Waiting in the Wings / Bloodborne / A Thousand to One

Several characters recall their differing accounts of Faraday's encounter with Mole Men and Hollow Earth Vikings.



Plot Summary

After the opening sequence, the episode opens on an extreme close-up of a heavily bearded man angrily shouting, mid-sentence, in a thick and unidentifiable accent. The camera cuts back to reveal that the man is dressed as a viking warrior. He screams, red-faced, that "that blusted Foorerdach is combing vick oss!" The camera reveals that he and several other Vikings are engaged in a standoff of sorts with a number of mole-men, of the type previously seen in episode 5. The mole-men gibber unintelligibly, occasionally emitting piercing shrieks, and gesture wildly with their crude claw-like hands. The vikings all continue shouting at once, brandishing their weapons menacingly. After several minutes of this, the camera swings around to reveal Faraday, strapped to a chair in the center of the room, alternately struggling to free himself and lapsing into a half-conscious daze. One of the vikings waves his axe at the mole-men and exclaims, "Eaah dawrn coire vats ees dwayne, a weearwah zees mugty marst foowat fire owls!" The camera cuts back to Faraday, and a screen effect seems to imply that a flashback is taking place.

In the flashback, Faraday, shirtless, is running through a series of caverns (clearly the same set used in episode 5), with a sword in each hand, screaming. He enters a large chamber, now wearing the shredded remains of a shirt and armed with a sword and shield, and screams again before engaging a number of mole-men in melee combat. He quickly dispatches them, and pauses to catch his breath. Suddenly, the earth shakes violently, and Faraday looks around, bewildered. The camera jump-cuts to Faraday, now wearing crude leather armor and armed with a trident and net, engaged in combat with a giant mole-man-monster. Several minutes of battle follow, and Faraday seems to be winning until the mole-man-monster grabs a discarded spear and stabs Faraday in the abdomen. Faraday, pained, grabs the wound; when he moves his hands to inspect the damage, the hallucinogenic gas pours out and he immediately loses consciousness.

Instead of gas hallucination montage, the opening sequence plays again, though this time several additional scenes featuring the Alligator-Men are added. After the entire sequence finishes, it opens to exactly the same scene the episode began on, with the screaming viking. The scene plays out nearly identically, but when the viking shouts the line that led to the flashback, a mole-man interrupts him with 20 seconds of gibbering, shrieking, and wild gesticulating. The mole-man then points at Faraday, and the flashback screen effect happens again.

In this flashback, Faraday, dressed only in a loincloth, toils in the desert, hauling massive stones. One of the vikings appears to be an overseer, cracking a whip menacingly. Many mole-men toil along with Faraday, moving the huge stone blocks; Faraday appears to be the only human slave. After an extended scene of Faraday struggling to move stones, sweating heavily, with long shots of his straining face, the camera cuts to a viking cruelly whipping a fallen mole-man. The viking laughs to himself as he strikes the mole-man, until a hand catches the viking's before he can bring the whip down again. The camera pulls back, revealing Faraday, standing defiantly, with the surrounding mole-men cowering in awe of his boldness. Faraday knocks the viking out with one punch, and lifts a previously-unseen spear from the ground, holding it above his head, and rallies the mole-men to him with a shout. He then leads the mole-men in an uprising, swarming over the outnumbered vikings. After a mighty but short-lived battle, the mole-men celebrate. While Faraday sits in repose atop a kingly throne, the mole-men and female mole-men perform their traditional Mole-Man Dance of One Thousand Victories, a lengthy and complex routine that runs for three minutes. After the dance finishes, a mole-man approaches, presenting a female mole-man. Faraday looks her over and says, "your daughter, eh? Old friend, I accept." He jumps to his feet and takes the female mole-man in a passionate embrace, kissing her. When they separate, the female mole-man kneels, and presents a jewelry box. Faraday reaches behind his throne to produce a parka capsule; as the action theme soars, he dons his parka, and is married to the female mole-man. When he lifts her veil (as she is suddenly wearing a wedding dress), hallucinogenic gas pours out and Faraday loses consciousness yet again.

Once more, the opening sequence plays, further modified with more inserted Alligator-Men. Three quarters of the way through the opening, the camera unexpectedly pulls back, showing that the opening sequence is being projected on a screen. The camera swings around, revealing that Faraday is strapped to a chair facing the screen, with a device on his head holding his eyelids open; his mouth gapes, a look of mostly-absent but inchoate fear on his face. As the camera finishes pulling back, an Alligator-Man is shown to be standing directly behind Faraday, its hands on its hips. It begins laughing in a guttural, menacing tone, and then the hallucinogenic gas pours out of its mouth, filling the room, until the screen fades to black, with only the laughter continuing.

Trivia

  • When the vikings are brandishing their weapons at the mole-men in the first sequence, in one shot they are all inexplicably armed with logs, but in the next have their original weapons again.

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