November 15, 2006 – The Drama Series Day Break Premieres on ABC
“Well, whatever you do is your choice, Detective, but just remember, for every decision, there’s a consequence.”
On November 15, 2006, the drama series Day Break premiered on ABC. The series revolves around Detective Brett Hopper, who is accused of killing an Assistant D.A., and is living this day over and over again. The series lasted for 13 episodes, with only 6 episodes airing on ABC, and the rest later released online. It was created by Paul Zbyszewski, and starred Taye Diggs as Brett Hopper, Moon Bloodgood as Rita Shelten, Meta Golding as Jennifer Mathis, Victoria Pratt as Andrea Battle, Ramon Rodriguez as Damien Ortiz, and Adam Baldwin as Chad Shelten.
The pilot episode, “What If They Run,” begins with Detective Brett Hopper waking up early next to his girlfriend Rita. He hears a strange noise outside and looks out the window, but only sees a garbage truck. They make plans for the weekend, and he tells her that he has a meeting with Internal Affairs that afternoon, and she asks if Chad has something to do with it, which causes him to walk out of the room. She apologizes for bringing up her ex-husband, and they quickly make up. He promises to call her later, and heads out for his day, unaware that he’s being watched. Hopper heads to a local coffee shop where he sees a paper declaring that Assistant D.A. Alberto Garza has been murdered. A woman bumps into him and drops her papers, and after he helps her collect her things, he notices she forgot a stick note with a phone number. As he runs out to give it to her, he ends up saving her from a near-fatal bus collision.
Hopper hears the neighbors complaining about the noise his dog made the night before, and believes someone broke in
He heads home after this accident to find his neighbors complaining about his dog, and he enters his apartment with his gun drawn, thinking that something happened; fortunately, it was just his dog tearing up the place. As Hopper gets ready to walk his dog, he finds that his sister called him six times that night, each time not leaving a message. When he calls her back, she tells him that they had a problem with the phone, although Hopper doesn’t believe her as she sounds rather rattled. As he listes to another message, the door is broken in by a squad of officers, as he is accused of killing Assistant D.A. Garza. Hopper is taken in for questioning by Detective Choi and Detective Spivak, and they tell him that they have the murder weapon with his fingerprints on it, which they found in his closet. He has an alibi, and he had never met Garza, although the detectives do not believe him. His partner, Andrea, shows up, and tells him that she’s been put on leave.
Hopper is angry as he talks to U.S. Attorney Nathan Baxter, who has gotten him a lawyer, but has a bigger problem with the star witness for one of his cases having gone missing. Baxter can’t proceed with his case without the witness, and with Hopper in jail, it will be nearly impossible to even find him. As Hopper is transported, he notices two strange guys among the press, silently filming him. When talking with his attorney, they tell him they can’t find Rita, which alarms Hopper. His sister Jennifer shows up for a visit with him, who is angry that he never told her about Rita, and he gets angry when he finds evidence that her husband has been abusing her. As they talk, Chad Shelten shows up to take Hopper away. Chad is Hopper’s ex-partner, Rita’s ex-husband, and a detective with Internal Affairs. Their relationship is a very tense one, but Chad says that if Hopper plays right with him, he can help Hopper. After a hearing, Hopper heads to the County Jail. He is woken up in the middle of the night and hit over the head by two mysterious men, then brought to a strange sight, his mouth duct-taped. The men there tell him to confess to the murder, and when he refuses, they kick him. They then show him footage of someone killing Rita in a staged carjacking. Afterwards, they inject him with a mild sedative that puts him to sleep. He wakes to up find himself in Rita’s bed again.
Hopper wakes up in Rita’s bed, believing that everything had just been a horrible nightmare
Hopper believes everything was just a nightmare, but is shocked to realize that he’s actually reliving the day. Remembering what happened, he attempts to fix the day, making sure Rita stays at the hospital and removing the weapon from his closet. As he goes to the hospital, he finds that Rita isn’t there, and the woman he had saved at the coffee shop had been hit by a bus. He rushes to his sister’s husband’s school, and warns him not to touch his sister again before heading to her classroom. He tells his sister to pack up the kids and drive away as far as she can. Hopper then out and calls Andrea to help him, as he can’t find Rita. Andrea reveals that she knows about Garza, and he soon realizes that he’s being watched, as Andrea has set him up. He runs for it, but he is soon trapped on the train. He manages to escape – or so he thinks, as he is soon caught. He continues the day, still looking for Rita, and even beats up Chad at one point, demanding to know what is going on.
He breaks out and finds Andrea, as he wants to know why she traded him in to Internal Affairs. She asks if this has anything to do with the Latin Disciples, which is a confidential case he’s been working on with the U.S. Attorneys. She agrees to help him, and gives him her gun as he heads out to find his informant. His informant tells him that the safe house was a trap, and Hopper asks him for more information. The informant tells him that this is bigger than Hopper, but the informant has lost faith in Hopper. As they talk, they are attacked by the mysterious men after Hopper, and take him once again to the field from before. Once again, he watches Rita get killed, then watches more footage of his sister and her kids. He is once again given a sedative, and reminded that for every decision, there is a consequence. He wakes up again, on the same day, and tells Rita that he loves her when she wakes up. He then decides to drive her out of town, thinking they should get away, but the plan is soon thwarted by a series of cars stopping him, full of the mysterious men. He drives past as they try to shoot at him, but decides to pull over and shoot the men that are following him. The men realize that they are way past framing him anymore, and decide to make it look like a murder suicide between Hopper and Rita. He continues to work through the mystery by warning Andrea not to make a deal with Internal Affairs. Things continue to be worse for Hopper, as he tries to protect Rita and find out what’s happening to him, and learning about what consequences his actions have.
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