Flashpoint in a Flash: Season 2 - Episode 7: Perfect Storm:

Another high school drama! Go after the jump to read our summary!


The SRU is trying to find a teenager (Billy) facing his bully frantically through a high school. The teenager has a gun, and asks the bully to say the mean name he calls him, over and over. He fires a shot, and Ed pounds his fists in anger. Rewind! 3 hours earlier... A high school art class is let out for the day. A girl (Ella) walks up to a timid redheaded boy (Billy), and admires his beautiful painting. He doesn’t know what the map he has painted is about. At the top is a lone character which is probably his representation of himself. They walk through the halls, and the Ella hugs her boyfriend... someone who the timid guy doesn’t like. Ed is driving his son to school, and Greg is with them as well. As he drops off Clark, Greg comments he is lucky as he doesn’t have to deal with unappreciative teenagers. At the school’s field, Ella tries to stop her boyfriend , Scott, from teasing Billy. A fight breaks out, and it’s recorded on someone’s cell phone. Billy is forced to say he is gay and that he is a piece of garbage. Billy is visibly disturbed and shaken, and it’s put up on youtube for everyone to see. Ella walks with her boyfriend as Billy cries among the piles of garbage surrounding him. Billy goes home to his alcoholic father, who asks for a beer, which he ignores. Billy steaks a gun from his father’s bedroom and goes back to school. At SRU HQ, Jules visits Sam. Sam went to Mexico, and visited his own dad after some years. He was offered a way back into the army, but he said no because he felt he made more of a difference with the SRU. He also revealed to Jules that it was hard to tell his mom that they had broken up. Billy goes back to school, and is the lone person in the hall. He enters a large theater, looking for his bully, and he shoots a couple students who try to tell him to go away. Roll Opening! At SRU HQ, they talk about training for a training competition coming up at the SRU, when they are called to the scene. Jules is ready to get back in action! They arrive at the high school, set up their command, and enter in the school under lockdown. The students don’t know what is going on and some think it’s a drill. Command post is set up in the principal’s office. They can’t figure out who the suspect is. Wordy ushers some system into a clear classroom and puts them under lockdown. Ed and Wordy go out to look for victims. Scott and Ella are waiting by the pool, and she breaks up with him. She is mad at Scott for beating up Billy, and Scott is jealous that Billy is helping her with school. Ed and Wordy arrive at the theater, and tend to the two injured kids. They administer first aid to the boy who is conscious, and take the unconscious one out to safety. Ed asks them to go through the yearbook to see if they can recognize the shooter. Spike jams the cell phone banter to try to figure out who he is. Jules thinks the cafeteria is too open, and the SRU goes to evacuate there. We see a shot of the school from the outside - two students are running in one direction, and on the floor above, Billy runs in the other direction. Jules and Sam find one student and rescue him to safety. Ella and Scott are wandering the halls, while Billy is lurking in the equipment room. He finds Scott’s schedule to find where he is headed. Billy is on the hunt for Scott. Scott and Ella have nowhere to hide while the school is under lockdown! Commercials! The SRU hears of gunshots from the gym, and the kids now know this isn’t a drill. They know who the shooter is now. Sam and Jules enter the cafeteria looking for students. Sam spots some students and leads them to safety outside the school. Ella and Scott are still running through the school and they end up in the art room. Ella looks at Billy’s picture again, saying his name. The SRU learns that Billy has a tough life at home, and not just at school. A girl comes forward and tells the SRU what happened, and shows them the video of Billy being beat up on the grounds. One of the officers is told to leave so that the SRU doesn’t put him in trouble for what his son did. Billy looks around for Tony. He finds Tony in a classroom, the one who uploaded the video. He is holding Tony at gunpoint. Tony is fearing for his life as Billy asks him to say his nickname again, and forces him at gunpoint to walk with him. Another girl watches from the end of the hall. The SRU is on the hunt looking for him. Ella and Scott are hiding in the equipment room where they are having a hard time calling for help. Ed and Wordy just miss Billy. Tony apologizes to Billy, but Billy doesn’t take it. We hear a gunshot, and see Ed slam his fists in anger. The SRU tries to figure out where the gunfire came from. Ella finally gets through to the SRU and tells them about Billy. The officer who was told to go away because of his son comes back in the school trying to find is son, when he is sent the video of his own son being shot. He rushes to go find him. Ed and Wordy continue to scour the halls. Ella says Billy is a good person and he wouldn’t hurt anyone, and wishes she could have done something to help. The officer runs through the halls screaming his son’s name to no avail. Billy enters the art room. The SRU heads to the art room. Ella decides to be brave and start talking to Billy to stop this. Billy looks at his painting as he talks to Ella. He feels his painting is nothing and it doesn’t work. The SRU closes in on the room. All Billy wanted was for someone to care and for someone to apologize. He doesn’t know what he is doing. Ella tells him everyone is scared, and reveals that she broke up with Scott. She says Scott is afraid of him because he is so much smarter than him. Ella’s speech here is so convincing about how she wishes she could take everything back and do more to help Billy. She’s acting like a miniature Greg! She convinces him to put the gun down on the table. But then Scott makes a sound, and Billy is ready to shoot. The SRU storms in asking where Tony is. Just as they make progress , the officer rushes in and shoots Billy. What a twist! Commercial! Billy is hurt, but still breathing. Kevin apprehends the officer, thinking his son is dead, but then his son talks to him and he learns he is okay. All Billy wanted was for Tony to say he was sorry, which he did. Greg gives a stern talk to the officer. The montage begins. Billy is wheeled into the ambulance, Scott cries in the art room, Ed thinks to himself about his son, the students are rescued and set free from the theater, and Greg talks to Ella telling her she did everything right. Ella hugs Greg and he tells her that Billy is going to be okay because she was there. Sam tells Jules a simple welcome back. Greg is in the briefing room thinking to himself, as he suddenly goes to his locker in a fit of rage tearing it apart. He misses his son. Ed tells him he can’t keep doing this to himself. The episode ends. The song in this one was “Open Your Eyes” by TraceNine.

I think at least on the Canadian end of things at the end a short announcement about Kids Help Phone by the cast would have been a good complement to this episode. Bullying has gotten a lot harsher especially in the last 5 years and the writers did a great job in bringing this issue to light in this episode. It is wrong for schoolyard fights to be uploaded for all the world to see! Here’s hoping next season Greg makes it to Texas and has the courage to see his son.