Borrowed Time

Frank and Emma investigate a number of apparent drownings that occurred on dry land.

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WHEN JORDAN FALLS GRAVELY ILL, FRANK ATTEMPTS TO LINK HER CONDITION TO THE MYSTERIOUS DEMISE OF THREE PEOPLE WHO HAD PREVIOUSLY SURVIVED A BRUSH WITH DEATH.

Inside a hospital, a priest delivers the last rites to an unidentified patient. Meanwhile, a man we will come to know as Samiel makes his way through the hallway of a moving train. He steals a set of keys from a conductor’s station, then makes his way to a compartment holding four passengers, including a little girl Jordan’s age. Samiel uses a key to lock the compartment door. Moments later, the trains wrenches violently and plunges into a river. Back at the hospital, the priest continues his prayer, identifying the patient as Jordan Black.

In flashback, two days earlier… As Frank stops the red Cherokee in front of the elementary school, Jordan complains of not feeling well. Frank promises he will pick her up at school if she still feels under the weather at lunch time. Meanwhile, inside a park, a mother videotapes the strange sight of a middle-aged woman flailing her arms and gasping for breath. As the stricken woman collapses, water streams from her mouth.

Emma and Frank investigate the woman’s death. Frank experiences a vision, one that prompts him to conclude that the woman drowned. However, Emma explains that the victim died on dry land. A coroner finds a large amount of water in her lungs. Moments later, Frank experiences another vision. He sees more water… and still more bodies. He also notices an indent on the victim’s wrist, indicating she wore a watch.

Emma tells Frank that a woman named Lisa Maher also died as a result of the mysterious fluid. It turns out that Maher once suffered from meningoencephalitis, a bacterial infection of the brain which usually proves fatal to adults. Jordan also suffered from the ailment years earlier. Frank discovers that Gertrude Epstein, the woman from the park, miraculously survived a terrible car crash three years earlier. The common link between Epstein and Maher is that both cheated death. Later, Samiel enters a tenement apartment where he approaches a sleeping thirty-five-year-old man. Samiel places his hand over the man’s mouth, causing water to stream out.

Frank and Emma investigate the man’s death. It turns out that Samiel dialed 911 and alerted authorities of the victim’s demise. Frank believes it was an act of compassion. A search of the dead man’s apartment turns up a postcard for meetings at Remain in Light, a near death experience group. Later, Frank picks Jordan up from school when she continues feeling sick. As he walks towards the Cherokee with his daughter, Frank notices Samiel standing under some trees, watching from the shadows. Suddenly, Jordan collapses. Frank rushes her to the hospital, where she is placed in a tub of ice to lower her body temperature. Eventually, Jordan’s condition stabilizes. A doctor tells Frank that Jordan exhibits symptoms of meningitis, but lab tests have ruled out the disease. Frank insists the illness is not a figment of Jordan’s imagination. Moments later, he notices Samiel standing under a large tree two floors below. Frank races outside the hospital, but by the time he reaches the tree, Samiel is gone. Frank finds a woman’s watch hanging on one of the tree branches.

With the assistance of a computer sketch artist, Frank creates a drawing of Samiel’s likeness. Frank tells Emma that the stranger has been stalking Jordan. He also links Jordan’s previous brush with death (when she was diagnosed with meningitis years earlier) with the other three victims. He believes that all four people, including his daughter, have been living on borrowed time. And now, for reasons unknown, Samiel is coming after Jordan. Emma assures him that Jordan’s sickness has nothing to do with the case.

Emma discovers Samiel attending a Remain in Light meeting. She escorts him to Quantico for questioning. Frank suddenly launches himself at Samiel. He warns him to stay away from his daughter and…