"Atomic No. 33" is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of Numb3rs.
Larry must face his own feelings and bigotry of religion after helping Charlie and Don with an investigation into a cult's internal poisoning attack.
Plot[]
The Periodic Table position of Arsenic, chemical symbol As.
While Charlie, Amita's and Larry work on their class demonstration for the week, a "New Religious Movement" (NRM) cult has a few of its members poisoned with arsenic. The cult believes that the apocalypse has been going on since Hitler opened the six gates to hell and let Lucifer out. Somehow this led to the members only believing in "faith healing", a way of curing those who are ill with no medical intervention at all. When the police, as well as Don and his team, respond, they are blocked from entering the premises due to the old Cult Leader's wife Susan Doran, blocking them from the property due to the first amendment. Don forces the doors open and medical help is given to those who were poisoned, with mixed reactions of hatred and thanks for the paramedics from the members.
The Cult's current leader, Reverend Ezra, has apparently been in mind to change some aspects of the cult, like accepting medical assistance, which is seen by how he lets the paramedics treat his son, Craig (a devout cult member), against his will to save his life. The team thinks this could be motive for the poisonings by Susan Doran, who's husband was found to be murdered after an exhumation of his body and Susan got usurped by the Reverend Ezra. We further see distrustful antics when Larry gets into a heated, but short, debate with Susan, who claims that Larry only has two options, Hitler's science or her religion. Larry has a hard time trying not to let his logic and feelings about the matter get in the way of the case.
Right when Colby and David arrest Susan as there was arsenic traces in her room, a bomb goes off inside of one the main buildings. The Reverend Ezra is killed, while Craig and Susan's daughter Audrey (who are in a relationship) are shook but otherwise unharmed. Due to the complexity of the relationships and an experiment to see if the explosion was intentional or not, Charlie pointed out that the numbers all lead back to Susan's daughter Audrey as the culprit of the poisoning and the explosion, due to the assumption of Audrey wanting to marry Craig and take over the cult.
However, when questioning Craig and Susan about Audrey's involvement, Craig doesn't defend her and actually lends evidence towards her doing the deeds, while Susan confesses that she did the poisonings herself without Audrey being a part of it forever. While this might be a confession, Larry points out the inconsistencies in Craig's answers while telling Don that Susan was just trying to protect her daughter.
Don and the team focus their energies on the Ezra family (Reverend and Craig), only to find that they aren't who they say they are... The actual Ezra family died in a car crash and Craig was their foster child who wasn't in the car that night. This turn of the investigation leads Craig to flee the compound when Don and Colby come to ask him questions. The team further learns that Reverend Ezra was a con man named William Boone who teamed up with Craig to complete a long con on the cult, gaining millions after becoming a legit religious movement and church due to taxes.
The team loses Craig, but decides to ask Audrey to be bait as Craig needs Audrey to open the safe with all of the money the church has on hand, something he needs now that his con has been destroyed. Audrey is hesitant but complies after seeing how much her mother cares about her, while realizing Craig doesn't care about her at all. The sting goes well until Craig catches sight of Don, and he takes off to the top of a tower. However, he doesn't jump and actually surrenders, trying to blame Audrey for everything which neither Don or David believe. It's insinuated Craig goes to jail.
The final scenes are that of romance (Don and Robin sharing a cute movie watching moment in which Don shows how well he knows Robin by getting her watermelon candies, her favorite that no one knows) and fun (Charlie and Larry run across non-Newtonian fluids, or oobleck, for a class experiment). Everyone seems to be very happy.
Trivia[]
Steven R. McQueen, who plays sociopathic Craig Ezra, is the grandson of actor Steve McQueen. McQueen uses the name Steven R McQueen professionally, the R referring to his stepfather's surname of Robitaille.
Goofs[]
When Don is teaching Robin Brooks how to play golf, he is wearing his sunglasses during the close up shots. But, when the camera shows a distant shot, he is clearly not wearing them. Then, another close up is seen and he is wearing the sunglasses again.
Craig Ezra isn't the criminal mastermind of the whole cult. Remember, the whole plot was for Ezra Sr. to be heading the whole thing, that the followers of the cult was falling into line pertaining to his orders, not his son. So why would the real head of the cult be willing to let his father run the whole thing & yet subject himself as a human guinea pig which the whole cult was against ?
[This appears on the beginning of the episode] 1137 members 30 years 2 families 1 new religious movement (NRM)