Stitchers (2015) s01e08 Episode Script

Previously on "Stitchers" Welcome to the Stitchers Program.
Is that a quantum computer? This is a picture of Ed and my mother.
Ed ripped someone out of this picture.
Any ideas who it was? I assume it's someone he didn't think very highly of.
Marta said that the murder cases we handle are test runs for something bigger.
You need to trust that your mother, Ed Clark, and the people who care about you now are working tirelessly to keep you safe.
- Hello.
- Liam.
Kirsten has never mentioned him.
Find out everything you can about him.
I want a full report.
Will you marry me? I need assistance stat! Come on, I can't figure this out.
Authentication isn't working.
How's it going? You good? - Thank goodness you're here.
- What's going on? It's a total disaster.
Come on, come on, we need your help.
- Get over here now! - _ I can't do this by myself.
Help! I got you.
Come on! We're running out of time.
Surprise! Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday, dear Kirsten Happy Birthday to you Are those brains? That's it? I'm sorry, guys.
Surprise parties don't really work for me.
Surprise anything, for that matter.
I'm sorry.
Should have seen this one coming.
You know, it's no problem.
I mean, maybe maybe one day we'll figure out how to shock you.
- Yeah, good luck.
- Or not.
At least there's cake.
Or not.
Come on, people, let's go.
- Mmm.
- Mm-hmm.
Dr.
Anna Barmal, 35.
She's the lead researcher of epidemiology at the Worldwide Health Alliance.
She committed suicide last night in her L.
A.
apartment.
Sleeping pills.
- We sure it was suicide? - Yeah, she left a note.
"My body is to be cremated within 24 hours "and my ashes sent to my parents in Mumbai.
These are my only instructions.
" Unfortunately, Dr.
Barmal's last wishes will have to be delayed.
We've been asked to investigate why she killed herself.
So we're bringing someone who worked with deadly viruses and died under mysterious circumstances into the lab? What could possibly go wrong? We run 26 different tests on every sample before they're cleared for stitching.
- Barmal is clear.
- Why'd she kill herself? Was she part of something she shouldn't have been? Well, that's what we want to find out.
When they found her in her apartment, she was slumped over in a scalding shower and the heat in her apartment was cranked to the maximum.
What about her research? Any clues? Well, you know, it's pretty remarkable, she didn't write any of her research down.
She had a photographic memory.
Well, let's go and get it while it's still in there to get.
- So? - Context, please.
Liam.
What did you tell him when he proposed? I told him I needed to think about it.
Smart move.
No sense at all in committing to the one guy on the planet who loves "impossible you" exactly as you are.
What do you think you're gonna tell him? I'm not sure and assuming you haven't blabbed to everyone yet, don't say anything.
I haven't told anyone else that Liam proposed.
What? - Congratulations? - I'm not sure yet.
Well, when you are, tell me in person and not over an open channel.
All right.
Stations, please.
- Welcome back.
- Miss me? I don't suppose you can share details about whatever special assignment Turner sent you on.
You don't suppose correctly.
How does it feel being the one kept in the dark for a change? Kinda sucks.
All right, I'm out of here.
Call me later if there's going to be cake.
Lights to 20%.
I need a go, no-go for stitch neurosync.
- Life-sci? - Go.
- Sub-bio? - Go.
- Engineering? - Go.
- Communications? - Go.
- Medical? - Go.
Comm check.
Kirsten.
One, two What am I doing? We've established that your comlink works.
All is well.
Cut the cake.
Induce stitch neurosync on my mark.
In three, two, one Induce stitch neurosync.
I'm in Barmal's lab.
She's looking through a microscope.
- How's she dressed? - How's she dressed? Wait.
Why is that even relevant? - She's in biohazard gear.
- That's how it's relevant.
- Alex, how's the sample looking? - All readings nominal.
Do not open that corpse cassette.
What's going on? Worldwide Health Alliance scientist plus biohazard suit equals I don't know what we may have brought into the lab.
But maybe our tests missed something.
- Should I bounce? - Linus? - We're clear.
- Okay, do not bounce.
The environment in the lab is monitored every 12 seconds.
We're clear.
Regardless, I don't want to take any chances.
I want all non-essential personnel to clear the lab now.
Go, now.
Okay, keep going, Birthday Girl.
She's taking off her mask.
Why? I don't know.
Also her gloves.
And her bio suit.
She's injecting herself with something.
Have her look for markings on the syringe.
Any markings you can see? The vial reads "Sample Lot, 6/1 18:03.
" She's giving herself another injection.
Any idea what? Um "CSP21x9.
" - Camille? - CSP21.
It's a mutated strain of Spanish flu.
- And x9? - Potency.
Nine is as high as it goes.
Why is she infecting herself? She's running a blood test.
She's reading the results.
Doesn't like what she sees.
What's that noise? Trouble.
Make the bounce.
What happened? Our sensors picked up something.
- What? - Damn it! What did you just do? She put the lab under emergency lockdown.
Dr.
Barmal infected herself with a mutated virus and her body just went symptomatic.
I hate being right all the time! "According to the Center for Infectious Diseases, "Dr.
Barmal was close to finding a cure for an aggressive new virus.
"The CSP21 spreads airborne.
"When exposed, a person will develop flu-like symptoms, and in all reported cases, death occurs within hours.
" - Definitely not a starve a cold, feed a fever kind of thing.
- Should we be worried? So far none of us are sick and we don't know if the infection has spread beyond the corpse cassette.
We need to figure out exactly what we're dealing with.
It's not that complicated.
We're dealing with a body in the corpse cassette that's spreading a contagion in a sealed lab full of people.
Alex, how's the seal on the corpse cassette? Holding.
Hopefully the virus is contained.
Dr.
Barmal thought she found a cure.
That's why she tested it on herself.
Unfortunately, she's taken up residency in her corpse cassette and has given us the gift that keeps on giving.
Yeah, but she must have colleagues.
Other scientists who are familiar with her research.
I'll get on that.
Meanwhile, research the virus.
Find out everything you can about it.
Work up a contingency plan in case we're on our own.
Preferably one that doesn't involve all of us dying.
Bet this isn't what you wished for on your birthday.
Oh, I don't make birthday wishes.
Make one now.
You sent us a disease-ridden sample.
I didn't know she'd injected herself.
She was asymptomatic before she died.
Well, she became symptomatic post-mortem and highly contagious.
I'm scrambling a Hazmat team, but it will take some time to assemble.
Your chief asset is fine for now, but we're all at risk.
You need to reach out to Barmal's associates.
See what they know about her work.
And tell them what? That while stitching a live consciousness into a dead woman's memory, we may have triggered an epidemic in our secret lab? Barmal's last serum the one that she thought worked is in her lab, date-stamped June 1, 18:03 hours.
Maybe there is something in there that we can build on.
I'll do what I can.
In the meantime, no matter what happens to you all, Kirsten needs to survive.
So I want you to put her in isolation.
Yeah.
Good luck with that.
How's it going? Well, considering the only thing this lab is able to do about a biohazard is ring alarm bells, not great.
We're just not equipped for this kind of emergency.
We can work the problem if we knew Barmal's formula to her serum.
Yeah, but her formula tanked.
So what good would it do? Well, we have something she didn't have.
A quantum computer that's able to run more simultaneous equations than there are atoms in the universe.
Maybe her antiviral serum failed because she couldn't run enough simulations.
She was willing to test it on herself.
She must have believed in it.
Stitch me back in.
I'll get the formula.
Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.
Kirsten, I'm putting you into isolation.
Good luck with that.
We don't know who or how many of us may be infected.
On the chance that someone is and you're not, you need to be isolated from everyone.
The Program depends on you.
Okay, let's say everyone except me is infected How about let's not? And I'm the last person standing? What makes you think that I would stay with a revamped, restaffed program anyway? - That's what I figured.
- So stitch me back in.
Her refractory period is short.
We can stitch immediately.
- Great.
- Hold on.
Now that Barmal's body has gone symptomatic, we don't know what that will do to her memory.
We can't just sit around and wait.
Besides, it's my birthday and I can stitch if I want to.
Okay.
Listen, Stretch.
Bounce if it gets too funky in there.
I love it when you talk science to me.
It's your birthday so I'm gonna let that one slide.
Initiate stitch neurosync on my mark.
Three, two, one, and mark.
- You still with me, KC? - Sure, CG.
I'm in the lab again.
And you're right, the virus is making things a little funky.
Define funky.
Like when you have a high fever, everything's a throbbing blur.
Sample brain's degrading from the internal heat.
Get a move on, Sweet Pea.
Barmal's working on it But she isn't happy.
Move me forward in time.
Memory collapse imminent.
Kirsten, you need to bounce.
You listening? - Something to write on - What? - I need a something to write on.
- I'm on it.
Tell her she's gotta go.
Kirsten.
Hang on.
Kirsten? iheartlinus.
_ That's it.
Make any sense to you? Damn it, Jim.
I'm a neuroscientist, - not a molecular biologist.
- Focus.
Just trying to lighten the mood.
Yeah, we can load that into the quantum computer.
Linus, digitize the output.
You okay, bud? What? Yeah, yeah, I'm good.
What do you need? - What? I'm fine.
- You're warm.
- Ayo.
- Stop.
This is ridiculous.
Quiet, you.
It's beginning.
How's he doing? Don't sugarcoat it.
Headache, chills, muscle pain, fever at 102.
- And his blood pressure is - Low.
If it drops any lower, you could experience dizziness, confusion, subconjunctival hemorrhage.
Subconjunctival hemorrhage? Bleeding in the eyes.
I was wrong.
I need sugarcoating.
In other bad news, I just generated a statistical model that puts the chance we're all infected at a robust 98%.
I'm sorry, guys.
What are we gonna do? I choose to panic in my own way.
We work the problem.
The time is running now on all of us.
Okay, clearly Barmal's formula was ineffectual.
How long will it take until we find out what went wrong so we can make adjustments? Our computers can do it quickly, but we'll need a pre-symptomatic sample of Barmal's blood to isolate exactly how the serum affected her immune system.
I took a routine sample of her blood before the virus kicked in.
It's in the medical bay.
- Ayo.
- We're locked out.
It's an automatic security precaution.
The computer must have calculated that the virus originated in the lab and is isolating it.
Insult, meet injury.
- Damn it.
- Can you override it? _ Damn it.
Baptiste, Magritte.
Confirm voice recognition.
Command level override.
_ Shall we play a game of chess? You gotta be freakin' kidding me.
Now what? Where does that access panel lead? As you all know, the lab was built in an old hydroelectric substation.
Told you.
I'm begging you.
The drainage culvert under the flooring was repurposed as cabling channels.
There is one access point that runs 100 feet from the observation deck straight to the medical bay.
- I'll go.
- No, you can't.
There's an old gear shaft that narrows the culvert to 18 inches by 9 inches.
Guess I'm out.
I can fit through that, I think.
You need to take care of those of us who are getting sick.
It's okay.
I'll be fine.
It's not just you anymore.
I'm okay.
Okay, stop staring at me.
I'm not dead yet.
Yeah, and it looks like I get to keep it that way.
I'll go.
I can do it.
You sure? How do you feel? Like crawling through a hundred feet of repurposed drainage culvert.
Thanks so much for asking.
Okay, the yellow cables will lead you to the medical bay.
Follow the yellow brick road.
Got it.
- Comlink.
- Thank you.
The distance from here to the medical bay is 100 feet.
We'll track your progress remotely.
It should take you about eight minutes to get there.
Give me ten.
Underachiever.
Once there, you'll be able to open the door from the inside and let Ayo in.
Sounds good.
Okay, let's do this.
Liam? Can we talk about this later? Because I'm in the middle of something.
I said later, please.
- Hey.
- Let me see.
Don't tell Maggie.
She needs to know.
She'll find out soon enough.
Okay, Camille, how you doing? Ugh.
This is the third most awful thing I've ever done.
Okay, I see the gear thingy up ahead.
I'm ruining my t-shirt.
The agency will get you another one.
Screw that, Maggie.
I want hazard pay.
Camille, you're almost there.
Just keep following the yellow cable.
She stopped moving.
Is she okay? Camille.
Camille.
Camille.
Camille! Camille, Camille, are you there? Here, give it.
Okay, Camille, talk to me.
What's going on? Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Camille, what is it? There's a rat in here.
Oh, okay, that's all? There are two things in the world that terrify me.
Rats and hairy backs.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God, it's touching me.
It's disgusting and it's touching me with its rat teeth and its rat fur covered in rat diseases.
You know, you are carrying a deadly virus in your system that could wipe out the entire human species, so so listen, if you wanna play the "who is more disgusting to whom game," I think you actually win.
Maybe.
Kirsten, I don't think I can do this.
Yes, you can.
It's more scared of you than you are of it.
Yeah, I'm totally striking fear into its heart.
Oh, my God.
I can't.
Do it for Linus.
Okay, I can.
I can.
Okay.
You're just a rock.
A rock moving around in the middle of my back, but just a rock.
Okay, now take a deep breath.
And just relax and keep moving.
Okay.
Just a few more feet.
Okay, Camille, you're under the medical bay.
There should be an access panel to the right.
Camille? Are you okay? If the CSP21 germ doesn't do me in, I'm pretty sure rat-induced nightmares will.
I'll run Dr.
Barmal's blood sample.
How long do you need? Twenty-five minutes for the centrifuge, another ten to test her CBC count.
Every minute counts.
- Rat.
- If you cooked it, it could feed a family.
It was huge.
I've input the antiviral formula into the quantum computer.
By factoring in Barmal's blood analysis How the serum affected her immune system The computer may be able to detect why it failed.
And then what? Maybe Barmal was close.
If she made a small miscalculation in her research, the computer could possibly pick it up and point us to a cure.
- It's a long shot.
- Not necessarily.
Dr.
Barmal spent two years of her life working on this.
Maybe she was on the right track.
Now we wait.
Hey, you.
- Boy, you don't look so hot.
- Neither do you.
Well, just between us, I think I might be coming down with something.
Can I get you anything? More water or just a shoulder to rest your head? I wouldn't mind a shoulder.
Okay.
- This is nice.
- Yeah.
It'd be nicer if there wasn't rat poop on your shirt.
What? Shut up! Where? Just kidding.
That's so not funny.
Damn rat nearly gave me a heart attack.
Your forehead's on fire.
Are you scared? Yes.
Me too.
Okay, the results are in.
And? - It doesn't make any sense.
- What doesn't? Barmal designed her serum to block the virus from entering human blood cells.
- So where did she go wrong? - She didn't.
That's the problem.
Her formula is correct.
I mean, chemically speaking, it should have been the cure.
Then why'd she still get sick? Because despite what this multi-million dollar supercomputer says, Dr.
Barmal missed something.
So now what? If there's someone you want to say goodbye to Now's the time.
Aren't you going to call your fiancé? He's not my fiancé.
We're not engaged.
But he proposed.
Yeah, and I never gave him an answer.
What did Barmal miss? Well Clearly this is none of my business, but seeing that this may be the last fight we ever have Look, it's not like I was hiding this from you.
No, but friends occasionally tell each other things about their lives, you know, like getting a parking ticket or jury duty or a marriage proposal.
Liam asked me a question which I haven't answered yet.
Therefore, there was nothing for me to report.
Anyway, whether or not you decide to marry Liam, you should probably call him.
You know what? Let me be clear.
I have no intention of dying.
Not like this.
So I'm not calling anybody.
Hello.
Hey, Ma.
Linus, where are you? What's wrong? Nothing.
I'm just at work.
Samir.
It's Linus from the office.
Something's wrong.
Everything is okay, Ma.
You're in trouble, aren't you? - No, baba.
- You got fired? No.
I can't call you guys just to say hello? But you said we can't call you at the office.
You can't.
Unless it's an emergency.
Benjamin, if you're there, can you pick up? Benjamin? I'm calling you to say What I want you to know is that I'm sorry that I wasn't around for you more and Are you there? Dr.
Goodkin.
Dr.
Goodkin here too.
I'm running into a meeting.
So whoever this is, kindly get to the point.
It's me, Ma.
Cameron, your son.
Nigel, it's my son.
I'll be in, in a moment.
How are you feeling, Cam? I'm fine.
I just felt like calling.
You keeping up with your medication? I'm not a kid anymore, Ma, okay? I can take care of myself.
I just wanted to say that I love you both very much.
I knew something was wrong.
So what is the problem, son? Whatever it is, we love you, and we can get through it together.
I want you to know that I'm sorry about what I said to you before you redeployed.
I do understand your responsibility to the guys more than you know.
Everything okay with your government tinker-toys or whatever it is you're working on? Do we really have to do this now? No, I suppose not.
I don't want you hanging up on me again like last time.
Look, I'm sorry about that, okay? I really am.
It's just you gave up a coveted research position at MIT, - a position of a lifetime.
- Lifetime I'm calling because I'm I'm so happy.
I love my job, and I have a great girlfriend.
And my life is amazing because of you guys.
You have a girlfriend? This is what you're trying to tell us? Yeah, Ma.
- When can we meet her? - One day soon enough.
Bring her for dinner.
I'll make chicken tikka.
Do you think you two have a future? I think we'll be together for a very long time.
Also, and this is very important, whatever happens, I don't want you to feel guilty about anything, okay? We have both always done what was expected of us.
I want you to be safe over there, okay? I love you, Ben.
I just want to know, was it worth it? Yeah.
Am I interrupting? No.
Actually, I'm glad you're here.
I have something for you.
What? Your birthday present.
This is my present? No.
This is your present.
You knew my mother? I worked with her when I was first administrating the Stitchers Program.
But she never worked at the program.
She did.
In fact, your mother was one of the original designers of our technology along with Ed.
And my father.
Kirsten, Ed and your mother were the real visionaries behind Stitchers.
- But that's not - What you were led to believe.
I know.
The reality is that your father couldn't keep up with Ed and your mother and compensated by taking credit for her work after she died.
So your birthday gift to me is to shatter what few beliefs I had about what little I can remember from my past.
Oh, you shouldn't have.
You've been asking for the truth.
Now you have it.
This is Ed's handwriting.
What does he want us to remember? After your mother died, I promised him I would look after you if something happened to him.
I think he wanted me to remember that promise.
And what does he want me to remember? Who you are.
And that your mother loved you completely.
I wish I could remember her.
All I can seem to remember is Ed.
In spite of what you think you know about him, Ed Clark cared about you.
He was one of most gentle people I ever knew.
If you felt that way, why didn't you grieve when he died? What makes you think I didn't? You're not the only one around here who has trouble showing their emotions.
Hey.
- Small sips, okay? - Thanks.
How'd it go, with your parents? It went.
Anyways, who are you thinking about calling? You know, it's a tossup between no one and nobody.
There's gotta be someone in your family you wanna call.
Your parents? No, they walked out on me when I was 16.
I haven't seen them since.
Everyone I care about is in here with me.
Okay, what time exactly did Dr.
Barmal die? Look, I know you have trouble with these kinds of things, but I think it might be good for you to say goodbye to Liam.
I did say goodbye to Liam this morning.
That's different.
You thought you were gonna see him tonight.
Protocol to inhibit deterioration was administered when exactly? So she was placed in the corpse cassette at 7:00 AM.
Stitch initiated 28 minutes after that.
- Look, all I'm saying is if you care about him - I do care about Liam.
But right now I care more about saving our asses and wasting precious time processing the emotions associated with making a phone call to my maybe/maybe not fiancé - to say a veiled goodbye will prevent me from helping to - To save our asses.
No, I get it, but here's something you need to get.
We might die and that is something you're gonna have to face sooner or later.
Okay.
I'm under the impression that dying is kind of a big deal, Kirsten.
Can we just talk about stuff we know about? I know about this.
When I was ten years old, I had heart surgery.
Remember that scar? I needed a valve replaced.
The doctor said I had less than 50% chance of living.
My parents didn't think I'd survive.
And when I did, they were very grateful.
They were very scared.
They didn't want me overexerting myself.
The playground? Forget it.
Sports? Cameron's too fragile for that.
They thought if I exerted myself, it would kill me.
So this scar is a constant reminder of how fragile life is.
And how fragile my parents thought I was.
Well, I think that you have proven them wrong several times over.
Dr.
Barmal killed herself to stop the virus spreading, right? She assumed the virus would die with her.
Yeah, and it did.
She wasn't contagious when she got here.
The lab sensors would have detected that.
Something we did activated the virus? It went live when she was in the corpse cassette.
Which is a frosty 33 degrees.
So the cold brought the virus back to life.
When they found her in her apartment, she was slumped over in a scalding shower and the heat in her apartment was cranked to the maximum.
Wait, she took a hot shower and turned up the heat to activate the serum? She thought the heat would make it work.
But she just realized it too late.
Okay, wait, how hot can we make the lab? Hot enough.
We just need the serum from Barmal's lab.
You are a genius.
- You're just getting that now? - Crank the heat.
Who are you calling? Fisher, it's me.
No, no, there's no cake yet.
We need your help.
Please tell me you're not afraid of heights.
I've never wanted to dive into the fish tank so badly.
Cooling down would defeat the purpose of what we're trying to do.
With the temperature this high, when we get the serum, it should speed up the recovery process, and in the meantime, it may prevent the virus from spreading.
- How are you doing, Tim? - I feel good.
- You're not sick? - I'm too big to fail.
Fisher.
He's here.
He's got Barmal's serum from Turner.
I'm accessing the elevator shaft now.
- Oh, crap.
- What? Our security system detected a breach at the lockdown in the elevator shaft.
_ The system isn't recognizing it's Fisher trying to save our asses.
Damn it, we're locked out of the computer.
Can't we just unplug it? I'm sorry.
- Tell Fisher to get out of here while he can before - Before what? Before all the oxygen is sucked from the elevator shaft and fills with halon gas to kill any pathogens.
This lab is really beginning to piss me off.
He has 90 seconds.
Okay, Fisher, Fisher.
Can you hear me? In less than 90 seconds, the elevator shaft is gonna fill with halon gas and you won't be able to breathe.
Fantastic.
Kirsten? Kirsten! Kirsten! - They're locked down.
- We need to force it open.
Tim! Save them.
Save yourself.
No one else is gonna die protecting me.
Oh, my God.
- It's all in here.
- I'll start with the injections.
Okay, treat the sickest first.
Good to see you, Fisher.
Well, I heard there was cake.
Soon, Fisher, soon.
- Lockdown complete.
- Okay, so it looks good.
We've scanned the lab twice and it's clean.
- The high heat wiped out the virus.
- How about my team? Clothes are being destroyed, and the disinfecting protocol has worked.
Not to mention the emergency delivery of Barmal's serum.
All of our lab work has come back clean.
There's no trace of the virus left at all.
You're cleared to leave.
Well, that was fun.
Now what? How about the rest of the day off? Thank you, Boss.
Ugh! How are you feeling? If I said lousy, would you come home and nurse me back to health? He's fine.
Thanks, Fisher.
You know, I do have a first name.
Yeah, I know.
Thanks, Fisher.
You know what, guys? Best birthday ever.