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Numb3rs Season 2 Episode 22

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9.3

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AIRED: 5/5/06

An FBI investigation into a computer hacking scam that taps into a bank's system to gain access to the identities and financial assets of its customers becomes personal for Don as well as the Eppes family.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (6)

Superb plot, limited only by execution

8.8

By AvatarBlue, Sep 22, 2008

Some SPOILERS

Great idea for a plot providing the platform for a superb episode. The clever use of multiple conflicts involving the brothers, the bank staff, and even the original facilitators of the crime means that the episode never gets boring. It does have a few lulls in action, and I did find these to be not very well placed.

However, that shouldnt detract you from what is essentially an engaging episode that touches on many aspects of crime, law enforcement and maths. I do think there isnt enough coverage of maths in Numb3rs, but when you consider that the audience and the scope of the show its probably about right. The particular crime in this episode does an excellent job of taking you on the journey of the characters and immerses you in the situation of what we know its like having to rely on technology and goes on to demonstrate what it could be like when things goes wrong because of dangerous criminal elements.

While others did like the brothers relationship development I have to admit that I didnt find this at all entertaining, even if Charlie and Don original cause for argument - Don having Charlie off the case because of the Russian mafia involvment - was valid.

Overall, a great use of subject matter. More family conflict and a great case forms a show with mild twists and a few surprises.

- I cant remember if this is the episode where the brothers are having various dreams... if it is, I didnt particularly like the use of them!moreless
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After capturing two hackers, some russians get into Don's account and deleted all his money! Which leads Charlie and Amita to folow their way throw the internet to get them, not knowing that it will be a trap for the FBI agents. It's getting personal...moreless

10

By Charlie183, Jul 29, 2007

Exactly why i watch this series.. The whole plot was magnificient! I mean we all know how dependent we are from computers, I mean I found it great that in the end you see even the FBI using navigation, which also is hackable (i don't think it was a coincidence that they show that)... but that wasn't the best part. First thing Agent David Sinclair gets a bit more caracter here.. gettin shot and then being with the Eppes. But what I like the most about the show is the relation between the brothers. In this episode you can see some brilliant acting from both of them, they got a great plot here together. I found they scipped that on a few episodes lately but this one was totally making up for it. First thing Don lying to Charlie to get him off the case since he is really worried about him gettin hurt. Then the great scene when Charlie asks in his lecture how to call the police/FBI/campus-security as fast as possible *lol*. Shortly after that the great scene where Don and his Dad scream at each other because Charlie was in danger. And last but not least the final scene: stubborn, so different, but so much alike !!! There were lots of precious moments in this one!moreless
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8.5

By cavanagh15, Mar 12, 2007

I thought that the episode was good. There wasn’t a whole lot of math used in this episode and the analogys with the football players wasn’t exactly something that I was connecting with. Not because I don’t watch football, but mainly because I don’t see how football connected to Charlies theme theory other then that the guys were trying to do something to distract Don and his team. I didn’t really believe the storyline, though I thought the acting done by Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz was done really well in this episode. The fighting and nit picking between the two was outstandingly done. The scene with Alan, Done and Charlie all fighting after they learned that the mob had been to there house was amazing and I thought it saved the episode. There was no cool “outside the case” drama that was worth noting, pretty average episode for Numbers.moreless
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Outstanding episode in every respect.

9.9

By PuppyOfWar, May 12, 2006

This was such a great episode. I thoroughly enjoyed watching as Charlie coped with the absolute shock of nearly being shot. He's heard the others talk about the experience, been at the scene during shoot-outs, but this was the first time that I can remember that he was himself nearly shot. To watch him trying to deal with the fear that this experience brought was as true to life as anything this series has shown. I was glad to see how the others worked with him to overcome this fear. I dare say that Don was as scared for Charlie as their father was.

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The attack his home!

9.5

By stormlifter, May 07, 2006

This was a great episode that I especially liked as a fan of the show and a computer science major. Great mix of technical and action. The technical information was very accurate and informational. The show featured a very new technique for tracking information paths, specifically for e-mail spam known as "backscatter". This episode was fun to watch and I would highly recommend it to all numb3rs fans as well as people like computers and security stuff. This episode had me glued to the screen non-stop and really reminds me why I love this show so much. A great episode all around.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Alimi Ballard	David Sinclair
David Krumholtz	Charlie Eppes
Diane Farr	Megan Reeves
Dylan Bruno	Colby Granger
Judd Hirsch	Alan Eppes
Navi Rawat	Amita Ramanujan

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Ashley Nicole Sherman	Front Row Student	Guest Star
Dan Callaway	Student #2	Guest Star
Hettienne Park	Student #1	Guest Star
Meagan Lopez	Stendhauser	Recurring Role
Will Patton	Det. Gary Walker	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (6)
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- During the episode Amita mentions 'ICMP' – this is the Internet Control Message Protocol, a way of reporting diagnostic and error messages on internet-compatible networks.
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- The MATH in this episode included:
  
  Explicit Functions
  Implicit Functions
  Geometric Progression and Exponential Growth.
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- Opening numbers:
  574 MILLION CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS
  500 MILLION DOLLARS STOLEN ANNUALLY
  16 DIGITS
  2 PHISHERS
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- David Sinclair's gunshot injury in this episode was based on an injury that actually happened to one of the consultants connected with the show. He was shot in the shoulder in the line of duty as a law enforcement officer and was back to work in three weeks.
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- Megan: It's hard to argue with a guy who won three Super Bowls in the past four years...
  
  At the time of airing on May 5, 2006, this statement was no longer true. With the Pittsburgh Steelers' victory in Super Bowl XL, the past four Super Bowl winners (in reverse chronological order) were the aforementioned Steelers, the New England Patriots (twice), and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers... and then the Patriots again, five years prior to airing.
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- In the classroom scene where Charlie was teaching in the lecture hall, there were two Russian mobsters, one of whom was wearing sunglasses. The two actors who'd showed up for filming that day were not intimidating enough, so the office production assistant and series creator, Nick Falacci (wearing sunglasses), acted as stand-ins.
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QUOTES (8)
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- Charlie: There's a pattern to everything that Koverchenko's done, I can feel it!
  David: You "can feel it"? Is that a math term?
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- David: You know, for a really nice guy, you've got two very stubborn kids!
  Alan: Well, they get that from their mother. The only thing that could change her mind was, you know...no, I can't really say it, I couldn't manage myself!
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- Charlie: (About Don) He's still lead agent, I knew it!
  Amita: Why would he lie to you, Charlie?
  Charlie: I don't know... But if he's still on the case, so am I!
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- Walker: You know the saying about the Russian mob?
  Don: What's that?
  Walker: They'll shoot you, just to see if the gun works.
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- Amita: I'm all for giving up wealth and material possessions.
  Charlie: Living like a monk?
  Amita: No, like a grad student.
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- Colby (To Don, regarding an injured David): He says to tell you he wants back ASAP; and no I can't have his desk.
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- Amita: Oh, by the way, Larry called from his string theory conference. Uh, he was confused about something.
  Charlie: What, his double special relativity theory?
  Amita: No... whether he was in St. Louis or Cleveland.
  Charlie: He's so geographically challenged. Where is his conference?
  Amita: Minneapolis.
  (chuckles)
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- Charlie: If you call me 'Chuck' one more time, I swear...
  Don: Well, how about I call you 'Chuckie'?
  Charlie: How about I call you 'Donald'?
  Don: How about I call you 'Nerd'?...
  (Fade to credits)
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NOTES (4)
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- International Episode Titles:
  Czech Republic: Zpět ke zdroji (Back to the Source)
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- International Airdates:
  Czech Republic: June 18, 2009 on TV Nova
  Slovakia: December 3, 2009 on JOJ
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- This episode is rated: TV14.
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- Peter MacNicol did not appear in the episode, so his absence was explained by Amita that Larry was at a string theory conference in Minneapolis, but he thought he was in St. Louis or Cleveland.
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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