Original air date: April 11, 1998

Written by: Tony Blake & Paul Jackson

Directed by: Scott Lautanen

While Jarod investigates an airliner crash, Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots attend ahigh school reunion where they make a shocking discovery about the mysterious Mr Lyle.

Jarod’s Discoveries: Lyle’s Past

Jarod’s Occupations: NTSB Investigator

Jarod’s Aliases: Jarod

Behind the scenes insights and the Creator’s Take

Official Synopsis

Jarod investigates an airliner crash. Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots learn more about Mr. Lyle.

While waiting to board an airplane headed for San Diego, Jarod befriends Daniel Falk, an amiable All-American eighteen-year-old who is about to begin his freshman year at college.  When Daniel laments that he has been bumped from the flight, and will miss registration as a result, Jarod offers him his seat aboard the plane.  Daniel hugs the stranger and disappears down the ramp.

Meanwhile, back at the Centre, Miss Parker, Broots and Sydney puzzle over a new delivery from Jarod.  The packages consist of three half-length high school lockers, each of which contains 1983 yearbooks for Douglas High School in Nebraska.  Inside the yearbooks are tickets for the high school reunion, along with name tags.  The threesome realize Jarod expects them to attend.  They also conclude that he also believes they are somehow in danger.

Falk’s plane to San Diego crashes.  When Jarod realizes Falk was amongst the fatalities, he assumes the identity of an NTSB investigator.  He meets with two other colleagues, Clark Thomas and Diane Post, who set about sifting through the evidence in an effort to determine what caused the plane to fall from the sky.  Both pilots survived the incident, as did the airplane’s flight recorder.  Jarod tells Thomas and Post he wishes to be present when the recorder is opened.  Later, at a hospital, the threesome watch as reporters swarm Don Larson, Airista Air’s CEO, and his wheelchair-bound son, Brandon.  Brandon was one of two pilots who survived the crash.  The threesome then interview Angela Wiley, the second pilot.  But Wiley suffered a head injury, and cannot recall details of the incident.

At the high school reunion, a disgruntled Miss Parker aims her barbed tongue at the various “hayseeds” she encounters.  Later, the threesome receive another clue from Jarod.  It focuses their attention on those listed in the yearbook  as “camera shy.”  Before the evening ends, there is a tribute to two graduates who have died.  Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots realize that one of them, a man named Bobby Bowman, is, in fact, Mr. Lyle.  Coroner records indicate Bobby was murdered by his own father sixteen years earlier.  Sydney realizes Mr. Lyle, aka Bobby Bowman, faked his own murder and framed his father.  “Bobby’s” headless corpse was discovered in the bed of his father’s pickup truck.

Jarod realizes Thomas and Post opened the airplane’s flight data recorder on their own.  Evidence indicates the craft’s wing flaps were set at the wrong angle for a landing.  Since the cockpit voice recorder apparently malfunctioned, the threesome must determine which pilot is to blame.  Later, Jarod and Post interview Brandon.  Sweating profusely, he alleges that Wiley set the wing flaps.  But Jarod is deeply suspicious.  Using a computer, he determines that the voice recorder was intentionally demagnetized by persons unknown.  He later realizes that Thomas and Don Larson have conspired to keep Brandon, who had been using unauthorized prescription drugs, from taking blame for the crash.  Jarod approaches Larson with his findings, baiting him.

Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots interview Mrs. Bowman, Bobby’s mother.  It becomes quickly evident that Mrs. Bowman is “clearly daft.”  But she does reveal that one of Bobby’s closest friends, Jimmy Radloff, disappeared during a hiking trip.  Miss Parker realizes Lyle used Jimmy’s body to fake his death.  Later, the threesome interview Lyle’s father, Mr. Bowman, in his prison cell.  Mr. Bowman maintains his innocence.  He believes his son was killed by a counselor from an adoption agency.

Meanwhile, Jarod uses his computer to recover information from the cockpit recorder.  It clearly proves that Brandon was in error when he set the flaps.  Jarod confronts Brandon with the truth—and reveals that Angela Wiley is thinking of ending her own life because of the guilt.

Jarod tricks Thomas and Don Larson into boarding a plane with him, claiming there is new evidence about what caused the crash.  During the flight, Jarod suddenly bails out and parachutes to safety.  Thomas and Larson are horrified by the sight of a large mountain looming in the distance.  Using his radio, Jarod tells the pair he will save them if they admit to wrongdoing.  Thomas and Larson confess to their crime, and shortly thereafter, Jarod tells them about a toggle switch located under their seat.  Thomas pushes the switch and the airplane regains altitude.  The pair are later arrested.

Back at the Centre, Sydney concludes that Jarod sent the group to the high school reunion for one purpose: If Lyle was clever enough to fake his own death as a teenager, he is capable of doing so again.  A few moments later, Broots discovers files indicating the Centre adopted Lyle as a teenager.