I need to crack the code on the diary.
_
Larry's mom. Looks like she knows things.
I think she was just along for the ride.
Smith is the mastermind.
We just need to find people below us, and we'll all make money.
Liz, there's no one below us.
I'm doing great.
Seems like your leg is getting worse.
You and Connie are supposed to be together. It's Fate.
Fate keeps taking me places I don't want to go.
We're coming in, Blaise!
Where the hell did he go?
He did it. The Magnum Opus.
He's through to the other side!
"History is a nightmare from which I'm trying to wake."
I read that in a survey class at City College,
and I always wondered if it was actually possible.
Larry...
Mom, what are you doing?
The more I read Harwood Fritz Merrill...
... the more I believe it is.
They're gonna call me if you ditch school,
so no monkey business.
Yeah, I'm goin'. Geez.
And wash that bowl when you're finished.
I'm late for work. I love you, Larry.
It's me and Larry against the world.
Ugh. Oh.
Oh, yeah.
Dud, I'm leaving!
If you wanna catch a ride, let's go.
Okay.
Um...
Yeah, I'm almost ready.
Okay, thanks.
Oh, hey, tell Champ that I'm really sorry I can't come
to his, like, housewarming party thing tonight or whatever.
Come by later.
His new place is right around the corner.
I c... can't.
I just got so much going on at the Lodge right now.
We're doing Mystic Chords of Memory tonight.
Right.
It's like this, uh... like an open mic night thing.
Anyway,
and Blaise... Blaise is still missing.
- We can't find him. - Ah, yeah, I almost forgot.
The case of the missing apothecary.
Yeah, yeah.
Really hopin' for a breakthrough tonight.
- Okay. - So...
All right. Ow.
Um, hey, you sure that you don't wanna come in?
No, I'm good.
There's nothing in there for me.
- Oh, my God. Are you okay? - Ow.
Yeah. I'm fine.
Just, hey, say hi to everybody for me, okay?
- Have fun tonight. - Okay.
- Synced & corrected by MementMori - -- www.addic7ed.com --
Oh, Jackie.
Like many tragedies, I suppose,
this one begins with an insecure man...
Wallace Smith, owner of the second-largest
dry cleaner's in Bixby Knolls,
and Sovereign Protector of Lodge 49.
He was the first man I'd been with since Larry's father died.
He was married, so he so we used the Murphy bed
in the Sentinel Suite.
Did you hear that?
It came from behind this wall.
I think there's something on the other side.
You're late... again.
Have you tried doing it all alone, Beverly?
Larry's a handful.
Just letting you know, the new boss?
He's coming from Florida, where they launch things.
He might not be so lenient.
I'm doing my best.
At Orbis, I was just another face in the typing pool,
employee number 4326,
but at the Lodge,
I was someone important...
a keeper of secrets.
This room must've been here
since the beginning...
... and we're the only ones who know the way in.
It's beautiful.
I feel like this place has been waiting for...
For me.
I know.
There are no accidents, Jackie.
Our job now is to figure out why I have been shown this room.
This is my path.
When you've been erased from enough stories,
you stop noticing.
Maybe they'll make a bust of me like this...
I was just happy to have something
truly different in my life.
Those were happy months,
getting lost in the old books,
learning alchemical codes and ciphers.
It would all make sense to me,
like ripples settling in a puddle,
and everything is clear for a moment.
But it would ripple away just as quick.
My favorite book was a short biography
of Harwood Fritz Merrill by William Parker.
It described the four chapters of Merrill's life...
boyhood, war,
his lost decade of wandering,
and his building of the first lodge in London.
Hermeticism,
quintessence...
these were hard.
But a man recovering from a catastrophe,
who searches and finds a home,
I could hold that in my arms.
♪ ... jolly good fellow ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellooooow ♪
♪ Which nobody can deny ♪
- Whoa! - ♪ Which nobody can deny ♪
Those jackasses...
are payin' for drinks with their bum coins again.
Everyone around town takes them.
This new Orbis clique, I'm sick of 'em.
They have no respect for the hierarchy around here.
I should ban their money from the Lodge.
You won't get invited to their party if you do that.
Please.
That's the last thing I want.
Wally, of course, wanted that more than anything.
- So, Wally, dry cleaning... - Hmm.
... there's some real heavy-duty science behind that.
Yes, indeed.
And I've mastered the chemical process.
Wow... buddy... tell us about it.
Gladly.
Um, the thing you have to remember about petroleum solvent
is when you're wor...
You know, there are secrets in the Order of the Lynx
that make everything you're doing at Orbis seem primitive.
The scrolls that Harwood Fritz Merrill
found in the desert are said to unlock great power.
She's right.
The Sumerians knew about chemical valances,
splitting the atom,
and here we are,
trying to keep a metal ball from falling back down to Earth.
So, anybody could just sign up
and just do whatever they want?
Yeah, man, you can tell stories, you can sing a song,
you can juggle, whatever.
Or you could talk for two hours
about how you got arrested in Seattle
for trying to sneak onto Prince's tour bus!
That's not true.
Prince didn't play in Seattle on the Purple Rain Tour.
I got arrested in Tacoma.
I had a life before I became an educator.
- Oh. Lot's of dudes tell war stories. - Oh.
You know, the funny ones,
not the ones you dream about.
Larry had a bunch from Vietnam.
I've got my Gulf War standards,
and, Ernie, man,
that dude kills with his Navy shit.
Did Ernie... Did Ernie sign up?
No.
Uh, not a lot of people signed up.
Don Fab and the Longshoremen
are gonna do a special acoustic set.
- Should be pretty good. - Oh, that's good.
Otherwise, as emcee,
I'm-a have to riff.
Free jazz of the mind.
It's gonna be a long, brutal night for everybody.
Here's some lemon bars,
just like my estranged stepmother used to make.
Wow. I am so happy for you, man.
Homeownership is the American dream,
and you made it happen.
Man, and I been lookin' forward to this...
chance to cut loose for the night.
Mmm!
Mm.
Fair warning, guys.
I might get a little crazy tonight.
Sarah gave me permission to do whatever I want.
- Mm. - Long as I'm back by 10:30.
- To an evening of gargantuan horror. - Oh.
Hey, it's Liz!
Hey, guys.
You want me to pick you up in the golf cart?
What?!
Want me to pick you up in the golf cart?
No, it's okay.
I can walk from here.
Okay, let's just say, for the sake of argument,
that Blaise didn't complete the Magnum Opus
and he didn't cross into an invisible world, okay?
So where did he go?
Where's he been for the last few days?
How did he get outta here?
Here's a crazy idea...
there's another way in and out of this room.
No, no. I've pulled out every book in this room,
and none open up to a secret passage. None.
I don't know, there's probably another false wall
or crawl space or somethin'.
Jesus, Ernie!
Even the boring explanation is awesome,
and you can't even get excited about it.
- I mean... oh, my God. - Whoa, whoa.
I'm good. I'm good.
I'm fine. I'm fine.
- I'm just a little sore. - Oh.
Oh! Your wound, man!
- It smells horrible. - Yeah, I know.
That's not good, Dud.
When's the last time a doctor looked at your leg.
Ernie, my hospital bills are out of control, okay?
That's why I need to find Blaise,
because he's the only one who can help me.
He's also the guy who shot your wife with a nail gun.
My ex-wife, okay? Or she will be soon.
I got some paperwork. But the point is,
is that... it wasn't Blaise's fault, okay?
Scott, you know, he wouldn't give him his spa...
I don't blame Scott.
Blaise is headed down the same path
as Wallace Smith.
This alchemy stuff, it drives people crazy.
- No. - You walk through some doors
and there's no going back.
Dud...
I'm scared you're goin' through that door.
That's why I told El Confidente to go to Mexico without you.
You told El Confidente to knock me out?!
No...
- I didn't know he was gonna hit you. - Forget it.
I'll go find Blaise on my own.
And he's not crazy.
He just cares about the Lodge.
And who was that blowhard in the fancy suit?!
My new boss at Orbis.
- He's Head of Propulsion. - Ah, to hell with him.
The boys had gotten
under Wally's skin.
We were feeling the sharp smallness of our world.
I'd felt it before, but now,
for the first time, I knew a way out.
They couldn't calculate their way out of a paper bag!
We'll get the scrolls.
What are you talking about?
The scrolls.
Under Lodge 1 in London.
We can bring them back here to Long Beach.
Of course, Wally said, "That's impossible,"
but I'd come to know his soft spots.
Soon enough, it was all his idea.
Found these.
Less of a mildew smell.
And the kitchen's sending up your supper.
The least we can do for you after your journey.
Thank you, Oliver.
The door is always open for you in Long Beach.
Oh, uh, I'm afraid there's a bit of a riot
planned for downstairs this evening.
We're having a song and story review.
Come down if you're in the mood.
Oh, I think we'll be getting some rest.
Our timing couldn't be better. They'll all be soused.
Now, I just have to find my way down to the basement,
and then Merrill's crypt will obviously
be somewhere down there.
Are you okay?
You eat when you're nervous, Wally.
I eat because I'm hungry.
Now, it may be possible that I have to force my way
into the south elevator shaft and then climb down by hand
to see how deep it goes.
Or take the elevator.
Oh, were it that simple.
You're just gonna have to trust me, Jackie.
I feel very confident about this.
Very confident.
More than that.
I must say, I feel alive!
I had often wondered
how anyone knew when they were on their path.
That night,
I knew I was on my path...
... because something that should've scared me didn't.
Here I was, looking right into the life
of a man who had been destroyed by war.
He had seen the worst of men,
but insisted they were better.
They had to be.
What universe would entrust its secrets to a dark heart?
If Merrill could see behind his story
to a place where catastrophe was as necessary as joy,
where the impossible turned
just beyond the edges of our sight,
then so could I.
I was spinning...
... and I wanted those secrets.
- Jesus. - Hey.
I just had a little dig around in the closet.
We have so much cool stuff in storage.
These are Orbis guys.
See the little pins on their shirt?
Parabolas.
Maybe the whole Parabola group legend
was a real thing?
Oh. Wow.
Orbits.
I haven't seen these in a long time.
What is it?
In the '60s,
Orbis tried to make their own currency,
go full company town.
It went bust.
My dad and the rest of the janitorial staff
got screwed.
The past never goes away, I guess.
Is that where you are?
The past?
'Cause you're not here.
You're lookin' past me, past the Lodge,
into somethin' else.
I don't see the guy I used to know,
the guy who wanted his picture on the wall.
Hubris.
I don't see the woman I used to know
since you came back from London.
I think maybe, since we've...
come back into each other's lives,
we've just been tryin' to relive the past.
And now...
Maybe someday we'll see each other with new eyes.
But until then...
I think you're right.
Oh.
Blaise!
Blaise, I'm coming!
I'm comin' for ya, buddy!
How bad is he?
Aw, I knew it. I knew it.
I told you not to go hard before the show.
God damn it, Don Fab.
I'm sorry, man.
It's rock 'n' roll.
You know what this night meant to me,
playing my song.
You guys have always taken me for granted, huh?
The drumming, the steady beat in the back,
the guy you could always count on... Mr. Reliable.
The one time I ask you to be there for me, you...
Sc-Sc-Screw it. I'm out.
I'm out. I'm out of the Longshoremen.
I don't need you guys. You know what?
I'm playin' my song tonight, solo!
And it's gonna be amazing,
and Connie's gonna...
As Sovereign Protector,
it is within my rights to inform you
that Don Fab and the Longshoremen
are hereby banned from playing the Lodge.
Okay, just so we're clear,
these have drugs inside them.
So, Liz,
how do you like being the sheriff of Higher Steaks?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, do you wake up every night,
like, just terrified and then...
and then pace around in your kitchen,
eatin' pretzels till dawn, or... ?
No, no, it's fine.
I'm just kind of going through the motions,
and it seems to be working.
So I'm not sure if that's good.
I've had a weird few weeks.
I'm just feeling a little, um...
... l-lost at the moment.
When you're lost,
you know, the thing to do is get more lost.
That's how you reach the right destination.
Mm-hmm, whatever you're doing, it's working.
Omni HQ's gonna be happy.
Maybe Janet'll give you another chance.
Ugh, screw her.
And screw Omni.
Wait, wait. Hold on.
That's the problem, Liz.
Janet stole your story.
It's like she stole your soul.
Champ, just an FYI,
Harvey the Halo and his Irregulars
are doing maneuvers in J-Wing.
They miiight come this way.
What? That's a clear violation of the treaty.
Um, guys, uh, just for safety,
why don't we cut outta here for a little while?
I'll give you the Orbis tour. Come on.
- Okay. - Okay?
Back in Long Beach,
Wally warned me that no one could ever know
what we had done.
He couldn't help himself.
There were some close calls in London, but I kept my cool.
For some men, these acts of daring just come naturally.
The scrolls are in a safe place.
Now it's just a question of deciphering the language,
which appears rudimentary.
I didn't care.
London had changed me.
I saw now with different eyes.
And I've learned when you see differently,
you're seen differently.
Miss Loomis.
I know you from the Lodge.
You're the new division leader, Mr. Goss.
Everyone knows who you are.
Yes, but at the 49, I'm just a lowly postulant.
You're a Luminous Knight.
So, what do you say we call it a wash.
I'm Werner.
I wasn't looking for another lover.
I was looking for an equal.
So, you like rockets.
Maybe I hate gravity.
You ever been to a launch?
I imagine it's how the caveman felt
when he first learned to light his own fire.
You see in a moment just how much better
your future's gonna be.
You're an optimist.
An optimist hopes for certain outcomes.
I engineer them.
You're very humble.
Well, we put a prototype satellite into orbit last week.
Hermes will map the entire world for us someday.
- The entire world? - Mm-hmm.
You know...
some of us like to get lost.
You boys love to take all the mystery away.
You needn't worry. If you'd like to get lost,
I'm your man.
This may sound presumptuous, but...
I know you, Jackie.
You like a system of authority.
Not so much for the boundaries, more for the nostalgia...
hearth and home, mom and dad.
Now, maybe it's my... Kraut heritage,
but I like some order, too.
So here's what I propose.
Sex is a no-go.
Not because we wouldn't enjoy it,
but because it's the obvious next step,
and neither of us are obvious.
Let's skip the lifeless prose and get to the poetry.
Yes, I wanna put my lips on yours,
but that's all we're gonna do.
Let's light the fuse without a blastoff
and use that rocket fuel to get somewhere
two people rarely get...
to the truth.
I accept your terms.
It wasn't easy, but we stuck to our deal.
For a while, at least.
- Hey... - Hey!
Ha. Uh, y-you... you caught me.
I was, uh, just leavin' ya a special invitation
for tonight's performance.
That's nice.
I'm lookin' forward to seeing you guys.
Don Fab unplugged.
Uh, well, actually,
it's, uh...
just gonna be me and my guitar.
That's great!
Finally, you're doin' your own thing.
I knew you had it in ya.
Well, it's the first song I've ever written.
It's about you.
Scott, we need...
Okay, okay, Connie, just, please.
Um...
just come to the show.
Okay?
Champ, what's happening to me?
I'm paralyzed by the fear inside my brain.
Whoa, relax.
It's a gentle ride.
Although, maybe all the toxic stuff in the ground here
is makin' ya hallucinate.
So, who owns this place now?
No one seems to know.
My mom worked here for a little while.
- So did my uncle. - Yeah?
In medieval France, they built cathedrals...
entire economies based on stone and glass.
Everyone was connected to it.
Here at Orbis, they built weapons,
and everyone in Long Beach was connected to them.
Just checking with our courier for the delivery.
You see, anything at all can be currency.
All value resides in faith.
So why do we need anything?
Why can't currency just be an idea we all have faith in?
You can't pay for a sandwich with an idea.
You still need a thing.
Well, why can't the idea be the thing?
I was someone else entirely with Werner.
I slowly came to recognize the stranger as myself.
Sometimes at lunch, Werner would make us a special cocktail,
something to provide "lift-off."
Antarctica. How long were you there?
Not long. We were just doing some tests.
Wind velocity. Boring stuff.
Mm.
There's supposed to be a Lynx lodge in Antarctica,
or...
maybe that's just another myth,
like Merrill coming to California.
Mm.
Or finding the scrolls in Egypt.
You know, Wallace has been saying some pretty crazy things
around the Lodge.
Do you believe him?
Of course not.
I mean, can you imagine
if he had the scrolls?
It'd be like giving a gun to a child.
We do give guns to children.
Then we send them to kill other people's children.
No one's killing children.
Uh... Oh, there it is.
I think we're in the countdown.
My mother said her hands hurt whenever she saw weakness.
Why are you fighting gravity?
You should make a rocket and point it at the ground.
If you think about it,
sex is just a door that we go through
to get to the future.
We're stuck in a circle,
but the magic is...
just there,
just... beyond.
Merrill knew.
I want my Larry to have a good life,
but... I can feel the world
wants something else.
If the scrolls are real,
what would you do with them?
"No man shall practice alchemy
who hath not the purest heart."
I think Thomas Norton said that.
Yeah, I've been doing my reading.
I'm a postulant... eager to learn.
Something tells me you know more about alchemy than you let on.
Jackie...
what if I told you
there were people who think like you do?
There is a group of us here at Orbis
who aren't constrained by the line
between science and alchemy.
So you guys have been playing dumb.
You tease Wallace,
but you believe in the same things.
Wallace is a useful idiot, bless him.
Listen, we have funding from above, off the books.
We're working close with Ludibrium Associates,
following the path laid down by Jung and Pauli.
Long Beach is at the center of something big.
It's been waiting here for us all along.
We're going deep, literally.
We call ourselves the Parabola Group.
I'm the night swimmer, not Janet.
You know, I was born in the wrong place.
And I want you guys to launch me...
to the other side of the world!
Liz, Liz.
Hey, Liz, it's not funny.
I mean, don't you see what's gonna happen?
We're... we're gonna joke about launching you,
and then we're accidentally gonna launch you for real,
and then you're gonna die,
- and you can't die Liz because w... - Whoa.
- Hey, man. - We... We all need you.
Okay. Okay.
- Liz. - No.
Thank you, okay? Thank you, Liz.
Just...
Oh! Oh!
Liz, are you okay?
Yeah.
I landed in water.
Gross water.
- We'll get you out, Liz. - No, it's fine.
Uh, there's a tunnel down here.
I can get out that way.
I will meet you back at Champ's.
Thanks for comin', Jackie.
I wanted to tell you about my progress.
Sit down.
Have you cracked the code?
Yes... in a manner of speaking.
I-It turns out it wasn't the code that needed cracking.
It was me...
my own system of perception.
Don't walk away.
What, do you want proof?
Well, look.
Here.
I made gold.
What do you think now?
Hmm?
I think you bought some gold dust and put it in there.
How dare you.
It doesn't even matter if you believe me or not.
I-I have been shown the way to escape this world...
and I intend to follow it.
_
Thanks, uh, Loretta,
for that blow-by-blow account
of your granddaughter's volleyball game.
It's gonna live in the memory for a long time.
Next up, uh, Gil
with some kind of presentation.
So, uh, if you guys are interested
in getting in on this,
you know, uh, u-unique opportunity...
I'm sorry. I-I-I know that this isn't
what Mystic Chords is about,
but I bought all this crap,
and now I'm stuck with it.
I don't know what else to do.
There's, like...
no future out there.
There you go.
You are the first civilian
I've ever brought down here.
Technically, it doesn't exist.
Not even your satellite could find it?
What do you mean?
Hermes.
It's mapping the world.
In a manner of speaking.
It's... it's more of a spy bird, in truth.
And we've parked it dead overhead our communist friends
in Southeast Asia.
Why?
Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Peace through strength, Jack.
Can you imagine the peace we'd have
with the full force of alchemical power in our arsenal?
There will be so much peace,
we'll get bored of it.
You have to trust me, Jackie.
"Trust me."
I'd heard this before.
Did you do it?
Did you decipher the scrolls?
I'd rather not say.
Uh, there are a lot of high-level things
in motion right now, including this...
lucrative little side project,
an electronic currency
that uses a common secure ledger,
like an imaginary coin.
I got the idea after lunch the other day.
I was thinking to myself...
where were... oh, you were there.
And from there, I drifted
into a dark, empty place.
I went back to Wallace.
His wife had left him,
and he was preparing to make his own departure.
I agreed to go with him.
Will it hurt, our suicide cocktail?
Uh...
The liminal state is always painful,
but there is also ecstasy in the transmutation
as we realign our quintessence
and become im-immortal,
like Harwood Fritz Merrill.
So you don't know.
Jesus, Jackie.
I'm sorry.
You were right.
I'm sorry. I don't know anything.
My whole life is nothing.
This is all for show.
I've been half a man.
Do something truly brave...
... for once in your life.
I had every intention of joining Wally that night...
... but this world pulled me back.
I couldn't leave Larry.
No one can survive alone.
I'm leaving my story with Wally.
It's more likely to be listened to
if it rides through time on the corpse of a man than a woman.
I took the scrolls with me...
... hoping to pass them on
to someone who could lead the Lodge
to a new place.
Perhaps someday she'll arrive.
Blaise!
Dud!
What is this place?
Uh, so we got, uh, Don Fab, eh?
Anybody seen Don Fab? No?
No. Okay, uh, well,
think we should probably call it a night.
Wait!
Nobody move.
Wait. Just wa... wait.
Can you, um... everybody, just...
if you could just sit down. Just... Just one more.
Thanks.
Dud, can you believe this?
This room, it's like the philosopher's egg.
You enter, elements mingle, and you come out changed.
That's awesome, man.
And the diary, it wasn't Wallace Smith.
It was Larry's mom, Jackie Loomis.
She was a brilliant woman. And the scrolls are real!
We need to bring 'em back to Long Beach.
It's the only way to heal the Lodge
- and ourselves. - Well, no shit, man.
I kinda been sayin' that for a while now, you know?
- Ow! - Hey.
It's all right. I'm just...
Aw. Oh, it's infected.
No, it's probably...
- Yeah. - Ohh...
Hey, be careful, be careful.
Okay, yeah. Ow! Ow! Ow!
Oh.
Yeah.
I feel somethin' hard.
It's comin' to the surface. I need to get it out.
Okay.
♪ I don't believe in fate ♪
♪ Or playin' the only song ♪
♪ That life writes for you ♪
♪ I'll never blame destiny ♪
♪ Trade any days left for prophesy ♪
♪ Why can't you ♪
♪ See my choice is true? ♪
♪ 'Cause I found who we are ♪
♪ In a bed of desert stars ♪
♪ That lit my way to you ♪
♪ I believe in what I feel ♪
♪ A heart that beats for something real ♪
♪ Why can't you ♪
♪ Feel it beat for you? ♪
♪ Or could the stars see only you? ♪
Supposed to be a solo.
It's a shark tooth!
Ooh!
Blaise, Blaise, help!
Blaise, catch me!
Aah!
What the hell is this?!
What the hell are you doin' up there?!
Oh, my God!
Hey, guys.
Liz, is that snow in your hair?
Where did you go?
I don't know.
Small search-and-kill missions have been increased.
Mobile units penetrate the Vietcong pockets
to flush out the enemy.
There is the constant menace of an ambush
as they move down roads and trails
controlled by the guerrillas.
Oh, God! No, please! No!
No! No! Help me, please!
No, please!
No, it's just a dream, Larry.
You're home, my love.
You're home.
Shh, shh, shh, shh.
- Synced & corrected by MementMori - -- www.addic7ed.com --