Limitless (2015) s01e07 Episode Script

1 You're listening to WNZ.
It's a beautiful day in New York today.
Temperatures expected to reach the mid-60s.
62 in Greenpoint, 68 at the beaches.
And now, back to Finch Finch? Ike! What's wrong? It's Finch, look at him.
Finch? He doesn't have a fever, but he says his stomach hurts and he's seeing spots.
What's the matter, Finch? Ike.
Is that you? I I can't see that far.
Feel his hands.
They're cold and clammy.
No way I'm feeling his hands.
We'll tell the office you're sick.
If you need anything, call.
Okay? Ringy-dingy.
They bought it.
Incredible.
A wildly substandard performance, and they never doubted it for an instant.
How could I be expected to handle work on a day like this? To have a truly epic day off, you're gonna want your own NZT.
Thanks to my friend in the senate, I've got five of my very own pills.
Of course, you have to keep them hidden.
And the key to a good hiding place is finding a place no one would want to look.
Something with the right combination of skeletons and naked people usually does the trick.
Now, a lot of people will say you should stash your pills in a prescription bottle that you've already got, but the government's thinking pills already, and if they look in there, you could wind up in prison.
That's worse than work.
Stick to your album covers.
Then if you want to take one with you, you just tuck it right in here.
Now, we used to call that the condom pocket.
That's a little childish and stupid, but, then again, so was high school.
Life goes by really fast.
If you don't stop to look around sometimes, you could miss it.
Of course, it'd be a lot more fun if Rebecca could come, but I can't really tell her that I got my own supply of NZT.
But, still, I could use the company.
I'm gonna have fun today.
I quote John Lennon, "A dream you dream alone is only a dream.
A dream you dream together is reality.
" After all, he was the walrus.
I could be the walrus.
Wouldn't change the fact that the FBI owns this place and pretty much watches my every move.
Oh, that's not how it goes.
Hi.
Dean Merrick.
Thanks for making the time to see me.
Please.
It's always nice to sit down with some fellow travelers.
Mm-hmm.
You said you were with an intelligence agency? We're not supposed to say the name, you know how it is, but we all know the deal.
A certain agency with a certain headquarters - in Langley, Virginia.
- Ah, and why have our friends in Virginia asked to see the three of us? Came to talk to you about Brian Finch.
What do you know about Brian Finch? Unique asset.
Well-fortified with vitamins and minerals.
Guys.
It's one big team, we share information.
A few of us know about the pills, a few of us know about Finch.
I never told the CIA about Brian Finch.
Look, this is a friendly visit.
We support what you're doing.
In fact, we want to share in the benefits of it.
We're staging an operation next few days.
The details are classified.
But it matters to the people who matter.
We want to stack the deck for success.
We'd like to borrow your guy for a spell.
Well, I wish you had led with this request, Mr.
Merrick.
You could have saved us all some time.
No.
I hear you, I do.
But let me assure you, he'll be kept strictly out of harm's way.
We'll monitor his access to those pills, and I should say this request has been vetted from on high.
This department is responsible for Brian Finch, - and there is no way I am releasing him.
- Hey, I get it, I do.
People on my side go over my head all the time.
Nice to meet you.
Just so you know.
My people are very good at what they do.
You'll have your boy back in no more than two days.
You're not making a request.
Where's Brian? We sincerely appreciate your cooperation.
Where the hell is Brian? Finch.
Back to the land of the living.
Hey.
Where am I? You're a long way from just about anywhere.
Sorry about the I don't like to be theatrical, but they said we couldn't tell you where we're taking you.
What do you want? We're not kidnapping you.
You're working with us.
Welcome to your first black op.
Let's get on the same page.
They wouldn't tell us much about you.
But we do we understand that basically you are a science experiment.
The government has you on some next-level neuro enhancers, which makes you crazy-good at solving problems.
That sound about right? Hey, man.
Cool apartment.
That's our comm guy.
Our translator doesn't speak much, but he's damn good at his job.
So, what are you guys, the Army? We've been in armies.
You got names? Yes.
But it's best that you don't have that information.
If you end up testifying against this thing, trust me, lack of information will be your best friend.
Did you say "testifying"? What exactly are we doing out here? You, Mr.
Problem Solver, are gonna help us zero in on this nasty guy that's hiding out in these woods.
Aleksey Basayev? He joined some jihadi-inclined group in Chechnya, snuck into the States two weeks ago.
Couple days ago, he slipped surveillance, and he's holed up somewhere out here.
If he gets by us, he will kill people on U.
S.
soil.
Feel free to carry a box on your next trip.
No.
No way, man.
Look, you tased me.
You threw me in the back of a What is this, a rubber dinghy? How am I supposed to believe any of this? That's a fair question.
Got a permission slip from the Bureau.
Also have orders to bring you home okay.
I've also got two of these.
Now, your country needs you to help keep it safe, Brian.
What do you say? Supposed to be my day off.
We were somewhere in Pennsylvania.
The Allegheny Islands Wilderness.
I could tell that much from the satellite pictures they gave me.
There's nowhere to go.
I'm days from the edge of the woods.
The best way out of here is to help them find this guy Aleksey Basayev.
Your basic action hero.
Fought for the Russians in the Chechen War.
He spent an entire winter in the Caucasus Mountains.
As far as when he became a terrorist, it didn't say.
He married a Chechen woman after the war.
After that, everything was redacted.
Saw it so many times, I couldn't help but get curious.
Don't worry so much about what Basayev did.
You need to worry about where he is.
I think I know that already.
Basayev is a survivalist.
He needs three things to stay alive: food, water and shelter.
That's quite an insight.
Hmm.
I looked at every satellite photo we have, and I found 15 different places in these woods that have easy access to a stream, caves for shelter, and wildlife to hunt.
Here there's a herd of deer that drink from that stream every day.
And here's a photo from yesterday.
I see deer.
How many deer? There were seven deer in that herd.
The same group drinks from that stream every day.
But yesterday One is missing.
Means Basayev is hunting.
12 klicks northeast of here.
Good job.
Damn, man.
What's in those pills? No.
No, no, no, that's not Hey.
You get anywhere with your Agency contacts? Uh-uh.
Okay, I served with a guy in the Rangers, he went CIA when we got back from the Sandbox I'll talk to him.
She's pissed, huh? Or she's putting on a good show.
Don't act like you have to go.
Son of a bitch.
Somebody put a signature down authorizing this, but no one will own up to it.
The deputy director "hopes" he'll be back in three days.
- Brian's not a soldier.
- We're gonna find Brian.
Once that's done, I'm gonna figure out who the hell authorized this, and either that person will no longer work for the Bureau or I won't.
What, are you wondering if I knew about this? Rebecca, I would never send Brian on a military mission.
Now, I hate to do what I'm gonna do, but they've left me no choice.
This is a file from the last time we collaborated with the CIA.
I'm circling six names.
Names of whom? You'll figure it out.
If I pass you this piece of paper, we could both wind up in front of a subcommittee.
This is supposed to be the perfect day off.
And instead I've walked 12 miles.
I haven't spent this much time in a woods since summer camp.
You ate these? These are pokeweed, you idiot.
One of the older kids told me they'd give me hallucinations.
They made me copy out a chapter about poisonous plants by hand while I sat in the nurse's office.
Mercenaries or contractors or whatever these guys were, they're terrible company.
Hours together in the woods, and even on NZT, I still don't know anything useful about any of them.
They wouldn't tell me their names, so I gave them nicknames to keep track of them.
Guy in charge He's Rooney, obviously.
Nine times.
Nice guy, but people tell him what to do Cameron.
The one who never says anything, that's Abe Froman, Sausage King of Chicago.
I had blisters all over my feet by the end of the day, but something tells me that complaining to these guys would be a bad idea.
That's his spot.
How can you tell? Look at the deer.
Don't see Basayev.
He'll be back.
Waiting on him to fall asleep anyway.
Finch, come here.
How much happy do you have left in your happy pill? Not much.
Couple hours, tops.
It's gonna get quiet when we prep.
When we move on that structure, I want you to take it.
The FBI only gives me one a day.
Yeah, I'm sure the FBI has an extensive list of rules and regulations.
I want you at your best.
Want to see? See, those pills, they told us you were the only one who could take them safely.
Why is that? They have side effects.
Yeah, you take a few of them, and they get really, really bad.
That doesn't happen to me.
For some reason.
And the FBI wants to know why.
Gotcha.
Then dumb grunts like me can get souped up like you.
What's it like? Being that smart? Understand you're talking to a guy who couldn't get into OCS.
Dude, I got kicked out of five schools.
Yeah, my parents used to look at me like I was some sort of clown.
I mean, it's complicated.
But those pills? They're amazing.
Ow! Why'd you kick me? We have an ex-Spetsnaz out there, walking around.
No chatter, got it? Captain Crossfit! I got to stop with the donuts.
- No! - Mike Timms.
- Rebecca Harris.
- What can I do for you guys? Well, we're in a tricky situation, Mike.
CIA hijacked one of our assets, a kid named Brian Finch.
We need to know what's going on.
And you're asking me? We do market research here.
Yeah, well, as you and many of the other people who carry badges around this city know, this place is a data-mining station for the CIA.
Kid is important to me.
We served together, Mike.
Anything you can tell us.
Can't help you, brother.
Well, I'm sincerely sorry to hear that.
I have a list of six names.
Clandestine CIA operatives positioned all over the world.
And if I don't know where Brian is in one hour, I'm gonna leak them.
You realize that's a serious crime and that people could di? Use that hour to get your men to safety.
And if you want to talk crimes, I'll see yours and I'll raise you the CIA has no mandate to work on U.
S.
soil.
One hour or your guys are burned for good.
Boyle's contact told us the CIA put three contractors on active payroll last week.
They all flew into Pennsylvania.
And based on the time and locale, it's reasonable to assume that this is the team that Brian is working with.
John Kellerman is former Delta.
Kyle Hollinger was in the Navy.
Failed his OCS test twice.
Washed out of SEAL training a few times.
And there's this guy.
Miklos Petrov He was in the Polish Army, but he was discharged after some atrocity in Iraq.
After that, he was a lead interrogator at a CIA black site outside of Warsaw.
So, this man is out there with Brian on a mission that has essentially no oversight.
My contact at the CIA didn't know the details of this mission but told me there was another member of this black ops team the past few times they headed out.
Carla Paz She's a helicopter pilot.
Ferries rich guys around Manhattan now.
Look, I don't care how you get her talking.
Find out everything she knows about that unit.
Nightfall means I get another pill and Rooney and his crew make their move.
Contact with Basayev! Target is on the move! He's in the open! Moving in to check it out.
Man down! We got a man down! Zip-tie him.
I'm gonna check on my translator.
Make sure he's alive.
Hey, you handled yourself well, kid.
Let me know if you ever get tired, bored of your desk job.
So, what happens now? We just wait for a helicopter? Soon, though, we're gonna talk to him for a while.
Can't you just do that when he's in jail? No, tactically this is a much better environment to get to the straight talk.
You did your thing, kid.
Brought down a really bad guy.
Now, let us do our thing.
I still want to know what this guy did.
They didn't seem to care too much that I was around.
I'm guessing no one told them that the FBI made me study Russian while I was on NZT.
I had the basics down.
I didn't say I was fluent.
But the more they talked, the more dialed-in I got.
Huh? Maybe I'm missing something in the translation.
No, they're gonna kill him.
So, you know that's definitely not a bluff, right? They're not out here to arrest that guy.
If they were, there would be all kinds of helicopters and commando teams.
No, they're out here to execute him.
Maybe they should.
He's a terrorist.
I don't know what he did.
How about we all just assume the CIA doesn't send three badasses after the guy who's in charge of the local Rotary Club.
Let me remind you.
Basayev's ass is on the line.
So is yours.
This is a black op.
There is absolutely zero accountability for anything that happens out here.
And if you get in the way, Abe Froman might just chop you up and spit on your grave ten different times.
That's a pretty good point.
No, I agree.
But, come here.
Seriously, has anything good ever come from listening to that guy? Hey, you know I don't have to hear you to know what you're saying.
- We're the same person.
- All right! Would you both just shut up?! I'm thinking.
Carla Paz? Feds? FBI, couple of questions.
Some people you might've worked with.
Well, it'd have to be quick.
I got clients.
Okay, here's the quick version.
Merrick, Kellerman and Petrov.
Drawing a blank.
You sure? Because the CIA has it in their heads that you all worked together.
Chechnya, 2011.
Anything like that, you know I can't talk about it.
Your team is active again.
Stateside this time.
They helped themselves to someone who's important to the FBI.
Someone who's important to me.
I got no love for Dean Merrick.
So I'll just tell you this.
I don't know where they are.
But if that team's working together again, it probably has to do with Aleksey Basayev.
Hey.
Sorry.
Uh, listen.
If I told you that the plan was to kill Aleksey Basayev, would you be surprised? How surprised? Scale of one to ten.
Did they tell you that's what we're doing? I'm a comms guy.
They tell me where to bring my stuff and how many days I'm on contract.
I like it that way.
Cameron, we're in the United States.
Did you just call me Cameron? Yeah, sorry, that's a nickname thing.
We can't just kill that guy, cut him up and bury him in a bunch of different holes.
So file a case with the World Court.
Listen to me.
This is a scandal.
We help keep this guy alive, we get him back to a jail it'll be good for both of us.
I'm the science experiment, man.
I know people in high places.
You want to work a walkie-talkie on black ops the rest of your life? 'Cause I could talk to the Navy.
Could maybe make you a SEAL.
Kellerman and Petrov are stone killers.
No way we outflank them, even with that pill.
No, we wouldn't even have to fight them.
You just have to make it impossible for them to kill Basayev.
You control the comms rig.
You can put out a distress signal to the forest rangers, get them out here.
It's a lot harder to murder someone when there are civilians around.
I can't make the distress call from here.
We're in earshot.
I'll take my rig out to the woods, tell the rangers I'm a lost hiker with a broken leg.
All right.
Good deal.
Aleksey Basayev fought for the Spetsnaz in the last Chechen war.
He married a local woman and stayed in Chechnya after the fighting was over.
Chechnya exports jihadis by the busload.
Aleksey's new father-in-law took CIA money in exchange for a pledge to help keep the kids in his teip from going bad guy.
Except he was working both sides.
Sent the money straight on to the Taliban.
Was Basayev in on the con? No, not at all.
Basayev agreed to help us if we promised to abduct the father-in-law quick and surgical.
We made the deal.
Then on the day we got word that there'd be a Taliban warlord there.
Merrick decided he didn't want to leave anything to chance.
You bombed the compound.
His wife, kid everyone else? Killed.
So Basayev wasn't even a real terrorist? He helped us.
And when word got out Basayev left just before the bomb hit, he got branded a traitor.
The brother of the Taliban mullah killed in the attack put a price on his head.
$5 million for his corpse.
$10 million if you deliver him alive.
Basayev came here to kill Merrick.
So Brian's in the woods with three mercenaries and a guy with a $10 million bounty on his head.
Nyet.
Hey.
Stand clear of the prisoner.
Where's my comms guy? Uh, you know.
Call of duty.
Yeah, well, we're about done chatting with our friend, all right? Gonna take a walk.
A walk? Why? If you ask me again, I might just give you the answer.
You don't want that.
Stand down.
You'll be home soon.
Yo, I think they're gonna do it now.
Relax, I got this.
Hey! Kellerman! I told you.
No names in front of What did you do? Why did you do that? There are people coming.
There's no one coming.
I didn't call anybody.
Kellerman took us out here to interrogate Basayev, then kill him.
Me and Petrov have our own plan.
We're gonna sell him for $10 million.
You're alive 'cause you're the Six Million Dollar Man, and that makes you our insurance policy.
We plan to hike out of here, quick and quiet, but if anything goes south? No way they drop artillery on you.
So you knew.
This whole time we've been out here, you knew you were gonna kill him.
You slow us down do anything to make me nervous? I'm more than willing to go without insurance.
Play nice when we get out of here, we'll cut you loose.
Cut you loose? Do you really believe that? Rebecca? What? I'm not always going to be a version of you.
Your NZT is wearing off and you need advice.
I'm happy to give it.
Or the version of me that lives inside of your head is happy to give it.
But, Brian, I have to be honest: I wish you didn't dress me like this.
But you get to be Sloane.
Sloane's the best.
These people are going to kill you.
You know that, right? I know you know it, because you're me.
They are not going to cut you loose.
And if you don't do something, you are gonna die in these woods.
I still got that one pill in my pocket.
But even on the pill, I don't think you can take two trained soldiers.
And you are a long way from the edge of the woods.
You got a better idea? This is not a Band of Brothers moment.
We're talking about two mercenaries who murdered their boss so they could split $10 million.
Turn one against the other.
No, but see, even if I can pull that off, that leaves one heavily armed dude still standing.
You have a weapon, too.
Remember the way that Cameron was talking about NZT? If he knew you had a pill, he'd be dying to take it.
Okay, great.
So we make him into a highly intelligent super soldier.
That's an awesome plan, Sloane.
I mean, hats off to you.
I wish the laws of physics would allow me to strangle you right now.
You have a pill that he wants.
Remember the book that you read after you ate the pokeweed berries? You want me to poison him.
Are you asking me to kill someone? I'm sorry.
I really am.
But I want you to live.
Which means these guys have to die.
Little something to keep the mosquitoes away.
Quick question.
Does your buddy over there really strike you as a fifty-fifty split type of guy? You said Basayev's worth $10 million to someone.
I'm guessing you guys are doing some kind of split.
But if I know my quiet, psycho, in-desperate-need-of-a-hug mercenary types, I'd be surprised if there winds up being a split at all.
Uh-huh.
He already got you to shoot your boss.
Basayev's all bound up.
Why wouldn't he just keep the entire bounty for himself? We made a deal.
Oh, you made a deal.
Okay.
You shake on it? Well, that's ironclad.
Forget I said anything.
Of course, you could take him out.
Walk away a winner for once.
I need him.
He's got the connect to the heroin traffickers who are gonna bring Basayev back to the guy with the money.
Yeah, you need him.
Does he need you? Listen, man.
My pill's about to wear off, but I've got one more.
It's been in my pocket this entire time.
If you get rid of the translator, I'll take it.
It can't be that hard to figure out a way to get Basayev to the people that want him.
That's $10 million.
All for you.
Or whatever your pal has planned.
You can't see much of the woods when you've got a black bag over your head.
But if you work the tie loose, you can see what's growing at your feet.
Stuff like nightshade berries.
Thank you, Counselor Dan.
It seems like you want me to be, I don't know, embarrassed? Apologetic? You betrayed your own source and then bombed a compound with more than 20 people inside of it.
For argument's sake, let's just say I'm willing to admit to the operation you guys are describing.
Yes.
I called in a drone.
The facts on the ground changed, so I changed the plan.
All perfectly legal.
And now you're staging a black op on American soil in direct violation of an executive order prohibiting it.
So file an injunction.
Prove it.
Call me if you get anywhere with that.
What you did in Chechnya might not have been illegal.
But it would make for a good story.
Americans betraying a source, bombing a compound with his family inside.
I could see that on the front page of a paper somewhere.
What do you people want? He should be on a chopper home in a few hours.
I want to talk to Brian.
I want to know he's okay.
Oh, hell.
Damn, it's Merrick.
I need to tell you what I'm gonna do, you don't play ball? I think I got it.
Where's your team leader? Problems.
Nothing we could do.
What about the target? In our custody and on the way to the extraction point.
Running behind schedule, is all.
Need maybe 12 hours.
Target was deep in the bush.
And our resource? Other than being slow as a dung beetle, worst he's got is mosquito bites and blisters.
I want to talk to him.
He just told you Put him on now, Merrick.
We got a couple of nervous Nellies here at the barn, want a word with the resource.
Copy that.
Brian! Hey, guys.
Oh, is that Naz? What's going on out there, Brian? Well, it's pretty much like the man said.
You know, it got hairy there for a minute, out here in the forest.
It's a little brisk, little bit cold.
So luckily, I've just been bundled up, keeping warm in my warren, all safe and sound.
Yeah, I mean, it's like you guys taught me, right? I got to be an island? And all that jazz? Are you okay? You know what, I think I got the pinkeye.
Can you look in there? Okay, there he is.
We'll put some ointment on whatever's bugging him, get him back to you shipshape.
Anything else? 12 hours.
Copy all.
Happy? No, I am not happy.
People are being killed out there, and my consultant's in the middle of it.
What are you doing? Did Brian seem overly cheerful to you? Almost like he was trying to emphasize certain words without being too obvious? He always seems overly cheerful to me.
Yeah, maybe.
Why? All that about being in a warren, up in the forest? Check this out.
Warren and Forest Counties are mostly made up of the Allegheny State Park.
That last thing about being an island.
There's a little section of the park that runs along those counties.
Allegheny Islands Wilderness area.
He's drawing us a map.
You better be right about this.
Oh, my God.
No, no, no.
Don't turn away.
This is what you wanted.
Take a good look.
Now you're gonna hand me that pill.
No one else can take it.
You said the side effects happen after a few doses.
Hand it over.
I'm taking the last one.
I get to see what it feels like to be the smart guy.
Uh you, uh, should probably look behind you.
Wait, wait, that doesn't sound right.
I can't speak Russian.
I'm not on NZT, okay? I tried to save you.
I tried to keep you alive.
Give me the pill.
You speak English? Everyone speak some English.
Give me the pill.
I can't.
Thank you.
This pill, it gives you answers, da? Fix problems? Uh, yeah, it can, but This weight, all the time it is on me.
I need answers in here, see? I have lost so much.
I only want peace.
You won't get it from that pill, though.
It's poisoned.
Seriously, I mixed it with Belladonna.
It could kill you.
That's a kind of peace, too.
I tried to find the edge of the woods, but I wasn't on NZT.
I couldn't remember the maps.
At the end of the day, I just circled right back to where I started.
When Brian was in Egypt's land Let my Brian go.
So much for taking the day off.
I don't think I can do this.
It's all in your head.
Get up.
I'm dying.
You're not dying.
You just can't think of anything good to do.
But this is all wrong.
Now, I'm Ferris.
Everything's supposed to work out for me.
No.
You have to make it work.
But how? Brian? Brian, wake up.
You did it.
You saved Ferris.
First to die was Rooney.
Um, sorry.
Rooney was just a nickname I gave him.
After that, I figured, um, if I was gonna survive, I needed to figure out a way to kill Hollinger and Petrov.
So I convinced Cameron What was his real name? Kyle Hollinger.
Right, I convinced him to shoot Abe Froman.
Uh, then I just had to figure out how to get him to swallow the poison.
And Aleksey Basayev took care of that for me.
Luckily, or I guess.
So Do you think Aleksey Basayev gained any intel from Kyle Hollinger before he killed him? Um Well, the only thing I heard Yeah, anyway, that's pretty much it, Naz.
Brian.
This should never have happened to you.
And it's my fault that it did.
No, you didn't sign the order.
No, no, you are my responsibility.
Now, you and I have had our moments, but I want you to know I will find the people responsible for this.
You really believe Naz didn't know about this? She really stuck her neck out to get you back.
So I think I do.
You okay? You ducked out of that meeting kind of fast.
Am I okay? I'm not the one that just survived some backwoods nightmare.
Hearing you talk about it, you sound so detached.
When you first came here, you were in a bad patch, but you still had this way of looking at things.
Like Like the world hadn't touched you yet.
I think I wanted to protect that.
I think that's why I fought so hard to get you here.
And instead, you're listening to people choke each other and You had someone else's blood on your face when I found you.
You want to know what? I was gonna take a day off, before all this.
Man, I was so happy when I woke up that morning.
It felt like before.
Like the good parts of before.
I'm sorry you had to see those things.
I'm really sorry you had to do those things.
I didn't have much of a choice in that.
It was either this or being a fry cook on Venus.
Oh, my God.
You've really never seen Ferris Bueller before, have you? How is that possible? How you know what? I got it.
I have it on VHS at my parents' place.
We're gonna watch it right now.
- Mike! Mike! - Keep your voice down.
Beautiful.
Even more beautiful.
Hey, are you lost? You need a lift? - My stomach feel strange.
- Gummy bear? You're still here? Show's over.
Go to bed.
Go.