- Disillusioned by his years as a spy, Robert McCall resigns from his job, determined to help people in need. His first two clients are a telecommunications employee who stumbles onto an extortion ring, and a woman threatened by a stalker.
- We are introduced to someone who calls himself The Equalizer who takes on 2 new clients in this pilot episode. The first is a man working for a Telecommucation company who discovers some unexplained records in the company files - McCall discovers that the VP of the Telecomm company is recording high-level officials' phone conversations to use for blackmail. The second is a single mother who is being stalked - McCall tries to scare off the stalker but only succeeds in making him more violent towards his victim.—ignazia
- Plain clothes police are trailing someone on the New York subway. At a station he gets off and grabs a female passenger threatening to kill her unless he can go free. A figure emerges from the shadows and starts talking to the man persuading him to surrender. Just as he does so the chief police officer/agent (we never discover which) shoots him in the shoulder, the man retaliates by getting more violent towards his hostage. The figure from the shadows shoots him dead.
In a concert hall an orchestra rehearses. The Shadow Man makes contact with one of the violinists, Scott McCall (William Zabka), and they appear to have some history. In the course of the conversation we discover that the man is Scott's father who is trying to renew his relationship with his son. He says he is changing his life and promises to attend his son's next concert.
McCall Snr (Edward Woodward) buys a newspaper and checks an ad in the Securities section. It reads "Got A Problem? Odds Against You? Call The Equalizer 212-555-4200".
A mother arrives at a school to collect her 10-yr-old daughter, Sarah (Carrie Kei Heim), who is talking to a man through the chain-link fence. As the woman calls to Sarah the young man takes off and she reminds the girl not to speak to strangers.
At Manhattan Telecommunication an office worker tries to display an account number and finds discrepancies. He telephones one of the numbers and is connected to a General at the Pentagon. He disconnects without saying anything. Two work colleagues arrive and say the boss wants to see him right away.
At home Sarah watches "Magnum" as the phone rings. The mother answers and the caller addresses her by name - Colleen (Patricia Kalember). He tells her his name is Steve (Scott Burkholder) and then waves to her from the public phone booth across the street. Colleen is very frightened.
McCall is walking with another man by the river and tells him he has removed all the electronic bugs from his apartment, and advises the man not to "waste any more government money". The man tells McCall he has to come in - McCall is the most dangerous man he has ever known, with too much information in his head that the "other side" would like to get. He says that McCall cannot just walk away from the Shadow World he officially quit.
The Telecom employee is driving home and gets bumped by the car following. Then the car drives alongside and he sees who is in it - his two work colleagues. They side-swipe his car into the path of an approaching garbage truck and, as he struggles to escape collision, his car flips. Out of sight of the other car the truck driver helps him out of his flipped vehicle just before it explodes.
McCall is playing chess with his dog (a Red Setter) and the phone rings. The first client for The Equalizer is Mr. Hamilton (Jack Davidson) - the Manhattan Telecomm employee - and they arrange to meet the next day. Hamilton tells the Equalizer that he was fired from his job of 22 years because he discovered something unexpected in the reports and then he was nearly killed. McCall tells him to get out of town and promises to look into the matter.
Colleen is grocery shopping, unaware that Steve the Stalker is close by. At the check-out he positions himself in such a way that she is forced to see him and she tells him in a loud voice to stay away from her & her daughter or she will kill him. He pleads innocence to the store audience and leaves.
McCall is about to drive the Hamilton family to a private airfield, so they can travel safely to the cousin in Philadelphia, when a car pulls up alongside and someone shoots a shotgun at Hamilton. McCall drives off with the other car in pursuit. He manages to put some distance between them and, at a piece of deserted land near the river, he stops, takes a rifle from the front seat and aims for the other driver. After a couple of shots the car runs into the water. The water-logged assassins call in to the boss to report that Hamilton is being protected by a professional. The boss replies that he will take care of McCall.
Meanwhile, at the local precinct, McCall contacts the police chief, Jefferson (Steven Williams), who quizzes him about his new "Security" business. McCall asks him to trace a car license plate which is found to be a company vehicle belonging to Leonard Morgan (Michael Levin), the Senior VP of Manhattan Telecomm. Jefferson gives McCall a friendly reminder that New York is "not 'Nam or Africa or Central America" and he doesn't know what real guerrilla warfare is about until he hits the streets of the Big A. As McCall leaves the office we see Colleen trying to registering a complaint against her stalker. The police officer tells her there is nothing they can do until she gets hurt and she leaves in disgust.
At a company black-tie event at Manhattan Telecommunications McCall, dressed appropriately, watches Morgan and his lackeys go into a side office for a private chat. He gains entry to the computer lab where he disables the security camera. In Morgan's private office his surveillance computer detects activity at Hamilton's terminal but, by the time his lackeys get there, the chair is empty.
Back at Colleen's apartment we see her getting into the shower while Sarah prepares for bed. After her shower Colleen notices that her front door is ajar and a message scrawled on the back of the door "Nice seeing you. I'll be back." She quickly relocks the door and makes sure her daughter is safe. The next scene is her meeting with the Equalizer. McCall asks for a description of her stalker and she is able to provide him with a hand-drawn likeness. He tells her to call in to his answer machine every hour on the hour and reassures her that he will take care of her and she needs to trust him.
McCall meets with Brahms (Jerry Stiller) one of his old colleagues at "The Agency" - who is jogging in Central Park for his health. He asks Brahms to trace a code from Manhattan Telecomm provided by Hamilton.
Colleen arrives home with groceries and Steve starts to hassle her from the other side of the street. McCall is watching from his car and drives toward Steve in a threatening manner. When Steve ducks down a side street McCall gives chase on foot and traps him in a phone booth. McCall tells him to leave Colleen and her daughter alone or he promises to kill him. Steve runs off very scared.
Brahms visits McCall with a report of the phone numbers he has traced. They are all bugged lines belong to highly placed state officials including Senator Jim Blanding (George Hearn) who is running for office. It seems that a renegade cell is recording conversations that could be used for blackmail. McCall talks to Senator Blanding, after one of his public campaign speeches, and offers to help him by being the one to deliver the blackmail money. McCall and Control (Robert Lansing), the man he was talking to by the river, meet again and McCall asks for some backup for the payoff scheduled for that night at an abandoned ferry.
Colleen arrives home and make her 9pm safety-call to McCall from the kitchen. We see the light in Sarah's bedroom go out - but we know that Sarah is staying at her friend's house.
McCall arrives at the meet where Morgan and 3 heavies are waiting.
Colleen gets ready for bed and Steve pounces from the shadows with a knife.
On the ferry Morgan opens the briefcase of money and a small explosion disorients him and his gang. In the ensuing fist-fight McCall disables the 3 thugs and traps Morgan on the roof of the ferry. Having no way to escape Morgan ends up in the water and McCall leaves the police to mop-up.
Meanwhile Steve is terrorizing Colleen in her apartment. McCall checks his messages and Colleen has not left any more messages. It is now after 11pm. He bursts in to Colleen's apartment and shoots Steve in the arm. McCall gets to the concert toward the end of the recital and sees his son play. Scott is very pleased to see him there.
McCall meets Colleen the next evening and she offers to pay him a fee - he tells her to give it to her favourite charity. She hints that she would like to see him again and get to know him better. His response is "No, you would not."
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Pilot (1985) in Australia?
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