5/2

Played: August 2, 2021.

Thursday, July 5, 1973. A little before midnight, Mitch – having gotten lost on his way to Chinatown for some dumplings – stumbles upon Charley holding her tinfoil hat, shoeless, standing outside the Ransom family home. He convinces her to grab some food at a nearby 24-hour diner. Mitch orders a coffee for himself and a milkshake and fries for Charley. They sit in silence for a moment. In the background the radio recounts the day’s news and a waitress chats with a few people at the counter. Finally, Mitch broaches the subject:

Mitch: So, walking out … um, do you want to talk about that? If you don’t, I can start telling you about episodes of The Twilight Zone. Or, uh, Green Acres? Have you ever seen Green Acres? There’s this little pig …

Charley: I’d rather talk about The Twilight Zone. I’ve seen all the episodes. That’s one of my favorite shows.

Mitch: Oh yeah? Which, uh, which one did you like the most?

Charley: The one with Captain Kirk. And the airplane and the gremlin.

Mitch: That is a good one, yeah.

Charley: And also the creepy doll one. The dummy.

Mitch: I don’t remember that one …

Charley: You don’t remember that one? The dummy that came alive? And started killing everyone?

Mitch: Oh. OK. That does sound a little familiar, yeah.

Charley: Yeah. It gave me nightmares.

Mitch: OK, well, you’ve ducked the question, which is great. I mean, that’s a, uh, that’s a valuable skill.

Charley: Well you did too.

Mitch: What question did you have for me?

Charley: Like, when we are going camping.

Mitch: Oh! I didn’t … not right now, for a bunch of different reasons. By the time we got to Mount Shasta it’d be … just, it’s not gonna work. Plus it’s, what? It’s Friday? OK, well, it’s a good day to be doing that. But even so, it’s something that I’d like to, like, run by Archie. Before we, like, hopped in the car and just skedaddled to a different ZIP code. That doesn’t seem like the kind of thing we would want to do, um, without you wearing shoes.

Charley: Yeah … well, I forgot them, but …

Mitch: Right. But you weren’t expecting – I mean, well, hold on. I was about to say you weren’t expecting to meet me and, like, then embark on camping. But maybe you were. Maybe you have some knowledge. No? It was weird, you say? OK, that makes sense that. Weird things happen. That’s just the way of the world. So that’s not something to be too concerned about. I don’t think that’s a useful avenue to be investigating. I’m more interested in what did cause you to be standing outside in the dark, barefoot in the middle of the night? What’s up, Charley?

Charley: Just one more thing about camping.

Mitch: OK, one more thing about camping.

Charley: I just feel like – well, I’m pretty sure that if we don’t go camping now, we’re not going to have another opportunity to go camping. And I was really looking forward to going.

Mitch: What makes you say that?

Charley: The chip. You know, the chip?

Mitch: Right.

Charley: That’s why.

Mitch: It’s telling you things?

Charley: No. Well …

Mitch: OK, well, if it’s not telling you things, how is the chip causing you to be aware of this information?

Charley: Uh, well, Sophie is no longer with us …

Mitch: Did the chip predict that was gonna happen?

Charley: No.

Mitch: OK.

Charley: She left me a message. And I’m not really sure why we … just forgot about the chip? We all forgot about the chip.

Mitch: I haven’t forgotten about the chip.

Charley: Well, I had forgotten about the chip. And it’s – it’s – it’s – it’s not good. It’s been recording. It’s been recording all of this. Um, so, I don’t know – y’know, we never did figure out who put it in there. I mean, we think it’s Granite Peak. But no one knows for sure, and –

Mitch: And it’s been recording?

Charley: – and it’s filled up now. And, um, I’m pretty sure they’re gonna come for that information, and I’m not really sure how they’re going to collect it. I have a few ideas. That’s why I’m wearing this hat.

Mitch: OK. Yeah, I see you’ve put the hat back on.

Charley: Yeah.

Mitch: And you think this is progressing towards some kind of … crisis? That will lead to us not being able to go camping in the month of August? (pause) Because I’m not hearing what makes this immediate. You say the chip is recording … OK, I’m not really sure what that means. I’m willing to take it as read that the chip is recording but it’s been recording all this time, so, what is it about now that makes it necessary to act?

Charley: Well … I don’t know!

Mitch: OK! That’s fine.

Charley: I’m afraid. I don’t know the process! This is the first time it’s filled up. Do they – I don’t know if that means I’m done? Does that mean I’m done? Y’know or … I mean, they’ll probably … I don’t know! There’s a lot of unknowns!

They quickly hush up as the waitress arrives with their order. Mitch immediately takes the fries and dumps them out onto the table. He tells Charley not to touch the fries for a minute because he’s trying a thing. He then attempts to divine from the pile of fries what is going to happen in Charley’s immediate future. From the layout of the fries, Mitch does not sense that Charley is in any immediate danger or that she is going to separated from URIEL unless she is the one to instigate the separation. He explains:

There's a whole jumble of fries, right? A whole big jumble of fries. A lot of different elements all stacked on top of one another, crisscrossed, and here you are – this little fry here in the middle in this little nest of other fries. But the thing that I see when I look at this little fry, she's not under attack from any point. She's in a very stable position. Like if I nudge the the stack like this (he nudges the stack of fries) see? She doesn't move at all. And if I nudge it over here (he nudges the little fry) she wiggles a little bit but then she goes right back to where she was. I don’t think that anything is going to come and steal this french fry away. The french fry being you. So, from that perspective I feel like the french fries are saying good things. And by french fries I mean the universe as a whole. The whole mishmash of sensory input all around us, this … uh, you know I don’t like calling it History A, to tell you the truth. It seems disingenuous. Um, but you can all it that. So you can say History A is on your side if you want. If that would help. Would that help, Charley?

Charley says she wants to say yes just to make Mitch feel better, but Mitch objects:

No, well – I’m not looking for a situation where you’re reassuring me. That’s kind of the opposite of what I want to go for here. I’m trying to reassure you. And if I needed to frame this in some kind of extremely convoluted way to make imminent disaster sound like a positive, then I would be doing that. I would be, like, you know, just tripping over myself coming up with all kinds of weird analogies and what-if scenarios and I’m not doing any of that. I’m just saying the french fries say that you’re – that you're doing OK. That there’s not some kind of external threat that’s like bearing down on you right now. And I think that’s reassuring! I think that that means you could go camping. That’s what I’m picking up here. Camping is an option.

After what feels like a long pause, Charley asks if they can order more fries. Mitch says yeah, sure, and flags the server down for a new order, catching a dirty look from her as he does. Charley asks if they could ask the fries more questions. Mitch demurs: he says his powers are subject to “limitations beyond your understanding,” the fries have said what they’re going to say, and it would just not work. But he reiterates that he trusts the fries when they say she’s not in any danger. He asks if she feels safe with the Ransoms, and she says yes. He says that’s good. So he asks again: why run away? And Charley repeats that she told him: it’s the chip. Mitch asks Charley to explain the situation to him like he’s a very simple man. Charley sighs:

Because the chip … the purpose of the chip is to collect all the data. And it’s done its job. And so that data is going to be removed. And, um, how they were going to do that, I wasn’t sure. I was afraid they were going to come collect me to take the data. And possibly they might not like that Houdini is part of the data.

Mitch blinks. “Houdini is part of the data? In the sense that you interacted with Houdini?” Charley says no and, after a moment’s hesitation, says: “Because he’s on the chip.” Mitch realizes what she means: “You mean, you copied him from the tape?” Charley blurts out, “Yes!”

At that, Houdini says inside Charley’s mind: “Well, I guess the secret is out.” He asks Charley if he can talk directly to Mitch. Mitch asks if Houdini can hear him right now. Charley nods yes and grants Houdini permission to speak through her.

Mitch: Houdini. Ehrich. I’m not happy about this.

Houdini: The girl needed some help in the temblor zone. I offered to come along.

Mitch: So, I guess — see, now I have a whole other set of things I want answers to and I feel like this is kind of getting us away from the, like, crisis at hand. But let’s put in a pin in that for a second. How did Houdini get onto the chip? Like, exactly. Did you stick a wire in there or something? And if so, can you get him back out?

Houdini: Mitchell, I’ve been copied. There still exists an … emanation of me on the cassette.

Mitch: There’s two Houdinis now?!

Houdini: Yes.

Mitch: Ehrich, how do you feel about there being two Houdinis?

Houdini: I like being able to see and hear again, in a true human fashion.

Mitch: That’s not what I said. I said, “Ehrich, how do you feel about there being two Houdinis?”

Houdini: I — I honestly don’t have a lot of concern or thought for the one that is still trapped on the cassette.

Mitch: You don’t? Because let me tell you, I’ve given a lot of thought to how I would feel about another me — a different version of myself. I’ve given that a lot of thought. And if you haven’t given it thought, I recommend that you do. Because it seems like something you’re going to have to deal with maybe sooner than me.

Houdini detects a veiled threat and asks what Mitch means. Mitch responds, “Well, do you think you’re going to go on living in Charley’s head forever?” He notes that they’ve just spent the past half-hour having a conversation about the chip in Charley’s brain, and that URIEL is going to need to deal with that somehow – and among the options available to them, he does not foresee one in which the chip remains intact, storing all the data it is currently storing, including Houdini. “So the best case scenario,” Mitch argues, “is that we copy you back onto the cassette. I don’t know how that would work with the two of you … like, arm wrestle and then merge? Because the situation where, like, we just multiply and multiply and multiply and there are more and more Houdinis constantly getting copied everywhere – see, I don’t think that one is very viable.” Mitch recommends that Ehrich spends some time thinking about this situation and, growing more irate, says he feels Houdini is taking advantage of Charley, first by dwelling inside her mind and then by speaking through her mouth. He stops himself before getting too loud, however, self-conscious about drawing attention.

Houdini says that he believes there are solutions to this situation given the “wonders” that SANDMAN has developed. He explains that he deserves to be more than just a homunculus because he is, after all, an agent of the Project – or was, anyway. Mitch interrupts, noting that Houdini is in a “hell of [his] own making.” “What did you think,” he growls, “would happen when you hid inside the tape?” Here, Charley reasserts herself, stating that she had been planning on building some kind of body for Houdini. A permanent home. Houdini says that sounds good to him. Mitch grows more perturbed: “Wait, wait Ehrich. Would we be moving you to this new body? Or copying you into this new body?” Houdini says he does not intend to copy himself. Mitch asks, again, what Houdini intends to do about the Houdini-on-the-cassette, inquiring to whom he should direct his complaints about the events at the Stanley Hotel. “Because, you know, you kind of left me and Marshall holding the bag there.” Houdini dodges a bit, saying it was a difficult situation and he had to make a snap judgment decision. Mitch urges Houdini to take some responsibility for that decision. Houdini says, simply, “I don’t want to die.” Mitch says almost nobody does and stops Houdini before Houdini can launch into his stories about how he’s the “great death escaper.”

After briefly discussing Charley’s potential role as Houdini’s apprentice, Mitch asks Charley what she wants to do. She says, “I guess go home.” Mitch agrees that’s probably the best idea. He walks her back to the Ransom house and Charley sneaks back in undetected. Mitch wanders off, making a mental note to discuss everything he’s learned with Archie.

Sketch No. 83.

Jocasta Menos.
Charcoal and pencil on drafting paper.

Friday, July 6, 1973. Morning. Archie and Charley drive into work, Charley still in her tinfoil hat. Archie asks Charley about what happened with The Wizard of Oz at Jocasta’s house. Charley lies, saying they had fun, ate popcorn, and that Jocasta enjoyed the movie. Archie asks if the movie was “too scary for her,” and Charley says not really, except a few parts, like when the house fell on the Wicked Witch. Archie smirks and says he’s glad Jocasta had Charley there to keep her company. Archie then asks if Charley likes hanging out with Jocasta and Charley again lies, saying that Jocasta’s apartment was really nice and had beautiful furniture. Archie’s parental radar kicks in. He immediately knows this is a lie but doesn’t call her out on it.

Jocasta arrives at Livermore at her normal hour, a little a head of Archie and Charley. Jocasta and Archie convene in Archie’s office. Archie immediately asks Jocasta about the movie, and Jocasta asks him outside to have a smoke. On the way outside, Archie says Charley told him she had a great time but that Jocasta was a little scared by the flying monkeys. Outside, Jocasta lights up and immediately confesses that they did not, in fact, watch The Wizard of Oz. Archie nods and asks what’s going on. Jocasta explains how Charley came to her in a fairly agitated state, insisting that they visit Roger ASAP and requesting that Jocasta conduct a psychometric read on the chip inside Charley’s head. Jocasta tells Archie about what she saw in her psychometric vision and shows him a sketch she made that seems to depict extraterrestrials performing brain surgery on Charley using highly ornate, sophisticated medical equipment. Archie erupts: “you didn’t show her this?! You didn’t tell her this, did you?!” Jocasta pushes back, noting that Charley asked her to do it. What could she do? Lie? Besides, Charley deserves to know. Then she reveals what happened, from her perspective, at Roger’s apartment.

Jocasta: Archie … aside from the enormous security risk this represents: you’re her father. And you have to understand the emotional toll this is got to be having on her. And this all happened the same day that someone that she probably considers at least something of a mother figure disappeared.

Archie: Was Roger any help to her?

Jocasta: I couldn’t say. (A pause). I would tell you if I could, but Roger’s loa are … very cryptic and, I mean, that’s a question you need to ask Charley.

Archie: I have to talk to Charley … well, thanks for telling me this now. I do wish you’d just said something and not – I don’t know why it was necessary to keep this from me.

Jocasta: Well, we’ve been around Charley this whole time. And I don’t know to what degree what’s being said – I mean, I had to tell Roger this stuff covertly because I don’t know if she’s still broadcasting what’s happening to her through this chip.

Archie: Well, don’t feed her with your paranoia! That not going to help! See, you’re putting your paranoia onto her …

Jocasta: My paranoia, Archie? We can’t keep acting as if this isn’t happening.

Archie: So based on a vision you had and whatever Roger cooked up, you’ve decided that this is some (sputtering) – what, that this is some kind of – that’s she’s got – that she’s a camera reporting back to Granite Peak? To our enemies? Is that – is that the theory that you’ve seized on? I mean, you just said to me that she’s a child, put that aside, you have to take care of her … (collecting himself). Thank you for telling me. I have to go talk to Charley.

Jocasta: Alright, Archie. But, collectively, we need to deal with this because … I mean, I shouldn’t have to explain why, but I want you to understand –

Archie starts walking back inside, but Jocasta calls after him: “ – we’re on this team because you should know our abilities work and you can’t question them just because they’re telling you something you don’t want to hear.” Jocasta walks back into the office after finishing her cigarette and finds Roger settling in. Roger remarks, nonchalantly, that they should go have that “talk” they talked about. They head outside and Jocasta lights what is likely her fifteenth cigarette of the morning.

Jocasta: How you feelin’, Roger?

Roger: We have to have a long talk about that at some point. But I think the more pressing thing is: what do we do with the information that was on that piece of paper you handed me?

Jocasta: Christ, I don’t know. Cards on the table: I talked to Archie already. He knew something was happening and … I didn’t want to deepen … I mean …

Roger: No, that makes sense, he’s the boss.

Jocasta: For better or worse, we need to address this as a group. You know, there’s Charley whose safety and well-being we are concerned about as people who care about her and there’s Charley whose safety and well-being we’re concerned about because she’s a potential security risk to this whole organization. So we can’t keep dancing around, keeping what we know secret.

Roger: Fair. I mean, we still need to do operational controls to make sure whatever she knows doesn’t leak out, right?

Jocasta: Obviously I talked to him out here, out of … where she wasn’t around.

Roger: But that said we don’t need to be super paranoid where we freak Charley out too much. I mean, she’s a kid, right?

Jocasta: Sure. It’s the second warning I’ve gotten today about my paranoia. I get it. I get it.

Roger: Oh. Sorry. But you’re cool? You’re OK?

Jocasta: Yeah. Roger, my fear is that Archie is in serious denial about this.

Roger: Yeah. Sure.

Jocasta: And I hate to side with Marshall on this, but if he finds out what’s going on he’s going to lose. his. shit.

Roger: (sighs) Yeah. I mean, when you guys came … and once I finally figured out what’s going on, I’m sorry my shit wasn’t together …

Jocasta: No worries.

Roger: It just feels better – the sooner we close this down, the fewer people – before it does blow up and become a big thing, it’s going to … break Charley, or Archie. Or both. And she’s so afraid. But I did a little thinking last night about what Papa Legba said and I think he was onto something. Maybe if we give Charley a little bit more to chew on, and more direction, she’ll be OK.

Jocasta: How do you feel she received that?

Roger: Oh, well, she was definitely hammering the questions. I don’t think I’ve had many people turn on Papa Legba that way. So I think she’s … she’s just too bright. She’s gonna just ask anything and anyone she can until she’s sorted this out, but … I don’t know. She might ask the wrong people. So what, you told Archie, is he with Charley now?

Jocasta: I think so.

The conversation turns to the workings of the chip. Jocasta asks if Roger thinks the tinfoil hat actually works. Roger says he does, and then explains that they could possibly “expand” the hat to a room – somewhere that blocks electronic transmissions. Roger suggests that was what Papa Legba was talking about when he mentioned the “rooster’s house” the night before. Roger resolves that whoever put the chip into her head will not get the information stored therein, whether it is Granite Peak or the enemy. Jocasta says, resignedly, “It’s hard to talk about whether any of us can be saved but she at least deserves to be a person, right? She deserves to be her own person and not just a receptacle for somebody’s spying techniques.” Roger agrees, remarking that it is incumbent upon them to give Charley back some level of control. He suggests they go find Archie and Charley; Jocasta says maybe they should give them a couple minutes. Roger thinks aloud about how he might start work on the rooster’s house.

Archie knocks on Charley’s lab door but doesn’t wait for a response before entering. He tells her that Jocasta revealed what happened to him. Charley starts saying “yeah” repeatedly, scrambling to recover her lie. Archie says not to worry about the movie, and asks about the chip. Charley confides that she is really worried about it and also that Sophie left her a note. She tells Archie’s its contents. Then: “So, I’m essentially the mole. But I didn’t want to worry you, so I went to Jocasta to talk to her … and, I’m working on some ideas in terms of, um, how to control the situation. That’s why I’m wearing this hat.” Archie interrupts, telling her she’s not a mole, that she doesn’t need to figure this out herself, and apologizes repeatedly. He tells her that they will get it out of her one way or the other. Charley says she’s not so sure: the people who put it there want it there, and they won’t be happy about its destruction. Besides, she was not totally sure how to extract it. She then tells him about Houdini. Archie asks what she means: wasn’t Houdini on a cassette tape?

He was on the tape. He was on the tape and I was trying to figure out a way … because I feel bad that he's on a tape. You shouldn’t be on a tape, shouldn’t just be stuck in a tape! And I had a few ideas but it’s going to take … would take a while to eventually create him a body but, um, yeah. (sighs) So. Long story short, I just thought that, uh, in the meantime, you know, I could place him on the chip, didn’t realize I was downloading his entire kind of … being? And placing him there? This sounds – Mitch got really mad when he found out. It just seemed like – it’s Houdini! It’s Houdini! He’s the greatest magician that has ever lived and he’s stuck on a tape! It just seemed like such a waste and I just thought …

Archie stops her: “Houdini’s been dead for 50 years, darling!” He says he doesn’t care at all about that thing in her head. He only cares about her, and making sure she is OK. He says URIEL will figure this out: take it out, neutralize it, whatever. She does not need to solve it herself. He also vows that they will protect her from Granite Peak and whoever is responsible for the chip. Charley says that she was concerned about being the mole so she filled up the rest of the chip’s data storage with junk data only to later realize that the chip will soon notify whoever implanted it that the chip is now full, and that it is ready for retrieval. So she is stuck wearing the hat for a while. She then says: “You don’t have to worry, I’m not recording you right now.” Archie again asks if she’s OK, before correcting himself and saying, “That’s a ridiculous question.” He hugs her, calls her brave, and then says, “So, uh, the hat really works?”

Mitch arrives. Roger, Jocasta, Archie, and Charley assemble. Archie says it’s good that they’re all there and invites everyone to have a seat in the conversation pit. Mitch asks if they’ve all discussed “the thing,” and “the other thing.” Archie says they need to have a discussion and Mitch slumps: “I’d hoped we could just skip all that.” Archie remains standing, thanks them all for the time, and says: “I guess I’m the last person to know. Charley’s been very concerned about this note Sophie left her. And, I know you’ve all been trying to help her. I appreciate that. I just wish you’d let me know what’s going on. But the more important question now is, how do we help her now? How can we get rid of this thing? How do we neutralize it?” Roger says he has some ideas. Archie says he’s all ears.

Roger explains his idea for creating a Faraday cage, a “rooster’s house,” where she could go so that she does not worry about the chip transmitting data without her knowledge or consent. The team then debates next steps, how best to handle removing the chip, and who may be responsible. Jocasta mentions that it does not make sense for someone to implant a chip in Charley’s head knowing that Charley can control technology in a strange, almost supernatural way. This, she posits, indicates that the parties responsible did not realize at the time they implanted the chip that she had such powers. They soon realize they need more information about Charley’s background to start forming conclusions – to date, all they’ve had access to her a highly redacted personnel file.