Transporting diamonds is possibly a more dangerous job that Alaskan crab fisherman …
Summary: The FBI team gains a new member during the investigation of a double murder and Charlie must decide what he will do about his clearance.
Original air date: October 3, 2008 (US)
Written by: Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci
Directed by: Alex Zakrzewski
Opening numbers:
225: Crashed aircraft
72: Carats
32: Geographic satellites
2: Climbers
Family Concepts: (character development)
- Events in When Worlds Collide take place roughly three weeks previous
- Charlie is cleared of all charges stemming from sending the email to Pakistan due to a motion made by the federal prosecutor’s office
- Charlie will have to reapply for his clearance which will involve a new clearance investigation
- Nikki Bentancourt spent four years with LAPD before joining the FBI
- Nikki has a law degree
- lat 34.5733 long -118.1216 appears to be a field in Palmdale CA
Episode Quotes:
- Charlie: All I need to do my work is a notebook, a pencil …
Alan: And a lot of chalk boards. - David (on Charlie helping to find Don): Don isn’t going to like this.
Ian: Well, we can argue about that after we save his ass. - Amita: This analysis is pretty deep stuff. Do you know how to do it?
Larry: I know how — to get it done
Episode Synopsis:
Two climbers, Brian and Andrew are murdered while on a climb. It seems the pair found something and were killed to get it. Charlie has been cleared of all charges stemming form his actions emailing the rest of Phil Sanjrani’s work to Pakistan. However he does not have his clearance and is unsure if he wants to go through the embarrassment of the investigation required to get it back.
At the crime scene Ian Edgerton catches up with the rest of Don’s team and when he asks why the FBI is involved at all, Don shows him a 72 carat uncut diamond that was found in the chalk bag of one of the dead climbers. The FBI is able to identify who the climbers were by ID, however neither has a permanent address choosing instead to stay with friends or sleep in their cars. David and Colby go to a local climbers hang out and meet Pete Fuller and Theresa “Skeet” Kulman. Pete and Skeet tell David and Colby that Brian and Andrew had found something they thought they could sell while out scouting an unknown climb route they planned to nick-name Wrecked.
Unable to trace an uncut diamond the FBI has to wait until a shipment is reported as missing. Nikki soon finds a report made by Bryce and Sons jewelers that a $50 million shipment never made it to New York as planned. David and Colby find the courier, Kenneth Bryce, dead in the trunk of his car and the diamonds stolen. The thinking is the shipment was put on a small plane after it was stolen, and that Brian and Andrew found the plane wreck in the San Gabriel Mountains on their uncharted route, Wrecked.
After Charlie’s suggestion to try “squish-squash” to track the plane through the mountains, Don’s team goes in search of the downed plane. Don comes across three men holding Pete and Skeet at gun point demanding to know where the diamonds are. Don distracts two of the men using a transistor radio, knocking out the third and leading Pete and Skeet away. His radio however is damaged in the ensuing chase and all the rest of his team hears is gunshots. Ian convinces Charlie to come down to the FBI building to help locate Don in the mountains. Once Ian has a location, Icehouse Canyon, Colby leads the rest of the team into the area. Don and Skeet are found safe, Pete however injured his foot and gave himself to the gunmen. Ian also arrested one of the three men.
David and Colby try to figure out how the three men knew about the diamond shipment in the first place and soon discover a bug in the storefront of Bryce and Sons. Larry and Amita (with some unwitting help from Charlie) figure out a location for the receiver for the bug at a house. The FBI raids to house and finds Pete, still alive and arrest the other two men. Suspecting the diamonds were never actually on the plane in the first place, Ian and Don interrogate the three men together and discover Keith Jackson had stolen the diamonds out of the case before putting it on the plane and planned to double-cross the other two.
After thinking more about his clearance and finding out Don supported the idea of Charlie trying to get his clearance back, Charlie decides to appeal the FBI decision to revoke his clearance.