The Inside
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The Inside was a 2005 television series on the FOX Network. It starred Rachel Nichols, Peter Coyote, Jay Harrington, Adam Baldwin, Katie Finneran, and Nelsan Ellis.
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[edit] Premise
The show featured Nichols as rookie FBI Agent Rebecca Locke, who joins the Bureau's Los Angeles Violent Crimes Unit (VCU). While she proves to be a brilliant investigator, she has a secret that only she, and mysterious VCU director Virgil "Web" Webster (Coyote), know; that as a 10-year-old girl, Rebecca was kidnapped from her home and held captive for 18 months (à la Elizabeth Smart). Astonishingly enough, no one found and rescued her; she escaped the trauma all by herself, setting a fire and escaping in the resulting chaos. Webster manipulates Rebecca's experience on each case, using the insight she gained through it to establish the mindset of the victim -- and the criminal.
Another sidebar to the plot is the moral struggle between Webster, who seems willing to use Rebecca's gift to catch the "unsub" at all costs, and Rebecca's partner Paul Ryan (Harrington), who views himself as the voice of conscience in the battle for Rebecca's soul. Additionally, Webster's past is very much unknown; viewers are left wondering exactly how much he has in common with the perpetrators he pursues.
The show was the brainchild of Tim Minear, of Angel and Firefly fame. While FOX had already developed an earlier version of the show (a distaff 21 Jump Street imitator), Minear re-tooled it, with Nichols as the only holdover. Just seven episodes into its 13-episode first season, FOX cancelled The Inside, making it the third series (along with Firefly and Wonderfalls) of Minear's to be aborted by the network. Minear plans on releasing all 13 episodes of the original run, plus the Jump Street pilot, plus another pilot which was shot without Minear's supervision and was panned by FOX execs, on a DVD in 2006. Talk has emerged that the DVD would also include Inside co-creator Howard Gordon's short-lived 1999 series Strange World to make a 26-episode set, but no plans have been confirmed.
[edit] Ratings
Overall, the ratings for The Inside were not great, but some argue that they were not bad enough to warrant cancellation, especially after only a handful of episodes were aired, and that the ratings were steadily growing. The first-run ratings were as followed:
| Title | Rating | Share |
| New Girl In Town | 2.0 | 4 |
| Old Wounds | 2.6 | 4 |
| Pre-Filer | 2.4 | 4 |
| Everything Nice | 2.5 | 4 |
| Lonliest Number | 2.4 | 4 |
| Thief of Hearts | 2.6 | 4 |
| Declawed | 2.8 | 5 |
[edit] Episodes
1. "New Girl In Town" (6/8/2005) Written and directed by Tim Minear; Starring Virginia Williams (Donna Burton), Henri Lubatti (Gareth Hoff), Brett Rickaby (Simon Gunther), Darby Stanchfield (New Girl), Rich Sickler (Medical Examiner), Stacey Hinnen (Construction Crew), Alejandro Furth (Construction Foreman), Billy Maddox (Sheldon), Hira Ambrosino (Mrs. Chen), John Keefe (Eric), Matt O'Toole (Pony Man)
Los Angeles. Two electricians find a body in an abandoned house. Virgil Webster and his Violent Crimes Unit report to the scene. A detective informs Virgil that the victim’s hands have been stripped of skin and muscle and half of her face has been peeled away. The team thinks that this indicates the work of a serial killer they’ve been tracking. Inspecting the body, Webster realizes that the victim is Margaret Alvarez, one of his special agents.
Back at the office, a new recruit, Rebecca Locke, shows up for her first day. While Rebecca discusses the case with Virgil in his office, the other agents, Danny Love, Paul Ryan and Melody Sim, look up Rebecca on their FBI compute. Surprisingly, there’s no record of Rebecca before she enrolled in Quantico. Rebecca tells Virgil that she’s noticed that all of the victims were new in town. She’s developing a theory.
Rebecca views Alvarez’s body in the morgue and makes an interesting discovery. She thinks that Alvarez snapped and did this to herself. Agent Love finds it impossible to believe that somebody peeled off their own face, but Rebecca explains that Alvarez was bipolar. And no medication was found in her body. The killer drove her to this, without actually doing it himself.
Elsewhere, a young blonde who is new in town comes home. A man in a hooded sweatshirt is waiting for her and attacks. The next day, Rebecca tells Agent Ryan that the killer is past due, and that they need to assume that he’s already snatched his next victim. They should be looking for signs. Rebecca tells him about a young tenant whose landlord has reported that she skipped town with rent owed. Searching the apartment in question, Rebecca and Danny find a laptop with video feed on it. The video shows a young blonde woman tied to a chair. Back at HQ, Carter tracks the video feed source to an abandoned hotel.
The FBI storms the building. They hear screams, but all they find is the victim’s dead body next to a video setup. The video is playing on delay. Rebecca faints, but paramedics on the scene assist her as well. Later that night, Agent Ryan tells Virgil that he figured out Rebecca’s past: Her real name is Becky George; she was kidnapped as a young girl, but escaped. That same night, Rebecca returns to the victim’s apartment; Virgil also happens to be there. While talking about the case and victim profiles, Rebecca notices a subway schedule. A breakthrough. She quickly notices that most (if not all) of the victims were snatched near subway stations.
Back at HQ, the team reviews security camera footage from subway stations. They notice a man, Gareth Hoth. He has a previous record, petty stuff. Virgil suggests putting a heavily made-up Rebecca on the trains as bait. The plan is put into action, but they don’t draw the UNSUB out. Virgil radios to Rebecca to get off the train, but when she sees Hoth approaching the train, she defies his order and stays on. The train takes off before Agent Love can board. The team rushes to the next station to meet the train. At the station, the suspect disembarks, following a young woman. Rebecca trails him, ignoring Virgil’s orders. The suspect is apprehended in the station.
In the aftermath of the arrest, Virgil publicly fires Rebecca for disobeying orders and tells her to catch the train to LAX. As she’s sitting on the train, she’s approached by Simon, who runs the security cameras for the subway. As the team is leading Hoth away, he’s mumbling about “The Skyman.” Seeing a security camera, Agent Ryan realizes who the real killer is: Simon. On the subway, Simon starts taunting Rebecca about his killings. At the next station, Simon forces Rebecca off the train at gunpoint, presumably ready to make her the next victim... But Virgil is waiting for him on the platform and shoots Simon in the head, killing him. It turns out that Rebecca's "firing" was simply a ruse that Web invented to draw Simon out, and that Rebecca is permanently on the VCU team. As Web walks away, he tells Agent Love to take care of Rebecca.
2. "Everything Nice" (6/29/2005) Written by Jane Espenson; Directed by Allan Kroeker; Starring Kevin R. Kelly (Kevin Olsen), Audrey Wasilewski (Ellen Olsen), Zeljko Ivanek (Teddy Bunch), Anne Dudek (Ellen Olsen), Peggy Webber (Mama Bunch), Matthew Kaminsky (Marcus St. Clair), Tommy Hinkley (Detective Douglas Price), Julie Claire (Tessa St. Clair), Jennette McCurdy (Madison St. Claire), Emma Nicolas (Nora)
An average suburban mom, Mrs. Olsen, calls her son, Henry, to breakfast. She hears no response, then finds the boy floating in the pool. Blood is in the water and pooled on the sidewalk near the body. The case comes into the VCU and Agent Ryan and Rebecca head out to the scene. While Agent Ryan and Rebecca look around the house, they hear a disturbance outside. A group of neighbors is shoving Theodore Bunch, the development’s groundskeeper, toward the police, declaring him to be the murderer.
As Bunch sobers up in an interrogation room, the witness that fingered Bunch is brought into the station. A young girl from the neighborhood, Madison St. Clair, is interviewed by Agent Ryan as Rebecca watches on camera from another room. Madison claims that she saw a crying Henry running out of Teddy Bunch’s place. Madison cries that she saw this from her tree house, but she didn’t say anything because she’s not supposed to be up there after dark. Madison wails for her mother and Agent Ryan leaves the room. But on the camera, Rebecca notices Madison happily swinging her legs and humming. When her parents enter the room, she turns on the waterworks again.
Rebecca thinks Madison is the killer. Her colleagues think it’s Bunch. Virgil tells Rebecca she’s now competing against them to prove who killed Henry. Rebecca visits Mrs. Olsen at home, who explains that Henry was an odd boy who was picked on a lot. She was happy that Henry found solace with Teddy Bunch, but now blames herself for letting Teddy close to her son. Rebecca asks if Henry started coming home with bruises after transferring to the school Madison St. Clair attended. Meanwhile, Agents Love and Ryan are searching Bunch’s shack. They find a box of pictures of young boys, including some of Bunch himself as a child.
The next day, Rebecca drops by Madison’s tree house. She hears Madison yelling at Nora, another girl from the neighborhood. Madison says she saw Nora talking to Rebecca the day before and she had better keep her mouth shut. Nora exits, leaving Madison and Rebecca alone. Rebecca begins to threaten Madison, telling her she knows what she did, but then Madison yells “Please don’t hurt me!” and jumps out of the treehouse. Mrs. St. Clair comes running to find her daughter holding her arm in agony.
Back at VCU, Virgil tells Rebecca to avoid Madison, but doesn’t remove her from the case. Rebecca begs Agent Sim to get up into Madison’s treehouse and take some photos that will prove that Teddy Bunch’s shack can’t be seen from the treehouse. Meanwhile, Agent Ryan is focusing on Teddy’s collection of fishing knives. He fought bitterly with his mother to get the knives after his father’s death. Rebecca calls Agent Sim to ask if she can find a box of knives in Madison’s treehouse. She does, but two knives are missing.
At school, Madison tries to get Nora to walk home with her. But before she can, Mrs. Olsen shows up and grabs Madison. She slaps her and Madison drops a knife. Mrs. Olsen runs off with Madison. Agent Ryan and Rebecca get word of what’s happening. At the same time, Mrs. Olsen has Madison in her car, demanding to know what she did to Henry. Later, Mrs. Olsen drags Madison to the pool behind her house. A bawling Madison cries that she did it. Mrs. Olsen picks up the knife and moves in.
Agent Ryan and Rebecca finally arrive on the scene, only to find Mrs. St. Clair and Madison covered in blood, a shovel nearby and Mrs. Olsen floating in the pool. Mrs. St. Clair tells the detectives that Mrs. Olsen was about to hurt Madison.
Back at the VCU building, the agents witness Bunch arguing with Virgil in order to get his knives back which were being kept as evidence. They later see Bunch embracing his mother and comment on how good it was to help a son be with his mom. Rebecca also comments on how Nora ratted out Madison so it is implied that Madison is charged with murder. (Note: This was originally the fourth episode to air.)
3. "Old Wounds" (6/15/2005) Written by Mark Fish; Directed by Nick Gomez; Starring Kristoffer Ryan Winters (George Skoll), Shannon Hile (Lauren Strong), Jackie Geary (Mousey Control Freak), D.C. Douglas (Ned Batter), Michael Bowen (Bill Strong), George Weiss Vando (Gay Assistant), Marjie Gum (Social Climber), Allison Dunbar (Paige Fuller), Esther K. Chae (Medical Examiner), Hart Bochner (Cole Brandt)
The VCU gathers for their regular case pitch meeting with Virgil. After seeing Agent Love’s and Agent Ryan’s pitches shot down, Rebecca opts to keep her case suggestion to herself. Virgil ends the meeting. After, Rebecca tells Agent Ryan she’s interested in his case. A federal prosecutor who was beaten, raped and strangled and had her hair hacked off with a knife.
The next morning, Agent Ryan comes in to find that Rebecca has brought Virgil two new cases, both women raped, strangled and hair chopped. Rebecca and Agent Ryan are put on the case.
Examining the bodies, a theme appears. All three victims have both fresh bruises and bruises and scars that occurred weeks or months before death. Realizing that all three victims were driven career women, the VCU interviews their assistants. This leads the detectives to an S&M club that all three victims belonged to. Interestingly, the club’s host is a proselytizing Christian who carries a pocket New Testament to work. Asked about a club member that associated with all three women, the host directs Rebecca and Agent Ryan to Cole Brandt, who has been banned from the club.
The detectives go to Brandt’s downtown loft. Hearing screams coming from inside, they break in. But all they find is some consensual S&M. Down at the station, Brandt seems oddly cocky and confrontational about the three victims. Outside, Virgil says that Brandt is the killer, but also that he’s playing Rebecca and Agent Ryan. He orders them to release Brandt. Later, Agent Love points out that Cole Brandt was the prime suspect in a series of rape cases a few years back, but no victims could identify him because their attacker wore a mask.
Rebecca and Agent Ryan visit Detective Strong, who worked on the rape cases. He knew it was Brandt, but couldn’t stick the charges after a victim recanted her accusation. Strong hands over his case file. Rebecca and Agent Ryan are on surveillance outside of Brandt’s loft. Shortly after he reveals that he is aware of Rebecca's past, Agent Ryan gets a page from the hospital that his pregnant wife is having complications and leaves. A curious Rebecca then decides to visit Brandt alone. Brandt shows her his S&M dungeon and shockingly handcuffs her to a swing against her will. Rebecca freaks out, later coming to on the street with no idea how she got there. Agent Ryan comes back. His text message was bogus. Then they get a call: the woman that was playing with Brandt earlier has turned up dead.
In Brandt’s loft, Virgil and team re-enact Rebecca’s handcuffing and escape. Rebecca realizes that her genuine fear scared Brandt (who had never seen real fear before), and he let her go. Virgil says this means Brandt isn’t the real killer. Whoever it is, they’re punishing the women for being linked to Brandt. Agent Ryan thinks of George Skoll, the religious S&M club host. Agents Sim and Love head to the church advertised on the flyer Skoll handed Agent Ryan earlier. But there’s nothing there except Skoll playing the organ.
Elsewhere, Rebecca and Agent Ryan are searching through Strong’s office. Breaking open a locked desk drawer, they find an envelope of human hair. At the same time, Strong has Brandt imprisoned in a motel. Strong rapes Brandt. Quickly putting the pieces together, the VCU sends a SWAT team to the motel. Brandt says that Strong is weak and he says yes and commits suicide, and SWAT bursts in.
4. "Pre-Filer" (6/22/2005) Written by Rob Pearlstein; Directed by Dwight Little; Starring Edward McCluney (Loading Dock Custodian), Michael Zelniker (James Havens), Stephanie Patton (Aubrey Richardson), Michael McElroy (Cody Comack), Michael Emerson (Marty Manning), Carrie Preston (Kelly Comack), Brian McNamara (Roger Comack), Michael Len (Justin Comack), Haskell V. Anderson III (Postal Chief)
The VCU is called to a college campus. A janitor, Jeremy Fitch, has been found with his throat slashed. The VCU was called in because Fitch’s supply closet is riddled with photographs of female students in their dorms. In Fitch’s locker, Agent Love finds handcuffs and a hunting knife.
Back at HQ, Rebecca mentions other murders to the team. Stan Hedges was found with 30 bullet holes in him. Police later learned that he had been threatening co-workers. A search of his apartment turned up an AK-47, 2000 rounds of ammo and floorplans for his office. Frank Ficks, father of three. After he was reported missing, police found a gun, a shovel and a map to four freshly-dug graves in his minivan. Ficks’ body turned up in one of the graves. Virgil realizes that their suspect is a profiler, like them.
Outside of a movie theatre, a man sits in his car, watching a young couple leave a show. Another man jumps into his backseat and points a gun at the man’s ear. The man in the backseat explains that he knows all about the driver. He’s been following this couple to the movies, to home, always watching them. He bought a gun recently. And just purchased some snuff films. The man in the backseat tells the driver that he’ll never hurt the young couple and then shoots the driver in the head.
The next night, the killer sneaks into the VCU offices and snoops around. In the morning, when Rebecca logs onto her computer, a newspaper clipping about her as a missing girl appears on her screen. When Agent Ryan complains about a silver Jeep Cherokee in his spot, Rebecca immediately calls in the bomb squad.
The car is stripped, but comes up clean. Carter finds the car’s GPS memory cache. Examining the last five entries, Rebecca recognizes the addresses of the four victims. Rebecca and Agent Ryan rush to the fifth address, only to find Roger Comack and his normal suburban family. The team thinks the suspect is giving them a challenge, the next victim. Rebecca and Agent Ryan return to the house, asking for permission to monitor the house. But they secretly want to find why Comack would be targeted. While in the house that night, Rebecca gets a call from the killer. They taunt each other. After the call, Rebecca goes up into the attic. Opening a chest, she finds Comack’s stash of child pornography. But downstairs, they can’t find Comack.
After looking at some of the photographs, Rebecca and Agent Ryan head to the beach. They go up to a nearby hotel room and, upon entering, find Roger handcuffed in a chair. The killer pops out, pistol-whips Agent Ryan, and then takes Rebecca away in handcuffs. At the post office, Virgil and Agent Sim ask about some of the clerks; all paths lead to Martin Manning.
At Manning’s place, he has Rebecca handcuffed to a chair. He brags about his heroism to her. He then asks Rebecca to profile Roger, who’s bound to another chair. When she finishes, Manning begins to suffocate Comack with a plastic bag. But when Rebecca offers to profile Manning, he stops for a moment. Then the FBI bursts in, shoots Manning, and saves the day.
5. "Loneliest Number" (7/6/2005) Written by Richard Hatem; Directed by James A. Contner; Starring Shay Astar (Charlotte), Toni Wynne (Tanya), Rich Sickler (Medical Examiner), Gabriel Olds (Gary Holt), Elisa Leonetti (Amy Baxter), Jenette Goldstein (Traci Armstrong), Joel Bissonnette (Amos), Comika Beaudry (Lauren)
A woman, Amy Baxter, prepares a nice bath for herself. Candles. Music. As she sits in the tub, she stares at the scars of a previous suicide attempt. And then at a razor blade. This time, she’s successful. In the morgue, Rebecca and Agent Ryan look at what they think is an obvious suicide. Virgil tells them it’s actually a murder and orders them to solve it.
Agent Ryan and Rebecca discuss the case. Ryan informs her that Baxter’s body was loaded with Myocet, a paralytic agent. Rebecca mentions that Virgil attended Annapolis with Amy Baxter’s grandfather. Agent Sim drops in and says she’s found three more suicides that match Amy’s. Full bathtub, needle marks, the works. Later, a call informs Rebecca that the three other suicides also had Myocet in their systems. Rebecca and Agent Ryan begin looking for more connections between the four.
Rebecca and Agent Ryan head to a suicide prevention agency. The number was found in each victim’s phone records. The agents take tapes of the calls and ask for a list of the volunteers, thinking somebody there has been taking advantage of the girls to commit murder. All four agents pore through hours and hours and hours and hours of tapes before Rebecca finds something. A counselor named Gary Holt asks Amy Baxter to meet him on the night of Amy’s murder. Virgil tells Rebecca to call the hotline and convince him that she’s about to commit suicide.
She calls and Gary asks her to meet him in a coffee shop in an hour. Wired up and carrying a gun, Rebecca heads into the shop. Gary meets her and introduces her to a group, Amos, Charlotte and Tanya. Gary asks Rebecca to share her story with the group. She tells the story of her kidnapping as a little girl. In tears, she gets up and leaves. Gary follows her to console. Back in the van, Rebecca tells the VCU she has a date set up with Gary. They seem a little disturbed that she can change from crying and tortured to complete professional so quickly.
At the office, a call comes in. Another victim. But this time, it’s Gary. No sign of forced entry. Gary knew his killer. Elsewhere, Amos approaches the director of the prevention agency, Tracy. He wants to talk about Gary, but has a seizure from the pills he took earlier. Back at Amos’ apartment, Tracy brings him tea, then heads to the bathroom.
Simultaneously, Rebecca is looking up Amos’ file at VCU. She heads out to Amos’ place. Entering the apartment, she finds Amos in the bathtub, wrists slashed. As Rebecca applies a tourniquet to Amos’ wrists, Tracy appears and jams a syringe in Rebecca’s neck, paralyzing her.
Back at VCU, Agents Ryan, Sim and Love realize that Tracy is their suspect. Her parents died in a double suicide over 30 years ago, so now she’s acting out, preying on the weak to relieve her pain. In Amos’ apartment, Tracy puts Rebecca in the bloody tub, then plays a tape of the phone call the hotline received from Rebecca. VCU bursts into the prevention center looking for Tracy. They get a tip to head to Amos’. At the same time, Tracy slashes one of Rebecca’s wrists. The team bursts in and shoots Tracy after a struggle. Paramedics arrive and save Rebecca.
6. "Point of Origin" (unaired in US, UK Airdate 03/31/2006) Written by Karine Rosenthal; Directed by Marita Grabiak; Starring Tom R. Hughes (Mitch), Tom Schmid (Reporter), Matt O'Toole (Pony Man), Rocky McMurray (Fire Marshal Pierni), Chad Lindberg (Louis Salt), Ramon Hilario (Man), Lydia Castro (Rosie Ochoa), Michael Benyaer (David Sarkesian)
Following a series of fires across Los Angeles, Web takes an interest in the apprehending the arsonist leaving Paul perplexed to his motive. It soon becomes apparent after Rebecca is sent in to one of the burnt down buildings and has flashbacks of her past that Web chose the case to get to her, having suspected that she escaped the Pony Man as a child by setting a fire that may have killed many more people. What isn't known however is if Web has chosen to investigate these cases to toy with her or to help her...
(Note: This was originally the eleventh episode to air.)
7. "Thief of Hearts" (7/6/2005) Written by Tim Minear and Craig Silverstein; Directed by Allan Kroeker; Starring Ned Vaughn (Nate Laird), Casey Siemaszko (Billy Ray Pope), Marisol Ramirez (Margaret Alvarez), Fay Masterson (Karen Ryan), Michelle Forbes (Zoya Petikof), Tom Wright (Glenn Terry)
Three years ago, the VCU stormed a house to serve a search warrant. The suspect is defiant, telling Agent Ryan they won’t find anything. As the suspect is being walked out, Agent Ryan digs up a rose bush and finds a human heart in the soil. The suspect begins screaming. He’s been caught.
Back to today. Agent Ryan is called to a scene. A woman was found raped and murdered. Her heart was removed after death. A note is found in the woman’s mouth. “Missing you. With all my heart.” Interestingly, the original killer, Billy Ray Pope, is still in jail. The team isn’t sure who’s responsible for the copycat murder, since the Valentine’s card in the throat was a detail kept secret from the public.
VCU sits down for a video conference with Pope. Pope asks Agent Ryan to leave the room. A Supervisory Special FBI Agent then appears and orders the conference ended. The Agent explains that since the new murder puts Pope’s guilt in doubt, the FBI wants Agent Ryan away from the case.
During Pope’s appeal trial, Rebecca tells Virgil that the latest case differs in one important way. The victim was raped by an object. The killer could possibly be a woman. VCU begins to focus on Pope’s lawyer, Zoya. Coincidentally, Zoya got into law after falling in love with another convicted killer who was put to death.
The next day, based on the new murder and a witness admitting that she was bribed to report suspicious activity by Pope to the FBI, Pope is released on appeal. Agent Ryan tracks down the woman and plays a tape of Virgil talking to Pope. The woman says Virgil’s voice is the one that offered her the bribe. Agent Ryan asks Virgil for an explanation, but when it doesn’t satisfy him, Agent Ryan quits.
That night, when Pope comes home to Zoya’s place, Agent Ryan is waiting in the dark for him. Pope insists that love has changed him. Ryan asks how long until Pope kills Zoya. Ryan gets a call from Agent Sim, his wife has been in a car accident. At the hospital, Agent Ryan finds out that his wife miscarried due to the accident.
Agent Ryan heads back to Zoya’s place. Before he can get out of the car, Rebecca calls him. She now thinks the killer was man forging the crime to get Pope on the street. Due to the greeting card in the throat detail, Rebecca thinks the new killer is one of the victim’s husbands. As she’s saying this, Agent Ryan watches one of those husbands, a Marine named Nate Laird pull up to Zoya’s place, grab a gun and head toward the building.
Rebecca heads for Zoya’s. In the apartment, Zoya and Pope are comforting each other when they hear a knock. It’s Laird. He barges in and begins beating Pope. On the street, Rebecca pulls up, notices a truck with a USMC sticker on it and realizes Laird is there. She finds Agent Ryan in his car and wonders what he’s doing there. She tells him to leave and runs upstairs. As Laird is beating Pope, Pope tells him his wife was worth it. This takes some of the shine off of the relationship for Zoya. Rebecca comes in and orders Laird to stop. He continues, but Agent Ryan comes in and shoots him before he can stab Pope. Before he dies, Laird shoots at Pope, but Zoya blocks it. Agent Ryan shoots Laird again. Zoya and Laird both die.
Back at the office, Agent Ryan tells Virgil that things are going to change. Virgil agrees and walks off. Seems that he’s been cut loose after telling the Supervisory Special Agent that Agent Ryan was working the Pope case, despite direct orders not to.
8. "De-clawed" (7/13/2005) Written by Craig Silverstein; Directed by Fred Gerber; Starring Amanda Tepe (Spikey Redhead), J.E. Freeman (Max Stern), Rich Sickler (Medical Examiner), Kristen Ariza (Sam Gavin), Heather McComb (Holly Lynn Krandall), Joel Moore (Brian Pines), Adam Lieberman (Russ), Tom Wright (Glenn Terry)
With Webster on probation, the VCU is interviewed by the FBI’s supervisory division. Meanwhile, a body turns up in the LA River. Two needles, with kaleidoscopes attached, have been punched into the eyes and the fingernails have been removed. The murder signature matches another victim found recently.
VCU starts working on the case, with the supervisory agent investigating Virgil overseeing everything. Analyzing the bite marks on the fingers, a department expert creates a mold of the perp’s mouth and guesses that the perp is in his 70s. While the VCU is trying to get some hard evidence, a third victim turns up.
Using car seat fibers found on the victims, and tire tracks from the scene of the newest body, VCU searches for a 1959 AMC Rambler. One of the registered addresses is a record shop. At said record shop, Max, our criminal, reports to work. VCU sends Rebecca into the store on surveillance. Despite Rebecca’s protests, the FBI swarms the store to take down the young store owner. As Max is returning from a coffee run, he sees the FBI cars and heads the other way.
The store owner directs the VCU to Max’s career as a comic book artist and the dark titles he wrote in the ‘70s. Examining Max’s boxes in the back of the shop, Agent Sim finds some kaleidoscopes. And a tube of human fingernails. But all they can do is wait until they find Max. Upset that the supervisory agent blew the stakeout, Rebecca visits Virgil. She asks him how to use their profile of Max to find him. Virgil tells her that if Max sees demons, thinks he’s killing demons, she should know well enough when demons strike.
Following Virgil’s advice that we all stop where we started, Rebecca looks through old case files. She finds one on a prostitute murdered on Hollywood Blvd., her fingernails and left index finger chewed off. Rebecca theorizes that this was Max. After the murder, he got into illustration, which gave him an outlet for fighting demons. Now that that’s gone, however, he’s back to murder.
While all of this has been going on, Virgil has hired himself a hooker. After dyeing her hair blonde and dressing her up like Max’s first victim, Virgil has her walk down Hollywood Blvd. Bait for Max. But as Max spots her, the FBI pulls Virgil off the scene, which they consider an active investigation area. Out on the boulevard, Max approaches Virgil’s girl and stun guns her. Meanwhile, the VCU is rushing to the scene.
Realizing that Max couldn’t have gone far from the scene, the team rushes into a parking garage. Rebecca finds an old Rambler and Agent Love busts open the window and pulls out Max, his mouth filled with blood; Rebecca comforts Web's girl.
With the case solved, the supervisory unit clears Virgil to return to work.
9. "Aidan" (unaired in US, UK Airdate 03/10/2006) Written by Ahmed Lavalais and Jane Espenson; Directed by Kevin Hooks; Starring Rick Ravanello (Scott Bossi), Brian Catalano (Alley Bystander), J. Downing (Lawrence Osterland), Brian Hallisay (Jake Carrington), Cindy Lu (Hannah Davies), Fay Masterson (Karen Ryan), Julie Ann Emery (Betty Scarwid), Kiersten Morgan (Kim Bossi), Heather Salmon (Emma), Lisa Thornhill (Lydia Osterland), David Joyner (Union Station Samaritan), Joel Heyman (Paramedic #2), Carla Barnett (Jeannie), Sam Vance (Paramedic #1), Taryn O'Neill (Kim Bossi)
Paul finds his work hampered by the memory of his wife's recent miscarriage when a pregnant woman is killed and has her fetus stolen and replaced with a baby doll.
10. "Little Girl Lost" (unaired in US, UK Airdate 03/17/2006) Written by Craig Silverstein and Tim Minear; Directed by Karen Gaviola; Starring Greg Wrangler (Barry Presley), Mary Kathleen Gordon (Mary Robie), Michael Shamus Wiles (Karl Robie Sr.), Garret Dillahunt (Karl Robie Jr.), Matt O'Toole (Pony Man), Dean Cudworth (Randy Wilkes), Liana Liberato (Dina Presley), Kelsey Lewis (Real Dina), Mark Lacy (Stevie Robie)
After spending forty-eight hours without sleep searching for a kidnapped family, Rebecca begins being haunted by visions of the Pony Man. Things go from bad to worse however while transporting the kidnapper and the helicopter crashes, forcing Rebecca to follow the instructions of the Pony Man if she wants to survive.
11. "The Perfect Couple" (unaired in US, UK Airdate 03/24/2006) Written by Ben Edlund; Directed by Vern Gillum; Starring Matt Keeslar (Roddy Davis), Michael Kostroff (Rick Byers), Steve Sandvoss (Corey Hall), Maite Schwartz (Vickie Armstrong), Kasey Wilson (Debbie Hobbs), Rich T. Sickler (Medical Examiner), Mathew Botuchis (Dean), Gabriel Tigerman (Marco), Jamie Elle Mann (Jessica Dobrennin), Amber Benson (Allison Davis), Abigail Kintanar (Girl In Club)
The VCD team is searching for a man on a killing spree, who is covering up rapes by shooting the victims' genitalia before finishing them off in the woods. When Rebecca is sent as bait in the nightclub where all the victims were last seen, the team soon realizes that they might have viewed the case in the wrong way.
12. "Gem" (unaired in US, UK Airdate 04/07/2006) Story by Bob Hamer; Written by David Fury and Jane Espenson; Directed by Kevin Hooks; Starring Michael J. Moody (Ashton), Anne Bellamy (Grandma), John Mariano (Lawrence Keyes), Christopher May (Dad), Branden R. Morgan (Jason Dallas), Gwen Mihok (Mom), Malaya Rivera Drew (Angelica Sandoval), Jason Beghe (Special Agent Randall Day), Steve Sandvoss (Corey Hall), Keith Szarabajka (Arlen Dallas), Serena Spencer (Amy Sanet), Dale E. Turner (Ed), Ana Mercedes (Maria Sandoval)
The VCU investigate the supposed death of a girl in a snuff film forcing Rebecca to decide whether or not she's ready to put her traumatic childhood behind her so that she may pursue a social life with Corey.
13. "Skin and Bone" (unaired in US, UK Airdate 04/14/2006) Story by Tim Minear; Written by Jane Espenson; Directed by Dwight Little; Starring William Mapother (Ronald Ewing), Steve Sandvoss (Corey Hall), Michael Weatherred (J.P. Molina)
While investigating the death of numerous anorexic girls, Rebecca is imprisoned by their 800lbs cannibal killer, Ronald Ewing, leaving her forced to once again escape a murderous abductor. Meanwhile, the VCU work hard to find her, including working on a victim profile that gives them a disturbing look into Rebecca's psyche that explains some of her actions over the past six months.
[edit] External links
- Online petition to get The Inside released on DVD
- Downloadable The Inside Scripts
- The Inside at the Internet Movie Database
- The Inside at TV.com
- PopGurls' review of the show, which doubles as an appreciation of the Rebecca Locke character
- Part One of an interview with Minear, in which he discusses the demise of the series
- Part Two of that interview, in which Minear talks about plots that audiences will not see because of cancellation
- Part Three, where Minear speaks on his future projects, including an Inside DVD
- The Inside Must Die To Live Again
- Interview with William Mapother about his experiences filming the final episode, "Skin and Bone"
