Original subtitles

This is Victor Finch,

recording live for the ufology videocast.

It's day three of my search here in the town of Collins Falls,

and I've seen no sign of the mysterious lights

reported in the sky.

Now, although the reports aren't frequent,

they are consistent, which rules out the possibility

of a freak accident or a misunderstanding.

Reports are only an AN1 on the Vallee scale.

That means lights but no contact.

I'm hoping to catch some more of those

weird energy traces before...

Run! They're here!

Run! Run!

It's an invasion!

Run!

Is there a problem, sweetheart?

There's something out there in the woods.

It's not an AN1 anymore, it's a CE3.

A close encounter of the third...

Kind.

I'm telling you, it's aliens.

There are no such things as UFOs.

Minotaurs, haunted houses, Santa Claus, yes.

But UFOs? Don't be silly.

A UFO nut goes missing in a town where strange lights have been reported.

U-F-O.

Do not be deceived by any physical manifestation

you may encounter, they're absolutely not UFOs.

The only people I know that believe in UFOs are the same ones that think

that Elvis was the shooter on the grassy knoll.

Look, current estimates put the number

of habitable planets in our galaxy at 11 billion.

So it is highly unlikely that we are the only intelligent life in this universe.

I'll tell you what. We'll just fill in the crack you were about to make about us

and intelligent life, just skip right to the job.

Are you sure? It was quite cutting.

I promise to be properly offended.

I mean, I probably wouldn't have even understood it at first.

But I'll be offended later.

Where's the fun in that?

The Vallee scale is how we measure interplanetary contact

using the degree of physical evidence remaining on...

You're a UFO geek.

No, it's all right. It's just that you've never really,

like, geeked out about anything before.

Well, I just think that if a super intelligent, powerful alien race arrives,

we should be prepared.

You're planning on selling out the human race, aren't you?

I will absolutely sell out the human race to our new alien overlords.

Don't fight them, they know what's best for us.

- So, what's the plan, Baird? - We don't have a lot to go on here.

Independent journalist Victor Finch went missing.

Was abducted by aliens.

I will break every bone in your body.

Hey, when did you say this town was founded?

1953.

Huh.

Why?

Well, nine out of ten homes built in the '50s were ranch-style architecture.

These look like colonial revival, which would put them in late the 18, early 1900s.

Maybe they wanted a more old-fashioned, nostalgic look.

Yeah, that would explain the gas lamps.

Well, follow your instincts. If you think something's off about the town,

you and Cassandra see what you can learn about its history.

Find out if these lights are a new thing, if there's a history of disappearances.

Jones and I will check out the spot where the victim's truck was found.

- All right. - Okay.

Excuse me, ma'am.

"Ma'am?"

I don't get a lot of "ma'aming" around here.

Mostly just, "Hey, Mabel."

Mabel.

That's an old-fashioned name.

Ah, well, I'm an old-fashioned girl.

It's an old-fashioned town.

Oh, these things?

Yeah, they haven't worked in forever

but I like to tinker around with them from time to time.

It'd be a sight to see them all lit up, wouldn't it?

Yes, it would. It'd look like Paris.

Oh, well.

Oui.

Mabel Collins.

- Jacob, Jacob Stone. - Okay.

- This is Cassandra Cillian. - Hi.

Listen, we're the...

We're the Librarians.

Yeah, we're doing some research on town histories, so...

Ah, that makes sense.

- Yeah. - For once.

Is there someone we could talk to about it?

- I would recommend the town archivist. - Okay.

Family founded the place, so if they don't know it, it ain't worth knowing.

All right, can you point us in his direction?

Mabel Collins...

Collins Falls, you're the archivist?

Brains, too.

I'm the archivist, notary,

volunteer fire chief, and chancellor of the exchequer.

Well, technically "treasurer," but since I ordered the business cards, too,

who's gonna stop me?

Not a lot of town government, huh?

Not a lot of town.

Not much interesting around here.

We should probably ask about that local history stuff.

Or, like, anything at all.

Just...

I was kind of hoping there'd be crop circles.

This looks like where they found the truck.

Why park all the way back here?

Most hikers would park closer to the roads

so if they get lost, someone will notice sooner.

Don't ask me.

I don't even get why people go hiking.

He didn't want anyone to know he was here.

Or someone else moved the truck.

Who put a gas lamp in the middle of the woods?

Victor Finch?

Only you people could lose the Guardian.

Librarians, yes, we go through them like tissue paper.

But a Guardian?

- Okay. It wasn't even me. - Us? This cat right here.

I'd prefer to think of it as she lost me.

I mean, one minute she's all assault and battery,

and the next she's beamed up into space.

Or you ran. You have no idea what happened. So you came up with the story to cover.

I can see how you'd think that, but, no.

No one beamed her anywhere.

Says the guy with the teleporting door.

UFOs do not exist.

Say's the guy with the teleporting door.

Ah! Look, see, there.

Colonel Baird is still on the planet.

She's alive? She's safe?

She's still on the planet.

- Well, that narrows it down. - Magic is not an exact science.

If it were, it would be science.

Okay. So we assume that this is another disappearance.

Then whatever happened to Colonel Baird

is the same thing that happened to Victor Finch.

It seems like a reasonable assumption.

Only now that we've found Victor Finch...

- We got a witness. - Yes.

I'm telling you, I don't remember anything.

What's the last thing you do remember?

I remember being in the woods.

I'd been looking for the AN1.

- That means lights but no contact. - Yeah, yeah, what next?

Then nothing.

It feels like the whole last day is just gone.

Mr. Finch, you've been missing for three weeks.

What?

As requested, Victor's UFO equipment.

Why are you interested in that stuff? I thought you said UFOs were a crock.

They are. But the fools that chase them

can sometimes come, huh, up with something interesting.

See?

These goggles, they're some sort of aura filter.

There's an energy emission right behind him there in the woods.

That's the clearing with the gas lamp where Baird disappeared.

We need to know more about those gas lamps.

Someone should go back and talk to that town archivist.

- I'll, I'll... - It should probably be me.

I Can... I'll take it.

- You want to take this? - I'll go.

- You sure? I could come help. - You guys keep busy.

- Do you want me to send Jones? - No, no, no.

Okay. He's got it.

Hello.

- Hi. - Hey.

Boy, this is a hell of an archive you got here for a small town.

Ah. Well, you know, small towns.

God help you if you ever throw anything away.

Yeah.

Help you, Mr. Ma'am?

Please tell me you've taking that for a spin.

Me? No. I've never left town.

- Really? - Yeah.

Family obligations.

Well, family ain't easy.

No, it ain't.

Never even been down the highway to New York City.

You travel?

Well, I got a new job.

- Gets me out a little bit. - Okay.

Up until a couple of months ago, though,

I'd never been more than a tank of gas away from my parents' front porch

unless I was digging ditches out somewhere.

Is that what it is about the gas lamps?

You want to bring Paris here? You want to make it feel like you're there?

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice town,

just, I've got a whole warehouse full of memories of this place.

It'd sure be nice to have at least one wall of memories of somewhere else.

Anything else.

No, I know what you mean. Like not having a story

that doesn't start off, "You remember that night at Jimmy's Bar?"

Or, "Remember that waitress?

"Oh, yeah, you remember her because we go to that diner every weekend."

"You remember what happened at the town barbecue?"

"Which one, that one?" "No, the other one."

"That one?" "No, the other one."

Hey.

Yeah, just once, I wanna be able to say...

Remember that waiter,

that little café off Pont Neuf?

Remember when the car broke down in Moscow?

What was the name of that hotel we stayed at in Athens?

Remember the view from the Eiffel Tower?

It was raining, but the lights made everything glow.

Well, I, uh...

I don't have quite the imagination you do.

No, I, uh, made my choices and...

Well, I can't pretend otherwise, so...

Sorry, this just...

- Must seem pretty silly, I didn't... - No, no, no.

- I just... I can't. - Okay.

But, listen, the reason I came is because we have some surveying equipment

that picked up some weird readings off one of your gas lamps in the forest.

Show me.

Well, actually, if I could just see... Can I see some plans?

My town, my archives.

- Yes. Sure. - Show me.

Um...

- Watch your step. - Thanks.

Hey.

Mabel, you remember Cassandra?

This is Jenkins. This is Ezekiel.

You brought someone who is not a Librarian to here?

Yay!

So this is just how you found it?

Baird slammed the bloke into it and then, poof.

"Poof"? Someone went "poof"?

No, that's not... That's a figure of speech.

He's Australian.

We don't even know what he's saying half the time.

Do you have any idea what this is doing out here in the middle of the woods?

No. I've never seen this one.

So far it seems pretty...

What the hell?

- Optical illusion. - Optical illusion.

No, that was Colonel Baird.

You're right, it was an optical illusion.

That's what we call them in Australia. Colonel Bairds, you know.

"Oi. Sun in my eyes. Thought I saw a Colonel Baird."

Well, wow, you really don't expect me to buy that, do you?

- I don't know, maybe. - Well, that's actually worked before.

- Yeah, it does. It's weird. - Okay.

You're not librarians.

Well, no, actually, we are.

Mostly. But...

I really need you to trust me, okay?

I need you not to say anything to anyone else in town about this.

Look, if something's going on in my town, I need to know about it.

And I promise you. I promise, I'll tell you everything I know.

I really need you to go back to the archives right now

and dig up anything on these gas lamps.

Do not hold out on me.

I accept all your apologies.

So what? Baird's a ghost?

No, ghosts are ectoplasmic entities.

Colonel Baird was caught in some kind of energy discharge, but what kind?

- We need more data to narrow it down. - Precisely.

Fortunately, Mr. Finch provided us with the right tool for the job.

Mostly, he was in the ballpark. I've made a few adjustments and behold.

Ooh!

Now these lenses should allow you to perceive a range of energy frequencies.

Hopefully, in better focus than their predecessors.

Once we track the energies down to their source,

we should be able to piece together what happened, and hopefully reverse it.

Ezekiel will take these.

Weird magic energy is more Cassandra's thing.

Okay. I see enough psychedelic visions on my own, so, no, thank you.

Yes, and you're the one that lost her.

I'm gonna go down to the archive.

I want to see if I can dig up anything I can on these gas lamps,

see if I can tell where they came from. I don't know.

Is there a problem, sweetheart?

This is not what it looks like.

Looks like you broke into my archives.

Hope you didn't break the lock, because I'm also the maintenance department.

Yeah.

You don't trust me?

Listen, whatever is going on with these gas lamps,

it could be dangerous.

Well, if I can't stop you, we can work together.

Early town records are this way.

- Yeah. - It goes... Right.

Energy flow is...

That way.

How strong?

Stronger-ish.

Okay.

An energy differential is positive, it's growing.

Tulips

and roses and pansies.

But it's not random.

There's a design to it, it's all channels and flows.

It's a circuit.

The energy is flowing through the gas lamps across the town.

Where is it coming from, and why?

Your guess is as good as mine.

I'm pretty sure my guess is actually way better than yours.

Look, I think I can triangulate it back to the source.

I'm pretty sure you need me to...

Wait, what? So we're just like screaming whenever the mood takes us?

Baird, she's here...

Here?

Where? I mean, is she okay?

She's annoyed with me. So, yeah, she's fine.

Um...

She wants us to go that way.

Colonel Baird, the source of the circuit is that way.

So I think that's where we can find out what's causing this.

I think she wants you to go on ahead and for me to follow her this way.

Good plan. I can take care of myself.

Are you implying I can't?

No, Baird is.

Yeah, yeah, right behind you.

This isn't weird at all.

In the original proposed layout,

- Town Hall was on this side of Main Street. - Mmm-hmm.

They moved it. Why?

I don't know, maybe they changed their minds?

I don't know.

Okay, so there's a gas lamp where they were gonna build it.

They moved it to put a gas lamp there? It doesn't make sense to me.

Unless, the gas lamps were there and they built the town around it.

Yeah, someone built a bunch of gas lamps

in the middle of nowhere before the town was here.

I think you're reading just

a little bit too much into this.

Files.

What kind of files clink?

No, no, there's...

You want to tell me what you're really doing with those gas lamps?

Wardenclyffe Falls.

I thought this was Collins Falls.

Town?

I've already been to town.

That's not good.

If I show you, you have to promise to help.

I promise you that I will do the right thing.

Gas lamps were already here.

Because there was another town here?

Built by...

Nikola Tesla.

They're possessing people.

They're body snatching.

There he is! Get him!

The lamp post. It screwed with Victor. Let's see what it does with you guys.

Wait.

Oh!

Mr. Finch,

you scared me.

What are you doing out here?

Is there a problem, sweetheart?

You're not Finch, are you?

Ooh!

Sorry.

What...

Hey, guys. Up for a barricade?

A pack of body snatchers coming in hot?

No, listen, I know what's going on, okay?

There was another town before this one that was on the same site.

It was called Wardenclyffe Falls.

Oh, okay, yeah. I'll just barricade by myself then.

It was built 100 years ago, it was an experimental site created by...

- And you're not gonna believe this... - Nikola Tesla.

Genius inventor, rival of Edison,

and pretty much the reason why we have electricity in our homes.

Also, get the hell away from her.

She's trying to help us.

Are you?

- Uh, no, she's not body-snatched. - Body what?

- But they definitely are. - Norman, don't. Uh...

Norman? I thought your name was Victor.

Well, why don't we start with her because this photo is dated 1915.

I told you I had family commitments.

This is it.

In 1915, Tesla was doing experiments in wireless power transmission.

That was Tesla's dream.

Like Wi-Fi only for electricity. Not just the Internet.

The gas lamps,

they're wireless power transmitters.

Prototypes.

But something went wrong.

We activated the system and everyone got

zapped, out of sync.

Out of sync with what?

The universe.

We were stuck in some inter-dimensional border.

We could see the world, we were aware of it,

but we couldn't interact with it.

That's what happened to Baird.

How many of you are there?

Eighty-seven souls.

That sort of flux is inherently unstable. How has it lasted this long?

Once he realized what had happened, Tesla modified his transmitters,

the gas lamps,

to create an energy field that would keep us stable.

Without them we cease to exist.

What about you?

I mean, you're still in your original body.

I was in the main control room when it happened,

insulated.

Most of the people were knocked entirely out of phase,

but I was winking in and out.

Tesla was able to anchor me in my body

by turning me into sort of a grounding wire, I guess.

- I've got a question. - Yeah?

- What's with the body snatching? - It's necessary.

It's possible for us to interact with the world through others.

Interface with the nervous system just enough to...

Yeah, I'm not so concerned with how you do it,

as to whether or not the bodies you're riding are okay with it.

We only use them for a couple of hours at a time.

Our energy field just interferes with their memories.

They just lose a couple of hours here and there like everyone does.

And what about that skin you're riding right now?

You've been in there three weeks.

- How much time is he losing? - All right, easy.

Easy?

I made a good living walking the line between snatching and borrowing, but this?

- These people have gone too far. - It was necessary.

Norman, we need their help.

So, you wanna tell us what's going on?

We needed a body that we can hold on to for a little longer, a stranger.

Someone in town that no one would notice was missing.

It's the only way that we could fix things.

And we are so, so close to fixing things.

And you have a plan, young lady?

Let me show you.

Please.

Tesla cut a deal with the government.

They could have some of his patents if they never touched the old facility.

They erased the records, built over the town, but they had to leave this dam.

Tesla spent the rest of his life trying to figure out how to bring us back,

but he was never able to in his lifetime.

No, but how could he?

I mean, dimensional reintegration takes an enormous amount of energy,

particularly for people who have been in flux as long as you have.

This is a capacitor. Tesla built a capacitor to store the energy.

The turbines out at the dam...

Have been charging it for the past hundred years.

Wow.

This way.

See there?

The outer casings on the turbines are shot, but the mechanisms still work.

A hundred years' worth of charge?

That might just do it.

But we need everything to be ready fast.

The capacitor is old. It's failing.

So all of the work you've been doing is to keep this running?

Yes, Norman's been doing his best, that's why he needed a longer term body,

but even with that, we need to activate it in the next day or two

or it'll break down completely.

The energy gets discharged and we'll be stuck.

We've been running tests every...

Which have caused atmospheric disturbances?

- The lights? - Yeah.

All the UFO sightings, it's from your apparatus?

I told you, no such thing as UFOs.

This may work.

But there's only so much we can do.

I mean, we're engineers, but we're not Tesla.

Now that you know, will you help us?

Will you bring an entire lost town back into the world?

Please.

You said you'd do the right thing.

Please.

I say no.

They're taking over bodies instead of asking for help. You just don't do that.

They're asking for help now.

Yeah, only 'cause they got caught.

They're people

and they're trapped.

Can you imagine being stuck for 100 years,

watching the world go by?

Wanting to do things, wanting to go places?

Look, all of this is assuming that we can help.

Based on Tesla's plans, I give it a 50-50 shot at working.

And if it doesn't work, then what?

If it doesn't work, the excess energy gets dispersed through the gas lamps circuit.

It'll destroy the lamps

which is the only thing keeping them stable.

So if the lamps go, they go.

Yeah. That's if they're telling the truth.

This isn't a choice.

Right, wrong, true, false, none of that matters.

Like it or not, it's the only way to rescue Colonel Baird.

I already promised to do the right thing, so...

Well, they'll need someone at the controls to process the math

and adapt on the fly.

At least Colonel Baird will owe me one.

To make Tesla's plan work, we need to get creative.

First we need to rebuild the relay point up on the roof.

Tesla's blueprints called for copper wiring,

but carbon composites will handle the voltage better.

The capacitor is falling apart.

So it's harmonic resonance may fluctuate unpredictably,

which means bigger is better.

And we need the gas lamps all cleaned and refurbished.

Spit-shined, like fresh from the factory.

Guys, we only get one shot at this. Let's not take chances.

So, what's the deal? I mean,

you're in your own body, why'd you stick around for 100 years?

The gas lamps stabilize me, too.

If I cross the border of the circuit I'd be as lost as anyone.

So that's why you didn't travel?

Yeah.

What's your excuse?

What do you mean?

I saw that look in your eye

when you looked at my postcards.

You like art, architecture.

To see the Taj Mahal,

the Sphinx, the Sistine Chapel...

I can't go.

I never could.

You just didn't.

Why?

My great granddad started an oil rigging outfit in the 1800s,

and it did well.

Pride and joy of my father's life.

And then there was a day

when the company started going under and he was, well...

He was in no condition to run the place.

So...

Sick?

Was he sick? Yeah.

It was a little bit of that, a lot of the drink.

You...

Stayed to run the family company, that's a good reason.

It's an excuse.

I mean, every year I spent not leaving,

the easier it was to stay.

And none of my folks, none of my friends,

they never got 50 miles from home.

That's the way they liked it.

You spend time with people who

don't do something,

and you start feeling like you can't do it.

That's how it goes.

And now that you know better?

Now that I know better?

Hmm.

So how was your first kiss

with a 130-year-old woman?

Huh.

- It'll take a little getting used to. - Oh.

All set here. We're good to go.

Now, if everything works correctly,

Colonel Baird should be the first one restored.

She's not been in flux very long.

So it will not take as much energy to reintegrate her into this reality.

Okay. Last in, first out, huh?

Oh, yes, without a doubt.

Well, assuming that Miss Cillian and I have successfully implemented

the theoretical scribblings of a mad genius using abandoned equipment

that's been in water for 100 years.

Good pep talk.

You ready?

Norman?

Let's do it.

I can feel it.

Whoa. That's a big surge.

- Did you do that? - No, I think it's just a...

Oh, no. The capacitor.

It's amplifying the harmonics exponentially.

What does that mean? Will it still work?

I don't know.

If this doesn't work, the energy won't just blow out the gas lamps.

It's gonna blow out everything around it.

For how far?

For miles.

Hundreds of miles.

We need to shut it down.

If it works, will it still blow up?

No. But as near as I can tell, we only have a 50-50 shot at it working.

There are 87 people trapped here.

And there are 10 times as many people living in town,

more in the greater blast area.

We did not factor that into the risk.

I'll take that risk.

I won't.

No!

No shutting down and no turning back.

I can't go on like this.

We can't go on like this. We deserve to live.

No!

No! No!

Think, think, think.

Okay.

Intertwining, interweaving,

music and melodies.

The key change.

Is it supposed to be making that noise?

What noise?

Hey, are you guys hearing some kind of high-pitched beat?

Like... Eh.

Ehhh-eh-eh.

One short, one long, two short.

It's Morse code. It's "L" for Librarians.

Hey, something's wrong.

Come on.

- You heard me. - Well, I did.

- What was that? - Mosquito tone.

It's a high-pitched sound that only young people can hear.

No offense.

I adjusted the frequencies of the turbines to send you a message.

Why? What's wrong?

We were.

If this doesn't work, it's gonna blow big.

Tunguska big.

Yeah, but it might not blow, it might work.

I'm so, so sorry.

I don't think we can take this risk.

If we stop it now, if we pull the plug,

the energy will discharge safely, guaranteed.

Everyone will be trapped, including Colonel Baird.

I think she'd be the first one to make that call.

I promised I'd do the right thing.

The relay on the rooftop,

it has an override switch, we can turn it off from there.

And I will endeavor to stabilize the energy flow with Miss Cillian.

The rest of you, go.

- Are you all right? - Yeah. All right.

- We can't get through that. - Maybe I can.

- What? - I'm stabilized, I'm a grounding wire.

The energy would discharge through me.

With that much juice? Even a grounding wire can burn out.

You have a better idea?

If I hold on to you, is that gonna ground me, too?

No clue.

All right.

All right.

Yeah.

Uh... Guys. Company.

Just take care of it.

- Are you okay? - Yeah.

Yeah, are you?

How about we just talk about this?

Or you could just wait there.

- I can't... I don't think I can walk. - All right.

This wire will help me bleed off even more of the power.

What's the name of that waiter?

What?

The one in the little café off of Pont Neuf

when we were in Paris.

Okay, short legs, good to know.

You're thinking of Budapest.

No.

Budapest was where you lost your luggage.

Paris was...

You mean, Paris was the rain.

Baird, you're back.

It's working, it's working.

Remember the view from the Eiffel Tower?

It was raining...

But the lights made everything glow.

Everything glow, yeah.

Stone, it's working!

Oi!

Adieu, monsieur.

Up there.

Au revoir, ma'am.

It was working, it was gonna work.

We don't know that.

Colonel Baird was trapped for a day,

the rest of them had been in there for a century.

We just...

We just don't know that it would've held together long enough to help them.

It'll really take another hundred years for the capacitor to power up and try again?

There's no capacitor.

The discharge fried it.

The only thing that still works are the gas lamps.

Which means they're all still trapped.

There isn't enough energy for them to even communicate with us.

It wasn't your fault.

Sometimes you just lose.

You did good, all of you, but sometimes,

you just lose.

This bites.

Colonel, I thought you might want this.

- What is this? - The appointment book.

The Library, by its nature, works on timescales

beyond the normal human lifespan.

If a Librarian, for example,

built a new capacitor in a dam with a few stabilizing design features

and let it charge for a century or so...

They'd wanna make a note of it

so future Librarians know there's an appointment to keep.

Chop-chop.

Hey.

We were gonna grab a drink. Want to join?

Oh, not tonight.

I got somewhere I gotta be.

Okay.