Sunday, January the 8th, 2006

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Blodgett Island : The Adventure Continues

Flashback. Dennis Beerpint is looking out of a hotel window. He has a row with Old Halob about watching television at 5.32 in the morning. Dennis Beerpint runs off down the hotel corridor yelling that Old Halob is not his father.

On the beach, approaching dawn. Dennis Beerpint and Old Halob are happily together now. Dennis Beerpint walks over to a tree to do a wee and sees the mad Tantarabim woman, armed with a rifle, stalking around the camp. She sees him. He wakes Old Halob. Everyone else wakes up, excitedly. Lothar Preen tells everyone to calm down. The mad Tantarabim woman announces “The Others are coming!”

She explains that sixteen years ago her ship ran aground on the island. There were six of them in all. She was seven months pregnant and delivered the baby all by herself. On the same day they saw a pillar of black smoke in the forest. That night the Others came and took her baby away. “Now they are coming again, for all of you. You have three choices. You can run, you can hide, or you can die.”

Dobson wants to stick with what is tangible, which means the raft. They have to build rails on the beach to launch it. Everyone helps begin pushing it into the water, to the accompaniment of stirring music. But there is a mishap which Old Halob seems to blame on fictional athlete Bobnit Tivol. Then they see a huge plume of black smoke rising in the forest, just like the mad Tantarabim woman said.

Lothar Preen asks the mad Tantarabim woman how many of ‘them’ there were. She says: “I told you all I know. I can vanish into the jungle. But there are forty of you.”

Dobson, Blodgett and Joost Van Dongelbraacke take the mad Tantarabim woman to the hatch. Lothar Preen points out, not unreasonably, that the hatch might belong to the Others. They still don't know how to open it. The mad Tantarabim woman points out that she has a stash of dynamite at Blister Lane Bypass, but they will have to collect it before nightfall.

Flashback. Dobson is sitting in the airport bar. A woman we have never seen before joins him and starts chatting him up. Then she takes a call on her phone and walks off, promising to continue their chat on the plane. They exchange seat numbers.

Dobson tells everyone that they have a plan but they have to head off into the forest to get supplies. He tells them to get the raft into the water and then to go and hide in the caves. Blasphemous Ted Cargpan says that the dynamite will be volatile so he had better join the group to make sure they don't get blown up.

Flashback. Fictional athlete Bobnit Tivol is under arrest after having a fight with an important municipal official. The detective says he knows fictional athlete Bobnit Tivol's real identity and that he is a conman who preys on the sick and the needy. “You're being deported,” he says.

Fictional athlete Bobnit Tivol is chopping bamboo for the raft. Dobson gives him a revolver. “You're the only one going on the raft who knows how to use one.” Fictional athlete Bobnit Tivol tells Dobson that about a week before the flight he met Dobson's father in a bar, and how Dobson's father said he wanted to say sorry to Dobson. Hearing this news, Dobson begins sobbing.

Flashback. At the airport, the marshal who has Marigold Chew under arrest is checking in a case with five guns in it. The airline person wants to know why he needs so many firearms. The marshal tells the story of how he has been chasing after Marigold Chew for three years, and how she has been taunting him, but he knew how desperate she was to get her hands on Doctor Fang's toy aeroplane. Marigold Chew attacks the marshal, and as she is restrained, he says “That's why I need five guns”.

Marigold Chew says she wants to join the dynamite-gathering gang. The plume of smoke is ominously visible in the background.

Pabstus Tack is wandering around getting people to put messages in a bottle. The dynamite gang say farewell to the raft crew. Then they head off into the forest, following the mad Tantarabim woman. Blodgett asks her where she got those scratches. “A bush”. Blodgett thinks it must have been a ferocious bush. “We must keep going!” she says.

Blasphemous Ted Cargpan is cantankerous. They enter the Dark Territory. The Blister Lane Bypass is not far now. Sixteen years ago someone lost an arm here. “We must move quickly!” Blasphemous Ted Cargpan decides he doesn't want to lose his arm and is going back to the beach.

Back at the raft, fictional athlete Bobnit Tivol brings the perfectly-hewn bamboo mast he's been working on.

The dynamite gang are trudging through the rain. There are strange noises, barking or howling. Blasphemous Ted Cargpan reappears, panicking, shouting “Run! Run!” Crashing and deep booming noises. They hide in some foliage and there is sudden silence. The mad Tantarabim woman explains. “It's a security system to protect the island.”

Dennis Beerpint asks Mrs Gubbins why she's folding clothes. “Because I'm anal,” she replies. Dennis Beerpint gives his dog to Mrs Gubbins, explaining that the dog is a good listener and she can talk to it about Ah-Fang Van Der Houygendorp.

Flashback. Mrs Gubbins is at the airport. Lothar Preen asks if she can watch his bag for a minute. Ah-Fang Van Der Houygendorp arrives and he and Mrs Gubbins start arguing. Mrs Gubbins reports Lothar Preen to the security people.

Lothar Preen gives the raft crew some electrical and other equipment he has salvaged, including a single flare. He's that kind of guy.

The dynamite gang arrives at Blister Lane Bypass. They look at a huge ruined old sailing ship looming there mysteriously.

Flashback. Tiny Enid and The Grunty Man at the airport. Tiny Enid spills coffee all over The Grunty Man. A bitchy couple nearby talk about them, not realising that Tiny Enid understands every word.

Tiny Enid and The Grunty Man are on the beach. She gives him a list of useful nautical words she has written down for him. He sobs and says he's sorry. She sobs too. They hug and sob and apologise to each other and kiss.

Pabstus Tack is still filling a bottle with messages. There is a silent scene of meaningful looks and hand-holding and farewells and general bonding. The raft is launched. The dog swims out to follow it, but Dennis Beerpint tells it to go back, and it does. On the raft are Old Halob, Dennis Beerpint, The Grunty Man and fictional athlete Bobnit Tivol. There is stirring music as those on the beach look meaningfully at the raft sailing away into the blue vastness. And behind them, the plume of black smoke rises still…