Trama

Travelers from our future return to our time to try to correct the terrible problems that face humanity in their own time.

In this first episode, one by one, 5 individuals who were meant to die, are suddenly okay. We see the countdown to their recorded time of death, then they writhe in pain, and resume their lives.

The first is Marcy, a woman with a head trauma, causing a speech impediment and severe loss of mental functioning. She works as a cleaning lady at the library, and uses her spare time to learn how to read children's picture books. Helplessly making noises to stop an attack on another woman, she herself is attacked by 4 men. We see the countdown to her death, then she is okay. She easily defends herself against the 4 men, who run off, defeated. Notably, her speech impediment is gone.

The second is Trevor, a high school student fighting in a mixed martial arts match. After the countdown to his death, Trevor quickly concedes the fight, and we are later told that, if he had not, he would certainly have died that night.

The third individual is Phillip, a drug addict. His friend lies dead nearby, but he bypasses his own death and leaves.

Next, Carly is brutality knocked to the ground by her husband, with their infant child nearby. While she should have died, she gets up and orders her husband to leave.

Most of the show introduces us to the lives of the 5 characters. At various points, we see each of the first 4 characters accessing Internet messages about "travelers," specifically about the pending arrival of a traveler. Carly cryptically refers to this traveler as "daddy" when speaking to her baby. Tipped off by his partner, FBI Agent MacLaren reads and follows up on the messages, which we are told were on the Deep Web.

Trevor is on schedule to earn a football scholarship, which he carelessly put at risk through his fight. His father shows serious disappointment in his actions (which apparently he thinks was a street fight), while his mother tries to show understanding. He asks his loving girlfriend and his best friend to be understanding, as his concussion has resulted in temporary memory loss.

Carly continues to care for her baby, while enforcing strict rules with her husband, Jeff, who turns out to be a police officer. At one point, she has to defend herself through serious physical action, quickly subduing Jeff.

Phillip is interrogated by a police officer who has been tracking his criminal behavior. The officer questions him about his friend's death and his lack of action.

After being released, Phillip makes $92,000 by playing the lottery through his attorney, while providing his lawyer with winning tips as incentive. When his attorney asks how he can win like this, he says he's from the future. His attorney assumes that this apparent lie means that he doesn't want to reveal his secret. When the police officer asks him what he's going to use the money for (since he claims it's not for drugs), Phillip replies (truthfully) that it's to finance a secret hideout. The officer likewise assumes he's just joking.

When the arresting officer later chases after Phillip, he suffers a heart attack, but Phillip must turn down his request to call 911, although he is clearly remorseful. He indicates that he can't change history, and gives us a clue as to what is going on. He mentions that the officer was considered as a host, since it was known that he was going to die. At this time we realize why he also didn't call 911 when his friend died.

When Marcy's social worker, David, comes to her apartment, Marcy acts odd, but it takes a while for him to realize that she now speaks normally and can read fluently. Marcy (or rather, the woman who is using Marcy as a host) is unaware of this transformation, and can't offer an explanation, even when David consults another professional about her apparent miraculous transformation. His contact only offers one explanation: Marcy has been playing him and defrauding the system. Marcy has to escape from a forced hospitalization, and shows up at David's apartment to use his computer. David tries to be understanding, but all Marcy tells him is that she's working on something "important."

FBI Agent MacLaren spends most of the first episode tracking down the messages about "travelers." He knows that they will be meeting in an abandoned building that night. One by one he tracks them down, speaking to Trevor's parents, Phillip's arresting officer, Carly, and Marcy's social worker. The whole process seems all too easy, and we can conclude by the end of the episode that they actually fed him the information, so that he could go to the building.

That night, when he arrives alone at the abandoned building to stop their activity, we discover that he would have fallen down the elevator shaft that night, during the sudden blackout. The others explain that they are from an apocalyptic future, and thousands have come back to save the future. They occupy bodies from the present that would have died anyway. They even explain that MacLaren would soon die. However, they stop MacLaren from falling, and his body is then occupied by what turns out to be the leader of the 5.