[CIRCUS MUSIC PLAYS]
ARCHIVIST: [echoing] Hello? I – anyone? What’s - what’s going on? What is this place? Where…
ARCHIVIST: Help? Please? Anybody?
SARAH!NIKOLA: I’m somebody.
ARCHIVIST : [stammering] What? Who are you?
SARAH!NIKOLA: What an excellent question.
ARCHIVIST : You - you stay away from me.
SARAH!NIKOLA: “Sarah”, “Daniel”… sometimes I think I’m just not built for names. A hundred puppets, a hundred pointless names.
ARCHIVIST : I-I don’t understand.
SARAH!NIKOLA: Of course you don’t. You can’t. Not anymore.
ARCHIVIST : What? I don’t… I don’t… who are you?
SARAH!NIKOLA: [chuckling] It’s me, Jon. It’s Tim.
ARCHIVIST : Jon. Jon?
TIM!NIKOLA: Yes, that’s your name, and I’m Tim, your friend.
ARCHIVIST : Tim?
TIM!NIKOLA: Yes. Jon, you can relax.
ARCHIVIST : No – no, no, no–
TIM!NIKOLA: [overlapping] Everything is going to be alright.
ARCHIVIST : No, Tim, we’ve - we’ve got to stop it.
TIM!NIKOLA: Stop what?
ARCHIVIST : I…
TIM!NIKOLA: And how are you going to stop it?
ARCHIVIST : [stammering] I have, I have… I thought that this, this…
ARCHIVIST: I - I don’t know.
TIM!NIKOLA: Well, don’t you worry. I’m sure we can work it out together.
ARCHIVIST : Oh, yes. Yes - Tim, I just I need a second, to… uh-
TIM!NIKOLA: Of course, Jon.
ARCHIVIST : Jon. Yes, that’s - that’s me.
TIM!NIKOLA: Give it to me.
ARCHIVIST : [disoriented] Yes, yes, if you could, I’d - I’d value your input on it…
TIM!NIKOLA: Tim.
ARCHIVIST : Yes, Tim. Tim.
TIM!NIKOLA: Now let’s take a look at this.
ARCHIVIST : Please.
TIM!NIKOLA: Right now, what we have here is our handheld remote detonator.
ARCHIVIST : A what?
TIM!NIKOLA: It talks to a bomb.
ARCHIVIST : Wait. Wait, uh…
TIM!NIKOLA: I imagine if you’d use it, we’d all have come to quite a nasty end.
ARCHIVIST : That was - uh, that was-
TIM!NIKOLA: [giggling] Don’t you worry, Archivist, it’s all in good hands.
ARCHIVIST: I don’t understand.
TIM!NIKOLA: And you never will again.
BREEKON: Hello, Daisy.
HOPE: You alright?
DELIVERYMEN (BOTH): Daisy?
DAISY: No.
BREEKON: I’m sorry?
HOPE: Don’t follow you.
DAISY: Leave… no.
BREEKON: Come on Daisy.
HOPE: Don’t be like that.
BREEKON: It’s me, Basira.
DAISY: No, you’re not. Because nothing is anything. Leave.
BREEKON: And if I don’t?
HOPE: What will you do?
DAISY: I’ll kill you.
BREEKON: Will you now?
HOPE: Ooh, pretty scary. If you can, that is.
BREEKON: You don’t even know what a gun is.
DAISY: I don’t care.
[SOUNDS OF GORE AND THE DELIVERYMEN GROANING IN SHOCK, DAISY BEGINS LAUGHING.]
TIM: Get away from me!
BASIRA: [slurred] It’s alright. I’m not - I’m not one of them.
TIM: Everyone is, this isn’t - just get back.
BASIRA: Okay, okay who - who are you?
TIM: [agitated] I don’t know, do I?
BASIRA: What can we do?
TIM: It’s too late. There’s nothing.
BASIRA: There must be. We just need to figure this out. I - I know I’m me…
TIM: So what’s your name? Huh? Who exactly is “me”?
BASIRA: Doesn’t matter. Names don’t matter. I just… I know - I know I’m me and I know I’m here.
TIM: Bullshit, “here” is just – [groans]
BASIRA: There’s things that - that they’re not me, they want to hurt me, but. I don’t want to hurt you.
TIM: I don’t believe you.
BASIRA: I don’t want to hurt anyone.
TIM: Get back!
BASIRA: No, we can do this, I - I can do this, I just need you to -
TIM: I said get away!
[SOUNDS OF STRUGGLE AND GRUNTING]
BASIRA: Don’t… wait. I don’t… I don’t understand.
[‘PEER GYNT’ IS PERFORMED IN ITS ENTIRETY BY NIKOLA AND COMPANY.]
ARCHIVIST: It isn’t - it isn’t real.
NIKOLA: What isn’t real, Jon?
ARCHIVIST: I-I-I don’t know. None of this is real.
NIKOLA: But it is! Just because you don’t understand doesn’t mean it’s a lie.
ARCHIVIST: Who are you?
NIKOLA: [unconvincingly] Why, I’m…. Tim of course! Who else would I be?
ARCHIVIST: You’re not. You’re not Tim.
NIKOLA: Oh, you caught me! I’m Sasha!
ARCHIVIST: Shut up!
NIKOLA: Really, it’s me! Sasha… whatever-her-name-was! Back from the dead, just like you wanted!
ARCHIVIST: Get away from me or I swear, or I’ll -
NIKOLA: Or you’ll what? Hit me? Go on then, try it - make a fist.
ARCHIVIST: I… I…
NIKOLA: Do you even know which of these hands is yours?
ARCHIVIST: Stop… stop, stand still.
NIKOLA: Do you even know what a hand is?
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: Pathetic.
ARCHIVIST: Wait. Wait, I - I know you.
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: I would hope you do.
ARCHIVIST: How are you here?
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: Don’t be obtuse, Jon. I’m here because you failed.
ARCHIVIST: I-I tried. I tried, I almost–
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: You almost what? You almost didn’t doom the world? No, you almost let reality be the plaything of a lazy, foolish liar.
ARCHIVIST: No, no - I would - I could have stopped them.
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: How? You didn’t even know what it was. Do you know how many people I killed to keep the world in one piece? The sacrifices I made, and you didn’t even know what you were fighting.
ARCHIVIST: N-no, I didn’t -
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: I suppose it’s of no consequence now, it’s far too late.
ARCHIVIST: What can I do?
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: [gleefully] You can scream, I suppose. Weep, maybe. Have you considered curling into a ball?
ARCHIVIST: Why are you doing this?
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: I’m not. You know, it’s probably for the best I’m dead. Can you imagine how I’d hate having to watch you fumble around as my replacement? I really cannot express how much of a disappointment you are.
ARCHIVIST: I’m sorry, I didn’t even -
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: I fought for years to stop the Stranger in its tracks, you didn’t even notice when they desecrated my corpse. And now look at me. You’ve made me part of their ritual. This is your fault.
ARCHIVIST: It is not. It’s not, I didn’t know. It’s not my fault you died.
LEITNER!NIKOLA: [distorted] No, I suppose not. Me, on the other hand… that one is very much your fault.
ARCHIVIST: [despairing] No, not - not you as well…
LEITNER!NIKOLA: Oh, yes.
ARCHIVIST: He told… why - why didn’t you warn me it would be like this?
LEITNER!NIKOLA: I hardly had the chance, did I? Before you left me to get my head bashed in. I understand, of course. You needed a cigarette? I suppose you should have remembered that smoking kills. [giggles]
ARCHIVIST: That’s not – I don’t know…
LEITNER!NIKOLA: Come now, Archivist. Surely you know what a cigarette is. Or a pipe?
ARCHIVIST: It’s hard to think.
LEITNER!NIKOLA: If our earlier conversation was anything to go by, I hardly think you can blame your faults on the ritual. Your problems go far deeper than that.
ARCHIVIST: Just – give me a moment, please.
LEITNER!NIKOLA: You think that would help? Honestly, if I wasn’t so dead I’d be impressed. I always thought my own hubris to be quite exceptional, but you’ve managed to somehow deliver more bad decisions into two years than I managed in a lifetime. But by all means take your moment.
ARCHIVIST: What do you want?
NIKOLA: I already have what I want, little Archivist! Now I just want you to join me for a dance!
[JON SCREAMS]
[DAISY GROWLS]
BREEKON: You killed him! Do you even know what you’ve done?
[DAISY BEGINS TO LAUGH]
BREEKON: You stupid animal.
DAISY: [growling] Kill you…
BREEKON: No.
[DAISY CONTINUES TO LAUGH]
BREEKON: Shame you don’t know your own coffin. But you will. [chuckles] You will.
[Music]
BASIRA: [talking to herself] Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Just close your…
BASIRA: [groans] Ignore it. ignore the uh… don’t listen. Focus, think. This is a place. You are you and you’re in a place now. If… if it’s a place, and it’s now, then… then… then it has an end. The other things, the…
[BASIRA GROANS IN FRUSTRATION]
BASIRA: Too much, too much. There’s - there’s too many. and they wanna hurt me so - so… you leave the place. You leave the place and the now. No place is forever. You know how to move, so do it. Pick a where… then the move.
BASIRA: Good! Then - then keep moving. Keep moving until you find another place. A place you know… just keep moving. Keep moving.
NIKOLA: Do you feel it, Archivist? it’s almost there, the new day.
GERTRUDE!NIKOLA: A terrible new world. It is all your fault.
LEITNER!NIKOLA: Though I suppose you never really had a chance.
ARCHIVIST: I see you.
NIKOLA: Do you now?
ARCHIVIST: Yes… yes. I see the sad clown, bitter and hateful. I see him finding his way into the circus where nobody knew him. I see him torn apart, becoming the mask, remade by a cruel ringmaster. Sometimes a doll, sometimes a mannequin, always hiding in somebody else’s skin. Somebody else’s name.
NIKOLA: [petulantly] Not always. And it’s far too late for any of that. Nothing you see can help you.
SARAH!NIKOLA: Not without the detonator.
NIKOLA: Really, Archivist! After all this preparation, all your research! All this magnificent grotesquery, and what - you were just going to blow it up?
SARAH!NIKOLA: Probably the hunter’s idea. She killed one of the couriers.
NIKOLA: Oh dear, how sad.
SARAH!NIKOLA: She was also the one that damaged this shell.
NIKOLA: You have hundreds of shells, Sarah! And soon you will have tens of thousands. You can have your little girl within every dark corner of the whole world!
SARAH!NIKOLA: Not until you finish the dance.
NIKOLA: Oh, just let me enjoy myself for a moment! This is a once in an eternity event after all.
SARAH!NIKOLA: This in-between is not as comfortable for all of us as it is for you.
NIKOLA: Oh, fine. Archivist, it’s been a pleasure but I really must -
[TIM YELLS, NIKOLA GRUNTS]
ARCHIVIST: Wait, no–
TIM: I’ll kill you. All of you!
SARAH!NIKOLA: Will you now.
[SOUNDS OF STRUGGLE BETWEEN TIM AND JON]
NIKOLA: Let them fight! It’s adorable!
JON: [strained] Wait, Tim! What do you see?
TIM: [angered] I see my asshole boss!
TIM: Or- or… wait… wait.
NIKOLA: [displeased] Spoilsport.
SARAH!NIKOLA: Tim.
TIM: [snarling] Grimaldi.
NIKOLA: Once. A long time ago, before Orsinov made me. And sometimes, even now, for special occasions. Like your brother. [distorted] SHALL I?
ARCHIVIST: Tim, what’s in your hand?
TIM: [strained] It’s… I don’t… The detonator.
NIKOLA: That’s quite enough from you, I think.
[JON YELLS]
NIKOLA: And now you.
TIM: Go on, I’ll race you. See if you can do it again before I can squeeze.
SARAH!NIKOLA: It’s too late.
NIKOLA: The world is ours! That toy won’t help you now.
TIM: So come and take it.
[PAUSE]
TIM: That’s what I thought.
NIKOLA: I am losing my patience.
TIM: Back! Get back. That’s right.
TIM: Jon. I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can… then I don’t forgive you. But thank you for this.
NIKOLA: You idiot! Do you really make the world will fare any better under the Watcher? You think you’re saving anyone?!
TIM: I don’t care.
NIKOLA: You can’t even save him!
TIM: But I can hurt you.
NIKOLA: It will not end like this.
TIM: [dryly] You sound stressed. You know I hear the great Grimaldi’s in town. You should go see it, cheer yourself up.
NIKOLA: That’s. Not. Funny.
TIM: I know.