Anya Taylor-Joy as Luciana 'Lucky' Armstrong in LuckyApple TVMajor spoilers ahead for Lucky episode 1 Apple TV’s latest crime thriller, Lucky, opens with con woman Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong (Anya Taylor-Joy) on the run from the law and the criminal world she’s was born into thanks to her father, John (Timothy Olyphant). The point isn’t the job she pulled off with her husband, Cary (Drew Starkey), but rather how she’s been left high and dry by him to deal with the repercussions of stealing $10 million from the government and the mob.Their last night in Vegas was supposed to be a final hurrah before they ditched their old life and stepped into a new one together. Instead, Lucky woke up in their penthouse hotel room at Caesar’s Place all on her own with the money nowhere to be found. When the situation went from bad to worse with the arrival of FBI agent Billie Rand (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), Lucky uses every skill she’s honed to make it out only to fall into the hands of her mother-in-law and mob leader Priscilla Masterson (Annette Bening), who wants to know where her son is and what happened to the money.Lucky’s high-octane premiere, “No Shortcuts,” cracks the door open to a larger mystery centered on where Cary went, where the$ 10 million is, and how Lucky’s going to get out of this mess. But first, she has to get off the grid.Cary Betrays LuckyWe’re introduced to Lucky and Cary as a loving couple. Lucky, staring out at the sprawling Vegas nightlife below their hotel room, is concerned that she’s missed something. She has a gut feeling that things aren’t going to go as planned. But Cary reassures her that it will.What’s causing Lucky to question their success is her father. She’s lived her life not trusting anyone. It’s made her excellent at being a con, but has also made it impossible to feel fully settled. Cary soothes her by encouraging her to get John out of her head. They’re going to have a good time and, in the morning, they’re going to say goodbye to who they once were and catch a flight to a new life.MORE FOR YOUThe pair gamble, drink, and dance the night away. Their last stop is a hotel rooftop where Cary has snuck along a bottle of champagne. He tells her not to look as he pours their drinks and their shared moment is the final piece of the night Lucky can remember by the time she wakes up at 11:43 a.m.It’s well past the time they were supposed to leave and Cary is nowhere to be found. Lucky can hardly get her legs beneath her as she slowly begins to realize she’s been played. Her wobbly and foggy demeanor isn’t from having too much to drink, she figures Cary must have slipped something into her champagne.All of his belongings are gone and so is the suitcase that had been bursting with cash. It had contained $10 million. A hefty sum of money that hadn’t belonged to either of them. The reason they were fleeing the country was because they had the FBI and the mob on their tails.Where Lucky and Cary Got $10 MillionThe money wasn’t from a heist. They were moving it for John. He’d skimmed some off the top of a bio-diesel scheme he’d been a part of that defrauded the government to the tune of $200 million.During one of her visits to see him in prison, John told Lucky that he’d been disciplined in his efforts. He didn’t take enough money to be noticeable, but it would set him and her up for the rest of their lives. Problem was, when he was sent to prison along with Priscilla, the numbers were ran and the deficit was discovered.That’s why he believes their boss, Wayne Whittaker (William Fichtner), sprung Priscilla to “answer for it.” However, she wasn’t a part of John’s deceit, so he’s going to be the target of their ire. But first, they’re going to go after Lucky. John had faith that she’d stay ahead of Whittaker’s outfit but neither of them anticipated Cary’s betrayal.Lucky Escapes Las Vegas And The FBILucky had very little time to make it out of Caesar’s Place. She and Cary planned to be on a plane over international waters by 9 a.m. His nearly three hour head start means that she winds up being in the hotel just as news breaks about their crime. Their pictures are being shared on TV and it’s announced that a nationwide manhunt has been launched.The FBI are in the building. Concealed by a hoodie, Lucky manages to evade Agent Rand and her team at first. She sneaks past the cameras on her floor using a maid’s cart to reach the stairs. Lucky even makes it out of the front entrance of the hotel despite the FBI combing through every inch of the place, but then she comes face-to-face with Priscilla’s enforcer Dutch (Clifton Collins Jr.).Quickly turning around, Lucky is forced to walk past Rand as she makes her way down the steps. Though she tries to blend in with the group of tourists near her, Rand spots Lucky and directs agents to go after her.The chase devolves into a tense speed through Caesar’s Place as Lucky uses the amount of people in the hotel to her advantage. She ditches her hoodie, leaving her in a white tank top and the baseball cap she’d swiped from a patron of the casino.Weaving through the crowd, Lucky briefly stops when Rand calls her by her name. It seems the two know each other. Then she’s off again, running through a restaurant. She slips into the back by grabbing a crate of glasses, steals an access pass, grabs a bomber jacket, and keeps moving until she ends up in a delivery area.Lucky pulls off her first con of the series by persuading a driver to help her leave the hotel. She portrays herself as a battered woman escaping her boyfriend who’d gotten violent with her after having too much to drink. The driver agrees to help Lucky leave the hotel and brings her to a Dollar Tree.When she lets him know that she doesn’t have any money, he reveals that he knew she’d lied to him. He’s been hit enough times to know what a black eye looks like. But he also knows that if she lied about an abusive boyfriend then she’s in deeper trouble than she’s saying. He gives her enough money to get where she needs to go in spite of her previous protesting.Grateful to the kind driver, Lucky uses the money she’s been given to change her appearance. She dyes her hair platinum blonde and cuts it before heading to the bus stop. The metro police are there but she’s able to purchase a ticket and slip onto a bus to the Grand Canyon without them the wiser.A quick, tearful check-in with her dad gets him up to speed on what happened as they talk around it to avoid giving away incriminating details. John tells her that he’s with her inside her head, and to remember what he’s taught her, trust no one.In Arizona, it feels like Lucky’s gotten away. She grabs a gas station sandwich and eats it on her own as she waits to get back on the bus only to be discovered by FBI agent Tom Mason (Dean Jagger) who must have trailed her. He chases her, gun drawn, as she climbs on top of a box truck. She jumps between the trucks, trying to escape but ends up rolling down one, which knocks the wind out of her.The Mason catches her and is about to walk toward her when he’s hit with a car that belongs to Priscilla. Dutch is there to collect Lucky so the two can talk.Getting Out of Priscilla’s ClutchesLucky doesn’t spend much time with Priscilla. The mob leader is an efficient woman. When Lucky can’t tell her where Cary is or where to find the money, she washes her hands of her. They don’t like each other so it costs Priscilla nothing to hand Lucky over to her boss Whittaker’s goons who put her in the trunk of the car. They’re directed to take her to the house.Priscilla doesn’t believe that Lucky is telling the truth. She’s skeptical that the younger woman got played by Cary, and she’s vengeful. Priscilla blames Lucky for her stint in prison, accusing her of selling her out. But she does warn Lucky that if Whittaker doesn’t get his money, Lucky knows exactly what’s going to happen to her and her father. They’ll be killed.As “No Shortcuts” makes abundantly clear, Lucky should never be counted out. Dutch threw her bag into the desert, but she still had her father’s lighter on her. She uses it to melt through the zip tie cuffs. Grabbing flares and a screw driver, Lucky feels around in the trunk until she discovers the back panel was velcro’d close.She peels it back and crawls into the backseat where she catches the goons by surprising. Lighting a flare, she throws it into the lap of the driver. His arm catches fire and the car bobs and weaves as the man in the passenger seat tries to grab a hold of her. She avoids getting shot as he fires a few rounds but eventually the car rolls.Lucky escapes out the window but the passenger survived the crash, too. He kicks her and tries to kill her by choking her, but Lucky drives the screwdriver into the side of his head. Lucky jolts into consciousness the next morning after dreaming about her father urgently coming to wake her up when she was a child.Noticing that gas is dripping from the overturned car, Lucky sets the deceased men and the vehicle on fire. She wanders off into the desert finally having shaken both the FBI and the mob off her tail, for now. But she’s injured, has no money, is stranded in the desert, and has no idea where she is.New episodes of Lucky stream Wednesdays on Apple TV. Follow Sabrina Reed on Forbes for weekly coverage of the series and news about the business of TV.