REPORT: HOMEFRONT
FILE #: 307

IN HIS LAIR Jarod is hacking into the Dover Town Bank getting account information about The Centre. His mind flashes back to a day some 20 years ago. Young Jarod is preparing to meet his parents (the Russell’s, who we now know were not his real parents). He tells Sydney he doesn’t know what to say to them. Sydney, adjusting his tie, tells him to relax and to trust his feelings.

Back in the present, Jarod transferees the exact sum of $58,990,620.00 from The Centre’s bank account to another one.

AT THE CENTRE Mr. Lyle and Miss P. are talking about Jarod’s theft. Miss Parker says it could have been worse (after all, it was “only” 60 million…peanuts for The Centre…). Lyle has his own opinions, he says that murder “happens”, extortion “is sometimes necessary”, but theft, simply “taking for the taking”, cannot be considered an admirable criminal act at all. Miss P. replies by asking “Little bitter about your car being stolen?”. Apparently, it had been brand new…Lyle says that the car’s alarm system was a very good one and that he still hopes to get it back in one piece…

ELSEWHERE, we see a Delaware license plate with the number: LYLE-1, and a little red laser light landing on it. “Now there’s a good target” we hear Jarod say “once you try one of these puppies, you’ll never go back”. The man next to him is holding a heavy arm, aiming it directly at the car. He shoots and Lyle’s beloved new car goes boom…:-)

Grinning, Jarod picks up Lyle’s burning license plate an uses it to light his cigar (I just have to add something editorial here: I hate it when men smoke cigars…but I guess Jarod had something to celebrate…as long as it doesn’t turn into a habit…)

This time he’s posing as an arms dealer. The man who shot Lyle’s car is his new client, Desmond Blake. When Blake asks Jarod who is funding him, Jarod replies “Some people I used to work for”.

AT THE CENTRE: Sydney is wondering what Jarod is up to and what he needs all that money for. Lyle is on the phone talking to the police and describing his car: It is (or was…) a black 500 SL convertible with the license plate LYLE-1. In just that moment, Miss P. comes in, a slight grin on her face, holding something behind her back: It’s Lyle’s burned license plate…nice sense of humor, Jarod.

Broots is tracking The Centre’s stolen money. He explains it had been electronically marked, using a new method he had come up with. Using his brand-new program, “The Hound”, as he calls it, it can now be tracked wherever it goes.

AT DESMOND BLAKE’S COMPOUND IN CARACAS, VENEZUELA, Jarod (wearing a white jacket and sunglasses, looking like a typical arms dealer) has delivered sixty missiles to his client Blake. When Blake says that he will go and get his check, Jarod replies that that wasn’t part of the deal. Then he explains to him that the missiles aren’t ready to go yet (“In their current state they couldn’t take out a Tonka truck”), and that he’s the only one who knows how to program them. He demands cash, half now, the other half when the missiles are programmed. While they’re talking, a boy and a girl come in, Blake’s kids. He sends them away, telling them that he’s working. Jarod says it will take two weeks to program the missiles, but Blake gives him 72 hours, two of his men and the guesthouse to stay in.

Jarod explains to Blake’s men what to do and goes to get some fresh air, as he says. In reality, he sneaks into the house to check out the alarm system. Later in the garden, Jarod talks to Blake’s kids, Rebecca and Ryan. Rebecca is writing a letter to her mother. She explains to Jarod that her mom is an angel and shows him a picture of her. She says her dad doesn’t want them to talk about her or even have pictures of her.

Jarod’s mind flashes back to a day one month ago in Atlanta, Georgia. Sitting in a cafe, Jarod meets the waitress, who we recognize as the woman in Rebecca’s picture. When she hears a child say “Mommy”, she turns around, spills a glass of water and apologizes to Jarod. Jarod replies “Spilling a glass of water is not the end of the world. Losing your children is”. The waitress wants to know what he knows about her kids. Jarod tells the waitress, Wendy, that he’s here to help her get her kids back. Wendy sits down and tells Jarod her story. It’s been three years since she’s last seen her kids. Her husband had kidnapped them not long after she got full custody. Since then she’s been searching for them. She explains that Desmond sees his kids as his number one possession. Jarod asks Wendy again to let him help her. When she wants to know who he is, he replies he’s just someone who thinks children shouldn’t be taken from a loving mother.

Back in the present, at Blake’s house, Rebecca is kneeling next to a grave. She tells Jarod that her mom had died three years ago in a car crash. Jarod’s mind flashes back. Sydney tells young Jarod that there’s been an accident, that his parent’s plane had crashed, and no one survived.

Back in the present, Rebecca and Ryan’s nanny, Emma, sends them into the house and tells Jarod to stay away from the children.

At night, Jarod has just finished his missile-programming shift, so he goes to the airport to get Wendy. He tells her that they have less time than they had expected and therefore they need to make their move quickly. He shows Wendy a picture to let her know her children are okay. Wendy’s very happy. In a motel room, Jarod explains his plan of how to get the children out of their house, showing Wendy a map of the compound. Her job is to wait in the car outside the gates. Jarod also tells Wendy that Desmond had told the children that she was dead.

AT THE CENTRE All excited, Broots tells Miss Parker that “The Hound” was able to track the stolen money to the account of a certain Raoul Senega, a real estate guy in Mexico City. But Mr. Lyle knows better: Mr. Senega is really an arms dealer. “And you know this because…?”, Miss P. wants to know. Lyle just says they “have a history together”, back when he was still “building his resume”.

AT BLAKE’S COMPOUND Desmond Blake tells Jarod that he doesn’t trust strangers lately, because somebody had tried to kill him about two months ago. So he wonders why Jarod wasn’t in his room when he went by last night (obviously, Jarod was with Wendy at the motel then). “I didn’t realize I had a curfew” Jarod replies. When he tells him he went for a walk, Blake doesn’t believe him. “Look Mr. Desmond, I’m not here to blow up your car,” Jarod tells him, “I’m here to program your missiles, get my money, and get the hell outta here.”

Pretending to be programming one of the missiles, Jarod logs into the “Sentry Security Systems” to check out how to shut down Blake’s alarm system. Then he takes a paper clip and causes a short-circuit by holding into a socket. Under the pretext of fixing it, Jarod enters the house and goes to the room where the alarm system is located. Before fixing the blown circuit, Jarod plugs a special device into the alarm system, that allows him to switch it off whenever he wants to, by using a remote control. Walking back through the kitchen, he bumps into Emma and pretends to be hungry, saying he just wanted to grab a sandwich. She tells him he has no business being here in the kitchen. Jarod discovers the medallion around her neck and asks her what it is. She says it was a gift. Then she tells him to leave, because she doesn’t allow Mr. Blake’s “associates” in this part of the house. Before leaving, Jarod asks her why she’s still here if she has a problem with Desmond’s “associates”, but she replies that it’s really none of his concern. Jarod tells her that he’s sure the children’s mother, wherever she is, is very grateful for what she does for the kids.

IN MEXICO CITY Mr. Lyle and Miss P. pay a visit to Raoul Senega in his fitness center. He recognizes Lyle immediately and is obviously afraid of him. Lyle puts more weight on Senega’s machine, which almost breaks his knees, in order to get him to talk. He tells them he only knows that Jarod’s buyer is a man named Desmond Blake, but he doesn’t know where they can find him.

JAROD COMES INTO WENDY’S MOTEL ROOM, but she’s not there. She has left to watch her kids take their riding lessons.

AT THE RIDING SCHOOL Wendy watches her children from a short distance, when she sees how Ryan, while playing with his plane, runs in front of a car. She tries to warn him and calls his name, but Jarod is there first and saves Ryan’s life. Ryan, however, has already seen his mother and tells his father about it. Blake gets Rebecca and Ryan in the car right away and takes them home.

When they arrive there, Ryan is still sure he saw his mother, although Blake tells him that it’s impossible. Rebecca suggests that maybe her mother was in the car when it crashed. That reminds Jarod of himself. Young Jarod asks Sydney if it’s possible that his parents weren’t on the plane that crashed. But Sydney replies that he must face reality, no matter how painful it may be.

Back in the present, Ryan says his mother looked just like in Rebecca’s picture and Blake makes his daughter give him the picture. Before tearing it apart, he holds a speech about how much it hurts him to think about their mother and how painful it is for him to see her face. Jarod intervenes and tells Ryan that the reason he saw his mother may be that this was his greatest wish, but that it all happened just in his imagination. Blake tells Emma to pack some stuff together, because they’re going to leave in the morning.

Jarod tries to tell Blake that there is no way he can finish the missiles by the morning and that he had come to the stables to tell him that they were running behind. He blames Blake’s men for the delay, but Blake replies he doesn’t trust him.

IN WENDY’S MOTEL ROOM Jarod wants to know what Wendy was thinking going to the stables and tells her that Blake is spooked now. That means they have to get the kids out that same night, at 11 pm. They know they can trust Emma, so they will ask her for help. Jarod plans to create some kind of diversion. In the meantime, Wendy is to stay inside her room, because Blake’s men will be looking for her. Wendy believes that Ryan didn’t even recognizes her, but Jarod tells her that’s not true, showing her Rebecca’s picture that he had glued back together.

ON THE PHONE Broots tells Miss Parker that they found Desmond Blake. Still in the plane, Miss P. and Lyle leave for Venezuela right away.

AT BLAKE’S COMPOUND Jarod talks to Emma to ask her for help. He tells her who he really is and what he’s about to do. Emma is shocked when she hears that Wendy is still alive and doesn’t believe Jarod. To prove that he told her the truth, Jarod tells Emma that the medallion around her neck was a gift from Wendy and that she made Emma promise she would take care of the children if anything ever happened to Wendy. Emma promises to help as best as she can.

At night, Wendy parks her car outside the gates as she was supposed to. In the meantime, Jarod prepares his little distraction: Blowing up Blake’s car. When everybody is busy putting out the fire, Jarod enters the building, shutting down all the security cameras with his remote control. But the kids are nowhere to be found, even Emma doesn’t know where they are. Jarod calls the whole thing off and tells Wendy to get out of there immediately.

ON THE PHONE, Jarod explains to Wendy what happened. He found out that the children had been taken to a different part of the compound. But he already has a new plan. This time, Wendy is to wait at the airport the following morning, when Blake and the children are going to leave. Jarod and Emma are going to take care of the rest. He also tells Wendy not to give up and promises that everything will be fine.

AT BLAKE’S COMPOUND Jarod fixes up Desmond’s other car to fit his plan, as well as the truck that’s going to transport the missiles. In the meantime, Emma makes sure that Blake’s driver will feel sick soon, by mixing something into his coffee.

The next morning, Jarod offers to replace Blake’s sick driver and drive him and the children to the airport. “That’s the least I can do for a paying customer”, he explains. But outside the gates, Mr. Lyle and Miss P. are waiting their car. when Jarod spots them, he asks “Emma, aren’t those two parked over there the ones that were questioning you about the children when you were in town?”. A little confused, Emma plays along, saying yes, they were the ones. Blake, thinking Lyle and Miss P. could be police or private investigators sent by Wendy, tells his men not to let them follow them. While Blake’s men hold Lyle and Miss Parker, a grinning Jarod drives the car out of the gates.

AT THE AIRPORT, Emma takes Ryan and Rebecca into Blake’s private jet, while Jarod locks the car with his remote, trapping Blake inside it. Then he shows him one of the missiles he’s brought with him and aims at Blake with the laser. He also informs him that his men and the truck with the missiles are not going to arrive any time soon (We see the truck standing in the road, broken down). Jarod wants Desmond to feel what it’s like to have everything you care about ripped away from you. When Desmond replies that those children belong to him, Jarod says “You make it sound like having children is like owning…well a missile?”. While Blake crawls around in the car trying to get out, Jarod follows him with the laser light. But then he stops and tells Emma to bring the children out. After he has told them not to be scared and to trust their feelings, he calls Wendy. Desmond, in the car, shouts “No! No!”, as Wendy and her kids are finally reunited and get onto the plane. Jarod lets Desmond know that he told the police about his arms dealing, and adds “FYI, all this time I haven’t been arming your missiles, I’ve been disarming them. Now…they couldn’t take out a Tonka truck.”

IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA, Jarod says goodbye to Wendy and the kids. She thanks him for everything he’s done and for giving her her life back.

Before he leaves, Jarod gives Wendy a check “from Desmond” to get her new life started. As he walks out into the night, Jarod remembers writing a letter to his mother when he was a child. He tells her and his father that he keeps trying to remember everything about them, so that he will recognize them when they see each other again.