Episode description[edit | edit source]
[Culture and Politics Forum, full name and link redacted for privacy, “Movies and Television” sub-forum. All usernames changed. Accessed for this description 01.13.2020.]
**User1**Okay I don’t know where I should start. Everything under here is spoilers I guess but if this is a movie that you’re thinking of going and seeing. and you’re really prepared for it to be a whole thing. then go ahead. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Everything in the trailers is there. Or, almost everything, but I’ll get to that in a bit. There’s that shot of the sun going down into the lake. There’s that moment on the bridge with the wind. But it’s like whoever made the trailer was trying to cut together some kind of movie that’s just not there? I don’t mean like… the film they shot wasn’t good enough and the editors tried to make a good trailer. I mean like: it’s like a trailer for a different film. I don’t know, a lot of us guys thought it was going to be a sort of thriller? It’s not that.
It’s about a couple…. I think? Who show up at this house on the side of a lake. Their car runs out of gas on the drive and they walk the rest of the way and once they arrive in the house the film falls apart. A second couple arrives but the movie treats them exactly like the first. Same names and everything. Sometimes they’re in scenes together. There’s a bit in the middle, like fifteen or twenty minutes, when one couple disappears completely and then shows up again with no explanation. Everyone sits and listens to the radio. One of them goes outside to get the mail and doesn’t come back so then it’s three of them but remember - everything about the story is insisting that there’s only one couple so it really feels like there’s 2.5 people past that point. I don’t know if I’m explaining it right
And the weirdest bit is that some of the scenes in the trailer are here, but they’re completely different. Not like alternate takes. Completely different. You know the bit in the trailer when she goes and fixes the car? On that rocky slope? Well now her partner is there too, and they’re in the middle of some kind of marsh, water up to their ankles. It’s not a throwaway, too. They find something in the engine block that they take back to the house wrapped in a cloth. I know BCS has been shut down for months because of the strike but…. I think they’ve got someone still shooting stuff in there.
That shot I mentioned earlier of the sun going down into the lake? Where it looks like it continues underwater, and those figures walk out onto the dock? No figures. The sun sets under the water and then it’s like the camera has been cranked backwards and the moon rises in exactly the spot where the sun went down. It passes across the sky and then sets into the water again. The sun comes up then sets, etc. Keeps going. That’s the last ten minutes of the movie or so.
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
Each grain of that desert sand was loathsome and antagonistic, not reflecting the warmth of that old star, but providing its own hellish heat. And yet, when I reached the end of the city by the sea, I felt no relief. I knew immediately that this was a charnel city, an anachronistic metropolis, antiquated in morality and yet vanguard in matters of dominance and authority.
To this day I do not know if it was the city itself that luxuriated in wretchedness, or if it was instead ruled by invisible cyclopean gods, vision focused on only one thing: power. Invisible jailers, hidden in labyrinths, creatures more cruel than indifferent. Puppeteers who made the city's inhabitants their marionettes with strings of fear and greed and incomprehensible hatred. With this familiar prose, you must suspect by now that this is more confession than memoir. It's true.
While my grandfather's fortune was plundered from the Leni Lenape who once lived on this island, my own fortune, and my own legacy, the so-called New Atlantic school of horror, was built on metaphysical plagiarism. I took everything I saw in the blue city and brought it back to my typewriter. My editor wondered how I could write such incredible horrors, unknowable yet prosaic. Shockingly visceral, yet terrifyingly detached. I always told him I took Twain's advice. "Write what you know." Which is why with the dreams I had last night, apocalyptic visions of a hideous contradiction, I use these words now. For years, in spite of my grandfather's machine, I thought it was I who was special; I convinced myself I knew how to open a door to other worlds, worlds I could browse in safety and liberty.
But heed my warning: a door opens both ways.”
Plot[edit | edit source]
Caitlyn and Eve notice that the roof above them has begun to leak. Eve tries to drag the body into the hallway to get him out of the water. The lion growls at the man, and Caitlyn puts her infinity scarf over his face which calms the lion a little bit although the lion is still aggravated by them touching the body.
Eve checks on the lion, finding that the bullet is still under the lion’s skin. They hear footsteps approaching, and Caitlyn quickly heads towards the sound, relieved to see that it is Bart.
Meanwhile, the real Bart is still on the sound stage. Overwhelmed, he loses consciousness.
In the hallway, the being pretending to be Bart greets Caitlyn, telling her that they need to leave. Caitlyn says they can’t leave, and argues against going somewhere safer, as she doesn’t see how where they currently are is any less safe than anywhere else.
Bart tells her about speaking to Julian about the night shoots and the sound stage, saying that he can’t remember much after that, and tells her that they should leave before Julian finds her. Angie and Caitlyn exchange a look, and Caitlyn convinces Angie to go back with Eve and the lion. Bart is startled by the mention of the lion, but Caitlyn tells him that it was just a robot, quickly moving on to asking him about a previously expensed item, trying to catch him in a lie. She taps her wrist, prompting him to guess the wrong item (a watch, which she gave to him in family secret santa a few years ago).
Angie tells Eve that Bart has returned and that they need to leave the body and the lion and find a way to get out of the Studio. Eve is reluctant to leave the injured lion, saying that if they can’t tell anyone about the lion she wants to take the lion with them. Angie agrees, but says that they need to do something about the blood, as it would leave a trail, and so Eve uses Caitlyn’s discarded scarf as a makeshift bandage. The lion lets her do this, sitting by Eve’s side once she’s done.
Caitlyn continues her lie about the lion being robotic, telling Bart that she wants to get it away from the floodwater as it was expensive and prompting him to go lie down somewhere if he’s not feeling well. Bart tells her that he’s going to wait it out in the long-term storage area, but asks that one of them walk with him there. She says that they could bring the lion with them, but Bart, not wanting to be around the lion, agrees to go alone but asks that Eve or Caitlyn come meet with him later.
After he leaves, Caitlyn tells Angie and Eve that she doesn’t think it was really Bart that she saw, and they discuss what this might mean. Caitlyn wants to follow the clues left by the Bart she spoke to and go to Stage Two, although they don’t know if they can trust anything he told Caitlyn. Angie says she won’t leave until they know that Deshaun or Bart is okay, and Caitlyn says that even if they find him they won’t know if it’s the real him.
The real Bart awakes to a rhythmic electronic sound, finding himself tied to a chair on a platform in a tunnel encircled by light. The noise is made by the enormous halogen lights as they pulse, and in the pulse of light Bart’s thoughts drift towards his college football days, being pulled into a different version of his past self as a quarterback for Bluff City University.
He tips the chair he’s tied to over to try and shake himself out of it, breaking the chair underneath him. Now, he can see that he’s facing two doorways. He opens the door to his left, and there are concrete steps leading up. Bart begins to climb them.
Angie, Caitlyn and Eve head towards Stage Two. They enter via a ‘staff only’ side door that doesn’t have any electronic lock mechanism, so that opening it will not set off any kind of alarm. Caitlyn forces the door open, a skill she learnt after she locked herself out of the house once while making cranberry sauce.
It is immediately apparent that this area of the Studio is active in a way that it has not been since the strike began. Caitlyn spots the makeshift office for the area and begins looking through the records they can find. The financial records are in line with what Caitlyn would expect from a production, although she can’t find any writers on the payroll. She also sees that the Studio is also paying into a big construction project (The Tunnel Project). The project is also being funded by companies that include the Nevada Corporation and the Whitaker Family.
Eve heads away from Caitlyn and Angie, walking through the corridors of the sound stage with the lion. She spots drag marks matching the colour of Bart’s shoes, and the lion helps her to track it to a door, opening it to find Bart, who has just climbed up from The Tunnel Project.
Eve tries to check if he’s “the real one” by asking him his middle name, which Bart does not understand. They head back towards Angie and Caitlyn, although the water has begun to rise in Stage Two. Bart tells them about the tunnel (“the biggest tunnel I’ve ever seen in my life”) and says that they should leave as soon as they can. Eve and Caitlyn tell Bart about the Julian they found in the pantry, and say that they can’t leave without finding Deshaun. Angie says they should check on the security cameras for where Deshaun is.
They hide the lion in a food cart under a tablecloth as they head back through Stage Two towards the security office. Unfortunately as they walk past Michael, the security officer, the lion leaps out and sprints down the hallway. Michael calls in the lion on his radio, reaching for his pistol.
Bart tries to shoulder check him into the wall, but his knee goes out and he falls. Michael shoots at him and Bart is able to twist away, completely wrecking his knee. The impact of Bart hitting him causes Michael to drop the gun and Eve dives for it. She gets it, but Michael hits her hard in the head. He holds up his hands, putting a pause on the fight.
They zip tie his hands and take his keys, asking him where Deshaun is. Michael says that he doesn’t know, saying that he didn’t report back to the security area.
Meanwhile, Deshaun is back in the welcome centre, frustrated because he can’t get wifi on his phone to get scores for the game.
Michael’s radio buzzes, asking to confirm his location and that he fired a shot. Bart holds up the radio, telling him to not say anything. Michael immediately tells the person on the other end of the radio that he’s being held (“hallway code red”). Bart knocks him out. They hear three or four people heading towards them. The group splits up, with Eve giving Bart her car keys and going to try and find the lion as the others head to the welcome centre to try and find Deshaun.
Eve evades two of the guards, running in the direction of the lion. She opens a door, finding herself in the middle of Bluff City Zoo. The door closes behind her, and Eve screams, beginning to panic. The lion nuzzles her leg, trying to calm her down. She looks down, she sees two lions. The two lions reunite and walk away through the empty zoo. As she looks around her, it shifts between looking like a set and the real world.
As Angie, Bart and Caitlyn run out the door, a voice calls out to them, cycling through different voices as it chases them. The person chasing them slams their hand into the wall and the ground beneath their feet rumbles. As the door shuts behind them, the audience sees that it is Mr E Masque chasing them.
They reach the welcome centre, finding Deshaun unharmed. They encourage him to leave with them and he quickly agrees. The group heads to the parking lot, which has begun to flood. They find Eve’s car, driving it out of the parking lot.
They pull up at the entrance of Stage Two, waiting for Eve. Eve sprints towards the door, chased by security, who open fire at her. She rushes out the door and scrambles to the waiting truck. Bart and Caitlyn swap spots, and she drives them towards the flooded bridge towards the mainland of Bluffington. A security truck follows close behind.
Their truck stalls out, and the two security officers aim rifles towards them. Bart says they should run in opposite directions, but Eve says that with his leg messed up he won’t be able to get away. Deshaun refuses to leave him behind, but Bart insists. Eve gives him the gun.
Bart approaches them slowly, firing on them once he gets close enough and diving behind a nearby car. His shot hits, and both security officers go down. He panics, hiding behind one of the cars. The group hears Bart’s screams, and Eve turns back to rescue him.
The bridge shudders under them as they carry Bart across, and the lights on the bridge begin to come back on. They make it to the other side of the bridge.
The three cousins collaborate on a cover story, telling the rest of their family that they were in a minor car accident. Bart starts a private practise, hiring Caitlyn as his accountant.
Angie writes the story, but can’t find anyone who will believe her. Eve and Angie stay in contact, and Angie tells her that she met someone named Hector on a messageboard who does believe her, and that Hector wants to talk to them all about what happened.