(camera whirring)
Hello!
It's John.
Are you here?
Hello?
(shutter clicks)
(shower running)
(shutter clicks)
It's John!
Hello.
Do you want some company?
(glass shatters)
Victim is John Santos, 30, recently divorced.
Video store manager.
What do you say, Colby?
Hey, he's in here--
we found a wallet in his back pocket.
Car was parked out front.
License said he's from Riverside.
Brought his own refreshments.
Even found the receipt for it. Here you go, Ray.
Thank you. We'll get that to the lab.
(indistinct radio transmission)
Real estate agent found the body?
Yeah, same as all the others.
Agent walks in with the prospective buyer,
opened up and find the guy like this.
She's never seen him before.
No. Must have taken the key
out of the lock box.
We found the "for sale" sign
tossed into the bushes.
Well, it's the same story.
Tied up, beaten.
DAVID: Six weeks,
three victims, all the same M.O.
COLBY: All in unoccupied
homes for sale.
I mean, there's no doubt we got a serial killer here.
CHARLIE: Larry!
Over here, Charles.
What is this? What are you doing?
Well, I'm preparing for the event horizon
of a new perspective.
Hmm. Guess that makes two of us.
Look, I know I haven't been
entirely supportive of your decision
to sit atop a Roman candle and blast off into the unknown.
Hey, if an apology is coming...
...your launch window is shrinking fast.
I've done some soul-searching.
I think it's really great that your dream
- is finally coming true. - Well...
I'm grateful for that, Charles.
I'm just...
I'm gonna miss you.
Yeah, I know.
Well, it's only six months and...
though I will be traveling 250 miles above the Earth,
at 18,000 miles per hour,
it's only a phone call away,
albeit a very expensive phone call.
Going-away present.
I'd say you shouldn't have,
but given your recent behavior...
Open it.
This is my T-shirt.
The one I gave to you for safekeeping.
You're rocketing into space, Larry.
There's no downside
to packing a lucky shirt.
Charles, I will be okay.
Truly I will.
Well...
Well, I'm headed to the FBI.
I'm gonna go work on a case for Don.
Wanna join me?
Why not?
Cool.
So we've got three victims now, all bound,
all beaten to death.
Victim Number Three is this guy,
Santos, the video manager.
Victim Number One is Scott Tillman,
40-year-old family man
from Mar Vista, killed six weeks ago in Westwood.
And Two is Jared Holt. He's 55.
He's a broker, he lives in Malibu
and he was killed ten days ago in Glendale.
No apparent link between them.
Except for one thing. The houses they were found in.
Unoccupied, for sale.
All three houses were listed
with three separate real estate companies. Charlie, we couldn't
find a connection there.
All right, so what are they doing at these houses?
Well, they all went willingly.
They drove themselves. Their cars were found on-site.
Plus, you don't bring beer to your own funeral.
They're finding the locations first, and somehow
they're getting these guys there without a fight.
If I may...
The houses are the key. See,
while they may seem to be randomly selected,
may even appear to be different on the surface,
there's very likely
a discernible pattern here somewhere.
MEGAN: You thinking, you profile
the houses, you profile the killer?
CHARLIE: By using
a multi-attribute compositional model,
I can analyze houses by looking at the individual
parts that make up the whole.
And given what we know about
the killer's preferences, well, then, you know,
I can composite his dream house.
All right. So... compare them to the other houses for sale.
MEGAN: And generate a list of locations where
he'll most likely strike again.
DAVID: Clothes make the man.
Maybe houses make the murderer.
COLBY: This guy has definitely got his own playbook.
I mean, most serial killers, they stalk their victims,
or they bring them home to do the deed.
This guy is doing neither.
He lures his victims to these houses.
All right, so, I mean, he knows
more than just which ones are for sale.
Yeah, he knows which ones are empty and when.
It sounds to me like we're looking
for a real estate agent, maybe a contractor.
I wonder how he gets them into the houses
- to begin with. - I don't know.
But we checked the bank records
and they showed all three of these victims
just before the murders took money out of ATMs.
Maybe he's baiting them--
you know, with drugs.
COLBY: Yeah, or maybe
something else. Our second victim,
Jared Holt, he got busted two years ago
on a solicitation rap
with a prostitute in Hollywood.
Could be a hustle turned murder.
Okay, so cell phones, e-mails,
and the first guy had a wife, right?
Yeah, Megan's on all that.
All right.
We were married 16 years.
Wow...
So...
you said on the phone the FBI...
had some new information?
Thank you.
Yeah. Another man has been found.
(sighs)
It's...
Tomorrow,
it's six weeks to the day.
It's hardest on the kids.
Tom cries every morning, wants his daddy.
But Susan's the one
I'm really worried about.
She doesn't cry at all.
I'm really sorry
to put you through this again.
No, it's okay. It's just...
I don't know what more I can tell you.
Well, we found some commonalities
between the murders.
- Commonalities? - Yeah.
Your husband withdrew some money from an ATM
justo the house.ent
Money?
Yeah. A few hundred dollars.
And you think that could be significant?
We're not sure, but...
we're not sure why he was at the house
or what he would have had the money for.
I told you, we moved here a year ago, needed
a house fast, bought this one, sight unseen.
We talked about getting a bigger place.
Isn't that strange that he would be there alone, though?
Oh, Scott made most of our financial decisions,
so if we were getting a bigger place,
he...
Plus, my birthday was coming up.
If, uh,
I had to guess, I would say
he probably wanted to surprise me.
Some birthday present, huh?
LARRY: Imagine a tortured psyche
avenging some childhood slight.
He chooses houses that remind him
of where he grew up.
Completes the circle.
It's very Hitchcock.
I would say it's very Megan.
You two have been spending so much
time together, your minds are melding.
Well, of course we needed to maximize the hours
given that soon we will be restricted to more...
oh... creative communication.
So is that part of the creative communications plan?
Actually, somebody threw a wrench in the works
in my attempts to secure the CalSci Celestron,
but Megan and I have now devised
a new arrangement.
I will be able to look down at her...
as she is able to look up at me.
(laser blipping)
Ooh.
Is that your...?
Wait a second.
You have a cell phone? Since when
do you have one of those?
Since NASA started calling me.
I'm sorry. This is
LCan I help you?.
You know what?
His theory about the killer's childhood?
- Yeah. - It's making me think we should
re-weight these variables, you know?
Okay.
CHARLIE: So why don't we start...?
What's up?
Well, my journey may have ended before it even began.
What happened?
Just... the mission.
What, was it scratched?
No.
Apparently, I was.
DAVID: You going through victim backgrounds?
Yes. I have medical history,
and family histories and education.
anything in common?
I don't know yet.
Maybe.
John Santos, that last victim,
he has a sealed record with Child and Family Services.
He went through all kinds of foster care growing up.
So?
So, Jared Holt,
that second victim, has a solicitation rap.
I'm not sure I follow.
You know, the rage, the violence.
It all has a sort of sexual component to it,
but, you know, I'm not putting this out there
till I finish my homework.
(sighs)
Does it look bad?
- I-I don't know, but... - Of course not.
We'll find out in a second.
What's the story?
According to Millie, some unnamed rival
of Larry's in some unnamed institute
in Massachusetts
lobbied for an 11th-hour background check.
It seems that some of Larry's recent...
lifestyle choices have become a subject
of concern of NASA.
They...
They found out he was living in the steam tunnels, right?
AMITA: How could they? I mean,
we're his friends and we didn't even know until...
Mildred. And just when I was beginning to think
she was a living, breathing
- human being. ALAN: Come on.
Come on, Charlie.
How could you blame Millie for this?
How can I blame her? How can you defend her?
NASA called her.
It wasn't the other way around.
Mildred is department chair, Charlie.
I mean, if NASA pressed her
for a full disclosure, she couldn't lie.
She felt horrible about this whole thing.
I-I did, too.
What's all this about?
It's real estate data.
We're trying to quantify a serial killer's
emotional attachment to the houses he commits murders in.
Mmm. Well,
killer or home-buyer,
the rule is always the same, isn't it?
Location, location, location.
He's right.
We've been looking at the houses.
We should be looking at the neighborhoods.
I checked the victims' phone logs and their credit cards.
They didn't go to the same places,
they didn't talk to the same people.
E-mail?
Colby's checking their Internet service providers,
but so far, it's not looking so good.
All right, so we're back to square one.
Maybe not completely.
Why, what do you got?
I called Child and Family Services
about victim number three-- John Santos.
sealed juvie record.
Yeah.
At seven years old he was removed from his home.
Suspicion that he was being sexually molested.
Well, you know, this is
giving. Those victims...
DON: Right.
A lot of them become abusers themselves.
Yeah, so that inspired me
to take a fresh look
at all of our victims.
And number two, Jared Holt--
he's the one that had the solicitation rap--
what we didn't know was that the prostitute
was underage.
She was 14 years old.
His lawyer had the rape charge dismissed.
And what about victim number one, the teacher?
His wife told me they moved. Turns out
they moved a lot.
Five schools in seven years.
I called the administrators, nobody had any comment.
Well, that definitely tells us something.
Tells us we've got a guy soliciting underage prostitutes,
a teacher messing with kids
and a victim
of sexual abuse who more than likely may have become
an abuser himself.
COLBY: Just got off the phone with the victim's ISPs.
They didn't have anything in e-mails,
but they did have records of visits to chat rooms.
Dozens of sites with names like "Lonely Girls Only,"
"Cheerleader Diaries."
Got tons more if you want 'em.
Maybe they decided to take it a step further than just talk.
Maybe that's why they're dead.
Hey, good morning.
All right, so... he's going after sex offenders.
Yeah, and combined with the brutality of the murders,
it really suggests one motive.
Right, revenge.
Yeah, something happened in the past
and the killer's getting payback now.
He's likely a victim of abuse.
MEGAN: Yeah, or someone close to him.
A daughter, sister.
And what, the common denominator's the Internet?
MEGAN: Yeah, he's luring
them in through the chat rooms.
All right, why don't you get after those transcripts, huh?
- We're on it. - So if the killer's
meeting his victims online,
there's got to be an electronic trail, right?
Yeah, I mean, if we find the common user
name that these people talk to, I think we've found the killer.
Good.
Sorry for the mess.
I just got the kids off to school.
Your Internet service provider gave me a list of chat rooms
your husband visited.
Huh?
They seem more appropriate
for a 14-year-old girl than a 40-year-old man.
We know why
your husband was at that house.
I think you do, too, Mrs. Tillman.
I'm sorry, I can't help you.
All those schools
in all those cities?
You have children. How can you
continue to protect him?
My husband and I were married for 16 years.
I have a family.
You think I could just
throw it all away?
We tried counseling.
He promised he'd stop.
But he didn't, did he?
He told me, he swore to me...
...he'd never touch the kids.
Your husband went on a chat room and met someone
that he thought was a very young girl.
Someone else's kid.
And he went to that house to meet her.
Now if you saw a name...
if you saw an I.M. on his computer...
You protected him
for a really long time and look where it's gotten you.
If you keep living in this denial,
you're just going to protect his killer.
We are done here. Thank you.
AMITA: You haven't said
one word in ten minutes.
Just thinking.
Look, I think by now I can distinguish
between Professor Eppes
puzzling over a math problem and Charlie Eppes
worrying about a friend.
It's not Larry.
It's me.
To think I was glad that
my best friend's dream had been destroyed.
(laughs)
What's that say about me?
That you're human.
That you care about Larry.
I think when it comes to emotions,
Professor Eppes has to cut Charlie Eppes
a little bit of slack.
The good news is
I have been working.
The current thinking is
our killer was targeting sex offenders.
young teens, right?
Right.
Which is why I reset
the parameters of our neighborhood analysis
to reflect the interests of teenagers.
All three houses are located near schools, movie theaters
and shopping malls.
Places were kids go?
(whispers): Right.
(piano jazz playing)
NASA hasn't made any decisions yet, Larry.
Don't give up yet.
Oh, what was I thinking?
That I had the right stuff?
Larry Fleinhardt, steam tunnel freak.
Oh, come on, you're not a freak.
You are an eccentric.
A delightful,
charming, sexy eccentric.
But you are not a freak.
You know why I bought that car, don't you?
The '31 Ford.
I remember something about the organization
and the art deco lines.
All true, but the tipping point--
what made me take the pecuniary plunge--
was actually the hood ornament.
That's right.
It was a bird in flight.
Now a day ago, I was that bird.
Now...
Now my wings have been clipped.
COLBY: Don, I think we got something.
Found a bunch of chat rooms
that each of the three victims visited.
Now on the day that they were murdered
each of them had chatted
with the same person-- a user named cheerchik15.
The transcripts indicate our killer pretended
to be a 15-year-old girl.
Okay, well, trace it.
Well, he was smart.
He used Internet cafes, paid cash,
made sure there were no cameras.
So what, dead end?
Except we had our techs check
the visitor logs of those chat rooms
going all the way back to the fall.
What, this cheerchik appear before?
Yeah, three months ago.
And he just finds them again online?
How do you explain that?
Well, we can't exactly,
but at least we have somebody to ask now.
The guy slipped up and used his home computer.
I.P. address traces back to a Brendan McCrary.
All right, and?
He fits the profile.
He had a daughter
who was victimized by an online predator.
She committed suicide a year ago.
Wife works for a mortgage company.
COLBY: So he had access to all
the real estate information he needed.
All right, go for it. Pick him up,
let's see what we get.
MAN: All right, defense! Move back!
BOY: Open!
MAN: Move it up!
(indistinct shouting)
(whistle blows)
(players cheering)
BOY: Hey. Dad...
See that?
Oh, yeah. Good, son.
some answers...
Brendan McCrary.
- I got to go. - FBI.
- We need to talk to you. - About what?
Your exploits on the Internet.
Cheerchik15-- ring a bell?
Turn it around, put your hands behind your back.
Wait, wait, wait, this is nuts. Guys, we're on the same side.
The same side?
I can explain it. You just need to...
Sir, you don't want to do this here.
(man shouting indistinctly)
BRENDAN: Hey, call your mother.
I need the lawyer.
(whistle blowing) MAN: Let's go, come on!
Tell me something, Mr. McCrary,
you are cheerchik15?
It's a user name I go by.
Pretending to be
a 15-year-old girl wanting sex.
Excuse me, but what is it you think my client has done here?
Hold on a second, Counselor.
This is Scott Tillman, Jared Holt
and this is John Santos.
They're all dead-- they all communicated with cheerchik15.
- What?! - Yeah, that's right,
they were given an address
they were murdered.
I...
This is a chat with Santos.
Santos: "What are you wearing?"
Cheerchik15:
"Wouldn't you like to know? LOL."
That's enough, Mr. Eppes...
Santos-- hold on-- "Can I come over?"
Cheerchik15:
"Parents are away for weekend.
I'll get pretty for you."
- Santos: "I'll be there." - Yeah, yeah.
Thbut it's not me.e,
Right.
You going to tell me it wasn't you three months ago?
- Huh? - God, you don't know
what this is about, do you?
No, I get it. I understand-- it's payback for
what happened with your daughter, isn't that it?
- My daughter? - I mean, it makes sense.
I think mistake... serious
BRENDAN: My daughter...
Wait, no, because you couldn't protect her...
You're the ones who couldn't protect her!
What?
The guy who lured her out was on parole.
I belong to a group called Parents Stop Predators.
We go online to chat rooms, we pretend to be teens
and we have these creeps arrested.
Say what?
Maybe someone hijacked my user name from the group.
I don't know, but whoever killed these men it wasn't me.
Brendan?
Are you all right?
Everything's okay.
I just saw the lawyer.
He said that the FBI was talking to you about some murders?
It turns out it was all a big mistake.
MRS. McCRARY: A mistake? - Yeah.
Come on.
You people are always making mistakes.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
were doing your job...
Let's go.
my daughter would still be alive.
Let's go.
Not sure this is going to brighten the mood any.
- Well? - His story checks out.
Local P.D. confirmed that three months ago
he attempted to lure the victims to a house.
They didn't bite, so he sent a letter instead.
Saying?
Notification they'd attempted
explicit sexual conversations with a minor.
Threatened to out them
to their families if they didn't seek counseling. Oh...
and he has an alibi to the last murder.
CHARLIE: Don.
What, you got something?
Yeah, I think we figured out
why the killer's picking these houses.
Amita's got the laptop.
So...
we hit a wall trying to composite
our killer's ideal house
because we realized he's not choosing houses.
He's choosing by neighborhoods.
CHARLIE: Exactly. We're all familiar with Megan's Law.
Yeah, requires the police to tell the public
about sex offenders.
There's also something called Jessica's Law.
Right. Where they can't live.
Not 2,000 feet from a school, or day care, right?
So what we did was we ran an analysis
of Jessica's Laws hot zones
and mapped it against the locations of the three houses.
MEGAN: The houses where the murders occurred are all
dead center?
DON: Right. So these
are the areas we're supposed to look?
And I also mapped all the other Jessica's Law hot zones
in the entire L.A. area.
Oh, boy.
Come on, Charlie, what, are you kidding me? I mean,
there's no way we can cover this much ground.
MEGAN: Wait a minute. That might be
the killer's message.
That there's no way we can stop these guys.
What? Only he can?
DAVID: A Web host
monitoring one of their sites
just gave us a call.
Our killer posted a video.
Don, you have to see this.
I didn't do anything.
I just came by to see a friend.
(panting)
My name is John Santos...
I came to this house to have sex with a 15-year-old girl.
This isn't the first time.
DAVID: He beats them until they confess.
I've had relations with over 30 girls
under the age of 15.
I ask for forgiveness from them...
from their families...
You don't want to see the rest.
Killer uploaded this video
to a site that holds suicides, beheadings, you name it.
- Post today? - Yeah, this morning.
I did a search and found a similar video
of victim number two
put up two days after he was killed.
What about the first victim?
Nothing yet.
All right, well, can you trace him?
Techs have been trying,
but the killer must have used some kind of masking program.
They haven't been able to crack it.
All right, well, who are you going to call?
- Charlie. - There you go.
(phone beeps)
(speed dial tone)
Yeah, so it seems to me
that the killer is using
some kind of "onion-routing" technique.
Onion-routing
is a way of sending content over a network
and still remaining completely anonymous.
It's sort of like a person
sending a series of letters inside letters.
He sends the first one to a friend,
who then finds a second letter inside,
and all that friend knows is,
he's supposed to forward that letter, so he does.
So, each letter is like a layer of an onion being peeled back
until the final message inside is revealed.
Can you crack something like this?
You know, it's funny, I created an algorithm
for one of Larry's projects,
and so I-I think I can adapt it to this case.
And speaking of Larry, Charlie, I...
I keep thinking that maybe
there's something that-that we can do to help him.
I keep thinking the same thing, but I-I don't know what.
What about all the people you know
in the science community? What if you call one of them?
(sighs)
Well, Larry's NoiseTamper project is an NSA initiative,
but you have to understand,
if NASA's questioning Larry's overall fitness,
- that's... - Then we should make that call,
because Larry is devastated.
His spirit is-is crushed.
He's like a star collapsing in on himself.
You two have been hanging out a lot.
Charlie, I don't want him to go either.
If there's anything we can do,
we have to let Larry be Larry.
The killer's timeline is definitely accelerating.
He's gone from six weeks between kills to ten days;
now down to 72 hours.
What's the deal, is Charlie's thing up and running?
Megan says it'll be up in an hour, but there's a problem.
What's that?
It can't run a trace after an upload's completed.
It can only look for content during transmission.
Great, so what do we do, wait till the guy does it again?
This better work. (typing)
CHARLIE: Hey, so I got the algorithm
set to scan the site the killer's been uploading to.
Once we get a hit, we'll be able to trace his transmission.
All right, good.
(beeping) We got a hit, Professor.
Okay. Hey. Don, hey! We got a hit.
My name is Wendell Henderson.
I came to this house
to have sex with a 15-year-old girl.
In the past ten years, I've...
molested over 40 young girls.
- Some as young as 11... - All right, so?
It's getting there. Just another minute.
I understand
that I can never give these young girls...
Wow, this is really odd.
What?
This transmission--
the file size and video times
are steadily increasing, and
the checksums are constantly changing.
This is uploading live.
- Wait, what? - Don...
...their trust...
- He hasn't killed him yet. - Tina, come on.
Youlocation now.e a
I'm tapping into the server. I should
be able to run a ping trace to find
- the broadcast socket. - Do that. Call me in the car.
HENDERSON: I ask forgiveness... from these young girls...
Got it.
- ...and their parents... - 252 Estrella.
...for the pain and suffering that I've caused...
(sirens wailing)
Jimmy, you guys come with me. Colby, David,
take two and head out back.
FBI! FBI! FBI!
- FBI! FBI! - What is this?!
Wait here! Don't move!
- What's happening? - You alone in
the house? - Yes, I don't understand.
All riit's okay.ight,
You been on the Internet?
Ndown today.n
Okay, it's okay. Just relax.
We're sorry, it's the wrong house, ma'am.
We're going to rectify this.
The khis tracks.ering
(dialing phone)
He must have piggybacked their router.
I'm sorry, ma'am. Sorry.
Hey, Charlie, we got a problem here.
(muffled scream)
Yeah, Don, what's going on?
We... we just lost our video transmission.
DON: It's the wrong house.
He must have piggybacked the signal.
Oh, no, that's not possible.
You know what, if he did,
then he's in the area using a WIFI signal.
Tell me all the houses for sale in the neighborhood.
I'm already on it.
Okay, I've got a house.
It's two streets over.
It's 2463 North Irving Boulevard.
DISPATCH: All units... 2463 North Irving Boulevard,
stand by for possible backup...
Oh, damn.
Damn!
Ah, he's dead.
He must have heard the chopper.
Left in a hurry.
Ah, he left this--
computer transmitting gear.
We were close.
Yeah, well. You guys clear?
AGENT: All clear.
Wendell Henderson.
32, computer geek.
Same story. He talked dirty with Brendan McCrary in a chatroom
three months ago.
And the killer contacts him again,
using McCrary's username to lure him.
DAVID: Electronic gear we found
was all bought with cash.
The store owners can't remember who made the purchases.
I mean, so whoever it is clearly has access
to McCrary's files.
COLBY: He may be right. It may be
somebody from his group who hijacked his username.
DAVID: I have a list
of all the Parents Stop Predator volunteers,
transcripts of their chatroom conversations.
Well, then may I take a look at that?
A lot of names to go through, Charlie.
Maybe instead of going through the names,
why don't we go through the chat?
What do you mean?
Well, it's just like any language.
You know, on-line messaging
has its own vocabulary and syntax.
Senders of these messages
develop their own unique patterns of speech,
which can then be analyzed
using Statistical Linguistic Analysis.
It's like a jeweler beading a necklace.
A jeweler chooses certain types of beads
then strings them in a particular pattern
according to his own unique, personal style,
just like IM senders will exhibit their own styles,
patterns of speech which are unique to them.
So, then we just compare them.
Yeah, to the transcripts of the volunteers
for this "Parents Stop Predators" group.
Look, if the killer is in that group,
he will be betrayed
by his own chat.
Amita.
- Hey. - Hi.
Um, have you seen Charlie?
I-I have the transcripts from the killer's latest chat.
He's working in Larry's office.
Larry's at a symposium.
And he thought he could concentrate better there.
Oh, he's got you working on this, too?
Well, my experience with asymptotic combinatorics
comes in handy.
Sounds like everything you need for a good working relationship.
Charlie and I work well together.
That must be nice.
You gonna miss him, aren't you?
Yeah, a little more than I think I originally
thought I would.
Well, he's coming back.
Yeah, he is.
And I have a telescope now.
(laughs)
You know, I'm actually going that way.
I'll walk with you.
- (laughing): Okay, thank you. - Sure.
CHARLIE: I need to speak with Dr. York
concerning Lawrence Fleinhardt.
F-L-E-I...
Oh, you know him?
Okay, well, then I guess you're the person I need
to be speaking to.
Um, I've known Professor Fleinhardt
for approximately 17 years,
and I'll be the first to admit he's an eccentric.
I'm aware that that's your concern.
Yeah, but he's brilliant.
He's the kindest, most decent person I know.
Yes.
I am, I am personally vouching for him, yes.
Well, I appreciate that.
Uh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I guess that is all I have to say.
Thank you.
(mouthing)
Hey. So, got something?
Yeah, I did what I said I was going to do.
I compared the killer's messaging patterns
against our Parents Stop Predators group
and I've isolated a near match within an error margin
of five percent.
All right, so who?
According to my math, Brendan McCrary.
No, no, that's not possible.
He's already alibied for two of the murders.
Yeah, but Charlie's saying he found a near match.
You know they say people and their pets start
to look alike? Same thing happens
in family dynamics.
One member of a family will start to think and speak alike.
What, the family?
Well, the wife did go off on you pretty good.
Yeah, but going off isn't what I'm talking about,
'cause that's too explosive. This kind of
rage is, is calculated carefully.
All right, well, if you don't think it's the wife,
there's only one survivor left.
All right, Matt, this is from your laptop.
List of sexual predators,
these are chat room conversations.
He says you downloaded it from my computer. Is that true?
Four of the names from your father's list
were murdered.
Now, he didn't do it.
You're the only other source.
You going to tell me what I want to know?
Agent Eppes asked you a question, son.
I didn't kill anyone.
Who did?
Hey, look, it makes sense
that you'd want to get back at people like that--
what happened with your sister.
It's normal, it's natural. I would, too.
But that makes you just like them, right?
Is that what you really want to be?
No.
Sweetie...
I didn't know they were going to get hurt, I swear.
Tell them what they need to know.
I met this person in a chat room
for families of victims of sexual predators.
I didn't know his name or anything about him.
All I know is that he listened.
Honey,
if you were having problems, why didn't you come to us?
What were you going to do?
- Matt! - Oh, seriously,
Dad, you're too busy with your Catch The Creep group.
And you?
You don't even come out of your room half the day
except to go into Katie's bedroom to look around.
You don't think I see?
I loved Katie.
Losing her sucked.
But I didn't just lose her.
I lost you, too.
This person you said you met, what'd you talk about?
My dad's group, mostly.
How useless they are getting these guys into counseling.
How counseling doesn't do anything.
You gave him the names, right?
It's...
I didn't mean for any of this to happen.
(sniffles)
I'm sorry.
LARRY: Hey, Charles.
I thought you should know.
Yeah? I heard from NASA.
- Uh-huh? - I'm back on the mission.
Oh, that's... that is great.
Congratulations.
Well, apparently, someone at the NSA
did some arm twisting.
Oh, well, they're the experts, off the record.
Well, on the record...
thank you very much.
I didn't do anything...
aside from making them see the error of their ways.
Consider it my contribution to national security.
(laughs): What, you think having me off planet
improves our security?
I didn't say it.
Well, I know you don't want me to go.
And therein lies the nobility of what you did.
What I did was repay a debt.
You don't remember this, do you?
But, uh, when I was a 14-year-old kid at Princeton...
...when we first met, do you remember what you said to me?
Oh, as I recall, I said many things.
You said...
that you wanted to see me safely launched
into the academic firmament.
Now it's your turn.
Listen, just so you know,
it's always harder on the mentor
than it is on the student.
COLBY: I traced the username of the person
that Matt McCrary talked to in the chatroom.
- Right. - It was a dead end.
Yeah, guy keeps covering his tracks, right?
How about you, you got anything?
I keep going over my interview notes.
Matt McCrary had a conversation with the killer
talking about how useless counseling is
for guys like these.
Sounds an awful lot like
my conversation with Elaine Tillman.
The first victim's wife?
You think she had something to do with this?
MEGAN: She said her husband swore
he would never touch their kids.
What, she lying?
We never did find his video confession online.
I think I know why.
Because she didn't need a confession.
Right, 'cause she already knew.
All right, so going with that theory,
I get why she kills her husband,
but what about the rest of the guys?
The notification letter Brendan McCrary sent the Tillmans must
have been the trigger that just pushed her
over the edge, and then she met Matt online.
And she knew that there were all these other men out there
just like her husband.
COLBY: We know Scott Tillman taught
computer science in high school, so she could've
learned what she needed to know from him.
Architect of his own demise.
DAVID: We checked Elaine Tillman's e-mail.
Over the past three months, she's contacted
a half a dozen real estate agencies.
She did say her and her husband were looking
to buy a bigger house.
She used a different name to contact
the real estate agent, make the appointment.
All right, where is she?
Two hours ago, she dropped the kids off
with a neighbor, said her mom was sick,
had to take her to the hospital.
Uh, no, she's lined up her next victim.
All right, how many houses are in here?
- Almost 100. - Yeah, at least.
All right, let's get it up to Charlie.
So I mapped all the locations of the houses
on Elaine Tillman's list.
And assuming she's sticking
to live uploads,
she's gonna need a strong WIFI connection.
All right, I don't want to go to the wrong house again, so...
Doesn't even matter because this time
we'll know where she's transmitting from.
Yeah, and how's that?
When I did my real estate analysis,
I was looking at WIFI connectivity.
In fact, I had your techs cross check the database
of broadband users in these areas
against owners of wireless routers.
That sounds like a lot of houses.
Not where we're looking.
Because, remember, she was choosing houses
in Jessica's Law hot zones.
Overlaying those hot zones
over our map of houses and factoring in
for WIFI connectivity, I've isolated five locations
where she'll likely strike next.
All right, I'm gonna get LAPD into those areas.
As soon as we find her car, we're gonna move in.
There's Elaine Tillman's car.
House is around the corner.
2152 Floresta.
And LAPD has the perimeter?
Let's take the house.
(indistinct radio transmission)
(yells)
What do you want from me?!
Everything!
FBI!
One more step and he's dead!
Elaine, nobody's doing anything.
Nobody's gonna move until you and I talk.
About what? You know why I'm here.
- You know what I have to do. - I know what happened.
I know your husband hurt your daughter.
He lied to me.
He promised he'd never touch Susan!
I want you to think about your kids, okay?
Your children do not want you to do this.
This man never touched your daughter.
What about the other daughters?!
I have to stop them!
No!
What difference does it make?
If I kill him or not, they're gonna shoot me anyway.
MEGAN: Elaine, no one's gonna shoot you. Listen to me.
We have proof. We have his words
on his computer.
We know why he came here.
He's not walking out of here a free man.
Put down that knife
and he's going to jail.
And there's nothing you can do to him
that isn't going to be worse in there.
(crying): Just don't...
just...
Okay.
DISPATCH: All units, be advised, suspect is in custody...
You okay?
Yeah.
I thought for sure she was gonna kill me.
- Thank you. - Shut up.
(chuckling)
DON: All right...
All right, Larry, here you go.
I got you a few extras
in case you run into any, uh, I don't know, aliens
or something.
My colleagues in space salute you.
It'll be reassuring
to know that we have an FBI presence out there in orbit.
How do you know we don't already?
That's right.
Professor, it's often been confusing...
it's always been real, man. Take care, okay?
LARRY: See ya.
COLBY: I second that, Fleinhardt.
I'll be looking up for you, bud.
- Take care. - All right.
Careful up there, all right?
Yeah.
See you around, Don.
I'll miss you.
Professor Fleinhardt.
Well, if you ever need to call...
I'll just put it on the NSA's tab.
I'll walk you outside.
Take care now.
See ya.
(voice breaking): Well, I guess the next time I see you,
you'll be in your space suit.
Isaac Newton had his apple.
But it took you
falling into my life to make me see the world anew.
Even I became new.
And how we see ourselves
changes how we see the world.
Even from space.
Just be careful.
Well, I've got to go. Someone's waiting.
Is that Buzz Aldrin?
I think NASA figured I'd need help finding my way.
Bye, Larry.
(giggles)
* She packed my bags last night, pre-flight *
* Zero hour, 9:00 a.m.
* And I'm gonna be high...
(launch announcers speaking indistinctly)
* ...As a kite by then
I have goose bumps.
(nervous giggling): Me, too.
Hey, he'd better wear one of our hats on TV, right?
But how's he gonna get the hat over the pressure suit, though?
Fleinhardt
in a pressure suit.
That's a visual I don't need.
- Aw... - I can imagine!
You're awfully quiet.
* It's lonely out in space
It's just not every day you get to see your friend
live out his dream.
It's not every friend that gets to make it happen.
T-minus 30 seconds.
CHARLIE: Hey, whoa, Dad!
All right, you're... Come on!
- You're gonna miss it. - Alan!
Hold the countdown, I got the drinks.
Wait, what's the deal, no champagne?
Well, in honor of Larry,
and given his propensity for white food, I figured
milk is the most appropriate.
* 'Till touchdown brings me 'round again to find I'm... *
A toast to Larry.
Yes, may the orbit rise with you.
And may the solar winds be at your back.
(launch announcer speaking indistinctly)
I think you've been hanging out
with us nerds for too long.
Wait, wait, here we go.
ANNOUNCER: And minus-10...
ALL: Nine, eight...
seven, six...
five, four...
three, two...
ANNOUNCER: ...one. And liftoff.
Opening a new chapter in the completion of
the International Space Station
for the collaboration of nations in space.
- Godspeed, Larry Fleinhardt. - * Rocket man...
DON: All right, Larry!
* Burning out his fuse up here alone *
* And I think it's gonna be a long, long time... *