1.10 Queen of the Night

When last we met...

Having decided that helping Catherine take over the Sunken City was an ill-advised idea, the crew arranged an exit instead. Agent Dire—a stranded Man in Gray connected to the Niner cloning program—showed them the way into the Undertrash in exchange for Maeve delivering a letter to his wife and daughter. Sergei left with a completed ray gun and a phone that could reach Daedalus from the surface.

Their departure did not go unnoticed. With Catherine, Rasputin, and guards in pursuit, Maeve unleashed a nightmare and Wren set the entrance ablaze. They escaped through the tunnels, losing London’s horse and Kevin’s tuatara at the boundary where the Mist changed.

Now they are in the Undertrash, domain of the Queen of the Night. Still underground, still separated from Geoffrey and Daniel, and very ready to go home.

GalleryMaeve (after the recap): "I'm never telling a story ever again."
GalleryKevin: "Best story ever, man."

Under the City

The cave out of the Sunken City becomes more urban and increasingly filthy, and the stench of trash becomes almost overpowering. With everyone’s mythoi back to something approaching normal, the crew picks through the dark by phone light. Wren’s earlier decision to put the phones in rice has paid off. Even London’s mostly works, although given his relationship with technology, it may take him a while to notice the difference.

A break in the concrete overhead offers a possible way up. Maeve asks Cillian whether he can Jack-and-the-Beanstalk them out of here, but apparently, that is no longer an option. He seems as surprised as she is. When she takes a closer look, she can still detect something supernatural in him; whatever happened below has not completely gone away. But it's definitely not as powerful here.

Which means that for now, all they have to work with is a very tall cop and a walking stick.

Kevin climbs onto Cillian’s shoulders and peeks through the broken concrete, finding an abandoned subway tunnel above them. He wedges the sturdy walking stick he has scavenged into the rubble as a handhold, although the maneuver also earns Cillian a Birkenstock to the face. John follows, receives a very specific warning about kicking Cillian, kicks him anyway, and gets punched in the balls. Catherine’s hopes for grandchildren suffer another setback.

As their phones regain reception, messages from Geoffrey and Daniel arrive in a flood. They are alive and have been hiding out at the Griffin’s Nest for several days, trying to keep Geoffrey from being arrested.

Daniel (texting): "Watch out for District Attorney King. Law enforcement may be after all of us."

Cillian winces. That is bad. King is the City’s head district attorney, and she is excellent if you want someone prosecuted. He might really be in trouble at work this time.

Kevin: "What if you don’t want to be prosecuted?"

The backlog of text messages also reveals that Daniel has been in Maeve’s apartment.

Daniel (texting Maeve): "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, how do you live like this, Maeve?"
"Made some adjustments to your board, should be clearer now."
Maeve: "He’s been touching my shit!"
Cillian: "Do you want to punch him or should I do it for you?"
Maeve: "Oh, you should definitely do it for me."

Daniel’s examination of the crime board is apparently how they found the Griffin’s Nest in the first place, and Cyrus has let them stay as a courtesy to Maeve. Maeve anxiously tells Cillian that she has not been introducing people to Cyrus or owing any more favors. Cillian reassures her that it won't be an issue. She begins to ask him a question, stops herself, and turns away with a sigh.

Geoffrey, meanwhile, has noticed that someone is finally receiving his messages.

Geoffrey: "Bitch, I know you were not leaving me on read."
Maeve: "Oh my God! Bitch, there are rats."

Geoffrey tells her to run. Nothing communicates relieved affection like vulgar name-calling.

Hail to the Queen

Geoffrey (reviewing Maeve's location): "Oh, you're at the corner of fucked and screwed."

Maeve shares her location, and Geoffrey advises against trying to surface where they currently are. East looks better. They follow the tunnel past intermittent lights and walls covered in graffiti, which Maeve stops to examine. Some of the artists are genuinely good. Increasingly, the work includes declarations of loyalty to the Queen of the Night.

The tunnel opens into a station with several tracks and a bricked-up exit. A cart sits on a northbound line. Kevin checks it and finds the wheels oiled: this is not abandoned equipment. There are children’s chalk drawings nearby, recent wrappers, and a half-finished drawing with the chalk dropped beside it. Someone has been here quite recently.

Kevin calls out that they mean no harm and would appreciate help finding their way out. But the tunnels are silent in response.

Maeve (texting): "Have you been talking to Cyrus?"
Geoffrey (texting): "Yes."
Maeve (texting): "So are you getting me in trouble?"
Geoffrey (texting): "I am keeping Daniel out of trouble."
Maeve (texting): "...Daniel doesn't get in trouble."

At the Griffin’s Nest, Geoffrey takes news of the group's whereabouts to Cyrus, who summons Bernard. Bernard knows about the queen: Yasmin, a woman who looks after her people and whose territory is a useful place to go when you are in trouble. He can get Geoffrey and Daniel underground, although finding their friends once they are down there may be more complicated.

Daniel, Geoffrey reports, should be able to help with that. If Geoffrey can pull him away from his fans.

Daniel is at the bar, engaged in cheerful conversation with several people. This is unusual enough that Geoffrey keeps looking over at him. There has been a role reversal, and Geoffrey is not entirely comfortable with it.

Bernard: "Boy, he's the life of the party, eh?"
Geoffrey: "Yeah, that's ...fun."
Bernard: "Fun one to be married to."

When Geoffrey mentions Cillian is with the crew, Cyrus asks after him with concern, visibly relieved when Maeve confirms that Cillian is still with her and okay. (More than okay, really, which Geoffrey manages to wheedle out of Maeve with delight.)

Geoffrey tells Maeve that, according to Daniel, the Queen may provide a place for the group to quite literally go to ground. She's connected to Daniel through Judge Sofia Sandoval, Inez’s biological aunt. If they can find her, she may be able to help them. She's an ally... of sorts.

Geoffrey (texting): "If you run into any underground mutants, maybe let them know that you are friends of a friend of Sofia's."

The cart looks like their best chance of finding the queen. As the crew gets ready to board, another text arrives from Geoffrey.

Geoffrey (texting): "8=======D"
Cillian (looking over Maeve's shoulder): "Do I punch him too? Or, he’s your best friend, do I not punch him?"
Geoffrey (texting): "Is Cillian ><?"

[Cillian grabs Maeve’s phone and holds it out of her reach.]

Cillian (texting): "Wouldn’t you like to know. ❤️ Cillian"
Maeve: "Give me my phone! You asshole!"
Geoffrey (texting): "Why do you think I'm asking?"
Maeve: "I HATE YOU BOTH!"

Kevin is already in the cart.

Reunion

Geoffrey: "Oh God. All right, think skinny, think skinny..."

Bernard leads Geoffrey and Daniel through a winding series of dark alleys, into a nondescript building, and down through its basement. Geoffrey worries about putting their guide at risk—or, as he puts it, getting anyone else "dangered." Even so, Bernard insists on getting them safely underground. Once they're in the tunnels, he leaves them with some basic directions.

The entrance passageways are cramped. Daniel gives Geoffrey an affectionate goose while he is trying to squeeze through one of them. Geoffrey makes it down with a few scrapes; Daniel follows without difficulty.

Below, the graffiti adds some complications to the queen’s reputation. Several supportive messages have been crossed out. Others complain about a group called the Dwergs, often in connection with missing belongings. Daniel is delighted to discover an entire culture under the City that they know nothing about. Geoffrey points out that there may be good reasons they have not been exploring it.

When the map finally puts them in the same place as Maeve, their friends are nowhere in sight. They must still be on different levels. Daniel starts looking for a way down.

Daniel: “I don’t see the need to be quite so restrained anymore. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

He finds a panel that does not quite sit like the others. Geoffrey sees nothing promising about it, but Daniel opens it to reveal stairs and immediately starts down.

Geoffrey follows, trying again to have the conversation Daniel keeps avoiding. "You just have not been acting like yourself, and it’s really starting to concern me." His husband is taking risks, wandering off, and behaving as though nothing could possibly go wrong. Geoffrey has been gone, come back, gone again, and barely had a chance to reconnect with him.

Daniel keeps walking, absorbed in his surroundings. When he stops abruptly at another panel, Geoffrey bumps into him, knocking Daniel’s forehead into the door. Daniel turns that into a joke about Geoffrey’s amorous intentions.

On the other side, Kevin can hear familiar voices arguing somewhere behind the walls.

The panel finally opens onto the station.

Daniel: "Are we in Maeve’s apartment?"

Once they are out where she can actually see them, Maeve runs to Geoffrey and tackles him in a hug. She is near tears knowing that he is okay. She has been desperately worried.

Daniel would like to know where the fuck everyone has been. His swearing gets almost as much attention as the question.

“Well, it turns out I am a clone. I thought you should know,” Sergei says, and walks away.

“Way to ease him into it, man,” Kevin says.

Sergei turns back. “But I am a three-person clone. Is weird.”

There are additional disclosures about underground cities, Rasputin, Catherine the Great, and enormous walking crystal golems. Maeve produces her (totes adorable) keychain. Kevin would very much like to finish this conversation somewhere else.

Cillian, who has wandered a little farther along the station, calls them over to look at something.

Next Level

Through another break in the floor, Cillian has found a brightly lit cavern. Below them is an enormous winding earthen mound, with greenery and none of the immediate station’s accumulated filth.

Daniel looks down and jumps.

Cillian follows rather than leave him down there alone. Kevin and John go after them. Geoffrey, still catching up with Maeve, now has to explain that this is precisely the problem.

When he washed up after the river, the mermaid, Maya, thought the others had gone down the whirlpool and were probably dead. Geoffrey refused to believe her. He felt he would have known. He made it home, only to discover that Daniel had become someone who cheerfully walks into danger and dismisses every attempt to talk about it. Geoffrey can still recognize his husband, but the familiar caution is missing.

Maeve tells him something of what the Sunken City did to their own powers, including Cillian’s awakening. (She glosses over the fact that she did indeed die in that whirlpool.) But that does not explain Daniel, who was not there with them – and they are back to normal now anyway. As normal as they get, at least.

On the lower level, people have tucked tents into the curves of the giant mound, and flickering shadows from cook fires dance over its high, sinuous shape. A man cooking a hot dog over a fire introduces himself as Gib. Daniel asks where they can find the Queen of the Night, and Gib suggests the Night Court. Daniel explains that he needs to get a message to someone on the surface. They talk a bit about Yasmin, but Gib doesn't have much information. He’s only seen her from a distance. Gib's clothes are worn and a little dirty, but recognizably modern.

There is no obvious source for the cavern’s light. John gets a sense of something ancient here, something full of potential, although he cannot yet say what.

Back up above, London finally interrupts Maeve and Geoffrey to point out that their companions have disappeared. They descend to catch up.

Daniel has already found something else.

The Settlement

Unnaturally colored smoke wafts out from one of the tents. Daniel approaches just as its flap opens and a man in a gray fedora steps out. Startled, the man draws a gun.

Daniel looks... amused?!? He tilts the probabilities toward a misfire, and the gun clicks uselessly.

Daniel: “I don’t think that’s gonna work.”

Then a wave of dizziness hits him. His connection to his Mythos drops away.

Cillian calls out the gun, and Geoffrey grabs Daniel and yanks him aside. Daniel continues laughing, but the laughter is becoming ragged. His certainty has gone.

Cillian catches the gunman’s arm, and John helps wrestle the weapon away, jamming a finger in the process. Another man emerges from the tent with another gun. Then another.

London moves around the side of the tent, draws his switchblade, and starts cutting ropes while Kevin works on pulling up the stakes as the two try to collapse the tent. Neither gets it down immediately. Out front, the second gunman fires at John, who pulls the initial gunman partly in front of himself as a shield. The protection is incomplete: John is left with his Mythos impaired from the shot.

Sergei brings out the weapon he developed to affect crystalline orichalcum. His first attempt goes badly, hitting the tent and leaving him briefly blinded.

Maeve, still without the gun Duke’s people took from her, checks for ghosts in the area. There are a lot of them down here.

She manages to force four of them to follow her instructions. She assigns one to closing the zipper on the tent, one to help pull tent stakes, and one to stick a finger into a gun barrel, Looney Tunes style. The last one she orders to enter the tent and "poltergeist shit up."

To anyone who can see what she is doing, Maeve takes on the divided aspect of her Mythos: moonlight and shadow, one eye glowing white and one obsidian black, cold air stirring her hair. Her voice becomes strangely alien as she gives the ghosts their commands.

“Is it weird that you’re hot that way?” Cillian asks, still grappling with a gunman.

The tent zips shut. There is eventually screaming from inside.

Geoffrey is still holding Daniel, whose attention has returned to the smoke. He stops struggling, and when he speaks again, he sounds more like himself. He tells Geoffrey they need to get away from the smoke, now.

Queen of the Night

GalleryJohn: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
GalleryMaeve: “She’s totally our friend. Death goddesses are awesome.”
GalleryKevin: “She looks friend-shaped.”

There is shouting elsewhere in the cavern. John rallies the residents for help, putting the Pied Piper behind the appeal. People emerge from their tents and begin picking up sticks, hot-dog forks, and whatever else they can use.

One of them announces he is "tired of the men doing this."

More gray-clad figures are climbing up onto the top of the mound. On another part of it, a woman appears. London thinks he recognizes Ereshkigal, the Sumerian goddess of the dead. The Queen of the Night.

Below at the tent, Wren punches one of the armed men hard enough to stagger him, but he remains standing and turns his gun toward her. Kevin’s tent stake finally comes loose. He stumbles back, the stake flies, and it hits the man in the head. That finishes the job, and he crumples to the ground.

The queen draws a scimitar, screams, and charges along the top of the mound toward the approaching Men in Gray.

Daniel asks Geoffrey to retrieve the unconscious man’s fedora. He thinks there may be something strange about the hats. Geoffrey checks whether his husband intends to do anything else crazy before leaving him long enough to fetch it. Daniel stays where he is. So... not right now, apparently.

The smoke spreads around the collapsing tent. London and Kevin begin to feel dizzy, then disconnected from their powers. Sergei, able to see again, takes another shot at one of the men. This time he hits squarely.

Nothing appears to happen. The man looks at the weapon, then at Sergei. "Impressive."

Above them, the queen drives the intruders back. One breaks something from a lanyard, makes a sign in the air, and dives into nothing. He vanishes. The men behind him follow through the same empty space.

The tent is mostly down, with one stake still holding and people still inside. One of the conscious men outside tries to unzip it and retreat, but Wren catches him in a full nelson and pulls him away. Geoffrey removes his hat, too.

Without it, his face is easier to see, but the lining looks like ordinary silk or satin. So far, the hat is just a hat.

The captive is frightened. The queen is going to kill him, and he wants them to let him go. Geoffrey is not inclined to let someone shoot at them and then simply leave when the situation becomes inconvenient. He demands to know what the man in gray is doing here in the first place.

Kevin stumbles away from the smoke, waiting to find out whether his connection to Whiro will return. Maeve moves to collect the unconscious man’s gun, intent on getting a firearm again.

The captive gestures toward the winding mound. It is an artifact, he says. They do not know what it does.

The Man in Gray: "We clean out this room on a regular basis so nothing happens to the people who are in it."