You're it!
Hey, John, wait up.
Boys!
John! George!
Boys?
Let's go.
Boys!
Who the hell is that?
Friend of the family.
Look.
I'm not saying there's absolutely no resemblance to our guy, but...
You're saying that he was with you last night?
From four till past midnight.
And why was that?
'Cause he's a witness in a homicide in Cherokee City.
DA asked me to come down, get a statement,
and Lieutenant Sablo rolled along,
because the staties are working this one as well.
We just wanted to question the man in a non-threatening environment,
and Mr. Bolton over there on yonder porch
was kind enough to allow us to use his home.
Since we're accounting for his whereabouts, we figured...
I'm only going along with this as a professional courtesy.
Sure.
Hey. One last question.
This individual you're trying to find,
the perp we're looking for
abducted an 11 -year-old boy in Cherokee City.
We found him a few hours later, tortured and murdered.
We talking about the Peterson boy?
It's horrible.
Of course, we're not... we're not saying that...
that your guy and our guy are the same guy, but...
you know, if we could interview your wits...
you know, that could be great for all of us.
Mike could arrange it. We'll be in touch.
Okay.
- Thank you, fellas. - Thank you.
Thank you.
From now on, we have to edit everything we say in front of Claude,
assume that whatever Claude sees and hears, it sees and hears.
And if it gets wind that we know that it's here, well...
Now this thing's in town trying to fuck my brother up.
You wanna keep him out of the loop?
The less he knows, the safer he is.
The safer we all are.
The world has gone insane.
Yeah, well, except for me and thee,
and I'm not so sure about thee.
That photo, that was...
"the thing"?
I believe so.
- You believe so. - Yeah, and look...
My advice to you while you're out here,
you should believe so, too.
Let's say we find this thing, then what?
Well, does anybody know if it can even be killed?
Well, we have to assume it can be.
Why?
It walks, it talks,
it clearly needs food to sustain itself, so...
it can be killed.
I'm with him. We just don't know what it responds to.
No one said anything about killing it.
We just need to contain it.
In what? Butterfly net? Tupperware?
Me, I'd go with a couple of strings of garlic
and a big wooden stake, maybe a big ol' cross.
You people know anything about stopping this thing?
I mean, one thing.
That's what I thought.
Well, what I do know is that we need to take your brother somewhere else
- while we can figure this thing out. - Yeah.
So you said.
What would be best if one of us could take him somewhere else
while the rest of us make some plans.
Look...
no disrespect, but we need you.
So, drop the attitude, okay?
- Hey. - Morning.
Shit.
Here, take mine.
- You sure? - Yeah.
Thank you.
Hey, Claude.
Know what would do everyone in here nicely this afternoon?
A little taste of heaven.
Hi-Way Heaven?
When was the last time you been there?
I can't even remember, man.
It's on their dime, too.
Best fried chicken for 200 miles.
Well then, I'll drive.
It's an hour there, hour back.
That's with no traffic and all.
If I did not love to drive, I would not have purchased
that fine piece of machinery outside, right?
Get you out of the house.
Clear your head.
- Hey, honey. - Hey.
Hey, what's going on?
Well, you know, we're... We're just...
we're working on it.
"Working on it"? What exactly is "it"?
Progress. We're making progress on things.
Ralph.
You're talking in riddles. Just... just tell me what's happening.
- It's here. - What is?
Oh, Jesus!
Hey!
Oh, my...
Watch where you're going, lady!
Hang on.
Okay, what are you gonna do?
- Find it. - You said you were just
gonna guard Claude Bolton, nothing else.
That's what I thought, too, but then...
You can't go anywhere near this thing.
You have no idea what you're dealing with.
Jeannie, nobody's doing anything but talking, so...
Come home.
I can't right now.
Jesus!
Do not go after it.
Please.
There are others to do that.
We're just gonna share what we know with them,
then step away.
Love you.
There are no bears.
- There were in the olden days. - How do you know?
'Cause I snuck in there one night to check for them.
You did not.
If you say so.
I wanna go in.
Do you have 25 cents?
'Cause I don't.
Come on. This way.
Dad's gonna kill us.
Not if you don't tell him.
Cut it out.
It's panicked.
Wasn't finished transforming.
It wasn't ready.
So, why did it expose itself?
It's hungry.
Huh.
And now, a day later, hungrier still.
Starving.
Which means it's gonna take a run at another kid.
Just a matter of when.
You see how he just about knocked that big guy on his ass?
I don't know. I don't eat for a while, I get kinda weak.
Hmm. Hopefully, the effort cost him.
Hopefully.
There's only one cemetery within ten miles of this place.
The New Olive Baptist.
El Cuco likes to hole up near his victims' families.
Look, if the Boltons have people buried there,
we should check it out.
Do you have any family buried at New Olive Baptist?
Do I what?
Do you have any family buried...
I heard you the first time.
No, we favor the other one. Child of God.
I didn't see any second one.
Well, that's because all the coffins,
they got flooded in the '60s.
All those dead folks, kinda body surfin'
down the hill toward the river.
"Hey, look, there's Grandpap Joe and he's waving at us."
That must have been some sight to see.
Now, them cups never figured out
how to wash themselves where I'm from.
- He's all I got. - Your brother?
That's right.
I hear you.
Well, I hope you do.
Hey, Ev.
Hey, my boys come through here this mornin'?
Oh, nobody's come through here.
You're the first soul I've seen all day.
Why? Are they lost?
Oh, they around here somewhere.
I just don't know, uh...
Hey, I need to go inside and give a look around.
Oh, just go on in and grab yourself a flashlight.
All right, thanks, Ev.
And Emmitt, be careful.
People get turned around in there all the time.
The grandfather and the kid are coming in
to look at more mugshots.
They're gonna let us talk to them.
There you go.
Seat belts.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay, I'll see you at home.
You all right?
We... You just got a heads up from a Detective Schwenk
over in Prester County, said that a hiker called in
saying that he came across the body of a young boy
laying, um, in the trail.
Okay.
The boy was nude and he was pretty torn up.
His face was about gone like an animal had had at it.
They're on the way over there now
and wanted to know if you wanted to come by...
given the...
You know.
No. Uh, no.
But tell them to keep me posted
and give them my home number and my cell.
You know, when the old lady wanted to talk to the old man
without me listening, she'd send me on an errand.
Like getting chicken.
Cigarettes, mostly.
Do you know how fucked up this is,
what we're talking about here?
A thing that can become other people?
Oh, yeah.
You don't have any issue believing that?
I'm a criminal defense lawyer.
I can believe anything.
Holly said this thing knows everything
that comes into my head as soon as I do,
like it's walking around in there...
reading my thoughts and seeing out of my eyes.
Hey, do you mind pulling over, please?
I gotta get out.
- Yeah, hold on, hold on. - I'm gonna be sick.
Fuck!
Ah, shit!
Thanks.
You know when you're first coming down with a cold,
you ever tell yourself, "Mind over matter.
I can will this out of me"?
- Yeah. - It ever work?
No.
Me neither.
Cold, flu, virus, cancer.
It want in?
There's not a fucking thing you can do about it.
Same with this thing.
It wanted in. It got in.
Fuck!
Herschel and Winnifred McCallum.
They died three days apart.
Maybe it was one of those broken heart stories.
Always liked those.
You know, one spouse dies,
and the other can't live without them, so they go a few days later.
I had an aunt and uncle that went like that.
They died of influenza.
So, you're gonna pull some Holly-style
strange genius business on me?
They called it the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918,
except it started at an army base in Kansas,
went out from there
and killed 50 million people around the world.
Look how hard it hit this town.
Well... history be damned, you know.
I... I believe they were so co-joined at the soul, the McCallums,
that... one just decided to follow the other
into whatever came next.
Did I say something funny?
No.
What are you smiling about?
Nothing.
Let's go.
When he asked me at the map what I was looking for,
I said I was trying to find the cave that had
the saber-toothed tiger footprints.
Mm-hmm.
He said he didn't know that one,
but he did know one where prehistoric bears had lived.
Mm-hmm.
He said he'd seen their claw marks.
And then, he said I should see it for myself.
And then, we were walking.
Did he say anything else?
He was quiet after that.
Then, I heard Wanda yelling and I thought she was angry at me.
He has my brother! Someone!
Sam! Get away from him!
Then he pushed me away.
I turned around and saw Grandpa Mike wrestling with him.
I was scared because I didn't want him to get another heart attack.
You know what, you've done great, Sam.
Now, I just got one last question,
then we're all done here, okay?
Did he touch you?
That's the first question I asked him, he said...
Very important, please.
Sam.
Well, he shoved me.
- That's like touching. - Yeah.
And he had his hand on my shoulder when we were walking.
My priority was elsewhere.
Did he scratch you, maybe even just by accident?
Any scratch?
No.
Would he have hurt me?
No. No, no, no. I don't...
No, I... No, I don't believe so.
- This makes no sense. - What doesn't?
Why did it run that way?
The caves are over there. There's no place to hide over here.
There's no light over there, which means it's...
harder for people to give chase.
Hmm.
So, that must have been a hell of a thing
to confront this thing.
Shit, if I was 20 years younger, I would've broken him in two.
Why'd you ask Sam if he got scratched?
This guy have some kind of a contagious disease
we need to be worried about?
It's, um... just a question that we're required to ask
in, you know, cases like these.
Well, I'm gonna get him checked out as soon as we get back.
Can't hurt. How 'bout you?
What, getting scratched?
If he did, I didn't feel it.
So, Mr. Davidson, now that you've had some time to sit with this,
is there anything more that you could tell us about this man?
Weird eyes.
Weird how?
Well, when I first saw him...
they seemed kinda too far back in the sockets,
you know what I mean?
But he was wearing that dumb-ass fox mask,
so I just chalked it up to that.
When I pulled that thing off him...
he still looked like he was staring at me from under a mask.
Anything useful?
Do you know about any bear caves in the area?
And I'm born and raised.
We got a Sabertooth Cave like the boy said
and a Copperhead Cave.
We got a Red Roof and an Ahiga,
- but no bear cave. - Right.
- Thanks for your time. - Sure thing.
- Thank you. - Mm-hmm.
Half-dozen wings and hush puppies.
Rub on medium or hot?
- There you are. - All right, thank you.
Hey, we should be heading back, this being everybody's midday meal.
Uh-uh.
Midday is technically two hours away.
Come on, sit down.
After all of that build-up, I'm dying for a taste right now.
All right.
You a wing man?
I am an anything man.
- My God. - Right?
- This is... - Best damn chicken in 200 miles.
Mmm.
You don't remember me, do you?
Remember you? From?
Court. About eight years ago.
- Representing you? - Yes, sir.
- On what charge? - Assault and battery,
coming off of a bar fight.
- Did you win? - In court?
No, in the bar fight.
Well, if I'd a lost,
I wouldn't have needed a lawyer, would I?
How 'bout in court?
Ninety days in county, mandatory AA.
Well, I'll tell you, if I don't remember you,
consider it a compliment.
How's that?
With all of the truly evil bastards
that I have had to stand up for over the years,
Claude, my man,
you just weren't bad enough to make my hit parade.
Right.
John, I think we're lost.
Hey. Hey, it's okay.
We'll just go out the way we came.
It's... it's this way.
- Are you sure? - Positive.
I don't think this is it.
No, it is. It is.
Turn around. This isn't it.
John! George!
Umm, we didn't come this way.
Boys?
Dad!
Boys?
- Dad! - Can you hear me?
Dad, we're in here.
Daddy, help.
Boys!
John, George!
Dad, where are you?
Dad, can you hear us?
Dad, we're lost.
Dad, we need your help. We're stuck.
- Boys! - We're stuck, Dad.
Boys, can you hear me?
Daddy, help.
Dad, can you hear us?
- Dad! - John?
John, can you come to the sound of my voice?
Dad?
John?
You and your brother stop movin'! Okay?
Stay put, I'm going for help. Don't move.
Did you know about the back way into the caves?
That itty-bitty rock split?
Only folks who can get through there
- would be... - Children.
You just asked me if I saw them, Emmitt, I'm so sorry,
I wasn't thinkin'!
Dara and I can't thank y'all enough for coming to help us so quickly.
Our boys are lost in them caves
and we want them home with us where they belong.
The Clark boys and a few of us gon' go in the back way,
the rest of y'all gon' go in through the souvenir shop,
- all right now? - Yeah.
Let's bring 'em home.
That's where he was last seen,
then he ran off toward the west.
If he kept heading in that direction, he'd end up at the highway.
- No caves around there? - No, not one.
Well, the kid said it told him about a cave
that bears used to sharpen their claws on the rocks, but...
you know, no one else, you know, knew what he was referring to, so...
Well, that's because they'd have to be near their 90s to recall it.
The old bear cave...
has been sealed,
mostly forgotten about since 1947.
Why?
Why, indeed.
It was in that very same year, '47,
the young Weaver boys got themselves good and lost in there.
Then came the first of the search parties.
Took four of my kin.
Honey.
Those boys are as good as out, okay?
- All right? - Yeah, yeah.
I can hear them over there.
- Where? - There. That way.
- Hush. - Dad?
It was louder before.
Boys?
Dad! Dad!
Boys? Follow the sounds of our voices.
Dad!
Boys? Can you hear us?
Dad?
We're here, boys.
Dad, where are you?
John, George, we're here.
John? George, Daddy's coming.
- You all right? - Yeah, thanks.
They all died?
Not right away.
But they were trapped.
No food, no water, no way out.
So, you imagine for yourselves what it must have been like
for those people to waste away in there,
how long it would have taken for them to...
give up the ghost one by one.
There must have been other search parties.
Indeed, there was.
But the only thing any of them could do
is try to figure out the most likely place
where that rockfall had sealed them in.
See, back then...
nobody could figure out how to get to the other side
of those rocks without blasting it.
Then, the whole cave system collapse.
So...
there they still lie.
Thirty-four men and boys,
including my grandfather and his three brothers,
which is how come I can give you chapter and verse on that event,
whilst most people around here cannot.
I'm sorry for your family.
Yeah, you ask me where my people are buried around here?
That goddamn hellhole's gotta be
the biggest Bolton family plot in the state.
So, you say the system is sealed.
So, there's no way in?
There's an old souvenir shop that you had to go through
to get into the caves, but...
the state, they cemented it up
right after the last of the search parties got out.
Now, these local shitbirds been breaking it down,
so they can get in there, they can get high,
make babies with their underage sweethearts.
Can you perhaps just show me
where that is on this?
Well, no. Not on this little dinky thing.
You gotta be able to give us some kind of idea.
Hold on.
We found him.
He's in there.
That's the good news and the bad news at the same time.
Right about here.
Unless it's been blown away by a strong wind this week,
and the parking lot is right here.
Just a baby step away.
Now, there was a back entrance that the rescuers used,
but another cave-in coming off a little earthquake
we had a few years ago took care of that.
Y'all are thinkin', "Yeah, we got this thing now.
It's in the cave, waitin'."
Well, maybe it's waiting for you.
You think of that?
Well, you know, we just have to confirm its whereabouts,
and then, we call in the cavalry.
We're not taking the fight to it.
Yeah, what you gonna tell that cavalry?
We don't have to say anything,
but the man who tried to snatch a boy on the midway...
he's in that cave.
What if it gets past you?
Gets past them?
Since they know less about it than you do.
It gonna come for my brother next?
My brother who don't know a goddamn thing about shit
'cause y'all don't think that's such a good idea?
I back my colleague...
Chicken.
- I should have called first. - Come in.
Hi, come on.
I didn't drive down here in the middle of the night
just to babysit.
You came down here to help,
which I appreciate, and this is the best way to do it.
I only have today, you know.
In the morning, I have to go back and join the real world.
Howie, we're gonna be back in a couple of hours.
I appreciate it.
Hey, I'm thinking we take two cars, if anything gets weird
- or if we need to split up. - Yeah, sounds good.
I was at the county building today,
and I ran into D.A. Hayes in the hallway.
He asked if he could have a word with me in private,
but since he's a plaintiff in one of my lawsuits,
I told him it wasn't a good idea.
You think he's gonna try and talk you into dropping it?
That's the funny thing, he didn't give off that impression.
He seemed much more subdued
than the other times I've seen him, actually.
- Kind of hangdog? - Yeah. How did you know?
Just a hunch.
Now I half wish I had let him speak to me.
I was so angry at you for dragging me to that meeting
at your so-called investigator's.
I know you were.
To hear her spout all that crazy shit...
felt like a setup.
No, I had no idea what she was gonna say
until the words started coming out of her mouth.
No one did.
- But you bought right into it. - Yeah, I did.
I still do.
So do a lot of the others.
I would say to you
that they're putting themselves in harm's way for their convictions,
but then I'd have to explain to you
the how and the why of it,
and forgive me for saying this, but right now...
I don't know if I have the strength to deal with your reaction.
I came over here because as painful as that meeting was...
I didn't want it to destroy
any of the goodwill there was between us.
You've never been anything but kind to me and my girls.
And even though I refuse to accept anything around this...
Cuco thing...
I just want you to know that...
I respect the sincerity of your beliefs.
Well, thank you.
I noticed you drop the conditional when you talk about it.
You don't say "If this thing is real" anymore.
"If it's trying to become Claude,"
"If it's truly capable of hopping from person to person."
Yep.
Guess my sense of what's rational just got tired and left town.
And how is that sitting with you?
Oh, I...
It makes me sick to my stomach
'cause if I have to believe that a thing like that
can exist in the world...
You take small bites.
It's just the reality of this thing, it upends everything.
It means everything we ever believed in,
everything we've come to understand...
- Hey, Ralph. Ralph. - What? What? What?
You take small bites.
You accept what you can
to keep your shit together and nothing more,
until you're ready for another bite. That's it.
We're talking about containing this thing
- until the troops arrive. - Yeah.
What if it doesn't cotton to being contained? Then what?
Then we kill it before it can kill us.
What if it can't be killed?
Yeah, we're back to that again.
Small bites, my ass.
Shit.
What you hit that with, gunpowder?
That take you back to your dormitory days, does it?
Do you think this right?
What's "this"?
Not telling him that that fucking thing's out there.
What, do you think this is my tenth rodeo or something?
How the hell should I know?
It's not right.
Listen, how 'bout we just stick to the game plan.
All right?
Thank you.
You mind if I, um...
scrounge around for what's left of that heavenly chicken?
Heaven chicken. Not heavenly.
I stand corrected.
Yeah.
Help yourself. You paid for it.
Claude, this Cuco or whatever you wanna call it,
it's coming for you.
Now I feel like I wouldn't be your big brother
if I didn't at least tell you what was going on.
Do you know what you just did?
Do you know what the fuck you just did?
What I did?
I know what I just did. I gave you the heads up of your life.
No, no, no.
He's in my head, Seale.
So, you just told that fucking thing
that all those people are coming for it.
You are one dumb fuck.
Nothing.
Try the statie.
Probably no signal up there.
Yeah. I might have fucked up with that.
Seale, they're going up against this thing for me.
Can you wait with that until you're outside?
Sir?
You, in the back.
You ever have the feeling That you wanted to go
But still you had the feeling That you wanted to stay?
Funny.
Movie, please.
The Man Who Came to Dinner.
Warner Brothers, 1942,
directed by William Keighley, with Monty Woolley and Bette Davis.
You knew it was right Never wrong
But still, you knew You wouldn't be very long
Jimmy Durante.
And how did you like the film, Ms. Gibney?
I never saw it.
Yeah.
That's my girl.
Okay.
Let's get this thing over with.
Okay.
Firing a gun in there is a really bad idea,
- you know that, right? - No doubt,
but just having one makes us cowboy types feel more secure.