So after the Kennedy assassination and their options off the table, what do Loengard (Eric Close) and Kim (Megan Ward) do in the first episode following the pilot movie?

They become Moving Targets. Written by the series creators, Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman, this episode was first broadcast on 28 September, 1996.

Loengard and Kim discover more terrifying things about The Hive aka The Ganglion as Bach (J.T. Walsh) refers to them as they do their best to protect world leaders who are coming to attend the state funeral for the fallen president.

Loengard reaches out to Bobby Kennedy (James F. Kelly) to find out how they can help, and Kennedy reveals the artifact that Loengard stole from Bach to give to the president is still missing, and may still be in Dallas.

Bach has descended on Dallas as well, trying to find the artifact as well as putting a stop to Loengard, who is meeting up with Jesse Marcel (Richard Gilliland) the Roswell officer who was there for the crash. He returns the artifact to Loengard, revealing that it didn’t come from the crash as far as he knows.

While in Dallas, Bach, and his main thug, Steele (Tim Kelleher) tie up loose ends with assassination, by taking care of Oswald and Jack Ruby (Jack Lindine), and Kim discovers that Steele is part of The Hive! Something the pair share with Bach, so that he knows Majestic is infiltrated.

The episode opens with a reveal of what happened at Roswell, and Bach was there with President Truman (Hansford Rowe) to meet with the greys. Things go wrong, as we see through the course of the episode, and we learn that it wasn’t a crash, but the government shot it down and captured it after an ultimatum of surrender was delivered to humanity delivered via what we have come to know as the artifact. Something Bach reclaims by the end of the episode.

The mythology for the series is already growing and is delivering lots of fun reveals as it continues to examine history through the lens of an alien conspiracy, something highlighted by Loengard and Bach going toe to toe. But will it be enough to stop the assassination attempt of the world leaders? The race is on to fight The Hive and protect the Earth from an unseen invasion that is already underway!

Mercury Rising moves us to 1964. It first aired on 19 October, 1996 and was written by James D. Parriott.

Kim is having dreams about her abduction and is driven to get to Florida to find an astronaut, Ty Yount (John Mese), that she saw aboard the alien ship. She reveals all of this to John when a run-in with a cop forces them to rethink their plans, but Kim is insistent that head to the Cape.

When Kim finds him, both she and Loengard are shocked to learn that not only is he real, but he remembers her from his abduction as well. But before they can chat, Majestic shows up to sweep him away. As Bach and Majestic are also in Florida, investigating the pictures coming back from the moon, worried that the Hive or the Greys may have something on the moon.

Yount was a part of a secret space program, Midnight Wing, using the Saturn V and Gemini test flights as cover. They were sent up to take care of a satellite, something UFO buffs know as The Black Knight.

With some guidance from Yount, they seek out a hypnotherapist who puts Kim under to discover what happened to her and Ty. And while Yount may be okay, perhaps his co-pilot for the next Midnight Wing mission is already implanted by The Hive! Can Loengard convince Back to stop the launch? Is the space program safe?

This episode touches on all the big UFO/alien abduction concepts!

All of this is set against the backdrop of the space race, the recovery of the nation from the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War.