Hostages ‘Pilot’ Recap – Episode 01.01

A Hostages negotiator takes hostages. Is this great idea for a show? We shall see.

The Breakdown

The show begins with Dr. Sanders at a press conference with President Kincaid and they talk about his lung surgery. After the president is in his motorcade, one of his advisers tells him that women will love that he selected a female surgeon to do his procedure. On the other side of town in S.E. Washington D.C., FBI special agent Duncan Carlisle is at the scene of a hostage negotiation at a bank. He proceeds to tell the person leading this bank robbery ring that they won’t get a safe way out until they release all but one of the hostages. The robber does what Carlisle wants and the ring leader wants to talk about his way out. The bank robbery ringleader proceeds out with the remaining hostage. Carlisle shoots the hostage and we see it’s actually the ring leader dressed as the hostage. Carlisle states that he knew it wasn’t a hostage because the boots didn’t match the suit.

Carlisle visits his wife in the hospital as she is getting chemo therapy. Brian Sanders is a lacrosse coach and finds a bag of money in the locker room that is his son’s which he collected from the team to buy beer and fake ID’s.

Carlisle’s team moves into place at the Sanders’ residence in order to kidnap them. The group is going by numbers instead of names to conceal their identity. The boy, Jake Sanders, is found out to be a drug dealer and the money in the bag (from the locker room) was money that he owed to another drug dealer. Morgan leaves the house to see her boyfriend as number 4 on Carlisles’ team is to follow her and kill Morgans boyfriend. Morgan gets into a fight with her boyfriend and leaves to return home. Carlisle’s team moves in on the house and enters it and takes the family hostage. Carlisle takes Ellen upstairs and tells her that she will kill the President during surgery or they will kill her family.

Ellen Sanders tries to trip the silent alarm and the security company calls. As Ellen stalls to give the security company the password to the security system, Carlisle’s team threatens to shoot Morgan. An agent from the security company comes by the house and Ellen recognizes him from the hospital. He gives her a package of a pictures of the Sanders holiday card and Carlisle tells Ellen that his team has eyes and ears everywhere and they know everything about them and creepiness ensued.

Brian tries to grab a knife and attack a member of Carlisle’s team, and he got hit with a nightstick. Carlisle takes Brian upstairs and shows him a picture of Brian with his mistress at a hotel. Carlisle tells Brian that he will get his wife to cooperate or his secret will come out.

We see the first lady talking with the President and she is concerned with his surgery.

Back at the Sanders house, the kids are learning that the team that has taken them hostage has been watching them. Carlisle shows Ellen a vile that she will use to kill the president, he doesn’t state what is in it but it’s completely untraceable.  Jake is worried about the drug dealer he owes money to when his cell phone rings. Jake proceeds to tell one of Carlisle’s men that he deals weed and is now concerned with why they killed his dog. One of Carlisle’s men shows Jake that the dog was drugged and he will be fine in a few days. When Carlisle finds out his man told the boy about the dog. Carlisle is upset because the family needs to fear them in order to control them. Ellen for some unforeseen reason tries to cut off her finger.

We see that this plan to kill the president goes beyond just Carlisle and his team, while checking on his daughter and father. The same adviser of the president from earlier states that he has left the White house and wants to know if everything is in motion and can Carlisle be counted on. Carlisle says the Ellen will come through.

As the family gets ready for their day and Ellen prepares to kill the President. Morgan rushes up to the bathroom because she is sick, she is in the bathroom taking a pregnancy test. Carlisle suspects the something is wrong, breaks down the door to see what Morgans is up to and Morgan asks Carlisle not to tell. As Ellen rushed up to see what is wrong Carlisle takes the test from Morgan and Morgan tells her mom Carlisle was helping her because she may have a stomach virus.

Ellen heads to the hospital with the vile that Carlisle gave her and switched it with a vile already in the Presidents’ room. Secret Service agents rush to the room and we find out via the TV in the Sanders home that the President surgery will be post-posted because of a blood thinner was given to the President, that was discover by the Ellen. The press asked Dr. Ellen Sanders is she discouraged with this news and she remarks that she doesn’t give up so easily, while staring fiercely at the camera apparently at Carlisle. We find out that President Kincaid surgery will go on in two weeks.

The Analysis

This show should only have been a half an hour. I like the premise of the show but gathering a family in a living room for 45 minutes was maddening.  It’s one thing if you want to fill those minutes with character creation, which is normally fine but those characters are boring. Most people that are drawn to this show other than the shows concept will be drawn by Dylan McDermott.

The rest of the cast really aren’t that interesting. The son deals pot, the daughter is or could be knocked up. That’s not something we need to spend 30-45 minutes on. However in the last 15, maybe 10 minutes, when it was “murder time,” the show ended. As I stated I like the show’s premise but the following episodes will have to be more fast paced than this. The big question is “why is all this going on” I suspect will not be answered until way later in the season.