Episode Summary
The murder of a professional blackmailer, an appeal by the victim's sister and evidence linking the crime to FBI Assistant Director Skinner cause the Gunmen to question what's a lie and what's really the truth.
Episode Details
- Writer: Nandi Bowe
- Director: Richard Compton
- Original Broadcast: US: 04.05.2001
Cast
- Frohike Tom Braidwood
- Langly Dean Haglund
- Byers Bruce Harwood
- Yves Zuleikha Robinson
- Jimmy Stephen Snedden
Guest Cast
- Waiter Lawrence Cotton
- Agent Larry Rose Tony Denison
- Carol Strode Catherine Dent
- Bartender Glenn Ennis
- Mrs Rose Maria Louisa Figura
- FBI Guard Jano Frandsen
- Goon Raoul Ganeev
- Angry Guy Kim Kondrashoff
- Jeff Strode Robert Lewis
- Ara Frumin Peter J Lucas
- First Guest Angela Piette
- Assistant Director Walter Skinner Mitch Pileggi
- Tow Truck Driver Frederick Pleasure II
- Mr Memory Robert Rozen
- Second Guest James Tsai
Quotes
Agent Rose: Ara, the traffic.
Ara Frumin: You nearly missed this guy. [Mr Memory] Kills me. He knows all these crazy little facts. Who's your friend? He's been asking about you.
Agent Rose: Excuse me.
[He leaves the table and joins the man at the bar]
Jeff Strode: You're not as pasty as your DMV photo. So, going to buy me another Jack and Coke, Larry.
Agent Rose: It's Mr Rose. You don't know me well enough for anything else.
Jeff Strode: Oh, I sort of do. I know things about you that your wife doesn't know, that's for sure. I'm like Mr Memory, this big head full of facts.
Agent Rose: $2000?
Jeff Strode: Yeah, two grand. So, we going to do this or what?
Agent Rose: Count to ten, than follow me.
[Agent Rose heads for the men's room, ten seconds later Jeff Strode follows]
Jeff Strode: Hey, Larry Rose?
[There's no sign of Agent Rose in the men's room, there is, however, a very pissed off Skinner]
Skinner: You son of a bitch.
[Two shots ring out]
Jimmy: [narration] I've got this theory. Back when I was playing the game that is god's gift to Monday night... football, they made me where a helmet. Nobody could see my face inside it, but if I didn't wear it I could have gotten... brain damage. I think that everyone goes through life wearing this like invisible football helmet. We need it to protect ourselves, but that means that other people never really see our true face. So, you got to figure that everybody's always got this part of them that's hidden, me included. And that's where this whole story started.
[The Lone Gunman headline]
Lick It, Stick It And Trip, CAA coats postage stamps with LSD
Frohike: Oh yeah. This one is going to win us the Pulitzer.
Langly: Jimmy, we need your cheque.
Jimmy: Allied Printing And Litho?
Langly: Yeah, $1,381.
Jimmy: Price went up, huh?
Langly: Yeah, a little. Cost of newsprint they said. Sorry.
Frohike: Hey, man, thanks, as always.
Langly: Yeah, you're a real lifesaver. Drive fast, the red light's for chumps.
Jimmy: Hey, where's Byers? He normally comes with me.
Frohike: Hell if I know, I didn't hear him go out this morning.
Langly: I never heard him come home last night. I don't think he did.
Frohike: What do you figure? A girl?
[They all laugh]
Langly: Yeah, right. Byers.
[Jimmy's black Thunderbird is on the back of a tow truck]
Jimmy: Hey, what are you doing?
Tow Truck Driver: Repossession for non-payment. This says I can take it.
[He hands Jimmy some paperwork]
Jimmy: Come on, I only missed like —
Tow Truck Driver: Sorry, talk to the bank.
[He drives away as Byers pulls up in the Lone Gunmobile]
Jimmy: Hey, Byers.
Byers: Jimmy. I'd like you to meet somebody. Jimmy Bond, Carol Strode. We're going to help her catch a murderer.
Frohike: That's terrible.
Langly: Yeah, really terrible.
Carol Strode: My brother and I were estranged for the past couple years, that's what makes it even harder.
Byers: It happened four days ago at a Delaware night club. He'd been shot.
Frohike: I'm really sorry to hear it.
Langly: Yeah, I'm even sorrier.
Carol Strode: The police have no suspects, or motives. And this thing that happened to Jeff's body...
Byers: He was cremated by accident. A coroner's error.
Carol Strode: I never even got to see him.
Langly: So, then you called Byers?
Frohike: How do you two know each other?
Carol Strode: We knew each other in college. My brother, Jeff, was John's room mate.
Frohike: Oh. Sorry, Byers.
Byers: At any rate, the case has taken some odd turns, the latest of which is this. It's an email carol received yesterday. It's from Jeff.
Jimmy: Jeff, who died four days ago, Jeff?
Langly: He programmed his computer to send it post-mortem. Heavy.
Frohike: [reading] Carol. If you're reading this, I'm dead. In all likelihood I've been murdered, owing to the huge number of people I've pissed off in the past few years.
[The message continues]
Big surprise, huh?
Frohike: [reading] The web site below will reveal the identity of my killer.
[The message continues]
www.JD313.com
Byers: I've already tried to access the site, the server's been completely wiped.
Langly: Which means, somebody is covering up evidence.
[The Lone Gunmen take Carol Strode to the Tamarind Club and investigate the men's room where Jeff Strode died]
Frohike: Oh, my eyes are burning.
Langly: Oh man, what died in here? Oh, sorry. That didn't come out right.
Byers: Maybe we should...
Carol Strode: Yeah. There's nothing here. I don't know what I was expecting.
[Mr Memory exits one of the stalls]
Jimmy: Oh man, Mr Memory!
Mr Memory: No dressing room and no dignity.
Jimmy: Dude, you rock! I caught your act once. Hey, do you remember me?
Mr Memory: Cerveza Sammy's... Hicksville, Long Island... April 4, 1999, 8 o'clock show. You had a bunch of blind guys with you.
Jimmy: I asked you three questions.
Mr Memory: Completed passes thrown by Joe Nameth, 72 season, 162.
Jimmy: On the money.
Mr Memory: Total number of episodes of the TV series
The Man From Atlantis
starring Patrick Duffy, 17.
Jimmy: You're the king.
Mr Memory: Yeah, and, oh yeah, who would win in a fair fight: Han Solo or Indiana Jones?
Jimmy: You never got that one.
Carol Strode: Sir, what can you tell us about this man?
[She shows a photo of Jeff Strode]
Mr Memory: He got murdered here. That's all I know about it. Really.
Jimmy: Can I see that again? Where'd you get those glasses?
Mr Memory: I don't recall. All right, I found them behind the john. So what?
Carol Strode: Those are Jeff's glasses.
Frohike: Yeah, they are. And what glasses.
[There is a wire extending from one ear stem]
Larry Rose: It's your turn.
Mrs Rose: Oh no, it's your turn. From now on.
Larry Rose: This stupid dog. It makes with the brown Play Doh every ten feet.
Skinner: I know the feeling. Cleaning up someone else's mess.
Larry Rose: Again I apologise. It won't happen again.
Skinner: Damn right it won't. Now what do we know about Frumin.
Larry Rose: He hasn't contacted me since. That's his thing, he's cautious. Don't worry, he'll come around.
Skinner: He'd better. By the way, I'm taking your computer, and I'm shutting off your internet service.
Larry Rose: Why?
Mrs Rose: Because you can't keep it in your pants, Casanova.
Carol Strode: This is actually a camera?
Frohike: That's right. Fibre optic lens, single chip pickup, your brother Jeff knew what he was doing. This whole thing is a tiny video camera, tuned into the cellular phone spectrum. Luckily for us, my great skill enabled me to run down the specific number matched to this frequency.
Langly: After which, owing to a little quasi legal hack by yours truly, voila, we got an address to go with the phone number.
Frohike: It's technical.
Byers: Guys, the dockmaster recognised Jeff's face, but not his name. He knew him as Jack Johnson.
Langly: The same name on the cell billing.
Jimmy: But why would your brother have an alias?
Langly: Bingo.
[Langly gets to work on the computer]
Byers: He paid the rent in cash. It hardly looks like he lived here.
Carol Strode: I can't believe he did.
Langly: The web address your brother left, this was the server where it lived, and lives no more.
Frohike: The hard drive's been reformatted.
Carol Strode: So this is just another dead end?
Jimmy: Guys, this blinking light here? What is it?
Frohike: Jimmy, if we've got to stop every time you see a blinking light...
Byers: Yeah, he's right. What is it?
Langly: Oh, that's attractive.
[Frohike is kneeling in the floor to take a look at the blinking light behind the vent grille]
Frohike: Enjoy the view, but I think Jimmy's on to something. It's a backup CPU. On a line of sight to the first one.
Langly: It's IR-slaved to it.
Carol Strode: And in English, that means...?
Byers: It's like a TV remote. So that whatever was on that computer...
Jimmy: Is still on this one.
Carol Strode: Dirty Laundry
? What are these?
Frohike: It's a whole lot of thumbnails — compressed video files.
Langly: This must be the footage of Jeff's video glasses.
Jimmy: Who's the guy?
Byers: Jeff just took a payoff.
Carol Strode: Jeff was blackmailing these people.
Byers: He would actually do that?
Carol Strode: I've never in my life known anyone nosier. He loved knowing other people's secrets, I just never thought he'd go so far as to profit from it.
Langly: Well that explains the video glasses. People get cheesed off when you shake them down, a smart guy would want to take along some insurance.
Frohike: There must be a file dated the day of Jeff's murder.
Langly: Yeah, here it is.
Byers: It's the bathroom of the club. Run that back, frame by frame.
Frohike: Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
Langly: Yeah, the murderer's Skinner.
[The Lone Gunman headline]
FBI Director Implicated In Murder, Videotape marks suspect
Frohike: I say we publish it.
[Byers rips the page in half]
Langly: Byers, we've got him on video. It's a slam dunk.
Byers: We've got a glimpse of him, after which the image goes dead, and we've got nothing. We never see a gun, nor do we see him pull a trigger.
Frohike: An Assistant Director of the FBI is alone in a men's washroom with a guy who's found murdered two minutes later. I know the man — I don't like it any more than you do — but put two and two together, why don't you?
Byers: I am and I'm not getting four.
Carol Strode: Regardless of what you print, don't you think that we should go to the police with this information?
Frohike: This man is the police.
Langly: He's the boss of a couple of friends of ours at the FBI.
Frohike: We don't know how high or how wide this thing goes.
Byers: You're making my point for me — we don't know.
[He walks away]
Frohike: Byers.
[Frohike follows Byers to his bedroom] Byers. What's up with you, Byers?
Byers: What's up with me? Nothing. That one didn't breathe well. It's a wool-poly blend.
[He's changing suit jackets]
Frohike: Uh huh.
Byers: Poor choice for this weather.
Frohike: Yeah, I was going to say. Walter Skinner isn't the only one with secrets. Is that what's eating you?
Byers: What are you taking about? I don't have any secrets.
Frohike: I'm talking about Jeff, Byers. Your college room mate turns out to be a high-tech blackmailing scum bucket, god rest his soul. What did you think I was talking about? My point being; could that be why you don't want to go with this story, because of what it will do to Carol, her family?
Byers: Jeff Strode could turn out to be Hitler Junior and I'd run it front page, across the fold — if I knew it to be true. We may look to all the world like the
National Enquirer
, but we're going to operate like the New York Times
or else I don't want to be here.
Frohike: Hey, you're preaching to the choir.
Byers: I know.
[The door buzzes, Yves has arrived. Byers and Frohike rejoin the group]
Jimmy: Guys.
Yves: You must be Carol.
Carol Strode: It's good to meet you.
Yves: Likewise. Nice handshake. Take a lesson, boys.
Langly: Byers, what do we need her for?
Yves: Because you're in way past your depth, as always. At least that one of you has the sense to admit it.
Byers: Thanks, Yves. I think.
Yves: I reviewed the thumbnail you emailed me. You were right, Byers. There is more to this story.
[She runs the video on the computer] I assume this man was the intended blackmail victim the night of the murder.
Byers: Do you recognise him?
Yves: No. But certainly recognise the man he's sitting with. Ara Frumin, a Russian mob boss.
Frohike: Well, what's he into?
Yves: Anything and everything. He's very smart, very careful, he keeps a low profile. But he'll kill without compunction if it's in his interests to do so.
Carol Strode: What does the Russian Mafia have to do with this FBI man, Skinner?
Yves: Frumin has half the Moscow police force on his payroll. Could be he's done just as well for himself here as in the states.
Byers: As in Skinner is working for him? I don't buy it.
Jimmy: This guy walks into the bathroom the same time your guy Skinner must be there, then they both disappear. That means they work together, right?
Byers: Whoever this man is, he's the key to it all?
Agent Rose: So, I guess I owe you an explanation.
Ara Frumin: You do. You shot a man in my favourite club. It could mean trouble for me. Attention.
Agent Rose: I apologise. It was hot headed.
Ara Frumin: Who was he?
Agent Rose: If you read his name in the newspaper, you know as much about him as I do. Computer hacker. He tried to blackmail me. Don't ask me what for.
Ara Frumin: He knew you had a mistress and he threatened to tell your wife. I don't leave anything to chance. The good news for you is... a man with secrets, is a man I can trust.
Agent Rose: I don't exactly follow your logic there, but whatever. Just so we're in business.
Ara Frumin: It's looking pretty good. Hey, will I get a chance to meet your wife?
Agent Rose: Why?
Ara Frumin: Any woman who scares you more than the cops, I got to say, I'm intrigued.
Jimmy: [narration] Your typical dedicated investigative journalist is like a really strong offensive line. They're just going to plough right through, no matter where it takes them. That's how the guys wound up shadowing this Walter Skinner. They picked up his trail outside FBI headquarters in Washington DC and tailed him all the way to Delaware. They figured whatever he was up to, they'd catch him in the act.
Byers: Carol, I'd like you to wait here.
Frohike: This kind of covert operation requires a lot of training.
Langly: But in case you feel left out, I borrowed the ear stem from your brother's glasses and attached it to mine. Now you can watch everything I do... We do.
Carol Strode: Be careful.
Jimmy: [narration] Sure enough, Skinner was on his way to a secret meeting, with his mystery man.
[The Lone Gunmen eavesdrop on Skinner and Agent Rose, while Agent Rose's dog Flash molests Langly's leg] But what the guys didn't know, was that the mystery man had been followed too.
[Carol Strode follows the new arrivals]
[The meeting breaks up]
Byers: I say we follow our mystery man.
Skinner: Hey, what are you three doing here?
Jimmy: Still no answer. The guys never go this long without checking in. I mean, ever since that little kitchen fire that I started, it's been like every hour on the hour.
Yves: I've run every emergency room in the city, they been admitted to none of them. Nor have they been arrested by the Wilmington police.
Jimmy: Wait, what about the Mobile Command Post? Is there any way that we can trace it?
Yves: I'm sorry, the Mobile...?
Jimmy: VW bus.
Yves: Oh, the clown car. Good call. You're in luck. The Mobile Command Post was impounded less than an hour ago for being parked in front of a fire hydrant. Banning Park, just outside Wilmington.
Jimmy: What were they doing there?
[There is a pounding on the door. CCTV shows their unexpected guests to be an FBI SWAT team, Jimmy and Yves hide]
[Skinner shows the Lone Gunmen their headline about him]
Skinner: Photo's not very flattering. Of course, I'm wondering where you got it.
Frohike: Why should we tell you?
Langly: Yeah, you're only going to kill us like you killed Byers' old room mate.
[Skinner leaves] Oh crap, did I say the wrong thing? Oh, oh, he's going to get a tarp. A waterproof tarp. I've seen this in the movies.
Frohike: Shut up.
[Skinner returns with a very alive Jeff Strode]
Byers: Oh my god.
Frohike: It's Jeff, he's alive. You didn't kill him.
Skinner: Sit down. All of you.
Jeff Strode: Byers. Right?
Langly: I thought you two roomed together.
Byers: Mr Skinner, would you please explain what is going on?
Skinner: You three are interfering with an FBI sting operation. That's what's going on. You put an undercover operative in danger.
Frohike: Oh, the guy with the dog.
Byers: Well, unfortunately, we were investigating this man's murder.
[to Jeff Strode] Just know whatever it is you've going on here, you put your sister Carol through hell.
Jeff Strode: It wasn't my idea. The man didn't give me much choice. I couldn't freaking believe it. I'm cruising the internet and I come across this rich import guy who's married and having this chat room fling. It turns out he's undercover FBI, his
wife
is undercover FBI, and chick he's fooling around with on the computer is his actual wife in real life. How messed up is that?
Frohike: What is this operation of yours?
Jeff Strode: Plutonium, can you believe it? Post Cold War ICBM salvage. Some Russian dude is ready and willing to sell.
Byers: Frumin. You faked Jeff's murder to keep the deal alive.
Skinner: To make the best of a bad situation. And to buy my agent some credibility. Only now, I don't know where my agent is. I was so busy with the three of you in the park that I missed it completely. Witnesses saw him leave with Frumin and a woman.
Byers: A woman.
Frohike: Carol?
Jimmy: [narration] So basically, they completely screwed up this big deal FBI operation and put Carol in danger. Meanwhile, Yves and I weren't exactly dancing the end zone ourselves.
Jimmy: There's no sign of the guys at that park or anywhere else. It's obvious that guy Skinner must have them.
Yves: It is not obvious he's harmed them. At least not yet.
Jimmy: I just wish we knew where there were. If only there was some way that they could contact us.
[They walk back to the office as a monitor in the Lone Gunmobile turns on and shows Langly mouthing a message]
Langly: [on videoglasses] We are in custody. Frumin has Carol.
Jeff Strode: What the hell are you doing? Wait a minute, those are my video glasses. What did you do to them?
Langly: Byers, can you talk to your whiny little blackmailer here?
Byers: Leave him alone. We're all trying to help Carol.
Frohike: Come on, Langly. Keep trying.
Langly: [on videoglasses] FBI safe house. Minquadale, Delaware. We are in custody.
[Skinner returns, Langly polishes his glasses as cover]
Skinner: My agent was released and just got word to us. Carol Strode is fine, however, Frumin is holding her as collateral.
Byers: So you're going to get her?
Skinner: Tonight. No, the deal goes down tonight. I can't do anything to jeopardise that. We're talking about a six pound pit of plutonium the size of a tennis ball. In the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, it can kill 100,000 people. Now I'm sorry, but that's my first priority. Hey, we'll get her.
[He leaves]
Jeff Strode: Here's what I want to know; Carol, honest to god, came to you three for help? What the hell was he thinking?
Byers: Us? You're the reason he's in this mess.
Frohike: Byers, what's with the
he
?
Jeff Strode: What, they don't know? My sister Carol, my buddy here knew him back when he was Carl. They were room mates in college. Yeah, and you two were thinking damsel in distress, right?
Jimmy: [narration] The thing of it is, the damsel was in distress — even more than they knew. Because no one by the name of Carol Strode had ever been born on the birthday given by her drivers licence. And the Russian, who left nothing to chance, was definitely keeping his play book a secret.
Jimmy: They're dead, aren't they? We got to face the facts, right? This man Skinner, he's into something big with some Russian mobster. You said so yourself. He's got the entire FBI behind him. What chance did our guys ever have?
Yves: I don't know what to say.
Jimmy: I do. I say we nail him, we get the proof. It's what my friends would want.
Byers: Agent, please, you have to get word to Assistant Director Skinner for me.
FBI Guard: Go back and watch TV or something. Try and relax.
Byers: You people are putting my friend in danger. She has a secret, if they know it they might harm her.
[The guard closes the door]
Langly: You know, you should have told us about Carol, Byers. You misled us.
Byers: I did, and I apologise. But it wasn't germane to the case.
Langly: Well it's sure as hell is germane now. If this guy, Frumin, looks into her background and finds inconsistencies, there's no telling how this thing will play out.
Frohike: That's why you were acting so squirly, isn't it? You were protecting her.
Byers: Somebody has to, her own brother wouldn't.
[to Jeff Strode] She came to you in confidence when she was thinking about doing... what she did. You told everybody.
Jeff Strode: And why not? My brother suddenly becomes my sister. That's a secret that just won't keep. People are going to figure that one out on their own.
Byers: You made it that much harder for her to go through with it. You made her have to explain things before she was ready. No wonder she wants nothing to do with you.
[to Langly] I take it back, I don't apologise for not telling you. Everybody deserves his privacy.
Langly: Well, I guess I was freaked out because... she is kind of hot. I mean, is that wrong.
Byers: We can't just sit here and wait for this sting to go down. Carol's in danger, we have to get out of here.
Frohike: You know, I could probably pry that mesh off if big brother [the camera] wasn't watching.
Jeff Strode: I might have an idea.
Skinner: Okay, one counter cheque drawn on the Bank Reserve for $1,000,000. I don't have to tell you not to lose it. You don't give them that cheque until you know the exact location of the merchandise. Once you do, allow them to leave, we'll take them down outside where we can assure everyone's safety.
Agent Rose: And if all goes wrong?
Skinner: I can't wire you up. We'd risk them picking up the RF. But I've got a man at the bar, if you get into trouble, order a rum and Coke. That'll be our signal. Okay, rum and Coke.
Yves: Well, well, our mystery man. Perhaps tonight we'll catch three conspirators for the price of two.
Skinner: Sounds good to me. Man, do I want to bust these dudes.
[Yves hands Jimmy a retainer so he will sound as well as look like Skinner]
Yves: Say something. Testing. One, two, three.
Skinner: Testing. One, two, three. This is Walter freaking Skinner of the FBI and I am going to prison big time. Oh yeah, I am going down.
Yves: Ah, you're not going to talk to them like that are you?
Skinner: Trust me, I'm all over it.
[Ara Frumin's goon checks Agent Rose for bugs]
Agent Rose: So, what does your tricorder tell you, Mr Spock? Are we going to do business?
Ara Frumin: Do you have the money?
Agent Rose: You have what I came for?
Ara Frumin: It's close by. The lead shielding is 80 kilos, so I don't carry it in my pocket. But I have with me a sample. It's a teeny tiny pellet of it. Powered by compressed air. Completely silent. But you would walk out of here a dead man. Old time KGB technology, it makes me homesick. Now two questions. Who is this woman? And who are you?
Agent Rose: Ara, what kind of hospitality is this? You threaten me, you got Special Ed here poking me in the side with his lipstick. Aren't you at least going to buy me a drink?
[Jimmy, in his Skinner suit, arrives and waves happily from across the room]
Ara Frumin: Who is this?
Skinner: [to waiter] Oh, no thanks, buddy. I had a couple on the drive over.
[to Ara frumin] So, Ara, guys. Hey, do you mind if I join you? So, what's on for tonight? Who do we — ?
[He draws his finger across his throat] What evil deeds are afoot?
Yves: [on radio] Jimmy, you're supposed to be a Director of the FBI, reign in your emotions.
Skinner: Am I talking too much? I probably am. Well, you know what would shut me up? Money. More money. 'Cause here I am, Director of the FBI, and I'm out there killing good people right and left for you guys. The bodies are just stacking right up like —
Yves: [on radio] Shut up, Jimmy. Let them do the talking.
Skinner: Yeah, so... what do you say?
Ara Frumin: Who the hell are you?
Skinner: Ara, buddy, come on.
[Ara removes Jimmy's hand from his shoulder] Okay, that hurt.
Waiter: Can I get anybody anything?
Skinner: Yeah, what the hay. I'll have a Cuba Libre.
Waiter: I'm sorry, Sir. We're out of fresh limes. Would you like a just a straight rum and Coke?
Skinner: No. No thanks, I prefer the Mexican version. Comprender, amigo? Oh, what the hell, rum and Coke.
[FBI agents appear from everywhere, guns drawn]
Carol Strode: Let me get this straight, you're Jimmy?
Skinner: Uh huh.
Carol Strode: Then, who's that?
[Skinner has entered the club, as has Jeff Strode] Oh my god, Jeff.
[She hugs her brother]
Jeff Strode: I'm sorry, Carol. I'm sorry.
[Skinner walks over to Jimmy, as the Lone Gunmen enter and see two Skinners in the room]
Skinner: No way! No way! Guys!
[He hugs the Lone Gunmen, as Yves enters]
Byers: Jimmy?
Yves: Uh huh.
Skinner: Wow, this is just so cool.
[He removes his voice retainer] Sir, I owe you an apology. You didn't murder my friends.
[Skinner peels the lower half of Jimmy's mask off] Pretty cool, huh?
Skinner: Larry, Moe, Curly, I see you've found yourselves a fourth Stooge.
Frohike: Yeah. Great working with you again, Walt.
Skinner: Don't call me Walt.
[The Lone Gunman headline]
FBI Director Nails Plutonium Seller, Courageous reporters aid case
Jimmy: Makes for one great story. I like this part especially;
Courageous reporters aid case
.
Langly: And we managed to keep Carol's secret. You should be proud of me, I didn't even tell Jimmy.
Jimmy: Tell me what? That she used to be a man? I knew that the first time I saw her, so did Yves. So what.
Byers: Also, for once, we managed to turn a profit. This story is big news in Russia, A Moscow wire service is paying us 125,000 roubles for the reprint rights. That's just under US$4,400.
Jimmy: Oh. Well, at least it will pay for a few more issues, right?
Byers: Actually, no. We're using the money for something else.
Langly: Something you really should have told us about, man.
Jimmy: [narration] So, back to my theory, the thing about football helmets — even invisible ones — is that you can always take them off. Not that you should if you're about to get tackled. But you can if you're around people you trust, your friends.
[Jimmy's Thunderbird is back]
Jimmy: Oh, guys. How are you going to get by?
Byers: How are we going to get by? Same as we always have, just barely. But we'll manage.
Frohike: Go for it, man.
[He tosses Jimmy the keys] You might want to move the seat back, though.
Jimmy: [narration] Maybe that's what friends are. The people you can show your true face to.