"Just as a heads-up, the episode proper begins at the 1:45 mark; After some discussion over the past couple of weeks, we agreed that it would be responsible to include an audio content warning at the start, since this episode’s overall storyline unavoidably centres on the depiction of civilian victims of military rocket strikes - which we imagine is a topic that feels much too close to home for many of us right now.
The episode was of course written and recorded much earlier in the year, and the context within the show is entirely different to the horrific real-world bombardments currently taking place in Palestine, but we completely understand that some listeners may want to avoid this kind of storyline entirely right now, and we want to ensure we’re fully respecting that.
You can read the full warning here, alongside the full episode transcript."[2]
| ATTENTION: SPOILERS AHEAD! Beyond this point, major plot spoilers are expected. Continue at your own risk. |
Description[]
Hallowing Of A Sky-Saint[]
A woman who’s about to be turned into a sky-saint pleads to be let go. She volunteered. She is ignored by the attendant. We hear CLS General Peter Lopez on a recording telling her about the hallowing process. Her terrified pleas turn to cries of suffering. She has become a Sky-Saint. A soldier puts in the code to secure the rocket. A rocket technician begins to count down. The rocket is launched.
Routine In The Grace[]
In Bellwethers, Carpenter digs in the ruins of the field. Alice greets her and encourages her to keep digging. They hope to find soil that can be used for farming. Carpenter enters the canteen and Hayward asks if she’s hungry. Paige is sleeping still. She leaves for the greenhouse. She whistles as she walks.
The canteen is busy now. Elgin talks about the scavenging situation in Bellwethers. A guitarist plays in the background. Elgin worries about the plan for when the war ends. Carpenter hears about Dan’s extreme views, which have reached the point that Hayward has to step in and say there’s nothing in his words. Carpenter steps outside for a minute, and the cheers become muffled.
She walks to Paige’s house and knocks. Paige is less than conscious, we hear bottles and her repeated mumbling of “tree”. She doesn’t appear to hear Carpenter knocking. Carpenter leaves.
The Rocket Attack[]
Carpenter lies awake. She asks the Cairn Maiden her thoughts on the world Paige and Hayward are attempting to create. There’s snoring around her. She expresses her desire to have returned south if she could have, to see Acantha. But the Cairn Maiden herself kept leading her north. Carpenter is conflicted. She sees Paige as a friend, but understands the foolishness of all of this. Yet, she likes them and wants to help them. There’s a reason for her to continue living. But the Cairn Maiden keeps watching her. She keeps getting closer. Carpenter begs her to stop, reminding her that this isn’t the place. She says she can be useful. She asks for the Cairn Maiden to let her die useful.
Then she hears the sound of explosions. They’re growing closer. Carpenter gets to her feet. A much louder explosion rocks the bunkhouse. There is an alarm going off, and Dan yells that the Hatchery is on fire. People are panicked and yelling.
Paige is woken by the alarm. She’s still drunk and confused. As she tries to stand, she tumbles to the floor.
Outside, Hayward supervises everyone as they make their way towards the Hatchery. He asks Dan what happened. Dan, as usual, goes on a scriptural rant. Hayward tries to get him to provide a straight answer before giving up and moving on. He calls out for Alice, and she tells him what’s going on. A god rocket has hit the Hatchery, it’s intact and hasn’t opened. Alice doesn’t think the saint inside of it has woken up, but can’t be certain. Elgin, Seb and Rymond are all unaccounted for. Elgin couldn’t sleep in the bunkhouse and has been sleeping in the Hatchery instead. Dan offers to go into the Hatchery, but Hayward says he needs him to head to the comms station and play some interference loudly over the speakers to combat the saint in case it wakes up. Dan does as he’s directed.
Carpenter approaches Hayward and asks how she can help. They’re going to use pressure hoses to put out the fire before they go in and look for survivors, but not before they know the saint won’t wake up. He tells them they need guns and ear protectors also. He turns and runs off, everyone has their role.
The steady beeping sound of the god rocket. Alice comments how lucky they are that the rocket hasn’t opened, Carpenter tells her the fire could still set it off. Carpenter organises the bucket chains. The disciples do as they’re told. The beeping begins to speed up.
Paige, still drunk, stumbles down the hill with the crowd. Carpenter rushes over to help her upright when she falls. Carpenter tells her the situation, and Paige immediately wonders if this is it for their faith. The alarm bell sounds from up ahead, and there's the sound of people running past. Alice tells her the god rocket is opening. The beeping noise is faster still. Then it stops. The Sky-Saint’s recorded message plays. The rocket door opens, and the Sky-Saint steps out. This causes Paige to swiftly sober up, realising it’s a sky god. Carpenter tells everyone to hold onto something, not to look at or listen to it. Alice does so as well, continuing to ring the alarm. She becomes hypnotised and begins to walk towards it. She repeats,
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She is propelled into the sky, and there is only the sound of her keys and some coins falling back to earth.
In the comms tower, Dan finds a CD and drops it into the player. Dan turns it up as high as it will go.
Screams of disciples being flung upwards into the sky, and the roar of the Sky-Saint. The interference begins to work. Carpenter and Paige gasp as the music begins to play, Hayward unspools a pressurised hose. Disciples shoot at the Sky Saint, as Hayward turns on the hose. Paige has fallen into a leadership role well, directing her disciples. She spots Carpenter and tries to remind her to use her ear protectors. Carpenter gazes into the flames. She can see the Cairn Maiden, and hear her whispers. It drowns out the rest of the noise. She tells Paige there’s someone alive inside the building. She runs inside before Paige can stop her.
Carpenter breaks into the burning building and speaks to the Cairn Maiden. She understands her role. As long as Carpenter can rescue the trapped disciple, she will leave with the Maiden. She repeats her mantra to herself, under her breath. She sounds nervous, but perhaps a little excited. The Maiden is gone. She realises this with a little disappointment. Elgin calls out to Carpenter from the rubble. She lifts something heavy off of her. She takes off her own gas mask and puts it on Elgin. Carpenter sputters and coughs. Dan, on the loudspeakers, repeats the Woundtree’s mantra. Carpenter helps her through the building, asking Elgin to help her with the mantra. Elgin recites it. They reach the bottom of the stairs and we hear the Sky-Saint above them. The ceiling caves in and the saint lands in front of them. They flee back up the stairs. Carpenter breaks a window. They jump out of the window. Both of them land in the canal. Hayward calls for a doctor. The Hatchery collapses on the Sky-Saint. It begins to rain, and the fire dies away.
Aftermath: Elgin's Proposal[]
In the canteen the next day everyone is silent and traumatised. Hayward begins a briefing. He tells them that eight rockets were launched from the CLS to the Peninsula, and all seven other rockets hit military targets. Elgin enters, and Hayward tries to order her back to bed rest. She tells him she couldn’t stay idle. She asks if she can join the meeting, before taking a seat. Elgin lists off the losses: Alice, Seb, Rymond, Wesley, Hyrrall, Gavin Awaale, Mark, and Edison. All the chickens, three goats, two sheep, the Hatchery building itself and everything inside. Hayward tiredly says that they got really unlucky. Elgin tells him there’s a search party being put together to find the dead. Elgin also says that there’s been a call for a vote. The Grace isn’t a place to live. They’re exposed to attacks from the CLS and the land is inhospitable. Paige comments that they’ve been excavating and if they can get underground they’ll be protected. Elgin asks if they can really continue in a town so poisoned. Paige does not argue. They want to send scouts south to find a point of refuge. Paige knows that there is nowhere to turn. Elgin proposes they find a hidden sanctuary still lived in by the waters edge, hopefully somewhere they can avoid the Parish of Tide and Flesh. There are other false-faith communities. Elgin proposes that they empty out one of these sanctuaries of their current inhabitants and occupy it. This proposal aims to wipe out another community of people. Hayward asks if the vote has come from her, and she admits that it has. Hayward is gentle with her. Paige is not. She tells her that by purging another community they would be making their faith utterly hypocritical. Elgin tells her that their people don’t care about whether or not they’re hypocritical, if the choice is between life and death. Elgin clearly dislikes Paige, accusing her of spending her time drunk and pretends she isn’t a part of the community. She says Paige is the factor that will bring them to ruin. Paige accepts this as fair criticism. Hayward is outraged, he tells Elgin that Paige’s isolation is due to her connection with their god and to keep the people safe. That they don’t know if she is stable. Elgin says that they aren’t afraid of their god, that they don’t need to be protected from it. She says the only person they’ll lose faith in, is Paige. Elgin says she’ll let them discuss it and then leaves.
Carpenter and Paige's Confrontation[]
The tension in the air doesn’t dissipate when Elgin leaves. Paige says Alice had lost patience with her too. She says that if Hayward thinks this is the right call, she’s behind him. Hayward is firm when he tells them no decisions will be made today. It’s the right call. Hayward goes to speak to Elgin. Carpenter tells Paige that Elgin isn’t as meek as she appears. Paige tells her she’s not at all, explaining her past to Carpenter. Paige asks Carpenter how she knew where to find her in the Hatchery. Carpenter says she could see her standing in the flames. When asked if she means Elgin, Carpenter lies and agrees. Carpenter changes the subject. She tells Paige about Hayward’s plan. She tells her the plan to head into Glottage, to create a base camp there for the future, to contact Shrue and win them over to the Woundtree’s cause. Paige comments that they can’t feed themselves out here, Carpenter’s certain that it’s the reason he wants to do it. To prevent hard choices becoming harder. Carpenter says she’ll go with him and keep him safe. She wants to be useful to them. Paige asks her if she thinks its a good plank, Carpenter tells her that people need to see that they have a plan at all. Paige asks if Carpenter has been converted to their cause, but Carpenter doesn’t reply. Paige tells her that she has no obligation to the faith. Carpenter asks her why she wouldn’t help. Paige tells her she’s got other places to be, we know that she doesn’t. Carpenter voices this. Paige is honest with Carpenter, that she is failing to live up to the perception she used to have of her. Carpenter isn’t an unstoppable force of nature anymore, she’s reckless and self-destructive and struggling in ways even Paige can’t relate to. Paige tells her that it’s like Carpenter doesn’t know how to stop. Carpenter takes it as a compliment, even though it's not. Paige asks if she remembers what they said to each other when they parted at Marcel’s Crossing. Carpenter does.
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Paige asks her if it has. Carpenter hasn’t known peace since their parting. Carpenter asks if she can find peace. Paige hasn’t known peace since they parted, either. They’re in a stalemate. They’re very similar. They’re both carrying far too heavy burdens that they can’t share. Paige has noticed Carpenter’s strange actions, talking to herself and looking at windows. Paige expresses that she’s worried about Carpenter. Carpenter tells Paige that she should be more concerned about herself, before worrying about Carpenter. Carpenter sees Paige, too. She knows how Paige feels because she feels the same way. Neither of them can save the other. They’re both drowning in the weight of their responsibilities. Carpenter knows they can find comfort in each other, rather than wasting their time worrying about each other. Carpenter tells her she’s not unstoppable. That no one is. She knows her death is coming for her. She wants to be useful, while she still can. Carpenter leaves.
Carpenter And Hayward Leave For Glottage[]
Hayward and Carpenter are ready to leave. Their jeep is loaded. Hayward speaks to Paige, asking if she’ll be okay while they’re gone. She says she will be, that there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. She’s lying. Paige says she’ll try to live up to Hayward’s example. Hayward asks what music Carpenter likes. Paige has no idea. Paige warns him that there’s something up with her. Hayward says that if anything bad happens to him, he’ll make them pay for it. Paige asks him if he understands that it doesn’t make it any better. He’s reassuring. Paige tells him to find Shrue, figure out if they’re willing to help, and to come straight back to her. He asks her a final question for her to think about whilst he’s gone:
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Paige watches them go. She’s confused, but more than anything she is worried. She asks her god to watch over them, although she doesn’t know if it's capable of doing so or offering protection. Paige promises that if they die she will tear apart the faith with her own hands. Her god does not respond to her.
Trivia[]
- Hayward dislikes Dan's taste in music.