The Cape Episode 1.07 The Lich, Part 1

A strange man - Preston Holloway - approaches a clerk at a truck rental facility, seeking a truck with a spraying attachment. When she runs his driver's license, the records show that Holloway's dead. Before she can confront him, he takes a mysterious powder and blows it into her face. She keels over, unconscious.

Rollo and Max take Vince to a cemetery. They want to know who stole the deceased body of a girl Rollo was recently dating. Examining the broken gravesite, Vince declares the woman dug herself out. They get a call; the dead girl - Janet Peck - has been found.

Portman takes a clandestine meeting with Orwell. He's trying to stop Fleming from buying the port and turning it into his own narco-terrorist weigh-station. He shows a document that could thwart Fleming: a birth certificate for a long-since vanished heir of Palm City's founding family. If the heir is alive, he would be the rightful owner of the land that Fleming wants to annex from the city. Find him and they could stop Fleming, Portman tells Orwell.

Vince, Rollo and Max find Janet. Rollo wonders if she's a zombie but Max deduces she's been drugged with a neurotoxin. Janet is babbling about The Lich - a name Vince recognizes from police files that revolve around strange, unexplained kidnappings and murders. Ruvi is brought in to help bring Janet back from wherever her mind now resides.

Under hypnosis, Janet talks of being taken to the South Shore Station. Vince, Rollo and Max head there immediately. The underground tunnels are covered in strange writing but before they can investigate further, a truck comes barreling towards them out of the darkness.

The truck hits Rollo but he escapes with his life. They continue to investigate the station and find plans to use the trucks to spray neurotoxins into the crowds at tomorrow's Founder's Day parade. The Lich wants to turn the citizens of Palm City into his own terrorist zombies.

A nurse named Netta contacts Orwell from a convalescent home called The Orchard; she explains that the missing port heir, Conrad Chandler, is staying under an assumed name. Posing as a reporter, Orwell visits Conrad. But the enfeebled heir is too invalid and frightened to leave the confines of the home where he's been kept since childhood.

Vince contacts Marty and asks him to stop the parade. Marty relays the threat to Fleming, who goes ballistic when he finds out The Cape has made the request. Once Marty has gone, Fleming confronts his alter-ego Chess, who urges him to let everyone die.

Back at The Orchard, Orwell continues trying to convince Conrad that he's the same port heir who went missing as a baby - and that he's potentially a very rich man. He already hates Fleming for dismantling everything his rich father created. But Conrad suffers from spinal degeneration, bad vision and tremors and he says that's holding him back.

Vince is investigating the death of Henry Dawson - an unsolved murder from years ago that was in the Lich file. Dawson was the estate lawyer for Conrad's rich family. The phone rings. It's Marty. They've found the truck that's being prepped for the deadly mission to poison Palm City.

The Cape approaches the truck warily but it's a trap and within seconds he is surrounded by armed ARK guards. Overpowered and handcuffed, The Cape is bundled into the back of Marty's car to be taken directly to Fleming.

In the privacy of his car, Marty lets The Cape un-cuff himself. Together they go to the parade storage area. The Lich has changed his plans and is now planning to spray the toxin from the floats.

While examining the floats, Preston Holloway - the dead man from the truck rental facility - steps forward with his henchmen. Holloway threatens Marty with the neurotoxin-laced powder. But before he can blow it in Marty's face, The Cape stops him.

Holloway and his men square off against The Cape and Marty. At one point the powder is almost blown into The Cape's face but he narrowly avoids it. Eventually, he overpowers Holloway and his men. Subdued, Holloway smiles, saying, "He has arisen."

Back at The Orchard, Conrad stands. He's not an invalid after all. In fact he's the one who "has arisen." Conrad reveals he's been behind everything - that he's the Lich. In fact, it's been his drugs that have been controlling everyone who works at the Orchard including Holloway who's the medical director. Conrad pulls off his face mask, revealing a hideously disfigured face underneath.

The Lich and Nurse Netta overpower Orwell and blow the neurotoxin into her face. She collapses. She's his now. To be continued…