Pilot

**Pilot**

**Season** : 1

**Episode**: 1

**Directed by**: Marc Webb

**Written by**: Craig Sweeny

**Production Number**:

**Airdate**: 28 September 2015

**Previous**: Limitless (film)

**Next**: Badge! Gun!

**External Links**

IMDB Site

## Description

Underachieving 28 year old Brian Finch is given a dose of a mysterious drug called NZT by an old friend. While it temporarily expands his mental abilities to extraordinary levels, it also leads Brian to a world of trouble when his friend is murdered and he becomes the FBI's prime suspect.

## Synopsis

The episode begins with the main character, Brian Finch, running from FBI agents before he goes into a general recap of his life. An unemployed college dropout, Brian Finch is a regular 28 year old with a failed musical career living in NYC, with his father being sick from an unknown illness. During a temp job at a large bank, Manchester-Reid, he encounters Eli Whitford, who used to be part of his band and is an employee at M-R. The two go out for lunch, where Brian tells Eli that his father is sick and that he hasn't been able to write any music in over a year. Hearing about his struggles, Eli gives Brian a clear pill, calling it NZT, and tells him that it is an extreme neuro enhancer and the answer to his problems. With the new clarity given to him by NZT, Brian completes his temp work and advises the woman supervising him to break up with her fiance and pursue an MBA. Once he returns to his parent's house, he is determined to find what his father's illness is. By searching his brother, Luke's medical school books and sifting through family albums, he discovers that his father has hemochromatosis.

The next morning, dealing with the harsh NZT hangover, he tells his parents that he thinks that his father has hemochromatosis. His parents are skeptical, but he later receives a call from his mother that his father does, in fact, have hemochromatosis, but he needs a new liver and they are not sure if he will receive a transplant in time. Desperate for another dose of NZT to figure out how to get his father a new liver, Brian goes to Eli's apartment, only to discover him dead and most of his NZT stolen. He takes Eli's phone and two NZT pills. The FBI are also raiding Eli's apartment, and Brian runs, not wanting to be arrested. He eventually ends up in the subway, where he encounters FBI agent Rebecca Harris. She has him at gunpoint but hesitates in shooting him, giving him the opportunity to run down onto the tracks. He distracts the driver of the oncoming train, and then crawls under the train to escape into an abandoned tunnel, losing the FBI.

Now in current time, Brian decides that he needs to find out who murdered Eli before he does anything else. He searches Eli's phone and finds information on 2 other NZT users that are employees at Manchester-Reid, Jay Winston and Adam Honeycutt.

At the Cross Jurisdictional Command, a fictional FBI division in New York City, a wide search for Brian is underway. Nasreen Pouran, head of the CJC, explains to agents Rebecca Harris and Spellman Boyle why it is so critical to find Brian Finch. Eli Whitford was being investigated due to the suspicion that he was using NZT-48, the reasoning for why his apartment was raided. Due to his daring subway escape and presence at the scene of the crime, they now believe that Brian killed Eli for his NZT-48.

Rebecca Harris goes to the home of Brian's parents, Dennis Finch and Marie Finch, to inform them that they are searching for him and that they should encourage him to surrender if he contacts them. Marie informs her that he and Eli were friends, and an upset Dennis tells her that he knows that Brian would never kill anyone, regardless of whether he is involved with NZT-48 or not.

Later, Brian goes to Jay Winston's location at a hotel in Soho, only to find him dead in a staged suicide. He realizes that the users are being killed for their NZT, and decides to do one more thing before his dosage wears off.

At her apartment, Agent Rebecca Harris discovers that Brian has broken in and taken her firearm. He tells her that he needs her assistance to figure out who killed Eli and holds her firearm to keep her from arresting him. After updating her on what he knows, she is still skeptical to believe him. Curious to know why she still refuses to put any trust in him, he scans her apartment and comes to the conclusion that her father was an addict and died due to his addiction. Upset, she tells him to leave her apartment, and he complies.

After his NZT wears off, Brian begins to go through the grueling withdrawal once more. He did not inform Agent Harris of the other NZT user, Adam Honeycutt, as he needs more NZT from him. In the morning, he attempts to pick the lock to Honeycutt's apartment, but is unsuccessful due to his sobriety. Begging him for more NZT, he is eventually let into his apartment, where he waits for Adam in the living room. After realizing that his entire apartment is perfectly symmetrical, he takes notice of a height irregularity between 2 potted plants. Lifting the taller one up reveals a money clip stolen from Eli Whitford, still covered in his blood. Immediately after he does this, Honeycutt comes back into the living room with a gun and attempts to shoot Brian. Brian's leg does get grazed by a bullet while running away, but he eventually escapes and makes it back onto the street, where Adam follows him and taunts him before leaving.

Bleeding out and unsure of what to do, Brian calls Agent Harris to ask for help in patching up his wound and tells her that Eli's killer is Adam Honeycutt. After being advised to clear his wound of any material, he begins to dig in his wound with tweezers. He immediately passes out, and a figure enters the room as he loses consciousness.

Brian awakes handcuffed to a hospital bed in an unfamiliar room, his wound patched up by a nurse standing over him. Edward Morra then enters the room and tells him that it was about time that the two of them talked. Morra tells Brian that he has been using NZT for 4 years and has developed a shot to cure him of his NZT side effects. He offers Brian one pill, but suggests that he will soon have access to unlimited NZT if everything goes according to plan. He makes it clear that if Brian speaks of their conversation to anyone, he will have him killed more slowly and painfully than he can imagine. Brian agrees to these conditions, and is administered a shot by Morra's nurse.

After taking his last dose of NZT, Brian realizes that Adam wouldn't have gotten rid of the NZT stolen from Eli. He then goes to the bank used by Adam Honeycutt, confuses a security guard, and takes the people inside at gunpoint. He instructs the teller to contact the FBI and ask for Rebecca Harris. When she arrives, they open Honeycutt's safety deposit box and find the NZT stolen from Eli Whitford inside, which is still covered in his blood.

Later, at the CJC, once Adam Honeycutt is arrested, Nasreen Pouran discusses Brian's medical scans with Agent Harris. They are extraordinary, as NZT is an extremely addictive and dangerous substance and has a massive effect on the brain of the user when taken. Brian's scans are completely ordinary, despite him having already taken 3 doses of NZT. The CJC intends on studying Brian to discover what makes him immune to the side effects and engineer a safe version of the compound. Arguing that Brian should not be treated as a test subject, Agent Harris suggests that they use Brian as a consultant instead, while still monitoring his NZT usage and studying him.

When the offer of working for the CJC is presented to Brian, he initially declines, but puts down the terms that he'll do anything that they want him to if they procure a new liver for his father.

Successful in his negotiation, Brian goes to visit his father the day before his liver transplant. Dennis tells him that he's proud of him for bringing hope back into his life, as well as saving it, and thanks him for whatever he did to get him his new liver.

Later, Brian and Agent Harris talk about her father on a rooftop, and how she thinks that he was on NZT-48 before he died. She gives him his dosage for his first day of work, but not before she tells him to not ever lie to her. Brian takes the NZT.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Jake McDorman as Brian Finch
* Jennifer Carpenter as Rebecca Harris

**With**

* Hill Harper as Spellman Boyle

**And**

* Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Nasreen Pouran

### Guest Cast

* Daniel Eric Gold as Adam Honeycutt

* Arjun Gupta as Eli Whitford
* Sarah Wilson as Jessamyn Eubanks

**With**

* Blair Brown as Marie Finch

**And**

* Ron Rifkin as Dennis Finch

#### Co-Starring

* Megan Guinan as Rachel Finch
* Claire Glassford as Lisa
* Warren Bub as Francis (Bank Security Guard)
* Henry Gagliardi as 10 Year Old Brian
* Charles Anthony Burks as Motorman
* Craig Sweeny as Cecil
* Zuleyma Guevara as Teller
* Kathleen Hays as Sabrina
* Tom Malmed as 16 / 19 Year Old Brian
* Cole Hagen as Young Luke (credit only)
* Sipiwe Moyo as Sipiwe (Woman in Scrubs)
* Zach Miko as Cameron Finch (credit only)
* Mark Noonan as Luke Finch (credit only)
* Nick Verina as Rachel's Husband
* **Unknown actor** as Jay Winston
* **Unknown actor** as Tanner Evans