tired
of waiting around for us to figure out
-what he was trying to say. -Yeah.
And left anyone in need of these medications
to play Russian roulette with their life.
DON: The Toxic Manifesto.
He gives really specific details in here
as to why the attacks occur.
Apparently the FDA cleared Primalect for clinical trials
despite Graybridge knowing the risks.
Knowing how?
They had reports on the potential
for strokes and heart attacks,
and they somehow cajoled the FDA into going forward, anyway.
It's really great when big business and government
work so closely together.
What do you think his next move would be?
Well, it doesn't say here in part one,
but it might in parts two through ten.
It's a low-rent bar.
Yeah, newspaper's in the back room.
Strange place to put out a free weekly newspaper.
Come on, man! You have no right to be doing this.
Come on!
Who do you think you are?!
-Get out of my files! Come on! -F.B.I.!
What's going on here?
This guy just came in here and started going
through my stuff.
Gun, David.
Put your hands up. Easy.
-David... -I have a permit for that.
You won't exactly mind if I don't take your word for it.
Grab a piece of the desk.
I get a couple pounds of manifestos, exposГ©s
and conspiracy theories every week.
Probably would have recycled this one with the rest,
then the guy calls me,
starts giving me details...
Well, the manifesto, and any other materials
he might have sent you, those are gonna be evidence now,
so I'm gonna need you to turn them over.
You know, I do have First Amendment protections.
Yeah, but those don't even seem to protect
real journalists these days.
You publish record reviews and phone sex ads.
Want to try your luck?
My luck?
My luck is that the story that could
put me on the map gets my office trashed
and me threatened with imprisonment.
Hey, man, you wanted front row, you got front row.
So much for the public's right to know.
Bill Yardley, Promethean Security.
All right, thank you.
Your permit checks out,
but that still doesn't explain
what the hell you're doing here.
I'm under contract at Graybridge Pharmaceuticals.
And?
And I'm assisting them with their tampering investigation.
By roughing up a reporter and tossing his office?
I'm not limited by the same constraints you people are.
Kid doesn't want to press charges.
See?
We find you anywhere near our investigation again
and I will charge you with obstruction of justice myself.
Are we clear?
Don't forget my gun.
( knocking )
Young Eppes, your very own copy of "The Toxic Manifesto."
-Unabridged. -Okay.
Uh, we've quite clearly established
that English isn't my forte,
but, Don, this looks like gibberish to me.
It's only 219 pages,
but Megan says it goes to motive,
so I'm thinking it might be helpful
with your Information Theory thing.
The entropy angle is a blunt instrument,
but if I could just, if I could refine it with his intent...
There you go. Now you're in gear.
The thing is, I've got papers to grade and classes to teach.
The guy put people in the hospital and says there's gonna
-be more, so, I know you're busy, but... -I understand.
Larry. How are you?
Don. I'm very well, thank you.
Charles, can I pick your brain.
You're more than welcome to whatever scraps
my brother leaves behind.
"The Toxic Manifesto."
Hey, can I see this, please?
This is about the medicine scare?
-Yeah. -Yeah, 'cause the news was vague.
It sounded like it was a hoax, urban myth or something.
It's more like "something."
I mean, The Outrage is retracting,
Graybridge is denying
and word for me on high is not to encourage
"irrational panic."
Well, should there be a rational panic?
-Yeah, well, that's the question. -( phone ringing )
Excuse me. Eppes.
I just got the phone records from the Melrose Outrage.
They have our suspect calling the paper
from Sibley, California.
Turns out the manifesto was mailed
from the same location, so I called the postmaster up there
and he remembers the guy who mailed the package.
A middle-aged black man.
Yeah, Sibley, why does that sound familiar?
Small town, Angeles Crest Mountains.
Oh, yeah, right.
That's where the U.S. marshal got killed last year.
Yeah, the marshals got into a standoff with Bob McHugh,
a local rancher who was there selling tainted beef.
McHugh shot one of the marshals,
and then disappeared into the mountains.
Right, right. What, you think he's our guy?
Well, McHugh's white,
and the guy who mailed the package is black.
And the postmaster remembers him asking where to find McHugh.
So the question is, what is a poisoner doing up in Sibley?
And what does he want with McHugh?
Well, I mean, he's on the run.
McHugh knows how to disappear.
If he's trying to disappear, he sure picked the right spot.
Well, let's get Colby and David up there, okay?
Already on their way.
Man, there's some nice views up here, though.
This makes me a little bit homesick.
Yeah? This is what Winchester, Idaho looks like?
Yeah, pretty much.
My hometown is a small town.
All right, so we need to figure out
why a poisoner's trying to find
a federal fugitive.
The better question is how he intends to find him?
Best people to answer that question are the ones
who've been looking for him for the past seven months.
Sinclair.
Edgerton. How you doing, man?
This here's Agent Granger.
-Nice to meet you. -How are you? Pleasure.
You here for the McHugh search?
Uh, in a way.
I got the call about a month ago.
I been in and out of a bunch
of towns on this mountain, but McHugh's from here,
so we think he'll be back.
Have gun, will travel, right?
You have time for an information swap?
Yeah, let me get unpacked.
I'll buy you a cup of coffee.
-Welcome. -Thank you.
That's Edgerton?
Yeah, he helped us out on a sniper case last year, why?
That guy was a sniper legend in Afghanistan.
You'd see his work everywhere,
you'd never see him.
Colonel in Special Ops said he was the bastard son
of Clint Eastwood and Yoda.
I'll get you an autograph.
All right.
Yeah, I remember seeing him in the diner.
Black guy kind of stands out here in Sibley.
There was nothing particularly suspicious about him, though.
There's a good chance that he's our poisoner.
COLBY: Yeah, we traced the manifesto
that was published back to the post office up here.
And the postmaster says he was asking about McHugh.
( chuckling )
That's like going to Orlando and asking about Mickey Mouse.
Yeah, still, we think there might be
some connection, though.
They've turned McHugh into some kind of local hero.
Yeah, last of the independent ranchers
fighting the big, bad government.
Never mind that he was selling tainted beef.
Never mind that he shot a U.S. marshal.
His wife still lives around here.
She's got a lot of friends among the locals.
And these days, McHugh is the second largest
source of income for this town.
Really? What's the first?
Housing and feeding all the FBI agents looking for McHugh.
( chuckling ): How long you been after him?
-About three weeks now. -You've had any luck yet?
Yeah, I picked up his trail a few times, but after 30 years
of living here and seven months on the run,
he knows this place a lot better than I do,
plus he's got his local fans.
Can you give us a description of this unidentified black male?
How 'bout a picture?
David, do me a favor.
Keep me in the loop on this one, all right?
If your guy has a plan
for finding McHugh, I want to know what it is.
( phones ringing )
Oh, hi, Agent Reeves.
Professor Fleinhardt.
I don't think Charlie's here.
Well, you know, actually, I came to talk to you.
Oh, if you have come to offer me a ride
in that car of yours, I can't go right now.
Actually, I came to talk to you about that.
The manifesto?
Yeah, um, you see, I'm a reader,
and readers read, and I just, I happened upon
Charlie's copy of this,
and, let me tell you, I was riveted.
Well, then we have slightly different literary tastes.
Well, tell me, what do you make of this author?
Uh, well, the use of the word "manifesto" in and of itself
suggests an inflated sense of destiny.
Paranoid, delusions of grandeur.
Yeah, but his discussions of quantum chemistry, I mean,
these sent me back to my reference books.
And this man not only knows whereof he speaks,
some of his scientific arguments are, well,
they're downright revolutionary.
You're saying he's a scientist?
Oh, oh, a gifted one.
And what was particularly interesting to me
was his mention of this man McHugh.
-Yes, yes, Bob McHugh. -Yeah.
He's a federal fugitive,
and we think he's trying to contact him,
but we have no idea why.
Right, and Charlie mentioned there was
some confusion there, and that's really why I'm here.
Now listen, you can throw me out at any moment,
because obviously you're the experts,
I'm just an amateur,
but this is just what struck me.
Graybridge Pharmaceuticals is this man's Frankenstein Monster.
And he will not be swayed from his path
until that monster is laid to rest.
So you're saying the connection
isn't between McHugh and this man.
The connection is between McHugh and Graybridge Pharmaceuticals.
Well, at least in his mind that's the case.
Riveted, huh?
Yeah, well, I read it straight through. Twice.
Because, in case we were going to...
You know, if we...
You know, show that I knew what...
I just wanted to make sure I knew what I was talking about.
I've never heard you when you didn't.
So based on Professor Fleinhardt's opinion,
I refined my search to people with a higher education
in chemistry who might have had a grudge
against Graybridge Pharmaceuticals.
Well, that could be anybody who was ever fired by them.
Pretty much, but then I can refine the search further
to Edgerton's sketch and refine it down to male blacks.
And I find Mark Brott.
Lead chemist, Tallridge Lab
since 1994.
-The company that developed Primalect. -Exactly.
And Brott kept sending memo after memo
to Taylor Brindell warning him that the drug was unsafe.
And he was fired?
Two weeks before the FDA
approved the clinical trials,
Brott was let go for "poor job performance."
So they just screwed this guy over
because he was a whistleblower.
After that, he disappears.
No address, no phone records, no credit cards.
Last seen in Sibley, California,
looking for Bob McHugh.
But what's the connection
between a fired drug company chemist
and a fugitive cattle rancher?
On page 189 of "The Toxic Manifesto,"
Brott talks about McHugh.
DON: "The government abandoned its duty to the public,
like it abandoned McHugh."
-Abandoned him how? -That part's unclear.
But what is clear is that Brott hasn't killed anyone yet.
And McHugh has.
Brott was, what, looking for someone
to fight the government with?
Yeah, and he picked a murderer.
MEGAN: A year ago, Bob McHugh was selling tainted beef.
When the USDA and the marshals showed up at his house
to shut him down, he barricaded himself in.
On day three of the standoff, Channel 8 managed
to get a camera phone in the house.
I followed every one of their laws.
My cattle were checked, given their antibiotics,
the government knows that.
They're still trying to send me to jail.
REPORTER: They say you
intentionally sold tainted beef.
I have been eating my own damn beef my whole life.
I'm still standing.
What's really going on...
What's really going on is the federal government
wants me out of the way.
On day four, McHugh shot one of the negotiators.
Now, the raid team hit the house, but he somehow managed
to slip past them and into the mountains.
Right, but I mean, as far as we know,
McHugh and Brott never met.
I mean, we don't even know if they communicated.
And what, all we have on Brott
is a possible motive and a sketch on a napkin.
Placemat.
Plus his face on our plasma screen.
We went back to the drugstore security footage
looking for Brott...
DAVID: And hit four for four.
All right, well, Brott's our guy.
Yeah, but I don't think he's coming
back to L.A. Watch what happens
when you put the tamperings in chronological order.
Yeah, I see what you're saying.
He's working his way north.
That's right. Straight up to Sibley.
So contacting McHugh was always part of the plan.
So you're Mark Brott. Graybridge fires you
for blowing the whistle on the defective drug.
You retaliate by poisoning their products.
You write"The Toxic Manifesto" to expose Graybridge.
And the federal government for allowing Graybridge
to sell dangerous products.
Now, he and McHugh definitely have a common enemy.
There's a lot of anti-government people out there. Why McHugh?
There's got to be something about McHugh.
Something that Brott is fixated on or identifies with.
So are we looking for McHugh hoping to find Brott
or do we look for Brott and figure we might find McHugh?
Both.
-ALAN: Hey, Don. -Hey, guys. Sorry, I don't have
enough open floor space in my apartment.
Yeah, I know. I've been to your apartment.
You don't have enough floor space, period.
Wait. You have an apartment?
Ha-ha.
What is this? This is the Angeles Crest, right?
Crystal Lake, the San Gabriel Reservoir, Mt. Wilson.
Yeah. You still go up there?
It's got the greatest hiking trails.
Has pretty good fishing up there, too.
'Cause we got this fugitive
who's been hiding out around here
for, like, seven months now.
Bob McHugh?
That's right.
Just go to the post office on a Monday.
You got a lot of time to look at "wanted" posters.
It looks like the poisoner went up there looking for him
so that's where I'm going.
The thing is, I mean, you remember Edgerton?
So he's up there tracking him,
but I mean, he can't find him.
Edgerton? The FBI sniper instructor.
Yeah. He's also the Bureau's best tracker.
But the problem is we got,
you know, over 650,000 acres of mountain here,
and apparently, McHugh's trail
-never crossed the same place twice. -Hmm.
You know...
there's a famous problem in-in graph theory
called "The Seven Bridges of Konigsberg."
The city of Konigsberg included two islands connected
to each other and the mainland by seven bridges.
The problem? To try to cross all seven bridges once
and only once, and end up where you started.
Leonhard Euler proved mathematically
that it wasn't possible to do that.
If there's an odd number of bridges
to even one of the islands,
then you can't cross every bridge without crossing
the same bridge twice.
Right. Well, I mean, we ain't in Konigsberg.
Which is where?
Pre-World War I Prussia, but Don, the point is
the beauty of graph theory
is that the shape and size of the grid
doesn't matter, just the number of points
and the links connecting them.
I see what you're saying.
Eventually, he has to cross the same path twice?
Not necessarily. He may repeat some paths.
I can use probabilistic graph theory to rank them
in order of likely use.
I'm headed up there tomorrow. You think you can do it by then?
I'm gonna have to come with you, because
there's-there's all sorts of questions about access
-that need to be answered. -Come on, wait a minute, Charlie.
-Charlie! -And of course, search methodology
and non-recorded data, so...
Charlie, don't you have midterms to grade?
I'll get the TAs to do them.
MEGAN ( over phone ): So, remember the McHugh interview?
The part where he said he gave all the infected cattle
their required antibiotics?
Guess who makes those antibiotics.
Our friends at Graybridge.
So what if McHugh was telling the truth?
What if he didn't know the beef was contaminated
because he didn't know
the antibiotics he was giving them were defective?
That would explain what Brott wants, right?
I mean, to him, McHugh's just another weapon
against Graybridge. Look, why don't you
just follow in that direction? I'll talk to you later.
Professor and Agent Eppes.
How can I not learn something today?
Actually, we came to sit in your classroom,
if that's all right.
Absolutely. Let me get you up to speed.
What about that?
What?
Broken branch,
not from an animal.
Someone sat here on this tree.
What, you think it's McHugh?
No. It was a woman wearing a size-six sneaker.
McHugh's got a big foot and an even bigger boot.
Yeah. She stopped and had lunch here
probably less than an hour ago.
And you know that how?
She didn't like her PB and J.
The ants haven't found it yet.
What do you got?
It's a pretty old print,
but I'd like to see where it takes us.
We'll have to backtrack,
cross the river to pick it up again.
I mean, we can just cut through this dump, can't we?
You see these tracks, how they kind of stop and start
like someone was riding the brakes?
The National Guard came through here at night
with the headlights off.
They do maneuvers out here.
If they go home with unused ammo,
their allotment gets reduced.
So they sneak over here and ditch the excess munitions.
There's all kinds of explosives in there.
You don't want to try
to go hiking through that.
You think that's what he's after?
No. No, there's no sign of that.
Probably just looking for something edible
or on his way back into Sibley.
CHARLIE: I'm curious.
When you lose him, what methodology
might you employ to pick him up again?
Start where he broke trail:
a stream, series of flat rocks.
Then circle around till I find fresh sign.
So you, you lose time, pretty much duplicating your work
while McHugh's gaining time.
Kind of explains why we're all still out here, huh?
Hey, Colby, take a look at this.
I've been going through the rest of the security footage
to establish Brott's movements, right?
This is from the first tampering.
COLBY: Looks like Brott's being followed.
Watch what happens.
( computer beeping )
Recognize our boy?
That's Yardley, Graybridge Pharmaceutical's hired gun.
So?
I've just about isolated all the trails
that McHugh could have access to.
Charlie, did you actually put pins in the wall?
Hmm? Yeah. Tape didn't work. You know? I...
Well, I mean, they find holes, it's gonna go
-on my expense report. -I tried sticking it in...
-( phone rings ) -I don't get you sometimes. Eppes.
We got Yardley following Brott into the first pharmacy.
He watches him go in, then goes in himself
and asks about Brott.
So Graybridge was having Brott followed.
That means once the first victim got struck,
they had to be aware it was a tampering.
And didn't say word one to us.
Instead, they put Yardley on Brott's trail.
We could pick up Brindell at Graybridge right now.
No, no. I think it's better to wait, you know?
Let 'em not know exactly what we're up to.
It's your call. I got a warrant for Brott's computer.
We're going over it right now.
-( knocking ) -I got to go. Let me know what you find.
Okay.
Hey.
Sir, park rangers found a body
about three miles out of town.
Description fits Mark Brott,
the guy you're looking for.
Yeah? You got a cause of death?
Appears to have fallen about 40 feet into a creek bed.
The M.E. will have a preliminary for you in the morning.
All right, good, Officer. Thanks. Good night.
Mark Brott is dead.
You think he fell?
Or he was pushed.
I mean, Graybridge was having him followed.
You know, they got motive for wanting him dead.
( indistinct voices )
We've recovered some internal e-mails
off of Brott's hard drive.
In one of them, he's telling his bosses
that the antibiotic they were selling
to cattle ranchers had serious problems.
So, without getting too technical...
Yeah, it didn't work,
and Graybridge sold it anyway, right?
And Brott also informed them that the defective antibiotic
would be detectable in the bloodstream of anyone
-who had consumed it. -Wasn't McHugh bragging
about eating his own beef for years?
Which makes him walking evidence
against Graybridge.
Brott wanted McHugh's blood, literally.
All right, good. Talk to you later.
What do you got, brother?
So, I started with the paths we know McHugh
has been to, based on your tracking.
Now, eliminating unpassable terrain
and areas that are too exposed--
for instance, popular campsites...
Places where he's likely to be seen.
Right. I applied soap bubble theory
-to develop a Steiner tree. -Say what?
You're not talking actual soap bubbles and actual trees...
Actual soap bubbles, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Actual trees, no.
No, no, no. I found McHugh's
most likely paths by using isospectral geometries.
Of course you did.
Everyone knows that the shortest distance
between two points is a...?
A straight line.
Straight line. Now, what if we wanted
to find the shortest distance between three
or-or-or more points?
That's something that soap bubbles can tell us.
Now, let's take these three points that you've identified
as places that McHugh has been at
several times.
Now, imagine each of these points
as the center of bubbles.
The interior walls formed by the soap's film
will intercept to create new vertices, new angles,
new lines and points-- a Steiner tree--
which will reveal the most efficient lines of travel.
Let's concentrate on these three points
-that you've identified. -Places we know that McHugh's been.
Now, when connected, using the most likely paths,
not only his likely paths
but where those likely paths meet.
I like it.
So where these lines intersect.
And that has to be...
This guy keeps going back to his own ranch.
Isn't that interesting?
( knocking )
Mrs. McHugh, I'm Don Eppes with the FBI.
-I assume you have a warrant? -No, ma'am, just some questions.
Oh, I thought you people shoot first and then ask questions.
DON: Mrs. McHugh, your husband killed a federal officer.
He's gonna have to answer to that,
but we have some new information that could clear him
of those original charges.
What? I don't understand?
It seems we might have been wrong.
We also know he's been on the property
recently.
Do you, now?
We're mathematically certain.
My husband's great-grandfather started this ranch.
It's been passed down three generations.
And one day you people show up
and try to take it away from him.
Now you show up
and tell me you were wrong.
Well, I'd say you're about a day late
and a dollar short, wouldn't you?
Well, listen...
Well, you were right-- he's been here.
He's taking a big chance.
He's had this place his whole life.
-It's hard to just walk away. -Look, let's run this down.
I mean, the marshals come to arrest him,
he barricades himself inside the house.
Now, four days later, in the middle
of a negotiation, for no apparent reason, he opens fire.
When did crazy stop being a reason?
The negotiator catches one in the neck,
-like, right around here. -The assault team went in
the front and the side doors.
McHugh went out that side window
and makes it to the tree line there.
What's that?
Look at that. That's a shot.
( sighs ): Exit pattern
from a large-bore rifle round.
Look at the angle-- there's no way it came from inside.
Which is where McHugh was.
-Where do you think this came from? -Judging from the angle...
-Allowing for prevailing winds, there. -...there.
SWAT sniper would've been on the other side, facing the house.
This lie...
( Edgerton sighs )
...faces the raid team.
That's a perfect position to take out the negotiator.
CHARLIE: So the suggestion you're making
is that a second gunman shot the marshal.
Yeah, Charlie, think about it.
I mean, McHugh is living proof
that Graybridge sold bad drugs.
The last thing they want is him alive.
Day three of the siege, he's looking like
he's gonna surrender, someone shoots the negotiator...
( hammer clicks )
...and gets the party started.
They're figuring he's gonna go down in the gunfight.
Instead, chaos ensues, he slips away.
That, uh, soap film of yours
runs through the hill up here, doesn't it?
There? Yeah, more or less.
-Why don't you get back to the hotel. -Okay, but why?
Fresh sign.
One, maybe two hours.
-That's why. -All right.
Crest One to Crest Two.
Be careful, Charlie.
Felt someone following me all day.
Wondered when you'd close distance.
You pull your trigger, I'll pull mine.
Now, drop the rifle.
Last chance, Yardley.
( two gunshots )
McHugh!
McHugh, listen! Listen!
McHugh, listen to me!
( echoes ): McHugh!
( police radio transmission )
Well, if he is in there, he's sitting on top
of 300 pounds of U.S. Army ordinance.
Wait, look, here he comes.
-( cocks hammer ) -Anyone comes through that gate,
the dump blows, and the forest goes with it.
All right, Mr. McHugh, just take it easy.
No one's coming through anything, all right?
I can set up a shot from above.
But if I do drop him...
DON: He drops that torch, we're all going up.
I say we pull it back.
Yeah, let's pull it back, guys. Back, back, back, back, back.
Back it up.
What are you doing here?
I picked him up in Sibley-- I needed someone
that knew the way. I'm Agent Reeves.
Edgerton.
You're not gonna believe this-- he's actually sitting
on a National Guard munitions dump.
He's threatening to blow it up.
-Well, you don't want to kill him. -Charlie, we realize that.
I mean, he's not giving us a lot of options here.
Uh, there's a... there's a whole mathematical discipline
called negotiation theory.
A good negotiation creates
a framework for agreement that allows both parties
to make mistakes and still come out ahead.
MEGAN: Yeah, we give him
something to strengthen his position
without weakening ours, but...
-what do we have to give him? -Information.
We could tell him what we know.
Isn't that like showing all your cards before the bets are in?
It's counterintuitive, I know,
but here's the math.
EDGERTON: Does this mean anything to you two?
Yeah, only that he's probably right.
Whoa, whoa, ho-ho-hold on.
-What are you doing? -I'm a woman.
To a mountain man like McHugh, I'm less of a threat.
She's got a point.
She could also kick his ass, but he doesn't know that.
( chuckles ): I see what kind of big brother he was.
Mr. McHugh?
My name
is Megan Reeves.
I'm with the FBI.
And I'm alone.
Last negotiator
ended up with a bullet in the neck.
But you didn't put it there.
You'd say anything to keep me
from setting off this dump.
Yes, I would, but there are people
who'd do a hell of a lot more to make sure you blow it up.
Graybridge Pharmaceuticals
hired a man to kill you, and he shot that marshal in the back
hoping you'd get killed in the gunfire.
You were never supposed to walk out of there alive.
What the hell is Graybridge Pharmaceuticals?
It's the company that
sold you the bad antibiotic.
That's what contaminated your beef.
The government destroyed the herd.
-Th-There's no way to prove any of this. -Actually, there is.
You eat that beef every day; it's in your bloodstream.
You blow yourself up, you lose the only evidence
we have to clear your name.
Please put that gun down.
Let's go see your wife.
Good job.
Thanks. You, too.
I have the best time with you guys.
It's a little early in the day
to be stargazing, huh, Larry?
Oh. Yeah. Just reflecting
on the late, unlamented Mark Brott.
DON: What? He got what he wanted.
I mean, Brindell's in jail, the case goes to court,
and Graybridge is out of business.
He got what he wanted at the cost of his soul.
By hurting the innocent to forward his agenda,
he became the very thing he hated.
I just can't help thinking about all those people
who will never benefit by all the medicines
that Graybridge just might have discovered.
LARRY: Some people--
not theoretical physicists like myself--
but there are some who might feel knowledge
is this unshakable pillar.
But, you know, it's really...
it's really this very fragile thing.
Is that the kind of stuff you talk about with Megan
at lunch?
DON: Wait, ho-ho-hold on.
You and Megan went out to lunch?
Oh, please tell me you ordered something other than white food.
( laughing )
This was a meal shared
by two inquisitive minds in an...
intellectual pursuit.
Of course it was--
like all your lunches with David.
Oh, and with Colby.
LARRY: A gamma ray burst
will release more energy in ten seconds
than the sun will emit
in its entire ten-billion-year life span.
I got it, what's the Hulk's real name?
-CHARLIE: Uh, Bruce Banner. -That's right.
I mean, didn't gamma rays
turn him into the Hulk?
They come from the furthest ends of the universe,
and after 45 years, we are still uncertain of their origin.
( patting Larry's back )
And?
And we're closer to an answer on that
than the three of you are ever gonna get on this.
Megan?
And Larry.
Now, there's an image.