The Listener Episode 1.01 I'm an Adult Now

Ever wonder what people are thinking? Toby doesn't. The secret isn't so much hearing people's thoughts, but in making it stop, and he's been doing both for as long as he can remember. Still, when God hooks you up with free cable, you have to think he did it for a reason, other than the perks of 24-hour adult channel of the mind.

While driving to work with Oz, Toby is texting Olivia when he's hit with a distress beacon like a thunderbolt. There's been a car accident: a blond woman with a heart tattoo on her hand is trapped, as a young boy is pulled from the wreck. Claiming he has a headache, Toby asks Oz to pull over. Oz worries that Toby may have a brain tumor, until he spots a car accident nearby -- the same one from Toby's flash! The guys run over to pull a blond woman named Anna out of the flipped car, which explodes as they run away. Toby is flummoxed. Where's the little boy from his vision?

Oz and Toby are late to work. Ray stops by to visit Toby, concerned about a phone message Toby left about being scared. Toby claims something has changed. This morning he got a hit when he was closed off; that's never happened before. He has to control his ability if he's going to be normal. Ray thinks Toby's ability may be evolving, and they'll get through it, just like they've gotten through the last 20 years.

Despite their heroism, Ryder lays into Toby and Oz for being late, especially since Oz already filled out a request to be paid overtime. Toby gets a flash on Ryder, who is in despair for missing the wrestling match last night. Toby earns points by offering to burn it on DVD. At the hospital, Toby checks in with Olivia. Having decided that they make better friends than lovers, Olivia reluctantly accepts a date with Toby on Friday for drinks.

Toby is restocking the ambulance and replaying his vision of the accident when he's approached by sexy police detective, Charlie Marks. She's come to the hospital to get a statement from Anna, who's in bad shape and still groggy. Did she say anything about what might have happened? Claiming that Anna mumbled something about a boy, Toby recalls that she was oddly positioned in the car when they found her -- as if she wasn't driving. Charlie hands Toby her card, asking him to call her if he remembers anything else.

Olivia tells Toby that Anna refused to talk to police, so Toby decides to give it a try. Anna refuses to talk, but Toby is able to expand his original flash: A bearded man with a gun grabs Anna's son Nicky and runs off. When Toby tells Anna that she has to tell police, she orders him to get out of her room. Neither of them is aware that the man from Toby's flash is in the waiting room and still armed. When the man, whom we'll call Henderson, enters Anna's room, she's vanished.

Blaming Toby for Anna's disappearance, Olivia hands over her address and tasks him with finding her. In her apartment, Anna hears Toby in the hallway and sneaks out the back door. Toby questions a neighbor who claims to know nothing, but Toby knows she's lying. He picks Anna's lock and scopes her apartment, spying photographs of Anna and Nicky taken at his day care center.

Toby is just leaving when Charlie shows up, demanding to know how Toby got in. Toby claims that the door was open, and poses a curious question: who's taking care of Anna's son? Charlie claims that Anna stated she didn't have a family -- why would she lie? Toby suggests that Anna may have been afraid Social Services would take Nicky, prompting her to leave the hospital. Toby departs, unaware that Anna is hiding on the fire escape. When her phone falls to the pavement and breaks, Anna breaks down and sobs.

Henderson returns home to leave Anna an angry message. Why isn't she answering her phone? He finds Nicky hiding in the basement and coaxes him out with cookies. Nicky has to stay with him because there are bad people out there, but Henderson is working it out. He calls Anna and leaves another angry message, then puts a frightened Nicky on the phone to beg his mother to come get him. Meanwhile, Anna sits in her car, crying over her broken cell phone.

Toby returns home, replaying his flash of Anna's accident in his head. Henderson threatens Anna: if she tells, he'll kill Nicky. Toby flashes back to his own childhood, when a woman standing in front of a burning house trailer tells him his new name -- Toby Logan. Ray interrupts the reverie, encouraging Toby to talk about his problems. Toby confesses that he's starting to remember fragments of his past, and he's not sure he wants to remember. His mother had the gift too, and it drove her out of her mind. Ray suggests that Toby doesn't run like his mother did.

At the police station, Charlie notices her boss Becker in a serious conference with other department heads. Officer Jake King has been working undercover and hasn't been seen for a few days. When Becker asks how her case is going, Charlie explains her intention to visit Nicky's day care, unaware that Toby's already there. Spying an abandoned car, Toby gets a flash: there's a guy in the trunk. Despite the intense smell, Toby uses his skeleton key to open the trunk and discover a dead guy, shot in the chest.

Before long, the parking lot is filled with cops including Charlie, who wants answers. How did Toby know about the car? Toby claims that a bunch of little kids told him, then ran off, so he called Charlie, because she's the only detective he knows. And why are there so many cops on the scene? Charlie explains that the dead guy was a cop -- Jake King -- just as Toby recognizes Henderson, Jake's partner.

In distress, Henderson lays into Toby. How did a punk like him find Jake? Toby counters. He has a partner too, and he always knows his whereabouts. Henderson must have some idea why this happened to Jake. When Henderson lunges for him, Toby flashes: Jake calls Henderson an addict, pleading with him to turn himself in. Henderson holds a gun, which goes off in the struggle. Meanwhile, Anna buys a gun from a street vendor.

Charlie takes Toby to the police station to make a statement. Toby wonders aloud if Henderson could have had anything to do with Jake's murder. And how is this all connected to Anna and Nicky, both still missing? Toby watches Henderson leave the police station, thinking that he needs to fix everything. Anna is waiting in her car, and when Henderson pulls out, she follows him to his house. Plying her new gun, Anna creeps around to the back of the house, where she spies Nicky through a sliding glass door. It's a happy reunion until a scared look on Nicky's face indicates that Henderson has a gun to Anna's head.

On the approach to Henderson's house, Toby spots Anna's car with keys still in the ignition. Finding Henderson's door open, Toby enters, only to be confronted by a suspicious neighbor. Toby reads the neighbor's mind to learn that Henderson just left for his cabin on Hart Lake. Hopping into Anna's car, Toby calls Charlie and heads to the cabin.

Toby creeps up to the cabin, just as Henderson concludes that he's going to take Anna and Toby for "a walk." Anna begs for the life of her son, but Henderson is implacable, leading them out the door at gunpoint. Toby clocks Henderson over the head with a log. Anna and Nicky run for it, but dead end on a cliff. Henderson revives to hurl Toby to the ground and trap Anna and Nicky. Toby runs up, pleading for Anna and Nicky's lives. He knows Jake's shooting was an accident. Henderson was a good cop, and he can put a stop to this right now.

As Anna and Nicky back towards the edge of the cliff, Nicky loses his footing and falls. Anna manages to grab him before he's lost forever. When Henderson lunges at them, Toby pushes him, sending him over the cliff. Together, Toby and Anna rescue Nicky.

Much later, Henderson is wheeled into the hospital in a neck brace as Anna gives a statement to cops. Charlie confronts Toby: what is it with him? Did he have another hunch? Toby will only allow that he has a gift, which is totally lost on Charlie. Olivia knows that Toby has had a rough couple of days, but mentally disparages his ever sharing it with her. Toby offers to tell her what happened over a drink. Surprised and delighted, Olivia accepts.

Finally alone, Toby reviews the events of the past few days. He's been hearing voices all his life, and has always told himself that he could control it. He thought if he let all those thoughts in his head they would ruin his life -- drive him crazy and destroy him. Now he knows that there are people out there that need help, and regardless of the toll on him, they need to be heard.