As Election Day nears, CBS’s procedural drama FBI: Most Wanted took on the issue of hydraulic fracturing (AKA fracking) and CO2 pipelines, but even though the ecoterrorists were the bad guys, the vibe was sympathetic to their cause if not their violent methods of protest.
The episode, “White Buffalo,” starts with two young friends, Trevor (Bubba Weiler) and Emma (Eddy Grace), destroying art in a museum as Emma shouts, “The temperature of the earth is increasing day by day by day!” A scuffle ensues with a security guard and Trevor accidentally shoots another guard dead with the first guard’s gun.
The two escape and the FBI team learns they’re part of an environmentalist group called Global Climate Front. Further investigation leads Remy (Dylan McDermott) and Nina (Shantel VanSanten) to discover Emma is an oil heiress. They deduce Emma must likely be “trying to repay some karmic debt.”
Meanwhile, an accomplice arrives to assist Trevor and Emma, and the FBI team interview a leader of the Global Climate Front:
Trevor: Tori?
Tori: Yeah, yeah, get in.
Trevor: All right, that's her. We'll be fine. 'Cause if you come with me, Em, you'll be in the fight of your life, not just for me, but for all life. Or you can go back to the life that your father gave you... The one subsidized by the rape and murder of our planet.
Emma: I'm coming with you.
Norbert: I mean, look, we want people to pay attention to global warming, to decrease the output of greenhouse gases so that our kids might have a chance at clean air and a summer where the temperature isn't over a hundred 14 days in a row. But we do not believe in communicating our message with violence. It's in our charter.
Hana: Yeah, we'll be taking this laptop.
Remy: Have Trevor and Emma ever been violent in the past?
Norbert: No. But Trevor has a temper. Emma's way more easygoing.
Remy: So, she's following his lead here?
Hana: When was the last time you spoke to Emma or Trevor?
Norbert: This morning before all hell broke loose.
Remy: You planned for this chaos, to deface the artwork with pig blood. Any other stunts we should know about, Norbert?
Norbert: The vote next week to save the polar bears up in Alaska. We're considering a sit-in at the senator's house.
Hana: Just a sit-in?
Norbert: Yes.
When the trio arrives at Tori’s (Ellen Tamaki) farmhouse, Tori claims fracking poisoned her water, gave her a thyroid problem, killed her mother, and made her entire town sick:
Tori: I know it’s not much but, uh, this is where I grew up. Me and my mayma, may she rest in peace.
Emma: I'm sorry for your loss, Tori.
Tori: She'd been sick for years. Um, everyone around these parts has been. I've had a thyroid problem my whole life.
Trevor: God, what is it, this disgusting water?
Tori: It's gotta be. We're on the Marcellus Shale deposit, so oil companies have been fracking this area for years. They just bleed us dry, get us sick, and then leave. That's why I wanna help you guys. I really believe in what you're doing. And I really think you didn't mean to shoot that guard.
Emma: Thanks. I'm really glad you're on our team. I believe in you too.
Trevor: Was one of the companies that fracked here Henstep Gas and Oil?
Tori: Yeah, how'd you know?
Trevor: Just saw one of their tanker trucks go by. See, there goes another one.
Tori: You know, I've been noticing them the past couple of days, but I don't know where they're going because all the wells around here are closed.
Trevor explains that Henstep is building a CO2 pipeline. “It's supposedly a good thing,” he says, “but the reason it's taken so long is this stuff is totally dangerous and bad for the environment.”
There are very strict safety standards for CO2 pipelines, which provide invaluable benefits: cleaner air, enhanced economic development, job creation, support of domestic energy production, and many more . Of course, the writers didn’t mention any of that.
The FBI team reviews an aerial photo of Tori’s farm and notes it’s on Marcellus Shale, leading Remy to remark, “That land’s been fracked within an inch of its life.” The terrorist trio hijacks a Henstep tanker after Trevor kills the driver and they wreak a ton of havoc as they try to escape.
They release the truck’s 6,000 gallons of carbon dioxide outside an apple orchard filled with families, which depletes oxygen making it difficult to breathe. As the FBI works to shut down the gas and save the affected victims, Remy confronts a higher-up at Henstep. He’s painted as a heartless, money-hungry man, though he makes several valid points:
Elliot: Do you know how long it took us to get that thing up and running? Seven years. I'm not shutting it down now based on a hunch.
Remy: It's more than a hunch. We know our two fugitives are targeting your pipeline.
Elliot: Where?
Remy: Don't know yet.
Elliot: It's over 70 miles long, Agent Scott, except for the part over near Everett that's still under construction.
Remy: Is that why you're still using tanker trucks?
Elliot: It's just temporary till we finish. We're really doing the residents here a favor with our carbon capture.
Remy: What, are you getting some kind of tax break for all this?
Elliot: Damn right. It's called a 45Q. And after all the money we've invested, I need this pipeline to be operational before the whole company goes under.
Remy: You know what happens if they blow that pipeline, right? Lots of people will die.
Elliot: My hands are really tied here.
Remy: Where are your priorities, man? If you don't shut that pipeline down… you think Exxon Valdez was bad?
Elliot: Exxon survived significant challenges, and so will we. Look, I'll get these photos over to our security team and make sure everyone's aware of the threat. I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna be intimidated about a bunch of pissant ecoterrorists.
Remy: Show me the map of the pipeline.
Elliot: What?
Remy: I'm done playing with you! Show me the map!
As Emma and Trevor hide out in a barn (Tori got left behind at the apple orchard), the two “pledge allegiance to the planet and to the destruction of companies who rape and murder her”:
Emma: A white Buffalo was born at Yellowstone.
Trevor: A white Buffalo?
Emma: Yeah, it's a sign that the Earth is at a crossroads.
Trevor: What is that, some kind of Dancing with Wolves thing? Like, Tatanka, Tatanka.
Emma: It's Lakota. Jeez. It's a sign that there's hope, but that more must be done to protect the Earth.
Trevor: Huh. Well, then I'd say that this white Buffalo is right on time. Look at how much we've accomplished so far.
Emma: Two people are dead because of us.
Trevor: They brought attention to us, to our mission. We're all over the news. Everyone's talking about us. Don't you see how great that is? How else are we gonna change the world? Save the world. You see it, right? Violence is the answer. Why else was that baby white Buffalo born today, right now, if not a sign that we are on the right path?
Emma: Yeah, I guess so.
Trevor: Emma, do you pledge allegiance to our planet, to the destruction of companies who rape and murder her?
Emma: I do.
Trevor: I do too. Emma. Now that we have the world's attention, let's show them how dangerous these pipelines really are.
Emma: How?
Trevor: You remember what that warning on the truck visor said? "Danger: If heated, might explode."
Trevor discovers Henstep is illegally fracking with CO2. Which doesn’t really make any sense, but okay. He sets fire to the pipeline as the FBI team arrives, and a dramatic plea is made to Emma to surrender so she can stay alive to help fight for the planet. Emma proclaims, “The earth is doomed,” but eventually surrenders:
Trevor: Whatever happens, this has been fun.
Emma: Fun?
Remy: Release the hostage and surrender.
Emma: No, don't shoot me, please.
Remy: Then let him go.
Emma: Please don't shoot me.
Hostage: Listen to him, Emma.
Remy: Ray, Hana, handle the fire.
Emma: What are you doing?
Remy: I'll ask the same of you. This is an innocent man here. Killing him is not gonna save the planet.
Emma: At least his death will be linked to me, to what I believe in, that these pipelines, the drilling, the fracking is causing our planet to burn up.
Remy: I'm just as worried about all this as you are, Emma.
Emma: Your generation has left a mess for mine. Trevor's dead. What else do I have to live for? Even that little white Buffalo, the sign of a better time to come, it died! The Earth is doomed!
Nina: If you really believed that you wouldn't be fighting so hard to save it. Emma, you can do a lot more alive than you can dead. Look, I know your family made its money in oil, but you can carve out a different identity for yourself.
Emma: No.
Nina: Yes, you can. Away from your father, away from it all. You can put an end to oil wells like this. Violence isn't the answer. Just hand me the gun. It's over. Come on.
Remy: You're under arrest for domestic terrorism and accomplice to murder. Let's go, Patty Hearst.
We can read between the lines, FBI: Most Wanted. We see your not-so-hidden anti-fracking agenda. We’re supposed to believe the fracking claims that have been debunked and feel sad this girl was driven to extremes because of the “evil” she had to live with as an oil heiress.
We’re not buying it, and neither are the viewers who are educated enough to understand the many benefits of fracking, including increasing America’s energy independence, creating jobs, lowering energy costs, and boosting local economies, just to name a few.
If Hollywood resorts to lies and omitting facts to promote their agenda, it becomes pretty obvious they’re on the wrong side of the debate.
