Percolated Recap: Numb3rs: Greatest Hits (Eppesode 522)

As noted by some quick readers, in the 100th eppesode recap there wasn't a NPAL^TM. Honestly, nothing last week warranted the award. Blame the pride over the 100th eppesode of the midseason replacement that could. Blame the distraction of the wet Eppes. (Mmm, wet Eppes -- sorry, what was I saying?) Blame the really cool mystery and chilling killer. Hell, there are a hundred reasons (pun intended) why I didn't find anything painfully awkward in the 100th eppesode.

I choose to blame the high level of awesome.

This week, well, this week is a whole different story. This week, we get our first ever NPAC^TM, (Numb3rs Painfully Awkward Character) former Agent Roger Bloom, aka, the Fonz. For his inability to accept responsibility, taking justice into his own hands, and make Colby behave like the empty-headed beefcake of a moron he was in seasons 2 and 3, Agent Roger Bloom, I salute you with one finger, or two, if you're from across the pond. Considering the guest star who appears in the finale, I'm sort of (sort of, a phrase which hear means: a hell of a lot) hoping Bloom was run over by the chariot of enigmatic coolness.

Recapper Note: I've been repeatedly asked to clarify some of the terms I use in these recaps. I did that, years ago, when I joined TSTSNBN, but decided to update the recap cheat sheet. Enjoy!
Cal Sci: Charlie, who is still not over his obsession with solving crime, is now carrying a police/Fedcake/fire/everything else scanner, wherever he goes.
Alan tries to point out that this is rather unhealthy, but he gets distracted by the mess of the Hobbit Hole. It's the same mess, since Charlie's probably yet to record all his social networking math.

In fact, it's such a mess that Amita can even hide without being noticed and does she have a way of getting noticed. Like a Jack-in-the-box, the toy, not the restaurant, she pops up from in between a group of boxes, with the same speed and enthusiasm as the creepy little toy.
Now, Amita wanted to surprise Charlie by getting his office all unpacked, and even asked some poor person named Sharon to get all the social networking theory off the boxes. Oh, where is Sharon? She's hiding behind another set of boxes, appearing for only moments to prove to Charlie that something infinitely more frightening is possible, as long as he doesn't unpack.
Even Alan notices the danger. "Anyone else buried in the rubble around here?"

"Nope, just the two of us," Amita assures him. That's what she thinks.

She's found a whole bunch of letters from the previous inhabitants of the Hobbit Hole. There's a letter from Bilbo Bederman, Knox, Newberry, Frodo and Hightower -- all greats in math. One equation to rule them all. The letters are from the time they first moved into the office -- before they were people math students idolize for all eternity.

Charlie is nowhere near as thrilled about the letters as Amita and Alan. It gets me wondering, why?
Farmers American Bank: The poor financial instituition! Not only can it not afford to put an apostrophe on its sign, but also, it's been robbed. Well, at least they can take some comfort in the Fedcakes being assigned to investigate.
The bank manager is the original boss from Bones, and he describes a 4 man crew. One dressed as a janitor. Two wearing ski masks, and the ringleader wearing a Bill Clinton mask. I could make a really, really bad joke here, but I realize there are many Americans who read this and I'm not getting in between Amerians and their politics. I'll leave that to Jon Stewart.

Anyway, it's an MO that Nikki recognizes and she's able to fill in the rest of the details about the crime. She completely freaks out David, describing everything down to the minutest of points, and even knowns were to find the body of the one, umasked, bank robber.
Title Flash.

IHOF: Colby calls the dead bank robber, Greg Berlin, a "Jack-in-the-box." Personally, I think my comparison earlier was more apt, but Colby's probably not as well versed on the use of similes and metaphors as I am. Unfortunately, the dead robber won't be of any use, since the crew only hired him for the robbery for the sole purpose of disposing of him.

Let me assure everyone that Nikki is not Patrick Jane, or Shawn Spencer, no, it's just this exact same crime was done before. Besides, there's room for only one psychic in this eppesode, and it's Charlie, not Nikki. Yes, as we learn this week, Charlie dreams prophetically.

The original bank robbery was never solved, thus the Fedcakes have to talk to the original agent in charge of the investigation: Agent NPAC^TM. Oh yes, and just in case we needed more proof that Nikki isn't psychic, she has to ask who Roger Bloom is, even though she was a member of the team by the time they worked with him. No, she may not have been in the eppesode, but the rest of the team should've kept her apprised of what they did while she was off on some enforced break.

Because Nikki wasn't involved in having Bloom's career derailed because he did something extremely illegal, the Fedcakes think it best to send Ms. Lack of Sympathy to go and interview him.

Agent NPAC^TM's: Roger Bloom is all bitter and angry that he got in trouble for stealing a shitload of cash. He blames the system and the Fedcakes for what happened to him. All the while, Bloom is digging up his sewer line, so let me use a screencap to best describe my opinion on the matter.
Bloom is intrigued by the case, and offers up a Curtis Brennan, not related to anyone on Bones, but since Curtis, and his crew, got themselves dead during a job, it definitely wasn't him, unless he gets all sparkly in the sunlight.

Thus, Bloom and the Fedcakes (Colby and Nikki) think they're through with each other. Oh, if only that were the case.

Cal Sci: Amita's reading the letters while Charlie does something else. I don't know what it is, and I probably won't understand it so I won't bother trying to figure out what it is.

What I can figure out is what Amita can't -- the reason why Charlie is so reluctant to write a letter. He's so against it that he doesn't read the original letters, and then offers to let Amita write his for him. Oh Charlie, I can alleviate all your fears in a few simple words.
Charlie is saved by the knock, since Liz and David are there seeking help with the robbery. They want him to do the same thing he did in "Sneakerhead" to identify suspects because the crew in question has a lot of experience. All he'll need is the file in question but considering the mess of the Hobbit Hole, it's a good idea for him to tag along to the IHOF.
Streets of LA: Colby's all pissed off that the Fedcakes treat Bloom like a pariah. As for Nikki, she thinks "a dirty cop is a dirty cop." As shocked as I am to say this, I'm totally siding with Nikki.

Colby takes a wrong turn, mentally, right into Stupidville (next town over from Moronia). He tries to justify Bloom's actions. To Colby, it's all right to steal a shitload of cash, if you're an agent of 30 years, as long as you never intend to keep said cash. Yes, Colby, when written down, your line of argument is that silly sounding. Colby makes the theft sound like Bloom forgot to put the toilet seat down.

Nikki decides discretion is warranted here, and doesn't say what she's thinking. I, on the other hand, do not feel the same way.
IHOF: David is doing something on a laptop -- I'm assuming not involving porn as my BFFedcake is a professional, and Liz is looking at hours and hours of bank surveillance footage. As for Charlie, he's in his math zone, which means at least one of the three of them is having fun.
Fun, a term which here means the title of this eppesode. Charlie's algorithm found two other duplicate robberies. The problem is, the bank robberies that are being duplicated cannot have been duplicated by the original perpetrators.

As Charlie explains to the rest of the Fedcakes later, the robbers aren't just duplicating robberies, they're copycatting perfect crimes of, as David says, "Bank Robberies' eppesode title Greatest Hits."

Now, according to Charlie and the mathvision, the Fedcakes have to find the differences in the copycats. They're far more important than the similarities, as proven by his small flaws in the photocopier analogy. I'd prefer to use something a little more fandom based, so here is my attempt at a mathvision.
Oh, wait, I can't figure out how each copy of the file would be traceable back to a person, so I guess I'll just have to go with Charlie's version of things. If they find the flaws in the copy, it may lead them back to the person -- or a Xerox.
Don notices one interesting detail about the files. All of them were checked out, recently.

I've just found the biggest flaw in the IHOF: the records room. It's run by someone who I think is supposed to come across as disillusioned and cool.
At first, she tries to tell David that an Agent Sinclair signed them out. This is true, but since he'd probably have to talk to someone, say the stoned loser at the keyboard, in order to get them, why doesn't the clerk recognize him?

Come to think of it, if all of the robberies are based on perfect crimes, why would the various banks' security people not examine them to death to make sure they weren't vulnerable that way again?

And another thing, why am I asking these questions when I should be asking how the hell the place that keeps all the records doesn't know that Agent Bloom is now former-agent Bloom? Oh, epic fail in that department, whether he was the lead agent for most of the cases, or not.

Finally, why doesn't someone consider firing that clerk for being bitchy to my BFFedcake just because she's incompetent?
Back upstairs, Liz is still going through all the bank tapes, while Colby forgot to leave Stupidville, since he looks cheesed off that Bloom's been brought in for questioning and feels sorry for the loser.

Bloom does nothing to make Colby's irritation any more tolerable, because all Bloom can do is act like an ass. He plays verbal games about claiming his signature (for argument's sake, it is his signature), why he signed out the files (nostalgia -- since he ran the bank division), and how he managed to sign out the files in the first place. Bloom even tries to turn it around on the Fedcakes by acting all affronted that they might be building a case on him.

Well, Bloom, let us take a look at the Fedcakes' reasoning, shall we?

So while Bloom shuts up, I think we can all agree he looks guilty as hell, doesn't he?

Like every informercial on at 2 in the morning, wait, there's more! Liz finds Bloom on the bank's surveillance, looking like he's casing the joint. If this weren't prime time televsion, which always tells us he most obvious suspect is never the guilty one, Bloom would be on his way to prison, where I'd never have to see him again, right now.

Later, while Blook sits and stirs in interrogation, Colby is still defending the former agent. Considering colby was the one with whom Liz first shared the information about Bloom looking like he's casing the joint, I wonder if Don is feeling a slight breeze in the room.
Colby thinks being an ex-agent means that Bloom deserves some leeway. Um, hell no. Do you remember the dead guy in the robbery? Do you think he cares if Bloom was a former agent?

As if to appease my irritation, Don mentions Robin (SQUEE!) when he tells Colby to go get a warrant for seaching Bloom's house.

Back in the, what the heck do we call, it, the meeting room, Charlie refuses to plug in Bloom's name as a part of the algorithm as it would add "unnecessary bias." Hey, did you feel that? I felt whacked over the head with the dead, stinky trout of symbolism there.
Fine, I get the point, not like I didn't already pick it up, but I really don't like Bloom and actually spend most of the eppesode wishing he was guilty.

In interrogation, Bloom refuses to play along with the FBI interrogation handbook -- mainly because he wrote it thus knows all the tricks inside out and backward.

Don reminds Bloom that the 10 million that he stole, although returned, means Bloom may be in need of more cash. Plus, Bloom has totally talked himself into believing that he was the true victim because he was avenging his sister -- even comparing to to what Don would do for Charlie.

Oh please, can this end now?

Apparently, it can't since Bloom implies there's a whole other explanation but won't share it because he's wearing his petty pants and asshole tie.

Agent NPAC^TM's: Intermixed with the interrogation, Nikki and Colby are stuck investigating Bloom's abode. Nikki is open about how she's feeling. She calls Colby out for hiding evidence or tipping off Bloom, before he does it, to make sure it doesn't happen. Considering how he's behaving, it's a fair call.

In yet another distraction attempt, to turn my attention away from Colby's moronic attitude, we get some backstory. Colby's dad died when he was 15. (It's one of the reasons the wooly bugger is so important to him.) There's some hint that Colby's dad drove off the cliff, during a fishing trip, after he was let go from his job at the tractor factory for one mistake. Please note that Colby doesn't tell us what the mistake is but I'm going to bet it wasn't as serious as stealing 10 million dollars.
Thus, there's the implication that one genuine mistake, versus the intentional theft of 10 million dollars (no matter what the motive) is comparable in Colby's suddenly reduced mind.

What Nikki finds is far more incriminating. They are plans to a bank, and a file on an unsolved bank robbery from 1998. I don't care if it is painfully obvious that Bloom is a red herring, in real life, he would be the guilty party and a pretty piss-poor criminal at that.

IHOF: The Fedcakes have to let Bloom go, but know they've gotten one over on the ex-agent because there's no way he'll know that Nikki and Colby were at his house. That is, unless they have the conversation less than 10 feet from where Bloom is standing. Geez, Don, did you take something Colby gave you?
La Maison d'Eppes: My, Amita certainly is extra perky this week, isn't she? In an effort to try and get Charlie to write the letter, she'd ought him a pen for a present, presented him with a writing tablet, and enlisted the support of Alan.
All of this is done with a big goofy grin on her face. It's really sweet how excited she is to see Charlie try and predict the great things he's going to accomplish. For Charlie, he looks like he'd rather sit through a lecture on Canadian literature. To put that into perspective. I am Canadian, studied English Lit, and even I don't want to sit through one of those, ever again. Damned heron representing a fetus pretentious drivel.

Charlie doesn't know what the future is going to have in store for him, because the whole Don getting stabbed thing threw his world off-kilter. To try and get him to focus, both Amita and Alan make suggestions -- the desires for the future and the cognitive emergence work, respectively -- but to no avail.

Southern Coast Savings & Loan: The Fedcakes are on a stakeout, watching the bank they think is going to be robbed next. They spot Bloom pulling up but he doesn't go in to rob the bank. Nope, instead another car, full of buys in masks, does it for him. I guess they didn't read the coincidentally appropriate sign.
Bloom, single-handedly, tries to stop the robbery by arresting the criminals. Well, it's one old guy against a bunch of young men, so, inevitably, all hell breaks loose.

Now, in the instacap, I theorized that director Stephen Gyllenhaal loves his shootouts and was promptly corrected. Thus, let me rephrase that: Stephen Gyllenhaal is one awesome shootout director. Does everyone remember his very first eppesode of Numb3rs, "Guns and Roses?" Not only is it made of awesome because it is the eppesode where my OTP first get together, but also, it's the best shootout I've ever seen on TV.

Now, this shootout is not as awesome, because, I don't think it's possible. Although, watching the cars get shot up, is rather cool.

As with all shootouts, it's impossible to describe, other than quick, loud, and people thowing themselves about willy-nilly. I know that doesn't sound cool, but if you can't watch the shootout in "Guns and Roses," then watch this one if you're studying how to make shootouts look dangerous, yet not have to resort to gratuitous blood-gushing.

Well, there wouldn't be gratuitous blood-gushing anyway because, as we all know, thanks to the magic of television, none of our heroes were hit. Bloom wasn't hit either. While I'm thinking this is a seriously missed opportunity, Don's wondering why Nikki and Colby haven't put Bloom in cuffs. Thus, thr truth comes out: Bloom has been working this case for months. He figured out about the crew copycatting perfect crimes and has been trying to win his way back into the Feds' favour by solving it. Personally, I think he's worked his was into something else.
Don's taking it one step further and calling Bloom an accessory. It's a valid point, since Bloom did have prior knowledge and put a whole shitload of people in danger by playing the lone wolf thing. I completely agree with I'm-pulling-down-my-sunglasses-to-show-how-serious-I-am Don, but Colby, who clearly left his brain on his beside table for this eppesode, steps in. What subordinate steps in an undermines the authority of his boss, when said boss is arresting someone for a crime that person actually committed?
Now would be a good time to STFU, Colby.

Hell, even Liz looks as pissed off as I've ever seen her. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen Liz look fairly annoyed, never mind pissed off and usually that involved Don subconsciously realizing that he really belonged with Robin.
Charlie, who heard about the shootout over his trusty scanner, tries to bring everyone back to an intellectual, as opposed to emotional, viewpoint. Since the robbers weren't getting the details of the crimes from Bloom, they have to have found them elsewhere and, as Liz puts it, there isn't a newsletter or social club for bank robbers.

My BFFedcake corrects Liz. There is a social club for bank robbers.
The problem is, because none of the crimes were ever solved, Charlie doesn't have enough data to run an analysis that might figure out where the new guys met the old guys. While he doesn't have enough data for the analysis, he does have enough data on decorator crabs -- his analogy for the dilemma the Fedcakes find themselves in. While it doesn't help move along the case, it does tickle my 12 year-old sense of humour.
Outside IHOF: Colby's rushing out to catch Bloom, who has been let go, again, making me think the ex-agent is Teflon personified. He stole 10 million dollars. He knew about the robberies and said dick all to the authorities. He opened fire in a crowd when it was a bunch of people against one. What the hell does the man have to do to stay in custody? More importantly, I'm not left with a crime I could joke about him committing that would keep him locked up without appearing to be a horribly crass person. Keep all comments to yourself.

This is about the time I started wanting to beat my head into the nearest wall. Colby compares what Bloom's going through to Colby's own time as a spy (not Theoriginalspy). With that, Colby wins and EPIC FAIL at comparable situations, the least of which is a distinct lack of torture from Batman on Bloom's part.

Bloom uses the whole "It's the last thing you did, they remember" justification for his anger as if the whole stealing 10 million dollars is the equivalent of being caught stealing office supplies. Plus, wouldn't alerting the Feds, or Fedcakes, to the whole copycat bank robberies help restore one's name as much as shooting at baddies in a crowd?
Colby makes the connection between the redemption and the bank crew, while Bloom asks to be kept in the loop. Finally, Colby gives us a glimpse of the intelligent Colby I've had to adjust to over the last two seasons. He tells Bloom that it's only the desire to avoid bad press that's kept the former agent out of jail. Now all Bloom can do is go home and dig up shit in his own front yard, instead of digging it up in the IHOF.

Bloom tries a different tactic, claiming that he accepts responsibility for what happened in "Jack of All Trades." Um, Bloom, you can't accept responsibility and blame everyone for what happened to you. Colby, don't fall for this new tactic!

Math Garage: Amita is unarmed.
What she means is that she doesn't have a pen, a paper, or that necessary tool for Charlie when it comes to writing, a dictionary. That's all right, because Charlie has them.
In what has to be the worst tease of a scene ever, Charlie starts in on a big speech about the plans for his life, destiny and --
How many of you thought he was working up to a proposal there? I can't have been the only one. I have to admit, I was surprised to find myself all excited and anticipatory of Amita's answer, and my shock at finding myself that invested in Charmita was only surpassed by my shock that the whole speil was winding up to the mathematical equivalent of "How much do you love me?"

Charlie, check your ego, I'm not even on the other end of what sounded like the run up to a proposal and I'm offended on behalf of Amita.

Oh speaking of Amita, she takes it far better than I would've and is comforting to Charlie, telling him he deserves to inhabit the Hobbit Hole. That's not what I would've said.
Charlie heads inside to the main house, only to be met by Colby, and Bloom.
Bloom offers his help on the case, providing unofficial suspects and such, and Charlie is appropriately skeptical. It nicely balances off Colby's ridiculous daddy issues and delusions of grandeur, since Guildenstern thinks that he can work on Don to accept Bloom.

Alley: Artemas and Athena are sent to investigate a body with the LAPD. Artemas identifies the corpse as the man she shot in the attempted robbery, and while it's bad the guy is dead, it's good that the robbers are down one man.

Math Garage: Bloom is offering information that doesn't, logically, make any sense, so Charlie tries to offer an analogy to explain things.

Except, the Charlie-vision doesn't happen because Bloom cuts him off. All right Bloom, I thought we were through earlier, but you just cut off an analogy by my adorkable professor.
Alan cuts things off, getting the pair to focus back on the problem at hand, and not the fact Bloom is NPAC^TM. Thus, they figure that the crew is looking to completely only one, last, big job.

Don's arrival fills me with glee (the emotion, not the geektastic show) because I think he's finally going to put me out of my misery and beat Bloom senseless. Usually, I'm anti-violence, but I'll make and exception for Bloom.

Unfortunately, my hopes are dashed. Somehow, Colby convinced Don that working with Bloom is a good thing. I guess he saved up what little intelligence he had for this eppesode and used it offscreen to convince Don.

Personally, I wouldn't trust anything Bloom said. What if he left something out just so that he could run off and play hero again? What if he played hero to the detriment of the Fedcakes safety, or dignity? I wouldn't put it past the man to do any or all of the above.

Back to the case, Charlie, with Bloom's help (it hurt me to type that) has figured out where the robbers all met one another, or, which prison they all met in. This fits in with the information Don brings, as the dead guy, Billy, has a brother, Teddy, who spent time in that particular prison.

Teddy's: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, along with Artemas and Athena, try to arrest Teddy. They don't find Teddy, but do find recon from the last few bank jobs. Personally, I think it's just an excuse to have lots of shots of Fedcakes in Kevlar.
Math Garage: The results of all the analysis come up with the 1981 robbery of the Federal Reserve. It's not only a big payday, but also a big body count, as 11 people died in that robbery.

IHOF: Bloom and Charlie brief the Fedcakes on the details of the robbery in question. It requires four men, amgnesium burn bars, and poison gas from the Vietnam era. Since the Vietnam gas is either too old to be effective, or impossible to get, and bank security has increased since 1981, the robbers have to be more creative. The answer is get a laser cutter and haldite gas. Now, I tried googling haldite nerve gas, and either it doesn't exist, or I just wound up on someone's watchlist somewhere.

Apparently, this potentially fictional nerve gas was stolen from a facility in Seal Beach with crappy security, since some was stolen from there.

The security guard suspected on being in on the haldite rtheft is brought to the IHOF for questioning. He's really just one of those characters meant to move the plot along and once Liz plays Clue with the guard (Teddy, with the haldite, in the federal reserve), the guard folds.

LA Streets: Nice taking advantage of the downturn in the economy! The robbers are hiding out in a closed store, where the Fedcake have to somehow clear everyone out of the area without getting noticed.

David is quickly noticed by one of the robbers and all hell breaks loose. Cue the second, and equally as cool (if shorter) as the first, shootout. All the Fedcakes rush into action, leaving Bloom in the van. If there's one thing I've learned from network television, anyone that is left in the car/van/vehicle of some sort, will, invariably, get out and get involved.
One of the robbers is shot and another surrenders, but Teddy, complete with the nerve gas, which is contained in the fire extinguisher of DOOOOOM, escapes through a duct.

Bloom spots Teddy exiting via the front and calls it in, saying that "he's getting away." Let me take a closer look at that situation.
In what has to be the most frustrating moment in the eppesode, we have the classic cliche. You know, the woman with the baby who somehow manages to go unnoticed by all the members of law emforcement, only to be grabbed as a hostage by the baddie at the last minute.

*headdesk*

I'm to the point that every time I see that cliche on TV, I hope that the woman bites it. Who walks her baby carriage by a bunch of armed men and doesn't once think that isn't such a good idea?

Teddy threatens the woman, the baby and the Fedcakes with the fire extinguisher of DOOOOOM.
Watching this scene frame by frame, because I was hoping to get a shot of the empty baby carriage (in these scene, the carriage is usually empty, if one looks closely enough) but caught something hilariously different. It's called corpsing. Can you guess which character broke face and is smiling? And no, I won't hear any debates that it isn't a classic case of corpsing, because, the smirk, the crinkle around the eyes, and all the other obvious signs of corpsing are present.

So, can you guess?

Made your mental selection?

Are you sure?

Well, then, here we go!
Bloom does something a little bit different, instead of getting out of the van, he uses it to drive into the middle of the standoff, getting out only once he's behind the suspect, quickly disarming Teddy of fire extinguisher of DOOOOOM.
After everyone's safely stowed away, Don teases Bloom by reminding the former agent of how that stunt could've gone all wrong. "A thousand ways," Don says. "Lucky," is how he describes it. You know, I'd like Charlie to do the math on how many ways the Fedcakes could've got dead there, and I want that math shoved somewhere that involves Bloom that I have too much dignity to talk about.

Colby behaves a bit like a fanboy, all happy that people will be "talking about that one for a long time." Oh, Colby, you could've picked someone better to fanboy, you know!

Of course, bloom can't be the first official NPAC^TM without producing the NPAL^TM. Instead of saying something like, "Thank you, Colby, for letting me get back a little of my dignity," Bloom goes with what might be the winner for NPAL^TM of the year. "I gave the bereau my whole life. Never got married, none of that stuff. But man, if I had a son -- thank you very much."

I think I'm supposed to feel a little sappy here. Perhaps, I'm supposed to be a little teary. Let me take a moment to gauge my actual reaction.
Nikki even gets in on the action here (not like that), by inviting Bloom out for pizza, like he's still an agent, not the man could've avoided his predicament by not stealing 10 million dollars.

Recapper's Note: Now that we're done with Bloom, let me clarify, that my loathing of Bloom has nothing to do with Henry Winkler. No one can make a self-pitying asshole likeable, not even the Fonz.

Cal Sci: Charlie is still listening to his scanner and unable to write the letter. If that isn't symbolic of his predicament since Don was stabbed, I don't know what is.

Don comes in and admires the now clean Hobbit Hole. Wow, Sharon and Amita were busy little bees, weren't they? Unfortunately, they took away all of the good places for fangirls to hide.
Finally, Charlie confesses his real problem. He can no longer balance academia with Fedcake work. Really, it's just the after effect of Don's injuries, but Charlie isn't far enough away from the situation to get that without being the academic that he is, he would not be able to help the Fedcakes the way he has.

Don tries to tell him that the constant worrying about juggling is how to burn out and that Charlie should do what he wants "on any given day." His little brother should, "live a little." For some reason, I had this image of Don breaking out into song, sort of the "no day but today" idea.

Since I had that image in my head, I had to share that. Judge me as you wish.

Anyway, Don's given good advice, sans the singing, but Amita interrupts before everything is truly resolved between the brothers Eppes. I also have a weird alternate version in my head of why Don says "congratulations," to Amita on the way out the door.

They're now standing outside, in what should be the safest place in the world for them, the Cal Sci commons and for some weird, twisted reason, Amita wants to take Charlie out to dinner, to apologize. Um, Amita, you fixed up the office, and he was a big tease. I would like to point out that you not immediately assuring Charlie that you'd love him no matter what destiny he fulfilled is a lot like Cordelia apologizing for giving an honest answer to her father. She said what was truthful.

When Amita starts going on about "I'll love you, no matter what," and gets all teary-eyed, I'm thinking she's going to turn the tables and propose. I would just like to say, for the record, that I would be completely, and absolutely cool with that.
I have to admit, the first time I saw this eppesode, I jumped when Charlie got whacked over the head. There was no hint that danger was coming. No suddenly quietening of the music. No suddenly surprised look on anyone's face. None of the traditional warning that all hell was about to break loose. Hell, I didn't even have enough time to process what was going on.

One second, Charmita is sharing a sweet, romantic moment, The next, Charlie's on the ground, and Amita's being dragged into a SUV, screaming. I didn't even have enough time for the snarky part of my brain to amuse itself by thinking of the potential damage to Charlie's hair! (That was about half an hour later, when I recovered from the shock.)
I could only take comfort in one thing. Even though I don't get previews because Global (which airs it in Canada) thinks it's too good for previews, I already knew who was guest starring in the next eppesode.

Yes, it was only the sounds of the chariot of enigmatic coolness, arriving, that prevented me from having a heart attack.

Poll the Third Results

In the very serious, and pressing matter (pun not intended) of who wears a 3-piece suit better, Ianto Jones or Patrick Jane, it was a very heated battle. For the longest time, Patrick Jane was far in the lead, but the lovers of my fictional Welsh boyfriend would not let that stand!

Thus, the results are as follows:

51% of people think Ianto Jones rocks the suit with waistcoat better that Patrick Jane.
49% of voters think Patrick Jane, and his crumpled 3-piece suit are far better than Ianto Jones and his waistcoat.

Considering the 2 vote differential, I think we can safely say this isn't the final word on the matter.

I may report this poll in July, when the Ianto Jones fans get more evidence.

Percolated Recap: Numb3rs: Disturbed (100th Eppesode!)

Somewhere under a pile of continuity, lies your intrepid recapper. She's dug. She's googled. She's rewatched some eppesodes several times. She's begged for assistance. Finally, she just said screw it, and went with plan B -- put down everything she knows and hopes it's a respectable performance. In fact, she's probably found references where there weren't intended to be references, just because, she though, with it being the 100th eppesode and all, there are probably 100 references even if she has to make them up.

She respectfully asks that you don't count the references. Just because she thinks there are 100 references doesn't mean she found 100 references.

Sure, we were all warned about the Easter eggs that we would have to hunt like children desperate for a sugar rush. Amongst those Easter eggs would not only be from the pilot and subsequent eppesodes, but also from the infamous unaired pilot. Hold on, what is that I smell? Is this a cruel trick? How are we supposed to know the Easter eggs that come from the original, unaired pilot? Wouldn't that mean we would've had to have seen said pilot? The pilot no one was ever supposed to see? Is CBS trying to find those fans who do have elicit copies on their computers? Do they want to find the copies that are now so degraded it makes the lighting in the past couple of seasons look good? Of course, I wouldn't know that. I just heard it from a friend of a friend of one of my ninjas. It's a shame I no longer remember who that was.

Therefore, I would like to officially state that if it was mentioned in the commentary for the pilot, or in one of the special features of the DVD for Season 1, I won't be mentioning it. You see, I'm a good and honourable person. STOP LAUGHING!

In 100 eppesodes, our little midseason replacement that could has come a long way. To show the advancements, let me use something we all know, as a symbol: the opening grid. Just look at the graphic differences between the pilot and now and, despite all the improvements to the art design but not the lighting, the horrific spelling mistake on the 100th eppesode opening grid.
Well, at least the spelling issue has remained consistent.

I looked for correlations between the two. I pulled out my trusty calculator to see if at least one of the numbers in each of the grids were related. Nope. I was highly disappointed. In fact, there's only two other things that disappointed me more, and they are as follows:

• Robin wasn't in this eppesode.
• I, DESPITE THE CONSTANT WHINING PLEADING, CAJOLING AND REMINDING, DID NOT RECEIVE AN EASTER EGG, WORLD PEACE, OR A PONY!

Why yes, one did upset me more than the other. How could you tell? I was trying to be subtle.

We actually begin this eppesode strangely stuck in suburbia. There's song which sounds a bit like an old Fifties tune, which is actually rather creepy. Don't believe me? Listen to it here.

In suburbia, with the green lawns, and fuzzy gels, we get an average family -- Mom, Dad and kid who plays soccer, going about their day. They live at either 4236, some street, or 634 some street. When Dad and the kid drive off, a delivery person knocks on the door, and, as we can safely assume by the rope he's carrying with him, kills her.

As he drives off, with the creepy song still playing, the mailman nods to him. It's such an obvious thing that I'm now just waiting for the mailman to become another victim.
Later, after the body has been found, the police are investigating, not the Fedcakes. Despite this, Charlie is sent the police report at the IHOF.
Charlie claims he's working on a "thought exercise" but anyone who has watched Charlie over the past five seasons knows that when he's really, really upset, he chooses impossible math problems like P vs. NP or stopping all the gang violence.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are clearly trying to talk Charlie down off the math ledge, because all of the crimes have different MOs, victim types, and well, some of it would just seem like random accidents. In other words, this time they aren't questioning the math, since Charlie claims there's a pattern, but they are, nicely questioning his mental stability.
Charlie doesn't exactly help himself when he justifies his findings using alien math. It doesn't matter how sound the theory is, once the search for intelligent life is involved, and you justify the sequence by the moon, there's no way not to convince people that this isn't the soundtrack to your life.

It's quite clear the Fedcakes have been plotting to try and snap Charlie out of crazyville. Outside the office where Charlie is working away on his lunar alien math, Artemas and Athena wait for a update from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. David gives us a recap of Charlie's behaviour during "Uncertainty Principle," comparing the last time Don was injured, with this time. Honestly, David's conclusions make way more sense.
Liz channels Megan, by profiling Charlie as suffering from PTSD and it manifesting as hyper vigilance. While we're all supposed to think Charlie is about to visit the men in white coats, we all know, this is Charlie and while we may doubt some things, we do not doubt his math.

La Maison d'Eppes: After the doubt he faced at the International House of Fedcakes, Charlie's gone home to get some support.
What he finds is Don, who is sleeping on the couch. You see, this is where I thought Robin would be rather handy. For someone recovering from being stabbed in the chest, you'd think a bed, preferably a bed occupied by someone willing to take care of you, would be the better option.

Don tries to talk some sense into Charlie and recommends the little brother move on from the stabbing. Charlie scoffs at the idea of Don being the one to advise moving on, considering Don's less than stellar record in that department. By less than stellar, I mean totally craptastic thus nothing is resolved between the brothers Eppes.
Alleyway: The next morning, we learn that although rain, nor sleet, nor hail, or whatever other precipitation is mentioned in that bloody saying, may not stop the mailman from completing his round, but a shot to the head will.

Title Flash.

Artemas has arrived at the scene of the body dump, because she not only knows the lead detective, but also Charlie's already there, and because Don is incapacitated, the rest of the Fedcakes are picking up the taking care of the little brother slack. It's actually kind of sweet, in a co-dependent way.

IHOF: "Well, the pattern isn't perfect. I mean, there are micro clusters that are, currently, anomalous." Wait, sorry, Charlie's talking about the murders, not the spacing of the Easter Eggs. The micro clusters don't negate the macro pattern. Since Charlie said the word macro, I felt obligated to do this.

In yet another reference to the pilot, David reminds Charlie that since they both started with the Fedcakes at the same time, David's learned to trust the math fu. The problem is, the higher ups may see Charlie's theory as more crazy than calculated. David simply can't justify giving Charlie the manpower. He can, on the other hand, provide him with more data (a frequent demand by Charlie throughout the series) to help Charlie act more like the Seti telescopes. Again, Charlie, no matter how smart you think the killer is, comparing yourself to the search for alien life is still not a great way to sound, you know, sane! Really, he sounds only moments away from well, making my artistic representation below, become reality.

The information David gives Charlie, says it all about his feelings about the math genius's ideas. David, the Sub-Chief Fedcake while the Chief Fedcake is shirtless recuperating, sends Charlie to the amateurs.

Roy McGill's Paranoid House of Paranoia: Roy McGill (I'm assuming a take off on Don McGill, one of TPTB that keep denying me my shout out) is thrilled to be meeting again with the one and only Charles Edward Emrick, I mean Eppes. Phew, thank heavens that changed from the original pilot! Imagine if I had to call eppesodes emricksodes. It would give a whole new meaning to emrick-rolled.

I digress, so back to the regularly scheduled recap. Roy calls his collection the "Truth Cave" and I call him a one man Lone Gunmen.
Looking around, it's pretty obvious that Charlie's realized exactly how far down the rabbit hole he must've gone in order for David to think that Roy, with his actual recording of a UFO's sounds, and random snack food that cannot go bad due to the fact it's all made from chemicals, was actually going to be of some use to him.

McGill is as excited about working with Charlie as Charlie would be if he could run out of the Truth Cave, right now. At the moment, McGill's biggest check mark on his resume is that he has the sixth most popular blog on serial killers. Hold on, he has the 6th most popular blog on serial killers and he gets Charlie Eppes on his doorstep. I've got to be in the top 15 of people who blog about Numb3rs, and I can't even get a bloody shout out in an eppesode filled with fan Easter eggs? How is that fair?

BTW, not getting my shout out has not broken me. It's just firmed up my resolve more. Before, I was the rock, blocking your way, and now, I'll be the hard place too!

Anyway, McGill has found two more murders that fit into Charlie's "Spatial-Tempura" thing. The look on Charlie's face as McGill mangles the mathematical terminology is bloody priceless. Now, bloody priceless is a phrase which here means, about to kill McGill.

Since some news clippings aren't exactly going to turn Charlie's data crank, McGill suggests a field trip to Serial Killer Data Central.

Serial Killer Data Central: This is one man by the name of Gene Evans. I was hoping that this guy might be some obscure reference, but if he is, I've failed to find any clue.

Gene's an amateur detective of the Jessica Fletcher variety. He helped sole four missing persons cases and one murder. Unlike Jessica Fletcher, who was never, ever intimidated when threatened, Gene is a pansy, and stopped all his investigations after he got a couple of crank phone calls. Okay, maybe not, but really, this scene is only to move the plot along and give Charlie a whole bunch of cases near Fresno and Bakersfield (which still aren't references unless I'm failing, epically), a connection between several of the cases and a constrictor know, and a name, Detective Brent Driscoll.
When it comes to the detective's name, I was damn sure that was an Easter Egg, but, yet again, I can't prove it.

Cal Sci: In Charlie's new Hobbit hole office, all of his new development on the cognitive emergence theory is still out, ready to be worked on at a moment's notice. Oh wait, that has nothing to do with Charlie finding a balance between his academic and Fedcake life.
Despite having two thirds of the math triad wondering if he's insane, Charlie insists that he's right, even though he can't explain the micro clusters. Thus, Larry (who thinks Charlie is acting like a previous version of himself -- you know the one that lived in the steam tunnels and didn't have a cell phone) lays an Easter egg suggests that Charlie remember that people are never as elegant as equations and therefore, his "approach must be less elegant, more complicated."
"Haven't we had this conversation before?" Charlie asks. Why yes, yes they have. Oh, I'm feeling nostalgic.

IHOF: Well hello there everyone's favourite techie, Matt Li. Just by seeing him, we have multiple references in one very useful person.

He's not there to judge Charlie. In fact, when has he ever been anything other than helpful? Well, the answer is never, as he references Kim Rossmo, who helped catch Robert Pickton. While I would usually be all patriotic over a Canadian reference in Numb3rs, this isn't exactly something any Canadian wants to be remembered about our country.

Oh, and how is this an Easter egg? You know what Rossmo's claim to fame is? He invented the whole hot zone concept Charlie used in the pilot. It's way more reliable math than buying a lottery ticket, you know.

La Maison d'Eppes: In what has to be the weirdest moment of this series, ever, I learn Charlie is psychic. Why do I say that? Charlie has a dream about Amita being attacked while all dressed up, looking like she's about to go out to dinner. The dream takes place right outside the house, leaving Charlie shaken.
Charlie awakens to a classic sibling line. "You're in my spot here." I'm a little surprised Don doesn't follow it up with something equally as big brother-esque.
I have to say, it's good of Charlie not to point out that he owns the house, considering how Don is feeling. He's been shot, beaten up, and played a whole tonne of sports, but the knife wound is the only thing that's laid him up for a long period of time. Because of this, Don no longer feels like the "job owns him."

Charlie's taken aback because all he can do now is work and heads back to the office. I'm taken aback because if Don Eppes doesn't live for work and Robin who the hell is he?
Cal Sci: Charlie's back in his Hobbit hole. By the way, I didn't plan on having that name stick, and now that's all I can think about his new, dark office. Thus, in an attempt to bring some light back into the dark space, we get a very interesting Easter egg. You know, in the commentary for the pilot, everyone agrees that this should've had a second guest starring appearance.
It's the oddest parallel, even if one doesn't include the prism, from the pilot eppesode, of the scene when Charlie worked out the first hot zone, five seasons ago. This scene is a collection of many references in one, complete with music.
Oh wait, I should've added something to that list: adorkable professor.

The Hobbit hole is even darker now, because Charlie has hung string and paper everywhere, making me think he's made some weird crazy version of a math mobile, or a quipu.
Suddenly, Charlie realizes Amita isn't dead, and greets her accordingly. Everywhere, Charmita fans sigh. Le sigh.

Serial Killer Data Central: 7am in the morning is an ungodly hour, McGill and I are in total agreement on that. Unfortunately, Charlie and McGill haven't learned the whole open doors are always ominous rule that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern now have down cold. Despite all the obvious signs that something is amiss, Charlie and McGill still keep wandering around the house, until they finally decide to check the garage, only to find yet another Easter egg, but this one, though wrapped in plastic, does not have a chocolate inside.
IHOF: Charlie's confused because the Evans only fit the micro pattern. I'm sure they care, Charlie.

There is a witness and the Fedcakes will definitely be participating in the investigation, but David is cautious. He doesn't want to jump in, arms flailing yelling "serial killer! Serial killer!" just yet. In defense of my BFFedcake, it is only his second week in command. He doesn't want to screw things up. Also, considering this show's penchant for injuring David, there's probably a bit of self preservation in it too.
Due the obligatory relative interview! Just like many of the obligatory relative interviews, he sends Artemas and Athena off to interview a red herring, Mark Horn. In his life as an accountant, Gene made a mistake on Horn's taxes, which resulted in some pretty nasty consequences. Okay, accounting errors are one thing, but I would like to point out the obvious. This is a man who would help catch bad people for a living. Usually, bad people will do bad things in order not to get caught.

Witness: There was one witness who may have seen someone around the Evans' property. It's a Robert Posdner and he tentatively identifies the red herring, only to then freak out that he might be a target. I have to say, I totally missed what that meant the first time around.
The man identified the red herring! How could I not have figured it out here? *hangs head in shame*

Cal Sci: McGill walks in on Larry trying to help Charlie unpack. When McGill challenges Larry's right to be there, Larry says he's the "holder of the Walter T. Merrick Chair in theoretical physics."

McGill wants proof, and frankly, so do I.
Clearly, McGill does not need as much of an explanation as I do, since all it takes to distract him is Larry saying he's looking for a Green Lantern book in the midst of Charlie's stuff. Geeks unite. It's an appropriate superhero to reference, since the Green LAntern's all about catching criminals, no matter what. It's not like Wolverine, who just looks really, really, really hot when he's running about in leather.

*Hugh Jackman daydreams.*

Sorry, a bit distracted. By the way, that apology is about getting distracted, not the topic that distracted me.

McGill and Larry also bond because they're both conspiracy nuts. Although, Larry dropped the nut part a while ago.
Just in case anyone interested, McGill also keeps a bigfoot website. Since I'm not particularly fascinated with this conspiracy nut (he does not get to drop the nut), I'm relieved when Charlie arrives and the discussion moves back onto the case.

McGill's found another victim, but this time, he thinks it's "Victim Zero." I got all excited for a second there, thinking that was an Easter egg, and was disappointed when I find out that the reference I thought it was referring too was actually patient zero. Damn.

Victim Zero is Nancy Kershaw, a high school student from the Easter Egg town of Stockton, where, if we all remember, Don once played for the Rangers. Not that any of us would forget the mental image of Don, in a baseball uniform, running around. You're welcome for a reminder of that image, by the way.
Just before McGill explains his reasoning, he says something the Fandom's been saying for 99 eppesodes, "I love your hair, by the way."
McGill's reasoning, if not his sanity, is sound. Nancy Kershaw, Victim Zero, was bound with the same knot Gene identified earlier. Since most serial killers start close to home, the first victim is important. Plus, someone also called up Victim Zero's boyfriend and threatened him. What's that I smell in the air? Could it be, a witness?

IHOF: Artemas and Athena are still working other avenues of the investigation, specifically, the red herring. He still looks good, but that's only because there's still a good half an hour left in this eppesode.

Park: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are send to arrest Red Herring because he's being creepy hanging around a park.

IHOF: Back to Artemas and Athena, and I'm starting to think that TPTB insisted everyone be given fair time in this eppesode, otherwise, why would the women look up the information and interview the suspect, yet the men be the ones to arrest him?
Yes, Mark Horn is not the type of person I'd invite over for dinner, but he has a valid reason not to want Gene dead. Without Gene, who is going to tell the IRS about the mistake on the taxes? It's good to know that people who are under the misconception that everything is a fight can at least be logical about who they need on their team.

La Maison d'Eppes: Amita's taken the bull by the horns to try and snap Charlie out of his obsession. She's gone over all his data, looking for flaws, and can only find Charlie's conclusions to be valid.
IHOF: The Fedcakes may be focussing in on Horn, but what they need is a little push in the right direction. Little push, a phrase which here means the return of the Chief Fedcake reminding everyone that this show is about how brilliant Charlie's math is.
Once the Fedcakes are all on board, the micro clusters suddenly make perfect sense. The killer went after the postman because the postman saw the killer. When Gene Evans announced he was starting up his investigations again, the killer got rid of someone who had already made several connections to the case. Thus, the micro clusters show all the times the killer accidentally exposed himself. *Not like that.*
Don, as he's always done with Charlie's math, well, except for rare occasions, including the original pilot when Don was really sort of a douche bag, takes responsibility and trusts in Charlie's math and the team gets to work.

Since the killer is one scary bastard, he likes to spook his victims, by letting them catch glimspes of him, knowing full well the police don't take prowler report seriously (as purported by Nikki, and, she would know). Now they've got to start scouring through reports in specific geographic areas that allow for the killer to slip in and out, unnoticed. Now all the Fedcakes have to do is find a couple, in their mid-thirties, who has reported a prowler and fits the geographic profile.

I know LA is often portrayed on TV as the crime capital of the freaking planet, but really, I can't imagine the number of people who fit that very specific profile could be that many.

Cal Sci: It's the outside cafe we've seen before where Larry and McGill gang up on Charlie because Charlie won't include victim 0 in his pattern. It's quite annoying when the pair of them don't use the most obvious reason: a pattern needs to start somewhere and the start isn't always as neat and clear as it will be later on. At least, that's how it is for knitting patterns. It's not like, even after 100 eppesodes, I know anything at all about math.

Larry uses the light from the stars as an example, and honestly, I don't know where exactly he was going with that. It doesn't help that McGill distracts me twice. Once, he does so by talking about alien sightings and the second time, I'm too distracted by what he's reading.

Okay, now that the props guys have failed me like TPTB have with my shout out, I'll get back to Larry's point. If victim 0 really is victim 0, it'll reveal things about the killer that the killer has subsequently tried to keep hidden.

Also, as McGill points out, it means that victim 0's boyfriend heard the voice of the killer.

Thus, Charlie heads back to the Fedcakes to have them look into nancy Kershaw's death. McGill is so grateful that Larry got Charlie to finally agree to it, McGill says in gratitude, "Thank you, astrology dude." Larry does correct him far more nicely than I would have.
IHOF: Detective Driscoll, the Easter egg that wasn't, is dead! He drowned in a pool (drowned, a term which here means, the killer got him dun dun dun). Athena's going to go collect the files tomorrow.

La Maison d'Eppes: Hello solarium! We've missed you. Also, hello House War, I've missed you since seasons 2 and 3.

The brief skirmish in a war settled a couple of years ago is over hedges and landscaping. Charlie, rightfully, points out that he owns the house and has done so since "Prime Suspect," which has nothing to do with Helen Mirren.

Don's siding with Alan to make sure the House War tensions end before they really begin.

Someone needs to explain to Alan the concept of an Easter egg, since he points out that the case from the pilot was solved in the solarium. Hello, Alan, it's not an Easter egg if it's explicitly explained to the audience.

Alan reminisces about how, before the start of the pilot, he was afraid, if character who don't exist yet, or are sort of asshole-y in their Boston versions, can be afraid, that the brothers Eppes about have nothing in common, other than one living parent. Oh please, Alan, they have plenty of things in common! Let me explain them to you.
See? You add that to Charlie's lifelong need to impress Don, and trust me, they were always going to find a way to be in each other's lives.

Now, since Alan pointed out that the case was solved in the solarium, and it wasn't, does that ruin the reference? Is it like Schrodinger's cat, after the box is opened?
BTW Alan, I'm so better at hiding Easter Eggs that you are!

IHOF: The talk last night reminded Charlie of all the Hot Zone math from the first eppesode. Hopefully, without the bumper sticker or moving this time. While David may know what Charlie is talking about, Nikki's completely confounded. Ready to revisit the sprinkler Charlie-vision from the first eppesode, David interrupts, insisting that my BFFedcake has picked up a thing or two about math.

In an amzing feat, never before, or probably ever repeated, on television, David manages, with a better graphics team, and only slightly different wording, to give us the sprinkler analogy.
Why is this such an amazing feat? Why would I be so impressed by someone who impresses me weekly? Well, David wasn't present for the original sprinkler analogy. Nope, that was given to Don in La Maison d'Eppes at a point in David's career where his boss was completely suspicious of him. HOW THE HELL DID DAVID KNOW THAT?

Oh yes, and I have a question about the equations involved. See if you can answer it.
Thanks to the equation, Charlie's identified 30 potential targets, while Nikki, like myself, is still confused as to how David knows and understands what's going on.

She's also confused about how 23% is the highest chance for anyone one of the victims to be attacked. According to Charlie, without the use of graphics, 23% in statistic land means "get your ass in gear."

Stakeout: I'm going to cover them as two separate incidents, even though the director made them look like they were one and the same.

The first incident has a few cool Easter eggs in it. For some reason, Athena and Guildenstern are watching the first house, where they pass the time talking about cop movies. One they mention
is Sea of Love, which Liz is a fan of because she's a big Michael Rooker fan. Now, am I supposed to know Michael Rooker's name in the original pilot was just Mike, aka Don's partner. I'll assume someone mentioned that, somewhere.

Anyway, Colby says Michael Rooker always plays the killer, but Liz, being the fan that she is, knows that in The Replacement Killers, which was written by one of the people consistently denying my shout out, world peace and pony, Mr. Ken Sanzel. All I can say is thank heavens not every scene is chock full of referenes like this one. I'd be typing this recap up until the start of next season and it would be 161803 pages long.

Now, I would've included a screencap of Liz and Colby having this conversation, but, while I could see them, slightly, on my HDTV, I can barely make them out in anything smaller than 32 inches. Geez people, trying hiring a lighting guy. I hear Colin J. Campbell is available.

The conversation is interruped when they see a prowler roaming the grounds but they spring into action, saving Michelle Feynman, and yes, that is his kid. A character and reference in one? Well done, Numb3rs!
Oh, wait, it turns out Michelle Feynman was never really in danger as it was Leonard, her daughter's friend, who apparently shows his friendship by TPing trees. This is good as considering what the fandom owes Feynman (since David Krumholtz listened to his lectures in preparation), having his daughter kept safe, even in fiction, is the least that could be done.

At the other house, two people are falling asleep on the couch, seconds before someone imitating a horror movie goes to stab them with a knife.
Before the killer can do anything, David takes a shot at him through the window. I'm a little disappointed that my BFFedcake is suddenly inflicted with TV aim -- which is missing despite having a clear, close shot, but it does result in a night chase over a bunch of fences. I'm pretty sure we've seen that before. Why do they always run?

Nikki and David lose the killer in the underbrush and when David asks Nikki if she can spot the suspect, I'm irritated as I can barely see them. Hello? Lights?

La Maison d'Eppes: David calls Don to fill him in on who the killer pulled a Keyser Soze but that makes Charlie worry about something else. What if the killer decides he's too exposed in LA, and packs up his crazy kit and moves elsewhere.

Cal Sci: The Math Triad show the hot zone to David in the Hobbit Hole. Now all they've got to do is narrow down the list of suspects within the hot zone. Again, they did this already, five years ago.

IHOF: The detective who wasn't an Easter egg which could've been so easily done. Detective Pickering anyone? still has some useful files. In those files is one Wayne Potvin, who looks suspiciously like Robert Posdner.

"Even I have to ask," Charlie says, "what are the odds?" Um, if Charlie asks, they're so infintesimal that calculations might even fail the adorkable professor.
Robert Posdner has two wother names: Thomas Park, David Palmer. This is an extremely frustrating moment for me, because if these names are Easter eggs, I sure as hell couldn't find them. A fictional president of the United States, that I found, but a relation to Numb3rs, not so much. How hard would a name like Roland Holdane been so difficult?
Right now, all they've got is a man who has several fake identites. That's not enough to make a case, and I don't need Robin, as much as I would love to have her in this eppesode, to tell me so.

Surveillance: Considering how long Robmas Potmer has managed to stay undetected, it's not surprising that he picks up on the Fed (not Fedcake) surveillance. Some unnamed Feds don't know the meaning of the word subtle, since they're spotted on the first pass by, when Liz manages to stay safely concealed. She might want to give them some advice.
Cal Sci: Charlie and Larry have another conversation we've heard before. Charlie can't get his mind off the Fedcakes, whereas Larry wants him to focus on his other work, like cognitive emergence. I think everyone spotted that Easter egg, so that one was the gimme for all.

McGill, who, honestly, I wasn't missing, comes running all the way from the parking lot, and looks like he's about to keel over from a heart attack. From what we saw, food wise, if one can call it food, it's suprising he isn't dead.

One of the suspects in Nancy Kershaw's murder was a Thomas Park, and ding, ding, ding, not only is McGill right about victim 0 but also, he has goosebumps.
IHOF: Now that they have Robmas Potmer's original name, they can learn all sorts of things about the killer. It'll also bring the team closer together, having cracked a nearly impossible case.
Nikki brings the news that Nancy's boyfriend, Steve, was targeted becasue he chased the killer right after the murder. Once his break lines were cut and he received the threatening phone call, he moved out of state. That's the same thing McGill might want to think about doing, considering he called Steve and had him fly in by letting the poor man assume McGill was a Fedcake.
In a strange, and superfluous twist, Amita spends a lot of time taking Robmas Potmer's voice and trying to turn it back into a teenager's, only to have the poor, long-suffering Steve, not even need it. It's been so ingrained into his memory, and his existence, he could never forget it. Sure, the filtering is a cool concept, but couldn't it have been used in another eppesode when its coolness could be fully appreciated?

Robmas Potmer's: Okay, this guy is the mayor of Creepyville in Creeptonia, because he's totally calm when surrounded by Fedcakes in Kevlar.
Okay, we all know I'd be really, really happy to see them, regardless.

He tells his wife that it's time to pick up the kids. This guy spawned? I was so hoping those kids we saw earlier were step-children.

IHOF/ Potmer's: We get a couple of scenes intermixed here.
The first, is clearly just after the arrest, where the Fedcakes head down to Robmas Potmer's workshop and find small trophies, pictures of crime scene, weapons, and victim 0's bracelet. About the only thing they didn't find were black truffles.

The other scene is the interrogation at the IHOF. Robmas Potmer is serene as he explains how one has to careful, and plan, and hwo proud he is no one suspected him. Um, can one be crazy and zen at the same time?

Later, as the Fedcakes pack up the case, unable to comprehend the killer and Charlie says the healthiest thing he's said all eppesode, "You really weren't expecting a rational explanation, were you?"
Since there isn't a rational explanation for Robmas Potvin, all they can do and be happy that Charlie reacts in obsessively mathematic ways whenever Don gets hurt. If Don is ever killed in the line of duty, I'm thinking the work Charlie would produce would force the invention of a math Nobel.

Let me clarify that. In no way am I wanting something to happen to Don. I'm just tossing out some conjecture over something that will never, ever happen. Please don't innundate my mailbox with hate mail. Conjecture does not equal a wish. Why would I want anything to happen to my OTP?

As Charlie puts it, "Some people drink. Some people gamble. I analyze data." Well, at least he's not going back to unsolvable math problems as coping strategies.

La Maison d'Eppes: We finish the way the pilot should have finished, with a family moment. It's an extended family moment, as both Amita and Larry are there. And yes, I did think that all we needed is Robin to round out the picture.

All the talk is about moving forward. Charlie will unpack his office (and find Larry's Green Lantern book) and Don, due to the miracle of television healing, has recovered enough to go back to work.

The eppesode ends with something that makes a great analogy to remember, but is also a good idea to remember in real life -- the sprinklers. Everyone makes a mad dash inside and one fandom dream is fulfilled.
Now we just have to work on another dream: how about another 100 eppesodes a shout out, world peace, and a pony.

Recapper's Note: The way I see it, we need a battle of the ultimate cool between the Fonz and Edgerton. Who am I fooling? Sorry, but the Fonz will be crushed just by the chariot of enigmatic coolness. On the other hand, what I am trying to get at is that the final two eppesodes of the season will be posted back-to-back, next week. Because of that, there will not be an instacap for the finale so stay tuned for the final percolated recaps for season 5!

Recapper's Challenge: So, how did I do at finding the Easter eggs (with a little help from my awesome friends)? Also, how did you do at finding my Easter eggs? Have fun!