The fourth season begins with Sam tossing a shirtless Jarod into a cell in some unknown part of  The Centre.   Lyle walks in wearing an all white suit and tells Jarod that he stinks.  Sam says that Jarod won't shower and Lyle grabs Jarod by the hair and tells him that he will bring the shower to him ... and has Jarod doused with a fire hose that batters him against the walls.  The stream of water from the hose hits the video camera near the ceiling and shatters it.  Lyle tosses Jarod a bar of soap and orders him to clean everything, including the walls.  Jarod recovers enough to throw the soap back at Lyle and tells HIM to do it.  Lyle says, "The world is changing ... and I'm in charge"  then leaves Jarod.  As Sam locks the room, he notices that he's lost a button ... stares at Jarod hard for a moment ... then leaves as well.

Jarod watches them both leave beneath lowered brows ... then opens his mouth and pulls the button out!  He uses it as a means to loosen the screws on a manhole cover that is in the center of his cell ... uses the soap to make himself slippery enough to squeeze through and descends. 

He follows the pipe down and around - and finally drops several feet to a cement floor.  Jarod stands up and looks around, but instead of finding himself free, he finds himself in another cage ... this one made of chain-link.  On the outside of the fence stands ... Mr. Lyle!  He smiles and says, "Like I said ... the world is changing."  Jarod begins to scream ... throws himself against the fencing, again and again ... and finally sinks to the ground in a corner.

Lyle shows Sydney a tape of Jarod screaming in the chain link cage and tells him that the incident took place three weeks ago and that since then he has been working on making Jarod more manageable.  The tape continues and shows Jarod being shocked repeatedly ... then, later, Lyle speaking to him and telling him that he has a project he wants Jarod to work on.  Jarod says, A docile Jarod says, "Anything you want."  Sydney is distressed, tells Lyle that he is sick but also tells him that Jarod cannot be brainwashed.  Lyle reminds Sydney that the world is changing and disagrees about being able to control Jarod pointing out that he has used Jarod's family as the tool to control him. Throughout the exchange, Sydney flinches ... but Lyle is obviously enjoying watching the tape. 

As Sydney and Lyle are speaking, a man, an albino, walks into the office and tells Mr. Lyle that he got there as quickly as he could.  Lyle stands and gets ready to leave with the man but Sydney reminds him that they haven't stopped talking about Jarod yet.  Lyle tells Sydney that Jarod is no longer the most important thing in the world ... and says that tomorrow Jarod will be leaving - he's Mutumbo's property now.

As Lyle leaves with Mr. White, Sydney steals the DSA of Jarod from his office.  When Broots finds out what Sydney has done, he tells him that he must be crazy!  Ever since Mr. Lyle has been put back in charge, people are disappearing all over the place!  Broots asks Sydney if he was able to find out the name of the hospital where Miss Parker is ... Sydney tells him that he hasn't.

At St. Catherine's Hospital in Oakpoint, Maryland, a frightened Mr. Parker is showing the nurses pictures of his daughter and asking if they have seen her.  A nurse tells him, "at the end of the hall" ... Mr. Parker heads that way and sees a body on a gurney that is completely covered by a sheet.  Fearing the worst, Mr. Parker begins crying out for his Angel ... and as he pulls the sheet back and realizes that the body is not that of his daughter, he hears a weak voice saying, "Daddy?" from a room just beyond where he is.  Mr. Parker rushes in to find Miss Parker in bed ... still badly injured from the bullet that was meant for her father.   As he tries to comfort her, she tells him that "they" kept her drugged in ICU for three weeks.   Mr. Parker tells her that no one knows where he is and he intends to keep it that way ... he's been in equatorial Africa.  Miss Parker is disoriented and confused and wants to know what has gone wrong ... but her father is ranting, rambling ... tells her that Jarod is the key to their survival, that Brigitte has been taken someplace safe to have the baby ... a nurse enters the room suddenly and sees Mr. Parker there.  She says that Miss Parker is not supposed to have visitors.  Mr. Parker tries to hide his face and says that he was just leaving.  Miss Parker says that she, too, is leaving ... she is discharging herself.  The nurse tells her that she cannot go until her psychiatrist discharges her.  Miss Parker is astounded and wants to know when "head shrinkers" started using scalpels, since she was shot.  The nurse leaves and Mr. Parker begins to leave, too.  He tells Miss Parker that he hopes he can trust her not to tell anyone that he was there.  She begs him not to leave ... but he is heading toward the door, promising to come back.  Then he asks her what the name of the playwright was ... the one that her Mother liked so much.  Miss Parker tells him it was Shaw.  And Mr. Parker reminds her of a particular quote ... "A family is a tyranny, ruled over by its weakest member."  He makes sure that she understood him ... then, in spite of her pleading ... leaves.

Back at The Centre, Sydney has Angelo watching the DSA that he took from Lyle's office.   He wants Angelo to find Jarod.  While Angelo watches the DSA, Broots tells Sydney that he may have found where Miss Parker has been kept for the last 3 weeks ... while monitoring all of the communications going to and from The Centre, he noticed a short phone call -- from a hospital about 50 miles west of the Centre.  But before Broots could check it out, "Lyle's albino" interrupted him, wanting to know about a priority communication about something called Silence. 

After watching the DSA, Angelo is able to lead Sydney to where Jarod is being held in The Centre.   Jarod immediately asks him if it is true that The Centre has captured his father and the boy ... Lyle has told him that only one has survived and that he will tell which one it is when he gets to Africa, but only if Jarod cooperates.  Sydney gives a little laugh and asks Jarod if he trusts Lyle ... who enters the room at that moment and says, "Don't you, Sydney?"  Lyle realizes that Angelo must have helped Sydney find Jarod and tells him that he never liked him, as Angelo backs away.

Lyle tells Jarod that it's time to go and, over Sydney's objections, Jarod says that he'll take the sedatives that are being offered, since he'd rather sleep through it.  He hugs Sydney to say "goodbye," Lyle checks Jarod's mouth to be sure that he swallowed the sedatives, and Jarod leaves with Lyle and Sam for the airport and Africa.  After he goes, Sydney looks in his hand ... Jarod managed to put the sedatives there!

On the plane, Sam buckles Jarod's seat belt and finds the albino walking in to say that they will be stopping along the way for a "Level A" project called Silence.  Jarod appears to be sleeping, but isn't ... he's using part of the seat belt to free himself from his handcuffs.  The albino gets on the phone with Mr. Lyle and Jarod hears what "Project Silence" is all about.  They are going to blow up a building, using C-4, in order to kill a family named Nash - husband, wife and little girl.  Everyone else in the building will be killed as well, and that will only help to confuse the issue so that no one realizes who the intended targets really were.

Jarod finally manages to get out of the handcuffs, punches and disarms a startled Sam and points his gun at the albino, who is now pointing a gun right back at Jarod. 

The pilot runs in to see what the scuffle was about, sees the two men aiming guns at each other and tells them that if a bullet penetrates the jet's skin, it could explode.  Jarod says, "Not if something plugs the hole," and shoots a hole in the window by Mr. White.  Immediately Mr. White's arm is sucked out the window, up to the shoulder.   Sam manages to get a wild shot off, which ricochets and hits the pilot.  The jet begins to flounder and seems as though it might hit a mountain, but Jarod manages to crash land it safely.

Sam wakes up to find himself handcuffed in Jarod's seat.  Mr. White managed to disappear during the crash landing, but Sam won't tell Jarod where he might have gone.  Jarod searches through the paperwork that spilled out of Mr. White's briefcase and finds a picture of the Nash family, standing in front of a building.

Back at The Centre, Lyle is on the phone with Mutumbo, trying to explain Jarod's escape.  As Angelo watches through a vent/grate, Sydney comes in to gloat.  Lyle tells him that if they don't get Jarod back, he won't be the only one that Mutumbo will "re-educate."  During the exchange, Broots bursts in and begins to say that they won't believe who he has just seen in the hallway, someone everyone thought was dead ... but he doesn't get to finish his sentence, because Mr. Raines comes through the door right behind him - walks right up to Broots and gives him a bear hug while patting him on the back!  Broots just stands there - half astonished and half terrified -- until Raines releases him and declares that it's "good to be back in the bosom of  The Centre ... God bless you all!  Now, let's go catch Jarod!  Amen!"

Jarod has managed to see the sign behind the Nash family and enters the Atomic Research Laboratory as Doctor Jarod Hickum, who helped design the Cassini probe for NASA.  He's there to help them get back on schedule with their Neptune probe, since they lost their two best researchers, Clare and Jason Nash.

Broots and Sydney have found Miss Parker in the hospital and Sydney says that she is on suicide watch.  Miss Parker has no idea what's going on or why she would be on a suicide watch after being shot in the back.  Sydney asks her if she has heard from her father and she lies and tells him that she hasn't.  She tells them that Raines was responsible for her being shot and Broots tells her that Raines has found God ... Miss Parker doesn't care who Raines has found, she plans on making him pay.  She sends Broots to find out everything he can about Mr. White and project Silence.  Sydney tells her that she needs to stay in bed for at least 24 more hours and they leave.

At the research facility, Jarod is trying to find out what happened to the Nash family.  While going through their offices, he finds a locket that has a picture of them in it and saves it.   He finds that they were working on the propulsion systems and made some incredible discoveries with multiple applications, but no one has access to their work because it was sealed by the Department of Energy, in Albany, after a boating accident that supposedly killed them all.  Jarod calls Sydney and as they are speaking, Jarod asks if that's Mr. Broots he hears.  Broots is astounded, since he hasn't said a word ... but Jarod tells him that he has a deviated septum and recognized his breathing.  Broots remarks that he was hit in the nose with an Etch-A-Sketch when he was a child ... Jarod  asks Broots what he knows about Project Silence and Broots tells Jarod that he just knows that Lyle and an albino were talking about it.  Angelo watches the exchange from the vent.

Broots starts to freak out over sharing information with Jarod, and Jarod reminds him that he knows where he lives, then goes on to say that Silence is about a family, the Department of Energy and a traitor on the inside there.  Sydney assures Jarod that they will do their best tofind out something more and Jarod tells him that they had better, because if they don't, an innocent family is going to die.

Jarod Watts shows up at the Department of Energy and finds out that the Nash family are part of a Witness Protection Transfer Program and gets assigned to the team.  He learns that Clare Nash is being held separately from her family and has yet to be reunited with them.  The agent in charge of Clare Nash's protection is using a Code 3 - which is minimal protection, so it won't draw undue attention to the location. 

Miss Parker returns home to find a message waiting there from her father saying that he tried to see her again at the hospital but found her gone.  He tells her that he will see her at her house at 9:00 that night, to explain things to her "face to face." 

At the Department of Energy, Jarod learns that the Nash's realized that someone was trying to use their propulsion research for weapons applications and tried to "blow the whistle" - but someone tried to kill them on their boat, so they ended up separated with Jason Nash and his daughter in one place and Clare in another.  The D.O.E. has no leads on who tried to get the research or kill the Nash's.   Jason refused to testify until Clare was found and reunited with them.  Tomorrow at 3:00, at the Atomic Research Lab, the Nash family is supposed to be reunited.  Jarod realizes that Project Silence is about keeping the Nash family from testifying and that they will all be killed at 3:00 PM tomorrow if he doesn't stop it.

Back at The Centre, Miss Parker has tracked down Raines ... he is walking with someone, telling him that he has spent years working here, "doing the work of the Lord."   She confronts Raines and we see that the man to whom he was speaking is a priest - Father Connelly, a friend of Catherine Parker's!   Once the priest has left, she hold Raines at gunpoint and intends to kill him ... but ... she is shaken by his newfound faith and willingness to die and ends up letting him go.

At the D.O.E. safehouse in Albany, Jarod finds that Clare Nash hasn't been eating ... she wants to be reunited with her family.  He speaks with her, tells her about his quest to find his family and gives her the locket he found in her office.   She tells him that Courtney gave her the locket for Mother's Day and he promises her that she will be back with her daughter and husband tomorrow.

At The Centre, Miss Parker tells Sydney that she misses the days when "the people she couldn't trust, were the people she couldn't trust."  He assumes, correctly, that she has met the "new" Mr. Raines.   They are talking about Project Silence - which is a Centre sponsored hit on the Nash family, run by a covert team assigned to Lyle by Mutumbo - when Broots comes in with the information that the next of kin who had Miss Parker committed to the hospital was Lyle.

She hurries home, hoping to find her father there, but instead finds only a video recording of him telling her that the world is changing, The Centre is changing and he is changing.  It is up to her, he tells her, to ride it out and take care of herself.  As the video ends, Lyle enters and tells her how worried he was about her ... that he had her put in that hospital to insure her safety from the people who got to Raines and were trying to get to their father.  She tells him that she knows all about Project Silence and his team and he tells her that he is glad, because he needs her help.  Lyle knows that Jarod is going to try to interfere with the hit and in order to keep The Centre in the hands of the Parkers, he needs his sister to help him stop Jarod.

Meanwhile, Jarod is going over the blueprints of the Atomic Research Lab, figuring out how he's going to save the Nash family, discover who the "traitor" in the D.O.E. is and get Mr. White, all at one time.  As Jarod is building a model to figure out how it can all be done, he receives an e-mail sent by Angelo with a picture that identifies Agent Timson as the D.O.E. traitor.

The next day, Jarod arrives at the safe house to find it empty.  He is told that the transfer orders were moved up to noon and that Clare has already been taken away. 

At 12:30, Miss Parker arrives at the Atomic Research Lab to find Lyle, Sam and another sweeper already there.  Lyle tells her that he's glad she decided to take up the fight and she tells him that she didn't come to help him, she came to capture Jarod.  Clare Nash is en route with Agent Timson.  Mr. White is busy planting the C-4 in the "hazardous materials" section of the building, on a 10 minute timer.  Just as he finishes setting the bomb, Jarod confronts him.  Mr. White explains that he is just a "finder" of lost people, that occasionally Mr. Lyle pays him to do "special" projects,  and shows Jarod pictures of his sister, Emily, saying that there may be information relating to her last known address on the back of them ... may be something about Jarod's mother as well and that he doesn't care whether or not Jarod saves the family upstairs or finds his family, but Mr. White is not part of the package.  To insure that, Mr. White tosses the pictures into a lit furnace ... Jarod rushes over to pull them out and manages to save most of them, but Mr. White has escaped. 

In the lobby, Mr. Lyle tells the others that they will have a better chance of capturing Jarod if they split up and tells Miss Parker and the other to search the interior and he'll take the outside.  As Miss Parker moves deeper into the building, Lyle checks his watch and looks at them moving away as he walks past the glass exterior of the building.

 Jarod disarms the C-4 and heads back upstairs to the reunion site.   At 5 minutes to noon, Agent Timson pretends to get a phone call that will take him out of the building and tells the Agent that remains with Clare Nash that if he is not back within 5 minutes to go ahead and bring in Mr. Nash and their daughter.  He is heading for the door to effect his escape, but Jarod bursts in and claims to have information about a contract on Mrs. Nash's life that came directly from Inspector Wolchek.  Timson tries to leave, saying he needs to go downstairs to call the Inspector.  Jarod tells hm it won't be necessary ... the Inspector is going to call on his cell phone at noon - just a few minutes away.  Timson tries to leave again, saying that he needs to check the Agents on the perimeter ... but Agent Blaine offers her the use of her walkie-talkie to do that.   Becoming more frantic with every moment, Timson attempts to leave the room, only to find it locked.  The minutes are ticking away.   Jarod feigns ignorance, saying he doesn't understand.  Timson pulls his gun and tells him to open the door.  Thinking there is no other way to get the keys and escape, he blurts out that there is a bomb in the building, in front of the other Agent and Clare Nash. Jarod pulls out the C-4, which is still counting down, and to Timson's horror, the timer ticks to zero!  Nothing happens, and Jarod tells Agent Blaine to get Timson out of there.  She cuffs him and takes him away and Jarod sees the Nash family ... father, mother and daughter - reunited.  He gives them a packet with the information they need for their new life and promises them they will be safe.  Jason Nash wants to know who Jarod is, but his wife tells him that it is all right ... they can trust him.

As they leave, Jarod sees Miss Parker coming up the stairs, toward where he is.  By the time she gets to the room, Jarod is gone ... but he has left her a little box of "goodies" ... enough for her to realize that there was a bomb in the building that should have gone off while she was in it.

Much to Lyle's surprise, Miss Parker arrives - in one piece - back at the car where he is sitting, not looking for Jarod at all.  Lyle recovers nicely and tries to lay the blame for Jarod escaping at Miss Parker's feet, but she's not having any of it and tells him that he should never under-estimate Jarod, or HER and that the next time he sends her into a building that is supposed to explode, it had better ... or else ... Then she gives him a box that Jarod has left for him ... it contains the cables that Lyle used to torture Jarod into supposedly becoming brainwashed.  The cables have a note on them that says, "See you soon. J"

At her home again, Miss Parker is playing another message from her father saying that he is sorry he missed her and that he needs to hear her voice.  Mr. Parker tells her to catch Jarod at all costs, because he's the key, "the only key."  He tells her to watch her back and trust no one at The Centre, with the possible exception of her brother.

In room 223 at The Hotel Le Salle, Jarod looks forlornly around.  The manager approaches him and asks him what he is doing there.  He shows him Emily's picture and says he is her brother and is searching for her and the manager tells him that he just missed her!  She was searching for her family, but felt that she was being hunted and left just today. 

Jarod calls Miss Parker and he tells her that one family has been put back together.  She adds that hers has been ripped apart.  She says that maybe the world really is changing - Jarod says it doesn't matter how much it changes, because they are both still alone in it.  They hang up ... Miss Parker puts her head down on her desk -- in front of the hotel, Jarod slides dejectedly down the wall until he is sitting on the steps.

And the screen fades to black .....

This episode of The Pretender starred:
Michael T. Weiss as Jarod, Andrea Parker as Miss Parker, Patrick Bauchau as Sydney, Jon Gries as Broots, Jamie Denton as Mr. Lyle, Sam Ayers as Sam the Sweeper, Paul Dillion as Angelo, Richard Marcus as Mr. Raines, Harve Presnell as Mr. Parker

Guest Stars:
Tobin Bell as Mr. White, Tim Lounibos and Albie Selznick

Also starring:
Walker Brandt as Jeannie Radshaw, Noel Conlon as Father Connelly, George "Buck" Flower as the Hotel Manager, Brendon Ford as Jason Nash, William Jones as C.J. Warwick, Deborah Lacy as Andrea Blaine, Taylor Leigh as Clare Nash, Bryan Rasmussen as the Pilot, Sean Smith as the Research Administrator, Rachel Winfree as the Nurse

"The World Is Changing" was written by:
Steven Long Mitchell
Craig W. Van Sickle
and Directed by:
James Whitmore, Jr

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