LSD9: Into That Good Night

This is the final episode: details about this episode and the series as a whole can be found on the discussion page that accompanies this play report.

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Flashback: Paris, 1960: a younger Andrew Connor meets Parisian artist and linguist Norma Valtique and the two of them begin dating. Several weeks later, an upset & dishevelled Norma meets Andrew for coffee, explaining her appearance by telling him that some drawings she made in the war have been stolen from her apartment. These were drawings she was commissioned to make by the occupation forces, the subject being something unearthly; Norma suddenly jumps to the conclusion that Andrew is in on the plan to steal the drawings! he pleads with her to believe that he had nothing to do with it and even goes so far as to propose marriage to her! Shocked, and a little embarrassed, she consents, but as they hold each other, she whispers in his ear, "You will treat me like a queen!"

• Back to the present moment, Andrew's wife Norma has been found, but she is possessed by one of the Impure and swears vengeance against the Pure, by destroying the equipment used to establish contact with them, thus denying them any further dealings with our world. She reveals some bombs connected to the equipment as the Pure respond to the summons she has sent and she begins to explain, at length, their crimes and her retribution. Andrew rushes to his wife's side to try to get her to regain her senses before the bombs go off, pleading with her to recall what they mean to each other: he embraces and kisses her and a ball of fire emerges from her body, but neither of them are burned. This fire (yes, it is ironic that there really was an entity who might be called the Fire after all) descends upon the unconscious form of Gordon Prendergast, while Andrew, with John's help, defuses the bombs and saves the day... for now. The Pure remain detached from events, not caring whether their deal with Prendergast is finalised or not. Gronds/Greed arranges for Prendergast to be taken away and locked up.
• Andrew & John discover that Dr. Blenkinsop has been used as a test subject for the Pure's gift and is currently held in a room next to the one they are putting Prendergast in; the doctor is a changed man, with unblemished skin, perfect hair and teeth, a handsome man in the picture of health. Also, like the Pure, he has no desires, he simply fulfills thoses needs which must be met for his continued functioning and wishes to pursue his scientific research for its own sake, not for any benefits it might bring about. Andrew is appalled, John doesn't care, staying on his pragmatic course of doing whatever is best for himself at any given moment. They both agree, though, that they need the help of the greenies, aka the Mechanics, to put the Pure and the Impure back together again.
• With Blenkinsop's expertise harnessed to their cause, they use the equipment in the barn to communicate with the Mechanics, who are willing to do as asked, but the price will be high: while working the Factory, they acquired a taste for human flesh, so they want 10,000 human beings for food purposes. John and Andrew stoically accept that they will have twice that many dead bodies on their hands soon anyway, once the radiation sickness in the East End has run its course. Further negotiations are aborted by the interruption of General Gronds/Greed, but Andrew seizes an opportunity to get some final answers by lulling Gronds/Greed into an hypnotic state. He learns that the Mechanics sold the process of 'purification' to the Hirsute as a cure for a disease that was consuming them; they opted for immortality at any price over mortality & certain death. It also transpires that there are deep, subconscious connections between the Pure and the Impure, as Gronds/Greed's left eye starts to glow and he speaks with the voice of the Pure! John and Andrew scarper with Norma and Blenkinsop in tow, before their plan is utterly exposed.

London: The city is spiralling out of control: the death toll in the East End is mounting and the survivors are rioting, trying to push back the quarantine zone; the military react by shooting many of them.

• John, Andrew and Blenkinsop hole up in the BERG HQ while the doctor jury rigs a copy of the machinery that was in the barn; they intend to use this to close the deal with the Mechanics but it will take a couple of days for Blenkinsop to complete his work...

We pan over a silent East End, into the church of Rev. Poulson, who is slumped over his own pulpit, blood trickling from eyes and mouth.

His daughters, Fiona and Sheila are embraced in death on the front pew.

The body of Alice Hinds is also here, perhaps seeking some final absolution for the life she has lived.

In a pew at the back, Tom the vagrant has fallen dead, his last bottle of hooch smashed in a pool of booze at his feet.

In the vestry, Aqua has taken his own life rather than suffer another moment of torment.

• BERG HQ and other official institutions has become a target for rioters and protesters; fortunately, despire a number of desertions, the HQ is still well guarded enough to prevent a catastrophe and Blenkinsop completes his work.
• John and Andrew negotiate with the Mechanics: they want the Impure to be rejoined with the Pure and for them all to be denied further access to this dimension; the Mechanics raise their price to 20,000 humans and our heroes agree. The ground quakes as the East End of London is taken away to another dimension and the Impure are extracted, at the cost of the lives of their human hosts. Hunger, Greed and Vengeance are exorcised, costing the lives of Jake Stoner, General Gronds and Gordon Prendergast: we may never know who was host to Desire, Want and Ego, but the identity of Apathy (aka Sloth) becomes immediately apparent...
• Like Hunger, he had no clear memory of his origin, and like Greed and Wrath, the personality of his host was the dominaant force... a green ooze flows out of John's mouth and he is at last free to be himself for the first time in many months, before dying moments later.

In the aftermath of the death of prominent figures in the military and the government, not to mention the criminal underworld, it is Chief Inspector Angus MacDonald who steps into the power vacuum, buoyed up by his successful actions in restoring order to London through draconian measures; this sets the tone for the future, with MacDonald rising quickly to the new position of Chancellor of London and enforcing a policy of England for the English. Rather than let Blenkinsop fall in the hands of the fascists, Andrew takes him back to the Farm, where he can work on his projects relatively undisturbed, while Andrew himself lives in hope and even persuades Norma to start a family with him.

Penultimate Episode