01x06 - The Oblivion Suite

[bunniefuu]

The following programme contains

strong language.

Alright, Joy.

She just made you collateral.

I'll come and get you, I promise!

I bring you the diary.

-You give me Joy. -Swapsies, it is.

Has she called yet?

About swapping me for the diary?

Because he said

he would cut my hand off.

I need you to find a man

called Jensen

and get some of his DNA for me.

If Joy is doing something for Iris,

there's a way to use that knowledge

to your own advantage.

Alfie, I need that book.

We hate people who knowingly

provide assistance

to people who m*rder

police officers.

If you actually want to know

what happened

up to you, Nico.

The police are here.

Forgive the intrusion,

Professor Lind.

I appreciate that privacy's

very important to you.

My name is Pym.

And as I'm sure you've inferred,

I represent the syndicate

who debt-financed

development of your device

back when the project

hit some cash flow issues.

In fact, I'm the new acting head

of what they call

the Intragroup Committee.

Now

we, your admirers and supporters,

we're keenly aware that contained

within the neurological pathways

of your device

lies certain conjectures

that you'd much prefer

remain undisclosed.

So, let me reassure you.

I am here only to discuss

some comparatively minor work

you did on protein misfolding

in the PRNP gene.

The gene that encodes

an incurable prion disease

known as Fatal Familial Insomnia.

Now, at the very head

of my organisation

sits an extremely wealthy man.

And the thing he cherishes most

in the entire world

is a grandchild.

Now, her family learned

that she'd inherited this condition

while still in utero.

So, the previous head

of the Intragroup Committee

was given the task

of securing a treatment

before she became symptomatic.

And sadly this wasn't to be.

Symptoms appeared a few weeks ago.

It started with tremors

gait abnormalities

involuntary eye,

hand and arm movements.

Her time is growing

desperately short.

Soon, she'll be unable to sleep.

She'll experience terrifying

delusions, waking nightmares.

Followed by severe dementia

and then death.

She's nine years old.

So, the reason I'm here,

is to offer you, in person,

my absolute assurance that we

have no intention of exploiting,

financially or otherwise,

any of these more

abstruse conjectures.

In fact, I would happily see

the machine entirely erased,

if that is, indeed,

what you truly want.

All I ask

is for you to wake it.

Just long enough

for me to take

just what I need.

This is about a child,

Professor Lind.

I'm sorry.

Did you give me your name?

I-I did. Yes, it's Pym.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I sh*t you, Pym.

I sh*t you out.

Ahhh!

The man's a cabbage.

Let's do it the easy way.

SIOUXSIE: Here Comes That Day ♪

Oh, here comes that day

Oh, here comes the rain

on your parade

There's a price to pay

For a life of insincerity

And you pretend

That it doesn't matter

And that you're not scared

Oh, here comes that day

Oh, here comes that rain

on your parade. ♪

Oh, no, no, no!

Why are you here?

Come on, tell me.

She She invited me.

Who? Iris.

How long have you been running

this YouTube channel?

Er, t-two years, more or less.

I mean, it takes it takes a while

to gain traction.

Sorry.

I'm really sorry I couldn't, erm

Yeah, I can try.

Let me out! Let me out!

Please, let me out!

Let me out! Please, let me out!

Ugh! Ugh!

Bathroom's over there.

Ugh! Ugh!

"A remarkable genius once

observed that 'the first gulp"

"'from the glass of natural science

will turn you into an atheist."

"'But at the bottom of the glass

God is waiting for you.'"

"And so it came to be,

"the deeper I drank from the well

of what is yet to be known,

"the more profoundly I've been

drawn to Hindu cosmology

"a credo consecrated

to the astonishing principle

"that, the cosmos, reality itself,"

"experiences as an infinite

cycle of birth, death and rebirth."

"And this we call Brahman."

"I believe I have glimpsed

the shadow of Brahman, Mr Beck."

"I believe there is form

in the void."

"And you may call it God,

if you will."

So, this is Jensen,

as I'm sure Iris described him.

When she told

you to sneak into his room.

But this is who he actually is.

Cameron trusted you.

Which makes him an idiot,

and you very lucky to be alive.

I'm looking at it now.

Of course.

No, tell them

that we have a plan of action

that we'll retrieve

the password imminently.

A matter of hours, all being well.

Are you decent? No! Just a sec!

Is it now?

Are you nervous.

Yeah-huh.

Duh! There's no need.

Yeah, right.

Look, If it's really bad, we could

probably dig you out some medication

just to take the edge

off the anxiety.

Do you do that?

Not recreationally, no.

I don't actually do anything

recreationally anymore.

But I do take something

to help me go to sleep.

And something to help me

get out of bed.

And something

well I've been having the odd,

sort of, panic attack thing.

I think I'm OK, thanks.

Good choice. Just say mostly no.

Ah, so this is Joy, is it?

Nice to meet you at last, Joy.

It's OK. Don't worry.

Go on.

Hey, Iris!

Hello, Cameron.

"I saw the internet. How's Italy?"

Have you ever had a c*ck

on the roof terrace

of the Hotel Roma Antica?

Oh, my God.

"So, where are you, really?"

Rome.

"Very good. Very funny."

So, is she with you?

She certainly is.

Miss Brook?

"How are you, Joy?"

I-I'm OK. I'm

I need to hear her speak, Cameron.

"She spoke. You heard."

That could be a voice memo.

OK.

Then no fun and games.

Joy, I'd like for you to think back

to our lessons

so you can answer some questions,

OK?

OK.

A dung beetle walks into a bar

and says

Excuse me, is this stool taken?

What does "DNA" stand for?

National Dyslexic Association.

Why did the chicken

cross the Mobius strip?

"Oh, to get to the same side."

""

"OK. So how are we gonna do this?"

Can we try something with a bit less

shrapnel this time, please?

"Meet me at Roma Aurelia at 4pm."

No, Iris.

We can't do that.

We won't get there in time.

"Oh, you're only in bloody Slovenia,"

"and you've got a helicopter.

Of course you can, if you skedaddle."

Before things get too convivial,

I do have something to add.

Sorry, who am I speaking to?

Someone who needs more assurance

of good faith before I allow

Joy Baxter to leave

the premises with her skin on.

Cameron!

What the f*ck are you doing?

"The usual due diligence."

And it's necessary

to do it like that, is it?

Does hurting her

prove something about you

that we don't already know?

Might prove something to Iris.

Oddly, it won't! Oh, Cameron!

It's OK, Joy.

He's not gonna do this anymore.

Because if he does,

he's not gonna get what he wants.

And what he wants,

he wants very, very much.

Show me the book, please, Iris.

"Your face in the picture. Stick out

your tongue. Close your left eye."

"Iris. Do it, quickly! Cameron!"

"Cameron!"

There we are. Everybody happy?

Is that the actual diary?

Of course it is. Let her go.

And we'll have no more of that.

We're not f*cking barbarians.

Hm. Iris, you still there?

Roma Aurelia. 4pm.

Oh.

OK.

You were telling the truth.

So let's go and get Joy Baxter.

We've got five minutes.

We'll be there.

This, please.

Nico!

Grazie. Arrivederci.

I see them.

We're here!

The traffic was mental,

but we're here.

"Hop on the bus in front of you.

The one to Tivoli"

Oh, come on.

Don't make me get on a bus.

Why don't we do it on a train?

I quite like a train!

I'll text you the stop

you need to get off at.

What?

Nothing.

I know what nothing looks like.

That's not nothing.

She must be watching us.

Well, we don't have a choice

because I'm stupid

and I gave her a job.

I'll be watching.

You won't be alone.

Goodbye, Joy. Good luck.

I hope you manage

to put this all behind you.

I think this is it.

Iris knows how to pick

a rendezvous, doesn't she?

"Meski, is there anything?"

Not yet.

Be patient.

Erm

Why can't you sleep?

Oh, you know.

Stuff goes round and round my head.

What, like

all the embarrassing things

you've ever done?

All your own cringe

come back to haunt you.

Something like that, yeah.

You?

Yeah.

You know who Neil Armstrong was?

Spaceman. Walked on the moon.

Well, I think about him quite a lot.

I think about

when he stepped on the moon.

He was basically an ambassador

for the entire species.

The whole world was watching.

So, it's got to be a candidate

for the most optimistic moment

in history.

But do you know who history forgot?

Sigmund Rascher.

Is he the one that said that men

want to diddle their mums?

No. Different Sigmund.

This one was a n*zi.

He spent his scientific career

freezing human beings to death

in ice baths

and suffocating other human beings

to death in pressure chambers.

He was a monster.

But without that research,

we would never have known

about the tolerances

of the human body in extremis.

And the spacesuits

that the NASA programme used

for the Apollo programme

could never have been made.

No Sigmund Rascher,

no Neil Armstrong.

No worst of us

no best of us.

So I think about that sort of thing

quite a lot when I can't sleep.

All the enormities

we foist on each other.

All the iniquities and the horrors.

And I wonder

if it all evens out in the end.

"Heads up."

Almost there. I can see them.

How're you getting on?

Almost good to go.

You look nervous.

Yeah-huh, duh.

How are you, Joy? Are you OK?

I'm good.

Yeah, I'm alright.

This will all be over soon.

How was the bus?

It was actually really nice.

Where's the book?

I'm taking Joy home,

but I'm not giving you the book.

You see that?

I do.

That's mine. It's armed.

Meski's the pilot.

She sends her worst regards,

by the way.

Hey, Meski.

So, if I don't give you the diary,

you-

Riddle you with b*ll*ts,

type of thing.

Hm.

Cameron, this is Nico.

All she cares about

is getting Joy home.

She doesn't give two hoots about you,

or me.

And definitely not the bloody diary.

Which is why she will burn it

if she has to.

Even if I beg her to stop.

You don't have the right to do this

just because it frightens you.

It should frighten you, too.

It does.

But burning a book

doesn't mean it not true.

And if the book ends up burning us?

Well that's not a judgement

you get to make.

OK, Nico. Chocks away.

Once it's lost, it's gone forever.

All those lives it could save, Iris,

you're burning them too.

Say the word.

OK, Meski, stand down.

You, arsonist, mask woman,

you can stop too.

OK. Off you go.

And what about you?

What will they do to you?

Oh, honestly?

Don't worry.

I'll think of something.

Go on, off you go.

Remember to drink lots of water.

Eat the rainbow.

Well, that's that, then.

Look after her, keep her safe.

Yeah. Try and die

in some terrible accident,

or something.

It's really horrible,

having to hate you.

Did you get it?

His DNA?

It's from his hairbrush.

Good girl.

Yes!

So, you were right,

you bitter old meanie.

It was the only way to play

the hand she had.

I thought

you were gonna let it burn.

Yeah. That was a bit tricky.

Please tell me you've got them.

Of course. Marking them now.

It's a big old bloody risk.

Diary.

They've picked up the book.

They know we're watching them.

Well, she'd be worried

if we weren't.

Let it play out.

What? Hi, Joy.

Nice to see you.

Let's go!

Don't let me down, Cindy.

Watch your fingers.

sh*t!

Come on Alfie, come on.

"What's happening?"

Countermeasures.

Counter what bloody measures?

"They're trying to lose us

by taking out the drone."

How?

f*ck! Brute force.

"Don't lose them."

I don't intend to.

Damn. They're way faster!

How long till the tunnel?

Less than a kilometre!

Ah, sh*t, sh*t. I missed it.

Come on.

Cindy, come on, come on.

Nico, how much longer have we got?

Not long.

Come on, sweetie.

Quite soon, yeah? It is soon!

Last chance. Come on, Alfie!

sh*t.

Almost there!

Go! Now!

Yes! Yes!

Yeah! Yes!

"What's happening?"

They've stopped in the tunnel.

"Can you see them?"

"Have you got them?"

sh*t! "Meski?"

We can camp here for the night.

OK?

OK, if you can repeat the question

in the answer, sort of thing?

And that way, it'll have

a really nice, professional vibe.

Yeah? OK.

Yeah. Is that what they do?

It is, yeah.

You ready to go.

You got this.

OK.

Rolling!

So, tell us who you are.

Joy Baxter.

Oh, sorry. Erm

My name is Joy Baxter.

Amazing. Well done. You're a

You're a natural.

So, Joy

can you tell me in your own words,

what happened to you over the last

few days?

I suppose what happened is a few

days ago I was basically kidnapped.

'There was this bloke

called Cameron.

'He took us to this massive base.

'Locked me in,

showed me this big computery thing

'and then tried to swap me

for a book.'

'Do you think this will work?'

Yes.

Because I'm thinking she's literally

the devil, so it might not.

She's literally the devil,

which is why it will.

You should probably stop drinking.

Have a drink. I'm working.

You're fired. Have a drink.

I don't drink. Since when?

Since I lost my job.

Un altro.

Do you ever feel mugged?

Of what?

Oh, of little things.

But big little things.

Having kids.

Taking buses.

You like buses now? I do.

It turns out, I like a bus.

Are you married?

Yes.

How long?

For longer than I wasn't.

And has it's been good? Yes.

So, would you say you were happy?

It's not something I think about.

Oh, well, that means you are!

Happiness is like sex and money.

You only say it doesn't matter

if you have enough of it.

Then I'm happy.

But happiness

and joy aren't the same thing.

All I'm saying is,

what if you spend so much time

trying to achieve big things

you miss the chance

to be part of something

small?

Stop drinking now, please.

You're being quite boring.

But consistent.

So And after all this

time in hiding, Iris

why come forward

to have this conversation now?

Well, because if I were to die,

which is beginning

to look quite likely,

I need to leave behind a record

of what happened and why.

And this record somehow

connects to the book in your hands.

It does.

So, tell me about that.

It's the diary

of Professor Jensen Lind.

It contains the encrypted record

of discoveries

made by a machine he created.

And there's a lot of good in here.

Profound good, really.

I mean, imagine being able to grow

a new heart, new eyes.

There's a solution to nuclear

fusion, untested, of course.

Superconductors at room temperature.

There's a solution

to the Collatz Conjecture,

tossed off

as a kind of afterthought.

But

there are weapons

described in here also.

Genetically targeted viruses.

What looks like some

kind of Harmonic Resonance Device

designed to emit seismic waves.

An earthquake generator, basically.

A terrible thing.

Well, would these weapons

actually work.

Well, from what I can tell, yes.

But that's not what frightens you.

Is it?

Not even that.

Not even that, no.

So, what does?

The device identified

a recurring pattern.

In the Cosmic Microwave

Background Radiation.

In bird migrations,

in galactic rotation, in the tides.

The rise and fall

of the stock market.

The pulsation

of the Northern Lights.

Running through the fabric

of reality.

Like a source code.

A source code to what?

The four pillars of Dharma

reduced to one.

The Eschaton.

The Great Annihilator.

Annihilator of?

What is.

But what does that actually mean?

I'll know as soon as I get

Jensen's DNA sequence from this.

Use it to crack the last key

of the cipher.

Giving me access to the final

pages of the diary.

All the way to the End.

Is it possible, erm

this is all just the delusion

of a troubled man's mind?

Well, it's more than possible,

it's highly probable, almost certain.

But there is a non-zero possibility

that it's not.

And if you can prove

that it's not a delusion?

Then I'm gonna destroy the machine

and Jensen Lind with it.

Just to be sure.

Right Ascension, 14 hours,

50 minutes, zero seconds.

Declination plus 46 degrees,

zero seconds.

Right Ascension 14 hours, 50 minutes-

What was that?

What was what?

The words you were muttering.

It's co-ordinates.

Co-ordinates to what?

Nothing.

That doesn't make any sense.

All coordinates lead somewhere.

Very good. Very true. Gold star.

So?

Well, it is coordinates to the

Bootes Void. The Great Nothing.

It's basically a big

hole in the Universe,

three hundred light years across.

A scale we can't even

begin to comprehend.

We'd go mad if we tried.

Can fit the Milky way into it

a billion times, and some.

Well, that can't be true.

Maths don't lie. Only people do that.

It's up there.

In the constellation of Bootes.

The herdsman pushes

the plough around the North Star.

A big bubble of absolute oblivion.

Can I ask you something?

Course you can. I'm your teacher.

Everything you did to get me back.

Was that actually about me?

Or was it

just to get what you wanted?

It was both.

Because I've been thinking

about it.

And you sent me in to Jensen,

which seems

I don't know

dangerous, really.

I didn't think he could hurt you.

I thought he'd be sedated.

That makes sense, yeah.

And he didn't hurt you.

No.

He was really kind, actually.

Well, there you go.

See, that's the difference

between Cameron and me.

I respect you enough

to tell you the truth.

I don't tell you what you wanna hear.

I know. I know.

And I appreciate that.

Thank you.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

What's wrong?

No.

Do you fancy some breakfast?

Yeah