Constellation (2024) s01e06 Episode Script

Paul Is Dead

1
[JO, WHISPERING] Oh. We have to whisper.
[ALICE] Why is that?
'Cause they're doing something
very fiddly at the CAL.
[NORMAL] Hey, Alice.
Hi, Paul.
Your mom's big day today.
[MACHINE BEEPS]
RPL. CAL data: Core signals green,
magnets align, 25.5.
- [MACHINE BEEPS]
- Core temperature: minus 203 degrees.
Tune lasers.
Come on.
[ALICE] What does it do?
[JO] It's looking for a
new state of matter.
Wow.
[IN SWEDISH] Let's see
if we can find you.
There you are.
Hey, Alice.
Wave to yourself.
- [ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]
- [SWITCHES CLICKING]
- [AIR HISSES]
- [WHIRRING]
[ALARM BLARING]
[ALICE] Mamma?
Mamma?
Mamma? Are you there?
[IN SWEDISH] She's gone.
to get going too. Come on.
[ERYN] Station, RPL, you copy?
Get them back. We're in
the middle of something.
Debris! Scallation! [GRUNTS]
[DEBRIS CLATTERING]
[GRUNTING]
[ALICE] Mamma?
Alice!
Ali
[GASPS, PANTING]
["TELLUR" BY SURROGATE SIBLING PLAYS]
- [ALARMS BLARING]
- [AIR HISSING]
[PAUL] Jo!
Jo!
Michaela, we lost the CAL.
Houston, this is Station.
We have a depress. I need help.
[PAUL] Jo.
Jo. Come on, Jo.
Stay with me. Talk to me, Jo.
[AUDREY] Paul? How is she?
- [BANGING, AIR HISSING]
- Paul!
- Paul!
- Audrey, give me the baby wipes!
[HISSING STOPS]
- [STUDENTS CHATTERING]
- [MAGNUS] Yeah, black.
It's black for a bat.
Boys, not too much of
that glittery stuff.
You know it goes everywhere.
It's a bit sticky, isn't it?
I tell you what, let's just, um
let's let's just start
again, here we go.
Start again.
[KNOCKING]
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
Daddy?
[MAGNUS] Alice. [BREATHES SHAKILY]
I love you so much.
I have to tell you something terrible.
Seat belt.
[BEEPING]
Where the hell have you gone?
[ERICA SIGHING]
Hey, Alice.
[KISSES]
I'm so sorry.
Do you wanna go sit with Wendy?
Yeah? Okay.
Magnus, I'm so sorry.
I can't believe it. Just It's awful.
Hi, Alice.
Hi, Wendy.
[ILYA] Entry angle: 95 degrees.
[PAUL] Ready down there?
- Ready. Parameters are set.
- [ILYA] Good luck.
Anything you want us to say?
I was working on the
Cold Atomic Laboratory.
The CAL.
- We lost it.
- The what?
It's a NASA experiment.
Audrey, we need to pass that on to RPL.
Henry Caldera.
Paul [STAMMERS] I don't know
which experiment you mean.
Just pass it on.
Okay.
Anything for your family?
Tell them I'm on my way home.
Tell them that.
Hey. [KISSES] Wake up. We're here.
Come on. I'll carry you.
[GRUNTS] Come on.
Is she home?
Uh, no.
They've brought the first
one down in Kazakhstan.
She's coming down in
the next one with Paul.
He just needs to fix the Soyuz first.
If you die in space,
do you die on Earth?
Just get some sleep, honey.
You'll feel a lot better after
you've had some sleep.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
It's cold.
I mean [GRUNTS]
[BREATHING HEAVILY, SIGHS]
[KISSES, EXHALES SHARPLY]
[JO EXHALES DEEPLY]
[JO BREATHES SHAKILY]
[PAUL INHALES SHARPLY]
[JO BREATHES SHAKILY]
[PAUL GASPS, BREATHES SHAKILY]
[MAGNUS] Alice? Honey?
Come on, don't hide from me.
Oh, for God's sake.
[INHALES SHARPLY]
- Please?
- [THUDDING]
October 1960, an R-16 prototype
explodes on the launch
on Baikonur cosmodrome
Alice.
You cannot just go like that.
Okay? Even if I'm asleep.
Come on, what are you doing in here?
What is that?
An accident at Baikonur.
A hundred people died.
You can't watch stuff like that.
Come on.
Are you hungry?
You want pancakes?
I want to stay here.
No. Come on. Come out.
Alice, give me the iPad.
[SIGHS]
I'll give you the iPad.
I'm not coming out.
I'm not letting you sit in the dark
and watch this horrible
stuff on YouTube, okay?
- Now, come on.
- [GRUNTS]
- Come on.
- I want to stay on my own!
Please, Daddy!
[SIGHING]
[MAGNUS SIGHS]
[SIGHS]
[JO BREATHING DEEPLY]
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
[BREATHING DEEPLY]
Mamma!
[PANTING]
Daddy!
[PAUL] If you can hear me
in the blind, this is Station.
Transferring and reconnecting
battery number five.
Undocking in
[JO BREATHING DEEPLY]
[EXHALES DEEPLY]
[PAUL SIGHS]
[JO BREATHING DEEPLY]
[DEVICE DINGS]
[BREATHING CONTINUES]
- [BREATHING DEEPLY]
- [PAUL EXHALES SHAKILY]
What the fuck?
[DINGS]
[JO BREATHING DEEPLY ON DEVICE]
- [BREATHING DEEPLY]
- [DEVICE DINGS]
[JO SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
The third. The third.
Need to hurry up.
This is the third. Come on.
Need to hurry up.
[SHOUTS]
[JO] Paul?
[COMMS BEEP]
[MACHINERY BEEPING]
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
Houston, this is Station.
- [MICHAELA] Station, this is Houston.
- There you are.
Thank God for that.
[MICHAELA] What is your status?
Houston, what are the protocols
on dealing with a dead body?
[MICHAELA] Station, what's your concern?
My concern
The concern is, um
Ericsson is so badly lacerated.
My concern is that when the
body gets out of zero-G,
we're gonna have severe loss of
blood in the capsule during reentry.
[MICHAELA] Station, copy that.
We'll get back to you.
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
[JO BREATHING SHAKILY]
- [PAUL SIGHING]
- [JO BREATHING DEEPLY]
You gotta stop breathing.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
Stop breathing, Jo.
You stay in Destiny.
Jo, I'm sorry.
[JO GASPS]
[PAUL BREATHING SHAKILY]
[JO BREATHING SHAKILY]
Do you think there's any
such thing as ghosts?
I don't know. Maybe.
Do you think ghosts are the same as God?
I don't believe in God.
You don't believe in God?
No. I'm English.
[CHUCKLES]
[ERICA] Wendy!
Wendy, Daddy's coming home!
It's okay.
My mamma's coming home too.
Hey.
Hi.
Alice, uh [SIGHS]
I'm afraid they're gonna
leave Mamma up there.
[PAUL] Setting coordinate.
[BEEPING]
I got a red light. [SIGHS]
Powering all nine switches.
[SERGEI] Check your battery meter.
[PAUL] It's dead.
What have we got in the event
of a bolt system malfunction?
In the event of bolt system malfunction,
bolts to be armed and fired from
Soyuz control panel in Zvezda.
All the way on the
other side of the hatch.
[SERGEI] It It requires
two crew members.
TsUP.
- [SERGEI] I am sorry, Commander
- TsUP, come in.
Come on. Come on.
[BEEPING]
Come on.
[BREATHING HEAVILY] Come on!
[BEEPING]
- Come on! [BREATHING SHAKILY]
- [BEEPS]
Bolts armed.
Ten.
Rate gyros.
Twenty.
Fire thrust.
Okay.
[BREATHES HEAVILY]
Station, this is Soyuz 1. Do you copy?
Station?
Fuck.
[MARCHING BAND PLAYING]
[NO AUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
I love you so much, Frida.
[EXHALES SHARPLY] I love you too.
Erica is my name.
[MUSIC CONTINUES IN DISTANCE]
She was in the Soyuz.
Paul took her out.
He, uh
left her up there, for some reason.
In space?
Look, um [SIGHS]
Maybe, uh
Maybe the way we have
to think about it is, uh
You know, like, uh
Like the pyramids.
They've been there
for thousands of years
just to be the last home for
a great pharaoh or leader.
Yeah?
'Cause the ISS is also
one of the great things
that humanity has ever made.
This is her home, Daddy.
With us.
[SNIFFLES]
[SIGHS]
[BREATHING DEEPLY]
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
[SIGHS]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
Why didn't you bring her back?
Listen, Alice.
I conferred with Houston,
the mission control
- I know what Houston is.
- Conferred with them about what?
Look, there's no easy way to say this.
But your mother was so badly injured.
- Okay.
- You see, her whole side of her face
- was stuck and getting pulled
- What the fuck are you doing?
- Come on. Come on.
- W-what did she look like?
[MAGNUS] No, no. Come on.
- [PAUL] Magnus, I'm sorry.
- Jesus Christ.
- [DOOR SLAMS]
- [AUDREY] Paul,
have you had your psych evaluation?
Have you?
Excuse me?
[SIGHS]
I determine how I feel, okay?
You guys weren't there.
[SNIFFLES] I received and
obeyed an instruction.
And I don't need you to speak
to any NASA personnel, okay?
You mind your business.
[ALICE BREATHING SHAKILY]
[WENDY] Hey!
What are you doing?
What are you doing to your rabbit?
I don't want it.
I can help you clean it up.
I don't want the shitty little rabbit.
It's for kids.
Alice, it's your rabbit.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[PAUL] I was first up that day.
Scheduled phase six at CAL experiment.
[SERGEI] What is CAL?
What is CAL?
It's Cold Atomic Laboratory.
It's a RPL experiment.
It's a NASA experiment.
Right before the collision,
I was in phase
I was locking in lasers
with Audrey here.
Uh, Paul seems to
Paul seems to what?
[CLEARS THROAT] This This, uh
This was an issue
before we undocked also.
I think maybe [STAMMERS]
I think maybe we're using
different terminology.
[GRUNTS]
Play the tape.
[IN SWEDISH] Do you want to
take a look at the lettuce?
I think they're looking fairly perky.
Some of them have woken up a bit.
What do you think?
[CHUCKLES]
[TAPE RECORDER STOPS]
That is what you were working on there?
Hey, Paul. Maybe we're talking
about different things
but we don't know what the
Cold Atomic Laboratory is.
The CAL project was
abandoned 12 years ago.
[FREDERIC] For me, the issue is
why the decision was unilaterally taken
to move Ericsson's body from
Soyuz 1 and leave her on the ISS.
Her family's left down here
with no good answers.
Maybe we should
[SIGHS] take a break.
I don't understand what
I am being put through.
We shared the responsibility
for the decision to leave
Ericsson up there.
Houston has to back me up there.
I made the right call, correct?
You were up there, Paul.
It was your judgment.
I was ordered to leave her up there.
Yes. Based on your assessment.
I was ordered to leave her up there.
["PRELUDE IN C SHARP MINOR
(OP. 3 NO. 2)" PLAYING ON PIANO]
[BREATHES SHAKILY]
[MUSIC STOPS]
FROM ALICE FOR MAMMA
[MAGNUS] I'm a teacher.
I thought I could handle
most emotional situations
that kids are going through.
She's your own child.
It's very different.
She's growing away.
So what am I supposed to do about that?
You know [SIGHS]
Instinctively, maybe we keep
children away from funerals,
mourning.
But they are important ways
for us to be able to process
that someone's been lost.
So, maybe she needs
some kind of ceremony.
[TV ANNOUNCER] Man embarks once
again on history's great adventure.
At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
a titanic, complex and fragile vehicle
waits to take three Americans
on the last currently
planned flight to the moon.
[CROWD CHEERING ON DEVICE]
[MISSION CONTROL EMPLOYEE] And liftoff.
Liftoff of the 18th Apollo mission,
and it has cleared the tower.
[STATIC ON RECORDING]
[ASTRONAUTS SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
- [BUD] We've lost pressure.
- [ASTRONAUT] Please!
[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
[MISSION CONTROL EMPLOYEE 2]
Loss of contact.
Loss of contact.
[BUD] Houston, this is Caldera.
Two men died!
[NEWS ANCHOR] Voice recordings
of American astronauts
signaling that a cover-up took place
when two men lost their lives
on the way back from the moon.
- [DOOR OPENS]
- [PAUL] Knock-knock.
- [MICHAELA] Hey.
- Michaela, where's Henry Caldera?
Uh, who?
Commander Caldera.
You mean of Apollo 18?
Bud Caldera.
The guy who built the CAL.
[SIGHS]
[SIGHS]
Paul.
- What is this?
- Nobel Prize.
The Rocket Propulsion Lab.
The man who built the CAL.
Nobody built this machine.
Paul, for Christ's sake,
there is no machine.
[SIGHS]
Look [STAMMERS]
I'm sorry, but you gotta
get a hold of yourself.
- I'm in complete command of myself.
- Paul.
But the last fucking thing
that I was doing
Don't swear at me, Commander.
The last thing that I was
doing before the collision
was tuning the lasers on the CAL.
I was being instructed by
Commander Henry Caldera
of the Rocket Propulsion Lab.
[SIGHS]
And all of a sudden, there's no machine.
[STAMMERS] There's no Henry Caldera.
Is this some kind of cover-up?
Where is he?
Where is he, Michaela?
I-I don't know.
Dead in a ditch somewhere?
Drunk?
Apollo 18, it's NASA's greatest fuckup.
Paul.
[SIGHS] Paul.
[PAUL SIGHS]
[INHALES SHARPLY]
[GRUNTS]
[SIGHS]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
How you doing, Wendywoo?
I think she's just fine.
Your name Wendywoo?
Erica.
Hmm.
[INHALES SHARPLY] School okay?
Hmm?
Nine-year-old girls.
[CHUCKLES]
There's nothing more dangerous
or fierce in nature
than a nine-year-old girl.
You getting picked on?
Don't chew with your mouth open, Wendy.
Paul.
You speak to Alice?
Uh-uh.
You didn't speak to her?
Not yet.
She's your friend, Wendy.
Her mother was just killed, you know?
There's a funeral coming up,
and you ought to check in on her.
Her mother was killed and
your daddy had to leave her up there.
I think they're they're fine.
They're They're good.
In the depress.
You know her eyes, she
Breakfast. [SIGHS]
Please.
Can we enjoy the breakfast
and not talk about eyes again?
Please.
[EXHALES DEEPLY]
[CHATTERING]
[MAGNUS] Alice?
Alice, come on.
Alice?
[SIGHS]
[SIGHS]
Alice.
Come on. Come out of there.
[ALICE, IN SWEDISH] Fuck off.
everyone's downstairs,
and we are all gonna gather now
and say a few words about Mamma.
[IN SWEDISH] I don't want to.
Why do I have to?
[SIGHS]
We have to say goodbye.
It's stupid to say goodbye
when Mamma's still there.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
[SIGHS]
[ERICA] Paul?
[PAUL EXHALES SHARPLY]
Paul!
[PAUL GRUNTS]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
I lost the ISS for the whole world.
[BREATHES HEAVILY]
I'm the guy that took that away.
Paul.
Just wait here for a second, okay?
It was an accident, yeah?
I'm sick of saying it.
It was an accident.
Do you know how
impossibly hard I worked?
Every minute. Every hour
I worked harder than
But when it came down to it,
I'm just one of those guys
who failed on my watch.
- Daddy. You didn't fail.
- Wendy, it's okay.
[BREATHES DEEPLY] Come on.
Now, come on.
I committed sacrilege.
I took my friend's hand, and I just
threw her out there in the cold.
That's what you were told to do.
Mm-hmm.
I made an excuse.
[SNIFFLES]
- Because I was a coward in that moment.
- Stop.
I made an excuse. [SNIFFLES]
And I just left her up there
because I was scared.
[BREATHES SHAKILY]
And I don't even know.
I mean, she could still
be up there alive.
Paul.
Come on. You're not able to do this.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Let's go home.
Paul.
[SIGHS]
[GUESTS CHATTERING]
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
You talk to Alice?
How's she doing?
I can't talk to Alice anymore.
She's jealous.
She was my friend.
She just lost her mother, Wendy.
Don't be an asshole.
Wendy.
What did you say to her?
Paul.
So many fucking things that are wrong.
[ERICA] Shit.
I can, uh [SNIFFLES]
I can barely catch my breath.
- Well, c-come out then.
- Yeah, I, uh
Hey.
- How's my girl?
- [SIGHS] Hey, Alice.
My daddy has something to say to you.
- What?
- I think maybe we should all
He says that your mamma
may still be alive.
[PAUL INHALES SHARPLY, GASPS]
[SCREAMS]
- Daddy?
- [EXHALES SHARPLY]
- [ERICA] God! Paul!
- [CLATTERING]
- [BREATHING HEAVILY]
- Alice, what? What is it?
Paul?
- Mamma?
- [ERICA] Paul?
- Don't wake her up.
- She's awake.
Mamma! Mamma!
Hey! Hey, hey. You're okay.
You're okay. Come on.
Why don't we go upstairs?
[ALICE BREATHING HEAVILY]
Everything's okay.
Well, this was a mistake.
You're too young.
I'm nearly 11.
[MAGNUS SIGHS]
I think we need a time out.
We need to go away, just you and me,
somewhere where this is not
The cabin.
No. No, it's freezing up there.
Mamma's cabin.
- I want to go to the cabin.
- Let's Let's go to Mexico.
Or something.
LEGOLAND?
I want to go up to the cabin.
[MAGNUS SIGHS]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
Okay.
Paul?
Paul.
- Hi.
- Erica.
- Thanks for coming.
- Of course. I'm here.
I don't know where he is.
He's He said he was gonna
get some air last night,
and he he never came back.
I keep calling him, and he's
not answering his phone, I
We have a rehabilitation clinic.
- What?
- For astronauts
who find it hard to return to Earth.
No, we just need to get
out there and and
We don't discuss it much,
but it does happen.
It's called high-altitude psychosis.
Look, we have ways of
successfully treating it, but
Occasionally [STAMMERS]
it requires an intervention.
We need to find him now.
And we will. But I'm sorry.
[INHALES DEEPLY]
After we find him [SIGHS]
he'll need to go away.
[EXHALES DEEPLY]
[MAGNUS SNIFFS]
Well, that's it.
We're snowed in.
I mean, we're not gonna be able to
We can walk.
[CHUCKLES] It's like
two kilometers, Alice.
Come on. Look at it.
We can just go across the lake.
I'm not driving a car
across a frozen lake.
The only way we could get
there is if we did walk,
but I think the best thing is
just to go back to Älmedalen
and and get a hotel.
[CAR DOOR OPENS]
We'll walk.
Alice.
Alice, stop.
Alice!
Why don't you just listen to me?
My mamma's dead.
And my wife is dead.
Alice!
[WIND HOWLING]
[FOOTSTEPS TRUDGING IN SNOW]
[MAGNUS, ALICE PANTING]
[MAGNUS EXHALES SHARPLY]
Come on. In, in, in.
[ALICE] I remember these paintings.
Mamma liked them.
It's a changeling.
Those paintings always
freaked me out a bit.
They are spooky.
[MAGNUS SIGHS]
[ALICE] I like them.
Fine. Right, of course you do.
I'm allowed to like them.
I'm not saying you're not
allowed to like them.
Of course, if you like them, it's fine.
But if I liked them, you
wouldn't like them. Right?
What?
[CHUCKLES] I give up.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
[CRIES]
No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
[CRYING] I'm a long way
from being perfect.
But But I'm trying my best.
- [SNIFFLES]
- Daddy, don't cry.
We'll see her again one day.
I promise.
Alice. [BREATHES SHAKILY]
We We won't.
You have to listen to me.
We We're not gonna see Mamma again.
[BREATHES SHAKILY] We're not. Ever.
She's dead.
We have to start again from here.
I know you probably don't like that.
I'm sorry that I'm the
one that you've got.
But we have to start again from here.
[SNIFFLES]
Yeah?
Commander Caldera?
I prefer Bud.
You don't remember me.
No. Who the fuck are you?
Paul Lancaster.
Bullshit.
You don't remember me?
You remember me?
Yeah.
But not like this.
Oh, really? You have a good day.
Hold on, wait, wait, wait,
wait. Henry, listen!
Henry? I don't use that name.
My name's not Henry.
You trained me at NASA.
I'm gonna lose my temper.
For Christ's sakes, help me out here.
Why would NASA send you?
You just got back from space, asshole.
You left a body up there.
Yeah.
Yeah, I did.
But they didn't send me.
Nobody sent me.
I need you to
Henry, you gotta get me
some fucking answers here.
Oh, Christ.
I'm going fucking insane.
[PAUL] I recall an
accident on Apollo 18.
Yeah, there was a fucking accident.
But you all came back home.
You were a hero, sir.
[CHUCKLES]
Yeah, there was an accident.
The cabin pressure. There was
a sudden loss of pressure.
Two men died.
Nobody died. It was repaired.
- Two men died, Ted Larsen and B
- Nobody died.
It was repaired by you.
It's been
the honor of my life to work
with you, Commander.
No. No. [CHUCKLES]
I want answers.
No. I can't go back there
and neither can you.
You're gonna fucking tell me right now.
No, you take your fucking pills.
No, fuck taking my pills.
Tell me what happened.
And you tell me why you're in
this piece of shit apartment.
This is what happened.
It may not be what I thought happened.
But this, here, is what happened.
You shouldn't be here.
This is your last chance to
get out of my apartment.
No, you fucking tell me.
You tell me.
And give me some answers
right now. [SNIFFS]
- Get your fucking hands off me!
- I'm not taking shit.
You get out!
Get out.
[BREATHING HEAVILY] Commander Caldera,
you tell me why you're here.
You tell me why the fuck are you here.
- No, wait! Hey!
- [GUNSHOT]
["LULLABY" BY SUVI-EEVA ÄIKÄS PLAYS]
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