The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Episode 7

## Episode Guide • Transcript

> *"I'm calling this episode 'The Legend of Ipqu-Aya'."* - **Matthew Heawood**
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## Plot

The episode opens with another of Dr. Jonathan Willett's recordings, this time of a phone conversation between him and Charles Dexter Ward. Having received Charles' letter, Willett is calling because he's concerned about Charles' mental state. He asks what Charles is doing and Charles responds that he's 'becoming a new man.' The call is interrupted by a third voice, whom Willett believes to be Dr. Allen, who tells Willett not to call again and hangs up the phone.

Matthew Heawood addresses the audience, explaining that circumstances have meant that the case is over, and he now knows what happened. He claims that the previous recording was the last time that Willett spoke to Charles, despite the fact that Willett was Charles' psychiatrist in hospital and saw him on the night he disappeared. He explains that after the events of the previous episode Kennedy Fisher had gone missing. Matt had received the file that would become Episode Five from her, but couldn't contact her, George Shepley or Ezra Weeden. Matt asked the Providence police to investigate the trailer park who learnt from Al Treggore that she'd left. Trying not to worry, Matt decided to continue with the case. Not wanting to have anything more to do with the Tillinghasts, he took Episode Five to Dr. Eleanor Peck who, intrigued, told Matt the story he's broadcasting in this episode.

Eleanor tells Matt that the story is an interesting fiction but that someone is clearly taking it seriously. Brushing off concerns for her safety, she criticises him for not understanding the belief system that drives all the people involved in *The Case of Charles Dexter Ward*: the belief in Ipqu-Aya. Peck explains that Ipqu-Aya was a malevolent sorcerer who lived in Nineveh in the 7th Century B.C. Supposedly, he had discovered a path to immortality by transferring his soul into an artefact and then into the body of a blood relative. In 612 B.C. he's arrested for cursing someone and sentenced to death. Before he dies, his followers transfer his soul into the artefact using his clay instruction tablets as a guide, but cannot complete the second half of the process before Nineveh is sacked, and the artefact and tablets are buried in the rubble. Ipqu-Aya's followers then form a cult around him and continue his magical work. In 700 A.D., Ipqu-Aya cultist Abdul Alhazred travels to Nineveh in an unsuccessful attempt to find the artefact and tablets. He then spends 10 years in the desert supposedly learning magic from a pre-human race of Elder Beings which he records in the *Necronomicon*. After Alhazred's death, supposedly devoured by an invisible monster, the cult divides into groups that inspire many later occultists including John Dee, Comte de Saint-Germain, and Mr. Ely.

In 1842, excavations begin at Nineveh and in 1851, during the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, a private collection of items is unearthed, believed by the credulous to be Ipqu-Aya's artefact and tablets. The items are sent back, amongst others, to the British Museum, but some items never arrive. Peck explains that according to the legend, the missing items are Ipqu-Aya's artefact and tablets. James Murrell eventually takes possession of them and performs the ritual, putting Ipqu-Aya's soul into the body of his apprentice George Pickingill, who becomes an infamous occultist. After Pickingill dies the next host is theosophist and member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Edward Landsdale, who is killed in the First World War. His friend Rudolf von Sebottendorf is the next host, and goes on to help found both the Thule Society and the Nazi Party, while also being a member of the Vril Society.

Peck then begins to point out the inconsistencies in the story: how von Sebottendorf defected to the Allies in the Second World War, and later killed himself; how the next host, Old Dorothy, was considered not to be Iqpu-Aya by Aleister Crowley; how there is no photographic or documentary evidence for the host after that, Joseph Curwen, ever existing. Peck concludes with the idea that it doesn't matter if the story is true, what matters is that people believe it is. Peck explains that the threats to Matt and Kennedy are attempts to stop them from revealing the cult, and Willett's murder of Lucy Hawthorne was, in his mind, an attempt to save the world by stopping her from becoming the next Ipqu-Aya. Peck suggests that, in the wake of Hawthorne's death, the cultists are now looking for Ipqu-Aya's next host.

## Cast, Characters, Crew

* Barnaby Kay as Matthew Heawood
* Nicola Walker as Dr. Eleanor Peck
* Mark Bazeley as Dr. Jonathan Willett
* Samuel Barnett as Charles Dexter Ward

* Writer & Director: Julian Simpson
* Production Coordinator: Sarah Tombling
* Sound Engineer: David Thomas
* Composer: Tim Elsenburg
* Producer: Karen Rose

## Notes and Trivia

* While the rest of this season's episodes are simply numbered, Heawood introduces this episode with a title, "The Legend of Ipqu-Aya".