Tom

**Tom** is a former philosophy professor at the University of Southern California who became trapped in the Town. He has adjusted to life in Town, establishing a Bar and distillery in the old gas station.

## Biography

### Season One

As night falls, Tom tries to wake up Frank Pratt, who is passed out drunk on the floor of the Bar. After failing to rouse him, Tom decides to leave Frank where he is, remarking that Lauren is going to kill him.

Several days later, Jade enters the Bar and is amazed by it. Tom explains that he built it because he figured people need it. He asks Jade if he is okay, and he answers no and asks Tom if he is. Tom answers that he is great and pours Jade a glass of moonshine, saying it will help him feel better. Jade asks everyone how they are all just sitting there, and spits out his drink when he first tries it. Tom recalls that Jade was from one of the two cars and that he lost his friend, and tells him it gets easier. Jade replies that they’re all like rats in a maze, sitting content eating cheese. Jade continues to say the immediate problem is figuring out how to get home, but they don’t even know where they are. He likens it to throwing darts blind, and begins throwing darts around and shouting until Tom tells him to sit down and sits with him. Jade declares that he will be the one to figure out how to escape. He explains that he just sold a company for an obscene amount of money based on his algorithm, wistfully adding that he should be out celebrating. Jade then returns to the subject of escaping and says they need to understand their paradox and frame it to solve it. Tom compares there to Schrodinger’s Cat, with the people trapped in Town being the cat, and to the people they have at home they are both alive and dead. Tom then explains that he taught Intro to Philosophy at USC. He admits he knows nothing about computers, but if Jade is so smart, he should figure out how to get his radio to broadcast, glibly remarking that if the cat turns on a radio, people will at least know it’s still alive.

Later in the day, Tom eats at the Diner when Nathan rushes in, looking for his sister, and Tom tells him that he saw her heading towards the Barn with Tabitha and Ethan Matthews.

After the Colony House attack, Boyd returns to town and finds Tom and Eli at the head of a crowd arguing with Tian-Chen, who is barring them from entering the Diner. Tom explains that the Colony House people are using up their supplies, and if he has to choose between himself or the Colony House people raiding the Diner, he’s choosing himself. Boyd says that no one is raiding anything, but Eli points out that the Creatures weren’t supposed to get into Colony House either. Boyd chastises them for acting like animals, and promises that they will figure it all out, telling them to go home in the meantime. The crowd disperses, grumbling as they do.

Shortly after, Donna goes to to Tom's Bar for a drink, grieving Eric's suicide. Tom asks Donna how progress on the radio tower is going. Tom remarks that this is the first time Donna has set foot in the Bar, and Donna tells him that it’s because he is bad at distilling, but she needs to be alone. Kenny then arrives, and asks Tom to leave them alone, which Tom does.

Tom leads Tabitha to a toolshed, where she looks for something to break into the rock under the basement floor. As he leaves, she asks him why he isn’t working on the radio tower, and if he thinks it will not work. Tom explains that he has seen many people with clever ideas about how to escape, and they all end up at his Bar. Tabitha then digs through the shed and finds a pickax.

### Season Two

While everyone observes the Radio Tower at Colony House, Tom remains in Town, where he is shocked to see a large passenger bus drive up the main street. Julie and Ellis arrive in Town, with Tom meeting them. While Julie runs to her house, Ellis and Tom approach the bus passengers and tell them that more people will be down to help them and unlock the Diner. Bakta replies that they aren’t making a pit stop, and she simply needs a mop. Julie rushes down to the basement and finds her father standing over the filled-in hole and asks what happened. Julie then asks where her mother is and begins to panic, and Jim tells her to get as many people as possible to help. As she stares at the hole, Jim hugs his daughter and tells her she needs to be strong, and that her mother needs her. Julie leaves and tells Ellis that her mother is trapped in the basement. With Ellis’s arm broken, Tom asks for volunteers to help get Tabitha out. Brick and Randall volunteer, but Bakta says that they need to stay with the bus and that emergency services will handle it, prompting Randall to sarcastically call her a peach. Ellis stops Julie from following Tom into the her house, explaining that they can’t focus on her mother if they’re worried about her.

Tom arrives at the Matthews' with Randall and Brick in tow, and Jim explains to Tom that she had been digging to see where the wires went. Tom asks if she was digging in the basement, what caused the main floor to collapse. Jim asks for them just to help, and Randall assures him that they will get his wife out. As they begin removing debris, the floor above them begins to shake. After they succeed in moving some debris, the Matthews’ house begins rapidly collapsing. Julie and the others watch as the house completely implodes, and she runs to the scene. Randall is able to escape the house before it collapses completely, while Jim and Tom are alive, but pinned under the rubble along with Brick, who they cannot tell if he is alive. Jim tells Julie to stay with Donna and do whatever she says.

After darkness falls, Tom asks Jim how he is doing. Jim answers that he thinks he busted a rib, and that it is getting hard to breathe. Jim asks Tom if he ever had to spend the night hiding, and Tom asks if it would make him feel better if he said yes. Brick then wakes up and begins to panic and shout for help but Jim and Tom tell him to be quiet. Brick says he can’t breathe, and Jim tells him that if he is talking he can breathe, but should do so slowly. Tom tries to go over to help him, but can’t reach. Brick says he doesn’t do well in tight spaces, but Tom assures him that they will get out of this, but they need to be silent. Later, Tom, Jim and Brick overhear the Creatures screaming and hunting passengers unlucky enough to be caught outside, and Brick begins panicking again. Tom and Jim try to reassure him to get him quiet but Brick begins coughing up blood. Tom tells him to hang on. As the night goes on, Brick continues to complain that his chest hurts, but Jim and Tom tell him to hold out. Jim, trying to distract him, asks if he likes pancakes, promising to make them for him when the sun comes up. Tom jokingly asks if Jim thinks a skinny guy like Brick eats pancakes. Brick begins to cry out in pain, and Jim and Tom try to get him quiet, but Brick dies. Tom is then attacked by a Creature. His screams are hears by the people in the Diner, distressing everyone. As soon as the sun rises, Julie leads the people from the Diner in rushing outside, where they discover Tom's brutalized corpse, which was dragged out from underneath the rubble. However, they are able to successfully extract a slightly injured but otherwise unharmed Jim from beneath the rubble

In the Bar, Jade breaks a number of glass bottles on the table and examines the pieces. A vision of Tom asks what he is doing, and Jade explains that it’s a thought experiment. Tom asks if Jade will ask if he is real, and Jade replies that he thinks this is stress-induced psychosis and Tom will disappear soon enough. Tom asks about the purpose of the glass breaking, and Jade explains it’s a way to reorient his thought process to find a different way to look at the symbol because he has been looking at it wrong. Vision Tom takes a drink and notices that Jade changed the still, before telling Jade that he is overthinking it because he knows what he needs to do- find the symbol in the tunnels, calling it natural design. Jade says nothing about this place is natural, but Tom corrects him and says none of it is familiar. Tom tells him that if there are answers, which he grants is a big if, they will be in the tunnels. Jade asks if he is supposed to take advice from a man who died trying to rescue a woman who wasn’t even trapped. Tom says he would do it again because it was the right thing to do. Tom concludes that right now, there is a 16-year old girl who needs his help.

## Appearances

### Season One

* Long Day's Journey Into Night
* Silhouettes
* Broken Windows, Open Doors
* Into The Woods
* Oh, the Places We'll Go

### Season Two

* Strangers in a Strange Land
* The Kindness of Strangers
* Once Upon a Time? (vision)

## References

1. ↑ Long Day's Journey Into Night
2. ↑ Silhouettes
3. ↑ Broken Windows, Open Doors
4. ↑ Into The Woods
5. ↑ Oh, the Places We'll Go
6. ↑ Strangers in a Strange Land
7. ↑ The Kindness of Strangers
8. ↑ Once Upon a Time?