"The Room Where It Happens" is the fortieth and final mission of Season 5.
There's just one final barrier to returning to Abel, but removing Ian from his seat of power won't be easy...
Cast[]
- Ian Golightly
- Jody Marsh
- Tom De Luca
- Maxine Myers
- Amelia Spens
- Paula Cohen
- Peter Lynne
- Sam Yao
- Veronica McShell
- Nadia Al Hanaki
- Janine De Luca
Crew[]
- Writer: Naomi Alderman
- Director: Matt Wieteska
- Sound Designer: Mark Pittam
- Series Created By: Naomi Alderman
Plot[]
To The Testing Ground[]
Ian's set up infection-traps everywhere, so you need to come up with a plan quickly. Paula will rescue Sam as part of a two-man team, and Peter will rescue everyone from the prison that's filing with sewage. Amelia injects you with the baby anti-zombie serum so you can go with Paula.
A Way In[]
Sam's torture continues. Ian honestly believes that to make a difference in the post apocalypse world he must become the story, by any means necessary.
Got To Keep Moving[]
Veronica needs your retinal scan so you can get through security. As she adds you to the system some guards arrive to take her away, so she and Nadia enact Protocol 23 to knock them unconscious.
On With The Torture[]
You and Paula will have to navigate a maze in what used to be the training ground to get to Sam. Ian reveals the real motivation behind torturing Sam; he's envious of Sam's popularity.
Clear For Now[]
Jody helps you and Paula dodge Ian's many and various traps, and zombies too, of course.
Come Back Up[]
Ian has dug a sort of moat across the length of the training ground, and filled it with zombie parts. Your immunity is wearing off so wading across is not an option.
Run For That Building At The End[]
Jody's plan to cross the moat involves creating a makeshift bridge, by knocking over some fake trees in the training ground. Unfortunately the sound attracts zoms. You head for Sam, while Paula leads the zombies away.
Disarm This Bomb[]
Sam tries to get through to Ian by telling him that Sigrid's left without him. This buys you time to wrestle Ian away and untie Sam. You and Sam both lead Ian to the farmhouse to disarm his bomb.
Get After Him![]
Bomb disarmed it looks like everything's over. Rather than face up to what he's done, Ian escapes your grasp and runs back into the training grounds, vowing to set off his bomb manually.
Find Some Peace[]
In an effort to prevent you and Sam from catching him, Ian tries to dismantle your bridge while he's still on it... and falls into the moat. Sam pulls Ian out, but the damage is already done - he's infected. Whatever Ian might have thought about Abel is proven wrong, as Sam offers him a merciful death.
We Will Meet Again[]
As everything returns to normal Tom brings a message from Janine; as new head of Netrophil she's on an important mission and cannot return to Abel. Jody will take over and you're reinstated as head of runners. Janine believes in you all, and she will see you again.
S05E40 // Rofflenet[]
Discussion regarding this mission can be found on Rofflenet
Transcript []
[intercom squeals]
IAN GOLIGHTLY: How’d you like that, Yao? How do you like that? [SAM YAO screams] Oh, you don’t like it, not at all? How about try it again? [SAM YAO screams]
JODY MARSH: Oh God! I don’t know what to do. I can’t bear that sound. He’s in there with Sam, and I don’t know what to do! Tom, we need Janine, now! Have you got her on the radio?
TOM DE LUCA: Not yet. I’ll keep trying to raise her.
MAXINE MYERS: We’re running out of time! Janine can look after herself. If we don’t have a plan now, Ian’s going to infect everyone within blast range with the zombie virus, and kill Sam!
AMELIA SPENS: Looks like he’s covered that whole training ground with zombie blood and parts. I vote one of you heroes goes in and stops him. Preferably, someone who can’t get infected by the zombie virus. In case none of you have noticed, this is me looking meaningfully at Paula.
PAULA COHEN: Yes. I know it’s me. I’m happy to do it. Unless Ian shoots me, which I’m not immune to.
JODY MARSH: Okay. We can do this. We can rescue Sam. All right. The best way in would be a two person team. Getting into the training ground via the farmhouse and keeping to the cover on this side of the trees. Do you see? You could help each other climb over the obstacles, but he wouldn’t spot two people coming in that way. A larger team might be more obvious.
TOM DE LUCA: We have another problem. He’s opened the sewer outflows into the farmhouse basement.
JODY MARSH: That’s disgusting, but not really a priority.
PETER: The prisoners are in the basement. That’s where he’s been keeping them. They’ll drown. Cameo’s in there, Kytan’s in there. Our friends are down there!
TOM DE LUCA: Look at this. He’s set up automatic machine guns to fire on anyone who tries to climb down into the basement! Walking in there is instant death!
PETER: I’ll do it.
JODY MARSH: You might die.
PETER: [laughs] I should be so lucky.
AMELIA SPENS: Well, that leaves you with a problem, doesn’t it, Colonel Marsh?
JODY MARSH: Don’t call me that.
AMELIA SPENS: [pouts] But I like it.
JODY MARSH: We have a three-person set of suicide missions, here. Sam’s immune to zombie virus, but he can’t rescue himself.
AMELIA SPENS: [sighs] You’re going to ask me for it, aren’t you? If you want it, you have to ask me for it.
MAXINE MYERS: We have no idea what you’re talking about, Amelia! And you’re getting on my last fricking nerve, so if you don’t just tell us now, I’ll push you into that zombie pit myself!
AMELIA SPENS: Ooh, feisty. I like it. Fine. Five, I’ll just take your arm – [lifts Runner Five’s sleeve] and - [administers injection]
JODY MARSH: What did you just inject Five with?!
AMELIA SPENS: Baby anti-zombie serum. Don’t look at me like that, you were all thinking it. I’ve translated all the writing on the box. Sigrid hasn’t perfected this thing. It’ll give you temporary immunity to zombie bite, Five. Not more than about an hour, could be shorter. There’s a little test kit here in the lid. If I just drop some of your blood on it, just a thumb prick… there. It’ll tell me when it stops working.
Well, stop standing around! You’ve got not very long to save your friend and stop everyone from becoming a zombie, including you. Go on, then. Peter to the basement, Paula and Five to the testing ground. Run!
[gunshots]
TOM DE LUCA: It’s painful to hear, Five, but we’re going to patch you in to Ian’s speaker feed.
[static]
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Now, let me see. What have I got that you might enjoy? Oh, yes!
[SAM YAO screams, IAN GOLIGHTLY laughs]
SAM YAO: Is this it for you, Ian? Is this what you’ve been building up to? Mad megalomaniac torture scenes?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Don’t you understand? This is entertainment. This is the media! Why report the stories, Sam, when you could be the story? You were the one who made me understand that.
SAM YAO: I was?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: You. Look at you. Just a radio operator, but you got involved. You made a difference, and now you’re a hero. I always wanted to be like that. We’re the same really, aren’t we?
SAM YAO: I think I literally don’t know what to say to that. You think this – this! - is making a difference?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: The rules have changed. You have to be strong. You have to do what’s necessary.
SAM YAO: Ian. Whatever it is you’re about to do, just don’t do it. Just stop. Just stop!
IAN GOLIGHTLY: No. That’s not how this story goes.
PAULA COHEN: Come on, Five. Veronica’s got a way in for us. With me, to the farmhouse. Run.
JODY MARSH: Peter, report.
[static]
PETER: I somehow miraculously managed to survive that hail of bullets. Just wading through the sewage to unlock the cells. Oh, good! I’m going to have to duck my head into the sewage to get in there. This day is amazing!
JODY MARSH: Tom?
TOM DE LUCA: A few guards have stayed loyal to the end. I’m giving them one last chance. [hits guard, guard collapses]
JODY MARSH: Paula, Five?
PAULA COHEN: Veronica’s taking our retinal scans now so we can get through the door into the training ground.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Five, if you look into this light – [machine whirs] Good. You’re both in the database now. The doors will open for you.
[door opens]
GUARD: Miss McShell? Miss Al Hanaki?
VERONICA MCSHELL: Yes?
NADIA AL HANAKI: Yes?
GUARD: The Minister sent us for you. We’re abandoning the area, but we’ve been instructed to protect you with our lives and bring you to her.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Oh, I see there are...20 of you. Five, Doctor Cohen, could you go into that airlock door now? It will lead to a passage that takes you where you need to go.
GUARD: Ma'am? Miss McShell, you are our priority. We have to leave.
[airlock door closes]
VERONICA MCSHELL: Nadia, do you remember Protocol 23?
NADIA AL HANAKI: Do I…? Oh. Oh, right.
GUARD: Are you ready to go, ma'am?
VERONICA MCSHELL: Now!
[glass shatters, chemicals hiss]
GUARD: Gas!
[guards cough, collapse]
NADIA AL HANAKI: That was quick. I barely got my mask on!
VERONICA MCSHELL: The neurotoxin will dissipate in 20 minutes. They’ll be unconscious for a few hours, then we can decide what to do with them.
NADIA AL HANAKI: Is that… is that what you did with Owen? Decided what to do with him after he was gone?
VERONICA MCSHELL: I… I didn’t know it was his arm they’d use.
NADIA AL HANAKI: Right. Okay. I… I need to think about that.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I understand, but can you help me move these bodies please?
PAULA COHEN: Come on, Five. We’ve got to keep moving.
JODY MARSH: You’re going well, guys. Cameo, Kytan, and the others are out now. They found a lot of booby traps Ian’s left around the place. They’re mostly just stupid things. [explosion] And less stupid things.
But Five, Paula, your mission is the most important. You’re saving our lives right now, and you still have a long way to go. Remember how long that training ground is? And he set it up as a maze, so you have to run up and down a bit to get to the end.
PAULA COHEN: All right, Five. Head this way with me. See Ian’s in that glassed-in part at the end? Ugh, it’s smeared with zombie parts everywhere.
[static]
SAM YAO: It’s not even as if there’s anything I can tell you, Ian. What are you even doing this for?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Don’t you know? Don’t you understand?
SAM YAO: Honestly, I really don’t! You were always kind of a nice guy, I thought. Silly, but basically decent.
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Haven’t you worked it out?
SAM YAO: What? What? Is there a secret? Some big secret that would explain why you’re clearly one step away from sitting on a thrown made of like, crushed up other thrones?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: I suppose there is, in a way, a secret. I hate you. It’s so simple. Now that I’ve said it, I wonder why I didn’t say it before. I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. With your stupid happiness, and your ridiculous loyalty, and your optimism, and all the love – why does everyone love you? You self-righteous smug-faced git!
SAM YAO: You hate me because people like me.
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Yes.
SAM YAO: Well, then. All right. On with the torture, I suppose.
PAULA COHEN: Oh good, there are zombies. We knew there’d be zombies. It’ll be fine, apart from the fact that everything’s covered in zombie bits and pieces, which is nice.
JODY MARSH: You still have a way to go. Double back around that stand of oaks, and – duck now! [gunshots] Yeah, he’d set up a booby trap machine gun. And there’s something up the other end of the testing ground that I can’t quite see. I’ll try to get better cams. Keep running! You’re clear for now.
JODY MARSH: Right. I’ve worked out what’s happened. Ian’s dug a trench across the whole length of the training ground, and filled it with water, and… yeah, zombie parts. Sort of a decorating theme.
PAULA COHEN: What do we do, wade through?
JODY MARSH: Amelia?
AMELIA SPENS: What?
JODY MARSH: Are you...playing Candy Crush?
AMELIA SPENS: Yes.
JODY MARSH: Five’s immunity – how much longer?
AMELIA SPENS: Oh. This reagent’s reacting much more quickly than I’d have thought. You’ve only got a few minutes left at best, I’d think, Five.
JODY MARSH: Right. We need a different plan. Uh, head south from where you are, then turn the sharp corner and come back up. Quickly!
JODY MARSH: Okay, I’ve got it. See those fake trees in front of you?
PAULA COHEN: Yup. The stand of three pines. They’re attached to moving gears at the base.
JODY MARSH: Okay. Both of you, push hard on them. You should be able to bring them down. [wood cracks, foliage rustles] Amazing work! That’s made a bridge for you both across the trench.
[zombies groan] Oh, but it’s attracted the zombies. Right. Paula, you get them to chase you. Five, you have a clear path to Sam, now. Run for that building at the end, then climb up. Go!
[helicopter departs]
SAM YAO: What I’m wondering, Ian… what I’m really wondering…
IAN GOLIGHTLY: What?! What?!
SAM YAO: What’s your plan here, Ian? Well, the Minister’s abandoned you. The soldiers are being picked off. The last of her Wakened Land are leaving. Your friend Viv has left. We’re taking Abel back. So what’s your plan? You going to just live in your zombie-covered palace in the middle of Abel, like the world’s worst lodger?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: They’re not leaving.
SAM YAO: Oh, what do you think that chopper was?!
JODY MARSH: You’re nearly there, Five. Just lever yourself over the parapet.
IAN GOLIGHTLY: They’re leaving. But she promised me. She promised me she’d stay. She said we would make the new world together. Oh, you can’t understand it. It’s going to be glorious! You don’t know the half of it. We’re going to remake the world better than it was before, more perfect! There’ll be armies of our soldiers, all immune, completely immune. You can’t imagine what she’s done! She can’t leave me! She hasn’t!
SAM YAO: [laughs] She has, you know.
IAN GOLIGHTLY: You’ve done this! You, and your sickening, depraved, disgusting crew. All of you working against me since the first minute we met. You think you’re so much better than me. You think you can tell me what to do, but you can’t! [punches SAM YAO] How do you like that, Sam Yao?! What’s my plan? What’s my bloody plan?! My plan is to kill you, and then kill every single one of you and your friends and then report it on the news!
SAM YAO: Oh, right! So basically, your plan is become your own downfall, apparently! Five, now!
[Runner Five and IAN GOLIGHTLY struggle]
IAN GOLIGHLTY: Let me go! Let me go, you - ! [chokes]
SAM YAO: No, don’t do that, Five. I don’t suppose from where you’re sitting, you could untie my – [sighs, breathes deeply] That’s better. Oh, my hero! Now, Golightly, we’re getting you over to the farmhouse, where your retina scan will disarm this bomb. Quickly, Five. You grab one arm, I’ll grab the other. Now, let’s move!
[retina scanner beeps, whirs; IAN GOLIGHTLY struggles]
SAM YAO: Keep your eyes open! [laughs] That’s it! Disarmed. Great. [laughs] Amazing! Wow! Are we done?
PAULA COHEN: We’re getting there! Peter and the runners are dismantling the punishment huts. A few of them are heading back here to start tearing that testing ground down, too.
SAM YAO: [laughs] Anyone else feel like we need to raise a flag or something right now? [laughs] Have we got a flag?
PAULA COHEN: I’ve still got one of Maxine’s maternity dresses. It’s quite uh, stripey.
SAM YAO: Oh, yeah, that’ll do. [laughs] That will absolutely do!
IAN GOLIGHTLY: What are you going to do with me now?
SAM YAO: Well, we’re going to put you on trial, obviously, for your crimes.
IAN GOLIGHTLY: No. You’ll never take me alive. I’m going to set that bomb off manually. We’re all going down together!
[SAM YAO grabs for IAN GOLIGHTLY and misses; door slams open]
SAM YAO: He’s running back to the training ground! Five! Five, we have to go after him!
SAM YAO: Ian! Don’t do this! Don’t do it, Ian. You’ll die, too!
IAN GOLIGHTLY: I don’t care! I don’t care about any of it. We’ll all die together. Stay back, Runner Five, stay back!
SAM YAO: Or what? You’ll blow us to bits even more? Five, bring him down!
[Runner Five and IAN GOLIGHTLY struggle]
IAN GOLIGHTLY: No, no, stay away. This isn’t how the story goes. This isn’t how it goes. Stay back!
SAM YAO: Careful, Five! He’s on that bridge you made out of the fallen trees.
IAN GOLIGHTLY: I’m going to destroy this bridge! That’s what heroes do, isn’t it? Then you won’t be able to chase me.
[wood cracks, foliage rustles]
JODY MARSH: Is he trying to… is he trying to destroy that bridge while he’s still on it? Oh God, just bring him in, Five, for his own safety. I mean, what does he think is going to happen?
[IAN GOLIGHTLY shouts, splashes into water]
SAM YAO: That. He’s fallen in his own trench full of zombie bits.
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Help me! Help me out of here! I’m in the water. It’s in my mouth and my eyes. Help me out!
SAM YAO: Did Veronica do that test on you? The test they’re doing in Finland, to see if you’re immune?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Yeah. I’m not immune! That’s why I needed a serum!
SAM YAO: Have you taken the serum?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: No, she never sent it to me. What do you mean? Help me out of here!
SAM YAO: Here, take my hand. Do you know what’s happened, Ian? I’m immune. You’re not immune. That water got into your mouth and your eyes. Do you understand what’s going to happen to you?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Oh God, no. No. It’s a mistake. They’re not… they can’t be… I’m going to die.
SAM YAO: Well, we might be able to do something for you with plasmapheresis. [laughs] I’ve got to be honest, though, Ian, there’s a list of zombie-infected people who we’d give that treatment to. You’ll be right at the bottom of it. What do you want?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: There’s no point in my asking. I know what you’re all going to do with me.
SAM YAO: What are we all going to do?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Oh, don’t look at me like you don’t know. I know what you’re planning. You’re going to keep me here as a zombie, aren’t you? You’re going to put me in a cage, you’re going to keep me on show, you’re going to publish photographs of me like that. Laugh at me. Make jokes about me. Joke Ian Zombie. That’s all you’ve ever wanted.
SAM YAO: [sighs] You have never understood the first thing about who we are, about what Abel is. Ian, what do you want?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: I want you to shoot me. Please?
JODY MARSH: You don’t have to do it, Sam. I’ll send someone else. It doesn’t have to be you.
SAM YAO: It’s all right. I’ve done it before. [laughs] This’ll be easier than my mom. Five, do you have a gun? [Runner Five removes gun from holster] You want this?
IAN GOLIGHTLY: Yes. Please. I didn’t… I don’t think I…
SAM YAO: All right. It’s done now. All debts are paid, Ian, just like they always are in the end. I hope you find some peace, wherever you’re headed.
[IAN GOLIGHTLY coughs; gunshot; IAN GOLIGHTLY collapses]
SAM YAO: [sighs] Five, let’s go back to the farmhouse. I quite feel like raising a flag, or uh, [laughs] Maxine’s maternity dress, or something. Let’s run.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Something’s happened. You have to help me! A lot of my notes and research are gone. The Minister’s soldiers must have taken them!
MAXINE MYERS: No, actually, that was me.
VERONICA MCSHELL: You...stole them, Doctor Myers? It’s very nice to see you. I was sad when I thought you were dead. Do you want to work together?
MAXINE MYERS: No. I’ve burned some of them. Van Ark’s research. We can’t start down that road again, Veronica.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Oh. I see. Well, when Janine comes back, we’ll see what she says about that.
[door opens]
PETER: Everyone, we’ve had a message from Janine. A recording.
TOM DE LUCA: Encrypted frequency. I can’t trace it!
JODY MARSH: I’ll play it for you.
[recording beeps]
JANINE DE LUCA: Abel runners, I know you will have won the battle. I have full faith in you. But I’ve come to realize that the war is far from over. This is only the first battle of many. The Minister has left Abel for now, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe, and we know she’s capable of the gravest evil, that innocents are still at risk. My home, which I am sworn to protect, is more of a target now than ever. Believe me, that what I do now, I do for you.
I’ve seen an opportunity to go undercover. After all, I'm Jerry now, and Netrophil might not be as dead and gone as Runner Seven thought. Miss Marsh, be brave. You are ready to take over. You can carry on. Hold the fort, as it were.
Runner Five, you are head of runners again. It will for you to form them back into a cohesive unit, after all that’s happened. And I should tell you now, the Minister knows about Moonchild, I’m afraid, Five.
All of you, whatever you do, don’t come looking for me. You’re all the bravest, most loyal, most trustworthy, most brilliant and bold comrades I could ever have hoped to serve with, and we will meet again.
Codex[]
Letter[]
Five,
We got Abel back! It was messy, and hard, but we did it!
I never doubted for a second that you lot could do it, but it's amazing how smooth it went.
I remember why Simon called me Clover now - if it hadn’t been for our easily cracked encryption, Veronica couldn’t have started talking to us, and we would’ve never found a better way into Abel. Well, even if the way you did come had lots of body parts and that weird shadow thing we thought we'd seen. I've gone back to look at the cams down there Five, but there's nothing there, so I think we can just forget about it. Must’ve been stress and our eyes playing tricks on us. It was so creepy down there and none of us had had much rest for a long time... just one of those weird things.
I’ll have to duck out now - apparently Maxine’s maternity dress has flown off the flagpole and is now whipping around Abel, wrapping around citizens and blinding them. It’s actually caused a bit of a hazard, when one of the guards thought he was being attacked and shot at it, narrowly missing Dr Lobatse who was walking nearby.
I guess this is what I have to look forward to as Interim Commander of Abel Township, huh? Well, hopefully Janine will be back in a couple of weeks, so it'll all be her responsibility again then... can't wait! I hope you enjoy my doodle rendition of the situation, anyway.
- Jody

Codex[]
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
9mm Ammo
Bandages
Batteries
Bedroll
Book
Bottled Water
Disposable camera
Matches
Network Cable
Notebook
Pain Meds
Playing cards
Power Cable
Radio
Seeds
Shirt
Solar Charger
Teddy bear
Tinned Food
Toy car
Trainers
Trousers
Umbrella
Underwear
USB Key
Trivia[]
- "The Room Where It Happens" is the longest mission in Season 5.
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