Three episodes in to our very first season of McGuffin, things have gone in directions that no-one could have predicted. While we’ll fill you in on the important points for any episode you might attend, here’s a quick recap:

Episode 1 – “Pilot”

Country girl Kate Dymphia is a sales rep for a Melbourne dairy company, having worked her way up from the factory floor. But her sales haven’t been up to scratch, and boss Jason asks her to lift her game. While on a routine sales call to Mr. Pinnacle’s dairy retailer, she goes out on a limb and, rather than just selling him the company’s yogurt, pitches an idea to the older man: a new kind of ice-cream, “Cowhide”, which tastes like milk fresh from the cow. He agrees to go in on the venture, but when she tells Jason, he seems less than thrilled.

Meanwhile our “McGuffin” wakes up in the park, handcuffed to a briefcase. He is wary of a passing jogger, especially when she seems to stare at him lustfully, and runs off to a cafe, where the waitress doesn’t seem aware of the case at all. From there, he catches the 86 tram, having been told of a mission on Smith Street for “people like him”; “Sister Carla” welcomes him with open arms, but tries to take the case from him, and he only escapes by fighting her off.

Later he meets Kate on the tram, who remembers him from a brief earlier meeting. She takes pity on him and helps him tend his wounds, asking about the case and his lack of memories over a coffee at a Smith Street cafe. Sister Carla and her employer, the sinister Caspian, are meeting at the same cafe, but this time when Carla spots them, she has a change of heart, warning them to stay put while she “makes things safe”. She says nothing to Caspian, who poisons her for her earlier failure, and our heroes escape.

Kate calls in at work only to find that Jason has gone behind her back; he’s conspired with Mrs. Pinnacle to cut Kate out of the ice-cream deal. Kate punches him and storms out. “McGuffin” warns her she’s not safe now she’s been seen with him, and he tries to leave in her “tractor” now committeed to going on the run with her new friend – and just as well, as Caspian has hired deadly street thug “Six” to track them down…

Episode 2 – “A Friend In Need”

Kate takes McGuffin to the Pinnacle’s house, hoping to confront Mr. Pinnacle about the deal. There, they meet Desiree, a young woman who’s at the party to see Jackson Anderson, a television evangelist and her former boss.

Kate and McGuffin manage to steal the contract for the ice-cream deal, and bluff their way into the party Rhys being held, but they are thrown out by Mrs. Pinnacle, who clearly dominates her husband. They manage to sneak Desiree in, and she meets with Jackson, revealing both that she is pregnant with his child, and that she knows he embezzled money from a telethon for the Pinnacles.

After run-ins with Six and the Pinnacles’ security guards, all three escape, and Desiree departs to meet with her reporter contact. She is instead ambushed by Six and Caspian, who have seen her with the others, and interrogate her. Sensing something wrong, McGuffin and Kate save Desiree and, having lost her proof, she throws her lot in with our heroes. She does remember something that might point them towards the soruce of their trouble: the name “Phillip Stratford”.

Episode 3 – “A Friend Indeed”

Some computer hacking reveals documents in Portugese, which the McGuffin is surprised he can read. They point the way to Rio de Janeiro, and Kate and the McGuffin head off. McGuffin doesn’t have a passport, but this proves little problem as he is able to somehow persuade the airline staff he doesn’t need one. Desiree stays behind, but gives them Jackson Anderson’s Bible – which is also in Portugese. Flipping through it on the plane, they realise certain letters are circled, spelling out the word “Stratos”.

Arriving in Brazil, the pair manage to avoid a dangerous man at the airport, and discover signs everywhere for the “Stratos Corporation” – the organisation which has been following them for so long. Thinking themselves safe, they have a quiet moment in a hotel that turns into a kiss, but before long run into Six at the statue of Christ the Redeemer – she has followed them all the way from Melbourne. Unable to remove McGuffin’s handcuffs, she tries to take him as well as the case, but there’s a scuffle – and McGuffin pushes Six over the safety rail to fall to her death down Corcovado mountain.

Back in Melbourne, Desiree leaves increasingly desperate messages on Kate’s phone, as her deal with the tabloids to expose Jackson Anderson goes south. Eventually she’s confronted by Caspian, who interrogates her again, but she won’t talk – and he kills her. In Brazil, Kate finally gets Desiree’s messages, but it’s too late – they find news of her murder on the Internet. They also find a final email, mentioning “Chianto Ria” – the first thing McGuffin remembers! It’s a place – and he’s been there.

Caspian reports back to Mrs. X, head of the Stratos Corporation, but she berates him for his failure to retrieve the case, and forces him to fight her. She kills him in disgust for being a “weak man”, and then makes a phone call: “I need the Violator.”