FBI: Most Wanted – Hairtrigger

By: Mary Watkins

We meet Doug Timmins (Charlie Tahan) as he is rear ended by a drunk driver. As he is talking to the guy who hit his car and trying to get is trunk to close, a police officer shows up. Immediately you can see Doug is irritated with the cop. He reference cops never being around when you need them. The cop takes the drunk driver and puts him in the back of his cruiser. The cop then comes around to Doug’s trunk and starts going through it. This seems to make Doug angrier with the cop and he starts shouting about legal searches and the cops tell him he needs to see his i.d. As the cop turns around to say something to Doug, he shoots the cop. Doug shoots and kills the cop then goes to the drunk in the back of the cop car and shoots and kills him. Talk about opening up with a bang.

Next we see Jess (Julian McMahon) and his team watching the footage of the shooting from the cops’ body cam. They are analyzing the information and discussing why Doug would have shot the cop like that. While looking at footage Jess tells Crosby (Kellan Lutz) to freeze on the trunk. When he does we see there is a green jersey that wasn’t in the trunk when they had gone through it. The jersey belongs to the school that Doug attended in high school.  We go on to learn that the school Doug had attended had a major school shooting when he was just sixteen years old. We learn that when the shooting had happened the cops had waited to go into the school to find the shooter until they had more information. This is why Doug hates cops. Had they just rushed in then maybe more people would have been saved.

During the shooting he and another guy named Spencer had hid in the closet and Spencer had been shot. Doug had taken his finger and put it in the wound to help the bleeding until help arrived. This is when Jess and his team learn that Spencer and Doug had become friends after that and Spencer had developed chronic pain disorder. Because of the pain Spencer had become addicted to pain killers and has recently died from an overdose. This is what caused Doug’s dramatic downfall. Now that Spencer was gone Doug had even more reason to hate the U.S. government. In Doug’s mind if the U.S. government would make legislation for gun reform then none of this would have happened. He also believes the government allows things like mass shooting to scare young people. With the death of his friend, Doug has completely snapped and blames the government.

As the show progresses on we find out that Doug has two other friends that he has been working with on trying to get back at the government. When one of those friends decides to not be involved Doug shoots and kills him. He goes on with the other guy named Mike (Jonathan Judge-Russo) to his house. They have lots of weapons and are clearly planning an attack of some sort. Mike’s wife is in the kitchen and is talking to Doug about things when Mike enters. He grabs his wife and tells her it’s time for bed. The next time we see Doug he is texting someone on his phone about feeling alone and that person is telling him he isn’t alone.

It isn’t long until Jess and his team find out about Mike and his home. They surround the place where they arrest Mike and his wife. By the time they find out where Doug was hiding out on the property he is gone. Doug, the weapons and the van are all missing but the plans for what Mike and Doug were going to do remain. This leaves Jess and his team concerned because now they don’t know what he plans to do next. After Jess and his team does some more research they find out that Doug has a sister named Molly (Jess Gabor). Doug has raised her and home-schooled her after the shootings. She now is a college student and works at a casino. This is where Doug and Mike had met. Jess talks with Molly about her brother and right away you can tell she is not being honest about their relationship.

So Jess and the team devise a strategy to catch both Molly and Doug in a plan to harm government officials. There is an event being held at the casino Molly works at and the FBI believes this is where the attack will happen. The team is in the surveillance office watching Molly’s every move when they see her dip in the bathroom but she never comes out. Jess is talking to the manager about where she could be when Crosby says that she was seen the week before taking food to the fifteenth floor. The manager tells the team that is impossible because that floor is closed right now for renovations. So, the team heads to the fifteenth floor and starts searching the rooms. In a room we find Molly and Doug talking about what they are going to do. Doug tells Molly to leave and he will do this on his own, but Molly disagrees and tells him that she will stay.

As Doug is in position to start shooting, Jess and his team barges in and starts telling them to freeze. Doug drops the rifle and pulls a handgun out of his pants and holds it to his head. He starts telling them that he must die for the cause so everyone will hear what he is trying to say about the government and gun violence. Jess orders everyone to lower their weapons and he starts talking to Doug. Jess tells Doug that no one would hear what he was trying to say if he dies. Molly is screaming at Doug to kill himself. She is saying that Jess is lying and that Doug has to do this for the cause. Jess and Molly keep going back and forth with Doug. Jess is trying to stop him from killing himself and Molly is trying to convince him to go ahead with it. It starts to look like Doug is going to listen to Jess, but then Molly begins telling him that he has to do it for Spencer, so all the people like Spencer has a voice and so his death isn’t in vain. Just as Doug is about to pull the trigger Jess lunges forward and sticks his hand in the hammer keeping the gun from going off. He then subdues Doug as the other members of the team take Molly down. Doug is crying and telling Molly he is sorry. Molly simply responds to him that he screwed up.

The team ends this case and goes home. We next see Jess standing waiting on his daughter to give of the school bus. As all these kids are getting off we are not seeing Tali (YaYa Gosselin) and we can see the growing concern on Jess’s face. Finally Tali jumps off the bus and sees her dad. He asks her what took so long and she explains she was helping clean up pop off the isle. They go walking holding hands as she tells Jess about her day. Another day is done.