Synopsis of the Pilot


Written by TK

This was done entirely from memory, and is a little disjointed, but it should give you a basic idea of what happened.

In 2009, Max, a genetically enhanced superhuman girl, escapes from the lab and training facility in Gillette, Wyoming, where she was raised. At about the same time, the U.S. is treated to an electromagnetic pulse that wipes out all the computers, basically causing an apocalypse. She is not sure if any of the other children that escaped with her made it. It is now 2019. Max is working as a bike messenger in post-apocalyptic Seattle, Washington, and squatting with her roommate, Kendra. They have a cop on the take that lets them stay in their rent-free apartment. Downstairs, Max's friend Theo lives with his wife and child. He also works at the bike messenger place, but has been very sick lately and hasn't been able to go into work. Max has a good friend at work named Original Cindy, who is a lesbian, and another good friend named Sketchy, who has a girlfriend named Natalie. Their not-so-friendly boss is named Normal. Max has one weakness: she needs a certain herbal food supplement to keep her from having life-threatening seizures.

A cable-hack who calls himself Eyes Only has been broadcasting news that the powerful people and the government don't want people to hear. He shows only his eyes on the air, and outs the rich and powerful who get away with murder. His latest news report talks about how VA hospitals and Veterans clinics are distributing Cortodiazapene, a drug that helps vets recover from some disease, but the drug has actually been replaced with powdered sugar, and the real drug is being sold on the black market in Canada. This is the drug that Max's friend Theo is taking. He's scared, and thinks the drug isn't working, but Max tries to reassure him.

Max has hired a private investigator to help her locate any of the other genetically enhanced children that might be out living in the world, and also to find the kind woman named Hannah who helped Max escape by picking her up on the road ten years ago. The private investigator wants more money to keep up his work, so Max realizes she needs to steal some more stuff to sell to get money. Earlier that day, while on a delivery, she noticed a very nice penthouse apartment with some easy-to-steal art items. She goes to that apartment, breaks in, and starts gathering up stuff. She sees the cable-hack Eyes Only filming one of his news reports. She's broken into Eyes Only's apartment! After seeing a scared woman and her daughter, having a short conversation with Eyes Only himself, and getting away from a brute with a gun, she escapes the apartment, unfortunately without her stolen merchandise.

Someone bugs the private investigator's office, and the PI says he wants off the case, 'cause whoever bugged his office was definitely someone high up the food chain, and he thinks they're after Max.

Max helps her friend Sketchy who has been cheating on his fiance Natalie with a woman named Lydia. Lydia told Sketchy that she was going to go to Natalie and tell her that Sketchy has been having an affair. Max impersonates Natalie, and when Lydia shows up, she tells Lydia that she knows all about Sketchy's affair, and to leave them alone. When Lydia becomes threatening, Max hangs her off a third-floor balcony by her ankle until she promises to leave Sketchy alone.

Eyes Only, who turns out to be a rich guy named Logan Cale, hunts down Max. After a few attempts, he finally gets her attention and tells her that he knows who she is, and he can help her find the other escapees from Manticore in exchange for her help. The woman and child that Max encountered earlier are Lauren and her daughter Sophy. Lauren is going to testify about the people who have been replacing Cortodiazapene with sugar, and of course her life is in great danger. Logan wants Max to help protect Lauren until she gets into the witness protection program. Max says the only way she's survived so far is by staying off the radar, and she's not about to change that now.

Theo dies. The employees of the messenger service all help pay for his cremation.

At work the next day, Max sees a news report that shows a bunch of thugs attacking Logan, Lauren, and Sophy. Lauren gets away, Logan is in the hospital with a gun-shot wound, and Sophy has been kidnapped. Max goes to visit Logan in the hospital, and while there sees a thug across the street about to shoot a grenade into Logan's hospital room. She wheels Logan's bed out of his room just in time to save his life.

Max goes to Logan's apartment to research the bad guy in charge. She finds out his name is Sonrisa, and the thug she saw with the grenade launcher at the hospital is Bruno. She also finds Lauren at Logan's apartment, who is distraught over her daughter's kidnapping. Max reluctantly promises Lauren she'll help her get her daughter back.

Max goes to Sonrisa's mansion during a party, and by pretending to be a hooker, gets into his inner chamber. There, she offers Sonrisa Lauren in exchange for $50,000. She gets Sonrisa to call the location where Sophy is being held, and from hearing the phone number, she know what the number is. She then takes Bruno the thug to a hotel room where Bruno will supposedly kill Lauren, then kill Max, and then bring the $50,000 back to his boss, Sonrisa. Max turns on Bruno, giving him a beating and telling him that she was hired by Sonrisa to take him out because he hasn't been doing his job properly. She lets Bruno think that he killed her, and then he runs back to Sonrisa to get him for sending Max after him. Meanwhile, Max calls her PI and gets him to find out what the address of the phone number she memorized is. He gives her the address, also giving it to the people that bugged his office. The people that bugged the office are, indeed, after Max, and are led by a guy named Lydecker.

Max goes to the address of the kidnappers and is closely followed by Lydecker and a huge SWAT team. Max goes in and the SWAT team follows, easily subduing the kidnappers. Max walks out with Sophy, disguised as a member of the SWAT team, and actually looks Lydecker in the eye as she leaves.

Max watches Lauren and Sophy's happy reunion, and takes off before Lauren can thank her.

Logan gives Max a gift and asks her to help him bust a harbormaster who is obviously on the take and connected to murder. Max doesn't want to help. Then Logan shows her a picture of one of her fellow escapees, a boy named Zack, who was arrested a few years ago. Max is grateful, but frustrated that it was Logan who got the info she wanted so badly.


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