Original air date: March 8, 1997

Written by: Lawrence Meyers

Directed by: Terrence O’Hara

Jarod pretends to be a cameraman in order to expose a TV reporter who may have created a dangerous situation between two gangs in order to get a good story for the nightly news.

Jarod’s Discoveries: Pizza, Basketball, Gangs

Jarod’s Occupations: News Cameraman, Acupuncturist, Cliff Jumper

Jarod’s Aliases: Jarod Crane

Behind the scenes insights and the Creator’s Take

Official Synopsis

Jarod investigates a gang shooting that cost an innocent TV cameraman the use of his arm.

As Jarod reads a newspaper story about a TV cameraman who lost the use of his arm as a result of being shot, he pokes acupuncture needles into his arm to render his own arm senseless.  A few days later, Miss Parker interviews Jarod’s recent landlord, who gives her a clipping Jarod left, about a slumlord sentenced to spend time in his own fetid building.  Meanwhile, a TV reporter, Phil, rushes to another building where a distraught man, Dave, is about to jump from the roof.  As Phil looks around for his cameraman, we see Jarod, camera in hand, on the roof, already talking Dave down.  Later, back at the TV station, the producer, Chris, congratulates Jarod on getting a terrific story, but Jarod insists the story would be even better if the editor, Annie, re-cut it to make it Phil look like the hero.  Meanwhile, Miss Parker and Sydney arrive at the now abandoned tenement, and go inside to look for Jarod.  There, however, they are jumped by two junkies, who steal their wallets and lock them in a basement room.  That night, Jarod watches a tape of a recent story Phil produced about a gang war, which shows the cameraman, Ken Watanabe, getting caught in the cross-fire and shot in the arm.  Later, Jarod goes to Ken’s house, and watches from across the street as a very depressed Ken tries to help his wife with a bag of groceries, but can’t hold on and drops the food in the street.

The next day, at the Centre, Broots gets a call from Mr. Parker, who notes his daughter is missing and orders Broots to find her.  Dave goes to the TV station to thank Jarod for saving his life, and Jarod learns Dave is an out-of-work satellite broadcast technician.  Later, Jarod asks Phil if the raw footage from the gang story is still around, but Phil says it’s all been recycled.  Meanwhile, at the tenement, Miss Parker looks for something to dress Sydney’s wound (he was shot by her gun during the scuffle with the junkies).  She pulls a drape off a wall, and discovers the building is wired with dynamite for demolition.  Meanwhile, Jarod finds Ken in a park, and asks when he is going back to work.  Ken says he can’t shoot any more with his bad arm, but Jarod tells him not to give up hope.  That night, Jarod watches more of Phil’s tapes, which show Ken expressing concern about getting in the middle of warring gangs, while Phil tells him not to worry.  Then Jarod sees the two rival gangs arrive, shots ring out, and Ken goes down, grabbing at Phil for help.  But Jarod zooms in on the tape and sees Phil was wearing a bullet-proof vest, indicating he expected trouble. Meanwhile, back at the tenement, Miss Parker suffers from her ulcer and intense nicotine withdrawal, and Sydney asks if she regrets accepting the Jarod assignment.  Jarod joins the other newsroom staff at a bar, and when someone says Ken should be there, too, Phil says Ken just paid the price for taking too many risks.

The next day, Jarod contacts Broots to find out why Sydney hasn’t been returning his e-mail. Broots says Sydney and Miss Parker are missing, and Jarod gives him the tenement address.  Back at the tenement, Miss Parker asks Sydney how her mother died, and he says he doesn’t know.  A bit later, Jarod finds some gang members playing basketball, and asks their leader, D-Mac, about the night of the shooting.  D-Mac says he got an anonymous call asking him to be interviewed about the turf wars, and he was surprised when the rival gang showed up and started shooting.  Jarod goes back to the newsroom, taps into phone company records, and confirms D-Mac’s anonymous summons came from Phil.  Back at the tenement, Sydney recalls telling Jarod about Miss Parker’s mother’s death, and he tells Miss Parker that he could have saved Jarod from his life of confinement at the Centre, but didn’t.  Back at the TV station, Jarod tells Annie that Phil set up Ken to take a bullet, and enlists her help in contriving a revenge.

Jarod calls Dave and offers him a job at the TV station, then tells Phil he has heard about another gang summit at a warehouse.  Jarod takes Phil to the warehouse, and as the gang arrives, Jarod ducks away to shoot from a catwalk up above, leaving Phil stranded on the floor with the gang members.  Of course, the gangsters quickly spot Phil, and they close in on him with guns and knives.  Meanwhile, back at the TV station, Annie ushers Chris and the station’s General Manager into a viewing room, and turns on Jarod’s live broadcast.  Then, as the gang members continue to menace Phil, Annie and Dave send the feed out live to every station in Seattle, and people all over the city watch as Phil begs for mercy, and Jarod gets him to admit that he did, indeed, set Ken up to get shot.  Then, when Phil makes the confession, the gang members back off laughing, revealing their part in Jarod’s revenge.  Meanwhile, Broots finally finds Miss Parker and Sydney at the tenement, and while paramedics tend to Sydney, Miss Parker hungrily grabs a cigarette from a nearby cop.  A few days later, Ken thanks Jarod for building him a special camera harness that allows him to shoot with just one arm…and then we see Jarod taking a new risk, jumping off a huge cliff with only a tiny parachute.