PREY
Infiltration
"Infiltration." PREY, sixth episode, first season. The hour-long weekly drama
follows a bioanthropologist and her aides investigating a newly evolved species of man.
These ruthless new beings appear to be the result of global warming and are multiplying
rapidly. James Morrison plays Lewis, a "Mentor" who trains members of his race
in terrorist tactics.
In a darkened lab, Dr. Ed Tate studies findings from an artifact relating to the new
species. Markings on the stone pillar have been determined to be a star chart for southern
Mexico in mid-October, 1998. Ed wonders to his boss, Dr. Walter Attwood, what will happen
then. Attwood counters with his concerns as to what the new species will do in the
meantime. Little does he know, he is about to find out.
Roger Young works his way through a crowded bar. He runs into an attractive blonde who
says she's waiting for friends. He offers Lisa a chance to wait for them with him, so she
follows him to a table. As soon as he sits down, she leaves her handbag under the table
and tells him to stay put, she will return. Once she disappears into the crowd, Roger's
cell phone rings. When he approaches a window for better reception, he sees Lisa hurrying
to a waiting black car parked across the street. A man is waiting behind the wheel for
her. Roger calls out to Lisa, but she coldly ignores him and gets into the car. The bar
behind him explodes. The black car speeds away.
The next morning, bioanthropologist Dr. Sloan Parker is running late. Tom Daniels, a
member of the new species who has agreed to help the human scientists, shows up at her
apartment. While waiting for her to finish dressing, Tom watches a news report about an
explosion at a bar. Fifteen people had been killed, the TV reporter says, and dozens had
been wounded. Sloan, now dressed, comes out to watch the report. The reporter says
investigators detected a residue of "an unknown compound" with a trace of
benzene. Tom tells Sloan the new species did it. Sloan says wonders if one of the bar
patrons may have been a target.
Tom's fake FBI credentials get them into the bombed out bar. After a quick scan of the
charred interior, Tom proceeds to the charred remains of a handbag. He examines the bag
and sniffs for residue on his fingers. Definitely explosives designed by the new species,
he says. Sloan asks a cop for a list of victims. While waiting, she notices a homeless man
outside the bar. She follows him, calling that she is not a cop and follows him into an
alley. He admits he did see the explosion and saw a man run to a red car afterward.
Conveniently for Sloan, he has jotted down the plate number on a piece of cardboard.
Sloan and Tom go meet their police department contact Detective Ray Peterson. Already, Ray
is in trouble with the department for all the time he has spent helping the scientists. A
couple of detectives are regarding the three suspiciously. Ray tells Sloan he has traced
the partial plate to a Roger Young, who apparently is not at home. Ray also tells them he
will send officers out to interview the homeless guy who offered the information.
Out on the street, a mysterious man watches in the rearview
mirror of the black car. Lisa walks up behind the car and gets inside. She tells the
driver she got what she wanted. In the direction from which she came, the homeless guy who
had talked to Sloan lies bloodied in a pile of trash.
Back at the lab, Ed hacks into Roger Young's phone company records. Calls from Roger's
home stopped the day of the bombing, but his home number had received some calls from a
motel.
Sloan and Tom go to the motel and walk up the stairs to Roger's room. Tom, who can sense
emotions, says the room is empty. He opens the locked door with minimal effort thanks to
his evolved enhanced strength. Inside the shadowy room, they find a bed strewn with
photographs and clippings, all indicating Roger has been tracking the new species, too.
While they shuffle through some of the papers, Tom senses Roger's return and knows Roger
has spotted the open door. Tom draws his pistol and chases Roger almost in the waiting gun
sights of Lisa, who is leaving her room a few doors down on the same floor. Lisa and Tom
exchange gunfire. Sloan leads Roger downstairs to her parked car. Tom follows them with a
hail of Lisa's bullets behind him. They speed away. Lisa coolly places her pistol back
into her tote bag.
At the lab, Sloan has determined Roger is human by a DNA test. Roger tells them he is a
reporter for the Tribune and was at their press conference announcing the discovery of a
new species of man. He was working on a story about how the missing persons rate had
climbed 300 per cent in the last six months and had been able to draw a connection with
all of them to the serial killer and new species member Randall Lynch. Tom asks Roger
about the woman who picked him up at the bar and is particularly interested to learn if
she had been alone. Roger had seen the man who waiting in the car for her. Tom seems to
know who it is, but is hesitant to tell the others.
A phone call wakes Ed from a sound sleep. He leaves home to go to a building where a young
girl perched on the edge of the roof is threatening to jump. A rescue worker tells him her
name is Kelly and she keeps mentioning a cave. Now Ed remembers her -- a surviving victim
of serial killer Randall Lynch who had imprisoned her, like his other captives, to a cave.
Ed steps out to where Kelly sits, and she runs sobbing into his arms.
At Sloan's apartment, Tom is even more quiet that usual. He is worried about Lisa's
companion whom he believes to be a Mentor who trained her and others like her. "He's
a dangerous man, Sloan," he says. "He and the people he's trained are
responsible for crimes you couldn't imagine. He's the best at what he does." And Tom
knows from first-hand experience because he is one of Lewis's trainees. Tom points out
that if they could find Lisa, they could get to Lewis. He suggests they use Roger as bait
to draw out Lisa to eventually get to Lewis. Sloan recoils at the idea, but Tom insists
they have to risk one life to save many.
At the police department, Kelly sits slumped in a chair while Ed and Ray discuss her fate
for the night. Ray refers to procedure in telling Ed she should spend the night in a
hospital under psychiatric evaluation. Ed disagrees. Ray, once again overlooking police
procedure, signs her out to Ed. At a coffee shop, Kelly apologizes to Ed and mentions they
are kindred spirits who share a secret they can not discuss with others. Nothing has been
the same for her since she left the cave. Ed tells her Lynch was a member of the new
species of man.
Roger balks at the prospect of being used as bait. Ray tells him he will be protected.
Sloan tells Roger the decision is his. Tom points out they have all risked their lives to
learn more about the new species, and they have no choice.
In the drizzle, Roger shows up with Attwood for a press conference at the charred bar.
They are met by one of Ray's plainclothes officers. Sloan and Tom wait in a doorway. She
has a walkie-talkie and his radio is hooked up to an earpiece and a sleeve microphone so
he can work the crowd undercover. Tom reassures Sloan that he will be able to sense Lisa's
presence. He steps off toward the crowd of reporters already listening to Roger's talk
about the new species.
A brunette reporter with an umbrella and a microphone gets her credentials OK'd by one of
the guards. Late to the press conference, she steps forward to the crowd and crosses Tom's
path to get there. A headache and a flash of the press conference from another
point-of-view interrupts Tom's concentration. He knows something is happening but not
what. She raises her mike as if to pick up Roger's words, but an indentation marks the
middle of her mike's windscreen. By the time Tom realizes the danger, draws his gun and
tells everyone to get down, Roger is shot. While Attwood and the reporters gather around
the fallen journalist, the brunette reporter walks away from the breaking news story of
the shooting to get into a waiting black car.
At the lab, Ed, who has questioned Tom's motives ever since learning Tom's true identity,
confronts Tom about his inability to spot Lisa, despite his track record for spotting the
new species. Bitterly disappointed in himself, Tom says he could sense something but
nothing clear. Sloan wonders if Lisa could have learned biofeedback or some other
technique from Lewis to mask herself. Ray says the police have closed the case of Roger's
shooting because the shooter had been found, an apparent suicide whose note claimed she
had been stalking Roger.
Ed and Sloan return to her apartment. He tells her he has Kelly at his place and then
openly questions Tom's loyalties. Sloan has had her fill of Ed's doubts about Tom, but Ed
makes her wonder about how close Tom had been to his former mentor, let alone Lisa.
Ray is at home, lighting candles and setting a romantic table for his wife. He wants to
let her know he's in trouble with the department for his work tracking the new species. A
19-year veteran of the force, Ray tells her he must follow his convictions concerning the
danger from the new species. His wife comforts him.
The next morning, Sloan and Tom seek leads to Lisa and Lewis. They brainstorm until Tom
mentions Lewis would not stay in one place more than 6 months at a time. He describes
where Lewis would probably be, in a rented house large enough for training purposes and
paid for with cash. Sloan grabs a phone book so they can canvass realtors for a cash deal
on such a house.
At the lab, Kelly sits stewing in a chair. Ed carries takeout food to his desk. He tells
her she can crash with him until she gets herself together. He offers her the food, but
she declines, citing a queasy stomach.
Sloan and Tom drive off a side road onto a dirt path. A man matching Lewis's description
had rented the place two months ago, Sloan says. They sneak through the weeds and climb a
small rise until they can peek at a large house. Tom checks it out through field glasses
and pronounces it "the place."
At the police department, Lt. Quinn, Ray's boss and old friend, goes to Ray's desk. He
asks Ray for his badge and gun. After Ray removes and places his gold detective's shield
and sidearm on the desk, he tells his friend and now former boss that he's making a
mistake. And that he does not know what he's doing. As Ray strides out of the police
station, Lt. Quinn contradicts him out of earshot that he does know what he's doing.
After dark, Sloan and Tom are still watching the house from behind the tall grass. A car
pulls up. Tom watches through the scope. The male driver gets out and scans the grounds
away from the house as he walks behind the car and toward the house entrance. Lisa gets
out, too, but heads straight for the house. Tom identifies the man as Lewis.
They watch Lisa leave the house and drive away in the car. Tom orders Sloan to stay there
but she stops him and asks what he's going to do. Tom says he's going to do what he has to
do because the police won't do anything. Sloan pleads with him to put his past with Lewis
behind him, to forget about revenge. Tom points out they're there for survival. He tells
her he will try to mask himself like Lisa did, then he heads off to the house with his gun
drawn.
Tom sneaks around the house and then
opens the door. Operatic singing and symphonic orchestration fills the sparsely furnished
appointed mansion. With his gun drawn and ready, Tom creeps through the kitchen, then the
marble foyer. Lewis is working on his laptop computer upstairs. Tom climbs the staircase.
Outside, with the field glasses, Sloan watches Tom through the house's huge windows.
Upstairs, Tom sees a door ajar. With his gun ready, he shoulders his way into the room.
Lewis is working at a desk with his back to the door. Without turning around, Lewis asks,
"What took you so long?"
As Tom circles him, Lewis chides him for thinking he could mask himself so easily. Lisa had taken months to learn the technique, Lewis adds, and that was with his help. To his former mentor and now prey, Tom says, "I don't need you." Lewis coolly disagrees. He points out that he knew Tom had been outside for an hour.
Calmly, while facing the business end of Tom's pistol, Lewis asks, "How does it feel to betray me, Tom?"
But Tom disagrees, saying it doesn't feel like betrayal anymore. So,
Lewis zooms in on Tom's weakness: "Because of her? Is Dr. Parker really worth
it?" Firmly, Tom states, "Yes." Still the Mentor and teacher, Lewis
comments, "Interesting."
Outside, a horrified Sloan sees Lisa return. Sloan runs down the hillside to help Tom.
Upstairs inside the house, Lewis plays mind games with Tom. "You realize, of course,
it's only a matter of time before you come back to us." Tom orders Lewis to stand up
and move away from the table. Still unfazed and unconvinced of Tom's seriousness, Lewis
smiles and asks if Tom plans to arrest him. No, Tom says, he's going to stop him.
With
that, Lewis tackles Tom and slams him against the wall. Tom beats on Lewis's back. Lewis
loses his footing, so Tom kicks him in the stomach. Lewis rolls over, and Tom has the drop
on him again. But Tom's back is to the door and his new species radar is not working, so
he does not notice Lisa's approach. With Lisa's arrival distracting him, Lewis hooks Tom's
leg with his foot and drops Tom to the floor.
Lisa, upon
entering the room, senses Sloan approaching the house. She tells Lewis to leave, that
there might be others coming with her. While Tom struggles to get off the floor, Lewis
grabs his laptop, runs and vaults over the balcony.
With Lewis gone, Lisa pulls Tom off the floor by the collar and sneers
how Lewis had told her so much about him. However, she has forgotten Tom's gun, which is
in the floor between them and the door. Now upstairs, Sloan gets to the gun first and
covers Lisa with it. Tom wrestles Lisa to the floor and wraps his hands around her throat.
Sloan has trouble stopping him from strangling Lisa to death. With his hands still around
Lisa's neck, Tom gets in her face and says, "I'm no longer like you." He
releases his grip.
Attwood visits Ray. He knows about Ray's dismissal from the department and has come to
offer him a job, "serving his country." Ray is flattered and jokes about being
too old to join the military service. Attwood only says, "I'm sure you've had your
suspicions and I'm sure they're accurate." Still with a half-joking smile, Ray asks
him what the job is.
Lewis
sits in the parked car with his laptop open beside the steering wheel. A photo of Tom is
downloading and Lewis is talking on a cell phone. "You don't have to worry about
Tom." He pauses while the person on the other end apparently disagrees. "Because
everything is under control. You just tell them to stay off my back. I'll file a report
when I see fit." He pauses again to listen, then placates, "Patience. Without
it, we shall never succeed." He hangs up without waiting for a response.
At the lab, while Ed is working Kelly is sobbing in the office. He hears her, especially when she bangs her head back against the wall, and runs to comfort her.