Eleventh Hour"Minamata"
Original Air Date: Feb 19, 2009
Nicola – Associate Staff Writer
nicola@thetwocentscorp.com
Milwaukee, WI. Some idiot is driving like a maniac and the cops and news are tailing him pretty closely. That is, until he stops rather abruptly when he slams into another car. The reporter in the helicopter is having issues with the reporting due to the fact that he suddenly can't see. His chopper goes spiraling out of control and he crashes just after the feed to TV is cut.
Wait, did I miss something? Sudden blindness? Am I watching House?
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Eleventh Hour
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Original Air Date: Feb 19th, 2009
Nicola – Associate Staff Writer
nicola@thetwocentscorp.com
Milwaukee, WI. Some idiot is driving like a maniac and the cops and news are tailing him pretty closely. That is, until he stops rather abruptly when he slams into another car. The reporter in the helicopter is having issues with the reporting due to the fact that he suddenly can't see. His chopper goes spiraling out of control and he crashes just after the feed to TV is cut.
Wait, did I miss something? Sudden blindness? Am I watching House?
Rachel and Jacob arrive on the scene to meet Felix Lee, an agent assigned to help them with the case. Rachel and Jacob are less than pleased (though I think he's kind of cute). Terry Gillman, the reporter, is dead of course. Evidently he was a friend of the director of the FBI, which is why they are investigating the case. But how are they going to find out about his other symptoms when he's already dead?
Rachel and Jacob go to talk to Terry's wife to find out if she knows anything. She says he didn't tell her anything was wrong. The poor woman is pregnant, about to raise a baby on her own. With lack of symptoms apparent in a living body, Jacob decides to review some of Terry's footage to see if he can spot anything. He notices that Terry adjusts the volume on his headset a lot, scratches the same spot on his neck, and sweats when it's cold. So there are some good symptoms!
And now Terry's wife is blind. Her doctor says that there have been a lot of bizarre cases with strange symptoms. Jacob thinks of Minamate, a town in Japan that was exposed to a lot of heavy metal poisoning. Is that happening here? A small clip of some random dude dumping indicates maybe so! The doctor does the tests and finds out that the people all have mercury poisoning. Everyone can be treated but Erica Gillman, who can't be treated when she's pregnant. They want to do an emergency C-section, but the baby probably won't survive. Because she just lost her husband, she refuses to lose her baby. Again… where's House?
Now it's time to find out where the mercury is coming from. There have been a lot of cases all over, so it's a wide range. Rachel, Jacob, and Felix begin digging through garbage to see if they can find a common thread between the people who are sick. One of the sick people comes over to look through the Gillman's garbage to see if he ate or drank anything in common with the Gillman's. He does. He drank the same kind of milk. Felix calls to shut down production on the two bottling plants.
Terry's assistant Debbie is upset and putting together a memorial service for Terry. Her husband Ben comes in and acts suspicious. He's the same EPA agent that fined the guy for dumping earlier.
Felix tests the east milk plant and Jacob tests the west and neither are the source of the poison, which leaves the dairy farms in the area. Only one supplies to both plants, so that's where Jacob and Rachel head.
Ben goes to buy a fridge at a junkyard. In cash! More suspicious!
Hood sees a freshly plowed field and a lack of cattle at the dairy farm and correctly assumes that a bunch of cows have died. Felix helps dig them up. He then talks the farmer into telling him what happened. The cows were sick and he thought they had mad cow disease so he killed them instead of reporting them. The cows had mercury poisoning, not mad cow. But how did the cows get the mercury?
The remaining cows are healthy, so obviously the sick ones ate something the healthy ones didn't. Jacob goes through the cow poop and finds fish bones, which are ground into cow feed. That's where the mercury is coming from. The herring from Lake Michigan are infected, so Hood decides to look at the gulls to see if they're affected. And considering that their car is being dive-bombed by seagulls, it's probably a pretty good indication that they've been affected. When they follow the gulls they run into Ben! They catch a gull and use the GPS transmitter on its tag to find its feeding ground. Going out in the lake they pull up a box full of liquid mercury and maggots. It looks like the mercury is coming from old barometers. It's time to look at old antique stores to see who has been buying old antiques filled with mercury.
Erica has suffered a seizure and now the only smart option is to deliver the baby. Hood has a heart to heart with her to help her make a decision, and she decides to induce delivery.
Felix tracks down information about antiques being sold and finds out a lot have been sold to a man using a false name derived from the Latin name for a gull. Debbie pipes up about this and Hood knows she knows. She goes to Ben and he confesses that he's been doing the dumping to get people's attention about the wildlife issues that no one is paying attention to. Ben tries to run but Felix tackles him and takes him down.
Erica had the baby, regained her sight, and the baby looks like he'll be fine. A happy ending for everyone, except for Felix perhaps? Felix wants to stick around with Rachel and Jacob, and they consent, putting on a tough front, but you know they're as excited as he is.
I'm pumped about the addition of Felix to the team, mostly because I think he's adorable, but I also think he brings a good balance of humor and realism to the team. Jacob and Rachel can be a bit intense sometimes and I think a little relaxation is in order. However, I fear for his life, because adding a third wheel to a bicycle originally built for two can sometimes lead to a flat tire. In other news, I think they're going to kill him eventually. What do you guys think? Love him or leave him?
I like Felix ~ Hubs made the comment that the "home office" got tired of Rachel calling for so much help, so they sent an assistant to shut her up! HA! I like the humor he brought to the team last night, Jacob needs someone to make him laugh a bit.
ReplyDeleteThe scenes where Jacob has to talk about his wife/think about her == those are always touching, but especially this week. He does a great job of shutting up & letting his eyes tell the story.
But yeah, I was waiting for House's minions to come sweeping in the room & take over her care. They must have been in the basement of Princeton Plainsburough.
I liked Felix! He was a great addition to the team. I do wish for Rachel and Hood to maybe start a bit of sexual tension, maybe get Hood back in the game
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