5/1

Played: June 24, 2021.

Thursday, July 5, 1973. Jocasta arrives early at Livermore and finds Sophie’s work area cleared out. There is a letter addressed to the team on her desk. She takes it, reads it, and goes to call Marshall.

Archie and Charley are driving into work from the city. Archie asks Charley if Sophie talked with her about her departure. Charley is shocked by this statement. Archie says that he thought Sophie was going to talk to Charley before she left. Apparently she did not. Archie struggles to explain where Sophie has gone, pitching it as a kind of “vacation” at Granite Peak because she felt she needed “a rest.” Charley is extremely dubious. Archie attempts to reassure her that she simply needs some time to recuperate from all the field work URIEL’s been doing lately. Charley questions whether this is Marshall’s doing. Archie’s says it has nothing to do with Marshall, that he is still trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on, and that he is planning on having a call with Frank Stanton later that day. He then asks why she thinks Marshall would have a hand in Sophie’s departure. Charley tells Archie about her trip to Stanford with Sophie, during which Sophie alluded to her and Marshall not being on the best terms. Archie reiterates that he’s confident Marshall wasn’t responsible. Charley confides that she feels like the members of URIEL are a family, but that she does not feel that way about Marshall. Archie insists that Marshall only wants what’s best for everyone and that Sophie just needed some time away. Charley says she thinks that sounds strange. Why go to Granite Peak if you want to go somewhere fun? “Why not go to, like, Hawaii?” she asks. “Hawaii’s fun.”

Jocasta reads Sophie’s letter to Marshall over the phone. As she finishes, Archie and Charley arrive. Jocasta puts Marshall on speakerphone and the four of them discuss the situation, with Marshall attempting to establish a timeline of who said what to whom and when about Sophie leaving for Granite Peak. After Marshal hangs up, the team receives a call from the campus security gate. Genevieve has arrived. Jocasta goes to sign her in. Shortly after she leaves, a call comes in from Dr. Stanton for Archie.

Frank: Arch, I take it you’ve heard?

Archie: About our Librarian? I have but it’s all very abrupt. What’s going on here?

Frank: That’s what the Peak wanted.

Archie: Is this something she requested? We don’t have any concerns. Everyone’s been under a lot of stress. As you know, we’ve had a dilly of a couple of weeks here but, uh, I have no concerns about Ms. Edelstein’s work.

Frank: That’s fine, Arch. She did. And now we do.

Archie: So it is something she requested?

Frank: She’s been in this kind of situation before, Arch. And, you know, for a couple years, just working rear echelon she was doing OK. I don’t blame you for being short-handed. We’re going to fix that. In the coming months, you’re going to have a lot more support from the Peak. But she’s also very valuable so we need to nip this in the bud.

Archie: So, just so we’re clear: psychological assessment, rehab … it’s just R&R we’re talking about here, right?

After a pause, Frank says, “We’re going to do our best. We’re going to our best to keep her in the organization. We don’t want to lose her.” Archie knows this is a euphemism for termination.

Archie: Frank, lose her? She might be a bit rattled but she is a loyal, effective member of the team. Maybe not cut out for field work but none of us are!

Charley: (interjecting) Is Sophie OK?

Frank: I’m going to keep you fully apprised of how it’s going. And like I said Archie, you’ve got to trust me, we’re going to do everything we can to keep her in the organization. I’d even like to see her back in the library. She’s never going back in the field. We … I mean, there’ll be assessments, obviously. There’ll be assessments, there’ll be treatments. But I can tell you, she doesn’t want to be in the field again. She’s got a great mind but we need to sequester and treat her immediately.

Archie: OK, Frank. I appreciate that and I appreciate you looking out for her. If there’s anything we can do on this end, though, that I can do for her … that we can do for her … I mean, she’s part of the family.

Frank: (chuckles) Like I said, Arch. Hang tight. The cavalry is on its way. Help will be coming in the next few months. URIEL became … in the past week, URIEL has proved itself much, much too important to … apologies, Arch … much to important to ignore like we’ve been doing. I’ve gotta go.

Archie detects Frank wants to end the conversation, so they sign off. But reading between the lines, Archie knows that there is a chance that Sophie might not make it out of Granite Peak alive. Charley asks Archie if Sophie is going to be OK. Archie reassures her that she will. Charley asks how long she’ll be gone for and Archie dodges the question, reiterating what Frank said about wanting to get her the help she needs.

At the security check-in point, Jocasta greets Viv somewhat awkwardly, explaining that they are having unexpected personnel issues but, “you know, you’re dealing with the government now.” After getting Viv a pass, they head to the URIEL offices and Jocasta gives Viv a tour. Viv’s first impression of Building 451 is that it is fairly mundane until they reach the basement: a dark, claustrophobic space, poorly furnished, and at the end of a long hallway, a nondescript door with a page from Milton’s Paradise Lost taped next to it on the wall.

Inside, Jocasta walks Viv through the glassed-in library and archives, around the cubicles and conversation pit, points out the coffee maker, Telex machine, and copiers. Viv also spots Archie on the phone, his office door partially open, and Charley nearby, apparently listening in. Spotting Viv, Archie attempts to redirect Charley’s attention to her, but Charley is no fool and remarks, sullenly: “Hi Viv. Sophie’s gone.” Viv tries to comfort her. Jocasta asks Archie about the team’s security situation.

At the Mission, Marshall reaches out to his contacts at Granite Peak. His sources tell him that Sophie will be going through intense technical interviewing and brain scans; the Peak is worried that she may be a security risk. Not due to actual collaboration with the enemy, but due to corruption – the pervasive, mind-altering effects of overusing the Anunnaki’s tools. Primarily, though, they are interested in knowing why she self-reported. Even people at the Peak know that “going to the Peak” is not fun, so that made them suspicious. They now have her at a secure location conducting hypnotic interrogation, physical brain scans, neurolinguistic interviews, etc. If she comes back clean, they will “send her away” for some R&R. Marshall deduces that Granite Peak likely already sent a team to Sophie’s apartment to clear it out and perhaps even swept through URIEL’s offices the day before, while the team was out. Marshall departs for Livermore.

Archie and Jocasta confer. Jocasta confirms that Sophie told her nothing and that this is all a surprise to her. Jocasta asks if Sophie told Charley anything. Charley replies, angrily: “No.” Viv observes, secretly relishing the drama. Jocasta explains the situation in a bit more detail: the team’s archivist and researcher has resigned unexpectedly, and they have concerns about the security implications of this, but several of the team’s members have worked with her for a while so this all comes as a bit of shock. Archie heads back to his office to sort out his thinking. Jocasta takes it upon herself to show Viv around some more, point out the section of the library containing information on History B, and go over the materials left for the team by Sophie. In doing so, Viv realizes that she knows Russell Targ, having met him previously through the Esalen Institute. Jocasta, meanwhile, makes note of the fact that an Israeli psychic named Uri Geller is scheduled to be on The Tonight Show about a month from now.

Marshall arrives at Livermore and goes directly to Archie’s office. He muses aloud:

So, according to my sources at the Peak, she self-reported to the Peak as a potential security risk. Which is, as you know, highly unusual — to self report to the Peak as a security risk. So, she’s there now, and that raises a host of questions about — if she suspects she was a security risk — was she actually a security risk? Did she leak anything to anyone? Like, how witting is she in this regard? And I worry that the operation has been compromised in a real way because … if she is compromised, we take all of our cues from her in terms of where we go and what we look at. So if she’s directing where we’re looking then we’re looking where she wants us to look.

And then, Jocasta gets here, and she immediately starts doing field work again, after having taken herself out of the field. And then, after self-reporting, she tells you, and she doesn’t tell Charley, because she knows that Charley has imposed a familial matrix onto this operation in order to cope with the trauma of being a child of the Program. So she played you off of Charley, and Charley off of you, and she played Charley off of me because she knows Charley doesn’t like me. But she knows she can drive a rift there by planting the seed of an idea that I would’ve sent Sophie to the Peak by having you tell her.

And this all goes to something Mitch told me during his debrief which is that Sophie isn’t one of us. Mitch — Mitch can see, like, really see people, and he can see who is special and who is not. And he says we, you and me, we’re special. And the girl is special. And the writer is special. And Viv is special. And Jocasta and Roger and Mitch are special. Sophie was not special. So I think we need to proceed now with the understanding that we might have been thoroughly and completely dismantled in terms of unit cohesion by Sophie. Do you get what I’m saying, Arch?

Archie objects that he thinks Charley likes Marshall “just fine” but acknowledges that it’s a “real blow” to lose Sophie. He disagrees that Sophie is compromised. He explains how he thinks Sophie is just spiraling in her own mind and reveals what Sophie told him at the BBQ about her own recruitment by SANDMAN. This sets Marshall off about whether they are being played by Sophie. Archie again objects, arguing that they’ve been doing good work recently and have no reason to think that they’re being sabotaged. Marshall points out that that is exactly how moles work: the people running the mole gives the mole good information to establish their bona fides within the target organization until they can start feeding them bad information. Archie exclaims he’s more concerned about the Peak. He’s frustrated by the Peak taking his personnel without first consulting with him. He also reveals what Stanton told him over the phone about SANDMAN “ignoring” URIEL. Marshall flips: he rants about how this means URIEL is not only compromised (potentially) to the enemy but is compromised in the eyes of the team’s superiors. He questions if Archie thinks the Peak will let them keep going on as they have – Marshall living as he does, Roger with his decaying sense of self, Mitch with his weird powers, Viv as an untrained neurolinguistic prodigy, Archie with his puppets – if they have questions about the team’s integrity.

Marshall and Archie adjourn and Marshall heads to the archives to greet Viv. On the way, he passes Charley, who gives him a dirty look and then leaves for her lab. When she arrives, the Harry Houdini on the chip in her brain asks if she is planning on killing him. Charley says no and asks why he asked. Houdini explains that if she intends to transfer him back onto the cassette, he will merge with the Houdini that remains on the cassette, destroying the memories he gathered during his time with her. He refers to the cassette as a “prison.” Charley says she understands and has no immediate plans to do anything to him. “If you have some good ideas, let me know,” she says, before suddenly spotting an envelope wedged next to the cassette player. Charley grabs the envelope. On the front, written in Danbe, is the following message: “SOLVE THIS IN YOUR HEAD. DO NOT WRITE IT OUT.”

Back in the library, Marshall decides to test Viv by asking if she has some way of determining the legitimacy and intent of the instructions left by Sophie for the team regarding SRI. Viv analyzes the letter and determines that Sophie believed it was important that URIEL have this information. She also feels that there is a possibility that another member of URIEL may emerge from this mission – she detects a thread leading from URIEL to Menlo Park and SRI. Viv informs Marshall and Jocasta of her findings, expressing that Sophie was well-intentioned in preparing these materials. Marshall finds this impressive. Jocasta asks if she should use her touch on the letter, and Marshall assents. Her psychometry reveal that Sophie felt sadness and anxiety preparing this letter, a sense that she did not know what was going to happen next but I need to do right by the team because … and then it gets fuzzy. It is too specific, too left brain, for Jocasta to parse it out any further. Jocasta believes Sophie was attempting to assuage her guilt in preparing the SRI dossier and the letter. Jocasta: “it feels like there was some substantial, physical that inspired this … like she was afraid of something tangible, she wasn’t just neurotic.” Jocasta and Marshall debate the issue in their paranoid style. Ultimately, Marshall concludes that he will advise Archie to pursue the SRI investigation.

Charley opens the envelope. Inside is a cipher written in Sophie’s handwriting. After about five or ten minutes, Charley is able to break the cipher in her head. It reads:

I’VE GONE TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MOTHER.

DON’T TELL ANYONE.

ANYTHING YOU SEE THE PEAK CAN SEE.

Charley tears up but is puzzled over what the last line means. She ponders and ponders and then realizes: she is the mole, sent to URIEL to be the spy, and the chip in her head is intended to record what she is observing. Terrified by this revelation, she briefly snaps into a past life recall as Jack Parsons. Jack is smart enough to quickly understand the situation, and plays it cool (rather than jetting off on his own adventures, cough). Charley comes to her senses standing in the hallway outside her lab. She resolves to speak with Viv when she can.

Elsewhere, Mitch is going for a recreational hike at Coyote Peak. Afterwards he drives to a McDonald’s – the one with the good shake machine – in Palo Alto. While standing in line to place his order, a beautiful young woman standing in front of him fumbles her change, which falls to the ground. Mitch helps her and the woman thanks him. She introduces herself as Mary-Lynn. Mitch introduces himself, with a second’s hesitation, as Mitch.