What're you guys waiting for?
Come on. Come on!
Oh, come on. It's fine...
I think.
Yeah.
It's definitely up to code.
Oh, my God.
Okay. It's okay.
You okay? Yeah?
Whoo!
Looks like a nor'wester coming in.
Think we should head down?
Yeah.
-I wouldn't wanna get caught-- -Shh, shh!
Where are you going?
What'd you hear?
I don't know.
There it is again.
I don't hear anything, man.
What is that?
Paul?
-Paul? -Paul!
Paul!
You okay down there, buddy?
Oh, shit.
Paul!
Don't worry. I'm gonna go down there and I'm gonna get him, okay?
Paul!
I'm gonna get him, all right?
He's gonna be okay.
Okay, good!
All right, be ready to pull him up.
Paul.
What are you doing, man? Why didn't you answer me?
Fuck.
What the fuck is this?
What the fuck are you?
Are you all right?
Can you stand up?
If you touch me...
you'll die.
What?
If you touch me, you'll die.
What do you mean, if I touch you?
Come on. Come on, man.
Come on.
Paul?
What is it, man? Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
Hey.
Hey, come on, let's--
What's going on, buddy?
Greg?
What's going on?
Hold on a minute!
Hey.
Paul, stop fucking around.
Come on, let's go. Get up. Get up.
Come on, come on. We're gonna get you out of here.
I'm getting you up. Come on, man, get up.
I got him!
-Just give me a minute. -Okay.
There's a house!
Hello?
Hello? Hello?
Nobody's here!
Open the door.
Okay, okay.
I got him, I got him. I got him.
-You got it? -I got it.
-Are you okay? Everything okay? -I'm fine. Yeah.
I'll be right back.
Okay, let's get his clothes off him
and check him for insect bites.
Come on, Paul. Can't you say something?
Come on.
What's wrong with him?
I don't know.
There's nothing on him.
I think he's in shock.
Come on, Paulie. Give us a sign, eh?
Just make sure and yelp for me
if I hit any tender spots, all right?
Hmm?
How's he been lately?
Fine. He's been fine!
-Okay. Okay, calm down. -He's been fine.
Here.
Some kind of gas pocket, maybe?
I was breathing the same air he was.
No sign of a head injury at all?
No.
We'd need a scan to be sure, but...
What?
If it's not his head,
it's in his head.
-We need to get him to a hospital. -How?
I don't know. There's gotta be somebody.
-We can carry him-- -We hiked in here, Ruthie.
Listen to me. We hiked in here, okay?
We are five miles from the nearest road,
and I can't carry him anymore, not in this weather.
Hey.
He's not physically injured.
Hey, he's not.
We'll just keep an eye on him.
And if he doesn't improve overnight,
then I will hike out
and I will find transport to Jakar myself, okay?
I'm sure he'll be fine in the morning.
Ruthie, you gotta eat something.
Come on.
We'll be right back, okay?
Hello? Can you help us?
Can you hear me? We need help.
Go away! Go away.
Ruthie? Open up, it's us!
Greg?
Ruthie, open the goddamn door.
It's freezing! Open!
We can't get through the pass,
not in this storm.
Did you see someone out there?
No, just you.
-What? -What were you doing out there?
There was...
someone out there.
He chased me. I wanna get outta--
Come on, calm down.
Do not tell me to calm down!
We need to leave!
Paul?
Where are you?
Where is he?
He's gotta be here somewhere.
Hey, Paul?
His jacket's gone.
For fuck's sake, Paul. What are you doing?
You know, I am sick of your "I'm so special" bullshit.
-You know that? -That's not helping.
What's going on, sweetheart?
-Oh, don't encourage him. -Can you tell me?
Just... back off, Greg.
-No, don't tell me to back off. -Calm down.
Do you want him to get better or not?
No, I don't really give a shit.
-This is his fucking fault. -It's not helping, what you're doing.
-Just stop it! -I've been dealing with
his selfish bullshit for 20 years.
He has us lost in a mountain
because he's having a bad day?
Would you fucking say something?
I told you...
What?
Where were you?
Just this, please.
Yeah, you don't want that one.
Well, it says that one has more sprays than the other ones.
Yes, that's right. But it uses a formula
where you have to shake it before you use it.
-Oh. -Not something
you're gonna want in an emergency.
I'll show you what you need.
It's actually cheaper, anyway.
It's two and oh.
Former Home Run Derby champ... trying to knock another one
out of the park and up in the stands.
So it's three balls, no strikes...
Hi. Don't go anywhere.
-This. -Oh.
Might wanna check it, see if it's expired.
-Oh, of course. -And this is for you.
-I'll be right back. -Thank you.
Oh, I don't need any change, that's fine.
♪ Happy Birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy Birthday, dear customer ♪
♪ Happy Birthday to you ♪
-Hip hip... -Hooray!
Hello, Amanda.
Your mom know you're here?
How's she doing?
I came here to find out how you're doing.
I mean, it's been almost a year.
I was concerned about you.
Thank you.
Maybe you think that's silly.
No.
Ever since my father died,
and so soon after
when Allison and Henry...
It's okay. It's all right.
I mean...
it was more than any of us could bear.
-Yeah. -Any of us.
I mean, I myself felt like...
I was gonna burst into a million pieces.
But I came to tell you
that I found something so wonderful.
And so freeing.
And it's helped me to realize
that nothing can hurt you...
because nothing is real.
Amanda...
a lot of things are real.
Are they?
-Yeah. -How could you know?
I've learned it the hard way.
What's real starts here,
and ends up out here.
I mean, what we think about
with focus, and intention,
and repetition, we manifest.
It's the power of positive thinking,
the power of negative thinking, right?
Right.
But what if there's a secret truth?
What if our thoughts actually begin somewhere else,
and they travel through us
like a signal traveling down a wire?
Thoughts that are old, and hidden, and singular.
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Yes, you do.
Of course you do.
Duty calls.
Okay.
Can I tell her that I saw you?
Yeah, of course.
Bye.
Thanks for checking on me.
Where were you? Where were you?
Where were you?
Where were you? Where were you?
Where were you?
Amanda? You want any eggs?
We... don't have any eggs.
Amanda?
Mandy, you up?
Amanda?
Hey.
It's okay. Come here.
Come on.
You already called the police?
Uh-huh, a few minutes, they said.
I'll be outside.
-Who are you? -I'm James Lasombra.
Neighbor. Family friend.
Didn't you used to be a cop?
Yes, I did. St. Louis.
Undercover, right?
Yeah, I remember hearing about you.
She came to see you yesterday?
Amanda, yes.
She say anything to make you think she was going somewhere?
No. I don't know.
How about her father? Where is he?
He died two years ago. Heart attack.
They were close?
She deal with any depression after that? Any more than...
-Just the usual. -...than the usual?
-Nothing. Yeah, no. -No?
How were things for your daughter at school?
-Any trouble? -Not at all.
She had-- I mean, a panic attack the other day,
but it was nothing serious.
She had a panic attack?
I got a call from the school, she'd been crying in class.
-Crying? -It was-- it was nothing.
She had a bad day, that's all.
She has a lot of schoolwork.
You know, she has a lot of pressure.
Anything like that happen before?
Um...
Would you say you two were close?
Yeah, Amanda and I are great, we're perfect.
Okay, listen, Mrs. Quail.
Your daughter's 18 years old.
-She's a legal adult-- -She's in high school.
You say her suitcase is missing,
and she appears to have deliberately packed.
-She is free to go. -That's not what happened.
I know my daughter.
Christ, don't you think
I'd rather that was the case than what I'm afraid of?
I understand your concern.
We'll see what we can find.
In the meantime,
if you hear anything, let me know.
Do you have any pets?
-No, why? -No reason.
Have a good day, Mrs. Quail. We'll be in touch.
Talk to you outside?
Their theory is Amanda's distressed
and she's acting out to hurt you.
They're not gonna do anything, are they?
No, probably not.
Why did they ask about pets?
I'm assuming they figured
the blood on the mirror's not human.
God, what am I supposed to do?
"He is here, he is there,
he is every-fucking-where."
-Who's "he"? -Probably Peter.
Yeah?
Yeah, I don't know.
Why don't you make me a list of Amanda's friends?
Thank you.
Excuse me, Davara? Davara Walsh?
Hi, I'm James Lasombra. I'm a friend of Amanda's.
-Yeah, I know who you are. -You know who I am.
Uh, well, do you know where Amanda is?
-No. -No?
You know why she might run off?
Can I have one?
You know smoking's bad for you?
All right. Get in the car.
So Amanda's mom told me
she was crying in class the other day?
She wasn't crying, she was screaming.
They... um...
The police. They, um...
they came to gym class today.
They asked us about Amanda.
What'd you tell them?
What didn't you tell them?
You tell them about "The Empty Man"?
That's just some stupid kids thing.
What is it?
I don't know.
Some story sort of going around
that if you went to a bridge after dark
and you found an empty bottle,
and if you blew into it, and you thought about him...
something would happen.
What happens?
You try it?
When?
Two nights ago.
The three of us were down on, um,
the old Chain-of-Rocks bridge, you know where that is?
Yeah. Yeah, I know.
When I was little,
I had this theory
that I could prevent anything bad from happening
by thinking about it beforehand.
What do you mean?
It was like,
every time I got into a car,
I'd think about all the different ways
we could get into a car accident.
-Mm-hmm? -Because what are the odds
of getting hit by a bus
when you just thought about getting hit by a bus?
Kids are fucking stupid.
Yeah.
He said, proving his own point.
Dude, what the fuck?
Come on, let's bounce.
You missed some.
Who was there?
Lisa, Duncan,
Meyer, Brandon, and Amanda.
And Julianne was there too.
Bitch.
So, do you still wanna go?
I don't know.
Not like before, but...
sometimes I still feel like I could just disappear
and no one would even notice.
I get that.
Have you ever thought about suicide?
Plenty of times.
I even tried it once.
Psych. That's where I fell through
some French doors rollerblading in my house.
If I ever slit my wrists, it would be long and vertical.
Hey, wait.
We gotta try it.
Please, don't be dumb.
Try what?
Calling The Empty Man.
Who's The Empty Man?
Well, supposedly, if you're on a bridge
and you find a bottle...
you blow into it
and you think about The Empty Man.
Then after a little while,
you're supposed to hear him coming for you.
Tell him the rest.
Well, so, on the first night you hear him.
And then you can't stop thinking about him.
And then on the second night,
you see him.
Following you.
And on the third night?
Well, on the third night, he finds you.
Oh, come on, Mandy, how old are you?
Yeah, please, let's go home. I've got swim at 6:00.
No, Amanda, let's do it.
Brandon wants to find out what happens,
don't you, Brandon?
Not particularly, no.
Your turn, scrub.
Nailed it.
This is bullshit.
If it's bullshit, why won't you do it?
You don't want everyone thinking you don't blow, right, Davara?
Fuck all you guys.
The Empty Man. The Empty Man.
-What-- -Shh!
Hey! Who's out there?
Whoever's out there, stop fucking around!
Yeah, that's really gonna handle it. Thanks, Meyer.
-Shut up. -It's just some asshole.
Some drunk, or a bum or something.
Let's go, please. Please.
It's probably just some dorks messing with us, right?
Was that the last time you saw Amanda?
I saw her at the mall the next day talking to Brandon.
But I didn't talk to her.
You okay?
No, I have to go.
Well, wait a second, hey.
Could you give me an address for Brandon?
-Here. -Thank you.
-Hi. -Yes?
Does Brandon Maibaum live here?
Have you seen him?
He's not home?
No, he's not here.
Okay, uh, my name is James Lasombra.
I'm a friend of Nora Quail's...
Hello?
Lisa?
Mrs. Schwartz?
Anybody home?
Why didn't you run, you fool?
You were nearly killed.
Quiet. The god is coming.
What's he talking about?
He said, "The god is coming."
Hello?
Which god?
His god...
Lisa?
Hello?
Hey, Nora, it's me.
Listen, how well do you know Amanda's friends?
I mean, do any of them seem kind of off to you?
-Off how? -Into weird stuff.
What kind of weird stuff?
I don't know. I'm just grasping, Nora.
I mean, I don't wanna worry you.
But I tried to find
all of Amanda's friends who were last seen with her,
and I just can't seem to locate them.
None of them?
Aside from Davara Walsh, no.
Have you ever heard of the Pontifex Institute?
She ever mention that before?
No. No, what is that?
I don't know, it might not have anything to do with anything.
Listen, I got a few more stops to make.
So, why don't we talk about this later tonight?
Everything's gonna be fine, Nora.
All right, bye.
Leave me alone!
What is your problem? Why would you do that?
She knew Amanda Quail.
Is that why you were talking to her?
Yeah, that's right. They were friends.
I was hoping maybe she'd seen her.
And had she?
Not since yesterday at school, no.
How well did you know the Walsh girl?
Hardly at all.
What do you mean, "did"?
Davara Walsh died tonight.
Her body was found in a spa earlier this evening,
stabbed multiple times.
We don't know how many, a lot.
Oh, Christ.
She was stabbed in the face.
Do you have a suspect?
By all appearances, it was a suicide.
People don't...
People just don't do that to themselves.
My point exactly.
You know this town.
One, two murders a year.
Three if we're frisky.
Now this?
Poisons the atmosphere,
sure as sewage would the water supply.
It's communicable.
It changes people.
Three weeks ago,
in a house in Maryville,
a mother fed her newborn infant
to a pack of stray dogs.
She said the baby had been...
whispering to her.
In the kitchen, she wrote
"The Empty Man" on the linoleum floor.
We found the same thing tonight near
the body of the Walsh girl.
I've come to the conclusion
that there is no solving crimes like these.
Sure, we can put that mother in prison.
We can even put her in the gas chamber.
But that's not solving it.
It's inexplicable.
It's too big, it's...
We can't indict the cosmos.
You tell 'em about The Empty Man?
That's just some stupid kids thing.
What is it?
It started a while ago.
I don't know.
Some story sort of going around
that if you went to a bridge after dark
and you found an empty bottle,
and if you blew into it,
and you thought about him,
-something would happen. -What happens?
On the first night, you'd hear him.
And on the second night, you'd see him.
And the third night...
you'd feel him.
-Hello? -You all right?
Yeah, fine.
You don't sound fine.
Uh, it's just a bloody nose.
Oh, okay.
And... I'm outside.
Hey.
I'm guessing you forgot to eat.
No, I didn't forget.
It just never occurred to me.
Come inside.
Plates?
Next one on your right.
Terrific.
I just got you some egg rolls and Szechuan beef.
Little egg drop soup.
There's a big vigil in Slattery Park.
You know, everyone's there.
I made some flyers,
I was gonna put up around town.
Hey...
I'm sorry.
-I'm sorry. -No, no, no, no.
-None of this is your problem. -Don't be sorry.
You have nothing-- you have nothing to apologize for, okay?
-All right? -Yes. Yes, I do.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry it's been so long.
And I'm sorry about why.
Do you think she's okay?
Come here.
Everything's okay. Everything's okay.
May I stay?
Boundaries.
You want a drink?
Mm-hmm.
Where were you? Where were you?
On the first night...
you hear him.
Hey, sleepyhead.
Hello?
...any reason the group of friends
might've committed suicide remain unclear at this hour.
Another member of the group, Amanda Quail,
is still missing.
Welcome.
Go ahead and have a seat, you're just in time.
Well, that's good news.
Can I ask you a question?
How long have you guys been in business here?
We were established in 2013,
but what we can offer you is as old as time.
Okay.
Hi.
What is this?
That is your first step
on a journey to discovering your deepest self.
Oh, yeah. No, no, I get all that.
I grew up in San Francisco.
What is this?
Welcome, everyone.
Please just have a seat, I'll be with you in a moment.
Hey. Hey, so, I'm looking for someone.
Just make yourself comfortable.
I'm sure you'll find the answers you're looking for.
Sound check. One, two, three.
Check, one, two, three.
Each one of you here today
is looking for something.
Why else would you be here?
We go looking for things we have lost, yes?
Well, I'm here to tell you
there is nothing you have lost.
More than that, there is no such thing
as loss.
From our earliest days, meeting in garages
living rooms, church basements,
to this very moment--
our message has always remained:
"you are complete in yourself."
There is no struggle.
Struggling has failed.
Struggling is what wakes you up every day
wondering how much "more" you can acquire.
How much "more" you can use.
How much "more" space
can you take up in the world?
When the question we really need to ask ourselves is
how much "less" can you use?
How much "less" space can you occupy?
There is no struggle for because there are no...
distinctions.
To say that you are wrong
and I am right is to divide us.
Therefore we deny there is such a thing
as right or wrong.
These are exclusionary constructs designed
to foster the illusion of separateness.
There is no such thing as disunity.
There is only the great, binding...
nothingness of things.
At one time, we were one.
We will all be one again.
This message comes to you directly from...
The Empty Man.
He beckons you to discover the true face
of the world.
Thank you.
-Thank you for coming. -For a second there,
I thought you were about to say "namaste."
-I can if you like. -No, no, please, please.
Please, I grew up in San Francisco.
-Ah. -But towards the end.
-You did say... -The Empty Man.
That's right.
That's an interesting phrase.
You could say he called out to you.
-Or not. -Mmm.
What does it mean?
The Empty Man is...
a meditation, a focal point
for the targeted manifestation of hidden energies.
Right, and already, you're starting to lose me.
Just as man feeds and is fed
by the biosphere, the atmosphere,
so it is our thoughts feed and are fed
by the noosphere.
The noosphere?
The sum of all conscious thought.
Transmission from which can be stimulated
through the application of certain vectors,
very much like a virus.
You can't see it.
Well, what is "it"?
The veil between form and flesh,
and the means by which it can be pierced
and the two allowed
to co-mingle.
We're, each of us, blind in our way.
Distractions rob us of focus.
Technology robs us of memory.
Repetition robs us of comprehension.
You know the child's game,
if you say your name enough times,
it becomes gibberish?
That holds true for whole concepts,
even entire bodies of thought.
For example, take-- take Nietzsche's old line:
"If you stare into an abyss, it also stares into you."
Right? Well...
That has been rendered meaningless through repetition.
It's a refrigerator magnet.
It's a cliché. It's harmless.
But when was the last time you really thought about that?
What is an abyss?
And if you stare into it, why?
What about it calls to you?
And if it stares into you, it stands to reason
that something in you must also be calling to "it."
And that, my friend,
is anything but harmless, if you really reflect on it.
So the question becomes,
if profound meaning can be robbed of something
by so simple a task as repetition,
which is more fundamental?
Which is more true?
Your name?
Or the gibberish?
That is The Empty Man.
I'm so glad you came back.
Hope you stay longer this time.
I've never been here before.
Hmm.
There must be something about you.
Hey, man.
You, uh...
you seen this girl here?
She hang out here?
No?
Liar.
Hmm. Thank you for coming.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Nothing exists.
Even if something exists,
nothing can be known about it.
Even if something can be known about it,
knowledge about it can't be communicated to others.
Even if it can't be communicated,
it cannot be understood.
Nothing exists.
Even if something exists,
nothing can be known about it.
Even if something can be known about it,
knowledge about it
can't be communicated to others.
Even if it can't be communicated,
it cannot be understood.
From his thoughts, come the dreams.
From the dreams, comes the power.
From the power, comes the bridge.
From the bridge, comes the Man.
From the Man, come his thoughts.
From his thoughts, come the dreams.
From the dreams comes the power.
From the power, comes the bridge.
From the bridge--
Shit, shit, shit.
Is there someone here now?
If you're here now, show yourself.
Make yourself known to us.
We hear you.
We're listening.
Welcome. Show yourself.
Show yourself.
Would you come with us, sir?
How you doing?
Exit's that way.
You'll never get anywhere like that, man.
Not with these cats.
-Cats? -Man, these cats?
On another plane, man, you know?
Like... far out on the outer rim.
Aren't you a little young for the Neil Cassady routine?
Who's that, man?
You got a smoke?
She's been here.
But she's not here now.
Got big plans for her, they're moving her up.
Where is she?
Elsewhere.
Downstate.
Pontifex camp, where they go to get PR'd.
What is that?
"Pre-Released."
It's the first threshold to achieving singularity.
Christ, this jargon.
They have bullshit names for everything, man.
Comes to them in dreams, they say.
His Whispers.
Whose whispers?
I don't know.
But they do.
These aren't just flakes and outcasts.
They don't have five year plans,
they have 500 year plans.
You have no idea how dangerous these people are, man.
Where's the camp?
In the forest off Route 32.
Near the Meramec River Bridge.
Yeah, okay.
That's... funny.
You guys are funny.
The Pontifex Society.
We transmit. You receive.
Testing.
Shut it off.
-Did you see that? -What?
Come give me a hand with this.
What the fuck?
Yeah, no.
Come on!
What the fuck was that?
Will you be able to identify any of them?
No.
Way too dark, man.
Uh-huh.
And, uh, they attacked you
after you took these files.
Yeah, but that had...
There's two cabins.
I took the files from the first cabin.
They wouldn't know that. They couldn't see it.
Were these cabins locked?
No, they were not locked.
Was the road into the camp blocked?
What are you trying to say? You're saying I was trespassing?
I am trying to determine
if you have irretrievably fucked this investigation.
-Check out Pontifex Institute. -Major Case Squad is already on it.
-This is bad news, weird occult shit. -And you are not a cop anymore.
Come on, Lasombra.
Just write a statement.
Everything that happened.
I'll be right back.
Nora!
Hi.
-Are you alone? -Yes.
Has anyone come by?
-No. -Contacted by anybody?
Like who?
What are you doing? James?
Do you have a place you can go for a few days?
What?
I don't want to scare you.
Well, you are. You are scaring me.
James.
Maybe I wanna scare you a little bit.
Do you remember the Pontifex Institute?
-I told you about them. -Yes.
I checked them out.
On the surface it looks like some sort
of self-empowerment, oneness hippy bullshit.
But they're dangerous.
Are you saying that Amanda
-has joined a-- a cult? -Maybe.
They're not connected to
any sort of fucking church I've ever heard of.
-Oh, my God. -And whoever they are,
they seem to believe that they can channel
some sort of entity.
The Empty...
-Yeah. -... Man.
Do you have a place you can go?
I have to work.
-I mean, what am I-- -Hey, hey, hey.
I think they killed those kids, Nora.
And they know where you live.
Get it.
Hello?
Give it to me.
We need to go right now.
Get in your car, follow me.
I don't think we've been followed.
If you see anything suspicious,
you let me know.
Anything at all.
Okay.
She's dead, isn't she?
No, no.
No, she's not dead.
I think the fact
she wasn't under that bridge
means she's not. Okay?
Hey.
Does she know?
About what?
About us?
You mean the thing we never talk about?
No. No, I don't think so.
Why?
You never told her?
Why would I?
You think maybe
we've punished ourselves long enough?
Where were you?
On the second night.
You see him. You see him.
Where were you?
All available doctors to level three.
EKG staff to ER. EKG staff to ER.
All right. I'll see you next week.
You got it.
How you doin', Neal Cassady?
Come here.
Get in the car. Get in the fucking car!
Gimme your hands!
I didn't know what they were gonna do, man.
They just told me to tell you about it.
Bullshit! Who's that guy in the hospital?
I saw you, freak show-- you and your buddies.
Jesus! This shit really stings, man!
I don't give a shit. Who was he?
-It's hard to explain. -Why don't you give it go, man?
I'm your only friend right now.
He's like an antennae.
Tuned to frequencies we only get through him.
He transmits, we receive.
Fuck.
Fuck out of the car!
Get on your knees! On your knees!
All right! Fuck!
You say something that makes sense,
or I swear to fucking God!
Thought is communicable. That's what they say, okay?
What?
Transmittable.
The noos-- the noosphere
is the sum of all consciousness.
Not just human.
Other minds are there, too.
Ancient and angry.
You guys are all fucking morons!
You get glimpses and dreams and fevers, right?
Déjà vu?
Every nightmare you've ever had
was just a documentary.
But once in a while there's a man.
Sometimes only one in a thousand years...
the prophet of the other.
The other? What other?
The between one.
He needs an empty man
to be a bridge to the rest of the world.
He comes to erase all boundaries.
The only reality is there is no reality.
Except for him.
His endless, black chaos.
Ah, things are gonna slide, man.
It's gonna be a bloodbath.
You're coming down with him already, aren't you?
You don't even know it.
You've got the itch
in the brain.
So sick of your fucking shit, man.
I grew up in San Francisco.
I just wanna know one thing. Where's Amanda Quail?
She's on the bridge.
Bridge?
What bridge?
There is no bridge.
Haven't you been fucking listening?
What is this?
How do you have this?
How do you have any of this?
You're fucking with me.
Where were you?
You're coming down with him.
You don't even know it.
He transmits, we receive.
The third night...
You've got the itch.
Got the itch, in the brain.
-He finds you. -In the brain.
On the third night,
the third night, he finds you.
You feel him.
In the brain.
You feel him.
He transmits, we receive.
Can I help you?
Yes.
My name is James Lasombra.
I'm a private detective.
Been hired to find someone
and I have reason to believe
they are a patient in your hospital.
So,
maybe you could just tell me about that guy
in that room right there?
I can't divulge patient information, sir.
Of course you can't do that.
Maybe you can just tell me how long he's been here.
I can cross him off my list.
He's been here for some time.
Since before I started here.
How long ago was that?
Almost a year.
Is he stable?
Well, he's not on life support,
if that's what you mean.
But he's unresponsive?
He fluctuates between a three and a nine
on the Glasgow Coma Scale.
Usually he's a three.
What does that mean?
Unresponsive to stimuli,
non-vocal, eyes closed.
Uh-huh.
Is it common
for someone who's stable to be in the ICU for that long?
No.
It's not common.
What makes him so special?
He was admitted to Bellevue
23 years ago.
Five years later,
he was transferred to Stockham Health,
then a private clinic in Cedar Rapids
until two years ago.
Then who brought him here?
I don't know.
Maybe... they were treating him experimentally and he took a turn.
-Took a turn? -Took a turn for the worst.
Maybe a took a turn for the better.
Either way, they sent him on to us.
I suppose it won't hurt to tell you.
As far as I know,
he doesn't have a name.
-He's a John Doe? -Mm-hmm.
And who pays John Doe's bills?
I'm sure I don't know.
But he certainly gets a lot of visitors.
They come and go all the time.
There's one in there with him right now.
So, what do you think?
Is he the man you've been looking for?
I don't know.
May I?
Go right ahead.
Hello, Amanda.
Been looking for you.
Well, you found me.
Who is he?
-You know who he is. -No, I don't.
What's his name?
I have no idea.
You can call him whatever you'd like.
I like to think of him as a carrier.
Because he's like a disease in a way.
But he's also, like,
a carrier signal, you know?
Modulated by an input signal?
He transmits, we receive.
And his message is contagious.
I need to call your mom.
-Hello? -Nora, it's me.
I found Amanda.
I'm sorry, who is this?
It's me, James.
Who are you calling for?
-Nora? -Yes?
It's me.
-Look, Nora, it's me, James... -I'm so sorry.
I think you have the wrong number.
I'm James.
What the fuck is going on?
He's weakening now.
There's only so long a human body
can withstand this kind of power.
We need to find a replacement.
And soon.
Replacement?
Well, there are 500 years between
the last carrier and this one.
We didn't have that kind of time...
... so we decided to try something a little bit radical.
An experiment.
What kind of experiment?
We decided to make one.
It's getting hard to tell what's real
and what's in your head anymore, isn't it?
Listen to your thoughts.
You can hear him, can't you?
Squirming his way in,
crowding you out.
Did you know that the brain can itch?
Imagine an overwhelming itch
deep in the base of your skull.
-That's him. -You're fucking crazy!
It's not real! It's not fucking real!
Of course it's not, so why fight it?
You must detach from a false reality
in order to attach to a new one.
A stronger one.
You're fucking crazy.
I bet you thought I didn't know about
your little indiscretion with my mother.
Well, I not only knew about it,
I made it happen.
I wrote it into your script when we created you.
What are you talking about?
What high school did you go to?
-Crossroads. -Crossroads.
What hospital were you born in?
-Emancipated Heart. -Emancipated Heart.
And what day were you born?
-November-- -No.
It was three days ago.
Remember?
You spent it alone in a Mexican restaurant,
and the waiters all sang you "Happy Birthday."
We made you. As a group.
We wrote up a complete biography for you,
and focused on it intently for several sessions.
To conjure you into being.
You were our Tulpa.
Our Empty Man.
Thought plus concentration plus time equals flesh.
Your flesh.
We tried once before, but failed.
The signal can only penetrate through
the cracks of sorrow,
grief and guilt.
Fear.
That's what we were missing.
-Shut up. -So we built you that way.
Shut up!
What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you?
Go on. You can say it.
Fuck you!
It was the death of Allison and Henry, wasn't it?
Then you feel him.
The death of your wife and son.
And where were you...
Where were you?
...when they needed you the most?
Nothing you do is in your control.
You cannot make your own choices.
You're not your own man.
You're our man.
Isn't that a relief, really?
Isn't that what you want most anyway?
So just let go.
Wouldn't it be easier
to just let go?
His thoughts become dreams,
and dreams becomes power.
From the power comes the bridge.
From the bridge comes the man.
From the man comes thoughts.
From thoughts come the dreams.
From the dreams comes the power.
Is there someone here?
If you're here now,
show yourself.
Make yourself known to us.
We hear you.
We're listening.
Show yourself.
We're listening.
Show yourself.
You transmit. We receive.
Subtitled by Point.360