Original subtitles

The following programme contains strong language.

Er, you're free to come and go as you please.

Green for go, red for no. That kind of thing.

There is, er, rather, an issue with the shareholders.

Money. Mr Pym, I'm on top of it.

I have leverage. I'll be there in the morning.

Naloxone. Disease and cure, eh?

This is real?Meet me in Rome and I will tell you everything.

"Am I speaking with Alfie Bird?" If you're ever in London,

feel free to drop by and I will show you my files.

It's kind of a diary. I've hidden it here, in Rome.

You have out done yourself, my friend.

Mr Bird? Do you have a place to stay? Can you take me there?

Your diary is a puzzle.

You haven't finished decoding it yet? 'One more code to crack.

Five more pages to read.'

'I need you to find a man called Jensen.

I need you to get some of his DNA for me.'

Etta! Ah.

Thanks for coming!

Well, you're looking well, Alfie! Oh, thank you.

So,

how's the novel coming along?

Good! Finished it?

Almost.

I've been thinking if I shouldn't maybe rework it a little bit.

Make it more of a young adult sort of thing.

Makes sense. There's a big market there.

It's where the money is. Good on you.

I've also been thinking, maybe I could move into ghost writing.

You know, celebrity biographies, sportsmen, pop stars, whatnot.

I mean I wrote enough profiles back in the day.

T-They were good profiles.

It was the good profiles that got you in trouble.

Because, strictly speaking, not all the good bits were yours.

I've gotta move past that, Etta.

I've got to.

So I've been thinking, yeah, what about this?

I write a mea culpa.

Alfie- No. No. No. Honestly.

I own it. I was under pressure.

I took short cuts... You plagiarised, and you lied.

I amplified.

Cos I was turning in four stories a day,

I didn't have time to check every single molecule of fact.

Or write all your own words. Four stories a day, Etta.

Do you think things have got better since you left?

It's a dying industry.

Except all I've ever wanted to do was be a journalist.

OK. Listen. So I've actually got a story.

An actual, actual story.

Oh, come on, Alfie. Seriously. OK.

So there's this thing. Nine Horses.

It's like solving an online mystery.

A puzzle.

Like the Crystal Maze. But... But real.

And massive. But, erm...

semi-secret. Like, countercultural woo-woo.

And it is fucking awesome. Best will in the world.

So what?A lot of people think it's a recruitment tool.

For? KGB. CIA.

Maybe some kind erm... Masonic-type conspiracy thing.

What people? What, "what people" what?

What people think this?

Internet people. It's rancid bollocks like this

that killed newspapers in the first place, you do know that?

There's something in this, Etta. A woman is missing.

OK.

What woman? Iris something.

And she's missing under what circumstances?

She solved it! Nine Horses.

And? Disappeared.

When? At some point.Where?Is she?

Did she disappear from? Unclear.

So... what's the story? What happened to her and why?That's it!

Don't you see it? Who basically even knows?

Seriously, Alfie. You're a good egg.

But if you just wanna farm clicks and call it journalism,

go ahead, do it. Live long and prosper.

And when you're rich, because of your clicks,

and you prove that whatshername was murdered by the Vatican

because she's carrying Bill Gates' antichrist love child,

you can drive past my hovel in your Aston Martin,

throw money from the windows

and laugh at where my journalistic integrity got me.

But what you don't get is a job on any newspaperIwork on.

Not ever again. Not if I've got a say in the matter.

I'm Alfie Bird.

I'm Alfie. Alfie Bird.

This is Five Minutes to Midnight.

Shit.

This is Five Seconds to Midnight.

Come on, Alfie. Blugh!

My name is Alfie Bird.

This is Two Seconds to Midnight.

Here Comes That Day #

# Oh, here comes that day

# Here comes that day

# Oh, here comes the rain on your parade

# There's a price to pay

# For a life of insincerity

# And you pretend that it doesn't matter

# And that you're not scared

# Oh, here comes that day

# Here comes that day

# Oh, here comes that rain on your parade... #

Alfie... Alfie, if you can still hear me, tug your earlobe.

OK, listen. I know you're scared.

Just trust me, I need that book.

Look I don't care what I have to do to get it back.

Alfie, if you understand me, just give me a signal. Any signal.

Anything.

Do not take that book!

Alfie, don't make me do this.

Fuck.

Here, we're... We're nearly there.

Business #

Miserere Mei, Deus #

Sorry.

Just planning my escape.

It was a joke! I was joking!

OK. But they don't know that.

They're not great at detecting sarcasm.

OK? Who the murder drones or...

Meski. How's your nose for sarcasm?

Very poor.Would you mind explaining that to Joy for me?

Not at all. Joy, my nose for sarcasm is very poor.

God, that must be awful Not really. I'm fine with it.

OK. So, I know you weren't trying to escape.

But just for the sake of argument,

say you were- Yeah. But I wasn't.

Yes, I know! But say you where,

you really, really can't.

OK? Really, really. Please.

Duh.

Good! Excellent.

Just be careful with the antiphrasis.

You don't seem yourself today.

How would you know?

Well, because I think I know you well enough to know.

Has she called yet? About swapping me for the diary?

Not yet, no.

I think I might actually be a bit scared that she won't call.

She'll call. Except you said that she wouldn't.

Yeah, and then you said she would.

What if I was wrong? Well I don't think you were.

I thought you made a very convincing case.

Yeah, because he said he'd... cut my hand off.

What? Who said... Who said what?

That prick that called yesterday. Oh, my God, Joy! What are you? A bat?

Er, OK, look.

That was completely, erm...

He... He was just saying that to scare me. OK?

Fair play. Seemed to work.

Fuck yes! But only for a minute, OK?

Joy, nobody is going to be cutting anybody's hand off,

alright? Cross my heart and hope to die.

Turn around, touch the ground.

What?

Turn around and touch the ground. Why?

Oh, you're being sarcastic now? Is this an irony?No.

I'm really confused.

What does that mean?It's in folklore or something, isn't it?

It's a playground thing when you...

None of this means anything to you, does it?

How could it?

Nobody tells me anything.

What?

OK.

Do you get vertigo?

No. Why?

Cos he gives people vertigo sometimes.

Can you play Minecraft on it?

What is it with your generation and sincerity?

Don't know.

She was frightened too.

Who was? Miss Brook. Iris.

She said we called him Charlie to diminish him.

Because he frightened us. She was probably right,

right?

Well, I don't know about frightened.

I know he makes me feel odd.

In a Clarke's Third Law sort of way.

I don't know what that means.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

We don't even know the extent of it. Not yet.

We know he can simulate molecular structures

and reactions with staggering speed and accuracy.

He could cure cancer tomorrow.

Cure dementia.

Cure everything.

Could mitigate climate change.

Maybe even end it.

He could let us peel back the surface of the world

and see what's underneath.

But he...

It...

It's asleep, right? Yes

And you can't wake it up.

Not without the password.

Which is what you needed from Miss Brook.That's right.

Iris.

What is she so afraid of?

Nothing.

Phantasms. Hobgoblins.

A mad man's delusions.

What, that the bloke in the attic?

Beardy one and whatnot?

Yeah. That bloke, Jensen.

I saw him.

Oh, yeah. Through the window this morning.

When I wasn't escaping. OK.

Can I meet him?

Why would you wanna do that?

He made Charlie Baked Potatoes. Why wouldn't I?

Big Potatoes. Exactly.

Well, I wish you could meet him. I really do.

Least, I wish you could meet the man that he used to be.

But what he is now...

What's left of him...

Well what's left of him is very, very dangerous.

So no, you can't meet him.

What happened to him?

All he did was think.

And madness...

..is thinking past the point where thinking starts to hurt. X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:0

OK, here it is.

This won't take long.

Fucking shit!

Who's coming?

This is it.

Well, here we are.

Can I get you a coffee? No, thank you.

Oh, please... Ah. Sorry.

Not Cindy.

She's very expensive.

Of course. Sorry.

This is a nice place.

Well, when in Rome.

I'm in Rome. I have a room at the Ibis. Cops' salary.

Would you like to sit down? Make yourself at home.

Yes. Thank you.

So! What brings you to Rome?

Fizzy water? I'm good, thank you.

There's a mini bar! Really.

Ah, if you're sure.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!

Where are you, Alfie?

Where are you?

Where are you, where are you, where are you?

Fifth floor.

Fifth.

So, is this your first time in Rome?

It is!

Are you here alone or...

All alone. Sadly.

For work? No. No, no, no. Just for fun.

Sightseeing, all the rest of it. The dolce vita.

But all this equipment? Oh, it's a force of habit, really.

Just in case. News never sleeps!

I see. But oh, my days!

Who... Who cares about work?

Rome's amazing! There's so much history.

Do you know, literally on every corner! Have you seen the Colosseum?

Of course you have.

No reason to be nervous.I ain't nervous. I'm being English.

Alfie.

Have you had many dealings with the police over the years?

No. No. No. Er, not really. I'm much...

much too boring for that. I mean,

speeding tickets and all that. And, erm...

My-My bike was stolen this one time, fucker.

But yeah. That's it, really.

But it's clear to me that you're a man with emotional intelligence.

Thank you. I hope so.

So I wonder if you could guess...

the thing a police officer hates more than anything else.

Paperwork, maybe? Of course.

Nobody likes paperwork, right?

But what we hate is people who kill police officers.

Right. Of course.

May I show you something? Absolutely.

This is my good friend, Teo.

This is his wife, Carlotta.

Their little girls.

They're a little bit older now. This is last summer.Oh.

And Teo. Here, he's hiking.

He was murdered by your friend, Iris Nixon.

Well, "friend" isn't really the word I'd use.

She's more subject matter, to be fair.

I think he was... It is OK to say "fucking"?

I think that's probably fine, yeah.

Thank you. My English is not- It's very good. Better than mine!

Thank you. Well, he was fucking her.

And now he's dead.

I think maybe BECAUSE he was fucking her.

So...

what I'm wondering, Alfie, is...

why did you tell me you were in London,

when you were actually in Rome? Er...

I mean, did I say that? I didn't think I did.

I-I think you probably sort of assumed.

Oh, perhaps you're right.

Perhaps I was just, um, hearing what I wanted to hear.

But, um...

..here you are, right?

In Rome?

With all your equipment?

Arriving on a... last-minute ticket?

Staying in a...

last-minute, high-end apartment you can't afford...

because all the cheap ones were already booked?

So... why the urgency, Alfie?

One more question for you, OK? OK.

Can you imagine who police officers hate as much as people

who murder police officers?

Maybe even more? No.

We hate people who knowingly provide assistance

to people who murder police officers.

I could get in trouble for showing you this. But, um...

I think you should understand what you're involved with here.

This is Teo.

And these bits here...

..they were two detectives from Rome.

This over here...

..that's a face.

She didn't tell you any of this, did she?

She didn't tell you she went to Teo for help.

That he woke up that morning a father to two young girls.

Ended it as 6'2" of meat on dirt.

Cos that's what she does. She manipulates good people...

..decent people, into helping her.

Alfie...

..I think you're a decent person.

I think you're a good person.

What did she ask you to do?

Don't do it, Alfie. Alfie.

You have to decide which side you're on here.

And I don't mean in terms of law and order.

I mean in terms of your personal safety.

Cos four police men are dead.

And if you choose the wrong side in a fight like that,

how do you think that ends for you?

I want the rights to the story.

Exclusive.

All mine. All of it. You keep me in the loop.

You don't speak to anyone else. You're my exclusive source.

Give me everything you have.

Whatever it takes.

She forced me to steal this from a library.

She's obsessed with this book.

I don't know why.

Don't you move!

Argh. Fucking Judas!

Is... Is she...? Oh, my God, you've killed her.

Somebody knows that I'm here.

We need to go now!

I am not a Judas.

Fine. Let's go. I was playing for time.

OK. Yeah. I knew you'd come.

I-I left the bloody door unlocked!

I am not a Judas.

And bollocks to you for even saying that.

Bollocks to you. A massive, fat bag of bollocks. You wanker.

You just literally did someone in, right in front of my face,

like you were buttering toast. So why would I ever, ever help you now?

Bollocks to you. Get some other sap to help you.

Some other pillock who'll waste the money his nan left him on an Airbnb,

for you to just... do someone in.

She's actually... really nice, actually.

Oh...

Shit!

OK. What's happening?

Well, it turns out I killed her too soon.

We need her alive to get us out of here.

So what are you doing to do? Un-kill her?

It's Naloxone.

They use it to treat overdoses.

Come on, come on, come on.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:0

OK, she's on the move.

We've left the doors unlocked.

She's heading to the upper floor,

be patient.

She's entering Jensen's suite.

Let's see what she's up to.

Move the drones. Eyes on Jensen's suite, overhead pass.

Hello. Can you take this?

Everyone... wait.

Shit.

Who are you?

Um... Joy.

I'm Jensen.

It's nice to meet you.

Would... W-Would you like some water?

Oh, no, really. I should get going.

There's juice. They insist on providing juice.I'm really sorry.

I know. I shouldn't. I... Take...

I'm sorry, I didn't know this was actually somebody's room.

The door was open. I have not been here for a long time, really.

Oh, "long time".

There's no such thing as time.

"Any distinction between past,

present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

Sorry? You know who said that?

Albert Einstein.

Did someone send you here?

No! No! I just...

No, I just...

It's OK.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they did.

Sorry, yeah. Sorry.

And that would be Iris, I expect.

Yep.

She's very clever.

Yeah.

There is so much she wants to know.

Yeah.How much did she tell you about the device?

Not much, Cameron did say some words.

But... ..they weren't really words I understood.

I know that you invented it. Oh, no. Not at all.

Oh. Sorry. I-I thought Cameron said...

Yeah. He probably did but...

he likes to think it's true.

But I'm not clever enough to have "invented" it.

And I'm not sure anyone is.

I... I built it... I built it for sure.

But the device was its own invention.

What does that mean?

I mean it came to me like a memory.

Except perhaps a memory of the future.

Because "time future is contained in time past

and time past in time future."

Yeah. I expect that only works if you know the poem.

I don't know the poem.

Oh, but it's a great poem by a very troubled man.

Um...

But Einstein and this poet are saying the same thing,

expressing the same truth.

Which is that the laws of physics are symmetric and reversible.

The rules are the same whether time runs forward or backward.

All time is one.

So I think of the device as a kind of recursive causal loop.

It created itself.

Bootstrapped itself into existence from nothing.

Ex nihilo.

And I was like its... composer.

Like I was transcribing a melody.

No, I-I know what you mean.

I feel like that sometimes. When I write music.

You write music? Just a bit, yeah.

But some days it feels, like...

.."I'm not actually writing this".

It's already out there,

just tapping into something. Then you understand.

How long have you been alone here?

Oh, luckily, there's no such thing as time.

Or else I'd be tempted to say something like, "It...

feels like forever."

Who was the last person you spoke to?

Iris must never know the things she seeks to know, Joy.

Charlie mustn't wake.

Why not?

Cos it's very dangerous. How?

Mustn't wake. Mustn't wake.

No! No! Meski! No.

Meski!No. No. No. Come on.

What do you think? I think what you think.

What do I think?

You think it was a good idea to leave the door

of Jensen's room open, because you wanted to know if she'd go in.

And she went in. So now you know.

And what else do I think?

That, given the specific warning you gave her about not going in...

..she could only have done it because Iris Nixon told her to.

Do I know the reason why Iris told her to?

Not yet.

But it does tell us that,

if Iris is willing to go to such lengths

to have Joy returned to her...

..she's not doing it from an excess of feeling for the girl.

So what do I think we should do?

You think, if Joy IS doing something for Iris,

there's a way to use that knowledge to your own advantage.

I do think that.

Because there is a way to use it, isn't there?

Yes.

That's what I was thinking.

"Helicopter approaching.

Helicopter approaching" He's here.

Mr Beck.

Mr Pym, nice to put a face to the name.

Mm.

Looking forward the meeting this special girl

who's gonna solve all our problems.

Oh.

Help me... Help me get her up. Come on.

Come on now, bring her over to the couch.

That's it.

OK. Listen to me.

None of this is what you think it is.

I didn't kill Teo. But I know who did.

The man responsible for all of it is called Cameron Beck.

Cameron also abducted Joy Baxter.

You met Joy.

You know what a vulnerable young woman she is.Fuck you.

Liar.

Iris...

If you actually want to know what happened to Teo,

I need you to help get me out of here.

Up to you, Nico.

The police are here.

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