Pilot Episode
"Amazing Grace"
Teaser
In the opening scene, we see a young blond boy about age 11 playing happily on his sled in the snow. This charming scene is intercut with our first look at Declan Dunn, teaching anthropology at Northern Oregon University. He instructs his class on the history of a slave trader named John Newton, who had an epiphane one night on board his ship, changed his life and was inspired to write a poem which later became the hymn "Amazing Grace". As Declan plays a beautiful, somewhat haunting version of the song for his class (sung by Adrian Pasdar's wife Natalie Maines) we again see the boy, Matt, playing on his sled. The sled travels farther than the boy intends and comes to rest in the middle of a semi-frozen pond. He steps of the sled and there is a moment of terror as the boy stands on the pond, which we can hear beginning to crackle, then he falls through with a scream of terror. The boy's mother comes outside a few minutes later and finds her son lying *on* the ice, unconscious. As the hymn continues to play, we see Matt being rushed to the hospital and his shattered mother eventually agreeing to take him off of life support when told by the doctor that there is no hope, and that his death will be quick and painless. The ventilator shuts down, his mother says her goodbyes to him, and she is led from the room by the doctor. Just as they reach the door, they hear a noise from the monitor and Matt's eyes suddenly fly open and he regains consciousness.
Act I
We see Declan playing with his dog, Mole, on the university campus. Miranda comes out to join him and he tries to pawn the dog off on her. She doesn't accept, but does show Declan a newspaper article about Matt's recovery from near-death. Declan shows up at the hospital and runs into (literally) Peggy Fowler, who was just in Matt's room offering her sevices as a psychiatrist to Matt and his Mother. Peggy seems a bit put-off by Declan at first, but is intrigued by him enough to offer to buy him a cup of coffee. As they sit in the hospital cafeteria, Declan explains his interest in "miraculous phenomena" to Peggy and recounts the story of how he was involved in an avalanche while skiing several years ago. He was rescued in a way that was both miraculous and accidental and this incident (and the way it affected his life afterward) are the embers that sparked his interest in miracles and a higher power.
Peggy receives a message on her beeper from Matt's mom, and she a Declan go to the boy's hospital room and question him on what happened on the pond. The boy says that when he fell through the ice, he saw a bright light and sparkles in the water and that a hand reached down and pulled him from the icy water. He falls asleep before they can question him further. Declan calls Miranda and asks her to research drowning survivors, hypothermia, etc. Peggy does some research of her own, trying to locate Matt's estranged father. When Declan shows up at Peggy's office, they have a disagreement. He feels she's wrong to try to contact Matt's dad, since Matt's mother, Shannon, asked her not to. Peggy feels Declan's ideas are "dangerous" and that encouraging belief is miracles is a mistake that causes people to develope false hope.
Act II
Later, Declan goes to the pond and do some investigating. He theorizes that the cold water probably saved the boy'slife, causing his metabolism to slow and that the bright light that Matt saw can be explained by the sun shining directly into the hole he fell through. Declan's still not sure how Matt actually got out of the water, though. As they're preparing to leave the lake, Declan's dog takes off running and they follow. They wind up outside of a dry-cleaners where they meet an older homeless woman. The owner of the dry-cleaners runs the woman off with a baseball bat and tells Declan and Peggy that he found the woman stealing a bag of quarters from his business a few days before. She couldn't be charged however, because she didn't have the quarters in her possesion when she was caught.
That night at the hospital, Matt is telling more about what happened on the pond and gives Declan a picture he's drawn of a large gold cross. He says that although he couldn't see the face of the person that rescued him, he was able to see the cross the man was wearing. Unfortunately, Matt's condition worsens after that and he slips into unconsciouness again.
ACT III
Declan and Peggy meet in her office. He asks her why she seems so hostile to his ideas and beliefs. She tells her how she lost her husband ten years ago. He'd been in a car accident and Peggy had prayed for his recovery. Her husband grew stronger for three days and Peggy felt that her prayers had been answered, but on the fourth day her husband unexpectedly died. Peggy felt that the incident had been so cruel that it made her loose her faith.
That night at the university, Miranda shares her theory of how the boy survived drowning. She shows Declan her experiment in a large water tank. The dummy she's using to represent Matt sinks to the bottom--but then floats back to the top. She also explains that there was a tree branch in the water that Matt could have used to pull himself up with. Satisfied, Declan explains the theory to Peg, Matt's mother and his doctor. He thinks the sparkles the boy saw can also be explained...the quarters that the homeless woman stole were thrown into the pond. Declan believes that Matt saw them shining in the sunlight on their way to the bottom. He also believes that the homeless woman pulled Matt from the pond after he floated to the top, and was wearing the gold cross that Matt described. However, the next day, Declan is confronted by the homeless woman who admits to stealing the quarters, then throwing them into the lake when the police was chasing her. However, she denies ever seeing Matt or pulling from the lake, and she doesn' t own a gold cross.
Act IV
Peggy was unable to reach Matt's father, but did locate his grandfather. The grandfather comes to Matt's hospital room and tells him that though the boy's father had not been a good person most of his life, he had changed his ways in his later years, straightened out his affairs and joined the Navy. He died a hero's death, saving eight others aboard a Navy ship. The grandfather shows Matt the medal that his father was posthumously awarded...a Navy Cross...which is EXACTLY the cross Matt had seen on his rescuer and drawn for Declan. As this revelation is made, "Amazing Grace" again begins to play in the background and Declan and Peggy share looks of amazement.