Percolated Recap: Numb3rs: Ultimatum (Eppesode 608)

Recapper's Repetitive Reminder: Have you sent your letter to CBS? Did you go on IMDb and look, or even add to, the Numb3rs page, to have its star meter rating go up? (According to inside sources, CBS actually pays attention to that.) Finally, have you signed the petition? I do believe that there may be a consensus coming shortly as to what else we can do -- and I'll post about it as soon as it's settled. (Please note that I have nothing to do with said consensus; I'll just be posting it.)

Before I begin, let me shamelessly gush (me, shameless, no!). I love Edgerton. By far, he is my favourite male guest star on the series. (Not that my favourite female guest star is that much of a mystery.) thus, when I finally saw the preview for this eppesode (because Global TV hates me), I was not amused. I was trying to come up with a way to describe my trepidation as to what was about to occur, but them, I remembered, that something like this has been done to us before.

This gave me an idea. I wonder just how many parallels there are between this eppesode and the whole Colby's a spy (not Theoriginalspy) storyline? Let's find out, shall we?

Of course, there are a few different elements between the stories. First and foremost, I never thought Edgerton was a moron of the highest degree. For two seasons, I thought Colby was strictly eye-candy because he didn't have a damn thing between his ears. Also, Edgerton doesn't lie to the Fedcakes, well, continuously lie to the Fedcakes for two seasons. Finally, Edgerton doesn't spend any time running around in tight clothing, which I can attest, having actually watched I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, because LDP was in it, is a damn shame.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who thought so, as this season's clearly sensitive grid, went out and got a bit tipsy in despair of the opportunities lost.
IHOF/Street: We get a mix of Charlie and Don teaching a class of feds (not Fedcakes) all about pursuit evasion and how best to catch someone. Hmm, I wonder why Edgerton isn't teaching this class? What about Billy Cooper? Now that I'm on the subject, wouldn't a class taught by Don, Edgerton, and Billy Cooper on how to pursue a fugitive be the best class ever? It wouldn't have to be mandatory for almost all the female (and some of the male) agents. People would be crawling over themselves to attend.
Anyway, apparently, it's all about -- hey, look, there's one Fedcake, Nikki -- behaving like fish, snakes, eagles. If one doesn't pay attention to the other, or gets too focused in the hunt, the snake might become lunch. Now, as I recall the whole pursuit thing, it was a dog chasing a cat chasing a mouse, which is an analogy I prefer. Why? It took me a long time to figure out the way to describe the analogy of the snake, without making it sound dirty. Okay, so perhaps not everyone has the sense of humour of a 12 year-old but you try finding a way to describe a snake and fish without snickering, a little!

Essentially, the whole class is about knowing who it is that you're chasing, so you can control the game of Pursuit Pong. It's a important lesson Don puts into action in this eppesode.

So, while the class is being taught, the best of all man hunters, Edgerton, has just trapped one lowly informant and I managed not to include a snake a fish joke. At first, the informant doesn't want to say anything about what is to become a vital, yet almost entirely unseen character -- Garcia -- until Edgerton reminds him of one very important fact.
Just as Edgerton calls in backup at Wilshire and Bixel I take a moment to reflect how many bloody times this show plans to use the name Bixcel / Bixel in this show and yet still not give me the teeniest of shoutouts!

The CI tries to make a deal: two hours and then he'll have something, and after making sure the CI knows he's dead (as Edgerton should've moved up to third, or perhaps second best shot in the country) if he doesn't deliver, Edgerton lets him go.

Two hours later, the sun arises, and Edgerton falls -- not literally, but since his informant is now dead, and he's surrounded by US Marshals, with only the clue of B17 to go on, definitely metaphorically. Unfortunately, Edgerton doesn't take this too seriously, at first, making some jokes about carrying a gun (not like that) and how the Marshals are morons.
Finally, having enough of the Marshals and their silly arrest games, Edgerton drops Don's name, only to bring out our first parallel between this eppesode and the Colby's a spy (not Theoriginalspy) arc.
Title Flash.

Prison: Edgerton's a little offended, and by little I mean seriously pissed, that he's in prison and not in a detention centre. There's also the little problem of the many, many people Edgerton has captured over the years. As much faith as I have in Edgerton, I don't think he'd have much of a chance if he was released amongst the general population. People might get dead. (Please note I didn't say which people.)
Marshal Thompson even hopes that Edgerton will have time to catch up with his old, um, for lack of a batter word, catches. Wow, I wonder what this douchebag is implying? This just makes me hate the marshal. It doesn't matter what the man says now, I'm going to assume he's wrong.

I'm glad I made that decision, as it's Thompson who accuses Edgerton of helping a drug kingpin, Salazar run a heroine ring, even though Edgerton arrested the man years ago. He then goes on to say Edgerton's allowed Salazar's people to roam free, all the while collecting a nice, fat, 500 grand payday. According to Thompson, the CI was killed because he was going to rat out Edgerton. Of course, because I loathe Thompson, and the writers were kind enough to make sure he gave all the vilifying exposition, there's only one correct response for me here.
Completely content with my theory of the case, I feel smug as anything, until the previously almost silent Don adds some of his own evidence: Edgerton's bloody knife. No, Don! As long as you stayed out of it, and let Thompson do all the talking, I could choose to believe Edgerton was innocent. Why are you adding to my moral conundrum.

Things get worse for Edgerton, and my ability to ever watch Edgerton Eppesodes the same way, when we get the worst explanation of how Edgerton's knife became the murder weapon: someone stole it from his apartment. Hello? Edgerton, come on, you can track a man in the middle of the mountains, (okay, quite a few men) make some seriously impressive shots and yet doesn't have his apartment protected from theft? How long was the knife missing? Wouldn't he have noticed if a dust particle had been moved in his place?

With far more patience than I ever would have shown, Edgerton tries to explain that he's still a good guy. He's tried to take down Salazar through the kingpin's bookkeeper, Garcia.
Even though Garcia, according to Thompson, escaped from prison (therefore, he must be wrong) that's what Edgerton thinks B17 stands for -- Garcia's location in the prison. Apparently, a little paper/plastic bracelet is the prison's foolproof system to keep track of prisoners. Yeah, there wouldn't be a way around that like taking it off?

Because arguing with Thompson is pointless, he turns to Don, clearly playing on both their mutual respect, personally and professionally, by asking, "Have you ever known my instincts to be wrong?"
Don says nothing. I have the sudden urge to slap him silly and I would if a) he wasn't fictional or b) he wouldn't kick my ass.

Don may be taking this arrest and assumption of guilt with his usual stoic angsty silence, but Edgerton isn't. Within 6 seconds (yes, I checked) of leaving the chief Fedcake to stew in his own man-angst, Edgerton's disabled both marshals escorting him, including threatening to use his handcuffs as a garrote on Thompson, and escaped.

Unaware of what's happening, Don and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discuss how little of a social life Edgerton has. Obviously, as we learned last week, Nikki's taste in men has taken a sudden drop.
Finally, Don expresses some disbelief in the crime's events. I mean, come on, if Edgerton were going to kill someone we'd probably never find the murder weapon, or the body. Hell, we might not even know the victim was missing for the better part of a decade.

The alarms blare, causing a commotion, and some nice views of running Fedcakes -- only to have a great moment of schadenfreude, when they find Thompson and the other marshal handcuffed behind bars. Ha! (With the meanest possible connotation.)

With guns drawn, (WTF -- are they going to shoot their long time compatriot and truly awesome guest star?!) the Fedcakes head up to the roof, only to find no trace of the missing bastard son of Clint Eastwood and Yoda. Is it bad I'm rather pleased by this?

Don takes charge of the situation, wanting the security camera footage, the escape routes, and B17. Sure, these are all very, very rational things for an experienced fugitive recover agent, like Don, to take, but it's David's dismissal of another concept that I find the most believable, given that it is Edgerton they're looking for.
Inside, all they see on the footage is Edgerton running towards the roof and, like Keyser Soze, like that -- he's gone. Of course, my BFFedcake is right in saying that if Edgerton wants to get lost, he'll stay lost. Although, "lost" is probably the wrong term as we all know Edgerton cannot be lost. He's too cool like that.

Marshal Janet Galvin disagrees. She figures Edgerton, with all his loner like ways, and seeing the bad guys live the high life, has flipped to the dark side. I think I could easily refute that point.
Galvin uses the analogy of eating cheeseburgers and wanting fillet, leading to what has to be David's best line this season, "Well, he's more of a venison man and he likes to kill his own dinner." Hee!

Thinking they have control of the situation, the marshals take over, because the Fedcakes are too close to things. Oh, marshals, you just think you have control.

Cal Sci: Charlie and Nikki are watching the news report on Edgerton, both, in their own way, stunned with disbelief. Now this is the type of behaviour I was expecting from Don, because I thought he'd worked out a good part of his trust issues.
From their experiences, which, I assume, are vastly different, both Nikki and Charlie do not see Edgerton as the crazy-killing type. He's more of the calm-killing type.

Nikki wonders if the snake and fish analogy would be appropriate, and I will still argue the dog chasing the cat chasing the mouse theory. Why? It's a similar situation, even though Charlie doesn't make the connection. All he talks about is how irrational people can be when they think they've been wronged. Like Crystal Hoyle didn't think she'd been wronged.

Instead, he gives us the analogy of the Ultimatum game, giving us the title of the eppesode and telling us why we should never, ever, split the check with Nikki. Giving her 100, Charlie only gets back 30, arguing that unless he gets his fair share (which, would be all of it, wouldn't it, since it is Charlie's money) he's going to refuse it. This means neither person gets the money (except Charlie, as it goes back into his wallet). I firmly believe my comparison to Crystal Hoyle, and another type of pursuit, makes way more sense.
We head into commercial break with Nikki thinking Edgerton's out to punish someone, and, at that same moment, we get a good look at who Ian might be wanting to punish.
Prison: Colby and Don are searching the prison rooftop but cannot find evidence of a live Edgerton to a splatted on the ground Edgerton, making the invisible theory a lot more plausible.

Ug, Galvin could take a flying leap off the roof, and I wouldn't care. She's all bitchy about the Fedcakes crossing over the crime scene tape, when there's a really good reason they wouldn't have seen it.
Despite the lighting disadvantage, the Fedcakes still manage to find the small rooftop access way Edgerton used. Well, take that Galvin and shove it!

In the prison, Nikki and David are working in the more standard lighting conditions, which might be an advantage, when David asks Nikki how all this is "sitting" with her. I don't care that he backtracks two seconds later, claiming it was a professional question. He totally meant something else.
David, you know it takes a lot for me to disagree with you, but this time, buddy, you did cross over a line. Don't try to make up for it by trying to justify Edgerton's work with the baddest of CIs and then listening to Nikki's far more plausible theory that when one grows up and works with bad guys, one knows bad guys.

In one small break room that leads off of the air vent, Colby and Don hear some strange rattling. I feel like we've just walked into a horror movie, because I'm expecting Edgerton to jump out of freaking nowhere and scare the crap out of me. Luckily, all that Colby finds in the vent is a rustling potato chip bag. I take a sigh of relief, not even caring, initially to ask the question of how a potato chip bag winds up in the air vent.
Now we have another parallel between this eppesode and the Colby's a spy (not Theoriginalspy) arc.
We have a standoff and there's even a moment of dark humour when Edgerton scoffs at Galvin's ability to shoot. Edgerton says to Don, "You know what I'm capable of," a line with all sorts of layers within layers, being delivered in a chariot of enigmatic coolness. Having now seen this eppesode several times, I've come to the conclusion that this is the most important line in the story.

The Marshals finally realize they are lesser than the Fedcakes and follow Don's orders not to give Colby some ventilation in order to get Edgerton. Sure, they put up a brief pissing contest in the hall, but we all know the Fedcakes are the ones best suited to taking command. Between Don's gut, Nikki's belief, David's talking, and Colby's freakishly absent fear of death, they just need one more thing.

David's confused as to why his partner, and best date ever, isn't safe. He knows Don can make the kill shot. I'm going to translate Don's answer from the actual text, to the more truthful subtext.
Inside the break room, Edgerton's committing his second crime of the eppesode (the first being the escape), destruction of government property, by tearing apart the toaster's electrical cord, to electrify the doorknobs. I know I should be shocked (pun intended) but I'm both amused, and impressed at the MacGyver moves.

What I'm not impressed with is how Colby tries to talk Edgerton down. First of all, we all know that it's David with the silver tongue in that partnership. Secondly, Colby tries to dismiss Edgerton's behaviour as sort of crazy, when we all know, Edgerton included, that Colby suffered from a serious case of hero-worship. Pretending to be all blase now is like advertising that he's playing Edgerton.

We do get some great little details about Edgerton's character, like he's been involved in 57 hostage situations, and has had to clean his gun 16 times. Sure, Colby tries to remind Edgerton that this means there's a good possibility that the sniper will die, but Colby's missing one really important detail.
Oh Colby, now is not the time to be making jokes about Ian being in jail. *headdesk*

In the base of operations, Nikki adds another interesting character quirk to Edgerton's arsenal, that he will get depressed when not on a hunt. Oh, that's a bit more serious, and way more interesting, character-wise than the MacGyvering or the number of times he's killed hostage takers.

I love Ian's demands for the release of Colby: air-escape at LAX and a Beatles reunion. He thinks it's perfectly fair because there's only Paul and Ringo left.
David's answer is pretty clear.
In reality, what Edgerton wants is Charlie (not like that) on a video feed (still not like that) in 20 minutes. That's 13 minutes more than Charlie was given in "The Janus List," yet an interesting parallel, just the same.

OMG, the Edgerton development just keeps coming, as he actually sounds sheepish when talking to Nikki on the phone. Smart move, David, passing off the phone to the woman Edgerton was extremely flirtatious with last season. Bravo!

It even gives us this week's NPAL™, in the form of Edgerton's reason he stopped calling. "Yeah, uh, Fugitive hunt in the Abajo Mountains. Cell service really sucked." This is followed by an even more awkward long pause.
When Nikki switches over from the honest conversation to more tactical hostage negotiator, Edgerton turns on her. He would like to be trusted, but then again, handcuffing Colby to a post and holding him hostage is a sure way to earn David's ire.

On the other hand, everyone's pretty much agreed he's guilty, so Edgerton doesn't have anything left to lose.

IHOF/Prison: Instead of taking Charlie to the prison, where he might be in danger, causing the gnashing of teeth and wails from fangirls everywhere, Don's brought him to the IHOF, and done a quick review of the rules in these types of situations. After all these years, I think Charlie wouldn't need the review.

Now that Edgerton has his first demand met, he's willing to let everyone see Colby's all right. Watching Charlie try to make casual conversation with Edgerton is this situation is hilarious.
So, in another parallel, just like when Colby turned to Charlie, Ian does the same thing. He lays out the problem for Charlie: Find one, incorrectly banded prisoner, amongst 6000 others. It's the same point he was trying to get across to Don (and he makes it more dramatic by showing how quickly cheap paper/plastic comes off) and reminds Charlie how important it is to figure out the problem.
What I find interesting, is how Edgerton distances himself from what he's threatening to do. He uses phrases like Colby's "counting" on Charlie or how things will get "messy." Even during the standoff, he only points out what he's capable of, and says the Fedcakes or the marshals will be the one to kill Colby. Again, he's talking around things, just like Colby did, before he was tortured by Batman.

The video "evidence" of Garcia's escape is quickly discounted, because the supposed escapee is using the wrong hand. Thus, the only three people who have doubts about Edgerton: Nikki, Don, and Charlie, now have to work together to figure out what's really going on, and when the hell the marshals didn't pick up something so blatantly obvious.
As Charlie goes on about how to limit the number of people Garcia's had contact with, I wonder, I know all about budget cuts and CBS's dumbassery and disrespect towards the little midseason replacement that could, but, for once, I really feel like we're missing something when an actor isn't included. Considering how much Edgerton had to do with saving Amita's life, you think she'd be all over this case, spearheading the Edgerton is innocent brigade.

Yes, I just said I'm really, really missing Amita. I'll repeat it too, to anyone who may express disbelief.

AHHHHHHHHH! The pain! The horror! the horror! Please, please don't make me recap this Charlie-vision. Please. I beg of you. Don't make me talk about how Survivor is like prison, unless I get to make sweeping generalizations about the people who go on Survivor having the moral worth of criminals.
So, now Charlie has to figure out with whom Garcia made alliances, in order to switch identities. Now, I will never, ever, mention Survivor again.

Prison: Edgerton is fortifying the break room, before getting sustenance in a unique, television honoured way.
Edgerton, who could probably live inthe forest for weeks without any supplies, rejects the vending-machine food for being stale. Well, I guess when you kill you dinner just prior to eating it, anything would seem stale after that.

Finally, Edgerton appeals to Colby (not like that) about why he was picked as the hostage; Colby knows what it's like. Even David thought Colby was guilty of being a spy (not Theoriginalspy).

"This is nothing like what I went through." Excuse me Colby, with the distrust of the Fedcakes -- even David -- and having to do something drastic in order to prove one's innocence because the only witness was dead, means I have to rewrite your line.
Colby then threatens Edgerton, and unlike most of Edgerton's lines, he doesn't dance around esactly what he's going to do. That is, not that he could dance around being handcuffed to a pole, but, you get the point.

IHOF: Nikki's found a bunch of oddly rescinded orders that would've transferred Garcia to a nother prison, and she's found out she's not the only one with serious doubts about Edgerton's guilt. In fact, Don's not as concerned about Colby, as say, David (for a whole bunch of reasons you can deduce for yourselves).

What I find strange is all the people with doubts, are at the IHOF, meanwhile, all the people would like to have Edgerton shot in the head, are at the prison. I would rather it be the other way around.

In fact, Don seems so not worried about Colby, that he's yet to don his one unconscious action to give away his nerves: check his watch.
Prison: Oh, look, Galvin's so anxious to disprove the lousy shot implication from earlier, that she's not going to wait around "while your boy wonder plays with his abacus." Hey, first of all, Charlie wouldn't euphemistically play with his "abacus" with all this going on and second, Charlie wouldn't need a literal abacus. It's at this moment I peg Galvin as the bad guy. Thompson's just an arrogant ass, but being completely dismissive of Charlie's math and insisting on moving ahead, is a great indication of evilness, in this series.
So Galvin and her team try to get a camera inside, but she winds up with a bit of a shock when she touches the door handle. Sure, Colby's appalled at Edgerton's amusement at this, but I'm firmly on Edgerton's side. Besides the pun on Galvin being galvanized, just tickles my bad-pun part of the brain.
As if to prove he's not as evil as Colby believes, Edgerton finally fives the beefcake Fedcake a chair, and tries to convince them they're alike. This eventually leads into a discussion on Dragnet, and how Edgerton liked the beginning, and the allure of LA law enforcement, whereas, Colby liked the end, when the criminal got his or her sentence. Please, Colby, to give you a like situation -- that's like being a Don fangirl or a Charlie fangirl. The point is you still like the same show. By definition, that would be a similarity.

Edgerton almost weakens, and almost deigns to explain himself to Colby, by commenting that not only will Charlie come through for him, but also how Colby doesn't have all the fact. You can see it, Edgerton wants Colby's understanding, but I am so happy he doesn't go there, as that would mean Edgerton would never quite be the same. He's as connected to the Fedcakes as he is to anyone, but any more than that would be outside anything the character's given us before. That wouldn't be character development; that would be a character 180.

Instead, Edgerton discusses how catchphrases that never were, like "Just the facts, ma'am" come to be taken as fact, because people repeat the lie often enough. It gets the same point across without being so mushy, I'd wonder who has taken possession of Edgerton's body.
IHOF: Don is going through hours of prison footage and Charlie's narrowed down the people Garcia could've switched bracelets with to 53. As there's a difference between mathematical probability, and human possibility, Don quickly eliminates the a few based on human reasons -- like not wanting one's kids to get all deadified.

Now we get of an Eppes brother love fest (not like that, never, ever like that in my recaps), as each is impressed with the other's ability to think clearly. Don can still assess criminals and Charlie can figure out the square root of 2007, despite the fact a friend of theirs could be shot in the head, at any moment.

Don's professional side and personal side are at war in his head. The professional side is chastising him, as he should've killed Ian, but the personal side says he can't sacrifice a friend like that. Charlie likens this to what happened to Oppenheimer, but, considering how his career ended, I'm hoping this isn't foreshadowing for Don.
Prison: Thompson's all angry about the slight frying of Galvin and wants to take action, but, as charlie usually does, he arrives / calls / sends smoke signals, with some breakthrough allowing for a less bloody solution. In this specific case, Charlie calls, having narrowed down the list of potential candidates to 7 -- a more than reasonable number, even for the trigger happy marshals.

Cue a montage of inmate matching. Finally, the last name, Matthew Nunn, turns up a lead -- as the prisoner is at the courthouse.

Courthouse: Wait, that's not Matthew Nunn! That's Tank!
It turns out tank isn't who his bracelet says he is, and there have been multiple switches along he way. Like we couldn't see that coming. If you're going to switch once, why not half a dozen times to prevent being found?

Prison: Ian does not take kindly to Garcia not being found and promises to hurt "this man" and when Thompson suggests Ian might be losing it, somewhere, in the back of my head, I start to agree with him. Thus, David turns to Galvin and Thompson for a solution and that solution is explosives. Unlike Mythbusters, where explosions are always a good thing, this time, not so much.

IHOF: Nikki and Charlie have found footage of Garcia coming back to the prison from the courthouse, but don't know where he would be. Now, after eliminating most of the 600 prisoners, to 7, they're back up to 6000.

Or, of course, not, as we're back to Pursuit Pong -- but his time, instead of the snake and the fish or he dog chasing the cat chasing he mouse, it's now time to think like a kid playing hide and seek. Where would the safest places be in a prison?
Prison: Considering Edgerton was arrested in the morning, and now it's night, either the original time limits are wonky, California has discovered the oddest way for daylight savings, or Colby has the strongest bladder in history. Perhaps it's all three.

Since the whole Dragnet discussion didn't lead to bonding, Colby takes a whole other roue and starts talking about how he and his friend beat up a neighbourhood bully as a kid, and instead of congratulating him from ending the terror of other bullied kids, Colby's dad responded by beating up Colby. The moral here, "It's better to fail with honour than win by cheating."

Um, that's not exactly the moral I see here. To teach our kid not to beat people up, or gang up on people, by beating the kid up? This does not equal good parenting to me.
Ian wonders if all this is Colby's way of saying he should just go to court, instead of say, getting shot in the head by trigger happy marshals but Ian's not done making his arguments. He's saved his best one until now, and it's one that, if he'd used it back in the office at the beginning of this episode, perhaps none of this would've occurred.

What is this brilliant argument that would've prevented all these disastrous events?
While that would totally have averted any mortal peril, it also explains why Edgerton is such a hermit. Really, you know what my idea of a five star hotel is -- it's a five star hotel. I wouldn't scoff at such a thing. On the other hand, that does mean that if I'm ever caught with 500 thousand dollars, I can't argue that I wouldn't have ways to use it.

I'm also a little surprised that Edgerton's so offended by Colby not considering that before. Usually, I would take pot shots at Colby because, let's face it, he may not be the blithering idiot I once thought he was, but he can get himself into some ridiculous situations. This time, I'm feeling a bit more sympathy for him.
IHOF: Team We-don't-totally-believe-Edgerton's-a-nutjob is still working hard and has now recruited David, since there's evidence that Frank Thompson might be involved. Apparently, every time Garcia was supposed to be transferred, he rescinded the order.

Prison: When confronted with this evidence, Thompson tosses back some really weird logic, about David not knowing what it's like to work in a prison. Um, okay, there's the point that no one can really understand a person until they've crawled into someone's skin and walked around in it, but since we learned this all from Atticus Finch, perhaps Thompson might try answering the question.
Even the answer is a bit odd, because, somehow, this is all a part of Salazar's plan to expand his business. I'm still not sure how this works as I don't think minimum security prisons are filled with people who want to get into bed with someone like Salazar. Also, if Salazar may be trying to kill Garcia, wouldn't it then be logical that Garcia would be less than willing to expand Salazar's business?

Just as Thompson and Galvin head off to play at being heroes, Charlie's phone call is just a little too late to stop them. He's learned that Garcia is hiding out in the maximum security wing.

So there's only one thing to do -- warn the par about to be at the centre of the explosion, but in such a ways as to not tip off any marshals about the warning. How is this done? It's done through a code, a safe word (not like that).

While the marshals are putting together the explosives, David offers Colby and Ian some Italian, or Mexican food. Oh continuity gods, I love the fact that you seem to favour Numb3rs, and their safe word, Mexico.

Ian finally put his trust where it should've been all along, and confides to Colby about his plan. Just like I thought, Edgerton totally could've taken on all the marshals at the beginning, and ran, but no, he let himself be arrested. If he'd run, no one would've trusted him, and he's sure that Thompson's working for Salazar. Now, I'm going to point something out, but before I do I would like to say two things. 1) Edgerton, I still love you. 2) Please, please don't hurt me for what I'm about to say.
Colby reciprocates the trust and joins Team We-don't-totally-believe-Edgerton's-a-nutjob, because it's not until he and Ian deduce that there must be a marshal in on it with Salazar, does Colby warn the object of his idol worship, that something is about to go kaboom!

We get the music of "When This is Through" by Rotor Jambecks, and trust me, that took freaking forever to find. (Freaking forever a phrase which here means 3 hours -- well, 3 hours with breaks to play various silly games on Facebook and faff off on Twitter.) It's a strange little bluesy tune that's got quite dark edge to it, and is fairly appropriate since the marshals want Ian dead, the Fedcakes have only a few minutes to find the missing Garcia and stop his murder, and I wonder if Numb3rs is really going to go there and give CBS one big massive screw you by killing off one its most popular guest characters. Considering what Charlie said earlier about people and revenge, if I were in charge I would consider it. Then again, I'm not very, shall we say tactful or, you know, mature.

While the music plays, several things happen at once.

Showing far more trust that I thought Ian had in him, he uncuffs Colby and hands the gun to him, so that it'll be clear upon the marshals' arrival that the beefcake Fedcake had everything under control.
David has to step in to prove that the Numb3rs PTB are not as petty as I am, and make sure Thompson doesn't accidentally shoot Edgerton. By accidentally, of course, I mean on purpose because Thompson's a douchebag.

Galvin, somehow took off from the raid and made her way down to wing where Garcia is hiding, she even brought her little pet with her, to make sure Garcia can never rat her out.
Don and Nikki run down to the cell where Garcia is hiding.
There's half a second where I think they're not going to make it.
As Nikki cuffs Galvin, the most important person in this eppesode, the one upon which Edgerton risked his life to find, Garcia, doesn't say a damn word.

Okay, LA must be turning at a different speed than the rest of the planet. Sure, most entertainment bloggers would agree with me, but I mean that in a literal sense. Edgerton was arrested in the morning, then took Colby hostage, and demanded things done quickly. Suddenly, it's the middle of the night when the final siege and arrests take place, and now it's morning. I thought the play Macbeth had some screwy timing to it, and if one looks at it historically, it takes place over 17 years. I think this eppesode actually beats that play for wonky timing.

Nikki finally gets a chance to talk with Ian face to face, explaining how Galvin had been in Salazar's employ for two years (would that be two years real time, or this eppesode time?) and is the one that set up the phony loaded account. As for Thompson, he was too much of a moron to see he was being played, which, technically, isn't a crime, but it should be.

She promises he'll be out as son as judge can release him, he asks for a conjugal visit. At first, I'm thinking Nikki's taste has improved from last week's little blip, but instead of laughing off the idea of a conjugal and suggesting something after he's out of that hideous prison orange, she responds, "as soon as they get cell service in the Abajo mountains."

Ouch.

On the other hand, considering the bet she lost, she might not want to cut Ian off so quickly. Re-imagine that whole scenario at the restaurant as Colby espouses the virtues of David, of which there are many, to which Nikki could easily respond:
Don waits as Nikki and Ian part ways. Before being escorted back to where ever they keep prisoners who are about to be released, Edgerton nods at Don, letting us all know that at least there isn't going to be any animosity there. Although, if Ian thinks he's getting off scott-free (pun intended), then he'll learn when David holds onto his fishing lure a lot longer than he kept Colby's. Okay, that was supposed to be a metaphor but only reads as dirty.

In a great line, Nikki tells Don that she'd want him on the "other side of that trigger" if she were ever held hostage.

"You I might let him keep," Don retorts. Hee! Yeah, well, I don't think Edgerton would mind that either. Also, if that means Edgerton has to come back, I don't have a problem with it.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit together, with Colby appreciating the fresh air, probably as much as he appreciated a washroom when things were said and done.

Colby's teasing David about his concern for his partner. Now, Colby, don't talk to David that way! David has the right to be concerned.

Okay, in truth, David doesn't want to have to fill out the paperwork or lose his promotion over a dead partner. In David speak, that's pretty much, "I love you, man."

A short time later, Charlie and Don head home, with Don bemoaning how he's always going to bed when everyone else is getting up. Fill in your own inappropriate Don/Robin comment here.
Don acknowledges that Edgerton bet his life on Charlie, and Charlie says vice-versa. While trusting Don isn't overly surprising, it tells us how much Edgerton's grown as a character. It's interesting that for a relationship that started outwith such distrust -- Edgerton sketchy about math and Charlie not believing in guns -- that now Edgerton's willing to risk his life if Charlie's on the other side of the equation, just as Don would be on the other end of a gun.

And really, isnt' that exactly what this show is about?