The OA (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Away - full transcript

I couldn't feel pain.

I couldn't sense time.
I couldn't understand where I was.

But I could see.

I could see.

I remembered Homer and Rachel
and Scott screaming my name.

They were no longer with me.

The sudden rush of loss made me realize
that for the second time in my life...

I was dead.

Khatun... I can see.

You could always see, my child.

Catch your breath and join me.



I'm not supposed to be here.

Nonsense. You've had so much time.

Look at you, a young woman now.

It's a mistake, Khatun.

If you stay, there is no more suffering.
All the pain of life, gone.

Soon, you won't remember any of it.

But I don't want to forget.

They're with him in that basement.
I can't leave them there.

You're strange. I respect it.

But as things are... you never escape.

All your courage...
and planning, not enough.

I see you're hungry.

I'll fish for you.

This... will show you a way
to another place...



a form of travel unknown to humans.

Without it,
you will stay a prisoner forever.

It takes a lot of practice...

but with this... you
may one day fly free.

If I give it to you... there's a price.

A fair trade.

Papa.

Papa!

Here!

Papa!

- He can't hear me.
- No, he cannot.

But he could.

You can go with your father
and be in painless peace together...

or you can take the bird
and find out who you really are.

That isn't a fair choice.

To exist... is to survive unfair choices.

Join him.

He's right outside waiting for you.

How do I get back to the others?

Now you know sacrifice.

Now you are ready
for what comes with this gift.

Swallow it.

It's the seed of light.

If you grow it, all you need to know
will be inside you.

All five of you must work together as one
to avert a great evil.

There's only four of us.

You will see.

Khatun... am I like you?

No.

You are the original.

Be quick.

Eat it.

I knew from the moment I woke up
that life was no longer the same.

I had given up eternity with my father

for a promise I made
to people I barely knew.

Here.

I thought I'd lost you.

Glad you recovered.

How does it feel?

- My head hurts.
- That's my fault.

You were... at the edge of the mine.
I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry.

Here.

You were gone a long time.

No pulse for seven minutes.
Utterly unresponsive.

It's the only...

nonscientific death I've ever had.

Here.

I was worried about you.

I've been doing this study for years.

And you're the only...

subject who's ever challenged me.

Extracted concessions, tried to escape.

You, blind, have done all three.

The others?

How did you find the others?

Well, you were a happy accident.

But, the others... Well, the others...

I had to hunt down.

I'm sorry about the violence outside.

But you should know...
I can't let you go.

Aah!

I can't.

Khatun had fed me a mystery.

I couldn't understand it,
but I could feel it inside me.

A clue, a bomb, a Hail Mary.

Prair, can you hear me?

You okay?

You almost did it. You almost got away.

- Homer? I have to tell...
- It doesn't matter.

It's okay. You're alive.

Doesn't matter? I'd kinda like
to get the fuck outta here.

I knew it was a long shot.

I got through these... woods to an edge.

He hit me in the back of the head...

hard.

I died.

Probably you passed out from the pain.

I went somewhere...

and I saw her.

The same woman I saw
when I was a little girl.

Oh, my God.

Oh, we've been going about this all wrong.
We've been trying to get out.

Yes. Well, that's kinda the big idea.

No.

We have to try to get in.

I think she got brain damage.

We've been acting like lab rats.

Lab rats are only powerless

because they don't understand
that they're in an experiment.

But they're just as much a part of it
as the scientist, in some ways even more.

See, we could take it over.

His experiment is our way out.

No, no.

I... I don't know
what that psychopathic fuck is doing,

and I don't want to know.

Listen. She's trying to say something.

But how would we know, though?

The gas. We don't remember anything.

He's made it that way on purpose.

Yeah, he's got all the power.

Look...

We all died... and we
all chose to return.

No, no, speak for your own self.

We all touched another side
and came back different.

When you listen to Rachel sing,
don't you feel it?

- In my bones.
- Yeah.

We aren't captives.

We aren't lab rats.

We aren't unloved or unlucky.

We're angels.

Oh, God.

Honestly...

...go fuck yourself.

Angels?

How do you know?

Because even in your grief,
you protected me

from finding out about August's death
before I was ready.

Because I hear you whispering
to your plants at night

to make them grow without the sun.

Because your eyes are green...

clear... as honest as you are.

Because I can see.

Oh...

I wish I'd met you sooner...

so you could have known him.

Me, too.

- My brother Theo.
- I know.

Oh... Go.

Yeah, go. It's important you're not late.

Will you let the boys
walk you to your car?

Yes.

Good night.

Thank you.
Um... do you need a ride home?

We live here.

It's Rod Spence again.
Sorry to call so many times, but, uh,

you really, uh, need to get in touch,
so we can go over everything.

Um... please call me back.

Uh, it's about your...
your brother's will, as you know.

Um, my number is... You have...

Well, you have my number. Just call me.

Oh. Hey, Ali. What're you doing up?

Couldn't sleep.

Hey, you didn't notice
the door was open?

- Oh, that's why it's so cold.
- Yeah, yeah.

Wanna?

Oh, nah, nah, it'll just fuck
with my head even more.

You hang with sexy blind girl again?
The fourth time in a row?

Fuck off.

Third.

Saw Maureen today.

Oh, Mustache Maureen?

What? No.

Oh. Maureen who?

Yeah, Mustache Maureen,
I just don't call her that.

Okay.

She came by to drop off some stuff...

watched a movie.

You should hang with us next time.

She's really into Kubrick.

Yeah, what's Kubrick?

- She keeps you guys out late.
- We want to.

You guys hang out
with the little trans one at school, too?

No, mostly just with the others
at the house.

She better not be some giant blind creep.

Okay, look, she's not even blind anymore.

God, just joking.

- Hey, Ali?
- What?

Do... Do you believe in angels?

What, is Steve, like,
all Christian now or something?

What?

I don't know, aren't his parents, like...
sending him to Christian boot camp?

- Asheville?
- Yeah, no, no, it's not like that.

Like what?

Well, like Mom. Do...

Do you think she could
have been an angel?

Like, a real angel?

I don't think angels commit suicide.

Right.

Yeah.

But what do I know, you know?

So, the estate needs to reimburse
your mom for the funeral.

She'd like that to happen soon.

- I'm sure she does.
- Sign here.

She's still angry
that I didn't go to the funeral.

You know, she had
this idealized relationship with him.

He could do no wrong.

- Moms can be that way with sons.
- Yep.

You know, he was my twin.

And it's true what they say,
there's a connection.

I, uh, I broke it.

We, uh, need to settle
with the rehab facility as well.

This form authorizes the estate
to pay Lakeview.

- Hmm.
- They want to know if you'll be gathering

his personal effects
or if they should just...

Don't let 'em throw anything away.

Then I suggest you get over there
as soon as possible.

Okay, I'll get a U-Haul
or maybe I can find someone with a truck.

If you get a U-Haul, get a receipt.

Your brother had excellent
life insurance.

Now, once our, uh, billing is deducted
and court fees are paid,

you should still see a substantial sum.

Did you not read your copy of the will?

Rod, um, I turned
my own brother in to the police

and they forced him into rehab
and now he's dead.

No, I did not read his will.

He left you everything.

After expenses, it all goes to you.

Fifty thousand dollars.

Hmm.

I think I should go back to work
sooner rather than later.

Think it'll help.

Okay.

Jamie's mother went back to work.
It really helped.

Is he the boy in the book?

- Yes, from her book.
- Okay.

If you think it's a good idea.

Abel... we... we need the money.

What if she wants to have those...
those terrible scars removed?

What about college, technical school?

We don't have anything saved.

We made the right choice.

If we're not on her side,
whose side are we on?

You keep reading.

I'll take Prairie
to meet the FBI counselor.

Hey, look, chill with the horn, dude.

Okay? You shouldn't even be driving.
You know how Ali is.

Ali is a dyke

It's me she doesn't like

- You are such a dick.
- Her brother drives a trike

'Cause he can't drive for shit

Okay, you know what? Shut up, dude!

Yo, where you goin'?

I'm not gettin' squeezed.

So you're gonna
let the old lady get squeezed?

Are you high? Dude, come on.

Okay. I'm coming, I'm coming.

Oh. Thanks for this.

I didn't know who else to call...
I mean, with a truck.

Would you take that, please?

Okay. Oh!

It's a really big step.

I appreciate this.

- You ready?
- Yeah.

Clear a path!

He loved that stuff!

What?

He... Just turn it... Turn it down.

You're gonna make everyone in the
building start using heroin again.

Wait, this is a rehab place for heroin?

No, I was just making a...

a joke.

Theo... he loved this movie.

The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

Don Knotts plays a...

You have no idea who Don Knotts is.

He was this weird little man.

And in the movie, he turns into a fish.

It was, uh, half a cartoon.

Probably awful, but...

he loved it, so I loved it.

We, uh... We swore we'd turn into otters

when we got older.

Just like Mr. Limpet.

Theo said that otters had the life.

Playing and...

eating all day.

Maybe he became an otter after all.

I just got old.

You're not old.

Old enough to be your parent.

Probably older. They're in their 40s?

Um, my mom would be 45 in January,

and my dad would be...

Yeah, I'm not sure. Like, 47?

Oh, sweetie. I didn't know they passed.

Yeah, my mom, not my dad.

He left?

Yeah, for the longest time I thought
he must've been better than us, somehow.

No. Not better.

Just different.

Yeah, I guess that's what I mean.

That some people don't
belong in a family.

Like, they don't know what it is.
How to be...

helped by it.

Mmm.

I mean, I'm not... I'm not saying
that Theo was like that, I just...

No, no.
Maybe you are, and maybe you're right.

Yeah.

Yo, BBA!

Oh.

You look, uh...

You look very...

Very, uh...

Nice?

Yeah.

Very, very nice.

It was a horrible experience.

That's not exactly what I asked.

Oh, you want to know what happened?

Eventually.
For now I'm just curious how you feel.

It's not a trick question. Promise.

Like I'm still a prisoner.

I understand.

Can you think of the emotion
that goes with that?

Angry. Really angry.

- You don't want to be here?
- No.

Hmm. Me neither.

I mean,
this bland office crap puts me to sleep.

You wanna take a walk?

I mean, I guess
I became an agent to catch the bad guys.

That's always been the FBI's focus,
the perpetrator.

But, uh... the more cases I worked,

the more I realized that, you know,
the punishment never really mattered,

or it was never enough.

No one was thinking about the victims,
mainly women and children.

A few of us started
the Victim Support Program,

and it feels good. It feels satisfying.

Impacting people's lives
without shooting at them.

What if I told you
I'm trying to help people?

I would say that's a noble impulse.

Without knowing the details?

Might be I do know, in a way.

I don't think so.

Well, you weren't alone there.
Somehow you got out.

You want to rescue the others,
but you're afraid if you tell us,

they might get killed?

If I told you anything
close to the truth,

you'd think I was a crazy person
and you'd have me locked up.

Well, look, I'm not here as a field agent.
I'm not here to solve any crimes.

I'm just here to help you
process your experience.

I mean, if you tell me something
that could help the Bureau

find who did this to you,
I'll pass that on.

But apart from that,
I'm not here for them. I'm here for you.

So what do you think I should do?

First, have compassion... for yourself.

You've been through something
no one is equipped to deal with.

Admit that.

And second...

...just simplify your life.

Same way you would
if you'd been in a car crash or...

You just gotta take the time
you need to heal.

I can't do that.

I understand, more than you know.

But to even think about rescue,
before you've recovered...

What would you do
if I just leave right now?

Do you tell the FBI that?

Our sessions are confidential.

You can walk away, you can push me
in the pond if you want to.

But I hope you don't.
I hope you come back tomorrow.

It's up to you. You're in charge.

You're not a prisoner.

Maybe I'll see you.

It doesn't make sense.

Just 'cause it doesn't make sense,
doesn't mean it's not real.

Lots of shit doesn't make sense, man.

Don't be a douche. OA wouldn't
say she's an angel and then vanish.

No, that's exactly
what an angel would do.

Homer told me
his football coach once said to him,

"Knowledge is a rumor
until it lives in the body."

Which took me a while to figure out.
It's like...

you don't really know something
until your body knows it.

See, Khatun had given me a gift.

It was like a living riddle,
alive inside my body.

I could feel it in my muscles.

I had told the others what we were,

what he was, what I thought
we had to do to break free.

But a whole week passed before
a clear plan began to form in our minds.

There's no way to understand
what he's doing to us

if we don't stay awake.

- We can't stay awake if we get gassed.
- No way.

I'm not poisoning
my fuckin' lungs for you. Sorry.

Scott...

He gasses you every few months anyway.

Exactly. And I'm not
killin' myself faster

than I'm already dyin'
for your shit plan...

You wouldn't be alone.
And it would only be half.

The only way out
is through the experiment, Scott.

- Oh, my God.
- She's the one offering

- to do the hard part.
- Crazy is contagious.

I don't fucking understand you.

I thought you were the one
with some goddamn sense.

Let's go.

Come on.

There's a chair right behind you.

Okay.

I'm just attaching a small microphone.

I'm gonna ask you some questions
about your recent NDE.

All right?

I don't...

generally bother
with subjective testimony,

but you, Prairie, have proved to be...

extraordinary in so many areas
that I am optimistic.

Now...

I'm holding...

the sensor that I showed you
the night we met, remember?

So, I will know if you're lying.

So, let's just ask some simple questions

to calibrate the machine.
Where were you born?

Russia.

And what's your favorite food?

Pretzels.

And did you go blind as a result
of an NDE when you were a child?

Yes.

Okay, perfect.

So... just tell me everything
you remember from the moment you...

The moment of your death.

When I hit you with the gun
to when you came around. All right?

I can't.

Prairie.

Prairie, listen to me.

This is important work
and I need you to collaborate with me,

or I will be forced to be...

very unkind to you and the others
in ways that you won't enjoy...

and we will both regret.
You understand me?

Yeah, I'm... I'm just... There's just...

I don't know how to talk about it.
It just...

There aren't words.

Couldn't you just ask me what it is
that you wanna know and I'll answer it?

All right.

All right, let's do that.

So...

was there sunshine?

No, but there was light.

Were you outdoors?

No, uh, for a moment.

Mmm-hmm.

Could you see?

Yes, but...
it wasn't how I remember sight.

And was there sound?

Wind.

Colors? The color blue?

No.

And how did you feel?

Were you sad?

No. But I wasn't happy.

At any point was there a...

sense of euphoria or...

Peace.

I had to fight that peace...
to come back.

But... To come back?

I mean, when you...
When you came back, that...

You chose that. That was your choice?

Yes.

Was there anyone there?

Prairie?

- Were you alone?
- No. No.

A person? I mean, uh...
There was another person there?

Someone...

who's not alive in this world?

My father.

And, uh...

How was he? Was he...
Was he, uh... Was he different?

Did he, uh... Was he changed?
Clothes, hair, speech?

I don't know 'cause I didn't get
a chance to speak to him, but...

He looked the same as I remember,
from when I was a little girl.

It was me.

I was different.

And...

here we go.

Hap's interrogation of me made it clear

we had to find out
what his experiment was.

But the gas made us forget everything.

If Scott and Homer used their lung power

to suck the gas out of my cell
from either side,

I could stay awake and learn
what Hap was doing to us.

What did he say to you?

He is stumbling around in the dark.

And he is gonna keep us here forever.

Scott... will you please help?

What's the worst it can be?

- Pain? Terror? Shock?
- Exactly.

You faced all of those things
when you first got here and you survived.

- How many times do I have to tell you no?
- Look, I'm scared, too.

I don't know if I'm strong enough either.

If I'm gonna break, or beg, or cry.

All I know is he is not insane,
he is obsessed.

I ain't sucking any more poison
into my lungs than I have to.

And I don't give a shit
if you think I'm going to hell for that.

Then he wins.

We die prisoners.

You don't think I fucking know that?

Yeah, we were all taken.

But y'all were taken healthy.

Not me.

I'll bet he's comin' for me next,

so I'll see the three of you
on the other side.

Maybe you could be healed.

She got her sight back.

She got hit in the head, Rachel.

Hard.

Rachel, would you swallow gas?

Yeah.

What about you?

Yeah?

So I'll go.

I don't even have to pretend to be blind.

I couldn't see the pain
it caused Scott...

to have to just sit back and watch.

To not feel the rush
that bravery gives you,

that high of being part of something
bigger than you are.

I told Homer, the most important
thing was to figure out

what it was that he was taking from us.

But it's one thing to make a plan.
It's another altogether to execute it.

A month passed before he came for Homer.

Prairie? Prairie!

Fuck! Rachel?

What a plan.

So you didn't inhale then?

Rachel fell, she's hurt.

Don't ignore me just 'cause
I won't play mousetrap with you.

Can you hear me?

She's not dead, she's not dead.

Close your fucking eyes
if you're gonna play dead!

Oh, I'm the monster?

You're fuckin' with me
while Rachel's on the floor bleeding out

because of your stupid fucking plan
and I'm the monster?

Open your eyes and tell...

Oh, you're a regular comedienne.

Why don't you stand up
and take a bow for your fans?

Sit down.

Lie down.

Suck your thumb like a baby.

We got lucky.

We thought that the gas
was knocking us out cold.

It wasn't, it was making us compliant.

We would do anything we were told,
and then forget about it.

Oh, yeah, I know that shit.

Girls pass out for, like, five minutes
and then wake up zombies.

What? I've never done it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I... I read about that.

A guy in Detroit talked some girl into
emptying out her entire bank account.

Scopolamine.
Some people call it Devil's Breath.

But the plan worked the next time, right?

I mean, you could just
pretend to be zombies?

It took us nearly a year
to get that part right.

A year? Why?

Getting good at something takes time.

You don't think I know that?

I know that.

Step up, Homer.

Up on the platform.

Stay there.

Remove your sweatshirt and T-shirt
and sweatpants and leave them there.

Walk around.

Step around. One foot on either base.

Sit back on the chair.

Raise your right arm.

And your left arm.

Lower your head.

Raise your right foot.

Left foot.

And back on the platform.

There we are. Now, pull your head back,
put your chin down.

And do not move your head.

Homer.

What happened? Homer?

Hmm.

We failed. Again and again, we failed.

Three years passed.

In that time, I often doubted
I'd ever met Khatun at all.

But Homer never gave up.

He'd seen something of the experiment.

It became a quest for him
to understand what Hap was doing.

He took all the feeling bottled inside
him and channeled it into this mission.

And every time we failed,
Homer came up with a new and better idea.

Raise your right arm.

Bend your right arm.

Don't move.

What we need to do,
what I set out to do,

is find a way to remove
the human component

and gather objective scientific data.

And what... what is inherently...

Doctors used to think that death...

was when the breath stopped
and then we found that that was not true.

And, um, we thought that death
was when the heart stopped beating,

and that was not true, either.

And then, when brain activity ceased,

was for a long time
the definition of death.

And I have realized that there is...

some possibility...

- Hey, you! Stop right there!
- ...that audio activity

- can be detected with the right equipment.
- Down here! Down the hall!

Hey, you! Stop!
Stop right there! Where you going?

Stay down. What's your name?

- My name is Homer.
- What?

- I'm Homer.
- Your name is not Homer.

Look at me. Do you know Dr. Roberts?

What? No.

Let me go, please!

Yeah, I know you.

Calm down!

Come quick! Help me get him up!
We need help!

The subjects generated unreliable data.

The attrition rate was very high.

I lost a lot of subjects.

And whether they were out

for seconds or moments,

it was always a roll of the dice
whether I could bring them back or not.

Until I realized that those subjects
who had previously experienced an NDE

were far more likely to be revived.

And when I began working exclusively
with near death experience survivors,

the work took off.

They have an almost limitless potential
for being revived.

Now, whether that's...

He was killing us.
Over and over and over again.

What was Hap recording? What did it mean?

He was recording the soundscapes
of our NDEs,

trying to map out what it was
that people call "the other side."

Yeah, I... I put that part together.

Bullshit you did.

Yeah, but... but why?
What was he listening for?

Proof.

He thought it would liberate people
to know for a fact

that death is not an end.

We were just looking for a way out,

and we never stopped believing
the experiment was our escape.

It took years,

but every time, Homer
got a little closer.

I told him that if he succeeded
and traveled conscious,

he had to look for anything living,
anything moving, and swallow it whole.

But Homer never managed
to escape the final gas.

Hap always smelled his fear.

Homer came back again and again
and again, remembering nothing.

But he kept trying.

Some days I thought
he was doing it just for me.

Some days I thought
he was doing it to spite Hap.

Some days I thought...
it was for himself.

Something he needed to prove, conquer.

He was an explorer,
and death was his frontier.

Whatever his reasons,
Homer never gave up on his mission:

to die... awake.

Hey! Hey, you! Stop right there! Stop!

Hey! Come here! Stop!

Hey, you!

He's over here!

Hey! Hey, you.

When I flatlined at the football game,

when I landed on my head...

I thought it was the light
at the end of a tunnel.

But it's not a tunnel.

It's a place.

It's an actual place.

Did you talk to anyone?

No, I...

I felt chased.

But I found this, um, thing.

Well, I swallowed...
I swallowed this thing.

- A sea creature.
- Oh.

That's good.

I don't feel like I have it...

or know it.

However you described it.

I guess I just have to go back,
keep trying.

Khatun said we could do it.

She said we could travel out of here.

I know that seems impossible. I mean...

I know I sound like a crazy person
when I say it, I know.

Eh...

But I'm telling you,
when I swallowed that bird...

I felt the whole thing flash through me
in an instant.

Like, a way to move
through the world, through worlds.

And if I don't think about it, I know it.

A self, like a... a me in there
that doesn't even belong to me

and it wants to come out, it wants me
to call it by name. But it's...

I feel like it's waiting...

for you.

To hear it in you, too.

I want to.

You know I want to.

It's a name truer than Prairie...

than Nina, even.

It sounds like...

- Away.
- Mmm.

Away...

Yeah, but maybe...

Oh-A. Oh... Oh way?

I don't know, when I say it out loud,
it all falls apart.

Homer?

OA.