EPA/USGS survey team¶
The EPA/USGS survey team is the eight-person field team that was sent to Marblehead after the offshore explosion, was threatened by town officials, and vanished before the task force arrived in The Summer Service.
| Type | Organization (government field team) |
| Aliases | Missing EPA scientists; the previous team; the scientists; field team |
| Affiliation | EPA and U.S. Geological Survey |
| Members | Eight unnamed scientists |
| Status | Missing, then found alive in an unrecorded session (as of Summer Service 06) |
| First appearance | Radford Horror 08 |
Overview¶
About a month before the task force's case begins, an unexplained explosion blew out windows in Marblehead and made many townspeople sick; see The Marblehead explosion. The EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey sent a field team to find out what happened, out of concern about a seabed gas leak. After the first couple of days none of the team was heard from again. The case file that Andrew Howard receives at the end of The Radford Horror lists eight missing people and says that local law enforcement has been unresponsive "suspiciously so" (Radford Horror 08). No member is ever named.
History¶
Before the task force¶
The team interviewed locals made ill by the explosion and judged their symptoms inconsistent with natural-gas poisoning: they tested for carbon monoxide and methane and found neither. Their journal in the hotel box was mostly empty (Radford Horror 08). In Summer Service 01, the field notes list contacts: the Cartwright family, Ma Gramoire, Lana Scott and Denver O'Donnell. The last entry says they were going to meet town leaders (Summer Service 01).
Arrival¶
The team had stayed at the Ram and Arms Inn. The innkeeper tells the task force that "fellas from the government" were there about a week earlier, and sends up the team's belongings: suitcases, clothes, IDs, technical manuals, sampling equipment and wallets (Radford Horror 08); see Survey team's field notes. In the first recorded Marblehead session, the Scott family say the scientists took blood samples from their daughter Lena after she recovered from the hospital, promised to follow up and were never heard from again (Summer Service 01).
The lighthouse¶
In Summer Service 03, Big Bill orders the team to recover the missing scientists before the National Guard arrives, since the Guard's arrival could ruin any chance of finding them alive. Andre says the scientists have been missing "coming up on two weeks," and Andrew tells the others he thinks Big Bill is an idiot for believing they might be alive. Ma Gramoire tells the team the scientists said they were going to check out the lighthouse after talking to the Board of Selectmen. In its basement the team finds blood-stained rope cut into two- or three-foot lengths, two teeth, two bloodied chairs and an EPA field journal. Luminol shows blood that someone cleaned with bleach, so someone was beaten in a chair and taken elsewhere. The journal concludes that the poisonings are some sort of nerve agent, describes unknown and distorted fish species and normal-looking fish packed with worms but still alive, and records that the scientists were threatened by the mayor and senior officials after going before the selectmen. The last entry says they were going to check the lighthouse (Summer Service 03).
The selectmen's account¶
When asked, the mayor says the scientists came to the board and left suddenly just over a week earlier, saying they might return to Washington for resources, and that their accusation that runoff was poisoning the fish "was not very well received here." The party suspects that he is lying; Kurt Larson worries that if the scientists are alive, drawing attention to them might get them killed (Summer Service 04). In Summer Service 05, Kurt asks Madeline Weathers to hold off burning the church because kidnapped scientists might still be inside (Summer Service 05).
Found¶
In the finale Andrew tells the radio contact, "we found our research guys. They were alive," distinguishing them from the contact's own dead "advanced team." This is the only mention of the rescue; it happened in an unrecorded session between Summer Service 05 and 06 (Summer Service 06).
Unrecorded session
How and where the scientists were found is known only from this passing line. See Lost episodes.
Trivia¶
- The length of the team's absence is stated differently at different points: about four days in the Radford Horror 08 briefing, nearly two weeks in Summer Service 03, and just over a week in the mayor's account.