The Outsider

You've reached Holly Gibney.

I'm not here right now.

I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Why would he even want to kill her?

I think maybe she told you why. You just didn't want to hear it.

At first, I thought he was an ally,

but then I saw the wound on his neck.

It's how he controls them.

Why did it pick me?

This thing... it's drawn to pain.

After everything I told you yesterday about...

Terry having been scratched by Heath Hofstadter,

who was probably scratched by Maria Cane...

Caneles, yes.

And is it true that he Terry version of it

scratched Claude?

Here's the difference between you and me.

You need this whole thing to make some kind of sense

that you can live with.

I just want it to end.

911, what's your emergency?

There's a policeman, I think he's shot,

lying in the alley next to 484 Westrum.

I don't think he's gonna make it.

Sir, are you at that address now?

You want to show me a special route to that roadside crime scene?

You know when you were first in county way back,

someone once asked, "What's a guy like your brother

do in prison?"

I said, "Anything he wants."

And who might that person have been?

I believe it was Mom.

How are you?

You look good, bro.

You're not too bad yourself.

Come on, come crack a beer.

Claude Bolton. Where is he now?

I was thinking the same thing.

I made some calls, found out from his parole officer

that he'd been in to ask permission to leave the state.

Said he wanted to go hang with his brother in Tennessee,

town called Cecil,

- near Chattanooga. - Yeah, I've been there.

It's a diner, two bars, and a bunch of caves,

not much else.

Here's what I intend to do today,

by myself, if I have to.

If this entity, this Cuco, is in the process

of becoming Claude Bolton,

and your information puts him in this town,

I am going to go out there and try to isolate him.

Isolate him from...

Harm. Blame.

Because when it starts its killing,

Claude's forensics will be all over the victims.

I could be the witness who saves him from a prosecution.

I could be the witness who puts a spotlight on this thing's existence,

because a human being can not exist in two realities

at the same time.

When you discovered that footage of Terry in a hotel

sixty miles away from where he was supposedly

killing Frankie Peterson, it had to run,

because of the reinvestigation it knew had to happen.

I think it needs to stay in one place

for weeks at a time after it kills

to regain strength to complete the transformation,

but it had to run before it was ready

when it was too weak to fend for itself,

which is why it made a slave out of Jack.

So, what you're saying is that if you can vouch

for Claude's whereabouts before it strikes again...

and the police start looking at other suspects,

it will run again.

More desperate than before, weaker still.

- I need to keep the pressure on. - Then it'll get careless,

- show its hand. - Until, hopefully,

it... it'll expose itself to the world.

Okay, you're saying you need to keep the pressure on,

here's my question:

after it's done being Claude, how do we know

- who it becomes next? - It's turning in Claude as we speak,

so to be with him before this thing starts to kill in his name

- is the first step. - How do you know

it hasn't started its killing already?

Given the time gap between the killings,

I don't think it's strong enough yet.

It's in the last days of its transformation.

Well, you can go down there by yourself to vouch for him,

but I can imagine that if you or...

if he had more than one eye-wit to verify his whereabouts,

then it'd be... Look, what I'm saying is,

I'd like to go with you.

Hell, I've got some days off.

I'd like to see it through.

Yeah, I can't.

If I could, I would.

- Okay, so... - I'll go.

Okay.

Shouldn't you be out there working with them?

Yeah, I probably should.

It's gonna be big this year.

Always is.

So, you quit the Ass Crack?

- Peach Crease. - Peach Crease.

Damn, I could never quit a job like that.

Well, as the saying goes, if God truly hates your guts,

then he grants your deepest wish.

If you say so.

I just felt like if I didn't leave that place...

leave that whole damn city,

then something really bad was going to happen.

Such as what?

I can't ever seem to sleep these days.

I'm jumping out of bed a half a dozen times a night.

Double, triple-checking the locks on the door,

the windows.

It's like there's someone there in the apartment with me,

or right outside trying to get in.

- Ever catch anyone? - Nope.

It's like when you're in prison,

you know something's about to go down,

but you don't know what, where or when.

All you know for a fact is it's going to be as bad as it gets.

I hear ya.

Excuse me, bro.

You better not let your foreman catch you.

Shit. That was my foreman.

Look, it'll take some hours before everyone's ready to roll,

and a few more to get to where we're going,

and probably another few until we find him,

so if you think time is that critical,

let me call ahead and have him held until we arrive.

Nothing like a jail cell to account for his whereabouts.

Yeah, thank you.

You wanna ride with me?

I think I should ride with him.

Okay.

Andy, you gonna ride with me? We can swap war stories.

Yeah.

Don't tell me I missed yet another AA meeting,

Jesus Christ. Ralph.

Are you out of your mind?

Could be.

I worry about you sometimes, you know that?

- I'm flattered. - No, I mean that,

in all sincerity.

Anyways, Glory has finally given me the go-ahead

to sue everybody in the town except the dogcatcher.

Okay, so you're here to serve me.

You ducked the bullet, my friend.

That's why I'm here to tell you, so that you and Jeannie

don't sweat it out when the hammer starts coming down

- all over the place. - I don't get it,

why... why am I so lucky?

She feels that if anyone can vindicate Terry, it's you.

Be careful, wherever you're going.

Are you going just to appease me?

- Certainly not. - Then why are you going?

'Cause if I had... If I had another lead,

- I wouldn't be. - Don't go.

- Why not? Wh... What? - Because you're blind.

You don't really believe in this thing, which means

you're not capable of seeing it for what it really is.

Could you imagine going into a battle with your eyes shut?

J, there's not gonna be a battle.

There will be.

And I... I couldn't survive losing you, too.

Blue Thunderbird at the steel warehouse.

Alpha 31, your meal break is approved,

Betty 12 will cover your sector until 1300 hours.

All units, we have an APB

for a John "Jack" Hoskins, male, Caucasian, 42,

Cherokee City detective,

wanted for discharging his firearm at a civilian

with intent to kill.

Suspect driving a Dodge Ram 1500 SLT, four-door,

black Georgia tags, HM11202.

Suspect is considered armed and dangerous.

If spotted, contact Central and wait for backup.

Do not approach without backup.

Fuck!

Just so you know...

apparently, Jack came back to town this morning.

He broke into his own place, stole his own car.

- Where were the police? - Yeah, good question.

You know, Jack...

he told me once over copious amounts of cocktails...

that all he ever wanted to do when he was a kid

was to, take his hunting skills

and become a sharp-shooter in the military.

Right? So, he enlists at 18, he goes through basic training,

where he tops his class in the firing range,

which qualifies him then to go to sniper school,

where, once again, he tops the class.

So, his life-long dream has become reality.

And he's waiting to find out where they're gonna deploy him

and all he has to do is go through one last round

of mandatory psych evaluations.

Please don't tell me.

Yeah.