Pilot (2005)

Jimmy Reardon is the head of a small time family crime organization in Vancouver. He’s got some legitimate and not so legitimate businesses, including a strip club, shipping company and several aspects of drug trafficking. Despite business being good, he is facing some problems including a junkie ex-wife with whom he shares joint custody of their daughter, a loose cannon of a brother, a major theft at one of his grow-ops which he suspects was orchestrated by his own employees, and the fact that he knows that he’s being tailed but not knowing by who. The tail may be by the Organized Crime Unit (OCU) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who indeed do have him under surveillance. The Vancouver operation of the OCU is headed by Inspector Mary Spalding, who is being recruited by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). In addition to Mary coming on board, CSIS is wanting to co-opt her and the OCU’s on-street intelligence network, and to build upon the network by recruiting at least one person deep into organized crime. Mary is facing some problems of her own: a cheating husband and a majority of her underlings who dislike her, especially her second in command, Ted Altman. Mary and Jimmy’s lives intersect professionally when Jimmy gets a hold of some secret files on the OCU and the Vancouver Police force’s on-street intelligence network, the files which he threatens to release. Although this is a problem for the OCU, Mary, wanting to look good to CSIS, also sees this as an opportunity to recruit Jimmy as part of her intelligence network: she would get the files back, get some intel from Jimmy about organized crime and in return Jimmy would get inside information to which Mary is privy regarding files on him. She knows that Jimmy in some respects has to tread lightly as if it was ever known that he had the files and didn’t warn his compatriots, his life would be over. Initially Jimmy declines Mary’s offer since he sees himself having the upper hand – he finds out the who’s and why’s of his tail and the grow-op theft. However he changes his mind when there is an attempted abduction of his daughter by one of those in the secret intel files. This begins the mutually beneficial professional relationship between law and crime.