I Don't See You Anymore

"I Don't See You Anymore" is the fourth episode of the second season of Thursday Spin-Off, and the 16th episode overall. It was written by JustInCaseTheDingusRunsAway and first aired on March 28, 2024.
==Plot==
Liz and Bianca grow closer as tragedy falls upon them.
==Script==
[The episode begins with a daytime establishing shot of the Box Productions HQ. The intro to “” by plays amidst birds chirping and the swooshing of clouds, before it briefly stops as we hear a voice from inside the building.]
CrazySponge: You guys are… women, right?
[“Steal My Sunshine” starts in full force as we pan in a blur to a montage of Liz and Bianca, both wearing much more casual clothing than as is expected. Liz is in a wooly pink cardigan whilst Bianca, who is wearing a conspicuous eyepatch, has a yellow undershirt below blue denim overalls. They’re in a coffee shop preparing to order, with Liz’s hands firmly on a stroller. As Liz orders and brings the stroller closer to her, Bianca squats down and talks to the babies in the stroller. She opens the blanket, unveiling several pink giraffe babies.]
Bianca: Aw, goochie-goo!
[The giraffe babies babble. One of them bites Bianca’s index finger, but they barely have gums yet so it doesn’t hurt, just tickles. We fade into another scene where Bianca and Liz are in a photobooth with the three giraffe babies. Four flash photos are taken in succession - the first of Bianca and Liz cuddling the babies, the second of Liz kissing one of the babies in the forefront as Bianca blurrily chases the other two in the back, the third of Liz and Bianca hiding behind the chair in the booth and placing the babies on top of each other, and finally, we sustain the shot on the final photo: Liz, holding one of the babies, giving a blushing Bianca, who has two of the babies sitting in her overalls, a peck on the cheek. This pans out to the photos being processed outside of the booth as Bianca puts her hand over Liz’s shoulder… only for one of the giraffe babies to try and do the same, but with its neck, and accidentally swing into the booth. As they laugh and the song continues, we cut to a greyer shot of Bianca facing the mirror of her bathroom, peeling off the eyepatch and revealing a nasty purple bruise on her left eye. She runs the tap water and splashes the water in her eye before a door is heard creaking, and through the mirror we can see that it is one of the giraffe children, now a toddler, innocuously huddling into the room. Bianca, embarrassed, gasps and quickly covers her eye with her hand. She turns around, laughing, and shoos the toddler off, closing the door behind her, before sitting down, defeated, and placing her hand on the floor. She takes a deep sigh and the song stops. We cut to a similar establishing shot of the BP HQ, now fading into CrazySponge’s meeting room. It resembles , with Liz and Bianca being placed at one side of the table, opposite to CrazySponge… but the table is damn near as long as the room itself.]
CrazySponge: Listen, Liz… Bianca… we love what you do for the company.
Bianca: I… don’t work here…
CrazySponge: Okay, I love what you do for me, if you catch my drift.
[Liz and Bianca are wearing matching suits and deep black eye shadow.]
CrazySponge: [chuckles] Listen, guys, I know you love Rod, Todd and Zynko, but… [gulps; cracking knuckles] we have a little bit of a problem with the people who I… [clears throat] “sourced” John. from. 
Liz: His parents?
CrazySponge: No, no, the… the Giraffia. The Giraffe Mafia.
[Liz shulks in her chair.]
Liz: Of course you’re in cahoots with the Giraffe Mafia, of fucking course.
[Bianca comforts Liz, stroking her shoulder.]
CrazySponge: I’m afraid you’ll have to part with the boys… okay?
[A deafening silence falls upon the room.]
CrazySponge: I’m… in debt to them, alright.
Bianca: You have millions. Can’t you pay them off?
CrazySponge: Nothing I can give them is enough. I took their boy, and the only way I can repay them is to… [gulps] repay the deed. 
Bianca: Well… hey…
[Liz is starting to tear up.]
Bianca: This might be a good thing, right? I mean, it’s only best that the giraffes are taken care of by their own kind, right?
CrazySponge: Yeah, well… that’d be lovely, Bianca, but… I told them that they’d been taken care of by humans. I remember Mr. Neckie’s exact words: “They’re… [gulps] They’re impure. Must be taken care of.”
[Cut to a silent walk of doom in a deep pink cavern. Each step is a squelch onto blood-stained rock, accompanied with a shudder from all who have the discomfort of finding themselves in this Hellhole. Travelling almost militarily down the throat of evil are CrazySponge, who stands in front, in a suit clearly ragged and torn from use. Behind him are Liz and Bianca, draped in black funeral dresses. Bianca has her eyepatch back on, with Liz placing a matching eyepatch on her own right eye. Bianca and Liz are holding hands with one of the giraffe babies each, who have now been labelled with name and number. Bianca’s holding “ROD #0073”, Liz cares for “TODD #0074” and of course, John. is in the back carrying “ZYNKO #0074b”. Even John. sheds a tear. The seven continue walking as they trek closer to a burning red light, gradually slowing down to a dreadful crawl. CrazySponge makes eye contact with Mr. Neckie, a fat purple giraffe who stands from his throne, covered in robes.]
CrazySponge: I want you to know… [gulps] Sir, that any pain you feel about John…
[Brief cut to John., in a corner, crying and hiding as Zynko runs off to Bianca. We cut back to CrazySponge, stifling tears, and sweating intensely.]
CrazySponge: Any pain you feel… or I feel… is secondary to how he feels, and how my girls feel. And how their children… they won’t even understand what’s happening. Just… do it quickly, okay?
[CrazySponge looks down to see a boiling pot of lava, fenced off, between him and Mr. Neckie.]
Mr. Neckie: Oh, no worries, Mr. Sponge. We’ll be swift. And we thank you, truly… for sticking to your end of the deal.
[The instrumental to “” by starts to play, drowning out the horrific bubbling of lava, chuckled grunting from two of Mr. Neckie’s underlings, who rhythmically gather around the seven who dared enter the chamber. Bianca is holding Zynko and Rod tight whilst Liz can barely look at Todd. They’ve all grow into pre-teens - Zynko is wearing a -branded shirt and Todd is still imprinted with a badge that says “10 years old today!”. The underling on the left grabs Todd, but the one on the right struggles to take Rod and Zynko away from Bianca, in tears, forcing them away from him and kissing them. Eventually, CrazySponge saddles up onto John., who walks towards Bianca and nuzzles her. Bianca looks towards him and CrazySponge as the CEO gives her a knowing shake of the head. At this point of vulnerability, her babies are taken from her, and Liz follows CrazySponge, now on giraffe steed, up out of the cavern. Liz gestures towards Bianca to leave with them, but she’s unconsolable. She stares intently at the ritual as her screams are either not heard or simply in one ear out the other for Mr. Neckie’s underlings, who unlock the fence. Three of his underlings gather round the sphere and rhythmically move in and away from the boiling furnace. Eventually, Mr. Neckie nods and the children are flailing painfully and looking towards their carers, seeing everyone but Bianca leave them. The underlings let go and are subsumed by the chamber.]
Bianca: NO! NO! My… 
[Bianca runs towards the chamber but is blocked by an underling. She defeatedly kneels down to the burning floor.]
Bianca: My babies…
[As she sees her children’s skin grind against the swarthing temperatures of the lava bath, her eyepatch, just clinging on with sweat, falls off due to the heat. She has unfocused visions of the future that play out on screen, whilst the vocals from “The Background” come in.]
: [offscreen; singing] The plans I make still have you in them…
[We see a wedding scene, where Bianca - no longer wearing an eyepatch and with no bruise, but dressed in a dove-white dress - standing on an altar against a suited Liz. They look behind them and see the three giraffe boys in the front row, all grown up wearing suits, smiling and clapping for their mothers.]
Stephan Jenkins: ‘Cause you come swimming into view…
[We see a slightly younger Zynko playing the guitar for his parents, before it flashes to Rod bringing a girl home for the first time, then Todd playing table tennis with Paige.]
Stephan Jenkins: And I’m hangin’ on your words like I always used to do…
[We see the three giraffe boys graduating college, all getting on stage together. They mouth “Thank you, Moms!” as we cut to Liz and Bianca in the audience. Liz is holding tissues for her weeping partner… and then it zooms out to reveal CrazySponge is there, also crying his eyes out.]
Stephan Jenkins: The words they use so lightly I only feel for you…
[We then see the giraffes, grown up, caring for a now elderly John. at the hospital. At John.’s bedside is a framed photo. Zynko turns it around.]
Stephan Jenkins: I only know because I carry you around…
[The photo is the last photo of Liz and Bianca with the giraffe babies that was taken at the beginning of the episode.] 
Stephan Jenkins: In the background…
[The music stops and we slowly fade out of the long shot of the framed photo, into a close-up of Bianca.]
Bianca: …H-happy birthday, boys.
[The episode cuts to black and ends.]
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Category:Thursday Spin-Off
Category:Episodes written by JustInCaseTheDingusRunsAway
Category:2024 Episodes
Category:CrazySponge
Category:Dark Comedy
Category:Dramedy
Category:LGBTQ+
Category:Coming-of-Age
Category:Pets
Category:Userfic