Perception – Shadow: Part 1

“Shadow” is episode nine of season one of Perception and Daniel is asking his class what they are afraid of and names some fears. He tells them that what they should really be afraid of is failing this class. And Lewicki slams a book, making them all jump. Daniel explains that fear overrides rational thought. Fight or flight can cause people to act irrationally when in reality there is nothing to worry about. So can the mind be conditioned not to react out of fear?

Lewicki is heading home for his parents’ 30th anniversary and he’s concerned about leaving Daniel. Daniel claims that he can manage one weekend without him. At home, Daniel watches a senator, Ryland, being sworn in and is making sarcastic comments about him. Nat points out that this is the senator that Daniel actually voted for. He says it was the lesser of two evils. Ryland will be yet another Wall Street lackey like everyone in Congress.

Lewicki is on the way out and he finds a hand-delivered letter which he hands to Daniel. Daniel says it’s from a former student of his, Wesley Sumter, reads it and, that night, heads out to the campus for a meeting. Getting a shock when Wesley jumps out in front of him. It’s 2AM and Wesley was concerned people would be listening. He talks about Ryland’s predecessor, Paulson, and how his private jet flew into the side of a mountain. Because, Wesley says, of sabotage by Lesley Crawford, the CEO of an electronics company. Paulson chaired a committee that was going to pass a clean energy bill that would cost Crawford’s company billions.

There was an engineer who died right after the sabotage. The police don’t take Wesley seriously. A reporter did, but he drove his car off the road and died of a broken neck. Daniel suggests that Wesley might be making connections that aren’t really there. He does say he will get Kate to look into it though. Wesley gives Daniel everything he has found out. Then gets an arrow in his eye. Now, that’s unusual. Another nearly hits Daniel.

Kate is at the FBI still with Probert when Daniel calls about a murder on campus. However, there is no body. No faculty or students saw anything and there’s no blood residue. The evidence is simply a collection of newspaper clippings. Reardon knows about Daniel’s condition, and doesn’t consider him a reliable witness. People who see things that aren’t there are naturally a bit suspect as eye witnesses. There are no records of a Wesley Sumter either. Kate asks if it’s possible that Daniel saw something that wasn’t there.

To be continued…