Harvest

"Harvest" is the 14th episode of the second season of the American television show Numbers. Inspired by a Christian Science Monitor article about organ tourists, people who travel to a different country to give their organs for money, and an algorithm developed in the United States, the episode features Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and mathematicians 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 donations. "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 Ramanujan (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 on the black market 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.