Nine Wives

Summary
The issues of freedoms is once more to the fore, as a cult leader declares independence from, and war on, the "agents of an immoral government", and Charlie and Don have to decide how far they each go.

Main

 * Rob Morrow as Don Eppes
 * David Krumholtz as Charlie Eppes
 * Judd Hirsch as Alan Eppes
 * Alimi Ballard as David Sinclair
 * Peter MacNicol as Larry Fleinhardt
 * Navi Rawat as Amita Ramanujan
 * Diane Farr as Megan Reeves
 * Dylan Bruno as Colby Granger

Guest

 * Teri Polo as Rachel Willons
 * Joshua Malina as Howard Meeks
 * Alexandra Krosney as Josephine Kirtland
 * Anne Dudek as Emmanueline Kirtland
 * John Patrick Amedori as Lee Brady
 * W. Earl Brown as Abner Stone
 * Kyle Colerider-Krugh as Ralph Jackson
 * Kathy Najimy as Dr. Mildred Finch
 * Ezra Godden as CHP Officer

Title
The concept of polygamy, and also evoking the 'nine lives of a cat' image, as well as the general magical qualities ascribed to the square of 3.

Trivia
The brief scene in which Abner Stone kills a police officer who has pulled over his SUV was shot on a stretch of road that was also due to be used the same night by a crew from the TV show Big Love (2006), but "Big Love" canceled their shoot because the weather was unusually cold for Southern California that evening. Both this episode of Numb3rs (2005) and the series "Big Love" feature Anne Dudek playing a member of a fundamentalist polygamous cult.

The surname "Kirtland" figures prominently in the polygamist cult depicted. This is an inside reference to Kirtland, Ohio, where a Latter-day Saint community once thrived under Joseph Smith, to whom polygamist groups as well as mainstream Mormons trace their origins.

Guest star Teri Polo previously appeared as one of the characters introduced in the final season of Northern Exposure (1990), to help fill the void left as star Rob Morrow was being phased out due to contract disputes.

This episode is carefully written to avoid any direct references to Mormons or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. However, the subject of polygamy and numerous oblique references in dialogue make it clear that the Stone cult is intended to be derived from Mormonism.

Teri Polo and Joshua Malina both starred in The West Wing (1999). Julie Hébert, who wrote and directed this episode, also directed several episodes of "The West Wing".

Goofs
The vulture that swoops down to Josephine Kirtland and is chased away by the truck driver is a White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus) from Africa, a species not found in the U.S.A.

When Don and the other agents are walking back after getting Colby and Rachel, you can see the throw phone on the ground. In the next scene two agents are seen taking the throw phone up to the house where Abner Stone is holed up.

Crazy Credits
100,000 Polygamists 37 States 11 Religions 1 Bloodline