Pilot (episode)

While transporting his delinquent daughter to Los Angeles, U.S. Marshal Jack Carter becomes stranded in a small (and top secret) Oregon town populated with scientists.

Teaser
''A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.'' - Albert Einstein.

It's night over a small town. Susan Perkins is laying in bed, reading the book Science and the Akashic Field. She calls downstairs to her husband, Walter Perkins, trying to coax him to bed, but he insists that he continue working.

In the basement, Walter turns on a large device consisting of three rings which begin to spin. He thinks everything is working until an alarm goes off.

Meanwhile, a police car is winding its way along a forest road outside of town. A US Marshal is driving, and a young blonde girl is in the back seat, exchanging verbal jabs. It's raining and thundering. After a lightning flash, another car appears on the road ahead of them, going the other way with his high-beams on. When the girl looks at the other car, she sees herself and the Marshal inside the other car.

The girl is tries to convince the Marshal that they had just passed themselves, but he doesn't believe her. Suddenly a dog appears in the center middle of the road, forcing the car to lose control in attempt to avoid it. The car spins off of the road and hits a tree. When the Marshal attempts to get out, he falls several feet.

Act One
Jack and Zoe walk over a hill onto Eureka, where they can see a large lake in the distance. They stop a child on a bicycle, who claims to be an Oppenheimer, and ask him where to find the Sheriff's Office. The boy tells them to walk two blocks past the man collecting rocks, "make a left at the stand of deciduous trees. It'll be 60 meters past the park."

When they arrive at the Sheriff's office, they find the deputy looking through personals ads. When Jack reaches into his pocket for his badge, Lupo thinks it is a gun and tackles him. Zoe uses it as an opportunity to escape and runs out the door. Jo lets him up after Jack convinces her that he is a US Marshal. A moment later, the sheriff arrives with Zoe, who claimed to be "Shanaya." After Jo lets Jack up, he explains that he was in an auto accident trying to avoid a dog, which Cobb says is a local hazard, and he was hoping to leave the girl with them while he took care of the car. Deputy Lupo calls Henry Deacon, the local auto mechanic, to ask him to bring his tow truck.

At Henry's garage, an artificial-gravity experiment is taking place, preventing Henry from answering his phone. After the experiment exploded, Jo was able to get a hold of him. As he was leaving, the Perkins arrive in their RV, claiming to be leaving for the weekend. As the Perkins' son, Brian, gets out of the RV, Henry can see that the RV is packed with moving boxes. Susan closes the door in an attempt to hide the contents of the RV, and Susan and Brian go into the convenience store, where Spencer, Henry's assistant, is looking at a magazine.

Henry confronts Walter, who insists that he's just been working too hard and it is disrupting his family life. Henry suggests he consult Beverly Barlowe, but Walter refuses, and goes into the convenience store also, while Brian goes to the RV with a stolen candybar. As Henry leaves in the tow truck, Susan tries unsuccessfully to convince Walter to tell someone about the accident. Brian, meanwhile, is in the RV with the family dog. As he eats his candybar, a strange effect begins to take place inside the RV, and consumes a good chunk of the rear of the RV, leaving it smoking and ashy. Walter and Susan get into the RV, and after asking their son where he wants to go first, discovers both Brian and the dog missing, and the damage to the RV.

Henry and Carter are at the crash site. After Henry pulls the car onto the road and sets it up to be towed, Carter is told that it will take a few days to fix.

Back at the sheriff's office, Sheriff Cobb is on the phone with Ned Carver, claiming that aliens abducted some of his cattle, and Cobb says he will look into it. Moments later, Jo gets a call about the incident at Henry's station.

At Henry's, Cobb organizes a search party to search for Brian. Carter shows up, and tries to help, but is refused. Undeterred, he steps into the tarped RV to search for clues. After a moment, he is interrupted by DoD agent Allison Blake, who is also unhappy with his presence. Soon, he discovers what appears to be the bloody handprint of a child. He takes some of the substance off of the wall with his finger and licks it, discovering it to be chocolate. He also discovers a chocolate wrapper on the floor. He concludes that Brian is not, in fact, missing, and was hiding in a storage space in the RV, which is where he discovers the boy.

After reuniting Brian with Walter and Susan, Allison offers to take Jack to a place to stay

Memorable Quotes
"'Deciduous?'"

"It means they shed their leaves once a year."

"Thanks, Einstein. I knew that."

"I'm an Oppenheimer. The Einsteins live on Fourth."

Zoe Carter and Oppenheimer