Original subtitles

[children laughing]

[child shouts in distance]

[creature chittering]

[creature screeches]

[ball bouncing]

Worms.

[wheels squeaking]

[car tires screech]

[car door opens]

[door closes]

[groans]

- [elevator bell dings, doors open] - [groans, mutters]

- [nurse] Hold that elevator, please. - Yep.

[rhythmic beeping]

[doors close]

[beeping continues]

[elevator bell dings]

["What a Wonderful World" Muzak cover playing]

- [electronic beep] - [presses button]

[announcer on PA] Dr. Neilson to Oncology. Dr. Neilson to Oncology.

- Morning, Barbara. - Good morning.

[child] You wanna play a game?

Hello, Noah.

Hello, Eli.

[chuckles] I brought you something.

[sighs]

Noah, I thought we would look at some pictures today.

Is that okay with you?

I got these from your room, and you know what, Noah?

There's a building in every one of these pictures,

and it looks to me like a farmhouse.

Have you ever been to a farm?

[slurping]

It kinda actually looks like

this farmhouse.

Have you seen this photo before?

Maybe at my house?

What is it, Noah? What are you thinking?

This is a drawing that you did...

which reminded me...

of a drawing that my wife did.

Noah, do you recognize this picture?

[whimpers]

It's okay, Noah. You can tell me.

That's me.

[Eli] That's you?

That's me. That's you.

What are we doing in this drawing?

[Noah sighs]

[whispers] We're looking for our friend.

[whispers] What friend?

Do we find our friend?

And when we find our friend, what happens?

[wind whistling]

[faucet dripping]

Noah, did you know my wife Lynn?

[creature chittering]

It's... It's behind my eye.

What is? What is it, Noah?

- [creature growling] - [breathing heavily]

[panting]

Noah.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no, no,

- no, no! - Noah. Noah. Noah, stay with me.

- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! - Noah, stay with me. I'm right here.

- [Noah gasping, groaning] - [Eli] Noah? Noah.

Noah. I got you. I got you.

Help! I need help here!

His skin is freezing. He's tachycardic.

- I need a gurney. And page Neuro! - Get a gurney up here!

Noah. Noah. It's gonna be okay. I'm here. Okay?

[squelching]

Dr. Adler?

Dr. Adler.

The f... Did you see that?

See what?

Noah. Noah, can you hear me?

If you can hear me, squeeze my hand.

- Noah, squeeze my hand. - What are we looking at?

He collapsed. He's nonresponsive. He's not following commands.

His pupils are nonreactive.

- Noah, I know this is scary. - [doctor] Okay.

Noah, we're gonna move you to the gurney, okay?

Okay.

- Watch his head. Watch his head. - Easy now.

[paramedic 2] I got it.

[paramedic 1] Look out. One, two, three.

- [bees buzzing] - [Eli] It's okay, Noah.

I'm here. I'm here. I'm not leaving.

Page Dr. Wilkinson. I need an emergency consult, now.

Don't worry, Noah.

[rumbling]

[squawking]

[rumbling]

- [gasps] - [ice breaks]

[rumbling]

[ice breaks]

[ice breaks]

[staff clamoring]

[ice cracking]

[ice breaks]

[ice breaks]

[ice cracking]

[Noah breathing heavily]

[rhythmic beeping]

[heartbeat thumping]

How you doing, buddy?

I'll be back later. You hang in there, Noah.

[rhythmic beeping]

[announcer on PA] All available staff, report to Child Psych.

All available staff, report to Child Psych.

Is this really necessary?

[sighs]

[epidemiologist] Maybe AFM caused by some kind of enterovirus?

Any cold-like symptoms, limb weakness in the past few days?

No, nothing like that.

99.7. Slightly elevated.

- Have you had that dressing looked at? - No, it's fine.

Jane! Jane.

Oh, boy.

Jane, how is he? I need to get in to see him.

Yeah, that's not gonna happen.

Jane, I promised him I would stay with him.

I'm sorry, Eli, he's in isolation, but I just examined him.

He's alert. He's aware, presenting with spontaneous eye opening, meaningful...

Jane, this is not environmental. It's psychological.

- What are you talking about? - Now, just listen to me.

I was with him when it happened. I was looking right into his face.

He reacted to a picture.

No. What about the other kids? Half the ward is down. Twelve other kids.

Same symptoms?

Symptoms are all over the place.

One has paraplegia, no discernible injury. Another, left side hemiplegia.

Some are vomiting, others hyperventilating.

Yeah. It's... It's too widespread. It has to be environmental.

The other kids were watching. Nurse, what did you see?

Well, once Noah went down and-and we were wheeling him out,

all of a sudden the other kids were falling.

[stammers] I mean, it was almost like he paralyzed them all with his mind.

Conversion disorder.

Just listen to me, now.

Think about it. Noah experiences an episode of conversion disorder.

He's surrounded by a very vulnerable population.

Kids who were susceptible to his energy. So his reaction spreads.

And mass psychogenic illness?

You bet.

No.

Conversion disorder is very rare.

I-I know it is. I know it is, but it fits the scenario.

And if I'm right, we gotta get this thing under control immediately.

These are highly suggestible kids.

This thing could tear through the entire ward.

But if we can treat patient zero successfully,

the symptoms in the other kids will resolve as well.

Okay.

All right. We'll keep looking for an organic cause,

and in the meantime, if you're right,

you need to go home and figure out what Noah's so afraid of

that it could have triggered a stress response

severe enough to cause all of this.

Mmm.

[sighs]

[person on laptop] In the fall of 2008,

just two months into her senior year at Roberdeau Prep,

18-year-old Ashley Wilson inexplicably developed uncontrollable spasms,

twitches, and tics.

Wilson's initial diagnosis pointed to myoclonus

until other members of her volleyball team

began to develop similar symptoms one by one...

[water bubbling]

[faucet dripping]

[dripping continues]

[Cleo] Dr. Adler.

Dr. Adler.

- Dr. Adler, what the hell? - [gasps]

- I thought you said it was an emergency. - Uh, it is. It is.

- You're napping. - I was thinking.

Thinking in your sleep?

[sighs]

I'll tell ya, this insomnia is driving me crazy.

I don't sleep at all anymore. I just pass out at random times.

I wanna show you something.

- I showed this picture to Noah... - Mm-hmm.

And he collapsed,

and it spurred an episode of mass psychogenic illness.

Wait, what? Are you serious?

Half the kids' ward is down.

Holy crap. When I was an undergrad,

I studied a case in Denver of a soccer game.

Twenty-two kids got this stomach bug thing,

but it turns out it was totally in their heads.

So did you get a chance to examine all the kids?

No, they locked the ward down as a precaution in case it's environmental,

but it's not.

I just have to figure out why a picture my wife drew

can trigger conversion disorder in one of my patients.

Your wife drew that?

Yeah.

Huh.

It looks so different from her usual stuff.

Mm-hmm.

Scary.

Yeah.

Well, apparently, Noah thought it was scary too.

I just have to find out what this is a picture of.

Well, do you have more pages from her book?

No. [groans]

I mean, didn't she usually do sketches first?

And multiple versions?

Come on.

Did you look over there?

- Where? - Over here.

No, that's just medical stuff she knew would upset me.

Oh. Okay.

I'm gonna check the bookshelves in the living room.

Okay.

[breathes deeply]

Stuff she knew would upset me.

[box shuffling]

[sighs]

[faucet drips]

[dripping continues]

Cleo!

[muttering]

[grunts]

Cleo, let's try that one over here.

These drawings are so creepy.

Doesn't quite feel like a children's story, you know?

Yeah. A friend said it was coming to her in dreams.

Hmm.

Oh, she wrote something on the back of this one.

- Who's Benjamin? - Hmm?

It says something here about Benjamin.

"Benjamin's nightmare. What was he so afraid of?"

Let me see. [sighs]

Mmm.

She had an ex named Benjamin...

Walker.

Benjamin Walker.

Benjamin Walker.

Benjamin Walker.

B.W.

Benjamin Walker.

Look at this.

"Check Mom's storage for Benjamin tapes."

Benjamin tapes? Do you know what that means?

Lynn used to record ideas for stuff that she was working on.

Uh, notes to herself. Images, names, random details.

And she used to use cassette tapes.

"Benjamin's nightmare. What was he so afraid of?"

Wait! What does any of this have to do with Noah?

I don't know. Maybe it makes no sense at all.

But Noah is literally paralyzed by fear. This picture is what triggered him.

So, if I can figure out what Lynn was drawing

and what Benjamin was so afraid of,

maybe I can help this kid.

Noah's voluntary muscles are paralyzed.

Paralyzed. What do you mean, "paralyzed"?

Well, we still need to run some tests,

but it's possible that he's suffering from a...

a rare disorder called locked-in syndrome.

His brain is still functioning...

His brain is still functioning?

Okay. I'm... I-I'm confused here because I-I-I...

Y-You're saying that it's like he's locked inside his own body?

- [stammers] Yes. - But why?

Well, we're still not sure.

Uh, a number of kids have been hit

- with a variety of symptoms... - Oh, my God.

All at the same time. So...

You said that Dr. Adler was there in the room when this happened, right?

So how can something like this happen with his doctor right there,

and nobody knows why?

- I don't know. - I wanna go see him now.

Please.

[monitor beeping]

[knocking on window]

Noah.

Noah, sweetie. Noah.

You know how she is in the evenings, Dr. Adler.

- Yeah. - She is not at her best.

I got it. [sighs]

[aide] Mrs. Hoffman, you have a visitor.

- I'll leave you two alone. - [Eli] Okay.

Hello, Ruth.

It's good to see you.

Uh, it's me, Eli.

Lynn's Eli.

Lynn? [breathes heavily]

Is Lynn here?

No, no, L-Lynn's not here. It's just... It's just me.

But you remember me. I'm your son-in-law, Eli.

Where is she?

Ruth, I'm looking for some recordings.

Do you remember Benjamin?

He was the man Lynn was dating before she and I met.

Oh.

You don't look so good, honey. And you're all sweaty and...

- Are you all right? - Yeah, I'm fi... I'm fine. I-I'm fine.

But do you remember where you put Lynn's old tapes?

Tapes...

Oh. I have tapes.

Lucky for you, I am quite the music aficionado.

Ruth, I didn't mean music. I meant Lynn's tapes.

- Shush! - [button clicks]

Just listen to this.

[button clicks]

- ["What a Wonderful World" playing] - Oh.

[song continues]

Lynn always said you were a wonderful dancer.

Oh, I...

[chuckles]

[faucet dripping]

[water bubbling]

[dripping continues]

[music stops]

[Ben gasping, mumbling]

- [Lynn] It's 3:56 a.m. - [Ruth] Oh, dear.

- I taped over the old tapes. - [Lynn] Tuesday, June 18th, 1978.

- Ben, it's okay. - [Ben] No. No.

- Out. [grunting] - [Lynn] It-It's just a dream.

[Ben] They're... They're in me.

[Ben] Help... Help me. Get them out.

- [Lynn] Babe? Get what out? - [Ben] Get them out. Worms. Worms!

- [Lynn] D... Did you say "worms"? - [Ben panting]

Worms! Worms! Get them out!

- [Ruth] Lynn. - [Ben] Get...

- [tape stops] - [Ruth] Lynn.

What did you do? Where is she?

Lynn's not here.

You killed her.

No. No, Ruth. The... The cancer killed her.

No! No, no, no. Eli, don't say such things!

Oh, no! What...

- Ruth, it's okay. Hey, it's... - [Ruth cries] What...

- Ruth. Ruth. - [crying] What...

- Ruth, listen to me. - What?

Lynn is very sorry that she can't come to see you.

And she told me to tell you that she misses you so much,

but she's very busy right now.

And she'll come next week to see you, okay?

Oh. [breathes heavily] Oh. Oh, okay. Oh.

- Okay? - Okay. Good.

You know... [chuckles] I'd rather see her than you...

- I understand. I do. - If you know what I mean. [chuckles]

Never did get along very well, did we, you and I?

No, we... we didn't.

- [Ben] Get them out. Get them out. - [Lynn] Babe? Get what out?

[Ben] Worms. Worms!

[Lynn] D... Did you say "worms"?

[Ben] Worms! Worms!

[Ben] Get them out! [screams] Get them out!

[tape rewinds]

[Lynn] Did you say worms?

[Ben] Worms! Worms! Get them out! [screams]

- [tape rewinds] - [Lynn] ...worms?

[Ben] Worms! Worms! Get them out!

[tape rewinds]

- [Lynn] ...worms? - [Ben] Worms! Worms!

- [tape rewinds] - [Lynn] ...worms?

- [button clicks] - [Lynn, echoing] Worms? Worms? Worms?

Noah. See, it's me. It's just me. I'm gonna take this off.

You said there was something behind your eye, right?

Okay, I want you to listen to this.

- [Ben] Get them out. Get them out. - [Lynn] Babe? Get what out?

- [Ben] Worms. Worms! - [monitor beeping rapidly]

- [Lynn] Did you say "worms"? - [Noah grunts]

- [hyperventilating] - Noah.

- [creature burrowing] - [mutters]

Can you feel that?

[grunts]

[Denise] Doctor, what's going on? Doctor.

- [metal clatters] - [rapid beeping continues]

[Denise] Hey! Dr. Adler, what are you doing? Hey!

Dr. Adler! Hey!

[no audible dialogue]

[exhales]

[no audible dialogue]

[Jane] What did you do?

I got it.

["What a Wonderful World" playing]