Episode: 1.12
Air date: October 17, 2003
Cast Members: Desi Stark, Doug, JD, and Michael Chen

Previously on Slaying Here in Allentown

• JD’s conversation with Kevin in the lobby of Aegis Security: I only know one thing, but I'm very good at it. And that's how to survive. And I don't need any help with that. OK? … I want you to stop trying to help me and stop trying to save me. I mean it. … I'm kind of a jinx. You're going to get in all kinds of trouble, and hurt... or worse. [Episode 1.11]
• A shot of the drug deal outside the school from Episode 1.01, with Police Chief Kuhn’s voice-over from Episode 1.04: I want to find out everybody who's associated with these low-lifes. I'm gonna bring 'em all in, and I'm gonna take 'em all down.
• JD and Doug searching through a blood-covered tent. Tracks in the blood look almost like… a tentacle. [Episode 1.11]
• The battle with Ernesto, where Doug is decked, Kevin’s throat is slashed, Desi wanders in front of a car, and JD is kidnapped. [Episode 1.11]

Teaser

• Exterior street scene, nighttime. A figure, silhouetted by streetlights, approaches the camera. It’s carrying something large over its shoulder. The "something" appears to be a body in a fireman’s carry. As the figure is walking toward the camera, twice we dissolve to a point in time a few seconds ahead. The result is that with each dissolve, the walking figure "fades out" from its current location and "fades in" a few feet closer to the camera. After the last dissolve, we clearly see that the walking figure is Ernesto, carrying an unconscious JD.
• Cut to another nighttime street scene. Two ambulances are there, their lights flashing. Kevin and Desi are lying on the ground, unconscious, as paramedics treat them. There's quite a bit of blood around Kevin.
  • Another pair of paramedics has set up their equipment around Doug's unconscious form. As a paramedic with a stethoscope is about to take Doug’s heart rate, something under Doug's shirt moves. The paramedic stares, then shouts out, "I might have a dissected aorta here!"
  • The paramedic tears Doug's shirt open. Doug's aorta plops out onto his chest! Wait a second -- that's not an artery writhing there. It's some kind of... leech! About a foot long, maybe longer, wriggling on Doug's chest. The EMT jumps back in terror. One end of the blood-red leech-thing is clamped onto Doug's chest.
• Cut back to Ernesto. He’s walking along when he notices two men up ahead at an ATM. He slows and proceeds cautiously, so as not to be noticed carrying a body. He starts to mutter something in Latin when his cell phone rings.
• Both men turn. One shields his eyes from the light at the ATM as he peers in Ernesto's direction. Ernesto, angered at this turn of events, attempts to take his cell phone off his belt. He can’t get it loose, and he can't seem to silence it. His anger turns to rage. Finally, he tears the cell phone off his belt and throws it one of the men at the ATM. The cell phone explodes against the wall next to the man who was shielding his eyes as Ernesto shouts, "What are you looking at?!" Both men run.
• As Ernesto continues, the ATM starts to beep. On the ATM's screen are the words, "Please take your card." Ernesto nervously looks around, but doesn’t slow down. Instead, he starts to incant as he walks: Absconde, obscurate, ....
• Back to the accident scene. Desi is loaded into an ambulance. A police car is there as well. Mr. Stark and Mrs. Stark are standing there, watching, holding each other. The ambulance takes off, siren blaring.
  • As Doug is being loaded into the same ambulance as Desi, one of the EMTs asks the other, "So we're just gonna leave that thing on him?" The other replies, "They don't want us to try to remove it. They said they'd deal with it at the hospital."
  • In the background, four EMTs are still feverishly working on Kevin as he lies on the sidewalk.
• Cut to a shot of a carful of teenagers stopped at a red light. The camera is looking through the windshield at the outside world. Ernesto enters the frame from the left, and as soon as he does so, all of the kids in the car look either down or away. None of them look in Ernesto's direction. Ernesto crosses the frame and exits off the right-hand edge. As soon as he's gone, the kids look forward again.
• Kevin is being loaded into the second ambulance. The EMTs look grim. As the ambulance pulls away from the curb, Mr. and Mrs. Stark stand there, watching it leave. They're holding each other anxiously.
• Cut to a medium shot of Ernesto. He stops on the street. Faint pulses of red and blue wash over his face. He's looking at the Lobo house. Several paddy wagons are on the street outside the house, their red and blue lights flashing. The cops are herding all the Lobos into the paddy wagons. "Perfect!" Ernesto grumbles to himself. "Just perfect."
• Ernesto turns and walks away from the Lobo house. Because of the late hour, there are only a few people on the streets, watching the police action. All of them look away or move away as Ernesto enters their field of view. 
• Ernesto turns to a row of one-car garages along the street. He dips into his pants pocket and produces a key. As he bends down to unlock the garage door, JD's arm flops over his shoulder and dangles in front of him. Hanging from her arm is a blood-red, leechlike thing, just like the one on Doug. Ernesto looks at it with mild surprise, then grabs it along its middle and squeezes. It pops like a water balloon and blood splashes everywhere. Ernesto turns back to the garage door, unlocks it and opens it, and steps inside. 
• Lobos are being led out of the house and into the paddy wagons by policemen. One of these Lobos is Pedro. As he approaches the paddy wagon, he looks down the street. Backing out of a garage is a beat-up car, mostly the color of primer, with a loud muffler. As the car backs onto the street, it's tail-end is toward the Lobo house. Pedro notices the car and sees its vanity license plate: LUPITO. As the car takes off away from the Lobo house, Pedro is pushed into the paddy wagon.
• Cut to the interior of a hospital. Desi and Doug's gurneys stop at the emergency room. Doug slowly raises his head to look around. He sees the leech-thing writhe on his chest. Doug's expression changes to one of horror. His head falls back to the gurney as he starts to feel faint. Kevin's gurney, guided by orderlies, goes sailing by. The camera follows the gurney up until it passes through the double doors into the surgery suite.
• Cut to the interior of a very industrial-looking -- but also very abandoned -- facility. In the dim light, we can make out many pieces of unidentifiable equipment. From off-camera we hear the sound of chains clinking. The camera pans over to Ernesto as he shoves JD's body through some kind of small opening. From her point of view, we see Ernesto close the door -- a five-sided affair, shaped almost like a squat home plate in baseball -- on the opening with the loud grating of unoiled hinges and a very final-sounding clang! There’s a heavy scraping sound as a latch is thrown into place. Cut to Ernesto’s point of view as he closes the latch. The heavy steel door says Furnace #3. Cut to opening credits and theme song.

Act 1: Recovery

• Cut to the interior of a hospital, sometime later.  00:12:155
  • Desi comes to in her room. There's a nurse in her room. Desi asks what happened? How many girls did they find -- anyone beside Desi? How many boys? The nurse reports that Desi was found with two boys. One suffered quite a beating and some blood loss. The other suffered a major throat trauma and significant blood loss; he's in the operating room at this moment. There were no other girls where Desi was found.
  • Desi tries to get up. The nurse recommends that Desi rest until she brings the doctor by. The nurse tries to push Desi back down onto the bed and cannot. She leaves the room to get Desi's doctor.
  • Doug regains consciousness in his hospital room. He remembers a dream about some kind of worm on his chest. He looks at his chest and, to his relief, there's no worm. But there's a bandage there, taped to his chest where the worm was. The bandage is soaked in blood. Doug reaches for the bandage on his chest and notices that his hand is bandaged as well. Something doesn't look right about the bandage job on his hand. It takes him a moment to realize that he only counts four fingers on that hand. He's missing a finger!
  • Doug sits up and looks around to get his bearings. He easily figures out he's in a hospital, but why? Then he remembers the fight with Ernesto. Doug buzzes for the nurse.
  • A doctor enters Desi's room and introduces himself as Dr. Cummings. He tells Desi that they don't think she has any broken bones. He intimates that perhaps she might have been hit by the car because she was under the influence of something? What happened? Desi misses the intimation and tells the doctor that they were attacked by a... really big animal. Dr. Cummings says that that would explain the throat wound suffered by one of her companions and the bitten-off finger suffered by the other. He tells Desi that one of her companions had an animal on him when they brought him into the hospital. Does that sound familiar to her? Did her companion work in a zoo or keep exotic animals? Has he traveled to the tropics within the last six months? Desi replies in the negative to all these things. 
  • Desi asks if she has a concussion. Dr. Cummings says no. He leaves to place a call to the animal control officer; they'll be back later to get more information from Desi.
  • Cut to Doug's room. He's already yanked the IVs out and is toward the door, using the wall to steady himself. He loses his balance and starts to fall when someone grabs him by the shoulders and picks him up. It's Dr. Cummings. "You should be back in bed."
  • Doug asks where JD is. Did she get away? Dr. Cummings reports that Desi was the only girl they found. Doug says, "Then he's got her." Dr. Cummings asks if Doug means the animal. Doug thinks for a second, then says yes. He says he needs to talk to Desi. The doctor insist that Doug rest. As the doctor says this, Doug sees Desi walk past the open door of his room. The doctor asks Doug if he knows what kind of parasite was on his chest when he came in. Doug says he's in a band and they play some sleazy clubs; could he have gotten it at one of those? Dr. Cummings says he'll find a "bug guy" to look into it. He leaves.
  • Seconds after Dr. Cummings leaves Doug's room and turns left, Doug leaves his room and turns right, which is the direction that Desi was walking in. Sure enough, Desi is in the elevator at the end of the hall. The elevator doors are closing just as Doug emerges from his room. Desi sees him and holds the doors. Doug joins her. They discuss, rather emotionally, what to do next. When the elevator doors open on the ground floor, Desi steps out of the elevator. Doug is slumped unconscious in the corner. As she leaves the building, Desi tells the orderlies that the unconscious man in the elevator belongs in Room 312.
  • Desi races on foot to the Lobo house. She arrives as the last of the cops is cleaning up, stringing police tape across the porch columns of the Lobo house. Desi talks with one of the cops and finds that there's no one left in the house; they're all on their way to the county prison. None of them claimed to be a kidnap victim as they were herded into the paddy wagons. Desi realizes that neither JD nor Ernesto is here. Reluctantly, she leaves.
  • Doug regains consciousness in his hospital room. Again. After he realizes where he is, he takes from his pocket the tooth necklace that he's been carrying everywhere. The tooth presumably belonged to Ernesto. "I need a map! A map of the area!" Doug shouts to a nurse. To quiet him, she has an orderly get one. Doug takes the map, chases everyone from the room, and holds the tooth over the map by its chain. He begins to incant something, and the tooth starts to move. The tooth continues to move as the incantation continues, but Doug stumbles over a word. The tooth doesn't settle down to point at a single location; it's all over the map, literally. Doug can't recall the incantation well enough to recite it correctly from memory. He gives up as Desi enters his room. 00:36:07
  • Desi reports that, as Doug predicted, Ernesto wasn't at the Lobo house. Doug says he thinks he can find Ernesto, but he can't remember the entire incantation he needs. Desi also apologizes for punching Doug out in the elevator. Doug says that the book he needs is in the abandoned warehouse that his band practices in. Desi offers to go get the book, but Doug insists on coming along. As he sits up in bed, the tape holding the blood-saturated bandage to his chest loosens and the bandage falls off. Underneath it, Doug notices a seeping wound that looks remarkably like the marks he saw on Jason Kratsky's face in Episode 1.11. This prompts Doug to tell Desi to get the book and bring it back to Doug here in the hospital.
• Cut to black 00:39:45
  • There is a sound of the squealing of rusted metal. The blackness is pierced by light as Ernesto opens the furnace door. Ernesto reaches in and pulls JD from the furnace by a chain. The chain is looped around her shoulders and neck and the loops are padlocked together at the back of her neck. The chain leads back into the furnace.
  • Ernesto plops JD down in the middle of the floor. He sits on the floor near her and tosses her a wrapped sub sandwich. "You need to keep up your strength," he says. JD slowly looks around the room. Ernesto also looks around the room. Gesturing toward the furnace, Ernesto says, "You'll only be allowed out of there when I'm with you. Which means if you try anything stupid, you won't be coming out again. I think you should eat."
  • JD says, "My friends are going to find you and kick your ass." Ernesto responds, "I don't think so. You have a purpose to fulfill. A  very important purpose. But let me make this clear: it's an opportunity, but it's not your destiny. There are others who can fill it. What I'm trying to get across is that I don't need you if you prove to be a greater inconvenience than you're worth. So, play along with me if you want to live longer."
  • JD clutches at her neck for her cross. Her heart sinks when she finds it's not there. She looks around the room. This place has obviously been camped in, probably by kids. Litter from such expeditions is on the floors, graffiti is on the walls, a few of the windows have a broken pane or two. As JD eats, her eye is drawn back to the graffiti. Some of it is... odd.
  • Ernesto finds an eye screw on the floor. He picks it up and begins playing with it. "Housekeeping is terrible here," he mutters. With a hint of menace, he holds the eye screw out for JD to see and says, "But there must be something entertaining that we can do with this, don't you think?" JD falls silent and looks down. As she reaches for the rest of her sub, we notice that her hands are shaking. 
  • Cut to a shot of the furnace door being closed again. The scene goes black (the camera is obviously inside the furnace), then lightens slightly with a blue illumination (that's the color light that filmmakers use to show the audience what's happening in the dark). We see JD kneeling on the floor of the furnace. She's very frightened, but apparently unhurt. For now. Cut to commercial break.

Act 2: Where to Turn?

• The next day, Desi walks into Kevin's hospital room. 00:44:45
  • A woman is on one side of Kevin's hospital bed. She's obviously been crying quite a bit. On the other side of Kevin's bed is James Schuler. Kevin appears to be sleeping. Mr. Schuler approaches Desi. He asks her to tell him what happened.
• Cut to the interior of Allentown police headquarters
  • The camera pans around the room to show that dozens of gang members are being in-processed. The camera stops on one we recognize: Pedro. Pedro scans the room. He could be simply taking a head count, or looking for a specific person or thing -- we can't really tell. As he stands awaiting his turn, he leans over to another Lobo, an Extra whom we've occasionally seen on screen. They have a brief conversation.
  • Pedro is led to a chair opposite the desk of a police officer. He barely glances at Pedro. It's obvious he's been in-processing for quite some time. Pedro, in his most civil tone, addresses the cop. Cut to the next scene.
•  Several days later, in Desi's chemistry class.
  • Desi and Doug are in the back. In conspiratorial whispers, they're trying to come up with a list of the places Ernesto might be. For each idea that one of them proposes, the other offers a strong counterargument or explains that the location has already been checked. All the while, Mr. Blumenthal has been droning on about chemical reactions. During a lull in the discussion between Desi and Doug, we can hear part of his lesson. "A catalyst is a substance that promotes a chemical reaction. Catalysts are very important in industry. A reaction in which one of the chemicals that's produced is a catalyst of the reaction is called an autocatalytic reaction. Autocatalytic reactions are very fast, hard to control, inherently unstable, and very dangerous."
  • Desi flips to a page in her notebook where she finds a note from last Episode, "Vitreus = glass." This reminds her of Philip Glass. She decides to go back to his apartment later to search for more clues. Doug remembers he has a doctor's appointment for some blood work.
• Cut to Doug in an examining room, after class 00:54:15
  • He's waiting for the doctor, which means he has all the time in the world. Doug sets up his paraphernalia and again tries to cast the spell that will locate Ernesto. Much to Doug's frustration, the spell fails. Because Doug is using Ernesto's tooth suspended over a map of the area to cast the spell, there's no reason this spell should fail -- the bond between the part and the whole (the tooth and Ernesto) is too strong for that to be possible.
  • As Doug is trying to sort this out, he hears two doctors talking outside his examination room. Wait -- one of them doesn't seem to be a doctor. By the conversation, we get the impression he's a zoologist of some sort who's been brought in to look at the thing that was on Doug's chest. This guy talks with Doug after the doctor draws Doug's blood and leaves.
  •  He introduces himself as Evan, an entomologist from Muhlenberg College. He's very excited. He takes Doug down to a lab in the hospital to show him something, explaining along the way that they killed the thing that was on his chest and he's examined it; he's never seen anything like it. 
  • They get to the lab and Evan shows the leechlike thing to Doug. Doug sees for the first time that it has a segmented body. In fact, its texture looks very much like the track that he and JD saw in the dried blood in the tent in Jason Kratsky's backyard -- the track that he and JD had thought to be of a tentacle. Evan then shows Doug something that was found in West End Park (the proper name of No Fun Park, the Director has since learned) earlier that day. It's a huge bug, covered in some sort of gray dust. Doug immediately recognizes it as the thing that dropped down on him while he leaned against the wall of the garage that was being demolished near No Fun Park. Evan points at the slug that was on Doug's chest. "I believe that," he says, as he then points to the huge bug, "is an immature form of this."
  • Doug isn't terribly interested in this. He wants to find Ernesto. He attempts to leave. Evan tries to dissuade him. It's during this discussion that Doug notices that underneath the gray demolition dust that's covering the big bug, the creature appears to have no color. None at all. In fact, wherever the dust is washed away, the creature is invisible. Doug attempts to leave again, only to receive another revelation. Finally, though, he is able to go, and does so.
• Cut to Desi inside Philip Glass' apartment 01:03:30
  • Desi enters Philip Glass's apartment through the fire escape. She starts searching the apartment more carefully than she's had the opportunity to do before. She hasn't found anything when, upon exiting a room, she almost walks into a woman. It's definitely not the landlord. Desi immediately takes a martial-arts stance -- and to her surprise, this mystery woman responds instantly with a defensive stance. Questions fly -- questions, but no satisfactory answers. The woman introduces herself as Amber Wells. Each of them seems to have some sort of connection with the previous occupant of this apartment, but neither is forthcoming in what the connection is. When Miss. Wells asks about the stain on the carpet, Desi responds that she had heard the resident was axe-murdered. This comes as unpleasant news to Miss Wells.
  • Desi resumes her searching, while Miss Wells sticks to her like glue. Desi returns to the spot where she found the phone bill sticking out from under a built-in bookcase. As Desi attempts to lift the bookcase, Miss Wells tries to help her -- but the shelf which Miss Wells is tugging on moves upward with an audible click. The bookcase swings aside, revealing a room in the center of the apartment. It's filled with enough old-looking books and odd paraphernalia to put the Occult Emporium to shame.
  • Miss Wells searches around in this safe room and finds Philip Glass' diary. In light of this discover, the two women begin sharing some of what they know of the mysterious Philip Glass.
• Cut to Doug, who's heading over to the Occult Emporium 01:14:15
  • Doug enters as the shop. Abe Solomon is behind the counter as usual. After exchanging pleasantries , Doug gets down to business: "I need to summon a demon."
• Cut to the interior of the industrial room where Ernesto is holding JD 01:17:00
  •  Ernesto is on the floor, opposite JD, who has been let out of the furnace for a short break. The chain that's fastened around her shoulders and neck leads back into the furnace. We get the impression it's fastened to something in there, which means even if Ernesto's back were turned, JD would be unable to escape. There's a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in front of JD. 
  • Ernesto is still playing with the eye screw he found earlier. "What should we do with this?" he asks ominously. Ernesto stares at JD intently for a moment. She's avoiding his gaze. As she reaches into the bucket of chicken, he notices that her hand is trembling. His face brightens. "I know! It'll be fun!" he shouts and leaps up. As Ernesto whirls, the screw end of the eye screw passes dangerously close to JD's face. She flinches, but doesn't make a sound. Ernesto is now standing with his back to JD as he manipulates something at his chest.
  • Cut to a close-up of Ernesto's face. We can't see what he's working on; it's out of frame. But we do see, over Ernesto's shoulder, a dirty window. We don't really notice it until a flashlight beam, originating from outside the building, moves across the window. Ernesto turns his head slightly in the direction of the window and momentarily stops playing with whatever he's holding at his chest. He's apparently noticed something as well. Ernesto then continues tinkering with the thing at his chest.
  • Ernesto slips something over his head and turns turns to face JD. He's got something suspended from a chain around his neck. Hanging from the chain by the eye screw is Doug's severed finger. "How's that?" JD is aghast. "Oh, c'mon! Your friend does it and it's cool! I do it, and it's -- what? -- ghastly? I rather like it."
  • The flashlight shines at another window. This window has one pane of glass broken out. Through the window, JD sees a chubby face and just the top of some sort of uniform. It's a security guard. Ernesto approaches that window. To JD, Ernesto says in a normal voice, "He looks a little pudgy. I'm not sure he'll fit if I have to pull him through the window. I guess I'll just have to yank him really hard. Are you thinking of making a sound at this point? Things would get kind of nasty if he noticed you, don't you think?" JD remains silent. The guard shines his flashlight into the room and begins to sweep it around.
  • Ernesto walks right up to the window. He's making no attempt to conceal himself. The guard is on the opposite side of the dirty and partially broken window, within reach of Ernesto. Ernesto says, presumably to JD, "I'd hate to have to kill somebody else just because they got in the way. No, actually, that's a lie. I wouldn't hate it at all. But you know, I don't think it's gonna come to that."
  • The guard shines the light right over Ernesto. He doesn't pause at all as he continues sweeping the beam across the room. The flashlight's beam falls on JD -- and continues moving about the room without any change in pace. Ernesto yells toward the window, "Hey! In here!" He points to JD. "Kidnappee!"
  • The camera cuts to the guard's point of view. He's sweeping the flashlight across an empty room. As he sees it, there is no JD, no Ernesto. No one is shouting to him. He picks up his radio and says into it, "Officer 15 here on routine patrol in Sector 12. Everything normal." The guard moves to the double door of the building, which is chained shut and padlocked. The guard rattles the chain for good measure.
  • Inside the building, JD hears the chain rattle as the guard tests it. She realizes that the only door she can see is chained shut from the other side. Clearly, that's not a way out. The guard moves away to continue his rounds.
  • Ernesto watches him go. After a moment, he turns to JD. "You know, I may be known as Aristartes the Opener, but when it comes to perceptions, I get a lot more mileage out of closing them. No one can see you here. No one can hear you. Not even magic can find you here. Your friends won't be coming.... Dinner's over."
  • Cut to the familiar closing of the furnace door as the interior of the furnace -- where JD crouches -- is cast into darkness. From the outside, we see Ernesto throw the latch and we hear the scraping sound as it moves. When Ernesto steps away, the camera tilts down to show a small loop of chain sticking out from under the bottom of the furnace door.
  • Back inside the furnace, JD is illuminated with a dim blue light . JD notices that the chain has been caught in the furnace door. She discovers that the force of the door's closing has sheared one of the links of the chain.
• Cut to Desi and Miss Wells in Philip Glass's secret room 01:23:00
  • Desi is checking out the weapons she's found there. She's busy swinging a sword, paying no attention to Miss Wells. Miss Wells picks up a small, glass paperweight and tosses it at Desi. Desi doesn't see the toss, but senses something approaching. She blocks the paperweight with the sword, like Luke Skywalker when Obi-Wan was training him on the Millennium Falcon. This leads to a revealing discussion.
• Cut to an establishing shot of the exterior of the Lobo house 01:28:00
  • Inside the darkened house, the beam of a flashlight cuts through the blackness. Ernesto is cautiously making his way through the interior. The house is in no better shape than it was before: trash litters the floor and graffiti covers the interior walls. As he goes along, he picks out odds and ends and puts them into a bag slung over his shoulder. He doesn't seem to be wandering; he's searching out particular items. Some of these are candles, some are bottles of liquid, others are unidentifiable.
  • Ernesto enters a room we've seen before. It's the room that Ernesto often used for briefing his underlings, back when he had underlings. This room was both the first and the last scene in Episode 1.03. Ernesto shines his light around and begins looking for candles. Specific candles, apparently. As he finds each, he puts it into his shoulder bag.
  • Apparently Ernesto is having trouble remembering exactly where all of the candles are. As he casts the flashlight beam around the room, it lands at one point on the photo of Desi that was lifted from her high school ID. It's still stuck to the wall, exactly where BA put it in the Teaser of Episode 1.03. Simultaneously fascinated and irritated that such a thing should be here, he stares at it for a moment. Then he peels it from the wall. To himself, he mutters, "She is everywhere. There's someone who needs to see this." He puts the picture in his pocket.
• Cut to the warehouse where Doug's band practices 01:30:00
  • The building is dark and empty. Empty, that is, except for the pentagram that's been painted onto the floor, inscribed inside a circle and surrounded by occult symbols and lighted candles. Doug is wearing a dark robe. He sits cross-legged outside the circle, but facing it. A large book is in his lap. Doug is reading from the book. It's written in a language we don't understand.
  • The camera begins to circle around Doug. When it's over his shoulder, looking toward the magic circle and the candles, the candle flames begin to flutter. The shadows in the room dance wildly. When the camera faces Doug, he's concentrating heavily on the book in his lap.
  • As the camera continues to circle around Doug, we become aware of a dull, droning sound, almost like the engine of a small airplane. It builds slowly and steadily to a low buzz. When next the camera is looking over Doug's shoulder, the buzzing stops. Priscilla is standing in the circle. Doug looks up and sees her. She looks around and says, "I must have made wrong turn somewhere. Hi!"
  • Doug tells Priscilla that he wants to find Ernesto / Aristartes. When Doug describes the steps he's already taken to try to find Ernesto, Priscilla points out that Aristartes is a sorcerer in his own right. He must be using magic to block the spell. Doug asks how they can counter such a spell. Priscilla explains she's reluctant to use magic against Aristartes because he's much better at it than she is. However, she can go places where Aristartes can't. She can see in ways that Aristartes can't hide from. If he's in the area, she can find him. But it will take time. Possibly several days. Doug isn't sure he has that much time. He asks Priscilla why Aristartes would want JD specifically?
  • Back in Philip Glass' secret room, Desi asks Ms. Wells if there's some way they can locate Aristartes the Opener. Ms. Wells doesn't immediately recognize the name, but she certainly seems to have all the books here that she could need. She pulls out several titles and begins to page through them for information about Aristartes.
  • Cut back to Doug and Priscilla as she answers Doug's question. She explains that for Aristartes to increase the power of the sorcerer who summoned him (and thereby conclude his business on this world), he probably has to perform sacrifices. When the veil was up, Aristartes had to perform many sacrifices to achieve that end. Now that the veil has been dropped, Priscilla suspects that he'll need only one more sacrifice. That may be the purpose that JD will fill.
  • Priscilla again points out that she can find Aristartes. Doug is reluctant to release her because he has no way to guarantee she'll come back. She suggests he'll just have to trust her. That suggestion is met with derision. Then Priscilla says, "Perhaps you'll have a better appreciation of what's at stake if you understand how Aristartes increases a sorcerer's power. He's opening a ---
  • "Hellmouth!" exclaims Ms. Wells when we cut back to her. She's paraphrasing from a book that's open before her. "Aristartes the Opener got his name because wherever he's summoned he opens a Hellmouth. A side effect of the Hellmouth is that it dramatically increases the power of sorcerers."
  • Ms. Wells does more research to see if there's anything that might give an idea of where the Hellmouth-opening rituals have to be performed, thereby giving the Cast Members an idea of where Aristartes might be. They find something unusual about the evolution of a Hellmouth. A series of sacrifices are needed to create the Hellmouth. When first created, the Hellmouth is "immature." A "mature" Hellmouth can be opened wide, breaching the barrier between this world and the Hell dimensions, by another series of sacrifices.
  • The tricky part is in getting a Hellmouth to go from "immature" status to "mature." According to the book, this is beyond the power of any demon. Only humans can turn an immature Hellmouth into a mature one. 
  • Ms. Wells and Desi attempt to use deduction to narrow down where Aristartes might be. Where have they encountered Aristartes before? Desi names a few spots, then comes up dry. She calls Doug on her cell phone because he keeps such a list on his PDA (personal digital assistant).
  • Back at the summoning circle, Doug's cell phone rings. He fumbles under his robe for his phone, finds it, and answers it.
  • Realizing that they have nowhere else to turn, Doug plans to release Priscilla to locate Aristartes and then meet up with Desi.
  • Doug breaks the containment spell on the circle. Priscilla says she'll notify Doug as soon as she finds something. She steps out of the circle and slowly steps toward Doug. She gets closer and closer. Since Priscilla is very attractive, Doug doesn't back away. Priscilla leans toward Doug. She's clearly about to kiss him. But then she licks his cheek instead. Doug squirms. "OK. I'll be able to find you," she says. She turns and leaves. Doug wishes her happy hunting.
• Cut to the interior of the furnace 01:49:00
  • JD is crouching at the furnace door. She's listening intently to sounds from the other side of the door. We hear it now, too, muffled through the steel door: A single male voice is chanting. Then it stops. There's a second of silence, then the sound of a power tool -- a drill, perhaps? When the drill stops, the chanting resumes. These two sounds alternate for the better part of a minute.
  • JD finds that one of the links of the chain that binds her has been partially cut by being slammed in the blast furnace door. She works at it until she pries it open far enough to slip the rest of the chain out. JD then removes the pried-open link from the chain and pockets it.
  • No sooner does JD do this than we hear loud grating as the latch of the furnace door is pulled aside. The furnace door opens and Ernesto reaches in. He grabs JD by her clothing and drags her out of the furnace. She immediately notices that the floor of the room has been covered with painted glyphs that she doesn't recognize. Even more disconcerting than this is the wooden framework that leans against the wall. It's shaped like a person-sized pentagram and chains hang from the corners.
  • Ernesto pulls JD to her feet. He caresses the side of her face with his hand, stopping when his hand covers her ear. He brings his face close to JD's and whispers, "It's showtime." JD winces when she feels something lick her ear under Ernesto's hand. As JD palms the broken chain link, Ernesto turns toward the wooden framework. He's about to say something when JD strikes with the broken link and slashes Ernesto across the face. Surprised, Ernesto releases his grip on JD and stumbles backward over a leftover piece of lumber. JD is already running for a window before Ernesto even hits the floor.
  • The window is slightly above JD's head. She leaps up and grabs onto the frame. She pulls herself up and forces the window open. Over her shoulder, we can see that Ernesto has regained his feet and is approaching her from behind. JD begins to push herself through the window when Ernesto grabs the loose length of chain that's still hanging from JD's shoulders. He pulls hard on it and JD tumbles roughly to the floor, crashing into some electrical piping along the way.
  • Ernesto pulls JD's face up to his own. His cheek is bleeding and he's clearly irritated, yet still in control of himself. "That's what I like about you," he says. "You're a survivor. And that's important, because the longer you stay alive, the better it will be." Cut to a commercial break.

Act 3: The Countdown Begins

• Back at Philip Glass' apartment 01:54:30
  • Doug arrives at the apartment. Desi leads Doug into Mr. Glass' secret room. Doug is swept away by the assortment of books, paraphernalia, and weapons that are arrayed before him. As Desi resumes her spot on the floor to continue reading an old book and Miss Wells pores over several ancient texts, Doug stands there speechless. Well, not quite.
  • Desi introduces Doug to Miss Wells. Miss Wells explains to Desi and Doug what a Hellmouth is. Since they can't seem to find a way to locate Aristartes, Desi asks if there's a way to find the sorcerer who summoned him. Miss Wells explains that if the sorcerer is in the act of casting a spell, or if he's under any long-duration enchantments, a magic-detection spell would find him. Miss Wells decides to cast a spell that would reveal the power levels of any magical effects going on in the area. Doug produces the map of the Lehigh Valley that he used earlier to try to locate Ernesto. They set to work.
• Cut to Evan the entomologist in his make-shift lab at the hospital 01:59:15
  •  Evan has cleaned off half of the adult bug that was found in West End Park. The cleaned-off half is completely invisible. "I've never seen anything like this in my life," he mutters to himself.
  • He looks at the morning newspaper, which lies nearby. The section on local news describes a woman whose dog was "attacked" by something in West End Park. According to the article, the dog had enormous, blood-red leeches hanging off of it. Evan looks over at the carcass of the leech that was taken from Doug's chest. He's analyzed a sample of the fluid from the leech. It's pure human blood. Evan dissects the leech and quickly recognizes that the internal anatomy of this creature is consistent with that of a blow fly larva. Evan pages through a book. Yup, here it is: Auchmeromyia senegalensis, the Congo floor maggot. The maggot lives on a diet of blood. It's the only blood-sucking maggot known to target mammals. Of course, there is one significant difference between this creature and A. senegalensis: the latter is about a quarter-inch long, whereas the former is almost 12 inches long.
  • As Evan returns to the dissection of the huge maggot, he uses a wash bottle to rinse away some of the bloody fluid in its body cavity. He notices its coloration changes as he does this. With a little more rinsing, he makes a horrific realization -- the maggot's scarlet coloration is entirely due to the blood it has ingested. When the blood is washed completely away, the maggot is invisible! Now the magnitude of the threat comes clear to Evan. He envisions a hypothetical scene from next summer, when people are preyed upon by immense insects that they can't even see until they've already fed.
  • There is glimmer of hope, Evan realizes. These flies only reproduce once in their lifetimes, and they die shortly after laying their clutch of eggs. It's possible that all of the larvae that have been reported so far are the progeny of the single adult that's in Evan's possession. The fact that all the sightings have occurred around West End Park makes it very likely that all the larvae have come from the same brood. If that's the case, and if Evan can act quickly to destroy the larvae, he may be able to stave off disaster by preventing any adults from emerging next year. But how to kill these things when you can't even see them?
  • Why didn't the maggots kill that one kid in the tent -- Jason Kratsky? What makes him different? His blood tests were all normal. Evan goes to Jason Kratsky's house to see if he can get some answers.
  • Cut to Jason's house. When he meets Jason, Evan immediately notices the small incision-like marks on Jason's face. The maggots definitely bit Jason, but they didn't drain him. It's almost as if they didn't like what they found when they bit him. Jason is nervously fiddling with the cross pendant that JD gave him. Evan questions Jason gently, but doesn't get any information that sheds light on the method of getting rid of the maggots. Jason consents to come to the hospital to have his blood tested.
• Cut to a shot of JD. 02:14:00
  • We see her in profile. The shot is framed so that JD is at the right edge of the screen, facing left. She's standing against the pentagram-shaped wooden frame, her arms are horizontal, stretched out from her sides. Her head is slumped forward. We can't see her face because of her hair, but she appears to be unconscious. There's something wrong about the way her hair looks, but we can't quite identify what the problem is.
  • From off-camera, Ernesto's voice says, "You're going to die. No doubt about that." JD doesn't react, strengthening our suspicion that she's unconscious. "But the longer you can hold on, the better off we'll be. Because it's the act of your dying that's important here."
  • Ernesto enters the shot -- from the top of the camera's frame. Ernesto's body is horizontal -- he's just floating in the air. His head is close to JD's head. He cranes his neck back slightly to look at her face.
  • The camera begins to rotate. The images on the screen slowly rotate counter-clockwise 90 degrees. When they stop, Ernesto is vertical, standing in the frame. It's JD who's been horizontal all along. She's suspended from the pentagram-shaped wooden framework. Her head, which isn't supported, hangs down. Now we understand why her hair looked wrong -- when we first saw it, it was hanging at an angle that defied gravity. Now that we see everything in its correct orientation, her hair looks right.
  • Ernesto is still looking up at JD. "I have no doubt your friends will find you at some point or another. I'm just hoping it won't be soon." The camera follows him as he moves to a heavy chain that runs up at an angle out of frame, presumably to the ceiling. He sets the cell phone he's been holding on the floor and begins to pull on the chain. We cut to a camera directly above JD, looking straight down on her. She's been crucified on the wooden framework. With each of Ernesto's tugs on the chain, the framework is hoisted closer to the ceiling. On the floor directly below the framework, glyphs and a magical circle have been painted. Candles burn along the edges of the circle. Outside the circle, the entire floor of the room seems to be covered in glyphs. Ernesto is off-camera, but his shadow is visible on the floor as he pulls on the chain.
  • Ernesto finishes with the chain and walks over to one of the windows. Carefully, he removes one of the glyphs that's painted on the glass. It's clear by the care he's taking that he doesn't want to disturb the other glyphs on the window as he does this. He repeats this process on two other windows, taking care each time not to disturb any of the other glyphs that are there.
  • That done, Ernesto glances in JD's direction and says, "It begins." He walks off-camera. Cut to JD suspended from the frame. The camera tilts down to show the magic circle on the floor -- and right next to it, the cell phone that Ernesto had been carrying. The camera zooms in on the cell phone on the floor. Right next to the cell phone, on the edge of the magic circle, a drop of blood splatters on the floor.
• Cut to the hospital. 
  • Dr. Cummings is reviewing Jason's preliminary blood test results with Evan. "Everything's within the normal range except for his platelet count, which is low. But that's probably due to the acetaminophen he's been taking. The kid apparently gets headaches -- I suspect they're undiagnosed migraines -- when he's under stress, and he eats Tylenol like candy. I have a feeling when we get the results on his liver enzymes--"
  • It suddenly hits Evan. Acetaminophen! It's toxic to a few mammals (most notably cats), several reptiles, and a notable number of invertebrates, such as insects. It was the acetaminophen in Jason's blood that caused the maggots to abandon him after one sip. Evan can't recall if blow flies are susceptible to acetaminophen, but even if normal blow flies aren't, these things aren't exactly normal, are they? Evan is sure he's found the answer. The maggots seem to be restricted to a fairly small geographical area, and there aren't many nontarget species native to this area that would be harmed by acetaminophen -- as long as the cat owners in the neighborhood take precautions -- so spraying would be an option. Evan rushes off to make it happen.
• Cut back to Philip Glass' apartment 02:14:15
  • Miss Wells, Desi, and Doug have completed the spell, and one particular spot on the map of the Allentown area is glowing brightly. It's at about 4th and Linden. They all grab weapons from Philip's stash and head out of the apartment.
  • Cut to the exterior of a house at 4th and Linden. This is the place indicated by the magic-detection spell. The Cast Members are standing outside this impressive home. Miss Wells looks at the mailbox. Written on it is the name SCHULER. Miss Wells approaches the front door and rings the doorbell as Desi notices the mailbox. She's shocked to see her boss' name there. There's no answer at the door. They debate breaking in, but with Mr. Schuler being the head of a security company, that sounds like a really bad idea. Even though it's mid-evening, Desi decides to call Mr. Schuler at the Aegis office. He answers on the first ring. "Yes?"
  • Desi says she thinks she has a clue as to what hurt Kevin and she wants to discuss it with him in person. Mr. Schuler suggests she come by the office. Desi says she'd rather meet him at his house; she's in the neighborhood and can be there in a few minutes. Mr. Schuler asks how Desi knows where he lives. Desi doesn't answer the question; she just encourages him to leave as soon as possible.
  • The Cast Members decide to go around back, in case there's anything to see there. A check of the backyard reveals nothing. The backyard is much more private than the front because of the hedges that surround the property. However, the back of the house appears no less secure.
  • Miss Wells asks Desi what she plans to do when she meets Mr. Schuler. If he's a powerful sorcerer whose power has been increased even more by the Hellmouth, Desi is no match for him. Desi says that she doesn't think Mr. Schuler intended to kill anyone. Perhaps he summoned the wrong demon?
• Cut to a long shot of JD, suspended from the framework
  • Cut to a close-up of JD's left hand. We see that her wrist has been both nailed and tied to the wooden framework. Cut to an extreme close-up of a drop of blood that's gathering at the end of JD's finger. We can hear the drop of blood swelling. When it's finally too large to keep hanging there, we hear it break free. The camera follows the drop of blood as it falls in very slow motion -- and we can hear the whoosh of the drop falling. Finally, the drop hits the floor in slow motion. As the blood splashes on the floor, the impact sounds to us like a small explosion. As this sound reverberates, cut to
  • an exterior wilderness scene somewhere, we don't know where. We still hear the reverberation of the blood drop's impact. At that sound, something rises up out of the underbrush and swiftly turns to look off-camera. It's vaguely man-shaped, but the spikes on its head (or horns?) make it clear that the thing is not human. As the reverberation fades away, it appears that this thing somehow heard it. It begins to walk purposefully in the direction in which it's looking.
• Desi hears someone coming up the front walk of the house. 
  • She and the other Cast Members come around the house to the front. Mr. Schuler is standing at the front door, facing the door. His hands are not visible and his head is down slightly, as if he's looking at something. As Desi approaches, Mr. Schuler turns around. And it's not Mr. Schuler after all. It's Ernesto, holding in his hands the ID photo of Desi. Caught off guard, he keeps looking back and forth from the photo to Desi and back again.
  • Combat breaks out. Desi and Ernesto exchange blows. As luck would have it, Michael Chen is driving home from the Tiger Schulmann's Karate when he passes by Mr. Schuler's house. He sees what's going on, stops his car, and joins in the melee. Many blows are dealt, and Michael almost falls victim to the illusion that the ground beneath his feet has become liquid, but it's Ernesto who bears the brunt of the attack. During the fight, Doug sees the finger that Ernesto wears on a chain around his neck -- Doug's finger -- and Doug goes ballistic. He attacks Ernesto with an axe he had taken from Philip Glass' apartment. Ernesto is just about to strike back from that blow when someone yells "Freeze!" Three cops, all with guns drawn, surround the gathering on the sidewalk. However, we quickly realize that all of the guns are trained on Ernesto. Sensing a reprieve, Ernesto surrenders to the police. The Cast Members watch helplessly as Ernesto is led away in a patrol car.
• Cut back to a medium shot of JD suspended from the framework
  • Cut to a shot of the floor by one of the candles. A drop of blood splatters onto the floor. Again it makes a booming, timpani sound.
  • Cut to an exterior shot of a landfill somewhere. Two humanoid creatures are rooting through the trash. Suddenly they both look up, revealing fangs and heavy brows, and look off in the same direction as the timpani sound fades. Without a word, they start to shamble in the direction of the sound.
  • Cut back to the close-up of the floor beneath JD as the splatter from the blood drop settles to the floor in slow motion. We hear a brief buzzing. A second later, a fly enters the frame and laps at the spilled blood. After a moment of this, the fly takes off. The camera shows it exit the building through one of the broken windows.
• Mr. Schuler pulls up in front of his home.
  • One of the cop cars is still here. Cops are buzzing around the scene of the attack. Simultaneously, Mr. Schuler and one of the cops ask the Cast Members, "What happened here?" Desi explains that the head of a local gang attacked them. This gets a reaction out of Mr. Schuler, but the cop doesn't see it. The cop explains they've been cleaning up gangs over the last week. There are still a few gang members who are loose, but most of them are in custody. It shouldn't be long before there aren't any gang members on the streets anymore. 
  • Mr. Schuler looks down at the axe on the sidewalk. The camera takes his point of view. In a wave, the blood on the axe changes from red to green and then back again. No one else has seen this. Schuler looks up again. "Is there anything I can do for you? Does anyone need medical care?" he asks Desi. She says no one is hurt and she still wants to talk to him. He leads the Cast Members into his home. As she's entering, Desi sees her ID photo lying on the porch. She picks it up. "That's where that got to!"
  • The interior of Mr. Schuler's home is beautiful. There are many well-preserved antiques, as well as a notable number of contemporary furnishings. He offers the Cast Member seats in the parlor. Desi gets down to business by saying that the thing that attacked Kevin was waiting for her on Mr. Schuler's porch. When Mr. Schuler asks if Desi is using the terms "the thing" and "the animal" euphemistically to describe what attacked Kevin, she throws down the gauntlet.
  • Doug notices Priscilla out on the sidewalk. She's looking toward the house, waiting, but she apparently has no intention of entering it. Doug slips out unnoticed and goes out to her. "I found your friend -- or rather, my minions did. She's the one who went with you and Desi to the prom." Doug asks if she's alive. Priscilla replies that she doesn't know.
  • Doug reenters the Schuler house and surreptitiously informs Desi that they have to leave. Desi promises that she'll be back for Mr. Schuler when she's finished.
• Cut to a shot of a steel double door, chained and padlocked shut.
  • Desi breaks the lock with a crowbar and throws the doors open. Inside is an industrial-looking room. It turns out we're on property that once belonged to Bethlehem Steel. We recognize the interior of this building as the one where JD was held, but the room is empty.
  • Desi is dismayed. She enters the room -- and steps right through the veil of the illusion. There's a shimmer, and now JD is hanging in the middle of the room, over the magic circle and candles and painted glyphs. There's a lot of blood on the floor. They immediately run to JD. Flies scatter as the Cast Members move through the room. They begin to lower the framework holding JD. 
  • Miss Wells picks up the cell phone from the floor, dials 911, and tosses it to Michael Chen to deal with the people on the other end of the call. No one says anything about JD's condition, and she doesn't move. We don't know if she's alive or dead.
• Cut to a shot of a prison holding cell.
  • Ernesto is standing near the bars, looking out. His arms are crossed over his chest. Behind him, we can see others in the cell -- none are gang members, but they all look rough. And they're all looking toward Ernesto with something akin to fear on their faces. Ernesto is just staring through the bars at the camera. Staring. Cut to black. Roll end credits.