Without a Trace: Fight / Flight (Episode 608)

Sam seems nervous as she approaches a bar in a darkened... bar, asking to speak to a bartender named Brian. She describes him, and the woman currently serving tells her that Brian Donovan, the guy Sam's looking for, quit about a month ago. Sam is awkward and nervous throughout, because she's not really looking for a missing person, she's looking for a missing one night stand.

The real victim of the vanish is currently getting beaten to a pulp in a caged ring. My interest in cage fighting begins and ends with Ryan Atwood's rageful self-vendetta, but I'm stuck with this adrenaline-fueled, muscley hot dude for the remainder of the hour, so I suppose he'll do. He manages to get back on his feet and get the better of his opponent, securing the win for himself. His name is Brett Hendricks, and he Vanishes right from the ring. Danny and Viv are in his locker room shortly afterwards; there's blood on the floor and a fire extinguisher nearby as well. Viv asks if no one saw this happen, but Danny says the janitor only saw the mess and called it in. Brett's trainer, Don Foster, says Brett didn't sustain any huge injuries during the fight, and his opponent is currently hospitalized thanks to the beating he took from Brett. Viv and Danny follow the blood trail to the gym, where a crime scene investigator (hey, Annie!), has found a syringe and bottle of narcotic pain reliever that Danny says can be used as a sedative. Viv says that if you're taking out an extreme fighter, you have to be prepared.

14 Hours Missing. Sam and Jack speak to Brett's sister, who says she doesn't watch his fights because it's too hard for her. She takes issue with Sam's inquiry as to whether Brett may have had altercations outside the ring; she says he's a dedicated athlete skilled at his sport. Jack tells her that's not why he's missing, though. She hesitates and admits that her brother has anger issues. She explains that her parents went through a messy divorce when they were kids, and Brett didn't handle it well. Their mom put him in martial arts classes to give him an outlet for his anger. Jack asks how he's been dealing with his anger lately. She Flashes Back to a confontration with Brett, who's going through her things in search of their mother's ring. He manhandles her a bit as he says that he's in trouble and needs the ring to get out of it; he tells her outright that he doesn't want to hurt her but he will. She saw him the day after, but she was afraid to bring up the incident. Sam asks if she knows what the trouble was about. She adds that Brett also hawked his TV, DVD player, and an autographed picture of his idol, another fighter.

Sam can't believe all the extreme fighter paraphernalia that's amassed at HQ in the last few hours. She asks Elena if she's been living under a rock not to know what this is. Elena gives her some pay-per-view stats, but Sam explains that Brett's personal finances are a wreck. None of the things he's hawked have turned up anywhere, either. She asks about the line of photos Elena has on the Whiteboard of Exposition: they're all other EFF fighters that Brett defeated. Martin arrives to confirm that the blood found at the arena was Brett's, as well as the prints on the syringe. Martin says that he used to "jones" bad for painkillers when he was hooked, and he thinks its likely someone who fights like Brett would do the same.

Viv and Martin talk to Don Foster, Brett's manager, who says that Brett was clean. They show him photos of the possible suspects, but he doesn't think Brett had trouble with any of them. He Flashes Back to a training session he had with Brett, during which Brett was rather sullen and unenthusiastic. Brett did have a confrontation with someone--one Thumper formerly of Veronica Mars--who Brett explains is a fighter trying to break into the pros. Don wasn't impressed, but says the guy's name is Rob.

Elena finds Rob on an EFF forum; Rob offered to get prescriptions for injured fighters and also broke the cardinal rule of the internet, whether you're a criminal or not, which is giving out your address. In a hot minute, Danny and Martin are in Rob's apartment, where the wannabe fighter's passed out on a bed with a needle in his arm.

17 Hours Missing. Viv tells Jack that Brett's blood was on his gym bag, and Rob's prints were on the syringe along with Brett's. Jack thinks it doesn't make sense for Rob to kill Brett then himself, and he's right, because this is a red herring. Viv says these guys aren't exactly stable.

Elena and Danny talk to a pawnshop dealer who dealt with Brett a few days ago. He explains that while Brett pawned the other stuff, he gave the shop owner the autographed photo of his favorite fighter as a gift. Elena starts the trend of Aggressive Agenting this episode by asking how he ended up with this particular prized possession of Brett's. The store owner says Brett's a good guy, and he doesn't want to get him in trouble. He Flashes Back to going to Brett's, when Brett gave him the signed photo. Brett asks for a favor in exchange, saying it's important; he says he has to do something, and if anyone asks where he is, Brett needs the guy to say they were with each other. Elena asks if Brett said what he was doing; he didn't, but he did call the next day to say he was leaving his car somewhere and needed a ride to pick it up.

Sam's using FBI resources to track down her sperm donor. She clicks through a series of pictures before she finds him, and he's the guy she was in bed with the night her sister went missing. When Martin approaches, she flips the pad she's been writing on and blacks out her computer screen. Hm.

Martin tells her that Rob probably didn't OD, since the lethal dose of the narcotic in his arm and that was found at Brett's Vanishing Venue is so high, it's impossible he gave it to himself. Sam wonders if Brett could have staged his own Vanish and made it look like Rob nabbed him and then OD'd. Martin rightly thinks this is a little elaborate, but Sam thinks maybe it was worth whatever Brett wanted to get away from.

Danny, Jack, and someone who is Not Lucy go over security footage of the place that Brett left his car. He also apparently jacked someone else's, as the video shows someone pulling up to a gas pump and someone fitting Brett's physical description getting into the car to drive it away. Which is why you always pocket your keys at the pump. Danny has an APB on the car.

It belongs to someone named Kara, who Martin questions about why she didn't file a police report when the car was stolen. She says she was drinking, and with a DUI already on her record, she didn't want to get caught. She IDs a photo of Brett, who she seems surprised is missing. She's a cage girl at his gym, and she talks to him sometimes before fights. She says she saw him the night before, and before that they hadn't talked for a week. In Flash Back, they seem friends; Kara tries to ask him what's okay, but he's stoically reserved for a moment. He admits that he's trying to figure out why he fights. She tells him she never met anyone who bothered to ask. He tells her he got a letter from a guy who beat the crap out of him when he was a kid, and who wants to talk to him. Brett seems rattled and sad, asking what if the reason he fights is because he enjoys being strong enough to kick someone else's ass and not be a victim anymore. Martin asks if she knows anything else about the letter-writer, but Kara doesn't.

Viv and Elena check out Kara's APB'd car. In the trunk, Elena finds a cache of guns.

20 Hours Missing. Via cell, Elena tells Martin that the guns in Kara's car are confirmed stolen, and she has a call into ATF regarding Kara's possible gun-smuggling past. She wonders why Brett's stealing guns, and if he needs the money, why the guns are still in the trunk. They go back and forth about whether the guns belong to Kara or Brett; Martin thinks he'd have a better idea if he hadn't let Kara go. He adds her photo to the suspect line up on the White Board of Exposition.

Brett's sister, Sarah, can't believe Brett would steal guns. She doesn't recognize a photo of Kara. Sam asks about who from Brett's childhood would have contacted him. Sarah Flashes Back to an inane, lamely written conversation she had with her brother shortly after their parents' divorce. He has a wicked bruise on his arm that he explains is from some bully at school. Sarah thinks it's her mother's boyfriend; Brett is defensive and angry about it, wishing he'd never told Sarah. She tells Sam that their dad figured it out, and Brett didn't trust her for a long time after she told the truth. Their dad thought it was due to a one-time confrontation with a bully; Sarah thinks it was the boyfriend. She gives Sam the boyfriend's name, and says that if Brett was getting beat up regularly by someone, it's no wonder he turned into a rageaholic, violent fighter.

Martin's tracked down the boyfriend, who's dead. He does have a son, however, who has just gotten out of prison after a ten year sentence. Brett called the cops after the guy admitted to a crime in front of him, and in prison, the son converted to Islam. At 22 Hours Missing, Jack and Viv have the son in questioning. He says he only wanted to talk to Brett, and when they saw each other, they had a misunderstanding. He says he doesn't blame Brett anymore for helping put him in prison; he may have in the past, but he's a different person now. Viv asks about the misunderstanding. In Flash Back, he remembers Brett throwing him up against a wall, and Brett Flashes Back to getting the crap beaten out of him by a much bigger boy when he was small himself. His eyes are furious as he says that he should kill this guy for what he did to him as a kid. But this converted bully says he's just come back to thank Brett for helping him change his life in prison and to help him change as well. Brett says it's not that simple. Back at HQ, Brett's Bully says that Brett told him his troubles and needed help; he says that Brett had stolen guns from someone who had been his friend, Don Foster. And Don's picture goes up with the others on the White Board.

Sam hasn't been able to track Don down yet, but Elena's discovered that he used to fight for another trainer, Long, who worked gun shows in New York state years ago. There's a complicated chain between Don and the seller Long that goes something like this: Don schedules a fight for Brett somewhere he can sell to Long, and Kara tags along as the middle man. Elena takes a call only to find out that Kara and Don were picked up trying to leave the country.

Martin sits down with Kara again. He works a hard line, asking why she didn't share everything about her relationship with Don the first time he spoke to her. He says he know she helps Don run guns in exchange for his paying down her $40,000 of debt. She plays dumb when Martin asks her if she turned in Brett to Don for stealing her car full of guns.

Danny questions Don, who says he didn't touch Brett at all. When Danny tries to get at him by saying Brett was sleeping with Don's girlfriend Kara, Don lawyers up. Jack tells Martin, via cell, and Martin uses the call to spook Kara. He tells her Don's saying she killed Brett and dumped the body, and he'll give them information in exchange for a deal. She denies it, but she won't tell Martin anything more than she would never hurt Brett. Martin leaves, all, your loss. In the hall, Jack tells Martin to keep working at her. Martin says she's terrified of Don, so if they make her feel safe, they can crack her. Jack tells him to take Kara to the break room and get her some coffee.

In the other interview room, Danny tells Don that the agent with him is ATF, and they're transferring him. Danny walks Don past Kara and Martin in the break room, totally playing her. Kara asks what's happening, since he was going to cut a deal. Martin's like, eh, yeah, but if you tell us we can bust him on gun charges, maybe it goes the other way. Danny loads Don in the elevator, asking Jack what to do with him. Jack doesn't care so much, just waves to Don as the elevator doors close. Kara still wants to know what's going to happen to him, though; Martin says that with the right jury, he'll get 10 to 15. He says that if she's honest with him, he might be able to help her out. She admits that she didn't want to help with Don's gun-running anymore, but he threatened to kill her. She didn't want to get Brett involved, either; after Brett told her about his mystery letter, she confessed the whole gun-running operation and how she wanted to get out. Brett worked out a plan for her to get a fake ID and some money so she could start over where Don couldn't find her. Brett stole the car with the guns in it as a diversion to give Kara time to run away, but she chickened out. Brett's back up plan was a syringe full of the narcotic painkiller, just enough to subdue Don and get him to let Kara out of her obligation to him without any further violence. This is the dumbest plan ever. In Flash Back, Kara visits Brett in the locker room after her car's been "stolen," and she as much as tells Brett he can't talk Don out of his whole operation. She goes so far as to ask why he doesn't just kill Don. Brett says he can't: things are different now. The bell rings for his fight, and he tells Kara to go. She asks why he's helping her, and he says simply that what Don is doing is wrong, and Kara doesn't deserve it. Kara tells Martin she wanted to say all this earlier, but she was scared. After, she went looking for Brett and found Don, who took some enjoyment in telling her What Really Happened.

What Really Happened is Don confronting Brett over whether he's sleeping with Kara or not. Brett can't believe this, since he trusted Don and Don turned out to be a gun-running creep who threatens women with violent death if they don't help him. Brett tells Don to stay away from him and Kara. Don says he's willing to cut Brett in on the dough, which his is start up cash for a gym, but first they have to shut Kara up. Brett rushes Don with his dope-filled syringe. Don manages to get Brett in a headlock and jam the needle into Brett's arm. He pushes his fighter to the ground and bludgeons him with the fire extinguisher. This is officially one of the stupider, poorly plotted disappearances to end in death I've seen on this show. For shame, show that has made me cry before. You can do better than this slapdash thing. Kara tells Martin that she was threatened with the same fate as Brett, and she only tried to leave the country with him because she was so afraid Don would kill her the way he killed Brett and Rob. Brett was a good guy who just wanted to help, she says. She tells him where to find Brett's body. When Martin finally gets there, Brett's in a cobwebby corner of the abandoned building, his eyes cold, staring, and dead. Martin Flashes Back to Brett being the victim of violence, and enacting violence, and trying to put an end to the cycle.

Sam knocks on Brian the Sperm Donor's door. He opens the door, shirtless, but doesn't let her in or step out until she says she works for the FBI. In the hall, he says now isn't a good time. She tells him it can't wait, and quickly tells him she's pregnant and he's the father. She's totally sure about it. He stutters a few moments, and Sam is impatient and cold after dropping this particular bomb on him. She hands him a piece of paper that waives all his rights and absolves him of any obligations to the child at all. He's rightly rather, "whoa, slow down there, Nelly," needing time to catch up. He wants to talk about this, but Sam says there's nothing to talk about. When Brian's girlfriend/wife steps into the hall, she seems downright shocked, despite the whole shirtless, not a good time attitude. She leaves, saying she'll be in touch. interesting.