Dead Like Me/Pilot

Pilot
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	June 27, 2003
Production Number	100
Written by	Bryan Fuller
Directed by	Scott Winant
Stream
— N/A	1x02 → Dead Girl Walking
Dead Like Me — Season One

Pilot is the first episode of the first season of Dead Like Me. A young woman is struck down during her lunch break by a space station toilet seat, but instead of moving on to the afterlife, she learns that she has been tapped to become a grim reaper. Her fellow reapers attempt to bring her into the fold in a big way: a train wreck.

Starring: Ellen Muth (Georgia Lass), Rebecca Gayheart (Betty Rhomer), Callum Blue (Mason), Jasmine Guy (Roxy Harvey), Greg Kean (Clancy Lass), Britt McKillip (Reggie Lass), Christine Willes (Delores Herbig)

With: Cynthia Stevenson (Joy Lass)

And: Mandy Patinkin (Rube Sofer)

Co-Starring: Jodelle Micah Ferland (Kirsti), David Lewis (Dave Romain), Matthew Currie Holmes (Record Store Employee), Deb Podowski (Becky), Brad Sihvon (Brett), Sean Amsing (Druggie), Stefan Arngrim (Druggie), William MacDonald (Doug), Blu Mankuma (Duane), Reg Tupper (Ray), Kevin Blatch (Teller), Meghan Black (Teller), Darrin Klimek (Data Entry Guy), Tammy Pentecost (Piano Woman), David Kaye (Brad), John Shaw (Byron), Trever Havixbeck (Police Officer), Carin Moffat (Brenda), Mary Ann Skoll (June Cleaver Type), Art Kitching (Tom), Jim S. Smith (Security Guard), Dave Hurtubise (Older Man), Peter Bryant (Train Porter), Patricia Idlette (Waitress), Laura Boddington (Un George), Jacob Chaos (Un Mason)

Plot Overview

How death was released upon the world: At the dawn of time, God gave Toad a clay jar, and said, "Be careful, it has death inside." But unfortunately, along comes Frog, and asks to hold the jar, Toad firmly says no. But after being pestered, Toad finally gives in. Frog, happy at being allowed such a great honor goes nuts, and the jar breaks, when that happened, death got out.

{ch|Georgia Lass|George]}} finds herself at the offices of Happy Time, looking for a job. Her career counselor is Delores Herbig, as in her big brown eyes. George, follows her back to her cubicle, where they go over her resumé, and decide that she only really has the skills for filing.

We then get introduced to the rest of her family, over dinner. Her mother is Joy Lass (Joy Less), 41, a career secretary, pathologically afraid of balloons and thinks the word "moist" is pornographic. Her father, Clancy Lass, 43, an English professor, and last and certainly least in George's eyes, is her little sister Reggie.

George finds that her sister is in her closet, and promptly shows her to the door, this is a parallel that will resolve itself at the end of this episode when George is in the same closet.

George wakes up to her mom laying out clothes, because Delores called and George has a job... filing, a job Delores Herbig (as in her big fat ass) only gives to people she hates. During her 35 minute lunch hour, she is approached by an older gentleman who asks her name, and after some banter, he touches her on the face. She walks a little farther, and is frozen as she sees a flaming object in the sky, and only has time to say "Ah Shit", before the toilet seat off of the de-orbiting MIR space station hits her.

Betty and Rube are there to greet her as she is dealing with the apparent death that she just had. They escort her around, to her autopsy, and her funeral. Then she is told that she is to be the reaper, as the person who popped her soul filled his quota.

While walking with Rube, she catches her first glance of gravelings, which are the creatures that drop the pianos and toilets seats. Then they run into Mason who takes her to find a place to live. The place is rented out to an accountant for a casino, who was murdered... Unfortunately it happened in the kitchen, and Betty has already claimed the place.

Mason takes George on his 2:30 appointment to a bank, where they are looking for B.M. Moore. After sitting in the bank, debating exactly how the death was going to take place, a bank robber comes in, closely followed by the wife of a unfaithful account manager, both of them wielding guns. Things go badly, and the wife fires a shot in the air, and the bullet strikes a gas tank, which blows up part of the bank. B.M. Moore comes running into the bank afterward, and the police/firemen turn him around, in so doing, he slips on a banana peel and his head gets caught in the door as firemen are trying to come in. As luck would have it, B.M. Moore had an apartment.

Rube takes George to the train station, where she is to board a train where her first reap will be. She is hoping that the reap will either be detained, or a total bitch, instead it's a young girl named Kirsti. The car that she is in decouples, and flies from the tracks, and George instead of popping the girls soul, tries to save her from death, and succeeds.

Rube is at the crash site waiting, but finds out that George did not pop the girl’s soul. Here we learn of some of the side effects of not being reaped, apparently the soul has an expiration date, and it will wither and die inside of the girl, if George does not do something. Reluctantly she does go ahead and do it, and the girl dies peacefully.

While walking with Kirsti's soul, they see an amusement park made out of light, and Kirsti runs towards it. George tries to stop her, but Rube holds her back saying, "We can't go were they are going".

The episode ends with a view of George in her sister’s closet, and her voice over says, "I think for me, Death was just a wake up call."

Notes

Deaths

• B.M. Moore: Brendan Marshall Moore, despite not being involved in the attempted bank robbery, the infidelity showdown or the money embezzling, was a punk with blue hair who went into the bank to cash his paycheck from his job at a record store. He was told that the bank is closed, slipped on a banana peel and had his neck broken by a revolving door.

• Kirsti: Kirsti was involved in a train wreck, but the exact nature of her death wasn't completely clear. One can assume that she suffered shock or some kind of internal injury which kicked in after George popped her soul while they were sitting around the campfire.

Trivia

The Show

• Abandoned Plot Point: During George's funeral, she wonders out loud if a hug between two men should "last that long." This was the first hint towards Clancy being homosexual and that his affair with one of his students was with a male student and not a female student as first thought. However, Clancy's proposed homosexuality is never mentioned again outside of this episode.

• Clipping: The news story stuck to the refrigerator headlined "Mir's De-Orbiting Kills Local Teen" reads as follows:

At 1:05 P.M. yesterday afternoon Mir's toilet seat struck the earth and killed a local teenager named Georgia Lass, as well as injuring 10 others. The Russian government has issued apologies to the American government, to the city in which the object landed and to the family's of all those killed or injured. Unfortunately as Georgia's new workmate said "All the apologies in the world won't bring back our Georgia." The world was warned well in advance that the Russian Space Agency was set to de-orbit the satellite Mir. But along with the warning came reassurances that all pieces of the satellite would be destroyed as they passed through the Earth's atmosphere. They were wrong... (Illegible)

In Japan people were warned to stay in doors... (Illegible) ... "Evidentially there was a miscalculation in the density of the ionosphere at the point of entry and the toilet seat made it through. Even if some pieces did get through, they were supposed to fall into the Pacific Ocean. Obviously the Russian scientists made a mistake. The hardest part of the investigation was in identifying Georgia Lass' body. She was hit by an object traveling two hundred miles per hour with a surface temperature exceeding fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The only thing left of her, ironically, was the name tag she was given yesterday morning at the start of her first day of work. The nametag read, "Hello, I'm new. Ask me my name." ... (Illegible) ... workers commented, "Bummer."

• Obituary: George's obituary was clipped to the refrigerator as well. It reads:

LASS, Georgia L. - 18, passed away unexpectedly last Thursday at 1:05 p.m. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she was the beloved eldest daughter of Joy (Geuber) Lass and Clancy Lass and older sister of Reggie Lass. She graduated last year from Franklin High School and ent on to City College for a time. Grandparents Gail and Frank Lass and Darryl Geuber, Aunt Theresa and Uncle Hugh and cousins Tina and Alison will miss her dearly. Georgia will be remembered fondly for her love of music... (Illegible).

Quotes

• George: Well... then, can you take somebody else, like, uh... an old person? Or that homeless guy? I won't tell, I promise!

(Rube looks thoughtful, then turns to Betty, who shrugs, then nods)

Betty: Alright.

George: Really?!

Betty: No.

• George: (voiceover) There's something about seeing your body all empty and cold — or, in my case, in little chunks and pieces. Rube says, it's like looking at a bowl of peach cobbler you just dropped on the floor. As good as it might have been, you just don't want it anymore.

• Druggie #1: Does this cracker have to stop and talk to every—

Mason: Ssh.

Druggie #1: He just shushed me! Man, why you got to go and do that, man? That's rude.

Druggie #2: It's disrespecting the dead.

Mason:: Come here. You two just murdered each other in a crack den. You do not deserve my respect. Hence, ssh.

Druggie #1: That's cold, man.