Junior takes Miss Parker and Mr. Lyle into the container.  Once inside they see manacles hanging from the ceiling, a television, a car battery, a bucket of stagnate water ... there is a large red button on the wall with the words "Do Not Push" written next to it.  Lyle immediately makes motions as though he is going to push the button, but Miss Parker stops him, telling him that there is always a method to Jarod's madness.  Lyle doesn't like being stopped and wants to know when they started following Jarod's instructions.  As Miss Parker continues to look around the shipping container she sees a red lever that has the words "Do Not Pull" on the wall next to it.   As she reads it Lyle presses the button ... and the container seals itself, locking Lyle and Miss Parker in it.  As the doors close, junior says, "See you later, Miss Parker, Mr. Lyle."   Miss Parker realizes that Jarod knew all along this would happen, because they never gave Junior their names, but he knew them anyway!  Miss Parker tells Lyle, "Now we're his prisoners."

Jarod is locked "in the hole" at Fort Blaine POW Training Center for three days, during a heat wave ... the men who release him expect to find a dehydrated mess of a man, but Jarod is jaunty as he returns to the world above.  He finds a Lieutenant waiting for him, and she is wondering why he spent the first three days of his investigation into the suicide of Chief Scott Rion in isolation.  Jarod tells her to think of it as a "simulation" to help him walk in the mans shoes.  She tells Jarod "Stevens" that Colonel Dance wants to see him ASAP - he's a little upset that Jarod didn't report to him right away. 

Jarod meets with Colonel Dance and with Captain Sanders, who is the leader of Rion's training unit.  Neither of them are especially happy to have an investigation into the death of the soldier, but Jarod remains unaffected by their dislike of the situation.

At The Centre, Broots finds Sydney in the lab and tells him that there is something funny about the shipping invoice that Jarod left at his last lair ... it was almost as if he wanted Miss Parker and Mr. Lyle to go to Texas in search of him.  Sydney tells Broots to pass the information on to Miss Parker and Mr. Lyle but Broots says that no one had heard from them.

In the container, Lyle has decided that it's time to get out and tries to shoot the hatch open.  The bullet does not penetrate, but ricochets around the container instead, narrowly missing Miss Parker.  Miss Parker, showing Mr. Lyle other things that Jarod has written on the walls, like the words, "Tick Tock," points out that trapping them their was obviously part of something bigger for Jarod ... survival of the fittest.  Lyle finds some Army rations that Jarod left for them and grabs a packet.  Just then, the TV comes on and a tape begins to play ... it's Jarod ... welcoming Miss Parker and Mr. Lyle to their "home away from home."  He tells them that he has found the key to surviving to be getting to know yourself and your family.  Then he tells them that he hopes they enjoy the "yummy" meal he left for them and the TV goes dark.  Lyle opens the packet of rations and discovers ... BBQed grasshoppers!  He eats one, says it tastes like licorice ... then walks over to Miss Parker, holds the bag out to her and asks her what she is willing to do to survive.  Not to be outdone in the grit department, Miss Parker takes one of the grasshoppers ... but as she is chewing it, she bites on something hard and spits out a small key!

Suddenly the entire container begins to sway and move ... it is being loaded onto some sort of transportation!  There is nothing that Miss Parker and Mr. Lyle can do but try not to get battered around like moths in a glass jar while the container gets loaded for shipping ... but to where?

At the POW Training Facility, Jarod is being driven to a training location by Lieutenant Kimbroand she says that "rumor has it" that Rion called his parents the night before he started the isolation training and said that he was going to report a breach of conduct when he was finished.  Jarod says that even if he was going to report something, that he never got the chance.

After talking to the training sergeant that found Rion's body, Jarod re-reads the letter that Rion sent to his parents just before his training was due to end ... he talks about the experiences that his Dad went through as a POW, how they had discussed them, how much being in the Special Forces meant to him,  and doesn't sound at all like a young man who would ever contemplate suicide at this particular stage of his training.

At The Centre, Broots expresses his concern to Sydney over not hearing from Miss Parker and Mr. Lyle.  Sydney says that he, too, is concerned and tells Broots that he is going to send another sweeper team to Texas.  Meanwhile, he tells Broots to dig deeper into the shipping manifest and the survival items that were found in Jarod's last lair.

Jarod is watching a DSA where Sydney asked him to study POW's and figure out why some survived and some didn't.  He's set up a simulation of the manner in which Scott Rion mutilated and hung himself during the isolation exercise and in looking at the photos of the body that were taken afterwards, he notices something.  Before we see what it is, Lieutenant Kimbro arrives to tell Jarod that she found Captain Saunders and the rest of Chief Rion's unit.  They finished the POW phase of the training and headed out to the south range for some sort of initiation.  She tells Jarod that it's no use, it's a 50 square mile area, he'll never find them if they don't want to be found ... but when she turns around, Jarod has already disappeared himself.

Jarod tracks them down and arrives at their campsite just in time to witness them getting branded as part of a ritual that makes them feel more like a team.  He and Captain Saunders exchange words over the ritual and what it means for all of the men to know each other - as well as about Scott Rion's supposed suicide.   Saunders tells Jarod that Rion had personal problems and that there were times when he had to "cover" for him during training.  He says that he didn't report the problems because he wanted Rion to make it through the training, but Jarod isn't buying it.

In the shipping container, Lyle and Miss Parker are cold and thirsty.   Lyle is trying to start a fire for heat and to help sterilize the water, but he's not having any luck.  Miss Parker notices a car battery and cables and they use that to make a spark that ignites a fire.  While looking for things to use as fuel for the fire, Miss Parker finds some old newspapers.  They all contain articles about Lyle being considered as the suspect in the murders of some female college students.  Lyle is trying to find a way to seal a vent for the fire so that the smoke doesn't fill the container.   He says he needs duct tape, and finds that Jarod has left an entire roll of it.   In the articles that Miss Parker is reading, the murdered girls were bound with duct tape.   Lyle is saying that "they" say that duct tape is one of the best things to have in a survival situation, that Jarod has underestimated him ... and isn't as clever or smart as he thinks he is.   Miss Parker retorts with "few people are" and hands Lyle the papers with the articles.  Lyle just tosses them on the fire.

On the base, Jarod is searching through the files to look at the records for all of Rion's team members.   He finds something in Captain Saunders records about being part of a project named "Abyss."  As Jarod is leaving, he runs into Lieutenant Kimbro and she offers to give him a ride home.   As she is turning the key in the ignition of her car, Jarod notices some wires that shouldn't be there and pulls her out of the car.   They barely get clear before the car explodes.   Someone tried to kill Lieutenant Kimbro! 

Jarod finds Sealy, the demolition expert on the team, walking alone at night.  He tells Sealy that someone tried to kill Lieutenant Kimbro and him, but Sealy says that if it had been him who set the charge, Jarod wouldn't be there talking to him.   Sealy tells Jarod that they all heard Rion screaming during the last night of his isolation training, but they were ordered by Captain Saunders and the Sergeant not to let him out early ... they said that if his teammates pulled him out, Rion would be kicked out of training.  When Rion fell silent, Sealy thought he had just passed out ... he didn't know that he had hanged himself until the next morning, when they opened it up to let him out.

Back in the container, Lyle is telling Miss Parker that it hasn't been easy to put the murders of the college girls out of his mind.  She isn't convinced.   He tells her that he stopped by to see them one night and found the door open - then found them in their bedroom.   The police suspected him at first, but later found the duct tape that had been used in the trunk of the car of an ex-boyfriend of one of the girls and Lyle was cleared.   Miss Parker says that maybe someone planted the duct tape on an innocent man ... in order to survive. 

Having heated a brick or stone sufficiently, Lyle drops it into the contaminated water to help sterilize it.  He tells Miss Parker that Jarod is trying to put them in situations that will prevent them from trusting one another and he tells Miss Parker that she has to trust him.

Miss Parker has climbed up to sit on an upper part of the container and sees a little box there - one that can be opened with a small key like the one that Jarod put in with the grasshoppers.   She opens the box and finds an old watch in it.   The watch belonged to her Mother and has "Catherine Parker" engraved on the back of it.   Lyle asks her what the watch is about and she tells him, "survival."

At The Centre, Broots tells Sydney that the sweeper team didn't find Miss Parker or Mr. Lyle in Texas, but they interviewed some bum that had taken them to a shipping container where Jarod had been living.  The container is gone and all Broots can find out is that it is headed East.   For ten dollars, the bum told the sweepers that Jarod had turned the container into a kind of POW camp and that Jarod was the prisoner!    Sydney says that Jarod may have been at a POW training facility and Broots adds that he still may be.

Jarod is watching the end of the "survival simulation" DSA.   The young Jarod is telling Sydney that the biggest factor in surviving is the prisoners' minds ... if the captor removes their hope or their ability to understand their fears and overcome them, the prisoners lose their grip on reality.

Someone creeps up on Jarod's quarters and quietly goes inside and begins looking around.   Jarod surprises the intruder and finds that it is Lieutenant Kimbro.  She tells Jarod that she came to look through Scott Rion's file because she needs to know what really happened that night.   Jarod tells her to tell him about Captain Saunders ... he says that he can see the way he looks at her.   The Lieutenant breaks down and tells Jarod the whole story ...  Captain Saunders has been making inappropriate advances for a long time.   Just before Scott Rion was ready to begin his POW training, he ended up pulling Captain Saunders away from the Lieutenant as he was trying to force himself on her.   Scott Rion said then that he was going to report the breach of conduct and Captain Saunders told Scott that he had forgotten the first rule ... that the unit always comes first, and that it wasn't over between them.   But Rion committed suicide before he could report anything and the Lieutenant felt responsible for that.

Jarod tells her that Scott did commit suicide, but it wasn't by choice.  The Lieutenant says that she doesn't understand, and Jarod explains to her.   He says that Scott's psychological profile didn't have anything in it to suggest that he would snap - especially when he knew that he only had one more night to go.  Jarod tells the Lieutenant that Scott didn't mutilate himself before he hanged himself ... he knew he was drugged and was attempting to tell someone who did it, and how.   Rion knew that Saunders was involved in a secret research project to develop drugs to aid in interrogating prisoners of war.  Instead of telling the Lieutenant the name of the project, he shows her the picture of Scott Rion's body in the morgue ... but he turns it upside down.   What looked like mutilation on his abdomen when viewed from the other direction, became the word "Abyss" with a little help from Jarod, by connecting the lines.   The Lieutenant asks Jarod what he intends to do about it and he tells her that he is going to give Captain Saunders a little taste of his own medicine.

In the container, Lyle gives Miss Parker a cup of the sterilized water to drink.   She hesitates and he says, "Trust me."   She sips the water, then drinks.   Lyle reads Jarod's message on the wall aloud ... "Tick Tock" ... then says that Jarod wanted Miss Parker to find that watch because it meant something to her.   Miss Parker tells him that it belonged to their Mother.   Catherine Parker won it in a swim competition when she was little and Mr. Parker gave it to her for her 12th birthday.   Miss Parker used to use the watch to time herself, treading water when they would go to the lake.   Then one day when she took the skiff out, it began to take on water and she couldn't make it back before it sank.   It was too far to swim, and she was tired and cramping ... but the ticking of the watch reminded her that her Mother would have wanted her to stay alive, so she treaded water until her Father found her and pulled her out.   She tells Lyle that she lost the watch a long time ago and he tells her that it looks like somebody found it.   Just then, the truck that was transporting the shipping container stops.   Lyle says, "What now?"

On the base, Jarod is altering Captain Saunders' orders, changing the date of his upcoming solo survival exercise to start immediately.   Jarod has his survival pack and is putting a substance that he has brewed into all of the food products, then re-sealing them.

Broots comes running into Sydney's office yelling that he has found the container and tells Sydney that he won't believe where.   Meanwhile, inside of the container, Mr. Lyle and Miss Parker are waiting to see what will happen to them next.   Suddenly, Miss Parker hears Broots calling to her from the outside.  He tells her that to open the door, all she has to do is pull the lever that is marked "Do Not Pull" on the inside!   When the door opens, Mr. Lyle and Miss Parker realize that Jarod had them shipped back to The Centre!!   Lyle says that when he catches Jarod he's going to kill him.   Broots tells Lyle that he may get his chance.   Sydney says that they tracked him to an Army survival camp.   Miss Parker wants to know where.   Broots says that it's in Texas, right next to the container yard where they started.

At that camp, Jarod watches as the Sergeant tells the team that their 3 day solo survival exercise has been moved up and will begin immediately.   He tells them that they will all be assigned separate quadrants and sends them out.   Jarod follows Captain Saunders and watches the first night, as he eats the contaminated food.   Just as he finishes the applesauce, the drugs begin to take effect and he passes out ... but not before Captain Saunders sees the word "Abyss" that Jarod wrote on the bottom of the inside of the container. 

When he awakes, he finds himself in the same POW isolation training box that Rion was in when he killed himself.   He tells Jarod that this is going to cost him his commission.   Jarod tells him that it won't happen because he doesn't really have a commission and isn't even really in the Army!   Convinced that he, too, has now been given the Abyss drug and is facing insanity if he does not receive help, the Captain confesses to Jarod that it was he who drugged Scott Rion ... to keep him from reporting Saunders' breach of conduct.   Jarod leaves Saunders in there and tells the Lieutenant that the drugs should wear off in a couple of hours.

Later, Colonel Dance tells the Lieutenant that Sergeant Saunders will be court martialed and get 20 to life in Leavenworth and she passes that information on to Jarod.   Jarod is pleased that Scott Rion's family will get an apology, a full disclosure and that young Rion will get the miliary burial he was denied previously.   As they are speaking, Jarod sees Mr. Lyle and Miss Parker enter at the other end of the hallway and makes a hasty departure.

Jarod calls Miss Parker at home and tells her that aside from a chipped molar she seems to have survived her ordeal.   He tells her that everything she needed to survive was in the container all along ... survival comes down to knowing the difference between your friends and your enemies.   Miss Parker tells Jarod that she supposes that means that Lyle is her "enemy" and that Jarod is her "friend" ... and Jarod says, "Maybe.   And you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to survive ... you can sure bet that Lyle will."

Scott Rion is buried with military honors ... and the flag is given to his Mother.   It's a sad moment, but a just one and Jarod looks on with satisfaction.   Then he turns and walks away through the cemetery as 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, Ryan Merriman as a young Jarod and Alex Wexo as a young Sydney

Guest Stars:
Michael Dorn as Colonel Lee Dance
James Black, Lombardo Boyar, Kathy Evison and Blake Gibbons

Also starring:
Rosemary Alexander as Mrs. Rion; Garrett Brawith as Sgt Duvall; Alton Butler as Scott Rion; Philip Lenkowsky as Junior and Lee Ryan as Mr. Rion

"Survival" was written by:
Mark M. Dodson
and Directed by:
Terrence O'Hara

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