01x01 - Pilot

[bunniefuu]

My name is Stephen Jameson.

This is me.

This is my breakfast.

These are my friends.

At least they used to be.

This is where I live.

This is my mom.

And this is the worst part of my day.

You see, lately, strange things have been happening to me, and they're only about to get stranger.

WOMAN: (OVER INTERCOM) Admin nurse to 401, admin nurse to 401.

CARA: Okay, John.

That card gets you into the psych center on the 12th floor.

That's where the file is.

(ELECTRONIC BEEPING)

Code on 12. Stand by. I'll check it out.

Great. You just tripped an alarm.

The kid you've been talking to was here in this building today.

So which way to the psych center?

CARA: Hold on, John. That guard, he's headed your way.

You gotta get out of there. There's an exit directly behind you.

Straight it is.

(SIGHING)

(ELECTRONIC BEEPING)

MAN: (ON WALKIE-TALKIE)
Someone just accessed Suite 112 with the missing key card.

Copy that. I'm outside the door.

JOHN: All right, I got his file.

(ELECTRONIC BEEPING)

MAN: We're on his tail.

(TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING)

What were you thinking? We don't use our powers out in the open.

I didn't have a choice. They were Ultra agents.

Must have been following me.

Are you sure you lost them?

Yeah, Cara, I'm pretty sure.

I just hope your mystery patient was worth it.

What do you think?

Stephen Jameson.

It can't be.

WOMAN: Stephen? Wake up.

Stephen Jameson?

It's nice to finally know your name.

(SCREAMING) Oh, my God!

MAN: What the...

Okay, okay, okay, I can explain, just...

Okay. You don't want to listen.

What? What happened?

Guess where I found your creep son this time.

I'm sorry. Look, you know he has a sleeping disorder.

Well, how does the kid get through two deadbolts then lock the door behind him while sleepwalking?

Look. I catch him anywhere near my place again, I'm calling the cops.

You won't have to. Thank you for bringing him back.

You slept with Mrs. D'Amico?

It was an accident!

Dude, she is totally hot.

Hey, Luca, upstairs! Get ready for school.

Hey, hey, hey!

(SIGHING)

I don't even remember getting out of bed.

Okay? It won't happen again.

Yeah, I know I said that last time, but this is different.

How? How's it going to be different?

I don't know, okay? But I'll talk to Dr. Bloom.

Maybe there's something we haven't tried yet.

We've been to half the specialists in the city.

The other half won't even take our insurance and now Dr. Bloom's telling me that...

It doesn't matter. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...

Is that why you're taking the extra shifts? To pay for my shrink?

Honey, I can handle the extra shifts.

But this? This is driving me...

Crazy?

Yeah. Runs in the family.

(SIGHING)

LUCA: Quit jerking it, we're going to be late.

Coming!

See you after school.

Hey, just keep your head down.

Don't make eyes at anybody unless you want to get shivved.

(LAUGHING)

By the way, thank you for ignoring all of my texts last night.

Sorry, I wasn't home.

No?

I woke up at my neighbor's place again.

It's getting worse. Not just the sleepwalking.

What, she's back? The mysterious hottie in your head.

Yeah.

Well, are you taking your meds?

Yes! Astrid, I'm taking my meds, but maybe I need something a little stronger like an ice pick lobotomy, or maybe I should just save everyone the trouble and check myself into the loony bin.

Okay. Let me see your pills.

Why?

I just want to check to see if being a raging d*ck is a side effect?

Okay, good one.

Come on.

For a dominant gene to be expressed, the progeny, which we call the F1 generation, need only inherit the allele from...

WOMAN: Stephen? I know you can hear me.

STEPHEN: (IN HIS HEAD) No, no, no, you're a hallucination, you're not real, you're only in my head.

WOMAN: Just because I'm only in your head doesn't mean I'm not real.

Stop shutting me out.

You have to believe me, you're in danger...

Shut up!

Excuse me, Mr. Jameson?

Nothing. I'm sorry, I wasn't talking to you.

Who were you talking to?

WOMAN: You're not crazy.

I've been trying to tell you that for a month.

You know, uh, sorry, I'm not feeling well, gonna have to go to the nurse.

(DOOR SLAMS)

What's up, Stevie?

Remember those pills you gave me last week?

Oh, the ones you stole?

Yeah, they were pretty sweet on top of a few Adderall.

That particular medication is an anti-psychotic.

No wonder you're fond of them.

Good luck with the crazy!

Good luck with the diarrhea.

(FAINT LAUGHTER)

(BOY GIGGLING)

You made it disappear!

Don't believe everything you see.

WOMAN: Wake up, Stephen.

I can prove you're not crazy.

I can prove I'm real.

How?

Meet me at the Broad Street subway station in 10 minutes.

WOMAN: Get on the train.

You gotta be kidding me.

WOMAN: You're almost there, Stephen.

Almost where?

What the hell?

I'm John, and I believe you and Cara have already met.

Hello, Stephen.

Follow me.

I told you you're not crazy.

Ok. Wait... wait, wait. Where are we? How...

Who are you?

You're in an abandoned subway station 100 feet below the streets of Manhattan.

You teleported here. Actually, I teleported you.

We're called Tomorrow People, and we didn't choose the name, I swear.

(LAUGHING) This isn't happening.

It's just another one of my crazy dreams.

CARA: It's not a dream, Stephen.

How did you do that?

You've heard of telepathy?

It's another one of our powers.

The three T's. The third being telekinesis.

He doesn't believe us.

It's funny, the teleporting usually sells it.

No offense, but any second, I'm going to wake up someplace awful.

Maybe another three-way at my neighbor's place.

You don't understand, Stephen.

You're one of us.

You're breaking out.

You're waking up in weird places, Stephen?

You're not sleepwalking. You're teleporting.

You hear Cara's voice in your head, that's telepathy.

Your latent powers are starting to appear.

Soon, you'll be able to do this.

Okay, okay, okay! Put me down! Put me down!

You got it.

No, no, I'm having a psychotic break.

My meds are off or something.

No, no, no more pills.

They're obviously addling your brain.

What he means, is the dr*gs are just going to get in your way.

Get in my way?

You have no idea what my year has been like.

Stephen, I know exactly what it's been like.

I know how alone you've felt, how scared.

You feel like you're turning into a different person, like your mind isn't your own.

All those hours on your therapist's couch?

I was there with you, Stephen.

When we're connected, I feel what it's like to be you.

That sounds, uh, awful.

You think you're a freak. You're not.

Stephen, you're on the brink of becoming somebody truly extraordinary.

JOHN: Don't let it go to your head.

Uh, how many of you are there?

Here, you're number 15.

Out there, could be hundreds, thousands.

It's a genetic mutation that lies dormant through adolescence.

Sometimes it never breaks out.

Until then, people like you think they're just regular saps.

h*m* sapiens.

As in, human. Uh, if I'm not human, what the hell am I?

You, my friend, are a h*m* superior.

We didn't pick that name either.

I'm Russell, and you're the one that Cara can't stop talking about?

CARA: Shut up, Russell.

Where did you guys get all this stuff?

You heard of the five finger discount?

We get the no finger discount.

Hey, you want to learn how to be a telekinetic klepto, or do you want to learn how to stay alive?

These are two of our newest breakouts.

When they arrived, they were just like you, unable to control their powers.

Teleporting in your sleep is just the beginning.

It's kind of like a paranormal dream.

By the time we're done with your training, Ultra won't be able to lay a hand on you.

Show off.

Who's Ultra?

The ones hunting us.

There is a w*r going on out there, Stephen.

You won't read about it or see it on the news.

A shadow w*r between our species.

CARA: The government's known about us for years.

They want us neutralized.

That's why they started a containment program.

Ultra.

Their agents are like us.

Captured, then forced to use their powers to hunt the rest of us down.

Have a seat.

I can explain. I said sit.

You had John, you lost John, end of story.

That's not why you're here.

These two guys were fighting.

But it was like they were trying to make themselves jump all over the place.

This one guy just disappeared.

Poof!

Hmm.

As you know, our program requires complete discretion.

I'll take care of it.

It's already taken care of.

You know, your species is superior to ours in almost every way.

I must seem primitive to you.

Instead of using my mind, I have to do things the old-fashioned way.

You trying to read my mind?

You know your powers don't work here.

And you don't have to be telepathic to know what I'm going to do.

Good. Okay.

(COCKS w*apon) Good.

Good, good, good.

Now pull the trigger.

It's simple Darwinism. Survival of the fittest.

You're the superior species, now prove it.

I'm a thr*at to you, so k*ll me.

Do it. Before I k*ll you. You know I will.

(HIGH-PITCHED SCREECHING)

(GROANS)

Remarkable.

Absolutely remarkable.

Your kind's inability to k*ll.

(SIGHS)

Like all adaptations, Mother Nature's way of improving us, randomly mutating until the gene proves useful.

I'm sure someday this particular gene will aid in the survival of your species.

But for you personally, not so much.

(g*nsh*t)

Hey, what do you mean they want us neutralized?

Like, k*lled?

The ones Ultra has captured.

We can't feel them, track them, communicate with them.

It's why we need your help.

To find someone.

I guess you could call him our leader.

He went looking for a place where we won't have to hide, a place that only we can reach.

He never came back.

Okay, so Ultra got him.

It's impossible.

He was the strongest of us all.

Listen to me, Stephen.

If you have inherited just a fraction of those powers...

Inherited?

Wait, are you telling me that my lunatic, deadbeat dad was like you?

He was more than that.

He was a hero.

(SCOFFS)

And we need you to help us find him.

We believe that you and your father might share a connection like you and I do.

I haven't even seen the man since I was eight years old.

You're his son. If anyone can contact him, it's gonna be you.

What if I don't want to find him?

He bailed on us, okay?

The same way he bailed on you. He left my mom and two little kids and a stack of bills from some psych hospital.

Stephen, he left so that you could have a life.

So you'd be safe from Ultra, so that you could grow up human.

If it weren't for him, you'd be in a cage right now, getting your brain picked apart like a lab rat.

I don't believe you.

Maybe you'll believe this.

Pull up his last message, Tim.

Who are you talking to? Who the hell is Tim?

TIM: I am a computer.

RUSSELL: A.I. program.

He's kind of like our HAL.

Just... not evil.

JACK: Hello, Stephen.

If things turn out the way that I hope, you'll never see this.

If you are seeing it, let me start by saying I'm sorry.

Turn it off.

I said turn it off!

(MACHINE POWERING DOWN)

I don't need an apology from him.

Okay? It's a little late.

I am nothing like my father.

I'm sorry, but you got the wrong guy.

So, uh...

I have to get out of here.

I have to get out of here, so...

Please. Get me out of here.

Take my hand, Stephen.

Uh... what are you doing?

Nothing, what? Brushing my teeth.

Okay.

Hey, hey.

Hey, lurker.

I need to tell you something, okay. Something really big.

So just promise, you'll be cool.

STEPHEN: I know it sounds crazy.

What? That you're some kind of superhero with powers?

Not crazy at all.

It makes sense, they said it's some genetic mutation that I inherited from my dad.

You're off your meds, aren't you?

No... Astrid! I don't need dr*gs!

Okay? They're the reason I'm so screwed up.

They're keeping me from who I really am.

Fine. You don't believe me? Watch this, okay?

I can make the basketball fly with my mind.

STEPHEN: (MUTTERING) Aw, come on. Come on!

Okay.

Okay, um...

Stephen...

Stephen, listen to me.

You need to talk to your shrink.

First the voices, now the paranoia.

Wasn't your dad a schizophrenic?

(SIGHS)

You think I'm crazy.

I didn't say that.

No, no. I'm telling you, there's a reason for everything that I've been through, okay?

Every unexplained symptom, every misdiagnosis, and you're taking their side?

No, I'm not.

You want me to be crazy, is that it?

Listen, I stuck by you, and your whole year of crazy, because I care about you.

And just so you know, everybody didn't leave.

You pushed them away.

Which is exactly what you're doing to me.

What kind of pills you give me? Some kind of colon blow?

(LAUGHS)

Oh, you think this is funny?

No.

Well...

(GRUNTS)

Okay, okay.

Okay, okay.

(GRUNTS)

Just...

Shut your mouth, you little bitch!

(GRUNTS)

How did you...

(CHOKING)

(HIGH-PITCHED SCREECHING)

(GASPING)

AGENT: We have some leads on the file John stole.

There are over 300 names.

But when we focus on patients who suffer from both auditory hallucinations and somnambulism, only seven.

That's him.

How do you know?

I recognize the face.

What did the principal say? Am I suspended?

We'll be lucky if they don't press charges.

For what? Fighting? He started it.

For selling prescription dr*gs.

How long have you been off your medication?

I'm not selling them, he stole them. Ask Dylan.

I can't ask Dylan. Dylan's in the ER.

The teacher who found him said he was ranting about how you...

How I what?

Doesn't matter.

Clearly he's out of his mind because he's on your pills.

I can't believe I'm going through this again, everything I went through with your dad.

I thought if I got the right doctors and dr*gs, I could spare you what he went through.

I'm sorry.

(CELL PHONE VIBRATING)

I gotta get back to work.

I can walk home. It's five blocks.

I'm sure I can stay out of trouble.

Okay.

STEPHEN: (TELEPATHICALLY)
Cara, can you hear me?

Where are you?

STEPHEN: (TELEPATHICALLY) John and Pearl Street, someone's following me.

(TIRES SQUEALING)

(TIRES SCREECHING)

Whoa.

Hello, Stephen.

Who are you?

You look just like him, you know?

Your father.

What?

STEPHEN: No, help!

Help!

Help!

John, they got him.

I have the car until Grand and Essex, but the traffic cams were down south of Canal.

Fine, pull all the sat images you can find of the lower island.

TIM: Already started. They might take a minute to composite.

We don't have a minute.

There is nothing we can do for him now.

We lost him, Cara.

No, I lost him.

We never should have let him leave. But I can get him back.

That's not how it works.

Going after him, it was a bad idea from the start.

You know the rules.

We don't expose ourselves to Ultra, not for anyone.

He is not just anyone.

What is it with him?

Maybe you spent a little bit too much time in his head.

Let yourself get a little bit too close.

You said it yourself.

Stephen's the key to finding his father, which means he's our best sh*t for survival.

RUSSELL: She's right.

I know you dig the whole leader of the rag-tag rebels thing... but living down here, like a bunch of rats, it gets real old, real fast.

TIM: I found the car. Would you like to know where he is?

No.

Yes.

Yes.

If you two wanna march straight into Jedikiah's compound, go ahead.

But I have spent half my life dodging that sadistic son of a bitch.

I am not getting caught by him again.

I'm sorry about that.

Security precautions.

Aw, speaking of which. You see the walls?

Don't bother trying to teleport out of here.

My name's Dr. Price.

You're one of them... Ultra.

I can only imagine what John has said.

That I'm some... boogeyman.

Systematically rounding up your kind and wiping you out.

Did he say why I was doing this or is it just because I'm evil?

Yeah, because you're scared of us.

Well, I'm an evolutionary biologist. If anything, I'm fascinated.

No... what scares me is what the rest of the world will think if they knew a paranormal species was living secretly in their midst.

A species that could annihilate them.

They don't want to be found.

Okay? They just want to be left alone.

You have no idea what this world would look like if I didn't find people like you and stop people like you.

Look at this. We just found a 17-year-old who stole $70 million from the Federal Reserve.

You got a 16-year-old who was caught trying to tag the Oval Office.

An 18-year-old who was caught tweeting nuclear launch codes.

And so many breakouts, Stephen. It's all over the world.

Unpredictable... uncontrollable...

I'm not the bad guy here, Stephen.

Not by a long sh*t.

Can I help you?

(ALARM WAILING)

I'm gonna need to see some...

(GRUNTING)

Freeze!

Aah!

I got him.

No one is going to hurt you.

Actually, this might hurt just a little bit.

What is it?

Well, I could give you a boring lecture about recombinant DNA therapy, but the short story is, this will fix you.

Return you to the way you used to be.

There's nothing wrong with me!

Shh.

You're so much like your father.

So much promise.

But you don't want to end up like him, do you?

I don't know what myths John has spun about who your father is, but they're not true.

Yeah?

And I'm supposed to believe you?

Well, you can believe whatever you want.

But your father's not coming back to save you or the Tomorrow People.

Because he's dead.

What?

JEDIKIAH: Come on.

No! No!

(DOOR OPENING)

Sir! There's been a breach.

Well, your friends are coming to rescue you.

That's one way to get them out of hiding.

No.

No.

No. No.

Our powers don't work here.

Neither do theirs.

STEPHEN: Cara, get out of here. Please.

I was wondering when you were going to show up.

No, you weren't.

Don't worry about me, guys. I'm good.

(STRAINING)

Whoa.

This way.

Wait, how did you...

I teleported.

That's impossible.

John.

So you've decided to come home.

Did you think he was gonna help you find your promised land?

Is that it?

It doesn't exist.

And even if it did, you're sure as hell never gonna see it.

No!

Stephen, how are you doing that?

STEPHEN: I don't know.

Get us out.

Now!

Those are some serious next-level skills you broke out.

And here we thought there were just three T's.

How'd you do it, man?

And, more importantly, what are we calling it?

No idea. It just happened.

And that is why your training begins now.

I mean, what else can you do besides... stop time.

(CHUCKLES) Uh, just give me one minute.

Okay? There's something I gotta do. Just...

JOHN: You were right. He is special.

But can he find his father?

John, you saw what he did.

When none of us could use any of our powers.

What if Stephen could lead us there himself?

All right, I get it. He's Moses.

You're giving me a complex.

Don't be jealous.

I'm not jealous.

Should I be?

Thank you.

For coming to help us.

I didn't mean what I said, I was being a d*ck.

I know.

I'd never let you get hurt.

I know.

(DOOR CLOSING)

Excuse me, um, whatever your name is.

TIM: Hello, Stephen.

Uh, I was hoping I could ask a favor.

You'd like to see the rest of your father's message.

Yeah. How'd you know?

People are predicable. Even ones like you.

JACK: (ON MONITOR) I thought maybe you'd get lucky.

Take after your mom.

But if you're watching this, well, things didn't turn out the way that I hoped.

And... I know I have no right to offer you advice.

Not after what I'm about to do.

But, if you turned out like me, then your life just got very complicated.

And very dangerous.

Don't believe everything you see.

The truth is, there's only one thing you can trust.

You.

Trust your heart, son.

I love you, Stephen.

I love you.

What do you think, supercomputer?

What do you think? Is he alive?

TIM: I wish I knew the answer to that, Stephen.

JOHN: You want me to stick around? Or...

STEPHEN: When I come home from being gone all night?

Trust me, you don't want any part of this.

For the record, I haven't forgotten about how you saved my life.

You're welcome.

The thing is, Stephen... one day you might be the one who saves all of us.

(PULSING)

I'm sorry I didn't call, okay? I know this looks really bad.

It doesn't matter. Look, we have a visitor.

Your father has a brother.

Jedikiah. This is your uncle.

What?

Hi, Stephen. Call me Jed.

It's... weird, I know, but we did meet once.

You were in diapers.

Uncle Jed and your father had a falling out.

Right before Luca was born.

And as I was saying, it's been really hard tracking the three of you down.

It was like you guys just up and... vanished.

Yeah, well... we needed a fresh start.

Mom, do you think you could give us a minute?

Just to get to know one another?

MARLA: Sure.

I'll be upstairs.

Nice to see you.

What the hell are you doing here?

Reuniting my family.

You're not my family.

That's your dad and I.

Only I was born human and he was born like you.

The whole reason I became a geneticist was to understand him and perhaps one day help him.

Work for me, Stephen.

Clearly, I underestimated you.

We've only just glimpsed what you're capable of.

If you let me help you hone your skills...

Ultra hunts down people like me. Why would I want to help them?

For them.

Your family.

Are you threatening them?

No, you're threatening them if you don't help me contain the spread of your species.

Can't you see I'm offering you an opportunity to protect the people you love?

Yeah, and to be a traitor.

To whom?

Some rebel runaways you met two days ago? Or to your mother?

Your brother.

Your friend.

Astrid, is it?

Therapy records.

Very illuminating.

Sooner or later, Stephen, you are going to have to pick a side.

JEDIKIAH: Your new friends want you to believe that your father's a hero.

That he's still alive.

JEDIKIAH: They lied to you.

That's your dad.

After he broke into my office and sabotaged my research.

You don't want that to happen to you.

Work with me, Stephen.

Come be an agent at Ultra.

So, we have an uncle Jedikiah?

LUCA: That's a little random.

You must be Luca.

I hear you inherited your father's athletic genes.

Hope that's all I got.

Yes. Let's hope.

Why didn't you tell me Jedikiah was my uncle?

You and John... you played me from the start.

Technically, you're related, but you are not like him, you are one of us.

He asked me to come work for him.

He's using you.

What's the worst that'll happen if we all turn ourselves in, give up our powers, and live like human beings?

You want us to admit that we're mistakes?

Nature doesn't make mistakes.

Jedikiah would drive us extinct.

Just for the sake of the human race.

Which, I'm sorry, I still consider myself a part of.

Of course you do.

But to them, you're not.

I know you have a life here.

A family.

But the people who are like us?

The ones we found? The ones we will find?

They are my family.

I'm not gonna let anything happen to them.

And I won't let anything happen to you.

Now, please, Stephen.

Just come with me.

You know, when you first started talking to me... the mysterious voice in my head.

Even when I thought I was crazy...

I trusted you.

I have to find out what happened to my dad, okay?

Whether or not he's a hero, if he's alive, I have to know.

But there's only one way I can find him without losing everyone else.

Now, I know you're gonna think I'm crazy for doing this...

Stephen, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into.

Cara.

It's your turn to trust me.

My name is Stephen Jameson.

This is where I go to school.

These are my friends.

What happened?

Stephen made his decision.

This is where I work.

And this is my new boss.

I'm in.

Welcome aboard, Stephen.

CARA: I hope you know what you're doing.

STEPHEN: Yeah. Me too.