| Diagnosis: Jimmy | Credits | Gallery | Transcript |
"Diagnosis: Jimmy" is the ninth episode of the first season of The Lone Gunmen.
Synopsis[]
While recovering in a hospital, Jimmy begins to suspect that his doctor is a wanted killer.
Summary[]
On the US-Canadian border at Mount Redoubt, Washington, the Lone Gunmen sit in their van buried under the snow. Richard Langly complains about the cold while John Fitzgerald Byers seems quite content with the current temperature. Outside a few miles away, Melvin Frohike reports on the poacher passing him by and heading towards Jimmy Bond. Jimmy Bond, concealed within the trees, is taking pictures of the two Asian men standing by a snow mobile near the Canadian border.
Jimmy Bond passes out in the snow after hitting a tree.
They seem to be the buyers but when the poacher nears Jimmy Bond's location he veers off away from the waiting men. Although the rest of the Lone Gunmen seem to think that the poacher noticed the hiding Jimmy, he believes something else is going on since the man didn't notice him. He skis after the man and finds him exchanging goods with another person, a mysterious figure covered up in all black winter clothes.
While snapping off some photos of the trade, Bond collides with a tree and falls flat on his back in the snow, just barely conscious. The figure in all black arrives by him and opens up his camera to expose all the photos Jimmy had taken. Then they ski away, leaving him to slip into unconsciousness sprawled in the snow.
Jimmy Bond awakens to Doctor Bromberg testing Jimmy's eyes with his flashlight in the St. Jude's Hospital in Bellingham, Washington. He asks where he is which Bromberg has heard before given Jimmy's concussion. He tells Bond that his leg will heal up well and sends in Bond's visitors as he leaves.
Byers, Langly, and Frohike are visiting Jimmy when Nurse Marilyn arrives.
Langly, Byers, and Frohike arrive with flowers and a box of chocolates and attempt to learn if Bond can remember anything that happened on the mountain. They attempt to refresh his memory by bringing up Walter Stukas, survivalist, ex-con, and poacher. Stukas traps and kills the threatened Grizzly Bears to sell their gall bladders through the Triad gangs to China where they are worth vast sums of money. The Lone Gunmen's goal was to catch them in the act for their newspaper and in the process gather enough evidence for the police to arrest the Triads and Stukas.
Unfortunately, Jimmy Bond just can't remember. The Lone Gunmen depart at the arrival Nurse Marilyn who fawns over Jimmy. He considers how he could refresh his lost memory of what happened oblivious to Nurse Marilyn's attraction to him as she gives him a shot in his posterior.
Nurse: “Nothing. Now what else can I do for you? Sponge bath maybe. What is that you want?”
Jimmy: “Cotton balls. Lots and lots of cotton balls.”
The Lone Gunmen spend a long time watching Stukas' compound.
Back in the van, now staking out Stukas’ cabin, the Lone Gunmen wait for something useful. Byers sees Stukas hang a fresh bear skin over a line.
“Somebody ought to shoot and skin him.”
Langly wonders why Byers is taking this story so personally but Byers avoids the question.
In the hospital, Jimmy Bond watches America's Most Wanted, hearing John Walsh describe a fugitive doctor named Richard Millikan who poisoned some of his patients on the operating table, perhaps to act as the hero when saving them from the poison he gave them. A new patient is wheeled in next to Jimmy and this old man, Dimsdale, keeps switching to Fox News. Nurse Marilyn apologizes for the old man's behavior and gives Bond a massive box of supplies that he asked for. He explains that he intends to reconstruct the events of his accident through a model of the crime. After Marilyn leaves, Jimmy hears one last thing about Millikan: That he had a sweet tooth.
Dr. Bromberg performs surgery and his patient suffers complications not long after he finishes and scrubs out. He removes a lollipop from his locker while over in the operating room, his surgical team calls in a code for the seizing patient, Mr. Keever.
The next morning, Nurse Marilyn checks on Jimmy Bond who has made quite a complex diorama. She is bothered that no one checked on Jimmy last night and mentions that they were busy with the problems of Mr. Keever. Dimsdale, through the curtain, barks about how a patient undergoing knee surgery dying is more than a problem. Marilyn leaves to get something for Jimmy and Yves Adele Harlow comes in to see him.
She claims to be there to see Jimmy but he doesn't believe that she came all the way out to Washington state just to see him after his injury. Nonetheless with enough convincing Yves makes him think she was concerned
Jimmy gets out of bed, destroying his great diorama.
about him which makes Nurse Marilyn jealous and her kindly treatment fades instantaneously.
The Lone Gunmen observe the delivery of a package to the survivalist Stukas after a bit of paranoia that Stukas may have been firing upon them.
As Bond records his thoughts on the events on the mountain while fiddling with the diorama, Dimsdale keeps insulting him through the curtain, demanding peace and quiet. Jimmy has had enough of Dimsdale's crap and tries to get up, despite the broken leg, to fight the old man. He rolls out of bed and hurts himself badly when he lands on his leg. Dimsdale comes over and stands over him, enjoying seeing Jimmy hurt. When Nurse Marilyn and Dr. Bromberg come in, Dimsdale pretends to have beaten up the
Dr. Bromberg and Nurse Marilyn rush to the fallen Jimmy Bond while Dimsdale stands over them.
fallen Bond. They help him and a lollipop falls out of Bromberg's pocket as he does so. Jimmy notices this and asks about Bromberg having a sweet tooth and says he's sorry Bromberg lost a patient.
Byers, Frohike, and Langly learn the package sent to the poacher is definitely from the buyers, Shiny Health Medical Group from Shanghai, China. They are called by Jimmy who relates his suspicion that his doctor is the one from America's Most Wanted while failing to remember what happened on the hill.
“What proof do you have?”
“I got this.” (Holds up a lollipop.)
“You’re on the phone, Jimmy.”
The evidence of the man also having a sweet tooth fails to convince them of anything for obvious reasons. He sets out in a wheelchair to find more credible proof and learns from a chart that Dimsdale is Bromberg's next surgical patient.
Dimsdale has an argument with Marilyn and Bromberg about his patient form which he finally completes though he leaves off any next of kin. The moment they leave, Jimmy Bond brings up his fear that Bromberg is the fugitive doctor Millikan, citing the sweet tooth and his having been at the current hospital about the same time as Millikan fleeing Colorado. Dimsdale tells him to call the police but Bond admits there isn't enough real evidence to do that yet.
Back in the van near the compound, the Lone Gunmen discuss their need to lure Stukas out of his home long enough for them to get inside and check the package he received from his buyers. Byers crusading zeal for this story once again surfaces and this time he reveals why it is important to him: As a child he had loved the TV show Gentle Ben but when his family encountered a rogue male Grizzly Bear in the wild the fantasy of a pet bear was shattered. Park rangers had been forced to shoot the rogue bear dead.
“He wouldn’t leave, so the park rangers had to shoot him. And afterwards, I remember looking at him lying there and I realized, once he was gone there would be no more like him.”
Elsewhere, Jimmy attempts to convince Yves of the plot to kill Mr. Dimsdale by Bromberg but she doesn't believe him and neither does Dimsdale. Nurse Marilyn comes in with Dimsdale's son but Dimsdale hates his son and tells him to go away.
Langly using the bear skin to create a diversion.
Langly puts on the bearskin and pretends to be a bear to lure away Stukas. It works so Byers, watching over the operation from the camouflaged van, lets Frohike know he can break into the compound. Langly gets stuck in a bear trap (but not seriously) while Frohike scours the home for the express mail pouch's contents. Outside, Stukas finds the bearskin and a pair of ski pants in one of his traps so he searches the woods for the man trespassing on his land. Frohike gets caught in a leg hold booby trap in the house after searching high and low for whatever was in the package. It is Langly, hiding near
Frohike caught in a leg trap.
Stukas, who notices the document sticking out of the man's back pocket. Subtly, he slips out from behind his tree stump hiding place long enough to grab the document. Stukas heads back inside and only misses Frohike because Frohike has been swinging back and forth long enough to build up the momentum to reach the ceiling and hold tight to a deer's antlers on one of the many trophies of the house. Stukas, noticing the message is gone, heads back to search, allowing Frohike to fall and flee after the antlers break. When Dimsdale is taken out of the room for surgery, Jimmy Bond tries to stop it. He goes out into the hallway and accuses Bromberg of being the ‘Denver Doctor of Death’ in front of many patients and staff, pointing out the details he has learned. He pulls off the man's toupee as Yves arrives at
Jimmy Bond accuses Bromberg of being the 'Denver Doctor of Death.'
this embarrassing moment with news that Bromberg isn't a murderer. Bromberg explains that he has Alopecia and lost all the hair on his body and the last year he was a volunteer surgeon in Africa. Proven wrong, Jimmy starts to apologize but falls over, breaking the cast on his leg. Bromberg knows they need to perform surgery and talks with his bemused anesthetist.
The Lone Gunmen arrive at the warehouse mentioned in the letter they obtained from Stukas. Byers indicates a high vantage point where they can record the exchange from when it goes down two hours later.
Frohike, Byers, and Langly arrive at the poacher's warehouse meeting place.
Yves Adele Harlow sees Jimmy wheeled off to surgery as she has to deflect a barb from Nurse Marilyn. Dimsdale and Bond speak in the prep room about Dimsdale's son. He accurately describes Dimsdale's irritating behavior as coming from fear. That Dimsdale is afraid of the surgery and of dying alone. He thinks the man should reconnect with his son but Dimsdale hates his son because he is a wealthy stock broker, the kind of scum ruining the United States.
“He’s what’s wrong with this country. He’s a greed monger, sticking it to the little guy. What kind of self-respecting union man would even want to talk to a guy like that?”
“One who doesn’t want to die alone.”
Stukas threatens Byers with the skinning knife.
Yves Adele Harlow, waiting for the elevator, overhears an update to the ‘Denver Doctor of Death’ story. A funeral worker recognized Millikan as one of their John Does. Police realized that the missing doctor was just another victim of the real murderer who used common anaesthetic. At the exchange, Byers realizes they need to get their faces recorded so he gets closer to them. One of the Triad thugs catches him and Stukas interrogates him about his identity and whether or not he is
Stukas and Triad gangsters arrested by police SWAT team.
alone. Byers lies about being alone and also lies about the whole warehouse being wired for sound and the police waiting outside. Only he isn't wrong about that. From his perspective it was a lie. Police storm the warehouse arresting the Triad members and Stukas, just before he could kill Byers. Dr. Greg Belluci, the anaesthetist, taunts Jimmy Bond as he sinks into unconsciousness, but Jimmy wakes up with Yves Adele Harlow and the Lone Gunmen over him. He remembers that Yves was the other skier on the slope that day and they explain she was working on a sting of her own, sending police to arrest the poachers at the
Dimsdale says goodbye to Jimmy and his friends.
warehouse. Furthermore, she saved his life because Belluci tried to kill him. The doctor of death was there but he was focused on the wrong doctor; Belluci’s method was to murder people while framing another doctor for the crimes and then skipping town. He was now in custody just like the bear organ ring members.
Jimmy is happy Yves saved his life and thinks it means she really, really likes him. Dimsdale mocks this a bit but ultimately tells Jimmy to take care of himself as he leaves the hospital with his son.
Background Information[]
- This episode's title is a reference to the television series Diagnosis Murder.
- In The Lone Gunmen series, this episode is the fifth of six whose titles include the name of an individual main character from the series. The others are "Bond, Jimmy Bond", "Eine Kleine Frohike", "Planet of the Frohikes", "Maximum Byers", and "All About Yves".
Cast[]
Starring
- Bruce Harwood as John Fitzgerald Byers
- Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike
- Dean Haglund as Richard Langly
- Stephen Snedden as Jimmy Bond
- Zuleikha Robinson as Yves Adele Harlow
Guest Starring
- Bill Macy as Mr. Dimsdale
- John Walsh as Himself
- Shawn Batten as Nurse Marilyn
- Richard Fitzpatrick as Walter Stukas
- Michael Puttonen as Dr. Bromberg
Co-Starring
- Robin Mossley as Dr. Belluci
Featuring
- Robert Bruce as Resident Surgeon
- Rob Freeman as Mr. Dimsdale's Son
- David Glyn-Jones as Mr. Keever
- Andrea Kinsky as Scrub Nurse
- D. Neil Mark as Officer
References[]
SEMICOLON-SEPARATED LIST OF ITEMS/LOCATIONS REFERENCED IN EPISODE (BUT NOT LINKED TO IF ALREADY LINKED IN SUMMARY OR GUEST STARS SECTIONS)