Pilot

**\* GALLERY**

## Synopsis

Fired from the FBI for insubordination and antagonizing his colleagues, Malcolm Bright is hired as a consultant by his old friend, NYPD Lieutenant Gil Arroyo. On his first case, Malcolm discovers similarities between the killer and his father, Dr. Martin Whitly, an incarcerated serial killer known as "The Surgeon". This causes him to suffer night terrors and panic attacks as he finds himself reliving the events leading up to his father's arrest.

Against the advice of Gil and his long-suffering mother Jessica, Malcolm visits his father for the first time in ten years for help identifying the killer, who he determines was one of his patients. Faced with the threat of his son abandoning him for good, Dr. Whitly names the killer as wealthy developer Carter Berkhead. Berkhead takes his wife and a cop, Det. Dani Powell, hostage, and an overwhelmed Malcolm offers to trade his life for theirs, distracting Berkhead long enough for Gil to shoot him. Afterwards, Gil tells his officers the truth of Malcolm's identity and asks them to have faith in him. Malcolm decides that he will continue to visit his father only to solicit his help on cases.

## Plot

Malcolm Bright follows a wanted serial killer into an abandoned slaughterhouse. He is separated from his fellow FBI agents only to be knocked unconscious. He wakes up in the lair of serial killer *Claude Springer* . Who, while trying to explain to the man why he is conditioned to kill the way he does, is shot dead by the County Sheriff. Whom Malcolm promptly punches in the face.

Malcolm is seated before the board to explain his actions. The FBI has noticed his neurotic behavior, and come to this decision to relieve him of his duties. And is promptly fired.

That night Malcolm has another one of his recurring dreams. He is reminded of the night his father was taken away in handcuffs. As well as the last time he saw him, having just graduated from Harvard and informing his father he's going to be working at Quantico, and becoming an FBI agent. Only in his dream instead of walking out of the prison cell, he is trapped inside with his father.

Malcolm wakes up screaming from another one of his night terrors. He tosses away his mouth guard, and unlocks his cuffs, getting ready for the day. He meets his sister, Ainsley Whitly in the park to inform her, he no longer has a job. She is relieved to hear it but soon excuses herself to follow a hot lead on a white-collar crime she's following. Malcolm is aware she is lying but says nothing.

He runs into his old pal Gil Arroyo from the NYPD who brings him to a crime scene to get his in-depth perspective. Malcolm is introduced to JT Tarmel and deducts that the serial killer is copying *The Surgeon*.

Malcolm goes home the night to find his mother, Jessica Whitly in his kitchen. She knows he has been let go of of the FBI and tells him how relieved she is. She has made him some hot tea and offers him some pills to help sleep before leaving. He declines both and immediately gets investigating the new case.

Malcolm informs his new team of his profile before they make a visit to the morgue. There he is introduced to Dr. Edrisa Tanaka and they both come to the conclusion that the women had previously been engaged in consensual bondage before their death. Her Dom was Nico Stavros.

Following the phone number the women had in their cells, the team finds himself outside an apartment building. Malcolm at JT and Dani Powell all enter after hearing Nico's cell phone ring from inside. They find the captive Dom chained to a chair. They are then fired at by the real serial killer who makes his escape. Dani follows him outside, but soon loses him, but not before he activates the bomb on the bottom of Nico's chair. Malcolm and JT are unable to free him in time, so Malcolm cuts off his hands before the bomb explodes. They were able to keep his hands cold, in order for hopeful reattachment later. Malcolm is able to add more to the profile of the killer. Deducting that the man is; white, rich, highly intelligent, and bald.

That night Malcolm has dinner with his mother and sister. There he regrets to inform his mother there is a copycat of their father's serial killer. Visibly upset she excuses herself for the rest of the night.

Back at work Malcolm, has another night terror, of when he found a dead body in his basement. While screaming and sleepwalking and slams into Dani while still thrashing around. Six police officers pull their gun on him, but Dani is able to de-escalate the situation and is able to wake Malcolm. Later he is forced to explain to Gil about his pavor nocturnus. Having suffered from them since he was a child. Malcolm also decides to go visit his father, as there is no other way to find a lead on the case.

Malcolm finds his father in a rather lavish looking prison cell. Having been paid for by his Saudi Arabian clients. Knowing his father has information, he agrees to return if he informs him which of the two folders he's holding belongs to his client. Already having connected the dots.

While still on duty, Malcolm and Dani head to an upscale party to look for *Carter Berkhead*. After seeing his mother, he splits up from his partner, who finds the man's wife. She asked for a private sit-down, and the two go to her husband's private study. Before any questions can be asked, Carter Berkhead makes his appearance and knocks out his wife. She was the fourth intended victim. Before he can then inject Dani with the poison, Malcolm walks in the room. Knowing he is not the intended target, Malcolm reveals he is the son of The Surgeon. Before he can be given a fatal dose, Gill and TJ enter the room, shooting him dead.

Outside the team is reeling from this new information about Malcolm's father, and angrily confront Gill about bringing Malcom in without warning them. Gill reveals to them they met. Malcolm was the one who turned his father in after he learned what his father was doing. Gil was the responding police officer and had responded to the call Malcolm made. Malcolm saved him that night, by walking in on his father and Gill's conversation and stopped his father from poisoning him. And presumably saving countless others. This shocks JT and Dani as while they knew it was an anonymous caller who led to Martin's capture, they didn't know it was the man's own son. Gill explains that the information was withheld due to the fact that Malcolm was a young boy at the time, which further shocks JT and Dani.

As promised Malcolm goes to visit his father one more time. The two get into a disagreement when Malcolm begins to see further through his father's mask. Desperately he begs his son to stay, he refuses and walks out.

## Quotes

**Malcolm Bright:** You were sent here when you were 11? A ward of the state? This is where you were made.
**Claude Springer:** I was made?
**Malcolm Bright:** No one's born broken. Someone breaks us.
**Malcolm Bright:** I get it. You don't punch a sheriff. Even if it's not an official rule, it's definitely unspoken.
**FBI Agent:** ...It's both.
**Malcolm Bright:** Just so you know, The Surgeon, he's not a psychopath. He's a predatory sociopath. Not that you should know the difference. It's only your job!
**Malcolm Bright:** Next time you call someone crazy, ask for their gun first.
**Martin Whitly:** What do you have to tell me?
**Malcolm Bright:** I applied to Quantico.
**Martin Whitly:** The FBI? A-And you-you think they'll trust you? Your father's a serial killer.
**Gil Arroyo:** Dani Powell, this is Malcolm Bright, psychologist, forensic profiler, acquired taste.
**Dani Powell:** Vanessa Hobbs. She was 43, unmarried and rich. Just my type.
**Malcolm Bright:** So you're a necrophiliac?
**JT Tarmel:** What? No. Who's this guy?
**Gil Arroyo:** JT, Bright. Bright, JT. You're not gonna like each other.
**Jessica Whitly:** Chamomile should help. And if it doesn't, I have pills.
**Malcolm Bright:** They're called pavor nocturnus. Night terrors, and they're not fun. But on the bright side, they're ruining my life
**Gil Arroyov:** Don't flatter yourself. Dani's from the Bronx. Tougher than both of us.

## Notes

* Dr. Martin Whitly committed a series of four murders in 1992, called The Quartet
* When Malcolm Whitly was a child, he found a dead body in his father's work-room. Eventually, turning him in.
* Malcolm Whitly suffers from pavor nocturnus, also known as night terrors since he was a child.
* Martin Whitly hadn't seen his son Malcolm in 10 years after he joined the FBI.

## Trivia

* Bellamy Young and Tom Payne play mother and son, but are only 12 years apart.
* Tom Payne is 11 years older than Halston Sage who plays his sister.

## Cast

* Tom Payne as Malcolm Bright
* Michael Sheen as Dr. Martin Whitly
* Bellamy Young as Jessica Whitly
* Lou Diamond Phillips as Gil Arroyo
* Halston Sage as Ainsley Whitly
* Aurora Perrineau as Dani Powell
* Frank Harts as JT Tarmel
* Keiko Agena as Dr. Edrisa Tanaka
* Michael Cerveris as Carter Berkhead
* James Cusati-Moyer as Nico Stavros
* Jeb Brown as County Sheriff
* Kasjan Wilson as Young Malcolm
* Esau Pritchett as Mr. David
* Brette Taylor as Blair Berkhead
* Rowan O'Neil as Young Ainsley
* Steve Beauchamp as Claude Springer
* Caroline Vexler as Vanessa Hobbs

**Others**
* Giuseppe Ardizzone as Jessica's Driver Adolpho