Original subtitles

Watch where you're going.

Hey,

are you okay?

He's trying to kill me.

Adam.

Lucia.

Wow. Yeah.

It's been a minute. How are you? I heard you moved.

A few times, actually.

Last stop was Santa Fe.

Santa Fe?

I've never been.

I liked it.

No skyscrapers.

Lots of weirdos.

I heard you met a guy.

Sounded serious.

You stalking me?

No, I just... I'm just kidding.

Nick and Natalie told you, right? Yeah.

You know, they say things now and then. Yeah.

I ask them about you sometimes, too.

And the guy didn't stick, so... Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm not.

You still with the LAPD?

Yeah, yeah. They keep me busy.

Yeah, I remember.

Anyway, next project's here in L .A.

You move back.

For now.

Well, uh, welcome back.

Listen, I got a couple minutes. Do you want to, like, sit down, catch up?

Uh, I, uh... Oh, right, sorry.

Your shift's about to start.

You have to get to work.

I can be a little late.

I just can't get enough.

Good morning.

You're late.

Lost track of time. Not a big deal. What happened?

Well, let's see. I is a first -person pronoun. Lose means to misplace or fail

keep sight of. Thank you, Miss Rachel. What I mean is, how does someone like

lose track of time?

You got one of those mugs that says if you're on time, you're late.

No, I don't.

Well, you're about to. Don't do that. Instead of drilling into my personal

how about we concentrate on this case?

Pretty sure I can do both.

Pedestrian v.

Car.

Drivers cooperating. Sounds like the guy just ran into the middle of the street.

No wallet, no ID, or wherever he came from.

He didn't even stop to put on shoes.

The couple over there talked to him briefly, said he was disoriented,

drunk. He acted like someone was chasing after him. He yelled, he's trying to

kill me, right before this happened.

Did they see anyone chasing after him? They made it clear they did not.

Well, so maybe he was hallucinating.

You're still thinking about why I was late, aren't you?

Yeah.

You know that thing you said about bugging me and working the case? Oh, I

been. He was hallucinating because he was poisoned.

And you're sure about that how?

The vomit.

What vomit would that be?

Okay, so none of you have ever had a baby puked directly into your mouth. Got

it. I saw it when I was on my way in.

You're sure this is from the victim? Well, he had some of it on his shirt.

So unless he found somebody else's bark that he wanted to dribble on himself,

that is my guess, yeah. Why is it black?

Oh, God, that smells like rotten eggs. Yeah, that's because it's activated

charcoal. And when charcoal interacts with gut bacteria, it releases hydrogen

sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs. And the only reason to take that much

activated charcoal is if you've ingested something toxic.

Which would explain why he was hallucinating. So either he swallowed

accidentally, or maybe he was poisoned. Next question is, where did he come

from?

Well... The victim's feet were cut up.

Looks like he left a trail.

Right. Morgan and I will follow the blood. You guys head back to the

intersection, see if there's any traffic cams we can pull, and make sure

forensics get some samples of, uh, that.

You gonna tell me why you were late, or are you gonna force me to be annoying?

I ran into Lucia.

Lucia, the ex -fiancee who painted you that rose that you still have on your

wall? That's the one.

This is huge!

You guys haven't seen each other in five years, right? It's not huge, Morgan. It

was just coffee.

Uh, yeah, I've had that kind of coffee.

This, I'm guessing, was where our victim came from.

We're not done here.

Morgan, I don't want to talk about it.

Well, then you shouldn't have said anything.

Uh -huh.

Well, that guy may have died in the street, but whatever happened to him, it

definitely happened here.

You've got a name.

Declan Harker, 31 years old. I don't see any of the usual household poisons.

Meds, illegal drugs.

Doesn't look like you have any cleaning products.

Still, there's plenty of stuff here that could have been spiked. I'll have

forensics collected.

All this takeout. Kind of feels like Declan almost never left this room.

You think he had a job?

It does have a bit of an unemployed aesthetic, doesn't it? But nope.

You see that chair?

It's a Thunderstone V2.

Magnetic head pillow, four -way lumbar support, nanofoam seat cushions.

Over here, we've got high -grip, sweat -absorbent gloves and state -of -the

headphones. And then there's this.

Declan Harker was a professional gamer, an e -sport athlete.

Video games are not a sport, Morgan. Personally, I agree with you, but

technically, pro gamers require heightened reaction time, so they might

like athletes, but they do train like them.

Elliot? Yeah.

He's not playing video games. He's talking to me about them. Well, if our

was so into video games, where's his computer?

Exactly. It's not here.

Maybe whoever poisoned him took it?

Who are you?

LAPD. Who are you?

My name is Aditi Shah.

My ex -boyfriend lives here.

Declan Harker.

Is he all right?

I'm sorry he's won't inform you, but he's dead.

I'm too late.

You're too late for what?

Declan left me a weird voicemail this morning, and I came over as soon as I

heard it.

Aditi, you've got to help me.

All my fault. I killed him. I killed him so many times. I killed him over and

over again, and now he's trying to kill me.

Any idea what I killed him over and over again means? Is that more

hallucinating? Actually, we think he was talking about gaming.

Declan's a top player in an online game called Battle Dynasty.

Swords and sorcery, knights and dragons.

You kill someone in the game, they come back to life. You kill them again, rinse

and repeat. So, we're thinking game violence spills over into real life. The

player he kept killing found him in the flesh and killed him for real. Given

Declan's voicemail, it sounds like he thought so. We know what the toxin was

that poisoned him? Yeah, he's still running tests.

Hasn't ID'd it yet, but Oz is on top of it.

Forensics did find traces of blood on one of the food containers in the

apartment, though. Looks like somebody cut their finger on a staple. They've

tested it already. It's not Declan's.

Declan was using contact -free delivery. According to the app, the food arrived

about an hour before he died. So maybe the killer got to the food while it was

still outside the door. Hopefully when we find the guy, we'll have a DNA sample

to match.

And what about the ex -girlfriend?

Conveniently shows up to discover him dead?

Has her own keys?

Is she also a gamer? Yeah, she is. She seems earnest, though.

genuinely broken up, willing to do anything she can to help.

What? You're getting all soft on me.

Morgan mentioned you ran into Lucia this morning.

I'm going to legitimately kill her. Well, don't do it yet. I got her combing

through everything we found in the apartment. Make sure there's nothing we

missed. In the meantime, I'll trust your instinct on the ex -girlfriend.

Double -check her alibi.

Okay.

Declan and I met in -game before we ever met in real life.

battle dynasty was our lives neither of us really fit in anywhere else but then

last year he quit gaming and he ghosted me told me not to come by his place

anymore stopped returning my calls well that must have been awful any idea why

he wouldn't tell me but then last month he showed up back in the game apologized

to me said he was a changed man

We were making plans to see each other again in the real world, but...

I'm sorry.

Declan's computer was missing from his apartment.

Any idea what happened to it?

He got rid of his whole rig when he quit gaming.

But you just said he started playing again. What was he playing on?

I think he had an old laptop that he'd use in a pinch.

What? You want to find it because you think whoever killed him took it.

We're considering the possibility.

You and Declan didn't just share house keys, did you?

We also share to find my tech account.

Okay.

So the laptop is somewhere in this lot.

All right. Well, let's split up, look in car windows, and see if we can find it.

That's on the side.

We just find out about a...

Fail on tide sticks or did Lucia text you?

Well, text her back.

We're working. It can wait.

What, Morgan?

You guys broke up because you put work before her.

You want another shot at this. Don't you think you should show her it'll be

different this time? I never said we were going to give it another shot.

well, you didn't have to. Your face did it for you.

It's more complicated than that. Of course it's complicated.

Relationships are complicated. And it's okay to be scared, but you... I'm being

cautious. Not the same. And you know what? I really don't want to talk about

this right now.

Fine, I'll back off. Just don't want you to be so cautious that you blow it.

Again.

Hey, guys.

Over here.

Did you find something inside here, Daph? No, but look at these tires.

They're caked in asphalt.

Earlier, when I was going around getting the traffic cam footage near Declan's

apartment, there was a street nearby getting repaved.

This car could have been there. Good eye. I'll run the license plate and then

you'll find out.

I like your shirt. You work for Jubilee Games?

Uh... Okay, can you turn this off?

It's not my car.

You just like to run toward car alarms?

Can you do me a favor and click the button on your key fob? See what

Would you mind opening the trunk as well, sir?

Assuming we're correct, Declan Harker's laptop should be inside.

Look at that.

Can we talk somewhere private?

I'm a senior game developer.

My focus is analyzing player tactics.

Declan was one of the top players on our esports team when he was active.

So you used Declan's laptop to analyze the data?

That's not why at all.

Then explain it to us, including how he ended up dead just after you took him.

Declan was dead?

Declan's neighbors said that they heard yelling at his apartment last night.

What were you two fighting about?

Hmm. Maybe something to do with the hundred grand in crypto he had?

All of his passwords to access it are on here. That's 100 ,000 reasons to steal

a laptop.

I'm guessing as a senior game developer, you knew exactly how much he was

making, right?

I took Declan's laptop to help him.

He wasn't just playing Battle of Dynasty for the money or because he loved the

game. He was addicted.

Addicted to a video game?

Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Games light up your dopamine receptors just like any

addiction. And I saw it happening because I had access to his data.

His play had fallen off and become erratic.

He wasn't himself.

So you helped him quit?

I was hoping it would just be temporary, that he'd get better and come back.

But after seeing him in person, I could tell that he was suffering.

He had lost a lot of weight, wasn't eating or sleeping, refused to leave his

apartment.

I knew the folks at Gamers Anonymous, so I got him in. That was a year ago?

That's when Declan got rid of his rig and ghosted Aditi.

Well, that makes sense why you didn't want to talk to us. I doubt your bosses

would love finding out you were helping a valuable player quit.

Well, it's worse than that.

Declan had started helping other gamers quit. If Declan was so committed to the

cause, why did he start playing again?

Because that's what addicts do.

I was furious when I found out that he had relapsed. That's why I went over

there last night, and that's why I took his laptop.

To stop him.

Again. What time was this?

Around 2 a .m. I was there for maybe an hour.

Well, that would have put you at his place before the food delivery.

Did the two of you have a physical altercation?

No. We just talked.

He was trying to convince me that he had a handle on things and that he just

needed to finish one mission.

What was the mission?

It's hard to say.

There's thousands in the game.

Are there any that involve killing the same player over and over?

Why?

Was he doing that? According to Declan, he was.

And he thinks that's the person that showed up to kill him.

So you have no idea who that player might be?

No.

But I can help you find out.

The ME is still trying to ID the toxin. They say it must be something pretty

exotic.

Didn't realize I was the only one working. You're not. They were about to

explain to me what they found. The guy from Jubilee Games sent over Declan's

play history from the last month.

Declan's the knight using the name Beef Slayer, and just like he said, he keeps

killing the same orc over and over and over again.

Poor guy. And we know it's always the same orc how?

Well, players can customize their characters, their outfits, weapons, even

faces. According to the chat, that orc is Dreadnought. And he was pissed.

He sent a slew of messages telling Declan to stop spawn camping and that he

should pay back.

He even threatened to come after him with a gun. Declan wasn't killed with a

gun. He was poisoned.

Well, that's one of our questions when we find the guy. But for now, strange as

it is to say it, we have a suspect.

Dreadnog the Orc.

I sent Morgan home.

We're not finding our Orc tonight.

You don't hear that every day.

Game company couldn't help, huh?

The user information on the account was fake. Gamers do that so they can play

under multiple names. From the guy's in -game chats, it sounds like he plays at

cyber cafes.

So we're running that down, and we'll hit it fresh in the morning.

I'm okay if you're not on time tomorrow.

This again?

If by that you mean do I want you to be happy, then yes.

Have you given it any more thought?

People act like I had a choice with Lucia.

Yes, I broke it off.

Look what time I'm getting out of here. Why would I restart something if the

same problem is just going to come up again? You get out of here two hours

earlier than you used to.

Thanks, by the way, to your new partner.

Plus, it's possible you're just different now.

So you agree with Morgan. I shouldn't risk hurting Lucia again.

You mean Lucia and yourself.

I get it.

I made the same mistakes with Hector when the girls were young.

You remember after the divorce how it took years for them to even talk to me

again?

You have a choice.

Plenty of cops make it work. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I'm just

saying that it's possible.

You have two people who care about you telling you the same thing.

Consider it.

Good night. Good night.

What's going on in here? Nothing.

Okay, for starters, you don't have to hide things from me, okay?

Whatever it is, the worst thing that happens is we talk about it, right?

Second of all, if you're going to hide things from me, be better at it. Come

You play Battle Dynasty?

Do you know it?

I'm familiar.

How often do you play this?

Not too much.

I see it as a mental sorbet.

A palate cleanse before bed.

Okay, then why were you hiding it?

Bedtime is bedtime for a reason. I don't want to upset you. Well, buddy, I'm

going to feel what I feel, but it's going to feel worse if I think you're

things from me.

I'm sorry.

No, that's okay.

I just want to make sure we can talk about stuff like this, you know?

You and I have brains that obsess over things, so certain video games can be

kind of dangerous because they sort of take over.

I know.

Okay.

So this guy with the staff, is that you?

Mm -hmm. I'm a wizard.

I'm hiding from those goblins. I cast a spell on them, and now they're trying to

find me. Mm -hmm.

In the chat, why is that person talking about planting you? Is that a threat?

It is, but not in the way you think. He probably wrote farm me, which does mean

kill me, but only for my gold. It's transactional, not personal. Well, if

wrote farm, then why did it say plant?

Right now I'm playing against people all over the world, and the chats are

automatically translated into English. It's called localization, but sometimes

the translation makes mistakes.

He even threatened to come after him with a gun.

Interesting.

Well, bedtime is bedtime for a reason.

Get in there.

Hey, I love you.

I love you.

Can I have it back tomorrow?

Oh, shoot, I'm already outside your room, so I couldn't hear that. Good

Who's Teppo? No, what's Teppo? I figured something out. Actually, I figured a

couple of things out. Do you know that 12 .6 million people play Battle Dynasty

every single day?

Sadly, one of those people is my son. But because of that, I learned that the

game's chat translator isn't always that reliable.

Still not clear on what that is. Teppo is a Japanese word that has two

meanings. I'm guessing one of them is gun. Mm -hmm.

That's right. But teppo can also translate to pufferfish.

Okay. How is gun the same word as pufferfish? That's a great question. It

actually is a nickname for pufferfish.

Teppo ni ataru. It means poison cannon. And how adorable is that? We should be

calling them that from now on. So when the guy threatened Deco in the chat, he

wasn't saying gun. He was saying pufferfish. Talk to him.

That's right. Which is why the lab had so much trouble identifying it. I just

came from the lab. I told them what to test for. And sure enough, Declan Harker

was poisoned with pufferfish toxin. It says here it's more potent than cyanide.

One drop causes hallucination, vomiting, paralysis, death.

Declan wasn't gone even without that car. Can't believe people pay to eat

I have.

It's safe. Yeah, it can be safe as long as your sushi chef isn't actively trying

to kill you.

The two -year training is rigorous.

Before you ever hold a knife, you must master the knowledge.

know where the poison hides only then can you learn to remove it after that

face the test a live performance of your skills before an expert the cuts have

to be precise the plating impeccable if even a speck of blood remains you fail

and you have to start all over again until you finally get it just right and

pass the time if the certification is that hard must only be a handful of

in town who serve it are you inviting me out to sushi

Excuse me.

Do you have a question?

Yes. We're looking for something pretty rare.

For a special occasion?

Yes. As a matter of fact, it's our anniversary. Nope. We saw online that

serve something called pufferfish.

Very special.

Only a dozen chefs in the U .S. are licensed to serve it. That's right.

you believe three of them are right here in Los Angeles?

Which is why we came to you.

A man was recently murdered using pufferfish toxin after being threatened

online. The person said their dad had puffer fish he could use.

And those three chefs in L .A., one place is closed for renovation, one's a

childless 80 -year -old man, and then there's you.

Any chance you have a kid who has access to your fish, sir?

I have two sons, but what you're suggesting is impossible.

Because? Because there is a very careful process for handling the toxin. All the

parts that I cut away, the liver, the ovaries, the skin, I keep in a locked

container until it's disposed of.

This is the law, and I forward to the letter.

Mind showing us?

Of course.

Only I have the key, and I take this matter very seriously.

Even on the chance that someone gets sick, I keep remedies on hand.

Is that your son?

One of them, Gene, my apprentice.

Do you recognize that kid?

There's a poster of that kid up at the video game company. He's wearing

different clothes and he had much shorter hair, but that's definitely him.

Do you mean video games?

The threats we mentioned were made in a video game chat.

My other son, Bill, plays the video game, but I still say he couldn't have

gotten the toxin.

They're twins.

I swear to you, he didn't do what you said.

Please, help him.

I brought Ryo and Jin here from Osaka when they were young, after their mother

and I divorced.

Jin has always been good in school and sports. He works hard and takes an

interest in the family business.

It has always been harder with Ryo.

He doesn't listen, only cares about his games.

I feel like I lost him to them.

Years ago.

That's got to be really hard.

But I love both my boys.

And I've always tried to do what's best for them.

We're sure that's true.

But we still have to consider the possibility that Rio got his hands on

toxin and used it to harm Declan Harker.

We'll do everything we can to bring him in safely, but for that to happen, he

has to cooperate.

We're going to need your help.

Do you know where he is?

These people are from the police.

They need to speak to Ryo.

Do you know where he is?

He doesn't tell me anything.

Probably gaming somewhere.

What about two nights ago?

Do you know where he was then?

It's all right.

They want to help.

I don't know. I think he went out.

I'm sorry.

It's okay. Thank you.

I'll let you know if I hear from Rio.

Using two teenage boys with no mom? That can't be easy.

Was it just me, or did that photo album look like dad has a favorite song? His

hand on Jen's shoulder looks like he's proud of him. Rio, not so much.

Yeah, or Rio's a moody teenager who doesn't want to take pictures with his

Who are you getting a text from?

I'm getting a text from our lieutenant.

Aunt says she wants to show us something on Declan's laptop.

I'll have Daphne and Oz look for Rio. We know the cafes he logs in from.

We know exactly what he looks like.

It's 2 .30 on a Wednesday.

Shouldn't these kids be at school?

Okay, Dad.

I'm just saying, it's hard to imagine throwing your whole life away for a

game. No, no, no. I snuck many hours into NBA Jam and I turned out okay.

Sure you're still out on that?

Excuse me, Rio?

Hey,

Dregnog.

LAPD. We need to chat.

One time to destroy these Nazis.

Mm -hmm.

Is this you?

A lot of people play at the work.

Yeah, but Dregnog is your username, right? Well, one of them.

Does the name Declan Harker mean anything?

V -Slayer?

Everyone knows him online.

Yeah. Not as good as you, right?

Declan was trolling you, spawn camped you, killed your character over and

Got under your skin so much, you threatened to kill him in real life. Am

bringing any bills?

We'll refresh your memory at the station. Come on.

Let's go.

Mr.

Yasuda, this is Sanrio. This is my boss, Lieutenant Soto.

We appreciate you cooperating with the investigation.

Of course.

We just want to clear all this up.

I still believe my son is innocent.

I didn't even know Duckland in real life.

You said yourself there are other restaurants that serve puffer fish.

The man's death you described is terrible.

But my son's right.

You have no real way to connect him to it. Well, that may or may not be true.

Rio, you mind if we take a look at your fingers, please?

Our team found blood at the scene we believe belongs to the killer.

That cut proves nothing.

I own a restaurant.

My boys cut fingers all the time.

Maybe. But this is a court order compelling Rio to provide a DNA sample.

or not we can connect him to the murder remains to be seen.

Before we get to that, we can connect you to the victim.

That's how we got the court order.

Declan Harker had $100 ,000 of crypto in his computer.

People think that crypto is anonymous, but they're wrong. It's actually even

more easily traceable than regular money because it only exists as digital

transactions. And the crypto we found on Declan's computer traced back to you.

What are they talking about?

You see, Declan wasn't trolling you just for fun.

He was paid to kill you repeatedly by your father.

We're guessing because he was trying to get you to quit gaming.

If Declan made the experience miserable enough, you might end up giving it up on

your own.

You have to understand.

I tried everything.

Now that we believe.

We wrestled with how you met Declan, but then we started thinking about Gamers

Anonymous. Maybe you were trying to get Rio to go to a meeting, and maybe he

refused, but you ended up going to one anyway. And that's how you met Declan.

About a month ago, right before he started playing again.

Declan understood what I was seeing in you.

How he wasn't sleeping.

He stopped going to school.

Some nights...

He didn't even come home.

I asked Declan to help.

But instead it made things worse.

Rio got fed up and he retaliated.

So he knew from the in -game chats that Declan typically took a food break

around 4 a .m. He even mentioned Teter's Tacos, his popular joint with the late

-night gaming crowd.

And we have a receipt from the night Declan died. Maybe Rio followed the

delivery guy to Declan's apartment, waited for him to leave before slipping

pufferfish poison into his burrito.

Gentlemen, I think we're done here.

Just one more thing.

We're going to need that DNA sample from you, Rio.

Hey, still waiting on Rio's DNA test riddle?

Yeah, Lapp's fast -tracking it. We're letting the dad wait with him down in

holding. He's just a kid.

Can you imagine?

One of my kids killing someone?

This will sound worse than I mean, but I worry about it all the time.

Not because of my girls, just occupational hazard.

Yeah, I get it. This job gets in your head. I'll throw you a tougher one.

What about what the dad did?

You ever see yourself going that far?

For my kids?

Have you met me?

Lab results.

Is it what we expected?

Actually, no.

The blood on the scene wasn't real?

Labs said it's a very close familial match.

As in 90 % close.

Uh, it doesn't get much closer than twins.

Rio didn't kill Declan.

Jen did.

Bolo's out for Jen. We've got Unis canvassing the neighborhood and posted

Union Station.

Assemble. Fogle and McNeil to the house of the dad. They said Jen's not there

and his bicycle's missing. We checked the dad's restaurant. You need that

there, Jen. He hasn't shown up. He's not at school.

What about the friend?

Guys, it's Jen. All right, everybody, quiet.

Hold the work.

Put it on speaker.

We have to try and convince him to come in.

Jen?

Jen, this is Lieutenant Soto with the police.

Everyone is looking for you. Your dad and your brother are worried about you.

Why don't you tell us where you are and we can send a car to pick you up? We

want to hear your side.

It's my fault.

I left the poison.

And now that guy is dead because of me.

I thought that's what you wanted me to do.

Hey, it's all right, man.

The cops, they understand. They want to help.

Jen, you're young. No one wants you to go away forever.

This can go easier if you tell us where you are.

I love you, Joe.

Tell Dad to forgive me.

Rio, is there any place that you know Jin might go if he planned to hurt

himself?

Yeah.

Our dad, he was always tough on us.

When Jin and I needed to get away from him, we'd go to the Hollywood Reservoir,

and we'd just sit and walk away.

He would threaten sometimes to... I'll radio nearest units to get out there.

Take Oz and Daphne with you. And have the dad meet you there. Can I go?

I can help. I can try to talk him down. You know what? Why don't you stay here

with me and let the cops do their job, okay?

I'll bring your brother back.

Got it.

It's got to be Buffy.

Hi.

I'll call with news soon.

Hanging in there?

Yeah. This is Jen's favorite.

Sneaking into the restaurant when Dad wasn't looking.

Are you serious?

Sounds like he wasn't a perfect son after all.

Let's go get you some real food.

Help yourself.

Anything you want.

Can I ask you a question?

You and Jin looked really close in all those pictures I saw, but it doesn't

like you hang out at all anymore.

What happened?

We became two different people.

Jin was wrong about all this being his fault.

It's mine.

I told him what Declan was doing to me, and he saw how Battle Dynasty was the

only place where I felt like it belonged.

Like I could be myself.

I see.

So that must have been really upsetting when Declan was killing you over and

over in the game.

Yeah.

It felt real.

I'm sorry. This sounds stupid.

Damn it. It's all right. Let's get some paper towels.

I'm so sorry.

It's all right.

Listen, it's okay.

It's going to be okay.

Morgan!

Give me a second, okay?

It's Adam.

Morgan's here.

Did you find him?

Just his bike. His dad spotted it. Right in the center of the walkway.

Oh, no.

Oz and Daphne are down below with the divers getting started.

Chances of finding him alive aren't good.

Where's Rio?

Adam will call you back.

Did anybody see where the kid I was just talking to went?

Okay. This is feeling like more than just a teenager wandering off. Yeah.

Why was he drinking almond milk?

Lactose intolerant food allergy. Food allergies. And I also saw a birthmark on

his arm. And this is important. Why? I don't think we're going to find Jen's

body. You think he staged his suicide and Rio's gone to meet him?

No. What I'm suggesting is way more out there. Just bear with me. Okay, I

learned about this in Mr. Cooper's ninth grade bio class.

Sometimes, no one really knows how often, a pregnancy can start out as

but then one embryo absorbs the other, and only one baby makes its turn. But

since, in those early stages, there were two separate embryos with two sets of

DNA, the baby that's born has both sets of DNA its whole life.

Mr. Cooper was boring as hell, but a two -in -one baby?

Very cool.

It's called chimerism after the mythological beast, the chimera, which

mashup of different animals. Only in human chimeras, it's a mashup of

people, resulting in patches of skin being different from the rest, sometimes

two different eye colors, food allergies because body's constantly attacking

itself. And blood that's got different DNA than a cheek swab. Right. I don't

even think that Rio and his dad knew about that one. I bet they thought that

were about to match Rio's DNA with the crime scene and they thought they caught

a lucky break.

Morgan, this doesn't make sense. You just wrote back a photo album of both

going back their whole lives. You've even met the two brothers.

Did I? Have we seen Rio and Jen in the same room at the same time?

Hold on. Are you saying... We just got played by a desperate father and a son

who are trying to pin a murder... On a brother that doesn't exist.

We retrieved your photo album and had our techs analyze these photos.

They've all been digitally doctored. One boy or another added to the photo after

the fact. The text also had a sense of when these photos were doctored. You've

been doing this Rios whole life.

Having him dress as Jen, pose as Jen, be Jen to work at your restaurant.

That's absurd.

I cleaned up some photos, but that doesn't mean what you say.

Why are you holding me?

I just lost my son.

I need to grieve.

It's true that you are grieving, but you didn't just lose your son.

You've been grieving him for 17 years.

You spoke with your ex -wife in Osaka.

She told us how happy you were when you found out you were having twins and how

devastated you both were when one of them didn't make it.

And how that grief led to divorce and how you blamed the son who survived.

Rio's whole life, every time he disappointed you, stepped out of line,

reminded him that you wished he was Jin.

So Rio turned to gaming, where he could be free of your criticism and your

control, and finally be himself.

That's why when you had Declan kill him over and over in the game, he went

crazy, and he did something drastic.

Early yesterday morning, you saw that someone had gotten into the pufferfish

toxin, and you knew right away who took it and why.

You said yourself you keep a remedy on hand.

You're the one who gave Declan the charcoal.

I didn't want my son to be a murderer.

Problem is, you were too late.

Declan was already too far gone.

He fought you, and in the ensuing scuffle, fell through the sliding glass

cutting his feet.

He tried to catch him, but he ran into the street.

You couldn't save him.

So you focused on saving your son.

You knew the police would identify the toxin, and from there we would get to

Rio.

So after years of wishing that one son was the other, you decided to make it

official. Rio had to disappear for good.

That's how we met you and Jin at your restaurant.

Then Rio disobeyed you, went back to the cyber cafe where we picked him up.

That's when he found out that you betrayed him by hiring Declan. When the

came back, you must have been just as surprised as we were that it wasn't a

match for Rio. So now the plan changed. Once we were looking for Jin, we

couldn't keep eyes on you every second.

You had Rio make a recording as Jin. You changed your own name to Jin in his

phone.

and made it seem like he was calling to confess, when really it was just you

playing that recording on the other end.

Then you went looking for gin with us, hoping we'd buy that he'd taken his own

life. Rio's and your phone records have confirmed this. The one thing you had to

have help with was planting the bike at the reservoir.

Your phone gave that away, too. You called your sous chef from the station,

he did it for you. Sous chef's already cooperating. We picked up Rio an hour

ago, hiding in his basement.

All I ever wanted to do,

What's best for my son?

We know that.

Rio's a minor and the circumstances are extreme. So if you both cooperate fully,

he can still have a life.

Right now, this is the best way you can help him.

Leo... I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Dad... I'm sorry.

The elf is Declan's ex, Aditi. She staged a funeral for him in -game.

That's really sweet.

I guess we all grieve in our own ways.

Hey.

You okay?

Yeah. I'm just excited to get home with my kids.

Oh, speaking of exes.

You know, I thought about what you and Selena said, as usual.

You were right.

I'm going to give this another shot.

I have to show her it's going to be different.

Hi. Hey. I'm Morgan.

I work with this guy. Hi, I'm Gia.

But something tells me you already knew that. Mm -hmm. I've done a little

digging around, so.

You know, we have a dinner reservation.

I know, but I just have a couple of questions for you two. Yeah, but we

late.

He's never late. Oh, yeah?

He was late for you yesterday.

And we're leaving.

It was really nice to meet you, Morgan. Nice to meet you, too.

Hey, Karaday.

Have fun.