The Discovery

Dr. Harber, before we're live,

I just wanted to say thank you for choosing me.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

The rich history you have with other journalists...

I chose you precisely because we don't have a history.

Now, don't fuck it up.

Fifteen seconds.

People trust you... for decades have valued you.

I think that's because people value the truth.

Right, but don't you think your discovery was just... too dangerous

to share with the world?

Look, this has been my life's work for over 40 years.

There's nothing willy-nilly here.

After much discussion, much debate, we all came to the same conclusion.

- Which is? - Which is, once you explore

all scientific possibilities, and you come to a consensus,

how can you keep a discovery so vital to our existence a secret?

And that discovery...

You proved the existence of an afterlife.

I prefer to call it a new plane of existence.

I can't comment on terminology like "soul" and "heaven" and "afterlife,"

but what I can say with scientific certainty is that once the body dies,

some part of our consciousness leaves us and travels to a new plane.

Your machine was able to capture brain wavelengths

on a subatomic level, leaving the body after death.

- Is that...? - That's correct.

Where do those wavelengths go?

My point is, a new plane of existence is out there.

Yes, that is no longer in dispute.

But you can't tell us what that is exactly.

When you see a train leave the station...

do you need to know where it's going to understand that you saw it leave?

It's a tough pill to swallow.

At one point, so was the Earth being round.

But, Dr. Harber, why did it take you six months to address us?

Where have you been?

It seems to me that I invited you here, to my home.

Yes, you did. Thank you.

But... we only received that invitation

after the suicide toll had rapidly reached a million.

And during that time, celebrities, athletes,

even a close colleague of yours, all ended their lives.

Which is why I agreed to sit with you and try to calm the waters.

Okay.

I wanna ask you the question

that everybody watching right now is probably wondering.

Do you feel responsible for all those people killing themselves?

No.

- That's it? - That's it.

Thank you, Dr. Harber... for my fresh start.

Andy, no!

Andy!

- Andy! - Oh, no.

Oh, God!

- Why would you do that? - Somebody call 911.

Help! Some...

Call help, please.

Right now. Get someone here.

My God!

Why would you do that?

Oh, God.

Turn those cameras off.

Welcome back to our coverage of the two-year anniversary of the Discovery.

We'll be revisiting the touchstone moments of the past two years,

with retrospectives all weekend long.

Hard to believe that it's been a year and a half

since Thomas Harber's first and only post-Discovery interview

ended suddenly with an on-air suicide.

Since then, the worldwide suicide toll has skyrocketed to staggering levels.

Over four million people have taken their lives,

attempting to "get there."

As for Dr. Thomas Harber, he has not made a public appearance

since that infamous post-Discovery interview.

Completely off the grid...

I was listening to that.

I'm sorry, I thought... I thought that I was alone.

It's off-season. Why the fuck are you going to this dreary island?

Well, you're going there.

Hi.

Hi.

Are you one of those lunatics

who just sits next to a complete stranger in an empty movie theater?

You look so familiar to me.

It's possible we've met,

but you don't have a memorable face.

Okay.

I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that. I didn't mean that. I just...

The water. I'm just a little seasick.

That's weird. It's your lucky day. I don't normally carry these around.

Um...

- Vertigo. - I'm not dizzy.

You can't treat vertigo, just the effects. That's for nausea.

Do I look like the kind of girl who's just gonna take a pill from some strange guy?

Fair enough.

Isla. My name's Isla.

I don't look like an Isla, though.

Your first three years,

you look like whatever name you're given,

then by four, you either settle into your name or you just...

- What about you? - What?

What's your name?

Oh, uh, Will Stevenson.

Will.

What?

I'm just trying to see if you look like your name.

- What's the verdict there? - I don't know.

It's too early to tell.

You know, Will is just such a, like, "Will" name.

You're really something.

Happy second Discovery anniversary, Will.

They said on the news they're expecting like a whole slew of suicides today.

People trying to get there for the anniversary.

I heard something about that.

Did you see that video of those dumb cheerleaders

taking pills on the 50-yard line?

I just can't get behind the concept of suicide groups.

It's so... disingenuous, you know? It just feels so weak.

- You don't believe in the Discovery? - No, I don't believe in suicide groups.

The Discovery is... I mean, the proof is overwhelming.

Proof shouldn't be overwhelming. Proof should be definitive.

So, you don't believe.

I don't believe the way everybody else does. No, I don't.

- And how's that? - I'm a neurologist.

Three months ago, I had a patient, really young,

found out that she had brain cancer. Very sad.

She reacted to that diagnosis

as though I'd handed her a fucking winning lottery ticket.

It wasn't because she hoped that maybe she was going some place better.

It was because the Discovery made her think that it was guaranteed.

Well, yeah. Death used to be something we just had to live with,

and now it's a convenient way to escape pain. That's okay.

That's okay? Another plane of existence, maybe.

Who knows? But I look around, I see a lot of people jumping out of planes

hoping they're gonna grow wings.

Reality and fantasy are mutually exclusive.

They don't exist in the same space.

What?

When I was five, I had an accident, and I died for about a minute.

When I was resuscitated, I told my parents that I saw something.

Flashes. A little boy.

Me, maybe, or my brother.

I felt stranded...

Stranded where?

This empty beach. It doesn't matter. It was a dream.

It was a dream that I embellished after I woke up.

Why would you make all that up?

I think it's our instinct to search for meaning,

and when there is none, it's our instinct to create meaning

and we just... lie. We lie to ourselves.

You are so annoying. Has anyone ever told you that?

Yeah, they have.

Ugh. Thank God we only have a minute left together

before we're strangers again.

You think it's gonna be a minute this time of year? You're crazy.

Crazy, but right.

That's the attractive-girl component and I didn't factor that in.

You'd better work on your math.

Hey!

For whatever it's worth, I think you do look like an Isla.

How many of us have you met?

- I got it. - No, I got it, man.

Well, I don't want to die before we get there, Toby.

- What's going on over here? - Eddie.

- Wait, Eddie Iodice? Eddie died? - Mm-hmm. Yeah, just to get there.

Just to fucking get there.

Guy pulled a Marilyn Monroe,

downed a whole bottle of pills right there in his bedroom.

Good dude, too.

- Real pity. - You didn't wanna go to the service?

Go to the...? I would rather stick my dick in a wood chipper

- than go to another fucking funeral. - Got it.

You know, I'm not as stupid as you might think.

When you called the other day and I told you

that Dad had built something new...

after that conversation...

suddenly you wanted to come home.

You're sounding just as paranoid as him.

Dad said he needed to change things up.

People knowing our address was too dangerous.

I'm sorry I couldn't tell you on the phone,

but we don't trust phones now.

Here we are.

Off to see the wizard.

What the fuck is this place?

Uh, it used to be a summer camp for "troubled youths."

Which I never really understood, because if they're bad kids,

why would they deserve a fun summer? You know?

But then it shut down and Dad bought it.

What do you think?

I think it's completely insane.

Well, the truth is we just needed a lot more space to house things.

House what things?

These people were all affected by the Discovery.

Some of them arrived here after two or three failed suicide attempts.

We gave them a home,

something to live for in this life, a reason to contribute.

Oh, uh, real quick.

Just FYI, FBI-type thing, protocol is no cell phones.

- Yeah, okay. Let's go. - Yeah.

Hey, don't worry.