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.
#1 - 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.
#2 - 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.
#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?
#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.
#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?
#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.
#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.
#8 - 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.
#9 - 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.
#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.
#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.
#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.)
#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.