Summary: A journalist is missing and the FBI investigation is compromised when Charlie is harrassed while assisting on the case.
Original air date: January 11, 2008 (US)
Written by: Andrew Dettmann
Directed by: Craig Ross Jr
Opening numbers:
628,000: Square feet
734: Residents displaced
3: Felons
1: Obsession
Family Concepts: (character development)
- Charlie is not the most observant of drivers.
- Don is concerned he is holding Charlie back from something great.
- Alan and Don put a new roof on the Craftsman house soon after Margaret died.
- The Craftsman house was built in about 1909.
Episode Quotes:
- Charlie: There is nothing wrong with my driving.
Larry: So the chorus of car horns that follows in your wake … what is that? A spontaneous phenomenon? - Charlie: Dad, you called a tenured university professor to come fix the koi pond?
- Amita: Charlie, you really can’t be too careful.
Charlie: You’re wrong. This is proof right here you can be too careful.
Episode Synopsis:
Investigative reporter, Bonnie Parks has been missing for a week when her car is found in the parking lot of a local mall and the FBI is called in to help with the investigation. Charlie is caught by a local TV news reporter and inadvertently gives more information about the case than he should; a mistake Don is called into the Assistant Director’s office to explain. Don confronts Charlie at the house and Charlie leaves to go back to CalSci to get some work done. While he is driving to school he is followed by a silver pick up truck.
Initial digging by the FBI shows Bonnie is not afraid to go after someone who she feels is doing something illegal. She rarely works in her office, and she does not trust computers or other people until she is ready to film her stories. Looking around her office, David finds note pads she may have used recently; he hopes the FBI labs can get something off the blank pages. The lab finds the pads where used to write a list of numbers. Don calls Charlie to help.
As Charlie hangs up with Don the silver pick up truck starts to follow him again. This time however the driver of the truck rear-ends Charlie’s car causing him to spin out. He also starts shooting at the car. Charlie manages to scare the driver off by setting off his car alarm. Colby finds out the same truck that has been harassing Charlie was at the mall the day Bonnie disappeared. Charlie insists he is fine and is not happy David has been assigned to bodyguard by by Don. He offers to help with the lists of numbers and continue with the case.
Don and Colby go look at Bonnie’s house only to find it nearly as empty as her office. Don leaves to go back to the office and Colby stays thinking there is something there they are missing. He starts to watch tapes Bonnie has of her investigative reporting and appears to make a connection with her. While at the house, the mail arrives with two power bills; Colby and Don go to the warehouse listed as the second address only to find three men clearing out boxes. They start shooting, Colby manages to hit two of them, but they manage to get away, they are driving a silver pick up truck.
Digging into the history of the man killed at the scene, the FBI is lead to Richard Taylor a local developer working on a revitalization project for the city. Taylor has been photographed with Sonny Leyba, the owner of the pickup. Leyba is arrested and admits Bonnie is still alive, Taylor just needs her out of the way until a zoning vote on his project goes through.
After Charlie explodes while trying to work on the lists of numbers, Colby takes him aside and tells him he needs to talk about what happened with the truck, he can’t keep pretending he’s fine when he’s obviously not fine. Once Charlie gets everyone out of his head, he is able to think about the numbers and figure out they are property values and locations. He is also able to prove Taylor vastly undervalued the properties in question, properties tied to his redevelopment plan. Taylor’s holding also include three rural areas, one of which has an old house still standing on the lot. Colby and David lead a search of the house and find Bonnie, still alive in the basement. With Bonnie found, Taylor is arrested on real estate fraud.