S2 Episode 5: Limetown (Finale) AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast Limetown

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Episode: S2 Episode 5: Limetown (Finale)

Author: Two-Up
Duration: 00:52:20

Episode Shownotes

+53 days 3 hrs since Lia Haddock’s abduction. Order the Limetown novel now at http://apple.co/limetownbook Thanks for listening.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summary

In the final episode of Season 2 of 'Limetown,' tension peaks as characters confront their traumatic pasts and the ongoing search for the truth behind the abduction of reporter Lia Haddock. Through intense dialogues, themes of identity, loss, and the unsettling nature of technology and truth are explored, leading to revelations about familial bonds, guilt, and the cyclic impact of community failures. As characters grapple with the haunting memories of Limetown, they uncover the futility of their pursuits while facing the painful reality of their connections, ultimately questioning the nature of storytelling and the unending quest for answers amidst uncertainty.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (S2 Episode 5: Limetown (Finale)) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
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00:00:53 Speaker_12
Take the blindfold off. Tell me where I am.

00:00:58 Speaker_03
It wasn't working, was it? Listening to those tapes, there were too many fragments, too many places your mind could hide. Now it's just me and you. I didn't want to do this, but I don't see any other way.

00:01:16 Speaker_12
Way to do what?

00:01:17 Speaker_03
Drown you. Don't worry. We're almost there. I'm gonna remove your blindfold now, Charlie. And when I do, I hope you'll stop fighting it.

00:01:42 Speaker_10
Emil, you're a fool. We've been here all this time.

00:01:49 Speaker_03
I didn't want to do this. I don't like doing this. We could stop all this right here. I can unlock those chains right now if you just tell me what I want to know.

00:02:02 Speaker_12
You want me to tell you where Leah Haddock is. And you thought this would help, bringing me here. To Limetown. Why?

00:02:11 Speaker_03
Because. This place means something to you, Charlie. Because you've been here before.

00:02:20 Speaker_12
Wait. How long have you known?

00:02:25 Speaker_03
Come on, there's some things I want to show you. Let's have a conversation. You can pretend there's a tape rolling if that helps.

00:02:49 Speaker_12
I don't know. I'm kind of tired of pretending.

00:02:52 Speaker_03
Ah, that you don't know where she is?

00:02:54 Speaker_12
No. That I don't know how this is going to end. But I'll play along. What do you want me to do?

00:03:01 Speaker_03
Just tell me what you see. Wherever we go. Wherever I take you. Okay? That's it? That's it.

00:03:15 Speaker_12
I see a house.

00:03:17 Speaker_03
More details. Focus. Pretend you haven't been here before. That you didn't come running looking for answers like the rest of them. Be thorough.

00:03:26 Speaker_12
The houses. They're small. Gabled roofs. White picket fences. They've got an attic window. Round, like an eye.

00:03:34 Speaker_03
That's it. Now we're getting somewhere. Good.

00:03:37 Speaker_12
Is this really necessary?

00:03:37 Speaker_03
It speeds things up. You're doing great. Hey.

00:03:40 Speaker_12
All the houses are the same. Identical. One after another, down the street.

00:03:47 Speaker_03
Alright, let's go inside, okay? I get that you don't want to, but let's do it anyway. Let's go see what the ghosts are up to. Do you hear that? You're breathing more quickly now.

00:04:14 Speaker_03
Your mind is trying to keep up, building walls even as this house tears them down. Just focus on what you see.

00:04:24 Speaker_12
It's dark inside, but not completely. The moon's coming through a window.

00:04:29 Speaker_03
Good. That's real good.

00:04:33 Speaker_12
The house is still furnished. A kitchen table, a couch in the living room, a cuckoo clock on the wall. You're looking out the window at the house next door. It has a window too, like a mirror.

00:04:46 Speaker_12
They could see each other, the residents, at any time if they wanted to. Why?

00:04:52 Speaker_03
So they wouldn't feel alone. What else do you see?

00:04:59 Speaker_12
There's nothing else. Have you figured it out?

00:05:04 Speaker_03
Why I brought you here?

00:05:07 Speaker_12
You're trying to break me. You think if I'm broken, I'll tell you where Leah is. I won't be able to hide it in my mind. It won't work, Emil. You should know that. What are you doing?

00:05:26 Speaker_03
You know that I never knew my parents. Not really. My dad, he left when I was little. My mother shortly after, my guardians took me in. They had a clock just like this one. I hated it. It's constant chirping, so loud, so obnoxious.

00:05:49 Speaker_03
Every hour it sounded was a reminder of how I was exactly where I didn't want to be. But I made sure they included the clock when I came here, because it's a part of me. All of this.

00:06:04 Speaker_03
Everything I've done in my life, the choices I've made, the people I've failed, it's all a part of who I am.

00:06:11 Speaker_12
You're sentimental. I get it.

00:06:13 Speaker_03
Hmm. I'm mindful. So are you, Charlie. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. I fixed it so the bird won't bother us. Just the music.

00:06:27 Speaker_12
Can we leave now?

00:06:29 Speaker_03
Yes, we can leave now. I'll lead the way. Try to resist your impulses. What impulses? To choke me to death from behind. You ever read Plato, Charlie?

00:06:55 Speaker_12
Never had the pleasure.

00:06:57 Speaker_03
Oscar was a big fan. He used to talk about the Republic all the time. what it would take to build a perfect city. Just the justice part he ignored, obviously. But he really enjoyed the idea of the different classes.

00:07:15 Speaker_03
Of each person having one job and doing that one job to its end.

00:07:20 Speaker_12
Their role to play.

00:07:22 Speaker_03
You recognize this, of course. I thought it was important to have a place like this. A town center. A place where everyone could come together. A reminder that we were all connected.

00:07:38 Speaker_12
That's the pole where Oscar Totem was burnt alive. Jesus, it's still black. They were all here because of you, and you got half of them killed. You knew it would happen. You must have known.

00:07:53 Speaker_03
There you go. Now I can feel it. And it's a good question. Why didn't I stop it? It's the right question. Have you ever failed someone, Charlie? I mean, really let someone down? Can you tell me about that time?

00:08:17 Speaker_12
No.

00:08:20 Speaker_03
That's OK. I can go first. Because I've let down everyone I've ever met, honestly. And believe me, I'm not looking for sympathy. I can hear in your mind that I won't get it. There's so much rage in you, and we'll get to that too.

00:08:41 Speaker_03
But let's start with what you want to know. Why did I let Oscar Totem burn? The answer is... because I wanted him to. There. Is that better? It's not far from the truth, either. The thing about Oscar is that he just couldn't help himself.

00:09:15 Speaker_03
Someone once told me that everything he touched ended in disaster, but I didn't want to believe her. I was lonely. I was desperate for a normal life. Can you understand that? Is that something you've ever been after?"

00:09:32 Speaker_03
And here he was, offering a real chance, a town that, with the tech, would be populated with people like me, my own private bubble. And the bubble burst. I heard it, of course, days before the panic. I could tell it was getting away from us.

00:09:54 Speaker_03
I went to Oscar's office, and I warned him. I told him about the divide between the haves and the have-nots, and that this experiment of his, we were missing the entire point of the town, of what I wanted it to be.

00:10:09 Speaker_12
What did he say to that?

00:10:11 Speaker_03
He didn't look up from his desk. He said, what would you have me do? He convinced himself everything was fine. People with power have a way of doing that.

00:10:23 Speaker_12
But it wasn't.

00:10:25 Speaker_03
The tech was never perfect. It's never been perfect. Two men in two rooms. One draws the same shape as another, and we call it a breakthrough. But if you smash through one wall, it doesn't mean there isn't another waiting for you on the other side.

00:10:40 Speaker_12
It missed something. The lies. In Leah's interview with Deirdre, she said the tech couldn't decipher when someone was lying.

00:10:47 Speaker_03
No, the tech couldn't. But I can. Oscar knew that when he promised to investigate my concerns, when he swore he would shut the town down before things got out of control, he knew I saw through them. His lies. You can't hide from me, Charlie.

00:11:11 Speaker_12
I'm not hiding anything.

00:11:18 Speaker_03
If you're not going to tell the truth, we'll have to continue our conversation. But I hope you know that I didn't want to talk about her. I spent all this time trying not to. You know that.

00:11:34 Speaker_12
What are you talking about? All you've done is ask me about her. Where's Leah? Where's Leah? It's pathetic.

00:11:40 Speaker_03
Not her. Your sister. Do you want to talk about her here, or do we need to go to the theater? Nothing. All right, fine, fine, that's fine. You can shut your mouth all you want, but you can't mute your mind.

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00:12:46 Speaker_01
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.

00:12:58 Speaker_01
All That's Left Unsaid is a murder mystery set in a Vietnamese community in Australia.

00:13:03 Speaker_01
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.

00:13:17 Speaker_01
Liane Moriarty, who wrote the number one bestseller Big Little Lies, calls All That's Left Unsaid an unforgettable debut, utterly compelling from start to finish.

00:13:27 Speaker_01
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.

00:13:54 Speaker_12
Hey, can you slow down? What would it take for you to believe me? A picture? A death certificate? What if I told you I got the whole thing on tape? Would that do it?

00:14:06 Speaker_03
I'd have to hear it.

00:14:07 Speaker_12
The tape? I don't have it with me. Unlock these chains and I'll tell you where it is.

00:14:14 Speaker_03
We're here. Give me a second to find the breaker.

00:14:39 Speaker_09
There.

00:14:41 Speaker_12
That's better. It's a little bright. Aren't you worried that someone will find you here?

00:14:48 Speaker_03
Who? Daniel is dead. The only one looking for me is you. And I heard you coming from miles away. Now, what do you know about this place?

00:14:59 Speaker_12
I know what you want me to say. So say it. This is where she hid during the panic.

00:15:06 Speaker_03
Who did?

00:15:07 Speaker_12
My sister.

00:15:10 Speaker_03
Cleo?

00:15:10 Speaker_12
Yes.

00:15:12 Speaker_03
Good. Tell me about her.

00:15:15 Speaker_12
There's nothing to tell.

00:15:16 Speaker_03
Of course there is. Let me get you started. She was your favorite person. You were twins. Every time you looked at her, you were looking into a mirror. But you also looked up to her, not in an envious way. She was always so smart, so quick, and so kind.

00:15:39 Speaker_03
Am I getting this right?

00:15:41 Speaker_12
No. She was more than that.

00:15:45 Speaker_03
Tell me, Charlie.

00:15:46 Speaker_12
You're wasting your time.

00:15:47 Speaker_03
I know, I know. But bear with me here. Have a seat. Not bad, huh? Front row. Oh, hold on a second. Let me get the curtains. There, that's better.

00:16:21 Speaker_12
What's that for?

00:16:22 Speaker_03
I'll show you in a minute. Now, about Cleo. I want you to start at the beginning. I'll fill in the rest. Or I can flip the breaker off and you can wait for the rats.

00:16:35 Speaker_12
Fine. When you're a twin, you get the same jokes over and over. Which one of you is older? Are you the evil one or are you the good one? Can you read each other's minds? All of it is annoying. But... The thing is, there's some truth to it.

00:16:54 Speaker_12
You said Cleo was an inspiration, and I guess that was true, but I also knew I would never be as good as her. It just wasn't in me. You know what that's like? We were 13. We were best friends. We were our only friends.

00:17:13 Speaker_12
Which sounds sad or lonely or whatever, but it wasn't. Our father, he was in the army, so we moved around a lot. Fort Belvoir, Fort Sill, Fort Bragg, Fort Carlisle. Every time we moved, we had to start over. New school, new classmates, it gets old.

00:17:34 Speaker_12
You get good at two things, making friends and leaving friends. By the time we hit our fourth school in five years, we figured what was the point of talking to new people, of pretending? Nothing in our world was permanent. It was just us.

00:17:52 Speaker_12
Well, and our dad. He went into the army because he had to go into the army. They dropped him in the desert, and he never left. Not really. Cleo noticed it first, the way our dad would sit out back under a tree.

00:18:13 Speaker_12
He'd do it for hours, just staring at nothing, until it got dark and one of us had to go outside and drag him in. There was no getting better. Sometimes I wonder if things would have been different if I was the one who found him. But it was Cleo.

00:18:34 Speaker_12
Cleo who left school early because she was feeling sick. They tried calling our dad to pick her up. The nurse drove her home when no one answered. He didn't even stick around to make sure she got in all right.

00:18:49 Speaker_12
She went out back and found him under his tree. His legs had stopped kicking. His eyes bulged out of his skull, still staring at nothing. I'm not psychic. I can't do what you do. But my sister and I, we had a bond.

00:19:14 Speaker_12
Call it some twin-link bullshit, whatever you like, but it was real. When she found our dad, I felt it, too. That throbbing wave of cold, like she was drowning. I can feel it now just talking about it. Can you? Can you feel what I want you to feel?

00:19:41 Speaker_03
Yes.

00:19:43 Speaker_12
I knew he was dead, but what really got to me was what my sister felt, how that moment changed her. You said she was my favorite, but she was his favorite too. And because she was a teenage girl, she blamed herself like we're taught to do.

00:20:05 Speaker_12
She'd say that she should have found a way to help him, cheered him up or something. The thing is, she tried. We both did. We just couldn't get through.

00:20:16 Speaker_03
There was nothing you could have done.

00:20:17 Speaker_12
I know that. Don't you think I know that?

00:20:20 Speaker_03
Of course.

00:20:21 Speaker_12
They dropped me into the desert, too. I never knew where my dad had been stationed over there. He never talked about it. But sometimes, at night, I'd wonder if I was walking in the same place he did.

00:20:34 Speaker_12
If I saw a footprint, I sunk my boot into it and asked myself, is this his? Am I following the same path to the same end?

00:20:41 Speaker_03
You still felt her, though. Cleo was a world away, but you knew how hard she was trying. Overachieving for the both of you.

00:20:50 Speaker_12
I kept going because I knew it worked both ways. If I acted like a sad sap, it would bring her down. She didn't deserve that. So I got good at pretending. Of convincing my mind that it felt differently. Have you met anyone who could do that?

00:21:04 Speaker_03
I've met people who've tried.

00:21:07 Speaker_12
Anyway, we survived. She did well for herself. She'd tell me about what she studied at the JUCO, where she started, then the State College, then the Ivy League. I never understood it, what she got into. But I felt it, how excited her studies made her.

00:21:27 Speaker_03
She studied biotechnology.

00:21:30 Speaker_12
Yeah.

00:21:31 Speaker_03
She was brilliant.

00:21:32 Speaker_12
Top of her class. Bunch of studies published. She would send them to me, but I never read them. It was like a foreign language. She could have done anything she wanted, is what I'm saying. Had any job. Lived anywhere. But she came here. Do you know why?

00:21:53 Speaker_12
Why she said yes when Oscar Totem came calling?

00:21:55 Speaker_03
Yes. Because of the guilt.

00:21:58 Speaker_12
That's right. She still felt guilty for what happened to our dad. She would never admit it, but her work was her redemption. It was her way of atoning for something that wasn't her fault to begin with. But Totem didn't care.

00:22:14 Speaker_12
He used her guilt because it was her weakness. That's what he did, and you helped him.

00:22:18 Speaker_03
I never knew her. I never spoke with her.

00:22:20 Speaker_12
Of course not. You were the man they were all here for. But who were you here for? No one but yourself. They built this whole town for you, in your image, and you just stood there while they burnt it to the ground.

00:22:32 Speaker_12
Same thing with the bridge, with those, those children.

00:22:35 Speaker_03
Good, that's good. You're getting there. Can we keep going?

00:22:41 Speaker_12
Why? I've told you I can't help you. Look inside me, tell me I'm lying.

00:22:46 Speaker_03
We'll get to that. But I'd like to hear the rest first, about Cleo. What happened to her?

00:22:53 Speaker_12
You know what happened. The panic happened.

00:22:55 Speaker_03
But she survived.

00:22:56 Speaker_12
Yes. She had the tech. But that only bought her time. She was doomed the second they put that chip in her brain.

00:23:03 Speaker_03
Tell me what happened to her.

00:23:04 Speaker_12
No. There's no point.

00:23:05 Speaker_03
Do you want me to?

00:23:06 Speaker_12
Fuck off.

00:23:07 Speaker_11
I want this to be over. This game. It's all just a game to you.

00:23:10 Speaker_03
Why don't we just take a break? I wanted to show you something anyway. Give me a minute. I'll be right back. Well, I did my best. Only the fourth and fifth reels were salvageable, so we're jumping in media res.

00:23:52 Speaker_12
What is this?

00:23:52 Speaker_03
Death on Mars. It's one of my favorites. I know every word, though I guess there isn't much dialogue.

00:23:58 Speaker_12
What's it about?

00:24:00 Speaker_03
What do you see?

00:24:03 Speaker_12
There's a man. He's alone. He's wearing a helmet, a spacesuit or something. The screen is entirely orange. He's wandering a desert, it looks like. There's nothing around him.

00:24:18 Speaker_03
They dropped him in too. Although, it's not a desert, it's Mars. Can't you tell? See that dot in the upper right corner? That's the Earth.

00:24:31 Speaker_03
The director said he wanted it in every shot of the movie to convey the distance, the loneliness the man is feeling. To show the home that he would never return to.

00:24:42 Speaker_12
Is this the entire movie? He just walks around crying into his space helmet?

00:24:46 Speaker_03
There's more, you'll see. In the meantime, can you finish your story? Can you tell me what happened to Cleo?

00:24:55 Speaker_12
She died, like the rest of them.

00:24:57 Speaker_03
Ow. I'm sorry to ask this.

00:25:00 Speaker_12
No, you're not. But sure, what's another tragedy? She escaped, okay? Or they let her go. However you want to put it.

00:25:09 Speaker_03
Where did she go?

00:25:10 Speaker_12
To me. Of course, to me. In retrospect, it was a dumb move. All the other survivors, they were smart to hide. But Cleo didn't care. I guess that was the first sign. Anyway, I had just gotten out of the army.

00:25:27 Speaker_03
You were discharged?

00:25:28 Speaker_12
Yes. Dishonorably. I was living in our dad's old house. Cleo never sold it. She said she wanted the reminder. She found me out back, sitting under that tree. She called my name and it surprised me.

00:25:43 Speaker_03
What did?

00:25:45 Speaker_12
That I hadn't felt her coming. Even when she was here in Limetown, even after the tech, I felt her. Her excitement, her dissatisfaction, her dread. I felt her up until what I guess was the day of the panic.

00:26:04 Speaker_12
She never talked about her time there, but something must have broken inside her that night, severed the connection. I don't get it. Where is he walking to?

00:26:14 Speaker_03
He's following a mirage. He's a prisoner. See, in the future, we send the worst criminals to Mars on suicidal exploratory missions. If they find something, they get to come home.

00:26:31 Speaker_12
But they never find anything.

00:26:33 Speaker_03
No. But he had a dream at the beginning of the movie that if he walked long enough, if he never gave up, he'd find a hidden ocean of water.

00:26:48 Speaker_12
Are we almost done here?

00:26:50 Speaker_03
Tell me where she is, Charlie. Tell me she's safe and everything stops.

00:26:55 Speaker_12
I can't.

00:26:56 Speaker_03
Why not?

00:26:57 Speaker_12
Because it's not true.

00:26:59 Speaker_03
Why do you resist? Oh, watch this. This is one of my favorite parts. Why don't you let me talk for a little bit? I'll finish my part if that's alright with you. Think of thoughts as waves. The mind as an ocean.

00:27:31 Speaker_03
There are depths the tech couldn't possibly reach. Waves. Thoughts hiding in the trenches deep down where the sun can't reach. Blacker than black. Do you understand what I'm saying? When Oscar was dying, when those children... No one felt it more than me.

00:27:57 Speaker_03
wave. It floods over me every moment I'm awake. It's with me right now. And I know it will never leave. Perhaps that can be some consolation. But as bad as I am in your mind, no one will ever loathe me as much as I do.

00:28:23 Speaker_05
Another ocean.

00:28:29 Speaker_12
What about Daniel? You're saying you felt his children's deaths more than he did.

00:28:34 Speaker_03
In that moment, yes.

00:28:36 Speaker_12
You're insane.

00:28:38 Speaker_03
Maybe. But you understand what I'm saying, don't you? Maybe it's the same way for you. Maybe what happened with her gave you a glimpse of what I'm talking about.

00:28:52 Speaker_12
We're still talking about her?

00:28:53 Speaker_03
We haven't finished the story yet. I want to hear the ending. I want to know what happened to Cleo.

00:28:58 Speaker_12
There is no end. The story doesn't matter.

00:29:00 Speaker_03
Oh, of course it matters.

00:29:02 Speaker_12
No, it doesn't. What Daniel did matters.

00:29:06 Speaker_03
How?

00:29:06 Speaker_12
Daniel stopped the tech.

00:29:08 Speaker_03
Did he?

00:29:09 Speaker_12
There's nothing left.

00:29:10 Speaker_11
I checked all the research, the contacts.

00:29:12 Speaker_03
What's interesting is that you know what you're saying is not true. But I understand why you're telling yourself that. See, if this is the end for you, you don't want to die in vain. You don't want to end up like your father, like Cleo.

00:29:29 Speaker_11
Fuck you! It doesn't matter what I want.

00:29:32 Speaker_03
You don't believe that either. Come on, there's so much anger in you. Rage at the prospect of failure, of the thought that I'm gonna walk out of here and you're not. See, the thing is, it's already out there, Charlie.

00:29:49 Speaker_12
What?

00:29:50 Speaker_03
The tech. The contact. You and Daniel, You didn't stop anything.

00:30:00 Speaker_12
What? What do you mean?

00:30:01 Speaker_03
It's okay, I felt the same way when I learned, but it's true. Before Daniel burnt the bridge, really, as soon as the contact was deemed successful, a company purchased the technology. I imagine they're readying it for release.

00:30:17 Speaker_03
Should be ready any day now.

00:30:19 Speaker_12
No.

00:30:19 Speaker_03
I know, it's terrible. It means all of this, all your hard work, all your hunting, Was it for nothing? There. The wall is coming down, isn't it? Brick by brick. You were just doing a job. You were always just doing a job.

00:30:40 Speaker_03
And when you weren't doing it for someone higher up, you were doing it for Cleo.

00:30:45 Speaker_12
No.

00:30:46 Speaker_03
Just tell me what happened to Cleo. In the end.

00:30:51 Speaker_12
She couldn't take it. I tried to help her. I took her to the VA. She pretended she was me, suffering from PTSD. The thing was, she was. She really was suffering. She would get angry for no reason. She wouldn't talk to anyone, not even me.

00:31:09 Speaker_12
They tried to help her, but the tech was still in her. She couldn't get past that. Her scar was a reminder. She was always touching it with her fingers.

00:31:19 Speaker_03
She wanted you to understand.

00:31:21 Speaker_12
But I couldn't.

00:31:22 Speaker_03
Why not?

00:31:23 Speaker_12
Our link was broken. Whatever you want to call it, whatever connected us since birth, it was gone. I saw it right away, the hole in her head behind her ear. Blood was still dripping out. The chip. She tried to carve it out. She stuck a knife in her skull.

00:31:45 Speaker_12
Luckily, she passed out before she dug too deep.

00:31:48 Speaker_03
What was she like after? What happened then?

00:31:52 Speaker_12
The day she got out of the hospital, I picked her up. We didn't talk about it. I just wanted to make her feel better. I wanted to re-sync. I asked her, where can we go that will make you happy? What is the one thing that will fix this?

00:32:11 Speaker_03
What did she say?

00:32:13 Speaker_12
She said the ocean. She said, screw all this, take me to the beach.

00:32:19 Speaker_03
And you took her?

00:32:21 Speaker_12
We didn't bring anything with us. We just sat there. It was early in the afternoon. There were a lot of people. We watched one kid bury his dad in the sand. Another little boy built a fort out of rocks he collected from the shore. It was peaceful.

00:32:41 Speaker_12
The sun sunk. We barely even noticed. I looked over at her and she was smiling. And I thought, why can't this be a start? To recovery or something like that.

00:32:52 Speaker_03
But then you looked again.

00:32:54 Speaker_12
I saw what she was looking at. At first I thought it was the ocean, the calming white noise. I should have known what she was thinking. I should have known the entire time.

00:33:10 Speaker_03
She waited until the families left.

00:33:12 Speaker_12
When they were all gone, she went over to the fort. She said, do you think he'll mind if we borrow some of these rocks? She was wearing a dress. She never wore dresses. It had these deep pockets in the sides. I didn't even notice them.

00:33:32 Speaker_12
Not until the first rock. I asked her what she was doing, and she just started laughing. She was laughing, but there were tears streaming down her face. Rock after rock, she stuffed them into her pockets. I said, what are you doing?

00:33:50 Speaker_12
She tilted her head at me with pity. She pointed at her scar. She tapped her temple and said, it's not the same here without you. I don't understand, I said. I knocked a rock out of her hand and begged her to stop. She picked the rock up.

00:34:13 Speaker_12
She said, I know you don't. That's why I have to do this. She started down the beach and I ran ahead of her. She tried to brush past me, but I held my hand out. I could feel the extra weight from the rocks.

00:34:32 Speaker_12
I tried to find the right thing to say, but when I looked at her, I didn't see the mirror anymore. I don't know what it was I saw, but it wasn't anything I could fix. I didn't understand her, but I understood that. that my mirror wasn't real anymore.

00:34:55 Speaker_12
It was an illusion. I moved to the side. I said, I understand. And she looked at me with a smile I didn't recognize. She said, thank you.

00:35:16 Speaker_11
But if you really understood, you would know I can't do this by myself. You would help me.

00:35:34 Speaker_12
I picked up a rock and I put it in her pocket. I said, whatever you want. She asked me to go back up the beach to find a few more rocks.

00:35:47 Speaker_03
You knew what she was really asking.

00:35:51 Speaker_12
To say goodbye. to let her go.

00:35:54 Speaker_03
I'm sorry, Charlie.

00:35:58 Speaker_11
No, you're not. You wanted this. You wanted me to drown, like her. That's what you said.

00:36:09 Speaker_03
Good. Good, that's really good. I think you're ready. Now tell me where Leah is, where she really is. That's all I need. You'll never see me again once I know Leah is safe. Charlie.

00:36:47 Speaker_11
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't think I can do this anymore.

00:36:51 Speaker_02
Why are you laughing?

00:36:52 Speaker_11
I'm trying not to. It's just you want me to be like her so badly. But I'm not. I'm not even close.

00:37:00 Speaker_02
Charlie.

00:37:01 Speaker_11
I don't need your help to do my job. It's already done. She's gone, Emil. You'll never find her. That's how the story of Limetown ends.

00:37:18 Speaker_03
Why do you do this? Why do you keep fighting me? You know what I've seen. I've told you what I've heard.

00:37:25 Speaker_12
You did. And? It's an illusion. See? He gets it.

00:37:35 Speaker_03
What's an illusion?

00:37:37 Speaker_12
What you wanted to hear. Everything. What kind of a name is Cleo, anyway?

00:37:43 Speaker_03
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Charlie, no. It's about a good name, it's Charlie. No, stop, stop, stop.

00:37:50 Speaker_12
I know... Wait, you keep saying that. You know who I am. You know what I've done and what I've seen.

00:37:58 Speaker_11
But the truth is, you don't know anything. And you know how I know? Because I made it all up.

00:38:03 Speaker_03
No.

00:38:04 Speaker_11
It's all a story.

00:38:04 Speaker_03
No. For your benefit. No. You couldn't have.

00:38:07 Speaker_11
Of course I could. Have you never stopped to ask yourself how you, a meal haddock, a civilian with no military training whatsoever, so easily caught me and locked me in that room all this time? Did it ever occur to you that I let you? No.

00:38:24 Speaker_11
You said it yourself. I'm good at building walls. But what I'm really good at are facades. You knock them down all you want, but there's nothing there. There's only what I make up.

00:38:33 Speaker_09
No. Yes, Emil. No.

00:38:35 Speaker_12
Yes. Yes. I know. I know it's difficult to accept the not knowing. Was she lying about everything? Was any of it the truth? Think about how the families of the Limetown citizens must have felt. Always wondering, were they dead? Were they alive?

00:38:54 Speaker_12
Now you get to experience that.

00:38:55 Speaker_03
No.

00:38:56 Speaker_12
If you ask me, that's a good thing. It's good to not know. The tech, the contact, it really doesn't bother me one way or the other if it gets out. I had a job to do and I did it. But I gotta say, the idea of the chip, of the contact, it sounds awful.

00:39:13 Speaker_12
Always knowing what the other person is thinking. Think of this as a gift. From me to you. Because you'll never know where Leah is. Whether she's alive or buried in the dirt. Maybe there's power in that. Maybe there's freedom. Stop. Stop what?

00:39:32 Speaker_12
You wanted to know, didn't you? So I guess you have a choice here of what to believe.

00:39:37 Speaker_12
Either I have a sister named Cleo, and all of this, all of my work tracking you down has been about revenge, or I'm just someone who is very good at her job, who crafted a sob story in her mind because she knew it was what you wanted to hear.

00:39:52 Speaker_03
You couldn't.

00:39:53 Speaker_12
Sure, I could. I'll even give you two more. How about that? To show you how easy it is. Just stop. Two possibilities about what happened to Leah Haddock. Of how this story ends. I'll let you pick which one to believe.

00:40:04 Speaker_03
Charlie, just stop.

00:40:06 Speaker_12
Just stop.

00:40:07 Speaker_03
This won't work.

00:40:08 Speaker_12
Sure it will. This will be fun. Story number one. Leah is alive. She's been alive this whole time. I found her after Daniel gave up her location. Leah was in Melbourne, Australia of all places. That's where he had her.

00:40:25 Speaker_12
In a holding cell in the basement of an old research facility. He said you would appreciate that. That that place meant something to you. She didn't put up a fight, not with a gun in her face.

00:40:35 Speaker_03
She's in Melbourne.

00:40:37 Speaker_12
She was. I took her. I sold her.

00:40:40 Speaker_03
You sold her? To who? IDS?

00:40:43 Speaker_12
They would have just hired someone else to kill her. Hired the same person to kill me.

00:40:48 Speaker_03
It can't be true. I don't hear... I can't see.

00:40:51 Speaker_12
Look closer. See me driving with her across the outback, hauling up in a shack in the middle of nowhere. See her in a room like the cell you're holding me. See me interrogating her, using more... urgent methods. See her breaking.

00:41:07 Speaker_12
See her begging and crying. Telling me she has no idea where you are. The best she could do was guess that you'd be here. That she met you here a long time ago when she didn't even know it was you.

00:41:17 Speaker_12
That you came back here all the time because it was a symbol to the closest you ever got to what you wanted.

00:41:22 Speaker_03
What did you do with her?

00:41:24 Speaker_12
I realized she was special. Not like you. Like her mother. See? You know I talk to Allison. You know I know about her family. The story ends when I realize her value. That I can sell her the way Totem tried to sell you. Only I'm smarter about it.

00:41:43 Speaker_12
More discreet. I find a third party. They give me a name that isn't their name. They are very interested in Leah. Leah's mother. What they can do. They promise they won't kill her, but they also promise that you will never see her again.

00:41:58 Speaker_03
Where is she now?

00:42:00 Speaker_12
In this story? I don't know. I told them I didn't want to know. But... Emile, she's far away by now. Every minute you've spent with me, she's been growing farther and farther away. In this story, I've been stalling this entire time.

00:42:20 Speaker_12
It has been 53 days and three hours since Leah had a subduction. That is 53 days to find her that you'll never get back. I've been pretending I didn't want to talk about Cleo when there never was a Cleo.

00:42:32 Speaker_12
I made you play the tapes because every tape bought me time. It's very believable, isn't it? The key is in the details, using them to sketch just enough of a truth. How did I do? Did I do a good job?

00:42:46 Speaker_03
What about the other story?

00:42:49 Speaker_12
Oh, you won't like that one.

00:42:51 Speaker_03
Tell me.

00:42:54 Speaker_12
She's dead. I killed her, Emil. Would you like to hear how? No, don't shake your head. Not yet. You still don't want to believe it, even though you know it could be true. That's right. Pays back and forth. Stand in front of the screen.

00:43:13 Speaker_12
Now there are two men alone on Mars.

00:43:15 Speaker_03
I would have heard it. I would have felt it.

00:43:17 Speaker_12
Would you? Could you hear her before? Could you hear her mother? You might want to sit down for this. It gets pretty gruesome. There was a struggle.

00:43:28 Speaker_03
No.

00:43:29 Speaker_12
I had to break a few things.

00:43:30 Speaker_03
No.

00:43:32 Speaker_12
I had to open her up a little bit. I started with those scars. You know, the ones on her head from when she tried to be like you. Do you want to know what her last words were? What she said to me just before I put a bullet in her brain.

00:43:48 Speaker_12
She called out your name, Emil. She said, tell my uncle, Apple says goodbye. Oh, look at you. Your red eyes, your fast breath. It's settling in, isn't it? The possibility.

00:44:05 Speaker_00
No!

00:44:19 Speaker_04
Tell me it's not true! Tell me you made it up! Get off me. Tell me! Tell me you made it up. Tell me. Your chains.

00:44:40 Speaker_12
How did you... I picked them while you were starting the movie. No. You tell me which story is true and which is a fiction. You don't know, do you? You'll never know. And it doesn't matter. Because they're just stories. Even the true ones.

00:45:12 Speaker_12
They can't fix anything.

00:45:14 Speaker_11
There are no stories that can fix the world.

00:45:20 Speaker_12
Once upon a time, you told yourself they could, that if you could change people's hearts, they'd do the right thing. That's why you led Leah to the survivors in the first place. But that's a myth.

00:45:31 Speaker_12
A story you've told yourself to gild all the pain and suffering you've caused. All the destruction. Storytellers do not matter, Emil. They spend their time in the past, while the rest of us, we fight in the present. We create the future.

00:45:53 Speaker_05
Is it an illusion?

00:46:00 Speaker_04
This isn't the end.

00:46:03 Speaker_12
For you it is. She's gone. There's nothing here for you.

00:46:09 Speaker_03
No. No. Charlie. Please.

00:46:23 Speaker_12
I told you when this started. I tried to tell you. I can't help you. Charlie. Please.

00:46:33 Speaker_05
An erosion. An erosion.

00:48:34 Speaker_13
Tell me about your dreams. Tell me everything you remember. Recipient?

00:48:47 Speaker_09
I dreamt you thought you won. That you thought you made Limetown a ghost story again. That the world moved on. But there will always be someone who remembers the story.

00:49:38 Speaker_07
Hey, I'm Ruth Lichtman, and I produced this season of Limetown and directed episode three, Halifax. Limetown is created and executive produced by Zach Akers and Skip Bronke.

00:49:49 Speaker_07
Our writers were Chris Littler on London, Dan Moyer on the Allison recording, Tracy Lien on Bordeaux and Halifax, Kat Sandler for The Bridge, and Cody Smith for Limetown.

00:49:59 Speaker_07
Chris Littler directed episodes one, two, four, and five, and was a senior writer for this season. Our editor is Allison Grasso. Sound design and mixing by Joel Robbie. Composing by Martin D. Fowler. Music supervising by Lorenzo Wolfe.

00:50:14 Speaker_07
Performances by Kate Eastman as Charlie, Henry Leyva as Emile, Martin Ewens as Eugene, Margo White as Allison Haddock, Ashley Noelle Jones as Sylvia, Gabrielle Reed as Maggie, Jodi Jones as Daniel, and Annie Sage Whitehurst as Leah Haddock.

00:50:31 Speaker_07
Limetown is distributed by Endeavor Audio, with casting by Eisenberg Beans Casting, studio recording at CDM Sound Studios, legal services provided by Chad Russo at Ramo Law, and agency services by Ben Davis at WME. Thanks for listening.