Las Vegas/Pilot

Pilot
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	September 22, 2003
Written by	Gary Scott Thompson
Directed by	Michael Watkins
— N/A	1x02 → What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas
Las Vegas — Season One

Pilot is the first episode of the first season of Las Vegas.

Starring: James Caan (Ed "Big Ed" Deline), Josh Duhamel (Danny McCoy), Nikki Cox (Mary Connell), James Lesure (Mike Cannon), Vanessa Marcil (Sam Marquez), Molly Sims (Delinda Deline), Marsha Thomason (Nessa Holt)

Guest Starring: John Terry (Larry McCoy), Frank Santorelli (Paulie)

and Cheryl Ladd (Jillian Deline)

Also Starring: Tom Ayers (Tom Bay (Bum)), Michael Crider (Warren Herman)

Co-Starring: Randy Sutton (Jake Snow), Frankie Deangelo (Mr. Johnson), Beverly Washburn (Mrs. Johnson), Stephen C. Lofaro (Butler), Tishara Corusino (Dana Barry), Stacy Linde (Jewel), Sandy Hackett (Surveillance #1), Marlene Harris (VIP Rep), Glenn Schaeffer (Himself), Phil Maloof (Himself), Frank Patton (Bouncer), Cogee (Pit Boss), Reno Nichols (Stickman), Brian D. Phelan (Blond Valet), Victor Wallace (Cowboy)

Plot Overview

Danny's Rough Day

The pilot episode of Las Vegas introduces all of the main characters of the series, but primarily focuses Danny McCoy. Danny has recently begun to work with Ed in the security depart of the Montecito hotel and casino.

In the opening moments of the episode we see Ed Deline and his security team walking into one of the casinos suit, obviously well armed. What they walk into is Ed's daughter, Delinda Deline in bed with Ed's new protégé, Danny McCoy. Danny is quite fearful when he learns that Delinda is Ed's daughter, which he had not known.

Danny is sent to speak with Ed, who is rather upset to learn that Danny has been sleeping with Delinda. However Ed, is also worried about business. He asks Danny if he always sleeps with women who he does not know background information about, which Danny replies that he does not. Ed gives Danny several tasks to do; take care of an exhibitionist who brings guys into the hotel's elevators and has sex with them, get an anniversary present for Mr. and Mrs. Johnson who are celebrating their 30 year anniversary, and look into a missing high roller Mr. Herman.

Danny finds it difficult to stay out of trouble with Ed because he is from Vegas and everyone knows him, including all of the hookers. He talks to a man about Mr. Johnson's anniversary present who tells him that Mr. Johnson likes to bathe in an expensive wine, which forces Danny to call up several places looking for the wine. He's having little luck finding anyone that has this particular wine.

Danny goes out to eat with Ed's wife Julian and Delinda. Delinda tells Ed that her plans with Danny is to sleep with him as many times as possible and then to dump him once she grows bored. It's obvious that Delinda is a daddy's girl who is trying to get back at her father for something. Julian on the other hand is a rather hip mother who approves of their relationship and seems to like Danny. Later Ed asks Danny to come to yet another dinner, this time cooked by Julian but Danny says that he's going to Mike's cookout... and is forced to invite Ed to come along too.

Danny's other task of the day is to find the "whale" Mr. Herman (a whale is a name given to high rollers who are flown into the hotel just to have them play at their casino). He finds out that Mr. Herman was at a strip club the night before and goes there to investigate. He runs into a stripper who tells him that Mr. Herman gave her his lucky ring; this tells Danny that he must have lost a lot of money the previous night, and so was playing at another casino. Mary helps him track down the host who is taking care of Mr. Herman; Sam. Danny goes to the office of Sam Marquez and runs into the assistant, who Danny had had a short relationship with. There he also finds Mr. Herman, who reveals that the assistant is actually the host (or hostess) herself, Sam. Danny reminds Sam how badly whale theives are looked up in Vegas and tries to convince her to come work for the Montecito exclusively, which she accepts after heavy negotiating.

The Cheater

Ed is tracking a guy who keeps winning at the blackjack tables whom he believes may be cheating. The man wears dark sunglasses and a hat so Danny is unable to indentify him in the list of known cheaters. Nessa is the casino floor pit boss; she's unable to identify anyone on the floor who is giving signal's to the cheater.

Ed discovers that a signal is coming in and out of the casino which tells them that the cheater is communicating with someone on the outside of the casino. While working on another case Danny notices that Sam uses a PDA to keep tabs on her clients, which reminds him of seeing a valet guy in front of the casino. He goes to investigate and finds the valet guy talking into a microphone. The guy was watching what cards were being delt through a camera which has a signal coming out from the casino.

Ed informs the cheater that they are closing down the blackjack tables for the night and so the cheater decides to go all in for a hand. Danny has the valet guy tell the cheater the wrong cards and so the cheater loses all of his money. Ed has him arrested and paraded around the casino so that everyone will know that he is a cheater.

Bunny Slippers

A strange man is found lurking around the casino floor wearing bunny slippers. He cashes in a social security check for poker chips. Apparently this man is a gambling addict. Bunny slippers begins winning big, but he smells and so they try to get him off the floor. Danny offers him a luxury sweet.

However the suit that Bunny Slippers is given happens to be the same suit that Mr. Herman regularly uses. When Sam and Danny go to try and convince him to take another suit, Danny just tells him straight up and that he should just leave the casino now and take the 1.2 million he has won and quit, but Bunny Slippers isn't hearing it.

Later he's found at the roulette tables, now down to 40 thousand. Again Danny tells him that 40k is still a lot of money and that he should just cut his losses and go. This time Bunny Slippers does so. In the closing scenes we see Danny driving home after a long day of work, when he sees Bunny Slippers walking down the strip now with a clean haircut and nice suit; his bunny slippers sticking out of a backpack.

Notes

The is a mysterious guy being shown at the beginning and end of the episode who is lying in the desert just outside of Las Vegas, apparently dead. At the closing moments of the episode we see inside the guy's jacket pocket at a cell phone, which is receiving a message from Ed.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Danny's father stops by the casino and talks with Danny... there is obviously some tension in their relationship. Danny's father owns a construction company and had expected Danny to follow in his footsteps but Danny says manual labor is not for him.