S11E01 - “The Sleeper” - Plot

Act One

A guy (Vic Leon) works his way to breaking into a house of a woman (Maria Perschy) who has just received a phone call. She leaves, driving off as the man walks into the back door and toward the safe. She returns, switching on the lights and holding a gun! The man holds up his hands but she shoots anyway.

Danno walks into McGarrett's office with a telex concerning the "John Doe" HPD found that morning but McGarrett is on the phone and cuts the conversation short. As well, the Pentagon is on the line for McGarrett: a guy named Dixon (Harry Williams). Dixon is straight up: the body found was one of their agents: James Walden. Dixon tells McGarrett it's "a top security matter" and Walden had been in Honolulu for six days. Overhearing the conversation in the Washington office is one man (Steve Kanaly) toward the back. Dixon is sending someone out and asks McGarrett to sit on it for a day. The call ends with McGarrett pondering and Dixon ready to send Scarney but Fallon, the guy from the back, interrupts his plans volunteering to go even though he initially resisted going because the March Foundation knew who he was but secrecy is moot at this point. Dixon orders him to take McGarrett into his confidence.

In McGarrett's office, he tells Danno to check out the hotels to see where Walden was staying. The interesting part is the slug: "10.35 millimeter ammunition," which is odd. McGarrett wants Duke to check the gun shops to see if any have taken orders for that ammunition.

Danno calls in from the Wailani Hotel where Walden checked in using the name "Congreave". McGarrett wants the room sealed and to have the lab technicians to go over it. Duke walks in with strikeouts at the gun shops, McGarrett wants the private gun clubs checked next.

At the hotel room, McGarrett and Danno search everything as the lab techs begin to work. McGarrett fins a typewriter where only the beginning part of the ribbon has been used. McGarrett has a brainstorm and takes Danno with him out of the room.

McGarrett and Danno go to the Post Office in Hawaii Kai where they talk to a postal clerk (Bernard Ching) about mail for Congreave or Walden in General Delivery. McGarrett recalls the tactic from a Naval Intelligence course he once took, as it was an easy way to put things on record in case you "were bumped off". McGarrett produces a federal court order so they can accept the mail. The clerk hands over the one letter for Congreave with "no return address". Before leaving entirely, McGarrett opens the letter: Walden suspects a 'sleeper' in the March Foundation. He decides to drop Danno at the office. As they walk to the car, Duke patches through saying Dixon's man just call from the Moana Hotel and to meet him there at 2:00 p.m. and heÕll know who McGarrett is.

McGarrett goes to the Moana Hotel where Fallon picks him right out. McGarrett shows Fallon the letter Walden mailed to himself as they ready to drive to the March Foundation. They discuss the case on the drive toward the March Foundation: Fallon explains they received word from overseas there was a spy in the government-financed foundation. Fallon also admits to have been at the March Foundation "several times".

McGarrett and Fallon arrive at the March Foundation as McGarrett asks if they're expected. Fallon says only Dr. Rathman (Andrew Duggan) is the only aware of their visit and he's been head of the Foundation since it started. McGarrett points out that Dr. Rathman is also on Walden's list of suspects. As they pick up badges at the front door, the security guard tells them Dr. Rathman is expecting them in the dining room.

In the dining room, five scientists sit and discuss various business. Dr. Rathman stands up and is about to go somewhere when Fallon catches him, introducing him to McGarrett. Dr. Rathman leas them back to the table where he introduces the others: Dr. Lopaka (Lani Kim) who is the only woman at the table, Dr. Kent (John A. Hunt), Dr. Conrad (James Ferrier) and Dr. Abicoff (Wayne Oxford). Dr. Rathman offers a tour and while Fallon is hesitant, McGarrett would like to see what the Foundation is all about.

Dr. Rathman leads them around finally arriving at his office/laboratory. Dr. Rathman is concerned about finding antidotes to mind control. Dr. Rathman has three human subjects who are former POWs hypnotized and forced indoctrination by their captors. McGarrett comments they appear not to break easily with Dr. Rathman agreeing, this is why they're the perfect "guinea pigs". While the men can't be hypnotized at first, time, patience and drugs are providing successful results. The phone rings with a long-distance call for Dr. Rathman who hands off McGarrett and Fallon to his assistant, Dr. Hansen who was the woman who killed Walden!

Act Two

Dr. Hansen continues the tour telling McGarrett their only project pertaining to national security is "Omega". Drs. Kent and Conrad explain their job is to redirect incoming missiles to areas where they will do the least amount of damage. McGarrett realizes if they're successful, nuclear strategy will have to change but Dr. Lopaka says it's only a matter of time, a "when" not "if" with an estimated time frame of one and a-half to three years. Dr. Rathman walks in, "anxious to learn the reason for Mr. McGarrett's visit". They all move to the conference room at Fallon's suggestion. On the way to the conference room, Fallon speaks German with Dr. Hansen raising McGarrett's suspicions.

At a gun range, Danno and Duke look over their records with Duke finding a log: Dr. Rathman is on the log. The gun club manager (Ann Ramos) tells them Dr. Rathman is one of the gun-club officers but she doesn't know if he has a gun collection. She does confirm the address on the log is his address.

In the conference room at the March Foundation, Fallon briefs the scientists what's going on: a Russian scientist defected to the west at a Helsinki conference. During the debriefing, it was learned the KGB has information on the Omega Project and that it could have only come from the Foundation. There's no way it was from the Pentagon and the scientists are taken aback. Dr. Rathman reminds Fallon they all have very high security clearances. As Fallon briefs about Walden's mission, McGarrett adds Walden was murdered two nights ago.

As they leave the meeting, McGarrett tells Fallon he would have handled things differently because now everyone is on guard and one could be the killer. Fallon isn't worried, "I know how to handle these people". They part ways deciding to meet again at 5:00 p.m.

McGarrett returns to Five-O where Danno briefs him on what they found: Dr. Rathman "is a real pistol freak" collecting some rare and expensive items, some running $5000 to $6000. McGarrett wants Duke to check who wrote the insurance policy on Dr. Rathman's collection. He then sets Danno to check on Dr. Rathman's whereabouts when Walden was killed.

At the Foundation, Dr. Hansen sits in her car watching Dr. Conrad leave the facility for the day. She follows him as he drives home and into the parking garage. She then makes her move to chase him down and crush him against a wall!

Act Three

Fallon calls McGarrett out of Dr. Conrad's autopsy where they discuss the possible reason for Dr. Conrad being killed. Fallon guesses he was the sleeper's accomplice but McGarrett shoots that down because "it's a waste of manpower". Fallon realizes he may have pushed too hard the day before at the Foundation. While they talk, a lab technician (Jo Anne Morgan) arrives telling McGarrett they found paint on Dr. Conrad's belt buckle. She goes on to nail down the car model to a pre-1976 Mercedes or BMW based on the paint quality. McGarrett then calls Danno to run down the owners of all pre-1976 Mercedes and BMWs, painted "chocolate brown". Danno pulls up a report because HPD picked up a brown 1974 Mercedes that morning as it was reported stolen: Dr. Hansen owns it!

McGarrett and Fallon visit Dr. Hansen telling her the car has be found and it was used to run down Dr. Conrad the evening before. She's shocked but is able to tell them she went home at 7:00 noticing the car was missing at 8:00 p.m. reporting it immediately. She claims she stayed home and was alone, which makes it more difficult for them to verify her story. She volunteers for a polygraph test with Fallon quickly agreeing. McGarrett tells her they are there to speak to her informally and she has a right to an attorney. She is adamant that she has nothing to hide.

Dr. Hansen undergoes a polygraph test with McGarrett asking several questions trying to nail something down. As she takes the test, everything is fine until the phone rings and her results go crazy on the graph! When McGarrett asks why she reacted the way she did, she's oblivious. Fallon says she was only startled but McGarrett doesn't like it.

McGarrett takes Dr. Hansen for coffee asking her how long she's been in Hawaii: about a year. She was born in "East Prussia" but her parents immigrated to West Germany after the war. She explains she was able to get the job, her citizenship and security clearance thanks to Dr. Rathman who she met in Heidelberg while he was giving a lecture there. After he read her thesis on cybernetics, he arranged for a scholarship for her at University of Chicago. Dr. Hansen has nothing but praise for Dr. Rathman.

When McGarrett walks into his office, Danno and Fallon are waiting: a "10.35 Belgian revolver" is among Dr. Rathman's gun collection. Danno is checking on Dr. Rathman's whereabouts when Walden and Dr. Conrad were killed: he claims he was home watching a movie on television when Walden was killed. McGarrett wants Danno to check the day and time of the movie as he leaves with Fallon to pick up a search warrant for Dr. Rathman's apartment.

While in Dr. Rathman's apartment, McGarrett finds something interesting: Fallon identifies it as telephone scramblers, all anyone else would hear is static between people using them. Fallon looks through the gun cabinet finding the Belgian revolver pretty quickly. McGarrett pulls it down finding one chamber is empty but he's unsure if it's been fired recently.

Danno walks into McGarrett's office with the lab report: Dr. Rathman's gun killed Walden. Fallon looks pretty pleased about the turn of events and the clincher is the movie Dr. Rathman claimed to be watching didn't air the night Walden died. Fallon wants to pick up Dr. Rathman right away.

At the Foundation, Dr. Rathman works with his ex-POWs showing one a picture of the American flag but hypnotizes him to believe the flag is actually a Nazi flag and has the soldier tear up the picture. McGarrett is stunned as he observes the experiment. When Dr. Rathman concludes his "reinforcement session" he speaks to McGarrett explaining some of the precautions. He says a nursery rhyme to his subjects after sounding a tuning fork to ensure they don't take commands by random ringing sounds. But they soon get to the point: the gun in Dr. Rathman's collection killed Walden and his alibi doesn't wash. Dr. Rathman becomes rattled, as he knows he's the main suspect in Walden's death but he says he may have even been on his boat. McGarrett asks is he keeps a long and if they can look at it. Dr. Rathman agrees.

McGarrett, Danno, Fallon and Dr. Rathman go to the boat as they go into the main cabin, McGarrett tells Danno to go topside. Dr. Rathman finally finds the log showing he was out that night while Fallon checks the fuel tanks: both full. Dr. Rathman becomes frustrated because he thinks McGarrett is out to get him. Danno keeps searching topside finding blood by a cabinet. He calls down to McGarrett who knows something big has been found: Dr. Kent stuffed into the cabinet!

Act Four

McGarrett arrests Dr. Rathman but has Danno take him to a hotel and have him under guard. Fallon wants to take Dr. Rathman to Washington the next day and to keep things out of the press. McGarrett doesn't want to give up Dr. Rathman so easily since there are murder charges in the State of Hawaii. Fallon guesses the case is wrapped but McGarrett isn't sure because what was the motive for killing Dr. Conrad and Dr. Kent?

At the hotel, Dr. Rathman offers the HPD officer (Don Pomes) a cup of coffee because it's "gonna to be a long night". The officer agrees and joins him in another part of the hotel room. The officer isn't far from retirement and Dr. Rathman uses that as a segway to hypnotize the officer.

McGarrett listens to the tape of Dr. Hansen's polygraph test multiple times as the night becomes darker. Danno eventually walks in asking if he ever goes home but finds the movie on the TV listing for Thursday night, not Tuesday night: home with Conrad was killed and according to his log, was out on the boat when Walden was killed. The phone rings causing McGarrett to jump: he knows what's going on! It's HPD informing him that Dr. Rathman got away. McGarrett orders an APB with him being armed and possibly dangerous. McGarrett leaves for the Foundation telling Danno to call Fallon to meet him out there and for Danno to get out there too.

At the Foundation, Dr. Rathman searches files as McGarrett shows up. Dr. Rathman hides but McGarrett calls him out. Dr. Rathman is armed ordering McGarrett to keep his arms to his side. McGarrett talks Dr. Rathman in putting down his gun and then asks Dr. Rathman how someone could beat a lie-detector test and there are several ways to do it, especially if someone was prepared ahead of time. They both realize they're talking about Dr. Hansen and they come to the same conclusion: someone programmed her to kill. Dr. Rathman shows the files for everyone connected to the Foundation when Fallon shows up. McGarrett tells Fallon the person they're looking for is Dr. Hansen and as he and Dr. Rathman leave, McGarrett has Fallon call HPD to meet them at her house. But rather than call HPD, he calls Dr. Hansen to order her to kill McGarrett only McGarrett overhears it all! The last phone call clinched it as Danno moves in to book Fallon. Dr. Rathman agrees to help Dr. Hansen and remembers he has to arouse the sleeping HPD officer at the hotel!