He’s got hard core information on all of them …
Summary: Don doesn’t believe a convicted hit man really wants to help an FBI investigation and Larry has to readjust to life back home after returning from the ISS.
Original air date: April 27, 2007 (US)
Written by: Julie Hebert
Directed by: John Behring
Opening numbers:
One Million Billion Synapses
One Hundred Billion Neurons
Four Lobes
One Brain
Family Concepts (character development):
- Larry returns from the ISS after spending four months and twelve days in space
- Larry keeps his diary in the form of an Aztec [sic] quipu; according to this diary:
- Larry had his first telescope at age three
- He was president of the rocket club in the 5th grade
- was a docent at the planetarium in junior high school
- Larry plans to spend at least some time at a monestary in Altadena “exploring the universe of his mind”
- Larry may be giving up his white food only diet.
- Alan [regarding Charlie’s BBQ ribs]: That look like the Petrified Forest.
- Charlie: Bar-B-Que ribs …
Don: Not anymore. - David: Don’t pull that chain unless you want the whole dog.
- Larry: I am loath to become small again.
After spending four and a half months on the International Space Station, Larry Fleinhardt returns home. Charlie and Amita are excited that he’s finally back and when they learn he’s landed at Edwards Air Force base, they plan a trip to go pick him up. The plan is confounded however when Charlie can’t get a hold of Larry to welcome him back.
Don and AUSA Alvin Brickle are at San Quintin to see Pony Funez, a convicted mob hit man now on death row, who wants to make a deal. He will give Brickle information on five murders he committed in exchange he wants to meet his daughter outside the prison. Don doesn’t want to take the chance Pony will use the opportunity to escape, but Brickle gets information on one of the bodies to see if Pony is trustworthy. Using the information provided, Colby and David discover the body of a Chinese mob leader.
Knowing he has Brickle’s attention Pony then says he will give up information on a missing boy, the son of Randal Amato, a California congressman who disappeared in 1997. Don is still suspicious but Charlie convinces him to try game theory to get what he wants; if Don gives Pony something then so the theory goes Pony will then give up information the FBI wants.
David goes to see Pony’s ex-wife Rene and she is adamant that her daughter, Lucy, will not have anything to do with Pony. Lucy wants to meet him and offers a picture of herself to David to give to Pony; her mother does consent to giving him the photo.
Colby goes to the bottom of a hillside where Pony claims the boy was buried but the skeleton they discover is for an adult, another mob leader, not a five year old child. Don is furious Pony lied, however Pony swears he’s telling the truth, that the boy was there, but maybe the body was moved. Congressman Amato gets a court order for Pony to take a polygraph, and everyone is surprised to learn he is telling the truth.
Charlie is finally able to see Larry in person, and is surprised at the man he sees. Larry seems to be in a funk, not wanting to sleep indoors, and unsure what to do now that he is back on Earth. Charlie asks what the problem is and Larry confesses that he has lived his dream and is unsure how to move forward without losing the insights he’d gained while in space.
Charlie, with Larry in tow, meets Don at the FBI office and Larry suggests they try a brain scan to see if Pony is telling the truth. The scan initially shows Pony is honest in his descriptions of where the boy is and what happened, but when Charlie does some quick research and discovers the evenings conditions were not as Pony describes, they discover Pony had created a false memory of what happened; he tells Don he just could not kill a child and that another man actually shot the boy and put his body in a storm drain.
Don realizes Pony held up his side of the agreement and he goes to see Rene about letting Lucy meet her father. Rene reluctantly agrees to the meeting. Larry tells Charlie he plans to spend some time at a local monastery to contemplate and explore his own mind.