[3] Thirty-two-year-old Jake Green returns for a short visit to his small hometown of Jericho in northern Kansas following a mysterious five-year absence.

Jake is evasive about his absence; he is asked where he has been by various Jericho residents and he gives different answers – including claims to have been playing minor league baseball and serving in both the Army and Navy.

As Jake leaves town, the President addresses a joint session of the United States Congress about a rise in global violence.

At the same time, some residents of the town see a mushroom cloud on the horizon, in the direction of Denver, Colorado over a mountain range.

Meanwhile, a school bus is returning from a field trip, late because it had to stop for repairs, with the elementary-school-aged children of Jericho.

Jake performs an emergency tracheotomy using straws from the children's juice boxes and band-aids to create a temporary airway.

Earlier, Mayor Green had tried to calm citizens by speculating that the Denver incident was isolated and possibly a military accident instead of a widespread enemy attack.

Jake tells the crowd to help the children, and informs his brother that he drove past a prison bus that had crashed.

The episode ends with Emily Sullivan, an old friend of Jake who is seemingly unaware of the day's events, driving on an isolated rural road.

The CBS airing of the pilot received 11.66 million viewers, and was second place for its time spot on the networks.