Apple TV released the first two episodes of the new crime drama miniseries Lucky on Wednesday, July 15. From Your Friends and Neighbors creator Jonathan Tropper and executive producer Reese Witherspoon, the series borrows its story from the novel of the same name by Marissa Stapley. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as the title character, who's on the run after a heist goes wrong.
Lucky episode 1 begins with Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy) panting while running in between a series of semi-trucks. She's smashes into one but keeps running, ducking underneath one to make a quick escape. A male FBI agent chases after her and calls her name, eventually leaving her with no escape as he draws his gun. But surprise: This is a flash-forward we'll work our way up to.
In the recent past, Lucky flicks her dad's lighter open and closed as her husband Cary Masterson (Drew Starkey) sidles up behind her to give her a kiss. Cary tries to calm her nerves about the plan, but she fears that something feels off. Celebrating the suitcase full of cash they have claimed as their own, the couple heads to a Las Vegas casino to get drunk and gamble.
After dancing, Lucky and Cary head to the roof of Caesars Palace for champagne and plot their escape from America in the morning once the money is discovered missing. However, in the morning, Lucky awakes in their hotel room hungover and confused long after their proposed 9 a.m. escape. Cary's missing and so is the money. Was he taken or did he drug and abandon her?
The FBI and Dutch hunt Lucky down at Caesars Palace
Before long, police and the FBI are at the casino hotel in search of Cary, Lucky, and their heist money. Agent Billie Rand (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) instructs her fellow agents to get them alive. Lucky begins her journey into the casino and sees her face alongside Cary's on the news as targets of an FBI manhunt after they stole up to $10 million in cash. She pops up her hood and moves forward.
Rand sets her agents out to check security footage for any sight of Cary and Lucky. As Lucky attempts to walk right outside the front doors, she's stopped by police that suddenly appear and quickly hops in the elevator. Again, she finds agents outside her room. She steals the maid cart to hide behind and slips into a nearby stairwell. After a quick vomit, she continues her descent.
The agents search their hotel room and quickly discover that Cary left without Lucky, who's spotted by the agents pushing the maid cart on security footage. Back on the casino floor, Lucky snags a hat and puts her hood back up to hide her long red hair. Once again, she tries to walk out the front door, but she stops in her tracks when she sees Dutch (Clifton Collins Jr.) and returns inside.
He follows her and simply watches as she keeps walking, right past Rand. Unfortunately for Lucky, Rand realizes and sets her agents off on a chase for Lucky on the casino floor. Lucky ditches her hoodie and hat as she races through a restaurant kitchen, snagging a key card, and a series of backdoors. The FBI are right on her trail the whole time, just a few paces behind.
Lucky steals a jacket and arrives at the hotel's loading dock. Spotting a man tossing bags into a truck, she uses makeup to create a fake bruise around her eyes. She tells the man that her boyfriend abused her as a means to tug on his heartstrings and offer her a ride out of the casino. For once, she's actually lucky as the man drives away before the FBI can enter the loading dock.
While riding in the truck, Lucky remembers her father John (Timothy Olyphant), who's currently serving time in prison, asking her to move something. He got involved with something and someone shady, and she quickly realizes that she will now be on the hook for his decisions. The man drops Lucky off with some spending money even though he knows her eye bruise is fake.
Lucky hits the road but runs into Priscilla and some trouble
Once inside the dollar store, Lucky cuts her hair into a bob and bleaches it blonde. Rand's already on the case searching for the trucks that left for deliveries, heading to the bus stations, and dead-set on finding Cary, too. Lucky's exit from the bus station is expectedly dangerous, but she manages to sneak her way onto a bus heading to the Grand Canyon. Of course, Dutch follows the bus.
Lucky takes a phone call from her dad while on the bus, and he apologizes that she's on her own. John gives her the courage to keep fighting and reminds her of the knowledge he imparted on her. While watching security footage, Rand realizes that they aren't the only ones hunting Lucky as they spot Dutch, an enforcer for Whittaker and Priscilla's right hand, though we haven't met them yet.
The bus makes a stop in Arizona, and Lucky grabs a sandwich from the gas station convenience store. We have caught up to where the episode began as the FBI agent chases after her between the trucks. She gets a height advantage by running on top of the trucks, but when she's stuck again with hope seemingly lost, an SUV runs over the FBI agent.
Dutch holds a gun to Lucky's head and guides her to get into the car beside Priscilla Masterson (Annette Bening). The SUV drives off and speeds down a desert road. Priscilla immediately asks about Cary's whereabouts as well as the money's whereabouts, and she doesn't believe that Lucky doesn't know where either are. Despite her pleading, Lucky's tossed into the trunk of another car.
Whlie in the truck, Lucky uses her lighter to burn off the zip tie around her hands and finds a screwdriver and road flares. Sneaking into the car between the backseat armrest, she sets off a road flare, causing chaos among the driver and passenger. After a struggle, the car crashes and turns upside down. Once outside the car, another fight commences.
One of the men attacks Lucky, and as he's choking her to death, she's able to grab the screwdriver and stab him in the temple, instantly killing him. He lands on top of her, and she wakes up hours later at sunrise. She drags the man back into the car, removes the screwdriver from his head, and utilizes the spilling gasoline to set the car on fire. With that, Lucky sets off on foot.
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