Act III, Scene 1a: Montana wilderness
[~5:30][ RURAL MONTANA ]
Lights rise to an alpine meadow in Montana, beneath a ridge rising toward mountain peaks. In the foreground is a restored early 1970s pickup truck. Pike’s family’s ranch is in the distance. Pike is seated in folding chair with a tacklebox and fly lures, frozen but as though in the midst of preparing bait. Vina, now a different woman (Pike’s former fiancé, Vivian) is putting food and beer from a cooler onto a folding card-table.
VIVIAN
[spoken]
Ice tea?
[after a pause]
Chris? Ice tea?
[0:27] Startled, Pike turns around.
PIKE
[0:29] Vivian!
VIVIAN
[sung]
[0:31] What’s the matter, Chris? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!
PIKE
[0:36] It can’t be you! You’re another illusion!
VIVIAN
[0:41] Woman of your dreams again? I think you need a new line sweetheart.
PIKE
[0:47] I know you’re not real. Tell me…
[pondering a moment]
tell me the year and make of this truck.
VIVIAN
[1:00] A ’73 Dodge…Sonny restored it last summer. You and your quizzes. You think I could forget that? You’re going on about it constantly.
PIKE
[1:14] Of course you’d know. You know everything I know!
VIVIAN
[1:22] As your wife, I like to think so.
PIKE
[spoken]
Married…Were we were married…
VIVIAN
[1:31] Yes of course, Chris—
PIKE
[realizing the connection]
[1:34] I remember, yes…
VIVIAN
[1:37] Well I should hope so!
PIKE
[1:40] It feels like only yesterday…like a dream—
VIVIAN
[1:47] Chris—you aren’t sleeping. This is life.
PIKE
[1:54] —a dream come true—but with no struggle, no loss…no grieving.
[2:05] Only love. What a fantasy!
VIVIAN
[2:13] Christopher, look at me.
PIKE
[2:15] I see you so clearly. And oh how I’ve longed to be near you again!
VIVIAN
[2:26] This is home, Chris. You’ve been home before. This is no different.
PIKE
[2:37] I know, love. I can feel it too.
VIVIAN
[2:43] As summer passes
With the cones on all the juniper aglow,
[2:54] Come walk with me—through the valley
Up the ridge line, to the autumn snow—
VIVIAN [3:07] Come home with me, too, and be warm, then Behind a cabin window’s silver haze
[3:21] Lit from within as nights lengthen. But just like home, Chris, the winter passes… |
PIKE
[3:10] Yes, my love…It’s what I wished for…
[3:20] All I’ve wanted, I know. |
PIKE
… [3:44] I know. But…you don’t exist.
VIVIAN
[3:49] Chris! No—
PIKE
[3:51] These are just wishes…wishes I told Kate.
VIVIAN
[3:59] Christopher, please. Wishes come true here…
PIKE
[4:06] But with none of the frustration, [4:11] nor the triumph of ambitions fulfilled.
VIVIAN
[pleading more desperately]
[4:10] Chris… [4:16] No Chris! Look at me! [4:22] Please—
PIKE
[4:20] I see you Vina. They’ll have me protect you. Feel compassion, but it’s not real.
Vina now answers to her own name. She speaks, defiantly and maybe tearfully, for herself now, rather than for the fantasy she’s playing.
VINA
[4:33] I am real!
PIKE
[4:38] You’re what I want you to be!
VINA
[4:42] No—no, you still don’t
understand—
[now more resigned, still shaking her head]
[4:51] I am…what I feel…
And you…what I want
[5:00] You were brought here
From my dreams.
That’s why you were chosen…. Don’t you see? They read my thoughts, my feelings. My dreams of what would be the perfect man. And that’s why they picked you. I can’t help but love you. And they expect you to feel the same way.
VINA
I see it now…
[increasingly bitter]
You’ve been home before.
Fought these battles before.
Am I nothing new to you?!
Act III, Scene 1b — Vina: "Don't You Have A Dream?" [~7:45; scene 1 totals ~10:00 with edits/merges]
As Vina continues, the rural scene transforms back to the cage.
[PIKE’S CAGE ON TALOS IV]
VINA
[0:02] Don’t you have a dream?
[0:33] Let me try—
PIKE
[0:57] Yes, yes...I think so... [1:11] You can start...by telling me about them.
[1:22] Is there a way to keep them out of my thoughts?
Vina freezes, and averts her eyes.
PIKE
[1:32] You're afraid!
[now with less anger]
[1:37] There is a way...
VINA
[spoken]
You're a fool!
PIKE
[1:43] And you're an illusion. So there's not much point in this conversation, is there?
VINA
[1:56] Perhaps...if you asked me something I could answer—
PIKE
[2:18] How far can they control my mind?
VINA
[2:29] If I tell you, will you pick some dream you've had?
[2:41] And let me live it with you...?
Pike nods.
[2:56] They can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.
PIKE
[3:05] So they can only try to trick me with an illusion?
VINA
[3:13] And if you don’t cooperate…they can punish you…
[3:22] You’ll find out about that.
PIKE
[3:27] And where do they come from? They must have lived on the planet’s surface once.
VINA
[3:35] Please… I can’t say too much…
PIKE
[3:41] Why do they live underground?
VINA
[3:44] I don’t know. They’re survivors of something — millions of years ago. Their whole world collapsed.
[4:05] Life has returned above since then, it seems. But they have evolved…everything about them has changed to suit this darkness.
PIKE
[4:30] So they can’t go back then. And by capturing us—they can live vicariously. In our minds.
VINA
[4:43] Yes…but it’s not like that. It’s important to them, yes…but to them, dreams and illusions are an infinite world.
PIKE
[suddenly comprehending]
[4:59] Or a drug—
VINA
[5:01] No!—
PIKE
[5:02] —and if they want us to live full emotional lives, they need to have more than one of each animal.
Lights and set transform and they find themselves in the Talosian cage. The Talosians have been watching from the viewing platform, and now exit.
VINA
[5:13] Please…I answered your questions! You promised.
PIKE
[5:22] A bargain with someone who doesn’t exist.
VINA
[5:28] I'm human. As real as you are.
A glow emerges around Vina, who is startled suddenly by pain. But it is familiar to her; she kneels in resignation.
[5:41] Stop...please don’t punish me!
[her breath suddenly quickening, shortening]
[5:54] I’m trying…
PIKE
[partly relenting, partly still in denial]
[6:00] Tell me what's happening.
[now frantic, to the unseen Talosians]
[6:05] Don’t do this!
Pike holds her helplessly as she convulses, then looks vaguely left and right.
[6:08] She has done nothing wrong!
KEEPER
[to other Talosians]
[6:11] These emotions might seem frightening:
[6:19] Fear, protection, and empathy with deep pain—but they lay a foundation for strong companionship.
VINA
[To Pike]
[6:33] It will never work on you!
KEEPER
[6:36] And from companionship comes the fullest human experience.
VINA
[to her captors]
[6:47] Don’t you see?! It won’t matter what you give him! If it’s his to take, he’ll never dwell there in happiness.
[7:02] He’ll dream of what he can’t do. What he can’t have!
[to Pike, more directly]
[7:11] You say I'm just a fantasy.
[7:22] But Christopher -- you want what you don't dare imagine.