Once Michael takes his leave -- making sure to lock the gate behind him -- Sam runs up and tries to see if there's any way to force his way out. No dice -- "Everything in the Psych Ward is locked down," one of the young lady patients volunteers. Man, if only there were a seven-foot Indian around to throw the sink through a window -- that'd solve everyone's problems. Anyhow, the young lady identifies herself as Erica Phillipe, a New York Post reporter. Ah, so the Post finally faced up to the hard truths about its staff, huh? No, no -- she says she's here undercover to research the mistreatment of Psych Ward patients for an upcoming story. Anyhow, she's got the 411 on Michael -- he visits Johnny daily, bringing him board games to try and get some reaction out of him. Then she starts babbling uncontrollably about nonsense. Yup -- that's pretty much a New York Post reporter all right.

Later, during that same hostage standoff, Sam is still probing the barred windows of the psych ward, looking for a vulnerability when he happens to overhear the blare of the ward's TV set. It's tuned to one of those horribly cheesy '70s soap operas -- The Days of All My Children or As the General Hospital Turns or whatever that nonsense is called -- and Sam would love to ignore it, except that the dialogue is about some guy in a coma. Oh, and his interest is further piqued when the actress playing the bereaved girlfriend of Coma Guy bears more than a passing resemblance to Maya. "The best thing you can do for him is just let him go," the TV doctor declares. TV Maya sobs to Coma Guy and Sam tries to talk back to her through the TV. The Psych Ward patients think that's a real hoot -- well, not Johnny H. A single tear runs down his cheek. Perhaps he doesn't like Lisa Bonet's performance, either.

Time to have a word with Dr. Schwan. Sam demands to know why he told Michael that he could fix Johnny when it's quite clear that there's no do-overs in lobotomies. "Because [Michael] is as strong as an ox and as dumb as one and he had a bomb," Dr. Schwan replies. You had me at ox, doc. Dr. Schwan goes on to say that he had no other choice than to remove that chunk of Johnny's brain. "Johnny was hallucinating," Dr. Schwan protests. "He was hearing voices. Do you have any idea what that's like?" Sam looks around guiltily as if to say, "Well, if it means you're going to hack out part of my brain, then no." Dr. Schwan also couldn't help noticing Sam chatting up Erica earlier. "Did she say she was an actress researching a role or a newspaper reporter?" the good doctor sneers. No, it turns out that Erica is as mentally ill as the other patients -- she thought KGB agents had infiltrated her home, so she set it on fire, killing her entire family. I would, again, like to point out that this does not necessarily preclude her from a career at the Post. "Delusional psychosis, detective," Dr. Schwan continues. "One can seem normal, then one succumbs to fantasy. Time travel. Parallel dimensions. Thinking the voice on the radio or TV is speaking to you.... For Erica and people like Erica, there is no happy ending, detective." That's cutting Sam a little close to the knuckle. Better take a commercial break so we can all sort this head trip out.