Episode nine: “Apples and Oranges”
“The whole truth is not something that you want to learn.”
The phone call and the video
After Lia comes to the realization that Limetown was built around her uncle Emile, she’s still devoted to finding answers. Soon enough someone’s calling her with more to tell. The woman on the phone is intense and insistent, making sure that Lia wants answers more than anything else in the world.
The lady on the phone instructs Lia to take her computer off of the office wifi, then put in a flash drive. Inside is a file showing a video from the night of The Panic. It shows the 911 call from Limetown from a security camera.
Lia puts on a show
Walking out of the studio, Lia comes face to face with Gina for the first time since Mark’s death. She fakes her surprise at hearing the news, then pretends to want to stop the investigation, slyly mentioning the new lead. Gina jumps onto that, urging her to keep going and do as the woman on the phone says.
Gina organizes a way for Lia to get out of the building before the FBI takes over everything, and Lia leaves. She heads for the first address the woman on the phone gave her. It takes her to a dinner, where she finds her uncle, Emile Haddock, waiting for her.
Emile’s plea
Emile talks to Lia about Limetown, but won’t give her any more information. He pleads with her, saying this is her last chance to turn back, to leave with him and her mother for a new life. Emile warns her that the woman she spoke to on the phone is the worst person he’s ever met. She will do anything to achieve her goals.
But Lia’s too far gone. She needs to know. So she says goodbye and goes to the second address the woman gave her.
We’re live
In front of her destination, Lia connects with Gina in studio. She pulls out a microphone, and starts recording her last interview for Limetown. Surprisingly, the woman she’s meeting appears from a cellar, elegantly dressed, and invites Lia in.
Episode ten: “Answers”
“If you could privatize something that can change the course of human civilization, I mean, that’s pretty good, right?”
Lenore Dougal
The episode begins with a flashback to the beginning of Limetown, as Emile Haddock reads people’s thoughts. But there are no implants, and it’s not a conversation. Meaning that Emile is naturally some sort of mind reader. His trance is broken when the woman we met last episode, Lenore Dougal, arrives to meet with him. She tells him she knows who he is, hinting at his secret.
Back in the present, Lenore recounts her involvement in the start of Limetown to Lia. She was in charge of all logistics, basically keeping the community running. Lenore is a poised and charming woman, but she’s determined. She asks Lia one more time: Is knowing the truth about Limetown the most important thing to you?
Lia says yes.
Twelve minutes
Abruptly, Lenore’s demeanor shifts. She brings attention to a kitchen timer on the table, which she excused earlier as being left there after baking. Setting it for twelve minutes, Lenore says that’s all the time there is for answers.
Emile is the key to Limetown and why it was created. He allowed Oskar Totem to study and experiment with his ability because he wanted to finally be normal. While they worked on the science, Lenore was scheming behind their backs, and Emile knew it. But he did nothing.
When Max and Oskar decided to expand the testing and give the implants to half the community, Lenore greatly disagreed, and so did Emile, but the others didn’t listen. This was amazing technology that could change the world, and Lenore saw it as a huge mistake to let anyone else know about it. So she started planning.
Organized panic
Throughout all of this, there is no mention of who Lenore really works for. She explains that the technology was bought by the highest bidder, and they will do anything to protect it, as we’ve seen.
Since the start of Limetown, Lenore was planning for the night of The Panic. When she saw the beginnings of protesting and rioting in the community, she put her plan into action. Everyone without the implant was killed, more than 150 people, including children, while the others were deemed useful for further study.
Her team came into Limetown through the tunnels, did their job, and left, all in 72 hours, as efficiently as possible. Lia’s distraught and angry, but at least she has all the answers now, right?
This is the cost
It’s easy to see similarities in the two women. They both are extremely determined, and will do anything to get what they want, allowing people to die along the way. Is Lia really that much better than Lenore?
After all that, Lia is in shock. Lenore calmly takes a pill, then offers another to Lia. She explains that this is the cost of getting the answers. The pill will kill her, but Lenore says it’s better than what they will go through once they’re taken by the people responsible for Limetown. Lia doesn’t take the pill. Lenore quickly falls unconscious from the pill, and Lia hears a banging on the metal door behind her. She knows what’s coming, and she’s accepted it.
Having finally found the answers she needed and shared them with the world, Lia signs off one last time, before being dragged away.
