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beautifulhigh · 5 years

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Language of the Falls: Episode 35

Plus side of doing single episodes: write and post, no having to remind myself of what I wrote for the first episode when I'm trying to type up my notes on the fourth.

Down side of doing single episodes: having to come up with something for the intro each time.

Let's do a little audience participation. Do you want a joke or a random fact for the next one?

And now for the standard disclaimer with the download link:

Everything in here that's recognisably @kingfallsam was, is now, and will forever belong to The Make Believe Picture Company. The artistic fair use ramblings are mine. Any words not mine are cited, linked, referenced, or from the good ol' dictionary by way of Google.

Look, y'all know the deal. What's not mine isn't mine. What's mine under the transformative work rule is mine. Be nice, like proper nice, and don't come yelling at me.

This episode is a creepy one so grab your red comforter and buckle in.

*presses play*

Episode 35 – "Dear Diary"

Gentrified Chicken is the weirdest socio-political comment I've ever come across. With Reginald Blanders it's a parody of a well-known chain but like so many more things with this show there's a lot more going on underneath the surface.

gentrification (noun) the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. the process of making a person or activity more refined or polite.

Gentrification starts with the acquisition of property and then investing in it to raise the area's reputation. And they have the "newest whitewashed riverwood location" so there's the property angle right there. But I want to know where the commas are in that sentence, if indeed there are any. Because that matters.

whitewash (noun) a solution of lime and water or of whiting, size, and water, used for painting walls white. a deliberate attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts about a person or organization in order to protect their reputation.

The wood could have been painted white. Or there's something being covered up here. I mean, if the chicken is the new Soylent Green then there is no way I'm eating there. And that's assuming that riverwood is wood from the river. I know the boys are into their computer games and when I typed in 'riverwood' to Google I got an interesting hit:

Riverwood, place in Skyrim The game's main story revolves around the player character's quest to defeat Alduin the World-Eater, a dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world.

I know that Big Bads and World Destruction isn't exactly a new theme in media but the idea of a world being consumed? When it features in this episode? I will buy this. Not the chicken though. The "blandest, most digestible" ever. When people say something "tastes like chicken" that's usually because chicken doesn't really taste of much these days. Thanks to farming and mass production chicken doesn't have time to develop a taste of its own. It's naturally bland and so we cook it with seasoning and herbs and other stuff to give it flavour. When something "tastes like chicken" it actually tastes of what you cooked it with/in and so that taste comes up again in other dishes that may have been prepared in the same/similar fashion. I'm guessing that Blanders serves it au natural because hey – those spices and stuff could be poison. Could be. You don't know.

The fact that they don't even try to hide the fact that their gentrified chicken is actually gentrification in action is funny in the way that Gwendolen is. The subject matter is not, but the way it's presented is clearly not to be taken too seriously. I hope.

In any case, Sammy is on the celebrity circuit as he's been invited to the opening but he's staying on the "right side of the tracks" and saying no. There's our surrogate, being the voice of contention. He speaks out when is needed but here he's not outwardly condemning them. He's just not condoning it and so he refuses to go. This is our Sammy, the non-Shotgun guy. He's not as antagonistic as his former persona may have been (not that he won't take you down hard if he needs to) he's just taking the high road, the path of least resistance. There are other things to worry about and focus on and so the history and intention of a food outlet ranks pretty low on his list.

Ben is not suspicious at all with his calls and plans and Sammy just goes along with it. When it's just them? Ben can Notebook away and do whatever it is he wants, sorry, needs to do. Sammy's line clearly lies where other people start to get involved. He's made an 'informed' choice to trust Ben and to help wherever he can.

We get our first Ben mention of "BRB". The BTF crew know what that references and I'm loving these little touches from Kyle.

They are story less until 4:15 (15 April. That's #24 – "The McGuff Files" – going back and #48 going forward "Mo Money, Mo Problems". The fundraiser where real!Tim and not!Tim face off. The book and the "nightmare tornado" is actually referenced in that episode so… see you for that one). The auditorium has been closed again after, *sigh*, the ruckus of the debate.

ruckus (noun) a row or commotion

We had a literal stampede of people leaving and a symbol of death. But sure. Let's go with commotion.

The Dark calls in on Line 5 – the number five signals that great changes are coming – and calls himself "your friendly neighbourhood superhero". So it's nice to see that whoever The Dark is *cough*Dwayne*cough* that they do hold themselves in high regard. He's calling the show to pass on a message to Troy – why not call him directly? Why call the radio station? It can't just be for the set-up of having Sammy talking to "Mr Dark". Who was his father. Old Man Libbydale?

"Why hide behind a mask and a moniker?"

I mean, the radio personality formerly known as Shotgun Sammy might have a point there. Now they know his name, he's out in the community… If anyone knows hiding it's Sammy and that's before we get to Jack. There's more comment about darkness and the motif of the show given that Sammy and Ben are "shining [their] light on the darkness of political adversaries".

Sammy calls him a vigilante:

Even when vigilantes are well-intentioned, vigilantism can undermine or disrupt actual law enforcement operations to maintain order. (source)

and comments on the danger that he's putting people into. Of course this is all side-stepped with a comment about Sammy's sexist reference to men. Because us women can be criminals too don't ya know? It's false sexism because everyone The Dark has apprehended have all been men and it was a touch of gaslighting to put Sammy onto the back foot. So Sammy, our beautiful petty Sammy, gets his own back by dropping the article. He's not The Dark, Sammy's not giving him the status of being something unique. He's just dark. Without an article dark defaults to an adjective rather than a noun which has some interesting definitions:

hidden from knowledge; mysterious suggestive of or arising from evil; sinister ignorant; unenlightened.

I don't think Sammy would have a problem with any of that being applied here. The Dark may favour the first one but Sammy is clearly focusing on the last. The ignorance with which The Dark is acting means that people could be put at risk and as we've seen with Sammy's reaction to the "Suicide Squad" in #33 he doesn't want anyone to get hurt.

I think that leaves the Shadow Maker as fitting the second one.

The Dark talks about not being able to trust law enforcement but he wants Troy to know about the perps. It makes it sound like Troy is the exception to this view and if he had called it in by regular means then who's to say that Troy would have gotten the call? That, or The Dark wants his actions to be seen in a more public forum. Call the cops and the perps are arrested and no one might ever know what The Dark did. It's clear that The Dark wants everyone out there to know that he's not only around to protect people but that he's also looking to take down some pretty organised baddies:

"The evil that lurks in the shadows will come to fear me."

Look, you can't say 'shadows' on a show like this and not get a twitch. Well, maybe you can at this point because we haven't heard much/anything about the shadows. Few hints back before Emily's abduction but this is the one that is going to set them up for the show and the audience and just the whole lore of, well, everything King Falls. By the end of this episode an entire fandom will have been traumatised by shadows and books and Debbie will become a byword for something not good.

"There are evil forces at work here in King Falls."

Which ones? The Shadows? The Triumvirate?

Sammy wants a "sane, rational caller wanting a traffic report" (Tim reference for #1? Troy and his ghost car chase in #24?) "or to talk about puppy dogs" (Archie's Pomchi Palace, Archie's Pomchi Palace… So that's the werewolves and everything else canine related?). Be careful what you wish for, Sammy.

Line 13. Not ominous at all. And hi, Debbie. You are going to divide the fandom more than opinions on tea (always warm, never iced) and peanut butter (crunchy).

She's called them as she was "supposed to call you" but she doesn't know why. Sane? Possibly but debatable. Rational? Nope. Sammy is not getting what he wished for but he is getting someone he thinks he can help. He wants to help. Sammy's protective and giving streak is a mile wide and he's always willing to do whatever he can to help anyone that he can. Debbie calls King Falls a "living, breathing picture" which echoes Sammy calling it a "beautiful little place" way back in #1. Debbie just got here so the similarities between her and Sammy are clear: she comes and is taken, he came in search of what was taken.

She's got a book, Ben is making jibes and Sammy is trying to help. Sammy's connecting with her and when she says it's lonely and scary being alone in a new place Sammy starts to empathise. Sammy does warn her about the "supernatural weird" town and when he tries to attach "alleged" to it Ben rightfully calls him out on that. Sammy has seen it, he's lived it, but he still doesn't want to believe it. Because believing it would mean that Jack was right. Sammy switches from weird to peculiar and what's a gal to do when faced with a switch in adjective? Head over to the dictionary!

peculiar (adjective) different to what is normal or expected; strange. particular; special.

Normal, fine. But expected? If you expect things to be weird (rainbow lights, werewolves, reanimation of the dead) then you get out-of-time phonecalls and shadows bleeding from books and taking someone without leaving a trace? A mysterious notebook? Yeah. That's different to what you expect.

Look, we know what happens, yeah? Shadows come, Debbie disappears? She calls back on occasion and talks about reliving stuff wherever she is? OK. Good. Because this is not a real time spoiler-free project. This is red-stringin' across everything.

Theory: this isn't Debbie's abduction. She's been gone a long time. This is just the first time she's been able to call in. She talks about feeling like she's "been here forever" which is taken to mean King Falls but it could be the Shadow World. She puts this feeling down to the fact that she's been "moving a lot". If she moves constantly then why is it scary being on her own? I'm not saying she can't be scared with every move but if we were talking Real World movement then surely by now she'd have some strategies in place. She says there's still so much to do but the house is settled. So what's left to do once you've moved in?

Unless she's in the Shadow World and her moving is caused by the Shadows. She's moved but now there's something to do. That'd terrify anyone and she's calling them now.

As I type this up there's a name discussion in the Discord spoiler thread. So I looked up what Debbie meant.

Deborah was the Biblical prophetess who summoned Barak to battle against an army of invaders.

I mean… Shadows. Coming. Warnings. Yeah, you get it.

She hears a knocking. Not a sound, a knocking. Like on a door.

(First mention of garbage bears. And so a slew of Tweets began to be sent to the @KingFallsAM Twitter account. If I say I hate Idris Elba will you send me pictures? @jennyreyn )

But that's not the point. There is no upstairs. There's an attic with a cord ripped off and if someone has ripped off an access aid then, I don't know, maybe there's a reason for that? Why are horror movies always full of people ignoring these little things that stop them from doing something? Gothic fiction is full of this too. A warning to maybe don't do the thing? Someone does the thing.

Ben triggers Siris everywhere with a voice search for symptoms of rabies:

irritability or aggressiveness excessive movements or agitation confusion, bizarre or strange thoughts, or hallucinations muscle spasms and unusual postures seizures (convulsions) weakness or paralysis (when a person cannot move some part of the body) extreme sensitivity to bright lights, sounds, or touch

I don't want to say that rabies and Shadow possession have an overlap but… they have an overlap.

Google couldn't quite tell me how long it would take for an inch of dust to accumulate. I assume, however, that Debbie wasn't being literal. When she starts to describe what sounds like a kid's bedroom (in the attic? Early Years Mrs Rochester?) Ben goes from being flippant to sounding concerned. Ben is worried now and so we are.

I tab notes I don't use in previous Language posts in case they come up later. Like this little gem from #19 when the Shadow Maker said they were "waiting for little ones". Whether that means actual children or whether we are deemed "little" in comparison is a question to which I'm not sure I want the answer to.

What Debbie goes on to describe is a scene out of every horror movie (I imagine. I don't do horror) with the dolls' eyes scratched out with red marker X. Eyes are how we engage with someone/something, it's how we show emotion, the metaphorical blinding. A reference to the Evil Eye myth and wanting to avoid any power or control being exerted. Either way it's next level creepy.

When Debbie talks about the thump that woke her up Sammy has a verbal response. But it's not his sassy "mmhmm". It's an "uh-huh". He's not dismissing this. He's not being a skeptic here. Whatever level Sammy does or doesn't believe in the lore of King Falls, whatever history he's working on here, at the very least he knows that this is Something Big. We get confirmation of this when Debbie calls back in #44 and Sammy wants nothing to do with her. Makes me want to know exactly what Jack talked to Sammy about when it came to these things.

The single book on the shelf? That's some Marie Condo level of clear out but Ben's reference is key:

The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. Among other things, the work contains an account of the Old Ones, their history, and the means for summoning them.

The Shadows have been around for a long time. Let's not go to the summoning aspect of it shall we? Goodness knows what Ben would do with that information. If they are waiting for the "little ones" there's an implication of youth there too, especially when considered next to the Old Ones. It's a jump to declare that this is what/who The Shadows are but it fits. For now.

Sammy declares that he is out when Debbie tells us it's a diary. Why at that? What is it about a diary that's weirder and creepier than a mystery attic, mystery room? He tries to logic his way out of it, he's trying to rationalise it. There's something about this, about books and hidden spaces, that seems to really sit uncomfortably with Sammy.

"It had a little heart shaped lock on it. But it crumbed apart when I touched it." "That… that is an interesting choice of words."

The room and the dolls and the diary and the heart lock would all lead to the assumption of this belonging to a little girl. (Yeah yeah, gender bias vs. stereotypes. But sometimes the curtains are blue.) Something crumbling is very much a sign of age but even if this room did date back to the Victorian era the lock shouldn't have lost integrity within that time. So horror movie it is then.

The girl's name is Nancy.

Names mean something. Emily's mother is called Nancy. Now in everyday life of course you have people who have the same name. On the Discord there's another Jen. (Technically I'm the other Jen, I think.) I once had a class with three kids sharing a name which made the Q&A part of a lesson fun. So if the diary belonged to Nancy and we have Nancy Potter, alive and well in King Falls of the present day, then what the hell is the connection? Is this an honour naming as we "see" with Howard Ford Beauregard "the Third"? But whoever Nancy is the name is familiar to Debbie somehow.

If she is reliving her abduction then maybe it's déjà vu. Or she knows/knew Nancy Fletcher.

The diary fell open on a page with the phone number, hieroglyphic writing, names and dates. The aural tones in the background start to build up unease (sounds we will later come to closely and painfully associate with The Shadows). The boys ask about their Twitters and Debbie channels Captain America with "I don't know what that means". Twitter was founded 21 March 2006. If Debbie doesn't know what Twitter is then I'm going to say she's from a time that predates this episode by a good decade.

Diaries are a time capsule. They're a record from the past of thoughts and feelings and events. Things that we record at the time and when we read them back later prompt memories long buried because we haven't needed to recall them. So it makes sense that we have a time capsule (diary) within a time capsule (creepy attic room) from a time capsule (Debbie herself). Either Debbie is calling the future or wherever she is now she's trapped in what appears to be her present but is our past.

And the book is even older than that.

The names are then listed.

Nancy Eddie Edith Howard Tim Mary Ben Sammy Emily

Tim, Mary, Ben, Sammy. We know them. Howard is (probably) Harrison. Nancy is up for debate. So who are Eddie and Edith?

The name Eddie is an English baby name. In English the meaning of the name Eddie is: Rich in friendship, or wealthy friend. In American the meaning of the name Eddie is: Prosperous protector. (source)

The name Edith is an Anglo-Saxon baby name. In Anglo-Saxon the meaning of the name Edith is: Joyous. In English the meaning of the name Edith is: Happy warfare. Spoils of war. (source)

What's also interesting is that Edith+Eddie is a documentary talking about the lives of an interracial couple who are torn apart through family feuds and racism. Jack and Sammy have somewhat been torn apart by The Shadows so here's hoping for the positive ending that Edith and Eddie got. But in terms of definitions both names denote some positivity with a tinge of conflict.

Ben jumps in and knows it's his Emily. He wants the book and Debbie's tone changes. "You can't have it." The diary is hers; her name and her life is in there. Sammy calls them common names but we all know otherwise.

"I was hoping you'd have answers not more questions."

The KFAM Fandom, on the 1st and 15th of every month.

The creepy factor jumps up with thumps and knocks and fluttering pages. Debbie starts to pray, adding to not only the desperation factor but an interesting insight into a time period? When faced with the supernatural she turns to prayer. A crucifix on the wall suggests either serious devout faith or a different era. I'm not saying that people today wouldn't do that but since there's evidence to suggest that Debbie is out of time then I'm putting this circumstantial evidence in the "yup" pile.

Ben gets her address out of her and repeats it in confusion. Ben is our expert and so we know that there's something going on with this address. He knows the subdivision, two houses. Mid-century and a flat roof. But something about it is giving him pause for concern and it's got nothing to do with the horror film currently playing out over the air.

The book flips front to back to front to back, over and over. A diary is a time record, front to back, and so scrolling through it like this further suggests some time weirdness.

"Say the name Nancy Fletcher."

We know from #32 with Jacob Williams and Rich McGuff that saying an apparition's name gives you some power, control, level of communication with it. After saying the name the book has stopped on a page but it's blocking Debbie's escape. Maybe it's her diary, maybe the book is responding to the name for another reason. Ben fills us in on the story of Nancy Fletcher: she lived there the 1950s, a little girl who played with her sister and her friends and then she disappeared. Feeling is that the "bad man" at the end of the road had something to do with it. Now if Nancy's sister grew up and had a girl of her own maybe she would have named her daughter after her missing sister? That Nancy grew up and had a girl of her own who would one day be missing too?

(Bad man, end of the road. At the end of this episode Troy is at the end of the road and the Shadow Maker is there too. I mean…)

"There's… there's something coming out of the diary. Leaking from the pages to the floor."

The voice is familiar, Debbie calls them Shadows without ever having heard that before but we have. We heard those noises and that voice right before Emily's abduction. We can hear the sirens in the background but just in case things weren't weird enough? Debbie can't see any lights, she tells us – very calmly – she can see "only darkness". The all-consuming nature of the Shadows plays out for us for the first time. The movement of the shadows, bleeding and running across the floor like something out of Nightmare Before Christmas. They are real and they are present in this world and they shut down the light.

"The man. He's here. The darkness is spreading. It's taking hold. He came for her and her. And me. And now you."

The man. He's here. What man? The Shadow Maker? Troy? Jack? Something else entirely? Whatever and whoever he is the fact that "he's here" is not a good phrase at all as we saw with the Science Institute.

The darkness is spreading. It's taking hold. Nothing like personifying an abstract to set in motion a lifetime of nightmares. We have a fear of the dark because of danger, predators, uncertainty. We stave it off with light sources and protection but the fact that it "takes hold" means that it will not let go. It's coming and it wants us.

He came for her and her. And me. So Debbie is the 'me'… who are the hers? Nancy Fletcher and Emily Potter? If Emily is the great-niece of the original abductee then it would make sense why they wanted her… wouldn't it? Why she could be The One?

And now y͓͇̏̓o̶͚ͤ̒̓͂ͥ̀̈u͉̖͈̲̓. The laughter of the voice transitioning into and taking over her voice makes it clear that Debbie is no longer the one we are talking to. It is talking to Ben, to Ben and Sammy, to the wider listening audience of King Falls.

"Come get the book, Ben. You wanted to talk. Me too. We're watching you, Ben. Come get the book. It knows all. It is all. I'm waiting. We're waiting... See you soon, Benjamin Arnold."

Ben wanted to speak to the Shadow Maker back in #31 by luring Walt to the station and now it's clear that his little request hasn't gone unnoticed. Whatever is going on Ben doesn't have the element of secrecy or control that he may have thought that he had. The book knowing all is a key point later on this year – see you at #44 for that one – but it also speaks to the connection with Emily and libraries and knowledge. So much of the history and the lore of the town is hidden in books, in bits of paper. Jack ordered books on the town, in KFC3 Lily and Emily do a lot of book research. Books and printed words hold power here so no wonder HFBWhatever wanted a book of his own to be made. Having a eBook isn't quite the same though; if you have black leaking from your Kindle it's more likely that it's broken.

But the book containing all the information that Ben needs – if we assume that the Shadow Maker isn't lying then that does speak to the contents of the 'Necronomicon'. A full account of who they are and what they do and how to summon them. Up to current airing (#84, next up is the Sammiversary so nice knowin' y'all) The Shadows have appeared on their terms. Nothing has drawn them out, as far as we are aware, and so the control and the power is firmly theirs and theirs alone. When all you can do is wait and react? Puts you firmly on the back foot when it comes to conflict and you're immediately in a defensive position.

The hotline breaks the tension (or adds to it) and Troy's dry tone and mock laughter reflects that things are still not good but not in the way that we might have expected. If Troy had turned up to a house where Shadows were bleeding out of a book and taking over people I don't think he'd be quiet so dry over it all. So it's not that. Dead end road, empty lots. A metaphor for Ben's investigation and research and planning. Also for their knowledge of the Shadows. A dead end, more questions (space) than answers (buildings, actual people). And we confirm that whatever time Debbie was calling from it wasn't now: it hasn't been a subdivision for years.

So Ben knew about Nancy Fletcher but he didn't know the buildings had been torn down? Troy asks where Ben's head is at and so I wonder if Ben should have known, did know, but the way that the Shadows play with events messes with that? Like the Quantum Leap episode(s) around JFK's assassination: at the end it's revealed that Jackie died in the original timeline but of course everyone "remembers" that she survives because of Sam's actions: Al is the one to 'remind' Sam of the truth. Maybe this is our moment. Troy always remembers the buildings being gone because that's the impact of the changes to the timeline and Ben doesn't for some reason.

So here's how this could play out:

Nancy Fletcher lived there in the 1950s and disappeared. Sometime soon after that Debbie moves to town. She finds a weird diary on her first night and ends up calling a number in it. She's on the phone with these two men when the Shadows take her. The houses are then demolished or whatever and King Falls of the present day comes to know them as an empty lot.

Except the past and the present are running at the same time and so there's a future where it is a subdivision and there's a future where it isn't. Schrödinger's Subdivision if you will. And it's only after the Shadows take Debbie that a single future remains with Ben, self-confessed expert of the town and its supernatural lore, didn't remember. Because if Debbie hadn't gone up into the attic or hadn't called or if they had dumped the call like Ben wanted or if any number of things that could have happened in the moment of Debbie's time hadn't gone the way it was supposed to? Then things would have been different.

It's been a topic of discussion on the Discord about how time moves in The Void, with The Shadows, and in terms of the characters who have been exposed to it or taken by it. HFBWhatever is a prime example of time maybe not working as we would expect and the fact that Debbie seems to have called them from the past builds on that. If Debbie were calling from a recreation of her abduction from within The Void then why wouldn't Ben know that the subdivision didn't exist anymore when he knew about Nancy Fletcher? If he knew about Nancy Fletcher through Emily's mother (assuming that theory is true) then why not reference that? The only thing that makes sense is the one thing that doesn't make sense at the moment: Debbie called the station from the past. We had ourselves a little "Frequency" moment where for a brief period of time two time periods were connected through the use of radio.

But whatever it was – or is – Debbie is long gone and Troy is there not believing a word of what the boys said happened. And in the background there's the laughter we know and the boys know. Whatever took Debbie, whenever it took her, it's there in the here and now. Troy doesn't initially believe it but the 15 feet high shadow tornado soon disabuses him of any idea that this might be a joke. And we end on Troy's laboured breaths as he runs from the Shadows.

So were the Shadows in the present? Is that subdivision a place where time is weird? Doyle's got his portals to other universes – is this another one?

We know that we will have to wait two weeks to find out what happens. We know that we will have to wait longer for answers. And we know that things are no longer what they may have appeared to be.

Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for another post. It is finally my Easter break after all!

But until that time: be well, fandom.

Jen

Twitter: @jennyreyn

Discord: come play!

#king falls #king falls am #language of the falls #overthinking jen is overthinking #ben arnold #sammy stevens #kyle brown #eric kimelton #long post #sorry if the read more fails on mobile

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