Sarah's visit to a medical testing lab owned by Cooper-Weiss Pharmaceuticals where her friend Allison Daniels works at turns deadly when an armed gunman named Darryl Perth holds them and the other workers hostage, looking for a series of documents relating to the test subjects of the new experimental drug Sandifinol. The SJPD do everything they can to ensure the safety of the hostages, but the actions of lab chief Sebastian Todd and executive Reggie Boyd threaten to make things more complicated than intended.
Tropes:
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Sarah is more than willing to try and sympathize with Darryl to try and reason with him so nobody will get hurt. Unfortunately, Sebastian (the lab chief) won’t stop trying to be the hero, refuses to listen to Sarah and Allison, keeps provoking Darryl and ruining any chance of everyone getting out unharmed. He also makes the situation worse by exposing deadly viruses in the lab and getting Allison shot. At least Darryl has the sense to lock Sebastian in another room before he causes any more problems for everybody. It will be a miracle if Sebastian keeps his job or isn't at the very least charged with reckless endangerment.
- The Bus Came Back: Officer Renley makes a reappearance since "Fearless Freaks", helping Charlie to teach Rex how to move through air ducts so he can get into the lab and help rescue the hostages.
- Driven to Suicide: Darryl tries to shoot himself after reading about his wife’s drug test results and how she was in the placebo group. Fortunately Rex takes him down before he does it.
- Flawed Prototype: Darryl was part of a group of test subjects for an earlier form of Sandifinol, called Delixipan. The drug had terrible side effects such as altering of brain chemistry, and was later adjusted and re-released under the name Sandifinol. Darryl’s wife was part of the group of test subjects for the placebos as Darryl was deemed unfit due to suffering from the side effects of the Delixipan drug.
- From Bad to Worse: The situation gets even worse when the cooling hose for the virus containment unit gets damaged by a fired bullet because of Sebastian, and once the unit reaches room temperature the airborne viruses will spread throughout the lab and infect everyone. It's made even worse than that when another misfired bullet, also caused by Sebastian, ends up hitting Allison and putting her into a critical condition and risks dying if she doesn’t get help.
- Happily Married: Darryl and his wife Helen Chafe used to be this until they were involved with the Sandifinol trials. Darryl claims that side effects from the drugs caused Helen to become increasingly emotionally distant, which eventually resulted in them divorcing. Darryl is after her drug test files to prove that the company is responsible for ruining their marriage. Turns out it was Darryl who was suffering from side effects, as he was given the real drug while Helen was in the placebo group.
- Hostage Situation: Darryl is holding the lab workers and Sarah hostage in exchange for getting his wife's results for the Sandifinol tests. Fortunately, despite his erratic behavior, he’s not unreasonable, as he allows Sarah to transport a wounded Allison out of the lab before she dies.
- Lethally Stupid: Sure Sebastian, it's a great idea to keep antagonizing the erratic gunman holding you and your coworkers hostage. It’s not like there will be any consequences like exposing deadly viruses to the lab or almost getting one of the hostages killed.
- Only Sane Man: Sarah is the only one who manages to keep a level head and tries to keep everyone calm as she can while trying to reason with Darryl. Too bad most of it is undermined by Sebastian’s reckless attempts to rescue everyone.
- Sanity Slippage: The Delixipan drug seriously scrambled Darryl’s brain, making him extremely distant and erratic. He gets worse when he finds out that Helen was in the placebo group and tries to kill himself from this revelation.
- Skewed Priorities:
- Nothing will stop Darryl from getting his hands on his wife's drug test results. Even exposure to deadly viruses like bubonic plague doesn’t deter him as he sees it a way that he will be taken more seriously and get what he wants quicker.
- Sebastian and the lab owner Reggie Boyd are more concerned with protecting the company’s classified drugs and data than they are about the safety of the hostages. It takes Charlie threatening Boyd with being sent to prison to get him to cooperate and allow the SJPD access to the files, and even then Boyd doesn't budge until Charlie convinces him to just give him the Sandifinol files.
- Tomato in the Mirror: It's actually Darryl that's suffering from side effects from the drug tests, not Helen. The poor guy is devastated about it when he hears it from Charlie at the end of the episode.
