7.5/10435 votes#1 - Pilot
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/3/2000
As a child, Max was part of a highly classified genetic enhancement project. She and several other children were trained in a deeply secluded compound to use their superhuman powers. At a young age, Max and several others escaped the compound and made their way in the world. Now a beautiful young bike messenger and thief, Max is trying to find her lost ""siblings"" from the project, but at the same time, Max is trying to dodge capture from her former handlers led by Lydecker, and is aided in her quest by Logan Cale, an idealistic cyber-journalist.
Director: David Nutter
Writer: Charles H. Eglee, James Cameron
7.5/10395 votes#2 - Heat
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/10/2000
Max is lured further into Logan's realm when he promises her more information about her past. He tells her about the woman who picked her up roadside as a child - a woman named Hannah. Max heads out to find Hannah, and ultimately gets more clues about her biological mother. But Hannah is forced to reveal Max's whereabouts to Lydecker. Max manages yet another daring escape from Lydecker. Also, Max's feline DNA puts her in heat and she relentlessly pursues a man, Eric. They never really hook up, but Eric is left with a huge crush on Max and gets unsuspectingly sucked into her adventure. Elsewhere, the private eye, Vogelsang, double-crosses Max and sells information about her to Lydecker.
Director: Michael Katleman
Writer: Patrick Harbinson
7.2/10371 votes#3 - Flushed
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/17/2000
Max's seizures increase. Low on her medication after her friends mistakenly flush it down the toilet, Max breaks into a drug clinic. She is caught and ends up in jail and more openly a target for Lydecker. When her friends find out, Cindy gets herself arrested in order to help Max break out. Meanwhile, Lydecker closes in on Max. With the help of a stranger Cindy and Max manage to breakout. Lydecker's efforts to trap Max are again thwarted by Logan's tactics.
Director: Terrence O'Hara
Writer: Charles H. Eglee, René Echevarria
7.4/10370 votes#4 - C.R.E.A.M.
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/31/2000
Max comes to Sketchy's rescue after he loses a mobstar's money filled package. Meanwhile, Logan is approached by a young woman who wants him to locate her missing father but has a hidden agenda.
Director: Chris Long
Writer: David Zabel
7.6/10366 votes#5 - 411 on the DL
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 11/14/2000
Max gets called to a secret meeting after seeing a personal ad containing her bar code tattoo number. She learns that Vogelsang claims to know about the remaining children from Manticore. He insists on a large sum of money for the information. Logan questions Vogelsang's motives and his relationship to Lydecker. Mysteriously, Logan's ex-wife reappears after many years of non-contact. Max is suspicious of the ex-wife's motives, but Logan feels drawn to his ex-wife. However, Max discovers the ex-wife has dark motives for returning. Elsewhere, Herbal is fired from the messenger service after using Rastafarian drugs. Cindy and Kendra head up a protest strike.
Director: N/A
Writer: Doris Egan
7.6/10351 votes#6 - Prodigy
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/21/2000
Max attends conference about genetic engineering. She sees Lydecker at the conference, but he doesn't recognize her. Before she can slip away unseen, the conference attendees are taken hostage by a group of anti-genetic engineering terrorists. Max can't use her abilities to escape for fear of being noticed. Logan negotiates to free the women and children in exchange for himself. Max is able to intervene to save Logan from an almost certain death. She takes out Lydecker in the process and stops the terrorists. Meanwhile at Jam Pony, the gang are riveted by the television coverage of the hostage situation and unaware that Max is involved. Herbal insists the terrorist situation is all part of God's plan.
Director: David Jackson
Writer: Patrick Harbinson
7.5/10359 votes#7 - Cold Comfort
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/28/2000
Zack reappears and tells Max Lydecker has captured Brin, one of their Manticore sisters, and plans to do her harm. Max decides they must kidnap Lydecker and force him to reveal Brin's whereabouts. When Max and Zack discover that Lydecker was not behind Brin's disappearance, they have no choice but to team up with Lydecker to find their lost sister.
Director: Jefery Levy
Writer: Jose Molina
7.3/10347 votes#8 - Blah Blah Woof Woof
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 12/12/2000
Lydecker gets the local police to post ""Wanted"" posters of Max throughout the city, charging her with Vogelsang's murder. Zack returns to beg Max to leave town. Logan offers Max and Zack shelter in a countryside retreat. While saying good-bye, their attraction to each other comes to the surface and Logan and Max kiss. Zack tries again to convince Max to run away with him. Just as she's ready to do it, she learns Logan is near death. Max heads back to Seattle to give Logan a blood transfusion. Though she puts her own life at risk, she does save Logan's life. Lydecker and the police close in on finding Max; however, the real murder confesses. It's Zack who turns himself in to police in order to spare Max. The helicopter transporting Zack back to Manticore mysteriously explodes. No one knows if Zack was killed. Meanwhile, Logan discovers the feeling has partially returned to his paralyzed leg. And, Sketchy is put in charge at Jam Pony. He seizes the opportunity to make himself look li
Director: Paul Shapiro
Writer: Moira Kirland
7.4/10346 votes#9 - Out
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 1/9/2001
Tired of Logan's ""all business"" approach to their relationship, Max refuses to help with his latest case involving a medical supply smuggler. But when Logan gets double-crossed by his target, Max goes undercover as ""Eyes Only"" to rescue him from a certain death. Meanwhile, Normal is smitten with a woman with a secret.
Director: Sarah Pia Anderson
Writer: David Zabel
7.5/10339 votes#10 - Red
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 1/16/2001
Max takes on an army of superhuman soldiers in an episode amped up on action sequences. The trouble starts when Logan recruits his favorite biker chick to protect a Federal witness with vital info on local corruption. But the operation hits a snag after Max realizes that the guy she's guarding is a face from the not-so-distant---and very painful---past, and that those who want him dead may have plans for her as well.
Director: Michael Katleman
Writer: David Zabel
7.7/10336 votes#11 - Art Attack
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 2/6/2001
Normal is kidnapped by a gang of art thieves and the Jam Pony folks realize they have been tricked into transporting stolen paintings. Meanwhile, Logan asks Max to be his date at a family wedding. She is snubbed at the only store that sells gowns. She decides to return to the dress store and steal the dress she has put on hold. When Logan is suspicious of how she got such a nice dress, Max confesses and says she plans on taking it back. Later, Max enlists Logan's help to rescue Normal from the art thieves
Director: James A. Contner
Writer: Doris Egan
7.4/10323 votes#12 - Rising
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 2/13/2001
The ""transgenic"" Reds catch up with Max when her lost pager reveals her whereabouts to them. The Reds are former death row convicts seeking to combine their technology with Max's genetic material. Logan and Max, after a deadly fight with a Red, learn that the transgenics' power is controlled by a special implant placed in their bodies. Meanwhile, the Reds take Original Cindy hostage and used to lure Max into their trap. Max risks it all and inserts the Red's implant into her own neck in hopes of gaining extra power. The implant makes her hyper violent and she kills off the Reds in order to free Original Cindy. Max then has a seizure. Logan learns the only way to save Max's life is to get the chip out of her head, but first he has to electrocute the chip in her neck. He is able to save her. Max then has to reveal to Original Cindy her Manticore secret. Also, Logan begins to regain the use of his legs and stands up.
Director: Duane Clark
Writer: Doris Egan, Moira Kirland
7.4/10326 votes#13 - The Kidz are Aiight
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 2/20/2001
Re-captured by Lydecker after his helicopter crash, Zack is tortured in an effort to get him to reveal the whereabouts of the other X5 escapees. After a failed escape attempt, Lydecker tortures Zack even more and Zack ""dies."" In a ingenious plan, Zack survives his burial and escapes from his coffin. He contacts Max. She meets him in a cave on the Manticore property. Unbeknownst to them, Max is wired and Lydecker and company hear all he is saying. He tells Max he's forgotten everything, but she coaches him to try and remember the whereabouts of the other X5 escapees. He does remember a few details which he tells Max. He reveals Tenga is working in a nearby bakery. This is enough information to get Lydecker on her tail. Max and Zack piece together that Lydecker knows the whereabouts of the X5 escapees. Logan sends a warning out to the X5ers through ""Eyes Only."" All are tipped off, but Tenga alerts Zack that she needs help escaping Lydecker. Zack and Max go to her and help her get awa
Director: Jeff Woolnough
Writer: Charles H. Eglee, René Echevarria
7.4/10346 votes#14 - Female Trouble
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 2/27/2001
Max discovers Logan is dealing with a back-alley medical clinic doctor who has agreed to perform experimental therapies to keep him out of his wheelchair, who Max realizes is also a former Manticore scientist. Meanwhile,Original Cindy returns to Jam Pony and continues to learn more about Max and her relationship to Logan.
Director: John T. Kretchmer
Writer: Patrick Harbinson
6.9/10338 votes#15 - Haven
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 3/27/2001
Max accompanies Logan to a once-thriving community, now devastated after the pulse, to meet with the town's retired sheriff (his Eyes Only) contact. The locals are hostile toward Max and Logan, believing them to be hold-overs from the pre-pulse days. While Logan is meeting with his contact, Max starts to feel ill and having seizures. She befriends a local teen who Max comes to realize is alienated from the rest of the town. Max sees burn marks on the boy's hands. Then the boy is threatened with his life for talking to her. Max asks Logan to help her dig deeper to uncover what appears to be a conspiracy of silence. Max and Logan find out the boy is the only survivor of an affluent family attacked and killed by an angry mob of townspeople after the pulse. Max becomes debilitated by a seizure. Logan heroically overcomes his disability by using his wits to fend off a mob determined to keep the truth a secret. Logan succeeds in bringing the truth to light and helping the boy discover
Director: Michael Ray Rhodes
Writer: Jose Molina
7.8/10428 votes#16 - Shorties in Love
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 4/17/2001
When Diamond, an old girlfriend of Original Cindy's mysteriously reappears to rekindle their relationship, Max finds her anonymity dangerously comprised by a stranger with a deadly secret. Max becomes suspicious of Diamond's presence when Max is attacked by strangers. Logan investigates the identity of the attackers. Meanwhile, Max carries out a heist at the request of Logan. Unbeknownst to her, Max is followed on the heist by Diamond. Diamond accidentally trips an alarm and Max is caught. Diamond got away with the goods from the heist and convinces Cindy to leave town with her to start a new life. While Max is in jail, Hazmat-suited soldiers drug her and take her to a laboratory. Max escapes after she learns her captors plan to kill her because she won't reveal the whereabouts of Diamond. With the help of Logan, Max discovers Diamond is wanted because she was injected with a deadly biological poison which was given to her by a genetics corporation. The corporation is trying to cover
Director: Paul Shapiro
Writer: Adisa Iwa
7.4/10333 votes#17 - Pollo Loco
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 4/24/2001
Logan is tipped off by a friend at the morgue to a murder victim with a bar code tattoo on his neck. He tells Max who then investigates. Max reads the bar code to be that of fellow X5 escapee, Ben. However, the murder victim is not Ben. While she is viewing the body, Lydecker shows up to confiscate the body and close the investigation. Max hides. After another body with the same bar code shows up, Max investigates the crime scene. While at the scene, Max has several flashbacks that make it clear to her that the real Ben is re-enacting a traumatic Manticore training exercise where a prisoner was hunted down and savagely murdered. Max herself participated in the exercise. Max remembers Ben had an obsession with a religious icon after a Manticore janitor gave him a card with her image. It looks to be an image of the Virgin Mary, but the young Manticore soldiers call her the blue lady. Max goes to a local church and a priest befriends her. Later, the priest is abducted by Ben, who tatt
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Writer: Doris Egan
7.5/10328 votes#18 - I and I Am a Camera
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 5/1/2001
Investigating a string of murders of recently paroled convicts, Max and Logan meet a ""Fisher King""-like super hero who at first appears harmless and slightly crazy, but ultimately has a profound effect on both their personal lives. Discovering this post-pulse crusade as he follows her around Seattle, Max's original opinion of the ""super hero"" changes after she sees him actually perform super-human feats. Bringing Logan into the mix, they discover the ""super hero"" is a former NASA janitor who managed to abscond post-pulse with a highly advanced exoskeleton that attached to one's nervous system and provides super-human abilities. Though fascinated by the device, Logan's interest is piqued when the man's ramblings about conspiracy theories and ""death from the sky"" bear a striking resemblance to Logan's murder investigation. Digging further Logan discovers a secret police plot to equip special hover-drones with weapons that can track and kill any target, especially ex-cons.
Director: Jeff Woolnough
Writer: David Simkins
7.6/10336 votes#19 - Hit a Sista Back
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 5/8/2001
When fellow X5 escapee Tinga returns to town to save the family she left behind, Max, with the help of Zack, once again places herself in danger to battle Manticore, Lydecker, newly turned X5 Bryn, and an increasingly power-hungry Madame X. When Tinga gives up her freedom to ensure her child's safety, she is taken to a secret government lab. Amid the double crossing, we learn Lydecker is no longer in the loop with the real Manticore higher-ups. This means Max is in more danger that she could possible imagine.
Director: James Whitmore Jr.
Writer: Moira Kirland
8.2/10381 votes#20 - Meow
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 5/15/2001
Max starts to feel the stress of being controlled by her genetic urges when she goes into her bi-annual feline DNA sexual urges.
Director: D. J. Caruso
Writer: David Zabel
7.5/104 votes#21 - And Jesus Brought a Casserole
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 5/22/2001
Max escapes Manticore and Madame X's clutches with the help of Lydecker. Lydecker and two of his accomplices, knock Max out and chain her to a hotel bed. Lydecker gets drunk while Max sleeps. Max wakes up just as Lydecker is pointing a gun at her and Madam X's people are closing in on them. Lydecker tells her he'll shoot her and then himself and end it all. Max kicks the gun our off his hand, grabs him, and they escape in his Humvee. Meanwhile, the other X5s have gathered with Logan and are trying to come up with a plan to find Max. All are shocked when Max shows up with Lydecker and tells them all she wants them to help her take down Manticore. Though they all mistrust him, eventually, they include Lydecker on the plan -- seeing as he knows the ins and outs of Manticore. Lydecker proves useful when he gouges the eye out of a man who has access to the Manticore labs. Max and Zack use the eye to gain access to the lab. The X5s plant bombs throughout Manticore. Max and Zack plant bo
Director: Joe Ann Fogle
Writer: Charles H. Eglee, René Echevarria
The Best Episodes of Dark Angel Season 1
Every episode of Dark Angel Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Dark Angel Season 1!
Super soldier Max Guevera tries to live a normal life in post-apocalyptic Seattle while eluding capture by government agents from the covert biotech facility she...
Genres:Action & AdventureDrama
Network:FOX
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Pilot" is the best rated episode of "Dark Angel" season 1. It scored 7.5/10 based on 435 votes. Directed by David Nutter and written by Charles H. Eglee, James Cameron, it aired on 10/3/2000. This episode is rated 0.0 points higher than the second-best, "Heat".