"Comings And Goings, Part 3"

Episode 302
(aired the week of 10/4/1998)
Case # 75-1718

Log line: The O.S.I.R. team investigates when a past member of the O.S.I.R. group is given up for dead after disappearing into the Arch, and then suddenly reappears at a hospital.

Synopsis: Following a memorial service for Hendricks, who is believed dead after vanishing into the apportation device known as the Arch, the OSIR team members receive an anonymous phone call informing them that Hendricks is at a nearby hospital. Praeger and Axon rush to the hospital, where they find Hendricks unconscious and on a ventilator. The physician in attendance, Dr. Eric Thomas, tells them that their friend is suffering from an oxygen deficiency that may have been caused by being suspended without movement for a long period of time. He also tells them that no one saw how Hendricks got to the hospital. The hospital's security cameras cannot help either; their tapes have disappeared.

Going through Hendricks' personal effects, Praeger and Axon find part of a communications device their colleague was wearing when he vanished into the Arch in pursuit of his wife and daughter, who were apparently killed in a car wreck 12 years earlier. With no clues as to how Hendricks reappeared, they decide to try to find the anonymous phone caller, whose call had been recorded by the OSIR. Axon analyses the recording and concludes that the caller was Rollins, who had previously worked with Axon on the Arch case. He confronts Rollins, who tells him he had to help Hendricks anonymously because he was contradicting direct orders by doing so. As a result, Praeger and Axon begin to suspect that Elsinger may have his hand in the whole affair.

Back at the hospital, Davison is frustrated by Dr. Thomas in her attempts to help Hendricks. After stealing a blood sample, she determines that Hendricks' blood is delivering carbon monoxide to his lungs instead of carbon dioxide. In effect, he's being poisoned by his own blood and will likely die within a week. She decides to try an experimental procedure, injecting him with a powerful oxygent. In the meantime, Hendricks is slipping in and out of consciousness, mumbling about his wife and daughter and asking that he be returned to the Arch so he can rescue them.

Suspecting a link between the Arch and the car crash years before, Praeger visits Elsinger, demanding information about the original investigation into the accident. Elsinger confesses that he himself was the original case manager. He tells Praeger that he recently recreated the crash site and, using Axon's research into the Arch, managed to reactivate the wreck as a receiver for the apportation device. After doing so, Hendricks and his wife Catherine reappeared in the car with their daughter Nicole. Nicole didn't survive the apportation.

Catherine is reunited with her husband in the hospital, where Hendricks has slipped into a coma. Dr. Davison's experimental treatment is a success, however, and he regains consciousness. After he fully recovers, Hendricks and his wife return to the crash site and bid a touching farewell to their daughter.

Starring:
Matt Frewer - Case Manager Matt Praeger
Barclay Hope - Peter Axon
Nancy Anne Sakovich - Lindsay Donner
Colin Fox - Dr. Anton Hendricks
Soo Garay - Dr. Claire Davison
Nigel Bennett - Frank Elsinger
Dan Aykroyd - Host

Guest Stars:
Maurice Dean Wint - Curtis Rollins
Anthony Sherwood - Dr. Eric Thomas
Catherine Blythe - Catherine Hendricks
Leila Johnson - Nicole Hendricks

Written by: Tracey Forbes
Directed by: John Bell