In the pilot episode of The Unit, a young staff sergeant Robert Brown joins an ultra elite army spec ops organization known only as The Unit. His first mission is a real doozy - an airplane hostage situation in a private runway in Idaho.
Meanwhile Bob’s wife Kimberly and daughter Serena face the usual hassles of moving to a new house. But when Kim indicates a desire to move to off base housing, Molly Blane, the wife of Bob’s squad’s SNCOIC, twists her arm to remain in that neighborhood, stating “This isn’t the Army, this is the Unit!”
Later, when Kim finds out what the unit actually does, and tries to call her sister, Molly forces her to hang up and instructs Kim on the need for the wives to maintain their husbands’ covers.
Tropes identified here are
- Unit Wives Manual: Kim is inducted into it.
- Fatal Family Photo: Jonas admonishes Bob to immediately throw away the picture of Kim and Serena that he’s brought with him. He is aware of this trope apparently, and forces Bob to avert it. Bob does so - and survives this mission.
- It's Raining Men: Hector and Grey parachute in to the airfield in order to establish a perimeter around the hijacked aircraft.
- New Meat: Played with. Bob is an E-6 Staff Sergeant and would normally be a platoon’s senior NCO. But in the Unit, he’s the youngest and lowest ranked.
- Pilot Episode: The very first episode of the show.
- Trigger: A monkey toy that repeats phrases spoken to it, squawks the Arabic phrase “yalla halaan” meaning “watch out” after Jonas mutters it. Jonas freaks, thinks a terrorist snuck in to his house, draws his pistol and shoots the toy.
