Jeremiah (2002) s02e12 Episode Script

1 Previously on Jeremiah We understand there's a woman by the name of Rachel, works in one of these clubs down here? Apparently, she's in the supply and demand business.
Welcome to the underground.
The resistance.
Have you ever actually seen Daniel? They say he's, like, one of these guys from out of the old world, tall and straight, good teeth, and eyes that see straight through you till sunday.
Daniel's power comes from guns and information.
You'd be surprised how much he knows, and how much of what he knows filters down to the streets.
Have you ever met Daniel? How many soldiers ever had the privilege to meet the president in person? If there were no Daniel, it would be necessary to invent him.
This is a war of powers and principalities.
We are the coyote, Rod, we are the wolf, and it is time, long past time, that we bared our teeth and fed.
He uses terror, and fear, and repression, and he won't stop until he has everything, the whole country.
The great war is coming.
The bleeding is coming.
The price will be terrible.
How much longer until we get there? Maybe about an hour.
- You okay? - No.
Pull over.
Look, doc, you know I'm not supposed to make any stops.
I know you're not supposed to make any stops, but please, I'm telling you, I think it's my heart.
Pull over.
Doc, you okay? (gunshot) I don't like this.
He should've been here by now.
He'll be here.
It'll be fine, as long as he doesn't lose his nerve.
Come on.
You can do this.
You can do it.
Damn it! Unit seven, is there a problem? Can you hear me? Rachel, he's not coming.
He's not coming.
Shit.
What do you want to do now? Get some help.
Assuming the doc isn't dead already, we're going to need all the help we can get.
Come on.
This is control.
Jimmy, do you read me? (crash) Liberty, I'd like you to meet Jeremiah, my son.
So you're Jeremiah (Devon): Jeremiah, I'd like you to meet Liberty Kaufman, my assistant.
(knocking) (knocking) Rachel? I need you to get me to Thunder Mountain.
We have a problem.
It's been 15 years since a strange disease wiped out all of the adults and left us kids to fend for ourselves.
Now I'm moving ahead, through the past.
I can't let go I'm holding hope so tight It's hard to breathe when the whole world falls I'm gonna put the stars back back up in the sky Let them all just shine down I'm gonna try I believe we'll find the world together Through your eyes That's all I can see I believe we're looking at forever In a world where we can be free I believe We waited until nearly 3:00 in the morning before we finally gave up.
So you just left? We couldn't afford not to.
Daniel has APVs patrolling the borderlands every six hours, and we weren't prepared to handle that much firepower.
It was supposed to be real simple.
Yeah.
It's funny how it never really works out that way, isn't it? Now we have to find the target before Daniel's forces get there first.
I don't have the people or the resources for a job this big, so Why is he so important? I can't tell you that right now.
Look, all I can tell you is that he's an important part of Daniel's operation, one we've been courting for a long time now.
He doesn't like what Daniel's doing any more than we do, but he's afraid.
We guaranteed him protection.
Everything was going fine until he didn't show.
This target he, uh, got a name? Yes.
And that would be? I can't tell you that.
You know, you could go to the Mountain, see Markus by yourself.
We've told him all about you.
He knows that you're a resistance leader in one of Daniel's main cities.
Does he know for sure what I look like? You show him a picture? No.
Then I could be anybody.
I live inside Daniel's world.
I know what they're capable of, and your people shouldn't trust anyone or anything.
Yeah, but obviously you trust me a little, or you wouldn't be here.
Well, I need you to do the intros, confirm that I am who I say I am.
I can do that.
What else? I need you to contact someone, someone who will come if you in particular make the call.
Jeremiah? You there? Yeah, dad, I'm here.
What's up? Well, uh, I can't really say for sure, partly because I don't know the whole story myself, but something's come up.
We need you back at the Mountain.
I'm kind of in the middle of things right now.
We're finishing up on the relay systems that connect all the alliance towns into one big communications net.
Is it really important? Yeah, I think it is.
You can't tell me anything about this? We're looking for a guy, and I think you can help.
That's all I've got right now.
You're going to have to trust me on this one, dad.
What's the schedule? I've radioed ahead.
Markus will send a chopper to pick you up in the morning and bring you to the Mountain.
All right.
I'll finish up what I can, and I'll see you tomorrow.
Okay, I'll see you then.
All right, you can go.
This better be worth it, Rachel.
Would a chance to bring down Daniel once and for all be worth it, Jeremiah? And he can do this? Who is this guy? All good things to those who wait.
Mind if I No, sure.
Go ahead.
What's the book? It's The memoirs of Ulysses S.
Grant.
I've been looking for this book for over a year.
I finally found it in an old library in Denver.
I'm a bit of a history buff.
He Was the 18th president of the United States.
Died in 1885, penniless and abandoned by the country that he saved during the civil war.
The only way he figured he could provide for his family was by writing his memoirs, but nobody wanted his life story.
The only person that would publish it was his old friend Mark Twain, even though it pretty much bankrupted him.
I'm kind of a history buff myself.
I see.
So you've read this? No.
I heard there was one last copy in Denver, but somebody got there before I could.
Well, it's a great book.
It's actually the best book ever written on what it's like to go to war with your own people.
Do you think it'll come in handy? I hope not.
I sure hope not.
You just get here? Signed up last week.
Still working my way through basic.
I probably shouldn't even be talking to you.
Oh, please.
Don't even worry about it.
I don't stand much on ceremony.
I figure, the more information you know, the better your chances for survival.
So any time you've got a question, and I'm not busy, just ask.
Are you busy now? (beep) (Markus): Kurdy? Kurdy, can I see you for a moment in my office? Sorry, I've got to It's okay.
What's your name? - Crystal.
- Crystal.
I'm Kurdy.
I know.
So what's the four-alarm fire? Whoa, you're a long way from home.
Close the door.
I wanted you to hear this before we told the others.
Why don't you tell them what you told me? We're looking for a man named Frederick Monash.
He's part of Daniel's inner circle.
Now, we believe he may have information that could bring down Daniel's whole operation.
He's somewhere in the borderlands between Daniel's territory and yours, but that's it.
We have to find him before Daniel's forces get their hands on him.
You got a picture of this guy? Just one.
It was taken a number of years ago, but it's still accurate.
You still haven't told me why you wanted my dad here.
I mean, does this guy have information that he can help us with, or understand that Frederick is one of Daniel's core group, that he's one of the people directly responsible for his entire operation.
That doesn't explain why you kept his name from me all the way here.
I was afraid you might say the wrong thing to somebody.
Say the wrong thing to who? One of my people inside Daniel's organization smuggled this out to me last year.
Took us a while to figure out who the two guys in the picture were.
One is the target.
The other Your father, Jeremiah.
Hey, Jeremiah.
What's all this about? It's about you, dad.
Every time I turn around, I'm finding out something new about you.
Where did you get this? It doesn't matter where I got it.
Do you know who that is? That is one of Daniel's core people.
He's dead.
That's what I was led to believe.
All right, you brought me all this way.
You want to hear the explanation or not? How much longer are you going to keep doing that? Battery keeps losing the charge.
If I keep topping it off, maybe it'll help.
You need to rest.
If we're going to get out of Daniel's territory, we've got to keep moving.
In a minute, all right Excuse me, could you help me, please? Who the hell are - You're - Old, yes.
I'm probably older than any of you have ever seen before, But, you you don't have to be afraid.
I don't The virus was a long time ago.
It's just that I I haven't eaten for almost two days, and I smelled your fire.
Look, I I can pay you.
I've got some money here.
Those are Daniel dollars.
Yes, they're D-bucks.
I got them from inside.
You can use these to buy anything you want inside the city.
You can take them.
Look, I I just need something to eat.
You can share what we have, but we won't take those.
That's the sort of thing we're trying to avoid.
We want nothing to do with Daniel or any of his people.
Then you've got nothing to fear from me.
Thank you.
Oh, my god.
My god.
What have we done? I'm sorry.
I'm I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
Frederick Monash was a good man.
He was one of about a hundred scientists brought to Valhalla Sector during the Big Death.
The government wanted to have a wide range of skills on board for when the time came to rebuild the world.
I guess they never imagined that the people who survived, you, would have some other ideas about how that world should be rebuilt.
So what was his area of expertise? Psychological warfare.
Brainwashing.
Social programming.
If you wanted to convince people to do what you wanted them to do, Frederick Monash was your man.
He imagined that his role would be to help outline the dynamics of a better society.
Was it? No.
Like many of the others, he didn't realize what he'd signed on for when he agreed to go, didn't know what Valhalla Sector would turn into.
He figured it out fast enough.
This wasn't about the survival of the country.
This was about establishing a police state under the control of the power elite.
We started meeting in secret, to decide what to do when Valhalla was ready to go out into the world.
Isn't there some way we can fight this from inside? No.
We've created the impression of a two-party system in here, but it's the same crew, same agendas, just different names.
So maybe we need to create a real opposition party, a group that can speak out against what's going on.
We already know there's a lot around here that but they won't speak out.
They're too afraid of the consequences.
They saw what happened to Paul.
It's just easier to go along.
We'll never create an opposition party inside Valhalla.
No.
Not in here.
What's on your mind? I'm not sure.
Let me think about it for a while.
I knew he'd come up with something, but he kept it to himself.
So he never told you what it was? No.
Never.
Then what's the point of all this? Well, if Frederick is still alive, it may have something to do with whatever he was planning.
He was one of a handful of us allowed up to the outside world.
It was his job to collect data on the various groups forming above ground, so that we could keep an eye on possible threats.
It was after he returned from one such trip that he began to put things into motion.
Because access time to the computers was limited, he had me helping with the analysis of the data he was accumulating, while others handled different aspects of the project.
The last of them.
Just put them down there, please.
Put those with the others.
Because he was afraid of the information getting out, everyone involved had just their piece of the puzzle.
Nobody but Frederick, and maybe a couple of others, knew the full story.
Once I managed to catch a look at some of the other papers.
There were papers on psycho-social programming, group dynamics, the birth of social movements, historical papers on Stalin, Russia, nazI Germany, charismatic leadership, behavioral conditioning, the whole gamut of psychological warfare.
Too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing, Devon.
A very dangerous thing.
It's best you forget anything you just saw.
Did you see anything else? Nothing.
The only other thing I knew about the program was its name, Project Backfire.
Backfire? As in something going wrong? Maybe he was hoping to use this stuff to turn Valhalla's people against the guys in charge.
I don't know.
I'd hoped to find out more, but one day, several of his team were allowed to go with him on an expedition topside.
They didn't come back.
Up until now, I'd just assumed that the military had found out what he was up to, and simply eliminated the problem, but maybe that's not what happened.
So if he's alive, maybe some of the others who went with him are also alive.
It's possible, but I can't see why he or any of the others would end up working for Daniel.
Something here doesn't add up.
Markus, since I've finished hooking up the computers between here and Valhalla Sector, perhaps I should start searching through some of those records.
Maybe there's something about Frederick in the base logs.
Maybe there's some of his files that they didn't find.
Good idea.
I'll have someone set it up.
It'll take us a while to hook in.
Thanks.
Yeah.
If he's going to be using the computer, I want someone to monitor his activities.
Hey, you're kind of new in town to be giving orders, don't you think? If he has nothing to hide, there's nothing to lose by keeping an eye on what he finds.
Unless You'd rather not.
Do it.
You know, it's a hell of a world.
You fight for 16 years to find your father, and in the end, you don't even know if you can trust him.
Hell of a world.
Okay, listen up, people.
Your target is Frederick Monash, age 57, last reported in the borderlands west of Daniel's territory.
We're pulling you off regular survey duties in order to find him.
When you hit the border, you'll split up, but you'll report to Jeremiah and Kurdy as team leaders, since they've had the most experience in Daniel's territory.
So get your shit together, people.
You're leaving in 30 minutes.
- Excuse me, Markus? - Yeah.
I assumed I'd be going with Jeremiah and Kurdy, but they said it was going to be just them.
Yeah, we're limiting each team to two members so we can get the maximum number of scouts looking for the target.
- So who am I going with? - Nobody.
- You're staying here.
- Why? Because we have something here we need you to do.
Come on.
You're staring again.
I know.
They told me I was supposed to stay here, in case you needed help.
In other words, keep an eye on me, in case I can't be trusted.
Both eyes, actually.
You know, sooner or later, you'd think folks would learn that some people can be trusted, wouldn't you? You'd think so, wouldn't you? How do they expect us to find this guy? This is several hundred square miles out here.
It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Well, I guess we're going to have to do it the only way you can find a needle in a haystack.
Sit on it till something sticks us in the ass.
You know, that was a rhetorical question.
Well, that was a rhetorical answer.
No such thing.
There is now.
I thought I'd see if you wanted something to eat.
- Are you hungry? - Starving.
How long have I been out? A day, maybe more.
There's somebody chasing you, isn't there? Who are you, anyway? It's better you don't know.
Better for me, or better for you? That's another question I probably shouldn't answer.
We have to go now.
We try not to stay in one place too long.
Less chance of trouble that way.
We wouldn't have stayed here this long, - except - You were worried about me.
I'm sorry And thank you.
We can leave you a few things, if there's anything you need.
The bike, and the battery, and those bits of electrical equipment there.
Can't do it.
We've been able to hook up the bike to the generator, and we built up a small charge in the battery.
Figure we can sell it in the next town, get enough supplies to keep us going for a while.
We think we can get a lot for a charged battery.
Yes, yes, you can, but you can get a lot more for this.
Used to be, it cost as much as a car, a big car, but now You're sure you want to let this go? That's from another world.
I don't want it anymore.
I'll give you that for those.
Okay.
What're you going to do with a battery all the way out here, with nothing to use it on? It's better you - Not to know.
- Exactly.
Okay You had the whole of the world's technology at your fingertips, Freddie.
Now look what you're reduced to.
Afternoon, gentlemen.
I'm looking for a man.
I wonder if you've seen him.
- Anything yet? - No, no.
Not quite.
What's the problem? All the command level files at Valhalla Sector were encoded.
Now, I got my hands on all the secure codes when we took over the base, but every time I find a file about Frederick's work, I have to manually decode it all again.
I mean, look at them.
It could take days to go through them all.
Well Have you decoded that one? Yes.
That one? Uh-huh.
That one? No, that's a maintenance and supply subdirectory.
They wouldn't have that kind of information on a directory like that.
Maybe Or it could be a way to make sure that nobody goes there looking for it.
Yeah, but why that one? I mean, there are hundreds of directories like that.
Trust me.
I'm very good at these things.
That's odd.
It's got a security level five.
Something this simple should have a security level two at best.
Hmm.
You are good at these things.
I have connections.
We have got to get this stuff up to Markus, ASAP.
I just hope the right people out there are listening.
(tapping out "S-O-S" in morse code) After Frederick disappeared, his research was confiscated.
He had been working on ways to stop Valhalla Sector by creating a Backfire, in the same way that you would set a small fire to stop a much larger one.
He had developed a way to fast-track the creation of a counter-force outside, using the same democratic ideals and principles that were abandoned by Valhalla Sector.
The whole project hinged on finding the right charismatic leader.
Once you had that person, the program set out how you could manipulate a population using the tools of psychological warfare to create a government of your own design.
This feels pretty light for something that ambitious.
Where's the rest of it? I don't think he ever committed it to paper.
If I'm right, then Frederick is carrying the blueprints to Daniel's entire operation inside his head.
Still nothing.
Moving on to sector three.
All right.
Survey two, what do you got? Copy that.
We're moving on to sector two (static) Come back, survey two.
I didn't copy.
Radio's a piece of shit.
Wait a minute.
Let me see that.
Jeremiah? Survey two.
Clear the channel, everybody else stand by for a sec.
("S-O-S" tapped in morse code) That's morse code.
- You sure? - Yeah.
I read about it.
That's the big one.
That's the one every book tells you to look out for.
Three short, three long, three short.
S-O-S.
Frederick? If you were a scientist from the old world, what would you use? Survey two, you catching that static? Negative.
All quiet.
Survey one, how about you? Yeah, I got it loud and clear.
I was wondering what it was.
Okay, here we are.
Survey one, who can hear the signal, is right here.
Maybe we can form a circle around this guy, push our way in, pick up on the signal If we to do it, we better do it fast.
No telling how long he's going to be able to keep that signal up.
All right.
Survey teams, listen up.
We've got a lead.
Come on.
Just a bit more.
This has got to get heard.
Afternoon.
You know who I am.
These gentlemen, my associates, thought it might be worth a moment of my time to talk to you.
We're in search of a man, an old man, older than anyone else - you're likely to have seen lately.
- We haven't seen anyone.
- We're just - You're drifters, parasites living off the works of others.
You are a darkness in the eyes of Daniel, and entitled to nothing Except the possibility of mercy, but mercy comes only in response to true repentance.
Have you seen the man we are pursuing? No.
We've seen no one.
Interesting.
You see, my men are trained to search the belongings of anyone they find.
So perhaps you might explain what this was doing in one of your bags.
Between you and a blade There are your two roads.
One is the truth, the other's a lie.
Which road do you want to walk down? (honks) Hey! Over here! Over here! Stop! Over here! Hey.
We got you.
Climb on in.
Oh, thank you.
We've got company.
Let's go.
Where the road levels out, we take them.
- I can't shake him.
- I know.
There's not even a hole we can duck out in.
I know.
All right, survey teams, listen up.
We've got the target.
We've also got problems.
I think there may be a way out of this, but there's only one shot, so listen up.
All right, stand by.
Where the hell are they? Which one do we go after? I mean, we can't go after all of them.
We don't have enough cars, and there's no way of telling which one has Frederick.
Sir? I appreciate everything you went through to get here, Frederick, now.
If you're tired, we can wait until you've had a chance to rest.
No, no.
That's all right.
You did all this for me.
The least I can do is tell you the truth.
What I know is known only by a handful of people in the inner circle, most of whom are part of the team that left Valhalla Sector with me five years ago.
This information is so sensitive that anyone discovering or hearing what you're about to hear is instantly marked for death.
Go on.
In trying to fight Daniel, you're fighting a shadow, because there is no Daniel.
We created a false personality, so perfect it couldn't exist in the real world, gave him a history designed to inspire people, and a will to use force when it served the interests of those in charge.
Now, wait a minute.
We've seen this guy.
You saw a face, an image, a voice, carefully engineered for maximum impact.
Red hair for strength, lean and serious.
We took the eyes from one president, the mouth from another, created a composite image that people would instinctively want to trust.
We took our lessons in images, music and architecture from the Second World War, from the Soviet Union, from Korea, from cults, from charismatic leaders.
I thought it could be controlled.
I mean, I thought he could be controlled, but Daniel took on a life of his own, and that life was only as good as the men who created him And that's where we failed.
The people outside were so naive, and easily taken advantage of, because they wanted to believe.
The others who escaped Valhalla Sector with me began to fall prey to the power they were accumulating.
They didn't want to create a better world.
They brought the old world with them.
We appreciate your efforts here, Frederick.
The research, your contacts here.
It has given us the opportunity to build something important, but we don't feel your work goes far enough.
I don't understand Look, Frederick, we have to pull a society together out of chaos.
And that requires order.
You can't bank on good feelings and promises to make people do what you tell them to do.
They're going to need positive results, and those kind of results only come from proper application of the iron fist in the velvet glove.
That is not what we discussed.
We said we would lead by example.
And so we are.
We just don't feel your example goes nearly far enough.
What began as an experiment to create a force for good, a guiding light, was corrupted, twisted into something dark and monstrous.
If everybody on the East Coast finds out there is no Daniel, that everything they've been led to believe is a lie, that they've been all used and manipulated Then everything would fall apart at the seams.
One problem.
All we have is your word for this.
There's no hard proof of anything you've just told us.
We could still get the word out there.
No.
If we do, they'll just deny it, and if we can't back it up, then nobody will believe us when we come back a second time.
But the proof you require does exist.
The reports, the files, the rough drafts, the elements of Daniel's face and personality All this and more in a small, dark room, in the hands of the men that created him.
All you have to do is go in and get them Before they get you.
I've just heard from our people in the field.
Frederick has apparently reached safe Haven in the Western Alliance.
- If the truth gets out - I know.
We'd previously agreed to hold off on a direct confrontation with our opposite numbers in Thunder Mountain.
I think you'll agree that time is no longer a luxury we can afford.
As of now, time is our enemy, and so are they.
We have to go after them directly.
We have to bring every force we have to bear on the process of eliminating the opposition, before they can do the same to us.
What began as a grand experiment has become a life and death struggle.
Our lives, their deaths.
Synced and corrected: quinnell