Chapter 33: And Where Once Its Howling Forebears Walked

A shot of a laid table from above, with napkin and cutlery. The plate is a black featureless void; a disembodied eye stares out at us from the centre.

## Credits

### Featured Voices

* B. Narr as Faulkner
* Sophie Lynch as Greve
* Steven Hendrickson as Roemont
* William A. Wellman as Chuck Harm
* Chrysanthe Grech as 'Candice'
* Marta da Silva as Val
* Rhys Lawton as Press Secretary Carson
* H.R. Owen as Rane

### Additional Voices

Michelle Kelly, AJ Fidalgo, Lou Sutcliffe, Alyssa Petrie and Marlon Dance-Hooi

## Meta Data

### Content Warnings

Descriptions and offscreen depictions of self-mutilation and death (41.15-51.30), descriptions of forced experimentation, forced identity change, mild body horror, some distressing scenes.

## Episode Guide

Faulkner returns home in triumph. Roemont and Greve plot the downfall of the Prophet of the River. In the Linger Straits, Val makes a stop in hostile territory to reunite with long-lost family members.

## Description

### Faulkner's Return To The Gulch

When Faulkner returns to the Paraclete’s Gulch, hundreds of worshippers gather to greet him at the gates. They sing the Drowning Song. When he steps out of the car, the disciples drop to their knees. Disciples from breakaway sects have rejoined the fold for the first time in a century. They see something in him that he can’t. Faulkner receives a robe of white and green and gold, with waves on the hem and the sleeves. His people know he left to be formally acknowledged as a Katabasian, and they have no doubt that he’s been recognised. He delivers a blessing from the first chapter of the Verses, and believes himself to sound exhausted. The way his people respond makes him question his self-doubt. He says he is happy, and if he’s not happy then that’s what it means to be a leader. That guilt is something all great men bear. He is a prophet. He is comfortable. He is loved. Due to the fact his people know him to be in direct communication with the Trawler-man, he is left alone for long periods of time. A Katabasian has responsibilities, a prophet is even holier. Sometimes he is told about what is happening in the world and asked for directions on how to respond. They don’t disagree with him, even if he’s wrong. He never feels the consequences of any of his actions. He plays the starring role at ceremonies and sacrifices. If he is lonely, then it is the loneliness of those close to the divine. Sibling Rane tells him things that should be pleasing, such as the ongoing search for the White Gull’s source, the Grand Aquifer. Faulkner does not feel safe here. People keep flocking to the Gulch as a sacred place. Anger has been growing towards High Katabasian Roemont, and Faulkner’s elevated position has increased the tensions. Rumours spread, some spread by them, and some organically, that the Katabasian’s council plan to legalise them. People find out the way the Katabasian’s had treated Faulkner without respect. It doesn’t have any effect on him. Faulkner unhappily waits for the news that Carpenter is dead. That he will not be able to show his guilt or sorrow when it happens. He tries to convince himself that she was a necessary sacrifice, that it was the best course of action. It's a performance, but he’s a willing performer.

### High Katabasian Roemont and Katabasian Greve Plot Faulkner's Death

Faulkner’s voice speaks over the radio. He tells the disciples that the Katabasians have no intentions of legalising the faith. Roemont switches off the radio. Greve asks him how they plan to kill Faulkner. The plot will take place in his chambers, disguising it as an attempt on Roemont’s life rather than Faulkner’s. It will happen on the eve of Faulkner’s initiation as a Katabasian. They’ll carry out the expurgation, the Drowned Man’s Hearing, and Roemont will be his confessor. Grenshaw has volunteered as the sacrifice. He grew up with Carpenter, and remembers her, so it’s plausible that they remained friends and secret allies. His mother was born in the Linger Straits. The story they will take is taking shape. Greve comments that it seems too similar to Mason’s murder. Roemont calls it an expansion on it, every tragedy in the verses is in the shadow of the ones that came before. The story will be that Grenshaw burst into the room screaming *“Linger’s Glory, Linger’s Might!”* and pointing a revolver at Roemont’s head. Faulkner threw himself in front of the bullet to save Roemont’s life. Grenshaw will confess and be executed, and he will send Faulkner to the Garden Below. Faulkner's final words are going to be reported as:

> *“We have been misled. All of us, tricked. We were taught that our enemy was the government, the policemen, our comrades of this great nation. I am dying, High Katabasian. I can see my life’s true love, Sister Thurrocks, waiting for me beneath the black waves-”*
>
>

Greve exclaims at the latest detail, and Roemont calls it a useful distraction. Greve asks if they’re plotting an assassination or writing a radio show. Roemont says it's both. He continues to dictate Faulkner's last words to Greve:

> *“Before I go, dear friend, I pass on this final message from the Father In The Water, one weighty task I leave in your trembling hands. There has been too much bloodshed, too many lives lost. Let there be peace.*
> “At long last, between ourselves and the Legislatures, let there be peace.”
>
>

Soon afterwards Greve will announce the negotiations with Shrue and the faith’s legalisation. Greve asks the question all of us are wondering, why would the Linger Straits go through the effort of trying to assassinate Roemont? He says it's to sow discord between them and the legislatures. Greve wonders if they’re really important enough to warrant this. Roemont thinks the faithful will believe it. Greve expresses that it's an unwarranted risk to put Roemont in the line of action. He calls Faulkner a performer and egotistical. He shouldn’t be remembered, and yet he ends up embedded in stories over and over again. No, Roemont will go himself and no one will ever suspect him of wishing him harm. Greve tells him he’s being misled himself. Faulkner has the advantage - he’s yet to make his inadequacies known to his followers. Greve comments that they were very similar to Faulkner, but now they are the elders they tried not to be. Greve may believe Roemont can kill Faulkner, but not discredit his legacy. He asks what Greve’s plan is. Greve gently accuses Roemont of being unable to fathom the idea that he is losing control. Roemont wonders if his legacy has already been written. He wonders if Faulkner’s legacy will rival his. Roemont, more than anything, cannot stand the idea of being forgotten. He asks if he’s wrong about trying to get the faith licensed. Greve believes in that cause. She understands the fears Faulkner has, the process of becoming legalised and the revisions to the texts that will be made because of it. Greve comments that if they must be devoured, they should at least choose the circumstances. She wonders if a break from Faulkner and his disciples would be a bad thing. But that would become Roemont’s legacy. Roemont pretends to be Faulkner again:

> *“We have been misled. All of us, tricked. We were taught that our enemy was the government, the policemen, our comrades of this great nation, when a far more terrible foe threatens us from the north-”*
>
>

Greve interrupts by asking what happens if he fails. Roemont says Greve would take his place until someone is elected, to finalise the agreements and legalise the faith. She agrees that Faulkner must die.

### 'Candice' and Val

Chuck Harm talks on the radio. He’s offering advice to the Peninsulans. In return they have been calling him a coward. He says he would be proud to stand amongst his troops on the front line to see the state of the war in person. A grandfather clock chimes and the doorbell rings. A radio host introduces the next show, jazz music plays.

The door opens. A woman greets Val. Val asks if she’s heading the right way to Nesh. The woman grows suspicious, due to her accent. Val tells her it doesn’t, and the Last Word convinces her. Val asks if she lives alone, and the woman says she doesn’t. Her husband is on the way home from work. Val tells her she’s never had a husband, and that she will invite Val in for dinner. Val calls her 'Candice', and tells her that she recognises Val as her eldest daughter. Val narrates that she is wearing the same pinafore as she was when Val left, her hair tied back as severely as it always had been. 'Candice' feels love at the sight of Val. 'Candice' adjusts to the new reality as it changes. 'Candice' recalls her real son, Jamie, saying she’s proud of him too. Val says there was never any Jamie. 'Candice', at Val’s instruction, invites her in.

‘Candice’ tells Val to sit and that she’ll prepare dinner for them both. ‘Candice’ asks if she’s tired, and Val says she is but that she no longer has to sleep. Val says it’s funny coming face to face with her mother again, and muses if she remembers how much pain she caused her. The last time Candice saw Val she was laughing in a soldier’s uniform, a volunteer to serve her country as part of the war effort. She’d expected to be told she loved her and was proud of her, but she didn’t. Candice might have known that she would suffer at the hands of the military scientists before she died and became something else. Maybe she was too cowardly to tell her daughter, or the money given to Candice due to her daughter’s decision was too attractive to give up. Or maybe she wasn’t aware at all. Val tells her she should have known. That mother’s are supposed to protect their daughters. Val called out for her mother as she was branded and transformed. Val tells her ‘Candice’ is crying now the way Val cried for her mother. Val asks if ‘Candice’ remembers her name. She doesn’t, but neither does Val. She remembers little from before her hallowing. She remembers her mother’s face, though. She thought her name was Val, but it was really short for valuable. Her hallowing took 64 days. Initially, they apologised to her. Then they fell into routine. They tested lots of old prayer marks, before they perfected it. They piped in lies through the speakers. They made her lie to them and punished her when she failed to convince them. She didn’t even realise it when she finally died. She remained awake through the process. She could have come to love any god, the choice could have been hers. She let them make the choice for her in order to make her mother proud. In return, her mother only came to see her twice. Her reward for volunteering was that her mother could come as often as she wanted. Once on the third day, and the other on the fourteenth. On the first visit she waved, on the last she just looked at her and then left. Val asks after the food, ‘Candice’ tells her it's simmering before lighting the candles.

Val tells ‘Candice’ that’s all she needs from her. ‘Candice’ understands that something terrible is going to happen, and says she just needs to serve her first. ‘Candice’ does so. When she returns, Val tells her to face her. Val tells her that she realised, seeing her daughter again, that she was unworthy of looking at her. So ‘Candice’ went into the kitchen, grabbed a pair of kitchen scissors. Val asks if they’re sharp, and then tells her they’re blunt. ‘Candice’ returns. Val tells her she takes the scissors to her lips, ears, eyes, and fingers, before stumbling out into the road and walking south through the countryside before tossing herself from a cliff and dying. Val leaves for bed. ‘Candice’ whimpers.

Val collapses on the bed and the door closes behind her. We hear ‘Candice’ scream in pain. Carson tells Val that they need her to stop this. That she’s making folks back in the Peninsula nervous. Val calls her an enemy combatant, and Carson corrects her. We hear ‘Candice’ screaming again. Carson tells her that the cruelty is too much, she needs to be an asset they can rely on. She says that once she’s won the war, they can point her towards her real mother and she will no longer feel so frustrated. Carson implores her to move faster. The CLS is prepping for an attack, and they’ve only got a week. The Peninsula’s defences on the coast won’t last. Carson needs her to take the Conclave. He promises to give Val her mother if she does this quickly. Val asks who else she’ll be given, and Carson asks who else she wants. She wants a phone call with the doctors, the nurses, the guards, the attendant, anyone involved in her hallowing, and she wants it before the war ends. Carson reminds her she volunteered for this. Val simply responds that her mother’s daughter volunteered, and that the whole point was to make her into something new. Well, she’s certainly new. She’s new and she’s vengeful. Carson agrees, promising her anything she wants. Val ends the call.

### Faulkner Hears That Carpenter Is Alive

The sound of running water, and Faulkner’s ragged breathing. Rane joins him. They apologise for interrupting. He tries to explain his appearance away. He has seemingly been crying, or close to crying. Rane tells him that they have found Brother Fade’s body. There will be a special ceremony at the Dreaming Pools for Brother Fade. He approves of this decision, and says he’ll be right there. Rane gives the further news that Roemont is paying a visit to formally bestow the kelp wreath upon Faulkner. They also reveal that Brother Philly is ready to leave for Glottage, but wants Faulkner’s blessing before he leaves. Rane leaves. Faulkner is immediately overcome with relief that Carpenter is alive.

Rane leads the ceremony. Faulkner quietly rejoices during the ceremony, as the congregation outwardly curses Carpenter. We hear the Drowning Song. The episode ends.

## Trivia

* Sibling Rane calls Carpenter, 'Anathema Carpenter'.

## References

1. ↑ Episode Release Announcement on Tumblr
2. ↑ Official episode synopsis at https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5fec690f8211cf453a1b89e2