A PDF version of this transcript is available here.
CONTENT NOTES: Cults, imprisonment, serious illness, hallucinations
Hello, my lovely Patrons. I just wanted to thank you all for
sticking with us through this long hiatus. It’s been a tough
year for many of us out there, and your grace and support
has meant the world. We went off-schedule for Halloween, but
from now on release days will be Tuesday of each week.
You’ll get each of those one week in advance here on
Patreon.
Now, please enjoy, Believer, Season One, Episode Six: The
Rules.
LARA'S INBOX
VOICEMAIL
You have unheard messages. First
message.
Rustling from the other end. Camille speaks to someone away
from the phone.
CAMILLE
Nothing that time either? Well, then
where is her phone? It wasn't on her.
Maybe we should --
It cuts off.
BEEP.
VOICEMAIL
Next message.
COMPUTER VOICE
Lara Campbell. You are in danger.
Lara Campbell. You are in --
BEEP.
VOICEMAIL
End of messages.
TITLES
NARRATOR
Believer. Episode Six. The Rules.
INT. BASEMENT - HOLDING ROOM - DAY
A small, concrete room. Lara stirs on an air mattress on the
floor.
CAMILLE
Good morning, Lara.
Lara jumps.
LARA
Gah! Ugh...
CAMILLE
(sympathetic)
How's your head?
LARA
Pounding.
CAMILLE
Yeah, you probably have a pretty bad
hangover. There's water and pills by
the bed if you want any. Yeah, there.
LARA
I'm not taking medicine from you.
CAMILLE
(rolling her eyes)
It's just aspirin, Lara.
LARA
Uh-huh.
CAMILLE
Do you want me to take it first?
Here.
She grabs the pill bottle, sticks some pills in her mouth.
CAMILLE
See?
LARA
Well, now it has your spit on it.
CAMILLE
Get more from the bottle.
She hands the bottle to Lara. Lara sets it down.
LARA
I'm good.
CAMILLE
At least drink some water. It's
filtered.
2.
LARA
I'm good.
Camille sighs.
CAMILLE
This isn't how I wanted to do this,
you know.
LARA
The kidnapping, you mean?
CAMILLE
It's not kidnapping.
LARA
You drugged me and took me to a...
(looks around)
Concrete room. Is this your basement?
Does your mom know about this?
(yells)
Hey! Doctor Simmons!
Camille rushes to shush her.
CAMILLE
Shhh!
LARA
Don't touch me!
CAMILLE
Lara, I'm a friend.
LARA
That's what I thought before the
kidnapping.
CAMILLE
I didn't mean to hurt you. I just had
to get you out of the Sanctum.
LARA
Reverend Boone's old church?
CAMILLE
It used to be a church. Now it's
something...more.
LARA
Oh, god.
3.
CAMILLE
Only Reverend Boone and his daughter
are allowed to go there. I've been
asking, but -- it's very sacred. And
dangerous. It takes weeks of study
and meditation to be ready.
LARA
Because it's full of psychedelic
substances, and if you don't
brainwash yourself first you might
have the wrong visions?
Camille is offended, cold.
CAMILLE
This was a mistake.
LARA
Like I was saying.
CAMILLE
(realization sets in)
You're not ready to be here.
(panic)
Oh, god. Oh no. What did I do?
LARA
Camille? Camille, it's okay. You can
just let me go.
CAMILLE
No, no, no. I need to think.
LARA
Camille...
CAMILLE
Sit here. I'll be -- I'll be right
back.
LARA
Camille, wait!
CAMILLE
Drink some water.
She hurries out the door, shuts it behind her. The CLICK of
a lock.
LARA
Camille. Camille!
4.
She tries the door, then pounds on it. No response.
LARA
Can someone at least check on my dog?
No response.
Lara sits down on the air mattress.
LARA
Maybe Jake will notice I'm gone.
She takes a breath.
LARA
(to herself)
Now, where am I?
LARA (V.O.)
I know, right? Actual cult
kidnapping. It's like there was some
kind of Creepy Small Town checklist
this place was working from.
Lara walks around the room.
LARA (V.O.)
Small concrete room. Underground. It
was probably supposed to be a storage
closet. One window up high...
Lara jumps. Grunts. No dice.
LARA (V.O.)
Too high to reach, naturally. But the
really interesting thing...
Lara stops. Touches the wall.
LARA
Wait. What's that?
LARA (V.O.)
All over the room -- the floor, the
walls -- there were these scratch
marks. Long, shallow grooves crossing
every surface. At first it seemed
random, but...
She moves the air mattress.
LARA
Wow.
5.
LARA (V.O.)
It was a pattern. I think. The lines
converged, or maybe began, in this...
tangle in the middle of the room. The
lines would loop out and away from
each other, then converge again, so
many layered at these convergence
points that it almost became a
circle, or a star. And then away
again. The way that they split, and
twisted, and grew, it made me think
of...it's hard to explain, but it
wasn't random. It seemed...organic.
Like Rose's room, like the church,
but so much more...deliberate.
Lara rubs and scratches the floor, examining it.
LARA (V.O.)
I mean, it was carved into the floor.
Someone was determined. Someone...
Through the ceiling, a soft, rhythmic BEEPING sound.
LARA
What is that...beeping?
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Suddenly, a KNOCK at the door.
LARA
Um. Hello?
No response.
Beep. Beep. KNOCK.
LARA
Who's doing that?
Beep. Beep. Knock-knock-knock.
LARA
You guys locked it from the ouside,
remember? I can't really --
A smattering of KNOCKS, from all directions this time.
Something TAPS on the window.
LARA
Is someone out there? I could really
use some...help...
6.
She trails off as a CACOPHONY OF KNOCKS breaks out, coming
from everywhere. Something THUMPS hard on the door, like a
large, wet body throwing itself against it.
LARA
Oh, no. Not again. No, no, no.
Similar THUMPS against the window this time, like something
trying to break through. Lara covers her ears.
The noise CRESCENDOS louder, the BEEPING getting loud,
insistent. Lara moans, unable to block it out.
The sound rises and rises until --
THE DOOR OPENS.
CAMILLE
Lara?
All sounds stop.
Except the distant, muffled BEEP, BEEP, BEEP...
Camille takes a few steps into the room.
CAMILLE
Lara? Are you okay?
Lara flinches away.
LARA
I'm fine!
CAMILLE
Oh. Sorry. Well, I was just checking.
She turns to leave.
LARA
Camille. Wait.
Camille stops.
CAMILLE
What?
LARA
This is the Boone House, isn't it?
CAMILLE
How did you...?
7.
LARA (V.O.)
The beeping. Reverend Boone's heart
monitor.
LARA
I can...feel it.
CAMILLE
What do you feel, Lara?
LARA
These marks...did Rose make them?
CAMILLE
Yes. Rose was here when the visions
overtook her. You can feel that?
LARA
Do you think I can't sense Rose's
presence? There's so much of her
here.
CAMILLE
She locked herself in here for three
days, a few months ago. When she came
out...that's when everything began.
LARA (V.O.)
Oh my god.
LARA
The lines. Reaching. In the dirt.
CAMILLE
I knew you could sense her. That's
what I was trying to -- you were
supposed to lead me to Rose and then
just go home. I didn't realize that
Oblivion would reach you, too.
LARA
Oblivion. Is that what you call it?
CAMILLE
Yes.
LARA (V.O.)
There was only one way out of there.
LARA
I see its signs everywhere. In my
dreams, on the walls, in the Sanctum.
8.
CAMILLE
In the Sanctum? You had a vision?
What did you see?
LARA
It was...indescribable. Camille. Help
me understand. What do you worship
here?
CAMILLE
The hand of God.
LARA
Yes. Of course.
CAMILLE
You can feel it, right? What do you
feel?
LARA
I...I guess I feel...
CAMILLE
Nothing.
LARA
What?
CAMILLE
The sweet release of nothingness.
LARA
Yes. I feel...nothing. Absolutely
nothing.
Camille sighs, happy, relieved.
CAMILLE
I think you should meet the others.
LARA
I'd love that.
CAMILLE
Come on.
Camille opens the door. They walk out.
INT. BASEMENT - MAIN ROOM - DAY
A cozy hangout room. A few STRANGERS sit around, talking
quietly. They go silent when Camille and Lara walk in.
9.
CAMILLE
Everyone? This is Lara.
LARA
Hi.
Silence. They are not impressed.
LARA (V.O.)
It was a pretty typical basement
hangout room. Couches, TV, stereo.
Pretty popular when Rose was in high
school, I bet. There were probably
about a dozen people in there. All of
them staring at me.
CAMILLE
Lara has seen the Nothingness.
Excited murmuring from the others.
CAMILLE
(to Lara)
Come on, let's sit over here.
LARA
Okay.
LARA (V.O.)
So I'm not a cult expert, but I know
a few things. Rule One: never tell
someone who's in a cult that they're
in a cult. It'll just make them mad.
LARA
So your group seems...friendly.
CAMILLE
We try to be welcoming. It's hard
because, you know, it's so easy to
misunderstand.
LARA (V.O.)
Rule Two: Everyone outside the cult
is bad. Not just confused, but
actively evil. So try to be an
insider.
LARA
It's so simple, though. They must not
understand.
10.
CAMILLE
You know, some people just have a
really hard time with new ideas.
LARA
I've noticed that.
CAMILLE
You know, people think that these
things -- suffering, division -- are
just part of life.
LARA
So that's what the Nothingness is,
then? The end of suffering?
CAMILLE
Kind of. But it's more than that.
See, pain, loneliness, isolation --
those are symptoms. They mean that
something's wrong. Oh, Reverend Boone
explains it better than I can. But
we're not trying to end the world. We
just want it to work the way it's
supposed to.
LARA
And this reaching...thing --
CAMILLE
The hand of God.
LARA
It can do that.
CAMILLE
That's all it wants.
A beat. They look around.
LARA
Okay, well, this has been amazing.
But I really think I should go check
on my dog.
CAMILLE
Wait -- Lara --
A door opens and closes across the room.
11.
LARA
He knows Rose better than anyone, so
I'll just go him and come right back.
Now if you'll excuse me --
TERRI
I wouldn't recommend that.
Where did Mayor Terri come from? Well, she's here now.
LARA
Mayor Boone!
TERRI
They actually call me The Conductor
here.
LARA
Sure. Of course.
TERRI
Camille mentioned that we had a new
inductee who's already had her first
vision of the Hand of God. I figured
it was probably you.
LARA
Yep. That's me.
TERRI
(niceness laced with
malice)
Well, isn't that lovely.
LARA
Listen, um...
TERRI
The Reverend would like to greet you
personally.
The STRANGERS mumble, surprised excitement.
CAMILLE
The Reverend? Really? But I just
started teaching her the basics.
TERRI
It was his personal request.
CAMILLE
Of course. Lara, this is quite an
honor.
12.
LARA
I -- yeah. I'm honored.
LARA (V.O.)
Rule three: Never question the
leader. Ever.
TERRI
I'll take her upstairs, Camille. Why
don't all of you here prepare for a
vision ceremony? It's been a while,
after all.
CAMILLE
Sure, Mayor -- um, Madam Conductor.
TERRI
Just Conductor is plenty, Camille.
CAMILLE
Yes, ma'am -- uh, Conductor.
Terri sighs.
TERRI
Come on.
INT. BOONE HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER
FADE IN on Mitchell Boone's various medical machinery.
Terri walks over to check on Mitchell.
TERRI
He's asleep. Good. I swear this is
the only room in the house where
those people can't overhear us.
LARA
Um, you can hear the beeping
downstairs, actually.
TERRI
So talk more quietly than the
beeping.
LARA
Right, um...sorry, what's going on?
13.
TERRI
We are going to wait until the
'shrooms kick in downstairs, and then
you are going to go very far away
from here.
LARA
So all this -- Oblivion, the Hand of
God, resetting the world -- you don't
actually believe any of it.
TERRI
Here's what I know, Lara. You cannot
find Rose.
On "Rose," Mitchell's heart monitor picks up.
LARA
What?
TERRI
Rose is gone. She needs to stay gone.
And you need to get away from here.
LARA
I don't understand --
Mitchell GASPS, waking with a start.
MITCHELL
(rasps)
The Sacred Rose! My Rose -- my Rose
in the scorched, packed earth.
He coughs.
TERRI
Mitchell -- Mitchell, stay calm.
Please, honey, you're confused.
MITCHELL
You. You.
He grabs Lara's arm.
LARA
Hey, whoa!
MITCHELL
You will find my Rose. You will
bring...the one...salvation...
14.
TERRI
Mitchell, do you hear me? Honey, you
need to let go of Rose's friend.
MITCHELL
Fore...fore-runner...the herald...I
didn't see it, but...
He coughs.
TERRI
Shh, shh...
LARA
Sir, I think that you should rest.
MITCHELL
No. No! She is so close...you must...
please...
He groans, then falls asleep again.
TERRI
Mitchell. Mitchell?
His machines stabilize.
LARA
Is he okay?
TERRI
He's sleeping. He's not...he gets
confused, lately.
LARA
Terri...
TERRI
Time to go.
LARA
Oh. Okay.
TERRI
Down the hall, out the door. Run.
Now.
LARA
If you --
TERRI
Now!
15.
LARA
Okay. Okay.
Lara runs out.
Terri strokes Mitchell's hair.
TERRI
Just a few more days, Mitchell.
You'll see.
EXT. BOONE HOUSE - EVENING
It's getting toward evening. Crickets have started to sing.
Lara slips out the front door.
She runs across the grass...then suddenly TRIPS and falls.
LARA
Ah!
And that's enough. The basement door swings open and Camille
appears.
CAMILLE
Lara? The rest of the group's down
here.
LARA
Oh, uh...
CAMILLE
You weren't leaving, were you? I
thought you enjoyed it here.
LARA
I do! I just -- I got a feeling. A
vision. So I need to go now.
CAMILLE
Is it Rose? I'll come with you!
LARA
No! Uhh...I need to go alone.
CAMILLE
(suddenly serious)
I should really come with you.
LARA
But if you meditate here...
16.
CAMILLE
No, Lara. I'm coming with you.
Sorry -- we're coming with you.
Two other cult members, MARCUS and JUNIPER come up the
basement stairs
MARCUS
Hey.
JUNIPER
Hi.
LARA
Right.
(to herself)
Lot of strength training in this
group, I guess.
CAMILLE
What was that?
LARA
Nothing. Let's, uh, let's go.
CAMILLE
(brightly)
Great! Come on, guys.
LARA (V.O.)
Cult rule four: getting out is a lot
harder than getting in. They make
sure of that.
Camille and the others catch up to Lara.
LARA
I was just going into the woods.
Right here.
CAMILLE
Sounds good. Marcus and Juniper love
hiking. They work out a lot.
LARA
That's great.
They walk off into the woods.
17.
LARA'S INBOX
VOICEMAIL
Next message.
BEEP.
SIMMONS
This is Doctor Penelope Simmons,
General Practitioner, calling once
again to try to make an appointment.
Miss Campbell, there is a serious
infection emerging in the town of
Charity, Oregon. Source and
progression of the disease remains
unclear, but your resistance could be
key to determining next steps. Please
be on the lookout for symptoms such
as visual or auditory hallucinations,
difficulty breathing, or anything
that...
(beat)
Is that...no. It can't be.
(shakes it off)
Um. As I was saying, I...
(beat)
Hello? I'm not currently seeing
patients. If you don't have an
appointment...Richard? Is that you?
It can't be. You're dead.
(beat)
Richard, what are you -- Richard,
don't touch that. No, it's not
Richard. You're not Richard! It's
nothing. Nothing.
(to the vision)
Go away! You hear me? You are
nothing! Nothing! Nothing, nothing,
noth --
BEEP.
VOICEMAIL
Message deleted.
EXT. FOREST - NIGHT
Forest sounds. It's a quiet night. Rain falls softly on the
fir trees.
Lara, Camille, Marcus, and Juniper walk through the brush.
18.
CAMILLE
Are we getting close?
LARA
I think so.
LARA (V.O.)
I had this idea that once we got out
into the woods, I could just lose
them. It was getting dark, and the
rain and fog had already moved in. I
stepped off the path so there wasn't
an obvious way to go. It should've
been easy, right?
CAMILLE
Whoa, it is dark out here. I feel
like I can barely see at all. Lara,
I'm gonna hold onto your arm, okay?
LARA
Oh, um --
CAMILLE
Marcus, why don't you grab her other
arm? Juniper, you stay close. It's
slippery out here.
Marcus GRUNTS acknowledgment.
LARA
(to herself)
Damn it.
CAMILLE
What was that?
LARA
Almost there!
LARA (V.O.)
I forgot about Rule Five: don't
assume cult members are stupid. Cults
really like smart, well-educated
people, actually. People don't join
cults because they don't know better;
they do it because the cult has
something they need at that moment. I
wonder what that first thing was for
Camille.
19.
CAMILLE
I guess when I heard Reverend
Mitchell's message I was just, you
know, I was really lost. Like, here I
am back in my home town, this place I
swore I'd get away from, I'm just
getting away from this horrific
relationship, and it just seemed like
there was no purpose to any of it. I
mean, this guy I was with at school
was just...I mean, I won't get into
it, but I was pretty broken.
LARA
Uh-huh.
CAMILLE
And it's like, how does a loving God
create a person like that, and then
not even warn me that I'm in his
path? It just seemed senseless. But
then...
Sound of a dog ID TAG AGAINST A COLLAR.
LARA
Shhh!
CAMILLE
What? Are we there?
LARA
Do you hear that?
Silence.
CAMILLE
Hear what?
A dog BARKS.
LARA
SodaPop!
Lara shakes off Marcus and breaks into a run.
CAMILLE
Lara -- wait!
The others chase after Lara.
LARA
SodaPop! Come here --
20.
(she stops)
Buddy...
She trails off. Camille and the others catch up. They stop.
They gasp.
CAMILLE
It's her.
SodaPop whines happily.
Rose steps forward.
ROSE
Hello, Lara.
LARA
Hi...Rose.
BUMP BUMP BUHHHH.
END OF EPISODE
Thank you for listening to Believer. We’re so excited to be
back. Your support has meant the world over the last year,
and I want to thank everyone who’s sent messages or told
friends about the show. I can’t tell you how much it
mattered during this difficult time away. If you want to get
in touch, you can follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, or
Facebook at Believerpod or send us an email at
believerpod@gmail.com. For transcripts, cast and crew
information, and to support the show, go to
BelieverPodcast.com.
Episodes will release every other Tuesday until the end of
the season. Patreon supporters receive each episode one week
early, along with other extras and behind-the-scenes
information. Find out more at Patreon.com/BelieverPodcast
This episode was written and directed by Julie Saunders and
features the voice talents of Sara Gorsky, Rosa Delgado,
David Pinion, Samantha Ronceros, Mara Hernandez, Seth
Ellsworth, Julie Saunders, and Archie. Sound design by Julie
Saunders and Chad Ellis.
Speaking of voice acting by Rosa Delgado, our pod-cousins at
Elaine’s Cooking For the Soul have just returned with season
two! Rosa stars as the titular Elaine and even wrote one of
the episodes this season, so you definitely want to check
that out. Stick around for their trailer.
21.
Until next time, if you see strange shapes from the corners
of your eyes, or children with unnaturally dark eyes come
knocking at your door…don’t worry, it’s probably just trickor-
treaters. It is Halloween, after all. (But still, don’t
invite them inside.)
22.