The Lesser Dead - A Throne Room In Hell - Season 1 - Episode 7

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Reeling from the unexpected events at the Bakers’, Joey uncovers the terrible truth behind everything they’ve been experiencing. With Neva’s help, he races downtown to try and save Margaret and the rest of his family before it’s too late.

Echo of verse. Echo of verse presents The Lesser Dead. Joseph. Joseph. Joseph, you've got to wake up Joseph Pecock. It's still dark. Yeah, it tends to be so at 3 in the morning. I know what you're thinking.

This isn't where we left things. And you're right. I did just get shot in the head. We'll deal with that. But what I'm telling you about now is what happened after I got our cook Margaret fired. See, I destroy everything I touch. I really do. And after I lied and made Margaret lose her job, she went flat-proak and tried to kill herself

and ended up getting bitten by a vampire. And then she became one and crawled into my bedroom. I said we caught her. She twists my ear then, hard, like almost off. I sit up in bed, not believing what I'm seeing. Margaret is there. Right next to me. Heavy and real.

Putting off cold like a stake out of the ice box. At least the maid is there too. Standing by the window she had opened to let Margaret in. Drulling all over herself. But that isn't the worst. Is that... Is that a noose? I take a breath to yell for my mom and dad.

Not me in my eyes. You do no yelling and tattling. You don't quite enough of that. At least go to bed. Don't wake up until you're here waiting. Shut the door. Yes. Don't wake up until you hear waiting. Shut the door. Yes? I'm going to kill you now. You're lying bastard.

And that's as you deserve. But the mercy is... I'm just killing you. My first thought was to kill a lot of it. My second thought, and I like this one better, was to bring your bitch mother in here and make her shoot you with a double bar of feson gun your dad keeps in the closet. So she'd go to Rikers Island or Bellevue while you go in the ground. No, no. I not go so far

as that. But a debt is owed for what you don't mean and my poorly am. and you'll pay it but it won't be some gentle sleep of nothingness for you boy or you'll be killed and have to reckon with what you've done. She bites me then and she drinks and drinks until her belly bloats so hard she looks breaking. Please help. Sorry. Until her belly bloats so hard she looks breaking And I die And she spits up from her stomach spits a little of that blood bile next into my artery That's how you make a vampire case you feel like trying it sometime. I'm gone.

But I'm also not. I can't see anything. I can't move. But I can hear and feel as if from far away. As if it was all happening to somebody else. Then she has me up on a chair with a rope around my neck. But she doesn't let me go. Not yet. I know.

Not how you thought this would go as a... You're rich little bastard. Problems are supposed to go away for people like you. People like me. Get stepped on and slap to side, and even buried at your whim. Well, not this fucking time. You'll come with me.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The rest pass is in a blur. Like time doesn't mean anything. I hear my mom crying. My dad too. Somebody carries me downstairs. It puts me in an ambulance. It takes me to the morgue. And they shut me in one of those drawers. Nothing as dark as being inside a more drawer. I can't tell you if my eyes are open or close.

I become aware of not feeling so good. I think I might barf. I can't worry that if I do that laying down, I might choke on it like I heard stoo-bombs sometimes do. Then I realize I'm not breathing and that scares the shit out of me. That's when my drawer slides open. Don't try to talk. You got no air. I'm going to breathe a breath into you so you can use your lungs for talking. Oh shhh. Now, open your eyes. Open your eyes.

Open your eyes! You hear me, Joey. I should open you right. I can knock you in the chest. It wasn't nasty, what? Your brains were out your head. But now your eyes back in and everything. Who's it? Who's it? He doesn't want to. He's afraid. Little Camille is right. I don't want to open my eyes.

I know I'm going to see something I can't unsee. I don't want to open my eyes. I know I'm gonna see something I can't unsee I'm sitting up. I'm bound I take a moment And listen There are chains around my arms and legs. I'm sitting in a chair like the dying guy Gary was at the castle When we first met these little monsters. I see a big oiled drop, but whatever is in there ain't oil. I see another drone, with a pale headless lady hanging upside down over it, draining.

A couple of charmed out of their head's citizens stack more bodies to get drained. One's wearing a costume rabbit's head, the other's in a Cheshire cat mask. We're in a theater abandoned by the look of it. The last thing they put on here must have been Alice in Wonderland. Alfie and Camilla are bouncing around on stage. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Camilla's swinging some kind of scepter in her hand, and she's wearing a wig. Don't be shy, Jerry. Say something to the rabbit. I look out into the house, see about a dozen stiffs and theater seats. Throats cut. Eyes missing. Paper raviti are stabled to their heads.

And on stage are Peter, Alfie, and Camilla, holding court. I'm in a thrown room, L. That's when I recognize the wig on Camilla holding court. I'm in a thrown room of hell. That's when I recognize the wig on Camilla. It's the one I gave Sandy in the porn store. That upside down woman is Sandy. I look around in the audience and see that huge bone-white guagua. And what might Pete Chinchilla? Headless and already drained.

I asked the question I already know the answer to. What are you gonna do with me? We're going to dayify you. I don't know what that means. Oh, it's very special. In fact, it's the most special thing there is. What if I don't want to? Now Alfie marches up, holding ahead by two years. It's badly burnt, but I can tell.

It's my poche. No. Never. Where's never? Spang is all but fun, Zah. Be your hair, be your hair. Mr. Messer gave us a box of fireworks because he wanted to become a helper.

We've got helpers all around. He points at a box that says 10 grenades. M34, white phosphorus, brutal shit. Just the thing you'd want to use against a vampire. My head feels like it's breaking. So, so wait. He didn't. I thought you said the hashin turned you. But he did think...

He, he, he, he, like he did all of us. Little, little, little. It makes me sad. What does? How easy it is to lie to you. Even if he is silly. I do like Joey. He's the one that let's us get to the count.

Margaret. She never would one that let us get to the count. Margaret? She never would have trusted us without you. She's smart and strong and have a lot of soldiers. Yes Margaret is a good queen like our sister. She should have killed you. The weak and broken inside. Me too much to be liked. But don't feel bad. We like you. You're going to be very special to us.

But that's later. Now we're bossing up for the great hunt. I bought the ball. The boss etched the boot with vampire blood in it. Even young vampires like rid lady and the fat Spanish. Soaking in it makes me fast and strong. He's like batteries. Do you know what a battery is? Of course he does. Soak in it makes me fast and strong batteries You know what a battery is

Course he does He is nearly from a city No I'm fucking 60 years old Why? How old are you guys? Now Camilla stops laughing Looks really serious

Takes her way off Comes over and touches her forehead to mind, real gentle, like she's going to tell me a secret, which, in a way, is exactly what she does. Now something happens that's pretty hard to wrap my brain around. I see images in my head, or maybe her head, images from another place. Some place called Mercer, and it's a long fucking time ago. I'm in the woods. It's snowing. I see an old man in Furs, and I know he's an era, which is the next best thing to king. Doesn't matter how rich you are though,

if it still happens to you. He's calling for his daughter in the snowstorm. Apparently, 11 hundred years ago, Camilla's name was Elfka something or other. They were Saxons. I'm watching through her eyes. She's not like her brother's now. They're still just boys. And she is not just a girl.

Now they're tearing up the woods all around, but she stays hidden. Until one night in spring, three years later, when she walks up to the castle, she crawls up the castle wall, in through a window, finds her brother's room, opens the door. And they look at her wide eyed, no doubt wondering where she's been, but she's not there to talk. Since she can't come back to her human family,

she makes them what she is. And then I pull back from ancient Camilla's point of view. See her as she is now, but also somehow see into her. And that's when I see it. It's so old and black. Oh my god. It's awful. No. Please. Help!

And then it's over. Yeah. Oh god. No. Oh. Did she just show you the story of old sister gone three-winter? Bet she did. Why don't we go and start the hunt? As soon as we were bayed.

Peter? Mm-hmm. Just a little longer. What? What's the hunt? Oh, you know. You must have worked it out by now. You're going to kill all my friends?

Your old friends? But we'll be your friends now. I can't be out by now. You're gonna kill all my friends? Your old friends? But will be your friends now? I can't be friends with you. Not friends. More than friends. Why not? So much more. Why can't you be our friend? Because I... I saw it. So... what? I think it was maybe your soul. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I've been stupid, you know, especially. I don't grow back. My feet are so clean and awful. It's my turn in the barrel.

What's funny? That's what he chose, I told you. Oh, he's right. He's turning the barrel. He's turning the barrel. It really is my turn. So get out now! Through my tears, I watched the boys fighting over the bloodbath.

When I notice a blurry shape creeping towards the box of grenades, I almost don't recognize her, she's so badly burned. Never. She gets to the box. Opens it. She gets to the box, opens it, and she looks pissed. Never. And just that mad, hellish, photo-flash instant, I see something. When a vampire's startled or scared badly enough, you see them as they are. For just an instant, did you ever see a mummy, like the ones they dug up in South America?

Shrivel children. Their heads packed with dried mud, little wigs of hair nailed or stitched to their dried gourd skulls. The three siblings are like them. Their broomstick arms, their sunken eyes, their ribs stained with blood, where their stomachs won't hold it all. This is why they need a waterfall of blood running through them. They're like jet engines, brutally strong, but unimaginably hungry. I saw the truth about them in that flash, into my brain and I needed you to see it too Joey I'm coming I can't see where are they?

They ran off Sure, no, we got Are you sure? No, we got on it. Can you see? It was just a flash. It's coming back. Hold my hands. Run! Look, grenade!

So was one left! I got it! Follow them! We've run down to the sewers. We have to beat those little pricks back to the loops, warn Margaret and the rest. They've come here to the sewers. We have to beat those little pricks back to the loops, warn Margaret and the rest. They've come here to squash arrival queen, my queen, Margaret. And I'm gonna show them how man hat and fights. My legs really want to run away. Just head up to the street, grab some car and drive to Amish country.

But I can't. Not this time. I lost my real family because I was a shit kid. I caused the bakers to be destroyed because I led these little monsters to him. And now my loop's family is under the gun. And I gotta face the music. For once. Just for fucking once.

Wait. Wait, wait. I'm weak. I get a really good look at Neva. She's missing hair from half her head. She's blind in one eye. She's in pain. One thing vampires don't heal well from, it's burns. Also eye injuries. She has both.

She needs to feed. I roll up my sleeve. Here. I can. Shut up. I don't want sleeve. Here. I can. I shut up. I don't want to hold nothing. I owe you. Now take it.

Maybe now you won't run. Get three lucky cow. Never and I've run. There's a lot to talk about. But no time to talk. We beat those fuckers to the loops because we know the shortcuts. And because we have to. We just have to.

It's about time I thought you were dead. Almost was. Jesus, look at the shape of you, girl. Where are the others? Dead. Chintilla Sandy. Guagua, Bichon, it was a trap. The Heshin's 30. He's with them, them. Who? He means. That's right. Those kids and kids.

They're old, and evil, and dangerous as hell, and they're coming. They're going to kill us all and take this place from us. What the fuck they are Oh boy, he's blacking himself with dirt to make himself hard to see. Did you find Svetko? Svet's is missing Didn't find him on Ruth Yeah, well, why isn't she here? That would be the watchers.

I got Leonard and Baldi out there, told him to bang and run if they saw anything. Arm yourselves. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you.

I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you. A mind-struck shield from us on X-Men. Let's go. Find him and make him sorry. We move through the tunnels, darkness ain't our friend anymore. We pass baldies head on what looks like a spear. A vampire named Leonard, who mostly kept to himself, is faced down on the

tracks. When Peter jumps out of nowhere, grabs Leonard's head and twists it to fuck off just by torquing his body. That's when he sees. Peter lobs the head of Camilla, and Camilla kicks it like a soccer ball. Of course it hits me. Ow! Fuck! You little... I shoot her, right in the belly button, but then she's moving too fast for me to hit her again. We shoot a couple of them, but not in the head. They wait till we're out before they close on us. They wait till we're out before they close on us.

They've been doing this a long time. They work together. It's so do we. Each side is trying to pull one member of the other side out of formation. Get them alone, where heads can be cut. Hearts can be steak. Hearts can be steak. Nobody's able to. We bite and stab and clobby to it. It's obvious. It's primal.

What's the soda man? He's false! It's hard. It's exhausting. Camilla lunges for Lina. But then, at one blow of Margaret's shovel, she hacks Camilla's leg clean off. Billy Bang almost takes the girl's head off with his wrench, but misses when Peter scoops her up and starts running away with Alfie right behind. It was good to see their little asses running away. From us, we chased them now in a kind of wedge. Then it hit me while the battle turned, while Camilla was slow enough for Margaret to nail her. Margaret, they're really old. I get thousand years or something.

What? Nobody's that old. No, it's true. But they need a lot of blood. I think they're running out of gas. Right. We can't let them get away then. Or they'll come back and finish us.

And we can't let them feed. I see light up ahead, a station. We've got to get them before they get to that station. How? We duck in the next set of alcoves. Those little nooks for NTA workers to sheltering when trains go by. And when this one shoot past, we hitch our ride. Is that all of us?

Billy! You catch him. I see them. They're almost at the station. Can't we beat him? I'm going to be close. Get ready to jump. Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, oh, fuck.

Imagine you were on the platform at Union Station that late winter night. An older guy with a bad comb over is blowing sacks, a really good sacks with a crowd's sheep. Nobody wants to take their hands out of their pockets because it's cold. Not the NYU looking kid with the acne in the big Adam's apple. Not the old babushka lady with her purse strap lost between her tits. Not the black woman with the Dutchutch chocolate lipstick and the tissue thin leopard print scarf, but there's movement on the tracks and you think your

train's coming. When you see three dirty skinny little kids sprinting from the tunnel. Now the train blows through the station and you can't believe your eyes, but a bunch of crazed-looking adults in one hand some teenager jump off the roof of the express train and onto the local tracks and Start attacking those poor innocent children Doctor, make sure to get the kill man! No! No! No! No! No! No! A mad woman wearing only a cheap silk robe stands over the sweet little girl and raises

the shovel. No! No! You can't know this from where you're standing on the platform, but the mad woman didn't scream because she got shot in the hip. She screamed because the shot ruined her best chance to take that girl's head off. The girl rolls away. But now, there's something more serious coming.

The cop plugs the Puerto Rican girl just before she can throw the grenade. He only clips her shoulder, but the grenade know that her name was Never. You don't know that she hated dogs, especially little yippy ones, or that her favorite singer was Debbie Harry, or that she liked the Waltons, or that I sometimes thought I might love her. At least a little, as much as we do that. What you do know is that the military-looking man with the suit all over him and the big-ass knife is jumped on the platform. And the cop that shot my never won't be shooting anybody else.

You back away from the violence like everybody else does. But then you see the boy. Everybody stop! Over here! Look at him! You do look and you never saw such beautiful eyes. You fall into those eyes, into that voice. You look so bright pink, pull off that head! The army man with the knife whose name you don't know is Old Boy fights hard kicks Picks, stabs, elbows, he breaks jaws, cuts next, stabs facing him. But there are too many of you.

You join a group pouring onto the tracks, where the lady with the shovel is still trying to hack the little girl. She has time to do one thing before the crowd reaches her. She drops her shovel, she throws me clear. Throws me close enough for me to skitter up onto the platform and look back just once, like Lot's wife. To see the human tide wash over Marker. Get off of me! Get the cars! She bites and claws. She's a tiger.

She knows what they're trying to do. Look at her! Help! Oh! Help her! They push her down, but she pulls, strains, fighting against the weight of them, but there are too many. And they finally pin her down onto that third rail. The thing about electricity, it doesn't know when one body stops and the other starts. Margaret gets the juice, but those grabbing onto her get it too. As I run, I can see the saxophone as comb over stand on end. His back arch is so hard, his heels meet the back of his head. You want to know what happened after that, don't you?

I'll tell you, just not now. I'm too tired. Episode 7. A Throne Room in Hell. The lesser dead was performed by Jack Kilmer as Joey Peacock, many driver as Margaret McManus, Iris Wardell as Camilla, Toby Ryan as Peter, Avela Brooke as Alfie, directed by Dan Blank, written by Christopher Buelman,

series created by Christopher Buelman based on his book The The Lessor Dead. Executive producers Mark Stern, Joshua D. Mauer, Christopher Buelman, Mini Driver, and Jack Kilmer. Producer Alexandra Whitlin Original audio production, music and sound design by Salt. Producer, Ali Strobel. Original music and composition by Benjamin Sterley. Sound design by Christopher Bondes. you