Season 1 Script

Season 1 begins immediately, with no prologue or introduction to the characters. A three-tile spacer featuring a view of the desert landscape kicks off the season, with the title "Codeword Danger: Season 1" written across the banner. There are no photos of any characters.

## Script

#### Episode 1: The Mother

The story begins with an overview of Strangerville and the bleak Mojave Desert. We see a trail of dust in the air as a woman speeds through the desert on a quadbike, listening to *Guns N Roses*, before skidding to a stop in the sand. Lucy St James leaps off her bike as she spots something in the distance, and quickly unburies a rock with small gemstones encased in it. As she tucks the rock into her backpack, she overhears shouting in the distance. Lucy approaches the sound and spots two men in black suits confronting a man in a lab coat. Lucy ducks down as she watches the scene unfold, her heart beating rapidly in her chest.

The two suited men demand to know who else the scientist has told about "The Mother", to which he replies that there was no one else and that he had no idea that the information would get into Helios' hands. The men appear unconvinced, so the scientist pulls a strange device out of pocket and offers it to them. He explains that it is a new prototype he recently created that should make the mind-control instantaneous. One of the men takes the device and appears interested in it, suggesting to the scientist that he will be allowed to live. As he begins to appear hopeful, the man tells him no and shoots him in the head.

Lucy immediately gets up and runs toward her bike, gaining the attention of the two men. One of them shoots at Lucy but the other grabs his hand, reminding him that he shouldn't waste food. They jump onto their car—a military truck—and pursue Lucy. She speeds through the desert and manages to lose the men when she cuts across the road as a truck approaches. The truck skids to a stop to avoid hitting her, leaving the men trapped behind it.

As the sun sets, Lucy returns to her family home at the edge of town. She leaps off her bike, abandoning it in the driveway and bursts into the house where her family are in the middle of saying grace over their dinner. Her mother, Marnie, responds with annoyance toward Lucy's interruption and demands to know where she was all day. Lucy tries to explain the murder and the chase, but keeps on getting interrupted by her family as they rattle off all the different things Lucy has attempted to get out of—today's being her job at her father's shop. Lucy becomes annoyed and shouts at them, causing them to stop talking and glower at her. Her father, Craig, accuses Lucy of making up tall tales to get out of work. They have a loud shouting match, full of swearing and insults, before Lucy storms off, announcing that she will report the issue to the sheriff. After Lucy leaves, slamming the door shut as she goes, her father calms down and her family pick up their prayer from where they left off.

Lucy walks down the road toward the sheriff's office, though she isn't sure that Sheriff Mann will be in as he is usually down at the pub drinking on a weekday. Since the military established a base nearby, Strangerville has become a military town which has resulted in a large decrease of criminal activity. She enters the Police Station and finds Mann standing by the window, starring open-eyed out at the desert. She greets him casually by rattling off the events of today, and Mann responds to her slowly and strangely, making Lucy a bit uncomfortable. She dismisses his strange behaviour by assuming that he has started drinking already. She begins by telling him about the murder that she witnessed, which Mann suddenly shows great interest in. He tells her that she needs to come to the back with him so he can write it down. Lucy follows him to the back of the station, where the two suited men are waiting for her.

Lucy tries to flee but the men grab her. She punches one across the jaw but only ends up injuring her hand. They quickly handcuff her, put a bag over her head and throw her into their car. As they drive off, Lucy worries that they are taking her into the desert to be killed. However, she hears the men talking about how they plan on taking her to The Mother so she can become "one of them". Unsure of their intentions, Lucy leans back in her seat and kicks the driver, causing him to drive them off-road. She continues to kick them as they try to recover control of the vehicle, and one of the men grabs her head, inadvertedly tugging the bag off just as the truck lands in a ditch. Lucy quickly opens the car door and tries to run away, but one of the men pursues her and pushes her to the ground.

The man stands back and pulls out the device the scientist gave to him, aiming it at Lucy's head. He mutters that using the device on Lucy will be a waste, but at least he can see what it does. Before he can pull the trigger, a ute runs him over. The driver opens the door, shouting at Lucy to quickly get in—which she does. They drive away, rocking slightly as the car climbs over the man's body. The other man gets out of the ruined car and begins shooting at them, but it's not long before he disappears into the darkness of night. As they drive back to town the man shouts off questions to Lucy, testing her sanity. Lucy is puzzled and confused, but manages to answer them somewhat decently. The man introduces himself as Aiden Messer, an agent of Helios who has been investigating the strange occurances in Strangerville for some time now. He reveals that he has been trying to find the suited men's secret base, which he believes to be in the desert but unsure of where exactly.

Lucy prods him for more information and even tries to get in on Messer's investigation, but he refuses and tells her that she will just get in his way. The best thing she can do is take her family and leave town until he can stop the strange possessions. Realising that he won't accept her help, Lucy asks if she can get his number, resulting in him kicking her out of the car on her front step and speeding away. After he leaves, Lucy realises that she is still handcuffed.

The next morning, Lucy is digging through boxes in her family's sitting room when her sister, Ruby, enters. Ruby questions what Lucy is looking for, and she replies that she is trying to find their father's old maps of the desert from when he was a teenager. Ruby mockingly asks Lucy if this is for her rock collection and Lucy ignores her. Ruby then asks if it has anything to do with the handcuffs that their father had to pry off of her last night. Wincing, Lucy asks how Ruby knows about that since she and her father agreed to never speak of it again—Ruby confesses to eavesdropping. She sits down next to Lucy and begins to search through the boxes too, pulling out an old photograph of a baby Lucy with a black-haired Asian woman. Ruby cooes at how cute Lucy looks in the photo, and asks who the woman is before questioning if it's Lucy's mom. Lucy recoils at the question and implication that Marnie isn't her real mother, and snatches the photo from Ruby, shouting at her to mind her own business and go see her boyfriend. Ruby becomes similarly irrirated and gets up to leave, snapping at Lucy to go check the Strangerville Archives if she wants her maps so badly.

After she leaves Lucy sighs and looks down at the photo of her and her birth mother. She then tears it in half and tosses it away. We learn that Lucy is adopted, and that her parents considerably favour Ruby—their own natural-born child—over her.

Lucy heads toward the Strangerville Archive—a library and information centre in town. As she makes her way there, she passes by two more townies who seem to be possessed, though Lucy still cannot fathom what is wrong with them. Inside the library, she collects a bunch of books containing maps of the Mojave Desert and greater Strangerville region and flicks through them. Time passes until Lucy finally locates the exact map she is after. Lucy takes the book to the elderly librarian, Murphy. Murphy refuses to let Lucy borrow it, explaining that she has seven books which have been overdue for six years (Lucy recalls borrowing them during her teenage years, and we see a flashback to the books gathering dust beneath her bed). Lucy tries to convince Murphy by promising to return the books tomorrow, but he continues to refuse.

They are suddenly distracted by a commotion coming from outside. Murphy and Lucy go to investigate, and find that General Buzz Grunt, a military official and Strangerville resident, is arguing with Messer. Buzz reveals that he has been watching Messer since his arrival in Strangerville a few days ago, as he monitors all those who come and go from the town. He also found a bug planted in on the uniform of one of his officers who Messer was speaking with yesterday, leading him to assume that Messer is a Russian spy (despite his british accent). Messer and Buzz continue to argue as a crowd gathers. Murphy remarks that this is the most entertainment he has had in years. Lucy seizes the opportunity to tear the page containing the map from the book before handing it over to Murphy, claiming that she no longer needs it. Lucy heads over to Messer, attempting to calm the argument by claiming that he is her cousin from England, and is completing his thesis on small American towns and the military lifestyle—hence why he has been asking all the officers invasive questions. Buzz appears suspicious and states that Lucy is a troublemaker and nothing like her sister, however, he needs his car fixed by her father so he will give her the benefit of the doubt this time. As he leaves, Lucy reveals that Ruby is dating Buzz's younger son, Ripp.

Messer appears annoyed at Lucy's interruption, and claims that he could have gotten out of the arguement on his own. Lucy reveals to him that she knows the location of the secret base. Messer is doubtful at first, but Lucy explains that the murder and attempted kidnapping were both in the same direction, and there is an area in the desert that is hidden enough that any drone would fry before reaching it, but a car with a sturdy motor could make the journey—however, Lucy will not tell Messer the location unless he takes her along. Messer contemplates this before finally agreeing.

That night, Lucy dresses up in all black clothing and drives her quadbike down to Messer's rented trailer. She enters the trailer despite Messer shouting at her not to and to wait outside. She is amused to find that the trailer is cluttered with mess and that there are unwashed dishes in the sink. While waiting for Messer to change, she notices his laptop on the nearby desk and opens it. Inside there seems to be an exchange between Felidae (Messer's codename meaning cat/lion) and Ursid (Max's codename meaning bear). Ursid appears to be warning Felidae not to get civillians involved, and that Winter is ready to pull the plug on the mission and hand it over to Internal Affairs. Lucy is engrossed in reading, and doesn't notice that Messer has entered the room until he slams the laptop shut. He tells her that she's lucky that she knows this much about Helios, and that if she keeps poking her nose into his mission then they might have to wipe her mind afterwards. Lucy thinks it is a joke, but Messer makes it clear that he is being serious.

As they head outside, Lucy runs to Messer's car and jumps into the driver's seat, insisting that she should be the one to drive as she knows the location. Messer refuses, and the pair argue for a brief moment until Lucy agrees to allow Messer to drive while she gives him directions. They head off into the night, and somewhat awkward silence settling between them. The drive takes longer than expected, leading Messer to believe that Lucy was wrong. Lucy connects her phone to the car's bluetooth and begins playing her music, and Messer tries to shut it off as he thinks it is distracting. They have another small fight, and Messer eventually agrees to let the music play to pass the time. After some time, both are singing heartily along to the music, but they are quickly interrupted when an ominous building looms up in the darkness before them.

A large barb-wired fence surrounds the complex. Messer cuts through the wire with some of the tools he brought along and they carefully sneak through the courtyard, avoiding the spotlight that shines down from a tower above. They reach the building's security doors, and Messer begins searching through his pack for a tool to get the doors open without detection. Lucy suggests that he should try the handle as the door may be unlocked, but Messer responds that this is foolish. Lucy ignores him and easily opens the door, revealing that the lock has been broken from the inside. Messer draws his gun and enters, instructing Lucy to remain behind by the doors. After a moment, he calls her in. The entire building has been abandoned, with computers smashed and burned paperwork scattered throughout. They search the building, confirming that everyone has left.

A set of heavy-duty lab doors sit sealed at the centre of the facility. Messer attempts to hack the controls to open but fails. He uses his comms to call a man named Oliver from Helios, who manages to remotely hack the doors and get them to open. Lucy and Messer descend into the basement, discovering that, unlike the upper floors, it remains intact with working lab equipment. As they explore the lab, Lucy observes strange flora sealed behind protective glass cases, and further irritates Messer by pointing out that he is sweating a lot. Messer responds that he is not used to the desert heat and that the basement is incredibly hot as well—they realise that the heater must be on because they are growing something. Messer hears a noise and tracks it to a set of lockers. He directs his gun toward the lockers, ordering whoever is within to come out, and two scrawny scientists emerge. They introduce themselves and Gary and Frank.

With his gun still trained on them, Messer directs the men into the centre of the lab and onto the floor. Frank remains tight-lipped and hostile, but Gary, who is visibly shaking with fear, confesses to Messer that they have been working for the 'suited men' and growing a lifeform beneath the laboratory. After learning that an agent of Helios had come to Strangerville, the suited men packed up and left a few hours ago, but locked Frank and Gary in the basement to continue to monitor and nurture the lifeform. Messer tries to get more information about the experiment from Gary, but Frank stabs him in the arm with a syringe and they both flee. Frank runs up the stairs and Lucy pursues him, but Gary bolts down a corridor filled with spores and purple dust.

The spores attack Gary's body, twisting him and sending him onto his knees in writhing pain. Ignorant to this, Messer grabs Gary and tries to get him to stand, but Gary suddenly turns, with wide eyes, and slams Messer against the ground. He shouts that he needs to protect The Mother. During the scuffle, Messer's gun slides to the entrance of the corridor and they both struggle to reach it. Gary has a newfound strength and manages to overpower Messer and begins choking him. Lucy arrives and tackles Gary, and Messer recovers his gun and shoots him in the head. Lucy is horrified by the scene, but Messer appears thankful for her help.

Messer and Lucy return to his trailer in town. Lucy notices that Messer has started sweating even more and he removes his sweater, revealing the singlet he is wearing beneath, and that his arm is bleeding and bruised from the syringe. When Lucy tries to inspect the wound, he aggressively shoves her away and declares that she has fulfilled her purpose and is no longer going to be a part of the mission as it is too dangerous. Lucy tries to argue with him, during which Messer becomes increasingly aggressive and unhinged, frightening her. Lucy realises that he is speaking similarly to Gary and Sheriff Mann, and appears to be talking to himself. He eventually agrees that Lucy is dangerous to The Mother, and in order to protect The Mother he must eliminate her. As Messer goes to grab her, Lucy whacks him over the head with a frying pan, knocking him out.

Lucy takes Messer to her father's shop and locks him in the storage cage in the basement. She sleeps on the couch nearby, and eventually awakes to see Messer watching her. He appears sane and Lucy almost lets him free until he succumbs to the possession and attempts to attack her through the bars. Lucy leaves, promising to cure him. She heads into town and is confronted by Ruby, who reveals that their parents are furious at Lucy for not returning home last night. Lucy and Ruby have another arguement, during which Lucy reveals her deep desire to leave Strangerville and how she has never felt a member of their family. Ruby coldly replies that Lucy isn't and that if she were to leave, she would be happy to never see her again.

Still furious at Ruby's comments, Lucy goes to the local pub to have a drink and lament over her problems while trying to unlock Messer's comm device. She overhears a commotion outside and looks out the window to see Frank arguing with a bus driver, stating that he has to leave town today and cannot wait for Saturday. Lucy heads outside and, upon spotting her, Frank tries to flee. Lucy tackles him, punching him in the back of the head and ties his hands together with Messer' handcuffs. Some people look on, and Lucy comments that she's helping Sheriff Dann because he's been on the drink again—her comments appear reasonable to the onlookers, who turn their attention away.

Lucy drags Frank to the trailer and demands that he cure Messer. When Frank refuses, she tries to use Messer's gun to threaten him, but Frank quickly catches on that Lucy doesn't know how to use a gun and that she is out of her element. Lucy appears to give up when she notices Messer's car keys sitting on the coffee table. She instead offers to give the keys to Frank so he can leave Strangerville tonight and avoid being spotted by the military and recaptured by the suited men. Frank considers this before agreeing. He needs lab equipment, so they break into the local school's science block. Frank uses the liquid remains from the syringe along with some other products found in the science lab to concoct the antidote. He reveals to Lucy that the lifeform is a giant plant life that lives under the secret base, and that the suited men are a division of the military who sought to use the mind-controlling elements to win wars.

They return to the mechanic, where a possessed Messer insults both Lucy and Frank. They carefully enter the cage, with Frank agreeing to hold Messer while Lucy administers the antidote. During the process, Frank lets go of Messer, allowing him to attack Lucy while he escapes, taking the Jeep and leaving. Messer and Lucy have a scuffle, but Lucy eventually manages to inject Messer with the antidote. Hearing the commotion as he enters the shop, Craig runs into the basement and pulls Messer off of his daughter, throwing him to the ground. Messer immediately recovers his sanity, and Lucy is able to stop her father from beating him by shouting that Messer is her boyfriend. Craig questions why Messer was attacking Lucy, and she claims that they were trying to have sex—which Messer reluctantly agrees to. Craig is furious at Lucy, and Messer takes the opportunity to leave before he is attacked again.

Later that night, Lucy lays on her bed, observing the cracks in her wall and a spider that she isn't bothered killing. Ruby enters, giving Lucy some leftovers from dinner and assuring her that, while they are mad, their parents will eventually get over it. Silence passes, and Ruby asks Lucy if she really meant what she said about their parents loving Ruby more, and Lucy feeling like she isn't a part of the family. Lucy points out that Ruby has a much larger room than her, has always been given newly purchased items while she got hand-me-downs, and that their parents funded Ruby's dance lessons but had no money for her art lessons. Ruby tries to understand Lucy's fustrations, but tells her that their parents baby her because she is and always has been reliant on them for everything, whereas Lucy is more independent and likes to be on her own—she tells Lucy that if she doesn't feel like a part of the family, it's because she has isolated herself. Ruby then asks Lucy if she really will leave Strangerville, and Lucy tells her that she wants to, and that she always felt like there was more to life than just this.

Lucy struggles to go to sleep and eventually hears a knock at her window. She turns around and screams after seeing a man's face at the glass, before realising that it's Messer. She lets him in and Messer chatises her for not hearing the rocks he threw at the window or the light he was shining through the glass. He reveals that he is planning on getting to the lower levels of the secret base tonight and killing The Mother. After watching a YouTube tutorial, he has managed to great a homemade hazmat suit, which should get him past the spores in the corridor unharmed. Lucy wishes him goodluck and gives him the rest of the antidote in case he needs it. Messer reveals that he made two suits, and asks Lucy if she would like to go with him. Lucy is overjoyed and hugs him, which Messer seems to enjoy for a moment before pushing her off.