01x02 - 2046: Whale Fall

[bunniefuu]

Tell me about the end.

The end?

Where does a circle end?

It is always now ending,
and now beginning.

We rise and fall on our breath
for as long as the world allows.

The days press against us,

and then move past.

Now becomes next
until we fall away.

And return what has been taken.

Is that what you wanted to know?

I want to know everything.

Hey, tiger.

You fell asleep with the TV on.

Grandma was reading me a story.
The one with the flying elephants.

But... they can
never really fly.

Can they?

No, sweetie, they had
trunks, not wings.

You know that. I
showed you pictures.

Come on, amigo. Let's go.

I hope it's not
another orange day.

August 17, 2046.

Orange alert in effect for
Cali, Colombia until sunset.

Minimize time outdoors.

Not a single humpback
this season over here.

Feel like I'm walking through
an old, abandoned house,

yelling if anyone is home.

If they're out there, they don't
seem to wanna be in contact.

That reminds me of you,
now that I think about it.

I saw there was
another beaching event.

Three individuals at Farewell Spit.
Do you have any thoughts on why?

Why would a healthy,

beautiful animal choose to end its one
life just because the world's a mess?

- I don't know. You tell me.
- Okay, Marco.

Maybe calling you
was not a good idea.

Okay. You work for
the competition, Bec.

Technically, that's corporate
espionage you're asking for,

not professional courtesy.

TomorrowZoo's become very
paranoid about hackers

and spies and old lovers
from the competition

calling for the information.

I'm sure you sign all the same
confidentiality agreements I do.

The world is running
out of animals and time.

Scarcity equals value.

All the more reason
to share information.

If I had one I was working
on, I'd let you know.

I'm sure you'd do
the same for me.

You would, wouldn't you?

I had one.

Just last week. And
then she went silent.

Just nothing for days.
Now I've lost her.

Ocean temp is over 90 most days.

Krill is gone, almost.

It's just, food
column is collapsing.

If she doesn't come back,
they're gonna shut us down.

Well, fingers crossed,
Bec. I hope she comes back.

It's good to know that there's
at least one still out there.

You keep in touch.

In addition to heat
and air quality,

emotional stress has been known

to trigger cardiac events
related to summer heart.

I know.

Four fatalities have been linked
to thermal cardiomyopathy,

commonly known as "summer heart,"
during the current extreme heat event...

Pet Patrol health
monitor powering down.

Okay, I want you to stay safe out
there, and you know what to do.

- Mom...
- Keeping this pin blue...

I know. It's up to me to do.

And if it turns yellow?

- I have to mellow.
- And if it flashes red?

- Think happy things instead.
- That's right.

Okay.

Rebecca Shearer, archivist.

Employer, Menagerie2100.
Welcome. Select destination.

Field site, Bahía Málaga.

Playback last contact
archive session, 005.

I am a mother. Are you?

Four times.

And when was the last?

Five turns before now he
made his way into the world.

Empty of understanding
but full of want.

He took his place
against my skin.

I was all food for
him, every direction.

He was, for me, the purpose.

How did you know what to do?

My mother did this for me.

She taught me the
path and the problem.

- Morning, Ezra.
- Morning.

How are you today?

And you know what kind of
day it is today, right?

Yeah, orange.

So, no more than
15 minutes outside.

With the fire still burning,
the air quality isn't that good.

And that means your heart needs
all the oxygen it can get.

Let's keep that pin blue.

Where is your child now?

He moved beyond the
sound of my voice.

Then he went further.

I asked the distance
for him to return.

He became lost and fell away.

- You did not see one.
- I did too.

No way!

Those haven't existed for,
like, thousands of years.

Like, since the dinosaurs.

- Did she introduce you to any dinosaurs?
- That one is real.

My mom saw it. It's what she
does. She studies the last ones.

Wanna see me fart out a tiger?

- What's wrong with you?
- You should be careful, Ezra.

Yeah, liar. Red means dead.

My mom knew that tiger! She did!

Rebecca! Good morning.

I didn't know you were back.

Corporate's getting nervous.

We're spending a lot
of time and money here.

Any idea what's going on?

Well, you know, it was going
great. She was very responsive.

But, you know,

we seem to have lost contact
entirely the last few days.

I wonder if we have competition
issues like we had in Virunga.

You need to let me know if I
should get the lawyers involved.

If TomorrowZoo is
interfering in your work...

It's just ambient noise, mining
activity. It's loud down there.

So, you know, I'll
switch frequencies today.

See if that helps.

We definitely wanna fast-track this
one. We're running out of time.

Well, if she shows
up, I'll let her know.

Playback last contact.
August 12th. Morning.

The path my mother taught
me grows harder to follow.

Is it like that for you?

Playback stop.

Where are you?

Open speech microphone.
Initiate playback.

Time and date stamp broadcast.

Select Mahler, Symphony
10, the Adagio.

You asked me last
time about my mother.

Her name was Eve.

I hear her voice
when I speak to you.

That's what you
sound like to me.

An older woman who liked
to sit in a rowboat

on a lake in the Berkshires
and drink bourbon at sunset.

Not that you know what
any of that means.

She used to say that whenever
I felt sad or lonely,

I could just imagine
Gustav Mahler communicating

with me from another time.

Mahler's heart was breaking
when he wrote this.

His daughter had died the
year before of scarlet fever.

This is how life made him sound.

Mahler died before he ever
heard it actually played.

Wasn't even finished.

My mother used to tell me

to finish it in my head.

I really want you to come back.

sh*t.

Summer of '37, there
were all those fires.

Something like 30 EHDs in a
row during my second trimester.

Tried to stay out of the heat.
Electricity kept going out, so...

Does he understand the
severity of his condition?

Have you told him?

Does he understand he
could die from a sunny day?

No, I haven't quite
found the words for that.

He knows he has summer heart.

He knows what an EHD is and
that he has to avoid them.

He calls them "empty heart
days" instead of "extreme heat,"

so, yeah, he understands
that he needs to be careful.

Is that what happened? Did he
spend too much time outside?

No, he wasn't outside.

Evidently, some older boys were
teasing him about something,

and that got him worked up.

Triggered the event.

There was a little girl
with him when I got there.

She has summer heart as well.

Wherever the future leads, we
know we're going there together.

That's why Alpha Integrated Therapeutics
offers you the latest in edible medica...

Did Dad have summer heart
and then he gave it to me?

No, sweetie.

Your dad was born in 1999, and
nobody had summer heart then.

Your dad gave you
a great, big heart.

And that great, big heart

is why he was in Manila
when the storm came.

The world made you sick
because we made the world sick.

But now we're gonna
make you better.

There's a girl at
school who said

that people with summer
heart only live to be 30.

So, since I'll be
turning ten next year,

that means I'll only get
two more ten-year lives.

Well, I don't believe that.

I believe you will have
many more ten-year lives.

Maybe you're like a cat.
You'll have nine lives.

- That's 90.
- Right.

And I bet by the time you're 30,

someone will have invented an
entirely new heart just for you.

Welcome to WinterChill,

the best immersive therapy
for heat-related conditions.

Come on, ref. Why can't I play?

Sorry, buddy.

Looks like you had a bit of
an episode today at school.

But I wanna play.
WinterChill sucks.

Sometimes the things that
protect us aren't the most fun.

But your friend Lola is here.

You want to help, Ezra? I
found buttons for his eyes.

My mom says you're wrong.

She says they're gonna make
new hearts for both of us.

And that I'm gonna
live to be 90.

This is a secured link
for Menagerie2100.

Rebecca Shearer,
archivist for HW1998F.

Everything that follows in
the communications interface

is the property
of Menagerie2100.

August 18, 2046.
Three, two, one.

If you are receiving
this, please respond.

Come on.

If you can still hear
me, please respond.

I heard another last night.

Where is he?

If there is a male out there,
I will help you find him.

I want to be a mother again.

In this place, in this now.

Is there enough food for that?

If he is here, then
there must be enough.

There must be...

Add sound to
vocabulary interface.

Why do you make my sounds?
After all this time.

I have watched your
kind all my life.

I was curious about you.

Do you know what curious is?

Have I seen you
where the sky begins?

- Have you caused some of us to fall?
- No.

No, I would never hurt you.

I want to learn from you.

You have been watching.
You know how we are.

Could you tell me what
you're looking for?

We, who are us, share the world.

All that is there.

When it becomes less, so do we.

Is it like that for you?

Our new ones do not rise
and fall on the breath.

They leave us for the distance.

We watch them vanish.

All of mine have gone that way.

I will look for food for you.

I need to find him. He knows...

Add to vocabulary interface.

If she doesn't find something to eat,
we could lose her again. And the male.

What if we offer her
food to keep going?

Adult humpbacks require
3,000 pounds of food a day.

- Mainly krill, but...
- I didn't know.

Yeah, that obviously has ramifications
we would need to talk about internally.

Well, the good news
is she wants to mate,

which is part of
her migratory cycle,

so we could have a real window
into that behavior if the male is,

you know, strong enough.

She's gonna be the prototype for
every humpback we ever develop.

- Great work today, Becca.
- Thank you.

Food?

- That's a tricky one.
- Yeah?

I mean, it's not a good
look to take quality protein

and offer it to animals.

There's a damn drought in Asia.

People are dying there,

and we're gonna feed a whale
human-quality nutrients

to get it to chat about
eating and f*cking.

It's a PR nightmare.

Okay, okay. That's fair enough.

The surface temperature is
up. Acidification is up.

The bay is destined
to become a dead zone.

It's likely to be
the last season here.

We just need to move this along.

Wrap it up by end of week
before everything comes out.

Agreed.

Exclusivity of a humpback knocks
TomorrowZoo out of the game.

Just give me a
couple more nights.

"'We are roses,
' the roses said.

And he was overcome with sadness
'cause his flower had told him

that she was the only one
of her kind in the universe.

And here were 5,000 of them,

all alike, in one single garden.

'She would be very much
annoyed, ' he said to himself,

'if she should see that.

She would cough most dreadfully,

and she would pretend that she was
dying to avoid being laughed at.

And if I...

And I would be
obliged to pretend

that I was nursing
her back to life.

For if I did not do that

to humble myself also,

she would really allow
herself to die.'"

- You want me to read for a while, Mom?
- No, no, no.

I'm... You're going to be here.

I'm not. So, this
is Grandma time.

"So, then he went on
with his reflections.

- 'I thought that I was rich with a flower...
- You like that one, don't you?

That was unique in
all the world'"...

Does the whale you're talking to
sound like the way the orangutan did?

No, I made the orangutan
sound like your father

because I missed him.

Then what does the
whale sound like?

Like Grandma Eve.

No, but what does she
sound like in real life?

Wanna hear?

Play HW1998. Basic vocabulary.

What is she saying?

She's saying, "Who is
this little human, Ezra,

who I love so much?"

When I'm gone, will you make
an animal sound like me?

No, baby. Because you're
not going extinct.

"'And all I had was a
common little rose.'

You wanna see, Ezra?
You wanna see roses?

'A common rose, ' he said."

I'm Nick Bilton, and many
of you may have heard

that I'm interested
in joining forces

with the most sophisticated
DNA-based IP company in the world,

Menagerie2100.

Now, you might ask why a company

like Alpha wants to
be in this space,

and the answer is easy.

Alpha is interested
in only one thing:

identifying what about the
present belongs in the future.

A better future.

A future with genetically banked
elephants, orangutans and,

from what I hear, maybe
even humpback whales.

The Alpha benefits
package is outstanding.

I have so much to
learn from you all.

And I am hoping that,
with shareholder approval,

you will join me
in this journey.

Come on.

Play archive session 008.

Where did you hear
the last male?

He was not far from here.

We found each other at
the bottom of the sky.

He was different from this one.

What happened to him?

It was a day.

The sky was close.

The ones that were
food for us were gone.

So, we looked in new places.

He did not see what
hit him from above.

It put holes in him,

and he fell away.

All the way down.

He is still there.

I see him as he changes.

Where is this new male?

I cannot find him.

You must be Rebecca. I'm
with Operations. Hendricks.

Southern Hemisphere Project
Resources Management.

Playback, stop.

Sorry, Christina didn't tell
me that anyone else was working

- with the subject.
- No, I've been coming in at night

to help speed things
along, you know?

Time is of an essence.

There's a good chance this is
the last humpback out there.

The last two.

HW1998 and the male she has
been communicating with.

Do you have a copy of
last night's transcript?

For some reason, it's blocked.

I say we wanna keep our focus
on the female right now.

I was going over some
of your recordings.

Our new ones do not rise
and fall on the breath.

I wanted to ask you about
the voice you've been using.

- Voice?
- For the whale.

You use a human voice avatar, which
is against Menagerie protocol.

I mean, it leads to
exactly the kind of

emotional attachment we
try to guard against.

You gonna turn me in?

No, no.

No. Whatever floats your boat.

I mean, who am I to judge?

I knew a bloke who worked with bats.
Made them sound like Marilyn Monroe.

I just... I went
back in your file.

You used a voice avatar
for the elephants as well.

It helps me connect,
ask better questions.

The human voice
you're using here,

Eve Shearer,

is your mother, I assume.

And the orangutan in Sumatra,

some gent called Omar Haddad.

- My late husband.
- Right.

Well, like I said, you know,
whatever floats your boat.

I put in a request
for a dive team

to get a visual on the male,
maybe even a DNA sample.

Did you see him?
How did he look?

Yeah,

you're not going to be able
to work with the male today,

and, sadly, the dive team
won't be able to find him.

What you're hearing...

that's an archive recording from
near Glacier Bay seven years ago.

It was a male. He's dead now.

Dead?

Ship strike, I believe.

You played her a mating
call from a dead whale?

What the f*ck is wrong with you?

Me?

Now, did you read the
mission statement?

We're not saving
individuals here.

We're after a blueprint
for the whole species.

She is out there right
now, searching for him.

Exhibiting mating behavior,
which is what we need her to do.

I'm not sure why that's so hard
for you to wrap your mind around.

I mean, you...

You think we haven't bribed them with
food and shelter to get what we needed?

I mean, maybe you didn't know
that was what was happening

with the elephants
you were working on.

I'm...

Maybe you just thought it
was looking for a human

to catch up with
about current events.

- I mean...
- I can't be a part of this.

Really? You already are a part.

Hey, Shearer!

What did you think
we were doing here?

These are highly
sophisticated creatures!

Yes, they are, and so are we.

And if we don't drain her brain

before she realizes she's
the last whale in the world,

then we don't really
have a business, do we?

At least not one you could sell.

Ready for this meeting?

- Absolutely.
- Okay.

- Great.
- And I think it's a great idea to...

- I'd like to speak to you.
- Rebecca,

- I'm a little busy right now.
- This is important.

I can come back.

You didn't just lie to me.

You lied to her.

She's going extinct either way.

At least this way, we can bring
her back when we fix things.

First we turn them into
candles and corsets,

and then we run them over with ships and
fill their bellies with plastic bags.

And yet, still,
somehow, a few survive.

Until the carbon dioxide
turns the ocean into acid,

and the animal she eats
can't even form bones.

And so now...

Now when there is only one left,

you have to lie to her.

And if you had told her
all that at the beginning,

how eager would she be to
tell you her life story?

Or what if you had told her
that the recordings we're making

will replace the information imparted
from an adult to a juvenile in the wild

because there will be no wild?

Would that be honest
enough for you?

Bilton pays more because we're the
ones who have an exit interview

with the humpback whale.

That's a win.

If people knew what we were doing,
if the press got ahold of this...

And how would that happen?

Hendricks can finish up here.

We need you to head to Alaska.

- There's a species of wolf up there...
- What does that mean, "finish up?"

- called the Alexander Archipelago wolf...
- What's he gonna say to her?

Is he trying to get her to beach herself
so TomorrowZoo won't have a humpback?

Is that what he's doing?

If you'll excuse me,
I have a meeting.

Playback. Broadcast male song.

Continuous loop.

"Let the light of late afternoon
shine through ch*nk in the barn,

moving up the bales
as the sun moves down.

Let evening come.

Let the crickets take up chafing

as a woman takes up
her needles and yarn.

Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe
abandoned in long grass.

Let the stars appear.

Let the moon disclose
her silver horn."

- Mom.
- "Let this"...

Let me f...

Let me finish. I memorized
the entire damn poem.

Just let me...

I just want to get this down before
I forget it because my memory...

- "Let the f"... "Let the fox"...
- Stop. Stop.

"Come it will. You don't
have to be afraid."

I'm so f*cking
angry with you, Mom.

- I know. I know.
- So f*cking angry.

But if I'd done anything differently,
I would have been angry with myself...

and I don't wanna die in the
middle of an argument with me.

You told me that Doctor Carragher
had said that you're getting better.

I wanted to come home. You
told me to take my time.

Well, humans aren't going
extinct, and elephants are.

That was not your
decision to make, Mom.

Your work is important.

Becca, she was trying
not to upset you.

- She wanted you to finish your work.
- You knew. You knew.

Why didn't you... What the
f*ck is wrong with you people?

Well, I have cancer of the liver
and pretty much everything else.

Mom, no. No jokes.

You lied to me, Mom.

You lied to me.

When you get to this part of the
story, you know, the part I'm in now,

you... you stop being
angry about the past.

And the future, the future doesn't have
you in its plans, so that just leaves now.

That's all we have, is now.

- It's not enough.
- No.

But... it's all we have.

It's just a little more now.

I bet that's all we ever had.

Stop broadcast.

Convert content to
standard English syntax.

There is no path.
There is no path.

- There is no path. There is...
- Oh, my God.

Open speech microphone.
Do not record session.

Can you hear me?

What you just heard,
do not listen.

Do not listen to the
male. Can you hear me?

f*ck.

If you're still out
there, please just...

There is a reason he does
not appear in front of you,

a reason he does not answer.

He does not exist.

There is no male.

That voice that you were hearing was
from many years ago, from very far away.

It is just a recording.

Okay, f*ck.

f*ck. No, you don't... Don't
know what a recording is.

Okay, how do I
explain this to you?

We wanted to know
the inside of you,

how your life works.

We wanted it for ourselves,

not to make it better for you.

We are telling you to swim to
a place where you will die.

We are doing this, not him.

Not a whale.

That whale fell away years ago.

He is not here.

His voice is not real.

Swim away.

Go find food.

We are lying to you.

That is what our kind
does when we are in pain.

We lie.

He is not here?

No.

You have a sound for
what is not here?

Not real?

It's called a lie.

We do not have a sound for this.

Why say a thing
that is not real?

It is possible that you are
the last one of your kind.

We cannot find any
others. Just you.

Then it is time for me to fall.

You said that when you
fall, it starts over.

You become all that follows.

You return what is taken.

Yes.

It is possible that one day
there will be more of you.

When?

It will take time.

More time than
either you or I have.

But what you have told me, what
we have said to each other...

that will feed more new ones.

And how will it be
different next time?

Open speech microphone.
Do not record session.

We noticed there's no additional
data from your unapproved session.

I was unable to make contact.

Nothing?

She's gone.

Now, I don't need to remind you that we
own all content from any conversation

between a Menagerie2100
employee and a target specimen.

Look, I violated protocol.

I used my late mother's
voice. I'm sorry.

Won't happen again.

We are saying goodbye to
so many things these days.

Animals, each other,
entire cities.

Of course it takes a toll.

I noticed that Alpha have
started mining the bay.

I'm glad we got there
before they did.

Yeah, it looks like
we, and now they.

You'll be out in
the field in Alaska,

so you'll need to pick
up a portable unit.

It'll have an uplink
to the database.

The colder weather
might be easier on Ezra.

Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not going to be
at school anymore.

- Because you're sick?
- We're moving.

- Where?
- Alaska.

My mom is gonna
talk to the wolves.

Will you meet me back here
and tell me what that means?

Yeah. I think they still
have winter in Alaska.

Maybe I can visit you and
we can build a real snowman.

Go ahead. Open it.

The humpback whale
went extinct in 2046.

At one point, there were
over 125,000 on the planet.

They migrated from summer
feeding grounds near the poles

to mate in warmer
water near the equator.

They were famous
for their songs,

complex vocalizations that
allowed them to communicate.

The Indian vulture
went extinct in 2039.

Although there were
once 80 million...

The African elephant
went extinct in 2040.

It was, before extinction...

The Tapanuli orangutan went
extinct in 2045. After having...

The polar bear went
extinct in 2043

due to loss of their sea ice habitat
resulting from climate change.

- You ready?
- Ready.

- Three hours?
- Yes.

And you tell nobody
you did this.

No one, no one.

Never.

But how will it be
different next time?

It will only change if we do.

If we stop lying
about the world.

If we stop expecting the ones who come
after us to fix it because we did not.

Here is good.

Here is good.

There are no fish anymore.

If there were, we would know.

I work for Alpha now.

Of course.

How do you know
she's still here?

I don't.

Come on.

- You ready?
- Yeah.

- Three, two, one, go.
- Three, two, one.

How long could I be here?

Not long.

She won't eat us, will she?

You have more teeth than she does, but
you can't really blame her if she did.

I don't know what
this sound means.

Music? It means something
different to everyone.

The one of you who made
it, do you know him?

I never met him, only
the music he made.

But you can still hear him?

Yes.

Come on.

So you can know his
world and not know him?

Yes.

And the ones who
have not yet begun?

They will hear these
sounds that we make today?

Yes.

Where is she?

I think she's gone, Mom.

There she is.

You will show them a
way to be in the world.

Warn them about us.

You see what we can do,
what we have already done.

Tell them who we are.

I already did.