Matrix

I thought this show was quite good for a forgettable Canadian-made/Foreign-sold tv show, but I was surprised to hear the show's premise word for word on an episode of the US show "The Equalizer". In the episode called "Trial By Fire" Robert McCall (Edward Woodward) is hired by a New York school to rid it off gang violence. He takes them to the city morgue to scare them straight and at the morgue he introduces them to a former hitman who had his own near death experience. The hitman's monologue (standing by an ocean of fire, surrounded by all the people he killed, watching God walk past him) is exactly what happens in the pilot episode of "Matrix". Did one of the crew work on both shows or did they just steal the idea?