Episode description[edit | edit source]
I’m trying to reach you. Can you hear me. Can you hear me. Can you hear me. I’m trying to reach you. Can you hear me. Let me try again. Let me try again this way. Let me try again this way. Can you hear me. Let me try again like this. I’m trying to reach you. Can you hear me. I’m trying to reach you this way. Is any of this making sense. Can you hear me.
The water is not very deep. It’s up to my knees. It’s not unpleasant. It’s up to my knees. It’s not very deep. It’s not unpleasant. It’s cold. The water’s cold. The water is not very deep. There are little squirming bugs. It’s cold. Little bugs live in the water.
Can you hear me. Can you hear me like this I’m trying I’m trying to reach you. Let me try again. Does this make any sense to you.
Contents[edit | edit source]
Plot[edit | edit source]
The Augur, Samantha, Already, Robyn, and Quincy build a shelter to sleep beneath an abandoned radio tower and settle down for the night (The Augur and Samantha sleep as far away from one another as possible). When the others are asleep, Already wakes The Augur to ask for a prediction of what they will face the next day. The Augur says she has not brought her holy texts with her and so cannot give a prediction, and the two argue over this. The Augur deactivates to end the argument without giving Already a prediction, and Already has a “restless, resentful” night of sleep.
In the morning, Quincy wakes first and explores the surrounding area without waking the others. Robyn wakes and notices their absence, then hears a piece of classical orchestral music (‘Aquarium’ from ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ by Camille Saint-Saëns). They pull the tarp aside to see Quincy accepting a fish stick sandwich from a woman in a School of fWish van. Robyn wakes Already, telling them about the van. Already, exhausted but alarmed, tells Robyn to go and get Quincy, reassuring them that a fWish van means they will not see a Potato Potat.to van in the area.
Robyn asks Already to go with them as Already has knowledge of them. As Quincy is in danger of getting into serious fWish debt, Already agrees, summoning Duke. The trio heads down towards Quincy and the fWish van. Quincy and the woman in the van are talking about “why pokemon is bad” (“there’s too many, they should get rid of the bad ones”) and why you shouldn’t drink salt water.
Robyn tries to extract Quincy from the situation; however, Quincy has already implied to the woman that Robyn will pay for their food. Robyn asks if they can pay in trade, offering to fix something on her van. The woman says one of her heat lamps is broken, and the two strike a deal. Already tells her that they are with Potato Potat.to, and threatens to call the company if she tries to charge Quincy or add Robyn to fWish’s contractor database.
Meanwhile back at the radio tower, The Augur has prepared a tea from some herbs and boiled water for Samantha. Samantha wakes, and The Augur immediately wordlessly offers her a cup of tea. Samantha accepts.
The Augur tells Samantha about her argument with Already, though she keeps the details vague. Samantha says not to worry about it as Already will get over it. She asks where the others are, and The Augur says she doesn’t know, and asks Samantha why she agreed to come along. Samantha says that she did it to push Already into going, though she brings up that The Augur was the one to tell Already to go in the first place. The Augur says she was merely repeating what the texts told her. Samantha asks why The Augur chose to come, and The Augur says she is seeking a change. They agree that they’re both getting “what they wanted”, and The Augur leaves to scout ahead. The others by the van see her but she does not see them.
Samantha heads down to meet the rest of the group. Already, expecting sympathy, tells Samantha that they think The Augur is mad at them for potentially being rude to her, and Samantha says “it sounds like [they were rude]”. Already, flustered by her lack of sympathy, tries to explain their position, but Samantha is still more sympathetic to The Augur’s point of view. Already asks if this means that she and The Augur have made up, and Samantha avoids giving a firm answer.
The group heads towards The Augur. She is waiting for them with four umbrellas that she has gathered (“they are not real umbrellas, they are props”) which she has found in a nearby structure. Robyn, testing the umbrella, breaks theirs and begins looking through the shed, giving Quincy half of the broken umbrella, which they begin playing with.
There is an interstitial cut to the original use of the umbrellas - as props in a black and white film (no audio accompanies the footage). A group of people use them as shelter as bombs go off around them, the umbrellas bending and breaking under the force.
The episode cuts back to the group. Already, nervous about who might be in pursuit, prompts the group forward. As they walk, The Augur asks what Already’s greatest fear is. Though they do not say, Already’s fear is that they are responsible for the current state of the world (being a reflection of Frankie Already and her actions at the end of the arc). Aloud, Already tells a meandering story of their childhood and a vague concern about the world to The Augur.
The Augur tells the others to go on without them and takes Already by the arm towards the nearby wind turbines, saying that she needs their help with something. Already, fearing that The Augur is about to enact some kind of punishment, begins to panic. The Augur clarifies that she needs Already’s help to fix the wind turbines ("it has to be you"). Still deeply unsettled, Already calls Duke over.
The Augur has Already stand on the opposite side of the wind turbine to her, the wind turbine so large that it obscures them from one another. The Augur tells them to stand close against the wind turbine and wrap their arms around it. As this seems like a ritual, Already calms a little. The Augur asks them to reach out and touch her hands from where they are. Already tries, believing that this is impossible, but does touch The Augur’s hands. The wind turbines shudder and begin to spin backwards.
Somewhere, in another time, the wind turbines continue and the power remains on.
Frankie Already, aged eight, looks out of her window at the darkened street. Though the streetlights are still out, all the porch lights on the street flicker on. Frankie regards this with faint curiosity and then goes back to reading her TV guide (“Ridley’s fighting Kevin in this week's climatic episode of The Girl on the Bridge”).
In the present day, a Potato Potat.to truck heads towards the group. Robyn, Samantha, and Quincy duck off the road and into a flooded building to hide. Camera drones lift into the air as they get closer to Ka-Ching Casino Repair.
As Samantha and Robyn decide which direction to go, Samantha gives Quincy a peppermint to keep them going. Robyn says they have to go “pick some stuff up” before they can repair Quincy, and asks Samantha to look after Quincy until they get back. Samantha agrees, asking them to keep an eye out for The Augur and Already while they’re out there and to meet them by the entrance.
Robyn heads close to CaChing, avoiding security guards, drones and swarms of bees as they look for a large dumpster in order to find “anything that picks up a transmission of any kind” (a radio, a modem, etc). They find a webcam prototype that was supposed to be able to broadcast real-time eye movements to the cloud. However, Angel, a manager from CaChing, discovers Robyn, asking for their name which Robyn gives as Robbie.
Angel, getting increasingly agitated, calls for security. Robyn takes out the gun, deliberately holding it upside down. This does not calm Angel down, and he frantically tells security that Robyn has a gun, and yells at Robyn for taking “proprietary” technology. Angel says they will hang up on their security call if Robyn puts the gun down. Angel, now within eyesight of security, puts the phone down.
Legs and Big Arnie, CaChing security guards, appear, giving a warning shot over Robyn and Angel’s heads. Robyn ducks back into the dumpster for safety. Bees, startled by the gunshot, begin to swarm the area, blocking out the sky. Legs and Big Arnie try to avoid the bees, accidentally letting the bee swarm in the CaChing facility. The robot Big Arnie was riding malfunctions as the bees distort it’s sensors. In the confusion, Robyn takes Angel’s wallet.
Meanwhile, The Augur and Already meet back up with Samantha and Quincy. Already tells Samantha that they completed a ritual to turn the power back on, and that they should head towards wherever Robyn needs to take Quincy in order to work on them. The group notices the bees and gunshot noise in the distance. Quincy is visibly worried, and says that they should go to help Robyn. Samantha tries to reassure them that Robyn is not in trouble and that they should trust that Robyn is capable enough to handle the situation.
The group heads towards the Tunnel, meeting up with Robyn. Robyn puts the USB plug from the webcam onto Quincy’s tongue to help partially repair them before they head into the Tunnel.
Already, pale and shaking from the association with Frankie Already’s acts, heads into the Tunnel and is startled that there are more hallways than they remember.
The episode cuts to an episode of Jeopardy. As the contestants are introduced, they look directly into the camera and confirm Already’s worst fears. Already begins running through corridor, the Jeopardy episode playing in their mind (including horrifying commercials). The others eventually find them, curled on the floor and crying. The Augur sits with them while they cry, offering them a cup of water from her canteen and asking them if they need anything.
In a flashback, we see Already walking home in the rain after speaking to The Augur and scrolling through the phone and looking at photos of Frankie’s past life.
Already calms down, leading them towards the Tunnel room that has Quincy’s tape. Robyn gets Quincy to go to sleep, and takes out a very clean pair of scissors and a long spool of video tape. They cut out the part of the spool of the Tunnel tape that has an error in it and replace it with their copy of Quincy’s tape.
The Augur meditates, considering her place as a void person who has been rescued from Quincy’s fate by being placed into her robot body.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Austin Walker (The Augur, Providence)
- Ali Acampora (Samantha)
- Jack de Quidt (Already)
- Andrew Lee Swan (Robyn)
Other Characters[edit | edit source]
- Quincy
- unnamed Fwish truck driver / salesperson
- Angel
- Legs and Big Arnie (security guards)