Frequency – Pilot

By: Cade Taylor

“Frequency” opens the series showing viewers how Raimy Sullivan’s (Peyton List) father had died 20 years before the current time. Raimy’s explanation of his death make her dad, Frank Sullivan (Riley Smith), look like he’s a dirty cop, but that isn’t the real story. Raimy is an NYPD detective, following in her father’s footsteps.

Rewind to 72 hours earlier — before her sit down with her boyfriend, Daniel (Daniel Bonjour). We see Raimy and Daniel waking up, enjoying a little make-out action before Raimy has to make her way to her job. While looking for a stick of deodorant, she finds a ring instead. What else could make a better birthday than a proposal?

Raimy’s interactions with the lieutenant, Satch Rayna (Mekhi Phifer), about her father show the audience that she clearly has no good thoughts about the man, even though he’s been dead for 20 years. But when you leave your wife and 8-year-old child behind to go undercover and never come back great impressions aren’t what people are left with. Raimy is celebrating her 28th birthday with her mother, Julie (Devin Kelley), boyfriend Daniel and best friend Gordo (Lenny Jacobson). Daniel and Gordo head out to the garage to get beers, but instead find a ham radio that belonged to Raimy’s father. Daniel doesn’t quite understand why Raimy gets upset with him when he tries to fix it, but he knows that it’s better left alone.

That night electricity hits the antenna of the garage, sparking life to the ham radio. Raimy makes her way to the garage after seeing the faint glow from the windows. As she steps inside, she can hear someone trying to communicate through the radio. This man is Frank Sullivan, but Raimy didn’t know that quite yet. They make small talk; Raimy is very confused as the man on the radio continues to speak about a 1996 baseball game as if it was happening currently. She then reveals the ending for Game 3 of the series, their connection cutting out right after he mentions that his name is Frank.

Frank, back in 1996, doesn’t think much of the conversation until he hears the end of game three on the radio, revealing that Raimy had known exactly what was going to happen. Because he wanted to know just how she knew what would happen, he goes back to the radio to try and contact her again. This time, he reveals his full name, which leads Raimy to think that somebody is trying to troll her. I mean, c’mon. Who else wouldn’t think that someone is trying to pull one over on them? Frank, on the other hand, had no idea what “trolling” meant because he was still in 1996. Things get too real after Frank sets his cigar down on the radio, burning the box for him, in 1996 and Raimy, in 2016. Raimy reveals herself to be Raimy Elizabeth Sullivan, pouring all the information about herself out. Frank, understandably, gets freaked out and tells Raimy never to come back on the frequency again.

The next morning Raimy makes her way to the morgue to work on her current case. It turns out that the body is a woman who has been dead since the late 90’s. The medical examiner then reveals a crucial detail in the killing, her ankles and hands had been bound by rosaries, something that a serial killer called The Nightingale Killer used in the 90’s. Only, the rosaries information wasn’t made public about the cases.

Back in 1996, Frank is dealing with what he had just experienced. Had he been talking to his now 28-year-old daughter? To try and prove what was happening was real he takes a photo of himself with a current newspaper and hides it in the coffee can in the backyard of her house. This was Frank’s way of getting presents to Raimy while he was undercover and wasn’t allowed to see her publicly. He would put something in the coffee can, bury it in the backyard and then put a little flag on the mound of dirt so Raimy would know that he had been there. Instead of leaving a flag in the dirt mound, this time he burned a flag into the ham radio to signal that he had left something for her.

After realizing that this was real, she was talking to her dead father and he was talking to his daughter in the future, they both agree that somehow time is moving parallel. Frank is so excited to learn that Raimy is a detective and he works with his daughter in the future. This is when Raimy confronts Frank about being a dirty cop and informing him that he died tomorrow in 1996. Raimy tries to get her father not to go to the sting that was set up, not realizing that if he does do that it would change her entire life and everything she knows. Frank says that he can’t back out, but at the same time he takes advantage of the warning of his death, stashing a gun where he can get to it during the sting.

Raimy continues to think about what her father said, how he wasn’t a bad cop and he was just doing the job. Being the detective that she is, she tracks down people involved in the undercover operation with the help of Satch. Satch also informs Raimy that they identified the remains of the body that were found: Susie Cairone. Susie Cairone was a nurse who worked with her mother when she was a child.

Raimy tracks down Chester to his current job as a building security guard. Chester has no intention of talking about what happened that night, but what he doesn’t know is that Raimy happens to be exquisite at her job. Raimy blackmails him with charges that were never filed, getting him to admit that the sting was a setup for her father. Chester reveals that Sam Mariano was the man who sold him out, the same person who is now the chief in 2016.

Raimy gets to the ham radio as fast as she can to warn Frank about the setup, but by the time she gets there it’s too late. 9:12 pm hits and the radio dies. Raimy has to re-live the death of her father all over again and it tears her apart. Only, a few minutes later the ham radio comes back to life. Frank never died, which is a bad thing for Raimy. As soon as she walks out of the garage, she remembers everything, her life with her father and how great it was. She yells, happily, at Gordo that her father had never died. Gordo, who was obviously confused, reminds her that he wasn’t murdered, but he did die five years ago in a car crash. Then it hits her – she can remember going to the funeral. She can remember it all vividly. And because she can’t remember everything at once, she finally arrives at the restaurant to meet Daniel’s parents. Only, Daniel informs her that he has no idea who she is and that they don’t know each other. In this timeline, her and Daniel were never together. Also in this timeline, Raimy’s mother Julie was the one who was killed by The Nightingale Killer – not Susie Cairone. The Nightingale Killer is also very active, instead of stopping in 1996. He’s been killing nurses for the past 20 years.

This is a prime example of why you don’t mess with the past because you might not like how your future turns out. Overall, I think that the series premiere of “Frequency” was superb and has a high starting point. Let’s hope that they can keep it up.