"Nano" is the nineteenth episode of RoboCop: The Series.
Plot[]
Cleveland rappels down a building with a bag full of stolen jewelry, straight into the arms of the law: RoboCop and Detective Madigan. He refuses to answer any questions for Madigan until RoboCop picks him up. Meanwhile, Cleveland's boss, Dennis Finch, watches and listens in on the arrest with a directional microphone. He fires a type of electronic dart into a nearby bus, which allows him to take control of it, driving it straight over Cleveland. Madigan runs alongside the bus and boards it, but cannot gain control of the bus, getting into a serious crash. RoboCop approaches the wreckage to find Madigan, who is responsive, but cannot feel anything.
RoboCop and Sergeant Parks go to the hospital where Madigan is being treated, learning that she is comatose and has suffered permanent damage to her neck and spine.
Finch Financial Resources technician Edward Feldston – who is more or less a prisoner – performs a simulation of nano machines performing surgery, but hides it once Finch enters, introducing him to new hires Tom and Jerry. They plan to heist the Delta City Bank, using nano machine-infused devices programmed to disable its doors.
Charlie Lippencott shows RoboCop his analysis of the dart found at the scene on the crash, suspecting that the incident was deliberate. He runs a molecular scan, unable to identify a residue found on the dart. RoboCop promises that whoever is responsible for the crash will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Finch goes into the Delta City Bank while Tom and Jerry wait in the car, skeptical of Finch's ability to do the job. Finch securely places the nano machine vials into a safe deposit box.
Madigan wakes from her coma to see RoboCop and recalls the crash. She is devastated to learn of her paralysis, so a nurse administers a sedative as she becomes hysterical.
The nano machines unlock all of the doors in the bank, including its safe deposit boxes and the vault. Tom and Jerry head inside, still skeptical about the whole plan. Meanwhile, Parks contacts RoboCop after noticing no signal coming from the Delta City Bank's alarm system. He arrives at the scene just as Tom and Jerry make it out to Finch's car. Finch takes control of RoboCop's TurboCruiser, which backs up into a flower bed and has a tire shredded. RoboCop fires a tagger onto Tom.
Charlie helps investigate the crime scene, explaining to Parks that he has found some of the same residue found on the dart from the bus crash. After RoboCop mentions the residue being found in a box registered to the alias "Howard K. Smith," Charlie suggests checking the bank's security footage, which RoboCop says he will scan.
Tom sits out of the next planned heist, in which they plan to use nano machines to wipe out the city's entire alarm grid.
Charlie finds that the residue matches material patented by the IRS to pack and transport nano machines. The patent names Feldston, who had been tasked with developing nano machines for medical procedures after being arrested by Finch, who was a chief auditor for the IRS at the time. He developed the nano machines at an IRS workhouse until being broken out six months ago. RoboCop recognizes Finch from the bank security footage.
Feldston shows Finch where to release the nano machines to quickly deactivate NeuroBrain. He further gives him a set of nano machines to repair Metro Net once the job was done. Jerry bursts in, alarmed at RoboCop's presence outside. They plan to lure RoboCop away with Tom's tagger signal by having him drive one car (which has a bomb planted on it) while Finch and Jerry take a van to escape. After stopping Tom, RoboCop hears the bomb ticking and gets both Tom and himself to safety before the car explodes.
RoboCop visits Madigan, who wonders how she will endure. He reminds her what she will, for as long as she has a purpose in her life. Meanwhile, Finch plants the nano machines, which quickly reach Diana.
Parks calls RoboCop, telling him the location of Finch's backup hideout. He goes there, finding Feldston and preparing to arrest him. Feldston says he is not a willing participant in the robberies, which RoboCop determines to almost certainly be the truth. Feldston is taken to the precinct, where he details Finch's entire plan to RoboCop and Charlie. RoboCop determines that Finch is after assets seized by the IRS, which Feldston says to be stored in a vault on Hoover Road.
Finch and Jerry use nano machines to gain entry to the Hoover Road vault so that Finch can obtain a cache of priceless artifacts, which he deems his life's work. RoboCop confronts them, but is quickly trapped in a hydraulic forklift. He escapes as the criminals make a run for it and he manages to fire a tagger onto Jerry, who is left behind. RoboCop emerges from the vault and arrests him.
Traffic jams form and the stock market halts because NeuroBrain has fallen victim to the nano machines. RoboCop is stuck in one such jam and speaks to Diana, who behaves unusually. He plans to have her repaired.
As Parks and Gadget visit Madigan, the hospital's power fails, kicking on the auxiliary power, which can only provide power for twenty more minutes. RoboCop arrives at Public Works, where the nano machine-addled Diana tries to keep him out, trying to close doors on him and using weapons that are at her disposal. When he reaches the computer to run diagnostics, he notices the hospital is facing imminent catastrophic failure. Its power goes out completely and Madigan begins to struggle without the machine she is hooked to. Gadget runs for a nurse as Parks works to keep Madigan alive.
While Finch maps a route out of the city, RoboCop gives Diana an antidote nano machine from Feldston. This returns her to normal and she begins to restore the failed systems across the city, including the hospital, saving Madigan's life. Diana helps RoboCop pinpoint Finch's route, allowing him to ambush him. Finch tries to run RoboCop over, but the cyborg has bolted himself to the ground and pushes down on the car's hood, destroying the engine. He pulls Finch from the car and places him under arrest.
Feldston uses his nano machines to perform surgery on Madigan, successfully curing her paralysis. Madigan, back at work, heads out with RoboCop to deal with a sniper.
Cast[]
- Richard Eden as RoboCop
- Yvette Nipar as Lisa Madigan
- Blu Mankuma as Stanley Parks
- Andrea Roth as Diana Powers
- David Gardner as Chairman (credit only)
- Sarah Campbell as Gadget
- Victor A. Young as Dennis Finch
- Ed Sahely as Charlie Lippencott
- Dan Duran as Bo Harlan
- Erica Ehm as Rocky Crenshaw
- William Colgate as Edward Feldston
- Bruce Hunter as Tom
- David Huband as Jerry
- Dean Gabourie as Cleveland