They Remain

You know how this is going to end.

You got everything you need?

Yup.

First cam, this is the live feed cams,

then I'm on to site by site with the card cams.

I'll just be here setting up the lab.

I've got a good feeling about this.

This could be the mission.

That gun's not corporate issue.

You gotta have tools you trust.

As much as you trust yourself.

(ON PHONE) Everything's synced on my end.

Guess you're my eyes now.

Well, that must be a comforting thought.

First canvass went as planned.

How are things with you and her?

What do you mean?

I'm just familiar with her profile.

They say she's smart, sure.

I bet she's a little...

obsessive.

What do they say about me?

That you never miss a beat.

Live feed cameras look good.

I was worried they were gonna give us

the shit equipment again.

But nope.

What's it like out there?

Silent.

Pretty.

Till something jumps out of the shadows

and rips off one of our limbs.

They said "lack of animal behavior."

Not dangerous.

You remember that line they fed us in the CRS?

This will make you famous.

Come be part of the new gold rush.

I wish I did anything as well as they bullshit.

And yet, here we are.

Yup.

Still chasing the work.

Full cards for processing.

Anything weird happen today?

Nope.

Quiet as a grave out there.

What'd you get?

"Bird in the hand"?

No, "The...

unexamined life..."

What are you doing?

Site three's on the schedule today.

I know that.

That's where the cult had its camp.

I've gotta see it.

I don't think so.

They had their tent city

up over that hill there.

And all around this field

are where the experts think the bodies are buried.

What bodies?

The theory goes they killed dozens more

we don't know about.

Indigents, homeless...

One of our lawyers went missing during the trial.

They all might be here. They call it the killing field.

You know an awful lot about it.

There's video of it, you know.

Some of what they got up to.

Another government guy showed it to me.

Which guy?

I don't remember his name.

Bleeker or Blecher...

He showed me some clips from some tapes they recovered.

Including...

highlights from the Pleasant View Massacre.

When did this happen?

You're jealous.

No.

I just don't believe he was walking around

with a thrill-kill cult's home movie in his pocket.

Don't know how he got it,

I just know that he had it,

and he thought it was something that...

I should see.

The family didn't film anything.

It looked authentic.

It's an urban legend.

What the hell is that?

Someone's been out here, digging.

Yeah.

And not too long ago.

We should get back to the camp.

Right.

Digging, marking, human activity.

Someone's been in site three, do...

What? Why the fuck didn't you tell us that before?

There was a CSI team out here, not two months ago,

excavating,

looking for more of the cult's victims.

And they didn't think to tell us?

He said, "The information was not pertinent

to biological analysis."

That sounds like bullshit to me.

Maybe. Or maybe it's innocent.

A lie by accidental omission.

How many indigents do you think have been...

tortured and murdered in these woods?

I think, in my heart of hearts,

you can take their official death score

and double it, at least.

I was young when the family...

did their thing.

Never really took any interest in it.

Hm.

The prosecuting DA did a series of lectures

at my school.

I attended all of them.

How could I resist?

When I'm into something, I can't let it go.

What the cult did was lure kids in.

They'd hang out at train stations

or bus depots...

concerts or parks,

on the lookout for runaways,

war vets, anyone down and out and desperate.

And they'd bring them back here to the ranch,

indoctrinate them.

Some joined up.

Some left.

And some disappeared.

Hm.

I don't really like anybody enough to...

ever join anything.

Hm, they felt...

alienated from society.

Isn't that always what it is?

So, they rejected it, disassociated from it,

and went looking for something else.

Feeling alienated, I get.

Joining a cult,

I don't.

Hm. It's about survival and belief, right?

Our brains are built to be credulous of religion.

And here I was thinking it was a...

just a bunch of kids with daddy issues.

Here's one for you.

Does every cult resemble a family,

or does every family resemble a cult?

Hm.

So...

It lured a bunch of people into the woods.

Then what?

They ate a lot of peyote.

They read the anti-establishment tracts

Father wrote by the bushel,

fucked and danced to flute music.

Ah, yeah.

Wrote more tracts,

went out and recruited, rinse and repeat.

And then that shit went down in Portland.

Pleasant View Massacre.

Three of the four killers joined the family the previous year.

Probational members,

proving themselves.