US Television: Breakout Kings, Episode 1.7, "Fun With Chemistry"

Breakout Kings
Season One, Episode Seven, Fun With Chemistry
Original Air Date:  April 17, 2011

The team is called into action when a man escapes prison after murdering his mother and taking a young woman hostage.  As they work the case, they learn the young woman isn't really a hostage but instead, the escapees girlfriend.  What is even more surprising is which of the two is the passive participant and which one is the aggressive.  Meanwhile, both Julianne and Erica express interest in someone on the team.

It is visiting day at Wallkill Correctional Facility in Wallkill, New York.  The families and loved ones of various prisoners have come to visit.  One man, Barry, is visited for the first time by a girl he met online, Starla Roland.  Another prisoner, Mars O'Connell (Rodney Eastman) is visited by his mother.  Mars' mother had told him he wasn't her son anymore unless he apologized to her.  Thinking she was there for that apology, she gently touches her sons face.  He takes hold of her and puts a knife to her throat.  He orders the guards to open the fence or he will cut her throat.  When the guard gives him an ultimatum to release her or be shot, he apologizes to his mother then cuts her throat.  He then takes Starla hostage and holds the bloody knife to her throat.  The protect the children and families inside the gate, the guard orders the gates opened.  Mars moves through the gate with Starla.  He drags her to her car and orders her to drive away.

In the office, Charlie brings the cons up to speed on Marlin "Mars" O'Connell.  Mars was in jail on a one year sentence for trespassing and petty larceny and hadn't displayed violent tendencies until that morning when he killed his mother, something which catches Lloyd's attention.  Starla's car was found abandoned a half mile away with no signs of either person.  Lloyd and Shea are talking while Charlie is going over the case prompting the latter to ask what the problem is.  Shea has an issue with the shoes he was given to wear.  Charlie informs him Julianne got them for him and he will wear whatever she gets him.  Starla lived in Montrose, New York with her parents, Perry and Sandra Roland.  A call is placed to Mrs. Roland to find out where Starla's bank account is and, when she answers, it sounds like the phone is dropped and the line goes to a busy signal.

In Montrose, New York, Ray, Charlie and Lloyd arrive at the Roland home.  When Charlie rings the bell, a woman calls for help.  They draw their weapons and enter the house with caution and find Mrs. Roland on the floor.  She is disabled and fell from her wheelchair when she answered the phone.  Charlie helps her up and asks if he's there.  She questions "who" leading Charlie to tell Ray they aren't there.  Ray enters the room carrying photographs of Starla and Mars together and announces she isn't his hostage but his girlfriend.

In the car they now have, Starla is putting bullets in a gun and asking Mars what it will do.  He heard it will take a man's head clean off.  This excites Starla and the two kiss.

Charlie tells Sandra Roland that Starla is implicated in Mars' escape and is also an accessory to murder.  She cannot believe Starla would do such a thing as she is a good girl.  She tells them Starla is her step-daughter as her mother died years ago.  She raised Starla as if she were her own and Starla even cared for her once she got sick.  Mars changed Starla, she claims.  Perry Roland arrives home and tells Charlie they won't talk to him without their lawyer and maintains his daughter is a good girl.  When Ray says his wife tells a different story, Perry asks her what she said to them.  She stresses again that Starla is a good girl but she gets involved with the wrong type.  Her father writes it off to having a thing for bad boys but Sandra points out Mars wasn't like the other boys.  Lloyd asks how long Starla and Mars dated before he was arrested and she tells them four weeks.  She and her husband thought Mars' legal troubles would put an end to things but Starla only became more obsessed with him after his arrest.  Perry Roland refuses to allow his wife to say anything further without their attorney.

At the office, Julie gives Shea and Erica the juvenile records of Mars O'Connell.  Erica asks Julie what the situation is between she and Ray.  Julie tells her they don't have a thing.  Erica asks if Ray is available and, when Julie answers in the affirmative, she finds it interesting.  Shea, who is reading Mars' records, reads off some of the charges.  At eleven, he shot a neighbors cat with a BB gun.  At thirteen, he was cited for making threatening phone calls to a teacher.  At fifteen, he was arrested for burning down a homecoming float.  Lloyd is reading over the records on his computer in the car with Ray and Charlie.  He tells them it isn't about the crimes, it's what they tell them about Mars.  He's a loner, aggression, dad isn't in the picture.  He asks Julie if they know how Starla's mother died because that has to factor into things somehow.  She's working on getting that information but it's proving difficult since she doesn't have a criminal record.  Lloyd explains that some personalities, like molecules, react with one another, sometimes quickly and dramatically.  He points out Charlie and Shea.  He sees Starla as a passive female who finally defied her parents and went rebel and an aggressive male (Mars) finally crossed over to avert violence because she validates and encourages his basis fantasies.  Ray asks Lloyd if he thinks there will be more bodies.  Julie tells them Starla went to Pennsylvania and bought a gun two weeks ago.  The answer to Ray's question is a 'yes'.

In Goshen, New York, Starla and Mars get out of the truck they have stolen and enter the Oasis Family Restaurant where the shooting starts almost immediately.  When the team arrive, they survey the restaurant scene, including one dead victim.  Erica, Shea and Lloyd watch the surveillance video while Charlie gives them details of the crime.  Everyone ran as fast and far as they could so no one saw which way Starla and Mars went or what they were driving.  Lloyd identifies Starla and Mars and spree killers.  Ray questions how Mars could have made a girl like Starla, one who nurses her ailing step-mother, into a murderer.  Lloyd says that makes it easier as Starla is a grown woman but she has cared for her step-mother the past 10 years.  She's looking for a dominant male in the mold of her father that will take her away from everything.  Erica asks Charlie if the man in the kitchen saw or heard anything.  He looks at the surveillance tape and sees a man who ducks into the kitchen when the shooting starts.  He and Ray do a search and find a man, Patrick Malloy, hiding in the bottom of a cabinet.  Patrick and his wife were in the restaurant.  He survived and she died.  He isn't speaking and Charlie needs Lloyd to get him talking.  Lloyd sits down with Patrick and tells him about the Nepalese egret which will flee its nest when crocodiles attack.  It doesn't flee out of fear but because it knows if it stays to fight, it will die and any of its eggs that are left will have nothing to care for them.  Lloyd tells Patrick he did the right thing as his children need him.  Inside, Erica and Shea are still watching the surveillance video and she asks what Mars is looking at.  Shea finds a stand of sight seeing pamphlets.  Charlie and Lloyd enter the restaurant again with information from Patrick Malloy that Starla and Mars took his wife's keys and drove away in her car, a blue Rav4.  Ray gets Julie working on the license plate.  Starla said something about a "roll in the hay" when they were finished at the restaurant.  Erica looks over the pamphlets and finds one for Highland Lakes Fairgrounds, where hay rides are offered.

At Highland Lakes Fairgrounds, in Highland Lakes, New Jersey, the team arrives and finds the blue Rav4 that was stolen in Goshen.  Charlie takes Erica to flush Starla and Mars out leaving Shea behind, much to his irritation.  He protests but Charlie tells him he needs him to stay there to cover the entrance and wait for backup.  Ray and Lloyd arrive back at the office and Julie gives them everything she has Mars and Starla.  Ray gives the information to Lloyd so he can find a pattern before they kill again, something Lloyd doesn't think will be possible as they'll kill when the opportunity presents itself.  They'll need luck or will have to wait until Starla to turn on Mars.  Ray makes it clear waiting isn't an option.  When Lloyd sits down to begin reading, Julie asks him for advice.  She wants to know if there is someone she feels strongly about and only had a brief window of opportunity to express those feelings, should she do it.  Thinking she is meaning him, Lloyd encourages her to definitely do so.  At the Fairgrounds, while sitting in the car, Shea remembers Charlie's warning that if any one of them tries to run, they all will go back to jail with double the time then gets out of the car.  Inside, Charlie gives Erica a weapon, just in case, and as they investigate, they find the body of the winter superintendent.  His wallet and key ring are missing and Starla and Mars are nowhere to be seen.

Starla and Mars are in the back seat of the winter superintendent's Volvo when a state policeman drives up behind them.  He tells them they cannot park there and is shot.  In the office, Ray, Julie and Lloyd watch the video from the patrolman's dashboard camera.  They see him shot as he is standing next to the car.  Charlie, Shea and Erica arrive to see the rest of the footage.  Ray wants to stop the video but Lloyd insists they must watch it if they want to know what Starla and Mars are capable of.  Mars puts the officer down on the hood of his car and aims his gun at the man's head while Starla looks on.  A shot rings out startling everyone in the room and angering Ray who walks away.  Charlie vows that Starla and Mars are going down.

Charlie brings news that the media is only reporting three of the four bodies to Starla and Mars' credit as they do not know about the winter superintendent at the fairgrounds.  He hopes the two killers won't know the body has been discovered and they will use one of his stolen credit cards and reveal their location.  Charlie makes it clear to a complaining Shea that the team must solve the case or he won't get his month for it.  With the murder of the state patrolman, it's big news and there are a lot of law enforcement agencies working the case.  Ray brings the information that the police cruiser was found sunk in a reservoir in New Jersey.  No further stolen vehicles have been reported.  Julie has compiled a list of Mars' known associates and one of them is Harry Lee Redding, someone he spent three weeks in a cell with while awaiting trial.  Shea knew Redding from Sing Sing and confirms that Redding is a bad guy.  Ray was the one who brought Redding in when he ran.  Some of Redding's criminal habits match those of Starla and Mars.  Ray knows Redding won't be happy to see him and Erica offers to go along.  As Ray is pouring himself a cup of coffee in the break room, Julianne comes in to tell him she'll bring him a map to the prison.  He tells her he doesn't need one.  She steps close to him and gives him a kiss for luck.  He asks what that was and she nervously tries to explain it until Charlie calls to Ray to hurry.

At Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, Ray and Erica arrive to speak with Redding.  He tells her if things get creepy to let him know.  She says she can handle herself and will give him her "safe word" if she needs to even though it's something she's never needed to use.  Redding doesn't want to see Ray at all but he doesn't seem none too displeased to see Erica.  After a look from Redding, she turns to Ray and says "mango" (her safe word).  Ray asks Redding about Mars but the Redding doesn't want to talk.  Ray promises him if he talks to them, he will see to it Redding gets one hour a week Internet access and the guards will turn off the content filter.  Redding tells them it sounds like Mars is writing a play book of his own.  When they were in a cell together, Mars didn't have much personality but asked him a million questions about how he stayed on the run so long.  He told Mars how to get easy cash, about hitting resorts in the off season, when the heat is hot to hold up for a while, to establish a routine then break it and if they're going to sit a while, pick someplace nice.

Starla and Mars are frolicking happily through a lavish home and Starla is wearing the nice clothes of one of the women who lives there.  As they are playing around, in the living room, the residents of the home, a husband, his wife (Sima Fisher) and their son (Nathan McLeod) and daughter, are tied up with duct tape over their mouths.

In Wanaque, New Jersey, the slain police officers cruiser is being hauled out of the reservoir.  The shotgun is missing from the rack.  There are no reports of any stolen cars in the area.  Ray notes this is a break in the routine and tells Charlie what he learned with Redding.  Erica calls them over to see what she's been looking at.  Citing what Redding said about finding someplace nice if they're going to sit a while, she points out there is a high-end subdivision within view of where the cruiser was dumped.

The team try to figure out which of the homes Starla and Mars would be in.  There are some 2,000 doors in the area the police have to choose from.  Shea starts naming places they should look and Charlie tells him to tell that information to everyone and he calls in the police.  He starts to introduce Shea as "Shea Daniels" but Shea interrupts giving his last name as Huffnagle.  Shea tells the police to to past a house with an alarm company sign out front, they want something nice and private so neighbors can't see a window being jimmied, look for fences and bad exterior lighting.  And they must look for houses with no dead patches on the lawn because dead patches mean a dog.

Inside the house, Mars is walking around with the officers shotgun while he looks at a picture of the family that lives there.  He lectures them about the social differences he's lived through compared to them while Starla plays with the daughter's hair.  As he's talking, Starla says she thinks Haley (Holly Deveaux), the daughter, has something to say and removes the tape from the girls mouth.  Haley begs them to take any of the "lots and lots of nice stuff" they want in the house and go.  Mars tells them they aren't going yet as they have very special plans for them.  Starla, who says she has errands to run, asks Haley's father (Brian J. Graham) where he put the keys to the Mercedes.

In the office, Julie finds information on how Starla's mother died.  When Starla was eight years old, they were in an automobile accident.  Their car was wedged under the cab of a semi.  After Starla's mother died, they had to saw through her body just to get Starla out of the car.  Lloyd isn't surprised Starla has a death fixation.  A sound alerts Julie that someone used the fair superintendent's ATM card right inside their search area.

As Starla is exiting a store, two police cars stop in front of the store.  She throws the keys to the Mercedes onto the ground, walks past the car and starts to leave the parking lot on foot.  Shea, who is looking out the window of the car as the team arrives, alerts everyone that he sees Starla.  As Charlie swerves into the parking lot, Shea jumps out of the car and runs to Starla and takes her to the ground.  He and Erica hold onto Starla while Ray picks up the bags she was carrying.  Charlie asks her where Mars is but she just jokes with him.  Ray looks through her bags and finds some rope, bleach and a staple gun.  He asks what they are up to but she only smiles at them.

The U.S. Marshalls have commandeered the storeroom of Kasey's Karpets in Wanaque, New Jersey and are holding Starla there.  Lloyd is brought into the area in handcuffs and Charlie tells them they can release him.  Lloyd tells Ray his plan is to play on Starla's guilt.  Once the submissive partner is caught she will try to blame the other one, something Ray points out she hasn't done.  Lloyd tells him to give it some time, which is something Ray says they don't have.  He tells Lloyd to break the spell Starla is under.

At the house, Mars keeps looking out the window waiting for Starla to return.  As the minutes pass, he gets more and more agitated.  Haley starts talking to him telling him they have another car and he can go look for her saying maybe she took off.  He tells her to shut up.  Starla tells Lloyd she felt Mars' presence before she ever laid eyes on him.  The second she heard his name she knew he was the one.  Mars and Starla implies some kind of cosmic connection.

Shea knocks on the door of a house but receives no answer.  He checks the mailbox to see if there is uncollected mail and Charlie sees this an searches Shea, leading to more tension between the two.  The police chief drives up and tells Charlie they searched every house within a 10 block radius of the shopping plaza.  Charlie suggests she may have driven there and dumped the car when the police showed up.  The chief tells him they'll search a further radius and drives off.

Lloyd asks Starla about Mars killing his mother and she sits before him in silence.  When he asks how she feels she tells him it was Mars' mother.  He asks why the others deserved to die and she tells him they didn't deserve to live as they didn't have what it takes to survive.  Only those with the strength to take a life deserve to have a life.  Ray walks up and puts a picture down in front of Starla and tells her who the woman in the picture is.  She turns away from him forcing him to walk around her so she's facing him.  He tells her the woman is serving a life sentence for not stopping her husband from raping and murdering a string of college students 30 years ago.  Each time she goes up for parole, she's denied.  He tells her she'll be the same if she doesn't give up Mars.  Lloyd asks Starla if she wants some water.  She points to her glass and says "it's right here".  He has to stand to fill her water glass.  Lloyd takes Ray aside and tells him Starla will not turn on Mars as she isn't the submissive partner.  Mars is the submissive partner and Starla is the one calling all the shots.  The string of delinquent boyfriends she went through were auditions for potential killers.  Mars, her monster, is scared, alone and desperate.  Ray devises a plan, which he doesn't tell Lloyd about, even when asked, and tells Lloyd to keep an eye on Starla.  He tells Starla that he will drag her up and down every street with a gun in her mouth and when Mars sees that, he'll come out to her.

At the house, Haley continues talking to Mars telling him it might be a good thing Starla is gone as he doesn't have to listen to her anymore.  He tells them to all get up and go to the basement.  When he yells again for them to get up, Haley tells him that maybe she's lost as the neighborhoods all look the same.  Mars jerks her to her feet.  Haley tells him again she's lost and if he does this without asking her, he should give her a little more time.  He throws her back down and storms from the room in anger.

A door is slammed in Shea's face as Charlie gets a call from Julie that Ray has a plan.  Ray puts Starla in the car with he and Lloyd.  As Ray takes his phone out of his pocket, his handcuff keys fall out and onto the back floorboard.  Starla gets the keys and unlocks her cuffs while Ray is talking on the phone to Charlie and as Lloyd is telling her about how her mother died and how every time she kills she relives the last moments she had with her mother.  She reaches through the seats and takes hold of Ray's gun and orders him to drive as Lloyd seriously panics.  She takes them to the house and as they are walking up to the door, Lloyd complains about the situation they are in and tells Ray to do something.  Ray stops walking and tells her he will disarm her outside.  She threatens to shoot him but Ray tells her she won't.  Mars opens the door and says he will.  They force Lloyd and Ray inside and Starla runs to Mars.  They move them into the living room with the family and Ray tells them they will take the families places, something Lloyd protests.  Starla orders them to get on their knees and keep their hands up as Mars watches on with a sick, worried look on his face.  Lloyd tells Ray his death is on his hands.  Starla orders Mars to kill both of them and he raises the rifle.  Ray talks to Mars telling him they know everything was Starla's idea causing him to lower the gun.  Starla again orders him to shoot but Ray tells her to do it herself.  She tells him she will and moves around to Ray and raises his gun to his head.  She pulls the trigger but the gun doesn't fire.  It's empty.  She yells it's a trap and orders Mars to shoot them.  He raises the gun and is taken to the floor by Charlie.  Erica grabs Starla who tries to run.  As they are being cuffed and led away, Mars confesses that everything was Starla's idea and he didn't want to do any of it.  Lloyd asks Ray what happened and Ray tells him he dropped the keys on purpose so she would lead them to Mars.  He didn't tell Lloyd because he needed it to feel authentic and tries to reassure him that his gun wasn't loaded.  Lloyd points out that Mars' gun was loaded.  Ray tells him that's a fair criticism and walks away.

Shea goes to Charlie's office and tells him if it wasn't for him spotting Starla they never would have gotten to the family on time and that he's earned the right to not wear the shoes Julianne got for him.  As he's leaving, Charlie tells him he doesn't distinguish between shades of color on the team.  Shea tells him when he looks at him, the only color he sees is blue and as long as he gets his months off, that's cool.

Ray speaks to Julie about the kiss.  They come to an understanding and he hugs her.  Lloyd sees this and feels he should have known, as does Erica.  Lloyd confronts Ray about how Ray used him.  Ray admits he did and says Lloyd's panic helped sell the plan.  Lloyd tells him he's not only using him but Julianne.  That anyone can see she has feelings for him and he shouldn't dangle the relationship carrot in front of her face to get her to do good work.  That is self-serving and damaging.  The two men scuffle until Julianne comes in to say the van to Maybelle is waiting.  When she leaves, Ray straights Lloyd's jacket and tells him to just buy her some flowers and keep him out of it.

Breakout Kings airs every Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on the Arts & Entertainment Network.
For more information:
Breakout Kings Official A&E Site:  http://www.aetv.com/breakout-kings/
The Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1590961/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/Breakout_Kings