Zero Sum – As the fourth episode of The Irrational begins, Alec Mercer (Jesse L. Martin) tells Kylie (Travina Springer) that she has missed messages including one about a meeting starting now. Kylie doesn’t seem worried in the least and argues that time is a construct. Alec asks about the emergency texts and calls he has noticed lately. Kylie insists only 1% are real security threats. The others are PEBKAC or “Problems Exist Between Keyboard and Chair”. Alec has a book signing today. While he is signing books, a man comes up to him to say his daughter is missing and he needs his help. Keith Moore (Jerod Haynes) begins telling Alec more about Veronica (Rhinnan Payne).

The police don’t care because it hasn’t been 24 hours. Keith is adamant that his daughter wouldn’t run away. He believes Alec is his best hope for finding his daughter. Alec agrees to help him free of charge. They meet Tara Moore (Wonser De-Gbon). Alec is shown a video of Veronica getting into a vehicle that her parents can’t identify. He believes Veronica wasn’t sure whether she wanted to get into the car based on her movements. Veronica’s parents show him her sketchbook. Someone calls using a concealed voice to say they have Veronica. They want $2.7 million. Veronica is also heard during the call. The parents are told they have 48 hours.

Tara confesses that they don’t have that kind of money. Alec questions why they’d kidnap someone whose family obviously can’t afford the ransom. Marisa Clark (Maahra Hill) tells Jace Richards (Brian King) that she has been digging into the dry cleaning van and contacted the owner’s daughter. She is bringing her kids to DC in a few weeks so they’re going to meet. Alec contacts Marisa because they need to talk. Phoebe (Molly Kunz) interrupts Rizwan (Arash DeMaxi) to tell him that Alec has an emergency. Rizwan is going to teach Psych 30 this afternoon. As for Phoebe, she is going to be researching kidnappers. Marisa arrives and tells Veronica’s parents that kidnappings are an FBI specialty.

She promises they’ll get Veronica back. One of the parents will need to come back so they can tap their cell phones. When a car pulls up outside, Marisa says they’re not her agents. Ted Akehurst (Vincent Gale) and Trey (Ben Cockell) are outside. Tara tells Keith that she had to call him because he can help. They’re introduced to Rose Dinshaw (Karen David) who is from VSC. She is an expert on corporate security and crisis management. Alec studies their behavior to realize that Tara and Ted had an affair. Although it was ended, it still causes tension between Tara and Keith. Trey tells his dad that is messed up even for him. Keith confirms that Veronica is his daughter since he checked.

Trey says Veronica may not be his sister, but she is still family. He asks Keith to let them help. Later, Rose tries to convince Keith to minimize FBI involvement and let her firm handle it. Marisa argues that Rose’s skills aren’t going to translate here. Alec says the $2.7 million ransom is reasonable if the kidnapper knows about Ted’s concern. He wants to know who knew about the affair. Keith says Veronica knew because she heard him and Tara talking about it. He knows that Veronica told Corey Gibson (Alec Carlos) who was her ex-boyfriend. She dumped him because he was dealing party drugs. Alec suggests they can set up a drug deal. Rizwan tries to teach Alec’s class. Alec and Rose wait for the dealer while the police watch in the background.

Corey uses a drone to find the cops hiding in the woods so he leaves without speaking to Alec and Rose. Alec and Rose chase him. They manage to stop him a short time later. Rizwan is worried about his performance in the classroom. When Kylie arrives, she learns that he only got a 1-star rating. Phoebe confirms she just sent the research Alec was expecting. Alec wants Rizwan to handle the lecture again this afternoon. Marisa asks Corey if he is ready to talk yet. He warns her that he can afford a good lawyer. He thinks she should let him go to avoid a lawsuit. Marisa says no one has seen Veronica since Corey picked her up at her house. Either he did something to her or he is their best hope of finding her alive.

Corey thought she wanted to get back together when she called, but she only wanted money. He just told her how he felt upset and used. By the end of it, she apologized to him. She texted someone for a ride and left his place. Corey denies knowing who she went with. He explains that she asked for 200 Gs. It was for the New England School of Design which is some fancy private art college. Her family couldn’t get aid and her father wouldn’t let her take out student loans. Corey refused to help her too. Rose suggests to Alec that Veronica might’ve kidnapped herself because she is in desperate need of money. Alec is convinced Corey still cares about Veronica so he is likely telling the truth. Jace interrupts the interview to say the father just got a call from the kidnapper.

Keith receives a video call from his daughter. Veronica is supposed to say he knows about the FBI so Keith has to stop working with them. He wants the money by sunrise tomorrow. If they don’t follow his rules, he is going to kill her. The call ends abruptly. During a group meeting, Rose pitches her theory that Veronica kidnapped herself. Alec says Veronica’s eyes kept looking to one side so he suspects she was looking at a gun. Ted says Veronica could’ve asked for money since he always supported her. Keith gets upset so Alec takes him out of the room to calm down. Alec asks if anyone else feels like that about Ted. Keith says anyone who has ever met him. Kylie finds out that Ted is bad before showing Alec a list of people who hate him.

She will check the databases at her job to see if Ted screwed anyone out of $2.7 million since that is a specific amount. Kylie reveals that she has three jobs and it is normal for techies today. Rizwan apologizes to Alec for tanking his lecture. Alec admits he expected that because Phoebe’s first big lecture was atrocious. He urges Rizwan to learn from the experience. Kylie interrupts to say she found out that Ted founded a company to develop micro-solar panels, but the startup had a high burn rate. He went looking for a capital infusion to the tune of $2.5 million. His investors are going to lose their shirts if he doesn’t get it. Alec notices that the startup belongs to Theodore Akehurst III. It belonged to his son Trey instead.

Alec suspects Ted is willing to give Veronica whatever she wants but he won’t do the same for his son. He asks Rizwan to pull up every study they’ve done on zero-sum bias. Alec calls Rose to tell her not to do the exchange because Trey is the kidnapper. During a group meeting, Rose explains she had to think fast so she said she’d found tracking chips hidden in the money. She asked the kidnapper to reschedule the drop. They have until midnight now. Marisa pulled Trey’s cell records and his phone has been going on and offline for the past two days. The downtimes match the ransom calls. Alec says $2.7 million is what Trey needs for his business and what Veronica needs for school. They discuss whether Trey came up with the idea and thought Veronica would go along with it.

Alec begins telling everyone about zero-sum bias. Meanwhile, Rizwan does a lecture on the same topic. He connects with the students this time. Alec believes Trey thinks Veronica stole his father’s love. They try to figure out where Trey would’ve taken her. Rose did some preliminary security workups on his company that included a vacant factory in Sheraton. After Alec calls, Rose called Ted and told him they suspect Trey. Now, his phone is going straight to voicemail. Alec says they need to reach the factory before Trey does. Veronica pleads with Trey to let her go. Ted enters and asks his son what he is doing. Alec comes in later and tells Trey he just came to talk. He tries to use absurdism to try to get Trey to correct him and ground himself in reality.

Alec tells Trey his options. He reminds Trey that he wants his father’s love and thought Veronica stole it from him. Alec says Ted hired Rose when he thought Veronica was in trouble. When he thought Trey was in trouble, he came himself. Trey confesses to shooting his father but says he didn’t mean to do any of this. Alec pleads with him to put the gun down so he doesn’t lose his father’s love forever. Once Trey puts the gun down, Veronica is released and Ted is taken out in an ambulance. Rose offers to buy Alec a fancy dinner to celebrate. Jace congratulates Marisa before telling her that Wes Banning has finally agreed to speak to her. Phoebe reads the ratings to Rizwan who learns he is doing better. He thanks her for her help and admits he wasn’t expecting it.

Keith brings Alec a gift later. Alec gives him a signed book in exchange for it. Keith believes he has to let Veronica make her own mistakes now. He is glad Alec called out the affair because it helps them remember where they went wrong and where they went right. Keith questions why Alec and Agent Clark didn’t have kids. Alec says the whole endeavor seemed entirely irrational. Although having Veronica derailed their lives, Keith wouldn’t trade her for the world. At home, Alec learns that Kylie quit her jobs so she’ll have time to figure things out. Marisa visits Wes (Ben Cotton) because he is ready to make a full confession. Wes admits to bombing the Methodist Church in April 2002. He says there was a big boom and then fire. He likes fire. When asked if he worked alone, Wes says yes.

Marisa questions why he’d admit to this now when he gets a chance to walk free. Wes claims he found religion and doesn’t want to sin again. Marisa was at the hearing and believes someone walked in that caused him to change his story. He laughs at the idea of a dangerous mystery man. Marisa wonders if the mystery man drove the stolen FedEx van that he used to get away. Wes says he drove the stolen FedEx van. Marisa argues he would’ve known it wasn’t a FedEx van if he’d been at the church. She says he might’ve made the bomb but he didn’t plant it. Wes asks the guards to get him out of there.

 

The Irrational Review

The fourth episode of The Irrational was okay but impacted by the same issues as its predecessors. Despite the script, Jesse Martin does a good job with the role. It doesn’t really seem like the character has been given a lot of room to develop and shine though. Instead, Alec Mercer and the others are one-dimensional so it can be difficult to genuinely care about them.

Phoebe and Rizwan seem like filler characters at least in this episode since they didn’t add a lot to the story. There is rarely any struggle for Alec and that was the case here. He says a few magic words and the bad guys just eat right out of the palm of his hand. That makes the whole thing unbelievable and a bit corny.

The story surrounding the bombing and Wes interlinks the episodes to try to keep viewer interest from week to week. That aspect of the show is only marginally interesting. Despite these issues, The Irrational is watchable so it’ll be a good way to kill an hour every week if viewers don’t expect too much. One thing I found odd about this episode was some of the cast since Rhinnan Payne and Ben Cockell are both in Goosebumps.

It is odd to see that so close together. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Irrational are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here. Discuss The Irrational and other television shows on the Reel Mockery Forum.