503: A Mitch Ain't One
Synopsis
Hiding in a side street off Norman Street, Timeon dons the gauntlets of ogre power he brought back from the other world. Like his goggles of night, they came through the portal changed, now thin, light gloves that glitter like diamonds. Magic comes at a cost in this world, but they raise his strength to 90 and boost his physical skills. When the man following the group walks past, Timeon leaps out to grab him, overshoots with his new strength and lands flat on his back on the ice, briefly wondering why he ever came back from the world where he was so cool. The man flees back toward the train station. Billy, who reads him as someone caught in the act, gives chase, flashing his badge at a startled woman on the corner.
Timeon catches the man near the corner of Norman and Washington Street, across from the depot, and pins him with a knife to his throat. He is a big man, around six foot four, with a prominent nose, a pencil mustache and small dark eyes. He denies following anyone, and as Timeon recites the names of the people he has killed, he throws Timeon off and runs north on Washington Street. Billy shouts that the man stole his wallet and a bystander agrees, "I think he took his wallet." Timeon tackles the man again and punches the wind out of him, and Billy casts Command of the Wizard, demanding to know who sent him. In spite of himself the man answers, "Constance," then looks at Billy, shocked and accusing, as if he knows what has just happened.
As a crowd gathers from the train station, including the porter Mitch Larsen, Billy cuffs the man and searches him. His British passport names him as Garibald John Daly, and he carries a stub for the same train from Arkham, $200, a scrap of paper and a wicked black dagger with a spiral leather grip, a claw-shaped pommel and two small embossed star shapes on the hilt. Billy's psychology shows that Daly is lying when he says he has never heard the name Fiona. The bystanders grow suspicious when the "police" march their prisoner away from the police station, just a block away.
Back at the Last Lighthouse inn, Simeon steps out for a smoke, spots the commotion down the street, calls Dom and Denny from inside and runs to help. Two uniformed officers, Hansen and Woodrig, arrive shouting "Stop! Police!" Billy shows his Arkham PD badge and claims that Daly picked his pocket, but his fast talk fails, and a second Command of the Wizard telling Daly to confess to stealing his wallet is shrugged off. Hoping to cause a distraction, Simeon uses Command of the Wizard on Mitch and tells him to take the cop's gun and run. Mitch grabs the deputy's gun and sprints off through the snow, waving it in the air. The second officer warns him to stop, then fires three shots, and the second hits Mitch in the back. He falls face first into the snow as the crowd screams, and Simeon loses his composure.
During the distraction Billy tries Command of the Wizard on Daly again, asking, "Where is Fiona?" Daly simply laughs. Simeon follows with a command of his own. Daly's laughter cuts off and he fights it, glancing around the crowd in panic, saying "she's... she's..." before his eyes dilate and he begins to foam at the mouth and shout nonsense. The officers wrestle him down, and Timeon punches him in the knee to help the police subdue him. Officer Hansen takes back Billy's cuffs, tells the group they have done enough and asks Billy to come down to the station and answer some questions. Billy tells him they are staying at the Red Lantern. The group keeps the dagger, the train ticket and the scrap of paper.
Ezra Denny and Simeon give Mitch first aid and stabilize him. Denny flags down a passing ambulance and rides with him to the hospital, where a doctor says it is too soon to tell whether he will pull through and that the police may want to arrest him once he recovers.
Meanwhile, unpacking at the inn, Dom's vision fades and he has another flash of Hannah Baker. This time she is getting off the train at the Salem station, walking out onto the platform and looking around before she turns and looks back.
Funny Moments
- Timeon's ogre gauntlets come through the portal as sparkly diamond gloves, and he becomes Michael Jackson, complete with "Smooth Criminal."
- Timeon lies on his back on the ice "like Lloyd Christmas after falling off the jetway."
- Timeon's list of the 103 people he killed: "Aaron, Blackard, Cody, Dylan, Edward, Frank..." "Stop. You have to stop."
- "I think he took his wallet." The Back to the Future bystander shows up and keeps showing up.
- Simeon sits crying on the heart-shaped toilet at the inn after being made fun of by an old lady about the soft sciences.
- The "police" march their prisoner away from the police station, claiming the paddy wagons are back this way.
- Simeon's distraction: "Take the cop's gun and run." "He's gonna get killed if he takes the gun!"
- "Hey, this place isn't that different from my world. I like it." —Timeon, after Mitch is shot.
- Billy refuses to keep Daly's $200: "I didn't steal his money."