The series was centered on Jesse Hawkes, an ex-Marine who started the High Mountain Rangers 35 years before the pilot.
Spared the death penalty on a legal technicality, Cousins instead was given life imprisonment without eligibility for parole.
Then Cousins gets broken out of jail by a drug dealer needing his mountain skills, and fatally ambushes Merlin.
Now, as the team's third director, Matt urges his father out of retirement to help the Rangers recapture Cousins.
Each Ranger had a call sign (e.g., "Top Gun", "Merlin", "Flying Tiger"); this was used whenever the HMRs were in the field.