A university's prison experiment goes horribly wrong when one of the students acting as a corrections officer ends up dead. Crews and Reese are in a race against the clock to find the killer. As they interview both prisoners and guards, the detectives discover the social experiment may have done more damage than good. Meanwhile, determined to figure out Jack Reese's connection to his case, Crews obsesses over a recording he obtained from a wiretap he placed on Reese.

An earthquake hits Los Angeles and the city is a mess. In the middle of all the havoc, Crews and Reese must track down an escaped criminal and killer they put behind bars a year ago. At first, the detectives want to find him in order to prevent him from being killed, but it becomes clear that the escapee is far from a victim. Meanwhile, Ted suffers an inconvenient injury from the earthquake and makes a call for help.