Please Be Kind, Rewind

Synopsis
The team finds a pendant on Adesa Bellow. Briar shifts into the Darkness and Trick tries to help. Brian has an epiphany as the mystery deepens.

Hello, Officer.
☀We begin the episode as the last one ended with Emma, Trick, Theo, Briar and Brian standing on Half-Way road with an approaching male police officer. “You called for a tow?” The man in question asked.

“Not… Yet…” Trick questioned before the Professor beguiles the police officer by apologizing for the false call but doesn’t quite succeed in clarifying. The officer then questions who called and then Briar stutters out a confusing sentence about who called emergency services. Trick then steps up to the plate and mentions they weren’t sure about how serious the situation was at the time. The officer lets the group off with a verbal warning and leaves back towards Grand Theory. Theo brings up the fact that his car won’t start and that there is something in the trunk at Trick’s questioning. Adisa Bellow is once again taking a ride in the trunk. Briar and Trick take a look at the body for a moment and Trick tries to get Emma to take another look at the body. She reluctantly gives the body a look over and tells the crew the body has only been dead for an hour at most.

Trick makes the connection that they are getting closer to the origin of Adisa’s death. He starts looking around for a visible blood trail to the trunk of the car. Using his Anal Eyes he doesn’t see anything of particular note around the vehicles. Curious of the conversations from over the barricade Briar hoists herself onto the wall (I Do Crossfit) and looks around the forest for anything of note. Briar sees two Shadow Figures in the exact position she was in before with Brian (in Ep.1). Briar turns her attention to the trees to find an interesting symbol on the trees. Using his Dad Bod Trick helps lift nonathletic Theo up the barrier to get a view of the tree line. With a bit of guidance Theo recognizes the symbols on the tree as parts of the symbol he keeps in his pocket.

Seeing him visibly blanch, Briar begins questioning Theo about the symbols on the trees. She asks him if it correlates with the Shadow Figures and Asks if Theo knows what the symbol is/represents. Theo vaguely shakes his head and mentions that he shouldn’t talk about the symbols at their current location. Although it’s usually used to see the aura of organic beings, he tries to use Aura Sight to view more. With Trick holding him steady he sees a faint visual haze over the symbols with no visible colour just a grey, blue and purple faint mess. Theo lowers himself down and explains he knows the symbols and they shouldn’t mess with them. Briar argues that time is fucky and they should deal with the symbol while they are so close to it. Theo seems to be freaking out over the symbols in the tree line his fear of the unexplained kicking in.

Back to The Future
Trick asks if he’s going to be okay and Theo starts to mumble about going to Athmore University to see his books about the symbol. Trick looks at the stopwatch and compares it to the dashboard clock of the Escalade. Two hours and forty five minutes for the stopwatch and 4:30 for the dashboard. Fed up with how long it took to get there, Briar slips over the wall and Trick follows her over the wall as well even as Theo expresses the stupidity of that action. Before going over the wall Brian who has been oddly silent slips out of the back of the car. Brian shouts, “DOC BROWN!” Trick mentions Back to the Future for a second before Brian continues. “Doc Brown, that’s right I figured it out. The car is the DeLorean but it’s the road. The road is a travel in time when we go forward, time goes forward. When we go back, time goes back. When we go- I still haven’t figured that out. That’s the best I got.” Trick, a little overwhelmed, compliments Brian for his theory and asks Emma to watch over a mumbling Theo before chasing after Briar.

Briar impatiently waits for Trick on the other side of the wall and taunts Trick of whether or not he’ll be able to get over by himself. With a quick boost from Emma, Trick pulls himself over the wall like a chivalrous knight on his way to save the princess. Briar mentions how impressive he is to get over the wall and he finds it impressive she’s never seen his movies. Briar mentions it would be a little weird if she saw his movie to which clueless Trick mentions how his family has seen his movies so what’s so weird about it? The pair make their way towards the tree and see the Shadow Figures try to get over the wall back to where they were in Ep1. Trick mentions that this is natural and that where they are at the moment is exactly where the Shadow Figure was when she originally tried to piss. They shrug it off and Briar goes to take a picture of the symbols that go back eight trees deep away from the barrier.

Trick, feeling a little insecure, pulls his pistol from his ankle holster and then tucks it into the back of his pants. The symbols look like they’ve been carved into the tree with reckless abandon. The symbol looks like they were done by some sort of knife and Trick begins to Anal Eyes it. Trick comes to the shocking conclusion that these symbols were made by something very near and dear to him. He slowly pulls out the pocket knife he keeps on his person. When he examines the blade, he can tell that his knife made those symbols. He tells Briar immediately about how dull and bent his knife is and how the symbols were made with that knife. He mentions that he doesn’t remember carving the symbols but that doesn’t mean anything now. Briar confused reaches out towards the symbol and touches it. When she does, Briar disappears right in front of Trick.

Ain't That A Bitch
Trick out loud says, “Ain’t that a bitch. Hey Honey- Uh… Briar? Are you around? Can you hear my voice like the Prof. did? Hey, If you can hear me make some sort of noise, any noise.” Briar does not respond but a voice Henry does not recognize (Anal Eyes) screams from deeper in the woods. It is not pleasant but it isn’t Briar’s. Trick talks himself into investigating with a, "You're gonna get yourself fucking killed. You're gonna get yourself disappeared. Something bad's gonna happen, you know that don't you? You're smarter than that, but no, you can't leave well enough alone..." After about five minutes of chivalrous monologue, Trick steps on a branch that makes a large snapping sound. After Freezing in place nothing seems to come for Trick. Finally, the screaming cuts short as Trick comes upon the Body of Adisa Bellow freshly murdered.

Trick starts to look around the body for some clues on who killed Adisa Bellow. He doesn’t spot the obvious killer but sees four Shadow Figures standing 10 feet away looking down on something. Trick walks over to see what they are staring at which turns out to be the same medallion Theo disappeared with. Trick bends down and picks it up with his left hand and nothing strange happening to him. He goes back to the body and regards the figures who followed him while staring at the medallion. Trick notes none of the Shadow Figures are Shadow Theo. Trick then talks to himself/Shadow Figures to puzzle out what he needs to do to fix the time issue.

“Alright then, I’ve got something you like. So, I’m wondering if what I’m supposed to do to get us out of this time… predicament. Is do exactly, what we’ve seen so far. Meaning, do you think I should I put this medallion in the pocket I found it in when we got back to my house. Then take the body and put it in the trunk.” After is hunch one of the Shadow Figures approaches the body and kneels down in a gesture to help carry the body with Trick. “Well, awefully nice of you. I really wish you could talk.” Terrified to a ridiculous amount Trick asks the remainder, “Well, are you just going to watch me and… me it looks like. Alone again. *Chuckles* Alright buddy I don’t even know if you can lift this shit.” Trick then takes the medallion and puts it back into her left pocket which is completely empty. “Looks like we have to set this right partner.” Then with Shadow Trick’s help, Trick begins to carry Adisa Bellow’s body back to the trunk of Theo’s car. After some struggling back towards the highway, Trick hears some very load guttural breathing. As he hears this, he drops the body and the other Shadow Figures, Unlike Shadow Trick, take off hunched over. When Trick asks Shadow Trick what the fuck that noise was the Shadow Trick gestures to his back waistband. Trick agreeing that his gun might be a good idea he drops his shades and hat, checks the chambers of the revolver and faces down the breathing.

Class Is In Session
Briar finds herself in Theo’s classroom. Weird, she must be dreaming and Theo is lecturing his class on time. Emma is sleeping, Trick is looking bored and Brian is taking notes on the lecture. Briar leans over to Brian and touches his arm. After asking Brian a couple of questions and generally weir-ding him out Briar comes to the realization that she is back on the night of the 12th of February around 7PM. Brian claims she has been sitting at the desk the whole time and that she might be drunk. Briar asks if the field trip is tomorrow which Brian promptly enters into his cell phone. Terrified of future events Briar says, "You probably wouldn't believe me, some weird shit is going on... don't go on the fucking field trip."

Brian starts to question Briar as she talks about crazy things like losing time and how she’s from the future, how they need to bury a body and how she doesn’t know how she got here. Brian, like a sane person, believes Briar has taken some sort of drug to get high like LSD. He tells her to just ride it out and not make a scene in class. Briar, at a loss, stands up and then walks out of the class. Prof. Theo noted her leave the class and just assumed she had to go to the bathroom. After closing the door she checks her phone which reads, Febuary 13th 4:30 PM. She sees she has service and texts Trick, “Are you there.” In another place at the same time Trick’s phone vibrates.

Swapping his gun to his left hand he examines his phone terrified of the breathing. As he looks at the phone it shows nothing on the screen. He unlocks the phone and still no message. Calling his phone, a piece of shit he puts it back away and continues looking for the Breathing Menace.

Briar, after sending the text, thinks that she’s helpless back in time. She doesn’t think she can get back to where she was feeling truly alone. As she’s alone she thinks about her time in College with the Shadow Man. As she does whispering that sounds like her own voice starts to echo around her. Briar Eavesdrops on what’s being said but can’t understand it. As she stands there and closes her eyes she feels long fingers slowly slide up her legs from her ankles. The claws continue to go up to the waist. Eyes closed tightly Briar asks the Shadow Man “What do you want?” The Shadow Man answers but is incomprehensible. It then reaches up and grabs her and then everything goes completely and utterly black.

Brick
In front of Trick an eyes closed heavy breathing Briar appears before him. After calling out to her, Briar runs over to Trick panicking and explains what happened to her. Trick tries to calm her down and tries to understand what happened to her. Briar whispers how it sounds so insane. Trick then asks how she got back and she is incomprehensible. Trick, concerned, hugs Briar. Briar notices Adisa Bellow’s body suddenly. Briar latches onto Trick and says, “I t-tried to text you did you get a text?” Trick responds in the negative and rechecks his phone and shows he never got it. Briar pulls out her phone and proves she sent a text just now on February 13th at 4:30. A little calmer Briar explains that the thing from College grabbed her and brought her back to now. Trick soothes her by being a tough guy and claiming protection over her. He then explains what he found and his idea to fix the time loop by returning Adisa Bellow to the trunk with Shadow Trick.

Briar looks at the medallion Trick mentioned (that she hasn’t seen) but recognizes the symbol on it’s pressed gold form as the one on the Tree’s. Trick wonders if that’s what caused the disappearances and why he was fine holding the pendant. A little calmer Trick puts the shades and hat back on and says: "There was a moment, where I felt like I was surrounded by very heavy, hot breath. Very animal-istic breathing.... a hunger." Briar then wonders if the sound is familiar to the Shadow Man. She realizes it does and then she explains to Trick she thinks the Shadow Man that seems to be after her is the one who killed Adisa Bellow. She goes on to explain, "When I was little, I would see it. My grandfather was the only one who ever fucking believed me. My dad told me it was made up and just an imaginary fucking thing in my head, but its followed me around, and it's bad. It feels bad." Trick says he believes her but asked for more details. Briar continues, "It's tall, its shadowy like that. But it's tall. It has long arms and, like, knives for hands. Just knives and claws. It's got dark eyes. It's already dark, but it's got dark fucking eyes. It's just -- when you see it, you'll know..." She then makes sure Trick understands that the Shadow Figures and the Shadow Man are not the same.

Briar then helps Trick deduce that the Shadow Man’s claws fit the murder of Adisa and that she doesn’t know why it’s following her but she feels like the murder is her fault. Trick asks her what she wants to do and Briar turns it back on him. Briar agrees to try and put the body back in place to “Complete the Circle”. With Shadow Trick’s aid they get back to the barrier. As they approach, they see Shadow Figures reenacting their past before Brian twisted his ankle. On a hunch Briar yells at it but Shadow Brian doesn’t do anything as Shadow Briar tries to help him over the wall. Briar refuses to hurt Brian but Trick asks Shadow Trick to “help” Brian which Shadow Trick goes to do. A reenactment of Brian hurting his leg again happens. Briar denies her involvement in hurting Brian to Trick. Trick shrugs and then outlays his plan to get Adisa over the wall using a blanket and some jumper cables. Briar calls out for the crew in the car for the items in question.

Beware the Butter Flaps
Back at the car Theo is unresponsive. Brian is way up the road trying to confirm his theory with an analogue clock on his phone. His hunch is correct that as he walks down the road time moves back or forth. He then screams down the road about Doc. Fucking Brown and how right he is. Brian still drunk as a skunk, going back to the vehicle and shouting “I got it! I’ve figured it out!”

As Brian returns to the car he starts explaining poorly to Theo how time is fucky and how it’s flowing. “It’s the Butter Flap Effect! Hear me out, alright? So what’s happening is… the road, is like a DeLorean. Alright? And what’s happening is that we are going through time, but every time we do it we add another wrinkle in the time. Like another layer. So what I’m thinking- hear me out- those shadowy fucks we’re seeing? That’s people from other layers of the road! The wrinkled road from the Butter Flap Effect! And we’re just paving new ones every time we go down this road!” Theo… is perplexed. Brian then tries to drag Theo down the road to show how time is shifting when they hear Briar shouting from the barrier.

Brian and Theo start shouting at them to return. Brian goes on about Butter Flapping and Theo grabs the jumper cables and blankets for Trick and Briar while not understanding what’s going on. There is a body still in his trunk which he gingerly avoids while gaining those items. He asks Brian for help who mentions his phone died. A calmer none butter flapping Brian helps set up their makeshift rope. They close the trunk and proceed to the divider. After a quick discussion on whether or not they should tell the others on the road what they are tying to the rope they do tie it around Adisa Bellow’s waist. They don’t tell anyone about the body on the end of the rope and have Theo and Brian pull it over. Trick then confides in Briar that he’s actually freaking out and is proud of how strong she is. She thinks he looks fine and he explains that he REALLY isn’t doing so hot. Then when Brian calls over the wall calm and collected sounding Trick replies once again.

Briar begins to question whether or not Brian should be drunk right now and Trick mentions that it’s just Brian’s way of coping with all this crazy shit. Briar disagrees being drunk right now is the worst idea. Trick then calls him a drunk and Briar gives up that she isn’t perfect. Trick disagrees that she is pretty close to perfect though. Pb breaks the fourth wall to say “Oooooh this is fun!” Trick then realizes that the cop should be here at any possible moment courtesy of the stopwatch he started back in Athmore.

When All Logic Goes Out The Window
Not wanting to be caught with a dead body, Trick shouts at Brian, Emma and Theo should pull the body over NOW. They pull the rope and finds a surprise body fly over the wall towards them. Theo loses his cool at seeing Adisa Bellow fly over the wall and it collides with him, covering him in blood. Brian drunken master gets out of the way. Theo screams “WHY?!” and loses his shit. Trick boosts Briar over the wall and cum-vinces Theo to get Adisa’s body into Theo’s trunk. Theo calms down and gets out from underneath Adisa’s bleeding corpse with Brian’s help. The two of them with Emma put the body in the trunk of the car. They put her in the trunk the same way they discovered her by accident which gives the crew goosebumps. Trick gets the rope from Briar and climbs back over the barrier. Brian throws his jacket off and his cigarettes fall out of his jacket, lights one and puts the pack in his front pocket. Trick goes to the Trunk and puts the pendant into Adisa’s pocket. Theo is nervous about the disappearing act but Trick says he’s probably immune and that they need to set things to how they should. They go to climb in the Escalade as Brian realizes he has Trick’s smokes again. Trick mentions “I hope to god this works.” And closes the trunk. They all climb into Trick’s car and Briar starts to worry about what’s happening but Trick convinces (no skill) to get out of here. Trick then mentions worse case scenario they can just come back again today. Briar argues they may have fixed it but they are probably going to jail. Trick says that’s fine as long as time moves forward even if it’s just a minute. Brian chimes in towards Briar with, “The longer we wait the worse it’s going to get, we will continue flapping the butters. We’ve got to move back to town now. Let’s move forward. Did you pee?” Briar responds she doesn’t have to go and Trick asks if going back would be better. Brian agrees that going backwards is a good idea but is a little too enthusiastic. After deciding to make a U-turn they leave but not before seeing the cop scene begin behind them with their Shadowy Figures.

On their way back they each think of different things; Trick thinks about the Werewolf in the woods that could take away his precious freedom. Theo wonders “Why is it here?” Brian thinks about how VCR’s work v.s. time bleed. He wants to record a much better outcome to find out more about how to save Adisa Bellow and Stop it. Briar thinks about her grandfather who believed in the Shadow Man and told Briar that the Shadow Man is afraid of her.

Schrodinger's Bladder
As they return to Athmore Briar observes the pocket watch her grandfather left her. The clock face reads 2 A.M. The clock doesn’t run perfect but it is closer to normal. Briar shares it to the others while her cellphone still reads 4:30 PM. It’s weird because the pocket watch seems to be the amount of time that should have passed for the crew since returning to Athmore. Brian nods sagely and mentions to trust the clock on the great VCR of time. At Trick’s request Brian elaborates: “Oprah Winfrey once said, ‘You can have it all, just not all at once!’ so what’s happen’in. Is that,  We are experiencing a lot of things, but they are on different layers of time because, we keep going down this VCR time machine- of the road. And what’s happening is we are recording… a new time frame… on the half-way… every time we go down. And all those fucking weird shadowy people are from different recordings of time on the road. So, what we need to do is either A) A bunch of recordings identically and eliminate the rest. And then we’d have a real solid time line. Or B) we try to… go… the VCR metaphor isn’t working at this point but get with me here. We try to work with the other time lines to figure out... what the fuck man?! Ya know? Because somethings fucky and it’s not working out. Here’s the thing… Briar peed… right?! But this time she didn’t have to pee! So what did you do- No wait! We are continuing on with this layer… which means you already peed! So we are looking at other layers where you did pee but… then you didn’t… right? We are living in our now and they are living in their now-“Trick cuts him off to try and give the whole scoop on what happened on the other side of the barrier.

Briar with a chance to speak mentions touching the tree and going back in time. Theo shudders at the thought of touching the symbol. Brian remembers Briar “Being on the pills.” And storming out of the lecture which Theo collaborates. Brian mentions he has notes from that class on his phone but needs to charge his phone which Trick plugs in from his mount. After an hour the phone is fully charged and Brian shows the notes, he took in class the night before which further collaborates Briar went to the past. The memory was always there but now it makes sense to him. Theo’s class that day was about time dilation and how observation of time. Brian’s not read Time’s like drugs it dilates you. Briar looks at her grandfather’s pocket watch which has no symbol. Theo keeps playing with his sketch and begins to hear whispers in his voice, panic in Tricks voice, screaming, Briar saying “Get back! Get Back!” and then he touches the one symbol at the top of his sketch to focus. He then sees a blood-red moon, darkness all around and a big ghostly shadowy creature looming over the five of them. When Theo's vision breaks back to the car, he doesn’t say a word.

Symbology 101
Trick would bring up the symbol on the tree and the symbol on the pendant being identical. Theo called them roots for a second then corrects himself. Trick mentions how it seems like it’s his knife that caused the carvings on the tree’s. Theo once again mentions that Adisa’s symbol was a root. Theo then explains that the pendants must not have been the same. Theo pulls out the sketch and holds it up towards the front seat. Brian tries to sketch Theo’s Dream (the sketch) into his phone but only gets a few lines down before Theo snatches the phone away. Theo Emphasizes not to copy the symbol and Briar says don’t fuck with those rituals. She also get’s mad at the Professor for not explaining the symbol more. Theo then continues to say he dreams about the symbol every time he closes his eyes. On closer inspection it becomes obvious that he doesn’t sleep because of how he looks and how he drinks so much strong coffee without much of a dent. He goes on to explain how he was looking for it so he was shaken to find it in a random forest. They begin to talk about cleaning off the blood on them when they realize there is no blood on them. Trick notices he’s hungry and his dash clock is working. Brian realizes he’s not numb anymore. Trick sees he has signal and he has a voicemail and a text from Briar. The text reads “Are you there?” and time reads 4:30 for sent text. The voicemail with an odd echo reads, "Trick, this is Trick. If you're getting this, I hope it's tomorrow. If it's not tomorrow, it's still today, and you're still fucked. But if you do get this, why don't you give me a call back? Alright. Love you. Bye."[Ep.2 It’s a long road home] Getting on board with this weirdness Theo look’s up Dr. Bellows lecture. Dr. Bellow is missing. Theo has gained a school wide notification that no one knows where she went but she never showed up for her lecture. Investigation starts tomorrow. They start to piece together whether or not they will be condemned for Adisa’s death and come to the conclusion that they are just as screwed. Trick resets his phone to find it’s 2 A.M. Looking out the window he sees there’s a blood moon and a sign reading “Welcome to Athmore”.

Deciding they need to go back to Trick’s to find out if an e-mail was sent to RandyFranko345 (dupe e-mail) , whether Theo’s car is back in Trick’s garage and to feed Trick’s dogs. On the way back to Trick’s house there is silence in the Escalade. The Blood Moon brightly illuminates the quiet streets of Athmore. The crew passes two cars one of them being a Black Escalade… Then they pull up on Trick’s driveway. Trick murmurs a prayer to sci-fi thrillers then opens the garage door and pulls in after seeing Theo’s car inside. They all, except Emma, get out of the Escalade to check Theo’s trunk. Inside they find the dead body of Adisa Bellow with NOTHING in her pocket.

End of Episode