Man Hunt

Synopsis
A prison transport bus crashes after maneuvers by two other vehicles, and several inmates escape, including the dangerous McDowd. Charlie gets on well with CHP Officer Morris on the scene and works out mathematically it was no accident; statistically, both other drivers were in the game. Dad is worried Don might be returning to the period when he regularly worked in fugitive retrieval, especially now a former colleague, burly Federal Marshal Cooper, is on the same case. After finding a lesser fugitive, Charlie's mathematical probabilities approach helps to reconstruct the remarkable movements of McDowd in LA, which leads to a worrisome motive relating to a DEA case and likely further accomplices...

Plot
A prison bus is involved in an accident and two of the inmates (Vincent Williams and Timothy McDowd) escape in a truck they hijack. Don is called in on his day off for the investigation and he also requests help from Fugitive Recovery in getting the prisoners back again. Charlie is also on scene and talks with CHP Officer Morris.

Agent Billy Cooper from FR arrives and its revealed he and Don were partnered when Don also worked recovery cases. Cooper states the best chance they have is to investigate the family and friends of Williams and McDowd as their best chance to recapture the two men. Cooper and David stake out Williams girlfriend while Don goes to talk to a witness in the murder McDowd serves a life sentence for; Don thinks McDowd will take the opportunity to kill her before moving on to another area. Don goes to talk to Dr Karen Fisher (the witness) about Witness Protection, but she declines. Don gets her to agree to at least keeping the officers at her practice and at her home.

At the Eppes' house Charlie is working with Morris on the accident reconstruction. Alan and Larry come home. Alan is not happy with Don working a recovery case again; it seems when Don worked such cases in the past he would disappear for weeks at a time and the family had no idea where he was or what he was doing.

David and Cooper stakeout Williams' girlfriend's house. They discuss fugitive recovery and how Don was really good at it. David gets a call because they found the truck the fugitives high-jacked. Detective Danny Reed from narcotics shows up at the scene. He wants to find McDowd to have the state try him.

Charlie and Larry have been working the math regarding the accident itself and come to the conclusion the accident was no accident, the drivers of the other two vehicles involved had to be in on the escape otherwise there is no reason for the crash to even have occurred. A search for those two drivers turns up the body of one man and evidence the other flew to Mexico the night of the accident.

Charlie tries to use probabilities as a way to narrow down the search area but is having difficulties because of the number of tips the FBI is getting from the well-meaning public. Williams is caught at his girlfriend’s house and he tells Don and Cooper that McDowd was planning to kill someone, that’s why he escaped. A tip to LAPD leads the FBI to a bar where McDowd is, but the attempted arrest is blown when Detective Reed goes in early; McDowd manages to escape.

Charlie is trying to figure out where McDowd could be, but there are too many options due to corrupt data from a well-meaning public calling in tips. He and Larry discuss the problem and put their heads together to figure out what data is truly corrupt and what is valid.

Don visits Dr Fisher again, insisting that she go into protective custody until McDowd is caught, and she reluctantly agrees.

Charlie teaches a class for the average person that Alan likes to attend. Don and Cooper show up at the end of his class. Alan and Don have a heart-to-heart about Don's past in fugitive recovery. Charlie has narrowed the tips down to an area that is outside McDowd’s usual haunts, and it appears he is hunting for someone, but it’s not the witness. The area is controlled by one of the local gangs, the Z-boys who are run by a man names Choi, but McDowd has no ties to the gang. A closer look at the map and the area shows McDowd seems to be circling a particular dock held by the gang. Don and Cooper go to the dock and find several members of the gang dead, including the leader.

Don is suspicious as to how McDowd really could have escaped if he was shackled at the time. In talking to the officer in charge of the prison transfer, he states he was coerced into helping with the escape because an LAPD narcotics officer had framed the officer’s brother on drug charges. It was Detective Reed. Choi turned informant to the DEA and Reed's name came up in a couple of briefings. They realise that McDowd did the hit on Choi in exchange for information on where Dr Fisher would be. They go to the safe house, but McDowd is already there and he has her. Don gets her away from him and Don and Cooper corner him on the roof. Detective Reed has been found and Don, David, and Cooper arrest him.

As Cooper is packing up to leave, Don suggests he put in for a transfer to the LA office, Cooper turns him down and asks if Don ever misses the thrill of working recovery cases. Don answers he misses the thrill a little but isn’t at all sorry he moved on from working recovery cases, he likes being able to see and talk to his family.

Charlie is playing chess with Alan and Don at home while he's doing work. Alan and Don are playing together and distract Charlie with his horrible spelling to win the game. Don gets called away because of another case. Charlie says that he'll 'take care of the old man' and Alan gets the Scrabble board.

Credits
Cast=

Starring:
 * Rob Morrow as Don Eppes
 * David Krumholtz as Charlie Eppes
 * Judd Hirsch as Alan Eppes
 * Alimi Ballard as David Sinclair
 * Sabrina Lloyd as Terry Lake
 * Peter MacNicol as Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

Guest starring:
 * Max Martini as Agent Billy Cooper
 * Anthony De Sando as Detective Reed
 * Jennifer Westfeldt as Dr. Karen Fisher
 * Chad L. Coleman as Williams
 * Christina Cox as CHP Officer Morris
 * Eddie Velez as Raynor

Co-starring:
 * Kevin Fry-Bowers as McDowd
 * Ryan McConville as Lewis
 * John Del Regno as Foreman
 * Tiara Parker as William's Girlfriend
 * Julie Mann as Student
 * Jim Wilkey as Bus Driver


 * -|Crew=

Trivia

 * Man Hunt is the deployment of mass resources to swiftly capture a wanted fugitive.

Goofs

 * At about 31:33, Agent Cooper refers to the Z-Boyz gang leader as "Chow," but in the previous scene and the rest of the episode the character's name is "Choi."


 * When David Sinclair and Agent Cooper are looking in a woman's trash on the side of the road, David says that they need a warrant because it is "technically still on her property." Cooper replies that it doesn't matter because their only purpose is tracking a fugitive rather than building a court case. As fully trained federal agents, both should know that the Supreme Court ruled to the contrary in California v Greenwood, more than 15 years before the date of this conversation.

Crazy Credits
[This appears on the beginning of the episode] 182,000 Federal Prison Inmates, 63 Escapes, 2 Fugitives, 1 Witness