The pilot episode begins with a young girl walking on what appears to be a college campus. She is then shown walking into a room before intercuts of a man beating her is shown. There is blood and much suspenseful music before the screen goes black.

Then, there is a title card: One Year Later. There is a mother, father, daughter, son on Facetime, and a cat scoping the area. Protagonist Simon Greene walks around his house while getting ready for the day. He passes a decorated door with the name Paige on it, which ultimately alludes to the girl in the very beginning. Then, Simon gets a text from Dave Divine giving him a tip about his daughter’s whereabouts. Instead of going to work, Simon goes to a park where he sees Paige playing a guitar in public looking for money. She sees him and pretends not to know him and bolts.

Simon runs through the park trying to catch Paige. A yoga instructor happens to be teaching a filmed class as this is going on. Simon is confronted by a man who looks around Paige’s age. Simon beats this young man and the yoga instructor gets it on video. The video goes viral, and Simon does not look good as it is marketed as a rich man in a suit beating a homeless man. Ingrid Greene, Simon’s wife, is a pediatrician as she is seen in a hospital. She gets a phone call from Simon explaining his situation.

Then, a new character is shown, Elena. She is just roaming around in a park. She sees another woman and her daughter walking their dog. Elena lures the dog into her car with treats and ensures that the mother and daughter duo know the dog is missing. She then makes a phone call saying that she has the dog, she asks for the address so she can drop off the pet. The dog owner turns out to be the owner of a vegan restaurant in the area. Elena sits down and gets something to eat. She then gets a phone call. It is revealed that she is an undercover detective and this phone call is coming from a father looking for his missing son, Henry. Elena hops on the case.

Two more characters are introduced, a couple. They are sitting in their car, and they appear to be waiting for a specific man. When said man pulls into his driveway, the boyfriend gets his gun and approaches the garage. He points his gun at the man’s head, he seems to know everything about this man. He tells him to text his wife saying “I’m sorry” before shooting him in the head. He places the gun in the dead man’s hands, staging it as a suicide rather than a murder. The couple drives off. They are shown again at the end of the episode setting their car on fire.

Anya Greene is the daughter of Simon and Ingrid, which means she is also the sister of Paige Greene. She is in a wheelchair; will there be a flashback in future episodes? She is visibly embarrassed by her dad’s video, but they still have to go to a parent-teacher conference at her school. At said conference, the police show up and Simon is brought in for questioning. The young man who he beat in the park was found dead in his flat. Simon is a suspect. When being interrogated, it is revealed that the young man is Aaron Corval, and he was the boyfriend of Paige. Simon despises Aaron and blames him for Paige getting into drugs and causing her to run away in the first place. Elena is shown again trying to identify if Henry had any acquaintances. Paige Greene is a name that came up.

Ingrid and Simon then come up with a plan. They are going to find their daughter without the help of the police. They decide to go to Aaron’s flat to see if they can get a lead. They meet a friend of Paige’s and he takes them to a place where she used to buy drugs. Simon is visibly desperate, and he offers money to these people. Suddenly, one of the members appears out of nowhere and Ingrid gets shot right above her chest, and the episode ends with sirens before a cut to black.

This episode was overall fabulous and did a great job getting the thriller elements
All they truly want is to find their missing daughter and be a big happy family again. The flashback scenes of the family were very heartwarming, and it truly adds to thoughts such as, “What were their lives like before everything went downhill?” This is also very well-acted by everyone. The choice of Ingrid getting shot at the very end definitely added necessary suspense. There were many plot points throughout this one episode. While the Pilot does need to have building blocks in order to be successful, it did feel like multiple storylines. Over the course of watching the entire episode, it is learned that they are all intertwined with one another which is very interesting. This episode was a good way to start this kind of series. World building, character introductions, and jaw dropping moments.

Rating 8/10