04x02 - Ouroboros

[bunniefuu]

[wind whistling softly]

[soft, apprehensive string music]

♪ ♪

Scavengers.

They could still be in here.

Just take a position outside,
wait 'em out.

[angrily] Cole.

Damn it.

[apprehensive music darkening]

♪ ♪

You know she might not be here.

- She's here.
- [wind howling]

We were all here trying to find a cure.

♪ ♪

Scavs!

[dramatic music]

[grunting]

[object shatters]

♪ ♪

[groaning]

- [shouting]
- [grunts]

- [grunts]
- [cr*ck]

- I'm telling you...
- [grunts]

You never listen to me.

[panting] Maybe you're right.

We should've waited 'em out.

[both laughing]

[laughs, coughs]

Come on, man.

It's all right. Just a blood-puppet.

[panting]

You're getting old, man.

[laughs]

[panting wheezily]

[wind howling]

[gentle, mysterious music]

♪ ♪

Found her.

[voice echoing] See you soon.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

[footsteps approach]

[accelerating string music]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[fire crackling]

We were never supposed
to travel in time...

just location.

But why now?

The machine must have selected

a random year of its data history

and then defaulted to
its first successful splinter.

Give or take a few months.

That is our machine
in there... a working machine.

Not ours... theirs.

That place is no longer our home.

It's a minefield.
Paradoxes, causality...

everything we fought to avoid.

The greatest danger
in there is ourselves.

But it's a chance.

At best, we'd have one opportunity

with no way back
and nothing to use it for.

- [zipper whines]
- We find Olivia.

[paper rustling]

What's this?

After Mr. Ramse brought
Olivia into the Facility,

Dr. Adler and I tried to piece together

what we could about her.

There is not much.

An arrest in .

She was off the grid,
protected her whole life...

but for that one day,
she was on her own.

We don't know that.

We had her in our cell only months ago.

- Why not go back then...
- She was never more protected

than when she was with you.

[low, tense music]

Besides... she would have
put everything in motion

before she allowed herself
to become your prisoner.

We need to get to her earlier.

Okay, so how do we play it?

One last splinter...

before the first.

♪ ♪

[suspenseful musical sting]

Stay low. We should be
in Whitley's blind spot.

"k*ll the Witness."

How many times will the Katarina Jones

- in there say that?
- Everything those people

in there are about to do...
our friends...

they've already lost.

The least we can do
is not let the Witness win.

I was blinded by my hope for an ending.

Don't be blinded by yours for revenge.

This has only ever been about revenge.

Let's go.

[tense percussive music]

♪ ♪

- Mr. Cole's telemetry?
- His physiology remains

able to accept the inverse serum.

- It's likely he'll survive.
- It'll be a first.

Lucky she found him.

[sharp, suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

That's a lot of activity... too much.

Gather, everyone. They've returned.

I remember this.

All I'm saying is this chick ain't

gonna live up to it, you know?
And-and listen...

and-and another thing...
I-I'm just being honest.

You're not worth it.

- Excuse me?
- Listen.

I don't need a watch to prove myself...

- [scoffs]
- You know what I'm saying, baby?

Nobody wants to see that.

No, no, no, I'm going to...
I'm gonna explain.

- Okay, let's hear it.
- Okay, girth and width...

- Anaconda, cobra.
- [exhales, laughs]

- There's an old proverb.
- Yeah.

"You can't juggle with one ball."

You understand what I'm saying?

[light banter continues]

[stirring music]

Cole.

[inhales] I'm fine.

♪ ♪

What's the plan?

If I remember correctly, we'll brief now

and launch in the morning,
but until then,

that room will never be unoccupied.

♪ ♪

All right. We're gonna need
some kind of distraction.

Fire alarm, perimeter breach...

No.

What we need is an outbreak.

[dramatic music]

[helicopter blades thrumming,
men shouting indistinctly]

♪ ♪

[helicopter blades thrumming]

[man broadcasting in foreign language]

Detective Dolezal.

- You are?
- Bonham.

Interpol? Surely, we all have

more important matters,
given the state of the world.

I find, when the future is uncertain,

the past never matters more.

The thief... American?

A madwoman.

Which kind of mad?

There is more than one?

In my experience.

Which do you suppose I am?

[edgy music]

The artifact was part
of the traveling exhibit.

- The ouroboros.
- The ass-eating snake.

The Norse believed that at Ragnarok

the World Serpent would
envelope the Earth

and poison the skies.

[officer coughing]

♪ ♪

Yeah, well, of all the sh*t

in this building... valuables, gold...

she stole the least important item.

Did she?

Security footage and street cameras...

if you please.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

All right, short bus.

- [neck cracks]
- So, what is it?

Years worth of searching,
and all I see now...

Is this.

Looks like some Indiana
Da Vinci bullshit to me.

All right, Primary.
You saw it, you got it.

Now, use your Primary magic.
Solve the riddle.

[indistinct, overlapping voices]

[overlapping voices and ringing]

Any time.

[overlapping voices, low whirring]

- Chop-chop!
- [voices stop]

There's something wrong.
I can't hear them.

[sarcastically] Right. That's never
happened to you before.

Hm... it's not you, it's me.

This is not a joke!

I close my eyes...
I can't see anything anymore.

It's like I'm listening,
but the voices are gone.

You had one job... one superpower.

[low, dark music]

Bad time to lose it, kiddo.

I'm trying, but there's nothing!

All I have left is... you.

The artist formerly known as Primary.

[tense string music]

♪ ♪

[whispering] You sure about this?

Dr. Railly knows
the quarantine protocol.

In case of contagion,
all personnel are sequestered

to their rooms.
We'll have ample time to...

YOUNG JONES: I don't understand
what's going on with me.

I don't know why I'm nervous.

I'm the antithesis of a nervous person.

Because you're a soldier
about to become a general.

Marcus.

YOUNG JONES:
Just give me a g*dd*mn light.

That's an order.

Okay. Let's get it over with.

[glasses clatter]

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

It's time, everyone. Let's begin.

[suspenseful string music]

♪ ♪

We retrieved Dr. Railly's watch
from the CDC...

proof, should we need it,
that this mission...

that our future... is real.

[purposeful music]

Railly's research,
her message, and indeed,

her sacrifice may be done...

[gas hissing]

- [birds chirping]
- But her work is not.

[machine beeping]

We are changing

the course of one life to end another...

let us hope,
for the first and only time.

The target is Leland Frost...

not a monster, not a god.

He's not even a man. He's a number.

One...

for billion.

k*ll him, we save ourselves.

[passionately] We save everyone.

♪ ♪

[machine beeping]

Mr. Cole...

[birds chirping rapidly]

Are you prepared?

- Are you?
- Ramse...

- Excuse me?
- RAMSE: We do our job.

All right, we've been doing
our job for years.

We're waiting on you
to finish this piece of sh*t.

- [chuckles]
- YOUNG JONES: Mr. Ramse,

I assure you... although I have
no obligation to do so...

that this machine is quite finished!

[stammering] Right, well...
what about the...

- what is the thing?
- The tether.

The tether! Huh?

sh*t goes down, you got no way
of pulling him back.

Doesn't matter. It's a one-way trip.

Maybe, maybe not.

That's why she's been working
on the tether.

Ain't that right, lady?

[tense music]

[gas hissing]

[machine beeping]

[warning beeps sounding]

[affirmative beeping]

♪ ♪

[alarms blaring]

She did it.

Quarantine protocol in effect.

Each one of you to your quarters... now.

Including you.

Dr. Eckland and I will check it out
and report back.

[alarms blaring]

Hey.

You better get your sh*t straight...

- or tomorrow, we walk.
- Hey. Come on.

Well, that was awkward.

Let's move.

All right, you prep for me and Cassie.

Once we're gone, you delete the files,

preserve some bit of causality,
and then you head back

- to the Emerson.
- And then what?

Wait for the world to change,

as I once did with you tomorrow?

James, we are echoes here...

following ourselves,
hoping that the figure

in front of us is smarter than we are.

First Leland, then Athan,

then each other, now Olivia.

How high a wall of bodies

must we build to see
the curve of history?

Same loops, same mistakes,
over and over and over.

- The snake.
- Eating its own tail.

Jennifer's drawings...

visions, voices in her head.
She was on to something.

We are stuck here. We are blind.

Ms. Goines is the only one
of us who can see.

We need to get back in the game.

But we can't do anything
without a machine.

Mr. Ramse is right.

At this moment in time,
I hadn't perfected it.

I was then as lost as I am now,

trusting only...

[quickening, determined music]

Wait here for Dr. Railly.

Stay out of sight until I find you.

There's something I need to do.

- Where are you going?
- Don't worry.

- [whispering] Jones!
- [whispering] I'll be back.

♪ ♪

[knocking]

God damn it!

Protocols are there for a reason!

No one should...

[dramatic music]

_

_

_

And we will continue
to follow that story.

- Hm?
- Officials are growing

increasingly alarmed
by the continuing spread

of what is now being called...

- ...the Kalavirus.
- So, nothing?

I can't hear them.

The number of outbreaks
around the globe continues to rise.

Coming up next, my exclusive sit-down

with Dr. Cassandra Railly of the CDC,

the woman at the forefront

of what may be mankind's last chance.

- Can't do this alone.
- [helicopter blades thrumming]

I need my friends.

Hey!

My real friends.

Thank you so much for your time.

I studied virology
in med school, obviously,

but I think it was history
that made me a doctor.

REPORTER: How do you mean?

FUTURE RAILLY: Outbreaks, pandemics...

they're cyclical, right?
History repeating itself.

But... what would history
be without them?

REPORTER: You... you sound optimistic.

FUTURE RAILLY: Yes, the...
the Black Plague gave birth

to the Renaissance.
These tiny little cells

with no emotion,
no ambition, no vision...

they somehow remind us to feel

and create and aspire.

[sighs] We fight, we learn,

- we learn, we live...
- We learn, we live.

FUTURE RAILLY: Not just longer,

but better.

I tell myself often, "Sometimes,

"terrible things happen
so that great things

"can happen next.

"Sometimes...

"Cassie...

a circle... a loop...
is just a second chance."

REPORTER: Hmm, a second chance.

Dr. Cassandra Railly,

thank you so much for your talk.

- [door creaks open]
- And on behalf of everybody

affected by the virus,
thank you for your hard work.

RAMSE: Cole.

REPORTER: Now,
the virus' sudden change...

What's all that about?

False alarm. [exhales]

Maybe we could throw some back, huh?

So we lose.

All of it.

Everything. What begins tomorrow...

ends today. But there you sit.

- To warn you.
- Of what?

The myriad of mistakes we'll make?

Perhaps we need them.

What was it that Eliot used to say?

"The common core
of all great achievements..."

...is failure."

So how did we fail?

I trusted the wrong person.

Why not the right one?

Because the ones I should have
trusted didn't trust me.

I'd only ever given them missions.

I'd never really heard them.

And whatever faith, whatever knowledge,

whatever wisdom I had...
I gave it all away.

I gave it up for nothing... for hope.

But hope and trust
is all these people have.

This mission is not for myself.

This machine is not your machine!

[scoffing] Oh, please.

You can drop the selfless pretense.

I know the things
that you will do in her name.

[soft, stirring music]

♪ ♪

What the hell is wrong with you?

I'm dying.

[somber piano melody]

Surprise, it's not
the cigarettes. [chuckles]

♪ ♪

I was exposed to a lethal amount

of splinter radiation enabling our core.

So... how much time do you...

Not enough!

[somber violin and piano melody]

I could tell you everything.

To hell with causality.
We could change things.

Would you know which thread to pull?

This tangle of loops and knots...

which one could save us,

which one might make things worse?

- It cannot be worse.
- Oh, enough!

You're telling me it's hard?
Well, share the burden.

You're telling me you lost hope?

Borrow some of mine!

[soft string music]

♪ ♪

I'll be curious... someday to know

what just occurred to you.

Maybe there is a way. Maybe...

You realize that you cannot
remember this moment.

♪ ♪

Benzodiazepine
and half a bottle of whiskey?

By morning, you're a dream...

a hallucination at best.

You need to trust yourself.

Go. Fix it.

Oh, wait, wait!

Before you leave...
dear God, tell me this:

how do I get these damn tethers working?

Stop thinking of machine programming

so linearly. Time isn't a straight line.

It's a curve. It bends around itself,

growing while it turns.

Programming with an algorithmic spiral.

Just a warning:

I'm about to make
your life very difficult.

You always have.

[glass shatters, g*nshots ring]

[voices in foreign language
over police radio]

[helicopter blades thrumming]

[keyboard clacking rapidly]

[percussive music]

[distant g*nshots]

It's only gonna get worse out there.

When they all stop dying,

the rest are gonna start k*lling.

You know how this story ends.

[sighs] You're running out of time.

[g*nshots in the distance]

Hey. Hey, kiddo.

Kiddo. You can't stay here.

It's too dangerous. You gotta go.

[distant siren blaring]

[g*nf*re continues]

This city is falling apart.

Quarantine Zones are being drawn,

and you actually care about theft?

You will soon find

a great many things are
out of your control.

Savor the moment, Detective,
and do your job.

[helicopter blames thrumming,
g*nf*re continues]

Here. Security cameras.

This street is where
your madwoman last appeared.

Then find her.

[faint voice on loudspeakers]

You two ready? We have to go.

Dr. Railly, wait.

No.

- Cole.
- We can't keep doing this.

We're just going around in circles.

It's what we have.

- It's all that we have...
- It's not.

Jennifer's drawings?
The things she's been seeing?

- We need to push forward.
- Into what?

We have a target. Olivia...

"A target"? Listen to yourself.

- Flesh and blood...
- It's the same mission!

Leland Frost, the Witness...
it's the same thing,

over and over again.

It's the woman who k*lled our son.

[emotional string music]

♪ ♪

And you've got... what?

♪ ♪

Faith...

in ourselves... in each other.

Mr. Cole wants to
investigate the future.

You want to att*ck the past.
We can't do both.

There is no one mission... not anymore.

There is only
what we decide upon together.

You two wanna chase visions.

I can't.

I'm gonna go to .

I'm gonna find Olivia.

And I'm gonna k*ll her...

with or without you.

Dr. Railly, if you go,
there is no tether.

We may not be able to bring you back.

♪ ♪

Well, this was always a one-way trip.

[emotional music]

♪ ♪

- [keyboard clicking]
- I'm sending you

to the Emerson Hotel, January .

[computers beeping]

The serum in your blood
will help you travel...

however, she's rickety.
It's going to hurt like hell.

Cassie.

I need this.

For him.

[quietly] For us.

Come with me.

[engines thrumming up]

Not this time.

[swelling, stirring music]

♪ ♪

[soft sob]

Please.

[machinery humming]

- [booming]
- [decelerating whirs]

[mysterious music]

♪ ♪

Are you sure?

You and I started this together.

We're gonna finish it together.

[boom]

[panting]

♪ ♪

[computer beeping, keyboard clacking]

Come on. We gotta move... now.

I'm deleting the splinter data.

[Lasky and Adler arguing distantly]

Done.

[approaching voices]

We're on lockdown.

- I know what I heard.
- Well, the bloody machine

- just doesn't turn itself on.
- So much for containment.

Who's got a hall pass?

The machine... it somehow activated.

But nothing went out or came through.

The data logs are clear.

Except for the telemetry test
I ran this morning.

- There's no record of it.
- It's as if...

the data for the entire day
has been purged.

That alarm from before...

Eckland said there was
some kind of glitch

with the air filtration.
He's fixing it now.

You guys got a breach in de-con.

The open walkways, not a soul in sight?

It's not a malfunction.
It's a diversion.

Somebody's in the Facility. Let's move!

[intense musical build-up]

♪ ♪

[sighs] What the hell
are we doing in here?

Ramse's gonna find us.

This is the only place
he dare not search... yet.

[lighter clicks open]

[dramatic percussion]

Are you crazy? What if she wakes up?

She doesn't. She's totally sauced.

- Trust me.
- You have a plan.

The craziest.

Remember in the beginning, our machine,

the limitations... this machine?

The misfires, the Herculean efforts

to get her to ?

Yeah, she was a real piece of sh*t.

Will everyone please
stop calling her that?

- What's the plan?
- The day of your first splinter,

we had a massive energy drain.

I took it for a malfunction of the core,

- but today...
- It's us.

We're gonna steal from ourselves.

That's why the core was
so drained back then.

If we can, we take one of

- the functioning Adam Cells...
- Like a sparkplug.

And we use it to reignite our core.

Get our machine working again.

First, we have to take
this machine offline,

power down the core,
then remove the cell...

Okay, we split up.
You handle the machine.

- I'll get the cell.
- But you have to wait for me.

If the machine is still active,
the splinter radiation...

[inhales, stammers]

Just promise me.

- Wait for it to go offline.
- Yeah, sure.

Do not run into your other self,

and whatever you do, watch out

for Mr. Whitley and Mr. Ramse.

♪ ♪

They're looking for scavs, though.

They're not looking for us.

Hmm?

Just remember... you were a real bitch.

- You're relieved!
- Sorry, ma'am.

Sergeant Whitley gave us strict orders.

And who the hell
do you think gives him his?

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[exhales]

What are you, a little creeper?

Why don't you come with me?
I gotta check out the core.

What's the rush?

Probably a scav inside or something.

Come on.

- Where'd you get this?
- Huh?

Snazzy. Look at you!

Yeah.

[quiet music]

♪ ♪

What's wrong with you?

Nothing, nothing. I, uh...

What's with the look?

You want to make a change?

[dark musical sting]

Brother, you give me the word.
We'll go right now.

Listen, I know it'll get messy.

Well...

it's messy either way, right?

"One and done" sounds good, but...

when's it ever that easy?

However many times it takes, man.

Until what?

Until your soul is saved.

[gentle music]

What if it never stops?

♪ ♪

All the sh*t that we did. Hm?

Wh... what if it's just that?

Over and over and over again.

We keep trying to do
the right thing the wrong way.

♪ ♪

There's no right or wrong.

You know what I mean? There's...

there's no good or bad.

You just gotta do what matters

in the... in the moment.

Yeah.

I'm, uh...

I'm trying real hard to forgive myself.

I don't know if I can.

Better stop trying.

I mean, only
the dead can forgive, brother.

[soft, emotional music]

You gotta give them
a reason to forgive you.

♪ ♪

You ready to pick
your balls up off the floor?

[chuckles]

I mean, 'cause we got scavs

all over in the Facility.

You know, I gotta go hunting.

Yeah. Hey, why don't, uh...

you go ahead. I'll, uh...

I'll catch up to you.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

♪ ♪

You're gonna be okay, brother.

[exhales]

Better hurry. They're talking about

closing the airports
until this thing blows over.

Dumb asses.

Okay, there's a train
to Heathrow in the morning.

You can be wheels up to JFK
by hours.

You mean "we."

[apprehensive music]

No.

[dark musical sting]

No. You did not get sh*t.

Those guards didn't even have g*ns.

Took a b*llet wound to the old id.

[inhales, chuckles] Trust me.

It's not gonna take long.
I'm a fast bleeder.

You're not even real! You can't die.

The Jennifer-Goines-
Gray-Matter-Dynamic-Duo...

[inhales sharply]
has sung its last tune.

You're on your own now.

But I need you.

The visions, the voices,
you're... you're all I got.

Being crazy is my thing.

If I don't have that...

[stirring music]

What am I?

Brave.

Impulsive. Irrationally rational.

And being primary's
got nothing to do with it.

You don't need the voices anymore.

You got you.

♪ ♪

[gasping dramatically]

[vape bubbling]

[exhales, coughs]

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

I'm dying now.

♪ ♪

Oh... don't forget your passport.

- [knocking]
- [gasps]

Police! Open up.

sh*t.

- [knocking]
- Police!

- Open up now!
- [door rattling]

[crash, glass shattering]

[gripping percussive music]

♪ ♪

[chilling musical sting]

Bonham!

I found your thief.

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

Hi, beautiful.

Come on, come on.

♪ ♪

[whirring]

[machinery beeping]

Jones?

[dark musical sting]

Mr. Whitley.

Facility's on lockdown.
You shouldn't be here.

Boss's orders.

Oh, we're all... out of place.

At least here I can be useful.

Lot of sh*t today. Maybe we should

think about rolling back the launch.

No, no. We'll proceed.

I suspect everything will go
as it's meant to.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

Maybe you should get some rest.

- No, I'll stay with you.
- That won't be necessary.

There might be scavs inside.
My job is to keep you safe.

♪ ♪

I may never say so, but...

I'm grateful...

for everything you've done...

for everything you will do.

I better go call off Ramse.

♪ ♪

[groans]

[sighing] What the f*ck?

ADLER: Of course! We need to use
a phi-based tether system.

YOUNG JONES: It was right in
front of us the entire time.

- I just couldn't see it.
- LASKY: How'd you figure it out?

I have no earthly idea.

Ready?

Let's get to work.

We got the Adam Cell. We should go.

Not yet. I wanna see this.

Begin splinter sequence checklist.

- Coordinates?
- Coordinates set.

Geo-positioning confirmed.

- Splinter processing?
- Splintering go.

- Time-stream array?
- [whispers] Time-stream array.

Stable. The window is open.

Power core?

Power core, Dr. Lasky?

Uh... in flux, but at maximum.

♪ ♪

Mr. Cole? If you please.

- [shaky breath]
- You sure about this sh*t?

[stirring music]

♪ ♪

Hey... hey, hey, hey.

[laughs]

JONES: Time is different for you now.

Everyone else is bound by time.

Not you.

Not even the paradox can hold you back.

Mr. Cole?

She is not your mission.

♪ ♪

She's just a puzzle piece.

YOUNG JONES: Remember, Mr. Cole.

Remember your mission.

Everything else is secondary.

[shivering audibly]

Everyone you see is already dead.

♪ ♪

You all right?

♪ ♪

James.

Promise me...

we'll see this to the end.

[music swells]

I promise.

♪ ♪

[power up thrumming]

Initiate splinter sequence.

♪ ♪

[machine humming loudly]

[machine rattling]

[dramatic build-up]

♪ ♪

Departure at gate four.

[announcer speaking in foreign language]

[low, dark music]

♪ ♪

Ms. Goines.

It is Ms. Goines, yes?

♪ ♪

Who are you?

Bonham.

Interpol, I'm afraid.

If you're planning on leaving
the country,

you won't get very far.

Oh, my god... I should've
listened to me!

I suspect that statement
is not directed at me

but instead, one of the many voices
inside your head?

I've had a look
at your psychiatric file.

One would think
you fancy yourself an artist.

Your sketches... fantastical images

of stairs, bells, serpents, and tails...

Monkey faces?

♪ ♪

You're with them, aren't you?

The Army of the Monkeys?

Curious.

Tell me, Ms. Goines:
where is James Cole?

[music building]

[announcer speaking foreign language]

[scoffs] You can't run.

What are you doing?

Something gutsy.

Something irrationally rational.

[horn blows]

Ms. Goines...

you are on foreign soil
in a time of plague.

Hunted, cornered, alone.

I'm not alone.

[train tracks rattling]

Wait!

[train tracks rattling]

[bell ringing]