The Experimental Job - Recap

A homeless man in a brick room screams in anger and frustration as music blasts out of the loudspeakers. He manages to break out and runs upstairs, and finds himself in the middle of a party at an expensive house. The student in charge, Travis Zilgram, watches with his guests as the man dies of a heart attack. He then has two fellow students take the dead man out and toss him into a river. Once the body is disposed of, Travis tells them to move the rest of their subjects to the psych building.

Nate and Eliot meet the dead man’s daughter, Miss Schavel, at the bar. She explains that her father, David, was living on the streets and that the police have no interest in investigating the death of a homeless man from a heart attack. Miss Schavel informs them that David had volunteered for sleep-pattern studies and that he suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome after his time in Vietnam. She’s done some checking and confirmed that the test programs are often run by undergrads, and she believes that the students in charge panicked when her father died and tried to hide the body.



Nate agrees to help and has Alec brief the team. Travis is doing his postgrad thesis on sleep disorders and originally held the tests at a private farm facility. Recently they moved the subjects to the psych building at the university. Alec has done some further checking and learned that Travis is the president of the Order of the 206, a secret college society with a name based on Titus Andronicus and who call their members Dustmen. Eliot informs the team that many secret society members move on to high-ranking intelligence positions, and that someone covered up David’s death within an hour of it being reported. Sophie figures the best way to get information on Travis is to call him up directly.

Travis is at the psych building meeting with a CIA interrogator. He informs the man that their subjects have been exposed to loud music and sub-zero temperature to soften them up for interrogation by the CIA. Travis takes the call from Sophie, who claims she’s a cop reopening Davis’ case. Travis says that it’s been closed and hangs up, and then calls his CIA sponsor, Mr. Conrad. Meanwhile, Nate tells Alec that the first step in their plan is to startle Travis and get him to make a move. He sends Eliot and Sophie to the Boston PD to start poking around while he goes with Alec to follow Travis.



At the station, Eliot and Sophie claim to be British true-life crime novelists and meet with Lt. Grayson. They ask for the files on David’s death but Grayson tells them that someone placed a Federal court order to have them sealed. She’s clearly dissatisfied with the outcome and Eliot tries to flirt with her to get her to meet him for dinner and give him the file. Grayson suggest that Sophie would have a better chance and then “accidentally” leaves the file on the table.

Nate and Alec watch Travis as he drives to an open field and calmly waits. A helicopter arrives and three men that Nate identifies as CIA get out and meet with Travis. Back at headquarters, Sophie checks with her people in MI6 and warns that Travis must have someone high up in the CIA running cover for him. For their plan to succeed, Nate wants them to become the people that Travis will tell his secrets to, and that the team will use Alec.

Alec goes to the university as a student and joins Travis’ class on game theory. Nate shows up as the substitute teacher after Eliot gets the regular professor drunk, and invites Travis to join him in a demonstration of game theory.

Parker volunteers to participate in a psych experiment on negative reinforcement. As the professor takes her in, Parker memorizes the security code.

Nate explains that Travis will pretend to be a killer and that he’s been arrested. Travis had an accomplice and now he must decide whether to betray that accomplice and save himself. Travis refuses, but Nate points out that the accomplice is in the same situation and that Travis has to assume that the man will betray Travis. As Travis ponders the situation, Alec stands up and dismisses Nate’s theory as unresearched garbage. He leaves and Travis goes after him, expressing his admiration. Alec says that he made up everything just to mess with Nate, and then helps Travis by erasing his parking ticket from the system. Impressed, Travis invites him to a party at his farmhouse.



Parker is taken to a different part of the building from the basement and is a bit too enthusiastic about administering electrical shocks as negative reinforcement. As the professor tries to get the control away from her, Parker steals the professor’s security badge, and then the key from the guard as he escorts her out. After donning a wig and a lab coat, Parker goes back inside and down the stairs to the high-security area. She flirts with the guard and steals the patient manifest, and then gets out.

Back at headquarters, the team goes over the list and discovers that all of the patients are homeless men from the same shelter. Eliot goes to the shelter posing as a homeless man while Alec takes Parker as his date to the party at the farmhouse. Sophie talks to Alec via the earbud and tells him how to mingle, but he warns her that he isn’t cool. Parker explains to him how cool he is by describing his fantasy role-playing gaming and then bounces off. When Sophie asks if it helped, Alec says that it didn’t, but he admits that Parker thinking that it would help is helping him. Travis finally asks Alec why he isn’t blending in, and Parker helps out her boyfriend again, pawing and kissing him. After she wanders off, pretending to be drunk, Travis congratulates Alec.

Eliot goes to the homeless shelter where Travis is recruiting and sits down to eat. When one of the other residents, Mac, takes offense and tries to attack him, Eliot gets him in a hold. Impressed, Mac introduces himself as an ex-Marine and figures that Eliot has served as well. Eliot avoids saying where and the two men chat about their experiences, and Mac offers to help Eliot get recruited for the food and money.



Alec impressed everyone with his ability to hack the police computers and fix their tickets, and Travis finally gives him a membership token for the Order of 206.

Eliot keeps in contact with Nate via earbud while he’s taken to the psych building. Travis explains the test subjects and tells them that they get $50, food, and shelter, but if they walk away then they won’t get paid. Eliot signs up with the others and each subject is placed in a separate cell, as heavy-metal music is blasted out over the loudspeakers.

That night at the 206 meeting, Travis addresses Alec and the other initiates and tells them that they will go through seven days of grueling initiation. He tells them to strip and immediately dismisses one pledge for wearing briefs. Travis then sends the others across campus to a plaque to memorize it, and then return and recite it.

Eliot maintains his demeanor as the rock music blasts away and the temperature in his cell drops. The guards take him to meet with Travis’ CIA interrogator, who gives Eliot a word and tell him that he’s going to do everything except use torture to get Eliot to reveal the word. Every day that Eliot doesn’t give away the word, Eliot gets $100. The interrogator starts screaming but Eliot ignores him.



Travis keeps Alec and the other pledges running across campus again... and again... and again.

As the guards take Eliot back to his cell, he tells Nate that the interrogator is a professional and that Travis is running the experiments to help the 206 CIA members learn how to induce PTD, not cure it.

While Eliot and the others eat the minimal food provided, Alec gets a dorm room of his own and jailbreaks phone for co-eds.

One of the guards tasers a homeless man and Eliot grabs the taser and stops him. Finally realizing that he’s blowing his cover, Eliot lets the guard taser him. Meanwhile, Sophie talks Alec through a wine-tasting party.

The interrogator continues to hammer Eliot and asks how many people he’s killed. When he sees a reaction, he asks Eliot if he’s trying to punish himself by refusing to give up the word. Eliot calmly tells him that he can tell the interrogator the names, dates, locations, and eye color of every person that he’s ever killed, and that there’s nothing the interrogator can do to him that’s worse than what he already goes through every day of his life. Taken aback, the interrogator has the guard take Eliot back to his cell.

Nate and a frazzled Alec go over the photos of the CIA men who met with Travis, and Alec confirms that one of them is Travis’ contact, Mr. Conrad. Nate figures that now that they know who to go after, they have to convince Conrad that Travis isn’t worth protecting. When Alec complains that he hasn’t gotten much sleep since pledge week started, Eliot hears him on the earbud and points out that he’s in a freezing cell.



When Alec returns to the frat house, one of the brothers calls for volunteers in a Black Ops match. He easily wins and everyone cheers him. Meanwhile, Parker sneaks into the psych lab basement and gives blankets to the homeless subjects.

The interrogator meets with Eliot again and offers him a glass of water. Eliot refuses and leaves,

The interrogator brings Eliot in again and offers him a glass of water. Eliot refuses and leaves, and The interrogator tells the guard that they can’t get a print off his glass. However, the guard offers the taser that Eliot touched earlier and asks if they can get a print off of that.

Alec sneaks off to meet with Parker, who realizes that he’s the big man on campus. She gives him the 10-page paper he asked her to write, and Alec reminds him that he doesn’t go to the school. Disgusted at his attitude, Parker tears up the paper and walks away.



The interrogator gets a dossier on Eliot and his known associates and shows it to Travis. Travis recognizes Alec’s photo and warns the interrogator that Eliot is active.

At his dorm room, Alec takes out his earbud and tries to call Parker to apologize, but gets her voice mail. Travis comes in and he has to hang up, just as Parker takes the call. When Alec wonders if he’s in, Travis gives him the CIA’s file on Alec, draws a gun, and tells him to put on a hood. Parker comes in a few minutes later and sees the discarded CIA file on the floor, and tells Nate that they have a problem.

Nate contacts Eliot and tells him that they need him on the outside. When the interrogator comes in, Eliot grabs him and says that they’re going to switch roles. The other subjects listen from their cells as Eliot beats the information on Alec’s location out of the interrogator.

The brothers dump an unconscious Alec in the basement and wait for Mason to arrive.

Eliot frees the other test subjects, who fight their way out past the few guards.

At the farm house, Travis hosts another party and meets with Mr. Conrad. He assures Conrad that things are under control and then starts to welcome their new brothers. However, the police come in with a warrant for Travis’ arrest. He runs out the back but finds Grayson and Sophie waiting for him. Travis says that he’ll be out in an hour but Grayson is unimpressed.



At the frat house, the brothers start beating Alec. He fights back but is soon outnumbered and beaten down. Parker comes in and knocks them out, and then helps Alec out. When one of the dustmen screams that Alec is a geek and they would never have let him in, Alec kicks him in the face and limps out.

At the police station, Travis wakes up and discovers that he’s handcuffed to a chair. Grayson and Sophie come in and show him footage of him and the others beating the test subjects. He’s unaware that the blankets that Parker gave to the subjects had hidden cameras. Travis says that it won’t do them any good because he has friends in high places, but Mr. Conrad walks by the door. Sophie tells Travis that they arrested all of the dustmen, including Conrad, and that Travis needs to give up his accomplice or join them in prison. Travis remembers what Nate said earlier and offers all of the recordings he has. Sophie says they’ll get back to him and Grayson unlocks Travis’ handcuffs.

Once they leave him alone, Travis is left to contemplate the situation. He finally discovers that the door is open and goes outside, only to discover that he’s in a campus building that has been closed for fumigation. He has no idea that Grayson drugged him earlier, and that Eliot and the homeless vets set up the building to look like a police station.

As Travis stares at the campus in shock, the police arrive and arrest him. The team watches him go and Nate figures that once they’ve scared Travis, rational choice will do the rest. Earlier, Alec told Conrad that Travis planned to betray him, and let him watch through the interrogation room mirror as Travis offered to sell him out. Nate convinced the CIA agent to withdraw his protection and let the system deal with him for the death of David Schavel.



Later at the bar, Conrad calls to tell Nate that Travis will be convicted on all counts. The CIA man asks Nate if it was worth it, attracting his attention, and hangs up. Eliot says goodbye to Miss Schavel and then shares a toast with Nate.

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