Fire in the Hole

**Fire in the Hole**is the eighth episode of Season 1 of Stitchers. It aired on July 21, 2015.

## Synopsis

It’s Kirsten’s birthday and the Stitchers team is assigned to look into a disease researcher’s suicide. When the body begins showing signs that it is carrying a deadly virus, the whole lab is placed under quarantine. The team jumps to action as they search for a way out, racing against the clock as, one-by-one, they come down with symptoms of exposure.

## Summary

Stitchers begins with Kirsten heading down into the lab. She finds alarms blaring and red lights flashing. It looks like a disaster. She asks what’s up and Cameron says they need her help. He runs her into another room and down a hall – he says they’re running out of time. It’s a surprise party for her birthday. Everyone is there even Maggie and Camille. They have two brains on her cake connected by lights. Kirsten says surprise anything doesn’t work on her.Camille says at least there’s cake then Maggie hears an alert that means they have a case. Camille and Linus each grab a brain and dig into it. Anna Barmul, a lead researcher at a local facility, killed herself. She left directions to have her body cremated within 24 hours and her ashes sent to her family back in India. Camille doesn’t like that Anna worked with deadly viruses. Maggie says she heat in her place was cranked up and she died in a scalding shower of an apparent suicide.
Camille asks about the proposal and Kirsten says she wants to think about it and asks her not to tell anyone else. Kirsten realizes her comms mic was on and the guys overhear. Cameron says to tell her in person once she decides not over an open channel. They set up the stitch. Fisher is there chatting with Maggie but he says he can’t tell her what it was about. He goes to leave and says to call if there will be more cake later. They start the stitch clearance.Then Kirsten goes into the stitch. She’s in Anna’s lab and says she’s looking into a microscope. Camille asks how she’s dressed and Kirsten says it’s bio-hazard gear. Cameron is worried about the body in the lab and Maggie says non-essential personnel should exit now. They clear the lab down to the minimum. Kirsten sees Anna put something in a syringe then pops off her mask, gloves and bio-suit. Then Anna injects herself with whatever it was.

Maggie says to look for markings on the syringe. She reads off the sample lot number that ends in 1803. Then another shot that ends in x9. She infected herself with Spanish Flu. She then runs a blood test and reads the results and doesn’t look happy. Then they hear a noise in the lab and Cameron tells Kirsten to bounce now. Linus says the sensors picked up something. Maggie breaks glass and hits an alarm that puts the lab into shutdown.Kirsten says Anna infected herself with a virus and her dead body just went symptomatic. Camille says the CDC shows that she was close to developing a new virus that would kill within hours. Maggie says they don’t know if the infection has spread beyond the corpse. They ask Alex about the seal on the corpse cassette. Kirsten says Anna thought she found a cure so she tested it on herself. Maggie video chats Les and chastises him for sending an infected sample.She asks him to reach out to Anna’s people and he says he can’t tell them about what happened and she tells him what to look for in Anna’s lab. He says to put Kirsten in isolation to increase her odds of survival. He ends the call and Maggie doesn’t think Kirsten will go for it.

They’re sealing up the corpse cassette more and Kirsten says to stitch her back in so she can pull the cure formulas from her head and they they can use their quantum computers to try and solve it.Cameron wonders what the symptoms will do to Anna’s brain. Kirsten says it’s her birthday and she can stitch if she wants to and tells Maggie she won’t go into isolation. They stitch her back into Anna. She says the virus is making things funky and says the walls are kind of blurry and throbbing like when you have a fever. She touches the microscope and Anna
appears. She says she’s working but isn’t happy and tells them to move her forward in time. Anna sketches out a formula. They tell her to bounce but she says she has to write this down. She looks at it once Anna is done then bounces. She starts drawing out what she saw. She asks if makes sense. Cameron jokes and then Linus hangs his head. His head looks sweaty. Camille says he’s warm and Ayo checks his temp – he’s feverish. She says – it’s beginning. Ayo says he’s got the symptoms and says his blood pressure is dropping. She says next is bleeding in the eyes. Linus is freaked out.

Cameron says the chance they’re all infected is about 98%. Tim says he’ll panic in his own way and has a snack. They need a pre-symptomatic sample of her blood and Ayo says she took one on Anna before the symptoms kicked in. She goes to get it from the medical bay but her password won’t work. Maggie can’t get in either – it’s part of the protocol. Maggie tries to use a voice override but it’s denied. Kirsten spots an access panel in the lab and Linus says there is a culvert that goes through.It has to be someone only 18” wide since it narrows. Kirsten starts showing a fever and Camille says that means it’s her in the tunnel. Maggie asks how she feels and Camille says like crawling through 100 feet of drainage tunnel. Cameron shows her how to get there and gives her a comms link. Maggie says once she’s in she can open the door from the inside and let Ayo in. Liam calls Kirsten who asks to talk to him later and says she’s going through something.Cameron also looks sweaty and begins to cough. Camille creeps through the tunnel saying it’s the third worst thing she’s ever done. It narrows and she says she’s ruining her t-shirt. She tells Maggie she wants hazard pay. She gasps and stops. She squeals and starts to freak. Kirsten asks what it is and Camille says it’s a rat. Kirsten says that’s all. Camille says two things scare her – rats and scary backs. It climbs on her and she freaks.Kirsten says she’s carrying a virus that could kill all mankind so she’s creepier than the rat. Kirsten tells her to do it for Linus.

The rat climbs down onto her back and Camille is ready to move on. Kirsten tells her to keep moving. The rat goes along for the ride. It gets off her back and they tell her she’s under the medical bay and to look for the access panel. She’s in and they see her through the window. She runs to let them in. Ayo says she needs 35 minutes to run the test and Maggie says to hurry.Cameron sets the computer up to run the calculations and says maybe Anna was close and the computer could point them to a cure. Kirsten says maybe she was on the right track. Linus is hacking and coughing in the conference room and Camille comes to check on him. She says he looks bad and he says she’s not looking good either. She jokes and says she may be coming down with something. She offers comfort and he leans into her and she wraps him up in her arms. He says it’s nice.He says it would be nicer if there wasn’t rat poop on her shirt then says he’s kidding. Cameron says the computer is done but says it made no since. He says her formula is correct and the formula should be the cure. Maggie says Anna must have missed something. Maggie tells them to say their goodbyes to their loved ones before it gets worse. Cameron asks Kirsten if she’s going to call Liam and she says she never gave him an answer. She’s focused on the problem at hand.

Cameron says since it may be their last fight and talks to her about the proposal. He says even if she doesn’t want to marry Liam she should call him. Kirsten says she doesn’t plan on dying so doesn’t need to make the call. Linus calls his mom and she asks what’s wrong. Her husband comes over and she tells his dad something is wrong. They ask if he got fired or is in trouble. Maggie calls Benjamin but gets voice mail. She leaves a message saying she’s sorry she wasn’t around for him more. Cameron calls his mother who is brisk and sort of rude. She asks how he’s feeling and he says fine. He says he felt like calling. She asks if he’s keeping up with his medication. Linus tells his parents he loves them and his mother says she knew something was wrong. His dad says he loves them and they can fix it. Maggie tells Benjamin she’s sorry for what she said before he deployed. Cameron’s mom criticizes his job and for him giving up the job of a lifetime at MIT.Linus tells his parents he loves his job and has a great GF and it’s all because of them. His mother is happy and interested. His dad wants to meet her and his mom says to bring her to dinner. His mom asks if they have a future and he says he thinks they’ll be together a very long time. Maggie tells Benjamin no matter what happens, not to feel guilty and says they each do what they have to and tells him to be safe and says she loves him. She ends the call. Cameron’s mom asks if it was worth it. He looks at Kirsten and says yeah. Kirsten comes out to speak to Maggie who looks upset. Maggie tells her she has something for her and pulls an envelope out of her desk. She says it’s a birthday present and hands her a copy of the torn photo and the missing piece. It’s Maggie and she says she worked with her mother when they were first starting the stitchers program and says her mother helped design their tech along with Ed.
Maggie says Ed and her mother were the real visionaries behind stitchers.

Maggie says her father couldn’t keep up with them and took credit for her mother’s work after she died. Kirsten says her gift is to shatter what little she can remember about her past. Maggie reminds her she’s been asking for the truth and says now she has it. She flips the photo and asks what Ed wants them to remember. Maggie says she promised to look after Kirsten after he died and wanted her to remember that.Maggie tells her that her mother loved her completely and Maggie says she wish she could remember her. Maggie says Ed was a gentle man and cared greatly for Kirsten who asks why Maggie didn’t grieve when Ed died. Maggie says Kirsten isn’t the only one who struggles to show her emotions. Camille asks Linus about how it went with his parents. He says okay. He asks if Camille has someone to call but she says no – her parents walked out on her when she was 16. She says everyone she cares about is in here with her. Kirsten and Cameron go over some data. Cameron tells her to say goodbye to Liam but she says she did when she left for work. She wants to know the timing of all the events that happened with Anna’s body. Kirsten says she cares about Liam but cares more about saving their asses. Cameron says they may die and it’s kind of a big deal. He slaps the computer shirt and says he had heart surgery at 10 and almost didn’t survive. He says his parents over-protected him from everything about it. He says the scar is a constant reminder of how fragile life is and how fragile his parents thought he was. Kristen says he has proved them wrong several times over. She has a notion and asks if Anna killed herself to stop the virus form spreading. They wonder what activated the virus and decide it was the cold. They realize heat would make the serum work. Kirsten hugs him and says he’s a genius.She calls Fisher and says they need his help and asks if he’s afraid of heights. They need the serum from Anna’s lab and they have to crank the heat up in their lab. They crank up the heat in the lab to more than 110 and Kirsten says it can prevent the virus from spreading. Fisher is there with the serum but the elevator won’t come because of the shut down. He opens the elevator shaft doors and prepares to climb down.

Cameron notices this sets off another security alert. Cameron says they are now locked out of the computer. The oxygen will be sucked out of the elevator shaft soon and it will fill with halon gas to kill the pathogen. Kirsten tells Fisher has 90 seconds and he speeds up his descent. Kirsten then goes running for the door. She tries to pry it open. Fisher hits the elevator as the gas starts pouring in. They call Tim over to muscle the doors open. Fisher is trying to get into the elevator and struggles. He passes out but then Kirsten grabs him.She says no one else will die protecting her and pulls him into the elevator. Ayo grabs the serum and starts injecting people. Fisher jokes that he heard there was cake. Ayo says it looks good and they wiped out the virus. They are all cleared to leave. Maggie says they can have the rest of the day off. Linus asks if Camille wants to come home and nurse him back to health. Kirsten thanks Fisher. They all pile into the elevator and Kirsten says best birthday ever.

## Title and Background

"Fire in the hole" is a warning that an explosive detonation in a confined space is imminent.

## Episode's Cast

**Starring:**

* Emma Ishta **as**Kirsten Clark
* Kyle Harris **as** Cameron Goodkin
* Salli Richardson-Whitfield **as** Maggie Baptiste
* Ritesh Rajan **as** Linus Ahluwalia
* Allison Scagliotti **as** Camille Engelson

**Guest Starring:**

* **Sola Bamis asAyo**
* **Damon Dayoub as Quincy Fisher**

## Trivia

* This week's episode soundtrack was confirmed by tunefind.(Source)
* The recap was provided by the website: Celeb Dirty Laundry.(Source)

## Gallery

### Promotional

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### Behind the Scenes

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### Screencaps

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