The Pilot


WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW! If you don't want to know what happens in the 1st season, go back.


The Pilot

Episode: 1AEB79
Airdate: 03/04/01
Written by:
Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Rob Bowman
Starring: Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike, Dean Haglund as Richard "Ringo" Langly, Bruce Harwood as John Byers, and Zuleikha Robinson as Ives Adele Harlow



IMAGES FROM "THE PILOT"


TEASER
E-COM-CON COMPUTER CORP.
VIENNA, VIRGINIA

Byers and Frohike can be seen walking on the roof of the convention center.

Inside, there is a demonstration going on. The woman is saying that they are the most technologically advanced, yet socially conscious company on the fortune five hundred. 

LANGLY: Yeah, right!

The woman keeps talking. She says that they are in the state of the art research center that is taking the next step in computer processor evolution and creating a new age of innovation and customer service.

Langly jumps in, saying that she means a new age of invading customers’ privacy.

She starts to talk about the Octium IV chip that is a high-speed processor capable of 6.8 Gigaflops—nearly seven billion calculations a second.

Langly jumps in again saying that he means for her to tell everyone the truth. He says that the Octium IV chip was secretly designed to keep tabs on its users. It has a tiny modem embedded in each processor, so it can upload people’s files, credit history, tax bracket, and social security number onto the internet. 

Meanwhile, Frohike has been trying unsuccessfully to get Langly’s attention through his earpiece, telling him that he and Byers are in position. At first he doesn’t hear him, but finally he does, and in the middle of what he is saying, he holds up what he is eating and asks if there is peanuts in it. He then crumples to the floor.

Byers lowers Frohike down into a room like in “Mission Impossible.” He is going to grab the Octium IV chip.

FROHIKE: Oh, yeah. Who’s your daddy?

Langly is pretending to seize. A man puts a pen in his mouth to stop him from biting his tongue.

A bearded man watches Frohike on a computer monitor. He starts to type something on the keyboard.

Something Byers is doing on his laptop messes up and he tells Frohike to hang on tight. The software has been hijacked and he has lost control. Frohike first comes flying up into the air and then plummets back down, still connected by the cables.

Meanwhile, Langly sees the bearded man. When he moves, on of the men notice his earpiece.

The bearded man comes into the room and walks towards Frohike. Byers watches. When the man reaches Frohike, he grabs his face and kisses him hard. He then grabs the Octium IV chip that Frohike had yet to reach when lowered from the ceiling.  The bearded man spins Frohike around, and then walks out.

Some security guards walk down the hall, pulling Langly along. He’s telling them that it’s a hearing aid, but they ignore him.

When they walk in they find Frohike and Byers, and see that the chip is gone. Frohike tells them that they don’t have it, but ignoring him, the one guard says simply, “Full body cavity search!” Frohike’s line suddenly breaks and he falls to the floor.

Meanwhile, the bearded man walks into the restroom. He comes back out—not as a man, but as a woman that was in disguise. She throws her wig into the trashcan and walks away.

ACT ONE
OFFICE OF 
“THE LONE GUNMAN”
TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND

The Lone Gunmen are angry because they don’t have the chip, and therefore don’t have any proof. They don’t know what to write for their cover story. They are also mad because of the strip search.

Frohike is searching around the office for something.

Byers tells Langly that their paper has been running eleven years, and it hasn’t made any difference. They have 2824 members, and are only speaking to the converted. Langly tells him that what really matters is their impact on the black ops.

Langly holds up an issue of their paper on which the headline reads: TELETUBBIES=MIND CONTROL. 

Frohike, still looking around, says that he knows Ives Adele Harlow is who stole the chip. He knows it was a woman who kissed him.

Langly tells his friends that he has heard that Harlow is a black hat—a real heavy lifter—into industrial espionage for profit.  They all agree, however, that she probably already sold it.

Suddenly Frohike finds what he has been looking for. Langly takes the small microphone from Frohike.

LANGLY: Testing 1, 2, 3. You bitch! That’s twice today I’ve been violated! That’s it man, total war! Assault the earth!

Suddenly, the phone rings, and Byers picks it up. A look of pain flashes across his face.

The Lone Gunmen attend Bertram Roosevelt Byers, Byers’ father’s, funeral.

Ray Helm, a man who worked with Bertram, is giving his eulogy. Bertram was a civilian employee of the air force, and a true believer.

Byers shoots his father’s ashes up into the air in a rocket.

Langly thinks that he sees Harlow, so he and Frohike follow the bearded man.

Frohike tells Langly that Byers had not spoken to his father since 1989. Langly adds that that was the year that they started publishing. Frohike tells him that it was the year Byers threw away a government pension to hang out with a couple of “lowlife hippy scums,” at least that is what his old man thought.

Langly sees the bearded man again.

LANGLY: Frohike, twelve o’clock!
FROHIKE (looking at his watch): Twelve what?
LANGLY: One spying, chip stealing little cross dresser!

Langly runs over to the man and pulls at his beard. The man yells a turns around. It’s not Harlow. Langly just gives the excuse that the man had soup on him.

FROHIKE: Next time leave the crack pipe at home.

Byers walks up to his friends.

Ray Helm comes to talk to Byers about how his father died. Byers tells him that the police said that his father fell asleep and ran off the road.

Helm tells him that the police said that it was a single car accident with no witnesses, and no skid marks. It was the perfect place for an ambush.

Byers asks him if he is trying to say that his father killed himself. He tells Byers that he thinks Bertram was murdered.

The scene changes to show Bertram driving when suddenly he is shot. The car crashes and bursts into flames.

Byers asks Helm if he has any proof. He tells him that he doesn’t, and that’s the way that the government would have it.  Byers asks him why they would kill his father. Helm tells him that Bertram was a good man, and sometimes that’s a problem in their line of work. Byers asks what he means. He says that Bertram was upset about something that he found out, but he wouldn’t tell him what it was.

FROHIKE: Hold up. Something…something’s funky. You’re telling us the government is behind this?
LANGLY: You’re the government.

Helm just tells Byers, that if he is anything like his father, he knew that he would want to know.

BERTRAM BYERS RESIDENCE
The Lone Gunmen go to look for clue in Byers’ father’s house. They ask Byers if he is sure that he wants to be there, because Helm said that there was no proof.

Byers picks up a picture of his father. He says that if his father was murdered, there had to be a reason, and that maybe he knew something. He wants to check out the computer.

Suddenly Frohike trips and falls on the floor. He says that the carpet is wet, like it was just cleaned. Byers tells him to check it out.

Langly sits at the computer. He tells Byers that the good news is there is no password. The bad news is that there is nothing else there either. They cleaned house and “erased and defragged this puppy.”

Byers tells Langly to look for deleted files. He does and finds “delete commands up the wazoo.”

Byers sees one that he wants to know more about. It’s a DOD file. Langly tells him that it’s something called Scenario 12D.  It’s a text file.

Meanwhile, Frohike is under the desk with a fluorescine bloodstain enhancer. It shows a lot of blood.

Langly says that he thought that Byers’ father died in a car crash. Byers tells him that he was dead long before the crash. He was murdered right there.

ACT TWO
ABC SALVAGE
RESTON, VIRGINIA

Frohike ask Byers if he is saying that his father was put in the car into a faked car crash so it looked like a dead man was driving. Byers just hopes that there is evidence in the car.

Byers is pretending to be his father. The man reads back his name and birth date—January 30, 1934—and gives Byers a strange look. Frohike just says simply in way of explanation: “Viagra.”

The man walks him towards the car. They mistakenly think that he means the car that is being picked up and ready to be crunched. Byers and Frohike run towards the crane, yelling at the driver to stop. On the way, Frohike slips and falls in the mud.

The man finally stops them, telling them that they have the wrong car. He shows them the right car, which is already smashed. He says to them, “Hope you didn’t leave nothin’ in the glove box.”

Langly finds his fellow hacker friend Kimmy playing a virtual shooting game. He tells him that he needs his help to circumvent a DOD file with online security codes. He tells him that it has to do with government-sanctioned murder. Kimmy asks if it’s another one of his wacko conspiracies like “who shot J.R.?” Langly corrects him with “JFK.”

They turn to see Ives Harlow shooting next to them. Having never actually seen Ives, Langly says:

LANGLY: Ai Chihuahua! Who’s that?

Jimmy tells him and Langly gets angry. He walks over to her and tells her that she looks better with a beard. He yells at her to give them the Octium IV chip back—they stole it first. She sarcastically asks him what they would do with it. He tells her they would expose the truth. She asks if he means in their silly little rag. Langly tells her that the American people have a
right to know.

Jimmy turns Langly away.

JIMMY: Come on. Let’s go do some real hacking.

Byers is watching Frohike dig through the car.

BYERS:
Find anything?
FROHIKE: Yeah, a new meaning to the term ‘compact car.’”

Frohike asks Byers what best thing he hopes to find is. He might only find out that his father was going to blow the whistle on the government and was killed for it. He asks Byers if wants to hear that his father was someone to respect. He asks him what if he wasn’t.

Byers tells Frohike that when he was little his father would tell him about JFK, and it made him what he is today. It made him believe in truth, justice, and the American way. Byers says that someone has to expose the truth, and someone has to write what they don’t want people to read. That’s why he teamed up with them—they’re true believers.

Suddenly Frohike finds something. When Byers asks what it is, he tells him that it’s a needle in a haystack.

Jimmy is sitting with Langly at the computer. He tells Langly that they are in. Langly tells him to start out with “programs and linguistics,” and then he changes his mind to “analysis and investing.”

Byers and Frohike come in. Frohike tells Byers that they found the proverbial smoking gun.

Frohike acknowledges Jimmy with a crack, but he tells Frohike that the only reason he helped was to keep “Blondie” from getting “his nads clipped.”

Frohike continues on, telling Byers that they found it in the engine compartment of the car. None of the circuits have a factory ID. The integrated antenna is etched into the bread work like on a cell phone. Frohike says that if it was receiving radio signals and it was clipped to the car’s engine’s central modules, all they would need is a handheld control to control the car’s speed. Langly adds in that that you make it look like a dead man was driving.

Back at the computer, Jimmy is told to look for any reference to Scenario 12D. Jimmy hacks into the government “think tank’s” upload directory. He finds the file. It’s on counter terrorism for war games. When he takes a closer look, they see that it is for airline terrorism. Langly says that that doesn’t make any sense. Why would they murder someone over a war game? Byers tells Jimmy to download it.

Jimmy starts to download it, but they have been spotted and are being traced. He tells them that he’s going to ditch, but Byers tells him to keep going. Soon there file system is being scanned and their cookie compromised. Someone has found a data file and they will find out where they are. Langly and Jimmy are yelling that they need to stop, but Byers yells to keep going.

Suddenly, the screen goes black. The three of them turn around. Frohike has pulled the plug. Byers yells that they almost had it. Frohike says that they almost had their asses fried. Byers tells him that his father died for the chip. Frohike says, “exactly,” and tells him to use his head.

The scene changes to show who was sending the trace. It is Helm and another man. Even though they have been
disconnected, Helm says that it does not matter, because he knows who they are.

ACT THREE
5:48 AM
Byers is upset and angry. He says that the blood makes no sense. Frohike tells him that someone shot his father there. Byers asks why someone would go to the trouble of faking a car crash so perfectly and convincingly, when they are starting with a body that had a bullet hole. Langly tells him that maybe his father put up a fight.

BYERS: Maybe it wasn’t his blood.

The three go to see Helm. Byers says to him:

BYERS: My father wasn’t murdered.
LANGLY: But not for lack of trying.

Helm asks if they really think that it was an accident. Byers tells him that his father is not dead. They had the blood tested and it wasn’t his, but that of his would-be assassin—a professional sent to make his death look like an accident.

In voice over, the scene changes to show the previous events at Bertram Byers’ residence. The assassin enters the house.

Byers tells Helm that the carpet had been cleaned. They thought it was to get rid of the blood. Langly adds that it was, but for the second time.

Bertram is sitting and watching television when the assassin sneaks up behind him. The man trips on the rug and falls. His gun goes off.

Helm asks incredulously:

HELM: He shot himself? Some professional.
LANGLY: Hey, government contractor.

Byers continues the story, saying that his father realized he was in danger, and his first impulse was to run.

Bertram gets in his car where he finds the remote control. He gets out, tests it, and sees his car move. He looks under the hood and finds the control board.

Byers says that his father realized that they were going to great length to fake his death, so he came up with his own plan. He knew that if they were willing to go to such great lengths, they would not stop until he was dead. So, he made it look like he was.

Bertram buckles the man into his car and uses the control to make him crash. The car catches on fire.

Helm asks what they were trying to hide. They tell him that it’s something called Scenario 12D. Byers tells him that what they need from him is the password to get past the online security. He tells them that it is “overlord.”

LANGLY: Cool.

Langly asks Frohike why Byers is so bummed. His dad is alive. Frohike tells him that he may never see him again.

Byers goes to his father’s house once more. He has found multiple copies of “The Lone Gunman,” and now knows that his father did read them.

Suddenly his father walks into the room. Byers goes to hug him, but before he can, Bertram slaps him across the face. He tells Byers to leave him buried.

Byers asks him what Scenario 12D is. Byers says that they know it’s a war game scenario that has to do with airline counter-terrorism. He wants to know why it’s important enough to kill for it.

He tells Byers that it is because it’s no longer a game. Byers asks why they are targeting him. He tells him that it depends on who your terrorists are. Byers guesses correctly that it’s the man who conceived it in the first place. Byers guesses that the government is going to commit a terrorist act against a domestic airline. He asks what they would gain. His father tells him that the cold war is over and the arms market is flat. However, if they bring down a full 727 in the middle of New York City, it will find dictators all over the world ready to take responsibility—and begging to be smart bombed. Byers is surprised an angry that it is all about increasing arms sales.

Byers asks when it is going to take place, and his father tells him that it will take place later that night. He asks his father how to stop it, and why he isn’t telling the world. He tells Byers that if he told anyone, he really would be dead, plus no one in the press would run it. Byers tells him that they would, and he says that their paper is bird cage liner. Byers picks up an issue.

BYERS: You obviously read it.
BERTRAM: Don’t be so naïve.

He then asks his son if he thinks that it would save the world. He tells him that he is doing what he can. He thinks he knows the flight that they have chosen. He tells Byers to stay out of it.

At the office, Frohike has written down Ives’ full name and is rearranging the letters of it.

Byers comes in and tells his friends that he saw his dad, and that he is at his house now. They ask what he said. He tells them that his father said to stay away and not get involved.

Helm tells them that he will go talk to him. Byers tells him to be careful because his father does not trust him. He thinks that he was involved in the attempt that was made on his life.

Once Helm leaves, Frohike and Langly ask him what he is doing. They asks what if Helm is using him to get to his dad, and he just ratted him out. Byers tells them that that is their plan: put the son in danger, and it will flush the father out of hiding.

Suddenly someone knocks on the door. Frohike looks at the monitor and sees that it is Bertram. Byers tells him to let him in right away so no one sees him. He told him to knock twice.

Bertram comes in.

LANGLY: Congrats on not being dead.
BERTRAM: Oh, the day is young.

Byers tells his father that they have a plane to catch.

Byers and his father are at the terminal for flight 265. Byers asks him if he sees anyone that he recognizes, but he doesn’t.  He tells his son, however, that they could still be around. He tells Byers that they should just call the FBI and let them deal with it. Byers tells him that they can’t trust anyone. There only hope is to get on the plane.

Meanwhile, a man who was watching them talks into the phone, saying that the two are boarding.

On the other end of the line, Helm says then, that they have two problems solved.

ACT FOUR
After not finding anything, Byers asks his father if he is sure that they are on the right flight. Bertram tells him that they chose the sight for visibility. Byers questions that they intend to bring it down in the middle of New York City when something hits him.

BYERS: What if there’s no bomb?!
BERTRAM: Well, how they gonna bring it down?
BYERS: Same way a dead man can drive.

Byers calls Langly and Frohike.

LANGLY & FROHIKE (in sync): What do mean no bomb?!

Byers tells Langly to hack into the aircraft’s onboard navigation system—they need to know where they are headed.

FROHIKE: I’ll clone the air phone’s carrier, make them think we’re sending a ground air fax.
LANGLY: That’s one twisted star 69.
FROHIKE: Ah, just get ready to ride the wave, hippy boy.

Langly tells him just to get him on the plane and he will get him autopilot access. Frohike asks how he will do that. He tells him that airplane telemetry systems use processors similar to those in CB radios. 

Frohike gets in the system.

Byers asks what their progress is. Langly tells him that he has hacked into the flight control system output. Frohike adds, “With a little bit of help.”

Langly explains that it’s what the brains of the plane is telling the little black box.

Langly is surprised to find modem protocol—remote access. Someone on the ground is flying the plane.

Meanwhile, the scene changes to show the it is Helm who is controlling the plane.

Byers tells his friends that he needs the flight plan.

Frohike starts mapping the data on the flight plan at Byers’ request.

Langly tells Byers that the flight is going to make an unscheduled stop in exactly twenty-two minutes at the world trade center. 

Byers father tells him that he will tell the flight crew.

Byers asks Langly if he can override the system. He tells him that he’s working on it.

Bertram sneaks into the cockpit. He tells the pilot that they are not controlling the plane, but he doesn’t believe him, and has the one man go to lead him out. He tells him just to turn off the autopilot and they may be able to regain control of it. When no one does, he jumps away from the man, towards the controls, and turns it off himself. The pilot realizes that he is right.

Meanwhile, Langly’s screen gets frozen again. He tells them that they’ve encrypted the override commands. Frohike tells him sarcastically then to decrypt them. Langly tells them that he doesn’t have enough power, and his CPUs are pegged.  Byers asks him what’s happening, and he tells him that he’ll try decrypting them in background mode.

BYERS: And how long will that take?
LANGLY: In my counts per sec…I estimate seven to ten days.
BYERS: Needless to say…
LANGLY: Our asses are fried.
FROHIKE GETS UP
LANGLY: Where you goin’?
FROHIKE: To unfry us.

Frohike goes to see Harlow.

FROHIKE: I need that chip Ives.
HARLOW: Melvin. I knew you’d come begging sooner or later.
FROHIKE: Lay off the Melvin crap. I need some serious Gigaflops, and need them now.
HARLOW: But I hear some guy with a beard took that chip.
FROHIKE: Those were a woman’s lips I kissed.
HARLOW: Like you’ve ever kissed a girl before.
FROHIKE: I don’t have time for this.
HARLOW cocks her gun
HARLOW: You gonna take it away from me?
FROHIKE: Give us the chip, Ives, or you’ll be sacrificing the lives of hundreds of people, including Byers and his father.
HARLOW (sarcastically):
I’m crying.
FROHIKE: Yeah, you’re one real tough cookie. How much you gonna enjoy spending the millions you make selling that
chip, when you realize it’s been paid for in blood.
HARLOW: I guess you don’t know me.
FROHIKE: Well, maybe I do—Lee Harvey Oswald…Your name, Ives Adele Harlow, is an anagram for Lee Harvey
Oswald…Some joke. I know who you really are, sugar, and I can tell the world in my “silly little rag.”

Harlow is surprised and angry.

The pilot calls ground control, telling them that he is declaring an emergency.

Langly is still trying to get his computer to work, when suddenly a sign pops up on the screen that says, “Manual override unlocked.”

LANGLY:
B-I-N-G-O.

Langly starts typing again. The Octium IV logo pops up on the screen.

Meanwhile, Ives is also typing.

The pilot suddenly has manual control again, and he steers the plane away from the trade center, not a second too soon.

On the way out of the plane, Byers tells his father that if they can’t get to the FBI they can go public. With his testimony they can break the conspiracy wide open and bring overlord down.

Byers realizes that his father has been silent, so he turns around and asks him what’s wrong. He tells Byers that he sees himself in him. He tells Byers that he was angry at him for so long because he didn’t want him to waste his life, however, now he sees something in him that he never had. He tells his son that he is a brave man.

Byers guesses correctly that his father is not going to testify, and is going to let them cover everything up. His father tells him that they have tried to kill him twice, and they won’t fail the third time. His silence will keep he and Byers alive.

BERTRAM: I know you and your friends are fighting for the American dream. Just don’t expect to win.

Back at the office, the headline on the computer screen reads, “Terrorist Act Narrowly Averted.”

Byers says that they can’t go with that story because they have no proof. They have no lead article. Frohike says that they do, and he proceeds to type it in for the headline: “Octium IV Chip Invades Privacy.” Byers says that they don’t have any proof of that either. Langly says that his “pistol-packing bearded lady” has it. Frohike says that turnabout is fair play, and then he produces the Octium IV chip.

LANGLY: How the hell’d you get that?
FROHIKE: Hey, once you’ve had a little taste of Frohike…
They all look at him disbelieving
FROHIKE: Okay. I grabbed it; I ran.
BYERS:
Know what? We’ve got a story to write.



IMAGES FROM "THE PILOT"



If you have any more information, spoilers, or questions for me, feel free to email me. If you give me a tip, I don't have to reveal my source, unless you want me too.


Spoilers"The Pilot" Images





Lone Gunmen: Government X-Posure

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