Debris – S01E06 – Supernova [Transcript]

Original air date: April 5, 2021

The team investigates a series of missing elderly persons in rural Tennessee, which at first seem to be kidnappings. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the missing individuals went willingly, and have managed to attain a form of eternal youth by using a piece of debris. Bryan finally decides to break confidentiality and reveal to Finola the extent to which he has deceived her. Finola, in turn, begins to realize that Priya has also been manipulating her. The man carrying the debris is identified as Kurt Cox, who stubbornly refuses to hand it over until his guilt-ridden wife Clara convinces him to abandon the debris and commit suicide with her by jumping off a cliff. The debris is recovered, and Kurt’s remaining followers are moved to a facility to live out the rest of their lives. Maddox trades with the Russians for a portion of debris, seemingly for personal reasons. While on the road, Finola tries to convince Bryan to work against Maddox, arguing that they can trust no one but themselves. Bryan is reluctant as Maddox once saved his life, but tells Finola that she is being surveilled by the CIA.

* * *

(Bryan sighs)

You know, when they designed it, I really don’t think NASA engineers intended that to be your personal toaster oven, Bryan.

Have you ever heard of the Dustbuster?

UV sunglasses? Memory foam mattresses?

All developed by NASA, so I’m just ahead of the curve, so to speak.

Wow, you’re just like a human crystal ball.

It’s a curse.

Is everything all right?

Yeah.

When we were in New York, my sister sent me an old… family video of us on the Isle of Wight when we were kids.

It just made me think about my dad.

He was in Greece the summer before he died, and he sent me an email to say that he found the perfect present he was gonna buy himself for his birthday, for me to gift him.

Is that something that he would do a lot?

Yeah. And then he would always act surprised when he opened it.

What was the present?

I don’t know.

I never got the chance to find out.

That’s what I was thinking about.

You sure you don’t want in on one of these?

Mm-mm, I’m quite sure.

Okay.

Your loss.

Did you do what I asked?

Yes. I still don’t know why you wanted me to tell him my father was in Greece before he died.

And how did Bryan respond?

He just listened to the story.

What’s going on?

You trust me, don’t you?

I do.

Now, if he brings it up again, mention Cyprus, that you think he was there, too.

Who was that agent you sent to deliver me the memory stick with the China files in New York?

That’s Agent Brill. Why?

Oh, I’ve just never met him before.

He’s dependable. Don’t forget about Cyprus.

I’ll be in touch.

Copy that.

[♪♪]

..permit me to check!

(car door closes)

FINOLA: What do we got?

Local PD was alerted by a woman walking her dog.

She said she saw four or five teenagers near the house a few days ago.

They were in a banged-up sedan.

Then this morning her dog led her inside to the bodies.

How many bodies are we talking about?

Three. We’re still searching the woods for the Debris.

They’re clicking at 190 on the Laghari.

FINOLA: Okay. Thanks, Tom.

Dr. Masakela.

DR. MASAKELA: Over here. How you doing?

FINOLA: All right.

This is oddly peaceful.

They all died here in the house.

FINOLA: When?

It was recent.

It’s like the life was literally sucked out of them.

Whatever happened, the Debris seems to have left each one with a faint electrostatic field.

Where is the energy coming from?

Low relative humidity is creating an electrostatic buildup in this area.

And the bodies are containing it.

Enough to charge a cell phone.

DR. MASAKELA: Convenient in this remote location.

BRYAN: Bill Jarvah.

What is that?

Medical ID.

Bill Jarvah was reported missing by local PD three days ago.

Who were the other two?

Another man was reported missing, also in his eighties, same day.

And then the day before that, a woman disappeared from a assisted living facility.

I think we just found them.

Why are they older people, and what happened to them?

At their age, they could barely make it through the forest.

Someone brought them here.

The teenagers, the ones the dog walker saw.

BRYAN: Dr. Masakela, you said it was like their life was sucked out of them.

FINOLA: If someone used Debris to do this, what could they be getting from them?

Not much. Once I get them back to the lab at Langley, I’ll know more.

Great.

(door buzzes)

Oh, room service.

It’s about bloody time.

I’ve been here for hours.

I’ll have a Moo Goo Gai Pan.

And how about some of those… those fortune cookies?

Let’s have some of those, too.

Anson Ash.

Ex-SAS, Special Reconnaissance Regiment.

Infiltrated the IRA in Northern Ireland.

It says here you abandoned your military duty.

Tell me about Influx.

Who’s funding you?

We know it’s not the Russians.

Or the Chinese.

What do you want?

Definitely not what you lot want.

You want geopolitical dominance.

You want to rule the world.

You don’t get to control this Debris.

This technology is meant to free the world, not entrap it.

I find it interesting that you don’t understand that we are suddenly in the presence of a power so vast, with both the possibility of good and evil, and you don’t know which side you’re on.

But you do.

You’re on the side of good.

You’re just a guy who’s trying to make the world a better place by opening up wormholes in Manhattan, yeah?

You think it should all just be out there, available to anybody who comes across it? Is that right?

I am just a guy… who wants some Moo Goo Gai Pan.

We know you switched out George’s dead body in the morgue.

Did you reanimate him with Debris?

I think we all know the rules here.

There are no rules.

Not since the arrival.

Are you torturing George Jones to learn our secrets?

That’s a good idea, you should get some sleep.

Next time you see me, you’re going to need all your energy.

Anson has had four incoming calls.

Proprietary software scrambled the ID, but whoever they are, they keep calling back.

MADDOX: He’s not talking, so this is all we got.

All right, just stay on it. I need to find out where those calls are coming from.

You gotta crack that phone.

Chalk?

Sometimes hikers mark trees so they don’t get lost.

There’s another one.

I’m gonna get some more agents to search the area, okay?

(phone buzzes)

Hey, George Jones was in Romania for a series of conferences just before his death.

I need you to find out if he was anywhere near the Mediterranean when he was there.

Okay.

Malta, Cyprus… It’s important that I know.

(sighs)

Finola just told me a story on the plane about her father being in Greece a month before his death.

He emailed her.

I’m trying to figure out if Influx had some sort of long-term plan to capture George, and I want to know if they were tracking him even then.

So I may need some more information from Finola.

How long was he there, exact dates, etcetera, etcetera.

I need anything you can get.

Copy?

Okay.

Hey. They’ve confirmed through dental records that the corpses they found were the missing elderly, but we just got a report that another elderly man named Caspian Cole, 80s, just went missing in a town east of there called McMinnville, Tennessee.

Whoever’s doing this is there now.

[♪♪]

Stop! Don’t go any further.

BOY: 237.

Told you.

This is good.

I’m okay, I’m okay.

We’re back on track. Soon we’ll be free.

We just gotta find a few more.

We have to keep going.

TARKOLOV: Not many Americans… know who Yuri Gagarin was.

That’s because it doesn’t matter if you’re the first person in space if you don’t land on the moon.

And that’s what we did. So, you know, of course everybody knows who Neil Armstrong is.

History is kindest to the victors.

Those above me want history to be kind to Russia now.

They’re willing to make the trade for the piece you want.

No reason both countries can’t take their place in the history books this time.

When can I see it?

Not long now.

I’ll pick you up at 8:00 tonight.

Local PD found surveillance footage of Caspian Cole being abducted four blocks from the house.

According to the time stamp, they were talking for about twenty minutes.

There’s a second man reported missing now two hours after.

Jose Manza, ninety years old.

Last seen ten blocks from the same place.

(phone buzzes)

Tom.

Yeah, we just located a car matching the description from the crime scene in Ennville.

It’s parked by the woods north east of Collins Road.

No plates.

Ping me your location.

You got it.

Definitely traces of Debris.

It was here. Not too long ago.

I’m picking up a steady 60.

These are some of the victims’ clothes.

(phone rings)

This is Bryan.

It’s Kearn. Bad time?

I got a minute. What’s up?

We’re looking for her personal emails from when George was in Greece.

What are you talking about?

Agent Jones. We’re in her apartment.

We got nothing from her journals, so we’re going through everything.

You’re in her apartment.

Yeah,

Maddox said you were up to speed.

He said you might have had access to her password.

He made it pretty clear that he needs this soon.

Are you there?

I don’t have that information right now.

You’re on your own. I gotta go.

What do you think?

Let’s run the VIN.

It’s a bit cold out here.

What’s your name?

Subash.

Want me to sit with you, Subash?

So, why are you all alone? You don’t have any family?

My sons… live in a different city.

So they’re just living their lives and forgetting you exist, huh?

You know, sometimes I… I feel… they are just waiting for me to die.

I can help you with that.

(phone buzzes)

(sighs)

Nothing.

Still quiet.

(sighs)

That story, the one you shared on the plane.

Yeah?

It stuck with me.

That bit about George buying presents for himself.

Nobody talked about that side of your father at Orbital, just that he was this hyper-focused… gifted, out-there genius.

Hmm.

Well, yeah. He was that, too.

Out there. Definitely.

You should have been there when he did his papers on children’s nightmares.

What do you mean?

He was obsessed with neurological computing, and so he thought nightmares might be the brain’s way of solving differential equations.

So, yeah, lots of therapy on that one.

I don’t know. It’s like, everything I’ve heard, he didn’t sound like the type that would just jet off to Greece.

And Cyprus.

He really loved it there, too.

Why are you asking me about my father, Bryan?

Because your father is alive.

I know.

And I know that you and Maddox knew.

Why did you tell me?

I just told you.

Isn’t that enough?

When did Maddox find out?

Two weeks ago.

And what do you know about it?

Why was he taken?

I only saw footage of him coming into JFK from out of the country with Anson Ash and another Influx operative.

But the last I heard, Maddox was trying to rule out if it was a clone or not.

Well, it’s not a clone. It’s him.

How do you know that?

I just do.

Did he die or not?

You said you saw his body.

I did.

Maddox wanted me to get the information off you about his trip to Greece to see if Influx was tracking him before his death.

That’s all I know.

I need to know if I can trust you with what I’ve told you.

(gasping)

Have some water.

Here.

Better?

(sighs)

(siren in distance)

Go to the car. Check that out.

Come on.

KURT: It’s okay.

Don’t be afraid.

It happens so fast, and it doesn’t hurt at all.

Just hold on to it, no matter what.

(sighs)

Okay.

(Debris trilling)

Hey, stop! We’re federal agents!

(Debris trilling)

(grunting)

You have to let me go!

Where is it?

I don’t have it! He does!

Where is Caspian Cole?

Jose Manza?

(grunting, struggling)

Jose Manza and Caspian Cole!

Where are they? What are you doing to them?

I am Caspian Cole.

(Debris trilling)

It’s… It’s a miracle.

Like I said, you have to stay near us.

You’re with us now.

Kurt! Kurt! Kurt, Kurt, Kurt!

Let’s go.

You have to stay with us! You have to!

We gotta go! Come on, let’s go!

(gasping)

(panting)

We have to go.

We can’t leave them.

We gotta keep running.

We need to get the others back.

I don’t know who these people are, but they know what we’re doing.

They will die if we run further.

I can’t let that happen again.

After it happens, we can’t get too far from it.

But he said he knew how to stop that.

What do you mean?

You have to let us go. We will die.

He won’t stay. I can feel that it’s close to happening.

I can feel it.

We’re on the outer reaches of being too far from it.

Where did it come from?

He said that he prayed for it.

Don’t you believe it?

Look at what he’s done.

I’m 85 years old.

It’s a miracle.

I wished that I would die… so many times.

That I would just disappear.

Do you know what kind of hell that is?

And then he found me, and he told me he could do this.

What will happen to me now?

I don’t want anything to happen to you.

Where’s Bryan? We found another one of these in the woods where Caspian Cole was running.

Kurt wants to talk.

BRYAN: Kurt?

Who are you?

We’re here to help. We’ve got Caspian and Subash.

Where’s Jose?

Jose Manza is dead.

And all this has to stop before anyone else dies.

Jose is dead because of you.

You killed him.

You did, you forced him to run too far away.

Kurt, what you’re doing is wrong.

No, actually I’m not doing anything wrong.

I’m helping people who deserve a chance at a second life.

People who have been left all alone.

Look, I know that you know what it does, or you wouldn’t be here looking for it.

I know you know.

I know.

So, then help them by helping me.

Tell me the math.

The math?

The key to it is numbers.

The more people that it makes young, the farther away from it we can be.

If I could get the math right…

If I can get enough people, if I can just figure it out, then none of us have to be near it anymore.

All of us.

You know that’s not working.

We found the bodies in the house.

If you don’t stop, more innocent people are going to die.

No, you’re gonna let my friends go.

You’re gonna pack up your trucks and you’re gonna leave or else I’m gonna… I’m gonna disappear, and Caspian and Subash’s blood will be on your hands too.

BRYAN: So, what’ve you got for me?

From what I can tell, the Debris uses an epigenetic program to control, and reverse, the aging process.

It commandeers DNA methylation pathways, thereby restoring youth.

But when the Debris is absent, everything snaps back with a vengeance.

It’s like a biological boomerang.

Right, but in your voicemail, you said you could undo it?

Yes, I believe that we can moderate the boomerang effect.

I just need you to keep them alive and get me the Debris.

The subjects could be returned to where they were before all this happened, old but alive.

Thanks.

Bryan, you got a minute?

Just came for you.

Why so early?

I don’t know.

Maybe something came back in your blood work.

(grunts)

(knock on door)

Hey.

We just got word back on the Chrysler.

It’s Kurt’s car. His name is Kurt Cox.

He was an engineer from Knoxville.

The girl he’s with is Clara Cox. They’re husband and wife.

They’ve been married for over fifty years.

He took her from a care facility where she was suffering from end stage dementia.

So, he got his wife back.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. I’m gonna take care of this.

BRYAN: Kurt, are you there?

You’re prepared to leave?

I’m afraid I can’t do that, man.

KURT: No, No.

TOM: We’re getting closer.

I will leave, I will disappear, and you will never see me again.

They will be dead because of you.

There is a chance that we can undo you’ve done, but you gotta trust me.

Going back to what we were is not an option.

I know that you took Clara from a facility.

I understand her condition, I understand that you think this is a miracle.

You have no idea what you’re dealing with.

I won’t send her back to that hell.

TOM: Not far now.

I’ve already lost Clara once.

I believe that I found this for a reason.

Where did you find it, Kurt?

I was by some cliffs near my house.

It seemed to beckon me.

And when I picked it up and it transformed me, I knew.

I knew that this was how I get her back.

Who are you to take this from us?

This is saving my wife.

This is saving our lives together.

Everybody you bring in your circle, you’re putting their lives in danger.

It’s not right. We should be born old and live our lives backwards, because just when you start to appreciate your life, it is gone.

You don’t see that.

You’re too young.

One day, you’re gonna understand.

We should have more time.

Everyone should have more time.

Find peace in the fact that you’ll be able to offer her comfort in the remaining time she has left.

TOM: We’re real close. They’re here somewhere.

FINOLA: He’s smart. He relayed the walkies.

We have to stop, Kurt.

I can’t.

I can’t live without you.

This gift was given to us.

We already had our gift.

A life with each other.

We are like starlight.

We were here…

we’ve burned bright… even though that star might not be here anymore.

I’m afraid that… I’m afraid that if you go back, you’re gonna die in that state.

That you’re not gonna remember to wait for me.

[♪♪]

(phone vibrates)

TARKOLOV: She has it with her.

I wanted to use Irina.

To make sure it’s someone you know.

(knock on door)

Where’s the rest of it?

It’s enough to show we have it.

This is what I was told to bring.

MADDOX: Let’s see it.

MADDOX: Is it charged?

Mm-hmm.

Turn it on.

Let’s send a team here, and a team here.

We’ll close in on them.

He won’t be able to get out of range.

KURT: Hello?

Kurt?

We’re coming in.

Tell Caspian and Subash not to worry.

Where are you?

A small clearing, past the incline.

We’ll be there, waiting.

There.

We have a hazmat team right here.

[♪♪]

(instrument warbling)

Laghari is reading 210. They should be right here.

Bryan.

Yeah, I’m here.

The Debris is here, but they aren’t.

FINOLA: They know what will happen to them.

Kurt?

Kurt, come back. We can help you.

[The Dandy Warhols “Stars” playing]

♪ I ♪

Kurt?

♪ Thought I could touch the stars ♪

♪ I lie awake at night ♪

♪ I wonder where you are ♪

♪ My face explodes ♪

♪ Teardrops into tears, yeah ♪

♪ And every second I’m not with you ♪

♪ Well, it seems like years ♪

♪ Seems like years ♪

♪ And I’ve told you ♪

♪ Well, I warned you ♪

♪ That I loved you ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

[♪♪]

♪ I won’t die ♪

♪ But I won’t feel the same ♪

♪ I spend up all of my time ♪

♪ Hoping to see you again ♪

♪ My face explodes ♪

♪ Teardrops into tears, yeah ♪

♪ And every second I’m not with you ♪

♪ Well, it seems like years ♪

♪ Seems like years ♪

♪ Yeah, I warned you ♪

♪ That I’d kill you ♪

♪ ‘Cause I loved you ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

Do you have it?

Yes.

We’re going to take you and Caspian to a facility where there are people who can help you.

Do you understand what I’m telling you?

I grow old again?

Yes.

You can’t take it away.

We just don’t have a choice, Subash.

You can’t take away what it gave me.

The miracle of life.

I just needed to feel it again.

And after this, I’m going to fight for every last day.

I happen to know you have stronger Debris that can access communication frequencies.

Why would you want this one?

Because it works.

Is that the only reason?

Because this trade, this method, Tarkolov, it’s unusual for you.

I’m good.

I hope you know what you’re doing.

You always worry too much.

(door closes)

You can.

Trust me.

I know it wasn’t easy going against your orders.

I appreciate that you did that.

Ferris told me to tell you that my father was in Greece, and I have no idea why.

It’s like she’s leaving just enough bread crumbs for Maddox to figure something out.

Do you know what that is?

No.

But it was important enough for her to do it.

She’s using me to figure something out about my father.

I have a bad feeling about it.

I can’t trust Ferris.

And you can’t trust Maddox.

FINOLA: MI6 suspects that he’s been working against the coalition, most likely the Chinese.

You’re wrong.

I’m giving you the information that I have…

You don’t know what you’re saying.

This man… saved my life.

The only thing that I know for sure is that something is going on that both of us don’t even understand.

We need to trust each other.

That is the only way we’re going to find our answers.

Is there anything that I need to know?

Is there anything…

They’re surveilling your apartment.

(elevator dings)

(phone rings)

(elevator dings)

What’s up?

We’ve traced the calls that came in on Anson Ash’s phone.

It’s from a cell phone in Maine.

Stay on it.

I want a name.

(elevator dings)