Captain Tsunami (2025) Movie Script
1
[waves crashing]
[thunder rumbling]
- Creatures from the sea!
- Creatures of the sea.
- Yeah, but let's try it louder,
all right?
More commanding.
Like, a little like this--
creatures from the sea,
I summon thee!
- Creatures...
- Yeah.
- [weakly] I summon thee.
- OK, Jelly, look at me.
It's time for you
to face conflict.
These creatures
are your friends.
They're gonna help you
fight the evil.
You have to trust in them.
- What if I don't have friends?
- Right. Well...
can't fight evil alone, right?
You need an army.
Look, Jelly, I believe in you.
- You do?
- Yes, I do!
All you have to do is try.
[dramatic music]
- My mom never really said what
this "Captain Tsunami" comic
was all about.
But I think, somehow,
it's about me.
[birds chirping]
[light music]
[sheep bleating]
[creature roaring]
[explosion]
[doorbell rings]
[dog barking in distance]
- Hi.
- [chuckles]
What are you selling, kid?
I already bought cookies
this year, so...
- Glenn?
- Do I know you?
[mysterious music]
[phone buzzing]
[helicopter rotors whirring,
police radio chatter]
- Now's not a good time.
- Look at the picture
I just sent you.
- Oh, my God.
- Is that who I think it is?
- When did she get there?
- Two minutes ago.
- We just put
an Amber Alert out for her.
- How does she know
where I live?
- I don't know.
Look, just keep her there.
- Wait, wait!
Is everything OK?
Is her mom OK?
- I don't know.
I don't know.
Look, man, I'll call you back.
OK?
- OK.
[wind howling]
You know, there's
an Amber Alert out for you.
That was your dad.
He's probably...
both: Already on his way.
- Police are gonna
get here first.
- You gonna tell me
what this is all about?
- She told me, if anything
ever happened, to come here.
- What does that mean,
"if anything ever happened"?
- You know how she is.
- Em, what happened?
- Do not call me that.
- What?
- My friends call me Em.
I don't really know you.
- Emma, where is your mom?
- Gone.
- What does "gone" mean?
- I don't know.
She was there,
and then she was gone.
[somber music]
- Yeah.
Adults do that sometimes.
They go away for a day or two.
- Or a decade or two.
You don't think
I know who you are?
I don't look anything like him.
[phone buzzing]
- [singing] Where's my captain
- OK, let's take a breath
for a second.
[sighs]
- [singing] Where's my captain
- Look, I don't know
what you think you know.
- Come on.
- How could you know?
- How could you not?
- What happened to your mom?
[phone buzzing]
- [singing] Where's my captain
- I don't know.
- [singing] Where's my captain
- I can't talk right now.
- Sisto's out.
- Sisto's out of what?
- The signing.
He's out.
- He can't be out.
Get him back.
- No, he's got some family
emergency or something.
- No, I'm telling you,
he can't be out.
Fix it.
I don't care how you do it.
- Sisto?
- Yeah.
Jeremy Sisto.
He's an actor from--
- "Captain Tsunami."
I know who Jeremy Sisto is.
He's doing a signing
at your comic store?
- Yeah.
It's more than a signing.
[pensive music]
It's an interactive thing.
Sisto comes in,
and the kids request poses.
- So into camera.
- Everybody's got their thing.
Kids can choose their own
costumes and everything.
It's gonna be cool.
We've been planning it
for over a year.
You know about
the comic book store, huh?
What, you've been
googling me or something?
- Yeah, I did some googling
before I took a bus
500 miles to meet a stranger.
[thunder rumbling]
She's really proud of you
about the comic store.
- Yeah, I used to be obsessed
with "Captain Tsunami"
comic books when I was a kid.
Every Halloween,
we did the costumes.
- [with deep voice]
Creatures from the sea...
both: I summon thee!
- [laughs]
What, did your mom
make you read it?
[zipper scratching]
[objects clattering]
Hey.
No, no, don't--
what the hell?
[dramatic music]
- She told me, if anything
ever happened, to come here
and bring you this.
- What is all this?
- She said you would know.
She said only you would know.
[siren wails]
[car doors slam]
[sirens wailing]
[horn blares,
police radio chatter]
- So it might not be her?
- Her ex-husband, Malcolm,
was at the location
with the divers.
[helicopter rotors whirring]
- Ex-husband?
- The car is stuck in the mud.
They're bringing in
a crane to pull it out.
They'll be able to confirm,
but the ex-husband
is sure it's her car.
[police radio chatter]
I understand that you're
Emma Andrews' biological father?
Sir?
- Yeah?
- You were estranged
from her mother?
- Not exactly, no.
- It's just that you
and Ms. Andrews
live pretty far apart.
- Yeah, she was raising Emma
with Malcolm.
- You weren't aware that he
and Ms. Andrews were divorced?
- No, I wasn't.
- We understand
Ms. Andrews is--
- Desiree.
- We understand Desiree
is neurodivergent.
- You mean crazy.
- She's on medication,
some pretty significant
medication
to manage her mental health.
But she also has a history of--
- She was in a program.
[somber music]
- She was in a lot of programs.
- Yeah, well, they don't make
programs for people like her.
- What are people like her?
- What are they telling her?
- They're telling her
about the car,
that we're still looking
for her mom.
What are people like her?
- What?
- You said they
don't have programs
for people like Desiree.
- She wasn't crazy.
- OK.
- They never agreed
on what it was.
One day, it was schizophrenia.
Next day, it was
personality disorder.
They tried everything.
Sometimes she seemed
completely normal.
Sometimes she saw monsters.
And one day, she's scribbling
nonsense on the wall.
The next day,
she's painting like Picasso.
What do you call that?
- I don't know.
What do you call it?
She'd like to stay here tonight
until her legal guardian
arrives.
And he said it's fine with him
if it's all right with you.
- Her what?
- Her stepfather, Malcolm,
is the legal guardian.
He's on the way.
[police radio chatter]
[engine revving]
- She must have already known.
It got really weird
the last few weeks.
Something was up,
but I don't know.
She wouldn't tell me.
Look, man, she's a smart kid.
She probably just looked in
the mirror and figured it out.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I guess she did.
[sighs]
- I'll be there in a few hours.
We'll figure this out.
- You driving?
- As opposed to what?
- Yeah, I don't know.
- I'm sorry I didn't
tell you earlier.
- Hey, you know anything
about this "Captain Tsunami"
stuff she brought with her?
- What?
- She's got a bag
of drawings and stuff
about Captain Tsunami.
- I can't talk about
comic books right now, man.
- No, I think her mom
gave it to her
and told her
to bring it to me
should anything
ever happen to her.
- OK, that--that doesn't
make any sense.
- Yeah, that's what I said.
- Well, did you
show it to the cops?
- No, I didn't even
think about it.
- "Captain Tsunami"?
- Yeah.
I think she drew it all herself.
It's a lot, man.
It's, like, months
or years of work.
- All right, well, I'll look
at it when I get there.
- Hey, you guys got divorced?
- Couple years back.
- Well, she's hard
to love, you know?
- It was me.
I filed it.
I left her.
- I'll see you
when you get here, man.
- Yeah.
- Drive safe.
- Can we get pizza
or something?
[soft music]
- I had no idea your mom
was drawing comics.
- Nobody did.
- Why not?
Was it a secret or something?
- You tell me.
Everybody's got their thing.
Everybody's got their thing.
What about you?
You have any gifts?
Yeah.
I'm invisible.
But I can see you.
Take a few steps
that way, please.
- OK.
- I'll tell you when to stop.
OK, and stop.
Turn around.
OK.
Here are the rules.
You'll walk towards me.
I'll walk towards you.
You act like you don't know me
and don't see me.
- OK.
- OK?
- OK.
- And go.
- [whistling]
What?
- What?
- I still see you.
- Wait, you--you see me?
- Mm-hmm.
- Right now? Are you sure?
- Yeah.
- OK, can you see this?
Say wha--
- [sighs]
- What is it? Oh, my God.
[gasps] Is this yours?
- [chuckles]
- And he's magically
holding up her bracelet.
- That's not magic.
It's pickpocketing.
[sighs]
The "Return of Captain Tsunami."
God, I wish.
They stopped publishing
years ago.
- Yeah, I know.
The warrior mermaid story
was always her favorite.
[wind howling]
- Mm.
This is really good.
Seriously, all this.
It's, like--like,
full reboot good.
I mean, I--[laughs]
Is that why your mom
wanted you to bring it to me?
- I don't think so.
- Because, you know, I just
run the comic book store.
I'm not a publisher.
I can't do anything with this.
- I think she just
wanted you to read it.
She said you would know why.
- I don't.
I don't know what she wants.
I don't know the story
or these characters.
- Yeah, you do.
It's you.
- What's me?
- That one, Jelly.
- Jelly?
- The security guard
with the soup.
- [slurping]
- [chuckles]
That's supposed to be me?
- Well, sort of.
- Sort of?
Have you read this?
- I read the pages,
but it's all out of order.
And it's not done.
Like, these pages have pictures
but no words.
[soft piano music]
- OK, so?
- Isn't it your story
and her story and Dad's story?
There's a lot
of you all being together.
In this part, you guys
are at some diner.
Jelly's like a big kid
talking about Captain Tsunami.
- Captain Tsunami can summon
all the sea creatures he wants.
They're his army.
They have superpowers,
like super speed, super jumps...
- Jumps? Mm.
- Super survival,
lightning fingers.
There is also a mermaid.
- Mm-hmm.
both: She's a warrior mermaid.
- OK, first of all,
I don't talk like that.
- I think Viper's having trouble
controlling a power
or something.
- [sighs]
Your mom really loved mermaids.
- You guys don't secretly have
those super-fish powers
Jelly was talking about, right?
- I don't know
what you think happened
to all of us back then, but...
this isn't it.
- You weren't a security guard?
- Well, yeah, I was
a security guard at one point,
but I wasn't dripping wet
all the time
and constantly eating soup.
- Were you drunk?
[mysterious music]
- Yeah.
Yeah, I was.
- Are you drunk right now?
- Six years sober.
- Hmm.
- So, what, is that how your mom
thinks about me, huh?
She thinks I'm some sweaty
dipshit security guard
with a soup problem?
And this guy Viper
is supposed to be Malcolm?
And he's got, like, weird things
growing on his back?
And he's--what is he doing?
He's selling some
magical goo or something?
[reflective music]
This was--
this was that summer
when the first "Captain Tsunami"
movie came out.
I know some of these places.
Look, Emma,
this is a lot for anybody.
I don't know
anything about kids.
I don't even know how you're
sitting here right now.
But I know your mom.
- You knew my mom.
- I know your mom
saw the world differently
than the rest of us.
Maybe this is what
that looks like to her.
But whatever this is,
it's not a history book.
This is just your mother
seeing the world through--
- Through a kaleidoscope.
Broken Genius, right?
That's what people call her.
You don't know my mom.
You knew my mom.
You haven't seen her in years.
You don't answer the phone.
You don't write back.
You think she got better?
She didn't.
She got worse.
Do you know
how hard it is to keep a job
when you're a single mom
with an unmanaged
mental illness?
When your 12-year-old daughter
has to translate your crazy
into a grocery list?
She got worse.
This?
This is, like,
the best she could do.
You said this wasn't
a history book.
Well, maybe it's not your
history book, but it's hers.
And it's what happened.
- I was there, Emma.
I know what happened.
- Didn't even know you
had a daughter.
What else did you miss?
[phone buzzing]
- [singing] Where's my captain
Where's my captain
Where's my captain
- Actually, no, Gus,
I can't right now.
- Sisto's guy said
it's not about money.
It's a family emergency.
- Yeah? OK.
- I mean, he says
Sisto's not like that.
- [sighs] I know.
He's a good dude.
- [sighs] Look, I'm--
I'm really sorry.
- Forget it.
It's not your fault.
- Yeah, I know,
but this is important.
- Hey, are you
at the store right now?
- Yeah.
I'm here.
- Do me a favor?
- Yeah. Name it.
- You know the combination
to the safe in the back, yeah?
- Yeah, I know it.
- There's a box in there.
Can you bring it to me?
- What's in it?
- What are you talking about,
what's in it?
Just--just bring me the box.
- No, this Sisto thing,
OK, it's not that bad.
- It's not booze.
I promise it's not.
I got a family emergency
of my own going on here.
- Oh, shit, Glenn,
are you OK?
- Yeah, it's fine.
Just, you can put
the box on the porch
and then send me a text, OK?
- OK.
Right now?
- Yes, right now.
It's very important.
- [sighs] OK, yeah.
You got it.
- All right. Thanks, Gus.
[thunder rumbling]
[thunder booming]
[wind howling]
All right.
So if this is her version
of history, what does it say?
You've read it?
- I don't know
what order it goes in.
It's just pages and gaps.
- And you want me to put it
in order for you?
- Mm, yeah.
Please?
- What are you expecting
to happen here?
- I don't know.
Something.
- Like what?
What something?
- Like, if this is the story
and we're all in it,
how does it end?
Jelly and Viper and Sedona
and, I guess, me.
- What did you just say?
- That's Mom, Sedona.
[soft piano music]
Do you remember something?
[music swells]
Hello.
- Sorry.
You're 12?
- I turn 13 in April.
- Around April 12th?
If this is what I think it is,
we'd already lost touch.
- For how long?
- Years.
Your mom and dad--
wasn't great.
She was homeless,
like, full-on homeless,
living in tents.
[pensive music]
Mal was all over the place.
I lost track of them
for a while.
- [humming]
- Anybody home?
It's just me.
- So that's the beginning?
- It always felt like
an ending to me.
- Mm.
You're skipping stuff.
Jelly says he got his name
from his uncle
because
of a "Captain Tsunami" comic.
[mysterious music]
- Seriously, who are you?
Where did Jelly come from?
- My Uncle Tony
gave that to me.
- But why?
Why Jelly?
- "Captain Tsunami"
comic number five.
- Yeah, I got nothing.
- So what were you guys doing?
[both giggling]
- Just roaming.
- You got lost?
- Oh, you can say that.
[both chuckle]
- You ever get lost, Jelly?
- I have GPS.
- What?
- Did she ever tell you
how we all knew each other?
- They were orphans, and you
were their foster family.
- We were all orphans.
- But it was your family.
- Uncle Tony.
- Mom called him Uncle T.
He was your real uncle.
- Yeah.
He was my real uncle.
Uncle Tony took me in
after my parents--
[thunder rumbling]
Carbon monoxide poisoning.
You know what that is?
[pensive music]
They were in the garage.
Uncle Tony found them
and dragged them out,
but it was too late.
But he took me in.
He was already fostering kids
after Auntie Barbara died,
his wife.
Your mom and Mal
were already there.
We were all any of us had left.
Thick as thieves--
we had to be.
Best friends under one roof.
It was the best time of my life,
right up until it wasn't.
We grew up,
and real life came at us.
And, well, your mom
and real life,
they were never gonna
get along.
- Look at that view.
- Yeah, this is--
this is a great view.
OK, full disclosure,
I'm not a big fan of heights.
Can we stop with the high-ups?
- I've never felt
at home on land.
Maybe I belong in the sky!
I'm ready.
- Cool.
Wait. [chuckles]
Ready for what?
- To jump.
- To--
- A leap of faith!
- OK, wait. Stop, stop, stop.
Wait, wait.
We can't do this.
- Why not?
- Well, because we're
way too high right now.
- I know!
[laughs]
- But seriously, no.
This--I'm serious.
- Me too.
We'll never get higher
than this!
Now is the time to fly!
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Stop.
You know we're
on a dumpster, right?
[thunder rumbling]
[wind howling]
- You OK?
- Mom's telling us something.
- What, you think
that's what's in here?
- I know that's what's in here.
- Well, it looks like a story
about three weirdos
who think they're fish getting
summoned by Captain Tsunami.
- So you're saying
it's three friends
who forgot who they were
and it's a story
about how they remember.
I wonder what that's all about.
- Emma.
- God damn it!
- Whoa, language.
- You keep saying
this is the end of your story,
but it's the beginning of mine.
So will you please
just be helpful?
- You don't sound 12.
- Well, I'm 13 in April, so...
- [chuckles]
[thunder rumbling]
[wind howling]
I was a security guard
at an outdoor mall,
this promenade thing.
Seemed like the easiest
job in the world.
It should have been,
till this one night.
A woman was choking
at one of the restaurants.
Everybody was freaking out,
screaming at me
to do something.
- What did you do?
[police radio chatter]
- Nothing.
[siren wails, horn blares]
I couldn't hear.
Hadn't had a job in a year.
I was back living
with Uncle Tony.
Hadn't seen your mom and Mal
since I don't know when.
And yeah,
I was more drunk
than I'd ever been
in my entire life.
That's saying something.
- What happened to the lady?
[somber music]
- She's in a coma, Jelly.
Her husband, her family,
they're probably gonna sue us.
We're counting on you
to help people.
[sighs] I just needed you
to do your job.
You didn't do your job.
- So she went into a coma?
- She died.
She went into a coma,
and she died.
- What did you do?
- They suspended me.
But I was so drunk,
I just forgot.
I showed up to work that night.
- Did her husband sue you?
- No.
[singing]
Singin' in the moonlight
Tonight, singin'
[grunts]
He stabbed me.
- She was choking.
They told me you
didn't do anything.
both: She was my wife.
- I remember him saying that.
"She was my wife."
- How did they find you?
- Somebody called 911.
- I mean, how did
Mom and Mal find you?
- They didn't.
What's this?
- Do you think
she's making this part up?
[doorbell rings]
- Hey. Thanks, man.
- Hey.
Yeah.
What's going on?
- You wouldn't believe me
if I told you.
- Are you alone?
- No, actually.
Family.
- Family?
[scoffs] What family?
- It--it's complicated.
- Yeah, but, Glenn--
- I'm not gonna blow my chip
because Jeremy Sisto
isn't showing up.
[chuckling] Come on.
Give me a little more credit.
- Yeah.
- There's nothing in the house.
All right, I'm good.
- Yeah, I'm two minutes away.
- I know.
Thanks for the thing.
- All right.
- Yeah.
See you tomorrow.
- See you.
- [sighs]
[sighs]
[thunder rumbling]
[sighs]
[keys jingling]
[soft music]
[lid creaking]
[thunder rumbling]
- Stars.
I see stars even brighter
than my tent lights.
- They tell stories, you know?
The stars.
There's Orion and his belt
holding his sword
and his shield,
protecting himself from Scorpio,
the scorpion.
[mimics blows landing]
- [chuckles]
- They're never in the sky
at the same time, you know?
When one rises, the other sets.
- [chomps, chuckles]
- And then there's
the archer, Sagittarius,
aiming his arrow
at Antares,
the star
that's the scorpion's heart.
[mimics arrow whooshing]
[chuckles] It's cool, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- I mean, there are
animals, goddesses,
monsters, conflict, war, love.
- [chuckles]
- Process the next batch.
I need more paste...
[machine whirring]
And possibly an aspirin.
- The rest of the crop
is ready, sir, but--
- I don't care.
Just do your job,
and figure it out.
[dramatic music]
- Oh, my God.
- How many people?
- Reporting in, sir!
- Do you have them?
- We looked
absolutely everywhere, sir.
There's no way
they're still here.
- Really?
OK.
Can I see that?
[grunting]
[thudding]
We're on lockdown, people.
That means no one
can exit the building.
It's not freakin'
rocket science!
[echoing] Science, science,
science, science.
[seagulls calling]
[pensive music]
[waves crashing]
- Danger is all around you
when you least expect it.
Your friends
are in danger too.
- Wow.
- Yeah. It's a lot to take in.
- I have friends.
- OK.
It's up to you to save them.
- Can't you help?
- One day, I'll be gone,
and I'll need someone strong
to watch over my kingdom.
- Gone?
- Mm-hmm.
- Where are you going?
- Home.
- In the sea?
- No--no, Beverly Hills.
- When?
- That's up to you.
When that happens,
I need you to become
the captain.
[echoing]
Captain, captain.
- [singing] Where's my captain
Where's my captain
Where's my captain
- Hey.
- Hey, listen, man.
Something's up.
- What does that mean?
- I don't know.
I got shitty reception
where I am,
and I missed a call
from the cops.
I called them back.
I got a [garbled] about it.
- I can barely hear you.
- OK, listen,
I gave them your number.
Keep your phone on.
They're gonna call you.
Did you get that?
- OK, yeah.
Hey, I gotta
ask you something.
Remember when I got stabbed?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I remember
when you got stabbed.
- Did you come see me
in the hospital?
- Yeah, we both did.
It was some scary shit.
- Both?
D was there too?
- Yeah.
You don't remember?
- Mr. Joseph is different
than other people.
- How so?
- Most people
are 50%, 60% water.
- What's Jelly?
- 95%.
- Is he gonna be OK?
- It's a process.
You're welcome
to stay here if you want.
We've got gummy worms.
- I was going through a lot.
I didn't even know
where you were.
I hadn't seen you in years.
How did you even know?
- They called me.
- Who called you?
- The hospital.
They said I was
your emergency contact.
[line beeps]
Hello?
- Hello?
Mal?
- Shit.
- What's going on?
- I don't know.
That's the truth.
I--I actually don't know.
But Mal says he remembers
visiting me in the hospital.
- You don't remember?
- I don't remember
a lot of things.
- What do you remember?
- When I was drinking
back then,
the real world
and the comic book
used to sort of...blend.
- Did Captain Tsunami ever sing
a song in one of his cartoons?
- He did Rock, Paper, Scissors
one time.
Does that count?
- No.
- Against a sinister squid
who had eight tentacles.
You have to be really fast
at Rock, Paper, Scissors
to defeat a monster
with eight tentacles.
- I get it, Jelly.
- Lots of rocks, papers,
and scissors.
I am very scared of scissors.
I used to dream
we were all changing.
I remember Mal
living in his car.
Everything he had was in there.
[banging]
I hadn't seen him in years.
Now suddenly
there he was one night
in the promenade garage,
sleeping at the wheel.
- What about Mom?
- Homeless.
I didn't know where at first,
but Mal was the one
who found her.
- I think she found him first.
This one.
That's the promenade, right?
- Yeah.
Huh.
- Do you--do you wish
you were smarter?
I do.
I don't mean that I wish
you were smarter.
No, I wish I were smarter.
I have some vital vitamins
needed for your cerebellum,
and it's called Hai-Q.
It makes your brain big.
It adds all the vitamins
vital to your cerebellum.
Hello.
Hello.
Hey, do you wish
you were smarter?
Do you wish--I do.
I did.
- I knew he was selling
that stuff, but when was this?
- What stuff?
- She was watching him.
- Selling what stuff?
- She--maybe, but--
- Oh, my God.
- What?
- You sound just like Mom.
- Sorry.
So Mal told me he found
your mom at some point.
I thought it was
after I got stabbed.
She stole his bag.
He chased her.
[soft music]
She almost got away,
but some dudes
jumped her in an alley and...
- [screams]
[clamor, glass shatters]
- And Mal pulled her out.
- Are you OK?
- She ran off, and he found her
in a tent somehow.
I mean, that's what
they said happened.
Yeah, this is definitely
before I got stabbed.
- This is really nice.
Could use a big beanbag,
though.
Big beanbags
go with everything.
This place certainly has that.
It's like a whole new world
in here, a galaxy.
It's got stars.
I'm Viper.
- Like the snake?
- I don't get it.
- Welcome to the club.
- They're acting
like strangers.
Is it a game?
Don't say it's not real.
- OK.
- I'm Viper.
- Like the snake?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I'm a snake.
Yeah, I slither.
So every so often,
I feel like I shed my skin,
become something new.
[sighs] I've slithered
through a lot of jungles.
You know, maybe someday
I'll find the right jungle.
Do you also have a name?
- Sedona.
- That's a really pretty name.
What's it mean?
- What?
- You nearly had a heart attack
when I said Sedona earlier.
What's it mean?
- I don't know yet.
- [sighs]
- Why were you watching me
the other day?
- [scoffs] I wasn't.
- OK.
- Well, why are you here?
- I wanted to see you.
- I--I mean
why are you in this town?
- Oh.
Oh...[chuckles]
I had a job interview.
- What's that stuff
you're selling?
- Drugs, I think.
- Good drugs?
- They're not technically drugs,
but I did try some
and I was hella tripping.
Like, getting crazy, crazy
hallucinations.
- But they were drugs?
- He didn't know that yet.
He thought it was a bootleg
energy snack or something.
We're missing pages.
- Where were you
during all this?
- This was all
before I got stabbed.
Had to be.
- 'Cause they showed up
at the hospital together.
- Yeah.
- These?
- Yeah.
Yeah, that's exactly the spot.
I guess she was
watching me too.
Just didn't see her.
- Then Captain Tsunami
says...
[gruffly]
No, I'm Captain Tsunami.
- Really?
With the voice again?
- [normally]
And then he disintegrates
the evil shark monster...
both: With his
lightning fingers.
- That's when he
becomes a superhero
in the first comic book and in
the 1970s classic cartoon here.
Now, next Friday,
the movie comes out, finally.
I already bought an extra ticket
after I got my paycheck,
so we can go together.
I just need you to pick me up
because I don't have a car,
and I hate taking the bus.
What was your question again?
- Where is the restroom?
- I was really, really
into "Captain Tsunami."
- Like, into it so much that you
opened a comic book store?
- A little bit more to it
than that, but sure.
[pensive music]
[door creaks open]
Whoa.
[door clicks shut]
Uncle Tony!
I'm on break.
Came home to eat!
[mimics explosions]
- Creatures from the sea!
- Creatures of the sea.
- It's "from," right?
We're all from the sea.
So we say,
creatures from the sea.
So it's, creatures from the sea,
I summon thee!
- Creatures...
- Better.
- [weakly] I summon thee.
- OK, a little deflated
there at the end.
Jelly, listen to me.
It's time for you
to face conflict here.
These creatures,
they're your friends.
You have to trust in them.
They're gonna help you
fight the evil.
And you can't fight evil alone.
You need an army.
Jelly, listen to me.
You can be a leader.
You can.
I believe in you.
- You do?
- Yes.
Yes, I do.
All you have to do is try.
Oh, and maybe go easy
on the soup, huh?
- What?
That was a dream I had,
like, a recurring dream.
The Sisto thing--
I never told anybody
about that.
- Clearly, you did.
- Yeah.
Yeah, obviously.
I mean--Jesus.
And that place, that's the place
Uncle Tony and I lived after--
That's what it looked like.
And you see this?
I did that.
Like, that...
Nobody saw that.
Was she spying on me
through the window or something?
- [scoffs]
Wouldn't put it past her.
- Me neither.
Jesus.
I mean, they were both
sucking down tubes of that stuff
Mal was supposed to be selling.
- Which was what exactly?
- [sighs] You know
what magic mushrooms are?
- I live in Oregon.
- [chuckles] OK, well, when
this all came crashing down,
the newspaper said it was
magic mushrooms and yogurt.
A guy was making it
in a bathtub.
- It doesn't sound so bad,
except the bathtub part.
- Now you sound like your mom.
[mysterious music]
- Do you see how much fun
they were having in all these?
- I'm feeling very...
something right now.
- Magical.
- Magic isn't in me.
It's something I find.
- If that's a joke,
I don't get it.
- Seriously.
It's--it's one of my gifts.
I find magic.
- What?
Smell the magic?
- Oh, you'd be surprised
at what people discard.
[grunts]
[sighs]
Now, watch this.
Fly away.
[whooshing]
[wings fluttering]
[metallic clatter]
- What else you got?
- Hmm.
Combo, double jump
front kick into a crescent kick,
spinning back fist.
- I'm sorry, what?
I don't--
- Tae kwon do.
Eh?
Impressed?
- Mm.
- You didn't.
- Did I not--
did I?
- Give me that.
[gasps]
OK, like,
that's some freaky magic.
- OK, so maybe Mom's
trying to tell us
that anytime you were
all together, it was magic?
[rain pattering]
But then there's this stuff.
I don't understand
how it all connects.
You're all trapped.
- Sorry to interrupt
your little date.
Pick up at the grinder.
Cleanup in aisle five.
[chuckles]
- And then there's
this villain guy
who has a giant
red and black machine,
and he chews people up
and, like, steals their magic.
- Great news.
We've been cleared by the FDA.
Grocery stores, here you come.
- And then these, like,
big shark guys
and yellow spacesuit
bad guys attack.
[all grunting]
They're just too powerful.
But in the end,
Jelly saves the day.
- Didn't you say you wanted
to know how it ends?
Well, I know
how this part ends.
[phone buzzing]
- [singing] Where's my captain
Where's my captain
- Hey.
How you doing on time?
- Am I speaking with Glenn?
- Oh, yes.
Sorry, this is Glenn.
I thought you were
somebody else.
- This is Detective Hope.
I met you earlier this evening.
- Yeah.
What's going on?
- Sir, you're aware
that they've been
recovering a vehicle
from the North Margin River
belonging to Ms. Andrews?
- Yes?
- Desiree was not found
in the vehicle.
- I'm sorry?
- There was nobody
in the vehicle.
- What's that mean?
- It means they'll be opening
a missing persons investigation.
- No, I mean, did--
did the--did she
just float out or...
- The detectives
on the scene said the doors
and windows were closed.
The car was in neutral.
It appears that the car
may have been unoccupied
when it entered the water.
They believe it rolled
down a hill on its own.
- OK.
- Please relay this information
to Malcolm Morton
as soon as you can.
They've been unable
to reach him.
- Yeah, he's driving,
and he has bad reception.
- I understand.
Please have him call me or the
detectives up north right away.
The first 48 hours
are extremely important.
- I will.
Thank you.
[rain pattering]
[thunder rumbling]
- You said you know
how it ends?
- What?
- Before you answered
the phone,
you said you know how it ends,
with the drug stuff.
- Remember when Viper told
Sedona he had a job interview?
- Yeah.
- Well, if it's
what I think it is,
this job interview is with the
guy who made that paste stuff.
He told Mal it was--
- Fish oil.
[curious music]
Viper looks up
at the mirrored building.
In the darkened office
of one Mr. Hai--
- A darkened office--it was an
alley behind the Falafel House.
- I'm reading here.
- I'm sorry.
- In the darkened office
of one Mr. Hai...
[jazz music]
- Sorry, sir, I really--
I really need this job.
- And this job
really needs you.
- Oh, thank--
- Welcome aboard!
- Thank you so much.
- [chuckles] No.
No, really, I can't with this.
Please.
- Why?
- There was no glass building
or fancy office.
Mal owed money to the Hais,
the family
who ran the falafel place.
To pay it off,
he agreed to sell
tubes of that imported goop.
- 6 ounces, 10 bucks a tube.
You're gonna sell it.
- What is it?
- It's fish oil, mostly.
Doesn't matter.
Once the FDA clears us,
we're going nationwide
into grocery stores.
- The FDA?
- Some government thing.
It doesn't matter.
- Oh, man.
She's making me miss this guy.
Mr. Hai was just like this.
- He's on a lot of these pages.
I think he's, like, the big bad.
- No, he wasn't a bad guy.
I mean, he was bad by, like,
standards, but he was cool.
- It sounds like the mob.
- Yeah, they were
all mobbed up.
But it was, like, the good mob.
- So Mom and Mal
were selling imported drugs
for the "good mob"?
- It sounds worse
when you say it.
And it wasn't your mom.
It was just Mal.
- No, I don't think so.
- Oh, Malcolm.
- She says...
- Hey.
- Hi.
- You want to sell
all that stuff right now?
Tonight?
- To you?
- I met this woman.
Real weird.
Not sure drug dealer's
the right term.
More like
a wholesale merchandiser.
- Merchandise being?
- Drugs.
- OK.
- She likes things
that are outside the box.
- They're literally in a box.
- Except none of these pages
show Mom selling anything.
It's just Mal trying
to sell it alone.
And then Mom
comes in and steals--
- Because it never happens.
- How do you know?
How do you know?
- Because the minute she
came around, they ate it all.
They weren't drug dealers.
They were drug users.
They were addicts--
all three of us.
- Mal has never been
a drug addict.
- No, but he was depressed,
and he would have followed
your mom off a goddamn cliff.
He was addicted to her
and addicted to being
screwed up over her for years.
He did it because she did it.
- What about you?
- Vodka and comic books--
- I mean about Mom.
- What about her?
- Would you have
followed her off a cliff?
[soft music]
- I did...
a dozen times
before the story even started,
a hundred times
since we were 12.
We both did.
- What's this?
- The cliff.
- What's in your bag?
- Almost everything I own.
What's in your car?
- The same.
I guess we're living together.
- One night only.
You charge 10 bucks for this?
- Yeah.
- How many we got?
- 100?
- That's a lot.
- And here comes the excuse.
- Viper says...
- What if she tries to rob us?
- There it is,
all the reason she needs.
She never wanted
to sell that stuff.
- For someone
who was blackout drunk,
you sure think
you know everything.
- Well, between
the two of us, I was
the one who was alive
at the time,
and I was actually there, so...
- You weren't there.
You were off being
an alcoholic mall cop
while Mom and Mal were homeless
and living in a car.
[pensive music]
She isn't a bad person.
- I didn't say that.
- Does it make you
feel better saying
that they were drug addicts?
So none of this is your fault?
I figured out years ago
that Mal probably wasn't my dad.
At first, I didn't tell anybody.
But I figured it was you.
I knew all about you.
You're the only other person
she ever talked about.
But I only ever heard
the good parts.
And for years, I wondered why.
If you were so great, why
wouldn't you want me to know?
And now I think I get it.
Why are you acting like
you didn't know about me?
- I knew about you.
- Then where were you?
[sighs]
[sighs]
- [sighs]
[dramatic music]
- Everybody has their thing--
call it a gift
or a curse if you want--
whether they like it or not.
- How's your thing?
- Well, I burn
everything I touch, so...
What is your thing exactly?
- I don't really like
to talk about it.
- You know I can
hear it, right?
- It's weird.
Basically, I can sense
when people are in trouble.
Thinking about Jelly being
endangered stresses me out.
My thing acts up.
- Can I see it?
- [sighs] Fine.
Just promise me
you won't get grossed out.
- I promise.
- Oh, yeah.
- Ew!
- I know.
- Oh, my gosh!
- OK, don't be rude.
- [gasps] That is so, so cool.
- Are you being serious
right now?
- I'm totally serious.
It's kind of beautiful.
How does this feel?
- It's OK.
- What about if I do this?
- Oh, don't--uh-uh.
- Oh.
- Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm.
- OK. Sorry.
- Mm-mm, mm-mm.
- What about if I'm
more gentle like this?
- Yeah, that's nice.
- [humming]
- What is that?
- My mom used
to hum that to me.
[humming]
[soft music]
- [humming]
- When a line unravels,
it's easy to get lost.
But every once in a while,
you get found.
Monsoons swell.
Storms subside.
You bid farewell
to creatures inside.
Rise to the surface.
Swim to the land.
Your kingdom awaits,
castles of sand.
[dramatic music]
[knocking]
- You knew about me.
But you didn't know.
[music swells]
- [crying]
[doorbell rings]
- Detective called.
- OK, yep.
Thank you.
- Why didn't you
just sell the Hai-Q?
- What?
- You owed the Hais money,
and you knew Mom had a problem.
Why'd you even
involve her in it?
- Don't look at me.
- [chuckles]
I tried to sell it.
Just not much of a salesman.
- So you just
got high with Mom?
- Yeah.
- Why would you do that?
- It wasn't the plan.
She said she knew someone
who would buy the whole box.
We just never got there.
- Because you thought
she might rob you?
[pensive music]
- [sighs] She has been busy.
- You've seen this before?
- Some of it, but...
there's a lot missing.
- But you know
what happens next.
- Yeah, we get there, park,
and before we go in, I say,
what if she robs us?
And she says...
both: I know tae kwon do.
- What if she tries to rob us?
- I know tae kwon do.
- Oh.
Why didn't you use that
in the alley?
- They caught me off guard.
- OK.
- They came up from behind me!
- Yeah.
I'm sure they did.
We never went in.
Couldn't even find the place.
- Because?
- Because that stuff kicked in
right when we got there.
- You already ate some?
- Yeah, we had some on the way.
I thought it was legal.
- Jeez.
- [scoffs]
- Eventually, we found the car,
and I tried to get her
to go to the park with me.
- [laughing]
We shouldn't be driving.
- Well, we have to 'cause
we gotta move the car.
What is up with the city?
You can't park anywhere.
It's, like, 90% tow zones,
and the other half
is street cleaning.
- Let me drive, please.
- I want to take you
to Griffith Park.
I've always wanted to see it.
- Well, it's far.
[engine turning over]
- But they have stars.
I want to show you the stars.
- [gags]
- You have no game.
- No, I do not.
- Did you guys make it?
[soft music]
- Man, they really
got me boxed in.
[laughter]
- What happened next?
- We ate some more
of that stuff,
wandered around for a bit,
and then we stole
a scissor lift.
[laughter]
- What?
- Yes.
- Scissor lift?
- No way.
- Yeah.
- Wasn't that in the paper?
- Yeah, it was. Yeah.
- That was you.
- Yep.
That was us.
We were up there for hours.
- [chuckles]
- At least that's how it felt.
I mean, you know,
long enough to sober up.
- What'd you talk about?
- Time, luck, stars.
- You have an actual flask?
You have an actual flask?
both:
What are you, an early settler?
- It's a souvenir.
Got it from father number four.
- That's a lot of family.
- Oh, that's one way
to look at it.
Bounced around foster homes,
kept getting sent back.
Guess when something's
defective, you return it.
[chuckles]
And number four was a drinker.
Gave this to me when I was 12.
- Child abuse.
- Mm, no.
Got that from number one
and number three.
- I lost my mom when I was 11.
Dad couldn't handle it.
When I was 18, I ran off.
Never looked back.
- But you had a home.
- I had a house.
It's not the same thing.
- Did she actually say that?
- No, I never heard
a word of that up there.
- That doesn't make sense.
Sedona says she lost her mom
when she was 11.
Dad couldn't handle it.
I thought she was
in foster care all that time.
- She was.
I mean, look, maybe this is all
complete fiction, you know,
like a character backstory.
- All of it's meant
something so far.
So what if she's talking
about Uncle Tony?
- She never called
Uncle Tony Dad.
She never said
anything like that.
I would have heard about it.
No, he--he died never
hearing those words,
and he knew it every day.
- Maybe she wishes she did.
- Well, she had
plenty of chances.
- Maybe she changed her mind.
Maybe she told him
when all this was going on.
- Uncle Tony was gone by then.
- No.
Glenn was still living
with him.
[mysterious music]
- What is she talking about?
- Remember?
You said you were
still living with Uncle Tony.
- Uncle Tony!
I'm on break.
[mimics explosions]
- Glenn got stabbed that night.
We went to the hospital
after we got the call.
We hadn't seen or heard
from Uncle Tony or him in years.
So we figured
we'd go to the apartment,
get him some clothes,
see Uncle Tony.
Oh.
- Why wouldn't he have
Uncle Tony's number
in his phone?
- So what happened?
Was he there?
- Uncle Tony was
the only decent father figure
we had ever had.
We didn't know he was gone
until we saw the urn.
[thunder rumbling]
It was a shitty way
to find out.
- She never said it.
It was one word.
She could have said
that one word.
- You want to know what happened
after we left that apartment?
[pensive music]
- So I was thinking,
I really want
to use the rest
of my spray paint
to put "Viper" on your coat.
- Wow!
- Like, spray paint.
- That'd be so--
- Cool.
No, no, no.
No.
No, no.
- It's OK.
We'll find the tow company.
- I have no money!
In 24 hours, I found out that
my oldest friend was stabbed,
the girl I was in love with
was a junkie,
and my foster father was dead.
And on top of all of that,
every physical object
in my life that had any
happy moment attached to it
was in that parking space.
And I'll never forget this.
Your mom walks over,
and she says...
- I'm in your space.
- She was his family.
- You were his family.
- That's not true.
- Glenn, you were his family.
- He loved you
like you were his own.
He deserved better.
You know, he actually
believed you'd show up,
right up until the end.
Every night
before he went to sleep,
he'd look at me and he'd say,
maybe tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow,
Mal and Des will come by.
And I'd say, yeah,
maybe tomorrow.
I swear to God,
I don't know what killed him,
the cancer
or the broken heart.
[somber music]
- [sniffles]
Hey, did, Mommy
ever tell you why she decided
to draw him like this?
That wet, floppy mustache?
- He said he was drunk a lot.
- Yeah.
[door creaking]
- But why did she do anything?
- I don't know.
There's a lot of us in this.
There's a lot of truth.
But some of this is just--
- Crazy.
- Hey.
- He didn't know.
- What do you mean?
- He didn't know.
- Mommy sent him a letter--
- He never opened the letters.
You could have told me.
- Told you what?
- The truth.
- Which is what?
I'm your dad.
That's the truth.
That's the only truth
that's meant anything
for the last 13 years.
We thought he knew.
We thought he knew
and just wasn't coming.
Nobody lied.
- Why does he--
I mean, what's with all
the "Captain Tsunami" stuff?
I don't get it.
- Uncle Tony
was always Uncle Tony.
Did he ever tell you
what happened to his parents?
- The gas leak thing?
In the garage?
- Yeah.
- Why?
- Well, 'cause that's
a big step for him.
He used to always tell stories.
- What do you mean?
- Remember what your mom
used to do with the--
reading the shells?
- Oh, no.
- Yeah.
She's been doing that ever since
she was about your age.
Last time we did that
was when we got together again
after he got out
of the hospital.
That's when he told us
another one of his stories.
[pensive music]
- These are the acts
of your life,
past, present, and future.
Now, close your eyes
for a moment.
And look at me
through your third eye.
- [snorts]
[clears throat]
- Act I, your childhood.
You felt a lot of love
back then.
You were surrounded
by lots of people.
- El Salvador.
I was born in a village.
That's where my mom was from.
My dad was on vacation
when they met.
I moved here when I was three.
First, my dad left.
And then my mom
went looking for my dad.
- In his stories, his parents
were always on big adventures.
But they always leave him.
- Then it was just me.
- Nobody ever
told him the truth?
- They told him.
He just--
- What do the other shells say?
- Act II.
- He said something earlier
about reality.
It was hard for him
to tell what was real.
- Yeah, Mommy felt
like that all the time.
That feeling never went away.
- Things haven't been easy
for you,
but you've persevered.
- Is that why she writes like
you're all strangers in this?
- Maybe.
We always think we'll grow up
and everything will make sense.
- What about the third one?
- Act III, your future.
- But the world
almost gets stranger.
For a lot of us,
we go through a lot.
Sometimes you just
can't imagine reality.
You imagine something else.
Mom didn't always have
a choice in what she saw.
- You become a superhero.
- Maybe Glenn didn't either.
- Tell her what happened next.
Tell her how I found you guys.
You said you wanted to know
how it all ends, right?
You know how it all ends,
don't you?
Or do you not remember?
Your mom nearly OD'd.
- No, she didn't.
- Yes, she did.
- She did not OD.
- Yes, she did.
And they didn't
pay back Mr. Hai.
Because they ate all his drugs.
And all these pages
with the weird black cages
and men in space suits
and mad scientists
and Dr. White and evil Mr. Hai,
none of that happened.
No, what really happened
back here on Earth
is that I sobered up
and I paid off Mr. Hai.
And as soon as he said
he was square,
I called the cops,
and I told them
to grab your mom and Mal
and throw them into detox.
[dramatic music]
Two days in, your mom
went completely mental,
screaming that she was
a magic sea creature
who was gonna return to the sea.
So they threw her
in a padded cell,
and they locked the door.
And all these pages here,
where she's scared
and tortured and trapped
and trying to escape,
I put her there.
She was scared,
and she was alone.
And all that crazy
she was spouting
was because of a goddamn
"Captain Tsunami" comic
that she wouldn't even
have known about
if it weren't for me.
[soft piano music]
They found some drugs
that they thought worked,
and they let her go.
[chuckles]
They literally just opened
the door and let her walk out.
But she was a different person.
Can't put my finger on it.
But that's what she was like
when she was sober...
or maybe what she was like
when I was sober.
She just wanted
to get out of town.
That's all she wanted.
- Where'd you go?
- Sedona.
- A few days in...
I loved her.
And in some ways, she loved me.
But in her mind,
in the story she had to create,
wasn't me in there
helping her escape that place.
Wasn't me in there
helping her survive.
It was Mal.
- You're not defective.
[crying] You're beautiful.
- You were her superhero.
And I was just--
guess I was
still just a drunk.
We left, came back here,
and she found out Mal was gone.
She went after him.
I never saw her again.
I didn't deserve to.
They didn't find
your mom in the car.
- Why would they have?
- What does that mean?
- Mom wasn't in the car.
- Emma, do you know
where your mother is?
- I already told you.
She was there,
and then she was gone.
- There where?
- Use more words.
- [sighs] She didn't come home
a couple of nights ago.
She's been doing that a lot.
So I tracked her phone.
She was down at the bridge,
and she wasn't moving.
I knew how to drive the car,
so I took it
and drove to her spot.
She was just standing there.
I got distracted
and left the car in neutral,
and it rolled into the water.
[water splashing]
[water bubbling]
The next morning,
she woke me up
and told me she wanted
to introduce me
to some old friends.
It was like nothing
ever happened.
She was totally normal.
She packed this giant bag,
and we took the bus
to this beach.
[waves crashing]
It was, like,
in the middle of nowhere.
I asked if her friends
were coming.
She said, they'll be here.
[gulls calling]
Hours and hours passed,
and nobody came.
Finally, Mom stood up,
walked out,
and put her feet in the water.
She just stood there
for what seemed like forever.
I got really tired.
And when I looked back...
[waves crashing]
She was gone.
[crying]
And now...what do I do?
[dramatic music]
- Act III, your future.
- Am I surrounded
by more shells?
[music swells]
- You become a superhero.
[Kylie Campion's
"Open Up Your Eyes"]
[singing]
- Sometimes the hardest thing
Is doing what you know
you're supposed to
And sometimes it can be
Believing when no one else
believes except for you
Sometimes I just want
to leave this place
But I will wait for you
And someday
when you are ready
Then you can see just what
This world can do for you
So get up on your feet
And take a step
Towards me
And open up your eyes
So you can see
what's going on
- Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
- Ah, ah, ah, ah
- Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
- Ah, ah, ah, ah
- Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
- Ah, ah, ah, ah
Open up your eyes
You'll see me
[soft piano music]
[waves crashing]
[thunder rumbling]
- Creatures from the sea!
- Creatures of the sea.
- Yeah, but let's try it louder,
all right?
More commanding.
Like, a little like this--
creatures from the sea,
I summon thee!
- Creatures...
- Yeah.
- [weakly] I summon thee.
- OK, Jelly, look at me.
It's time for you
to face conflict.
These creatures
are your friends.
They're gonna help you
fight the evil.
You have to trust in them.
- What if I don't have friends?
- Right. Well...
can't fight evil alone, right?
You need an army.
Look, Jelly, I believe in you.
- You do?
- Yes, I do!
All you have to do is try.
[dramatic music]
- My mom never really said what
this "Captain Tsunami" comic
was all about.
But I think, somehow,
it's about me.
[birds chirping]
[light music]
[sheep bleating]
[creature roaring]
[explosion]
[doorbell rings]
[dog barking in distance]
- Hi.
- [chuckles]
What are you selling, kid?
I already bought cookies
this year, so...
- Glenn?
- Do I know you?
[mysterious music]
[phone buzzing]
[helicopter rotors whirring,
police radio chatter]
- Now's not a good time.
- Look at the picture
I just sent you.
- Oh, my God.
- Is that who I think it is?
- When did she get there?
- Two minutes ago.
- We just put
an Amber Alert out for her.
- How does she know
where I live?
- I don't know.
Look, just keep her there.
- Wait, wait!
Is everything OK?
Is her mom OK?
- I don't know.
I don't know.
Look, man, I'll call you back.
OK?
- OK.
[wind howling]
You know, there's
an Amber Alert out for you.
That was your dad.
He's probably...
both: Already on his way.
- Police are gonna
get here first.
- You gonna tell me
what this is all about?
- She told me, if anything
ever happened, to come here.
- What does that mean,
"if anything ever happened"?
- You know how she is.
- Em, what happened?
- Do not call me that.
- What?
- My friends call me Em.
I don't really know you.
- Emma, where is your mom?
- Gone.
- What does "gone" mean?
- I don't know.
She was there,
and then she was gone.
[somber music]
- Yeah.
Adults do that sometimes.
They go away for a day or two.
- Or a decade or two.
You don't think
I know who you are?
I don't look anything like him.
[phone buzzing]
- [singing] Where's my captain
- OK, let's take a breath
for a second.
[sighs]
- [singing] Where's my captain
- Look, I don't know
what you think you know.
- Come on.
- How could you know?
- How could you not?
- What happened to your mom?
[phone buzzing]
- [singing] Where's my captain
- I don't know.
- [singing] Where's my captain
- I can't talk right now.
- Sisto's out.
- Sisto's out of what?
- The signing.
He's out.
- He can't be out.
Get him back.
- No, he's got some family
emergency or something.
- No, I'm telling you,
he can't be out.
Fix it.
I don't care how you do it.
- Sisto?
- Yeah.
Jeremy Sisto.
He's an actor from--
- "Captain Tsunami."
I know who Jeremy Sisto is.
He's doing a signing
at your comic store?
- Yeah.
It's more than a signing.
[pensive music]
It's an interactive thing.
Sisto comes in,
and the kids request poses.
- So into camera.
- Everybody's got their thing.
Kids can choose their own
costumes and everything.
It's gonna be cool.
We've been planning it
for over a year.
You know about
the comic book store, huh?
What, you've been
googling me or something?
- Yeah, I did some googling
before I took a bus
500 miles to meet a stranger.
[thunder rumbling]
She's really proud of you
about the comic store.
- Yeah, I used to be obsessed
with "Captain Tsunami"
comic books when I was a kid.
Every Halloween,
we did the costumes.
- [with deep voice]
Creatures from the sea...
both: I summon thee!
- [laughs]
What, did your mom
make you read it?
[zipper scratching]
[objects clattering]
Hey.
No, no, don't--
what the hell?
[dramatic music]
- She told me, if anything
ever happened, to come here
and bring you this.
- What is all this?
- She said you would know.
She said only you would know.
[siren wails]
[car doors slam]
[sirens wailing]
[horn blares,
police radio chatter]
- So it might not be her?
- Her ex-husband, Malcolm,
was at the location
with the divers.
[helicopter rotors whirring]
- Ex-husband?
- The car is stuck in the mud.
They're bringing in
a crane to pull it out.
They'll be able to confirm,
but the ex-husband
is sure it's her car.
[police radio chatter]
I understand that you're
Emma Andrews' biological father?
Sir?
- Yeah?
- You were estranged
from her mother?
- Not exactly, no.
- It's just that you
and Ms. Andrews
live pretty far apart.
- Yeah, she was raising Emma
with Malcolm.
- You weren't aware that he
and Ms. Andrews were divorced?
- No, I wasn't.
- We understand
Ms. Andrews is--
- Desiree.
- We understand Desiree
is neurodivergent.
- You mean crazy.
- She's on medication,
some pretty significant
medication
to manage her mental health.
But she also has a history of--
- She was in a program.
[somber music]
- She was in a lot of programs.
- Yeah, well, they don't make
programs for people like her.
- What are people like her?
- What are they telling her?
- They're telling her
about the car,
that we're still looking
for her mom.
What are people like her?
- What?
- You said they
don't have programs
for people like Desiree.
- She wasn't crazy.
- OK.
- They never agreed
on what it was.
One day, it was schizophrenia.
Next day, it was
personality disorder.
They tried everything.
Sometimes she seemed
completely normal.
Sometimes she saw monsters.
And one day, she's scribbling
nonsense on the wall.
The next day,
she's painting like Picasso.
What do you call that?
- I don't know.
What do you call it?
She'd like to stay here tonight
until her legal guardian
arrives.
And he said it's fine with him
if it's all right with you.
- Her what?
- Her stepfather, Malcolm,
is the legal guardian.
He's on the way.
[police radio chatter]
[engine revving]
- She must have already known.
It got really weird
the last few weeks.
Something was up,
but I don't know.
She wouldn't tell me.
Look, man, she's a smart kid.
She probably just looked in
the mirror and figured it out.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I guess she did.
[sighs]
- I'll be there in a few hours.
We'll figure this out.
- You driving?
- As opposed to what?
- Yeah, I don't know.
- I'm sorry I didn't
tell you earlier.
- Hey, you know anything
about this "Captain Tsunami"
stuff she brought with her?
- What?
- She's got a bag
of drawings and stuff
about Captain Tsunami.
- I can't talk about
comic books right now, man.
- No, I think her mom
gave it to her
and told her
to bring it to me
should anything
ever happen to her.
- OK, that--that doesn't
make any sense.
- Yeah, that's what I said.
- Well, did you
show it to the cops?
- No, I didn't even
think about it.
- "Captain Tsunami"?
- Yeah.
I think she drew it all herself.
It's a lot, man.
It's, like, months
or years of work.
- All right, well, I'll look
at it when I get there.
- Hey, you guys got divorced?
- Couple years back.
- Well, she's hard
to love, you know?
- It was me.
I filed it.
I left her.
- I'll see you
when you get here, man.
- Yeah.
- Drive safe.
- Can we get pizza
or something?
[soft music]
- I had no idea your mom
was drawing comics.
- Nobody did.
- Why not?
Was it a secret or something?
- You tell me.
Everybody's got their thing.
Everybody's got their thing.
What about you?
You have any gifts?
Yeah.
I'm invisible.
But I can see you.
Take a few steps
that way, please.
- OK.
- I'll tell you when to stop.
OK, and stop.
Turn around.
OK.
Here are the rules.
You'll walk towards me.
I'll walk towards you.
You act like you don't know me
and don't see me.
- OK.
- OK?
- OK.
- And go.
- [whistling]
What?
- What?
- I still see you.
- Wait, you--you see me?
- Mm-hmm.
- Right now? Are you sure?
- Yeah.
- OK, can you see this?
Say wha--
- [sighs]
- What is it? Oh, my God.
[gasps] Is this yours?
- [chuckles]
- And he's magically
holding up her bracelet.
- That's not magic.
It's pickpocketing.
[sighs]
The "Return of Captain Tsunami."
God, I wish.
They stopped publishing
years ago.
- Yeah, I know.
The warrior mermaid story
was always her favorite.
[wind howling]
- Mm.
This is really good.
Seriously, all this.
It's, like--like,
full reboot good.
I mean, I--[laughs]
Is that why your mom
wanted you to bring it to me?
- I don't think so.
- Because, you know, I just
run the comic book store.
I'm not a publisher.
I can't do anything with this.
- I think she just
wanted you to read it.
She said you would know why.
- I don't.
I don't know what she wants.
I don't know the story
or these characters.
- Yeah, you do.
It's you.
- What's me?
- That one, Jelly.
- Jelly?
- The security guard
with the soup.
- [slurping]
- [chuckles]
That's supposed to be me?
- Well, sort of.
- Sort of?
Have you read this?
- I read the pages,
but it's all out of order.
And it's not done.
Like, these pages have pictures
but no words.
[soft piano music]
- OK, so?
- Isn't it your story
and her story and Dad's story?
There's a lot
of you all being together.
In this part, you guys
are at some diner.
Jelly's like a big kid
talking about Captain Tsunami.
- Captain Tsunami can summon
all the sea creatures he wants.
They're his army.
They have superpowers,
like super speed, super jumps...
- Jumps? Mm.
- Super survival,
lightning fingers.
There is also a mermaid.
- Mm-hmm.
both: She's a warrior mermaid.
- OK, first of all,
I don't talk like that.
- I think Viper's having trouble
controlling a power
or something.
- [sighs]
Your mom really loved mermaids.
- You guys don't secretly have
those super-fish powers
Jelly was talking about, right?
- I don't know
what you think happened
to all of us back then, but...
this isn't it.
- You weren't a security guard?
- Well, yeah, I was
a security guard at one point,
but I wasn't dripping wet
all the time
and constantly eating soup.
- Were you drunk?
[mysterious music]
- Yeah.
Yeah, I was.
- Are you drunk right now?
- Six years sober.
- Hmm.
- So, what, is that how your mom
thinks about me, huh?
She thinks I'm some sweaty
dipshit security guard
with a soup problem?
And this guy Viper
is supposed to be Malcolm?
And he's got, like, weird things
growing on his back?
And he's--what is he doing?
He's selling some
magical goo or something?
[reflective music]
This was--
this was that summer
when the first "Captain Tsunami"
movie came out.
I know some of these places.
Look, Emma,
this is a lot for anybody.
I don't know
anything about kids.
I don't even know how you're
sitting here right now.
But I know your mom.
- You knew my mom.
- I know your mom
saw the world differently
than the rest of us.
Maybe this is what
that looks like to her.
But whatever this is,
it's not a history book.
This is just your mother
seeing the world through--
- Through a kaleidoscope.
Broken Genius, right?
That's what people call her.
You don't know my mom.
You knew my mom.
You haven't seen her in years.
You don't answer the phone.
You don't write back.
You think she got better?
She didn't.
She got worse.
Do you know
how hard it is to keep a job
when you're a single mom
with an unmanaged
mental illness?
When your 12-year-old daughter
has to translate your crazy
into a grocery list?
She got worse.
This?
This is, like,
the best she could do.
You said this wasn't
a history book.
Well, maybe it's not your
history book, but it's hers.
And it's what happened.
- I was there, Emma.
I know what happened.
- Didn't even know you
had a daughter.
What else did you miss?
[phone buzzing]
- [singing] Where's my captain
Where's my captain
Where's my captain
- Actually, no, Gus,
I can't right now.
- Sisto's guy said
it's not about money.
It's a family emergency.
- Yeah? OK.
- I mean, he says
Sisto's not like that.
- [sighs] I know.
He's a good dude.
- [sighs] Look, I'm--
I'm really sorry.
- Forget it.
It's not your fault.
- Yeah, I know,
but this is important.
- Hey, are you
at the store right now?
- Yeah.
I'm here.
- Do me a favor?
- Yeah. Name it.
- You know the combination
to the safe in the back, yeah?
- Yeah, I know it.
- There's a box in there.
Can you bring it to me?
- What's in it?
- What are you talking about,
what's in it?
Just--just bring me the box.
- No, this Sisto thing,
OK, it's not that bad.
- It's not booze.
I promise it's not.
I got a family emergency
of my own going on here.
- Oh, shit, Glenn,
are you OK?
- Yeah, it's fine.
Just, you can put
the box on the porch
and then send me a text, OK?
- OK.
Right now?
- Yes, right now.
It's very important.
- [sighs] OK, yeah.
You got it.
- All right. Thanks, Gus.
[thunder rumbling]
[thunder booming]
[wind howling]
All right.
So if this is her version
of history, what does it say?
You've read it?
- I don't know
what order it goes in.
It's just pages and gaps.
- And you want me to put it
in order for you?
- Mm, yeah.
Please?
- What are you expecting
to happen here?
- I don't know.
Something.
- Like what?
What something?
- Like, if this is the story
and we're all in it,
how does it end?
Jelly and Viper and Sedona
and, I guess, me.
- What did you just say?
- That's Mom, Sedona.
[soft piano music]
Do you remember something?
[music swells]
Hello.
- Sorry.
You're 12?
- I turn 13 in April.
- Around April 12th?
If this is what I think it is,
we'd already lost touch.
- For how long?
- Years.
Your mom and dad--
wasn't great.
She was homeless,
like, full-on homeless,
living in tents.
[pensive music]
Mal was all over the place.
I lost track of them
for a while.
- [humming]
- Anybody home?
It's just me.
- So that's the beginning?
- It always felt like
an ending to me.
- Mm.
You're skipping stuff.
Jelly says he got his name
from his uncle
because
of a "Captain Tsunami" comic.
[mysterious music]
- Seriously, who are you?
Where did Jelly come from?
- My Uncle Tony
gave that to me.
- But why?
Why Jelly?
- "Captain Tsunami"
comic number five.
- Yeah, I got nothing.
- So what were you guys doing?
[both giggling]
- Just roaming.
- You got lost?
- Oh, you can say that.
[both chuckle]
- You ever get lost, Jelly?
- I have GPS.
- What?
- Did she ever tell you
how we all knew each other?
- They were orphans, and you
were their foster family.
- We were all orphans.
- But it was your family.
- Uncle Tony.
- Mom called him Uncle T.
He was your real uncle.
- Yeah.
He was my real uncle.
Uncle Tony took me in
after my parents--
[thunder rumbling]
Carbon monoxide poisoning.
You know what that is?
[pensive music]
They were in the garage.
Uncle Tony found them
and dragged them out,
but it was too late.
But he took me in.
He was already fostering kids
after Auntie Barbara died,
his wife.
Your mom and Mal
were already there.
We were all any of us had left.
Thick as thieves--
we had to be.
Best friends under one roof.
It was the best time of my life,
right up until it wasn't.
We grew up,
and real life came at us.
And, well, your mom
and real life,
they were never gonna
get along.
- Look at that view.
- Yeah, this is--
this is a great view.
OK, full disclosure,
I'm not a big fan of heights.
Can we stop with the high-ups?
- I've never felt
at home on land.
Maybe I belong in the sky!
I'm ready.
- Cool.
Wait. [chuckles]
Ready for what?
- To jump.
- To--
- A leap of faith!
- OK, wait. Stop, stop, stop.
Wait, wait.
We can't do this.
- Why not?
- Well, because we're
way too high right now.
- I know!
[laughs]
- But seriously, no.
This--I'm serious.
- Me too.
We'll never get higher
than this!
Now is the time to fly!
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Stop.
You know we're
on a dumpster, right?
[thunder rumbling]
[wind howling]
- You OK?
- Mom's telling us something.
- What, you think
that's what's in here?
- I know that's what's in here.
- Well, it looks like a story
about three weirdos
who think they're fish getting
summoned by Captain Tsunami.
- So you're saying
it's three friends
who forgot who they were
and it's a story
about how they remember.
I wonder what that's all about.
- Emma.
- God damn it!
- Whoa, language.
- You keep saying
this is the end of your story,
but it's the beginning of mine.
So will you please
just be helpful?
- You don't sound 12.
- Well, I'm 13 in April, so...
- [chuckles]
[thunder rumbling]
[wind howling]
I was a security guard
at an outdoor mall,
this promenade thing.
Seemed like the easiest
job in the world.
It should have been,
till this one night.
A woman was choking
at one of the restaurants.
Everybody was freaking out,
screaming at me
to do something.
- What did you do?
[police radio chatter]
- Nothing.
[siren wails, horn blares]
I couldn't hear.
Hadn't had a job in a year.
I was back living
with Uncle Tony.
Hadn't seen your mom and Mal
since I don't know when.
And yeah,
I was more drunk
than I'd ever been
in my entire life.
That's saying something.
- What happened to the lady?
[somber music]
- She's in a coma, Jelly.
Her husband, her family,
they're probably gonna sue us.
We're counting on you
to help people.
[sighs] I just needed you
to do your job.
You didn't do your job.
- So she went into a coma?
- She died.
She went into a coma,
and she died.
- What did you do?
- They suspended me.
But I was so drunk,
I just forgot.
I showed up to work that night.
- Did her husband sue you?
- No.
[singing]
Singin' in the moonlight
Tonight, singin'
[grunts]
He stabbed me.
- She was choking.
They told me you
didn't do anything.
both: She was my wife.
- I remember him saying that.
"She was my wife."
- How did they find you?
- Somebody called 911.
- I mean, how did
Mom and Mal find you?
- They didn't.
What's this?
- Do you think
she's making this part up?
[doorbell rings]
- Hey. Thanks, man.
- Hey.
Yeah.
What's going on?
- You wouldn't believe me
if I told you.
- Are you alone?
- No, actually.
Family.
- Family?
[scoffs] What family?
- It--it's complicated.
- Yeah, but, Glenn--
- I'm not gonna blow my chip
because Jeremy Sisto
isn't showing up.
[chuckling] Come on.
Give me a little more credit.
- Yeah.
- There's nothing in the house.
All right, I'm good.
- Yeah, I'm two minutes away.
- I know.
Thanks for the thing.
- All right.
- Yeah.
See you tomorrow.
- See you.
- [sighs]
[sighs]
[thunder rumbling]
[sighs]
[keys jingling]
[soft music]
[lid creaking]
[thunder rumbling]
- Stars.
I see stars even brighter
than my tent lights.
- They tell stories, you know?
The stars.
There's Orion and his belt
holding his sword
and his shield,
protecting himself from Scorpio,
the scorpion.
[mimics blows landing]
- [chuckles]
- They're never in the sky
at the same time, you know?
When one rises, the other sets.
- [chomps, chuckles]
- And then there's
the archer, Sagittarius,
aiming his arrow
at Antares,
the star
that's the scorpion's heart.
[mimics arrow whooshing]
[chuckles] It's cool, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- I mean, there are
animals, goddesses,
monsters, conflict, war, love.
- [chuckles]
- Process the next batch.
I need more paste...
[machine whirring]
And possibly an aspirin.
- The rest of the crop
is ready, sir, but--
- I don't care.
Just do your job,
and figure it out.
[dramatic music]
- Oh, my God.
- How many people?
- Reporting in, sir!
- Do you have them?
- We looked
absolutely everywhere, sir.
There's no way
they're still here.
- Really?
OK.
Can I see that?
[grunting]
[thudding]
We're on lockdown, people.
That means no one
can exit the building.
It's not freakin'
rocket science!
[echoing] Science, science,
science, science.
[seagulls calling]
[pensive music]
[waves crashing]
- Danger is all around you
when you least expect it.
Your friends
are in danger too.
- Wow.
- Yeah. It's a lot to take in.
- I have friends.
- OK.
It's up to you to save them.
- Can't you help?
- One day, I'll be gone,
and I'll need someone strong
to watch over my kingdom.
- Gone?
- Mm-hmm.
- Where are you going?
- Home.
- In the sea?
- No--no, Beverly Hills.
- When?
- That's up to you.
When that happens,
I need you to become
the captain.
[echoing]
Captain, captain.
- [singing] Where's my captain
Where's my captain
Where's my captain
- Hey.
- Hey, listen, man.
Something's up.
- What does that mean?
- I don't know.
I got shitty reception
where I am,
and I missed a call
from the cops.
I called them back.
I got a [garbled] about it.
- I can barely hear you.
- OK, listen,
I gave them your number.
Keep your phone on.
They're gonna call you.
Did you get that?
- OK, yeah.
Hey, I gotta
ask you something.
Remember when I got stabbed?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I remember
when you got stabbed.
- Did you come see me
in the hospital?
- Yeah, we both did.
It was some scary shit.
- Both?
D was there too?
- Yeah.
You don't remember?
- Mr. Joseph is different
than other people.
- How so?
- Most people
are 50%, 60% water.
- What's Jelly?
- 95%.
- Is he gonna be OK?
- It's a process.
You're welcome
to stay here if you want.
We've got gummy worms.
- I was going through a lot.
I didn't even know
where you were.
I hadn't seen you in years.
How did you even know?
- They called me.
- Who called you?
- The hospital.
They said I was
your emergency contact.
[line beeps]
Hello?
- Hello?
Mal?
- Shit.
- What's going on?
- I don't know.
That's the truth.
I--I actually don't know.
But Mal says he remembers
visiting me in the hospital.
- You don't remember?
- I don't remember
a lot of things.
- What do you remember?
- When I was drinking
back then,
the real world
and the comic book
used to sort of...blend.
- Did Captain Tsunami ever sing
a song in one of his cartoons?
- He did Rock, Paper, Scissors
one time.
Does that count?
- No.
- Against a sinister squid
who had eight tentacles.
You have to be really fast
at Rock, Paper, Scissors
to defeat a monster
with eight tentacles.
- I get it, Jelly.
- Lots of rocks, papers,
and scissors.
I am very scared of scissors.
I used to dream
we were all changing.
I remember Mal
living in his car.
Everything he had was in there.
[banging]
I hadn't seen him in years.
Now suddenly
there he was one night
in the promenade garage,
sleeping at the wheel.
- What about Mom?
- Homeless.
I didn't know where at first,
but Mal was the one
who found her.
- I think she found him first.
This one.
That's the promenade, right?
- Yeah.
Huh.
- Do you--do you wish
you were smarter?
I do.
I don't mean that I wish
you were smarter.
No, I wish I were smarter.
I have some vital vitamins
needed for your cerebellum,
and it's called Hai-Q.
It makes your brain big.
It adds all the vitamins
vital to your cerebellum.
Hello.
Hello.
Hey, do you wish
you were smarter?
Do you wish--I do.
I did.
- I knew he was selling
that stuff, but when was this?
- What stuff?
- She was watching him.
- Selling what stuff?
- She--maybe, but--
- Oh, my God.
- What?
- You sound just like Mom.
- Sorry.
So Mal told me he found
your mom at some point.
I thought it was
after I got stabbed.
She stole his bag.
He chased her.
[soft music]
She almost got away,
but some dudes
jumped her in an alley and...
- [screams]
[clamor, glass shatters]
- And Mal pulled her out.
- Are you OK?
- She ran off, and he found her
in a tent somehow.
I mean, that's what
they said happened.
Yeah, this is definitely
before I got stabbed.
- This is really nice.
Could use a big beanbag,
though.
Big beanbags
go with everything.
This place certainly has that.
It's like a whole new world
in here, a galaxy.
It's got stars.
I'm Viper.
- Like the snake?
- I don't get it.
- Welcome to the club.
- They're acting
like strangers.
Is it a game?
Don't say it's not real.
- OK.
- I'm Viper.
- Like the snake?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I'm a snake.
Yeah, I slither.
So every so often,
I feel like I shed my skin,
become something new.
[sighs] I've slithered
through a lot of jungles.
You know, maybe someday
I'll find the right jungle.
Do you also have a name?
- Sedona.
- That's a really pretty name.
What's it mean?
- What?
- You nearly had a heart attack
when I said Sedona earlier.
What's it mean?
- I don't know yet.
- [sighs]
- Why were you watching me
the other day?
- [scoffs] I wasn't.
- OK.
- Well, why are you here?
- I wanted to see you.
- I--I mean
why are you in this town?
- Oh.
Oh...[chuckles]
I had a job interview.
- What's that stuff
you're selling?
- Drugs, I think.
- Good drugs?
- They're not technically drugs,
but I did try some
and I was hella tripping.
Like, getting crazy, crazy
hallucinations.
- But they were drugs?
- He didn't know that yet.
He thought it was a bootleg
energy snack or something.
We're missing pages.
- Where were you
during all this?
- This was all
before I got stabbed.
Had to be.
- 'Cause they showed up
at the hospital together.
- Yeah.
- These?
- Yeah.
Yeah, that's exactly the spot.
I guess she was
watching me too.
Just didn't see her.
- Then Captain Tsunami
says...
[gruffly]
No, I'm Captain Tsunami.
- Really?
With the voice again?
- [normally]
And then he disintegrates
the evil shark monster...
both: With his
lightning fingers.
- That's when he
becomes a superhero
in the first comic book and in
the 1970s classic cartoon here.
Now, next Friday,
the movie comes out, finally.
I already bought an extra ticket
after I got my paycheck,
so we can go together.
I just need you to pick me up
because I don't have a car,
and I hate taking the bus.
What was your question again?
- Where is the restroom?
- I was really, really
into "Captain Tsunami."
- Like, into it so much that you
opened a comic book store?
- A little bit more to it
than that, but sure.
[pensive music]
[door creaks open]
Whoa.
[door clicks shut]
Uncle Tony!
I'm on break.
Came home to eat!
[mimics explosions]
- Creatures from the sea!
- Creatures of the sea.
- It's "from," right?
We're all from the sea.
So we say,
creatures from the sea.
So it's, creatures from the sea,
I summon thee!
- Creatures...
- Better.
- [weakly] I summon thee.
- OK, a little deflated
there at the end.
Jelly, listen to me.
It's time for you
to face conflict here.
These creatures,
they're your friends.
You have to trust in them.
They're gonna help you
fight the evil.
And you can't fight evil alone.
You need an army.
Jelly, listen to me.
You can be a leader.
You can.
I believe in you.
- You do?
- Yes.
Yes, I do.
All you have to do is try.
Oh, and maybe go easy
on the soup, huh?
- What?
That was a dream I had,
like, a recurring dream.
The Sisto thing--
I never told anybody
about that.
- Clearly, you did.
- Yeah.
Yeah, obviously.
I mean--Jesus.
And that place, that's the place
Uncle Tony and I lived after--
That's what it looked like.
And you see this?
I did that.
Like, that...
Nobody saw that.
Was she spying on me
through the window or something?
- [scoffs]
Wouldn't put it past her.
- Me neither.
Jesus.
I mean, they were both
sucking down tubes of that stuff
Mal was supposed to be selling.
- Which was what exactly?
- [sighs] You know
what magic mushrooms are?
- I live in Oregon.
- [chuckles] OK, well, when
this all came crashing down,
the newspaper said it was
magic mushrooms and yogurt.
A guy was making it
in a bathtub.
- It doesn't sound so bad,
except the bathtub part.
- Now you sound like your mom.
[mysterious music]
- Do you see how much fun
they were having in all these?
- I'm feeling very...
something right now.
- Magical.
- Magic isn't in me.
It's something I find.
- If that's a joke,
I don't get it.
- Seriously.
It's--it's one of my gifts.
I find magic.
- What?
Smell the magic?
- Oh, you'd be surprised
at what people discard.
[grunts]
[sighs]
Now, watch this.
Fly away.
[whooshing]
[wings fluttering]
[metallic clatter]
- What else you got?
- Hmm.
Combo, double jump
front kick into a crescent kick,
spinning back fist.
- I'm sorry, what?
I don't--
- Tae kwon do.
Eh?
Impressed?
- Mm.
- You didn't.
- Did I not--
did I?
- Give me that.
[gasps]
OK, like,
that's some freaky magic.
- OK, so maybe Mom's
trying to tell us
that anytime you were
all together, it was magic?
[rain pattering]
But then there's this stuff.
I don't understand
how it all connects.
You're all trapped.
- Sorry to interrupt
your little date.
Pick up at the grinder.
Cleanup in aisle five.
[chuckles]
- And then there's
this villain guy
who has a giant
red and black machine,
and he chews people up
and, like, steals their magic.
- Great news.
We've been cleared by the FDA.
Grocery stores, here you come.
- And then these, like,
big shark guys
and yellow spacesuit
bad guys attack.
[all grunting]
They're just too powerful.
But in the end,
Jelly saves the day.
- Didn't you say you wanted
to know how it ends?
Well, I know
how this part ends.
[phone buzzing]
- [singing] Where's my captain
Where's my captain
- Hey.
How you doing on time?
- Am I speaking with Glenn?
- Oh, yes.
Sorry, this is Glenn.
I thought you were
somebody else.
- This is Detective Hope.
I met you earlier this evening.
- Yeah.
What's going on?
- Sir, you're aware
that they've been
recovering a vehicle
from the North Margin River
belonging to Ms. Andrews?
- Yes?
- Desiree was not found
in the vehicle.
- I'm sorry?
- There was nobody
in the vehicle.
- What's that mean?
- It means they'll be opening
a missing persons investigation.
- No, I mean, did--
did the--did she
just float out or...
- The detectives
on the scene said the doors
and windows were closed.
The car was in neutral.
It appears that the car
may have been unoccupied
when it entered the water.
They believe it rolled
down a hill on its own.
- OK.
- Please relay this information
to Malcolm Morton
as soon as you can.
They've been unable
to reach him.
- Yeah, he's driving,
and he has bad reception.
- I understand.
Please have him call me or the
detectives up north right away.
The first 48 hours
are extremely important.
- I will.
Thank you.
[rain pattering]
[thunder rumbling]
- You said you know
how it ends?
- What?
- Before you answered
the phone,
you said you know how it ends,
with the drug stuff.
- Remember when Viper told
Sedona he had a job interview?
- Yeah.
- Well, if it's
what I think it is,
this job interview is with the
guy who made that paste stuff.
He told Mal it was--
- Fish oil.
[curious music]
Viper looks up
at the mirrored building.
In the darkened office
of one Mr. Hai--
- A darkened office--it was an
alley behind the Falafel House.
- I'm reading here.
- I'm sorry.
- In the darkened office
of one Mr. Hai...
[jazz music]
- Sorry, sir, I really--
I really need this job.
- And this job
really needs you.
- Oh, thank--
- Welcome aboard!
- Thank you so much.
- [chuckles] No.
No, really, I can't with this.
Please.
- Why?
- There was no glass building
or fancy office.
Mal owed money to the Hais,
the family
who ran the falafel place.
To pay it off,
he agreed to sell
tubes of that imported goop.
- 6 ounces, 10 bucks a tube.
You're gonna sell it.
- What is it?
- It's fish oil, mostly.
Doesn't matter.
Once the FDA clears us,
we're going nationwide
into grocery stores.
- The FDA?
- Some government thing.
It doesn't matter.
- Oh, man.
She's making me miss this guy.
Mr. Hai was just like this.
- He's on a lot of these pages.
I think he's, like, the big bad.
- No, he wasn't a bad guy.
I mean, he was bad by, like,
standards, but he was cool.
- It sounds like the mob.
- Yeah, they were
all mobbed up.
But it was, like, the good mob.
- So Mom and Mal
were selling imported drugs
for the "good mob"?
- It sounds worse
when you say it.
And it wasn't your mom.
It was just Mal.
- No, I don't think so.
- Oh, Malcolm.
- She says...
- Hey.
- Hi.
- You want to sell
all that stuff right now?
Tonight?
- To you?
- I met this woman.
Real weird.
Not sure drug dealer's
the right term.
More like
a wholesale merchandiser.
- Merchandise being?
- Drugs.
- OK.
- She likes things
that are outside the box.
- They're literally in a box.
- Except none of these pages
show Mom selling anything.
It's just Mal trying
to sell it alone.
And then Mom
comes in and steals--
- Because it never happens.
- How do you know?
How do you know?
- Because the minute she
came around, they ate it all.
They weren't drug dealers.
They were drug users.
They were addicts--
all three of us.
- Mal has never been
a drug addict.
- No, but he was depressed,
and he would have followed
your mom off a goddamn cliff.
He was addicted to her
and addicted to being
screwed up over her for years.
He did it because she did it.
- What about you?
- Vodka and comic books--
- I mean about Mom.
- What about her?
- Would you have
followed her off a cliff?
[soft music]
- I did...
a dozen times
before the story even started,
a hundred times
since we were 12.
We both did.
- What's this?
- The cliff.
- What's in your bag?
- Almost everything I own.
What's in your car?
- The same.
I guess we're living together.
- One night only.
You charge 10 bucks for this?
- Yeah.
- How many we got?
- 100?
- That's a lot.
- And here comes the excuse.
- Viper says...
- What if she tries to rob us?
- There it is,
all the reason she needs.
She never wanted
to sell that stuff.
- For someone
who was blackout drunk,
you sure think
you know everything.
- Well, between
the two of us, I was
the one who was alive
at the time,
and I was actually there, so...
- You weren't there.
You were off being
an alcoholic mall cop
while Mom and Mal were homeless
and living in a car.
[pensive music]
She isn't a bad person.
- I didn't say that.
- Does it make you
feel better saying
that they were drug addicts?
So none of this is your fault?
I figured out years ago
that Mal probably wasn't my dad.
At first, I didn't tell anybody.
But I figured it was you.
I knew all about you.
You're the only other person
she ever talked about.
But I only ever heard
the good parts.
And for years, I wondered why.
If you were so great, why
wouldn't you want me to know?
And now I think I get it.
Why are you acting like
you didn't know about me?
- I knew about you.
- Then where were you?
[sighs]
[sighs]
- [sighs]
[dramatic music]
- Everybody has their thing--
call it a gift
or a curse if you want--
whether they like it or not.
- How's your thing?
- Well, I burn
everything I touch, so...
What is your thing exactly?
- I don't really like
to talk about it.
- You know I can
hear it, right?
- It's weird.
Basically, I can sense
when people are in trouble.
Thinking about Jelly being
endangered stresses me out.
My thing acts up.
- Can I see it?
- [sighs] Fine.
Just promise me
you won't get grossed out.
- I promise.
- Oh, yeah.
- Ew!
- I know.
- Oh, my gosh!
- OK, don't be rude.
- [gasps] That is so, so cool.
- Are you being serious
right now?
- I'm totally serious.
It's kind of beautiful.
How does this feel?
- It's OK.
- What about if I do this?
- Oh, don't--uh-uh.
- Oh.
- Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm.
- OK. Sorry.
- Mm-mm, mm-mm.
- What about if I'm
more gentle like this?
- Yeah, that's nice.
- [humming]
- What is that?
- My mom used
to hum that to me.
[humming]
[soft music]
- [humming]
- When a line unravels,
it's easy to get lost.
But every once in a while,
you get found.
Monsoons swell.
Storms subside.
You bid farewell
to creatures inside.
Rise to the surface.
Swim to the land.
Your kingdom awaits,
castles of sand.
[dramatic music]
[knocking]
- You knew about me.
But you didn't know.
[music swells]
- [crying]
[doorbell rings]
- Detective called.
- OK, yep.
Thank you.
- Why didn't you
just sell the Hai-Q?
- What?
- You owed the Hais money,
and you knew Mom had a problem.
Why'd you even
involve her in it?
- Don't look at me.
- [chuckles]
I tried to sell it.
Just not much of a salesman.
- So you just
got high with Mom?
- Yeah.
- Why would you do that?
- It wasn't the plan.
She said she knew someone
who would buy the whole box.
We just never got there.
- Because you thought
she might rob you?
[pensive music]
- [sighs] She has been busy.
- You've seen this before?
- Some of it, but...
there's a lot missing.
- But you know
what happens next.
- Yeah, we get there, park,
and before we go in, I say,
what if she robs us?
And she says...
both: I know tae kwon do.
- What if she tries to rob us?
- I know tae kwon do.
- Oh.
Why didn't you use that
in the alley?
- They caught me off guard.
- OK.
- They came up from behind me!
- Yeah.
I'm sure they did.
We never went in.
Couldn't even find the place.
- Because?
- Because that stuff kicked in
right when we got there.
- You already ate some?
- Yeah, we had some on the way.
I thought it was legal.
- Jeez.
- [scoffs]
- Eventually, we found the car,
and I tried to get her
to go to the park with me.
- [laughing]
We shouldn't be driving.
- Well, we have to 'cause
we gotta move the car.
What is up with the city?
You can't park anywhere.
It's, like, 90% tow zones,
and the other half
is street cleaning.
- Let me drive, please.
- I want to take you
to Griffith Park.
I've always wanted to see it.
- Well, it's far.
[engine turning over]
- But they have stars.
I want to show you the stars.
- [gags]
- You have no game.
- No, I do not.
- Did you guys make it?
[soft music]
- Man, they really
got me boxed in.
[laughter]
- What happened next?
- We ate some more
of that stuff,
wandered around for a bit,
and then we stole
a scissor lift.
[laughter]
- What?
- Yes.
- Scissor lift?
- No way.
- Yeah.
- Wasn't that in the paper?
- Yeah, it was. Yeah.
- That was you.
- Yep.
That was us.
We were up there for hours.
- [chuckles]
- At least that's how it felt.
I mean, you know,
long enough to sober up.
- What'd you talk about?
- Time, luck, stars.
- You have an actual flask?
You have an actual flask?
both:
What are you, an early settler?
- It's a souvenir.
Got it from father number four.
- That's a lot of family.
- Oh, that's one way
to look at it.
Bounced around foster homes,
kept getting sent back.
Guess when something's
defective, you return it.
[chuckles]
And number four was a drinker.
Gave this to me when I was 12.
- Child abuse.
- Mm, no.
Got that from number one
and number three.
- I lost my mom when I was 11.
Dad couldn't handle it.
When I was 18, I ran off.
Never looked back.
- But you had a home.
- I had a house.
It's not the same thing.
- Did she actually say that?
- No, I never heard
a word of that up there.
- That doesn't make sense.
Sedona says she lost her mom
when she was 11.
Dad couldn't handle it.
I thought she was
in foster care all that time.
- She was.
I mean, look, maybe this is all
complete fiction, you know,
like a character backstory.
- All of it's meant
something so far.
So what if she's talking
about Uncle Tony?
- She never called
Uncle Tony Dad.
She never said
anything like that.
I would have heard about it.
No, he--he died never
hearing those words,
and he knew it every day.
- Maybe she wishes she did.
- Well, she had
plenty of chances.
- Maybe she changed her mind.
Maybe she told him
when all this was going on.
- Uncle Tony was gone by then.
- No.
Glenn was still living
with him.
[mysterious music]
- What is she talking about?
- Remember?
You said you were
still living with Uncle Tony.
- Uncle Tony!
I'm on break.
[mimics explosions]
- Glenn got stabbed that night.
We went to the hospital
after we got the call.
We hadn't seen or heard
from Uncle Tony or him in years.
So we figured
we'd go to the apartment,
get him some clothes,
see Uncle Tony.
Oh.
- Why wouldn't he have
Uncle Tony's number
in his phone?
- So what happened?
Was he there?
- Uncle Tony was
the only decent father figure
we had ever had.
We didn't know he was gone
until we saw the urn.
[thunder rumbling]
It was a shitty way
to find out.
- She never said it.
It was one word.
She could have said
that one word.
- You want to know what happened
after we left that apartment?
[pensive music]
- So I was thinking,
I really want
to use the rest
of my spray paint
to put "Viper" on your coat.
- Wow!
- Like, spray paint.
- That'd be so--
- Cool.
No, no, no.
No.
No, no.
- It's OK.
We'll find the tow company.
- I have no money!
In 24 hours, I found out that
my oldest friend was stabbed,
the girl I was in love with
was a junkie,
and my foster father was dead.
And on top of all of that,
every physical object
in my life that had any
happy moment attached to it
was in that parking space.
And I'll never forget this.
Your mom walks over,
and she says...
- I'm in your space.
- She was his family.
- You were his family.
- That's not true.
- Glenn, you were his family.
- He loved you
like you were his own.
He deserved better.
You know, he actually
believed you'd show up,
right up until the end.
Every night
before he went to sleep,
he'd look at me and he'd say,
maybe tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow,
Mal and Des will come by.
And I'd say, yeah,
maybe tomorrow.
I swear to God,
I don't know what killed him,
the cancer
or the broken heart.
[somber music]
- [sniffles]
Hey, did, Mommy
ever tell you why she decided
to draw him like this?
That wet, floppy mustache?
- He said he was drunk a lot.
- Yeah.
[door creaking]
- But why did she do anything?
- I don't know.
There's a lot of us in this.
There's a lot of truth.
But some of this is just--
- Crazy.
- Hey.
- He didn't know.
- What do you mean?
- He didn't know.
- Mommy sent him a letter--
- He never opened the letters.
You could have told me.
- Told you what?
- The truth.
- Which is what?
I'm your dad.
That's the truth.
That's the only truth
that's meant anything
for the last 13 years.
We thought he knew.
We thought he knew
and just wasn't coming.
Nobody lied.
- Why does he--
I mean, what's with all
the "Captain Tsunami" stuff?
I don't get it.
- Uncle Tony
was always Uncle Tony.
Did he ever tell you
what happened to his parents?
- The gas leak thing?
In the garage?
- Yeah.
- Why?
- Well, 'cause that's
a big step for him.
He used to always tell stories.
- What do you mean?
- Remember what your mom
used to do with the--
reading the shells?
- Oh, no.
- Yeah.
She's been doing that ever since
she was about your age.
Last time we did that
was when we got together again
after he got out
of the hospital.
That's when he told us
another one of his stories.
[pensive music]
- These are the acts
of your life,
past, present, and future.
Now, close your eyes
for a moment.
And look at me
through your third eye.
- [snorts]
[clears throat]
- Act I, your childhood.
You felt a lot of love
back then.
You were surrounded
by lots of people.
- El Salvador.
I was born in a village.
That's where my mom was from.
My dad was on vacation
when they met.
I moved here when I was three.
First, my dad left.
And then my mom
went looking for my dad.
- In his stories, his parents
were always on big adventures.
But they always leave him.
- Then it was just me.
- Nobody ever
told him the truth?
- They told him.
He just--
- What do the other shells say?
- Act II.
- He said something earlier
about reality.
It was hard for him
to tell what was real.
- Yeah, Mommy felt
like that all the time.
That feeling never went away.
- Things haven't been easy
for you,
but you've persevered.
- Is that why she writes like
you're all strangers in this?
- Maybe.
We always think we'll grow up
and everything will make sense.
- What about the third one?
- Act III, your future.
- But the world
almost gets stranger.
For a lot of us,
we go through a lot.
Sometimes you just
can't imagine reality.
You imagine something else.
Mom didn't always have
a choice in what she saw.
- You become a superhero.
- Maybe Glenn didn't either.
- Tell her what happened next.
Tell her how I found you guys.
You said you wanted to know
how it all ends, right?
You know how it all ends,
don't you?
Or do you not remember?
Your mom nearly OD'd.
- No, she didn't.
- Yes, she did.
- She did not OD.
- Yes, she did.
And they didn't
pay back Mr. Hai.
Because they ate all his drugs.
And all these pages
with the weird black cages
and men in space suits
and mad scientists
and Dr. White and evil Mr. Hai,
none of that happened.
No, what really happened
back here on Earth
is that I sobered up
and I paid off Mr. Hai.
And as soon as he said
he was square,
I called the cops,
and I told them
to grab your mom and Mal
and throw them into detox.
[dramatic music]
Two days in, your mom
went completely mental,
screaming that she was
a magic sea creature
who was gonna return to the sea.
So they threw her
in a padded cell,
and they locked the door.
And all these pages here,
where she's scared
and tortured and trapped
and trying to escape,
I put her there.
She was scared,
and she was alone.
And all that crazy
she was spouting
was because of a goddamn
"Captain Tsunami" comic
that she wouldn't even
have known about
if it weren't for me.
[soft piano music]
They found some drugs
that they thought worked,
and they let her go.
[chuckles]
They literally just opened
the door and let her walk out.
But she was a different person.
Can't put my finger on it.
But that's what she was like
when she was sober...
or maybe what she was like
when I was sober.
She just wanted
to get out of town.
That's all she wanted.
- Where'd you go?
- Sedona.
- A few days in...
I loved her.
And in some ways, she loved me.
But in her mind,
in the story she had to create,
wasn't me in there
helping her escape that place.
Wasn't me in there
helping her survive.
It was Mal.
- You're not defective.
[crying] You're beautiful.
- You were her superhero.
And I was just--
guess I was
still just a drunk.
We left, came back here,
and she found out Mal was gone.
She went after him.
I never saw her again.
I didn't deserve to.
They didn't find
your mom in the car.
- Why would they have?
- What does that mean?
- Mom wasn't in the car.
- Emma, do you know
where your mother is?
- I already told you.
She was there,
and then she was gone.
- There where?
- Use more words.
- [sighs] She didn't come home
a couple of nights ago.
She's been doing that a lot.
So I tracked her phone.
She was down at the bridge,
and she wasn't moving.
I knew how to drive the car,
so I took it
and drove to her spot.
She was just standing there.
I got distracted
and left the car in neutral,
and it rolled into the water.
[water splashing]
[water bubbling]
The next morning,
she woke me up
and told me she wanted
to introduce me
to some old friends.
It was like nothing
ever happened.
She was totally normal.
She packed this giant bag,
and we took the bus
to this beach.
[waves crashing]
It was, like,
in the middle of nowhere.
I asked if her friends
were coming.
She said, they'll be here.
[gulls calling]
Hours and hours passed,
and nobody came.
Finally, Mom stood up,
walked out,
and put her feet in the water.
She just stood there
for what seemed like forever.
I got really tired.
And when I looked back...
[waves crashing]
She was gone.
[crying]
And now...what do I do?
[dramatic music]
- Act III, your future.
- Am I surrounded
by more shells?
[music swells]
- You become a superhero.
[Kylie Campion's
"Open Up Your Eyes"]
[singing]
- Sometimes the hardest thing
Is doing what you know
you're supposed to
And sometimes it can be
Believing when no one else
believes except for you
Sometimes I just want
to leave this place
But I will wait for you
And someday
when you are ready
Then you can see just what
This world can do for you
So get up on your feet
And take a step
Towards me
And open up your eyes
So you can see
what's going on
- Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
- Ah, ah, ah, ah
- Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
- Ah, ah, ah, ah
- Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
- Ah, ah, ah, ah
Open up your eyes
You'll see me
[soft piano music]