australian television information archive

Scout

Episode 1
Thursday, June 10, 2021 (Stan)
Writer: Vanessa Gazy
Director: John Curran

When Scout Lewis returns home after studying abroad, she’s disturbed by the change in her best friend Hedwig. A drug-fuelled night ensues, in which Scout rails against Hedwig’s new, dark life, and by the time morning dawns, both girls have vanished.

In the coastal township of Eden, two people return home — Scout Lewis, a twenty-year-old woman excited to see her best friend, Hedwig, after her first semester at Juilliard in New York; and Ezra Katz, a mid-career police officer saved from professional disgrace in Sydney by being brought under the wing of his cousin’s husband, Lou Gracie, the town’s chief of police. Scout and Hedwig have both changed during their time apart, each a little more worldly and each hiding secrets. Scout has come to realise in New York that her feelings for Hedwig are sexual and romantic as much as they are friendly. And Hedwig’s found herself mixing in strange circles in the town they both grew up in — from the local drug dealers to crashing movie star Andy Dolan. In a night that takes them from party to party, mansion to beach, things come unstuck between the two, leading to a drug-fuelled fight which sets both friends running wild into the dense forest. The next day, the town sets about a desperate search for the girls — led by Scout’s distraught mother Saranya and the police, including Katz. Gracie might have put him on desk duty, reporting to cocky, con dent, small town cop Ben Drysdale, but Katz’s interest in the missing teenagers is piqued, especially as it speaks to the memories of his own adolescence in the town. In the last seconds of the episode, we discover Scout lying motionless in the forest.

Cast:

• Sophie Wilde as Scout
• Bebe Bettencourt as Hedwig
• Mark Leonard Winter as Damian
• Cassandra Sorrell as Cora
• Leeanna Walsman as Octavia Gracie
• Vilda Bennett as Lily
• Jessi Robertson as Evie
• Christopher James Baker as Superintendent Lou Gracie
• Dustin Clare as Huckleberry
• Alexandria Steffensen as Saranya
• Samuel Johnson as Detective Ezra Katz
• Claude Jabbour as Sergeant Ben Drysdale
• Shakira Clanton as Constable Laura O'Shea
•  
• Brad McMurray as Constable Kai Murray
• Kasadevi Curtis as Sergeant Christine Sheel
• Maggie Kirkpatrick as Florence Katz
• Rachael Blake as Katia
• Hunter Page-Lochard as Fred
• Christian Wilkins as Leander
• Caroline Oayda as Elke
• Mimana Kiel as Daylah
• Keiynan Lonsdale as Cam
• Priscilla Doueihy as Gina
• Jenna Owen as Kris
• Anastasia Usoltseva as Eilish
• Cody Fern as Andy Dolan
•  
• Megan O'Connell as Pilot V/O
• Katherine Ryall as Flight Attendant
• Phillip Patridge as Katz Stunt Driving Double
• Tjintana Matahari as Mardi
• Charles Crawshaw as Andy's Assistant
• Nick Sharp as Security Guard
• James Pattugalan as Andy's Assistant
• Paul Walker as Andy's Assistant
• Cheree Cassidy as Newsreader V/O
• Harrison Lee as Teen Katz
• Taylor Small as Teen Saranya
• Taylor Small as Scout Picture Double