1. Pilot

Complete story — includes the ending

Infamous serial killer Joe Carroll ( James Purefoy ) escapes from prison and Ryan Hardy ( Kevin Bacon ), a retired F.B.I. agent responsible for capturing Joe, is pulled back into the field to assist the manhunt. The police secure both Claire Matthews ( Natalie Zea ), Joe's ex-wife and mother of his son Joey ( Kyle Catlett ), with whom Ryan had an affair, and Sarah Fuller ( Maggie Grace ), the only one of Joe's victims to survive. Assisted by FBI agents Mike Weston ( Shawn Ashmore ) and Jennifer Mason ( Jeananne Goossen ), Hardy attempts to track down a prison guard who helped Joe escape and is now being taught how to be a serial killer. When a young woman commits suicide in front of Hardy at Joe's request, saying the same last words as Edgar Allan Poe, Hardy begins to suspect that Joe has used the Internet to create a following of disciples he uses to carry out his plans. Sarah is kidnapped by two such followers (men posing as gay neighbors) and is tortured and killed by Joe. Hardy is too late to save her, but Joe allows himself to be taken back into custody, where he tells Hardy that this is only the beginning. Denise, Joey's live-in nanny who is completely trusted by Claire, is revealed to be another of Joe's followers with her real name being Emma Hill ( Valorie Curry ), and abducts Joey, who still believes Denise to be his nanny, meeting up with the two men who kidnapped Sarah.