Seeing It Through
[CLICK]
[ALL VOICES IN THIS EPISODE HAVE TUNNEL OR TOWER ECHO IN SOME FORM]
MELANIE
So…
ARCHIVIST
Yeah.
[UNCOMFORTABLE PAUSE]
MARTIN
Anyone want another cup of tea?
[SOMETHING WOODEN SCRAPES ACROSS TUNNEL FLOOR]
Well, heh, I say ‘tea’, it’s har–
GEORGIE
We can’t keep putting it off. We need to talk about this. About what we’re going to do.
MARTIN
You mean what John’s going to do.
BASIRA
No. If we’re doing this, it’s gonna take all of us.
MELANIE
You say “If”? It’s basically our only option, right?
ARCHIVIST
No, it’s not.
MELANIE
So, we’re seriously holding up ‘let John become god’ as a legitimate choice here?
BASIRA
We can’t just dismiss it.
[EXASPERATED EXHALES]
MARTIN
Yes, we can.
MELANIE
Seconded!
MARTIN
[Pleased] Thank you.
GEORGIE
We still have to discuss it.
Let’s try to lay this out properly. What are our actual options here? As far as I can see there are three.
MELANIE
Okay.
GEORGIE
One. We follow Annabelle’s plan. We destroy the Panopticon, kill Elias –
ARCHIVIST
Jonah –
GEORGIE
Whatever.
ARCHIVIST
– Magnus.
GEORGIE
We kill him, and release the Fears into… how many other realities?
BASIRA
She said thousands, but I don’t think she actually knows.
GEORGIE
John?
ARCHIVIST
Not something I can see, I’m afraid.
GEORGIE
But is it all other realities, or just some of them?
ARCHIVIST
Does it matter?
MARTIN
I mean, maybe? If there are infinite worlds out there then “thousands” isn’t even a drop in the bucket, cosmically speaking.
MELANIE
“Cosmically speaking”?
MARTIN
You know what I mean.
[MELANIE SIGHS]
BASIRA
It’s still more than one, though, isn’t it? Which is what we’re discussing.
GEORGIE
So again, option one is to kill Jonah Magnus –
MELANIE
Mmhmm.
GEORGIE
– and release the Fears. Save the world, but doom other realities to the Fears.
MELANIE
We don’t know they’ll be doomed.
GEORGIE
Spread the fears to other realities.
Option two is John takes over from Magnus. Keeps the Powers contained here with us, and tries his best to make the place a little more… tolerable, until the end.
MARTIN
And we lose him.
ARCHIVIST
Martin…
MARTIN
No, John, I’m sorry, but if one world still matters in an infinite spread of dimensions, then one person does, too.
MELANIE
I-I think the issue is he matters a bit too much.
MARTIN
The point is you don’t have a responsibility to sacrifice yourself just to make everyone else’s lives a bit easier.
ARCHIVIST
I’ve already made them a hell of a lot harder!
MELANIE
Hmmm.
MARTIN
[Sharply] Then we should all sacrifice ourselves, because everyone in this room has some responsibility for it.
MELANIE
Hey! Georgie didn’t do anything!
GEORGIE
No, Melanie, I, I didn’t.
MELANIE
[Softly] Yeah.
GEORGIE
And maybe I should have. I kept out of it, even when I got a pretty good idea of what was going on towards the end. But… I should have known better. Hiding never helps.
MELANIE
It keeps you alive.
GEORGIE
For a while! But… we couldn’t actually do anything, could we? Couldn’t save anyone.
BASIRA
Okay, fine, blame for everyone. But the hard fact is, John’s the only one who can take over the Panopticon.
MARTIN
Would you stop just putting everything on him?
GEORGIE
Which brings us to our third option.
ARCHIVIST
Which is?
GEORGIE
Do nothing. We… adapt to the new world, and just wait for it to finally end.
ARCHIVIST
Leaving everyone to just suffer until the Powers burn out.
MARTIN
You said yourself that even if you did take over, you couldn’t stop the suffering. If we keep it all trapped here, it’s gonna be hell either way.
BASIRA
It’s alright for us though, isn’t it? We’re not the ones trapped in our worst nightmares.
MELANIE
What’s your point?
BASIRA
Do we actually have the right to make this decision? The five of us? For the whole world, or for maybe infinite worlds we know nothing about?
GEORGIE
No, of course we don’t. But we’re the ones here. And I doubt there’s anyone else out there who’s in a better position to decide.
ARCHIVIST
There isn’t.
GEORGIE
So, we’re the ones that have to make the call, and we need to acknowledge that doing nothing is still on the table as an option.
[LONG EXHALES]
BASIRA
We could ask them.
GEORGIE
Who?
BASIRA
The people trapped in the domains. The ones actually doing the suffering. Why don’t we see what they want?
ARCHIVIST
[Pained] Because I already know. They want it to stop.
But to try and explain it all to them, give them enough context for them to make an actual, meaningful choice… I don’t think it’s possible while they’re still trapped. They’re too much a part of their domains.
BASIRA
So we bring them out.
[To Melanie & Georgie] You’ve rescued people before; we can do it again.
GEORGIE
True…
MARTIN
S-Sure, but we can’t bring everyone out. So then, all we’re actually doing is deciding who makes the call with even less understanding than us.
MELANIE
Right? It’s kind of shitty to bring them out just to ask them if they’re willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
MARTIN
Mmm.
BASIRA
Shittier than just making the decision for them?
MELANIE
If the decision is to do it, maybe they’d be grateful we saved them the guilt.
MARTIN
If it’s just a matter of guilt, then I’ll take it right now. I’d rather live the rest of my life lying awake wondering if I made the right choice, over lying awake listening to the screams of everyone on Earth being tortured!
ARCHIVIST
[Angry] What? So it’s better for a thousand times more people to scream as long as we can’t hear them?
MARTIN
No! Because Annabelle said it wouldn’t be like that. Wherever they go, it’ll be like it was here before, with the Powers just lurking on the edges.
MELANIE
And our world survived like that for… for what, all of history?
MARTIN
Mmmm.
MELANIE
Sure, it’s not great, but it’s, it’s not like those other realities won’t have bad stuff happening already. We all lived with monsters in the shadows, and we just got on with it.
BASIRA
Yeah, until we didn’t – until the ritual kicked off. What’s to stop the same thing happening in these other worlds?
MARTIN
It, it took like millennia of failed rituals before this happened. That means there has to be a chance that it won’t happen at all, right?
GEORGIE
Maybe.
MELANIE
And if it does happen, it will be because of the actions of the people in those other dimensions, just like here it was because of –
ARCHIVIST
Me.
MELANIE
Because of us.
…
My point is, we can’t take responsibility for the hypothetical actions of hypothetical people in all these other universes.
Fundamentally, the Fears travelling to these other places isn’t a death sentence. And even if the worst happens, they might just find themselves in exactly the same situation as us, deciding whether to pass it all along again.
MARTIN
Like the worst chain letter ever.
MELANIE
Exactly. Probably have their own Panopticon, their own Archivists.
MARTIN
[Shudders] Their own Martin.
MELANIE
If they’re unlucky. Heh.
MARTIN
Oh, ha, ha.
ARCHIVIST
But the point is, we have a chance to stop all that. We, we don’t have to post the letter. We can keep them contained, a-and even eventually destroy them.
GEORGIE
Can we?
MARTIN
What do you mean?
GEORGIE
Well… Did Annabelle say for certain that this dimension is where they were, um, ‘born’, I guess?
ARCHIVIST
No. No, the Eye can’t see its own creation, so… I don’t actually know how they came to be. Perhaps we can’t know.
GEORGIE
So, how can we be sure they didn’t come through to our reality in exactly this way? Maybe we’re just another link in a long chain of these things spreading from one dimension to the other, growing at the edges, manifesting, and then escaping to somewhere new.
MARTIN
Like weeds.
BASIRA
Or a fungus.
ARCHIVIST
Sure, but even if that was true, it doesn’t change the situation.
BASIRA
Yes, it does. If it’s a choice between stopping the Fears completely – destroying them once and for all, here and now – or just being one universe they don’t escape, among potentially infinite ones where they do… Those are very different scenarios.
They are to me, at least.
ARCHIVIST
We don’t know. And even if we hunted Annabelle down, and squeezed more information out of her, I don’t think she knows either. We simply don’t have that information, and we can’t just arbitrarily decide what’s true just because it makes the choice easier for us.
MARTIN
And you can’t just arbitrarily decide it isn’t because you want a better reason to martyr yourself!
ARCHIVIST
That’s not what’s happening!
MARTIN
Isn’t it?
MELANIE
Either way, it’s not an unreasonable conclusion. It’s just as likely as this dimension being where they were born. I-It’s more likely, even, which means we’d be condemning everyone for no reason.
ARCHIVIST
Hardly “no reason”. And let’s be honest for a second, you just want an excuse to stick a knife in Jonah Magnus.
GEORGIE
John!
MELANIE
No, he’s got a point. I want that smug bastard dead, and if I got a chance to do it myself, you can bet I would do it in a heartbeat. But if you think that’s all I care about here, then frankly you can fuck off out my tunnels on your high horse.
[TENSE PAUSE]
MARTIN
I, I can’t just hang around, and watch the whole world linger like this on the off-chance that it might do some small good somewhere else.
ARCHIVIST
Maybe it doesn’t have to linger.
BASIRA
You want to think very hard about your next words.
ARCHIVIST
I’m just saying… If I took my place in the Panopticon, I’d hoped I could make it easier for everyone, but… maybe I could just make it faster. Shuffle people towards The End. Accelerate things.
[GEORGIE SHIVERS]
GEORGIE
Would The Eye even let you do that?
ARCHIVIST
It’s like Annabelle said, it doesn’t really do foresight. As long as it was fed, I doubt it would even know until it was too late. And The Web couldn’t touch me once I was in control.
GEORGIE
John, you’re talking about killing the whole world…
ARCHIVIST
You’re the one who wanted to cover every option. We need to admit that ending it quickly might be a kindness.
The truth is, any choice we make is going to lead to an atrocity of one sort or another. At least this way we know the suffering ends.
BASIRA
No. No, I’m not just gonna stand here, and watch you try to justify murdering humanity.
ARCHIVIST
[Angry] How is it different from just letting it happen on its own?
BASIRA
[Forceful] Because it is. It’s not an option. End of discussion.
ARCHIVIST
Basira –
MARTIN
Uh, I just can’t accept it’s really that hopeless. There’s got to be a chance that these other universes will figure something out that we didn’t.
MELANIE
They’ll have as much of a chance as we did. More, maybe. The Fears had a long time to get a foothold in our world.
ARCHIVIST
Assuming time even works the same in different dimensions.
[MELANIE SIGHS]
GEORGIE
We’ve got to hope.
ARCHIVIST
Hope that our actions don’t destroy countless other worlds!
GEORGIE
It’s better than the certainty that they’ll destroy this one!
[TENSE SILENCE]
ARCHIVIST
Sounds like you’ve all decided, then.
BASIRA
Seems that way.
GEORGIE
Shall we vote on it, or something?
ARCHIVIST
[A touch miffed] No need. Seems pretty much unanimous at this point. We take out the Panopticon, and just hope for the best.
MARTIN
Yeah.
ARCHIVIST
Fine. I’m going for a cigarette.
[FOOTSTEPS]
[CLICK]
[CLICK]
[BACKGROUND NOISE OF THE WATCHERS MOVING AND MECHANICAL WHIRRING]
[CLIMBING FOOTSTEPS, AND A LONG EXHALATION]
GEORGIE
You do know there’s an indoor smoking ban right?
ARCHIVIST
They’ll make an exception for me.
[FAINT CHUCKLE FROM GEORGIE]
Besides, I can’t really think down there.
[DRAG ON CIGARETTE]
That’s not true, I can. It’s just… exhausting. Puts me in a foul mood.
It’s better up here, close to The Eye. Thoughts come quicker.
GEORGIE
If it’s any consolation, you seemed pretty on the ball earlier.
ARCHIVIST
It isn’t, really, but… thank you.
GEORGIE
Can I have a cigarette?
[ARCHIVIST SMIRKS BEFORE PASSING ONE OVER]
ARCHIVIST
Hmm. Sure. I thought you quit?
GEORGIE
I did, for my health. But it’s already the apocalypse, so… I’ll need a light too.
ARCHIVIST
Yeah.
[LIGHTER SNICKS OPEN]
[GEORGIE LIGHTS UP]
GEORGIE
I tried to avoid it in the tunnels when we had our, uh… When the others were here.
Nice lighter.
ARCHIVIST
Hmm?
[FAINT STATIC RISES AND FALLS]
You didn’t want to tarnish the image of the prophets?
GEORGIE
Just didn’t think they wanted one of their revered leaders puffing away in the corner.
[THE ARCHIVIST MURMURS AN ASSENT]
Saw a bishop smoking once when I was a kid, full Easter regalia and all. Really weirded me out.
ARCHIVIST
[Soft chuckles] I should probably quit myself, then.
[LIGHT METALLIC SOUND]
GEORGIE
Then you won’t mind if I hang onto this?
ARCHIVIST
[Distracted] Hmm.
[FAINT STATIC RISES AND FALLS]
GEORGIE
I’m sorry. I know you hate what we’re doing.
ARCHIVIST
I hate all the options. I just… It’s all my fault, you know?
GEORGIE
What, because you weren’t able to outsmart the literal embodiment of manipulation and scheming?
ARCHIVIST
Mmm.
GEORGIE
We all make bad choices, John. It’s not your fault some eldritch horror decided yours were going to affect the whole world.
ARCHIVIST
They were still my choices.
GEORGIE
Yeah. And you live with them. Or you don’t. That’s all there is, really.
ARCHIVIST
Hmm.
[SOUNDS OF MOVEMENT FROM BELOW]
GEORGIE
Anyway, looks like your next appointment’s here.
Thanks for the smoke.
[GEORGIE STANDS TO LEAVE]
ARCHIVIST
Georgie…
GEORGIE
Yeah?
ARCHIVIST
I, um…
…
[FAINT FOOTSTEPS CLIMBING THE STAIRS]
I’m glad you and Melanie have each other through all this.
GEORGIE
Thanks.
And I’m glad you’ve got him.
[FOOTSTEPS GET CLEARER]
GEORGIE
He’s all yours.
MARTIN
Thanks.
[GEORGIE’S FOOTSTEPS DESCEND AND FADE]
You alright?
ARCHIVIST
Yeah.
Sorry it got so heated in there.
MARTIN
Don’t be. I’d have been more worried if you were super calm about it.
ARCHIVIST
Yeah.
MARTIN
I’d understand if you hate me right now.
ARCHIVIST
What? No! No, Martin, I love you. I always will. And I know you love me too. I mean… [sighs] that’s it, isn’t it? That’s the real core of it. You want to save me.
MARTIN
I want you to save yourself.
[LONG DRAG OF CIGARETTE]
ARCHIVIST
Sometimes… I imagine if none of this had happened. If we had just… met. Been together, without… all of this.
MARTIN
[Softly] Me, too.
…
But we wouldn’t have, would we? Been together, I mean.
ARCHIVIST
Huh? W-What do you mean?
MARTIN
Well, we had that, didn’t we? Almost a year of just working a normal job together, and you hated me.
ARCHIVIST
I didn’t ‘hate’ you.
MARTIN
No, no, no, no. I listened to those tapes. At one point you explicitly said you’d be fine with me being chopped up by that old jigsaw lady.
ARCHIVIST
Oh god, Angela! Ha! She’s still about, you know? Lording it over a nasty little Flesh domain.
Anyway, I didn’t explicitly say it. I… implied it.
MARTIN
Face it, John, it took almost two years of crisis and trauma to even make us compatible. And that sucks. But here we are.
And I don’t want it to be for nothing. I won’t let it.
ARCHIVIST
That’s very sweet of you, Martin.
Sort of.
Thank you.
MARTIN
Wherever you go, I go. That’s it.
ARCHIVIST
You promised to let me go. If I had to.
MARTIN
And you promised not to go if there was any other choice.
And there is. So that’s the deal.
ARCHIVIST
That’s the deal.
MARTIN
I guess that’s why it really bothers me, you know? I try, but I can’t actually imagine ever making a decision that I knew meant losing you.
And it… It hurts to know you can.
ARCHIVIST
You didn’t damn the world, Martin.
MARTIN
We all –
ARCHIVIST
[Harsh] No! “We all” nothing!
I, I’m the one who caused all of this, that’s just the truth of it! I’m the one whose whole life has been nothing but one long setup to this.
MARTIN
John…
ARCHIVIST
[With sadness] You didn’t speak the words! You didn’t feel them move through you, vomiting out of you like…
…
I did this. It’s my fault. And I don’t want… I can’t let anyone else feel that. That helpless, enormous guilt.
Ever.
[ARCHIVIST SNIFFS AS IF TEARING UP]
MARTIN
Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, come here, come here.
[FABRIC RUSTLES, WITH SNIFFS FROM THE ARCHIVIST]
We’re going to fix it.
ARCHIVIST
No.
We’re just going to pass it on.
MARTIN
You don’t know that.
[THEY BOTH COMPOSE THEMSELVES]
ARCHIVIST
Come on. The others will be waiting.
[FOOTSTEPS DESCEND]
[MARTIN SIGHS HEAVILY]
[CLICK]
[CLICK]
GEORGIE
I’m not sure. They said they were out – Oh, hey.
[DOOR CREAKS, FOOTSTEPS ENTER]
ARCHIVIST
There you are. I was getting worried.
MELANIE
We were scouting. I was showing Basira where we think the gas mainline is.
MARTIN
And?
BASIRA
Not good. You know those eye things?
ARCHIVIST
The old Archivists?
BASIRA
Yeah. I think they know something’s up. The place is crawling with them. It’s like they’re looking for something.
MELANIE
Or patrolling.
MARTIN
Hmm.
GEORGIE
That’s why the stairs were unguarded?
BASIRA
It looks that way.
MELANIE
Mmm.
ARCHIVIST
So what’s the plan?
MELANIE
I reckon me and Georgie go for the mainline, and hopefully they won’t notice us.
GEORGIE
I’ll need a torch. They might notice that.
BASIRA
I’ll give a diversion; I’ll try and draw them off.
MELANIE
And if they see Georgie’s torch, we just go to Plan B. She becomes another distraction, and I go solo.
GEORGIE
I don’t like the thought of you going on your own.
MELANIE
And I don’t like the thought of you being chased by manky old archivists, but there it is.
MARTIN
Okay. So what are you going to do when you find it?
GEORGIE
We’ve got some old tools. I guess we just mess with it until we smell gas, and then back off, set something burning and leg it. It can’t be that hard to break a valve.
MELANIE
John, you’re sure about this whole gas main thing? It just seems, I don’t know, really mundane.
ARCHIVIST
It’s what Annabelle said, and she wasn’t lying. At least, she didn’t think she was.
BASIRA
Well, it’s a bit late for second-guessing.
MARTIN
How… How big is the explosion going to be?
GEORGIE
Big enough. Honestly, I’m kind of hoping there’s some sort of supernatural reason it will channel up into the tower, otherwise, uh… it’s going to be bad news down here.
MARTIN
Don’t get yourselves hurt.
GEORGIE
Well, we’ll do what we can, but this is it. Whatever it takes, right? If there’s a price, we pay it. No hesitations.
MELANIE
And it’s hardly going to be a picnic for you, either. You’re going up that tower to kill Elias, and if we muck up the timing, you’ll be up there when it blows.
MARTIN
John can’t do it.
ARCHIVIST
What?
MELANIE
Sure he can, just magic-laser-eye zap him or whatever, same as with all the others. Like he did to Helen.
ARCHIVIST
Listen, Melanie –
MELANIE
It’s fine. If we all get out of this, we can talk it through. And if not, well, it doesn’t really matter, does it?
ARCHIVIST
I suppose not.
MARTIN
You’re not listening. I mean, if he kills Jonah, then knowing our luck he’s just going to end up taking his place in the Panopticon, isn’t he?
GEORGIE
[Sighs] Good point.
MARTIN
He can come up with me, but when it actually comes to Jonah…
BASIRA
You’ll have to be the one to do it.
MARTIN
Yeah.
ARCHIVIST
Martin… I don’t –
BASIRA
Have you got this? We can trade if you don’t think you can do it.
MARTIN
No. No, I can do it.
MELANIE
Make sure it hurts.
MARTIN
Oh, I will.
MELANIE
Good enough for me.
BASIRA
Me too.
GEORGIE
Okay. Sounds like we’ve got something like a plan.
[MARTIN’S SOUND OF ASSENT]
BASIRA
Makes a nice change.
[VARIOUS SOUNDS OF ASSENT]
MELANIE
[Brightly] It does, doesn’t it?
Uh… So. When do we actually do it?
GEORGIE
First thing tomorrow. That’ll give us time to prep and rest.
MARTIN
Sounds good to me.
MELANIE
Right.
[GENERAL MOVEMENTS AS THEY MAKE TO LEAVE]
BASIRA
Umm, hey, John? Can you hang on a sec?
ARCHIVIST
Yeah?
BASIRA
I just mean… um…
If we don’t make it out of this… I wanted to say thanks. For coming back for me. [sighs] What I did… Who I was… I – Thanks.
ARCHIVIST
I’m sorry for all of this.
BASIRA
We’ve all got regrets. But we can’t undo what’s done. All we can do is try and do something worthwhile with the time we’ve got left.
[HEAVY SIGH FROM THE ARCHIVIST]
ARCHIVIST
Yeah.