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1.03 - The Night the Sky Fell
9.7k Plays4 years ago
We find out more about the night the sky fell down on Charity - and learn some of Lara and Rose's backstory.
If this is your first time listening, go back to Episode 1: "Charity," and start there.
For bios, transcripts, and more information, visit BelieverPodcast.com
CONTENT NOTES
Grief; familial loss; grating, high-pitched noises.
CREDITS
CAST
- Rose Boone - Mara Hernandez
- The Boys - Eliseo Velasquez, John Gifford, Enrique Garnica
- Lara Campbell - Julie Saunders
- Jake Talbott - Jason Markoff
- Mayor Terri Boone - Rosa Delgado
- Camille Simmons - Sara Gorsky
- Dr. Penelope Simmons - Samantha Ronceros
- Sodapop, World's Greatest Dog - Basil Archimedes Hornberger (Archie)
CREW
- Composer - Aaron Ferenc
- Written, Directed, Produced, Edited by Julie Saunders
MUSIC
- "Julie's Melody," by Aaron Ferenc
- "Retrouvailles," by Ooyy
- "Under My Oak Tree," by Johannes Bornlof
- "Obsessions (Instrumental Version)", by Can't Find Ollie
Music not composed by Aaron Ferenc was found on Epidemic Sound.
SFX
Supplemental dog sounds:
- https://freesound.org/people/ivolipa/sounds/260248/
- https://freesound.org/people/170084/sounds/408200/
- https://freesound.org/people/15GPanskaBokstefflova_Nicola/sounds/461521/
- https://freesound.org/people/jinxycat49/sounds/490164/
- https://freesound.org/people/giddster/sounds/435368/
All other ambient and sound effects from Adobe Stock.
Recommended
Transcript
Jake's Confusion and Rose's Phone
00:00:04
Speaker
Okay, okay, let me just uh Why am I outside morning? Jesus Jake rough night. I guess for the record. I was indoors when I fell asleep sure I'm sorry
00:00:19
Speaker
I guess I figured out how to unlock Rose's phone at some point. Is that what that is? Where have you been, by the way? You're just lucky it didn't rain for once. Yeah, seriously though, where were you? Well, I'd better leave you to it. I walked into that spot in the woods, which was freaky, by the way. And when I came back out... Okay, sounds good. You have a good day, Lara. What? Coffee on the counter. Wait, Jake? Ugh.
Sleep Disruption and Emotional Stress
00:00:52
Speaker
Believer, episode three, the night the sky fell. So sleepwalking, vivid nightmares, unexpected fatigue, they're all common side effects of emotional stress. Not that I, I mean, okay, I was worried and that can provoke some sleep disruption. That's all.
00:01:23
Speaker
Anyway, the phone. There was surprisingly little on there. Let's see what's on this thing. A couple of selfies, some random pictures of trees. I guess she was going for a lot of walks in the forest. But there were these videos.
Meteor Shower and Group Tension
00:01:47
Speaker
Alright guys, so we are on our way to go see the meteor shower right now. We're just walking down this trail to find it. You guys excited?
00:02:02
Speaker
Who was excited? Yeah, it was strange seeing her like that again. Just hopeful, happy. She had me blocked on social media. I mean, I blocked her also, but you know how something can feel familiar and kind of far away at the same time? Of course, it got more far away as it went along.
00:02:30
Speaker
Hey guys, so update. We made it to the top and it looks like the meteor shower is starting. What do you guys think? Yeah, it's cool. I suppose. I don't know if I've ever seen them get this bright though. You know, you've got a point. Do you guys hear that? What? It's like a street almost. Like through screens. This is supposed to be Islam.
Tunguska Event and Airbursts
00:03:01
Speaker
Listen, before I keep going with these, have you ever heard of Tunguska? Yeah, in 1908, there was this mysterious explosion, flattened 2,000 square kilometers of forest in Eastern Russia.
00:03:16
Speaker
There have been hundreds of scholarly articles about it, but not because there's a lot of disagreement about what happened. All the witnesses reported lights in the sky, typically a single column of blue light brighter than the sun, and then some kind of bright body that came toward the ground, and it knocked down 80 million trees in an instant and caused a 5.0 earthquake.
00:03:42
Speaker
The site where this happened is distinctive and circular, like an impact crater, except there's no point of impact. There was no artifact left behind. So naturally, this spurred all kinds of conspiracy theories, from aliens to experimental government technology to superhero origin stories. You can find every kind of paranormal story that revolves around the mystery of what happened in Tunguska.
00:04:08
Speaker
The thing is, we know what this is. It's called an airburst. It happens when a meteorite breaks up in the atmosphere, but before it does that, it gets close enough to the ground that the energy from its fall still slams into the earth. The meteorite doesn't land, so it's kind of an impact without an impact. It actually happens all the time. This one was just unusually close to the ground. I say all this so you know that, well, what happened in the woods that night was not without precedent.
00:04:40
Speaker
Are we good here?
Rose's Serenity Amid Chaos
00:04:41
Speaker
No, you guys, it's really good. Trust the law. No, he's right. It's not supposed to be this loud. This bright. And why are they different colors? No, this is normal, you guys. There's like reds and greens and like... This is how it's supposed to be, you guys. It's cool. I still have those shrooms in your car now. Maybe we should take a walk. Wait, wait, wait. Let's just enjoy it a little bit. It's actually getting a little too bright. Yeah, all right. So maybe this is amazing. Maybe this is beautiful. It's getting close. Like, this is...
00:05:10
Speaker
It's okay, it's okay. Just one more video.
00:05:26
Speaker
What? You can see the boys, these younger guys, running around and freaking out and screaming at each other. What do I do with this? What is this? But Rose, holding the camera is just serene. There are a couple glimpses of her face in there and she's smiling. Like she wanted this, like she's enjoying it. Yikes, that is eerie.
00:05:58
Speaker
You have one unheard message.
Mayor's Warning and Rose's Dog
00:06:00
Speaker
First unheard message. This is Mayor Boone. I don't know what you're still doing in this town, Laura, but you'd better stay away from me, my husband, and especially my daughter. I saw you at my house last night, and you better stay away.
00:06:19
Speaker
Hey, Camille, sorry for missing you earlier. My phone is being really weird. Yeah, no problem. Just let's get away from the diner, okay? Yeah, we can go this way. So when can I meet your dog? I heard you brought a dog. I actually can't get him to leave Rose's sweater.
00:06:33
Speaker
Aww, that's concerning. Cute? Was I gonna say cute? Oh, uh, yeah, I guess that too. I mean, it makes some sense. He was Rose's dog, really. I mean, he was our dog, but he was her baby. So like you and Rose were like, together? Yeah, sorry, I thought you knew. I figured Mayor Boone would have warned everyone about the woman who stole her daughter and sent her back crazy. No, she didn't say. Oh, well, that's something then.
00:07:01
Speaker
So, are you like... What? Nothing. Okay. Um, so Jake said you
Reverend's Sermons and Clues
00:07:09
Speaker
had something for me? Oh, yeah, here. It's a USB thingy. I got it from Abe. Who? Abe Ramirez. He runs the radio station. Oh, okay. Well, you know, Rose's dad, the Reverend, he used to have this radio show every Sunday where they'd play his sermons. Sure. Well, a couple months ago, they had to cancel the show because they got some complaints. Complaints? Like what? Well, it got pretty unconventional.
00:07:30
Speaker
the preaching. But so he recorded a bunch of additional sermons after the cancellation. He kept sending them to Abe, even after Abe told him to stop. And Abe just kept them? Yeah, Abe keeps everything. And you think there's something in there that will help me find Rose? I think you should hear him. Yeah.
00:07:48
Speaker
Do you think Reverend Boone had something to do with Rose's disappearance? No, no, he wouldn't do that. Because he's the one who called me to come here. He called you? Like himself? Yeah, it's the last message I got before my phone freaked out. Huh.
Lara's Night Visit and Immunity Concerns
00:08:05
Speaker
Anything helps, though. I'll take what I can get at this point.
00:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, I'll keep digging. Oh, by the way. Yeah? Last night, were you looking for me? Or for my mom or something? Last night? Yeah, when you were outside my house. What? No, I wasn't. Yeah, you were. I saw you. Like two or three in the morning. You walked up the street and then you just kind of stood there, staring.
00:08:26
Speaker
I thought maybe you were looking for me, but I don't remember telling you where I live. You didn't? Where was this? I live above my mom's medical practice, Dr. Penelope Simmons. That's my mom. She said she called you, but like the office isn't open at night. Camille, I didn't go anywhere last night. No, it was definitely you. You walked up the street, you stared at the building for a while, then you just like walked off. That doesn't make any sense.
00:08:49
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe you were astral projecting or something. Is that a thing you do? I don't think so. Maybe, maybe it was a trance. Did you have a vision? Do you remember what you dreamed last night? No, I haven't had any messages from the spirits. Look, I need to go. Is this all you had for me? Yeah, sorry. I'll see if I can find more. No, no, this is great. Thank you. Really, I just have a lot to think about. Sure. Thanks. At the end of your message, press 1.
00:09:19
Speaker
Hello, Miss Campbell. This is another message from Dr. Penelope Simmons, General Practitioner in the town of Charity, Oregon. I'm home, Mum. Camille. Did you see her? Yeah. And what did she say? She doesn't remember it.
00:09:39
Speaker
I don't think she was trying to see you. Well, she needs to see me, Camille. She needs to be examined. I know. She could be the key to this whole thing, Camille, if we understand why she hasn't been infected. I know, God. So why haven't you done what I asked? I just think that... Wait, are you on the phone, though? Call me back, Ms. Campbell, please.
00:10:06
Speaker
Jesus, this door is becoming a problem. Soda pop? Did someone come in here when I was gone? Or did you decide to pull a bunch of stuff out of my bag for some reason? Hmm. Well, it looks like everything's here. And I mean, you'd at least pretend to protect my stuff, right?
00:10:37
Speaker
All right. We'll do more walks or something, I guess. Okay, let's look at this again. Yeah, so to pop if anybody asks, I am talking to you.
Rose's Drawings and Their Meaning
00:10:55
Speaker
Okay, so she goes to the woods and there's an airburst from meteorites that are too close to the ground.
00:11:05
Speaker
The boys get sick and go to the hospital. Could be unrelated. Could not be. Rose goes home and draws something all over her wall. Hmm. I think they're animals. Just like spider-morphed, tentacled versions of animals.
00:11:29
Speaker
Are they tentacles? I mean, they're long, twisting lines that move in and out of each other. Connecting the animals... kind of. Almost. But see, there are breaks in it. And it's not straight like a web, either. It's more like... roots. Yeah. Kind of. Except they're not going into the ground. They come from everywhere.
00:11:52
Speaker
it's hard to tell what's a leg or an antler and what's a whatever these are it's not random though it's not just scribbles it's supposed to be something oh rosie what did you see maybe it's an after image you know when lightning strikes and um just after it's gone it's like you can still see something in the sky do dogs even get that hmm anyway maybe it's in the video
00:12:23
Speaker
Look, I'm not one of those condescending people who thinks that all belief in the supernatural is mental illness or stupidity or something.
Lara's Belief in the Supernatural
00:12:32
Speaker
I used to believe in it too, but Rose, it was different for Rose. For Rose, it was real, you know? Even after
00:12:42
Speaker
Actually, you know what? You want to know what it was? When I was growing up, I was really close to my brother, Eric. He was just a couple years older than me, and we were like, I don't know, I just did everything with him, you know? But then when he was like 11, I think, he wanted his own room, and my mom decided that she couldn't have her son and her daughter in the same room anymore, so I got moved in with our other sibling, Shane, and Eric got his own room.
00:13:08
Speaker
So I was really sad, actually, not to be in the same room with Eric. I was just a little kid, but you know how it is, like I was used to being there, you took me in at night. And well, we found out that our rooms actually shared a wall, like right where our beds were. So what we started doing was we would knock on the wall at night, like usually right before bed when I was falling asleep. I would knock twice and he would knock three times back, usually.
00:13:35
Speaker
But we had a whole knocking conversations and it was just kind of like, it was like our thing. We kept doing it for years afterward, all the way up into our teen years, right? I would knock and then he would knock back. Well, when Eric was about 16, he was out with some friends and there was an accident.
00:13:56
Speaker
Anyway, Eric died, which was obviously hard for me. It's fine, it was a long time ago. But the thing was, after his funeral, I went home, right, and I was laying in bed, and I couldn't sleep, and then I heard this knocking on the wall. It was the good night knock.
00:14:18
Speaker
And I just knew, I knew it was Eric, that somehow Eric was still in the house and he was still looking out for me. And I think I kind of based my whole life around that after that, right? Like I became a person who talked to dead people. Anyway, so a couple years ago when we moved mom out of the house, I went through the old house with the inspector and
00:14:45
Speaker
Do you know what a water hammer is? See, when you turn the water off, any water that was still in the pipe goes crashing back down against the valve below it. In most houses, there's a mechanism that absorbs the shock, but in old houses, sometimes that wears out and you get this crashing in the pipes. And if you combine that with some sediment buildup in the water heater, you get a knocking sound coming from your walls.
00:15:13
Speaker
When the Fox sisters held séances, people thought they saw things and heard things. They felt things that weren't there. The Foxes just made a knocking sound and the people filled in the rest. Because you can believe anything if you need it to be true.
00:15:32
Speaker
Rose insisted that it was still Eric. The water hammer, coincidence, she said. Or Eric caused it somehow. His spirit could wear out the air chambers in the pipes, but nothing else, I guess. And he showed up the night of the funeral. I mean, that's more than a coincidence, she said. And it had to be true. But it wasn't. It was just random. I mean, your mind reimagines your memories every time you remember them.
00:15:56
Speaker
Every time you look back on something, you change it. So did the knocking really start the night of the funeral? I don't know. Probably not. I don't know if you know what it's like to have something like that and then just... I mean, it wasn't real. It was just me. It was just a grieving child telling herself what she needed to hear.
00:16:18
Speaker
But Rose, I guess you could say, in fairness, I was not the same after that. So we were not the same. I guess we just never really recovered. You know, I'm okay. I'm okay now. It was what I needed at the time, and now I'm doing something else. But for Rose, I don't know.
00:16:42
Speaker
Something happened to Rose. Something has to have happened. And I guess I just need to know if it can happen to me too. Let me see the video again. No, those are straight streaks. Wait, what is that?
Audio Analysis and Involving the Dog
00:17:06
Speaker
Hold on, um, let me try some audio software here. Let's
00:17:12
Speaker
okay so just turn down some of the background noise mute this section and soda pop tell me that's not sasquatch
00:17:41
Speaker
Thank you for listening to Believer.
Closing Remarks and Contact Info
00:17:43
Speaker
It's been a tough couple of weeks and the only reason this episode made it out today is because of the encouragement I got from some very kind people, including strangers. So today I want you to please just think of a show, not this one, but a show or a song or a work of art that means a lot to you and reach out to the people behind it to tell them how much you love it. That kind of thing really means a lot.
00:18:08
Speaker
If you ever do want to get in touch with our show, you can find a believer on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram at BelieverPod. You can also find cast and crew bios, transcripts, and more information at BelieverPodcast.com. Stay tuned for more announcements over the next month or so. We've got some exciting things planned, I think.
00:18:29
Speaker
The next full episode of Believer comes out in two weeks. Until then, if your dog or cat is suddenly fixated on one particular corner of the room, maybe it's a spot where things feel oddly cold or something just never seems quite right. The angles just don't meet the way they're supposed to. Add some more playtime to their schedule. Animals can develop fixations if they're under-stimulated. See you soon. Bye now.