The Whisperer in Darkness Episode 4

## Synopsis

Heawood secretly starts a new investigation. Kennedy looks into the Rendlesham incident.

## Plot

The episode begins with another of Henry Akeley's audio tapes, dated 15th of May 2019. In the tape he notes that he has evidence that someone has broken into his house, but he doesn't know how they've got in. He's also seen the black car he mentioned on another tape at the church, and is concerned for Albert Wilmarth's safety.

At the Bloomsbury Square car park, Matthew Heawood hides under a parked car as whoever arrives in the speeding car searches for him and/or the mystery woman. After he's certain they've gone, he leaves the car park and calls Kennedy Fisher but gets her voicemail. Kennedy, meanwhile, calls an ambulance for Tania Radcliffe and is subsequently questioned by the police but ultimately let go. They both meet at the café and share their experiences. Kennedy notes that there is a moment on Matt's recording of his conversation at the car park where it cuts out, and Matt explains this as human error. However, Matt tells the audience that this moment was when the woman told him not to trust Kennedy, and that he deliberately cut it out because he'd started investigating her. He notes that Kennedy's recording of Tania's death makes it unclear whether she jumped to her death or was pushed. Matt reveals that at the time he is making this episode the investigation is over, and Kennedy knows what he's been doing.

Kennedy goes to see Dr. Eleanor Peck to ask her about Babalon, and plays her the broadcast. Eleanor explains that Babalon is an earth-goddess described by John Dee and Edward Kelley, and that the girl on the broadcast is spelling out Babalon in Enochian. Aleister Crowley believed that Babalon could be summoned, and Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard performed the Babalon Working, a ritual to summon Babalon, in 1945/6. Kennedy asks Eleanor if the ritual Henry's group performed in 1980 was the Babalon Working, but Eleanor doesn't know and suggests asking a member of the group.

Matt calls his military contact, the man who helped Matt look for Kennedy, for information about the Orfordness base. He doesn't know much but speculates that the numbers station is more likely to be linked to the intelligence services than the military. He asks about Kennedy's welfare, and is puzzled when Matt tells him about her time in hospital, as he had checked all the Iraqi patient lists and found no mention of her, or anyone who looked like her. Matt asks about the phrase Pleasant Green and the contact tells him it's an ECHELON trigger and ends the call.

Kennedy goes to interview Walter Brown. At first, Walter appears vacant and stares at Kennedy for an unsettlingly long time, before seemingly coming to his senses. He charmingly invites Kennedy inside and tells her that he and Henry were old friends and that he only joined Amelia Fenner's group to keep them all out of trouble. When they performed the ritual in 1980, all he saw was the U.S. Air Force personnel searching, but the other members of the group believed they'd summoned Babalon, and refused to hear otherwise. The group broke up soon after when Amelia left. Thomas Marston had a mental breakdown and went to the United States for some time, Tania moved to Dunwich to search for *The Necronomicon*, a fact that unsettles Kennedy, and Henry stayed to search for whatever they'd supposedly summoned. Walter says he and Henry were strangers to each other, but that he reached out to Henry when he started looking unwell. However, Henry merely ranted at him, blaming him for the death of his dogs. Walter concludes that Henry's mental health is the cause of his disappearance, not anything supernatural.

Matt goes to the Pall Mall club to search for Ben, and interrogates him about what is happening. Ben refuses to reveal the woman's identity but assures him she's trustworthy, and claims he doesn't know what Pleasant Green means. He helps Matt realise that someone powerful, but not Sir Godfrey Tillinghast, is attempting to replicate the Babalon Working on a larger scale, and that Henry had already worked this out.

Kennedy returns to the vicarage and asks Wilmarth why he had warned her away from seeing Walter. Wilmarth reveals that Walter is a violent man and Henry had problems with him, contrary to Kennedy's experience with him. They talk about what Kennedy has learnt and Wilmarth wonders that if *The Necronomicon* came to Suffolk it would explain the rise of witchcraft in the area, and links Abdul Alhazred's pre-human Elder Beings to the local legend of the merman The Wild Man of Orford, although he stops himself from suggesting Henry was abducted by mermaids. Kennedy drives back to her hotel past Walter Brown's house, who again acts vacant, and the Akeley House, now abandoned. Unsure whether the case is just about a man with mental health problems or not, she spots a woman with dark sunglasses beside a parked black car. Kennedy tells the audience that this is the last thing she remembers.

## Cast, Characters, Crew

* Jana Carpenter as Kennedy Fisher
* Barnaby Kay as Matthew Heawood
* Nicola Walker as Dr. Eleanor Peck
* Mark Bazeley as Albert Wilmarth
* David Calder as Henry Akeley
* Nicola Stephenson as Mystery Woman
* Ben Crowe as Ben, Man and Policeman
* Ferdinand Kingsley as Male voice
* Gabrielle Glaister as Tania Radcliffe and Maria (Maître d')
* Steven Mackintosh as 'Jasper'
* Karl Johnson as Walter Brown
* Edie Simpson as Child's voice

* Writer & Director: Julian Simpson
* Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
* Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
* Composer: Tim Elsenburg
* Producer: Karen Rose

## Notes and Trivia

* Albert Wilmarth makes reference to John Dee being involved in the translation of the *Necronomicon* into English in the 16th century. This detail was established in H. P. Lovecraft's original story *The History of the Necronomicon (1927)*.
* Julian Simpson wrote the connection between Jack Parsons and Marjorie Cameron and UFOs after listening to Richard Maclean Smith's Unexplained podcast episodes, *We are the Witchcraft*.

## References

1. ↑ Night of the Living Podcast Interview