Talamasca: The Secret Order
Created by: John Lee Hancock
Based on: The Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice
Season 1 – Episode 5
Episode title: The Puzzle Palace
Stars: Nicholas Denton, Celine Buckens, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, William Fichtner, Elizabeth McGovern
Original release date: November 16, 2025
Plot: Jasper confronts Guy at London Mother House. Questions arise about Helen’s intentions. Guy and Doris grow closer. Loren and Ridge near a crucial discovery.
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Talamasca: The Secret Order – S01E05 – The Puzzle Palace | Transcript
♪♪
I don’t think I’ll like being here without her.
Nurse: Don’t worry, love.
You’re not staying in this place much longer.
You get to go on a train ride soon.
♪♪
[Door squeaks open]
[Train rumbling]
[Horn blaring]
[Blaring continues]
Sorry, no fruit and nut.
Just plain old Dairy Milk.
So, what color loafers was the man in 9C wearing?
Blue suede.
Left one had a scuffed toe.
Where are we going?
Oh, somewhere special.
Do they have fruit and nuts there?
They have anything you want.
What about Coca-Cola?
Bathtubs full of it.
Pineapple?
Pineapple?
You’ll have pineapple coming out of your ears.
When will they bring my sister?
♪♪
Emma. Do you know what I was wondering?
I was wondering how many steps it was from our taxi to the train platform.
Depends.
466 for me.
But you take longer strides, so you were 327.
[Chuckles softly]
I am sure you’re right.
What do I do when I get to the new place?
Not more tests…
No, no, we’re done with tests.
No. You’ll be doing something much more important.
♪♪
♪♪
[Sirens wailing in distance]
Highsmith: Come on.
[Chains rattle]
Just tell me who she is.
Why do you care so much about some freaking girl?
I don’t.
I care about my book.
And I care when someone gets between it and me.
You know what? I’m done.
You want your stupid book?
Go get it yourself.
Y-You’re just using me.
You know, you’re right.
Sometimes I do use people.
We all do, though, don’t we?
Just a matter of degree.
There are things that I want.
A life outside the shadows.
Some fucking respect.
Dignity.
And I tend to see talented people around me as tools to get those things.
I obsess. I strategize.
But there is one thing that I do not do.
I do not lie.
And I cannot stand it when someone lies to me.
♪♪
[Soft whoosh]
♪♪
♪♪
Jasper: [Whispers eerily] Hey!
♪♪
[Loud whoosh]
♪♪
Who the hell do you think you are?
Let me go.
You child! Huh?
You think you can come into my world and toss me in the ditch?
I don’t know what you think happened with her.
You don’t want things the way I want things.
You can’t. You haven’t been alive long enough.
You puppy!
I walked from Bolivia to Texas.
I had nothing, I had no one.
I’ve told you how determined I am.
I’ve shown you what I’m building down here.
You know what I want to destroy.
But you don’t take me at my word.
Instead, you try to get in my head and root around.
Yeah, yeah.
I felt you trying to read my mind since we left the hotel.
You think you’re smooth?
Think you got moves?
You have no moves.
I… have all… the moves.
[Hisses]
Say it.
[Stammers] Say what?
You know what.
See, unlike you, I’m really good at this.
And I’ve been bopping around your porridge bowl all night, and you got stuff locked up tight.
Like, does the girl [Shouts] have my fucking book?
[Normal voice] But it’s the primal shit that you just cannot hide.
So go ahead, say… what you’re thinking.
[Hissing]
Say it.
Say it.
I don’t wanna die.
What?
I don’t wanna die.
Oh, you’re not gonna die.
I’m gonna give you purpose.
♪♪
[Grunting]
♪♪
[Door hinges creaking]
[Door slams shut]
♪♪
Guy: [Grunts]
♪♪
No. Please.
Jasper: You know, for a moment I actually thought you were different.
But you’re exactly what the Talamasca ropes in.
The same kind of venal turncoat who got my family killed.
Start digging.
[Groans]
Fuck you.
[Scoffs]
[Revenant growls]
So if I feed you to them, I’m gonna do it a little at a time.
Keep you in a hole as their snack forever.
And trust me, it’s painful and smelly.
And it’ll drive you to a madness that you cannot possibly fathom.
Far worse than what that poor soul in the hotel was going through.
And way worse than becoming one of them.
I mean, sure, it’s no picnic, but listen to those crazy fuckers.
They’re pumped.
They have enthusiasm.
They-got purpose.
You really wanna know who the girl is?
Okay. I’ll tell you.
I don’t know.
I’ve been trying to figure it out, just like you.
And that’s the goddamn truth.
Doesn’t matter. Dig.
Go to hell.
Oh, we’re already there, baby.
[Loud whoosh]
Hey.
[Cages rattling in distance]
♪♪
[Loud thud]
Highsmith: [Grunts]
♪♪
♪♪
Jasper: [Screaming]
Doris: [Groans]
Guy: Come on!
Come on.
[Grunting]
[Revenants growling]
Run!
[Car revving, tires screeching]
[Car horn beeping]
Doris! Come on!
[Tires screech]
The door!
[Shouts]
[Revenant shrieks]
Both: [Panting] Holy shit.
♪♪
[Engine revving]
♪♪
Doris: [Panting]
♪♪
Guy: Holy shit.
What the fuck was that?
Who are you?
Uh, I’m the girl who just saved your life twice.
So you’re welcome.
Why do you keep following me?
God. [Laughs] Don’t flatter yourself.
Look, even though you have your doubts, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who had Keves killed.
Jasper? Yeah.
[Sighs]
You think he’s dead?
No, I doubt it.
Okay. Well, we need to ditch this van and then get lost.
Really lost.
We?
We. Yes, we.
So what?
Like the countryside?
No.
Jasper has all the resources of the London Mother House.
It’s only a matter of time before he finds us.
We can’t go anywhere in England.
So what does that mean?
Reconstructive plastic surgery.
[Scoffs]
Sandpaper our fingerprints off.
[Sighs]
Are you okay?
I mean… yeah.
Okay, well, we’ve gotta leave the country.
Yeah.
[Car engine starts]
You think the Maida Vale coven might help us?
No, no, no, no, no.
I don’t want them.
Um…
They’re way too wrapped up in all this.
Have you got anyone that you can really trust?
Yeah, maybe.
[Gear shift clicks]
There’s a rule against that in the employee handbook.
No, there isn’t.
You’ve actually checked, haven’t you?
What’s so important it couldn’t wait until morning?
It looks the same as before.
Mmm. It is.
I’m running a brute force script.
Could take days, months, centuries, I don’t know.
Whatever it is, it’s important enough that it got Soledad Marcel killed.
But that’s not why I called.
Mmhmm. Dah-dah.
Tell a lot about a man by his shoes.
♪♪
Our man with the yellow trainers.
Mmhmm.
Tweaked some facial recognition code to search raw camera feeds for his kicks, et voila.
You’re brilliant.
Seems almost unfair for a man so handsome.
Least you got healthy gums.
[Cellphone vibrating]
It’s the lab.
DNA match for a third person at the scene.
What? At Hepworth Lane?
Our murder-sui?
Safe to call it a double murder now.
Owen: We’re keyed directly into the city’s CCTV network.
I have an entire team scraping and searching the footage in real time.
We’re inside the servers at passport control and have agents at Heathrow, and Gatwick, and all major rail stations.
But…
Jasper: Owen… is something bothering you?
No.
No?
Are you sure?
Then why won’t you look at me?
I’d hate to think I was offending your delicate British sensibilities.
We’ll find them, I promise you.
May take a little time, that’s all.
They set me on fire, Owen.
So I’d kind of prefer to find them right the fuck now.
Of course.
But even with all of our capabilities, tracking two people in a city of nine million?
It’s like trying to hear a whisper in a hurricane.
Well, I might know a little butterfly who can cut through all the noise.
♪♪
♪♪
I’ll be right back.
Make it quick.
♪♪
[Car door closes]
[Indistinct chatter]
♪♪
♪♪
You are not gonna believe this.
♪♪
[Indistinct chatter]
♪♪
♪♪
Straight on down through the door on the right.
[Midtempo club music plays]
♪♪
[Music continues in distance]
Man: [On intercom] Put a coin in the slot.
[Coin clatters]
[Sighs] Can we go and talk?
We’re talking here.
This isn’t how we do things.
I need to know what’s happening.
This is exactly how you do things.
You put people in the dark and you keep them there.
We contact you.
That is the protocol.
You didn’t respond.
We’re a long way from protocol, Helen.
I need an exfiltration pack ASAP.
Cash, passport, airline tickets.
I’m out of the country by the end of the day.
This is ridiculous.
I’m not doing this.
Sit down.
Sit down.
I need you, I need your help, and you’re gonna give it to me.
I did everything that you asked.
I went to the Mother House.
I got close to Jasper.
So close, I almost got killed.
And now I’m in a lot of danger.
And I need to leave England, and you’re the only person that can help me do that.
What about our mission?
What mission?
There is no mission.
There are bigger forces at play that you couldn’t possibly understand, Guy.
I’m burned, Helen.
It isn’t about you.
But it is about me.
Right now, it is.
And you know it.
And I know there’s an empty space inside of you.
I know there’s a wound that has never really healed.
I can feel it. Trust me.
And I don’t know exactly what that is, but I do know that you care about me.
And that it’s hard for you to show that.
Because if you do, it might compromise what we’re doing.
It might get me hurt, and you don’t want that, do you?
♪♪
No.
Then don’t rip open a new wound right alongside your old one.
If you don’t help me, Helen, if you won’t help me…
I’m dead.
[Coin clatters]
[Laughs]
[Laughs, sniffs]
The mission’s off the books, isn’t it?
Yes.
And I’m off the books, aren’t I?
Yes.
And you’re looking for something, aren’t you?
Something more than just the book?
Yes.
Something very personal.
And the Talamasca Elders, they wouldn’t be too happy if they found out about that, now, would they?
♪♪
If you help me get outta here, I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to help you find what it is you’re looking for, I promise you.
You need me and we both know that.
♪♪
No more freelancing.
No more bucking protocol.
I get you out, if you do exactly as I say.
I promise.
I’ll need a day to put all the materials together.
You must stay quiet until then.
Use the safe house, you’ll be out of harms way.
Why is my mom a fugitive?
What did she do to piss off the Talamasca?
Now is not the moment to irritate me, Guy.
Okay, one more thing.
I need two exit packs.
I’m getting out of here and I’m taking someone with me.
Who?
Doris, you don’t know her.
Oh, for God’s sake.
Yeah, well, she helped me, Helen.
She helped me.
And now I’m gonna help her.
Very well.
Have it your way.
[Gasps]
I have a plan. Come on.
Helen: Take only what’s necessary.
Leave everything else behind.
Let us help you.
Tell me where you’re going, Doris?
[Sniffs]
It’s for your own good.[Sighs]
♪♪
You’ll each need a passport photo and an alias.
[Camera shutter clicks]
♪♪
[Camera shutter clicks]
♪♪
Leave the photos for my associate in Lansdowne Road.
There’s a Sunday Reporter box.
Tuck the photos in at knee level.
♪♪
Go directly to the safe house.
There’s everything you need.
There’s food and a change of clothes.
Once you are there, do not set foot outside until nightfall, the day after tomorrow.
We’ll meet at Waterloo Station, platform 9, 8 o’clock.
Sure about this?
No, but it’s what we’ve got.
♪♪
[Cellphone vibrating]
Hey, Jay.
Jay: Hey. Are you alone?
Yeah.
Something’s popped up on my radar, and I wasn’t sure if I should…
You know, It’s sensitive.
And it could be nothing, but…
Please don’t tell me this is about Helen.
Olive, we’ve got a serious problem with her.
I just can’t make sense of what I’m looking at.
I think I need some help here.
Are you there? Olive?
Who was that?
Jay.
Jay?
It was a background check on that sector agent in Parma.
He checks out.
There’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Guy’s in trouble.
We need to get him out of the country.
Where is he?
He’s been laying low in Maida Vale.
With the witches?
On the houseboat. Yes.
Come on, let’s go.
♪♪
[Lock disengages, keys jingling]
[Keys thud]
[Lock clicks]
Doris: What is this place?
It’s a Talamasca safe house.
[Light switch clicks]
Why exactly do you believe this woman?
I mean, maybe she will help you.
It’s a big maybe, but why on earth would she go out of her way to help me?
Because she promised me that she would.
And what kind of promises do you think she made to someone like Soledad Marcel?
I don’t know, I have no idea what exactly happened to Soledad Marcel.
And neither do you.
What if she was fed to Jasper by your Helen?
What if your Helen is a mole?
That’s the thing with the Talamasca.
You’ll never know where you stand with them, or how they’re using you.
I don’t trust the Talamasca.
No, but you trust her.
Someone who’s always hiding.
You’re not exactly an open book yourself.
Oh, I never said you should trust me.
Why did you join the Talamasca in the first place?
Okay. So I’m in the third grade.
Miss Rosewood’s class, times tables.
And I was having a hard time remembering six times eight.
And she kept saying, “Six times eight is 48 and ain’t that great?”
And then she’d do this big exaggerated wink at me like, ah.
And it was really dumb, and it didn’t help me at all.
But I had this massive crush on her.
And so she keeps doing that, “Six times eight is 48.”
And I’m standing there and I’m watching her.
And then the principal walks in, and there was, like, this charge in the room, and he whispered something to her.
And I just remember she turned… and she looked right at me.
And it was a look I hadn’t seen before.
Not on anybody.
It was as if all the color in my world was about to leave, and… she was the first person to know about it.
And I just knew before anyone had told me, that my mom was dead.
♪♪
I didn’t have anyone else, so I was sent to live with foster parents.
And that was…
Um…
♪♪
Hard?
It’s cold.
♪♪
All these years later…
I meet Helen and she tells me that… my mother had actually been a Talamasca agent.
And that story that she had died, was a lie made up by the Talamasca.
She didn’t die. She just…
She just did something to piss ’em off.
What? I don’t know.
All I know is that she’s still alive and that she’s been in hiding from them ever since that day when I was 9.
♪♪
So that’s why you joined?
Yeah.
♪♪
To find her.
♪♪
So the whole mortals versus immortals, good versus bad, um, future of the world…
I was meant to be starting a job in contract law.
♪♪
You know, I resented her?
All my life, since I was a kid.
I’d been told that she was a junkie, that she was irresponsible and selfish, and that she hadn’t given a shit about me.
It’s one thing to find out that that isn’t true.
But for her?
She’s been out there, all these years, knowing that her son felt abandoned.
Can you imagine what that’s like for a mother to feel that?
No.
So if there’s a chance, I mean, even a small chance that I can get her out of trouble…
♪♪
I’d go to the end of the earth to do it.
What was her name?
Anna.
Anna Lemus.
[Chuckles softly]
♪ I was a boy
♪ With a wild imagination ♪
♪ I’d create worlds ♪
♪ With cities and with nations ♪
♪ And I like it ♪
♪♪
♪ Everyone was happy
as can be ♪
♪♪
♪ I love the town ♪
♪ And I called it Jubilee ♪
[Music continues indistinctly in background]
[Breathing heavily]
Mm, mm, mm.
[Cellphone vibrates]
We found them.
We’ll move in after sundown.
♪♪
Guy: Well, plenty of clothes.
Doris: I don’t know what we’re supposed to do here for two days.
[Drawer slams shut]
♪♪
♪♪
Jackpot.
♪♪
[Box clattering]
[Sighs]
Hmm. Yeah.
I’d say you look like a James.
You look nothing like a Julia.
[Laughs] That was the first name that came to mind.
Okay, so, say you get stopped by a border agent, what’s Julia’s backstory?
Well, she’s a dodgy one, actually.
She followed a childhood passion for herpetology.
Herpetology?
Come on, it’s the study of reptiles.
[Laughs] Anyway, she falls madly in love with her hard-driving thesis advisor, who was this Brazilian hunk who would seduce her with his longwinded monologs, about the Amazonian boa constrictor.
Until she found out that he was as cold blooded as the animals he claimed to love.
And so she is off to Yorkshire to start up a lizard sanctuary.
[Laughs]
Very good.
What about our man, James?
James?
Well…[Game piece clattering on board] You’ve heard about his, um, father, the famous anchovy fisherman, Fitzgerald MacArthur?
Oh, of course, I’m an adult.
Of course.
And his one-legged second wife, Cora, the salty dog, cheated on him with that intercontinental balloonist?
Oh. Chester Oklahoma.
Chester Oklahoma. Right.
And how Fitzgerald was so despondent, that he threw himself into the, uh, the blowhole of a passing sperm whale, leaving his young son, James, to ply his father’s trade, trolling the lonely seas to farm the one friend he ever had.
The humble anchovy.
Oh.
Now here he is, roaming the countryside in search of this woman who started up a, um, lizard sanctuary.
♪♪
[Chuckles softly]
♪♪
I win.
Aw!
So, what now?
Well, if we go to New York, we could try out there, but they might be looking for us.
So might be easier for us to get lost upstate.
Uh, or we can go West Coast, California, maybe.
Have you heard of Big Sur?
Guy…
It’s supposed to be beautiful there.
I meant for the rest of today.
I can’t do another board game.
I…
We should probably get some rest.
[Game pieces clattering]
♪♪
♪♪
What?
Nothing.
[Upbeat music playing over radio]
[Indistinct chatter]
Pretty face, toots.
[indistinct conversation, laughter]
[Glasses clink]
♪♪
♪♪
[Keys jingling]
♪♪
♪♪
[Door opens]
[Door slams shut]
[Groans]
Ridge: Nothing yet, huh?
Should go home, get some sleep.
Oh. Keeps me out of trouble.
At least take a break.
Maybe let me buy you some food and a pint.
Look about starved.
Oh, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a little nibble, I guess.
[Keys jingle]
[Door opens]
[Door closes]
♪♪
♪♪
[Clicker clicks]
♪♪
[Revenants growling]
♪♪
♪♪
[Growling continues]
[Cage clanging]
♪♪
[Indistinct chatter]
♪♪
[Door hinges creaking]
♪♪
[Revenants growling]
♪♪
[Growling continues]
You’re hiding something from me.
♪♪
♪♪
[Computer beeping]
♪♪
People: [Screaming]
♪♪
[Revenants growling]
[Screaming continues]
♪♪
♪♪
[Computer beeping]
♪♪
♪♪
