ALMOST HUMAN: UNAIRED PILOT (TV)
Summary
The first in this science-fiction drama series about a futuristic Los Angeles cop who is paired with a lifelike robot partner. In this episode, Detective John Kennex and his team engage in a shoot-out with a criminal gang known as Syndicate, wondering how they knew of the cops' raid in advance. Kennex's partner is killed and Kennex is severely injured by a bomb, then experiencing a flashback of his former girlfriend, Anna. Two years later, he undergoes dangerous treatment with a black-market "Recollectionist" in an attempt to remember who attacked and killed his friends and put him into a 17-month coma, but cannot recall their faces. A robot officer, or MX, spots him outside the man's office, but he states that he is off-duty. At home, he plays Anna's last message and then receives a call from his boss, Sandra Maldonado, telling him he must return to work. At the station, Detective Richard Paul is not pleased to see him, still blaming him for the raid and the officers' deaths. Kennex tries to refuse his new MX partner, but Maldonado tells him it is mandatory and notes that she needs him back despite his many psychological problems because of his past with Syndicate, explaining that they likely committed a recent robbery an armored truck and stole a quantity of programmable DNA and other weapons, though she tells him to keep the Syndicate angle secret.
At the crime scene, Kennex experiences a flashback to the day of the raid, and intelligence analyst Valerie Stahl figures out that it was not merely the work of a local gang. Kennex's MX partner notices his odd behavior and questions him, and Kennex, frustrated, finally pushes him out of the car onto the highway. He visits engineer Rudy, who offers him a different type of robot partner, one with human-like feelings. Kennex is doubtful about the robot's "bugs" and emotional problems, but he accepts Dorian nonetheless and awakens him. Dorian, who dislikes the word "synthetic," addresses Kennex conversationally and questions him about Anna, but he refuses to discuss her. Elsewhere, members of Syndicate kidnap Detective Vogel and destroy his MX partner, and when Kennex returns to the station, everyone is suspicious of Dorian. Kennex roughly questions their one captive Syndicate suspect, Janns, and Dorian intervenes, observing that Janns actually shot himself during capture. He admits that he wants to get away from Syndicate and gives up an address, though he plants a mysterious device in the bathroom as he is transported. At the address, Kennex and the others find Vogel trapped in a box attached to a trip wire with the word "PAYBACK" on the wall, and Kennex realizes that it is a setup as a strange gas disfigures and kills Vogel.
Janns escapes custody and the detectives discover that one of Vogel's case files is missing. Dorian observes that Kennex does not "know himself" ever since the traumatic raid, for which he still blames himself. Rudy then explains that Vogel was a "test subject" for the stolen chemical weapons and that the criminals are targeting cops, and when Kennex returns to the Recollectionist, he finally sees a face amongst his attackers: Anna. He confesses the truth to Dorian, saying that she disappeared during his coma, and Dorian advises him about caring for his synthetic leg and explains that Kennex is his "one ticket" to becoming a cop and that he is not like the other MXs. Dorian then studies Vogel's destroyed MX's memories and realizes that Syndicate intends to attack the police station to recover something from evidence, and Jann's hidden device activates and shuts down all the MX officers. After a shootout, the cops capture the Syndicate leader with Dorian's help and then search the evidence room for the key object, also still looking for Vogel's missing file. Unseen by anyone, an MX in an evidence box appears to awaken. Maldonado tells Kennex that she requested Dorian for him because they are both "special," and Kennex and Dorian begin to bond as they head off on their next job. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Fox
- DATE: November 4, 2013 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:18
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 111876
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, police/detective
- SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 2013-2014
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- J.J. Abrams … Executive Producer
- Bryan Burk … Executive Producer
- J.H. Wyman … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Reid Shane … Co-Executive Producer
- Kathy Lingg … Co-Executive Producer
- Brad Anderson … Co-Executive Producer, Director
- Athena Wickham … Producer
- Tanya Swerling … Producer
- Vladimir Stefoff … Co-Producer
- Amanda Lencioni … Associate Producer
- Dieter Ismagil … Associate Producer
- Noreen O'Toole … Associate Producer
- Chris Tilton … Music by
- The Crystal Method … Music by
- Karl Urban … Cast, John Kennex
- Michael Ealy … Cast, Dorian
- Minka Kelly … Cast, Valerie Stahl
- Mackenzie Crook … Cast, Rudy Lom
- Michael Irby … Cast, Detective Richard Paul
- Lili Taylor … Cast, Sandra Maldonado
- Tim Kelleher … Cast, Reinhardt
- Mekia Cox … Cast, Anna
- Hiro Kanagawa … Cast, The Recollectionist
- Joe Smith … Cast, Voice of MXs
- Anthony Konechny … Cast, MX-43 '1'
- Darren E. Scott … Cast, MX-43 '2'
- Garfield Wilson … Cast, MX-43 '4'
- Todd Mann … Cast, MX-43 '3'
- Brad Mann … Cast, MX-43 '3A'
- Teach Grant … Cast, Trevor
- Ian Butcher … Cast, Cortez
- Nils Hognestad … Cast, Long Hair
- Toby Levins … Cast, Detective Pete Vogel
- Leanne Adachi … Cast, Officer Patel
- Chad Riley … Cast, Detective Martin Pelham
- James Tyce … Cast, Uniformed Officer in Bullpen
- Brett Delaney … Cast, Warehouse Cop #1
- Kristian Bakstad … Cast, Warehouse Cop #2