Carter - 1x01 & 1x02 - Pilot

The Carter series started in August 2011 with its pilot.

It was 114 pages long and remained the longest Carter script for the rest of the first season.

-> 1x03 - Adam & Eve

Headline
The daughter of an FBI agent is dragged into a world full of deception, intrigues and crime.

New Characters
Naturally, there were a lot of new faces to get the series started. All in all 22 characters started the show of, more than any other pilot in the Woltvision era.

Sidney Mitchell played by Selena Gomez

Adam Carter played by Thomas Dekker

Jason Simmons played by James Roday

Cole Mitchell played by Tamoh Penikett

Grace Mitchell played by Nina Dobrev

Steve Bradley played by Matt Barr

Kevin Russell played by Timothy Olyphant

James Stewart played by Nathan Fillion

Emily Anderson played by Summer Glau

Jeffrey Carter played by Nicholas Lea

Kaily Carter played by Miley Cyrus

Devon Carter played by Zac Efron

Jack Carter played by David Henry

Greg Carter played by Ian Somerhalder

Melissa Carter played by Elisha Cuthbert

Shawn Carter played by Jake T. Austin

Trowman played by Christian Slater

Jay Mitchell played by Aaron Paul

Jesse Bolton played by Matthew Bomer

Lena Andrews played by Joanne Kelly

Richard Stewart played by Kiefer Sutherland

Joshua White played by Jared Padalecki

Episode Summary
The episodes starts with a rainbow in the sky of the city of Hillsboro, Oregan.

It leads to the first scene in which Adam Carter is on the property of the Stewart family. James Stewart is in his mansion, along with his brother Richard, as they are discussing James' political future as well as the Carter family. Adam makes his way through the well guarded yard, with the help of his hired associate Joshua White. Just as Adam made his way halfway through, Richard Stewart is killed by a sniper (that wasn't Joshua). Adam and Joshua start to run and are both caught and arrested.

The next morning, we see a gym in Hillsboro in which Grace Mitchell sees her sister Sidney flirting with a guy on one of the machines. Grace tells her about what happened at the Stewart mansion, as Sidney isn't really interested in politics and can barely tell how many Carter or Stewart children there are. Their conversation gets interrupted when Sidney receives a text that she doesn't want to tell her sister about.

In a cafe downtown, up and rising FBI agent Jason Simmons is having breakfast with his girlfriend Emily Anderson, a reporter for the local newspaper, as they also talk about the Carter case. And Simmons identifies and arrests a man on the FBI's most wanted list along the way.

Next up is the FBI building, where Patrick Trowman is talking to one of his agents, Cole Mitchell who is still in trouble after an incident in a nieghboring town shortly before. Cole asks to be on the Carter case, but Trownman declines, telling him that Simmons is already the designated leader for a team that doesn't include him.

At the police station, we first meet Senator Jeffrey Carter, talking to his son Adam who's still in custody. Adam doesn't feel like talking and realizes that his father only wants what's best for his own political career.

We move to a military camp where we first see a young named Jay without knowing who he is yet.

In the FBI, we now meet the two other members on Simmons' team, Kevin Russell and Steven Bradley, when Adam is brought into the FBI building for the first time, starting to be interrogated.

At the Stewart Mansion, we see Jesse Bolton, Stewart's assistant, talking to his boss about the current events. The case of David Stewart, James' son who was murdered a year prior, is first mentioned.

Back at the FBI, Simmons now talks to Trowman. The latter wants to know about what Adam said and Simmons mentions an idea that Adam proposed. One that involves Cole Mitchell's daughter...

Jay talks to his friend in the military camp, first telling him about breaking out.

Trowman, Simmons, Bradley and Russell talk to Cole at the FBI building. They tell him about Adam's idea of sending Sidney into the Carter mansion in order to get information that might lead to the "dirty Carter", someone who Adam claims is really responsible for the murder of Richard Stewart. Cole is obviously hesitant but promises to at least ask his daughter.

We first see the Mitchell house where Sidney is doing her homework with Grace's help when Cole comes home, telling both of them about what he's been told. Knowing that her dad's job is on the line and can be saved by saying yes, Sidney agrees to give the operation a shot and go back to the office with her dad.

We meet the Carter family at their mansion, as Jeffrey talks to his wife Francine. Kaily joins the scene, having a fight with Shawn, Devon and Greg also appear, not seeming to be all that interested in what is happening to Adam.

Sidney and Cole talk to Simmons and he explains the situation again. Sidney agrees to try her luck and should stay for the interviews (as all Carters were brought in to talk to Adam). She then meets Bradley and Russell, and ultimately Adam, who seesm to take an interest in her right away. He tells her about his suspicious and describes his siblings in few words, giving her a first impression. Then Sidney stays back in the middle room, watching one Carter sibling after another talk to Adam. None of which seem very sympathetic. Except for Jack, which is why Sidney tells the agents he should be the one they need to try to get close to.

Lena Andrews, Adam's lawyer, is introduced, blocking Emily's try to get information about Adam's arrest and the current state of the investigation.

Cole and Simmons send Sidney into the book store that Jack has his club meeting in. Sidney sits in the (small) audience and waits, before casually and randomly coming to talk to him. When he doesn't ask her out, she has no choice but to do it herself, inviting him to drink a coffee with her while waiting for her dad to pick her up.

In the mean time, Adam meets with his lawyer Lena Andrews. But he is not in any way interested about her defence ideas, instead, he gives her a piece of paper that he wrote a personal message on and tells her who to deliver it to, as Russell and Bradley are watching, only able to guess what that is about.

Sidney and Jack talk about the book that Jack talked about in his book club (with many references to the Woltvision series Keith) and the two are getting along fine. They ultimately get to the topic of Adam and Sidney manages to get herself an invitation to the Carter mansion.

Bradley and Russell are at the office, talking about the case, when an anonymous letter is delivered to them, with nothing more than an adress inside. They decide to wait till the others are back.

Simmons and Cole are still waiting outside as Sidney and Jack have been talking for a while. Simmons gets Russell's call about the letter and asks Cole to stay put while he heads back to the others, Cole agrees.

Emily is at home alone when Lena Andrews shows up, handing her the piece of paper that Adam wrote, appearently to her. It tells her that the operation has begun...

The three agents are checking out the adress, finding a warehouse with a guard inside. A fire fight emerges, the guard dies, but not before starting to delete all the files on his computer. The three stop it right before everything is deleted. The little bit that is left is the plan for a nuclear bomb. Simmons quickly comes to the conclusion that this can't be a coincidence and has to have something to do with Adam.

The episode ends with Sidney and Jack, driving through the gate of the Carter mansion. The journey begins.

Critical Reception
The pilot was called "the best in Woltvision history" and certainly the most professional one. The characters were all introduced fluently and according to their personality. The story clicked right away, the pacing was great, humor was right, the dialogue worked and so did the chemnistry between the characters.

The series could not have started off any better.

Notes & Trivia
Thomas Dekker, though always having been a huge player in the scripts, got to open a pilot for the very first time.

This was the script debut of Joanne Kelly. And her last appearence.

Jared Padalecki is listed as a guest star as Woltvision had dropped his previous plans (a prison break story) and didn't intend to use him again. Those plans would change rather quickly and drastically.

This is the first time the two leads get to know each other in the pilot of a show. Danny & Catherine had been best friends for years, Luke & Christine only met briefly in the pilot and Nate & Alison at least know each other in the dream world.