Human Target Episode 1.01 Pilot

Seattle bank employee Hollis got fired -- and he's spreading the pain around. Armed with a rifle and a homemade vest bomb, he's taken his co-workers hostage. One man is duct-taped to a chair, a black hood over his head. Everyone else lies on the floor while Hollis rants over his cell phone.

A detective outside talks Hollis into releasing the hostages...except for Ken Lydecker, the hooded executive, who's the real target of Hollis' rage.

But this is not the target Hollis was expecting. Surprisingly casual, the hooded guy asks, "Hey, buddy, we alone yet?" Outside, the detective finds a white-haired man: Ken Lydecker. So who's inside?

That would be Christopher Chance, the human target. A private security expert and bodyguard, he protects people by posing as someone close to them, so he can flush out and eliminate the threat. Chance disarms Hollis with some witty banter and a few expert punches and kicks. Clutching his bomb vest, Hollis threatens to finish what he started. "No threats," says Chance, and fires. The SWAT team outside springs into action. WHAM! The building blows up.

A month later, Chance's business partner, Winston, visits his bandaged associate at Chance's sprawling warehouse home base in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. As Carmine the Rottweiler looks on, Chance asks if Winston's checking up on him. "Why," retorts Winston, "did something happen?" Chance shows off Lydecker's payment: bottles of 25-year-old Takagi whiskey, worth $900 a pop. Winston says this isn't exactly what he meant by bartering for their services to keep things on the down low.

Winston's gruff mock-scolding doesn't hide his concern. He's worried Chance is slipping and says the shop's closed until Chance recovers. Later, Winston meets with Stephanie and James Dobbs, who found a bomb on her car. They work for McNamara Engineering, where she runs the design team for the new California bullet train. Winston explains they aren't taking new clients. But the train's maiden voyage is tomorrow, and they need him.

"Why me?" Chance strolls in, much to Winston's disapproval.

Stephanie says he can get whoever is after her to reveal himself and then take him out, right? Right.

Posing as Stephanie's new translator, Chance joins the maiden voyage. He swipes her cell phone -- to see who she's been talking to -- and calls Winston. Chance says to bring in Guerrero, but Winston hates the idea of calling in "that animal."

Cut to a diner, where two heavies are threatening a mild-looking guy with a mustache, soul patch and wire-rimmed glasses. As the Shirelles' "Soldier Boy" plays in the background, the dude scares off the thugs by calmly promising to kill them both later, in their sleep. He's Guerrero. And when Winston phones a moment later, he's in.

Chance asks Stephanie about Times reporter Mark Hoffer, whose number is in her incoming calls. A slightly tipsy legislator apologizes to Stephanie for opposing the project. When a waiter puts a glass next to her, Chance drags her away. Why? The ice in that glass is cubes, and everyone else's is crushed. The hapless legislator drinks from the glass, then collapses. A bald waiter watches as Chance leads Stephanie to another car.

Guerrero tells Chance that Hoffer was killed by a car bomb that morning. Stephanie confesses she secretly helped Hoffer with an exposé about cost-cutting on the project. Then she notices the brakes are squealing. Soon they learn that all the emergency brake handles have been pulled. Now the brakes are overwhelmed and will explode if used again. Unfortunately, there's a big curve in a tunnel coming up. They're gonna crash.

Suddenly, the bald waiter appears. With a gun! Chance takes the bullet (he's wearing a vest). The chase is on. Up in the service ducts, Chance and the assassin duke it out in a spectacular display of horizontal fisticuffs. The combatants fall into a compartment. Chance finally kicks out a window and tosses the guy out. It's not pretty.

Everyone gets into the rear car, which has a separate braking system and can be unhooked from the train. But Stephanie has to disconnect it manually. Chance stays behind while James reluctantly leaves, closing the door with one last look.

When Stephanie's done, they discover the outside door handle is secured with a yellow-and-blue-striped tie. Chance kicks out the glass, but the rear car's already rushing away. Stephanie says, "We're gonna die, aren't we?" No, but they ARE going to fashion a makeshift parachute, jump off the train, and ride the wake turbulence to safety. Sweet!

At the terminal, Guerrero confronts James as Chance dangles the yellow-and-blue neckwear: "You forgot your tie."

Knowing Hoffer and Stephanie had an affair, James plotted to kill them. A stunned Stephanie protests the affair had been over for a year, but Chance explains that, by killing Stephanie after she finished the train, James would still get the bonus. Stephanie slaps James and stalks away. Later, she tells Chance she doesn't know what she owes him. He gently removes her wedding ring.

Back at HQ, Winston wonders why Chance keeps ending up in front of loaded guns. Is it the rush? Some weird penance? Or does he hope that, one day, the gun will finally go off?

Whatever, dude. A month later, a nervous passenger hands Chance a bottle from the back seat of an SUV. It's Japanese whiskey. And it burns like jet fuel, Chance explains after taking a sip. Then he lights one very expensive Molotov cocktail, flinging it down the alley at the people who are dogging his client. KA-BOOOM!