Original subtitles

Lewis? Lewis, get up here. Yes, sir.

Now, I'll be over at Mrs. Jacobs.

She's having a baby.

I'm not a baby.

Oh, I know that, sweetheart.

Listen to your brother, okay?

Okay, Daddy.

Lewis, keep an eye on her. Yes, sir. Come on, Cass, get up.

I'm way ahead.

Didn't I tell you? She's having twins.

What?

There is nothing wrong with your television.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

We are now controlling the transmission.

We control the horizontal and the vertical. We can delude you with a

channels or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond.

We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive.

For the next hour, We will control all that you see and hear.

You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest

inner mind to the outer limits.

Human beings naturally fear that which is unknown or different.

But unless we strive to conquer those fears, they may exact a price far

than we can bear.

Excuse me.

Hey.

I was wondering if I was in the right place.

I doubt it.

This is Ptolemy, isn't it? Yeah, but there ain't much right about it.

You're looking for someone?

Yes. Do you know where I can find Dr. Broussard?

Better hope you're not too sick.

Thank you.

Dr. Boussard.

My name is Tom Young.

I called several times. I thought I might be able to... I know why you're

I don't particularly care who you are.

My daughter's been seen by four therapists in the past ten years. Not

them could do a damn thing for her.

What makes you any different?

Sir, learning disabilities can be a very tricky thing.

I'm up to date on the latest research.

In fact, I've done some of the latest research.

And I believe I have some new techniques that might be able to help her.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's pretty much what the rest of them said.

All they did was get her hopes up. Sir, she's going to be 18 in a few months.

In the eyes of the state, that makes her an adult and no longer our

responsibility.

And at that time, you won't have to worry about anybody giving her any hope

all.

Come on.

Kathy, someone here to see you, honey.

It won't take long.

That's Lewis.

Yeah.

Her brother.

Thank you.

Children who don't show any evidence of neurological damage, like Kathy, can

sometimes trace the problem back to a traumatic event.

Often the memories are suppressed.

Through hypnotic regression, we can sometimes help them remember.

Recovered memories?

I know it's highly subjective.

But according to...

To Cassie's file, her writing, reading, and verbal skills were normal until she

was the age of six.

After that, they dropped abruptly.

If Cassie does remember anything, maybe she can tell us about it.

Okay, Cassie, as we talk, I want you to keep your eyes on my pen, okay?

Great.

So tell me, Cassie, what do you like to do?

Well, I like to make things and paint sometimes.

You're an artist?

Not really.

Well, I'd love to see some of your work. Where do you keep it? In my room.

It must be a very nice room.

Yes, it is.

I bet you when you're tired, it's the best place to be.

The best place to sleep, right?

Cassie, can you hear me?

Yes. I want you to remember.

I'm six years old.

Can I go out and play?

Louis will take care of me. He always does.

Later, Cassie. Right now, I need you to help me, okay?

Okay. All right.

Your teacher is worried about you because you're not doing that well in

But something's different.

What's different, Cassie?

I don't know.

Was somebody mean to you?

No. Did somebody make fun of you or make you feel bad?

I'm different.

How are you different, Cassie?

Because of what I heard.

What did you hear?

I don't know.

Nobody else heard it.

So there was somebody else with you?

Louie, he was keeping an eye on me.

And what happened next?

I found... something.

What did you find?

I don't... Just relax. I

don't... I don't know!

Are you okay?

I feel tired.

I hypnotized you, Cassie, to try to make you remember, and you were remembering.

Okay. The room's up here.

It's more private.

I see.

Did you make this, Cassie?

You know what I love about sculptures?

The way they give you motion shape.

I'd say you were feeling lonely when you made this.

Like you didn't belong.

You feel that way now?

Sometimes it's easier than words.

For me.

Well, I would call that a gift.

See you tomorrow, okay?

Uh, you got a place to stay tonight?

Sort of. My truck's a lot more comfortable than it looks.

I got an extra room if you want it.

Thank you.

Well, Cassie seems to like you.

That's rare enough. She never had many friends around here.

Except for Lewis.

Her mother died right after she was born. I had to raise these two

kids by myself.

Malcolm, what happened here?

Oh.

About 12 years ago, there was an outbreak of some kind of brain cancer.

No one had ever seen anything like it before. It was relentless.

It only killed children.

We tried everything.

Massive chemo, radiation, surgery.

Kids were all under the age of 10.

Same ones I'd brought into the world just a few years before.

Like Cassie and Lewis.

They obviously survived somehow, if you can call what happened to Lewis

surviving.

He went into coma, been stabilized.

He's been that way ever since.

It's been 12 years.

Cassie just got lucky. Few people around here don't see it that way.

All they see is that the doctor's kids lived while their kids died.

Didn't the CDC come and investigate?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

They traced it to...

carcinogens in the runoff from the mill, so they shut the mill down, and that

pretty much shut the town down.

Oh, uh, they did name the disease after us.

Ptolemy's syndrome.

You can look it up.

Dr. Boussard?

You've been spending too much time with him.

You got a home of your own, you know. If the doctor's not under investigation,

he didn't do anything wrong.

Why don't you tell that to my grandson?

Oh, yeah, you can.

He's dead.

Welcome to Ptolemy.

Marie DuPont, County Sheriff.

Tom Young, State Health. Quite an interesting town here, Sheriff.

Well, Tom, this is a small town. We all knew those four kids who died.

And some people were reluctant to accept official explanation.

It's because of microwave radiation, Sheriff. I saw it on the net. It was at

.gov .conspiracy .powerline. That computer's rotting your mind, Billy. You

have nearly enough to spare.

Was there ever a recurrence of the disease in any of the other children?

There were no other children.

Ever since the outbreak, couples who wanted to have a family went somewhere

to have it.

Once they left, they didn't exactly come running back.

What the hell was that?

Whoa!

Look sharp.

Watch your step.

Whoa! Do you see something?

What's out there?

I can't see anything.

Hey,

there's something out there!

Trying to, except I couldn't.

I heard this voice.

It's like he's calling me.

I went out into the woods, following the voice.

That could be a side effect of your hypnotic treat.

Yeah, maybe.

Or maybe she's continuing to remember what really happened to her.

The voice.

Was it the same voice you told me about yesterday? The one that you and Lewis

heard when you were kids?

I think so.

Where did it lead you?

Remember? Rocks.

A wall.

And then there was something else.

Something that seemed like it fell out of the sky.

Like a meteor?

Maybe.

What did it look like?

I don't... I can't describe.

Sure.

What is that something

not human You

have

to believe me

Cassie, it's okay. If that's what you saw, then...

Tell me something.

Did you believe her?

Malcolm, your daughter has a vivid imagination.

The thing from outer space could have been a metaphor, an image she created in

her mind to help her explain something she didn't understand.

I mean, things do fall out of the sky.

Things that talk.

Look, I don't know what she saw.

I do believe something happened to her out there when she was a child.

When she was little, she, uh... She was always so curious.

Always running up to people.

Always, uh... Playing with anything she could get her hands on.

She used to love to talk into my stethoscope.

But then she changed.

Her temper was out of control. She lost interest in school.

She became distant, unresponsive.

I had to watch Lewis grow up like this.

I don't think I could bear to lose Cassie, too.

Yes, Tom Young from the HHS. I need to speak to Dr. Joseph Mitchell, please.

It took me about an hour to get here.

Thanks for coming, Joe.

It sounded like an interesting case. Excuse me.

Who are you?

Malcolm. This is Dr. Joseph Mitchell. He's a neurologist with their hazardous

materials division. He came to help us. Dr. Pissard.

The last work on Ptolemy's syndrome was done over ten years ago, which, from a

technological standpoint, was generations ago.

With this equipment, we have an excellent chance to identify what's

on with your daughter. Okay, okay.

But you can spare me the speeches. I've heard it all before.

Different doctors, different gadgets.

Same old garbage.

Hope the patient's more enthusiastic.

I hope so, too.

It's basically Ptolemy's syndrome.

There are tumors in several regions of the frontal lobe, primarily the speech

and language centers, as well as memory, motor control.

That would certainly explain her learning disabilities.

How come no one picked up on them before?

The old imagers wouldn't have had enough resolution. These tumors are buried

very deep.

What are these structures?

Here and here. Oh, they're neurobundles, clumps of brain cells.

They seem benign, but the tumors must have caused them somehow.

When I scanned Lewis, there were similar structures in his brain as well.

Dr. Mitchell, can you help her?

Possibly.

There's a new surgical procedure which might be able to excise the infected

areas. That sounds like a lobotomy to me.

It's nothing as crude as that. It's a photolytic process, laser surgery.

It's still in clinical trials, but it's minimally invasive, and our results have

been excellent.

You should consider it, because it might be our best shot.

Cassie, we're through for the day.

Well, I'd like your dad to stay with you tonight, if you don't mind.

To keep an eye on me?

Could you do it instead?

I'll talk to your father.

Louie used to keep an eye on me.

I think about him all the time. I can't stop.

I wish I could help him.

I wish... I wish I could stop his pain.

Say it one more time, Billy.

There's nothing out there.

Yeah, maybe he just didn't go out far enough.

Hey, Kathy said she remembered rock walls, right? So did you guys check the

caves? Are you telling me how to do my job?

No, I'm just asking.

Well, Malcolm's finally getting a taste of what it was like for the rest of us.

Jim, I know the facts notwithstanding.

You blame Malcolm for your grandson.

But what did that poor girl ever do for you to wish this kind of grief on her?

She survived.

Welcome bring Mitchell and get over here as fast as you can

What the hell is that thing?

Let me finish! I have to finish!

Cassie! Are you alright?

Let me help you.

I don't know.

It's what she told us about before, what happened to her when she was a kid.

It looked like it came straight through the rocks, fell out of the sky.

Just like she said, not human.

What do you think it is? Whatever it is, let's get her out of here. I think it's

clearly dangerous.

What the hell?

Here, here.

Here inside.

What happened?

Oh, the whole place was going up. We're lucky Jim saw it when he did.

Jim, thank you.

I didn't do it for you.

That fire could have spread real fast and real easy.

Your girl is a danger to everyone in this town.

And what are you going to do about it?

No question about it.

The neural bundles in your brain have grown significantly since you were

to that device.

Unless we do something about it, pretty soon you won't be able to talk or even

move.

Like Lily?

And all the other children?

When I was little, I felt like I had to touch it.

I had to make it work.

And that's what made everybody sick.

It's possible.

Tumors are often associated with radiation exposure.

Who knows what kind of energy was released when that device was activated.

all my fault.

It was the paper mill. You had nothing to do with it. I thought it was trying

help. You don't understand. Honey, honey, there was no way you could have

what was going to happen.

We can make it better, Cassie.

We can stop that thing from ever calling you again.

No.

I want to hear it. Cassie, it's the only way. No.

I want to hear it. I need to hear it. Hold her down. You don't understand.

You obviously don't understand.

Cassie.

Daddy. Cassie. No.

No.

No, it's Daddy.

Sonny. Daddy.

It's just a mild sedative. She won't be out long.

I suggest we keep her in restraints until we get her into surgery.

Look, you're not for certain that surgery is even going to help her look

own data.

You said Cassie's exposure to the device is what increased the size of the

neurobundles, not the tumors.

So maybe the neurobundles are what slowed down the cancer in the first

You can't be serious. Think about it. Kathy was the only one who actually

touched the device.

And Lewis was nearby the first time she did it. The two of them being exposed to

the device may be the only thing that kept them alive.

Oh, I saw what came out of that thing. I saw what it did to her.

We all did.

Do you know what's in here?

As near as I can tell, it's a highly reactive organic acid.

It's poison.

That device compelled Cassie to make it. Who knows what it was going to make her

do with it. Come on, Joe.

All right, all right. That's enough. It's my decision. I'm her father.

Now, you make the arrangements.

Yes, she did.

And she drew this picture of it. And she said it was from outer space, right?

See? It's probably still out there.

Just waiting. You got a very big mouth for such a small head, Billy.

Hey, listen, Sheriff. When that girl found that alien thing, that's what

killing our children, right? That's just a lot of talk. Well, I'm sick of

talking. And I'm going to do something about it. There's nothing you can do

about it. And neither can I.

So go home. All of you.

I mean it.

Get your flashlight.

Let's check the caves.

Hey, Kath.

What happened to you this morning?

I'm sorry.

If I hadn't have made you remember, maybe none of this would have happened.

Don't be sorry.

It's helping me.

It could be killing you. I don't care.

Don't you... understand when i'm near it it makes me feel so good

i don't even worry about louis anymore i don't feel sad anymore and there's

something else what is it something you showed me i don't have the words

can i draw

Get away from that thing!

I said move away!

That thing killed my grandson because of you!

I'm sorry.

Move!

I can't. Move! Take it easy there. Back off, Jim, right now! Go home, Billy.

Kathy, why don't you just move away?

No. Damn it, Jim. Drop it. I'll shoot through her if I have to. Now, Jim, I

how you feel about me.

But I also know how you feel every time I look at my son.

Now, killing Cassie or destroying that thing, whatever it is, is not going to

bring anybody back.

My little boy never did anybody any harm.

Neither did Cassie or Louis or any of those other kids.

Jim, it wasn't anybody's fault.

It just happened.

It was all I had left.

How do I do it?

I can't.

I'll keep an eye on him.

She was heading this way. You sure?

What are you giving him? Kathy, Kathy, stop!

Stop!

Check his vitals.

He seems to be fine.

We got here just in time.

She, uh... She tried to kill him.

My surgical team is standing by. I can have them working on Cassie in two

I can't leave Lewis alone.

I'll have to get somebody to stay with him.

Good. Have Tom bring you when you're ready. Yeah. We've got to get Cassie to

hospital now.

I just got a hold of this nurse in the city. She stayed with Lewis before.

We can go to the hospital as soon as she gets here.

That's good.

Oh, boy.

I just can't believe Cassie tried to kill Lewis. She loves him.

Yeah, it wasn't her. It was that thing controlling her.

I don't think it was controlling her, Malcolm.

I mean, at least not completely.

Kathy said she heard voices.

Now, what if the device was trying to communicate with her? I mean, maybe some

kind of alien probe.

Why would a probe take over somebody's mind?

Maybe that's how it gathers its data, by pulling information directly out of

another species' brain.

Look, take a look at this.

What does it look like to you?

Well, it's sort of mathematical.

Numbers, exactly.

But these are obviously not human.

What if the probe wasn't trying to hurt Cassie or control her, but rather trying

to transform her?

Transform her into what?

If an alien's brain were different enough from a human's, how would we be

to communicate with each other?

We wouldn't.

Because on a very basic level, we wouldn't be able to understand each

But if you could create a being that was capable enough of understanding both

species, and I mean right down to the biological level, you'd have a living,

breathing translator.

Human Rosetta Stone.

What's wrong with them?

I don't know.

Some kind of seizure.

I need to speak to Dr. Joseph Mitchell. It's urgent. I'm sorry, Dr. Mitchell's

in surgery. No,

he doesn't know what he's doing.

I'm sorry, sir.

Tumor area has been marked and targeted. Laser priming.

Laser ready, doctor.

All right, we're going in.

I'm getting an erratic heartbeat.

Oh, my God. She's up! Shut down the laser.

Give me a hand. I don't know how I do it. Get some help in here. Yes, sir.

A blue microphone.

Hold it.

No, but I'm fighting.

Get the strap.

Cassie, please start. It's a surgical patient. Where is she?

Uh, ORT. Right down the... But, sir, you can't go in there right now.

Yeah, I'll be... Relax.

You're doing just fine.

Got a bit dicey in here for a couple of minutes. She came out of anesthesia

kicking.

Louis came out of his coma.

You cured her.

What? The device taught her how.

She got her hands on a pen.

Started writing all over herself. Where?

Do you know what I mean?

It was trying to help her.

It could have helped all of us.

It is said the human capacity for language is the quality which separates

from all other species on Earth.

Perhaps it is also the same quality which can link us to those beyond, but

if we are willing.

to listen.