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"Midnight Minus One" is the twenty-first episode of RoboCop: The Series.

Plot[]

The Sweepers rob a storage facility, one of them finding a cache of weapons, including an assault rifle and a can of the biotoxin ricin-x. RoboCop pursues them as they drive away from the scene. The can of ricin-x is thrown into RoboCop's TurboCruiser, forcing him to end pursuit and contain the toxin inside of his cruiser. He informs dispatch, asking for a decontamination team before becoming unresponsive to dispatch's further questions.

The supposed mass murderer Roy Macklin prepares to die by self-electrocution thanks to the legalization of state-assisted suicide. This is set to be shown on the live television program Execution Tonight.

RoboCop and his cruiser are quarantined at an OCP Biohazard Containment Facility, his condition being unknown. Detective Madigan, Sergeant Parks, and Charlie go to the facility to observe the team performing decontamination. RoboCop emerges from the cruiser, unharmed. Madigan recognizes the can of ricin-x as being one that had been missing since Roy Macklin allegedly used a similar can to kill sixteen people at Delta City University two years ago. RoboCop sets out to learn how the Sweepers got a hold of the can and Madigan goes to find out why Macklin previously told her he destroyed the missing can.

Young OCP executive Billy Sullivan presents the Law Enforcement Agency Data Exchange Relay (L.E.A.D.E.R.), a database designed for use by all law enforcement agencies across the planet. The Chairman is impressed by the presentation, especially once District Attorney Richard Gless gives L.E.A.D.E.R. his full endorsement and Sullivan assures OCP will make back three-hundred percent of their investment within the first six months. Privately, Gless complains to Sullivan about his image being potentially tarnished by being a corporate shill, but has been blackmailed by Sullivan into doing so. Sullivan says he will destroy the blackmail – files that prove Gless's law degree is fake – once he gets what he wants: Roy Macklin to be dead.

Outside the Henry Ford Center for the Morally Challenged, a group of people protest Macklin's impending death. Inside, Madigan goes to see Macklin, who is being walked through the events leading up to his execution. When the technicians break for lunch, she is allowed to speak with him. He continues to insist that he destroyed the can of ricin-x and is ushered away by Gless, who tells Madigan to keep him aware of what she uncovers. Once she leaves, Sullivan enters and confirms to Gless that it was he who saved the can, feeling it might have some use in the future. He tells Gless to make sure the police investigation does not lead to him.

RoboCop and Madigan watch Macklin's interrogation files. In his initial statement, he claimed innocence, which RoboCop deems to have a ninety-eight percent chance of being the truth. In his confession from three months later, Macklin claims responsibility and RoboCop determines the same chance of truth. Due to this confession coming after a psychiatric evaluation, they plan to reach out to Dr. Audrey Fink, the psychiatrist who examined Macklin. Parks provides RoboCop with the location of the Sweepers' market and sends him there.

The Sweepers leader holds a customer at gunpoint when he tries to return a defective television. RoboCop intervenes, pulling the leader through a wall and throwing him back. Parks follows him in as he identifies the leader as the one who threw the can of ricin-x into his cruiser. The leader tells them how he obtained it, but forgot from where it was stolen. In the container where the ricin-x was stores, RoboCop finds a Delta University t-shirt and believes it may contain a clue.

Sullivan visits Dr. Fink in her office, where she is handcuffed to her chair. Knowing he was the real perpetrator in the attack Macklin has taken the call for, Fink tries to psychoanalyze him, but he prepares to give her a dose of Flatscan. Madigan is too late and follows Sullivan to the roof, calling in RoboCop for backup. She finds the used Flatscan syringe and is pushed off of the roof by Sullivan. Luckily, RoboCop arrives just in time to deploy an Electro-Field to break Madigan's fall.

Madigan has Parks call Gless to request a stay of execution for Macklin. RoboCop examined the university's student records from the time of the ricin-x attack, finding evidence that they were tampered with, including those related to OCP executives and Dr. Frink. Charlie then enters after performing a DNA test on material found on the t-shirt, finding that the DNA belongs to Billy Sullivan.

RoboCop and Madigan visit Sullivan, who says his lawyer would tell them that he has never had a storage locker where the cache was found and that he had donated the t-shirt to charity. Parks informs Madigan that they do not have enough evidence to reopen the ricin-x attack case. RoboCop intends to try and gain evidence from Sullivan while he has Madigan try to get something from Macklin.

Madigan visits Macklin in his cell. She believes that Sullivan committed the attack and Dr. Frink convinced Macklin that he was responsible. He continues to insist on his guilt, repeating the same claim that he killed the victims just to watch them die.

Followed by RoboCop, Sullivan goes to the Auto Siberia Wrecking Yard to meet with Vladimir Molotov, whose men are immediately alerted to RoboCop's presence. They use a crane to knock over and pick up the cyborg, dropping him into a crusher. He manages to brace the crusher with a steel beam. Meanwhile, Sullivan meets with crime bosses Molotov, Reggie Braga, Rocco Carbone, Margaret Cray, and Mr. Zero and they toast to Molotov for RoboCop's supposed demise. The steel beam crumples and RoboCop uses his own arms to brace the crusher with enough force to overload it.

Execution Tonight begins its broadcast as Madigan asks Macklin about his wife and son, hoping he will be convinced to recall the truth, for their sake.

Sullivan presents a terminal to the criminals, it being connected to L.E.A.D.E.R., saying he can enter a program into it to erase their criminal records completely from the database. His condition is that they each pay him $5 million. RoboCop bursts into the warehouse and the criminals open fire on him. Their weapons powerless against him, they surrender.

The cameras come up on Macklin, with Madigan desperately still trying to convince him until he is taken out of the room and to the execution chamber. She goes to the control room to make Gless delay the execution, but he has her escorted out.

The police round up the crime bosses, who are angered when RoboCop tells them that Sullivan was responsible for the raid and calls for his release. Sullivan knows that his freedom means the crime bosses' associates will kill him and begs to be arrested. Desperate, he confesses to the ricin-x attack, framing Macklin, and that Gless is aware of it all. Parks calls Gless, who immediately hangs up as Execution Tonight continues to build up to Macklin's death.

At the scheduled time, Macklin presses the execution button and the chamber charges up. RoboCop hurriedly enters and stops the machine. Madigan catches Gless trying to leave and places him under arrest. On-camera, Sullivan confesses to the public of his crimes and Macklin's innocence. Madigan promises Macklin that he will receive help.

Cast[]

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