Episode Two
Sean tries to find her father, but instead makes an unusual ally.
A nervously excited group of a dozen or so people wearing matching track suits are lead by Visitors into a darkened suite. The room is sumptuously lined in plush drapes and plump cushions. They are each given a gas mask. Cilandre, a female Visitor in her thirties, watches over them. We’ve seen her before – this is Adam’s boss from episode one. She gives an impressive speech about how they are ambassadors, explorers and heroes. Then upon her command, the people don their masks, the gas is turned on, and they inhale deeply. A gentle euphoria spreads over the group. They hold hands, stroke each others hair… but then one of the people starts screaming. Then another, then another. Limbs jerk spasmodically. Then slowly their screams give way to a desperate sobbing. It’s a scene of chaos and misery. Cilandre watches, unmoved.
Teremoana makes her way up a steep scrubby hill. She finds a bivouac. Inside is Sean. Teremoana has food and drink, some mobile SIM cards, spare clothes. Sean checks that Teremoana didn’t bring her own phone. Teremoana shows Sean, it’s off. But Sean is upset, that doesn’t mean it’s not traceable. She’ll have to move tonight. Teremoana tells Sean that this is no way to live, but Sean doesn’t want to hear. This is what she has trained for. This is her reality now.
The Visitor initiates are calmer now. They’re being tended to by a number of Visitors. They’re like little children. Cilandre walks among them, ”connecting” with each one. There’s something mysteriously alien yet intimate about the way she connects with them. Some of them are still distressed; she calms them. One of them, a young man, is quiet and centred. She connects with him, and acknowledges him as being strong.
That evening, Sean is packing up to leave when Teremoana returns. She’s brought Noah, who tries to apologise for narking on her to the cops. He wants to introduce her to a lawyer who can help. Sean is angry at Noah and doesn’t trust him; but when she realises that the lawyer might know where Albie is being held, she warily agrees.
Meanwhile, Albie is being prisoner. His captor is an ambitious Visitor called Melvyl. Albie being as uncooperative as possible, so a frustrated Melvyl begins to push into Albie’s mind to subdue him, just as Cilandre arrives. She’s furious at Melvyl, Albie’s mind must not be damaged! She apologises to Albie. We see that Albie has met Cilandre before, and hates her.
Cilandre tells Albie what she wants him to do: There is only a single bridge between this world and the Oneness. If it’s broken, all Visitations stop. That would be a tragedy. We need to build bridges to assure our connection continues. So they need to learn how that first bridge was built, from the first bridge-builder: Albie. Albie says he will never comply: I know the ways to keep secrets inside my head. If you want to dig them out, you’ll have to destroy my mind. And if you hurt my body, you’ll have to answer to the police. Cilandre knows he’s right. But she has another method of assuring his compliance.
Cilandre returns to the new Visitor initiates. She finds the Strong Young Man she connected with earlier, a brand new Visitor. She takes his hand, and leading him like a child, escorts him through the building into Albie’s room. The Young Man gazes at Albie, strokes his face, smiling. He’s “connecting” with Albie. Melvyl straps him to a seat, and the young man compiles happily. Then at Cilandre’s nod, Melvyl begins to torture the Young Man. He screams in pain – and so does Albie! Albie feels the young man’s pain in his own body. Cilandre gives Albie a moment to recover, and to understand the implications. Then she nods to Melvyl, who resumes his work…
Noah, Sean and Teremoana go to visit the lawyer Mr Carrion. But as they approach his apartment building, Sean freezes. They wait for a moment, and then two female Visitors emerge, recognisable by their expensive clothes and dark sunglasses. Sean is angry at Noah - are you betraying me again? But Noah defends himself – the lawyer, Mr Carrion, is his uncle. He works for the Visitors. That’s why he’s the perfect person to help. Sean is torn – should she trust Noah? Meanwhile, Teremoana is weirded out – how did you know the Visitors would be there?
Broken by the torture, Albie agrees to tell everything he knows, which isn’t much. He never understood the link between our world and the Oneness. He created Lucid, but he’s just a chemist. It was his partner Lisa who established the bridge to the Oneness in her mind. Lisa was exceptional, and now she’s gone. Frustrated, Cilandre can’t see any reason to keep holding Albie.
The kids enter Mr Carrion’s expensive apartment. He’s in a dressing gown. He’s been having a sex with the Visitors who left the building. Apparently the connection they form is amazing. Teremoana is revolted, but Sean is focussed, asking him about her father’s capture. Mr. Carrion doesn’t want to get involved. They’re powerful, wealthy people, and dangerous. Plus, they’re his clients, and they pay him well. Teremoana asks why doesn’t everyone who takes Lucid become a Visitor? Mr Carrion doesn’t know; All he knows is that Visitors only ever emerge from the Visitors’ embassy. Sean’s ears prick up – How do I get into the embassy?
As Albie is about to leave, she asks Albie why didn’t he tell her that he knew nothing straight away? Then she realises he was protecting someone. Someone else with Lisa’s ability! Who? Albie won’t tell, and Cilandre starts pushing into Albie mind, right then and there.
Sean, Teremoana and Noah watch from among a crowd outside the Visitors’ birthing building. Humans are protesting – “Earth is for earthlings”. It’s a lot like a racist protest against immigrants. Police block the entrance. Sean spots the security camera, planing her route in. Using skills her father taught her, Sean sneaks into the Visitors’ building.
In the lobby, she joins what appears to be a tour group, and this gets her past security. The group moves down a corridor where they are issued with tracksuits. We’ve seen these tracksuits before – this is a new intake of Visitor initiates. Sean looks for a moment to leave the group, but the Visitors are watching them carefully. She climbs into her tracksuit, thinking it wasn’t such a good idea to join these people…
Sean’s group are ushered into the plush birthing room. Still Sean can’t see how to escape. Visitors encircle the group. Sean is given a gas mask, with a hose that runs to a central gas line. Sean realises this is Lucid. Her fear rises.
Albie is still holding out against the pressure coming from Cilandre’s mind. He groans in pain. Is the secret he’s holding worth his life? Albie makes a decision: He throws himself off the balcony, on to the pavement far below. Cilandre is stunned. Members of the public gather, someone videos on their phone. There’s no covering this up.
Melvyl appears - Cilandre is needed, the next batch of Visitors are ready.
Cilandre enters the birthing room, and begins her now-familiar speech. You are ambassadors, heroes! Sean is freaking out, looking for a moment to escape. She puts on the mask. It’s claustrophobic. A Visitor turns the gas on. She takes a last deep gasp of air before hearing the hiss of gas in her mask. Her heartbeat is loud and fast. There’s no way she’s going to be able to hold her breath while she’s panicking like this. She looks around desperately…. and sees one of the Visitor guards. He looks bored. She concentrates on him… and feels her own heartbeat start to slow to match his. Cilandre’s speech fades into the background. But this can’t last long… Her vision starts to fade…
Sean is about to pass out. Her vision is dark, sound muted. People screaming and rolling around. We’ve seen this before too – the Visitors are being born. The newly-born Visitors claw at their masks, and Sean uses the distraction to whip her mask off and gasp desperately for air. As she recovers, she sees people all around her are crying, curling into foetal position. Suddenly the person beside Sean rears up to his feet. He’s a really big dude. He’s terrified, and as the Visitor guards try to calm him down, he takes two of them out with a single punch. Seeing his example, others follow suit, screaming and running at the guards. It’s chaos. Sean grabs her moment to slip to the exit, but the door is locked. The big guy runs toward Sean, screaming like a banshee, but Sean remains calm. She approaches him carefully, like a wild horse. She asks his name, but he just makes explosive noises from his mouth, which Sean accepts as “Pa-Ka”. Sean touches the locked door, and then as an example to Paka, she throws herself at it. When Paka does the same, the door bursts open.
Cilandre returns to the lobby. There is much commotion as Visitors try to contain the situation. Cilandre asks where Albie is…. Somehow, he has disappeared! Albie, disguised in a cap and sunglasses, walks out of the lobby, swallowing his pain to disguise his limping, broken body. In all the commotion he passes unchallenged, walking outside into the sunshine, and freedom.
Sean takes a moment to gather herself. “Paka” is crying, hugging himself. Sean is worried he’s going to attract attention. She tries to shush him, but Paka wants to be held. So Sean hugs him, and slowly he calms. His gaze moves around the small space, then to his own hand, which he marvels at, and then finally to Sean. He touches her face, childlike. Sean likes this gentle giant, but he can’t have her following him around. She unravels herself from him. He looks so alone. But she hardens herself, and steps out into the corridor…
… into Melvyl’s grasp! Melvyl restrains her, but he’s grabbed by the much larger Paka. In control now, Sean asks Melvyl where Albie is, and with encouragement from Paka, Melvyl reveals he threw himself off the mezzanine, but now he’s disappeared. Alarmed, Sean presses for more information, but when he doesn’t comply, Paka shoulder-barges him, just like he did earlier with the door. Melvyl crumples, unconscious. Sean decides it’s time to get out of here.
Sean makes her way toward a fire exit, Paka following. The door is locked, but Paka knows what to do. A moment later, the door is off its hinges. Outside, Sean tries to part ways with Paka, but he looks so miserable. Sean looks back at the busted door… maybe he can be useful. Sean sighs and allows Paka to join him, and together they move off into the crowd.
Teremoana and Noah are very much against the idea of Paka. But Sean says she needs to find her dad, and Paka could be helpful. She needs to get her equipment, and that means going back home. But the Visitors are likely to have someone watching the house, and if things get nasty, well, Paka’s proved useful already.
Later, they stake out Sean’s house. Sure enough, there is a Visitor watching the place. Teremoana and Noah cause a distraction to lure the Visitor away. Alone with Paka again, Sean opens the hatch and climbs down into the den. It has been stripped of the chemistry lab and weapons. But Sean opens a hidden compartment, and inside is a laptop and a cellphone. She powers up the laptop and logs onto a site, where she finds a video message from Albie. He looks like he’s dying. Sean’s eyes well up when she sees him. From the video, Albie tells Sean to remember his lessons: Be strong, use people if they’re strong too, but if they’re weak, leave them behind. He is a liability to Sean now, and she won’t see him again. But he loves her very much, and her mother did too.
An emotional Sean tells Paka she knows where her father is going. A hut they built in the hills behind their marae years ago, far out of the city. He’s going there to die.
Sean starts a new recording on the laptop. At first we think it’s a farewell message to Albie, but in fact it’s for Noah and Teremoana. We intercut between the message she leaves for her friends, and her packing the remaining survival equipment into rucksacks for herself and Paka. The message says she’s thankful for their help, but she’s leaving.
Sean and Paka climb up the ladder out of the den, leaving the hatch open. Inside, the laptop is open on the counter, Sean’s face waiting for Teremoana and Noah to discover. As Sean and Paka hitch hike out of town, Sean’s message continues as voiceover: She’s going to save her dad.