Series 1 Episode 1

The first episode of the first series of the British thriller-drama action, Utopia, was first broadcast on 15 January 2013. The episode was produced by Kudos Film and Television for Channel 4.

Synopsis
When five strangers from an online comic book forum agree to meet after gaining possession of the original manuscript for the cult graphic novel "The Utopia Experiments", they find themselves pursued by a shadowy organization known as The Network who are in pursuit of the manuscript—and they are prepared to kill to track it down.

Plot
As a newscast reports on the rising costs of food in the United Kingdom, two men, Arby and Lee, enter a comic book shop that is about to close for the night, ignoring the staff's protests. Lee kills a man by bashing him over the head with a pipe as Arby gives the clerk a post-it note that asks for the location of the "UTOPIA MANUSCRIPT". As the clerk tells Arby he sold it and gives him the name of the buyer, Lee takes out a canister of gas and gently convinces another man to inhale from it, assuring him it will just put him to sleep. Arby repeatedly asks the clerk for the location of a "Jessica Hyde", who he does not know. Lee gasses him, again telling the clerk it will just put him to sleep, which he realizes is not true when he sees his friend not breathing on the floor. Lee forces him to inhale the rest and ruptures a gas line to make the murders look like a fatal leak. As Arby eats from a box of raisins, he notices something: a little boy hiding under a table, having seen the whole thing. He crouches down and offers the boy some raisins, and tells Lee "don't put the gas away yet." Outside the closed shop, someone in a rabbit costume dances around.

A young woman named Becky tries to pitch an underground graphic novel known as The Utopia Experiments so as to get it funded and enter it into the mainstream, describing it as about a scientist who deals with the devil for increased knowledge, the devil appearing in a number of disguises, but always as a cross between human and animal, primarily a rabbit. The book's author, Mark Dane, was a mental patient who committed suicide following its completion. As Becky claims the book predicted several incidents such as the 1986 BSE outbreak and the assassination of Indira Gran, she is cut off when the publisher asks why she has shifted focus from her medicinal studies to the book's funding. She explains that her father died of a nervous system-killing disease known as Deels, and her proposal is rejected. At home, she takes a pill, presumably to combat the hereditary disease.

Hapless IT worker Ian Johnson is caught messing around at work by his boss, who makes fun of him for living with his mother when Ian sarcastically insults him. A man named Bejan Chervo rifles through the pages of what appears to be a second volume of The Utopia Experiments and goes on a local forum for fans of the book. Becky and Ian are online, as well as the ultra-paranoid Wilson Wilson and the irritating Grant Leetham, who pretends to be a successful millionaire when he is in fact an impoverished young boy who lives with his substance abusing mother. Bejan reveals he has the second part of The Utopia Experiments in the form of a manuscript and gives them the location of a pub to meet in, telling them all to wear blue. Grant makes a sandwich out of bread and condiments while he sketches pages from the book.

Private Secretary to the Minister of the Department of Health Michael Dugdale prepares to commit suicide in a motel room after receiving a letter featuring evidence of his infidelity with a prostitute, Anya, who he has gotten pregnant. He is stopped by a phone call from his wife, Jen, who asks where he is (he says he is working late) and expresses optimism about their upcoming trip to a fertility clinic. Dugdale decides to live and calls the number on the sonogram, where he is told to "do a mission" for Anya's pimp. At a board meeting, minister Greg Ashby asks Dugdale to come along to a meeting with Conran Letts, the CEO of Corvadt, a pharmaceutical company trying to push a vaccine for Russian flu, which is deemed harmless. At the meeting, Dugdale and Ashby debate Letts' assistant on the lack of need for a vaccine until Ashby gets a call from fellow worker Geoff Lawson and steps out. The assistant tells Dugdale that he should convince Ashby to approve the vaccine, and that he should "make it your mission." Letts tells him that they all have a mission in life, and this is his.

Ian has another altercation with his boss as he leaves to meet the group. A wandering Grant attempts to break into a car but is caught by the irate owner. Grant tries to fight him and then pretends to show remorse, taking opportunity of the man's pity to wipe his hand in dog feces and shaking the man's hand before running away laughing. Instead of going to the pub, he goes directly to Bejan's apartment and waits for him to come back. Ashby refuses Dugdale's suggestion of signing off on the vaccine, saying it would be career suicide. Ian and Wilson end up sitting next to each other without knowing it, (because Wilson did not wear blue, not liking how he looks in it) only revealing themselves when Becky arrives. Grant hides as Bejan returns with Lee and Arby in tow, the latter with a gun to Bejan's head. Lee grabs the manuscript as Bejan tells them the only other people who know of it are the online group. Arby begins asking him where Jessica Hyde is, which he does not know. They lead him out to his balcony as Grant steals the manuscript out of Lee's bag, and they push him off to his death. Grant instinctively gasps and Lee chases after him, Grant escaping but nicking himself on a door hinge in the process. As Lee collects the sample of his DNA, Arby realizes the manuscript is gone.

Dugdale attempts to trick Ashby into signing the order for the vaccine by partially covering the title with a label. As he gives it to Ashby, he annoys him by talking about Jen's inability to conceive, getting Ashby to sign it to get Dugdale out of his office. Becky, Ian and Wilson get on well and become increasingly drunk as day turns to night. They debate over whether or not The Utopia Experiments predicting real world disasters is real, with Wilson believing, Becky on the fence, and Ian skeptical. They head back to Wilson's place to drink more, where Wilson shows them his computer setup that renders him invisible online, and he boasts about his survivability skills until Ian points out he used his real name on the forum. Wilson smugly points out that no one would believe "Wilson Wilson" is an actual name. Wilson shows them his nuclear fallout shelter and passes out, while a drunk Becky and Ian strip and try to have sex, but are too drunk to do so and fall asleep laughing. Ian awakens alone to find a note from Wilson, telling him that he has gone to find Bejan and that Becky has left. Wilson learns of Bejan's "suicide" and is immediately skeptical. Grant notices Lee and Arby sitting in a parked car just as the man he encountered earlier catches him. As the two notice Grant's altercation, Grant stabs the man in the leg with a screwdriver and flees. Michael nervously tells his coworker to go ahead with the vaccine order.

Grant turns up to school to hide out, but is sent to the principal for his frequent skipping. The principal brings in two "policemen" to question him about the stabbing, revealed to be Arby and Lee. As Arby offers him raisins, Grant leaps out the window and breaks his fall in the bushes. Ian is arrested at work for supposed pedophilia and is told his DNA was found at the scene of the crime. He is exonerated by his brother Roy, who has an alibi for Ian at the time of the alleged crime. Wilson searches Bejan's medical records and finds something that shocks him. Ian calls Becky and finds that she was arrested and let go on a similar charge, and they both learn of Bejan's death from Wilson. Wilson meets with the detective in charge of Bejan's case, Joshua Reynolds, informing him that he hacked Bejan's medical records and found them doctored, and he begs Reynolds not to report it as a suicide yet. Reynolds does anyway, and writes a report on Wilson's cybercrime. Becky meets with Ian and tells him that she believes their predicament is connected to The Utopia Experiments, and tells him a story of Dane attacking three staff in the asylum and the sudden start of Deels in 1986, both linked to the drugs produced by Corvadt. She shows him a page from the book in which a genetic mutation of Deels is drawn, and she points out that the mutation was discovered four years after the book's publishing.

Grant hides out and starts sketching pages from the manuscript. Arby tracks down Reynolds and stabs him in the throat, before pulling his head back so he will bleed out. Becky and Ian track Bejan's purchase to the comic shop from the opening. Lee and Arby find Wilson and handcuff him to a chair in his basement, locking his head in place with a brace. Lee gleefully informs him that if Wilson does not give them the information they need, he will rub chili peppers, then sand, then bleach into his eyes, and will finish by removing one with a spoon. Arby asks him for Jessica Hyde's location, which he is unable to answer, and Lee rubs the peppers, then the sand in. He tries to lie his way out of the bleach by claiming he has her address, which Lee ignores. Now about to use the spoon, Wilson tries to convince the men she is dead, and Lee removes his eye. Arby leaves Lee to finish him off. Ashby resigns after the fallout from approving the vaccine, and Lawson steps in as minister. Lawson privately tells Dugdale that he is aware of his deception, but then subtly reveals he is part of the blackmail plot.

As Lee steps out for a cigarette, Wilson dislocates his thumbs to escape his handcuffs and grabs Lee's gun as he returns. Disoriented and almost blind, Wilson swings the gun around erratically and Lee moves in a pattern to try and confuse him as he inches towards him. Wilson shoots him in the chest just before Lee can grab the gun. Ian and Becky arrive at the comic shop to find it closed down, and they learn from a nearby store that there was a gas leak that killed everyone inside. Wilson calls Becky, and they hurry back to his house and drag him, delirious, into the car. Wilson insists they do not go to the hospital or the police, as they could be found if they go. As Becky drives away, he forlornly asks after his father, who he lives with.

Dugdale and Anya sit together in the motel room he was going to commit suicide in. She cries into his shoulder, apologizing, and he holds her stomach. The trio hide out at Becky's and they get a knock on the door. The temporarily but fully blind Wilson points Lee's gun at the door, begging them not to answer, but Becky takes the gun and gives it to Ian before opening it. A thin, wide-eyed woman is at the door, and she identifies herself as Jessica Hyde.

Cast

 * Wilson Wilson - Adeel Akhtar
 * The Assistant - James Fox
 * Michael Dugdale - Paul Higgins
 * Arby - Neil Maskell
 * Jessica Hyde - Fiona O'Shaughnessy
 * Geoff Lawson - Alistair Petrie
 * Conran Letts - Stephen Rea
 * Becky - Alexandra Roach
 * Ian Johnson - Nathan Stewart-Jarrett
 * Grant Leetham - Oliver Woollford
 * Greg Ashby - Oliver Dimsdale
 * Jen Dugdale- Ruth Gemmell
 * Anya - Anna Madeley
 * Lee - Paul Ready
 * Joshua Reynolds - Michael Smiley
 * Bejan Chervo - Mark Stobbart

Deaths

 * Doomsday Comics customers
 * Doomsday Comics clerk
 * Bejan Chervo
 * Joshua Reynolds

Music

 * "Utopia Overture" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Opening scene)
 * "Bekki On Pills Part 2" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Becky takes her pills/Ian's first scene)
 * "The Network" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Chatting on the forum, Ian in jail/Wilson looks through Bejan's medical records)
 * "Samba De Wilson" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Dugdale gets a call/Board meeting, Wilson shoots Lee/The group drives away after Wilson's eye is removed)
 * "Mr Rabbit's Game" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Grant sneaks into Bejan's apartment)
 * "Mr. Rabbit It Is" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Ian and Wilson sit next to each other without knowing it)
 * "Utopia Descent" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Bejan's death)
 * "Slivovitz" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Arriving at Wilson's house)
 * "Conspiracy" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Wilson finds out about Bejan's death/Grant stabs a man)
 * "Becky On Pills Part 1" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Grant gets sent to the principal's office)
 * "Conspiracy Part 2" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Becky explains The Utopia Experiments ' nefarious connections/Grant sketches the manuscript/Arby kills Reynolds)
 * "Where is Jessica Hyde? Part 1" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Lee tortures Wilson)
 * "Meditative Chaos" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Geoff reveals his part in Dugdale's blackmail/Wilson escapes his handcuffs)
 * "Utopia Finale" - Cristobal Tapia De Veer (Jessica reveals herself/Credits)