“The Grain” is episode one of the second and final season of Special Unit 2.
The clerk at a convenience store discovers a woman in one of the aisles wearing a dressing gown and making a mess. He tells her she has to pay. She agrees – if he gives her all the money in the register. Pulling out two guns. Then she wakes in bed. She tells her husband about the dream in which she robbed a convenience store then stole a red sports car. She thinks it was because she was talking to her friend about exciting things to do and she jokingly said commit a crime. She heads outside. Then finds the cigarettes she asked the clerk for in her pocket. And the sports car is on her lawn. And the police are arriving.
Kate is having a date with someone who sounds too perfect to be true.
At the precinct, Captain Page states there’s a crime spree being committed by normal people with no criminal history. Jonathan, who seems to have taken over from Sean, believes it’s being done by a parasite. Though he has no evidence to confirm this. But Captain Page is going with the theory as it makes sense. This time.
Kate and Nick are in the car talking about her date. Nick thinks the man sounds too perfect; Kate is waiting for the other shoe to fall. She’s also waiting for Dr Perfect to call. Nick advises her to call him instead. At the prison, they interview the housewife. She says she didn’t do it. They believe her. They go through the woman’s things she had on her and discuss the parasite. It’s not in her, so where is it? Kate finds some sand and they take a sample.
Jonathan confirms it’s sand. Sand, sand. Normal, everyday sand. Carl has brought a parasite in, a woman only a few inches tall. After some sparring, sand comes up and she says she knows who they’re dealing with. The Sandman. He joyrides bodies leaving the id as the engine. Acts out masked urges and magnifies them a lot. Starts small and then ups the ante. As for killing him, kill the person he’s in. Or wait for him to voluntarily leave the person. He needs physical contact with someone who’s asleep to enter them. And the woman’s husband was asleep next to her.
The husband is brought in as the couple’s dog watches them leave. The dog was also asleep on the bed. And he heads to a sleeping mailman in a truck. The mailman wakes up, crams a mailbox full of mail, crams mail in the mouth of a man who was winding him up then steals a baseball bat and goes knocking mailboxes down. Before beating up what was definitely not a FedEx driver.
Kate has taken Nick’s advice called her doctor and arranged another date. Nick is behind her as she does so. Page calls them in and asks about the suspect. Carl has said he doesn’t have the Sandman in him. Then a woman, Alice, arrives; she was SU2 damage control before she moved to LA to try and be an actress. Then Page gets a call about the mailman. Who delivers to the house of the housewife who robbed the convenience store. A huge coincidence. Or not one.
Finding the Sandman is difficult, though Carl can tell who’s hosting him. But the Sandman can get into anyone. And when he does, he’s an adrenaline junkie looking for a bigger and bigger high.