02x05 - The Inuit Glasses and the Peruvian Gourd

[bunniefuu]

Is this what you were looking for?

That's perfect.

Absolutely, Georgia.

I'll get right on that.

Come on, Alex.

You're smart. You can figure this out.

After our careful study

of the red thorns this summer,

we consider ourselves experts

on the briar.

While you were in India,

we completed a new survey of it.

Thirty-seven portions of the briar have

been chewed, gnawed and/or gobbled.

Thirty-seven? Wow. That's a lot.

Yeah. Chompers has been busy.

Chompers. Good name.

Thank you. It's a gift.

We should see if there's a pattern

to Chompers's chomping.

I'm one step ahead of ya, mate.

I see no patterns in that at all.

True. But if we understand

where Chompers has been,

we can hypothesize where it's going.

My thoughts exactly. Hence my plan.

Larry, no. We decided not to

The Inuit Trapper's Glasses.

They'd look good with my new kicks.

I bet they're cursed though, huh?

Oh, yes.

An Inuit trapper crafted these glasses

as a way to catch the animals

he'd been tracking.

Aye. You put 'em on and announce

the thing you wanna catch.

The glasses show you

the trail of any living soul

that roamed through a place

in the past week.

Figure out which trail's your prey.

Follow it.

Chompers in the brig.

Cornelius's journals say

the glasses only come off

when the wearer has captured

their intended target.

Wait, the curse is that you find

who you're looking for? That's not bad.

No, the curse is

that the longer you wear the glasses,

the more relentless you become,

losing all sense of reason.

Single-minded pursuit

can make a person go mad.

Yeah, that's a little bad.

Exactly. That's why the glasses

can be used only one time ever,

in a moment of pure desperation.

A moment like right now.

Are you suggesting we activate

and use a cursed artifact on purpose?

Well, when you say it like that

I have to agree with Sky, Larry.

It's too risky.

They just never trust me with anything.

Then I blacked out

at the museum. Istanbul.

That was a long blackout.

Dad.

Russ?

Dad, I lost faith in you.

Hank, is Russ down here?

I could have sworn I heard

- Dad, your lies have scarred me for life.

- Pandora?

You definitely heard that, right?

I don't understand. Maybe

Alex, if I'd known

that the Vanderhouvens were cursed,

I would have never married you.

Sky, no.

Alex, is everything all right?

Where are the kids?

Upstairs. Why?

I heard them in the Restricted Wing.

That's strange. What did they say?

Russ said he'd lost faith in me.

Pandora said my lies have scarred her.

Oh, Alex, I can't imagine

either of them saying those things.

I heard your voice too.

And what did I say?

That you never would have married me

if you knew about the family curse.

That is a hundred-percent false.

I promise you.

I wonder if these voices are somehow

connected with your blackouts

or the chewed briar.

But it sounded so real.

Or a new artifact has been activated.

That could be it.

I don't know.

Such a strange feeling

not to trust my own mind.

Sit with me for a bit.

Tell me if you hear anything else, okay?

Who goes there?

Larry, you ignorant fool.

Why don't you ever learn

from your failures?

What did you say?

Having a laugh at my expense, huh?

Sorry. I'm a bit unclear as to

what you're referring to, my friend.

Unclear?

Sky, I promised

I'd never lie to you again.

Why don't you trust me?

- But I do trust you.

- What?

Were you talking to me?

I didn't Wait, this is

what happened to me. What did you hear?

You said I didn't trust you, but I do.

Of course I do.

Till you lie to me again.

We should check on the kids.

You do that.

I'll go to the Restricted Wing.

If you're hearing voices too,

it must be a curse.

Mom, I wish you'd never gone back to work.

You weren't here to protect us

from the die block.

Pandora, I never meant to

Or the puppet. You're failing us, Mom.

Is that job worth it?

Russ

Wait, it's not real. Right?

Pandora, I don't like having you

at the museum.

You're annoying.

Mom?

Pandora, where's your brother?

You find him, if I'm so annoying.

No. Pandora, wait.

You'll never be as smart as Russ.

I am too as smart as Russ!

Of course you are.

Then why did you say I wasn't?

I didn't say anything.

You must be hearing the voices too.

Pandora, I'm way closer

to my other friends than you.

Devi?

Pandora, our friendship

will never be like it was before.

I'm not listening to you.

Pandora, you're a disappointment.

Pandora, you're annoying.

You can't ignore me, Pandora!

Sky, it took you too long

to rescue me from the void.

Russ, how can you suspect your dad?

I'm just naturally inquisitive.

Are you hearing voices too?

- Russ, you ask too many questions.

- Try not to listen to them.

How? I can't block them out.

Where's Pandora?

I thought she came down here.

Mom, I don't wanna talk to you.

Pandora, that is hurtful.

She's not here.

Remember, try not to listen to the voices.

I can't tell what's real and what's not.

I'll find her.

I know all her hiding spots.

Dad, you don't know me

as well as you think you do.

Pan. Come on, buddy.

She's not here, Alex.

Where are these voices coming from?

They seem to be getting louder

and from that direction.

Stanley, you're not as brave as me.

I am brave.

I'll show you how brave I am.

Intruder! Intruder!

Wha

This gourd belongs in

the South American Wing. Why is it here?

That's an air vent. It connects

to the main house's air system.

Whoever put the gourd there wanted those

whispers to travel all over Briarstone

and into our ears.

Let's get the gourd out of there.

Luckily, I built RAH a new remote.

Whoa. What's going on?

Pandora, we don't need you.

I always save the day with my big,

perfect brain.

Puh-lease, I can save days too.

Was that guy spying on us?

We've gotta find Cornelius's

journal entries about this artifact.

Dad, I'll help you.

Thanks, kiddo. Look at us,

the research team, back together again.

Dad, I don't feel close to you.

I saw a spy outside.

It must be the same fellow I saw.

Well, like I said before,

I wonder if this man

is connected to what's going on in here.

I mean, it can't be coincidence.

Stanley, you're failing to

protect the Restricted Wing.

I know. I will try harder.

I didn't say anything.

Snap out of it, man. They're not real.

He was dressed in black,

looking in our window with binoculars.

Did you get a good look at him?

Kind of.

He was in the bushes by the sidewalk.

That's where I saw him too.

Mom, I've seen so many

disturbing things this year. Too many.

I need to protect you better.

"The Peruvian Gourd." It's What?

The page has been ripped out.

Someone has been breaking in,

and they don't want us to know

how to break this curse.

He was old. Like 40.

Forty is not old.

But that's not the point.

The point is,

that guy must be our intruder.

I bet that's the guy

who took RAH's remote,

attacked Russ with the puppet

and tore Corny's journal.

He's like a supervillain.

But how would he know to do that?

Russ is right.

It does seem like very insider knowledge.

Supervillains are all-knowing. Duh.

Back me up, Mom.

Mom?

Mom, someone's watching us.

Our family's in danger, again!

Sky, it's up to you to save us.

Nobody messes with my family.

Hey, glasses.

I intend to catch the intruder in my home.

Show me who's been here.

Sky?

Start mapping, Larry.

We've got an intruder to track.

I checked upstairs. No Mom.

Maybe she's hiding

because I'm so annoying.

She and Russ think so.

That's just the gourd's whispers.

How did the whispers know to say that?

It couldn't just make it up.

Vanderhouvens, we have a situation.

But we already have a situation.

Right. But this is a new one.

Come with me.

Mom.

Pandora is red.

Russ is purple. And Alex is orange.

Sky, why did you put those on?

She answered the call.

Can't say I blame her.

Family, break the gourd's curse.

I got my eye on the intruder.

Larry, come. We've still got

the blue ribbon to track down.

We've had some wild times, but we've

never had to break two curses at once.

You heard Mom. She's on that one.

We're on gourd duty.

Well, what do we know about it?

The whispers make us hear

our loved ones saying hurtful things.

Things that aren't true, I hope.

Some of them are maybe kinda true.

What if we try to ignore them?

I tried that. It got scary.

There are still two ribbons left.

I can't tell who black is.

The line is broken.

Here's blue again.

There's something behind the grate.

The blue ribbon's a bat?

No. That's not our intruder.

The bat is green.

Sky!

What happened? Is everyone okay?

Sky knocked down some crates

while climbing the briar,

but I don't think she noticed.

Looks that way.

Dad, because of you,

we'll never be okay again.

The blue ribbon is all over

the chewed-up briar. It's Chompers.

He came in through the pipe

in Alex's office.

How did it get in there?

That's what I'm gonna find out.

Who's the black ribbon?

And why's their line all broken up?

No idea.

She's had the glasses on too long.

She's going mad.

We have to make sure

she doesn't hurt herself.

Or someone else.

Got it. Help Mom,

then break the curse on this gourd.

Just a normal day

in the Vanderhouven house.

They came from out here.

Wow. Those bushes

must've really ticked Mom off.

This was a bad idea.

The black ribbon must've

released Chompers right here.

This pipe leads to the Restricted Wing.

The black ribbon has to be

the man I saw from the window.

Look, he's been all over our yard.

If the black ribbon is the guy you saw,

why does his trail stop at the end of our

property? How is he coming and going?

Russ, you think you're so smart.

You never listen to anyone else.

I do too listen.

A Sorry. You were saying?

Maybe he's still here. That's why

we don't see him come and go.

How is that possible?

Sky!

The black ribbon came in here.

Those are the dice

that were missing from our games.

And RAH's original remote control.

And the journal pages

about the Peruvian Gourd.

Mom, you found the black ribbon's

secret hiding place.

Gotcha!

I caught the intruder.

The creature that's been chewing

the briar. You captured it.

Wow. So that's Chompers.

Chompers was the blue ribbon.

The black ribbon is still out there.

We've got to use the glasses again.

We can't.

They can only be used once, remember?

Larry, I'm sorry you didn't get

to use these. I know you wanted to.

Aye. It's all right, Sky.

You did catch an intruder.

And we finally have information

on how to break the curse on that.

"The Peruvian Gourd was crafted by

an ancient artisan

and given as a gift to a rival kingdom.

But the gift was cursed.

It made people hear their

deepest insecurities spoken aloud

by their loved ones,

sowing distrust among them.

This weakened the kingdom,

allowing its rival to conquer it."

Classic.

The conquering kingdom used

this gourd as a Trojan horse,

then pulled a divide and conquer.

I knew those voices weren't real.

Still, hard to ignore.

Alex, something inside you is rotting,

and you know it.

You're putting all of us at risk.

Hey, that's enough! I would never do

anything to hurt my family!

My brain hasn't

been super reliable lately,

but the gourd doesn't know

what's in my heart.

I love all of you. It's the one feeling

I am 100 percent sure is real.

We love you too.

You know, I sometimes give

the doubtful voices in my head more power

than they deserve.

Even without a curse.

Yeah, they're just thoughts, right?

If we take them seriously, the curse wins.

So, how 'bout this?

I love you weirdos. Forever and ever.

Take that, ear invaders.

I'm not one for visible emotions,

but I love everyone here too.

The hiss is getting softer.

Maybe that's how we break the curse.

Overpower doubts with truth.

Yes. And I have an idea on how.

Write down how you really feel

and we'll use that truth

to silence the whispers.

I'm smart in my own way.

Something's going on with Dad.

I feel it in my bones,

but I also believe that Dad loves us.

So I'll listen to my heart for once.

Give him the benefit of the doubt.

I love my job.

I also love my family with all my heart

and will do whatever I can

to protect them.

I've made mistakes,

but I want to do right by my family

and correct the wrongs of my ancestors.

This lot is all right.

It's nice to have a family.

It worked.

What did you write? Was it about me?

Guess you'll never know.

You're so annoying.

Well, it's all set.

I leave in the morning.

I have an appointment at the museum

in Lima to return the gourd.

And I heard back from your Alaskan friend

about the glasses.

I wish we could come with you.

I'll be in constant contact.

And Margie will be with me.

If I black out, she can make sure

I'm safe. I'm gonna go pack.