The Cape Episode 1.01 Pilot

Vince Faraday suits up for work. It's a busy day for the Palm City Police Department, as the Mayor will be announcing the new Chief of Police at a press conference. The cops are in a heightened state of alert due to terrorist threats from masked killer Chess. An anonymous blogger named Orwell says the threats to the new chief will come from inside the agency. Before Vince can investigate, Chess attacks the new Police Chief in his car, releasing a canister of L9, which blows up the car and the new chief with it. Vince tries to break him free, but he barely escapes with his life.

Vince's son Trip is confident his dad can nail Chess, even though Vince has reservations. It's those same reservations that carry over to a conversation with his best friend Marty. Once a detective like Vince, Marty now works for ARK Corporation as a security officer. He asks Vince if he'd like to join the corporation. With his wife Dana's approval, Vince meets with ARK's CEO Peter Fleming - a powerful English businessman - and is offered the job.

Later that night, Vince spends time with Trip, reading his favorite comic "The Cape." Before going to bed, Vince receives an email from Orwell, who informs that L9 is being smuggled into Palm City right now by a hood called Scales. Chess is paying him to bring a massive shipment into the port. Vince alerts Marty and together they discover an "innocent" ARK shipment of dolls - which contains the L9. Vince is rendered unconscious by two ARK security guards; apparently, he's been set up by Marty.

Vince wakes up strapped to a chair. Marty stays silent as Chess emerges from the shadows. Chess removes his mask to reveal his true identity - he's Peter Fleming. Fleming sets Vince free, but not before he has the Chess mask placed over Vince's face and staple-gunned in place so they can frame him. Running through a train yard, Vince tries to elude ARK guards and armed helicopters while trying to remove the mask. Taking cover underneath a stationary train, Vince dives into a manhole just in time - seconds later the train is blown up.

Watching the news, Dana and Trip are horrified to hear the TV anchors tell the world that Vince is Chess and now he's dead. At a press conference, Peter Fleming announces that Chess is dead, and ARK is taking over the police department, effectively privatizing it.

Vince wakes up in a carnival full of fire-breathers, trapeze artists, and exotic animals. It's Max Malini's Carnival of Crime. Ringleader Max Malini identifies himself and his gang as professional bank robbers. Whether Vince is Chess or not, Max wants money or Vince dies. Vince trades bank security codes in exchange for his life, and a small (but profitable) crime spree begins, with Max in the lead.

All this illicit activity doesn't escape Peter Fleming, who leans hard on Marty to find the robbers. Meanwhile, Max offers Vince a deal; if Vince will help him rob Peter Fleming, Max promises to get Vince back to his family. Trip and Dana are having trouble coping with Vince's "death"; Trip won't talk and Dana's trying her best to hold it together. At Vince's funeral, Dana tosses a memorial wreath into the ocean while Marty comforts her. Looking on, angrily, is Vince.

Vince is punching a boxing bag at the circus when he notices a cape strung to the arm of a statue. Dusting it off, he's reminded of the comic book he shared with Trip. He whips the cape around, wondering if he could transform himself into a hero like The Cape. Would that help send Trip a message that he's not alone? Max tells him that if he's going to train Vince in the ways of the Cape, Vince will have to work the hardest he's ever worked in his life. Vince will have to give Max his soul. Vince agrees and his training begins.

The training is hard. It includes punishing fights with Rollo; hypnotism training by Ruvi; learning vanishing tricks from Max and more. But after a punishing regimen, Vince emerges on top of his game. Once he's learned how to master the cape, Max announces Vince is now ready.

The Cape's first outing comes at a soiree hosted by Peter Fleming. The Cape strings up a couple of security goons, but that's just a message. His real mission is at the piers, where L9 smuggling led by Scales himself, is underway. After taking care of a couple of goons, The Cape takes on Scales himself. The fight is ugly; Scales is too powerful. He overpowers the Cape, wraps him in chains, and throws him into the sea.

Vince struggles to free himself. Finally, he dislocates his own shoulders to wriggle out of the chains. He makes it to the dockside warehouse where Scales is overseeing the L9 unloading, surprised to see another hooded figure watching. Giving chase, he catches up with a beautiful girl who's revealed as Orwell. The Cape convinces Orwell to take him to her secret hideaway but it's a ruse; she uses his fingerprints to immediately identify him as Vince Faraday. The pair bond, however, when she learns Vince is fighting back.

On board the ship Fleming uses to transport the L9, Chess confronts Max about his crime spree. There's not much that can hold Max; he comes flying out of his bonds and vanishes in a puff of smoke. As Max escapes, Scales wings him with a bullet. Back at Orwell's, Vince learns that Max is in danger and heads out to help. Orwell gives him an earpiece, telling him she "has his back."

As Scales bears down on Max he comes across Rollo. Rollo beats him unconscious with a massive wrench. Meanwhile, The Cape saves a bleeding Max from ARK security guards. Max gives an impressive dying speech - but then realizes he's not actually dying.

Chess gives the order to blow up the smugglers' ship - a ship so laden with L9 it will take out half of Palm City. But before anything happens, The Cape steps in and a savage gunfight breaks out. The Cape alerts Orwell to jam all cell-phone activity within 500 feet of his location, then moves to take Chess in hand-to-hand combat.

After a brutal fight with The Cape, Chess tries to use his cell phone to signal the destruction of the L9, but Orwell successfully blocks it. Using the lights of an approaching helicopter as a distraction, Chess manages to make his getaway and leaps over the edge of the boat into the sea.

Dressed as The Cape, Vince visits Trip. Disguising his voice he tells Trip that Vince was framed. Furthermore, he's alive and has a message: "Don't lose hope. Don't ever lose hope." In tears, Vince promises Trip that someday, he'll see his father again - and then vanishes into the night.