TRANSCRIPT: 1.03 - The Night the Sky Fell

A PDF of this transcript is available here.

EXT. THE COTTAGE - DAY

Birds sing. Trees sway.

At low volume, static-laced chaos and screaming plays on a short loop from a cell phone, a few seconds long, repeating over and over again.

Sodapop licks Lara's face.

She grumbles, stirs.

LARA

Okay, okay, let me just...

The phone sound stops.

Then a beat.

And she realizes where she is.

LARA

Uh, why am I outside?

JAKE

Morning!

LARA

Gah!

She scrambles away.

LARA

Jesus, Jake!

Jake laughs.

Sodapop barks, pants, and runs off after something.

JAKE

Rough night?

LARA

I guess? For the record, I was indoors when I fell asleep.

JAKE

(chuckles)

Sure.

LARA

Guess I figured out how to unlock Rose's phone at some point.

JAKE

Is that what that is?

Lara gets up. She dusts herself off.

LARA

Where have you been, by the way?

JAKE

You're just lucky it didn't rain for once.

LARA

Yeah. Seriously, though, where were you?

JAKE

Well, I'd better leave you to it.

LARA

I walked into that spot in the woods -- which was freaky, by the way -- and when I came back out --

JAKE

Okay, sounds good. You have a good day, Lara.

LARA

What?

JAKE

Coffee on the counter!

Sound of a truck door opening and closing as he gets in.

LARA

Wait --

The engine starts up.

LARA

Jake!

The truck drives away.

Sodapop barks again as it goes.

LARA

You said it, Pops...come on, let's check out this phone.

Sodapop pants happily.

INT. THE COTTAGE - DAY

Lara sits in the chair.

LARA (V.O.)

Sleepwalking. Vivid nightmares. Unexpected fatigue. All common side effects of emotional stress.

Not that I'm -- I mean, I was worried about my...friend. That can provoke some sleep disruption. That's all.

Anyway. That phone. There was surprisingly little on there. A couple selfies, some random pictures of trees. I guess she was going for a lot of walks in the forest.

And then there were...the videos.

Sound of phone screen locking and unlocking.

LARA

Well, looks like I turned off the password protection somehow, so that's something.

NARRATION

Cross-fade to narration -- we'll drop in on real-time Lara in a moment.

LARA (V.O.)

Before I get to that...have you ever heard of Tunguska?

LARA (V.O.)

In 1908, a mysterious explosion flattened approximately 2,000 square kilometers of forest in Eastern Russia. There have been over a thousand scholarly articles about it in the years since, but not because there's a lot of disagreement about what happened.

Music

LARA (V.O.)

Witnesses reported lights in the sky, typically a single column of blue light, brighter than the Sun. One witness described it like this:

β€œThe sky was cloudless, only a small dark cloud was observed in the general direction of the bright body. It was hot and dry. As the body neared the ground (forest), the bright body seemed to smudge, and then turned into a giant billow of black smoke, and a loud knocking (not thunder) was heard as if large stones were falling, or artillery was fired.”

Distant explosion, dangerous sounds.

LARA (V.O.)

It knocked down 80 million trees in an instant and caused an approximately 5.0 earthquake.

Rumbles, terrified animal sounds.

LARA (V.O.)

It's called an air burst. It happens when a meteorite breaks up in the atmosphere, but gets close enough to the ground before that happens that the energy from its fall still slams into the Earth. An impact without an impact.

Woooosh!

LARA (V.O.)

This one hit with a force 1,000 times stronger than the atomic bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima.

Flames, terror.

LARA (V.O.)

Air bursts like this routinely occur. This one was just unusually close the ground.

Music. A beat.

LARA (V.O.)

I say all this so you know that, well, what happened in the woods above Charity was...not without precedent.

INT. THE COTTAGE

LARA

(sighs)

Alright, let's see what's on this thing...

She taps a video on the phone:

EXT. WOODS - NIGHT (PHONE VIDEO)

The video clicks on. Sound of feet walking on twigs, wind blowing. Rose carries the camera, two YOUNG MEN are further away.

ROSE

Okay, we're heading up Goat Mountain. You guys excited?

YOUNG MEN cheer.

ROSE

We should hit the clearing in about a half mile.

EVAN

Dude, this better be an amazing meteor shower.

TIM

We've been walking forever!

ROSE

You'll see. You'll see...

The video ends.

INT. THE COTTAGE

LARA

Hmm.

LARA (V.O.)

It was strange seeing her like that again. Hopeful. Happy. She had me blocked on social media, so -- you know how something can feel familiar and far away at the same time?

Of course, it kind of got more far away from there.

Blip! Lara clicks another file.

EXT. WOODS - NIGHT (PHONE VIDEO)

Another video starts. The wind blows, then suddenly stops.

EVAN

Whoa. The wind just...stopped.

ROSE

I told you.

TIM

Yo, where are we? I hike up here all the time and I've never seen this cabin.

ROSE

The view is best on the roof.

EVAN

What, we just climb up?

TIM

So is this your dad's or...?

ROSE

You should climb up there.

EVAN

Yeah, right? Yolo.

TIM

Dude, nobody says "yolo" anymore.

EVAN

Yoloooo!

Tim sighs.

TIM

You coming?

ROSE

I'm right behind you.

They climb up, voices getting further away. Rose mutters to herself.

ROSE

"When he opened the sixth seal, I looked..."

Rumble. Far away, the boys freak out.

EVAN

Whoa! Look at that!

TIM

They're -- they're not gonna hit us, are they?

EVAN

Stupid, they burn up in the atmosphere.

Rose, very close to the microphone, speaking softly.

ROSE

"and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its fruit..."

The rumble grows LOUDER. The boys scream. Rose laughs.

TIM

Oh my god!

EVAN

Rose, get up here! This is crazy!

TIM

Stay down there -- I think something's going to --

Another rumble. The boys yell, unintelligible.

The audio swings away as Rose starts to yell.

ROSE

"Fall on us! And hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne -- "

The video cuts out.

INT. THE COTTAGE

Lara breathes hard, frightened.

LARA

What...? That's not...

She plays part of the video again. She stops it.

Sodapop gives a little grumble.

LARA

You said it, bud. I mean, what do I do with this? What is this?

Sodapop whines.

LARA

It's okay. It's okay. One more video.

Lara takes a breath.

Bllip! She hits the last video.

EXT. WOODS - NIGHT (PHONE VIDEO)

It's the looped video from the beginning: short, chaotic, screaming, and then suddenly -- silence.

Rose hums over it all, soft and contented.

INT. THE COTTAGE

Lara takes a beat.

LARA

Okay, so that was...interesting.

INT. LARA'S INBOX

Message from Terri Boone.

TERRI

This is Mayor Boone. I don't know what you're still doing in this town, Lara, but you'd better stay away from me, my husband, and especially my daughter. I saw you at my house last night.

EXT. LOFTY DINER - LATER

Street sounds.

LARA

Hey, Camille, sorry for missing you earlier. My phone is being really weird.

CAMILLE

Yeah, no problem. Just -- let's get away from the diner, okay?

LARA

Yeah. We can go this way.

A car passes. They walk.

CAMILLE

So when can I meet your dog?

LARA

I can't get him to leave Rose's sweater.

CAMILLE

Oh, that's...

LARA

Concerning?

CAMILLE

Weird, I was gonna say.

LARA

That too. I mean, it makes some sense. He was Rose's dog, really. I mean, he was our dog, but he was her baby.

CAMILLE

Yeah. So, you and Rose were, like, together?

LARA

Sorry, I thought you knew. Figured Mayor Boone would've warned everyone about the woman who stole her daughter and sent her back crazy.

CAMILLE

No, she didn't say.

LARA

Well, that's something then.

CAMILLE

So are you...?

LARA

What?

CAMILLE

Nothing.

They stop walking at their familiar alcove. Street noises quiet.

LARA

So Jake said you had something for me?

CAMILLE

Oh, yeah. Here. It's a USB thingy I got from Abe.

LARA

Who?

CAMILLE

Abe Ramirez. He runs the radio station?

LARA

Okay.

CAMILLE

Well, you know Rose's dad, the Reverend? He used to have this radio show, every Sunday, where they'd play his sermons.

LARA

Sure.

CAMILLE

Well, a couple months ago they had to cancel the show because they got some complaints.

LARA

About what?

CAMILLE

Uh, well, it got pretty...unconventional. The preaching. But, see, he recorded a bunch of additional sermons before and after the cancellation. He kept sending them to Abe, even after Abe told him he could stop.

LARA

And Abe just kept them?

CAMILLE

Yeah. He was, um...well, it seemed safer that way.

LARA

And you think there's something in there that will help me find Rose?

CAMILLE

I think you should hear them, yeah.

LARA

Do you think Reverend Boone had something to do with Rose's disappearance?

CAMILLE

No, no, he wouldn't...

LARA

Because he's the one who called me. To come here.

This strikes Camille as odd -- maybe even significant.

CAMILLE

He -- he called you. Himself?

LARA

Yeah. It's the last message I got before my phone wigged out.

CAMILLE

Huh.

LARA

Anything helps, though. I'll take what I can get at this point.

CAMILLE

Yeah, I'll keep digging. Oh, by the way.

LARA

Yeah?

CAMILLE

Last night -- were you looking for me, or my mom, or...?

LARA

Last night?

CAMILLE

Yeah. When you were outside my house?

LARA

What? No, I wasn't.

CAMILLE

Yeah, I saw you. Like 2, 3 in the morning. You walked up the street, and then you just kind of...stood there. Staring. I thought maybe you were looking for me, but I don't remember telling you where I live.

LARA

You didn't. Where was this?

CAMILLE

Oh, I live above my mom's medical practice. Doctor Penelope Simmons? That's my mom. She said she called you, but like, the office isn't open at night.

LARA

Camille, I didn't go anywhere last night.

CAMILLE

No, it was definitely you. You walked up the street, you stared at the building for a while, and then you just, like, walked off.

LARA

That doesn't make any sense.

CAMILLE

I don't know, maybe you were astral projecting or something. Is that a thing you do?

LARA

I don't think so.

CAMILLE

Maybe it was a trance. Did you have a vision? Do you remember what you dreamed last night?

LARA

No, I -- I haven't had any messages from the spirits. Look, I need to go. Is this all you had for me?

CAMILLE

Yeah, sorry. I'll see if I can find more --

LARA

No, no, this is great. Thank you. Really. I've just...I have a lot to think about.

CAMILLE

Sure.

LARA

Thanks.

Lara hurries off. Street sounds fade.

INT. LARA'S INBOX

Message from Dr Simmons.

DR. SIMMONS

Hello, Ms. Campbell, this is another message from Doctor Penelope Simmons, General Practitioner in the town of Charity, Oregon --

CAMILLE

Mom.

DR. SIMMONS

Camille. Did you see her?

CAMILLE

Yeah.

DR. SIMMONS

What did she say?

CAMILLE

She doesn't remember it. I don't think she was trying to see you.

DR. SIMMONS

Well, she needs to see me, Camille. She needs to be examined.

CAMILLE

I know.

DR. SIMMONS

She could be the key to this whole thing, Camille. If we can understand why she hasn't been infected --

CAMILLE

I know.

DR. SIMMONS

So why haven't you done what I asked?

CAMILLE

I just...wait, are you on the phone?

DR. SIMMONS

Oh. Damn.

(into phone)

Call me back, Ms. Campbell. Soon.

She hangs up.

BEEP.

INT. THE COTTAGE

Lara jiggles the handle on the door. No dice. She jiggles it again.

Sodapop barks.

The door jiggles again, then Lara finally shoves it open.

LARA

Jesus! This door is becoming a...problem...

A beat. Sodapop whines happily.

LARA

Sodapop...did someone come in here while I was gone? Or did you decide to pull a bunch of stuff out of my bag for some reason?

Sodapop whines happily again, unhelpful.

LARA

Huh.

She walks around slowly, investigating.

LARA (V.O.)

Listen, I'm not one of those condescending pricks who thinks all belief in the supernatural is evidence of mental illness or stupidity or something.

She zips a bag, rummages around a little.

LARA

Well, it looks like everything's here...

LARA (V.O.)

I used to believe it too. I believed with everything I had. But Rose...it was different with Rose. For her it was...real.

LARA

Plus, you'd at least pretend to protect my stuff, right?

Sodapop pants, licks her face.

LARA

Yeah. Okay.

She moves a chair and sits at her desk. Typing on computer.

The video starts up again, this time playing from the computer speakers.

Rose, very close to the microphone, speaking softly.

ROSE

"and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its fruit..."

The rumble grows LOUDER. The boys scream. Rose laughs.

TIM

Oh my god!

EVAN

Rose, get up here! This is crazy!

TIM

Stay down there -- I think something's going to --

BLEEP. Lara stops the video.

LARA (V.O.)

But this? This is new.

Double-click as she plays it again: The boys screaming, Rose laughing.

INTERVIEWER (V.O.)

So you think something changed?

LARA (V.O.)

I think something happened.

Click, double-click. Sound of Rose humming over chaos.

LARA (V.O.)

Because this? This video? This is not Rose. Not the Rose I know, anyway.

[ROSE/BROTHER MONOLOGUE GOES HERE]

The video suddenly pauses.

LARA

Wait.

Click. Double-click. The chaos again, with Rose's hum.

LARA

What is that?

Computer volume increases. Click. Double-click.

It plays again. In the background of all that jumble, an odd knocking sound.

LARA

Hold on...

She clicks again, opening another program. Keystrokes.

LARA (V.O.)

Something happened.

Sodapop whines, sounding worried.

LARA

Okay, so I just turn down some of the background noise, mute this section, and...

The clip plays again, with the audio edited. A loud knock-knock-knock sound. Followed by a distant cry.

LARA (V.O.)

And I guess part of me wonders...if it happened to me too.

She plays it again, sound tuned even more clearly. Knock-knock-knock. Cry. She stops it.

LARA

That's goddamn Sasquatch.

Sodapop grumbles.

OUT.