310: Salem's Lot

Synopsis

The episode picks up where 309: Boom Goes the Dynamite left off. In the New Jerusalem town square, Goodman Gray confers with Constable Zeke Dawkins as a few of his remaining men arrive, including his driver from Motley Hill, while Mayor Jedediah Marsh stands shaking. Gray says that the mayor has said enough for now. When the group presses him about the lab, Gray denies knowing of it. He says that the men in suits they found there were agents he sent weeks earlier who never reported back, and that the sanatorium was his own first encounter with the creatures. The mayor admits that he knew Mister Corbitt and Mordecai Shep had a place they worked out of, but not where it was.

The group heads to Denny's to fortify it. Dr. Simeon rolls a 04 on Persuade and convinces the butcher, Daniel Ames, to help him lay a trail of meat and blood from the butcher shop through the square toward the tavern. Ezra Denny agrees to turn his tavern into ground zero. Billy decides that someone has to show the townsfolk how to get into the tomb at the cemetery, and he and Ezra spend the evening ferrying women and children there in the truck. As they drive, the town descends into chaos, with smashed windows, looting and smoke rising. Ezra warns that the monsters will not be the only danger that night. Nobody sees Ike anywhere.

At Denny's, the others barricade the doors and windows and hand out weapons. They are joined by Gray's four remaining men, some armed locals, Daniel Ames, Ishmael and Martha Graves, and the general store owner Abraham Harvey. Gray's men hand their flamethrower to Dom. Tallahassee plants dynamite with long fuses about 10 to 15 yards from the tavern, and vehicles are pulled up as a barrier out front. Percival Warthrop offers to fight, calling himself older than he looks and experienced, but he dismisses the idea of drawing the protective symbol on his forehead as superstition. Major Bakersfield reveals that he learned a spell from Corbitt's journals that summons a flying beast to obey a single command, and the table argues over how he should use it.

Around 7 to 7:30 p.m., with dark falling at eight, the Keeper reminds Bakersfield that his close friend and old war buddy Grant Jameson is holed up in a cabin about an hour north of the campsite that was attacked. Remembering the letters of fallen comrades that he carries, Bakersfield tells the others to hold the building until he returns. He leaves three sticks of dynamite with the group, borrows Percival's car over his objections and speeds out of town, planning to cast the spell on the drive back.

At the cemetery, Billy realizes that Delilah and her son Zachary never made it to the tomb. Ezra panics. Martha Graves agrees to take charge of the people sheltering there and to keep the door locked until daylight. Billy and Ezra drive to Delilah's run-down house on the south side of town, near the Shofar newspaper office. They find the door kicked in, the bedroom ransacked and spots of blood on the floor. Outside, the Shofar is burning, and they find Jacob Alister lying shot in the street. Jacob tells them that Ike Watson shot him when he tried to stop Ike and his men from dragging Delilah and the boy away toward the east-side slums. He begs them to save his press, which he calls a voice of reason in the town, and dies in Billy's arms. Ezra says that he knows where Ike lives, in the shacks near Mordecai's place. Billy gives him a spare .38 revolver, and the two drive east through the burning town as the Keeper declares that they may be witnessing the fall of New Jerusalem.

Funny Moments

The table is convinced that Dr. Simeon's player is cheating when he rolls a 04 on Persuade, because he "never rolls double digits."
Dom declares that the group needs to make Denny's "a Grand Slam."
A player insists, twice, that they are setting up "booby traps."
Bakersfield's mystery launcher is called a "skunk gun," and the table debates whether it is a thump gun.
Dom finally gets his hands on a flamethrower and immediately starts spraying gasoline everywhere.
Bakersfield tries to word his one command as "fly me around all night and do everything I say."
"On the 51st we never left a man behind." "Why do you have so many letters then?" "We never left a living man behind."

Notable Quotes

"I believe you've spoken enough and told enough, man. Maybe for now." —Goodman Gray
"Those are the men we sent weeks ago that never reported back." —Goodman Gray
"Sounds like a bunch of superstitious nonsense." —Percival Warthrop
"People in this town, it's almost like they're waiting for an opportunity for something like this." —Ezra Denny
"He's reliable, as reliable as Old Reliable." —Major Bakersfield
"Don't come out until it's daylight." —Billy McConnell
"Someone's got to tell the truth about here." —Jacob Alister
"First you got to survive, then you can rebuild." —Billy McConnell