Original subtitles

An ordinary man, insurance executive, 45 years old, stumbles to his death on a

subway platform in New York City.

Or does he?

Unbeknownst to his wife or child, his brain is rescued from the accident scene

by a secret branch of the United States government and put into the body of an

artificially produced 26 -year -old man who has the strength of Superman, the

speed of Michael Jordan, and the grace of Fred Astaire.

They only catch.

On the penalty of death, he can never let anyone from his past know he is

alive. And that, my friends, is a problem.

For this man is desperately in love with his wife, his daughter, and his former

life.

Before, on Now and Again.

As you know, over the course of the past ten days, almost 100 New Yorkers have

lost their lives in insect.

A member of the board of directors of a chain of bait and tackle shops was

visited in his sleep by a family of night crawlers that took up residence in

small intestine.

And finally, our own head of public health had the grievous misfortune to

encounter a scorpion during a moment of reflection between meetings.

What kind of inconsiderate jackass would ring the bell at this hour?

May I use your bathroom?

He's not moving in, is he?

I don't think so.

No. No.

If the next car is red, then you are dragging your sorry butt home and saying

whatever it takes to put things back the way they were.

We're closed.

Butterflies feed on corn.

They need corn pollen to survive.

But these big conglomerates, these produce giants that have taken over

family farms, they grow transgenic corn, corn that's been genetically altered to

be bug -proof.

Dr. Bing.

Mr. Shipman.

Speak of the devil.

I'm not financing your bug research so that you could put out reports like

All that report says... All it says is that we're destroying the planet, Dr.

Bing. And just who do you think you are, anyway? The mayor of Bugtown?

This is Lisa Wiseman.

Oh, hello, Mrs. Wiseman.

This is the school nurse.

You phoned the administration office this morning and told them Heather was

running a fever, didn't you?

So it really brought you back here.

Just drawn back?

Just couldn't stay away?

So where were you?

First, we have to know where they are going to be. Then we have to find

something fast enough, agile enough.

To catch something that is able to fly or walk up walls or crawl through a

the size of a needle.

I might know someone who could do that.

Mr. Wiseman, what is that sound?

Company.

It's showtime.

That's right. Just relax.

Nobody's going to try and catch you.

You just stay right over there doing your bee fangin'. I'll just stay right

here doing my Michael thing.

The B, Mr. Wiseman, do you still have visual contact?

Oh, no. Got to go, Doc.

scaring away all the solicitors and door -to -door salesmen and religious

zealots.

Okay, you win.

I'll come out.

Almost summer.

Almost.

You know there's a conversation that we need to have. I think I'm going to move

into a hotel.

You've got to know there is no one else in the whole world I would rather have

sleeping on my couch. Yeah, I know.

But I think that we have exceeded my own personal statutes of limitations on how

long I can have a guest in my house.

I really need to be able to fight with my daughter without keeping my voice

down.

I need to be able to go into the kitchen at 2 o 'clock in the morning and turn

on the light without waking somebody up.

I need to know that it's okay to occasionally walk around in my

know what I mean?

None of these things is a problem for me.

Yeah, I've been getting that underwear feeling myself.

So that's why I've been thinking, why don't we move into a hotel?

You can go home.

Have you even talked?

Talking's good.

Sometimes the other person actually hears you.

Oh, I don't know.

I mean, on the one hand, as part of me, I miss her,

believe it or not. I miss her carping.

I miss the way she would sit next to me at the country club and count my drinks.

I miss her smell.

And then there's the other hand.

This is my fault. You know, it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't let you list

your house. Oh, baloney. If it hadn't have been this, it would have been the

car or where to go for the vacation or the color of the... I don't know what.

Excuse me. I need to get the paper for my homework. Sorry.

I need to figure out what I am going to say to her.

Maybe you should try and think about what you want to say to Ruth.

Doc,

something terrible's happened. Somebody shut off the whirlpool.

I smell sabotage.

Mr. Wiseman, you've been soaking in that thing for hours.

Any muscle soreness or outer skin tenderness caused by your fall should

abated long ago.

Really?

Oh, I don't know what to tell you, Doc.

Guess I'm getting old.

Plug it back in, will you?

I probably only need another 15, 20 minutes.

What you need is to get up and move around.

What I need is one of those cold, frosty drinks with a paper umbrella in it. You

know the kind I'm talking about.

Get out.

Oh, calm down.

Learning men can disagree about these things.

Now.

Examination results on our favorite flying stinging machine.

Stinger. I'll take one of those.

Well, turns out this bee stinger is covered with fluid that contains strains

a deadly botulism.

And thankfully, our friends at the lab removed it.

And according to this, he's normal in every other way.

So what are you saying?

Human being dipped that bee into some kind of goo and turned it into a killing

machine? Well, then this is easy.

Whoever it is had to sneak in there to get the bee into the deputy mayor's

office. We just need to check every log and every security camera.

Hmm.

But Mr. Wiseman indicated that the bee made his entrance.

Through an air conditioning duct.

Fine. Whatever. The person behind this crawls through the duct, then pushes the

bee through the grate. And says, don't sting me.

Sting that specific man there.

I don't think so.

There's a book I need in my special library.

Would you get it for me?

Political cartoons.

Political cartoons.

Political cartoons.

Hey.

I know you.

Mom.

Mom.

Mommy!

Say it again.

I saw this man yesterday. I was at the museum and I saw this man.

All right.

So what?

I don't mean to be cold, but everybody has to be someplace before they die.

I mean, all right, you saw this man in the museum or someone who looks like

Why are you so upset you didn't know him?

Mom, you don't understand.

I was in this room filled with bugs, and I was with this man, Dr.

Bing, who, like, lives for bugs. And then this guy walks in, and he is

And now he's dead and Bugs killed him.

Heather,

sweetheart, are you perhaps trying to suggest that there might be a link

these events?

And that perhaps this man's anger toward your friend, Bug Doctor...

Somehow precipitated his death.

And that the ants ate him in an act of...

Act of vengeance?

Cupcake, come on. You're smarter than that.

That can't really be what's got you so upset.

Uncle Roger?

Bite me.

Heather!

Forget it. Sorry.

It's all right.

I know you meant it in the nicest possible way.

You know what?

I've had it. I've had it with this. I don't know who this man is. Do you?

No.

So what are we talking about?

crazy things and yes i am scared but you know what that's not my department

heather misses school now that is my deal and frankly i'm not too happy with

my deal is going so excuse me forgive me if i am not so anxious to worry about

strangers getting eaten by bugs um i'm not saying that i know anything

i'm just saying that i have a sense about this that

This is, like, all connected in some way. Dr.

Ping, this man, and the bugs.

And that it just, like, is all, like, connected somehow. And I'm just saying

that maybe we should just, like, tell somebody.

Tell somebody what? Tell whom?

I don't know. Like, the police.

Somebody.

Press 1 if this is an emergency call. Press 2 for a non -emergency call. I'm

going to say 2.

Press 1 if you're calling about a criminal matter. Press 2 if you're

about a civil matter.

Gotcha.

Press 1 if your call involves the commission of a street crime.

Press 2 for all other matters. I'm going to go for 2.

All other matters in this situation.

I'm on hold.

And there's music.

It's a theme from cops.

It's a joke.

Oh, hello.

I'm not sure that I have the right department, but my daughter wanted me to

you because she feels that she has information about this crazy bug thing

going on.

What kind of information do... I mean, she met a man.

And she feels that he may have some connection to this bug thing.

Excuse me? Are you snickering?

No, I don't appreciate that. How can you ask me that? You don't even know my

daughter. For your information, officer, she happens to be a pretty terrific kid

most of the time.

And she's just trying to call you up and be a good citizen and give you

information on this... I'm on hold.

Why don't you hang up, climb in the car, and go see this guy?

I'm going into New York, look for a hotel room.

You two need a lift?

Well, Uncle Roger, that would be great.

Thank you.

Bite me.

There's a tradition in Europe that has to do with the special relationship

between beekeepers and their bees.

When a beekeeper dies, it's customary for members of their family to visit the

hives and actually inform the bees of his passing.

Telling the bees.

That's what the ceremony is called.

Ah, here it is.

1978.

A beekeeper in the town of Stanhope, England, died.

His family and children went to his hives and spoke to his bees, then joined

mourners at the grave site nearly three miles away.

Ah, listen to this.

A short time into the ceremony, mourners heard a loud buzzing, then saw the

swarm. Thousands of bees, but not a single mourner was stung. The bees

the flowers and people and landed on the beekeeper's casket.

Settling there motionless for over an hour.

Finally leaving and flying back to their hives.

Dr. Morris, with all due respect, you're not suggesting what you just read us is

science, are you?

You know and I know that that story is an anecdotal old world, old wives tale.

But gentlemen, think about it.

In the last quarter century...

Communication by the highest form of life, mankind, has in fact been

reduced to a series of zeros and ones, a simple binary code.

Now, is the idea that someone can insinuate themselves into the

mysteries by which lower forms of life commune with one another really so far

-fetched?

Just for a moment, suppose there exists out there...

Someone who knows virtually everything there is to know about insects.

Someone who has spent their entire life in the presence of bugs, studied their

evolution, studied their mating habits, their reproductive cycles, their

migratory patterns, their social structures. Someone who has devoted

exploring the methods and rituals and intricacies by which they communicate.

Just suppose.

Bugmeister.

Exactly.

They're open until 8 .30 tonight.

No problem.

I'm sorry about everything, about lying to you, about cutting school, about

calling everything ugly.

And thank you for listening to me, and thank you for doing that.

I'm not really doing anything. I'm just sitting here watching this thing go by.

I think maybe you are thinking wrong personally.

Uncle Roger?

Yes, Cupcake?

How come I call you all kinds of nasty names and I mean to you all the

time and show you virtually no respect, yet you're still nice to me?

I like you, Polka Dot.

Always have.

I liked you from the second you were born.

Still got the cigar your dad gave me when he brought you home from the

Sorry about that.

It's the way it is.

This is the only way you can think of to do this?

Mr. Wiseman, the only hope we have of finding this bugmaven.

Bug Meister.

Bug Meister? He is releasing his warrior bee in the slender hope of

having him lead us back to his master, queen, or whomever it is he's taking

orders from.

I know, but... Now, we can't reasonably expect a human being, and let's use

Special Agent Number One as an example, to be able to follow this common

bumblebee through the city at night.

Over trees and fences, flying hither and yon. It makes no sense. No, we have to

outfit our bee with some sort of tracking device so we can follow it

electronically. Now, unfortunately, the only tracking device we happen to have

on hand is in your nose, so to speak.

In any event, in order for us to do this thing tonight before this bugmonger...

Bug? Meister.

Oh, right. Makes any more trouble.

I've got to get that little bugger out of your head.

Now, just breathe deeply.

It'll all be over before you know it.

Authorities for both the city and federal health organizations continue to

strongly discount theories that suggest the current rash of insect -related

fatalities are in any way connected, despite the fact that all the victims

appear to be in pest control or other environmentally volatile industries.

They want a declaration?

If I'm going to send them a manifesto, here's who I am and here's what I want,

they're going to think I'm an idiot.

Why would I do that?

This is much more elegant.

Let society do the math.

Hmm.

Only those who kill bugs and foul the planet seem to be dying.

What can I do to make sure that I'm not bitten or stung?

Perhaps I should stop killing and polluting.

What did you say?

I know you disagree.

You think it's all too subtle.

Well, you may be right.

It may be that what they need is a dose of pestilence, something on a grand

scale, something to get their attention.

Something to let them know we mean business.

Mr. Wiseman.

You mutilate that bee the way you did me?

How's our little patient doing?

As soon as the anesthesia wears off, we'll roll down the window, throw him

outside, and see where he goes.

As long as you had me on that table, you could have at least done a little eye

work.

He's on the air, and he's heading due north.

He's heading due north, but follow the truck.

See where it takes us.

Let's go home?

I suddenly have a feeling that I messed up here.

What does that mean?

Well, I mean, it's 8 o 'clock at night, and I'm showing up with my mother to say

to a guy that's been nothing but nice to me, Hey, isn't this the guy that came

in the other day and yelled at you? And isn't it a little bit weird that killer

aunt ate him for a midnight snack?

You were right, Uncle Roger. That's crazy.

I don't know what I was thinking.

Can we just go home?

Heather Elizabeth Wiseman, we just drove an hour and 15 minutes through rush

hour traffic because you sensed a connection between the man in the

and a man in the museum.

I know that, but... But this had better be a really good but.

But I just...

I think I was wrong, and I just want to go.

No big deal. I'll just drive you both back to New Rochelle and get

myself a hotel room tomorrow.

Shut that off.

Yes, ma 'am.

I did not drive all the way in here to turn around and drive all the way back

without finding out something about where you've been.

What you've been doing, who you've been doing it with.

Now hear this, young lady. I am going in there and I'm finding me a bug man.

Now you can come with or you can stay here.

But this is me going.

Summer?

Fancy meeting you here. What were the chances of that?

Mom, please don't go in there.

Well, look, we've been through this. I'm not turning around and going home.

I know, but what I'd really like is to go in there by myself.

That's not going to happen. No, Mom, I'm serious.

If you go in there, I'm going to die.

Well, welcome to the club, little girl. You know, you have got me so worked up

about newspapers and bugs and strange men.

I'm actually worried that if you go in there alone, that you are going to die.

Mom, think about that. That's crazy.

But that's what you said. I know, but that's because I'm crazy.

Mom, I mean, he's no killer.

He studies bugs.

And you know what? He looks like he studies bugs.

He's tiny and he's skinny.

man who was nice to me when I felt that nobody else was being nice to me and I

want to say goodbye to him and yeah I know all the stuff I did was stupid and

wrong and I'll never do it again but I want to say goodbye to him by myself you

know like like a grown -up like a sane person

I

am going to press 9 -1 -1

And if he so much as looks at you sideways, you press send.

I'll be waiting in the car.

If you are one second more than 15 minutes, you really cannot imagine just

embarrassing and humiliating I can be or how much physical pain I can inflict.

Don't worry, Mom.

It won't happen.

Start your clock now.

Hold everything.

Our flying friend seems to have stopped.

Sir. I believe the Eagle has landed.

Thank goodness.

Guide us in.

Bringing up kids.

I don't think people are meant to do it alone.

My goodness.

I thought we'd lost you.

Where have you been?

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just was upstairs in the vivarium, and

I didn't see you.

Isn't it late for you to be in the city? It's a school night.

Yeah. I got busted. My mom found out I was cutting school and coming here,

so it's a long story.

What's with the bee?

I think it's been butchered.

What? What are you talking about?

Looks to me like someone's cut it open and sewn it back together.

Why would someone do that?

I don't know.

Put this in your ear and I'll guide you there.

Aren't you afraid?

Of what?

No tracking device.

What, slip your mind?

Just a wise man. Relax.

I know the drill.

You know where my wife and daughter hang their hats. No one's running anywhere.

I appreciate that, Mr. Wiseman.

Don't mention it.

Looks like someone might have put something electronic in it.

Look, um... I'm not going to be here that much longer.

This bee is bugged.

What?

What are you talking about?

Maybe they know.

Maybe who knows what?

Do you even hear me?

Do you even care that I'm here?

Do you have any idea how much trouble I've gotten into

for coming here?

And all I wanted to do was to say goodbye.

One hug and that would have been it.

And everyone would have felt good about it.

What is your problem?

I don't have a problem.

I know my place in the world. It's people with an overblown sense of

that have problems.

They step on people and things, call them mean -spirited names, and then cry

foul when they're bitten or stung.

That man that was in here the other day.

What are you suggesting?

Nothing. I'm not suggesting anything. I really have to go now. Did you tell

anyone about seeing that man in here the other day? No, nobody, I swear.

Heather, did you tell anyone, anyone about who you saw in here the other day?

No! Nobody did. Did you? I swear.

What are you doing here?

Who's this, the older brother?

Come on, Mr. Newman.

Let's get out of here. This guy's crazy.

Mr. Wiseman, who is that you're talking to?

Come on, Mr. Newman. Let's go. My mom's outside. She can give you a ride.

Mr. Wiseman, what's going on?

I don't mean to be rude, but this is museum property. I don't think you're

authorized to be down here.

Oh, that's all right.

I'm with the government.

I hear you need help.

I hear you have a little bit of an insect problem.

The government, huh?

Actually, I do have a bit of a problem.

Some animal has cut open one of my bees and inserted some kind of transmitter

inside him.

You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?

Yeah,

I've run with some bees in my time.

Let me take a look.

You have any hobbies?

Talk about a small world.

You two know each other?

We took a nasty fall together once.

Dr. Martin, we just lost position.

In fact, we just lost everything.

What did you just do?

It's okay.

He was in a lot of discomfort.

Have you ever had a transmitter you didn't want inserted into your body?

me, this is my area.

Besides, it's not like you would have been around to take care of him.

Oh, really?

Where am I going?

Oh, come on. You know where you're going?

We both do.

And they're not going to let you take any of your little friends with you.

It's not like that movie was called Bugman of Alcatraz.

The arrogance.

You build a suspension bridge, you put a few tire tracks on the moon, you come

up with a way to encode a few thousand volumes of knowledge on a computer chip,

and you think it's this profound accomplishment.

You totally, brazenly forget your roots.

One of you paints a church ceiling with big clouds and lightning bolts and a guy

with a beard. Stop everything.

A work of art. That's genius.

But have you ever bothered to look... closely in a spider web or a a rasher of

honeycomb michelangelo the sistine chapel the story of creation ha

makes my blood curdle creation started in the ground in the dirt

in the swamps with them

what the hell is that

what the hell What is that?

I don't know.

Morning there, friend.

Telling me it's time to do something.

They're singers filled with bubonic plague.

You think that will get everybody's attention?

Come on.

It's all right.

What's going on down there?

the situation.

Actually, I think I've made it worse.

We need to seal off the basement skylight that's visible on 78th Street.

We've got a quarter of a million angry bees in here, and we don't want any of

them getting away.

There's already a containment team on the way, Mr. Wiseman.

Wow.

What brings you here?

Oh, me? Nothing much.

Looking for a tracking device, actually.

Tough to come by. Take me ten days to replace.

I heard there might be one in here.

You didn't happen to come across one during your adventures tonight, did you?

Uh, it may have gone buzzing by at some point.

But in all the confusion, it's a shame. I used to have one.

Ten days, huh?

Mm -hmm.

what you're feeling.

Numb.

Does that count as a feeling?

Numb?

Sure. It counts.

But I don't get it.

She came back on time, in one piece. She gave you a kiss and said, thank you,

Mommy. I mean, speaking as a daddy, I think that's hitting the jackpot.

What don't you know? She told you what happened. She gave him the bad news.

He hugged her goodbye.

Now it's over and all you have to do is count your blessings.

Hmm.

Somehow I failed to hear you counting your blessings.

Well, I'm sorry.

There was something about the look on her face when she got back in the car.

Maybe you think there was...

More to the story.

Well, of course there was more to the story, but trust me, it's stuff that you

don't want to know.

And, Lisa, that is... It's nature's plan.

At a certain point, they reach an age at which they don't want to tell you

everything, and that's the way it's meant to be.

Believe me, you reach a certain age, and your heart just won't take it.

You know, it wasn't this way when there were two of us.

She remitted me. She could always go to Michael.

She had an issue with Michael. She could always cuddle up to a good old mom.

Somehow, between the two of us, you know.

Next, on Sci -Fi Crusade.

Every world, every mission, every adventure, from the beginning.

Richard Dean Anderson stars in Stargate SG -1. Tonight, from 7 to 11, on Sci

-Fi.