REPORT: CURIOUS JAROD
FILE #: 104

THE SCENE OPENS ON A JUNK YARD . Miss Parker and Sydney are walking through the aisles of segregated trash, heading toward a small encampment where Jarod — as Jarod Woods — had recently set up a lair for himself. The junkyard manager is with them, and talking to them as they go along. He says Jarod was there for about a month, and kept himself occupied by reading everything he could get his hands on, mostly books that had been confiscated from a library when it shut down. Most of the books were about science and mathematics, and included such titles as “The New Prometheans” , “Physics and Random Probability” , and “Making Odds Even” . The junk yard manager also tells Sydney and Miss Parker about Jarod’s theory about the aerodynamics of the 50 cent piece: that because of convolutions on the face of the coin it will, more often than not, land face-up. Miss Parker is unimpressed.

AT THE MARQUIS CASINO IN LAS VEGAS , we see Jarod — now as Jarod Felson — at the black jack tables with piles of chips in front of him. He’s playing eight decks at once, and winning so much money that he’s captured the attention of the casino’s security chief and president. Intent on shutting Jarod down, one of the security guards asks a waitress named Ivy to offer Jarod alcohol on the house. Ivy tells the security guard that she’s tried that already, but Jarod insists on drinking nothing but Dr. Pepper. When Jarod’s winnings reach over $100-grand, the casino president has security pick Jarod up and bring him to his office.

In the office of casino manager, Peter Morgan, Jarod sits in a chair, smiling at the security chief and guards around him. Morgan tells his people that Jarod must be “a complete idiot” if he thinks he can rip off the Marquis Casino by cheating at the black jack tables. Jarod says he wasn’t cheating, and he had no intention of keeping his winnings. As a matter of fact, he turned over all of his chips to Ivy and let her return them to the security chief’s office. Morgan then asks what Jarod is doing there, if he’s not there to win anything. Jarod excuses himself from his chair, goes over to a console of video monitors and, directing the surveillance cameras in the casino via the computers there, tells Morgan to watch one of his dealers, a man named Martin Rawlings.

As Morgan and the other watch on the monitor, Rawlings uses the slight-of-hand skills he’d developed as a former magician to skim chips off the House’s stack and pass them on to a courier — one of the waitresses in the casino. Jarod tells Morgan that thousands of dollars are disappearing in the fashion, and Morgan asks him where the chips are going once the courier has them. Jarod points to the security chief standing in the room with them, and tells Morgan that the stolen chips are in the chief’s chip holster attached to his belt. The security chief protests, but Morgan has the guard confiscate the holster from the chief. The guard opens the holster up and finds the stolen chips inside. Morgan fires the chief on the spot and hires Jarod in his place as head of security.

AT THE CENTRE , Miss Parker, Broots and Sydney are going over the books and other materials they’d taken from Jarod’s junkyard lair. In the book “Making Odds Even” Jarod had left a small, red toy monkey (from a “Barrel of Monkeys” game) tucked between some of the pages, had highlighted everything on every page, and had retraced every figure “8” in the book. Sydney tells Miss Parker that the number 8 was Jarod’s favorite number; that Jarod liked to call it “Upright Infinity” and liked the flowing, interlocking symmetry of the form. He is convinced that the “Making Odds Even” book was the key to Jarod’s next pretend, and determines that it might signify a pretend dealing with high-risk games of chance: gambling.

AT THE MARQUIS CASINO , Jarod is in the gift shop reading a copy of the children’s book “Curious George” . A little girl sees him, and he asks her if she’s ever read it. She said she read a “million times” when she was “a kid”. Jarod asks her if she knows who the man in the yellow hat in the book is, and she whispers to him that she doesn’t know. He thanks her for her time, and takes the book with him when he lives the shop.

Later, poolside outside of the casino, Jarod meets Peter Morgan, Peter’s wife Kitty, and Steve Hanlon (the casino owner). Jarod says he’s a big fan of Hanlon, and had read his book “Master Your Space” . He was also impressed by Hanlon’s company motto of “families first” , he tells them. Hanlon is appreciative of Jarod’s accolades, but Morgan just thinks Jarod is “kissing up” to the boss. He tells Jarod that Hanlon’s not interested at all in families; he’s just trying to make a buck.

After his meeting with Hanlon and Morgan, Jarod catches a cab. While he’s sitting in the back seat, he reads through his latest red notebook. Inside it are newspaper clippings with headlines that read: “Showgirl Beaten, Maggie Blaire in Critical Condition”, “Showgirl in Coma”, and “Alone: Sleeping Beauty Fights for Life”. Jarod goes to Maggie’s room in the hospital, where she’s still lying comatose in her bed. He takes her hand and says to her softly: “I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here, Maggie.”

While Jarod sits with Maggie, a male nurse name Buddy comes in and says he’s surprised that Jarod is there. Buddy thought Maggie had no friends or family; he also tells Jarod not to get too attached to Maggie because she probably would never recover from her coma. Jarod says he knows she’s in bad straights, and asks Buddy to page him should there be any change in her condition. Buddy promises Jarod he will.

IN NEW YORK CITY , Miss Parker and Sydney have a street corner meeting with some mobsters known to Miss Parker. Even though the mobsters try to intimidate Miss Parker into leaving them alone, she refuses to back down. She tells the mob boss that she wants him to find out at what gambling casino Jarod is staying; and that if the boss doesn’t do what she tells him to do, she’ll sic the Port Authority on him and shut down his smuggling operations. The mobster says he’ll do what Miss Parker asks, but he wants $50-thousand for his troubles. Miss Parker agrees.

IN THE MARQUIS CASINO , Jarod finds an Elvis impersonator named Bernie Baxley sulking at his dressing room table. Jarod asks Bernie what’s wrong, and Bernie tells him he’s just been fired. “Did it have something to do with the bird thing?” Jarod asks. Bernie doesn’t understand what he means, and Jarod clarifies, “The ‘goose’?” Bernie laughs, and says, no, he’s not being fired for goosing the lady guests at the casino. He’s been fired because he’s overweight and too old for the part he’s playing anymore. He says he’s scared about being unemployed at his age… and he’s scared about the fact that now, as he can’t be “Elvis” anymore, he’ll have to figure out who “Bernie” really is. [[This dilemma of Bernie’s is fascinating to Jarod who has the reverse of Bernie’s problem. Jarod aches to know who “Jarod” really is, rather than pretending to be other people all of the time, but hasn’t had the chance to find out much about himself yet.]]

AT THE CENTRE , in his office, Sydney gets a telephone call from Jarod. Sydney tells him they’d found his last lair, and all of the books. Jarod responds a little angrily by saying, “It’s a pleasure to read whatever I want these days.” Sydney asks what all the books and games are about, and Jarod responds with a flat, “It’s in the mail,” and hangs up.

IN HIS ROOM AT THE CASINO , Jarod creates a figure-8 out of a string of the small, red Barrel of Monkeys monkeys. Later, we see Jarod arrive back in his room at the casino dressed in a policeman’s uniform. He tosses a police report about Maggie Blaire onto his bed.

The next day, Jarod meets for a poolside lunch with Peter Morgan and Steve Hanlon and tells them he’s been going through the casino’s books and discovered that some of the figures were “off” for the month of July. Hanlon tells Jarod not to pursue that line of inquiry; he knows the books are off for that month. He tells Jarod that after Maggie Blaire was beaten up, on the 4th of July, the casino suffered from guest cancellations and bad publicity. In order to get the public to return to the casino, he rigged the winning of several large “jack pots” for some of the customers. When the gambling members of the public found out that winnings were big at the Marquis, they returned there.

Later that evening, Jarod is escorting Ivy to her car in the parking garage. When they pass the place where Maggie Blaire had been beaten, Ivy feels very uncomfortable. She tells Jarod that she can smell the scent of gardenias there and it gives her the creeps. (Ivy explains that gardenias where Maggie’s favorite flowers; Maggie always wore one in her hair.) Ivy also tells Jarod that the last time she saw Maggie, Maggie was excited because she’d just won a lead part in a big show in Atlantic City and was readying to leave the Marquis. Shortly after that announcement, Maggie was found beaten into a coma in the parking garage.

Jarod sees to it that Ivy gets to her car safely, then he starts searching the area where Maggie had been found. He sees, tucked in under an overhang, a surveillance camera that looked down right into the place where Maggie had been attacked. Jarod goes to the security bay in the casino and searches through the video archives to find tape of the day Maggie was attacked, but all he can find are images of her, from another part of the building, punching out her time card on her way out of the building. Although the caption on the video tape reads “07-04-96”; however, Jarod isn’t convinced that the tape is authentic. He uses the security bay computers to zoom in on the time card Maggie was holding in the video. The date on the card reads “04-8-96”. He then knows that the footage of Maggie on the July 4th video was actually footage from April, and had been spliced into the 07-04-98 video tape. But who did that…?

Back in his room at the casino, Jarod is going over the crime photographs of Maggie Blaire’s beating… and he also watches a SIM of himself, from 10-12-67, when he was a child. In the SIM he was supposed to be the man who murdered Marylin Monroe, but he can’t go through with the simulation. Young Jarod looks to Sydney and says he doesn’t understand why Marylin had to die; “No one should have to die alone.” Sydney tells Young Jarod to pay attention to what he’s doing, “Focus on the killer, not the victim…” But Young Jarod can’t do it. “There’s something wrong with this picture,” Young Jarod says.

Adult Jarod looks over the images of a bruised and battered Maggie Blaire, and says to himself that there’s something wrong with those pictures, too. He notices an odd-shaped bruise on her face (a short of “shield” shape). Jarod then goes out on the floor of the casino and studies all of the principal workers he can find. While he’s studying Peter Morgan, he realizes that Morgan is wearing a watch with the same distinctive shield-shape as the bruise on Maggie Blaire’s face.

AT THE CENTRE , Broots brings a large package to Sydney. The package is wrapped in brown paper and has a glorified figure-8 on the side of it. Sydney opens up the package to find that inside it is nothing but a small wire cage, with a single small, red toy monkey hanging in it. Miss Parker comes into the room, see the cage but doesn’t remark on, and tells Sydney that she’s heard from the mobster in New York. She wants Sydney to go with her to meet with the mobster.

THAT EVENING, JAROD GOES TO VISIT BERNIE BAXLEY IN HIS RV , which is still parked in the casino’s parking lot. Bernie is packing up all of his things, including a snow globe he got from Graceland, and is readying to leave. While Jarod chats with Bernie, his beeper goes off. Buddy, at the hospital is paging him.

JAROD ARRIVES AT MAGGIE BLAIRE’S HOSPITAL ROOM to find her in extreme physical distress. Jarod takes Maggie’s hand and tells her, “It’s all right. You’re not alone,” and continues to hold her hand until she dies. Later, from his room at the casino, Jarod calls the hospital and tells them he’ll pay for all of Maggie’s hospital bills. The hospital informs him that the bills have already been paid… by Kitty Morgan. Intrigued by this, Jarod uses his laptop computer to run fingerprint traces on Kitty and Peter Morgan. He discovers that Peter Morgan has a past record of assault.

IN NEW YORK , Miss Parker and Sydney meets with the mobster who says he’ll tell Miss Parker where Jarod is, but he wants $100,000 not $50, 000. Miss Parker agrees and hands the mobster an envelope engorged with bills. The mobster informs her that one of his people in Las Vegas had spotted Jarod in the parking garage of the Marquis Casino. Miss Parker thanks the mobster and then informs him that she had actually brought $200,000 with her, and was surprised that he didn’t hold out for more cash. “Who knew you’d be such a cheap date,” she tells him as she walks off.

THE NEXT DAY, JAROD GOES TO MAGGIE BLAIRE’S GRAVESIDE , and discovers Kitty Morgan there, dressed in black and wearing sunglasses. Kitty tells Jarod she was just there to pay her respects to Maggie, but Jarod doesn’t quite believe her. He snatches the sunglasses from Kitty’s face revealing the bruises around her eyes. He tells her he knows Peter Morgan and Maggie Blaire were having an affair, and when Maggie told him she was leaving to pursue her career in Atlantic City, Peter went berserk and beat her. Jarod also tells Kitty that he’s found Peter’s police record, and knows that Maggie and Kitty aren’t the only women Peter has assaulted. Sobbing, Kitty tells Jarod that when she found Peter’s copy of the surveillance video that showed Maggie getting beaten, Peter threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it. Riddled with guilt over Maggie’s death, Kitty then tried to make amends by paying all the hospital and funeral expenses herself. Jarod tells her that that isn’t enough. They have to stop Peter before he hurts anyone else.

Later, Kitty meets Jarod in the parking garage and hands him Peter’s copy of the surveillance video fro the night Maggie was attacked. Jarod takes the video to his room and watches it… then he spends the rest of the evening practicing the forgery of Peter Morgan’s signature and making telephone calls. He packs up an envelope filled with evidence about Maggie’s attack and addresses it to the Las Vegas Police Department; does some money transfers over the telephone and the computer; and prints out a packet of information which he puts into another envelope with Steve Hanlon’s name on it. He then goes to Bernie and asks him for his assistance.

THE NEXT MORNING , Jarod is packing his bags when the maid, Blanca, comes in to supply the room with some fresh towels. She tells Jarod that she’s concerned he hasn’t gotten any sleep for the past five nights, and he tells her he’s been too busy to sleep. They have a short conversation, in fluent Spanish, about the Curious George books and the man in the yellow hat (whom Blanca can’t identify either), and then Jarod is ready to leave.

ON THE FLOOR OF THE CASINO , Ivy approaches Steve Hanlon and gives him the envelope Jarod had addressed to him. She tells him that Jarod wants to see him in the security bay around 10 o’clock. Meanwhile, Jarod finds Peter Morgan and tells him he’s discovered a huge money-pilfering scam in the casino. He tells Morgan that $100,000 is being skimmed off the money pick-ups every Tuesday at 10 o’clock. The armored truck driver is in on the scam, he says, and acts as a courier, transporting the stolen money to another location after it leaves the casino. Jarod tells Morgan that if Morgan can trick the armored truck driver into telling him who the scam artists are and where the money is being taken, Hanlon will make Morgan president of the casino for life. Delighted with the idea of being Hanlon’s “hero”, Morgan agrees to do whatever Jarod tells him to do. Jarod has Morgan wait for the armored truck to arrive around 10 o’clock, and then approach the driver and tell him it was “business as usual” and to give him the information he wants.

At 10 o’clock, Hanlon arrives in the security bay but discovers that Jarod isn’t there yet. He adjusts the surveillance cameras to search for Jarod and Morgan, and finds Morgan waiting at the front door of the casino as the armored truck arrives. Curious as to why Morgan is there, Hanlon “ups” the sound feed so he can eves drop on Morgan’s conversation with the driver. He hears Morgan and the driver talk about money being stolen from the casino, and Morgan telling the driver that it’s “business as usual”. Believing Morgan is working with the driver to steal the money from the casino, Hanlon is livid.

Meanwhile, believing he’s just caught the armored truck driver in the middle of a money-stealing scam, Morgan grins at Jarod and says he can’t wait to tell Hanlon all about it. Jarod tells him Hanlon should be in the security bay, so Morgan rushes off to see Hanlon and tell him the “good news” about his being able to uncover the scam. Jarod stays behind for a few moments to smile at the armored truck driver… who is really Bernie dressed in security uniform. A la Elvis, Jarod points to Bernie and says, “Thank you, thank you very much.” Bernie takes on an “Elvis” stance of his own and smiles back at Jarod.

MEANWHILE , Miss Parker, Sydney and a pair of Sweepers arrive at the casino.

Jarod goes to the security bay, and arrives only a few seconds after Morgan. Morgan starts to tells Hanlon about the scam he’s uncovered, but instead Hanlon confronts Morgan with the tape made by the security camera of Morgan’s conversation with the armored truck driver. Morgan says he was just play-acting and asks Jarod to explain it all to Hanlon. Jarod steps forward and tells Hanlon that Morgan has been masterminding the theft of thousands of dollars from the casino every month, was in cahoots with the armored truck driver to steal from the Marquis, and had shunted all the stolen money into a Swiss bank account. Morgan insists he’s been set up, and doesn’t HAVE a Swiss bank account. Hanlon then shows Morgan the envelope he had gotten from Jarod (via Ivy) earlier. The envelope is filled with receipts of money transfers from Las Vegas to Switzerland… and they all have Peter Morgan’s signature on them. Morgan insists that that documents are forgeries, but Hanlon doesn’t believe him. When Morgan tries to flee the room, Hanlon has two security guards grab Morgan. They start to beat him up, and Jarod leaves the room.

In the hallway outside the security bay, Jarod is met by three officers from the Las Vegas Police Department. They had received his evidence in the killing of Maggie Blaire and want to know where Morgan is. Jarod directs them to security bay, then starts to head out of the casino.

When he’s on the main floor, Jarod is spotted by Sydney who calls to him. Realizing Sydney, Miss Parker and the Sweepers are there, Jarod runs through the gambling room and exits the building. Outside, on the steps, Jarod is trapped between Miss Parker and Sydney and the two Sweepers. Before they can converge on him and capture him, however, casino security guards show up. They ask Jarod — who as far as they know is still head of security — if he needs some help. He tells the guards that Sydney, the Sweepers and Miss Parker are grifters who’ve tried to rip off the casino. He wants them all arrested… and he wants Miss Parker strip-searched, telling the guards, “She may be palming chips.”

Jarod tosses a 50 cent piece into the air toward Miss Parker. She reaches out and grabs it, and Jarod calls, “Tails.” Miss Parker looks at the coin. He’s right. Later that same day, Jarod goes to the graveside of Maggie Blaire and leaves a wreath of Baby’s Breath and Gardenia’s behind for her.

After being released from the authorities, Miss Parker, Sydney and the Sweepers go back to the Marquis Casino and search Jarod’s room. They find a mobile made out of poker chips and 50 cent pieces, the red notebook, and Jarod’s copy of “Curious George” . On the flyleaf of the inside cover, Jarod has written: TO THE MAN IN THE YELLOW HAT. FROM THE MONKEY THAT GOT AWAY.

The episode ends with Jarod, dressed in a National Wildlife Federation uniform, in a jungle setting. He takes a chimpanzee out of the back of the Federation truck and carries it into the jungle, explaining to his guide that he’s returning the chimp to the wild because, “Living creatures… They don’t belong in captivity.”