Andromeda (2000–2005): Season 5, Episode 10 - The Test - full transcript

No time to waste time,
Hunty boy.

I'm thinking.

Beautiful.

If you have tears,
prepare to shed them.

Neutrons over positrons.

Hey, hey, hey!

Oh!

You said I had beautiful hand.

Well, it just reminded me
of the universal constant
of change.

Well, maybe I didn't explain
the concept of gambling
clearly enough.

You did.



Cyclical random accretions of
cards, combined with each
player's skill and daring,

results in the exchange of money
or other things of value,

and also, your hand is a winner.

Yeah, but not this time.

Obviously.

This is Virgil Vox.

Hope in love, joy in music.
For all of us who have drifted
this far out.

Well, he's right about that.
I couldn't live without music.

Especially here on Seefra.

Beka, we're getting an
energy reading.

Got it.

Better not be what
I'm hoping it isn't.

I don't get it.
Tremendous energy, but no...

But no mass, right?



How did you know that?

Seen it before

Always means trouble.

Correction.
I get a small mass reading.
Intercept course, closing fast.

Vectoring.

It's changing course.

Is it a missile?
I don't know. Firing.

Evading.

Intercept in five, four...

Beka, we have a visitor.

Guided.
Some intelligence.

It's almost like
it's watching us.

Creepy.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

I think so.

You're worse at this than
I thought you were.

Come on, deal another hand,
you big, dumb ox.

You know, Prieus, I don't
understand why you purposely
antagonize people like you do.

Well, one poke in the eye
is worth two in the ribs,
hunty boy.

If you're a masochist.

Excuse me,
I have to take this.

Watch my chips.

Beka, this better be good.
You're interrupting a very big
game here.

Thanks for interrupting.
I'm getting my ass kicked.

Something's coming your way
from deep space.

We already heard
the weather report.

No, not the weather.
Something else.

Courtesy of
a timeless path.

The Route of Ages.
Are you sure?

Well, it's registering
little or no mass.

And it sucked all of our power
there for a second.

It has intelligence.

And, Dylan,
it's headed your way.

We've got cargo to
move here before the storm
makes it impossible

so I'm going to stay here and
carry on.

I'm going to join you
planet-side. A.S.A.P.

I'll see you when get here.
Hunt out.

Hey, Prieus.

Prieus!

What are you doing?
Get down, get down.
Get down!

Get out of here! Go, go, go!
Get out of my way!

The universe is
a dangerous place,

but in our future, my crew and
I fight to make it safe.

I am Dylan Hunt, Captain of
the Andromeda Ascendant,

and these are our adventures.

Well thanks for the heads up.
So, Route of Ages, huh?

I don't know. I mean,
I thought I...

I don't know.

Doyle said ultra high energy,
small mass.

Come on, Dylan,
that could be anything.

Okay, not anything.

There's a stranger in town.

And he came in on this storm.

Really?
Hmm.

The whole universe to choose
from, why would someone
come here?

We did.

Not by choice.

I'm getting a distinct
"It was Dylan's fault"
vibe from you.

I wonder why.
So do I, Beka.

Trance is the one
who put you here...

after she saved your life.

Trance, I didn't hear you.

Oh, I know. Sometimes it feels
as though my feet never
touch the ground.

No luck?

No luck.

Keep your friends close
and your enemies even closer.

Excuse me?

Ah...
I don't know why I said that.

Maybe because
there's a stranger in town.

Stranger than
the usual stranger.

I've got to keep
looking for this guy.

Hey, Dylan!
Huh?

If the stranger used
the Route of Ages to get here,

maybe we can use it to get out!

I was thinking the same, but
I want to know why he's here!

Of all the gwaro joints in
the universe, why does he
pick this one?

Well, I'll give you a reason.

It's because you're here.

Thank you.

Ah, Harper...

If this is the usual
roadkill, you can just
take it back, okay?

Well, pardonnez-freaking-moi.

I'll ask the chef, Beka,
I wouldn't want to
make you sick.

Are you going to eat that?

So, Dylan,

you still think you're going
to fix a slip-drive

with the collection of
space junk you find
on this planet?

Honestly...

when are you going to learn
to look out for number one?

When I'm convinced it won't
do to me what it's done to you.

Really?

Let me just remind you that
I have a certain history with
the Route of Ages.

Just you?

Yeah, I know, we all do.

But I'm talking now about me.

Beka.

And a certain guy I like to call
the "Prince of all Evil."

I can assure you The Abyss
didn't come through.

But somehow, someone was in
that orb. I saw him, at least
for a moment.

And did you, um...

I had like, feelings...

of some kind when
I first saw the orb.

Bad ones.

I still feel
a little shaky from it.

Well, that just gives me one
more reason why I want to
find this guy.

All storms bring
stories, teach lessons.

In the eye of
the storm, there is no way out,
no escape.

All right, Prieus,
I'm a busy man. Get to it.

This is your lucky day.

Luck is for suckers, Prieus.

Unless, of course,
you get lucky.

Harper, you wouldn't know luck
if you saw it.

I got eyes, Prieus,
and I'm awake.

You got what it takes
to take what I got?

Turn us into the most powerful,
wealthiest men in Seefra?
Do you? Huh?

Well, I'd settle for
comfortable, in an obscenely
rich kind of way, yeah.

What I have here is the stuff
that dreams are made of.

Large dreams, Harpie boy.

Large indeed.

All right, Prieus,
save me the pitch.
Show me your snake oil.

Open your hand.

Come on, moron, open.

Open. Close your fingers.

Great. Five hundred
more of these,

we could make a sack big enough
to hold your insanity.
No thanks.

Wrong, boy, wrong.
Prieus knows.

This is what everybody wants,
but nobody has.

Guess what it is.
Go on, guess.

Er, tiny magic carpet.

An eye patch.
Er, your skirt.

Fabric of the universe.

Cloth of heaven.

Come on.

Touch it.

With your finger.
Touch it.

- Water?
- Now he's interested.

Clean water.

Prieus, you dirty, lying scum.

It's clean.

Pure!

That is nothing like that
radiation rain we get
once in a blue moon.

I swear that stuff scrubs
down to nothing before
you can drink it.

If you say so, boy.

All right. All right, you got
my interest. Let's make a deal.

Okey dokey.

Back here, same time tomorrow.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait.
That's some product you got
there. Tomorrow? Why not today?

Patience.

Patience, huh?

I'll give you patience.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Harper!

I'd love to chat, Dylan,
but I got to run.

I'm looking for a stranger.
Long black coat.

Sort of a tall, short guy,
bald with black hair?
He went that way.

Can you believe this heavy rain?
Too bad we can't drink it!

Harper!

Prieus.

Get them.

Get...

Who did this to you?

A fellow Paradine...

from the future.

Another time,
another place.

Wait, wait. Prieus!

Storms bring
lessons. They cut like a knife
into dreams.

Into hope, into life.

Where the hell
is this guy?

So, Dylan.

I was wondering about, when
he died. Just before?

What did Prieus whisper to you?

He'd be touched
by your interest.

Aw, come on,
why so cynical?

He was a pal.
We had history.

Last time Prieus hit you up for
a drink, you said, "Get lost, or
I'll set your beard on fire."

Right. Well, that was,
that was a joke between us.

He ran away screaming.

It's funny stuff.

Prieus didn't say
anything to me, Beka.

He was too busy dying.

You missed a pocket.

I was just...
just looking for...

his next of kin. You know,
it's a very emotional thing.

Umm...

by the way, before
he kicked it, did he happen
to say anything to you?

Whisper anything, maybe?
Because it kind of looked like
he whispered something to you.

Can't believe
everything you see.

So...

who's going to tell me
what Prieus was selling?

Er, you know scrimpers,
they're...

Could be anything.

Or nothing.

Or water.

And someone killed him for it.

Did he, er, name any names?

Why don't you just tell us
what he told you, Dylan?

And we'll tell you
what we know.

They'll go first.

Yeah, but will they
tell me the truth?

Treachery, betrayal...

lies.

That's a storm.

Let me buy you a drink.

I have a drink.

So you do.

You're new here.

That interest you?

Leaving here interests me.

That can be expensive.

Well, name your price.
I'll decide what's expensive.

No, in fact, I'll decide.

I'm going to be deciding
a lot of things before
this day is over.

The storm can hold
the stranger. That's where
the frolic starts.

Where mayhem meets tranquility.
Where hope meets the mirror.

Reflections in a storm.

I'm feeling,
I don't know.

I don't like it.

Tell me.

It's like nothing
is going to work out.

Like it's all pointless,
all of it.

It's like, like...

Despair. You're picking up on
my crew's feelings.

You think?

But the feelings are, they're
boiling, as if something is
stirring them up horribly.

Beka, Harper, and Rhade are not
your crew anymore, Dylan.

I think the stranger came here
to make that point.

Well, why would he travel
all this way to show you
what's obvious?

If we let him finish what he
started, we'll all find out.

He's dangerous,
I can tell you that much.

In every time, in every future,
in every way, I think.

Well, maybe it's time
to take another gamble.

Besides...

he traveled the Route of Ages.
Trance, this guy knows how to
leave.

At what cost? To us?
To our friends of so many years?

What do you mean,
at what cost?

If we don't get out of Seefra,
our friends will lose themselves
altogether.

The old man said something to
you before he died, didn't he?

There's an old saying.

You have to destroy the village
to save it.

Oh, that's horrible.

I know.

The stranger,
seen him before?

I'd recognize that face.

Funny, him arriving
on the storm like that.

What do you think he wants?

I don't know...

but I'm getting all kinds of
nasty images and feelings since
this guy came on the scene.

You too, huh?

Who killed Prieus?

I think you'd better tell me
your name, friend.

I'm not your friend,
Telemachus Rhade.

You know my name.

And so much more.

You smuggled
illegal beta locks to
the dark quarter.

Paid assassin when
it's convenient.

Cold killer when it's not.

You killed Prieus.

Maybe.

What if I did?

Think of me as your judge,
jury, and executioner.

If he wanted you dead,
you wouldn't be standing.

I don't like games.

- We need him.
- Why?

He can get us out of here.

Route of Ages.

It's a dream, Dylan...

but my eyes are open.

This stranger
gives me the willies.

He's a problem
we got to take care of.

And if in the process, he should
become another tragedy,

there would be opportunities.

Good plan, Harper.

Shoot someone who can disappear
any time they want.

Ah, the trick is...

anticipation.

Beka Valentine.

Hey, don't hold back.

Give me your best shot.

Trafficked in illegal arms to
Second Sun rebels.

Plotted to overthrow
the tech police.

Sold illegal blues
to transzoners.

What can I say?

I've been a bad girl.

I'm not afraid of him.

I don't feel
any threat from him.

But you feel guilty.

Guilty?

Guilty of what?

You tell me.

No, you tell me.

My conscience is clear, Trance.

Despair.
That is what you feel.

I'm going to get some air.

Hey. So, what's the deal?

No one leaves until
I find who killed Prieus.

I've been looking for you.

I haven't forgotten
you either...

Dylan Hunt.

I'm flattered.

Leave my friends alone.

You insist on
calling them friends...

when they're just
a ragged group of individuals.

Disintegrating, chaotic,
useless.

They're just a little lost.
Nothing that escaping
here won't fix.

If you put such a premium
on that, I'll make you a deal.

No bargain, I'll bet.

I'll get you what you want.

But once I find who murdered
Prieus, that person must die.

I can live with that.

And you will kill them.

Fine, I will be your executioner
if you'll be our travel agent.

That's the worst deal in town.
I can't believe Dylan
took him up on it.

Dylan gets to escape through
the Route of Ages,

and all at the price of
one of you two.

No.

Dylan has said time and
again, when we leave,
we leave together.

Or we die together.

Besides, none of us
killed Prieus.

Right?

Give me one good reason
why any of us would.

Never mind.

Anyway, I say we take
the Stranger out right now.

Try, and you all die.

What is that?
It's like my worst fears.

Nightmares made real.

Maybe we shouldn't, er...

so hastily rush into anything.

I don't back away from a fight.

Yeah? The last time we didn't
back away from a fight,
we ended up here.

You look worried.

They're all coming out
upside down.

They're cards, Trance.
They don't have ups or downs.

Nineteen of moons,
upside down.

Six of gluons,
upside down.

This one, this one,
and this one.

Upside down.

The sun.

Upside down?

I'd call our chances
a definite long shot.

We have the chance to put this
place behind us. I have to let
him play his hand.

This whole place
is upside down, Dylan.

My advice?

Go with your gut.

I always do.

You make my friends nervous.

Do what you came to do,
or get out.

If I do,
will you pull the trigger?

Kill the guilty one?

I already agreed to your terms.

You just make sure that when
it's over, you show us how to
get out of Seefra.

Done.

Where've you been?

Hiding?

We'll see who's hiding.

Let's get on with it.

I never had business
with the dead guy,

so make your case.

Even in death,
we all are energy.

This is the energy of Prieus.

I thought we had a deal!

- I was looking for you.
- Really?

I mean, I looked there and then
I looked there. Where were you?

What you promised.
I have the money.
Where is it?

Where is it!

Er, I, come on.

Come on, Prieus!
Where is it?

I'm not saying Rhade's guilty.

I'm just saying he does
have the occasional
tendency towards...

violence.

But if he is guilty...

And Dylan shoots him? Unlikely.

Well, whatever Prieus was
selling, it's probably valuable.

If we find it first, we'd only
have to split it two ways.

How do I know that
you didn't kill Prieus?

Same reason I know you didn't.
I give you my word.

Right.

But you promised.
I have the money. Where is it?

I have seen nothing here that
proves Rhade killed Prieus.

Are you scared of
administering my justice?

I'm not convinced it's just.

You've not seen enough.

Come on.

Where is it?

Dylan, you saw it.
I didn't kill him.

But you cut a deal with him.
What was it?

It's my business.

I didn't kill him
is all that matters.

Deep in thought?

Are you really going to kill
whoever killed Prieus?

I really am.

Why?

To save the rest of us.

What the hell.

No one lives forever.

Do they?

I'm tired of waiting.

All things come to
those who wait.

I'll save you time.

I knew him.

Had deals with him.
I do that with a lot of people.

Sometimes I have to threaten.
I do what I have to do.

Everyone does
what they have to do.

It's the choices they make
that matter.

You're late.

Well, you wouldn't believe
the day I had.

Rush here, rush there,
Everybody wants something
yesterday.

You know, I don't really care
about your problems.

You deliver me
what you promised,

or next time I'm going
to have to use this.

In business you have to bluff.

Like in gambling?

Like now?

Doesn't prove I killed him.

Maybe it wasn't
the last time you saw him.

It's the game for you, isn't it?

Not so much finding
out who killed him,

but messing with our heads.

Why?

I'm not the one who's playing
games, am I?

Is that a fact?

We'll leave it there for now.

So if Beka did it...

Your mind is rotgut.

Don't confuse me
with my product.

Hard to believe
Dylan would kill her.

To get out of this system?
Please, who wouldn't?

But if he did, someone,

two people even,
working as partners, say,

could do a lot
with an old cargo ship.

The Maru.

On the house.

You and I should make sure...

If Dylan were to,
God forbid.

The Maru goes to us.

She'd want it that way.

After an appropriate period
of mourning.

You have to stop
this, Dylan.

They are sowing the seeds
for their own destruction.

Who killed Prieus?

Let's see.

Oh, Dylan.
This isn't possible.

Trey of Nebula, upside down.

You see?

Not really, but I'll go with it.
What's it mean?

It means you know
who killed Prieus.

You do, so you already know
who's going to die.

Yes, Trance.

I already do.

Mr. Harper, what did
Prieus offer you?

Nothing.
Just the usual space junk.

And don't look in here either.
All those memories cramped
together.

What would be the point?

It has its use, Mr. Harper.

"Mister Harper" huh?

Sounds like
you're reading me a warrant.

A death warrant.

But we don't yet know
whose name will be on it.

You don't need that.

Fabric of the universe.
Cloth of heaven.

Touch it. Touch it with
your finger. Come on.

Water.

The ability to turn solid matter
into drinking water.

The person who controlled that
would be very powerful.

It was a little bit of water.

A little teardrop.

Let's not get hung up
on the details.

What I did there,
my behavior, it's a long way
from being nefarious.

You thought he was going to
give it to someone else.

That would be a reason to kill.

And if reasons were ground for
conviction, we'd all be history.

But they're not, ergo,
you haven't proved
I've killed anyone

We'll leave it at that.

I hate him.

The technology to turn that
cloth into drinkable water, it
was supposed to be mine.

Lineup begins
behind me, pal. And Harper's
in it, too.

Harper may be dead
before too long.

Dylan's not killing anyone.

Hmm. Dylan has that
look in his eyes.

A Nietzschean look.

He'll do whatever
it takes to survive.

Well, one thing's for sure.

Prieus played us all.

I wonder what his connection
to the Stranger is?

For all we know,
the Stranger killed Prieus.

Either way, whatever turns
matter into clean water is
still out there to be found.

Two people looking for it
will find it quicker than one.

But I have the Maru.

I'll split it with you,
sixty forty.

Deal.

I don't know what's worse.

Murdering an innocent man,

or the three of you, Harper,
Valentine, Rhade,

plotting to save your own skins
at the cost of a friend's life.

Maybe none of you
deserve to live.

That's enough.

You know as well as I do
who killed Prieus.

I do, yes.

Dylan, don't. Please.

I need to know one thing first.

Tell me where you came from.

I come from the future.

That's what I needed to hear.

How's it all turn out?

No, don't tell me.

It's time for the final card.

Who killed Prieus?

I killed him.

You?
Rhade, stop him.

That's the way you want it,
then?

It is the way it is.
Now, and in the future.

So be it.

No!

This isn't possible.
We have to do something.

If it were any one of you,
Dylan would have done something.
He would have found a way.

His choice had other
reasons and objectives.

I don't understand.

Dylan Hunt did.
All you need is patience.

Well, I am running out of that,

and when I do, not even you
will be able to escape it.

It's not our fault.
It's the Stranger.

Yeah?

Well, I know I just stood here
and watched him kill Dylan.

Who else can take
the blame for that?

We all just stood here.

I couldn't move.

It was in my mind.

It's called saving your
own skin. We all did it.

It's what we're best at.

What we've come to
here on Seefra.

So what are we going
to do about it?

Somebody want to help me up?

Boss! You're okay.

Thank you.

I didn't expect this.

Yeah, well, neither did I.

I see the Stranger's gone.

Er, yeah.

Harper, could you check Prieus?

- Sure thing.
- Thanks.

Do you mind telling us
what's going on?

We're about to find out.

Er, guys?

Who did this to you?

Fellow Paradine.
Fellow Paradine.

You, you sent for me.
You, from the future.

Another time, another place,

to help you make them
what they were meant to be.

The crew. Andromeda's crew.

I am the Stranger
in each of them.

You sent the Stranger back
to this time and place?

Apparently.

Trance, I had to play
this hand all the way out...

somehow, in some future,
I knew I would need you all
more than ever.

Does that mean we're getting
out of this lovely system
anytime soon?

I have a feeling it's a start.

Rhade... that sounded
almost optimistic.

It's good to have you back,
Captain.

Captain?

Dylan.

Hmm.

Now where did he go?

So Prieus and the Stranger
are the same man?

Man. Well, let's just say
they were two parts of
the same being.

And they left this for us,
from the future?

Yes. For the future.

It's ours together.

That's if you all feel
we can work together.

I'll bet this is what Prieus was
using to make water.

And if it was, then it's got to
be a source of massive power.

Harper, could you jury rig
that to Andromeda?

Does a Nightsider
spawn in scum?

So, Dylan, you finally got what
you've been searching for the
whole time we've been here.

A way to power the Andromeda.

Are you kidding me?

I already got
what I'm looking for.

A team.

Hey.

Storm's over.

- Doyle.
- Hey.

Hi.
Did I miss anything?

No.

I'd say you are right on time.