Pilot - Recap

San Francisco Lawyer Eli Stone is at a village in India and hires two Sherpas to take him to the base of the Panch Chuli Peaks. He notes that he's only recently discovered that he has been receiving prophetic visions.

Eli relates what happened to him, and how he used to be a typical greedy lawyer at WPK until he started hearing music while dictating notes on a case involving his client, Beutel Pharmaceuticals. He calls in Patti to see if she can hear it but she doesn't notice anything. As they head for their conference, Patti makes it clear she doesn't think much of Eli's fiancée, Taylor.

Eli and the Beutel representative meet with Beth, who is suing the pharmaceutical company because they use a preservative in their vaccines which she claims gave her son autism. Eli warns her that she can't win the case and makes a low-ball settlement, which she refuses to accept.

Later back at his apartment, Eli and Taylor are making out when Eli hears the same music that only he can hear. He goes out into the living room and finds himself face-to-face with singer George Michael, performing "Faith." Eli faints.

The next day, Eli goes to see his brother Nathan, a doctor who orders a MRI scan. Nathan doesn't find anything and figures that Eli is just trying to figure to a way to ruin his own life now that he's happy, and he's had a track record of doing it in the past.

At the firm, Beth comes in and informs Eli that she's fired her lawyer and wants to hire Eli to sue his own client. He refuses and asks her to leave. Once she's gone, he hears George Michael again and goes out into the main office to find the singer on piano while the office staff dance and sing in a musical number. Eli starts to dance along with them until he snaps out of it and finds everyone staring at him.

Convinced he has some problem, Eli goes to see Dr. Chen, an acupuncturist that Patti recommends. The doctor triggers a memory of Eli losing his virginity in college with a girl named Lizzie, to the strains of George Michael's "Faith." The girl says that she hopes one day Eli will bloom and become a lawyer who will save the world.

Realizing whom the girl is, Eli goes to see Beth, who went by the name Lizzie in college. She introduces him to her autistic son Ben, who is playing with letter blocks. Eli uncomfortable tries to make small talk until he sees that Ben has spelled out the name "George Michael" on the blocks. Convinced that something is going on, Eli tells Beth that he'll take her case. He goes to senior partners Jordan Wethersby and Martin Posner and manages to make the case that it will look good for WPK if they take the pro bono case. As he does so, he hears a hallucinatory bell ringing. Afterward, he follows the sound and finds a trolley waiting for him in the lobby. A man asks him to hop on for the ride but Eli refuses and the imaginary trolley departs, leaving the staff to wonder what Eli is doing.

Back at Chen's shop, Eli admits that the voice he heard was his father's and the doctor triggers another acupuncture flashback. Eli remembers back to the day he was 12 when he won a debate trophy but his dad wasn't there. He confronted his dad on a trophy and accused him of being drunk. Instead of admitting or denying it, his father gave him a post card showing a mountain in India and saying he'd hope they'd go there together some time. After having a momentary headache, Eli's father jumped off the trolley and went into a bar.

In the present in court, Matt takes Eli's position defending Beutel and objects when Eli tries to have Beth testify about the trauma to herself and Ben to get the jury to empathize with her. Mat then calls Beutel's CEO Alan Cook to the stand where he testifies about how he wouldn't endanger children, being a parent himself, and the vaccine is as safe as they can make it. His testimony has an effect on the jury and afterward Eli warns Beth that it looks hopeless. However, Patti manages to get a confidential Beutel memo from one of Matt's paralegals, showing that the company believed there was a connection between autism and the vaccine. Eli can't use the document by itself but Patti tells him to figure something out.

That night, Eli and Taylor host a party for Nathan and their respective parents. It turns out that Jordan is Taylor's father. Eli and Jordan talk out on the balcony and Jordan reveals that he knew about the Beutel memo, and allowed Eli to take the case so that he couldn't reveal it and the firm wouldn't have to reveal it. Eli then hallucinates being in India, holding a Chock Full O'Nuts can and standing on a mountain peak. As he leans over, he snaps back to reality and realizes he's climbed up on the balcony, as Nathan and Taylor get him down.

Eli and Taylor meet with Nathan later, and he reveals that Eli's symptoms match their father's. Everyone believed their father was an alcoholic, but with Eli displaying similar symptoms he rechecked the MRI and found a small brain aneurysm. The aneurysm causes hallucinations and delusions, accounting for their father's symptoms. It could burst and kill Eli at any time, and it's in too deep to operate. Nathan leaves Taylor and Eli alone, and she admits that she's not sure that she can go through with the wedding when he could die at any moment.

In court, Eli recalls Cook to the stand and asks him if he gives his daughter Jenna the vaccine. Cook tries to claim it's his pediatrician's decision, but when Eli calls the doctor to the stand Cook is forced to admit he doesn't give her his own company's vaccine. Jordan and Matt are forced to offer a higher settlement but Beth refuses, insisting she wants a fund for autistic children and the vaccine withdrawn from the market. After Jordan and Matt leave, Beth insists they go ahead but tells Eli that if they lose, it's because the jury doesn't believe that he believes in the case.

Eli goes to see Chen who admits that his accent is fake and he really graduated from a California university. They share a beer and Chen suggests that Eli may be having visions, not hallucinations, and God sends them. Eli is skeptical but Chen notes that even if Eli doesn't believe in God, he believes in Good and Justice.

Back in court, Eli makes his closing statement and notes while there is no definite evidence to link Beutel's vaccine to autism, the jury will have to have faith in the testimony that was presented. As he waits outside for the verdict, Eli's mother Lenore arrives with a Chock Full O'Nuts can. She explains that they hold her husband's ashes, and he had expressed his wishes that they be given to Eli as he'd know what to do with them. She thought he was drunk and ignored him, but now knows from Nathan that he had an aneurysm.

In court, the jury award Beth $5.2 million. Matt considers appealing but Eli warns that the PR would hurt Beutel worse then the payment. Beth insists that Beutel agree to insure that Eli keeps his job no matter what and they reluctantly agree. Afterward, Taylor apologizes to Eli about her earlier uncertainties in the doctor's office. Eli admits he still wants to be with her, but first he has to make a trip to India.

In the present, Eli finishes telling the story to the can with his father's ashes, then leaves his tent and scatters his father's ashes atop the mountain.


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