Lucky Day

"Lucky Day" is the Season 2 premiere episode of Shadow Unit, with production number 2x01. It was written by Emma Bull and Elizabeth Bear and originally aired on March 1, 2009.

Basic Statistics
Locations: Washington, DC; Albuquerque and Las Cruces, NM

Point of View Characters: Gray Putnam, Esther Falkner, Solomon Todd, Daphne Worth, Stephen Reyes, Hafidha Gates

Away Team: Reyes, Hafidha, Worth, Todd

Timeline: June 2008

Unsub: Morgan Creirwy

Major backstory revealed: Reyes admitting he made a mistake, Daphne's current religious beliefs

Synopsis
While Chaz Villette is still in Johns Hopkins Medical Center recovering from his injuries in Refining Fire, he realizes that a series of seemingly unrelated accidental deaths actually have a common victimology (all the victims are assholes), as well as occuring in distinct temporal clusters. Reyes takes Hafidha, Daphne, Sol and himself out to Albuquerque, leaving Esther back in Washington along with Danny and Nicolette Lau (who were having more problems coping with Chaz's injuries). As the investigation progresses, Danny and Nikki realize that the victims all had close associates who were involved in ritual magic. Further legwork turns up author and witch Morgan Creirwy, whose new-book promotional tours coincide with the clusters of deaths. The team confronts Creirwy; through either the power of magic or pure weird luck, Creirwy burns herself to death.

Easter Eggs

 * "Tether"

Pre-Air-Date Speculation
According to Elizabeth Bear's LiveJournal, the first line of "Lucky Day" is:
 * Gray Putnam was reaching for the door handle when the semi went past, rocking his Audi on its shoes and drowning the driver's side in a wall of water.

Excerpts from "Lucky Day" were posted on the main page of the Shadow Unit website on February 1, 2009 as a teaser, including the line above. On the announcement thread, Emma Bull claimed that they'd deliberately kept the funny bits out of the teaser; Elizabeth Bear replied that they'd also kept out "the bit about the Argentinian race horse." 

On a later trip to Austin, Texas, Ms. Bear posted a picture of an "existential school bus" with a sign reading "Caution: Children may be exiting". She stated that "This one will be even funnier after you've read Shadow Unit s2x01, "Lucky Day". Trust me." This presumably refers to a scene in act III where Todd and Worth drive past a road sign reading "Gusty winds may exist."