Pritti Patel

**Pritti Patel** is an ambitious but unethical reporter for the online news site *Daily Score*, who will do and say anything to be the first on a story and doesn't care who she hurts in the process.

## Summary

After the bombing of a Los Angeles Metro subway train, Pritti goes to meet her contact there to see what footage he has.

She sees an ex-con named Mike Ferro and tweets him as the prime suspect, prompting the LAPD to investigate the matter. She later pretends to be the Widow of his Parole Officer Kevin Lawson in order to see his body and discovers his Body ID Tag. She then asks a co-worker to look him up as he was the last person to talk to Mike before the explosion. Kevin reported Mike losing his Job, which Pritti believes to be the motive for the bombing.

One of Pritti's supervisors, Jerry, who's more ethical, gets angry at her for her actions and demands that she leave so he can think of how to fire her the most publicly humiliating way. However, Ridge, the news site's owner, comes in telling them that their story is being cited by every media outlet on Earth. Jerry says that they put out information that might either be right or wrong, but Ridge said he started the newspaper to make money, not to be right. He then tells Pritti that he needs to get her in front of a Camera right away. Jerry protests as she was careless and reckless and isn't ready to be the face of the story. Ridge tells Jerry to relax and worry less as Pritti's going to be interviewed anyway. Pritti is interviewed on KPIL 26 is heard by the real bomber, Colin Murphy, a mentally unstable former demolition worker who lost half of his hip when the explosive he was using detonated before it was supposed to. He sued the manufacturer of the explosive and lost because Kyle Merrick, the company's CEO hired well-paid experts to say that the explosives were safe and that Murphy handled them the wrong way. Murphy then lost his job and his wife left him and took their son with her causing him to snap. Seeking revenge, Murphy snapped and planned the explosions.

After her interview, Pritti calls her parents to see if they watched and her mother confirms that they did. Her father tells her that she has an opportunity to make her mark and not to fumble the ball and not make it like a situation from when she was younger in which she didn't get the first chair at her violin recital.

Later another explosion occurs at the Federal Court House on Temple Ave. and Mike is there too. Prior to the explosion, Murphy, who helped Mike in the subway and then called him to tell him that he knew of his innocence and to meet him at the Court House calls him again and tells him he was never part of his plan, making Mike realize that he's speaking to the real bomber. Murphy then tells Mike it'll all be over by 6 PM. Mike managed to get some of the people out of the way. Pritti shows up afterward with one of her co-workers and takes pictures of the destruction. They then go to a bong shop and asks the owner for the film from his hidden camera in the front window. She blackmails/extorts him into giving her the footage she won't run a story on how legalized marijuana spurred his illegal selling of molly. Her co-worker doesn't like her actions, but she doesn't care. She later meets Senior Detective Clay Bryce of the LAPD, who gets angry at her for messing up his investigation, giving Mike a head start and risking the lives of everyone in the city. She counters him by saying she has Footage of Mike outside the courthouse right when the bomb went off. Bryce wants to see the footage, Pritti wants him to feed her any leads, and he threatens to make something up and have in the county prison for the weekend. Her co-worker suggests that she should let Bryce see the footage, to which she relents. Bryce shows the footage to his partner Det. Sloan Womack, who has doubts about Mike, although the footage makes her believe Mike is guilty. Pritti asks Bryce for her phone back, but he just flips her off, so she takes out her other one.

Back at *Daily Score*, Ridge praises Pritti for breaking the story of what they believe to be Mike's first bombing and obtaining a video of what seems to be him Committing his second. When he asks what they do next, Pritti says she wants to investigate Mike's family. Mike's wife Allison is arrested in Chicago, supposedly for collusion, while Pritti hopes to talk to their 10-year-old daughter Pearl, to see what it's like to be raised by what she calls the "Manson Family", which Ridge finds a great idea. Jerry points out that all major media outlets have declared Pearl a no-fly zone until both parents have been arraigned and they get a better picture of the situation. He also adds that it's been very traumatic for Pearl. Ridge says it's why he hired Jerry, to keep them on the straight and narrow and declares Pearl a great angle. Pritti agrees and says she would need Jerry off her back and she wants to report directly to Ridge, who tells Jerry he can handle Pritti alone and tells him to keep going and not stop. Pritti and Ridge leave, despite Jerry knowing what the two are doing is irresponsible.

Meanwhile, Mike, after discovering details about Murphy, manages to lead Bryce and his team to his house and investigate it. Although some of the evidence shows Murphy to be the Guilty party, Bryce also believes Mike to be double-crossing someone he worked with to throw them off and that they need to play this smart and find out everything they can about Murphy. Eventually, they discover Murphy's history and locate his ex-wife and discover that he and Mike never met prior to that morning, and security Cameras recorded Mike researching Murphy. Bryce says if the two are working together, why would Mike research someone he already knows. Then he realizes that Mike is innocent and has his team reach out to the feds on Murphy. More security Camera footage shows murphy leaving the Subway prior to the bombing and wearing his sweat jacket's hood on, then taking the jacket off and throwing it in a nearby garbage pail, then walking back down to get a look at the destruction. Bryce then tells his team they need to put out an alert that Mike is no longer their target and every cop in the city needs to know that immediately. Although Womack says the public won't know that right away, Bryce tells her to get on it and announces that Murphy is their new Fugitive.

Mike and Allison are exonerated and she Calls Pearl's School, Pearl is in Principal Spitaro's office and when he answers, he then puts Pearl on with Allison who tells her that she and Mike are no longer in trouble and comments on how brave she's being. She then tells Pearl that she wants to be put on speaker. When on speaker, Allison tells Spitaro that she and Mike have been exonerated and that he can also check the LAPD or FBI's LA field office. She says that she'll be on the next flight out and that it'll take a while. Spitaro says that's fine, Pearl's safe, the Police were guarding the School and left a few minutes earlier after getting the news about Murphy. Since Mike and Allison don't have any family nearby, Spitaro and his Wife volunteer to let Pearl stay with them that night until arrangements were being made through social services. Allison says the no for social services as she will Land by Midnight and pick Pearl up. Allison demands the Police get her on the next flight to LA and that they pay for it. The Police are already into it and ask Allison why Mike might be looking into Murphy. She says that Mike told her some guy was trying to frame him. She mentions that Murphy told Mike there was gonna be one more explosion at 6 PM.

Bryce, having received the information about the new attack tells his team about it and they discover that the clue to Murphy's third target is in the file about him. Mike discovers what the Target is, the Maybeth Insurance building and he manages to disarm the bomb, seconds before it blows up. Mike then attempts to take Murphy to Bryce but is recognized and attacked by some construction workers, allowing Murphy to get away. Mike commandeers one of their pick-up trucks and calls Bryce, who asks Mike if he still has his gun, while Mike asks Bryce if he and his team went into Murphy's house. Bryce says they did and they know Mike's innocent while Murphy's guilty. Mike explains he had Murphy and he's several blocks away from the Insurance Building. Bryce said the Bomb Squad's on their way there now and Mike tells him he already defused it and to focus on Murphy. Bryce comments on research Mike was doing for Pearl and how it came in handy for them too, with Mike saying you can figure out just about anything online. Bryce says they need Mike to come down to the station as they have a lot of questions to ask him, but Mike is more focused on Pearl's safety.

As Pearl and Spitaro begin to leave the school Parking lot, Pritti shows up, asking if Spitaro and Pearl could talk to her about what happened. Spitaro says now's not a good time for it. Pritti says it'll only take a moment and if Spitaro doesn't want to talk that's fine as she really only wants to speak with Pearl. Spitaro refuses, but as he speaks, he is shot in his right shoulder by Murphy. Mike, having shown up too, tells Pearl to get down, but she's taken hostage by Murphy. Pritti gets behind a car and sees what's happening. She then tweets that Mike's innocent. Mike sympathizes with Murphy on the loss of his family as he almost went through the whole thing, but Murphy doesn't believe him. Fortunately, Mike convinces Murphy to let Pearl go and she checks on Spitaro, whose wound is non-fatal. Murphy then prepares to shoot Mike, but Bryce shoots Murphy dead and tells the team to get an Ambulance for Spitaro as Mike and Pearl re-unite. Bryce then checks on Pritti, who's clearly frightened.

The Next day, Mike meets with *Daily Score*. Ridge apologizes for everything they put him through as they were unfortunate, unprofessional, and unacceptable and he can't imagine what Mike and his family had to go through. Mike sees that Ridge is terrified of him so he cuts to the chase: he'll be suing Ridge and his company blind for slander, libel, and negligent inflection of emotional distress thanks to Pritti. Mike then tells Ridge if he wants to settle out of court, he'll have to cut two very big checks, the first one to the family of Denise Keller, his late brother's ex-girlfriend who died in the same car crash as his brother and what made mike an ex-con despite being completely innocent, the other for Ronnie Lawson, Kevin's Widow. Mike says he doesn't want Ridge's money, he just wants the company to clean up its act so it doesn't happen again. As Mike leaves, Jerry tells Ridge about how he told him that he founded *Daily Score* not to be right, but to make money, yet the company was very publicly wrong and it along with Ridge lost money, which Jerry calls a lose-lose situation. Ridge tells Priiti to clean out her desk, indicating that she's fired. Pritti protests as she tweeted it wasn't Mike, while Jerry says in about twenty years, there's a pretty decent chance she will realize how horrible she was and that it'd be growth.

It's unknown what happened to Pritti afterwards, but it's possible that due to the truth about the bombing coming out and how *Daily Score* was disgraced by her, no other news site or newspaper would hire her, while her parents disowned her.

## References

1. ↑ https://deadline.com/2019/11/tiya-sircar-lead-the-fugitive-quibi-1202772631/