Pilot

"Pilot" is the first episode of the first season of *Inside Your Head* and the first episode of the series altogether.

## Summary

### Teaser

A dreary and upset couple hang up posters around Chicago for their child, who has been missing several months prior. As they hang up the posters, a Ford Granada begins to watch them. The couple, although disturbed, ignore the car and continue to hang up posters. However, the car revs its engine and smashes into the couple, killing them both. The car then drives away.

### Act I

In downtown Chicago, the Chicago Police Department respond to a looting call where they confront juvenile delinquent Mike Grey, who is attempting to steal valuables from a store. The police get out and attempt to surround him, but Mike makes a run for it. However, before he can get away, he is knocked in the face by one of the officer's guns, giving him a severe bleeding. Mike is arrested and brought to the 15th precinct, where former wrestler and Detective Brielle Dryver is at her desk.

As Mike is walked past and placed into a cell, Brielle notes to her partner, Detective Ralph Douglas, that he has a severely bashed up face. Ralph notes to her that sometimes in their line of work, they have to be a little rough. Brielle takes issue with the fact that Mike has a bruised face and walks to the holding cells. She asks for Mike's name as well as the name of the officer who damaged his face. Mike points to the officer who did it and Brielle walks over to confront him. However, the officer dismisses her and says he would rather hear from the Captain a complaint rather than her berating him. Brielle holds back the urge to lash out and goes back to Mike, and asks him who his mother is.

At that very moment, Mike's mother, single-mother Ava Grey, walks into the precinct and says that she received a call that her son had been arrested. Brielle leads Ava to her son and tells her that he got caught looting before letting him out. Ava is horrified at what happened to Mike's face, and demands to know who injured him. When Mike points to the officer, Ava walks to the officer and punches him in the face before leaving the precinct. Brielle smiles at the karma. When Ava and Mike get home, they do not talk as Mike just storms off.

Back at the precinct, Ralph tells Brielle that they have a new case, the murdered couple who were looking for their child. Brielle and Ralph leave the precinct and make their way to the crime scene.

### Act II

In a suburban neighborhood just outside of Chicago, Chassidy Miller-Court walks up to her vibrant and wealthy house and opens the door with her key. As she fumbles with the key, she becomes startled at the prospect of entering her own home. When she goes inside, a broken beer bottle and the blaring of her TV startle her as she makes her way to the kitchen. When she walks, her husband, Dylan Court, is watching TV and drinking beer; Dylan is an alcoholic. He asks Chassidy where she has been all morning, to which she replies with "I went for a walk". Dylan turns of the TV and walks into the kitchen where he sees Chassidy. She jumps at the sight of him.

Dylan remarks that Chassidy's walk in the morning kept him from being fed breakfast, which makes him angry. Chassidy says that he could make his own breakfast, to which Dylan responds by hitting her in the face. After beating her down, he says that next time he expects breakfast on the table, there needs to be breakfast on the table. He leaves Chassidy in pain on the floor, revealing his abusive nature and her terror of him.

Back in the apartment complex, Ava visits her upstairs neighbor, a man in his mid-to-late 50s by the name of Barton Lloyd, who has drinking and drug problems as well as having been diagnosed with schizophrenia. She tries to give him some flowers but he dismisses her kindness and asks her to go away. Barton paces around his apartment when someone knocks on the door again. Opening it, Barton sees Mike waiting to come in. He invites him in. Meanwhile, Brielle and Ralph meet a crime scene investigation team at the sight of the murdered parents. They learn that the tire marks on sight match that of a 70s Ford Granada, and Ralph notes that he thinks this murder could be tied to the case of the missing boy. Brielle says that the killer may not have wanted the parents finding their child, and Ralph says they need to start looking for witnesses.

### Act III

Mike and Barton chat in Barton's apartment, where Barton asks Mike what he was stealing from the store. Mike pulls out a bag full of phencyclidine powder and hands it to Barton. After stuffing it into his pocket, Barton gives Mike his payment: a six-pack of beer. After Mike leaves, Barton uses the PCP, which causes him to hallucinate the sight of an attractive woman sitting on his couch. Meanwhile, Brielle visits Chassidy, revealing that she is her best friend. Chassidy greets Brielle with much happiness, and sends her condolences to the dead parents. Brielle asks her if she's seen a Ford Granada pass in the area, to which Chassidy says she saw a car that matches the description given to Brielle previously parked by Jackson Park.

She says that Brielle is better off talking to Dylan, as he sees a lot of cars on his commute to work. When Brielle asks her where Dylan is, Chassidy struggles with trying to get the answer out. Noticing her discomfort, Brielle says she'll just talk to Dylan if/when she sees him next. Although Chassidy tries to prevent her from leaving, Brielle leaves anyway to get back to her job. On the road, Ralph notices the Granada that matches the description of the murderer's vehicle drive next to him. Brielle, who luckily is driving behind Ralph, follows him as he follows the Granada. At his apartment, Barton converses with the woman he's hallucinating when Ava comes back to knocking on his door. Barton tries to dismiss her and tells her he "has a friend over", but Ava can't see anyone. Barton, not bothered to admit, closes the door and resumes his delusion.

As Dylan walks the streets, Brielle pulls up next to him and asks him if he's seen a 70s Ford Granada anywhere around the area. While he is unwilling to talk with her, he says he saw a car that matched the description near Signature Offices, an office tenement that closed down several years ago. Brielle radios Ralph and tells him to meet her near there. They pull up near the office building, where they see a Middle-Aged Man use a key to enter the premises. Before he does, Brielle questions him on why he has a key, to which the man replies that he works to fix broken machinery inside the building. When Brielle asks to take a look inside, the man nervously invites both her and Ralph in. Once inside, the man locks the door and knocks Ralph out with a telephone. Brielle wrestles him however he manages to subdue her and throw her into an open door where they land at the bottom of a giant staircase.

Brielle and Ralph come to, they see that the man is following them down the staircase. Ralph knocks him out with his gun, and says to Brielle "I think we've found our guy." When they walk into another open door, they see that the man's work associates have set up a child fighting ring where they compete children against each other in physical competitions for the purpose of money and entertainment. As they observe, the man wakes up and knocks both of them out with his hands.

### Act IV

Dylan comes home and demands to know if Chassidy has cooked dinner. When he goes into the kitchen, he sees that she has made a roast chicken with a side of Indian food. Dylan begins tucking in as Chassidy walks into the living room. Just as she is about to watch TV, Dylan angrily goes up to her and beats her again, saying that she overcooked the meal. Meanwhile at Signature Offices, Brielle and Ralph wake up to see that the fight night of children in the ring has already begun. Unable to handle it, Brielle and Ralph charge into the ring, guns drawn, and scream that they are all under arrest. As Ralph deals with the scrambling men, Brielle confronts the man who knocked them out as he holds a machete to the throats of two little boys, one of which is the dead couple's missing son.

Brielle shouts at him to drop them or she'll shoot. The man drops the children but not his weapon. Although she does ask him to drop the knife, he starts rambling on about how he knows who she is and that he knows what family she is from. When he starts insulting her personally, Brielle shoots him in the face. The man dies, and Ralph calls for backup. That night, the CPD come and arrest the men from the ring, and Brielle is unfortunately forced to tell the boy that his parents are dead. As she sobs at the fact that the boy is going to grow up without parents, Ralph says that the boy's grandparents are here to take him home. He asks if she is okay, to which she doesn't reply. Ralph says that it's all part of the job.

At the apartment complex, Ava argues with Mike about how he was arrested. After the conversation becomes heated, Ava says that she expected Mike to be in school. Mike angrily lets it slip that he dropped out, which defuses the anger. Ava tearfully says she doesn't want him running around and stealing, to which Mike responds by storming up to his room. That night, Chassidy picks up the phone to Dylan, who says he wants dinner on the table after he gets back from a night out with his friend. When he hangs up the phone, it is revealed that the friend Dylan was referring to is Ralph. They chat about the case Ralph solved earlier and drink together.