Ethan Burke (portrayed by Matt Dillon) is an American Secret Service agent. He is in Wayward Pines, a mysterious small Idaho town, investigating the disappearance of two federal agents. One of the best Secret Service agents in the Seattle office, he knew missing agent Kate Hewson better than anyone. They were more than partners; in fact, their relationship nearly destroyed Ethan's marriage to Theresa Burke. Everything changes when a truck slams into his car...and he wakes up in the Wayward Pines Hospital.
As the mysteries within the town pile up, Ethan starts to question his own sanity. Gaining both allies and enemies, Ethan tries to answer the most important question of all: What's wrong with Wayward Pines?
Where Paradise Is Home
Ethan is investigating the disappearance of two agents but finds himself in a hospital after being in a car acccident. Ethan wakes up and sees the hospital is empty but finally sees a women named Pam, a nurse and tells him the driver of the vehicle he was in didn't survive and that the sheriff has his phone.
Knowing that he won't be able to contact no one on the outside, Ethan rips his IV and leave the hospital ignoring her objections. When he is unable to go into the sheriff's department, Ethan goes to a local bar, finding comfort and getting a something to eat by a bartender named Beverly.
Later Ethan is seen at a hotel, and is unable to pay for his room so he gets kicked out. He goes to the address on the check, which was Beverly's, so that anytime he can go to her for help. Instead he goes into a house and finds a bound body of one of the missing agents and now wants to search for his former partner Kate Hewson. Ethan goes to the sheriff's department and reaches to Sheriff Pope to ask for help but doesn’t get the assistance he is expecting.
Ethan returns to the bar, looking for Beverly, but finds a man who claims she doesn’t work there. Frustrated, Ethan starts to get aggressive. The man knocks Ethan out, radioing someone with the message, “10-16-28 is not doing well.” Well now, that doesn’t seem normal. Ethan finds himself in the hospital once more. Psychiatrist Dr. Jenkins, who knows that Ethan has a history of mental illness, tells him there is bleeding on his brain, resulting in a dissociative breakdown. Ethan explains that he’s not delusional, telling Dr. Jenkins, “You see, it’s not me. It’s the town.” That always works as a defense. Dr. Jenkins informs Ethan they’re going to take him to surgery to drain the hematoma, and when he objects, Pam gives Ethan a sedative.
As Ethan lays handcuffed to a gurney outside a room with scary surgical instruments, Beverly comes to rescue him. Together they manage to attack nurse Pam and escapes of the hospital, hiding in a cemetery vault. Before the sedative completely knocks him out, Beverly tells him that the agent he found was killed for trying to escape. She tells Ethan that she came to Wayward Pines in 1999, strangely believing that she has only been there for a year.
Waking up alone in the cemetery vault Ethan wanders back into the town. He sees a woman who looks like the missing agent he is looking for his former partner Kate Hewson. When she sees Ethan, she hurries her husband Harold back to the house. Ethan follows them and talks to her and she attempts to keep up a front initially. When it becomes clear Ethan is not going to play along, she whispers, “They’re watching us…. They’re listening.” She tells him she’s lived there for 12 years and he objects, “That’s impossible. I was with you 5 weeks ago.” She doesn’t have answers for him and tells him that he’s putting her and her husband in danger. Before he leaves he asks her, “Is it happening again? Am I having a relapse?” She shakes her head “no” and goes back into the house.
Ethan tries to make a run out of the town by stealing a car. Yet, just when he thinks he’s made the town boundary, he finds himself driving back into town again. He leaves the car on the road and tries to find an exit in the woods. Much to his surprise, and ours, Ethan comes upon a huge concrete wall with an electrified fence on top. The sign on the fence warns, “Risk of death. Return to Wayward Pines. Beyond this point you will die.” When he returns to the car, the sheriff arrive and tells Ethan he didn't make it to far and Ethan replies how do he get of town but the sheriff tells him he don't.