Lore (2017–…): Season 2, Episode 6 - Jack Parsons: The Devil and the Divine - full transcript

♪ ♪

MAN: This is a tale
of a mad scientist.

And the last time
I tried to solve

the mysteries of the universe.

[heart beating slowly]

I think it hit the ground
37 minutes ago,

but my mind hasn't
caught up to that yet.

For me, it's still falling.

Falling for that second.

Or falling for an eternity.

I can't tell anymore.



♪ ♪

[glass shatters]

Tried to solve the mysteries
of the universe?

Succeeded.

The last time I succeeded

and broke through time and
space into another dimension.

But that's the end.

And I'm a fool,
starting at the end,

when I should begin
at the beginning.

My beginning.

That kid right there?

That's me.

Jack Parsons.

Age eight.



I liked math.

And I was damn good at it.

But I loved magick.

Honest-to-God magick.

Breaking dimensional barriers,

infusing power
and summoning demons.

Choronzon be.

Vessal I.

Choronzon be.

-[indistinct whispering]
-Vessal I.

Choronzon be.

JACK:
I know. It sounds crazy.

Would it make you feel better
knowing that I helped create

the first rockets made
for space exploration...

...at a time when even saying that would get you

laughed out of a room
full of scientists

as fast as saying
I summoned the devil?

[cackling]

Both equally
science fiction in 1922.

[radio signal warbles]

Not good enough?

Give me 30 seconds
and I will prove it to you.

Scientifically.

A demon.

Cha El mi.

Cha El mi.

Cha
El mi.

Cha El mi.

-Cha El mi.
-[indistinct whispering]

JACK: The thing is, I don't have a lot of time right now,

because I dropped the beaker.

So I need you
to open your mind

and listen
just a little bit deeper

to the tides that roll
across the universe.

Step inside my mind.

And though this story
starts in hell...

[creature roaring]

...it ends in heaven.

♪ ♪

Hey, Jack. How much longer?

I prefer not to blow myself up
when it launches.

So maybe give me five more
minutes, Eddie?

FORMAN: Hey, hey, hey, hey,
if I could blow myself...

Edward, language.

We're not sailors.

You sure about that, Frankie?
Huh?

Space sailors.

Huh. Is that what
we're gonna call them?

FORMAN:
You got a better idea?

Well, cosmos travelers, maybe.

Space sailors, man.

Meh. Jack's right. Cosmonauts.

Oh, you, Frank? Really?

Thought you didn't believe

we could go from
the Earth to the Moon.

MALINA:
I didn't say I wanted to go.

I want a rocket that will.

And just because
Jules Verne says

we can travel through space
doesn't mean we can.

Yeah, well, I tell you what,
pal, when I get to the Moon,

I'll send you a postcard.

We're doin' this today, right?

Yeah, yeah, you jackass.

-Yeah.
-All... done.

You're a little close there,
Jackie boy.

That's all the cord
I could sneak out of Caltech.

At least shield your eyes,
Parsons.

Shield my eyes?

If I did that, how could I see
this beaut take flight?

[chuckles]

JACK:
It was a beautiful sight.

Flying higher and higher.

I knew then that we'd make it to the stars.

It looks like an angel.

An angel?

Jesus Christ, man,
what the hell are you drinking?

[chuckles]

JACK:
My first angel at age 22.

Still 14 years
behind my first demon,

but my friends didn't need
to know that.

From the Earth to the Moon.

♪ ♪

JACK: I grew up in the age
of Jules Verne,

Flash Gordon
and Buck Rogers.

And I helped birth
the space program.

You see, in the '20s, rocket
science had a faith problem.

Funny, right?

A lot of very smart people
didn't believe

that we could create
a combination

of solid and liquid fuel,
fused with metal,

that could bust through
the gravity well.

But I knew we could.

So did those two guys
bumping gums back there:

Edward Forman and Frank Malina.

But we couldn't even
tell the scientists

at Caltech the truth:

that we wanted to launch
rockets into space.

Because those learned men
would've laughed at us

the way you laughed at me when I told you I summoned a demon.

So how did I get my job
at Caltech?

We had an in.

Frankie worked for
Theodore von Kármán,

a leading rocket scientist.

Von Kármán lived in Hungary,

but in 1930, he got worried

about the rise of
anti-intellectualism

and took off for America.

-[cheering]
-Good for us.

Not so good for the Nazis.

[gunshot]

Von Kármán ran
Caltech's aeronautical lab,

which became Aerojet,

which then became the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

JPL.

If we ever get something out
probing the universe,

you gotta give us boys
at JPL some credit.

Once we launched Frankie's
angel in the canyon,

they stopped laughing and
told us to start launching

at a test facility
outside Caltech.

Most of the time, our rockets
blew up on the launchpad.

So they started calling us
the Suicide Squad.

[chuckles]

I liked that.

[laughing]:
Oh, my God, man.

That is-- No, that's not cool.

-Ridiculous.
-Okay.

Come on, let's do this.
We gotta go.

[sighs] Ay, yep.

MALINA:
That's the third one down.

We should call it a day.

Fourth rocket's
just gonna blow up, too,

so what's the point?

Because we can. Jack?

Hold on, let me try something.

Oh, uh, Jack...
maybe... maybe not now.

♪ ♪

My will is manifest.

My will is flight.

My will is manifest.

My will is flight.

-[indistinct whispering]
-My will is manifest.

My will is flight.

My will is manifest.

My will is flight.

It-It's a spell. [sniffs]

Yep, that's, uh...
that's his thing.

Just let him.

-Seriously?
-FORMAN: Yeah.

[laughs]

When we started this,
did anybody believe

we could launch a rocket?
Huh?

[breathing heavily]
Come on.

[exhales]

JACK:
My will is manifest.

My will is flight.

-[indistinct whispering]
-My will is manifest.

Nuit, I beseech you!

If it works, boys, it works.

JACK:
And, boy, did it work.

Right up until it didn't.

Like I said, I was still
learning my spellcraft.

But then, 100 feet up...

Did you see her?

Who?

Her. I-In red.

Her who?

JACK:
Her...

Th-This is crazy.

There's no such thing as magick.

And five years ago, there was
no such thing as rockets.

Fiction becomes fact.

[stammers]
E-Eddie.

Look, man, all I saw

was a rocket go up, explode,

then come back down.
You know, gravity.

Gravity. W-We can all agree
on gravity, at least, right?

MALINA: I'm not so sure about
this whole spell thing.

It's childish, Jack.

You know, maybe you should find
something else for your magick.

JACK:
I only saw red, but I felt...

her.

I was only eight.

I knew science was part of
what I was looking for.

And science fiction that would become science fact.

But still,
something more was needed...

magick. Spells.

There was truth in those pages.

Truth in magick.

But that wasn't enough.

I had opened a window and seen a devil and an angel.

But I needed more
than a window.

At the time, I didn't know
what that meant.

A window to what?
To where?

I was missing something

and couldn't figure out what.

My home. The Parsonage.

A haven for artists,
followers and believers.

After I read my first
Equinox magazine,

I started writing letters

to the leader
of the Thelema Church,

Aleister Crowley.

[groans]

Aleister Crowley was known as the wickedest man in the world.

"Do what thou wilt"
was his driving mantra.

He believed that all people
had to follow their true Will

with a capital "W."

He believed it so much that
he created an entire religion

around that simple concept,

taking ideas from a bunch
of other religions:

Judaism, Christianity,
Classical Grecian

and a whole ton of Paganism
mixed with Egyptian gods

to create his brand-new
spiritual philosophy

called Thelema.

He presided
over a Gnostic mass,

which was a lot like
Roman Catholic mass

but aimed at different gods.

And sex was a sacrament.

Better than eating
a piece of bread

that was supposed to be the
flesh of God, if you ask me.

Press didn't know
what to make of the guy

and his new religion,

so they named it devil worship and called it a day.

But it was so much more
than that.

Thelema was more
Egyptian philosophy

than Satanic sex cult.

I officially converted
when I was 24.

Easy choice.
Sex over of cannibalism.

"Thrice Illuminated,

"Thrice Illustrious

and very dear Brother."

I never actually met the guy,

not even once
in my entire life,

but we corresponded
so many times

right up until he died in 1947,

that I felt like I was there
in London

or he was here
in Hollywood with me.

[gasps] Magick.

CROWLEY:
Is that your Will, Jack?

Magick?

And science.

Together.
They must be together.

Magick is Will.

Thelema is Will.

Science is held
to different laws.

You cannot Will
a rocket into space.

Oh, but I did.

Go on.

Just like when I was eight
and summoned the Choronzon.

Something.

You summoned something.

When I was a young man,
I summoned Satan.

But your demon
looked nothing like that.

Yours was different.

Is that what you want, a demon?

No. I-It, I mean,
when I was eight, yeah.

Dimensional portal
into another universe.

Like this one, but different.
I-I think that's what I did.

I opened a window, a-a hole,
a wrinkle into the multiverse.

Newton posited that God
made worlds of various sorts.

Ah, a God thing.

Uh, no.
Actually, a-a science thing.

-And it's gaining in popularity.
-God and science.

Make up your mind.

What about her?

The Scarlet Woman.
She was there, when I was eight,

and yesterday, in the explosion
after my spell.

-That is magick and science.
-Hmm.

Aleister.

Magick is just science
we haven't figured out yet.

There's no difference.

No "and," no "but."
T-They are the same.

Is that what your engineers
tell you, too, Jack?

You know they don't.

Do they laugh at you
when you bring your spell book

to the launchpad?

They are men of logic.
Logic...

...is a really good way
to be wrong with confidence.

I made you
the leader of my temple

because you are a soul
on the path to true Will.

Do not waste yourself
on blind men.

My dear fellow,

I think the key to your
salvation is not science,

not held
within your conscious mind.

These three beings:

you, your Scarlet Woman
and your devil.

The Great Mother Nuit

has opened a door
at your knocking.

All you have
to do is walk through it.

W-What?

D-Door... I don't...

Find your Scarlet Woman.

She is the tool you need
to open your True Will.

♪ ♪

Do what thou wilt shall be
the whole of the law.

CONGREGATION:
Love is the law.

Love under Will.

JACK:
Crowley was right.

I had to go back to the desert and try again...

...but not with science.

With candles...

...and blood.

This time...

with magick.

And drugs.

To help me find my visions,

sex magick, powerful,
feminine in origin,

which makes it the stuff
of life and renewal.

When I orgasm,
it allows me to harness

the raw energy of the universe

to produce the outcome
I desire,

my Will.
What they don't tell you--

you can never quite
get all the sand out.

Ischuros.

[chanting in foreign language]

[yells]

[retching]

[coughing]

[panting]

WOMAN'S VOICE:
I am here, Jack Parsons.

I am here, Jack Parsons.

Who are you?

Who are you?

Who...?

Who are you?

[panting]

[upbeat big band music plays]

[music shuts off]

What-What's happening here?

Tried to tell you, Jack.

It's the magick
and your lifestyle,

the girls, the guys,

the what-do-you-call-it,
bigamy.

Polyamory. It's different.

Poly isn't illegal.

It's different.

We don't need different
right now, we need rockets.

What about me?

MALINA:
You're out, too. Sorry.

You fired Eddie?

No, not fired. Bought out.

$11,000 each.

Okay.

Who bought us out?

General Tire and Rubber Company.

We couldn't keep up with
the demand from the Navy.

Needed the cash.
It's still JPL, Jack.

Yeah, okay.

Sell your stock, buy the lease
to your homes.

Hey, Frankie.

I realize that this
may come as a shock to you,

but rockets
don't even use tires.

Idiot.

[car horn honking]

JACK: Hard to believe,
but I was fired from science.

[laughter and loud conversation]

Not right now, darling.

-Okay. Maybe later?
-Maybe.

Maybe means no, by the way.

[Mozart piece playing]

Hello?

Is this the Parsonage?

A friend said I might stay here
for a few days.

You don't turn people away,
she said.

I'm an artist.

She said this was
a place for artists and whatnot.

This isn't the place for you.

I'm sorry?

Eh, you seem... boring.

Well, you seem like an asshole.

-Really?
-Mm-hmm.

What, you into sex magick?
Drugs? We have all sorts here.

My friend said
this was a safe place.

You are Jack Parsons, right?
Are you?

My friend said that

the great Jack Parsons
was the most beautiful,

open-minded angel of a man.

Well, your friend sounds like
a terrible fucking poet.

All right. You're definitely
not an angel.

My apologies for having
wasted your time.

[door slams shut]

JACK: Sometimes the universe
gives us everything we want,

and then, most times,

because at heart we're
self-destructive monkeys,

we spit right back in its face.

This was the piece
Crowley told me about,

the tool I needed to break
through into heaven or hell

or wherever dimension
existed outside our own,

and I was too caught up

in myself to realize it.

But when science
closes a door,

magick opens a window.

Hey.

Hey, come on, stop.

Please stop.

I don't even know your name.
You forgot your sketchbook.

[out of breath]:
It's... it's really good.

-Really? Won't even turn around.
-Just give it back, please.

-Just turn around.
-Just give it back.

Please.

I don't understand you at all.

[indistinct whispering]

-You were so, so, so...
-Mean.

-What's your problem?
-So many.

Pick one.

You. You're my problem.

That you aren't in my life.

[chuckles]

Really? Laughing?

God, Schrodinger's cat.

Yeah, that's-that's you
right now.

What?

It-- Thought experiment.

I-Imagine a cat in a box.
It could be dead or alive,

but you don't know
until you open the box.

Right now, I... I don't know
if I'm alive or dead.

It's up to you.

How long ago
was that experiment?

[chuckles] Ten years? Yeah.

Well, then, I can tell you

what's in that box
without even looking.

You can?

A dead cat. [chuckles]

That's a long time to be
in a box, Jack Parsons.

♪ ♪

I really did it.

I summoned a goddess
into my life.

[laughs] Goddess, huh?

You know what?

That's a pretty
damn good apology.

JACK:
Crowley was right.

Marjorie Cameron
was muse and tool,

goddess and puzzle piece.

34A...

Wait, what's this symbol
here next to the "A"?

Looks like a cross?

[moaning]

[laughs]

We'll never finish
if we can't even get started.

How much work have you
actually done since I got here?

Everything I've ever dreamed of.
That is a... dagger.

and it's used to denote
the Hermitian adjoint.

-In this case...
-Of "A." Got it.

So, you use daggers in math...

Well, in physics, really,
but yeah.

And your spells?

Well, that's the best way
to draw a pentagram in the air.

Hmm.

Your equations are amazing.

Your math-- Sorry, your physics,

almost feels like magick to me.

But it's not magick, right?
That's the point.

You can prove
a Hermitian adjoint,

just... why the other stuff?

Why?

'Cause I've already
launched a rocket into space.

I've done it.
I don't need to do it again.

[Marjorie laughs]

You seem to be making
a fine living

doing explosions for the movies.

That's just to pay the bills.
That's not a life's work.

What is your life's work?

All this math and your spells.

Are you trying to bust through

some dimensional doorway

into some other place
or something?

I've done it, once.

You were there, I was there,

and some demon,

or a being from another
dimension was there.

But I need to do it again
because of you.

Crowley said it himself,
you are the key.

You are the final tool I need.

-Tool?
-Muse.

So I'm your thing?

What? N-no. You're the...
you're the goddess,

the-the summoned.

Maybe you're my tool, Jack.
Did you ever think of that?

Perhaps your entire purpose
on this planet

is to help me make better art.

[chuckles] What? Of course not.
I mean, that-that's ridiculous.

Exactly.

Right. Sorry.

JACK: I wish I had
a lifetime to show you

how wonderful Marjorie was,

but even that
wouldn't be enough.

But her art?
Maybe she was right.

Maybe I was born
to be her muse.

-[film reel whirring]
-♪ ♪

Marjorie joined the Navy
as a WAVE during the war.

Her father and brother
both worked at JPL,

but she heard about me
from a friend, not from them.

I always found that funny.

She was an actress

and an artist--

such an artist.

Even if she didn't know it yet, she was a creature of magick.

And I was sure she would grow
into this part of her soul

with me.

Come with me.

-Where?
-To mass. To my mass.

I'll show you the world
I want to create.

I like this world
perfectly fine.

But if it's important to you,
it's important to me.

JACK: And it was so very
important to me,

which made the ending
so much worse.

ALL:
Ateh.

Malkuth.

Ve-geburah.

Ve-gedulah.

[echoing]:
Amen.

[echoing]: Take this
cake of light and eat it.

CONGREGATION [echoing]:
There is no part of me

that is not of the gods.

JACK: Take this cake of light
and eat it.

[indistinct whispering]

JACK: I was having the best trip of my life.

There is no part of me
that is not of the gods.

Marjorie was having the worst.

[chuckles]:
Marj. That was incredible.

I saw you again tonight
in all your glory.

What's this?
What are you doing?

I'm going, Jack.

But-but I saw you.

Tonight, I-I really saw you.

You can't.

Please, I... I need you.

I-I can't...
I can't finish this without you.

-You're...
-I'm your tool, Jack.

Yes.

I know.

And my love. That, too.

That only.

No one person can be

both tool and lover.

You have to pick.

-I-I...
-I saw your demon tonight, Jack.

It was consuming you.

And it will kill you.

And I can't be here for that.

No. No, you...
you saw the demon.

I-I saw youtonight.

Marj, I-I... I saw your soul.

Oh, Jack Parsons...

I saw yours, too.

[birds singing]

♪ ♪

-Jack.
-Dahlia.

-I think it's time...
-To go.

Yeah.

Are you the last?

[Dahlia sighs]

♪ ♪

JPL, Marjorie,

sex, rockets and magick...

gone.

She told me
to get back to my roots.

Well, at least I did that.

I was just as I was
right after my first spell.

Nothing. Nobody.

♪ ♪

[indistinct, echoing whispers]

[whispers fade]

Here again.

The beginning.

The moment when I figured out

that magick and science
were the same thing.

What am I missing?

I needed to see
what my eight-year-old brain,

unencumbered by expectation
or Crowley or Forman,

or even Marjorie, had seen.

Not surprising.

I first drew the demon.

But that's not the answer.

There she was.

My goddess,

in all her glory.

My eight-year-old self
knew the truth,

and it took me almost 30 years to remember.

Marjorie Cameron.
Room 382.

[panting]:
Please don't hang up.

You were right.

[chuckles]:
You-you weren't a tool.

You were the answer,
what I was looking for.

-Th-The end of my search.
-The end of your search?

Like the Holy Grail?

Just a thing to be found?

No. I don't think
I cancome back, Jack.

I never actually went to Paris,

but we talked so many times, with me trying to win her back,

that I felt like I was there,
with her.

I know what we have to do.

But I need your help;
I-I can't do it alone.

I tried that once, and failed.

We must confront my demon,

a-and then we
can finally leave this world.

Together.

Science and magic are one.

You and me, we are one.

We were the beginning,
and now we can be the end.

That's the secret.

It wasn't the secret;
I was wrong.

But it was so very close.

No, it-it's all too much, Jack.

All this talk of...

Will and-and... demons

and beginnings and endings?

Destiny?

I only want to be
with you, Jack.

Not all the rest of it.

Okay.

-I mean, I can't...
-No, yeah, okay. Everything.

I'm done with that, then.

You are my life's work.

Only you.

Hey, come back. Be with me.

We-we can go to Mexico,

or... or move to Israel
and join their rocket division.

-Whatever you want.
-Really?

Just us, together?

[softly]:
Two bodies, one soul...

a Sphinx.

MARJORIE:
Two bodies, one soul?

I only want to be
with you, Jack.

None of the rest of it matters.

Wait, wait, wait. No, no.

-That's not...
-When you're ready for just me,

let me know.

♪ ♪

Creating pyrotechnics
for film sets

gave me the power I needed...

to go bigger.

[bell rings]

Apo...

Pantos...

[echoing]:
Kakodai Mones!

♪ ♪

Mercury fulminate,

a simple
but efficient propellant...

and explosive,

as I was about
to learn firsthand.

Or no hand.

You'll see.

♪ ♪

[takes deep breath]

[echoing]:
Nuit. Babalon. Hadit.

The Scarlet Woman,

the Goddess,

Marjorie.

The Scarlet Woman,

the Goddess,

Marjorie... fly to me.

You know how when you make
one dumb mistake,

like keeping your eyes closed while holding an ungodly amount

of highly explosive substance,

time seems to slow down?

♪ ♪

Yeah, that's a real phenomena.

[explosion]

[low grunting]

They say when you die,

your entire life flashes
in front of your eyes.

I could see myself from when
I was eight and summoned...

myself, I suppose.

This exact moment I made happen almost 30 years ago.

I didn't realize it
when I was eight,

but the creature
wasn't roaring;

I was laughing.

With joy.

Such joy.

[laughing]

[echoes]:
Oh, Jack.

I knew she'd come back.

It didn't work out
in this body, this life,

but this is the real secret,

the spell,
the scientific theory

that I finally learned:

The first law
of thermodynamics states

that matter cannot be created or destroyed,

so pieces
of both Marjorie and me

will float around the universe for all time.

These exact same molecules
will come together

in this exact same form again.

That was the secret.

There is no beginning.

There is no end.

It's an infinite loop.

She never actually came
to the garage I blew up.

It wasn't even at the Parsonage anymore, I don't think.

She never saw these last gasps,

me dying.

But she did.

She's here.

She'll be here.

We're always together.

[echoing]:
I love you, Jack Parsons.

♪ ♪

JACK:
I love you, too, Marj...