Jennifer "Jen" LONG is a 13 years old girl who went missing in the episode The Beginning.
The Beginning[]
At first, it was her mother, Terri, who went missing after being abducted by a drug dealer, Dale Hopkins. She thought Dale knew where her daughter was because her daughter had bought him drugs a few months before. Dale did not know and as Terri did not let go he savagely beat her and wanted to kill her and get rid of her body, but Jack and Samantha intervened in time and managed to save Terri.
Immediately, Terri tells Samantha that Jennifer hardly ever speaks to her, and that she has not seen her for three days when they argued at their home. Terri was not happy because she discovered that Jennifer had given false authorization to her school to skip classes. Her mother suspected she’d started using drugs again. She tried to talk to her about the problems between Jennifer and her father, but the teenager closed directly and fled the house, she has not seen her since. She explains to Samantha that Jennifer’s father abandoned them two years ago. Samantha asks her if Jennifer could run away to find her father, but Terri explains to her that Jennifer and her father do not support each other and that in any case, Jennifer’s father works on an oil rig. She also explains that the police refuse to help them because Jennifer has run away before, and they think that, again, she ran away.
By interviewing Jennifer’s former friends with whom she was using drugs, Martin learns that Jennifer has not been hanging out with them for three weeks. The team therefore believes that Jennifer has indeed stopped drugs for several weeks.
While searching Jennifer’s computer, Danny and Vivian manage to find the address of a man who explains to them that he saw Jennifer a week before. She came with a man to talk to him about a church, the Church of Restored Beginnings. The man refused to listen to Jennifer and she left with the man who was with her, he seemed to have her under control. The team discovers that the man at the head of the church is Gary Sedgwick. He is the man who was seen with Jennifer. The team doesn’t know where the man went, but the police did find another teenager who was part of the church that ran away from home, Todd, and child protection agrees that the team should talk to him.
At the same time, Samantha discovers that three of the houses that Jennifer visited to talk about the church with the locals were robbed.
Vivian and Jack are going to talk to Todd, the runaway teenager who was enrolled in the same cult as Jennifer. Todd recognizes Jennifer in a picture, and Jack manages to get him to talk. He confesses that a boy, Henry, told him that Gary forced Jennifer to come and rob a house with him. While Jennifer and Henry were inside, shots were fired. Henry was scared and ran away. The next day, Gary said that Jennifer had left the church and would never come back.
Samantha tells Terri what happened to her daughter. Upon learning that the church is recruiting young people who have distanced themselves from their families. Terri confesses the truth about Jennifer’s past; Jennifer’s father, Lou, was extremely violent with Terri. One day, he was going to hit Terri with his belt because he accused her of cheating on him, which was wrong. Jennifer intervened to protect her mother, and despite his daughter’s screams, Lou continued to hit Terri. Jennifer then stabbed him with a knife. Lou didn’t die, but when he got out of the hospital, he lied about his injury and abandoned his wife and daughter.
The FBI manages to arrest Gary. Jack and Vivian will then talk to him. Jack told him they have three charges against him: theft, lying to a federal officer and embezzling minors. He faces a minimum of 15 years in prison, unless he helps them find Jennifer. The man told them that Jennifer was not seriously injured in the robbery. She just sprained her ankle. But when he and Todd brought her home, she seemed to doubt the church. Todd then told Gary to go home, and that he would take care of Jennifer. Jack and Vivian don’t get it because Todd told them that the boy they were with for the robbery was named Henry. Gary tells them that Henry left the church a year ago.
Danny informs that Todd was placed in a foster hme but that he ran away. He also tells him that his name, his address, everything is false. Vivian remembers that Todd took her phone in his hand to look at Jennifer’s photo, so they have his fingerprints. Lucy does a research and discovers that Todd is in fact Bradley Foster, he is 26 years old and is an offender known among other things for having said obscenities to a child. Vivian and Martin go to his apartment. On Bradley’s computer they discover that he has an application connected to a surveillance camera, on the latest pictures, we see Jennifer locked in a cage, in a very bad condition.
Bradley’s car is found and Jack and Danny follow him to a gas station parking lot. While they are watching Bradley’s car, a policeman intercepts Bradley, the latter gets angry and tries to take the policeman’s weapon, the latter then shoots him, killing him instantly. Samantha then manages to find that Jennifer is in a building less than 400 meters from Danny and Jack. The boys spot the building and go there immediately. They quickly find Jennifer locked in a cage. Jack sends Danny to get paramedics while he talks to Jennifer. She explains to him that Todd abducted her from her home,Jack explains to her that Todd is dead and that he is there to help her, he succeeds in getting her out of the cage despite the fact that she is extremely shocked. Her mother joins her very quickly and Jennifer hugs her immediately.
Lost Boy[]
Jack is forced to question Jennifer because he and Vivian suspect Bradley of having an accomplice and that a woman is missing. She admits to Jack that she is not well, that she does not go out much, and that her mother thinks that she watches too much TV. Jack shows the sketch of the man suspected of being an accomplice of Bradley and Jennifer recognizes him directly. He was there when she was abducted and Jennifer hit him. The man was furious and told her that if she hit him again, he would cut her throat. Jennifer gives some details about her abduction to Jack, but she admits that she no longer wants to remember what happened to her.
One Wrong Move[]
Terri visits Jack at the FBI office and tells him that Jennifer is not well. Jack asks if she still sees her psychologist but Terri says that the therapy didn’t go well and that Jennifer doesn’t go there anymore. Jack offers to find her another psychologist but Terri refuses. She explains to him that Jennifer is getting worse. She’s on medication all the time, she refuses to eat, and Terri is forced to watch Jennifer all the time, she thinks her daughter will commit suicide. She asks Jack to talk to Jennifer because he is the only one who truly saw what her kidnappers did to her, having been the first to arrive at the scene and to get her out of there. Terri is convinced that Jennifer needs the help of someone who will understand her, and that the only person she will listen to is Jack.
Jack visits Jennifer who refuses to leave her room. Jennifer is very cold to him, she tells him that the last time Jack checked on her was because he wanted something. Jack tells her that Terri told him that he could help Jennifer. Jennifer tells him that she does not need his help and that her mother does not understand her. Jack explains to her that Terri is just worried and that Jennifer needs to talk to someone, and that she has to tell them everything that happened to her. Jennifer then becomes aggressive and asks him to leave, before starting to cry. Jack then hugs her, and Jennifer asks him why he saved her. Jack tells her that he knows it’s hard, but that she has to fight to get better. He tells her that he knows that it will never be like before, but that she will be better one day.