The Terror (2018) s01e02 Episode Script

Gore

1 [LOW RUMBLING.]
[VERMIN SQUEAKING.]
She's fared well, considering she's been eight months cold.
She's banked with coal, the stokers are giving her kisses with the oil can.
I can build her up in a day, once receive good news from a lead party.
My crown's on Le Vesconte.
West is surely the first place ice will open.
You'll lose.
Graham crosses to land and covers twice the distance.
I'm with the Captain on that one, sir.
Then you're both on.
I had an aunt in Brighton.
Used to go and see her on holidays, from London Bridge Station.
I have almost certainly been pulled back and forth by that very engine.
Look at her now.
From footnote to lead paragraph.
I might poach that for my journal this evening.
It would be an honor, sir.
And as we're in a wagering spirit, shall we put odds on Francis favoring us with his presence? I hope he does.
Perhaps it'll give him a lift, seeing the parties off.
[CLANKING.]
[LIVELY CHATTER.]
Here comes the lending library.
Just in time.
Will this be another Jonathan Swift, or are you sending me back to Herodotus? Sadly, there is no more Herodotus.
No, this is a comedy.
I thought you could do with a bit of a laugh on your 50 miles.
[FRANKLIN.]
Scour the ice, with providence as your sure-footed guide, and return safely with news that our long winter sojourn will soon lie behind us.
And we can finally raise our sails again and force this passage.
Graham.
I appreciate you taking the cylinders.
It will be an honor, sir.
To lay our first footprints upon King William Land and deliver your words.
Be sure to come back with a story.
Joyfully, sir.
I only wish I could join in the outing.
- Francis! - Sir.
Is there anything you'd like to say? Travel well.
Right.
Good luck, men.
Company, three cheers! - Hip-hip! - Hooray! - Hip-hip! - Hooray! - Hip-hip! - Hooray! [EERIE MUSIC.]
[EERIE MUSIC.]
[RUMBLING AND SCRAPING.]
[WIND HOWLING.]
[MELANCHOLY MUSIC.]
[LIGHTNING CRACKS.]
Dr.
MacDonald's been kind enough to lend me his journals from his time on Cumberland Sound.
It was they who brought back the Esquimaux, back to Aberdeen.
Imagine.
I don't recall his name, but he was of the Inuk tribe.
Lt.
Gore, do you recall that Inuk man's name? I do not, Mr.
Goodsir.
It was long and terribly Esquimaux.
Please let me take my part, Lieutenant.
You said to watch for three days and I've done it.
Now let me relieve someone who's earned it.
Whoa! Whoa.
Hartnell, let him spell you.
[BREATHES HEAVILY.]
[WIND HOWLING.]
There's nothing more natural than pulling weight, Dr.
Goodsir.
Watch Morfin here in front, and me with the corner of your eye.
Match our strides.
You'll take to it.
I know you will.
Heave! [THEY GROAN.]
- [ROPES CREAKING.]
- Oh.
[GOODSIR.]
Sorry.
[FIRE CRACKLING.]
[WIND HOWLING OUTSIDE.]
[APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS.]
Sir John.
I would have come to you.
No, not at all.
The stroll did me good.
Shall we sit? I've come to repair our bonds, Francis.
I'd like us to be friends again.
You never lost my friendship.
Well, that may be true, but I've certainly lost your company.
And I'm not the only one to notice you've succeeded in avoiding Erebus most of the winter.
I'm I'm a Captain.
I'm peevish off my own ship.
I leave it and hear disaster knocking at its door before I'm ten steps away.
Would it help if I said that I made a mistake? You misunderstand me, Sir John.
I only meant to describe why I brood, not that I judge.
Yes, but summer is coming, Francis.
I mean, surely you can slip your brooding now.
Summer is here in name only, Sir John.
Temperatures barely come up to zero.
The sundogs remain.
- These are the signs here.
- Yes, signs of a cold May.
Signs that nature does not give a damn about our plans.
Is Nature's Author nowhere in your tally? What a disappointment that must be to you.
It's simply that we're two men on two very different ships.
And here I've come, to make peace on yours.
Will you not on mine? I will always come to you.
I serve at your command.
Very well.
Oh, your seat of ease, Francis.
There's a draft.
[DOOR SLIDES OPEN AND CLOSES.]
[RETREATING FOOTSTEPS.]
[LID CREAKS.]
[RUMBLING AND SCRAPING.]
It's the shore.
It must be.
[PANTING.]
Look what it does to the ice.
[BREATHES HEAVILY.]
An unstoppable force meets an immovable mass.
It's beautiful.
[GORE.]
We continue on foot.
[PICK STRIKES ICE.]
[HE GRUNTS.]
[PICKS STRIKING ICE.]
[PANTING.]
[WIND HOWLING.]
[WHOOPS JOYFULLY.]
[JOYFUL WHOOPING.]
[WHOOPS.]
You deserve a prize for your orienteering, Mr.
Des Voeux.
I can see the cairn.
It can't be half a mile.
[CRUNCHING.]
[CRUNCHING FOOTSTEPS.]
Looks as if the Eskis have left it alone.
17 years.
Maybe it spooks them.
It's hard to imagine anyone coming here.
Ever.
This place make you uneasy, Doctor? You call me doctor, but technically I'm just a surgeon.
- Anatomist, in fact.
- That's a doctor in my book.
Thank you.
[SNIFFS.]
- Sir.
- Thank you.
[GORE.]
Right.
[EERIE MUSIC.]
[CYLINDER CLATTERS.]
I pray it's English tea merchants coming from Canton who look upon that message next.
See something, Goodsir? No, sir.
Sgt.
Bryant, accompany me to the second cairn.
We can walk the ice, scout for open water.
Mr.
Des Voeux, return with the boys to the sledge and make camp.
Get some rest if we've not returned.
Godspeed, sir.
Come on.
Lt.
Gore! [CREAKING.]
[HEAVY BREATHING.]
- Is someone there? - Sh.
Answer me.
Lt.
Irving.
Mr.
Gibson.
What are you doing down here? I'd come down for coal earlier this morning and heard one of the ship's cats crying back here somewhere.
Is someone with you? Mr.
Hickey was kind enough to accompany me in trying to find it.
He's been looking all over behind here.
- The captain.
- Got caught up His seat of ease has a draft.
Have Mr.
Hickey see to it.
I'm here, Lieutenant.
Sir? - He's running to inform.
- No, I don't think he will.
Cornelius, we'll be lashed.
[SIGHS.]
If Lt.
Irving goes to inform command, then he'd have to tell them what it is he saw.
Which means he's gonna have to open his imagination to what he didn't.
[MATCH STRIKES.]
I've seen him at Sir John's Sunday service.
I've watched him pray.
That's a man afraid of chaos.
He's not going to invite more if he can help it.
We can't be sure of it.
No.
But there are worse things than being lashed.
[HEAVY BREATHING.]
[LABORED BREATHING.]
Looking forward to getting a stove going? Wait on.
Look.
[WIND HOWLING.]
What could have done that? [DES VOEUX.]
There must be a bear.
A bear did that? [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC.]
We'll be able to tell by the tracks.
There may be more than one.
Sh Shall we all go? I just don't understand why he resists us, James.
He's a disappointed man.
You should not have to bear his grievances.
Perhaps it is I who's unable to truly bring him into the bosom of my confidence.
I want to.
I always plan to.
But then, when I'm with him, I don't know why I falter.
You have done everything for the man.
- Have I? - Sir, he was no-one's first choice for this expedition.
Mm, nor was I.
How any man achieves his post on an expedition is less important than how he spends it.
And well, that he measures up.
I will not have Francis's melancholy touch you.
I'll not have it.
Do you hear me? - [FOOTSTEPS AND KNOCKING.]
- Yes! Sorry to interrupt, sirs.
What is it, Mr.
Bridgens? The first lead party's just returned, sir.
[RETREATING FOOTSTEPS.]
What news, Lieutenant? Stay seated.
We traveled as far as 11 miles east, sir.
We discerned no signs of the ice yielding.
And the men, how did they fare? Some of them are with Dr.
Stanley now.
We also had an issue with our provisions.
- What issue? - Some were rotted.
Inedibly so.
Ask Mr.
Wall to prepare an early supper for the Lieutenant and his men.
Gather your strength before returning to your ship.
I am sorry to disappoint you, sir.
Oh, not at all.
We suspected east was not our brightest star to follow.
Nevertheless, you and the men have done a great service.
Well done.
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING.]
[MAN.]
Go on! Go on! Here! The western team must be nearly home now.
Good thing.
It looks like a sour sky.
[CHEERING.]
Funny to think of this place as home, isn't it? [CLOCK TICKING.]
[SIGHS.]
[APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS.]
Well, here she comes now.
I thought Mohawks had carted you off.
Oh, no, much worse.
He proposed.
Again.
You declined, of course? Not firmly enough, in my opinion.
In gratitude to you both for my care, must I surrender my privacy? Sophia, your safety in this world is what we would keep you from surrendering.
This matter with Francis won't end until you are firm, my dear.
He's an explorer, and you must know by now that explorers are made of hope.
They breathe hope.
[SCOFFS.]
I can't very well ask him to stop breathing, Uncle.
No.
But you really must repel his curiosities now.
I know you won't find it as much fun as encouraging them, but you're not a child.
He's suitable for a good many women.
Mm.
I've no doubt.
But just under a different banner than ours.
[DOOR OPENS.]
[CROZIER.]
You weren't sleeping either? If only sleep were as simple as closing your eyes.
I was thinking about Tad.
The first of Parry's boat-haung reindeer.
[CHUCKLES.]
Tad! [LAUGHS.]
What made you think of that poor sod? We brought those deer a thousand miles north from Norway.
Only to slaughter them on the ice.
That was the ice that made me want to be a master.
The way it kept moving us back.
Mm.
It was rough ice.
The deer couldn't haul on it.
We knew that in a day.
But we kept them anyway.
Ferrying deer from ice floe to ice floe by boat, thinking we could use them by and by.
Rowing reindeer in our sleigh boats! [CHUCKLES.]
- Like proper little ladies - [LAUGHS.]
in ostrich carts.
They were so confused.
[THEY LAUGH RAUCOUSLY.]
[THEY LAUGH.]
[SIGHS.]
Is that us now? Confused, out of our depth? We've seen worse than this, you and me.
And I know you saw much worse south, with Sir James.
I've heard other versions than yours.
I know them to be reliable.
- This is different.
- Aye.
You trusted Ross and you trusted Parry.
Either you're a clairvoyant or I'm not doing half the job I think I am concealing my thoughts.
No, it's just that I know you.
What will it do to us, the ice? If no leads get found and we have to spend another winter here.
Without a thaw to clear last winter's ice, it will start to back up and then pile up high.
Like one whole country being squeezed into the borders of another.
It'll push the boats up.
Aye, I've seen boats forced 20, 30 feet in the jam.
Can we survive that amount of pressure? If it drives us up, yeah, we'll ride it.
It could also drive us under.
Snap our beams and crush us at the waist.
Let's pray for the former, then.
[ICE RUMBLING.]
[WIND HOWLING.]
[FIRE CRACKLING.]
I'll put the third tent up.
We'll all appreciate the extra room if we're in for foul weather.
[MUFFLED THUD.]
I was only just thinking that's what this camp needed: more ice.
[ICE FALLS.]
- [ROCK FALLS.]
- [GASPING.]
[THUNDER RUMBLES.]
[GORE.]
Time to get inside, boys! [BRYANT.]
We're just ahead of it.
[GORE.]
Are you repairing the boat? - [HAIL FALLS.]
- Get inside! Now! [HAIL PATTERING.]
[PATTERING CONTINUES.]
[ANIMAL ROARS IN DISTANCE.]
[DISTANT GROWLING.]
The boat, sir.
We found it like that.
[WIND HOWLING.]
[CANVAS FLAPPING IN WIND.]
Blast it.
That bear was tracking us.
We heard it a mile back, up in the ice and a mile before that.
I fired in its direction to drive it off, but it must not in its life have smelled anything like an Englishman.
What do we do? Shoot it in the head.
Carve it up for supper.
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY.]
And if it's not alone? [CRASH OF LIGHTNING.]
Everyone a rifle.
[THUNDER RUMBLES.]
[WHOOSHING.]
It's just up there.
[CRASH OF LIGHTNING.]
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC.]
[COCKS RIFLE.]
[MUTTERS.]
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC CONTINUES.]
[CRASH OF LIGHTNING.]
[DES VOEUX.]
Mr.
Goodsir! Come quickly! [PANTING.]
[CRASH OF LIGHTNING.]
He took it in the chest, sir.
[SOBBING.]
[SHE SOBS.]
[MAN GROANS.]
- [GROANS.]
- [SHOUTS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE.]
[SHE SHOUTS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE.]
That's a girl.
[SHE SHOUTS.]
[MUTTERS.]
Who is she looking for? I'll get the lieutenant.
[CRASH OF LIGHTNING.]
[BEAR ROARS.]
[HE SCREAMS.]
[DOG GROWLS SOFTLY.]
I'll caulk you next.
[SPLATTING.]
[APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS.]
Neptune, sir.
He relieved himself before I could alert Mr.
Jopson.
There was no warning, I'm afraid.
- And yet you take up the duty.
- My apologies, sir.
I know better to mind my own tasks.
Not at all.
I meant it as a statement of gratitude, Mr.
Hickey.
You're most welcome, Captain.
- You're a Limerick man? - Thereabouts, sir.
But that's not what comes out of your mouth.
If I hadn't read the ship's roster, I'd never have known you were Irish.
I've lived as many years in Liverpool and Manchester as there.
I barely remember anything but England.
It must have made it easier for you.
Yeah.
I learnt early: those who are quickest to tally your value often do it on your spots alone.
You should know that Discovery Service is not unlike the world in that regard.
If not worse.
You've done extraordinarily well.
Captain of a great ship.
Gives the rest of us Micks hope.
Would you take a drink, Mr.
Hickey? I wouldn't put the Captain out.
[THEY CHUCKLE.]
[LAUGHS.]
- What day of the week is it? - It's a Wednesday, sir.
Ourselves, then.
It's fitting.
[CHUCKLES.]
The second lead party returned last night.
No leads west.
[HICKEY.]
Forgive me for saying, sir, but I have my doubts we'll see leads this year.
[LAUGHS SOFTLY.]
Perhaps I would have done better to have played your game, Mr.
Hickey, and gulled the world.
[KNOCKING ON DOOR.]
I applaud you.
Come! Yes, John.
I'm I'm sorry, sir, the last lead party, sir, it's been sighted.
Gangway! Officer coming through! Mind your backs.
Mind your backs, boys.
Officer coming through.
Gangway.
- [SHOUTING.]
- Mind your backs.
[SHOUTING CONTINUES.]
Where's Graham? [GROANS IN PAIN.]
Dr.
Stanley.
Commander Fitzjames, I will not touch this man.
You needn't.
This man's been in my care for two days.
Mr.
Goodsir The ball needs to be removed so the hole can be closed, otherwise it will keep collapsing his lung, which I suspect is leaning on the man's heart.
- [PATIENT GROANS.]
- What is Sir John's wish here? We may be able to spare him.
May I have your leave to try? He had nothing to do with what happened to Lt.
Gore, sir.
[WOMAN SHOUTS.]
This man's her father.
Sir, can you tell her this will be painful for him but I'll be as quick as I can be? Ssh.
[HE SPEAKS HER LANGUAGE.]
[MAN CRIES OUT IN PAIN.]
[WIND HOWLING.]
[MAN GROANS.]
[GROANS.]
[GROANS.]
[MAN CALLS OUT.]
It's in too deep in the tissue.
[SIGHS.]
Can't you cut it out? Every breath he takes is making it worse.
Who knows how badly we jostled him getting him to the ship? [SIGHS.]
[MURMURS.]
What is she saying? She's begging him not to ask this of her.
Ask what of her? [HE SINGS DELIRIOUSLY.]
- Stretcher! Bring a stretcher! - Francis, what's happening? She says he must die on the ice, not here.
[HE EXHALES.]
[WHIMPERS.]
[SHE REPEATS HER WORDS.]
Commander Fitzjames, you'll escort this woman off Erebus.
Please see to it that the sick bay is restored, Dr.
Stanley.
- Certainly, sir.
- Sir, with your permission, I'd like to take the woman aboard Terror.
You're staying here, Francis, until we've heard from every one of Graham's team about what happened out there.
[WOMAN SOBS.]
Mr.
Goodsir, come with us, please.
We found only one set of prints.
Large.
20 inches across.
How long did you search for Lt.
Gore before you decided to leave him? We searched for a half mile in each direction, sir.
Then how can you be certain he was killed? The amount of blood, sir, on the ice.
No man could have survived losing so much.
You say this with complete authority on the subject? I do, sir.
Whether it was our grief or fatigue, I cannot say, but some of us, Hartnell and Morfin specifically, became convinced that the bear continued to track us here, back to the ships.
[FITZJAMES.]
Based on what evidence Mr.
Goodsir? We could not be more distressed by what happened, sir.
Lt.
Gore was one of the very best men Leads, Doctor.
Did you find any leads? The ice showed no sign of a thaw, Captains.
On the contrary, the wrack of ice built up around the shore of King William Land was thicker than Lt.
Gore expected.
You're now an expert on the ice too, Mr.
Goodsir? Thank you.
That will be all.
There's one more thing, Captains.
- Yes? - The Esquimaux man.
What about him? He had signs of a surgical procedure in his past.
What sort of procedure? He had no tongue.
It was removed some time ago, I believe, with some sharp edge.
These people are not our concern.
We have one of our own men to mourn.
- You may go.
- Sir.
[DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES.]
[FOOTSTEPS CRUNCHING SOFTLY ON SNOW.]
[WIND HOWLING.]
- What have you learnt? - She's in good condition.
And she has been eating.
Fairly well, in fact.
That could mean her people have found game in the area.
- Has she conversed with you? - No.
Hm? [SHE WHISPERS.]
[SHE WHISPERS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE.]
She said that if we don't leave now we're going to huk-kah-hoi.
- Disappear.
- Mm.
[TENSE MUSIC.]
[WIND HOWLING IN BACKGROUND.]

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