TVSquad

375,000 medications. $675 billion dollars. Four drugs. One manifesto. And the triumphant return of Lou Diamond Phillips to primetime television. Lou, who from this point forward shall be referred to as LDP, reprises his role as Agent Ian Edgerton (an expert sniper and tracker) in last night's episode. If that isn't enough to draw you in, then relax - this whole episode is about drugs and who doesn't like drugs?

So it seems that the government has noticed a little pattern over the past few days as four people, completely unrelated in every sense of the word, have come down with a bad case of the shakes (I think the lab-coats call it a seizure these days). The eerie thing is that product tampering may be the cause. All four vic's were using different over-the-counter meds, such as cough suppressant or asthma inhalers, but trace amounts of another drug (called Primalect) were found in all the meds taken. David and Megan do some good old-fashioned investigating and find out that all the OTC drugs used were manufactured by the same company - Great Bridge Pharmaceuticals. The company's CEO claims to have no idea about what's going on but somehow convinces the FBI to keep is quiet for the time being to avoid causing an uncalled for panic.

However, the next day a free weekly newspaper prints part one of a ten parts series called The Toxic Manifesto. It outlines everything that has happened so far and warns that there will continue to be medications dosed with the extra ingredient. It even goes on to say which medications are fair game - good to know. Colby and David go to speak with the editor and get an unaltered copy of the manifesto but they also meet the head of private security for Great Bridge. So it appears that the suits up top may know what was going on after all. Now for the good part... wait for it... LDP! So the sniper king shows up to assist in the investigation. LDP provides the FBI with a sketch of what the perp looks like and Megan finds out that he was a top level chemist with Great Bridge. He helped develop Primalect but knew it had serious risks. But before he could become a whistle blower, he got canned and Primalect still got released for a short period of time until the FDA caught on. Fear not, LDP knows what's up. The perp is hot on the trail of a cattle rancher who shot a US Marshal last year. His cows were using a Great Bridge antibiotic (also not a good drug) and the beef was making people sick. But cowboy man was eating his own beef, so his blood is walking proof that Great Bridge makes lousy drugs and our ex-chemist wants a few vials for insurance. Now let's not forget that the security dude from Great Bridge is still lurking and suddenly the chemist is found in a ditch. But LDP saves the day - he tracks down the cattle farmer and snipes the security dude. All in a day's work for LDP.

Charlie's math lessons? There were actually a lot in this episode, but I'll mention a few. First up we had "information entropy" which is the notion that the proper boundaries can make random events seem not so random anymore. In this case, one of our boundaries were the drugs available to our contaminator. Next we had some "graph theory." Charlie told some fun little math anecdote known as The Seven Bridges of Canaansburg, but in terms of graph theory it boils down to ranking the potential paths in regards to their probability of use. This went hand in hand with "soap bubble theory," which reveals that well traveled paths and their intersections can determine other probable paths of use. On a side note, if given an exam with this stuff on it - I would fail. Miserably.

Highlights of the episode? When David introduces Colby to LDP, Colby has heard of his reputation and refers to LDP as "The bastard son of Clint Eastwood and Yoda." Priceless, might be quote of the week right there. And speaking of LDP, let's not forget his camouflage leisure suit. Real sharp looking, anyone know where I can get one of those?