Release date: February 11, 2021
* * *
FRANNIE: I wish I could tell you every story has a happy ending.
Truth is, most stories don’t end at all.
Not really.
Feels like every day we’re making progress.
But the question is where are we headed, and how much farther do we have to go before we get there?
How long before we go from rebuilding back to just living again?
And how long after that before this place goes back to being just like before?
Sometimes it feels like
Captain Trips was like flipping a breaker switch.
Everything’s new, a chance to do it all different.
But every day I wonder– will we?
Will we do anything different this time?
Can we, even? Are we capable?
Which brings me to you.
(baby crying)
When you got here, you were perfect.
Seven pounds, six ounces of everything I never knew I always wanted.
Everyone broke out the liquor.
Just about all the booze we’d been hoarding, raised in a toast to you, to the future you promised.
It was a hell of a party.
And then…
(baby coughing)
Dr. Wen and I tried telling each other it was probably just croup or something.
Even regular flu. Anything but that.
But then, your neck started to swell.
As soon as it was clear you had Trips, we all asked ourselves the question.
7.3 billion people caught Captain Trips.
7.3 billion people died.
Not one person recovered.
There was no hope.
How could we let you suffer?
I hate that the notion ever crossed my mind, but it feels important to tell you that it did.
(baby coughing)
But there was no way. I just couldn’t.
I know Glen would say it was selfish let you keep suffering to spare my conscience.
Maybe he’d be right. I don’t know.
No one had ever heard of someone improving once they caught Trips.
Everyone we’d seen or heard about just got worse and worse until they died.
Even when I knew we had you back, I couldn’t shake the image.
There you were, surrounded by all those empty cribs.
Of course, they won’t stay empty.
Jen and Tyler Curtis’ baby was just ten weeks behind you.
He came early.
But he never got Trips.
First baby born to two immune parents.
So far, so good.
Maybe there’s hope for us yet.
God, I wish you could meet Stu.
People keep trying to get me to send scouts to Vegas, see if they can find out what happened to our people, to Flagg, what made those lights in the sky.
I keep saying, “No, it’s too dangerous, we can’t spare the manpower.”
Is it possible I just don’t want to know the answer?
I mean, how long do I wait before I accept that he must be dead?
And how long until I stop dreaming about him?
Hey, look at… H-Hi!
Oh, hey. Perfect timing.
I hate going down these stairs alone.
You guys carry on, okay? I’ll-I’ll catch up.
We’re, uh, just on our way to help set up for tonight.
Oh, yeah.
(exhales) Yeah, I don’t f… I don’t feel much like being around people right now.
Yeah.
Well, I-I hope you’re planning on coming down.
You know, it’s important that people see you, you out there and, you know, both of you.
Yeah.
You’re the only connection that the rest of us still have to her.
Until the others get back.
Right.
Till they come back.
♪ ♪
(baby crying)
(shushes)
♪ ♪
(Kojak barking)
Hey, I…
(indistinct chatter)
Are you real?
(Stu chuckles)
Ask me again in a little while.
Tom saved my life, Frannie.
(baby crying)
Meet Abagail.
Abagail.
Hey, Abby. Meet your daddy.
Hey, there, girl.
Hey, Abagail.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
(birds chirping)
(music playing in distance)
(people whooping in distance)
♪ Shoo fly, dragon fly, get back to your mother ♪
♪ Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River ♪
♪ Well ♪
(indistinct chatter)
(laughing)
♪ Well… ♪
All right, yeah.
(laughs)
Oh!
(cheering, applause)
Let’s slow it down, people.
Oh.
♪ ♪
I love this song.
♪ I fall ♪
♪ To pieces ♪
♪ Each time I see you ♪
♪ Again… ♪
I’ll be back.
♪ I fall ♪
♪ To pieces ♪
♪ How can I be… ♪
Something wrong, honey?
No.
(chuckles): Nothing. I don’t know.
I’ll bet you do.
I think you’ll think I’m crazy.
Aw. Don’t know about that.
Why don’t you try me?
I want to go back to Maine, see the ocean.
I mean, Boulder’s wonderful, a-and it’s safe…
Well, no.
Safer than out there. I know that.
I mean, there’s civilization and our friends are here, but it just… feels like it’s so… I don’t… in the middle of things.
You know, back in February, I knew everyone by their first name?
Then all the snow went, and we’ve got 500 more.
At least 500.
Three in jail.
Only drunk and disorderly and vandalism right now, but sooner or later it’s gonna be something worse.
Stealing and…
Murder.
I mean, I don’t want to think that way, but yeah.
Mother would have called it the Old Adam.
It always comes out.
Are you saying what I think you are?
Will you risk the baby?
Everything’s a risk.
Even now, with Flagg gone.
We don’t have to stay. We could come back.
Yeah. We could do that.
Come back and just… if only to see how folks are making out.
Will you think about it?
Yeah, I’ll think about it.
In the meantime, may I have this dance?
♪ You walk by ♪
♪ And I fall to pieces. ♪
(indistinct chatter in distance)
(panting)
So, when do you want to go?
Hmm?
Do you really mean it?
Mm, brought all those, didn’t I?
(firecrackers popping in distance)
Yeah, it’s getting a little loud here, isn’t it?
I mean, it ain’t New York City yet, but…
When do you want to take off?
Soon.
Yeah?
As soon as we possible.
Close the circle.
That’s right, East Texas.
Close the circle.
(Abby crying)
(grunts)
(moans)
I got it.
Uh-uh-uh.
My turn.
Definitely my turn.
(door opens, closes)
(exhales)
(fussing)
You come back, now, Stu.
(chuckles)
You come back, Frannie.
M-O-O-N.
(crying)
And that… that spell…
We’ll come back.
Promise?
FRANNIE: Promise.
Hey, Joe.
Come here, buddy.
Need you take care of Lucy-mom for me, all right?
Yeah.
Take care of all your moms?
I will.
Be a good boy. Give me a hug.
All right, you’re the man now.
Okay.
See you, Joe-man.
Bye.
Mwah. You be good.
Okay.
Steve.
Lords, yes. Lords, yes.
Okay, now, remember, secondary roads, or even tertiary.
Unless you want to be winching cars out of your way every 15 minutes.
Hey, I grew up backroading and Frannie’s got just about a thousand road maps and this baby’s a tank.
She is. We’ll be just fine.
We’ll be all right.
Yeah. She-she’s just a tank.
Tom.
(laughter)
I’ll miss you.
All right.
I’ll miss you, too, pal.
Love you, buddy.
I love you.
Be good.
It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.
You guys could die.
FRANNIE: Hey, man, all of us still here, still alive, after the super flu and after Flagg–
I mean, that’s the real long shot.
It’s a piece of cake.
(laughs)
Love you guys.
We love you.
JOE: Love you.
(engine starts)
Love you.
STU: All right, we’re off.
(whooping)
See you guys!
Bye!
Bye!
JOE: Don’t have too much fun without us.
Love you!
Bye, you guys.
Bye!
♪ ♪
♪ Weightlessness, no gravity ♪
♪ Were we somewhere in-between ♪
All right, take it up!
♪ I’m a ghost of you, you’re a ghost of me ♪
♪ A bird’s-eye view… ♪
FRANNIE: Say when.
Yep, there you go.
Is it working?
Yep.
All right. Pull.
All right, little more, little more.
All right, hold.
What do we got tonight?
We got… dealer’s choice.
♪ Oh, highway boys ♪
♪ Are all sleeping in… ♪
Thanks, honey.
♪ With their dirty mouths ♪
♪ And broken strings ♪
♪ I’m a ghost of you, you’re a ghost of me ♪
♪ A bird’s-eye view of San Luis ♪
♪ I’m a ghost of you ♪
♪ You’re a ghost of me ♪
♪ A bird’s-eye view of San Luis. ♪
FRANNIE: What do you say we, um, stop there for the night?
Someone needs a change.
STU: Yep. Sounds like a plan.
STU: Made 400 miles today. Believe that?
FRANNIE: My back believes it.
STU: Keep on like this, we’ll be looking
at that Atlantic Ocean by the end of the week.
Sitting on your folks’ porch and sipping lemonade.
FRANNIE: I think I can settle for this tonight.
Would you mind if the kiddo and I stayed out here
while you…
You got it.
I know the drill.
Good man.
(Abby crying)
All right, little one.
Time to get you out.
Come on, boy.
(barking)
♪ ♪
(crying)
Hi. (shushes)
(panting)
(whimpers)
Place is clean.
Bunch of canned goods in the pantry, but they’re all swole up. It’s no good.
There was a supermarket that we passed in the last town.
Didn’t look looted.
Yeah, that’s ten miles back, though.
We got plenty of supplies, don’t we?
Yeah, well, we got to conserve them.
Add to them, if we can. And there was a drugstore.
We can get some Numzit for this little one.
Yeah, yeah, but she’s sleeping now, isn’t she?
Hmm. That won’t last.
(chuckles)
(panting)
You hear that?
What’s that?
The quiet.
STU: Yeah.
Look at that moon.
(imitates James Stewart): You want that moon, Frannie?
Well, uh,
I’ll throw a lasso around that moon for you.
(normal voice): What’s that from?
♪ Buffalo girls, won’t you come out tonight? ♪
(chuckles)
(wind whistling)
I will fear no evil.
I’m gonna take her inside. It’s getting awfully cold.
Yeah.
Kojak, let’s go!
Hey.
(whines)
(whistles)
(barks)
(whimpering)
(creatures chittering)
♪ Oh, Jesus ♪
♪ Won’t you come by yere ♪
♪ Oh, Jesus ♪
♪ Won’t you come by yere ♪
♪ Now is the needed time ♪
♪ Oh, now ♪
♪ Is the needed time ♪
♪ Now is the needed time. ♪
(Abby crying in distance)
Baby teething.
You sure you two don’t want to keep me company?
I don’t want to wake her.
That tooth kept her up half the night.
Oh, right.
So, more baby Tylenol?
Yeah, or Motrin.
Motrin.
And can you get some water, too?
There’s nothing here that works.
Yes, ma’am.
Here.
I’m gonna need you… to keep an eye out.
All right?
(imitates gunshot)
(laughs) Frannie Oakley.
(exhales sharply)
(chuckles)
Be careful.
Yep.
(engine starts)
(whistling “Buffalo Gals”)
♪ Buffalo girls, won’t you come out tonight ♪
♪ Won’t you come out tonight… ♪
Ow.
(gasps) Oh.
Watch the new teeth, little hero.
♪ Buffalo gals, won’t you come out tonight ♪
♪ And we’ll dance by the light of the moon. ♪
All right.
(basket thuds)
The mother lode.
(humming “Buffalo Gals”)
(humming stops)
Think that old pump still works?
Want to find out?
♪ ‘Cause your kisses lift me higher ♪
♪ Like the sweet song of a choir ♪
♪ And you light my morning sky ♪
♪ With burning love ♪
♪ Oh… ♪
(tire blows out)
Shit.
(groans)
(sighs sharply)
Terrific.
(creaking)
(whines)
(chuckles)
I’ll be careful, don’t worry.
♪ Oh, a hunk, a hunk o’ burning love ♪
♪ A hunk, a hunk o’ burning love. ♪
Hey, Fran, I ran into a little trouble over here.
Nothing serious, just a flat tire.
You hear me?
Oh, Frannie?
Frannie, you there? Come back.
Can you hear me? Fran?
I told you to keep the walkie next to you, goddamn it.
All right. All right.
Here we go.
(grunting)
It’s good.
And cold.
Okay.
(mutters)
Hello, Fran.
Hello, bitch.
(gasps)
(pained cries)
(screaming)
(Kojak barking)
(Abby cooing)
(grunts)
(clattering)
Hold, baby.
Hold.
♪ ♪
(panting)
Frannie.
Thought you might drop by.
You’re dead.
Yet here I am.
I’m dreaming this.
Well, maybe you’re dead.
(chuckles)
An afterlife with you in it? I don’t think so.
(laughs)
Ah.
Well, let’s table the issue for now, shall we?
I want to show you something.
FLAGG: One of the last tribes on Earth never polluted by contact with modern man.
(indistinct chatter)
Once upon a time, entire tribes like this were wiped out by missionaries who gave them blankets with smallpox.
(speaking native language)
These fine folks… they weren’t even touched by the superflu.
It’s ironic, don’t you think?
Anyway… to business.
You’re not dead, honeybunch.
But you will be soon.
I don’t know if your skull is fractured, or if it’s only a concussion.
I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.
I do know that you suffered multiple fractures on your right leg.
Your knee is blown out, your hip shattered.
Three broken ribs.
And do you see that blood coming out of your mouth?
One of those ribs has punctured your lung. Nasty.
I don’t believe you. You lie.
Yes. One of my many talents.
I’m not lying about this and you know it.
(Abby crying)
Baby Abagail’s getting hungry.
So helpless. So fragile.
Now, will your redneck knight
make it back in time to save her?
Let’s see.
(truck creaking)
That truck looks mighty unsteady, don’t you think?
I don’t believe that either.
(both gasp)
But I’m in a forgiving mood.
A healing mood.
Stu might change that tire without getting squashed.
And you might have suffered nothing worse than a little bump on the noggin.
Would you like that?
Free?
Well, of course it’s free.
What kind of a philistine do you take me for?
(Flagg scoffs)
There’s just one little thing.
I would like a kiss.
(laughs)
Huh?
And I might want to take a little peek through your eyes from time to time, just to see how things are going.
You want to possess me?
Is that it? Like you did Harold and Nadine?
That is what my old friend Dr. Freud would call “an hysterical exaggeration.”
No, no, no, no.
Do you really want to die in that well?
Wouldn’t you rather live with your handsome hubby and raise your bouncing baby girl?
Of course I want that.
Then kiss me.
Not if you were God Himself.
I don’t believe any of this. This is all a lie.
Perhaps it is.
But you know that your little baby is out on that porch…
(Abby crying)
…and she is all alone.
She is crying.
She’s hungry.
She wants her mama, but her mama is dying!
One kiss… and you will live to see her grow up to be a strong and kind woman.
(whispers): We’ll discuss the rest later.
(Flagg grunting in pain)
Not for my husband!
Not for my baby! Not for the world itself!
Get thee behind me, you fucking bastard!
(low, deep growl)
(gasps)
(panting)
WOMAN (in distance): ♪ Jesus, won’t you come by here ♪
♪ Jesus, won’t you come by here ♪
♪ Jesus, won’t you come by here ♪
(guitar playing)
♪ For now is the needed time ♪
♪ Now is the needed time ♪
♪ Now is the needed time. ♪
Frannie?
Mother?
Frannie Goldsmith,
what are you doing here?
I’m not here.
I’m not here. I’m in a well.
And I think I’m dying and my… my baby…
Frannie.
He simply showed you what he thought would scare you into doing his will.
He’s his father’s son, and he tempted you.
But you resisted that temptation, and God will bless you.
Come on. Come here.
Come on here, girl. Come here.
(Mother Abagail sighs)
(crying): I can die.
I can die, but not my baby.
No, Frannie, not your baby.
Frannie, baby, come on, pick up.
Aw, damn it.
(tires screech)
What you doing out here in the road, boy?
Go on!
(barks)
MOTHER ABAGAIL: You know, all seems well… and then here comes God and says, “No, “there’s more to do, more pain to bear.”
FRANNIE: God is cruel, then.
(chuckles softly) Job said the same.
And God spoke to him out of the whirlwind, and He said, “Were you here when I made the world?”
God said, “The wheel keeps turning, the struggle continues, but the command… is always the same. Be true. Stand.”
(Kojak barking)
STU: Frannie?
(panting)
Fran?
(gasps)
(Kojak whining)
(whimpering)
Oh, Jesus.
Frannie!
(Kojak barks)
Fran!
Frannie!
MOTHER ABAGAIL: I’m in the way of knowing things, Frannie Goldsmith.
I know that you’ll be the mother of five.
These five will bring forth 20 and the 20 will bring forth 70, and some of those 70 you will live to see.
Behold, your children will replenish the Earth.
(Kojak barking)
H-Hang tight, all right?
I’m gonna get you out of there.
I can get the line down to her, but she’s not gonna be able to hang on.
I’ll pay out the cable.
You ride it down and bring her up.
What? What?
Dog. Baby.
(Kojak barks)
All right, let it out.
(whirring)
Hang on, baby.
Hope you know what you’re doing.
I do. You just get her.
All right, go. Go, go, go.
(whirring)
(grunts)
More!
(grunts) All right, whoa!
(click)
(screams)
I know, I know.
(coughs)
I know it hurts.
Pay out!
I got you, I got you, honey.
All right, ready? On three.
One, two, three.
(grunts)
Okay, pull us up!
(whirring)
(Frannie whimpers)
Come on, baby.
(grunting)
Easy, easy.
(wails, coughs)
She’s barely breathing.
Give me some space, Stuart.
What?
How do you know my name?
(crackling)
(grunts)
(panting)
Oh, my God.
Looks good.
Sit up, Frannie.
I don’t think I can.
Come on.
Now stand.
(grunts)
You okay?
Like, really okay?
Nothing hurts.
Nothing hurts, Stu.
(Abby crying)
Abby.
(laughs, sniffles)
I know. I was scared, too.
Yes, cute thing.
(Abby cooing)
Never seen the Atlantic, have you, East Texas?
I mean, I’ve seen it in pictures and movies, but not like this.
That’s… That is something else, isn’t it?
Mm-hmm.
Now you understand why I wanted to come?
Yes, I do.
You like the look of that, don’t you?
Hey, tell me something, Stu.
How would you feel about having four more of these little rascals?
(Abby cooing)
Well, I was thinking more like two.
We’ll see.
I’m easily persuaded.
(both chuckle)
Hey, uh, back in Nebraska… what… what happened?
What happened is that I…
I found out that there are two sides to the world.
There’s this… and then there’s… a deep well of darkness.
A pit.
And when I was dying in that well, I saw both of them.
And I was tempted.
“The wheel turns…”
“…the struggle continues…”
“…and the command is always the same.”
And what command is that?
Be true.
Stand.
(animals chittering)
(indistinct chatter)
FLAGG: Hey!
How’s it hanging?
(speaking native language)
Come on.
♪ Why can’t we be friends? ♪
(shouts)
♪ Why can’t we be friends? ♪
(tribe gasping)
My name is Russell Faraday.
Worship me!
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ And I feel fine ♪
♪ 6:00, TV hour, don’t get caught in foreign tower ♪
♪ Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn ♪
♪ Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting ♪
♪ Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate ♪
♪ Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down ♪
♪ Watch your heel crush, crush, uh-oh ♪
♪ This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear ♪
♪ A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies ♪
♪ Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ And I feel fine ♪
♪ I feel fine ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ And I feel fine ♪
♪ The other night I dreamt of knives ♪
♪ Continental drift divide, mountains sit in a line ♪
♪ Leonard Bernstein ♪
♪ Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs ♪
♪ Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom ♪
♪ You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right? Right ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ And I feel fine ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ It’s the end of the world as we know it ♪
♪ Time I had some time alone ♪
♪ And I feel fine. ♪
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