I’m pro-research but I’m also pro-animal …
Summary: The death of a CalSci professor may be linked to a radical animal rights group
Original air date: April 10, 2009 (US)
Written by: Julie Hebert
Directed by: Ron Garcia
Opening numbers:
50-100: Million experimental animals
1088: Research labs
51: Animal rights extremist groups
1440: Criminal acts
Family Concepts: (character development)
- Amita played sports during intramurals in high school
- Larry and Lorna are possibly dating
- Larry is thinking of becoming vegetarian while he studies his position on animals and testing (also Lorna is vegetarian)
- Nikki is sent to hostage negotiation training.
Episode Quotes:
- Don: Is that legal?
Charlie: It’s not illegal; technology is ahead of the law - Charlie: My campus is supposed to be an ivory tower and we keep getting invaded by the outside world.
- Charlie: The technical term for this kind of thing is “mighty suspicious”.
- Amita: He seems to really despise human beings as inferior and corrupt.
Larry: One might surmise that from the fact he’s holding several of them hostage. How does that help us?
Episode Synopsis:
Two young men believing CalSci’s Biology Department is torturing research animals decide to set the animals free. In the middle of their operation, Professor Nelson Horowitz walks in on them and is attacked. Don and Charlie tag along after Larry receives a call from Lorna Ludlow, another CalSci professor, telling Larry about the attack. Unbeknown to Lorna, Professor Horowitz was killed during the attack and left in one of the animal cages. Since Horowitz died as a result of an attack on his research, the case is deemed domestic terrorism and the FBI starts its investigation.
David and Nikki find out the probable group involved is the ARR (Animal Rights Rebels) The group has no known cells, it merely posts on a web site giving anyone who logs on the site ideas on how to build bombs and otherwise create chaos for researchers using animals. Charlie sets a program in motion on various web sites to look for certain key words the might lead the FBI to the people involved in the attack at the university. David and Liz decide to check out area animal rights groups to find out if anyone knows more about the ARR. They are given the name of a local cybercafe where some of the more extreme protesters hang out.
Charlie and Amita are working late at CalSci and starting to get results from their program when they are interrupted by a flash mob outside the Biology Department buildings. The mob, however is only a diversion while someone sets off a small explosion inside the Biology Building. The people responsible for the bomb get away, however several members of the flash mob are caught. The stories all seem to be the same, a message posted to a board with details for the flash mob; none of the people caught actually posted the message however.
Charlie and Amita start comparing the posts at the message board and find not only the person who posted about the flash mob, dogboy88, but also evidence that dogboy88 and another user may in fact be the same person. The user name is traced to Josh Skinner. When David and Liz go to talk to him, they find Josh’s mother who states her son is schizophrenic and not responsible for what ever it is he did this time. David and Liz reassure her they just want to talk to Josh, and are told he is in class at CalSci.
David’s plan to talk calmly with Josh backfires when the young man sees FBI agents coming into the lecture hall. Josh runs out another door, crashing into a security guard patrolling the hallway, steals the guard’s gun and runs. Another student, Cloud Jamieson, follows Josh, apparently the two worked together during the attack that killed Professor Horowitz. Josh shoots another professor, Sharad Varma and takes the man as a hostage in one of the biology labs. Lorna is in an office area above the lab and calls Larry to tell him what’s going on. Charlie and Amita read through Josh’s papers and see an brilliant mathematical mind lost in sea of mental illness. They also realize Josh has formed the idea that animals are gods, something that might be used to the FBI’s advantage.
Don starts working on negotiations with Josh, something Nikki doesn’t understand as she thinks Don should tell Josh whatever he wants to hear in order to get the student to do what the FBI wants. Don’s negotiations are further complicated when Lorna exposes herself to Josh and is taken as a second hostage. Don and Nikki enter the room with a video camera Josh requested; Nikki stays, against Don’s orders, when Josh mistakes Nikki for someone named Sarah. The situation is diffused when a dog is sent into the room. Distracted by the animal, Josh is overpowered by Nikki and Liz, who crawled through a wet wall.