Room 101/Plot

Plot - based on Showcase recap - a work in progress

The core team meets a group of travelers, but this time they are cooperative, professional and a family. MacLaren, Carly, Marcy, Philip and Trevor meet this new team at the exact spot where their consciousnesses arrive, the winding parking lot in the middle of the afternoon. The dad, who was behind the wheel of the vehicle, almost drove it off the upper level of the lot but luckily the future arrives just in time. When the core team greet their coworkers they discover that this family of three is actually a family of four and there was meant to be a fourth traveler joining them in the body of a teenage daughter. The father, mother, and brother introduce themselves by their traveler numbers as the panicked young girl asks for an explanation about what is happening with her family and who are these random strangers. MacLaren makes eye contact with his foursome as they all realize that there was a "misfire" - one future consciousness that didn't make the trip.

MacLaren offers to escort Charlotte, the young girl, to her grandmother's house so her mom, dad and brother can save some lives in less than 48 hours. Unfortunately Charlotte was this traveler team's certified historian who appears to be responsible for tripling their funds via gambling - so they don't have enough cash to survive. Philip hands them a wad of dollar bills and tells them to put it on a particular horse in a particular race. Trevor hands off the device to the three relatives to kickstart the assignment and MacLaren heads towards his vehicle. A few minutes later, Philip, Marcy, Carly and Trevor are cruising around town in their automobile as they chat about the frightening possibility that they could have all been "misfires" themselves. Trevor tells Carly that 30% of the original wave of travelers were misfires, and then asks her if she still would have done it knowing that big risk.

Before Carly can reply a giant pick-up truck smashes into the side of the car knocking the four passengers unconscious. When Trevor and Carly wake up they are tied to wheelchairs and sitting within fenced cages in a dark room with a very wet floor. They're connected to intravenous drips for hydration and apparently catheters are disposing of those liquids for them. Carly is bleeding from a head injury, Trevor has a bad cut on his cheek and their communication devices have been removed from their necks, so they have no way to contact MacLaren. Trevor and Carly turn to see a still unconscious Marcy and Philip in cages next to them. The four travelers are being held prisoner by a mysterious someone or something.

When agent Forbes strolls into the FBI office, he is not pleased with MacLaren who missed an important court date in the morning and he isn't buying the excuse that his wife Kat needed him to pick up an antique chair for a client. MacLaren wholeheartedly apologizes but Forbes isn't buying that either and neither will the angry prosecutor who was rather upset with the agent's absence. We return to the traveler hostages to see Carly struggling to break free from her chains and a silent unnamed man entering to take unconscious Philip from his cage and into another room. Eventually Marcy comes to and whimpers in pain from whiplash. Moments later the silent unnamed man reappears and this time he wheels Carly from her cage, through the exit and into a larger space that features a retro 1990s-inspired television set. The man pushing the wheelchair sits Carly in front of the TV. A question pops up on screen that reads “Who have you told?” in all caps.

Carly calls out for clarification to the man who brought her there no reply. After "Who have you told?" flashes for a second time, and Carly proceeds to not answer, a new query appears and this one has photos. The TV asks if Carly knows who three men are, pictures of Mr. Hall, MacLaren, and Jeff. She claims to have never seen the first two but identifies the third as the father of her child. Then the question: "When are you from?" Carly plays dumb. "What are the protocols?" surfaces seconds before the screen shows the traveler another image, but this time it's a moving picture of her baby boy.

She then hysterically threatens to kill someone if her child is hurt. Marcy’s social worker, David, is also in a panic about his client not returning home the night before. He bought groceries to make the dinner of her choosing. He's so worried that he grabs hold of MacLaren’s business card given to him by MacLaren in episode one, and heads out to pay the FBI agent a visit. David, thinking that Marcy works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation because she vaguely lied about that, wants to know if the FBI is aware that Marcy is missing. MacLaren was not aware of this and is immediately concerned. He gets David to leave his number with an assistant as MacLaren attempts to reach out to this team via their communication devices. He receives no responses.

Trevor and Marcy are meditating in their shackles as Philip is rolled back into his mini-prison. He is very relieved to know that he isn't alone since he woke up from his slumber with no pals in sight. He isn't relieved though to learn that he's going through withdrawal again and suffering a great deal. MacLaren attempts to locate them by using his resources at the FBI, which his assistant finds extremely irritating. When MacLaren exits the building to do his own private search he bumps into David who’s been waiting outside and would like an update on Marcy's whereabouts. MacLaren explains that if her face shows up anywhere there's a close circuit TV camera they'll know and David should just go home. Across town, Carly is heading back into her new home aka her tiny fenced in area. Before silent unnamed dude departs she requests that he wipe the blood from her eye because it’s obstructing her vision and he obliges.

When Carly tells her colleagues about what the TV asked her, specifically "When are you from?", the team becomes distraught as they realize that the screen knows what's happening. The man reappears to get another traveler. He gives Philip a hit of heroin via his IV drip and Marcy insists that he has injected him with too much and that he'll overdose. He takes Marcy.

The TV begins the interview as it usually does. "When are you from?", etc, but then it does something unpredicted. The screen shows David receiving a call from "Marcy" informing him that she's doing okay and he needs not worry. This is followed by footage of a very high Philip being shot to death, the shock of which gives her a violent seizure. She soon discovers though that it was an illusion because the real Philip remains in his wheelchair as he rambles on about the bleak future. A time when you could taste metal in the air and the drinking water had been recycled so many times it could never be made pure again. His rambling reveals that the second dose of heroin he received wasn't heroin. It was a strange concoction designed for someone who has been modified to be a historian and it's resulting in memories pouring in like a flood. Memories like Shelter 41 collapsing and killing thousands, seconds after an alarm bell rang.

All Philip provides them with is a collection of famous quotes. Trevor is no use to them either. He spends his time in front of the TV cracking jokes and being as difficult as possible. MacLaren is making progress. His assistant locates the car that the travelers were in when the truck crashed into them. It's in a junkyard. MacLaren learns that the airbags did go off so there's hope that his travelers are still alive somewhere. He progresses even further when he meets up with Officer Boyd, a traveler, at the police station where she works. Although he is breaking protocol again by speaking with her she's more sympathetic this time, since his entire team has disappeared. She suggests that maybe The Director took them out and reminds him that the future holds the power. Boyd does offer to back him up if and when and hopefully he sniffs them out.

The traveler disappearance halts the mission that MacLaren was supposed to accomplish with the family members he met at the beginning of the episode. He meets the dad, mom and son travelers on a rooftop to inform them that the plan will not be moving forward. This means that hundreds of people will die, possibly including Carly, Marcy, Trevor and Philip if they don't find an escape route real soon. Luckily, Carly has an idea. When Marcy is placed back in her cage Carly launches into step one of her scheme which involves requesting again that the silent unnamed dude wipe the blood from her eye. When he reaches in to do so through a hole in the fence, she bites hard onto his arm. So hard in fact that blood begins to spill and spill and spill from his veins. She continues sinking her teeth into his skin until he is lying on the ground, no longer breathing.

Carly executes her violent attack just in time too. As she's doing so, MacLaren simultaneously pinpoints the exact location of his team. He goes charging in, guns ablaze with officer Boyd by his side and stumbles upon the once more unconscious travelers and the dead man. He releases them from their prisons and holds a weak Carly in his arms, she is heartbroken to learn that the mission did not go forward. She suspects that preventing the mission was why the travelers were captured.