The Meaning of Love

"The Meaning of Love" is the sixth episode to Chasing Seconds. It was released on October 23, 2013 and can be read here.
==Synopsis==
The episode begins with a flashback to James Zanasiu Jr's youth, where he watches his father walk to the family car and drive away in the dead of night. His mother comes into his room and tells him that she doesn't know when or why his father is leaving, but she's sure that he still loves his son. Junior asks why Dr. Zanasiu didn't come up and say so himself. Sharon has no answer.
In the present, Junior wakes up in a hospital. Doctors and nurses are both surprised he came out of his coma, and explain that it's been 2 months since Junior was stabbed. The stabber, Biff Carlo, immediately regretted his actions and have paid for Junior's medical bills to this point. Giving the false name James Hughes, Junior claims to be a non-citizen with no money and so the doctors release him without further tests. Junior hikes to a pay phone and calls Kerzach Mansion, where Malte Kerzach excitedly picks up and demands to know where Junior is.
Malte, Junior, and (to Junior's surprise) Florence Brennan meet up at a Carson City diner and his friends fill him in on what's happened the past few months.
Malte failed his finals because he became obsessed with the Einstein-Rosen bridge, and confronted his father with several incongruencies. He demanded to know why the bridge couldn't leave the Earth's surface or travel backwards in time, despite the construction not explicitly preventing such usages. Dr. Kerzach claims he, Dr. Zanasiu, and Dr. Shelton intentionally prevented such functions because they deemed humanity unready. He gives his son Shelton's notes and asks where Junior is, saying that Kerzachs never give up on their Zanasius.
Florence, meanwhile, had returned to Hughes Island and lives for a month as a Chieftess. However she quickly grew disillusioned with the lifestyle, wondering what had happened to Junior and Malte. When Johan admits he wishes he could return to his friends in the desert settlement, the two decide to leave the island together.
Malte and Florence remeet and restore their friendship. Florence convinces ROSS to come out of hiding and help them. Together, the three solve the mystery of the bridge coordinates; the earlier set was incorrect because it used the newer bridge network coordinate system. The coordinates would only work if used with a prototype bridge; and they just happen to know where one is.
The three return to Tenant's Way and Cimarron prepares a bridge for them to connect with Dr. Zanasiu's time stream. Junior and Florence jump through, and after a very brief opportunity for father and son to speak, the three arrive in an unknown time and place. With lights blinding them, a government agent wipes Dr. Zanasiu's memory, injects him with something, and pushes him back through the bridge. Once the lights turn off, the agent reveals himself as Malte, 20 years older and now working for the government. He had just invented the bridge lock; a necessary component that allowed them to lock on to the previous bridge and return passengers. This allowed them to cure Dr. Zanasiu and return him to the past.
After briefly meeting Pomson, who has shed her previous identity and is blazing her own path, Malte leads them out of the lab, excited to show them the new world.
==Characters==
*James Zanasiu Jr
*James Zanasiu
*Sharon Varma
*Biff Carlo
*Malte Kerzach
*Florence Brennan
*Yuri Kerzach
*Johan
*Cimarron
*ROSS
*Pomson
==Trivia==
*This is the second episode where Pomson has nothing to do with the main storyline. This also occurs in "The Man Who Was an Island".
* The title, like most of the other titles, has two meanings. The first could refer to the bridge mystery, as Junior is attempting to find his father and learn if his mother was right about his father loving him. Secondly, it could refer to the fact that the bridge coordinates meant nothing and were wrong, 'love' being another term for 'zero' in tennis.
Category:Chasing Seconds episodes
Category:Real-world articles