Harvest (Numb3rs)
Encyclopedia
"Harvest" is the 14th episode of the second season of the American television show Numb3rs
. Inspired by a Christian Science Monitor article about organ tourists, people who travel to a different country in order to donate their organs for money, and an algorithm
developed in the United States
, the episode features Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) agents and mathematician
s attempting to locate a missing organ tourist before she is killed.
After airing in the United States on CBS
on January 27, 2006, the episode received mixed reviews. Critics enjoyed it while the medical community was concerned about the impact that the episode would have on organ donation
s. "Harvest" has inspired two academic case studies in which viewers were more likely to donate their organs after watching the episode. The episode also has won one award and has been nominated for another award.
(Navi Rawat
) is presented with a prestigious mathematics
award, FBI Special Agents Don Eppes
(Rob Morrow
) and David Sinclair
(Alimi Ballard
) respond to a disturbance call from a hotel and find a young Indian woman (Noureen DeWulf
) cowering in a blood-stained basement. Back at the office, she refuses to talk to anyone until Amita, wondering why the woman was there, asks to see the woman. The woman then tells Amita that her name is Santi and that she and her sister, Prita (Azita Ghanizada), came to the United States from Chennai
, India
, as organ tourists, selling their kidneys to earn money for their families. Dr. Charlie Eppes
(David Krumholtz
) and Dr. Larry Fleinhardt
(Peter MacNicol
) determine the time of another victim's death as earlier in the day.
Following tips from the bread delivery man (P.J. Brown) and from the Los Angeles Police Department
(LAPD), FBI Special Agent Megan Reeves (Diane Farr
) goes to the hospital to see if Santi's sister is there. She learns that a young Indian woman had been in the morgue for a couple of days, dead from complications involving the removal of one of her kidneys. When Megan and Amita show Santi the picture of the dead woman, Santi tells them that she was a friend of theirs, Sonali, who was a fellow organ tourist. Santi also tells the women that there was another missing friend, Jaya. While following up on the lead about the ambulance, David and FBI Special Agent Colby Granger
(Dylan Bruno
) chase the ambulance that was spotted at the hospital by the bread delivery man. The ambulance crashes, killing the driver. Charlie and Larry use the driver's log to determine that the ambulance driver returned to the hospital during off-hours. At the hospital's morgue, the team finds Jaya dead and learns that a doctor had been behind the black-market organ transplant
s.
Charlie, Amita, and Larry use Santi's blood (providing a familiar match to Prita's human leukocyte antigen
(HLA) type) and an organ-matching database to find the most likely person to receive Prita's organs. Upon finding a link to a recipient who had paid to procure Prita's organs on the black market, Don and the team track Prita and the doctor to another hotel, where they rescue Prita just before the doctor began surgery. The sisters are reunited. Amita decides to use her money from her prize to finance the sisters' education and to take a trip to India with her grandmother, since the case has inspired her to learn about her heritage. Don and Charlie become organ donors. During the case, Don learns that his and Charlie's father Alan Eppes
(Judd Hirsch
) had a friend who needed a transplant and could not find a match. Alan's story about his friend inspires Don to make the decision to become an organ donor. During a discussion about the need for organ donors at the dinner table, Charlie decides to become an organ donor also.
series writer J. David Harden to write an episode about organ tourists. Harden contacted the Hollywood, Health & Society program to learn more about the need for organ donation
s and the process of organ matching. He initially encountered resistance to the idea of a storyline about organ donations due to the medical
community's assumption that misinformation about organ transplants could lead to increased public resistance to organ donations.
Harden also incorporated Dorry Segev and Summer Gentry’s algorithm
for matching transplant donors and recipients. In developing their algorithm, Gentry, a United States Naval Academy
applied mathematician
, and Segev, a Johns Hopkins University
transplant surgeon, sought an improvement over the Top Trading Cycles and Chains (TTCC) algorithm, an algorithm developed by economists Alvin Roth
, Tayfun Sonmez, and Utku Unver used to match kidney recipients with living organ donors who have different blood types from the recipients. TTCC was used to make the best possible matches during organ exchanges, a process where transplant recipient and organ donors would exchange healthy organs. To decrease the risk of organ rejection, the TTCC algorithm required a large number of organ donors and transplant recipients. The large number of people required by the algorithm was unrealistic. Using a modified version of Jack Edmonds
’ computational complexity
algorithm, Gentry and Segev discovered that their algorithm could be used to create a national organ donor registry.
, called the episode Rawat's "best exposure". Opinions from the medical community were more mixed. Although he found the message about organ donations "positive", Kevin B. O'Reilly of the American Medical Association
's MedNews called "Harvest" "a mixed bag". Other medical experts disliked the storyline of black market organ donations in the United States. On the other hand, Joyce Somsak of the Health Resources and Services Administration
stated that "Harvest" was "really good".
The episode inspired a couple of academic case studies. The first was a George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services
case study about the effects of television writers consulting medical professionals on the storyline of a television episode. Participants in a survey conducted by the University of Southern California
and Purdue University
felt that a black market for organs existed and that a person's place on the organ priority list can be influenced by money or fame. They, as a result of "Harvest", also were more likely to become organ donors or to consider doing so. The second case study was about TV's influence on the discussion of organ donations. Participants in a Hollywood Health & Society online survey were also more likely to believe in the existence of black-market organ trafficking and were more likely to donate organs after watching "Harvest". They also were more likely to see the importance of organ donations.
"Harvest" has won one award and been nominated for a second. It won the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication's Norman Lear Center
2006 Sentinel for Health Award in the primetime drama category, winning over two episodes of Grey's Anatomy
and one episode of Without a Trace
. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
nominated Jim Vickers' work on "Harvest" for a Creative Arts Emmy for "Outstanding Stunt Coordination", but the episode lost to an episode of E-Ring
.
NUMB3RS
Numb3rs is an American television drama which premiered on CBS on January 23, 2005, and concluded on March 12, 2010. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes...
. Inspired by a Christian Science Monitor article about organ tourists, people who travel to a different country in order to donate their organs for money, and an algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
developed in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the episode features Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) agents and mathematician
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
s attempting to locate a missing organ tourist before she is killed.
After airing in the United States on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
on January 27, 2006, the episode received mixed reviews. Critics enjoyed it while the medical community was concerned about the impact that the episode would have on organ donation
Organ donation
Organ donation is the donation of biological tissue or an organ of the human body, from a living or dead person to a living recipient in need of a transplantation. Transplantable organs and tissues are removed in a surgical procedure following a determination, based on the donor's medical and...
s. "Harvest" has inspired two academic case studies in which viewers were more likely to donate their organs after watching the episode. The episode also has won one award and has been nominated for another award.
Plot summary
On the same night that Dr. Amita RamanujanAmita Ramanujan
Amita Ramanujan is a fictional character from the TV series Numb3rs. Over the course of the series, she has become a professor at CalSci and has since become romantically involved with her former thesis advisor, Dr. Charlie Eppes . First introduced in "Pilot", the character of Amita has received...
(Navi Rawat
Navi Rawat
Navi Rawat is an American television actress, known for her roles as Theresa Diaz on the drama series The O.C. and math prodigy Amita Ramanujan on the drama series Numb3rs. She is the niece of Prem Rawat....
) is presented with a prestigious mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
award, FBI Special Agents Don Eppes
Don Eppes
Don Eppes is the main fictional character in the television show Numb3rs. He is played by Rob Morrow.Don is an FBI Special Agent who runs the FBI Violent Crimes Squad in Los Angeles. Don recruits his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes, to help him and the Bureau solve some of their most...
(Rob Morrow
Rob Morrow
Robert Alan "Rob" Morrow is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Don Eppes on Numb3rs and as Dr. Joel Fleischman on Northern Exposure, a role which garnered him three Golden Globes and two Emmy Award nominations for "Best Actor in a Dramatic Series."-Personal life:Morrow was born in...
) and David Sinclair
David Sinclair (Numb3rs)
David Sinclair is a fictitious FBI agent in the TV show Numb3rs. First introduced in the Pilot episode, he has become the usual partner of FBI Special Agent Colby Granger and has also become the primary relief supervisor for the Supervisor of the FBI Violent Crimes division, Don Eppes...
(Alimi Ballard
Alimi Ballard
Alimi Ballard is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as FBI agent David Sinclair on the CBS drama television series Numb3rs....
) respond to a disturbance call from a hotel and find a young Indian woman (Noureen DeWulf
Noureen DeWulf
Noureen DeWulf is an Indian American actress. She is best known for her roles in films like West Bank Story, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and The Back-Up Plan.-Early life:...
) cowering in a blood-stained basement. Back at the office, she refuses to talk to anyone until Amita, wondering why the woman was there, asks to see the woman. The woman then tells Amita that her name is Santi and that she and her sister, Prita (Azita Ghanizada), came to the United States from Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, as organ tourists, selling their kidneys to earn money for their families. Dr. Charlie Eppes
Charlie Eppes
Charles Edward "Charlie" Eppes, PhD is a fictional character and protagonist in the CBS crime drama Numb3rs.Dr...
(David Krumholtz
David Krumholtz
David Krumholtz is an American actor best known for playing Professor Charlie Eppes in the television series Numb3rs. He appeared as Seth Goldstein in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its two sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas...
) and Dr. Larry Fleinhardt
Larry Fleinhardt
Larry Fleinhardt PhD is a fictional character in the television show Numb3rs, played by Peter MacNicol.Dr. Lawrence Fleinhardt is a professor of physics at CalSci and best friend and colleague of Charlie Eppes...
(Peter MacNicol
Peter MacNicol
Peter MacNicol is an American actor. He may be best known in films for his roles of Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II, Stingo in Sophie's Choice, Thomas Renfield in Dracula: Dead and Loving It and David Langley in Bean...
) determine the time of another victim's death as earlier in the day.
Following tips from the bread delivery man (P.J. Brown) and from the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
(LAPD), FBI Special Agent Megan Reeves (Diane Farr
Diane Farr
Diane Farr is an American actress. She is known for her roles as FBI agent Megan Reeves in the CBS television series Numb3rs and Laura Miles on Rescue Me.-Life and career:...
) goes to the hospital to see if Santi's sister is there. She learns that a young Indian woman had been in the morgue for a couple of days, dead from complications involving the removal of one of her kidneys. When Megan and Amita show Santi the picture of the dead woman, Santi tells them that she was a friend of theirs, Sonali, who was a fellow organ tourist. Santi also tells the women that there was another missing friend, Jaya. While following up on the lead about the ambulance, David and FBI Special Agent Colby Granger
Colby Granger
Colby Granger is a fictitious FBI agent on the American television show Numb3rs. First introduced during the second season, he has become a part of the team led by FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and is usually partnered with David Sinclair...
(Dylan Bruno
Dylan Bruno
Dylan Bruno is an American actor and former model. He portrayed FBI agent Colby Granger in the CBS series Numb3rs.-Personal life:...
) chase the ambulance that was spotted at the hospital by the bread delivery man. The ambulance crashes, killing the driver. Charlie and Larry use the driver's log to determine that the ambulance driver returned to the hospital during off-hours. At the hospital's morgue, the team finds Jaya dead and learns that a doctor had been behind the black-market organ transplant
Organ transplant
Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
s.
Charlie, Amita, and Larry use Santi's blood (providing a familiar match to Prita's human leukocyte antigen
Human leukocyte antigen
The human leukocyte antigen system is the name of the major histocompatibility complex in humans. The super locus contains a large number of genes related to immune system function in humans. This group of genes resides on chromosome 6, and encodes cell-surface antigen-presenting proteins and...
(HLA) type) and an organ-matching database to find the most likely person to receive Prita's organs. Upon finding a link to a recipient who had paid to procure Prita's organs on the black market, Don and the team track Prita and the doctor to another hotel, where they rescue Prita just before the doctor began surgery. The sisters are reunited. Amita decides to use her money from her prize to finance the sisters' education and to take a trip to India with her grandmother, since the case has inspired her to learn about her heritage. Don and Charlie become organ donors. During the case, Don learns that his and Charlie's father Alan Eppes
Alan Eppes
Alan Eppes is a fictional character on the television show Numb3rs, played by Judd Hirsch. Alan is the father of the main characters, brothers Charlie and Don Eppes...
(Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...
) had a friend who needed a transplant and could not find a match. Alan's story about his friend inspires Don to make the decision to become an organ donor. During a discussion about the need for organ donors at the dinner table, Charlie decides to become an organ donor also.
Origin
An article in the Christian Science Monitor inspired Numb3rsNUMB3RS
Numb3rs is an American television drama which premiered on CBS on January 23, 2005, and concluded on March 12, 2010. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes...
series writer J. David Harden to write an episode about organ tourists. Harden contacted the Hollywood, Health & Society program to learn more about the need for organ donation
Organ donation
Organ donation is the donation of biological tissue or an organ of the human body, from a living or dead person to a living recipient in need of a transplantation. Transplantable organs and tissues are removed in a surgical procedure following a determination, based on the donor's medical and...
s and the process of organ matching. He initially encountered resistance to the idea of a storyline about organ donations due to the medical
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
community's assumption that misinformation about organ transplants could lead to increased public resistance to organ donations.
Harden also incorporated Dorry Segev and Summer Gentry’s algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
for matching transplant donors and recipients. In developing their algorithm, Gentry, a United States Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
applied mathematician
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
, and Segev, a Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
transplant surgeon, sought an improvement over the Top Trading Cycles and Chains (TTCC) algorithm, an algorithm developed by economists Alvin Roth
Alvin E. Roth
Alvin E. "Al" Roth is an American economist currently serving as the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration at Harvard Business School...
, Tayfun Sonmez, and Utku Unver used to match kidney recipients with living organ donors who have different blood types from the recipients. TTCC was used to make the best possible matches during organ exchanges, a process where transplant recipient and organ donors would exchange healthy organs. To decrease the risk of organ rejection, the TTCC algorithm required a large number of organ donors and transplant recipients. The large number of people required by the algorithm was unrealistic. Using a modified version of Jack Edmonds
Jack Edmonds
Jack R. Edmonds is a mathematician, regarded as one of the most important contributors to the field of combinatorial optimization...
’ computational complexity
Computational Complexity
Computational Complexity may refer to:*Computational complexity theory*Computational Complexity...
algorithm, Gentry and Segev discovered that their algorithm could be used to create a national organ donor registry.
Reception
First airing in the United States on January 27, 2006, over 13.22 million people watched "Harvest" on CBS. The episode received mixed reviews. Television critics liked the episode. Cynthia Boris of DVD Verdict stated that the episode had "nice twists". In an article highlighting the rise of realistic Indian-American characters on American television, Anil Padmanabhan, a writer for India TodayIndia Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
, called the episode Rawat's "best exposure". Opinions from the medical community were more mixed. Although he found the message about organ donations "positive", Kevin B. O'Reilly of the American Medical Association
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
's MedNews called "Harvest" "a mixed bag". Other medical experts disliked the storyline of black market organ donations in the United States. On the other hand, Joyce Somsak of the Health Resources and Services Administration
Health Resources and Services Administration
The Health Resources and Services Administration , is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services located in Rockville, Maryland...
stated that "Harvest" was "really good".
The episode inspired a couple of academic case studies. The first was a George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services
George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services
Established in July 1997, the School of Public Health and Health Services brought together three longstanding university programs in the schools of medicine, business, and education that we have since expanded substantially. Today, more than 900 students from nearly every U.S. state and more than...
case study about the effects of television writers consulting medical professionals on the storyline of a television episode. Participants in a survey conducted by the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
and Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
felt that a black market for organs existed and that a person's place on the organ priority list can be influenced by money or fame. They, as a result of "Harvest", also were more likely to become organ donors or to consider doing so. The second case study was about TV's influence on the discussion of organ donations. Participants in a Hollywood Health & Society online survey were also more likely to believe in the existence of black-market organ trafficking and were more likely to donate organs after watching "Harvest". They also were more likely to see the importance of organ donations.
"Harvest" has won one award and been nominated for a second. It won the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication's Norman Lear Center
Norman Lear Center
Based at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, the Norman Lear Center is a multi-disciplinary research and public policy center exploring implications of the convergence of entertainment, commerce, and society...
2006 Sentinel for Health Award in the primetime drama category, winning over two episodes of Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
and one episode of Without a Trace
Without a Trace
Without a Trace is an American television drama which originally ran on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009. The series was set in New York City and concerned a fictitious FBI Missing Persons Unit.-Premise:...
. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was founded in 1946, just one month after network television was born. It is a nonprofit organization devoted to the advancement of telecommunications arts and sciences and to fostering creative leadership in the telecommunications industry...
nominated Jim Vickers' work on "Harvest" for a Creative Arts Emmy for "Outstanding Stunt Coordination", but the episode lost to an episode of E-Ring
E-Ring
E-Ring is an American television military drama, created by Ken Robinson and David McKenna and executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, that premiered on NBC on September 21, 2005...
.
External links
- Numb3rs: Harvest at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
- Numb3rs: Harvest at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...