The BEST episodes of The Border season 1

Every episode of The Border season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Border season 1!

In this post-9/11 world the once "undefended border" that divides Canada and the U.S. is no longer considered soft. This CBC program lifts stories from the headlines to fuel an action-packed, dramatic series about maintaining security in today's world. The series follows the Immigration and Customs Security (ICS) main team led by Major Mike Kessler.

Last Updated: 10/7/2024Network: CBC (CA)Status: Ended
Share:
Grave Concern
star
8.10
40 votes

#1 - Grave Concern

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/24/2008

ICS intercepts a pedophile and finds an image of a kidnapped child on his hard drive. Her captor, a psychological sadist known only as Skinner, has managed to evade the law for over a year. Now time is running out. Skinner's "experiment"? is coming to a close – and he's selling his captive to the highest bidder.

Directors: John Fawcett
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Restricted Access
star
8.08
37 votes

#2 - Restricted Access

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/3/2008

A sailor jumps ship in Halifax harbour and tells a disturbing tale: the ship's captain, Ryan McKay, threw a Nigerian stowaway couple overboard to drown – and somewhere on the ship, their two children await a similar fate. But is the sailor telling the truth? Or simply getting even? As Kessler and Agent LaGarda search for the truth, Gray and Layla make a shocking discovery – a terrifying virus which threatens to turn the rusted freighter into a ghost ship.

Writer: Steve Lucas
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Normalizing Relations
star
8.05
41 votes

#3 - Normalizing Relations

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/10/2008

A visiting Cuban official is marked for murder by an anti-Castro assassin, and it's up to ICS to stop it. Gray and Layla target the assassin's son – an up-and-coming boxer named Roberto Abrantes. Then Kessler and Slade discover another surprising family connection – between the visiting official and Agent Lagarda. Could ICS be tracking the wrong killer?

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Civil Disobedience
star
8.05
41 votes

#4 - Civil Disobedience

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/17/2008

When his daughter Zoe is arrested during a protest at the border, Kessler is suspected of leaking classified information. With his career in peril, and forced to withdraw from the case, Kessler struggles to protect his daughter from nuclear saboteurs.

Directors: Ken Girotti
Writer: David Barlow
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Enemy Contact
star
8.00
39 votes

#5 - Enemy Contact

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/25/2008

ICS and CSIS uncover plans for a major terrorist attack on Toronto. Kessler believes the key to preventing the attack may lie with an unlikely source – Sorrayya, a burqa-clad wife and mother. Can ICS manipulate a mother's love to find out crucial information? And what collateral damage is Kessler willing to risk to prevent catastrophe?

Directors: Michael DeCarlo
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Family Values
star
7.98
41 votes

#6 - Family Values

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/18/2008

When Toronto hosts a U.N. conference on "Children in the Crossfire,"? ICS allows a movie star to enter Canada with her latest accoutrement – her adopted son Ali, a Darfur refugee with no papers or official passport. Then a man arrives from the Sudan, claiming to be Ali's father. A shocking chain of events follows, splitting the squad and exposing the boy's true identity.

Directors: Philip Earnshaw
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Blowback
star
7.90
10 votes

#7 - Blowback

Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/31/2008

When Kessler discovers a Croatian warlord living under Canadian protection, it brings back painful memories of the war in Bosnia – and the massacre he helped cover up. Unable to let it go, he prepares to sacrifice everything in the name of justice.

Directors: John Fawcett
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Gross Deceptions
star
7.77
43 votes

#8 - Gross Deceptions

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/28/2008

A dangerous Belgian arms dealer arranges the theft of anti-tank weapons from a Canadian military base – and they seem to be headed stateside. As they track the weapons, Kessler and LaGarda must contend with disgruntled ex-Airborne soldiers, a criminal mastermind who's three steps ahead of them, and the young truck driver caught in the middle.

Directors: Kelly Makin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Compromising Positions
star
7.73
11 votes

#9 - Compromising Positions

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/4/2008

Kessler bows to pressure from ex-lover and Cabinet Minister Suzanne Fleischer to arrange the release of three illegal Russian strippers. The story is leaked to the press, and the Squad is exposed to ridicule. When the strippers' Russian boss turns up with a bullet in his head, Kessler unearths a conspiracy that mingles sex, blackmail, and political intrigue at the highest level.

Directors: Kelly Makin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Physical Assets
star
7.71
14 votes

#10 - Physical Assets

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/11/2008

Gray and Layla take down a human-trafficking operation in Vancouver, but the ring leader, Lo Hok-Yin, evades capture – with possible help from CSIS. As Slade struggles to stop a leak in ICS security, the team unearths the crime lord's grisly new business. And the bloody trail leads to an old adversary.

Directors: John Fawcett
Writer: Sarah Dodd
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Bodies on the Ground
star
7.69
45 votes

#11 - Bodies on the Ground

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/21/2008

A Rendition aircraft goes down in the town of St. Calais in Quebec with 3 Muslim terrorists attacking a local constable and seizing his vehicle with a Military police officer as a hostage after escaping from US Military custody, forcing Mike Kessler to hunt down the 3 men with Joint Task Force Two commandos sent in to capture them.

Directors: John Fawcett
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Pockets of Vulnerability
star
7.68
81 votes

#12 - Pockets of Vulnerability

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2008

Major Mike Kessler and his Immigration and Customs Security (ICS) Squad arrest Tariq Haddad, a Syrian terrorist, at the Toronto airport. They also detain the man seated next to him, Nizar Karim. But is Karim really an accomplice or merely an innocent bystander? When CSIS sends Karim to Syria's infamous Tadmoor prison, Kessler vows to bring him home. (Note: This is the pilot episode, shot in October, 2006.)

Directors: John Fawcett
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Gray Zone
star
7.58
50 votes

#13 - Gray Zone

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/14/2008

Kessler and US Homeland Security Special Agent Bianca LaGarda intercept the smuggling of millions of dollars across the St. Lawrence River. Together, they must work with the Mohawk Police to uncover an Albanian money laundering operation at the reserve's new casino. ICS Agent Gray Jackson goes undercover as a gambler, but when a wild card from his past shows up, his luck runs out.

Directors: John Fawcett
Writer: Jeremy Hole
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV