THE NINE ABC, WEDNESDAYS, 10 P.M. E.T.; PREMIERES OCT. 4 Late one fine afternoon, nine innocents are caught in a bank robbery. The hostages are rescued after a bloody 52-hr. ordeal. In between, life-changing things happen, some noble, some regrettable. But what, exactly? We don't see, and the answer is the key to this whydunit. It's a high-wire premise--how long can the series keep us in the dark about a riddle the characters all know the answer to? The tense pilot suggests the series has a few twists up its sleeve and a cast up to the challenge: as suicidal nerd turned hero Egan Foote, John Billingsley looks like the season's breakout character. Not only for how it teases out the brutal events inside the bank but also for how it shows the bonds among the survivors rebuilding their lives, this post-hostage drama is, well, captivating.

So John's being seen as the breakout character......let's hope he has a lot of success in the part.