101
"Militant Pacifists"
- TeaserDuring Shock and Awe, a regime taxi carrying three anxious Americans hits an explosive and is sent airborne on a deserted Iraqi highway — throwing us headlong into war's indiscriminate reality. We don't immediately know why civilian Americans would be traveling in a war zone. Or if they survived.
- FlashbackThe pilot intercuts between American civilians, Iraqis, and U.S. soldiers as war approaches. An eclectic band of peace activists — revered as "peacemakers" or condemned by news media as "human shields" — travels unarmed to Baghdad, risking their lives to suffer war alongside innocent Iraqis.
- —We meet the peace activists: Dr. Randall Katz, a Parkinson's-stricken American University professor who has given up on Congress; Jess Riggs, a scrappy Lutheran pastor with drill-sergeant energy and a troubled brother in the Army; and Jeremiah "Frog" Michaels, a lovable, seemingly naive peacenik suspiciously fluent in self-defense and Arabic.
- —In Iraq, Ba'ath fixer Akram Al-Janabi and his young subordinate Samir Al-Rashidi brace for American bombs and Baghdad's collapse — among other things, digging for water and quietly defying Ba'ath Party orders to place the Americans inside war's blast radius.
- —In Kuwait, Jess' older brother Army Captain Bo Riggs pressures Major "T-Bone" Bonner to get him to Baghdad ASAP to protect his sister. In Washington, wire reporter Eugene "Cub" Bare rejects an embed with the Pentagon to join the pacifists — choosing the relative comfort of his profession over his uncomfortable marriage.
- Act-OutShock and Awe begins. Peace activists are exposed. The taxi ferrying three of them to Jordan explodes — flips off the highway. Iraqi strangers pull the injured from the wreck. At gunpoint. Captors or rescuers, impossible to know.
102
"The Rockets' Red Glare"
- TeaserThe pickup truck carrying Jess, Katz and Frog in its bed veers off the Iraqi highway and stops next to a station wagon. Following a discussion that resembles a negotiation, the Americans are transferred to two Iraqi men in the station wagon. It appears as if the Americans have just been sold.
- FlashbackThe morning after checking into Baghdad's Hotel Al Fanar, Mick gently confronts Abby and Jess about the unusual accommodations. Not his first trip with F4P, he knows Hotel Palestine is the team's go-to — and he understands the risk of residing across from a regime palace during wartime. Jess recruits Mick to keep the secret. He leaves unconvinced.
- —Under cover of night, T-Bone and his soldiers cross into Iraq from Jordan. At dawn, they take position on a hillside overlooking Rutba, training their eyes — and weapons — on the Fedayeen, Saddam's most elite force of fighters.
- —While F4P strategizes from the crazed lobby of Al Fanar, Cub slips out unseen to explore Baghdad. The scene is unlike anything being depicted back home: children in Disney shirts, men in Michael Jordan jerseys, a bowling alley blaring Bruce Springsteen. He finds himself swept up in a street market — the lone American in a sea of Iraqis. A stranger grabs his shoulder. The stranger is Akram, who had been in Cub's shadow all along.
- Act-OutCruise missiles slam into Baghdad, detonating near Al Fanar. F4P activists sprint for the basement shelter. Once the door is closed they realize Katz is missing. Jess charges up the stairwell toward shattering windows and falling debris — bombs be damned.
103
"Bombs Bursting in Air"
- TeaserKatz moans from the back of the station wagon as Jess clamps Frog's hand, convinced they are now prisoners of war. Driver stops beside a gutted complex and asks a pedestrian for directions to Rutba General Hospital. The local responds: "Rutba hospital burned three days ago. The Americans bombed it."
- FlashbackDuring Shock and Awe's first night, Jess bursts into Katz's room at Hotel Al Fanar and finds him catatonic — on his back, eyes open, hands folded like a corpse's. Panicked, she jumps up and down on the bed, screaming. He snaps awake to the absurdity of a pastor towering over him, jumping up and down.
- —Packed into Al Fanar's basement, peacemakers and hotel staff ration emergency kits alongside locals and the hotel's mascot monkey. As bombs resonate, a generator-powered TV broadcasts triumphant and gratuitous U.S. cable news coverage of American weaponry and war.
- —A U.S. bunker-buster bomb that missed one of Saddam's compounds landed instead in the streets of Al Doura, a Christian-and-Muslim neighborhood. It's where Samir's family lives — and where Akram and Samir had dug a water well. At Baghdad's Al Kindi Hospital, a medic charges through the door with Samir's young son on a gurney. Abbas' torso is ripped open, his intestines exposed.
- Act-OutStation wagon with Frog, Jess and Katz brakes outside an abandoned school. A bear of a man emerges. He speaks to the driver, peers inside. He opens the wagon's gate, slides his arms under Katz, lifts him out. Cradling Katz like a child, this man named Mesha'al carries Katz inside. Jess and Frog are unsure what to do. Mesha'al turns back — motions for them to follow.
104
"Dawn's Early Light"
- TeaserGentle giant Mesha'al carries Katz into the abandoned school with Jess and Frog trailing. Blood streams from Jess' head. The hallway is dark and crowded with Iraqis. Seeing Americans, the locals fall silent. One by one, they step aside to let Mesha'al pass — three injured Americans invited to skip the line inside the newly opened Health Care Center of Rutba, less than one mile from the bombed Rutba General Hospital.
- FlashbackF4Pers survey wreckage from the 504 cruise missiles that hit Baghdad overnight on March 21, 2003. A storeowner pleads with them to photograph his destroyed shop. When Iraqi police spot the Americans taking photos, Frog, Jess and Katz are arrested on suspicion of spying.
- —Baghdad emergency rooms become morgues. Abby, Mick, and other F4Pers document war from inside Al Kindi Hospital — where the wounded fight for their lives and the dead choke hallways. It is where Samir's son struggles to survive.
- —Kasim amps up the pressure on Akram to position the F4Pers directly on U.S. targets. Akram resists, but Samir reconsiders. Now that his family has been injured by American bombs, his perspective on all things American has darkened.
- Act-OutIn a Baghdad police-station bathroom, Katz waits to be interrogated — sweating and shaking, terrified of being tortured. He places a tablet of cyanide onto his tongue. At that precise moment, Frog pokes his head in: "C'mon, Doc, they said we can go." Katz chokes up the tablet — spits it into the sink.
105
"Let Freedom Scream"
- TeaserJess sits atop a school desk, her scalp peeled back like an opened can. Nurse Jassim Mohammad Jamil stretches the scalp over her skull and begins stitching. He has no anesthesia because of the war and U.N. sanctions. As he threads sutures through raw scalp, he leans close to whisper "Asif." With each stitch: "Asif." Sorry, sorry. An Iraqi nurse is apologizing for the pain he must inflict on an American.
- FlashbackAkram is furious that F4Pers broke his two golden rules: no exploring without a minder, no photos in public. Baghdad police released Frog, Jess and Katz, but confiscated their passports and cameras — and ordered them to leave the country immediately. A pitch-dark drive through Shock and Awe bombings. Abby says it is a death sentence, pleads with Akram for mercy.
- —T-Bone makes quick work of the Fedayeen in Rutba and takes control of the town. Acting as de facto mayor, he restores electricity, opens markets, revives essential services, and forms a local government — then concedes that the town's hospital was lost to American bombs. With Rutba General closed, only an Iraqi doctor, two nurses, and an ambulance driver remain. In a vacant middle school they open a makeshift clinic. Long lines of locals immediately form.
- Act-OutJess stares blissfully at Jassim as he threads sutures through her scalp. Even smiling. Frog is confused by her surreal calmness. He doesn't realize she's consumed by a near-death experience — watching the scene as if floating overhead, sensing a choice: she can die and transition to something safer, or remain trapped in a war zone. She chooses the latter — and immediately feels the sting of Jassim's needle. She grimaces, squeezes Frog's hand.
106
"Land of the Free, Home of the Grave"
- TeaserKatz writhes on a table in Rutba's clinic as Dr. Farouq Dulami assesses his injuries — suspected broken sternum and ribs, a separated shoulder. But he cannot give a definitive diagnosis because his radiography equipment is buried in hospital rubble. Seeing the tall American peacemaker, Dr. Dulami fires questions at Frog, as if they'd long ago been spring-loaded: "Why, why, WHY? Why is your government bombing us? For what? For who? Why?"
- FlashbackAs a favor to Abby, Akram postpones the overnight eviction of Jess, Katz and Frog. At sunrise, he supervises their departure from Hotel Al Fanar. After the Americans squeeze into a small taxi, Akram leans inside to tell them he hopes to one day welcome them back to Iraq "under more peaceful circumstances — inshallah." He returns their passports and cameras, nods to the driver. The driver races off, looking anxious.
- —T-Bone's diplomacy in Rutba is lauded by the Pentagon as a blueprint for successful post-war transitions. At a diplomatic dinner in Rutba, T-Bone's officers and Rutba's elders are seated across from one another when the elders reach into their pockets. The officers reflexively reach for their weapons — a twitch of panic. The elders raise their arms. In their hands are spoons and forks — their own gesture toward good diplomacy. Both sides break out in their shared and universal language — unbridled laughter.
- —In Baghdad, Al Kindi Hospital overflows with the wounded. Abbas, Samir's young son, has 33 pieces of shrapnel pressing against his spine. Samir, Akram, and Abby stand watch as a doctor warns that Abbas could possibly end up crippled.
- Act-OutIn Rutba's makeshift clinic, Frog has no response for Dr. Dulami's outrage. "Sir, I wish I knew," he says, beginning to choke up. Seeing tears in Frog's eyes, the doctor's anger dissipates. He tells Frog: "It's okay. You are safe in Rutba. You are our brothers and we will take care of you. We take care of everyone, it doesn't matter Muslim, Christian or Jew. We are all humans."
107
"The Twilight's Last Gleaming"
- TeaserKatz is loaded on a gurney into an SUV driven by Mesha'al, who agrees to take the Americans to Amman despite nightly bombings. Frog collects the group's remaining dinar — a stack of Iraqi bills the size of a brick — and hands all of it to Dr. Dulami. The doctor waves it off: "We don't want your money. That is not why we took care for you. We cared for you because you are our brothers and sisters. We are all family. Just go and tell the world about Rutba. That is payment enough."
- FlashbackIn the U.S., people consume war as spectacle — CNN's night-vision Shock and Awe coverage is primetime viewing, more popular than Star Search and The Bachelor. Even as Wolf Blitzer reminds viewers that millions of Iraqis are in harm's way, Cub's friends and neighbors rationalize war as a necessary evil. Cub distracts himself with work; Beth is consumed with the kids, church, and her fractured marriage.
- —Inside Al Kindi Hospital, Abby, Akram, and Samir keep vigil over Abbas. Seeing Samir's grief, Abby lobbies friends in California and D.C. for visas to bring Abbas and Samir to the U.S. for Abbas' surgery and medical care.
- —T-Bone is reassigned to Balad, a razor-wired flashpoint of war. He encounters Mick, an old acquaintance from previous war zones. T-Bone offers Mick a flak jacket. Mick politely declines. "Give up your weapons and come with me," he says. "I'll show you a side of Iraq you've never seen." T-Bone thinks hard on it — looking genuinely tempted.
- Act-OutA large convoy rolls into Rutba with T-Bone's replacement. The local elders greet it, expecting someone like T-Bone. When Rutba's new "mayor" steps out of the lead HUMVEE, we see a slight hitch in his step. It's Bo Riggs. He declines the elders' bowl of figs and offer of dinner. Soon after, Riggs stalks the town wielding a bat nicknamed "The Iraqi Beater." Soldiers kick in a Rutba home. Without warning or reason, Riggs cracks his bat across the Iraqi man's knees. The man, face-down on the floor, rolls over. It's Mesha'al, the ambulance driver.
108
"Birth of a 'Terrorist'"
- TeaserSamir and Abbas are in the back of a chauffeured limo after being flown to California. Abbas will have surgery in L.A. to remove shrapnel from around his spine. Driving away from LAX, a jet descends. Abbas panics and curls into the floorboard. Samir tries to soothe him: "You don't need to be afraid. Jets don't drop bombs here."
- —Back home, Cub accompanies Beth to church. A jovial church deacon clamps Cub's hand and drops the fake cheer: "So, when are you going back to Iraq to report on those people?" Cub jerks his hand free, holds the man's stare, then walks away — out of the church, out of the parking lot, and down the road. Beth steps to the door, watches him go.
- —In Amman, Katz is cleared to leave the hospital. As he packs, a nurse asks whether he's returning to Iraq or going home. Katz says he's headed home. The nurse requests a favor: "Please take a message back to America. Tell America we love Americans." A beat, then the truth: "But we hate American aggression."
- —Jess recovers in a hotel near her Amman hospital. A Palestinian nurse visits daily to clean and re-bandage her wounds — hours of meticulous care every afternoon. When Jess tries to pay, the nurse refuses: "This has not been a job for me. It has been an honor to care for an American peace warrior."
- —On Abbas' fifth birthday — days after a California surgeon successfully removes all shrapnel from his back — neighbors throw a party and give Abbas a bike. Local media covers the event as if it's a noble thing — American kindness saving a wounded child of war. Riggs is court-martialed on conduct unbecoming an officer. Convicted of three assaults, he is sentenced to only 45 days confinement and a $12,000 fine. He keeps his rank. Exiting the courtroom, Riggs high-fives his defense attorneys.
- Act-OutAs Abbas' birthday celebration concludes, a reporter asks him what he wants to be when he grows up. In Arabic, Abbas answers, then looks to Samir to translate. Samir hesitates, and finally says, "He wants to be a jet pilot." This is half true. Samir has redacted the last half of Abbas' answer: "I want to be a jet pilot... so I can drop bombs on America."
