S2 Episode 4: The Bridge AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast Limetown

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Episode: S2 Episode 4: The Bridge

Author: Two-Up
Duration: 00:46:31

Episode Shownotes

+46 days 3 hours since Lia Haddock’s abduction. Episode 4 of 5. Final full episode coming 12/17. Order the Limetown novel now at http://apple.co/limetownbook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summary

In this gripping episode of Limetown, the narrative centers around the search for Lia Haddock and the complexities of trust, deception, and trauma in the wake of her abduction. Key characters navigate a blend of personal and communal crises, reflecting on their roles amidst chaos, the introduction of invasive technology, and the emergence of haunting nightmares among children. The episode culminates in a tragic anniversary celebrationwhere the bonds of community are tested in the face of loss, guilt, and the haunting presence of a mythical figure, Glass Joe.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (S2 Episode 4: The Bridge) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:01 Speaker_01
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00:00:53 Speaker_00
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00:01:01 Speaker_10
Why are you smiling?

00:01:03 Speaker_00
Am I?

00:01:06 Speaker_10
Aren't you scared?

00:01:07 Speaker_08
I'm uncomfortable. Fear isn't useful.

00:01:11 Speaker_10
Oh, that's right. You're all about efficiency.

00:01:21 Speaker_08
Why would we listen to that tape? We both know what happens.

00:01:26 Speaker_10
It's a reminder of how things ended. of what you're protecting, of what he's capable of.

00:01:38 Speaker_08
I heard what he's capable of.

00:01:41 Speaker_10
You heard what he wanted you to hear. You saw what he showed you.

00:01:46 Speaker_08
Funny. He said the same thing about you.

00:01:49 Speaker_10
Then I guess it's his word against mine.

00:01:54 Speaker_08
Below on my left, we are overlooking the sea and a turnoff to what looks like a huge cement dock.

00:02:00 Speaker_07
In 50 meters, you will have reached your destination.

00:02:05 Speaker_08
No boats more there now. So this place, The Dick, Don Quixote, whatever. It's a red and yellow building. There's a picture of a guy with a ridiculous mustache in armor and a sombrero holding a bowl. No, that's a taco on a little plate.

00:02:31 Speaker_08
10 cars in the parking lot. Some of those are probably staff. OK, here we go.

00:02:44 Speaker_06
Hola! Bienvenido to Don Quixote's, the original home of hapas. That's happy tapas. For dinner?

00:02:51 Speaker_07
Drinks. I'll take that booth in the back. Oh, unfortunately, all the booths are reserved for diners. But Pepe at the bar will- What if I order an appetizer?

00:03:02 Speaker_06
Well, if you order a hapas, you're dining with us, silly. I'll take that booth in the back. Perfect. Follow me.

00:03:14 Speaker_03
But they probably like rain. No, it's not the rain, Lily.

00:03:19 Speaker_06
There you go. Enjoy your meal and have a hapus evening.

00:03:22 Speaker_07
I wanted to eat a whale. No, it's OK.

00:03:27 Speaker_08
Oh, hapus. The place isn't big, maybe 25 tables. Family at the window in whale-watching gear. Three couples. One drunk guy at the bar.

00:03:39 Speaker_09
Bienvenido to Don Quixote's, the original home of hapas. Happy tapas. I'm Manchego. I'll be your server. Can I get a drink started for you?

00:03:49 Speaker_08
Manchego?

00:03:50 Speaker_09
Yeah, we pick Spanish work names. I like cheese, so they let you switch it up when I started. I was caballo. That means horse. Agua?

00:04:00 Speaker_08
Can I ask how long this place has been open?

00:04:03 Speaker_09
Oh, like a long time, like over 10 years. It's a bit of an institution. Ownership changed hands a few times.

00:04:09 Speaker_08
Do you- You work much over the last week?

00:04:12 Speaker_09
Um, I don't know, I guess. Doubles, you know, end of the season.

00:04:17 Speaker_08
Do you know what you- Seen anything out of the ordinary?

00:04:20 Speaker_09
Someone left a full diaper on a table. And I mean full. Like that?

00:04:26 Speaker_08
No. Is there a private dining room?

00:04:30 Speaker_09
Oh, do you want to book a birthday party?

00:04:32 Speaker_08
No, I'm just meeting friends and wondering if they might be in a different room, maybe.

00:04:37 Speaker_09
Sorry, just the kitchen, bathroom, and office. Is this, like, a test? No. Do you want me to get Jose? No. Okay, well, ma'am, I recommend the ham. It's not a barraco, but it is... I'll just have a soda water and...

00:04:56 Speaker_08
You dealer's choice.

00:04:57 Speaker_09
I like the pulpo picante griglia. It's grilled spicy octopus. Okay. It's not calamari. I just have to explain because some people... I know what it is and I'll have that. Cool.

00:05:14 Speaker_08
Bartender put a plate of food in front of an empty bar stool at the bar. Someone was sitting there before I came in. Heading to bathrooms just to make sure. Bathroom?

00:05:28 Speaker_06
Oh, just down the stairs. Watch your head!

00:05:36 Speaker_08
Long-ish hallway. Three doors near the end.

00:05:45 Speaker_06
That toilet's not flushing, honey. I'd use the men's. Thanks.

00:05:53 Speaker_08
Women's is clear. Office... locked. Men's... Whoa!

00:06:05 Speaker_00
What are you doing, young lady? Shit.

00:06:07 Speaker_08
I'm sorry. The door was... This is vital listening?

00:06:14 Speaker_10
I just think that part's funny. Bet you had the gun out and everything. Poor old bastard.

00:06:24 Speaker_08
Okay, so if he's here, he's in the kitchen or that office, and I have to find a way to get into the door.

00:06:30 Speaker_02
Soda water?

00:06:31 Speaker_08
Yeah, thanks.

00:06:32 Speaker_02
I had a friend who always ordered clear drinks because real hypno turns them blue. Did you know that? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stop. Struggling. Read. Breathe. You're making a mess. Calm down. People will say we're in love.

00:06:56 Speaker_08
Let go of my wrist. I said let go of me. Now.

00:07:02 Speaker_02
Listen. I'm sure you're very qualified. You must be good because you found me. But I don't think you're interested in making a scene yet.

00:07:16 Speaker_08
You're smaller than I thought you'd be. And there's this.

00:07:21 Speaker_02
Ooh. Sounds like things just got interesting under the table.

00:07:26 Speaker_08
That's 15 rounds pointed directly between your legs.

00:07:30 Speaker_02
You're not gonna shoot me?

00:07:32 Speaker_08
No. I'm going to kill you.

00:07:34 Speaker_02
Not in front of 13 witnesses, you're not. I'm not even armed.

00:07:39 Speaker_08
You're going to get up and walk me to my car.

00:07:43 Speaker_02
I don't think so.

00:07:46 Speaker_09
Everything okay over here, Jose?

00:07:48 Speaker_02
Yeah, thanks, Pinchego. We just had a bit of a spill. We're good.

00:07:52 Speaker_09
Okay. I'll be right back with that pulpo.

00:07:55 Speaker_02
Go ahead and cancel that pulpo. We're just going to head to the office for a chat.

00:07:58 Speaker_09
Sure.

00:08:02 Speaker_08
I'm not going anywhere with you.

00:08:04 Speaker_02
I think I've proven I'm more than civilized. And I just find it hard to think over a mariachi hit compilation for four compilations. Can you believe that?

00:08:15 Speaker_08
You abducted Leah Haddock. You've killed over a hundred people. You started a fire that destroyed... I didn't start the fire.

00:08:25 Speaker_02
Those people are not dead because of me.

00:08:27 Speaker_08
I don't believe you.

00:08:28 Speaker_02
Who sent you? My old pal? I Dream of Jeannie?

00:08:32 Speaker_08
What if I told you I was sent by Emil?

00:08:38 Speaker_02
Well... Then I'd know you're lying. He doesn't want this to go away. That's why he hasn't shown up. He probably won't come at all. He doesn't care about Leah. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. Listen, I'll tell you where Leah is.

00:08:57 Speaker_02
And afterwards, if you still want to, I'll let you take the first shot. I'm a fair guy.

00:09:05 Speaker_08
It's funny. I heard you were a monster.

00:09:09 Speaker_02
Well, monsters are funny. Come on. Let's talk somewhere more private.

00:09:22 Speaker_04
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00:09:49 Speaker_04
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00:09:53 Speaker_03
Hi there, I'm Tracy Lien, and I wrote some of the episodes of Limetown that you're listening to. I also recently wrote the novel All That's Left Unsaid, published by HarperCollins.

00:10:05 Speaker_03
All That's Left Unsaid is a murder mystery set in a Vietnamese community in Australia.

00:10:10 Speaker_03
The story follows a journalist as she tracks down the witnesses to her brother's grisly murder to find out what happened and why they each claim to have seen nothing. With each chapter, you'll get closer and closer to learning the truth.

00:10:24 Speaker_03
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00:10:34 Speaker_03
You can buy it now in the US from all booksellers, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon, in the UK from Waterstones, and in Australia from Booktopia, QBD and Dimex. That's all that's left unsaid. Thank you for listening.

00:10:55 Speaker_02
Hey, did you hear about that restaurant on the moon? Great service. No atmosphere. Sorry, it's such a mess. Want a drink?

00:11:24 Speaker_08
No. You're different than I thought you'd be.

00:11:28 Speaker_02
Well, I got a haircut. Actually, I got them all cut. That's a joke. I've lost some weight.

00:11:36 Speaker_08
Rough few months?

00:11:37 Speaker_02
Rough ten years. Maybe you thought I'd be more... unhinged.

00:11:44 Speaker_08
Something like that.

00:11:45 Speaker_02
Well, we build things up in our minds. The thing we imagine is always scarier than reality.

00:11:55 Speaker_08
Sometimes.

00:11:56 Speaker_02
Always. That's the problem. Last chance.

00:12:03 Speaker_08
I don't drink.

00:12:03 Speaker_02
Good for you.

00:12:07 Speaker_08
Where's Leah Haddock?

00:12:10 Speaker_02
Doesn't matter where she is. She's not the one you want.

00:12:14 Speaker_08
You think I want Glass Joe. Is this like a scotch thing? Glass Joe is the alcoholic version of you. One too many and you turn into Glass Joe.

00:12:27 Speaker_02
Did you know I was a fighter? Professionally.

00:12:30 Speaker_08
I heard you boxed.

00:12:31 Speaker_02
Yep. Cruiserweight. Then heavyweight. Went to school on a boxing scholarship. Did a couple years right out of college.

00:12:39 Speaker_08
I bet you were good.

00:12:41 Speaker_02
Everyone's good until you go down. But yeah, I was good. Fast. Wicked right hook. Ever boxed?

00:12:51 Speaker_08
Once or twice. A long time ago.

00:12:53 Speaker_02
Oh yeah?

00:12:54 Speaker_08
Junior flyweight.

00:12:55 Speaker_02
Huh. Then you know it's not only about how hard you can hit the other guy. Sometimes it's about how much punishment you can take. Sooner or later, you're gonna get hit. And it's gonna fucking hurt.

00:13:10 Speaker_02
When I went pro, I really found out what it was like to take a punch. Hey, what do you call a boxer that gets beat up? A sore loser.

00:13:20 Speaker_08
Ha, ha.

00:13:25 Speaker_02
Turned out I had a weak chin. You know what they call that in boxing?

00:13:31 Speaker_08
A glass jaw.

00:13:32 Speaker_02
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. A glass jaw. Years later, when I had switched over to security, the kids found an old VHS of some particularly glass-jawed fights of mine. Tyler was only four. Maisie was seven. She asked Deja, uh, Khadijah. That was my wife.

00:13:52 Speaker_02
She asked her to put it on, and the kids had questions. Boy, did they have questions. Glass Joe is just an impossible concept to explain to a four-year-old, you know?

00:14:05 Speaker_02
So he got it in his head that the reason I was getting hurt was a bad guy named Glass Joe. So Glass Joe became something of a fixture in our house. But Glass Joe was just a ghost story. I guess until Deja died.

00:14:24 Speaker_08
Car accident, right? One too many for poor old Deja? You drove her to drink, then she drank and drove?

00:14:35 Speaker_02
It wasn't... quick. Our car caught fire. And they couldn't get her out.

00:14:45 Speaker_08
The kids knew?

00:14:46 Speaker_02
I told them what happened. I told them the truth. That's what she would have done.

00:14:54 Speaker_08
You told them she died in a car fire?

00:14:58 Speaker_02
Sugar coating just gives you cavities. She used to say that. Tyler was only six. He got terrible nightmares. He'd wake up screaming that Glass Joe was lighting Mommy's car on fire. And he was going to burn down our house next.

00:15:18 Speaker_02
He had nightmares like that his whole life. Limetown was a year later.

00:15:28 Speaker_08
You told Lenore you'd look after the survivors.

00:15:31 Speaker_02
Of course. I couldn't stomach the idea of that many people dying for no reason.

00:15:37 Speaker_08
But you can stomach what you do now.

00:15:39 Speaker_02
How do you stomach what you do?

00:15:42 Speaker_08
You have no idea what I do.

00:15:43 Speaker_02
Oh, I bet it's not that different. You get paid to make problems go away. So do I. At the time, my job was to secure the assets. Starting with Emil, to look after him. Get him to the bridge when it was set up.

00:16:07 Speaker_02
Getting him out of Limetown was like a war movie. Smoke everywhere, people screaming. We went right past where he, uh, Oscar's totem was. I swear he would have watched Oscar burn till he was ash if I hadn't practically carried him to the van.

00:16:25 Speaker_02
He just looked out the window as we drove away, like a little kid. We had barely met before. I said, Emile, I'm Daniel, and no one's gonna hurt you as long as you're with me. It was a long silence, and he finally said, what is happening?

00:16:45 Speaker_02
Nobody had fucking told him anything.

00:16:47 Speaker_08
And you told him the truth?

00:16:49 Speaker_02
I thought he deserved to know. He kept saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But he wasn't really talking to me.

00:16:57 Speaker_08
Who do you think he was talking to?

00:16:59 Speaker_02
I don't know.

00:17:01 Speaker_08
Where did you go?

00:17:01 Speaker_02
A flea bag motel in the middle of fucking nowhere for three weeks. Kids were at my mother's. They had no idea what had happened.

00:17:10 Speaker_08
How did Emil take it?

00:17:12 Speaker_02
He was in shock. He stayed in the room, blinds closed, never stepped a foot outside. I told him not to leave, and he said, where would I go? Broke my heart. So we watched sports. We listened to Sincerely Sandra. We drank scotch. All in silence.

00:17:34 Speaker_02
Like a sad guy's road trip where nobody talked. Then one day, I went to grab us dinner, and came back and he had locked himself in the bathroom. I banged on the door, and I finally had it teared off the hinges.

00:17:48 Speaker_02
And there was Emil, just sitting in a full tub of water, still in all his clothes, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, staring at a razor blade. He'd balanced perfectly on the faucet. I had no idea what to do. I wasn't equipped for that. I was a field guy.

00:18:08 Speaker_02
So I just sat down, back against the tub, and started talking. I told them all about Deja, about my kids, about stupid glass Joe, about how my kids love dumb puns. And then I... I don't know why, I just started telling jokes. One right after another.

00:18:26 Speaker_02
Every bad joke I can think of. There was a great one about an elephant. What do you call an elephant that doesn't matter? I didn't say it out loud. And then there's a sound, like a gurgling, a choking. He's laughing.

00:18:43 Speaker_02
He finally catches his breath, long enough to say, an irrelevant. And then he's laughing his head off. That opened the floodgates. And now he's opening up about everything.

00:18:58 Speaker_02
This woman, Allison, who ended up marrying his brother and their kid, Leah, this kid he loved. We must've sat there for three hours. I should've just let him do it. But I know now he never would've. Not actually. That was all for show.

00:19:21 Speaker_02
So I'd fucking pity him.

00:19:24 Speaker_08
Tell me what happened when you went to the bridge.

00:19:27 Speaker_02
I got a better idea.

00:19:31 Speaker_08
Slowly.

00:19:33 Speaker_02
It's not far from here, where it ended up. We can walk. You mind getting a little wet? We were still at the motel when we got the call that they were set up.

00:19:57 Speaker_02
When we all boarded the first day, there were balloons, and you'd think it was the Titanic setting sail. By the time my kids joined us, Emil had heard so much about them, he said he felt like he knew them already.

00:20:10 Speaker_02
He said they could call him Emil, so they started calling him Happy Emil, like McDonald's.

00:20:16 Speaker_08
Did the kids like being on the bridge?

00:20:18 Speaker_02
At first. We had a big apartment. There were only 30 people or so on the boat. The kids had their own rooms, which they've never had. But after the initial cool of the boat wore off, they realized they still had to go to school.

00:20:33 Speaker_02
It was just them, and a bunch of lame adult scientists, and just five other kids. None their age. Candace was 11. Madia was 5. Sonny was 3. Val was only 2. And Richie... Richie was 13. Richie, Macy, and Candace. That was the crew.

00:20:54 Speaker_02
Until Macy insisted they include Tyler. Even though he was younger, she was a good big sister. They'd hang out in their fort, what Richie started calling the boob room. This was the unused lactation room.

00:21:10 Speaker_02
And since there were no nursing mothers on the bridge, we, the parents, we just kind of let them have it. Before the contact, my kids still spent most of their extracurricular time with me.

00:21:25 Speaker_08
And Emil?

00:21:26 Speaker_02
Yeah, and not just because I was his bodyguard, which Macy joked was just a fancy way of saying babysitter, but because they really liked him. I liked him. He was funny.

00:21:37 Speaker_02
He'd come to our place, and we'd make dinner and watch TV, and we'd have these really grown-up conversations with the kids about everything. The news, the world, big stuff, hard stuff, no sugarcoating. Deja would have liked him, too.

00:21:52 Speaker_02
And Emile was just so taken with their brains, with their questions. Once Tyler asked him if his wife and kids were coming too. He said he didn't have a wife. And Macy said, to me, maybe he has a husband. Emile smiled and said, no husband either.

00:22:10 Speaker_02
No kids, no family. So Tyler told him he could be in our family. Emile almost cried. That night, Emile stayed over on the couch, as he often did, and I went in to kiss the kids goodnight. I came back out, and he was on the couch.

00:22:31 Speaker_02
I'll never forget the look on Emile's face in that moment.

00:22:36 Speaker_08
Gratitude?

00:22:38 Speaker_02
Jealousy. Like he felt left out of that part of the evening. But that passed. He said he was just... sad. He told me he didn't want to talk about Alice and Jacob. Leah. He couldn't talk about them without thinking about Limetown.

00:22:58 Speaker_02
About the families in Limetown. He still felt so guilty. I mean, of course he did. You can't fix it, I said. But you can learn from what happened. You can be active in the development of whatever this new version is. This thing, it stems from your mind.

00:23:20 Speaker_02
You can take agency over it and make sure that... that that can't ever happen again.

00:23:29 Speaker_08
Did that help?

00:23:30 Speaker_02
I guess so. Because after that, he really doubled down on trying to help create something that would have a positive effect on the world. He was way more active in tech trials, and generally seemed happier. And then, there was the breakthrough.

00:23:46 Speaker_02
And suddenly, it was a functional piece of wearable tech.

00:23:52 Speaker_08
And they made everyone get it.

00:23:54 Speaker_02
No. He made everyone get it.

00:23:58 Speaker_08
Who?

00:24:00 Speaker_02
Emil. Hold on, we need to wait for the light. This corner is kind of blind.

00:24:06 Speaker_08
You said Emil made everyone use the tech?

00:24:08 Speaker_02
Yeah. It was his suggestion. Well, at first it was a suggestion. Then it was a condition.

00:24:17 Speaker_08
A condition of what?

00:24:18 Speaker_02
Of him. Cooperating. Continuing to cooperate. the lead researcher, Richie's dad, he said that didn't make any sense. Budget-wise, trial-wise, but Emil wouldn't stand for it.

00:24:33 Speaker_02
And now, thanks to me, he was ready to throw his weight around to avoid what happened last time, he said. Okay. But not the children. Especially the children, he said. So we all got the contact. And that's when things changed. Oh, we can go.

00:24:54 Speaker_08
The contact changed people?

00:24:55 Speaker_02
No, no, no, no. It just amplified what was already there.

00:25:01 Speaker_08
But for the kids... It messed with their speech, right?

00:25:07 Speaker_02
It messed with a lot of things. Now, at the beginning, before the major updates, it was a barrage of thoughts, images, feelings.

00:25:15 Speaker_02
This was scary enough for an adult, but when you're a kid and you're just starting to put the world together in an intelligent way, it's a lot.

00:25:24 Speaker_02
I mean, before the filters, the kids got exposed to a lot of grown-up thoughts they didn't need to encounter, ever. You don't know how to censor your thoughts until someone says you should, then you learn.

00:25:36 Speaker_02
And the people on the bridge weren't exactly model citizens. Macy came home one day and she was really quiet. I asked her, what was wrong? And she said, she walked past Lyle. She felt something, a shiver, goosebumps.

00:25:51 Speaker_02
I told her not to go near him anymore. And then there were the questions. If someone, for instance, a curious kid wanted to know the answer to a question like, how are babies made? All they had to do was ask it. even if you didn't want to tell them.

00:26:11 Speaker_02
It's like when someone says, don't think of a polar bear, what's the first thing you think of? Then they started rolling out the updates, the walls, the filters you could use to specify who you were talking to.

00:26:25 Speaker_02
The channels, like private text threads, methods to block people.

00:26:30 Speaker_08
Visualize building a brick wall, brick by brick.

00:26:34 Speaker_02
You've been talking to someone.

00:26:36 Speaker_08
I talk to a lot of people.

00:26:38 Speaker_02
The tech got more developed. And soon, you can communicate with anyone who was on the bridge. The range was incredible. So you can imagine, someone sitting across from you, how clearly you'd see what they want you to see.

00:26:54 Speaker_08
What do you mean, what they wanted you to see?

00:26:56 Speaker_02
Well, the wall works both ways. If you can build a wall for someone to see, you can build anything, right? People don't always think the truth is what I'm saying. Especially when they're asleep.

00:27:11 Speaker_08
You're talking about dreams, nightmares.

00:27:14 Speaker_02
Dreams are powerful, right? They're how our minds express things outside of social requirements, wants, fears.

00:27:23 Speaker_08
What does that have to do with the contact? Wouldn't you just take it off when you went to sleep?

00:27:27 Speaker_02
Ah, you were supposed to. That's what they advised. But tell your kid it's bedtime and they can't read comics anymore, and what do they do? Stay up, reading under the covers with a flashlight. That's what they do with the contact. Only it was chatting.

00:27:45 Speaker_02
Like a very advanced tin can telephone system.

00:27:49 Speaker_08
You're saying the contact was fun?

00:27:51 Speaker_02
For the kids? Absolutely. It was a way to pass notes that no teacher could ever intercept. A way to share fantasies. I mean, not just a way of talking, but a mode of entertainment. Smells, sounds.

00:28:08 Speaker_02
Sometimes I'd come into the boob room and the five of them would just be laying down in a circle with their heads almost touching, playing make-believe in their minds.

00:28:21 Speaker_02
Once I asked them what they were doing, and Macy said, we're fighting a dragon in Spain. Adults were so focused on the practical application of the tech, we didn't even think of the fantastical uses.

00:28:37 Speaker_02
The kids, oh man, once they got the hang of it, it was amazing for them. So at its best, the tech could be like a virtual reality interactive television.

00:28:50 Speaker_08
And at its worst.

00:28:54 Speaker_02
Do you know what ethylene is? It's the chemical in apples that causes one rotting apple to rot the whole bunch. The ethylene came from Emil. It came from his own personal nightmare.

00:29:11 Speaker_08
Limetown. How do you know this?

00:29:15 Speaker_02
Tyler told me the next day. He said he had a dream, like a movie, almost a cartoon. It was a nice place, with a white picket fence, but there was blue smoke everywhere.

00:29:28 Speaker_02
Tyler said he could smell it, and people were screaming, and a man was on fire, but people weren't helping, and the man's face was melting. And Emil, or something that looked like Emil, was there too. just watching.

00:29:45 Speaker_02
And Tyler woke up and he came into the living room and Emile, real Emile, was sitting on the couch, head in his hands, just sobbing silently. And Tyler sat beside him and asked him what happened, what the images were,

00:30:03 Speaker_02
And because we had always told him the truth, Emil told him the truth. Most of it. There were a lot of people in the town, and they got angry at the man, and they burned him. Because he didn't do what they wanted.

00:30:19 Speaker_08
Jesus.

00:30:20 Speaker_02
Tyler asked whose fault it was, the fire, all those people dying, and Emil, that fucking coward, he didn't want Tyler to hate him. He couldn't stand the thought of kids hating him as much as he hated himself. So he said, he thought... Glass Joe.

00:30:37 Speaker_02
So now Tyler not only knew about Limetown, he thought Glass Joe was responsible for it. And burned people at the stake or in their cars or houses when they didn't do what he wanted. Macy started having nightmares too.

00:30:52 Speaker_02
A few of the parents mentioned Glass Joe as well.

00:30:55 Speaker_08
But the kids knew Glass Joe wasn't real.

00:30:57 Speaker_02
At first they did, sure. And the way the kids know that Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy isn't real. But you still get presents, right? You still get money under your pillow.

00:31:09 Speaker_02
So a tiny part of you, if you're seven, thinks, maybe, if you can't see something, you can't know that it's not there. D.J. had died in a car fire. Oscar Totem had burned at the stake. Those things were real.

00:31:29 Speaker_02
And the other kids added their own boogeymen to the mix.

00:31:32 Speaker_08
Boogeymen?

00:31:33 Speaker_02
Things they were scared of. Their anxiety, their fears, their frustration with being isolated on the bridge.

00:31:40 Speaker_02
They'd plug it all into the tribe chat, which ended up being like a breeding ground for exaggerated fears and ways to act out and blame it on Glass Joe.

00:31:51 Speaker_02
Once they had a name, a legend, it just got bounced back and forth in dreams in the boob room, getting passed through different incarnations through reality and make-believe, the nightmare factory that the tech had become until Glass Joe was like a campfire ghost story on acid.

00:32:11 Speaker_08
How do you know all this? They told you?

00:32:14 Speaker_02
I could get snippets of it when they were wearing the contact. But they were getting good at putting up brick walls, as you say, by the time all this really got into full swing. But I wasn't that worried. We, the adults, we thought of it as a game.

00:32:30 Speaker_02
Like Bloody Mary. We didn't think it could hurt anyone. Macy once asked me if something can burn in the water. I told her, yes, anything can burn. She started keeping a fire extinguisher in her room. We thought it was kid stuff.

00:32:57 Speaker_02
It's kind of beautiful here. You might almost forget what happened there.

00:33:08 Speaker_08
And what did happen here, Daniel?

00:33:13 Speaker_02
To celebrate our two-year anniversary of boarding the bridge, we had a big party. Or as big a party as you can have with 30 people. Cake, dancing, games, tons of booze. We took out our contacts. Went analog. I think more for nostalgia than anything else.

00:33:32 Speaker_02
It was novel, having to talk to each other. I remember looking over at Emil as he looked out over the sea of people that had become people who knew him, who he'd spent two years with, especially the kids. Me, we were his family. I felt what he felt.

00:33:55 Speaker_02
He was happy, drunk and happy. After I put the kids to bed, he and I had a nightcap that he didn't need back at my place. He passed out on the couch. I passed out in my bed. I thought the kids were asleep. They were. For a while, anyway.

00:34:17 Speaker_02
They had to be for it. Emil woke me up at 4.30 in the morning. In a panic. Still drunk, he said. They're gone. The kids are gone. I'm sorry. The drinking, I couldn't find them. I can't find them. I didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.

00:34:42 Speaker_02
I checked Macy's room. Tyler's, they were gone. So were their contacts. Everything happened quickly after that. I went out and screamed their names like a crazy person.

00:35:02 Speaker_02
A storm had rolled in while we were sleeping, so I could barely hear myself over the wind. I did that for five to ten minutes before I had the bright idea to put in my contact, to look for them that way. I ran back in and Emil was holding my contact.

00:35:21 Speaker_02
Tears streaming down his cheeks. There's nothing you can do, he said. Of course, he knew before me he didn't need the contact. I ripped it out of his hands, almost gouged my eyes out, putting it in. Reached out for Tyler and Macy, then I felt it too.

00:35:42 Speaker_02
The cold, the wet. They were reaching for me too. They were scared. They were trying to come back, but they were so tired. I ran upstairs and outside to the deck, Emil was right behind me. I could hear other voices screaming names.

00:36:05 Speaker_02
My dear, Richie, Sonny, Val, the kids were all gone, even the toddlers. I knew they were in the water, but it was pitch black. We couldn't see them, but everyone who put the tech in could feel them swimming. They thought the bridge was on fire.

00:36:28 Speaker_02
And Glass Joe told them to swim. And they were all Glass Joe. He told them to swim as far as they could, away from the boat, away from the shore. They were so tired. They couldn't... Macy was the last one to...

00:37:05 Speaker_02
To hear screams in your bones, to hear gasp, to feel breath being forced from your lungs. I'll hear those screams until the day I die. I flew with the parents, tried to get a boat to go look for them, but there was no point. It was too late.

00:37:29 Speaker_02
But I could see what had happened. Richie carried Sonny. Candace carried Val. They swam with them until they couldn't hold them. Until they couldn't take the weight anymore, and then they just... let go.

00:37:57 Speaker_08
I'm sorry.

00:37:59 Speaker_02
Why? You didn't make the check. You weren't responsible for Limetown. You didn't tell them to swim. Did you? It was Emil. It has always been Emil. His mess. And just like Limetown, he didn't even bother to stick around to say he was sorry.

00:38:30 Speaker_08
You took him out of Limetown.

00:38:33 Speaker_02
And it was a mistake. He should have stayed. He should have been burnt at the stake. He should have let us drown him. That would have been fair.

00:38:48 Speaker_08
That's not the same.

00:38:50 Speaker_02
Isn't it? As long as he's alive, there'll always be another Limetown. As long as people have that tech, they'll always be Glass Joe. Do you have any idea how hard it is to spend 10 years coming up with accidental ways for perfectly nice people to die?

00:39:25 Speaker_02
It's fucking awful. Charlie, There's no one coming for you. Emil, the great savior, he was never going to be here. This is a man who has destroyed hundreds of people's lives because he was fucking lonely.

00:39:50 Speaker_02
A man who wanted to find a way to make everyone like him. He's a selfish, jealous, cowardly piece of shit. And he's been living on borrowed time since that day in the motel. I'm just finishing a job.

00:40:15 Speaker_08
Daniel.

00:40:17 Speaker_02
You know, he called me one day, five years ago. He called me on the phone and left a fucking message, a fucking voicemail. Danny, please, please, Danny! Like he could fucking reason me out of it.

00:40:37 Speaker_08
Who started the fire on the bridge? Who killed all those people?

00:40:44 Speaker_02
Did you hear the one about the man who tried to keep a secret?

00:40:49 Speaker_08
Those people didn't have the tech. It was just... You could have just destroyed the contact.

00:40:57 Speaker_02
Oh, he did, yeah. He did destroy the contact. Joe did. Every last one. But those people, his friends, Emil's friends, they knew how to make it too. They could make it again, couldn't they? They had once before. He couldn't take the chance.

00:41:20 Speaker_02
Because something much worse would happen if the tech got released. So Joe locked them in a theater. and set the boat on fire. And Joe, he couldn't stop there, could he?

00:41:41 Speaker_02
Because the other people, the poor people he tried to save from Limetown, who didn't do anything but try and change the world, it was in their heads. He was in their heads.

00:41:57 Speaker_08
Where is Leah Haddock?

00:42:00 Speaker_02
You wanna hear another joke?

00:42:01 Speaker_08
No more jokes. You've got five seconds to tell me where she is.

00:42:09 Speaker_02
I had a dream I was a muffler last night.

00:42:12 Speaker_08
Five.

00:42:13 Speaker_02
I was exhausted.

00:42:14 Speaker_08
Four.

00:42:15 Speaker_02
You heard the one about the dad who forgot to put the cat out.

00:42:17 Speaker_08
Three.

00:42:17 Speaker_02
He didn't even know it was on fire. Two. What? Turn off the tape recorder. I don't want him to hear this part.

00:42:29 Speaker_08
Two.

00:42:32 Speaker_02
off the tape recorder, and I'll tell you where she is.

00:42:42 Speaker_08
Did you get what you needed? Closure? Or are you still trying?

00:42:46 Speaker_10
He convinced you he was justified.

00:42:48 Speaker_08
We had a conversation.

00:42:50 Speaker_10
He knew someone would listen to those tapes. He knew I'd listen to them.

00:42:53 Speaker_08
Turns out he was a pretty smart guy.

00:42:56 Speaker_10
He was Glass Joe. He was the monster. You're keeping a secret for a mass murder.

00:43:03 Speaker_08
I'm not keeping anything. Some people think I'm a mass murderer. I guess it just depends on your definition of mass.

00:43:09 Speaker_10
No one is justified in killing 158 innocent people.

00:43:14 Speaker_08
Innocent? Do you want to have an argument about ethics? About morality? You want to tell me you're the good guy now? How can you do this? Training. What should we listen to now? You know, there's one thing I've never gotten a chance to listen to.

00:43:29 Speaker_08
The voicemail. I bet you have the voicemail from Daniel's machine. I've never heard it. See, I'm trying to help. That might jog something, cause some synapses to fire, loosen a few bricks.

00:43:50 Speaker_10
You're a monster.

00:43:52 Speaker_08
I'm a professional. You think you're a hero because you called him on the phone and begged him to stop?

00:44:07 Speaker_10
I just want to save her.

00:44:09 Speaker_08
You're the one he wanted. Why wouldn't you go to him?

00:44:11 Speaker_10
I couldn't.

00:44:12 Speaker_08
You ran away from the bridge. You keep running away.

00:44:14 Speaker_10
He would have killed me.

00:44:15 Speaker_08
And then what? The great technological marvel that comes out of your brain would be lost to the world? That's what you're really concerned about, isn't it? Not your life. Not the lives of people around you. You didn't even try to save your niece.

00:44:34 Speaker_10
What do you think I'm doing right now?

00:44:37 Speaker_08
Wasting time using tapes and memories to try to fuck around in my brain. But you're not- WHERE IS SHE?! It's no use, Emil. I know how to protect myself. You can't find it. You won't find it. Brick by brick by brick, just like they taught the kids.

00:45:03 Speaker_08
We can be down here for months and months. Years. And you won't ever know the answer. She doesn't.