[waves crashing]
[somber music]
[country music]
♪ Slow down
♪ You heard this before [phone buzzing]
♪ Baby don't
♪ Put a table
- Okay sweetie, you're all set.
You need anything else?
- No, I'm okay.
- Okay.
Well, enjoy hon.
♪ Families don't stand
♪ On changes no more
[phone ringing]
[fly buzzing]
- Hello?
[doorbell rings]
[doorbell ringing]
Hello!
[electricity buzzing]
[phone rings]
- Come on! [car thuds]
[Maggie gasps]
[dog barking]
- Fuck.
[things clattering]
Dad.
- So this is the original carpet.
I think it's hard to come by these days.
And the kitchen's back here.
- What's with all the yellow, Dad?
- Just a safe color.
This is my dog.
- What's her name?
- His name is Migo.
- Right.
- It's a German Shorthaired Pointer.
A lot of people think he's a fucking Spaniel,
'cause people are stupid.
Need some help with your bag?
- I can do it.
- Cool, it's a nice coat.
You'll be back here in the guest quarters.
How long were you planning on staying?
- A day or two, if that's all right?
- Sure, sure.
I think Migo is pumped that you're here.
After you.
Guess I could've picked up a little,
had I known you were making the trip.
- No worries.
Could tidy up a little bit,
if that's okay.
- How's your brother?
- Bucky's Bucky.
[birds chirping] [gentle music]
[Migo panting]
- Migo, come here, buddy.
This is a cherry bark maple.
You and I planted the original
at the old house, sprigged it.
Brought this 2,000 miles.
It's really, really pretty in the wintertime,
when the leaves all come down,
bark's just brilliant red coral blaze.
Do you remember that, that tree?
- I think so.
- Yeah, yeah, you and I planted it as a seedling.
So this is a step-tree.
Yeah, it was our tree.
It was probably the last time we saw each other.
- It's got really pretty leaves.
The bark is very beautiful.
I like the way the wind carries the...
[wind whistling]
The wind, how it moves through the leaves.
It's really nice, don't you think?
Dad.
- Yeah.
It can't really take a harsh climate.
Yeah, winter's pretty tough on 'em.
- Okay, come on.
Let's go, come on.
- Found this old ball.
[gentle music]
[Maggie whistles]
- Migo.
See?
She got the whistle down.
Here, here.
[crickets chirping] [intense electronic music]
Hi. - Hi.
- What are you doing up?
- Can't sleep.
You going somewhere?
- Yeah, Migo and I were just gonna go make the rounds.
So, have a good night.
- Might wanna wake him up.
I'll come with you.
- No, you know, it's really something he prefers to,
just he and I, quality alone time.
- [Maggie] Just grabbing my coat.
[Migo whines]
- Migo, what the fuck?
[intense electronic music]
If he starts blinking his eyes a lot,
that means he's nauseous.
- [Maggie] Seems okay right now.
- Ah yeah, it's been a while since he threw up in the truck.
- So tell me more about this music, Dad.
- Yeah, it's a lot of harmonic distortion,
but then I run it through the board
with inanimate objects.
Bleach bottle, pie pan.
Pie pans are actually pretty sweet.
That sort of thing.
You can take a right up here
in the next gravel road.
- Dad, where are we going?
- You know, good night to go searching.
Right, Migs?
[wind whistling]
Well, fuck.
- [Maggie] What are we looking for?
- They usually show up, around now.
- [Maggie] What, exactly?
- You'll see.
It's a,
it's a brain smash.
Look, look, look.
Right above the horizon.
See those flashing lights?
See those lights? - No.
- Here, look through these.
Straight ahead, right on the horizon.
You see 'em? - No.
Are these clean?
- Okay, forget these, here.
Come here, look through the camera.
There's an infrared filter there.
- Red blinking lights?
- Yeah, but what are they doing?
- Moving.
- Okay, so it is a? - Airplane?
- No, no, an airplane can't hover like that, Maggie.
- Is it hovering? - Yes, they're hovering.
So you gotta think bigger, think bigger.
Think interplanetary.
You can say it.
- A UFO? - Yes, yes!
Well, technically it's an IFO 'cause you just identified it.
Yeah, they're communicating with us.
Oh, I gotta signal back.
I use Morse code.
That way, they know that I saw 'em.
It's a series of dots and dashes.
Samuel Morse, 1830s.
The red orbs, those are the ones that are most vivid.
Yeah.
It's amazing.
So much that we don't know about.
So much mankind doesn't wanna know about.
It's a shame.
[Maggie chuckles]
- Mm-hmm.
[crows cawing]
They're gone.
- Yeah, they don't stay long.
They just drop by to let me know they're around.
A kinda interplanetary drive by.
[Maggie laughs]
The violent imagery, though.
Well?
It's been a...
It's a good first sighting.
There they are, father, daughter.
Excellent conditions.
Everything was accomplished that needed to be accomplished.
Okay, that's it.
You wanna grab this? - Okay.
- Bunch of assholes start showing up right around daybreak.
Come on, Migo.
Come on, buddy.
[soothing music] [birds chirping]
[electricity buzzing]
Just to be clear, they reached out to me first.
It was like, three years ago.
- Okay.
- First it was just a flash of light,
flash of color.
But they started flying geometric patterns,
I thought it'd be rude not to acknowledge their presence.
But they found me for a reason.
They knew.
- Knew what, Dad?
- That I was listening.
[birds chirping]
It's pulsing, it's sending signals.
There's no question in my mind, it's pulsing,
it's completely shape-shifting, okay?
Now they're moving back into a more fundamental,
almost triangulated formation.
But the red orb is clearly, oh look at that.
I'm gonna assume that's the leader.
It's so abrupt, and so quick.
[eerie music]
Could pose some sort of a threat,
probably would've known about it a long time ago.
Push came to shove, it can do some shoving back.
I know how to defend the northwest quadrant.
All I've ever seen is peace and contentment
in their signaling.
Hey!
What the fuck are you doing here?
I warned you people not to show up again!
You don't have any authority to be here!
[waves crashing]
[gentle piano music]
[water trickling]
Yeah, they were really biting, about a month ago.
Probably not gonna get anything today.
- Never used to catch much fish anyway, Dad.
- Oh. - So.
- You used to catch your share,
but I don't know about today.
We'll probably have to manage our expectations.
How's Michael?
- Haven't seen him for a very long time.
There's a Ben, though.
Ben is my husband.
I got married.
It wasn't a big event, or anything like that.
Just him and I at town hall.
Our friend made us dinner later.
Mom wasn't there, Bucky wasn't there.
It was really small.
- What's his name, Ben? - Mm-hmm.
- What does he do?
- He's a graphic designer.
He's a good person.
I think you'd like him.
Maybe not some of his jokes, but.
- Does he know how to use a chainsaw?
- Dad.
- That's important.
Well, I've always heard the best way
to make a marriage last-
- Dad, I don't want this.
Let's just fish.
- I think fathers are supposed to give daughters advice.
- Yeah.
Sometimes.
Not now.
- Oh, shit.
Maggie.
Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie.
Mr. Bobby Sock, in the house!
Oh well, Bobby Sock on the creek.
[Maggie laughs]
Come on, talk to old Bobby.
Bobby'd help you out with all your problems.
- Hi, Bobby. - What's up, Maggie?
- It's been a long time.
- Too long, Maggie, too long.
- What,
what are you doing here?
- I just had to drop by,
see if there's anything heart to heart you wanna talk about.
- Well, yeah I could use your help.
- Cool.
- I'm worried about my dad.
- Okay.
- He's out here, in the middle of nowhere,
with no friends, just a dog,
some moving lights, a sock.
And I worry about him.
Do you know the last time he went to the doctor?
Do you think it's been a long time?
I've been noticing these things about him.
We'll be talking, and he's with me,
and then suddenly...
Do you know what that's about?
I um,
I'll go to the doctor with you.
You know, just for a check up.
I'd like to do that with you.
- Is today Tuesday?
- Mm-hmm.
- Wanna get a milkshake?
- Sure.
[gentle music]
[bell dings]
- This is where Charlie works.
Yeah, she's great.
She's the only cool person in this godforsaken town.
Ah, Charlie. - Hey.
- How are you?
- I am well, how are you?
- Charlie, this is Maggie, my daughter.
This is Charles, my friend.
- Hey. - Hello.
- How's Migo doing?
- He's good, he's good, yeah.
We're gonna eat.
- Okay, I'll get your table ready.
[Lloyd sighs]
- Egg whites in last, fold them in,
keep the bubbles, no flat pancakes.
- That would be tragic.
- Milkshakes. - Nice!
- You guys look like you've had an adventure today.
What have you been doing?
- We went fishing, with Bobby Sock.
- Who's Bobby Sock?
- He's a sock.
- You wanna?
- I think it was in middle school,
and there was a kid that was messing with her.
I think his name, was it Sean Boogerson?
- Bookerson.
- So he was chasing her around the playground,
hitting her in the back.
- No, Steve Bookerson was a guy
who used to follow me from class to class,
singing "Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a Man,"
because my voice had dropped significantly that year,
and he thought it was very funny, and very clever.
- For some reason, I thought he was-
- And he got the whole bus singing it on our class trip
on the way back from the Exploratorium,
so that was the day that I ran away.
- Where did you go to?
- Very far away place.
- The fort that we built in the backyard.
I wanted to be supportive, so I brought her a juice box.
- Took me a Snack Pack.
- Aww.
- Hoping that she would come back into the house.
- Had nice words.
- And she wouldn't talk to me,
but she'd talk to Bobby Sock.
- What did he say?
- He said, "This too shall pass."
- The voice gets me every time.
- Are you sure that was his name?
- How could I forget it?
That stuff sticks.
So silly, but it does.
- [Lloyd] Bobby Sock to the rescue.
- Here's to Bobby Sock. - Yes.
Here's to Bobby Sock.
- Bobby Sock.
[gentle music]
[electricity buzzing]
[keys clacking]
- [Lloyd] Yeah, and I've only seen it once.
I don't even remember when.
Was it 2008, 2007?
That's really, it's the white whale.
White whale, white whale, white whale, white whale.
If I'm Ahab, he's the white whale.
Unidentified white whale, he's huge.
Great oceanic beast, but in the galaxy.
- What? - And it's long,
like a bridal train.
- Dad. - A galactic serpent.
- You okay?
Dad, what's up?
What are you doing?
- Just watching you.
This way I used to watch you
when I'd be at your basketball games, sitting on the bench.
- Key words, on the bench.
- Slam dunk Tuesday.
Pretty good.
- You remember that?
- Oh yeah.
- I wrote that a very long time ago.
What was I, six, seven, eight?
I'm surprised you remember that.
- That's just nice to see that you're pursuing your passion.
- Funny that you say that, because I'm-
- Wait, wait, this is the best part.
Tuesday night, night, night, night, night, night.
Yeah.
[crickets chirping]
[birds chirping]
[Maggie humming]
Here you go.
Just country coffee, chicory.
It's not anything fancy like you get in the city.
- I don't drink fancy coffee in the city.
- Right.
It's gonna look better when it's dry.
- Yeah, I'm sure.
- Acidman's kind of funny, though.
Acid man.
It's townie kids, just fucking around.
- Yeah, I was gonna ask you.
What made you pick this place?
- You know, it's a good place to be left alone.
- Sorry that's not working out for you.
- It's working out for me.
What about you, Maggie?
What brings you out here?
- I told you, I wanted to check in on you.
- What else?
Come on, Migo, come on.
Leave bullshit Betty out here
to come up with a better answer.
[Maggie groans]
- Hey!
[things clatter]
Fucking shit!
You know, how about a thank you
for traveling 2,000 miles to be here?
Do you know what that took?
A plane, a layover, another plane, a long ass car journey
that was 18 hours, door to door.
That is what it took to be here with you.
No thank you for that, okay.
How about to a lesser degree,
thank you for the paint job, Maggie?
Or thank you for spending three weeks
trying to find out where the hell you fucking were?
- Thank you for the paint job.
- I had no exact confirmation that this is where you lived.
I took a leap of faith to be here.
You were the one not writing me back.
You were the one I couldn't figure out how to call.
That was on you.
- Okay, you can stay.
But I will not tolerate the lying.
What have I said to you your entire life?
The truth is more important than the facts.
- Yes, how great that some things never change.
- No lying here.
Not by Migo, not by me.
- Your dog doesn't lie?
- It's a fact, Maggie.
- Cool.
[birds chirping] [somber music]
[Maggie sighs]
Hi, Ben.
I know that you'd probably
like to hear something from me, and...
[phone buzzing]
[Maggie groans]
Come on.
You wanna play?
Come on.
[Migo barking]
Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back.
Migo!
[Maggie whistles]
One more time, hm?
[Maggie yelps] [Migo barks]
[guns firing]
[Maggie whistles]
[guns firing]
Migo?
Oh.
Hey, hi.
I'm looking for my dog.
Have you seen him?
Okay.
[Maggie whistling]
Migo!
Get over here!
Do you know how long I've been looking for you?
You still have your ball, huh?
You made me so worried.
Come on, come on, come on.
Come on, come on.
[frogs croaking] [crickets chirping]
I always knew you smoked.
- Really?
I thought I hid it pretty well from you guys.
- Are you kidding me?
- My father, the preacher,
he tried his damnedest to keep me not smoking weed.
Like every day I'd go to school and he'd be like,
"Don't smoke weed."
So one time I went to him and I wanted to borrow $20,
and he said, "I'll give you the 20
"as long as you don't spend it on marijuana,"
and I said, "That's a deal, thanks Dad."
Immediately went to my friend Donkey's house,
and we went and bought a $20 bag.
And we smoked so much that we ended up
feeding the rest of it to his cat, Roscoe.
- What happened to the cat?
- The cat got so stoned he attacked Donkey.
Oh fuck, everybody ended up at the hospital.
Moral of the story is you can learn a lot from your father.
They're real, you know.
The travelers.
They don't have any aggression.
They're so advanced beyond that.
But they see the things that we do down here.
Ice caps melting, environmental disasters, nuclear testing.
There's war, starvation.
They're just, they're so beyond that.
I can feel 'em, they just want us to catch up.
They want us to get past those obstacles.
Yeah.
- That's nice to think about.
- If they had hostile intentions,
I think we wouldn't be here.
They'd have taken over a long time ago.
- Dad.
You're an engineer. - Yeah.
- Not um, a conspiracy theorist.
- What a buzzkill. - I'm sorry.
- So what are you doing here?
- I told you.
- Yes?
- I guess,
I guess in a way,
I kind of ran away from home.
- Okay, that's a start.
- [Maggie] Kind of just wanted to, you know,
get away from it all, for a moment.
Yeah.
- So, is that getting away from it all
for a moment involve Ben?
- I just needed some time.
Time to myself. - That's pretty vague.
- Look, sometimes you're in a place,
and you're being asked all these questions
you don't know the answer to, constantly.
- Ben? - Mm-hmm.
- Jamin, Benjamin.
- Oh my god, I didn't understand what you...
[Maggie laughs]
- I'm fuckin' stoned.
- That's nice.
- Well, he seems like a good guy.
- He's a good guy.
- Good.
Then you can figure it out.
- And until I do, I can just be here.
- I was here first.
- Yeah, well.
[engine roaring] - Acidman, Acidman!
- What? - Goddamnit.
- [Teen] Acidman!
- [Teen] You gotta say his name three times to summon him!
- Acidman! - Dad?
Dad, what are you doing? - Kids.
- Dad, Dad, no!
Hey, hey! - Get outta here!
- Dad. - Sons of bitches.
- Yeah, you dumbass! [gun fires]
- Dad, Jesus Christ! [gun fires]
What are you doing?
- See ya, bitch!
- What the hell?
Dad, you can't shoot at fucking kids.
- I didn't shoot at the kids,
I fired a warning shot.
- [Maggie] Same thing.
- But, if I'd wanted to hit one of 'em, I could've.
I'm pretty good.
What'd you wanna do,
hang out in the back of the truck like a pussy?
- [Maggie] You can't say that, Dad.
- [Lloyd] What, to a woman?
- [Maggie] Jesus.
[crickets chirping]
[tea kettle whistling]
- You ready?
It's gonna be a great night.
Super clear skies, beautiful.
- Do you mind if I sit this one out?
- Sure.
- I'm just, really tired. - Okay.
- Happy hunting.
- I prefer to call it searching.
- Can't tell if you're serious or not.
- You know, Maggie, I don't know that I've ever been
more serious about anything.
There's a global community of research scientists,
engineers, experts like myself,
that have studied communication and physics
to be able to reach out into the cosmos.
But what it's really about is to connect with them.
They're out there traveling the galaxy.
They're looking at hundreds of worlds,
and they still come here, to check on our planet,
to make sure we're okay.
And I think I do have a personal goal,
and an obligation to say thank you.
- Well... I can thank them with you another night.
- Okay.
- [Maggie] Happy searching.
- [Ben] It'd be a lot easier if we could just talk.
Anything, just call me when you're ready, all right.
- Dad?
Dad, are you okay?
Dad.
What's going on?
- The truck won't start.
- [Maggie] Okay.
What is it, battery or?
- The truck won't start.
- Okay.
That's okay.
Dad, when was it that you-
- I'm sorry, the truck won't start.
- [Maggie] I get that, but that's okay.
It's okay.
I can drive you.
- I don't know what's wrong.
I don't know what's wrong with it.
- It's fine. - It just won't start.
- Let me drive you. - No, I'd rather walk.
- Dad. - Have a good night.
[crickets chirping]
[eerie music]
[birds chirping]
Moving in a formation.
I made a bit of a contact.
Hi, hi. - Hey.
- You gotta check this out, you gotta see this.
This happened early this morning.
- Did you just get home? - Yeah.
- Aren't you tired?
- No, no, no, I'm good, I'm good.
- Okay. - Yeah.
Here, watch.
It's incontrovertible evidence.
This is the place, here at the reservoir.
You see what's happening?
- Yeah, I've seen this one.
- No, no, no, this was this morning.
So there's a pattern.
They're signaling in a pattern.
Do you see it?
Watch the lights.
Three, two, one,
and then it recycles.
We're signaling in threes.
Was that a flash, flash flash,
and then flash flash flash.
So we gotta come back here.
- Sequencing of three.
- Yes, yes, exactly.
It's amazing, huh?
- Uh huh.
What do you think?
- It's so much to think about, you know?
- This is just fantastic.
They wanna make contact in two days.
You know what, I'm gonna need your help.
I've been working on something,
and now I've gotta ramp it up
to make this two day window, okay?
Are you with me?
Come on, come on.
It's out in the woods.
So, you might spot a couple
of those other cherry bark maples in here.
I've seen a few in this area.
- I thought you said there was only one,
and it was the one that we planted.
- Yeah, it's a special one, because we planted that one.
These others are volunteers,
so it's like they're the friends of our tree.
[Maggie laughs]
Yeah.
This is it.
I mean, I know it doesn't look like much,
but it's a work in progress.
- Another one of your projects?
- Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, this is the grand communicator.
Well, it's a stupid name,
but you'll come up with something better, I think.
I thought I told you about this.
Did I tell you about this?
You okay?
- Just not fully following.
- Well, okay, you remember Sedona, Fourth of July?
- Yes.
- That was just fun and games.
This is gonna be,
10 times as big?
- And you're doing all of this?
- To communicate, with them.
- Uh, do you remember Sedona?
- Yeah, yeah it was great.
- Four fire trucks.
- [Lloyd] Yeah, but Maggie, nobody got hurt.
- Mom's eyebrows were singed off.
- I told her to get back.
- Dad.
- Maggie. - What?
- I don't think you completely understand
the enormity of what I have to do.
I have no choice but to respond.
This is what it takes.
- I'm gonna go on record and say
that I think this is really fucking dangerous, and crazy.
I mean, look at how much...
- Crazy?
- I didn't call you crazy.
I'm just saying this is crazy. - You called this crazy.
You know what, Maggie?
I tried to bring you in on something bigger.
Something bigger than you and me,
bigger than human civilization.
And you turn out to be just like the fucking idiots
that I used to work with, those engineering pricks!
And your mother, and your brother,
and your grandparents.
Nobody could ever support me
in anything that I had to do that was important.
You know what they are?
They're cynics, they're skeptics, they're traitors.
Are you a traitor, Maggie?
- I can't do this with you.
- Yeah.
I gotta go into town and get more supplies.
Don't be here when I get back.
[birds chirping]
[somber music]
[guns firing]
[Migo howls]
[Migo whining]
- Shit, shit, shit, no, no, no.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
Oh, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
Oh, okay, oh no.
You're gonna be fine, boy.
You're gonna be fine.
[horn honking]
- [Lloyd] That's good, that's good, Migo.
- Dad, how's he doing?
This isn't updating.
Oh, this shitty fucking reception.
I'm so, so sorry, I'm so sorry.
I should've been watching you.
Dad, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, okay?
Migo.
Migo, I'm so sorry.
- [Lloyd] Take a left up here, it's a shortcut.
- Dad, it says to turn right.
- I know where we're going.
- You sure? - Yes.
- Dad, where are we going?
- Just drive straight.
[Migo whining] [Maggie sobbing]
There's a left up here, just stop there.
Yeah, this is good.
It's not your fault, Maggie.
[wind whooshing]
[gentle music]
[birds chirping]
[shovel scraping]
You know, your grandfather,
Methodist minister.
Sat next to hundreds,
I don't know how many, people dying.
And they always wanted to hear the same words from him.
That they were going on to a greater reward.
And he'd tell 'em exactly what they wanted to hear.
Last time I saw him, he wanted me to tell him
that there was a great reward,
but I knew he didn't believe it.
And I sure as shit wasn't gonna stand there and lie to him.
- Why are you doing this?
- It's the only time I ever saw my father cry.
He was just a scared old man.
And I just said, "It's gonna be over soon,"
and then I said goodbye.
[Maggie sighs]
- We could've been so different,
as a family.
There was so much love there, and support, and I felt safe.
And then, you sat us down,
and told Bucky and I that we were
old enough, and didn't need you anymore.
Is there anything that could've made you stay?
That's good to know.
I spent a lot of time...
I wanted you so badly.
I had things I wanted to ask you,
and not Mom, and not Bucky, and not...
Oh, fuck.
And the thing is is that I am, I'm you!
I am you.
I do the same things.
In fact,
I leave quicker, ugh.
I left without telling him that I was leaving.
Why are we like that?
Dad?
Dad.
Have you heard any of this, Dad?
[Maggie sniffles]
[Maggie crying]
[guns firing]
[chain rattling]
[guns firing]
- Fuckers.
Hey!
Do you sons of bitches even know whose land you're on?
- No, no, this is public. - Do you?
Oh yeah, fuck you!
I'm gonna report you to the sheriff's department.
You are fucking poaching, god!
[Lloyd groaning]
Hey!
You come back here!
Hey!
You killed my dog!
You killed my dog.
[somber music]
[silverware clinking]
- [Charlie] Hey, you're doing good with that.
- [Maggie] What's both difficult and easy at the same time?
- Say when. - Huh?
[whipped cream hissing]
- Please say when.
Say it, oh my.
- That is a beautiful whipped cream mountain, I love it.
- Enjoy it.
- Mm.
Mm.
What's the secret in the sauce?
- No way.
It stays in the vault.
It's for my kids.
- I'll befriend them,
and they'll give me all your secrets.
- No way, but they would love you,
so you'll have to meet them.
- What are they like?
- They're cool, you know?
Darren, my youngest, is a handful.
He thinks very highly of himself.
[Maggie laughs]
And Phillip is just a raw nerve.
He is just all emotion, all the time.
He's a teenager, it's beautiful.
I wouldn't change a thing.
Well, that's bullshit.
I would change,
I would change a lot.
But not them.
- Big act of faith, having kids.
To be confident that you're gonna figure it out.
Try not to make mistakes,
try not to make the mistakes that your parents made.
Lot of stuff.
I'd imagine, you know?
[crickets chirping]
[door creaks]
[Maggie sniffling]
Hello.
Dad, smile.
Dad.
Whoa!
Very good, look at the ripples.
- [Lloyd] Do you remember when I taught you Morse code
when you were little?
Yep.
Wait there, yeah, kind of tilt it down.
There you go, there's a little bit.
That's good.
Try to do a series of three dots,
two dashes, and three dots.
- How do you do a dash?
- [Lloyd] It's just a longer flip of the mirror.
Good.
Now, unfortunately you just called 'em assholes.
[Maggie laughs]
- [Maggie] What was I like when I was a baby?
- You never cried. - No?
- Usually 'cause you had a pillow over your face.
[both laugh]
Oh, you were a sweet baby.
I used to call you Maggie Bear.
- [Maggie] Why?
- Your poops were the size of-
- [Maggie] Oh my god, Dad, disgusting!
[Maggie laughs]
[birds chirping]
- [Lloyd] Here's your eggs.
- Thank you.
- Just the way I like 'em.
So basically, we're just gonna be sending their signal
back to them.
It's repetition, it's mimicry,
it's the most fundamental form of communication.
- Okay.
- Remember the first night we were out there,
and you saw the hovering lights,
and thought it was an airplane?
Through the filter in the camera,
I could see what their color sequencing was.
So, we're just gonna be sending that back.
Green, white, blue, red.
Pretty basic. - Yeah?
- Yeah, you just, you wanna acknowledge 'em,
and then you start talking back.
How's it going, do you come in peace?
That sort of thing.
- In that order? - Yeah, yeah in that order.
I don't, you know, speak alien.
Not yet.
Okay, did you see the way I did that?
See the wires?
Green, green, white, white,
blue, blue, red, red.
That's it.
I need about 100 more.
[frogs croaking]
[gentle music]
Hey, grab that box.
- This is very heavy, you know.
Can't I just leave it?
Dad, oh, oh!
- [Lloyd] I don't want to get too close.
- Ow.
- Give me.
[Maggie grunts]
This isn't that heavy.
[both grunt]
Check position 11.
- [Maggie] Which one's 11?
- Thought about what you said the other day.
- Mm-hmm?
- Just in case something goes wrong, you know?
- It's not gonna do shit.
- It's a joke. - I get it.
- We better check those sequences.
- Okay, one's a go.
- Make sure the firing trigger is off right now.
- Four's a go, five's a go,
six, seven.
So what, they're just gonna show up or something?
- [Lloyd] Listen, we have to signal them
when the moment is right.
- I can't tell what part of you is real.
- You're not like me.
That's real.
You're willing to stick it out.
And you're always were.
- What do you mean?
- That little girl, you just had such dedication.
You're just a little bit lost right now.
Whatever you decide to do,
don't do what I did.
Don't throw it all away.
[frogs croaking]
If it's a girl, you should think about the name Jacqueline.
It's what I wanted to name you.
- What?
- Still like that name.
- Dad, how did you know?
- You're gonna be a great mother, Maggie.
[emotional music]
Get ready. - What?
- [Lloyd] Hit it.
- Now? - Now!
- Okay!
[fireworks popping]
[fireworks whistling]
[fireworks popping]
[fireworks whistling]
[fireworks popping]
[fireworks whistling]
[fireworks popping]
[fireworks whistling]
[fireworks popping]
Wow.
[fireworks whistling] [fireworks popping]
[Maggie laughs]
Oh my god.
Dad.
Dad?
[crickets chirping] [frogs croaking]
- Guess they decided not to show.
Yeah, fuckers.
[birds chirping]
[gentle music]
Couldn't sleep, been up all night.
It's just their communication is so complex.
Just gotta try and figure out where I went wrong.
I just gotta think bigger, and do better math.
I just gotta keep going with it.
- I know it's early, but any new theories?
- Yes, I do.
Have you ever heard of extended binary
coded decimal interchange code?
- That's a mouthful.
- It's EBCDIC.
It's an eight bit code capable of 256 characters,
and a variety of eight bit combinations,
but I think, given the precision
of the code and the numerics,
might be able to break through with them.
- Any idea on timing?
[ sighs]
- July, I think, maybe? - Yeah?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I think July. - Okay.
No specific date in July, just July?
- No.
What are you doing?
- Just making a note to circle back with you
about specific dates.
- That's great.
But I gotta be honest,
I think that maybe the color coding was wrong.
- That's okay.
I mean, maybe the color coding, sequencing,
maybe it's not important.
- Exactly, that's exactly what I was thinking.
I'm just gonna go back to the fundamentals of communication.
Well, we talked about that before.
Hey, wait, in July?
- Mm-hmm.
- I mean, you're gonna be.
- Huge? - Yeah, yeah.
- Can't miss first contact.
- Well, it's on a dartboard.
So, you know, if you can't make it,
I completely understand.
- You can keep me posted.
- Okay.
You know, I'm gonna miss you when you're gone, Maggie.
- So that E, the, what is it, the EBA?
The name of that sequencing.
- It's okay.
- Okay.
[ sighs]
[gentle music]
[waves crashing]
Yesterday, I played ball with Jessie.
It was really fun.
I had the ball, and she tried to take it from me.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
But it was still really fun.
- That's crazy, both you and Jessie?
- Yeah.
We were screaming.
It was loud, it was very loud.
[both screaming]
Well, it was a Tuesday,
and what I'm about to tell you next, you won't believe.
Jessie did it first.
Then I did it.
[puddle splashing]
It felt as though we could fly.
- [Lloyd] Yeah?
- [Maggie] We were there all afternoon,
dunk, after dunk, after dunk.
[emotional music]
We never told anyone else.
They wouldn't have believed us.
We didn't need them to.
[waves crashing]
[pleasant music]
♪ Are you afraid
♪ Of the colors fade fading no come back ♪
♪ I know you are
♪ Me too
♪ Not sure
♪ About being in this body in the cold ♪
♪ Backyard
♪ A year old
♪ If you're broke
♪ I'll be there
♪ I won't care
♪ At all
♪ Maybe you think you know me best ♪
♪ A lot of other people think that too ♪
♪ I guess
♪ Are you afraid
♪ That you ruin half the things you ever got ♪
♪ Well if you're not
♪ Then I'm not
♪ I won't tell you what you want to hear ♪
♪ No one can keep away your fears ♪
♪ But I'll be here
♪ If you're broke
♪ I couldn't care
♪ Don't have hope
♪ But I have time to share
♪ Maybe you
♪ Think you know me best
♪ Lots of other people think that too ♪
♪ I guess
[gentle music]