In seventeenth-century Paris, poet and supreme swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac (José Ferrer) stops a play from being shown because he ostensibly cannot stand the bombastic style of the principal actor, Montfleury (Arthur Blake). An annoyed aristocratic fop, the Vicomte de Valvert (Albert Cavens), provokes him into a duel by tritely insulting Cyrano's enormous nose. Cyrano first mocks his lack of wit, improvising numerous inventive ways in which Valvert could have phrased it (much to the amusement of the audience). He then composes a ballade for the occasion on the spot and recites it during the sword fight. With the last line, he stabs his opponent.

Cyrano's friend Le Bret (Morris Carnovsky), Captain of the Gascony guards, warns him he has made powerful enemies of his victim's friends, but he is unconcerned. When Le Bret presses him to reveal the real reason he hates Montfleury, Cyrano admits that he became jealous when he saw the actor smiling at his beautiful cousin Roxane (Mala Powers). He confesses that he is in love with her, but harbors no hope of it being returned because of his nose. When he receives a request from Roxane to see her in the morning, he is finally emboldened to act.

Then pastry chef and fellow poet Ragueneau (Lloyd Corrigan) approaches him for help. Ragueneau has learned that a nobleman he had mocked with his verses, the Comte De Guiche (Ralph Clanton), has hired a hundred ruffians to teach him a lesson. Cyrano escorts him, kills eight of the horde, and drives off the rest.

The next day, before he can tell Roxane of his feelings, she informs him that she has fallen in love with a handsome guardsman, Christian de Neuvillette (William Prince), though she has not even spoken to him. Cyrano hides his devastation and agrees to help her.

Cyrano befriends the young man, who is in Cyrano's guardsmen unit, and discovers that he is infatuated with Roxane, but is too inept with words to woo her. To help him, Cyrano composes Christian's love letters to Roxane, which she finds irresistible. Later, Christian decides he wants no more help and tries to speak to Roxane face to face, but fails miserably and she re-enters her house in an angry huff. Cyrano, hiding in the bushes, comes to his rescue, but this time by imitating Christian's voice and speaking to Roxane from under her balcony. He is so eloquent that he (unintentionally) wins a kiss for Christian from Roxane.

When the arrogant Comte De Guiche, who is also wooing Roxane, pressures her to marry him, Cyrano delays him long enough for her to wed Christian instead. Furious, De Guiche, Christian's commander, orders him to join his unit immediately for a war against the Spanish, preventing the couple from spending their wedding night together.

With Cyrano under his command as well, De Guiche earns the swordsman's respect by his conduct in the war. From the field, Cyrano sends Roxane letters every day, supposedly written by Christian. Roxane visits her husband in camp and tells him that she now has fallen in love with him not merely for his looks but because of his words, and would love him even if he were ugly. Realizing that she really loves Cyrano, Christian gets his rival to agree to tell Roxane the truth and let her decide between them. But before the opportunity arises, Christian volunteers for a dangerous mission and is fatally wounded, silencing Cyrano.

Roxane enters a convent in mourning. Years pass, with Cyrano visiting Roxane weekly, having retired from the military and writing satirical articles mocking the nobility. De Guiche, who has also befriended her and has come to respect Cyrano, has overheard a courtier plotting against Cyrano. De Guiche warns Roxane that Cyrano's life may be in danger. One night, Cyrano is lured into an ambush; the poet is run down by a carriage. Near death, he hides his injuries and goes to keep his appointment with Roxane for the last time. His secret love for Roxane is finally revealed when he recites from memory the last of his love letters, which she has kept, but it is too late. Cyrano first slips into delirium, then dies, leaving Roxane to mourn a second time.

Buhei Mikai is a successful actor and film director, and is making a film about a middle aged married couple, both of whom are dying of cancer.

After he vomits blood when he is with his mistress, Buhei's wife takes him to the hospital, where the doctor diagnoses him with terminal cancer and operates on his stomach. However, he withholds this information from Buhei, and tells him he has an ulcer.

After a remission, Buhei again becomes ill, is operated on for a second time, and is confined to hospital. Gradually he guesses that he must be suffering from cancer, despite constant reassurances to the contrary from his wife and doctor.

After a suicide attempt, the doctor and wife decide to tell him the truth. After wrestling with his conscience, Dr Ogata also allows Buhei to direct the final scene of his film, even though the effort will shorten his life, and agrees not to administer drugs that would prolong his life at the cost of more pain and suffering.

Buhei completes his film. He tells the doctor how grateful he is that he was honest about his condition and could live his final weeks to the full. In the last scene, he dies, surrounded by his wife, doctor, nurse and members of the film production crew.

The game is set in Buddie World, a peaceful world inhabited by pill-shaped creatures called "Buddies". One day, an eclipse occurs, and crates fall from the sky. After finding weapons inside the crates, the Buddies are segregated by colour and begin fighting for supremacy.

As the violence spills into other regions of Buddie World, the player learns that the other teams are being assisted by a scientist called Doctor Madasalorrie, who has also been experimenting on animals in Buddie World. The player eventually meets Madasalorrie and persuades him to defect. However, he later goes missing and is presumed dead after failing to destroy an enemy-run factory, forcing the player to complete his mission.

It is later revealed that the crates came from the Baddie Moon, which is inhabited by cube-shaped creatures called "Baddies". The Baddies dropped the crates to Buddie World and filmed the ensuing carnage for a television show. The player travels to the Baddie Moon and is tasked by the president of Buddie World with killing the Baddies and destroying their capital city, which is the source of the crates.

The player later learns that Madasalorrie is still alive and is a Baddie disguised as a Buddie. He helped boost the ratings of the Baddies' TV show by having the Buddies kill each other with more lethal weapons. The season finale of the show involves Madasalorrie using a death ray to destroy Buddie World. The player kills Madasalorrie, rescues the moon's aliens before the moon's largest volcano erupts, and destroys Madasalorrie's most powerful killing machine, restoring peace and order to Buddie World.

Choi Chang-hyeok (Park Shin-yang) is driving in his car, when he suddenly finds himself followed by the police. In the following chase he tries to get away, but as his car emerges from a tunnel it goes over the side, down a cliff and he is killed in the burning wreck.

The reason he tried to get away, is that he had just left the Bank of Korea, where he was part of a scam, that got him and his four accomplices the neat sum of 5 billion won. He died, one of his accomplices was caught, and the other three disappeared – and so did all the money.

Eol-mae (Lee Moon-sik) was the one caught by the police, and they try to get him to talk and reveal the scam and his accomplices. In flashbacks we see how the plan was hatched, and get to know the criminals.

The police tries to find out more about the killed Chang-hyeok, and find his brother, who is the owner of a used book store. He has been at odds with his deceased brother, but now gets a big life insurance.

This interests Seo In-kyeong (Yum Jung-ah) very much. She has been living with Mr. Kim (Baek Yoon-sik), who is a veteran con-artist and the money-man in the scam. In-kyeong got to know Chang-hyeok – and now wants to get to know his brother.

As Lugg is reading aloud the obituaries one morning, he comes across one for an old school nemesis of Campion. Remarkably, an anonymous letter inviting Campion to the funeral has also appeared in the morning post. R.I. “Pig” Peters is dead. So says the doctor that treated him.

Five months later, Campion receives a panicked call from a friend, something about a murder. Campion drives down to the friend’s home where her father reveals the most assuredly dead body of R.I. “Pig” Peters, his head caved in no more than 12 hours earlier.

Amazingly enough, some of the visitors from Peters' first funeral also appear, along with some not-so-grieving acquaintances of the late Pig. The little village is becoming very crowded.

Now begins Campion’s search, which leads to a missing body, a grisly scarecrow and one too many beers for Lugg before he discovers the madman that planned more than a few murders.

This is the only Albert Campion story told in the first person by Campion.

The evil Duke of Coffin Castle lives with his good and beautiful niece, the princess Saralinda, in a castle so cold that all the clocks have frozen at ten minutes to five. Several suitors have tried to court the Princess, but the Duke's policy is to test their eligibility by assigning them impossible tasks. A few days before Saralinda's twenty-first birthday, Prince Zorn of Zorna arrives in the town disguised as a minstrel. He falls in with an enigmatic guide known as the Golux. Soon after, he is arrested for singing mocking songs about the Duke in public.

The Duke learns "Xingu"'s true identity, and decides to allow him to court Saralinda. The Duke assigns Zorn the task of finding a thousand jewels, and sets a deadline 99 hours hence, which is too little time for Zorn to obtain the jewels from the kingdom of Zorna. In addition, the Duke demands that Zorn must also find a way to restart the thirteen frozen clocks.

Zorn and the Golux travel to the home of Hagga, a woman who had been given the magical ability to weep jewels rather than tears. She tells them that she has wept so much, in order to provide jewels for others, that she can no longer weep from sadness; the only time she weeps is when she weeps from laughing. She adds that such jewels, produced by weeping with laughter, will turn back into tears a fortnight (fourteen days) later. Undeterred by this, the Golux and Zorn obtain a thousand of these short-lived jewels of laughter from her.

The Prince and Golux return to the castle, with the jewels. With the help of Saralinda, the Golux finds a way to restart the clocks as required. Presented with the thousand jewels and the sound of the thirteen clocks striking, the Duke is forced to admit defeat. Zorn and the Princess happily depart by ship, first to the kingdom of Yarrow (where Saralinda's father lives) and then on to the Prince's homeland of Zorna.

A fortnight later, while the Duke is gloating over his jewels, they transform back into tears. The angry Duke, deprived of his vengeance and his profit, is then killed by a nightmarish monster called the Todal, sent by the Devil as punishment for failing to do sufficient evil.

In New York City, Cullen James' greatest wishes are being fulfilled: She marries her best friend; she travels in Europe; she has a baby daughter.

But by night, bizarre dreams begin to intrude. In her dreams, Cullen visits a strange land called Rondua, where the sea is full of fish with mysterious names. She and a huge dog named Mr. Tracy escort a young boy named Pepsi across places such as the Northern Stroke, the Mountains of Coin and Brick, and the Plain of Forgotten Machines. Together they search for the Bones of the Moon, five bones that grant power over Rondua.

As Cullen's days become more disjointed and episodic, her dreams grow in intensity. While searching for the last of the bones, she learns more about the adversary she and her dream friends race against. Bit by bit, the events in Rondua start affecting her life on earth, intersecting in unpleasant, then frightening ways.

The film tells the story of twin German sisters Lotte (Thekla Reuten) and Anna (Nadja Uhl), who are separated when they are six. After the deaths of their parents, they are "divided" between quarreling distant relatives, one being raised in the Netherlands and the other in Germany. Lotte grows up in a loving middle-class intellectual family in Amsterdam, and Anna is raised in virtual servitude by a poor Catholic peasant family in a backward area.

The two girls seek to keep in contact, but Anna's family lacks Lotte's address, and Lotte's new family fails to mail her letters for fear that the brutal farmers will claim her, as well. The cataclysmic events of World War II sweep them even further apart. Lotte falls in love with a young Jewish man who is eventually caught by the Nazis and murdered. Anna falls in love and marries a young ''Wehrmacht'' soldier who joins the ''Waffen SS'' and is killed in the last days of the war. Although the girls find each other just before the outbreak of the war, Anna's attempt to reunite with Lotte in its aftermath is thwarted by Lotte's bitter discovery that Anna's husband had been part of the apparatus that murdered her fiancé.

Only in her old age, when they meet again at a spa, does Lotte reconcile herself to their divergent lives and reclaim the tender sibling feeling of her childhood. The two girls/women are each played by three different actors from the Netherlands and Germany.

The ''R.U. Sirius'' is a space station orbiting Earth that acts as both an embassy for visiting aliens as well as a first line of defense against hostile aliens. Its mission statement is (probably) "Try not to die a horrible death." The comic's storylines are often obvious parodies of well-known science fiction and fantasy movies, television series, and books, as well as current events and contemporary pop culture, with Brewster and his crew typically coming out victorious over the countless evil villains they face.

After ten months without a break, Sub-Commander T'Pol notes efficiency on board ''Enterprise'' is down, and suggests shore leave on Risa. Captain Archer agrees. En route, Archer receives a transmission from Admiral Forrest, informing him of a Vulcan Ambassador in need of extradition. With the closest Vulcan starship over a week away ''Enterprise'' is ordered to retrieve and deliver her to the Vulcan cruiser ''Sh'Raan''.

Arriving at Mazar, Archer and T'Pol are surprised to hear the Ambassador has been expelled for abuse of her position. Archer is called to the bridge and speaks to a Mazarite captain who requests that V'Lar be returned for further questioning. Archer stalls for time to contact Starfleet, but the Mazarite ship opens fire. The ''Enterprise'' s phase cannons disable the enemy ship's engines, allowing ''Enterprise'' to escape. Confronting V'Lar, Archer finds her unwilling to reveal more, stating that it is a matter for Vulcan High Command only. Archer then orders Ensign Mayweather to set a course to return to Mazar.

Later, after speaking with V'Lar in private, T'Pol persuades Archer to continue the rendezvous with the ''Sh'Raan'', but ''Enterprise'' immediately comes under attack from three Mazarite ships. Archer opts for flight but even at Warp 5, the Mazarite ships still gain steadily. V'Lar suddenly confesses that her reputation was intentionally sullied to make the Mazarites believe she would no longer be a credible witness against corrupt officials. V'Lar offers to surrender herself for the safety of the crew, but Archer refuses. Again stalling for time, Archer informs the Mazarites that V'Lar suffered injuries and is in critical condition, allowing them to board ''Enterprise''. The ''Sh'Raan'' arrives and threatens to destroy the Mazarite ships unless they surrender immediately. At this point, Archer's ruse is revealed, and V'Lar appears unharmed. A grateful V'Lar tells Archer and T'Pol that their bond of trust and friendship bodes well for future human-Vulcan relations.

Map of "Chairman Island"

The story takes place in March 1860 and opens with a group of schoolboys aged between eight and fourteen on board a 100-ton schooner called the ''Sleuth'' moored at Auckland, New Zealand, and preparing to set off on a six-week vacation. With the exception of the oldest boy Gordon, an American, and Briant and Jack, two French brothers, all the boys are British.

While the schooner's crew are ashore, the moorings are cast-off under unknown circumstances and the ship drifts to sea, where it is caught by a storm. Twenty-two days later, the boys find themselves cast upon the shore of an uncharted island, which they name "Chairman Island." They go on many adventures and even catch wild animals while trying to survive. They remain there for the next two years until a passing ship sinks in the close vicinity of the island. The ship had been taken over by mutineers, intent on trafficking slaves. With the aid of two of the surviving members of the original crew, the boys are able to defeat the mutineers and make their escape from the island, which they find out is close to the Chilean coast (Hanover-Island located at 50°56’ S, 74°47’ W).

The story lines are centered around a fictional hotel in Oslo, its employees, and the Anker-Hansen family. From the start, CEO and widower Georg Anker-Hansen (Toralv Maurstad) was one of the most central figures in the series and his romance with the escort girl Ninni Krogstad (Henriette Lien) was the main story. After a year Georg died of incurable cancer in the pancreas, and Ninni inherited the entire concern, which led to major conflicts with Georg's dominating mother, Astrid (Sossen Krohg), and especially Georg's children, Juni (Anette Hoff), Jens August (Kim Kolstad), and Julie (Elin Sogn).

So far, the series was mostly inspired by the history of Janni Spies, where Janni Brodersen married the much older Danish tourism king Simon Spies, and inherited millions when he died. It gave the idea to the hotel-owner Georg Anker-Hansen and the escort girl Ninni Krogstad.

The story of Georg's daughter Juni was also pretty much in the center in the beginning, due to her alcoholism. It received great attention in Norwegian media. The show received even more attention when the half-siblings Jens-August (Kim Kolstad) and Charlotte Iversen (Kristin Frogner) began a relationship without knowing that they were siblings.

Later, the series focused on topics such as racism, kidnapping, rape, abortion, trafficking, drugs, pyromania, homosexuality, murder and other controversial topics.

In autumn 2004, episode No. 1000 of the series was sent, where Toralv Maurstad made a guest appearance as Georg in some of the characters dreams.

In January 2006, the series changed its genre and appeared as a more innovative and modern soap with more action, humor, sex, violence and drama. The show received massive media publicity because of its controversial content and early prime time. After the sudden change in the series, the viewing rates decreased, and this resulted as of January 2007, that the show gradually returned to its old style.

Years later it was discovered that Georg's deceased wife, Ingeborg Anker-Hansen, had an affair with Harald Hilldring, which resulted in the birth of Julie Anker-Hansen, who was the artist and the outsider of the family. She learned about this through her mother's diaries. Julie also claimed Georg responsible for her mother's illness, and among her siblings, she's the one who has the smallest problem about being against her family's opinions.

At the start of the series, Jens August came out of prison, having served a prison term for killing a young man driving under influence of alcohol. He also had a past with his father's new girlfriend, Ninni, and the relationship between Jens August and Ninni was always tense.

In the summer-cliffhanger of 2007, Jens August returned to the series, after being deserted on an island for two years. The plane was sabotaged by an assassin sent by Scott Wallace, brother of Rolv Espevoll. Rolv, who was introduced to the Anker-Hansens in 1998. He had a brief affair with Juni during his 4 years working at the hotel. In 2002, he was set up for a murder, and later found guilty and sent to prison. He was released in 2006, where he in a short time with his brother Scott kicked out the Anker-Hansens of the hotel and their own concern. Throughout the few months they were in charge, Scott and Rolv developed a tense and hatred relationship. After some tense weeks, Scott wanted to get rid of Rolv, and planted a bag of cocaine in his hotel-room. Since Rolv recently was released from jail, this was a crucial move from Scott. After an anonymous call by him to the police, Rolv was arrested and was most likely to be convicted for drug-dealing. Rolv figured out that Scott was behind it all. And at the day of his trail, he ran off from the court. He visited Juni at Ankerseteren, gagged her, stole a rifle and ran down to the hotel, where he started shooting in the lobby. He killed 20 people including 2 people who held weapons too. Daphne wanted revenge from her ex for leaving her. When she pointed the gun at him, Rolv waited behind and shot her. The other one wielding a weapon was Julian, who was threatening his girlfriend, Benedicte, who've he had molested recently. Rolv ran into Julian and Benedicte when Julian was about to shot her. In a cheeky manner, Rolv pointed the rifle on Julian asking him to apologize to Benedicte for treating her bad. Nevertheless, Rolv shot Julian, who died instantly. Ironically then, Rolv saved 2 people from getting killed. He then went up to the office, where he pushed Scott out on the roof and talked straight out about everything he hated about him. Scott was already shot in his arm, and was not able to defend himself. Rolv ended up killing himself in the end.

In November 2007, June Anker-Hansen and Jens August Anker-Hansen was about to sell Virtual Window, a project developed by businesswoman, Nadia Selam-Tefari, who worked at Cæsar. Junis boyfriend at the moment, Magnus Falsen, presented the Virtual Window to his lodge, Vox Populi, which seemed positive to the project.

Many new main characters arrived in 2008, including Gaute Ormåsen who came 2nd in the Norwegian Idol in 2003. He played the role of the musician and bartender Marius Nordheim. Per Christian Ellefsen joined the cast as the businessman Tom Ivar Johansen. In addition viewers were introduced to his two daughters, Cecilie and Cathrine.

In November 2008, Tom Ivar died of bone cancer in addition to a fall from the main staircase at Hotel Cæsar, after accidentally being pushed down by his daughter Cathrine. Cathrine admitted when Tom Ivar was comatose, that she hoped he would die. Cathrine felt that she always was his second daughter after Cecilie, who he admired and loved openly.

In April 2009, Victoria Lunde, Junis daughter, came back to the series after many years in Belgium. She had turned into an alcoholic, which she probably inherited from his mother. Initially, Victoria held this hidden, but after several incidents throughout the fall of 2009, Juni figured out that her daughter needed help.

In the spring of 2009, Cathrine broke off from the Anker-Hansen Group, and started her own hotel chain, the Black Diamond. Jens August joined her after having a serious conflict with his family. Nevertheless, he returns to his family later.

In October 2009, Jens August's wife, Liv died, when she was hit by a car. Weeks later, she appeared in Jens Augusts "visions". Juni's ex-husband and Victoria's father, Ragnar Lunde also had a guest role in the autumn of 2009. He had married an Asian woman and converted to Buddhism. When he left, Victoria joined him to go to rehab back in Brussels, Belgium.

In November the same year, Jens August and Ninni's son, Georg jr., or "Goggen", returned to Norway after being sent to boarding school in Switzerland at young age. He later started a relationship with Runa Jørgensen, step-daughter of his own uncle, Svein. He was Ninni's brother, and had at the moment a rocky relationship to Goggen.

In February 2010, Astrid's centenary was celebrated in 2000th episode of the show. At the end of this episode, Astrid got a stroke, and it turned out that she had cerebral hemorrhage. She survives, but loses her voice capability. However, Astrid died a month later.

This spring, Juni found out that Ingeborg is not her mother, as she thought over the years. Her real mother was her former nanny, Dagny Dallimore (who came into the series in late 2009). Before Juni was born, her family thought Ingeborg was not able to have a child. Therefore, Dagny said yes to carry Georg's baby. Astrid, Ingeborg and Georg set it up to make Juni think she was Ingeborg's daughter. Dagny was allowed to continue meeting her daughter as her nanny. But when Astrid and Ingeborg thought Juni and Dagny was to close, they blackmailed Dagny into leave the country. She moved to Australia, where she married a priest and got another daughter, Rose. Dagny told Juni about this. She also told Juni that Rose had a rough patch in her life, and that she had broke off all her contact to Dagny. Juni decided to go to Australia and find after her. Meanwhile, Junis daughter, Victoria, had completed her treatment in Brussels, returned to Oslo in April 2010.

This spring, Cathrine's hotel chain, Black Diamond, hit bankruptcy as a result when the chain's investor, Elliot Hiltun, was arrested for economic crimes, and thus get all their financial assets frozen.

In the 2010 season finale, a huge fire started during a family dinner at Ankerseteren. Three people, Dagny, Ragnhild and Cecilie, were killed in the fire.

''Dark Rift'' takes place far in the future, sometime after the events of ''Criticom''. Gameplay spans three dimensions: the Neutral Dimension (where Earth is located), the Dark Dimension (home to demons), and the Light Dimension (home to energy beings). Although the creatures of the Dark Dimension are demonic, there is no indication that the inhabitants of the Light Dimension have any angelic qualities.

The crystal (the acquisition of which is the main motivation of the characters of ''Criticom'') turns out to be the Core Prime Element of a Master Key, one which holds the power to all the secrets in the universe. The Master Key was found eons ago lodged in a spatial tear. When it was retrieved it burst into three pieces, sending two pieces into alternate dimensions, and widening the tear into the game's namesake Dark Rift.

Issue One

The Fantastic Four defeat the Serpent Squad, an all-female supervillain team attempting to infiltrate Project Pegasus at the Devil's Point, Wyoming facility. As the captured Serpent Squad is led away by authorities, one member admonishes Ben as a freak who will die alone, renewing his grief over his irreversible condition and Reed Richards' promises to reverse the transformation that turned him into the Thing.

Reed requests funding from S.H.I.E.L.D. to send advanced data retrieval probes into neighboring dimensions for inter-dimensional research and exploration purposes. S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury refuses, not wishing to risk inter-dimensional security solely to potentially cure Ben Grimm. Fury also bans Reed from attempting the project on his own time.

Despite Fury's orders, Reed sends five probes into other dimensions, including the N-Zone. Days later, as the team view prototypes for Fantastic Four action figures, the roof of the Baxter Building is ripped open by a massive explosion, heralding the sudden appearance of a group of costumed superheroes, the Squadron Supreme.

Issue Two

Spider-Man and Kitty Pryde swing through Manhattan when they encounter the smoldering ruins of the Baxter building, atop which the Fantastic Four are battling the Squadron Supreme, who speak only in garbles and cannot fully control their powers. Kitty calls the X-Men for assistance moments before Nick Fury and the Ultimates drop out of the sky, declaring the Squadron Supreme under arrest.

The X-Men arrive and enter the full-scale superhuman brawl just as the Squadron Supreme adjust to the new dimension and declare Reed Richards under arrest for his crimes against humanity. They demand that he accompany the Squadron Supreme back to their world, holding up one of the devices Richards sent through the N-Zone, much to Nick Fury's bewilderment.

Issue Three

In the Supremeverse, the President of the United States is moved to a secure bunker by the Secret Service where he learns that an unknown, rapidly growing organism has overwhelmed much of the Eastern United States. The Squadron Supreme are battling the organism and rescuing civilians when Hyperion discovers that the source of the organism is apparently one of Reed Richard's probes.

The Squadron Supreme analyze the device and inadvertently trigger it. A holographic projection appears with an audio greeting from Richards and snapshots of the Fantastic Four and his universe. Hyperion, deducing that Richards knows about the organism, and is responsible for it, immediately organizes an invasion force to apprehend Richards from his own dimension.

In the Ultimate Universe, Hyperion demands that Richards return with them to solve the problem and stand trial for crimes against humanity. Reed agrees, despite fierce resistance from Invisible Woman, and disappears with the Supreme Squadron. Nick Fury immediately begins assembling a rescue team from elements of the X-Men, Ultimates, and Fantastic Four.

Issue Four

The combined forces of S.H.I.E.L.D., the X-Men, the Ultimates, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man board a S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier. Thor generates a portal with Mjolnir and traces the signature of the Squadron Supreme towards the Supremeverse.

In the Supremeverse, an intense yet distraught Reed busily studies samples of the organism, in the face of mounting pressure from the rising civilian body count and the mocking comments of Dr. Emil Burbank, who asks Reed what it feels like to be compared to Stalin and Hitler. Reed confesses that he knows nothing about the organism or how to stop it.

On the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Shadowcat searches for Nick Fury, who isn't responding to his pages. She phases through a wall and overhears Nick Fury converse with an unseen conspirator about how Richards cannot examine any of his probes, hinting that Fury and the unseen conspirator are keeping something from the Ultimates. Fury finally leaves and returns to the Ultimates, unaware that Kitty has been listening to him.

Hyperion, floating high above Earth's orbit, observes the helicarrier's arrival and charges in, only to meet a battle-ready Thor.

Issue Five

Thor and Hyperion collide with a flurry of blows high above Earth while the Ultimate heroes look on from the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. Nick Fury sends the Invisible Woman and the Human Torch to assist Thor and tip the scales in his favor. Hyperion regains much of his strength and defeats Thor, the Invisible Woman, and the Human Torch, who hurtle through the atmosphere to the Earth below.

Aboard the helicarrier, Spider-Man and Captain America grow suspicious of Nick Fury, believing that he conceals his true motives. Back on the ground Reed Richards, being escorted to a more secure location, peeks outside an air vent to notice the Ultimates locked in a titanic battle with the Squadron Supreme.

Issue Six

The Ultimates engage the Squadron Supreme, each hero fighting counterparts who are startlingly equal to one another. Reed Richards, now aware that his friends are attempting a rescue mission, pleads with Dr. Burbank to speak with them. Burbank is unsympathetic, rendering Reed unconscious with an odorless, colorless gas.

In the bowels of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Fury suits up for battle before conferring with the unseen conspirator, outlining his plan to steal the probes and to escape back to the Ultimate universe. Moments later, the conspirator betrays him, knocking him unconscious. S.H.I.E.L.D. guards responding to the sound are likewise dispatched.

Spider-Man awakens Fury, and both rush to the bridge to see that Doctor Doom, revealed as the unseen conspirator, has defeated the Squadron Supreme and the Ultimates and is ready to conquer the Supremeverse.

Issue Seven

Aboard the Helicarrier, Spider-Man confronts Nick Fury about Dr. Doom's involvement in the Supreme Universe. Fury reveals that he recruited Dr. Doom to alter Reed Richards' probes to transmit information to S.H.I.E.L.D. before reporting back to Richards.

In the Supremeverse Pentagon, Burbank gloats to an unconscious Richards that the Defense Department approached him to develop a weapon to kill Hyperion. The alien organism raging across the country is the result, with Richards' probes serving as a scapegoat to eliminate the trail to the Defense Department. Reed, previously feigning unconsciousness, takes Burbank hostage and demands Burbank reveal the truth to the world.

Aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Fury leads Spider-Man to the hangar of the Helicarrier to reveal his secret weapon, a drugged and unconscious Hulk.

In the Pentagon, the X-Men rescue Richards. Before they can escape, the roof disintegrates, leaving Richards and the X-Men staring at Squadron Supreme of Earth-712, who declare that their world too was destroyed; they also demand answers.

Issue Eight

The Earth-712 Squadron Supreme attacks the Ultimate force, with all sides clearly confused about the presence of more doppelgangers in the Supremeverse. On the street, Thor defeats Hyperion and prepares to rejoin the melee when he is stopped by Dr. Spectrum, who reasons with Thor and asks him to help seek out the truth behind the entire affair.

Dr. Doom defeats Iron Man and is attacked by the Thing, who rips Doom apart and reveals him as a Doombot. As Squadron Supreme 31916 attacks Squadron Supreme 712, Nighthawk 712 approaches Captain America, mistaking him for the Captain America of Earth-616. Scarlet Witch reveals that her powers have resulted in this unusual doppelganger phenomenon.

On the Helicarrier, Nick Fury orders Spider-Man to oversee the Hulk and act as his "conscience" as Hulk leaps into the fray.

Issue Nine

The Hulk battles both Squadrons Supreme and the Ultimates heroes and begins overwhelming them all. With their combined powers, the Squadrons and the Ultimates narrowly manage to subdue the Hulk before he is knocked unconscious by the Thing.

Both Arcannas succeed in helping the Scarlet Witch return the Earth-712 heroes to their own universe. Nick Fury and Emil Burbank are taken prisoner by the Squadron, both identified as responsible for the worldwide disaster in the Supremeverse. Doctor Doom, the third co-conspirator who escapes apprehension, is promised to the Squadron Supreme when the Ultimates capture him. To ensure their full cooperation, Zarda volunteers to travel to the Ultimate Universe to ensure their compliance.

Back in the Ultimate Universe, Captain America discusses the considerable power of Scarlet Witch's abilities and mentions that Carol Danvers is in the front-running to become the new leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. Back at the Baxter Building, the Thing attempts to come to terms with his permanent condition, but takes solace in being able to defeat the Hulk.

Stéphane, a young French man from Paris, travels to Romania. He is looking for the singer Nora Luca, whom his father had heard all the time before his death. Wandering along a frozen road, he meets old Izidor, a Rom and tries to tell him of Nora Luca. Drunken Izidor only hears the handful of Romani words and takes Stéphane to his village, determined to teach the boy the Romani language. Stéphane believes that Izidor will take him to Nora Luca when the time has come, so he lives in the Roma village for several months in Izidor's house, as Izidor's son Adriani has been arrested. Izidor is happy to have him as a guest, calling him "his Frenchman" and fixing the young wanderer's worn-out shoes. The other Roma dislike Stéphane at first, insulting him in their language and believing him to be a lunatic, tricking him into saying rude words and even into entering a tent where women are bathing. Stéphane gradually wins them over by showing his respect for their music and culture and is rewarded with an intimate look into every aspect of Roma life, from a raucous wedding to a bittersweet funeral. The only person in the village who speaks any French is the young Sabina, a divorced Romani dancer who is blatantly hostile towards him at first, but the pair eventually bond through a series of trips across the countryside to record traditional Romani music.

One day, just as the pair are beginning to make love for the first time, Adriani returns after many months in jail. The village rejoices, but the men soon have to leave to work at a performance and the two lovebirds sneak off to be together. While they are away, Adriani goes to the local bar, where he murders a man that he accuses of being responsible for his imprisonment. Adriani escapes, but a mob follows him and burns the village to the ground, killing him. Stéphane and Sabina return to find the smoldering ruins and are both devastated. They hurry to the concert venue and tell Izidor, who races outside and begs the earth to open and reunite him with his son.

Stéphane leaves the village and drives to the mile marker where the film opened. Grief-stricken, he smashes all the tapes he recorded during his travels with Sabina on the stone marker and buries them. He then drinks from a vodka bottle, spills some on the "grave" of the tapes, lays the bottle of the "grave" and then dances as Izidor did at his brother's funeral. A shot of the back of the car reveals Sabina sleeping in the back seat. She wakes up, notices the impromptu "funeral" that Stéphane is holding and smiles before the screen fades to black.

During a cold winter in Bowerstone, a young child known as Sparrow lives in poverty within the city's poorer district alongside their older sister Rose. Both dream of one day living in Castle Fairfax, the home of Lord Lucien that towers over the city. One day, the pair witness a travelling seller offering 'magical' wares to people, amongst them a musical box that can grant anyone who uses it a wish. An old woman convinces the pair to acquire the money needed to buy it by doing odd jobs around the district, during which time Sparrow rescues a dog from a local bully. Upon buying the box, Rose uses it to make their dream to come true. That evening, guards arrive to bring the pair to the castle, who are overjoyed that their wish comes true. However, the pair soon discover that Lucien brought them to his home to determine which of them were the three "Heroes" he seeks to fulfil his ambitions. Discovering that one of the pair is the fourth Hero who will stop him, Lucien kills Rose and wounds Sparrow, sending them out onto the city streets.

The old woman soon finds Sparrow with the help of the dog they rescued, and takes them away from the city to recover. Ten years later, now that Sparrow is a young adult, the old woman instructs them to enter a cave system beneath a large lake, which houses the ruins of what was left of the Heroes' Guild. Once inside, the old woman introduces herself as Theresa, a blind seeress, who explains that Sparrow is a descent of the Hero of Oakvale who defeated Jack of Blades. After they prove themselves by defeating a prominent bandit leader in the region, Theresa reveals that they are the only ones who can stop Lucien from destroying the world with an ancient structure known as The Spire - a building that channel magical energy to grant its user any wish they desire. Theresa reveals that Sparrow is destined to defeat Lucien by finding the three heroes he seeks, each defining a specific parameter strength, will, and skill.

Sparrow begins with finding the hero of strength from the village of Oakfield. Discovering her to be a monk known as Sister Hannah, they work to prove themselves to her father the local abbot, before providing her with protection as she undertakes an important ritual. However, Lucien sends men to find her, who kill her father when he refuses to let them to take her. Angered, Hannah kills his murderer before offering her help to Sparrow, renaming herself as Hammer. With her help, Sparrow proceeds with tracking down the hero of will - a scholar known as Garth, who worked with Lucien to rebuild the Spire, but fell out with him over time. Lucien kidnaps him before he can be recruited, and Theresa reveals that he was taken to the Spire as a prisoner. Sparrow and Hammer head to Westcliff where Lucien is recruiting new guards from competitors that survive several harsh rounds at a local arena. Successfully winning a place amongst the latest recuits, Sparrow leaves their possessions and dog with Hammer and travel to the Spire to find Garth.

Made a slave in their new role, Sparrow endures ten years of servitude, making a number of tough decisions in the process. Eventually, Garth creates an opportunity for the pair to escape from the Spire and return to the mainland, where he agrees to help in the battle against Lucien. Hammer soon reveals that during Sparrow's absence, she sought out information on the hero of skill, discovering it to be the pirate lord known as Reaver a skilled marksman who rules over the pirate town of Bloodstone in the south. With Garth's help, Sparrow uses a cullis gate - a teleportation system used by the Heroes' Guild - to reach the marshlands that border Bloodstone, dealing with the undead in the process. After impressing Reaver with their fame, Sparrow undertakes a request from him, only for him to attempt to betray them to Lucien to claim the bounty on them. However, Reaver is soon double-crossed himself, and finds himself forced to help Sparrow and the other heroes in order to survive.

With the three heroes found, Theresa reveals that all of them need to channel their energy in a ritual to acquire a weapon needed to defeat Lucien. However, the seeress soon goes missing after the ritual is completed, whereupon Lucien arrives and kills Sparrow and their dog before kidnapping the others. Rather than die, Sparrow is taken to a dream-like paradise to reside within as a child, with Rose alive and well. Although the location is peaceful, Sparrow hears the music box playing and seeks it out, against Rose's advice, fighting against the ensuing nightmares to locate it. Upon touching it, Rose reveals it was a test, allowing him to use its power. Finding themselves back in the Spire, Sparrow tracks down Lucien and uses the music box to defeat him, whereupon he dies at their hands or Reaver's.

Theresa soon offers Sparrow a wish from the Spire that they can have as a reward: resurrecting the thousands of people that died building the Spire, and thus becoming a true hero in Albion; resurrecting their sister Rose, their dog, and, if they had one, their spouse and family; or being granted an immense fortune. After making their wish, Theresa then offers to send the others where they wish to go - Garth opts to return to his homeland, with Reaver deciding to join him, while Hammer decides to head north to find some monks to help her avoid further violence. After they leave, Theresa leaves Sparrow to enjoy Albion, but proclaims that the Spire is now hers to own. If the player has download the ''See the Future'' pack, Theresa allows them to visit after cleansing two cursed items, to see a glimpse of their future. In this vision they now rule over Albion as monarch, and it is hinted that a child of theirs will become a hero to save Albion after their death, setting the background for ''Fable III''.

The story begins with a song which serves as prologue; and then prose takes up the narrative. It recounts the tale of Aucassin, son of Count Garin of Beaucaire, who so loved Nicolette, a Saracen maiden, who had been sold to the Viscount of Beaucaire, baptized and adopted by him, that he had forsaken knighthood and chivalry and even refused to defend his father's territories from enemies. Accordingly, his father ordered the Viscount to send Nicolette away, but instead the Viscount locked her in a tower of his palace. Aucassin is imprisoned by his father to prevent him from going after his beloved Nicolette. But Nicolette escapes, hears Aucassin lamenting in his cell, and comforts him with sweet words. She flees to the forest outside the gates, and there, in order to test Aucassin's fidelity, builds a rustic home to await his arrival. When he is released from prison Aucassin hears from shepherd lads of Nicolette's hiding-place, and seeks her bower. The lovers, united, resolve to leave the country. They board a ship and are driven to the (fictional) kingdom of "Torelore", whose king they find in child-bed while the queen is with the army. After a three years' stay in Torelore they are captured by Saracen pirates and separated. The wind blows Aucassin's boat back to Beaucaire - where he succeeds to Garin's estate. Meanwhile another wind carries Nicolette to "Cartage" (perhaps a play on Carthage or Cartagena). The sight of the city reminds her that she is the daughter of its king. She informs the king and soon it is planned that she should marry a Saracen king. She avoids this by disguising herself as a minstrel. She then sets sail for Beaucaire to rejoin her beloved Aucassin. There, before Aucassin who does not immediately recognize her, she sings of her own adventures and the love between them. Finally, in due time she makes herself known to him, and the two marry. The story ends by saying that now the two have found (lasting) happiness the narrator has nothing left to say.

The story postulates a transportation device supervised by a dinosaur-like race of aliens that can transmit an exact copy of a person's body to distant planets. The original body is disintegrated once reception at the destination is confirmed. The fictional race, nicknamed "dinos", looks down on humans for being scared of this process, making fun of them for being "weepy". In the story, a woman is teleported to an alien planet, but the original is not disintegrated because reception cannot be confirmed at the time. Reception is later confirmed, and the original, not surprisingly, declines to "balance the equation" by re-entering the scanning and disintegrating device and attempts to escape. This creates an ethical quandary that is viewed quite differently by the cold-blooded aliens who provided the teleportation technology, and their warm-blooded human associates. The story concludes with the narrator, a human intern working on the space station housing the device, agreeing with the dinos' philosophy and murdering the woman to balance the equation.

The story takes place in the year 2096 in the town of New Canaan, Connecticut, and centers on Peter Cage, who goes by the nickname "Mr. Boy". Peter has lived for 25 years but possesses the body of a 12-year-old as a result of continually undergoing genetic modification ("twanking") to reverse his biological clock. This process is done at the direction of his wealthy but emotionally distant mother. His mother has assumed the form of a three-quarters scale replica of the Statue of Liberty (also through gene twanking), which Peter lives inside. Peter has only ever interacted with his mother through robotic avatars which she controls – her private quarters in the statue's head are inaccessible.

Peter spends much of his time socializing with other wealthy children, including his best friend Stennie, who has been twanked to resemble a "grapefruit yellow stenonychosaurus". The children indulge in orgiastic gatherings such as "smash parties", where they destroy valuable antiques and kill animals. Peter and his social circle look down on members of the working class, referring to them as "stiffs".

At school, Peter sees and falls in love with a girl named Treemonisha Joplin (named for the opera ''Treemonisha'' by ragtime composer Scott Joplin). After introducing himself to her, Peter learns that she comes from a working-class family who operate a floristry business in a shopping mall. Peter brings Treemonisha to parties, but finds himself increasingly disillusioned with his life of privilege, and worries that the milieu of wealth and nihilism is having a corrupting influence on Treemonisha.

In the story's climax, Peter angrily storms his mother, expressing resentment of his upbringing. He says that he intends to leave behind his life of comfort and become a working stiff, despite Treemonisha urging him against this and warning him that he is unprepared for a life of poverty. Peter forces entry into her sanctum in the head of the statue, and is surprised to find a cold cleanroom filled with computing hardware. Unbeknownst to him, his mother had been dead all along, existing only as a "downloaded intelligence".

Peter leaves with Treemonisha, hoping that being poor is better than "being rich and hating yourself". In the final line, Peter asks Treemonisha to call him "Pete", rather than the "Mr. Boy" moniker he had previously used throughout the story.

Players play as Stan Gonzo, who receives a will from his father, whom he has never before met. Stan assumes his role as leader of the largest cyber technology company, the Kanary, and tries to unravel how his dad died, who he was, and what to do next.

The game starts when Stan is already sitting in his office in the Kanary where a police officer asks if he has any information to further the investigation into his father's murder.

Stan's own investigation starts by looking around the Kanary and meeting the rest of his family.

''Tau Zero'' follows the crew of the starship ''Leonora Christine'', a colonization vessel crewed by 25 men and 25 women aiming to reach the nearby star Beta Virginis. The ship is powered by a Bussard ramjet, which was proposed 10 years before Anderson wrote the book. This mode of propulsion is not capable of faster-than-light travel, and so the voyage is subject to relativity and time dilation: the crew will spend 5 years on board, whereas 33 years will pass on the Earth before they arrive at their destination. The ship accelerates at a modest constant rate for most of the first half of the journey, eventually achieving an appreciable percentage of the speed of light, and the goal is to decelerate at the same rate during the second half of the journey by reversing the ram scoop fields. However, the ''Leonora Christine'' passes through a small nebula before the half-way point, damaging the deceleration field generators. Since the Bussard engines must be kept running to provide particle/radiation shielding, and because of the hard radiation produced by the engines, the crew can neither repair the damage nor turn off their ramjet.

The text consists of narrative prose interspersed with paragraphs in which Anderson explains the scientific basis of relativity, time dilation, the ship's mechanics and details of the cosmos outside.

As there is no hope of completing the original mission, the crew increase acceleration even more; they need to leave the Milky Way altogether in order to reach a region where the local gas density, and the concomitant radiation hazard, are low enough that they can repair the decelerator. The ship's ever-increasing velocity brings the time dilation to extreme levels and takes the crew further and further away from any possibility of contact with humanity. The initial plan is to locate and land on a suitable planet in another galaxy. Millions of years would have passed since their departure, and in any case they would be millions of light years from Earth. However, they find the vacuum of intergalactic space insufficient for safety; they must instead travel to a region between superclusters of galaxies to make repairs. They do, but the extremely thinly spread matter is then too dispersed to use for deceleration. They must wait, flying free but essentially without the ability to change course, until they randomly encounter enough galactic matter to decelerate enough to search for habitable planets. To make the waiting time shorter, they continue accelerating through the galaxy clusters they encounter, more and more closely approaching the speed of light with tau, or proper time, decreasing closer and closer to zero.

Throughout the story, Charles Reymont, the ship's Constable, fights to keep hope alive in the confined community and at the same time maintain order and discipline, sometimes at great emotional cost to himself. He explains his system to his partner Chi-Yuen Ai-Ling:

The storyline is similar to that of the long poem and later opera ''Aniara'', in which the ship was unable to stop and doomed to travel endlessly, but ''Tau Zero'' has a more upbeat ending. By the time the ship is repaired, tau has decreased to less than a billionth and the crew experience "billion-year cycles which pass as moments". But by the time that they are ready to attempt to find a future home, they realize that the universe is approaching a Big Crunch. (The Big Crunch was a leading theory of the fate of the universe at the time this book was written.) The universe collapses (a process the starship survives because there is still enough uncondensed hydrogen for maneuvering outside the growing singularity) and then explodes in a new Big Bang. The voyagers then decelerate and finally disembark at a planet with a habitat suitably similar to Earth, on which the vegetation has a vivid bluish-green color.

Daniel White is reminiscing in a monologue humanity's first encounter with "the first aliens", talking of how they ushered in "new civilizations". He goes on to mention how "healthy, strong men" suddenly began to disappear around the same time. There is a cut to a new video sequence featuring the metropolis where humanity presumably presides. Despite the cities being adequately lit and having the appearance of life, very few other humans feature in the game, with the vast majority of life being either animal or robotic.

It is unclear where the game is set. Furthermore, there does not appear to be any human influence on the land, with the majority of animal and even plant life taking alien forms. Either this is demonstrating the intrusiveness of the alien culture, or White has landed on the aliens' planet, and it is his destiny to become an "escapee" and return to Earth. If this is the case, a similar plot can be found in Flashback: The Quest for Identity.

The player sees an unlabeled automotive flying from the city into a more aerial location, with mountains visible in the background. It appears that the two drivers in the front have captured a male (White) who is in the back. As they drive, however, White wakes up and begins to struggle, causing the driver to lose control and crash. The player's sight is then diverted to a console view of a garbage disposal droid, which lists all three occupants of the automotive as dead and sends a unit to clear the wreckage.

After navigating his way through a series of caves and procuring a firearm, a gun similar to that of Another World which allows the player both to fire and activate a temporary shield, White moves into a forest area populated with what appears to be alien wildlife. From there, he makes his way through to an alien base.

White fights his way through the base, coming into first contact with the aliens' arsenal of robotic guards. Using his gun and the smattering of health regenerators, White eventually fights a boss who takes the form of himself. After defeating him, however, the shape-shifter assumes a much more threatening Grim Reaper-style form with wings and a cane. This character, who goes unnamed throughout the game, will chase White at intervals, and will vapuorise him upon contact.

After taking an elevator, White finds himself in the metropolis itself. He must find a variety of strategically placed levers to unlock a door leading to what appears to be a landing strip. Along the way he fights robots and avoids guard-dogs and people piloting what appear to be flying motorcycles, as well as mobile gun turrets and aliens with grenades. Upon unlocking the exit, the boss from the previous level begins chase and, blinded by his panic, White dives off the end of the landing strip onto the rocks, where he loses consciousness.

The following morning White regains consciousness and must dive into a stream, falling down a waterfall before he can progress any further. After locating an upgrade to his gun in a water maze, he finds a passage leading to a warehouse. Inside he remarks upon the boss, cane in-hand, watching from a distance as other humans co-operate on construction of some form of aircraft.

White scales the vast warehouse, destroying a machine that lies in his way and littering the floor in components. After finding the other humans occupying the warehouse, he surrenders the equipment and the humans accept him as an ally. After implanting him with a thermometer to measure his vital signs, they board the craft. Upon the course of distracting the boss, White dives underwater, which causes the thermometer to display a reading akin to death. The crew, thus, release a rocket aimed at their origin intended to kill the boss.

His job done, White emerges from the water, his thermometer returning to normal levels. At this point the crew realise their terrible mistake, and White is killed in the blast that also destroys the boss, guaranteeing the safety of the other three human escapees, although sealing his own fate on the planet he had tried to vacate.

Spring has arrived in the oriental enclave of Gensokyo, but this year's spring is just too strong to believe. Every plant is in full bloom, even out-of-season flowers and bamboo trees, and consequently the fairies and creatures are becoming hyperactive. This completely unnatural spring prompted the heroines to set out, either to try to find out the reason behind the hyperactive spring, or just to wander around for lack of better things to do.

The incident, as it turns out, is a natural occurrence that happens once every sixty years, or one sexagenary cycle. Once every sixty years, something major happens in the outside world and fills Gensokyo with ghosts, who then infest flowers and make them bloom all over. Right from the beginning, it is not a cause of concern at all.

Aya Shameimaru is the tengu reporter of the Gensokyo newspaper ''Bunbunmaru Shinbun'', which she self-manages. Aya goes to search for suitable news topics by taking pictures of bullet patterns with her analog camera. She decides not to shoot subjects herself, because she doesn't want her own bullets in the picture. No one actually knows what she does with these pictures except herself.

Apart from the game's synopsis, there is no traditional plot to follow. Aya faces a majority of bosses from past ''Touhou Project'' installments in levels featuring their Spell Cards. After reaching a preset score, she will leave a scene-specific comment of that Spell Card.

The list of characters that Aya encounters are, in this order, Rumia, Wriggle Nightbug, Cirno, Letty Whiterock, Alice Margatroid, Keine Kamishirasawa, Reisen U. Inaba, Medicine Melancholy, Tewi Inaba, Hong Meiling, Patchouli Knowledge, Chen, Youmu Konpaku, Sakuya Izayoi, Remilia Scarlet, Ran Yakumo, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Eirin Yagokoro, Kaguya Houraisan, Komachi Onozuka, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, Flandre Scarlet, Yukari Yakumo, Fujiwara no Mokou, and Suika Ibuki.

Restored text edition, Ace Books, 1978 Big Planet had been colonized hundreds of years prior to the start of the novel by misfits, faddists, cultists and anti-government advocates from Earth. The environment is Earth-like, including the surface gravity; even though the planet is much larger than Earth (hence the name), it is much less dense, resulting from a scarcity of metal. As a result, a large number of technologically backward societies have developed, many of them ruled by petty tyrants and prey to lawlessness, murder, and mayhem.

Commissions from Earth have visited Big Planet at irregular intervals for 500 years to little effect; the majority of them are never heard from again. The latest, headed by Claude Glystra, arrives to try to stop the illegal importation of arms from Earth and halt Big Planet's slave trade, especially targeting Charley Lysidder, the ruthless, expansion-minded Bajarnum of Beaujolais. However, their starship is sabotaged by Lysidder's agents and crashes near a quaint village called Jubilith, near Beaujolais.

The survivors attempt to reach Earth Enclave, 40,000 miles away, armed with little more than their wits and a few modern hand weapons. A Jubilith resident, Natilien-Thilssa, whom they call "Nancy," insists on tagging along, despite Glystra's opposition. The team begins to dwindle as Lysidder's efforts and the dangers of Big Planet take their toll. Nevertheless, by sheer tenacity, resourcefulness, and some luck, Glystra manages to triumph over Lysidder, despite the presence of Lysidder's agents within his own small group.

Among the many societies, benign or bizarre, that Glystra and his companions encounter along the wind-driven monoline (their version of the yellow brick road), is the quasi-utopian society of Kirstendale. At first, it appears to be based on snobbish principles, but an odd twist reveals it to be surprisingly egalitarian.

''Shrek 2'' s storyline follows a similar plot to that of the film. Shrek and Fiona are on a journey to the Kingdom of Far Far Away to visit Fiona's parents. Shrek's in-laws are not happy that a crude ogre is married to their daughter Fiona and the battle for acceptance ensues. The game covers things not shown in the film. Plot elements are delivered primarily through a storybook interface (text and illustrations) shown before each level.

In the premiere issue, the character of Omega is shown as the last surviving member of an unnamed alien race. He escapes the mechanical beings who have devastated his planet in a ship headed to Earth. The story then cuts to James-Michael waking up in bed having dreamed the events that just occurred with Omega.

In his waking world, James-Michael and his parents are moving to New York City from the mountains so he can improve his socialization skills after years of home-schooling. En route to New York the Starlings' car is driven off the road and both of James-Michael's parents are killed, but not before the boy discovers that both of them were robots. James-Michael collapses into a coma and awakens a month later in a private hospital exhibiting an eerie lack of emotional response to his parents' deaths. The hospital is later attacked by one of the mechanical beings that destroyed Omega's home world, and Omega himself appears to defend James-Michael. The superhero and the android fight but the conflict ends when James-Michael himself destroys the alien mechanism with energy bursts from his hands (an effect used by Omega in James-Michael's dreams).

After this beginning, the story follows James-Michael's life as he is fostered to two young women in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. The series explores the problems he encounters in a strange new place, and his trials and friendships in a New York City public school. Issues of racism and bullying are addressed, although the stories' focus is on how the reserved and detached James-Michael relates to the world around him.

Meanwhile, Omega the Unknown becomes a superhero figure in New York City, tending to fight only second-string supervillains (though he did once confront the Hulk) with a variety of outcomes. Otherwise, Omega tends to appear when James-Michael is in danger and then takes a more proactive role. As the series progresses Omega and James-Michael eventually meet and interact, although the nature of their relationship remains unclear. Omega himself is killed in the 10th and final issue, leaving the mysteries of the story unresolved.

The X-Men have come looking for their allies Storm and Forge, only to run into Freedom Force, who've been sent to capture them. Soon both teams find themselves caught in a bizarre time warp caused by the powerful being known as the Adversary, who has imprisoned Storm and Forge. Uatu the Watcher appears at the beginning and introduces the game as a parallel universe's version of the story from the "real" Marvel timeline in the vein of Marvel's ''What If?'' series, in this case, "What if a different team of heroes fought the Adversary?"

The film is based on the story of Erzsébet Bathory, a Hungarian countess in the 16th and 17th centuries. Her story takes place in a part of the Kingdom of Hungary that is now Slovakia. In this retelling, the Countess is a healer who conducts medical experiments and rudimentary autopsies in a "hospital" beneath her castle. She forms a relationship with a reputed witch, Darvulia, who saves her from poisoning. The witch promises Erzsebet a son and eternal beauty. In return, Erzsebet must sacrifice both love and her reputation. Darvulia becomes Erzsebet's companion. Meanwhile, maidens in the area have been dying of seemingly unrelated causes, and Erzsebet is seen bathing in a large tub of red liquid as the girls' now-mutilated corpses are buried nearby. Two monks later conclude that the water is not blood but is simply colored red by herbs.

After her husband Ferenc Nádasdy's death, Erzsébet quarrels with his scheming friend György Thurzó, who tries to proposition her at her husband's funeral. Thurzo's lover, who is gifted with herbs, offers to help him get revenge for the rejection. Soon afterward, Erzsebet begins to have surreal visions and episodes. In one of these, she stabs a woman to death with scissors. Afterwards, she confesses to Darvulia that she can no longer tell dream from reality. Darvulia discovers that someone has been placing hallucinogenic mushrooms in Erzsébet's drinks; Erzsébet cannot remember clearly and believes Darvulia responsible. She has the woman thrown out. Thurzó and his wife then capture Darvulia and torture her, cutting out her tongue. Before she dies, she writes Thurzó's name in blood on her cell wall. Erzsébet swears vengeance on him.

Thurzó enlists Erzsébet's sons-in-law and other allies to prosecute her for witchcraft. When their plans repeatedly fail, they nonetheless capture the Countess and torture members of her household to try to obtain incriminating information. The servants are then executed for their alleged crimes, and Erzsébet is imprisoned. Despairing over her separation from her son, she lies on her bed and begins to sing a hymn; the flames from her candles rise and engulf her in flames. Upon hearing of her death, Thurzo concedes that she has once again made the move he least expected, as when they once played chess together, and admits that he has always loved her.

Sara, who lives in London, is a representative for a major Hong Kong bank and is about to turn 54. Her sisters, Gorgeous Teitelbaum and Pfeni Rosensweig, arrive to help celebrate the birthday. Gorgeous is Dr. Gorgeous with a radio-advice program; Pfeni is a world traveler. Various friends and boyfriends also arrive for the party. In particular, Mervyn, a friend of Pfeni's boyfriend Geoffrey, falls instantly in love with Sara.

In 1985, Connor MacLeod is confronted by an old enemy, Iman Fasil, in the parking garage of Madison Square Garden. After a sword duel, MacLeod beheads Fasil and triggers a powerful energy release—known as a Quickening—that affects the immediate surroundings, destroying many cars. After Connor hides his katana in the garage's ceiling, NYPD officers detain him for murder but later release him due to lack of evidence.

Connor's history is revealed through a series of flashbacks. Living in the Scottish Highlands in 1536, Connor is about to fight his first battle as the MacLeod Clan is at war with the Fraser Clan. The Frasers are aided by a mysterious warrior, the Kurgan, in exchange for his right to slay Connor. In the battle, the Kurgan fatally wounds Connor but is driven off before he can decapitate him. Inexplicably, Connor makes a complete recovery, compelling his lover Kate and his cousin Dougal to accuse him of witchcraft. The clan wishes to kill him, but his other cousin, chieftain Angus, mercifully exiles him. Connor wanders the highlands, becomes a blacksmith and marries a woman named Heather MacDonald.

Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, a swordsman from Egypt, finds Connor after tracking his old foe, the Kurgan, to Scotland. He explains that he, Connor, the Kurgan and others like them were born immortals and are destined to battle each other, save on holy ground. Under the overriding belief of all immortals ("In the end, there can be only one"), the few who shall be left will be drawn to a faraway land for the Gathering, the final battle for the Prize, the power of all the immortals through time. Ramírez reveals that immortals cannot have children and believes they must ensure evil people like the Kurgan do not win the Prize, or else humanity will suffer an eternity of darkness.

Ramírez trains MacLeod, and the two become friends. One night, while Connor is away, the Kurgan finds his home and duels Ramírez. Kurgan decapitates Ramirez, rapes Heather (who never tells Connor about this) and leaves the area. Years later, Heather dies of old age, prompting Connor to wander the Earth, adopting Ramírez's katana as his own after using his old sword as Heather's grave marker.

In 1985, the time of the Gathering approaches, and the Kurgan is compelled to come to New York, where Connor now lives as an antique dealer under the alias "Russell Nash," working with his confidant and adopted daughter Rachel Ellenstein, whom Connor saved from the Nazis, during World War 2. Brenda Wyatt, a metallurgy expert working for the police as a forensic scientist, finds shards of Connor's sword at Fasil's murder scene and is puzzled they come from a Japanese sword dated around 600 B.C. but made with medieval-era methods. Brenda witnesses the Kurgan attack Connor before police arrive, forcing them to flee. She meets with Connor twice afterward, hoping to learn about the paradoxical sword. Connor likes her, but tells her to leave him alone.

Connor briefly reunites with fellow Immortal and friend Sunda Kastagir, with whom he reminisces about old times; after they part ways, the Kurgan duels and beheads Kastagir. However, the Kurgan leaves a witness behind who describes him as the killer, concentrating the NYPD's search on him. Brenda investigates Connor and finds evidence that he has lived for centuries, including faking his death every so often, living at the same address for nearly three hundred years and seeing that all his past identities (the 'son' of the previous pseudonym) have the same handwriting. On Heather's birthday, Connor lights a candle for her in a church, as he has done every year. The Kurgan arrives and confirms that he and Connor are now the last remaining Immortals, and also reveals that he raped Heather. Disgusted, but prohibited from fighting on holy ground, Connor leaves.

Brenda confronts Connor, who explains his true identity. After spending the night together, they part company on account of Connor's immortality, but the Kurgan finds out about their newfound intimacy and kidnaps Brenda to draw Connor out. Connor decides it is time to leave behind the Russell Nash identity, says goodbye to Rachel and confronts the Kurgan at Silvercup Studios in Queens, rescuing Brenda in the process. After a long duel, Connor outfights and decapitates the Kurgan, absorbing his massive power and winning the Prize. Connor returns to Scotland with Brenda and reveals that he is now a mortal man who can age and have children. He is also now able to read the thoughts and feelings of people all around the world, and remembering Ramirez's lessons, he hopes to encourage cooperation, understanding, and peace among humanity.

Roughly 500 years before the film takes place, on the planet Zeist, a last meeting is held between the members of a rebellion against the corrupt leadership and the ruthless General Katana. Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, a wise sorcerer who guides the rebellion, chooses the man called Connor MacLeod, "a man of great destiny", to lead them against Katana. Ramírez then uses the Quickening, which he explains is a "kind of" magic, to create a bond between him and MacLeod that is stronger than death. Katana and his troops then attack, crushing the rebellion.

Ramírez and MacLeod are put on trial by Zeist's priests, who sentence them and other criminals to exile on Earth where they will be immortal. Locked into ageless lives, they will fight each other until there is only one left. The survivor will win the Prize: a choice to either remain on Earth as a mortal person and live out their days or return to Zeist, their past crimes forgiven. Katana is unsatisfied with their decision, but the sentence is executed; Ramírez and MacLeod are reborn on Earth, leading to the events of the original film.

In 1985, after all other immortals on Earth are dead and The Kurgan’s reign of terror is brought to an end, MacLeod wins the Prize. He becomes mortal and marries his new lover Brenda Wyatt. By August 1994, the ozone layer is fading and will be completely gone in a matter of months. Millions, including Brenda, perish from unfiltered solar radiation. Before dying, Brenda asks Connor to promise he will solve the problem of the ozone layer. By 1999, Connor MacLeod is the supervisor of a scientific team headed by Dr. Allan Neyman that creates an electromagnetic shield to protect Earth from radiation. MacLeod and Neyman are proud to have saved humanity, but the shield means condemning the planet to no longer see the sky, stars, or sunlight, as well as an uncomfortably high average global temperature and high humidity. Unable to see the sky for decades, many begin to suffer from depression and loss of hope while human society continues to decline due to violence, greed, and crime. Many even grow to hate Connor, saying he ruined the world, ignoring the fact the ozone layer would’ve killed them if he did nothing.

By 2024, the shield has fallen under the control of The Shield Corporation (TSC) and chief executive David Blake, who imposes heavy fees on countries that desire continued protection from solar radiation. Louise Marcus, a former employee of TSC, is a member of a radical activist group that believes the ozone layer has healed and that the shield is therefore no longer needed, and TSC is keeping this secret so the shield can continue providing a profit.

Now a frail old man, MacLeod lives a solitary life. While watching a performance of Wagner's ''Götterdämmerung'', he remembers Ramírez and his past on Zeist. Meanwhile, on Zeist, the still-living General Katana considers that MacLeod may still choose to return to Zeist rather than die on Earth of natural causes. Unwilling to take that chance, Katana sends two henchmen, Corda and Reno, to kill him. A small cut on MacLeod's hand, delivered by a drunk, instantly heals and he realizes this means there are other immortals on Earth again.

Marcus finds MacLeod and asks for his help in taking down the shield he helped create, explaining the ozone has healed. MacLeod declines, saying he is dying and doesn't approve of terrorism. Corda and Reno attack and MacLeod desperately tries to escape. When Corda winds up losing his head following a fight, MacLeod absorbs his power, regaining the youth and vitality he had before he won the Prize. He kills Reno and then instinctively summons Ramírez back to life. Louise witnesses this battle and becomes MacLeod's lover.

In Glencoe, Scotland - the location of his death in the first ''Highlander'' film - Ramírez materializes alive and well, interrupting a play of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Drawn to MacLeod's location, he pawns his earring to acquire a new sword, a new suit of clothes from Scotland's oldest and finest tailor's shop, and a plane ticket to New York. Meanwhile, General Katana arrives from Zeist, determined to kill MacLeod himself. As soon as he arrives, he takes control of a subway car and sends it speeding out of control, killing all aboard. He briefly confronts MacLeod on holy ground (where they are forbidden to fight), taunting him before leaving. Ramírez then finds MacLeod and Louise and they make a plan to take down the shield.

Deducing that MacLeod will target the shield, Katana allies himself with David Blake, who explains the energy required to counteract and disable the shield at this point could threaten Earth. When it is discovered that he has told MacLeod there is proof the ozone layer is healed, Dr. Allan Neyman is fatally tortured. MacLeod, Ramírez, and Louise break into TSC. Using his magic, Ramírez sacrifices his life to save MacLeod from a death trap. Blake is killed and MacLeod, wielding the sword he had before winning the Prize, has one final battle with Katana, decapitating him. Releasing his own immortal energy and the energy he absorbed from Katana, MacLeod succeeds in disrupting and removing the shield. Louise Marcus, along with many people on Earth, sees the stars and sky for the first time in her life.

In the UK theatrical release, an extended prologue better explains Connor's motives for creating the Shield, confirming his wife Brenda died from radiation poisoning. An extra scene shows Connor and Louise journeying above the Shield to confirm the ozone layer has repaired itself. In an extended ending, MacLeod returns to Zeist after destroying the Shield and is seen on the planet walking alongside Louise who has accompanied him (this has been dubbed by fans as the "fairy tale ending").

Renegade Version/Special Edition

Connor MacLeod and the other immortals are human beings born with an energy called the Quickening that makes them invincible to death unless they are beheaded. MacLeod and a sorcerer named Ramírez are both immortals and inhabitants of a society on Earth that predates recorded history, during a time when magic and advanced technology co-exist. This society is ruled by a dictatorship that is enforced by the military leader General Katana, another immortal, but this rule is opposed by a group of revolutionaries that includes several immortals such as MacLeod and Ramírez. Ramírez declares MacLeod the new leader of the revolution and then uses ancient, nameless magic to bond their souls together. When MacLeod and Ramírez are captured by Katana's forces, the priests and Chief Justice overseeing the case decide to exile them and other immortal criminals to various points of Earth's future, long after their society will have fallen and been forgotten. If one of the immortal exiles is able to kill all the others, that immortal will win the Prize - full amnesty for their crimes and a choice: return to their true home in the distant past or remain in the future but now live as a mortal who will age and eventually die. Before they are separated, Ramírez promises that the bond between their souls means they can always find each other again, even beyond death. They are then transported to different points in the future.

Ramírez is reborn in Ancient Egypt and becomes a cunning but morally guided warrior. Connor MacLeod is reborn as a Scottish Highlander in the 16th century, apparently not remembering his first life in the distant past. MacLeod eventually discovers he is immortal and soon afterward he is found by Ramírez who trains him to fight. The Egyptian warrior is then killed by another immortal, The Kurgan. Centuries later in New York, 1985, MacLeod defeats the Kurgan, becoming the last immortal exile left alive, thus winning the Prize and becoming mortal. Since he never fully declares whether or not he chooses to remain or return, MacLeod still has the possibility of returning to the distant past and the society he originally called home. Although the first film ends with MacLeod saying the Prize gave him the ability to know the thoughts and dreams of all people on Earth, that power is never mentioned in this story. Connor MacLeod marries Brenda Wyatt, who later dies in 1994 due to solar radiation poisoning after Earth's ozone layer is destroyed. By 2024, MacLeod experiences flashbacks of his original life in the distant past and his war with Katana. It is unclear if this was a direct result of winning the Prize or if the memories came back naturally over time. Katana does not wish to risk that MacLeod may one day return home from the future, so he transports two immortal assassins to 2024. When they both end up beheaded, MacLeod absorbs their Quickening energies, regaining his youth and immortality.

The rest of the story that takes place in 2024 is largely similar to the original theatrical version, with flashbacks rearranged, additional scenes, and some scenes having minor changes. A new scene reveals Brenda Wyatt MacLeod on her deathbed in 1994 due to solar radiation poisoning, asking Connor to promise he will ensure others won't suffer similarly and will find a way to save Earth. For this reason, MacLeod becomes directly involved in the creation of the Shield and protective of its use, until he is told the ozone layer is healed and later confirms this by journeying above the Shield with Louise. At the end, MacLeod releases his Quickening energy to overload and destroy the Shield, indicating he may now have become mortal again in the process. With the Shield gone, he embraces Louise and the two vanish in a burst of light that rises into the sky, indicating they have journeyed back to MacLeod's home in the distant past.

Some time after the death of his wife Heather in the 16th century, the immortal Scottish Highlander Connor MacLeod travels to Japan to train with an immortal named Nakano, a sorcerer (said to be a master of illusion) and old friend of the Highlander's late teacher Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez. In a cave in Mount Niri, Nakano teaches MacLeod how to fight with the katana that once belonged to Ramírez. He also warns of Kane, an evil immortal making his way across Asia with two immortal henchmen named Khabul Khan and Senghi Khan. After burning down a village, the three reach the cave. Kane beheads Nakano, taking his immortal Quickening energy and power of illusion. The Highlander escapes and Nakano laughs as he dies, declaring that Kane will not be present at the time of the Gathering (when the last immortals fight) and implying he has planned one last trick. The release of his energy causes a cave in, trapping Kane and his henchmen.

In 1788 France, Connor meets and falls in love with Sarah Barrington, a visitor from England. During the French Revolution, MacLeod is captured and sentenced to death for treason against King Louis XVI of France. His immortal friend Pierre Bouchet takes his place, claiming he is tired of his immortal life. Believing Connor is dead, Sarah marries another man. By the time MacLeod finds her, he discovers she now has a family and decides to let her continue believing he is dead.

In 1985, the Gathering occurs in New York City and MacLeod is seemingly the last immortal left alive. He and his new love Brenda Wyatt move to Scotland and are married. She is killed in a car accident in 1987 and he survives without any wounds, indicating he has not lost his immortality and may not have won the Prize. By 1994, Connor is living with his adopted son John in Marrakesh. Meanwhile, archaeologist Dr. Alexandra Johnson (a woman identical to Sarah Barrington) is part of a team excavating the legendary cave of Nakano. The excavation frees Kane, who beheads Senghi to gain a boost in power while his other soldier Khabul leaves to find Connor.

Sensing the release of the Quickening again, MacLeod realizes the Game is not over and realizes he must return to New York City. MacLeod leaves John in the care of his friend, Jack Donovan. Arriving in New York, MacLeod (using his old alias of "Russell Nash" again) faces and kills Khabul. NYPD Lt. John Stenn believes Khabul's headless body is proof that the "headhunter" killer of 1985 is loose again. He concludes the killer is Russell Nash, who was a suspect during the original case.

Alex investigates a piece of kilt cloth found in the cave of Nakano, identifying it as branch of the MacLeod family, one where a clan member was banished for having unnatural powers. Learning that Russell Nash claims to be a descendant of this branch of the clan, Alex tracks him down and witnesses him battle Kane. The fight ends when MacLeod's blade shatters (possibly because their fight crossed into holy ground) and Kane flees.

Connor returns to the Scottish Highlands to build another sword but is unsuccessful. Learning more and concluding that "Nash" is actually the banished Connor MacLeod, still alive, Alex tracks him down and gives him a bar of finely refined steel she found in Nakano's cave. Connor forges a new katana and admits his identity, and the two become lovers. MacLeod then learns Kane has abducted his son John.

MacLeod meets Kane in an old church mission in Jersey City and follows him into an abandoned power plant for their final battle. After a brief battle, the Highlander decapitates Kane and truly wins the Prize, now possessing the full power of all immortals who ever lived. He returns to Scotland with Alex and John to live out the rest of his natural life.

In the near future, society across Earth has fallen to violence and chaos, with gangs and warlords fighting for control over their territories and many people now living as homeless scavengers and refugees who forage for resources. Some still have resources and access to advanced technology, including a group of immortals that includes the ancient Methos, computer hacker Reggie, warrior and scout Zai Jie, and Cardinal Giovanni, an immortal who represents the Vatican. The group seeks to locate the mysterious "Source of Immortality." Zai Jie believes he has found the location of the Source in Eastern Europe and contacts the group to share the information, but he is then killed by the Guardian of the Source, a monstrous immortal with unnatural speed. Meanwhile, Reggie realizes the planets are unnaturally moving into alignment. Convinced they need help, Methos asks his old friend Joe Dawson to find Duncan MacLeod.

Duncan wanders the wastelands, having recently separated from his mortal wife Anna Teshemka after she decided she could not remain with him if they could not produce biological children together and have a family. While wandering, MacLeod is attacked by the Guardian and briefly fights him before Joe Dawson then recruits him. They rendezvous with Methos, Reggie and Giovanni at a monastery to meet with an ancient being known as the Elder so they can locate the Source. At the monastery, they find Anna Teshemka, who reveals she has been having visions related to the Source.

Inside the monastery, the Elder, an immortal whose body continually decays, explains how another group of immortals once found the Source in ancient times. Upon slaying the Guardian, two of the three survivors were cursed, with one of them becoming the new Guardian while another became the endlessly decaying Elder (the third is later implied to have been reincarnated as Anna). The Elder tells them that Anna's visions mean she knows the way. The Elder warns that the closer they get to the Source, the weaker they will become.

The Guardian arrives and attacks Reggie and Joe Dawson on holy ground. In an effort to save Dawson, Duncan throws his katana at the Guardian, temporarily wounding him. The Guardian removes the sword from his neck and breaks it, then mortally wounds Joe with the blade before escaping. After burying Joe, Duncan and the others leave to find the Source, which they have determined to be on an island off the coast of Lithuania in the Baltic Sea, an island ruled by gangs of cannibals. Duncan later replaces his broken katana with a pair of butterfly swords. Talking with Anna, he is surprised she has not started a family with a mortal man she can have children with. Anna remarks she did not simply want children, she wanted children with Duncan.

After fighting locals, Duncan and his allies obtain a van and drive to a deserted house a short distance away from where they believe the Source to be. That night, the Guardian kills Reggie by slashing him to death. Due to their proximity to the Source, his wounds do not heal and he dies of his wounds. After burying Reggie, the group continues. During the journey, Duncan and Methos conclude the expression "there can be only one" does not refer to one immortal becoming the last survivor of their kind and claiming the Prize, the power of all immortals who ever lived, but actually meant to refer to the fact that only one immortal can claim the full power of the Source.

At a road block, the group is captured by cannibals. While the cannibals celebrate, the Guardian frees Anna and forces her to accompany him to the Source. Giovanni then escapes and takes a sword but leaves Methos and Duncan to die, believing it is his destiny to be "the One." Duncan then frees himself and Methos. Methos concludes that Duncan is "the One" due to his incorruptible nature. He rides off on a horse to distract the cannibals, allowing Duncan to chase after Anna. Giovanni is decapitated by the Guardian.

Duncan finds Anna in a clearing by a sandy pit somehow illuminated by starlight. The cosmic convergence is happening directly over them, with multiple planets in view. The Guardian appears and challenges Duncan. Now only a few yards away from the Source, MacLeod matches the speed and strength of the Guardian. Anna seems to commune with the energy well that is the Source of Immortality. When Duncan tries to join her, an energy barrier blocks him. The fight continues and MacLeod uses superhuman speed to bury the Guardian in the ground up to his neck. Now immobilized and defeated, the Guardian demands death. MacLeod refuses and so the curse does not transfer to him. The Guardian vanishes in a blast of light, screaming he is now "cursed forever." Having proved his purity of heart, Duncan then joins Anna and connects to the Source. As they stand together, the film ends with the image of a fetus.

In the DVD release of the movie, dialogue is added at the end when Duncan and Anna stand together in the Source. Anna reveals they will now have a biological son together. Duncan declares "he is the One."

"Shotgun Cheatham's" Last Night Above Ground - 1929" (originally printed in ''Twelve Shots: Stories About Guns,'' 1997). The first summer the children go to their grandmother's house, a reporter comes looking for info on the infamous man who has just died, Shotgun Cheatham. Grandma holds an open house for Shotgun and lies to the reporter by saying he was a war hero. Grandma's enemy, Effie Wilcox, comes too but then the coffin begins to move. Grandma shoots the coffin with her shotgun, while Ms. Wilcox and the reporter run out, but it turns out that it was the cat that lives in the cobb house who moved the curtain draped over the coffin.

"The Mouse in the Milk" - 1930." The next summer, the Cowgill boys are tormenting the town by blowing up Grandma's mailbox or Effie Wilcox's privy. Grandma tells one of the boys she won't be home for her daily milk delivery, knowing the boys would try to steal something from her. That night she turns the lights off and waits for them to come and steal; she catches them and has Joey get their parents. Grandma tells Mr. Cowgill that if his boys won't stop she'll tell everyone that she found a mouse in her milk, running his business to the ground.

"A One-Woman Crime Wave" - 1931". Grandma uses illegal fish traps to get catfish from the lake while using the sheriff's boat she stole to feed to drifters and sees the sheriff's deputies while fishing but they seem too intoxicated to understand the situation.

"The Day of Judgment" - 1932". Grandma's gooseberry pie goes up against Rupert Pennypacker's in a pie baking contest at the fair for her town's honor and a flight in a biplane. Grandma switches the nameplates on the pies at the last minute. Rupert Pennypacker wins the contest with Grandma's pie, but Grandma still finds a way to get Joey a ride in an airplane.

"The Phantom Brakeman" - 1933". While Mary Alice is recently idolizing a tap dancer and film actress Shirley Temple, mismatched families of local lovers converge on Grandma's house and she uses an old ghost story to aid them. At night time Vandalia Eubanks and Junior Stubbs run away together with the help of "The Phantom Brakeman" (Joey) and Grandma.

"Things with Wings" - 1934". While Joey is having a love affair with a Hudson Terraplane 8 (a new car model), Grandma is finding a way to force banker Mr. Weidenbach to return Mrs. Effie Wilcox to her foreclosed home with rumors of Abe Lincoln''.

"Centennial Summer" - 1935". There's a centennial celebration that is celebrated every century in town and Grandma has a showdown with Mrs. Weidenbach about whose family has the most talent and the county's oldest living veteran.

"The Troop Train" - 1942". Joey joins the army air corps because he loves airplanes. He sends a telegram to Grandma telling her that he was passing through her town. When the train comes by, Joey sees Grandma's house lit up and Grandma herself waving to each and every car passing by, hoping that he would see her, too. Joey waves back and goes off to fight in World War II.

An egocentric artillery Captain and his venomous wife engage in savage unremitting battles in their isolated island fortress off the coast of Sweden at the turn of the century. Alice, a former actress who sacrificed her career for secluded military life with Edgar, reveals on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary, the veritable hell their marriage has been. Edgar, an aging schizophrenic who refuses to acknowledge his severe illness, struggles to sustain his ferocity and arrogance with an animal disregard for other people. Sensing that Alice, together with her cousin and would-be lover, Kurt, may ally against him, retaliates with vicious force. Alice lures Kurt into the illusion of sharing a passionate assignation and recruits him in a plot to destroy Edgar.

Amber, Homer's "Vegas wife", dies of a drug overdose, so the Simpson family attends her funeral. Bart, bored and looking to go home early, plays a game of paddle ball. The game, however, goes awry when the ball flies into several people's mouths, causing mayhem. Homer and Marge are faced with the angry churchgoers, who have had enough of Bart's antics. As a result, he is forced to see a psychiatrist who suggests Bart get a drum set in order to harness his anger and the energy he has and find the focus and discipline that he needs. Bart gets a kit and shows a natural talent for drumming. He practices non-stop, even while asleep, and, even has a run in with The White Stripes on the street, earning Bart an enmity with them. Eventually, his continuous drumming drives Homer and Marge mad and Lisa suggests to her parents that she can take Bart to a jazz brunch.

Lisa asks Bart to play along with her quintet, which he does. Bart easily overshadows everyone, including Lisa, and a legendary jazz group asks him to play with them, much to Lisa's anger, as she is the more experienced and passionate of the two. Lisa then tries to overtake Bart in his passion of skateboarding, which ends in failure. Marge, who does not want Lisa to compete against Bart, decides to let her adopt a puppy in order to make her happy. At the animal shelter, Lisa picks a cute, healthy puppy over a very sick one that would otherwise die. Later that night however, the sick dog appears in a ghost-like form to tell her that his fate is doomed because she chose the other dog over him. Lisa decides to go back and adopt the sick puppy, but after seeing how sick many of them are, she decides to adopt them all in order to save their lives. On her way home, many other animals join her, including a group of circus animals. Having nowhere to put them, Lisa puts them in the attic. After dinner that night, Lisa goes into the attic and finds Bart and his jazz group with the animals she rescued. A tiger bites Bart's arm, causing extensive nerve damage that leaves him unable to play.

In order to raise money for the operation he needs, Bart organizes a benefit concert. Meanwhile, Lisa is informed that her animals will be taken to a pound and put down if she cannot find a suitable home for them. The concert is a success, and Bart feels empathy for Lisa and decides to use the money to build a home for the animals instead. The other musicians begin to discuss the idea of holding another benefit to repair Bart's arm.

The Simpson family go to see Grampa perform at the Senior Olympics. After they leave, Moe calls Homer to remind him about a fishing trip to celebrate his birthday. When the family returns, Homer realizes he forgot Moe's birthday when he sees Moe sitting outside on their front steps. That night, Moe writes an angry letter to the family, and the dramatic writing inspires Lisa to choose Moe for her "interesting person" report at school.

At Moe's residence, a run-down hotel, Lisa finds his notes on the wall and arranges them to form a poem. She submits this to ''American Poetry Perspectives'', and the poem is approved, with author Tom Wolfe inviting Moe and the Simpson family to Vermont to attend a literary conference. After Moe sees another poet ridiculed and exiled for admitting he had help with writing, he falsely claims that he wrote and titled his poem all by himself, devastating Lisa.

Moe is featured on a writing panel. Lisa attends and encourages him to share his inspirations, although he insists that he does not have any. However, without Lisa's help, Moe struggles to write a poem in time for a dinner in his honor; when he sees Lisa enter, he improvises a poem about her, thanking her for helping him write poetry. Lisa forgives Moe and they walk out of the dining hall together.

Meanwhile, the publisher of ''American Poetry Perspectives,'' J. Jonah Jameson, watches the panel on television and turns it off in disgust. He then demands photos of Spider-Man, but after being reminded that he works at a poetry journal, demands poems about Spider-Man.

On a trip to the extremely rundown Springfield Mall, Homer happens across the Time–Life Carpenter's Library, and Marge encourages him to buy them. Homer's interest in carpentry fades, and Marge decides to use them herself to fix up the house. She begins to learn more about carpentry and Lisa suggests to Marge that she try to earn some money as a handywoman, thus opening up "Simpsons Carpentry". However, potential clients Superintendent Chalmers and Krusty the Clown turn her down, dismissing the idea of a female carpenter. Commenting on how people expect carpenters to be male, Marge develops a plan: she uses Homer as a front to the customers, while Marge, hiding in a red tool chest, does all of the work as Homer rests in the toolbox, and switches back when the customers come to check on Homer's work.

Though business is going great, Marge becomes discouraged by Helen Lovejoy and Lindsay Naegle, who taunt her for being Homer's "helper". That night, Marge tells Homer that she feels he is taking too much credit and wishes she would get some recognition for the work. Homer, however, does not want to be humiliated by revealing his wife has done everything. Marge continues to get angry after Homer mocks Marge's carpentry skills with Lenny and Carl, and when he tells her he has been hired to repair Springfield's old wooden roller coaster, "The Zoominator", she quits and tells Homer he will have to do the work by himself. Homer tries to fake his way through being a foreman in front of his newly hired construction crew, but they eventually abandon him when he reveals he cannot pay them and does not know anything about construction.

The big reopening day arrives, and Homer stands in front of a crowd gathered to witness the unveiling of the refurbished roller coaster; Marge shows up to witness Homer being revealed as a fraud firsthand. When unveiled, the crowd is in awe at the seemingly repaired roller coaster, but when Homer pops a champagne cork into one of the coaster's segments, it begins to break down rapidly. Still not wanting to admit the truth, Homer attempts to prove the coaster is safe by riding it himself, even though there are large gaps in the track. Acting quickly, Marge repairs each broken piece just before Homer's cart runs over it. Eventually, Homer finally reveals to the crowd that Marge has done all the handiwork. The crowd applauds as the coaster comes to a stop, and just as Marge is about to tell Homer that she loves him, the entire structure comes crashing down on top of Homer. At the hospital, Marge visits Homer, who is immobilized in a full-body cast, and they make amends.

Meanwhile, a note is sent out from the Springfield Elementary, informing parents that someone at the school has a peanut allergy so foods containing peanuts will no longer be allowed on school premises. An indignant Bart claims it to be unfair not to disclose the identity of the "kid", but soon discovers the "kid" is actually Principal Skinner. With this newfound knowledge, Bart forces Skinner to publicly humiliate and injure himself by threatening him with a peanut on a stick. After being advised by Comic Book Guy that the only way to stop Bart is to find his "kryptonite", Skinner breaks into the Springfield General Hospital and searches through medical records of Bart in the night, where he discovers that Bart is allergic to shrimp. The next day, Skinner counters Bart's peanut stick with his own shrimp on a stick, and Bart and Skinner clash ''Star Wars'' style with their respective "sticks". They eventually end up in a Thai food factory in the "Little Bangkok" section of town. They battle over a rickety catwalk, which is right above a vat of shrimp-peanut mixture. Skinner sees this and attempts to end the battle, but Bart defiantly rushes at Skinner, causing both of them to topple into the vat, and putting them in the hospital in the same room as Homer for their allergic reactions. Skinner is outraged to hear that Marge thinks Bart saved Skinner's life, and the two proceed to throw shrimp and peanuts at each other again, while a disgusted Marge decides to head over to the maternity ward observation room to see the new babies.

Big Al (Angus Macfadyen), and his girlfriend Kat (Milla Jovovich), are small-time crooks dealing in guns and stolen goods in Queens, New York City while also cleverly avoiding the NYPD and ATF. Vic (Sarah Strange), is Kat's friend and ex-lover who still has a crush on her and hates Big Al.

Big Al is almost arrested in a police sting, but is released when they realize he is unarmed...as Kat was holding the guns. Returning home, they catch a thief trying to take their TV out the window, and Big Al gives him a beating. They call the police and berate them for not catching the 'real crooks', all the while surrounded by the stolen goods that are their livelihood. Meeting up with his old partner, Reilly (Stephen Dorff), they steal a car as Al tries to convince him to come back to help Al run the gun business.

However, Kat has plans on her own; she wants to sell guns on her own in order to move to a better neighborhood. She meets up with Jose (Vincent Laresca), a drug dealer and Big Al's rival, and sells him a gun. However, Clancy (Tony Munch), a local snitch working for Al, notices them. Kat returns home and pretends to have been out with Vic, upsetting Al.

When Jose brazenly comes on to Kat, Al, Clancy, and their friends punish him by appearing to cut off his fingers. Al comes home later, and based on comments from Clancy, accuses Kat of having sex with Jose and assaults her. The next day, Vic and Reilly come over to console her but Al arrives home and a fight leads to Al firing his gun, injuring Kat. Al is arrested and detained.

At the police precinct, Kat is questioned by Liz (Aisha Tyler), a member of a battered women's group that offers protection via sanctuary or court order. Liz explains that Al doesn't really love her, and she used to be in an abusive marriage of her own. Kat refuses to press charges but decides to leave him.

Big Al sneaks in through the window as she is packing, threatens her with death if she ever leaves. When Liz and Vic arrive to take her, he convinces Kat to tell them she wants to stay.

Kat devises a plan to seduce Vic, Reilly, Jose and Liz, and telling each of them she'll do anything to be rid of Big Al. After convincing Al to stay home one evening, a hooded figure takes Big Al's jacket with his name on it, his registered .45 handgun, and shoots Clancy. The next day, Big Al goes into a church and threatens the priest. As he leaves the church he is arrested for Clancy's murder. Kat, Vic, and Reilly watch from across the street.

Later Al begs Kat to find the real killer, knowing he has been set up, but can't figure out who did it. Kat reveals that she is behind the plot, and is now in charge. Later, Reilly and Vic discuss who the killer is, and then realize they both fear the hard change in Kat, and decide to start a relationship together.

Kat meets up with the real killer: it was Liz. Kissing, Liz says now they can be together but Kat explains she only used her and leaves Liz heartbroken. Kat picks up the gun business and the film ends with her living by the beach.

Story

Like every game in the ''Wild Arms'' series, ''Wild Arms 5'' takes place on the world of Filgaia. Humans are currently being ruled over by the Veruni, an alien race that landed on Filgaia 100 years ago. Dean Stark, the protagonist of the story, lives in a secluded village away from all the turmoil. He dreams of one day leaving the village to pursue his dream of becoming a Golem Hunter, someone who excavates ancient robots, like his idol Nightburn. While in the mountains, Dean and his childhood friend Rebecca spot a Golem's arm fall from the sky and land in a cave just in front of them. Upon entering the cave, they find a girl curled up within the Golem's hand. The girl only remembers two things, her name (Avril), and the words Johnny Appleseed. After receiving the pair of ARMs (special guns) she was holding, Dean, along with Avril and Rebecca, decides to embark on an adventure to find out what the words "Johnny Appleseed" really mean.

Meanwhile, a revolt has begun within the Veruni government. A man named Volsung has overthrown the leader of the Radical faction, sworn enemies of the more peaceful Moderater faction, claiming that his violent actions are necessary for the survival of the Veruni.

Characters

Playable characters

All playable characters are equipped with ARM weapons: * '''Dean Stark''' - a teenage boy who wishes to be a Golem Hunter. Dean often obsesses over Golems, to the point where he, if he can, finds any piece of any Golem. He is naive, but his idealism influences the other characters. He idolizes Nighburn. Dean fights with a pair of ARMs. Special Ability: Double Critical: Doubles the damage of all critical attacks. * '''Rebecca Streisand''' - Dean's childhood friend, who is smarter than he is. She has feelings for him, but does not dare reveal them. Rebecca fights with a revolver-style ARM. Special Ability: Continuous Shot: Can randomly shoot/attack two to five times. * '''Avril Vent Fleur''' - a mysterious girl with amnesia. Avril fights with a sword ARM that can change into a whip. Special Ability: Double DP: Can randomly double the DP of all physical attacks including critical attacks. * '''Greg Russellberg''' - a 'Golem Crusher' who destroys golems, looking to find the man who killed his family. Greg fights with a combination sword/shotgun. Special Ability: Shoot and Guard' Randomly guards after attacking. * '''Chuck Preston''' - a young, boastful Golem Hunter with self-confidence issues. He fights with a piledriver-like weapon. Special Ability: Increases his attack power proportional to his loss of HP. * '''Carol Anderson''' - the young assistant of a mysterious professor. She is extremely intelligent, but very shy and clumsy. She is equipped with a backpack-mounted missile launcher. Special Ability: Can attack any enemy from any position. * '''Asgard''' - the golem that dropped Avril. It acts as a transportation device and an ally in battle. Asgard is not under direct player control, but its combat actions can be preprogrammed.

Other characters

• The group's enemies include Volsung, leader of the radical movement, and the four sentinels under his command, Fereydoon, Persephone, Kartikeya, and Elvis. Their goal is to ensure the survival of the Veruni race at any cost. Note that all these characters (except Elvis) are named for figures from various mythologies, although this is not mentioned in the game. Volsung comes from Norse myth, Fereydoon from Persian myth, Persephone from Greek myth and Kartikeya from Hindu beliefs.
• Other characters include Nightburn Acklund, a famous golem hunter who is Dean's hero, and Captain Bartholomew, the captain of the Moderate ship Mayflower.
• Cameos from other games include all the playable characters (excluding Lucied from 2nd Ignition) from ''Wild Arms'' and its remake, ''Wild Arms Alter Code: F'', ''Wild Arms 2'', ''Wild Arms 3'', and ''Wild Arms 4''. Some may or may not be the characters they resemble, but most are likely just cameos. These characters are not playable, though many of them are part of the game's sidequests. The anime series, ''Wild Arms: Twilight Venom'', is also given a nod in the form of a boss by the name of "Twilight Venom".

The year is 2452. Festina Ramos is an Explorer, assigned to the Technocracy Fleet ship Jacaranda. Her specific physical "qualification" for her job is a large port-wine birthmark on her right cheek. She and her fellow Explorer and partner Yarrun Derigha (who is missing half his jaw) are the two Explorers assigned to the ship; they lead the isolated existence typical of Explorers, isolated from the healthy and attractive members of the fleet as from the "beautiful people" of the larger society.

Then Festina and Yarrun are plunged into a crisis: they are assigned to escort a Fleet admiral named Chee to planet Melaquin. Melaquin is the great question mark in the Technocracy's domain: for forty years Explorers have landed there, only to lose contact and disappear, cause unknown. The High Council has now acquired the habit of sending its troublesome admirals to Melaquin in the company of a team of Explorers, to rid itself of embarrassments without scandal or controversy. The fact that Explorers are lost in the process is accepted—since Explorers are expendable.

Admiral Chee is precisely the kind of embarrassment the high council wants to dispose of, quickly and quietly. Well beyond the century mark in age, when doses of Youthboost are no longer effective in prolonging his life and health, he is "clearly unstable, possibly senile"—or else "suffering from Don't-give-a-shit-itis". Though they try to avoid the duty, and then concoct a plan of escape from their apparent sentence to oblivion, Festina and Yarrun must accompany Chee to the surface of Melaqiuin. There, things go quickly and badly wrong: Festina accidentally kills Yarrun while attempting an emergency tracheotomy, Chee dies of a stroke, and Festina is cut off from her ship, alone on Melaquin.

The planet reveals itself to be amazingly Earth-like—so much so that it is clearly not natural, but a result of terraforming and genetic modification. Festina quickly meets one of the inhabitants of the planet—"A nude woman made of glass...like an Art Deco figurine." Their meeting does not go as the Explorer corps intends for first-contact situations. Eventually, though, the two establish contact; the glass woman introduces herself: "My name is Oar. An oar is an implement used to propel boats." She has learned English from the previous Explorers who came to the planet. A product of sophisticated genetic engineering, she is human, but flawlessly beautiful and possessing enhanced strength and intelligence; yet she has the emotional maturity of a spoiled child. Through Oar, Festina gains contact with the dying subsurface civilization that lingers on Melaquin, begins to unravel the mysteries of the planet, and pursues the trail of the Explorers who came before her.

Now "friends", Festina and Oar set off in search of the other Explorers and the truth behind Admiral Chee and the high council's involvement with Melaquin. The two find the Explorers building a spaceship; if the Explorers can get to interstellar space and send a distress call, the rules of the League may mandate that they be rescued and returned to society—if the Fleet does not stop them first. In due course Festina meets an old flame (a cross between a schoolgirl crush and the love of her life), who reveals himself to be a profound danger instead of a welcome ally. Oar sacrifices herself for her friend, and Festina manages to return to the Fleet and the Technocracy in a way she could never have anticipated.

Prof. Takeshi Aikawa is researching the location of an ancient Indian princess, Princess Surya of Gupta Empire. Prof. Aikawa's grandson, Ryu, becomes involved when the group of gangster attacking Ryu and his spoiled girlfriend Yukari and ransacks his grandfather's apartment in search for information about the princess until Ryu witnessed as he discovered the manuscript which actually was an ancient Indian sex manual called ''Kamasutra''. Ryu goes to India to help his grandfather. There, he finds his grandfather's assistant, Shakti, who introduces him to learn the techniques which found in ''Kamasutra''.

Ryu and Shakti flight towards to Prof. Aikawa locations, however, they're kidnapped by the same gangsters who are working for an ancient Indian cult, the Naga Tribe, and soon takes them into the Palace of Naga. Ryu is sexually drained and physically debilitated while in captivity, but his grandfather and adventurous Indy Yakko manage to save them. Afterward, Prof. Aikawa's group goes to Khajuraho Temple to find a golden cup-like artifact called the Sex Grail, which is sealed inside of Rama's sculpture and with it they able to locate and retrieve the frozen princess Surya, who was resting at Himalayas, with using the grail to revive Surya from suspended animated state.

Meanwhile, having failed at obtaining the grail, the person behind the attacks, the Old Master, dies and his son, Prince Rudra assumes the leadership for the tribe, and raping Jody, the Old Master's personal doctor in the process. He then personally kidnaps Surya with the intention of obtaining her love juice to be used with the grail. Rudra then tries to obtain the grail and succeeds by deceiving Ryu into an exchange of the princess for the grail. After obtaining the grail (and kidnapping Ryu in the process), he sends his henceman, Hige Godzilla to trick Yukari into raping Surya for them. Yukari does so and is also captured and is jailed along with Ryu before they are crushed and stuck by a wall trap. Yakko, however, is able to track them down and rescues them. While trying to escape, they're confronted by Rudra, who uses his mystical power to attacking them, but they still escape.

Prince Rudra, now in possession of the Sex Grail and forced to married princess Surya, as they proceed with the wedding ceremony, however, they're interrupted by the attack of Captain Austin, an American soldier and Jody's father, who came to take a revenge on Rudra for raped his daughter. He manages to escape by the Boat of Garuda along with Surya and the grail, but is soon followed by Austin, Prof. Aikawa, Yakko and Ryu. With help of the Sex Grail, Rudra opens a portal to enter them into the earthly paradise of Shambhala which hidden inside the waterfall, he is soon followed by Ryu and Yakko with help of Captain Austin. As they entering to Shambhala, Ryu and Yakko find a giant golden egg-shaped vessel, the Sacred Egg, floating like a sun, they continued to rescue Surya.

In the meantime, Prof. Aikawa goes to Khajuraho once again to finds another way of entering to Shambhala along with Shakti, Yukari and Hige, by using the grail counterpart, the Cup of Death, and join them in a foursome position which similarly to Khajuraho's erotic sculpture. As prince Rudra and princess Surya enter the Sacred Egg, Prof. Aikawa and his allies (who's shown naked in foursome position) appear before him. Soon after, Ryu and Yakko also arrive and Ryu manages to catching Rudra just as he enters the egg with Surya, in which the grail falls outside the egg, just as the Sacred Egg elevates itself and fly towards into the space.

As Rudra and Ryu engage in fight, they're interrupted by the group of celestial angels who reside the egg, they give Ryu and Rudra a final task to performed in group sex based on the ''Kamasutra'', as only one can be together with Surya. Ryu decides that he wants to do it with her, and so Rudra takes out from the egg by a Nāga-like creature, killing him. As angels disappear, leave only Surya and Ryu and they both have sex in eternal pleasure. Having fulfilled its purpose, the Sacred Egg now split in two, one takes Ryu and the other Surya, and then fall down to Earth.

By this time, Prof. Aikawa, Yakko, Shakti, Yukari and Hige manages to get all of them back from Shambhala to Earth using the Boat of Garuda with the help of the Sex Grail. As they return, Prof. Aikawa's group saw the two Sacred Egg, the one fall into a river and Ryu released while Surya still inside the other, floating in the sky. Surya lying in fetal position to eternal sleep, fulfilled her promises with him, as a result, the Sacred Egg gets smaller and attaches itself into the grail. Afterward, the next day, the Sex Grail and the Sacred Egg now is then returned to its original place, with Surya (and Ryu's DNA) inside and sealed into the sculpture, while Ryu and his group leave from India and returned to Japan in safely.

Set in inner-city Woolloomooloo in Sydney, New South Wales in 1930, the neighbourhood nice guys are led by Fatty (real name Hubert Finn), an ambitious 10-year-old with an eye for making a quid. From shady frog jumping contests to a fixed goat race, Fatty uses his enterprise to raise enough money to buy a crystal set (radio without a separate power supply) that's worth seventeen shillings & sixpence (17/6), more than his Dad is able to save up in a year. Bruiser Murphy the bully and his gang try to stop him. Fatty uses his brains against his enemies' brawn to eventually triumph.

Gregory Kingsley is a boy who is abused by his father and placed with social services by his mother. The foster family he is put into proves to be the type of nurturing environment he needs. He ends up taking his mother to court, to have her parental rights revoked, in hopes of being adopted by his foster family. The story is based on a real life case of child abuse.

Molly Mahoney, an amateur pianist, is an employee at "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium", a magical toy shop run by 243-year-old Mr. Edward Magorium. Besides Molly and Mr. Magorium, store bookbuilder Bellini, a strongman, is also employed. Eric Applebaum is a boy who comes to the store daily and functions as an employee despite his age.

Mr. Magorium gives Molly the Congreve Cube, a block of wood, and tells her it will guide her to a new life if she has faith in it. Molly wants to become a concert pianist and composer but has not been able to complete her first concerto.

Mr. Magorium announces that he intends to "leave" and is giving the shop to Molly. In preparation for his departure, Mr. Magorium hires an accountant, Henry Weston to organize the shop's paperwork and determine his legacy to Molly. Henry does not believe that the toy store is magical.

When Molly becomes upset about her inability to properly run the store, the Emporium 'throws a tantrum', assaulting everyone inside with the toys until Mr. Magorium calms it down. Molly realizes that Mr. Magorium is going to die, so she rushes him to a hospital until he is discharged the next day. She then attempts to prevent Mr. Magorium's departure by showing him the joys of life. Back at the store, Mr. Magorium uses the stage notes of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'' to make a point about the natural simplicity of death before dying himself. Believing herself to be incapable of owning a magical store, Molly puts the Emporium up for sale, and the store loses all its magic.

Henry meets Molly to draw up the sale papers, where he sees the Congreve Cube and asks her about it. When Molly confesses her complete faith in the store, the block flies around the store. After witnessing this, Henry faints with shock. When he awakes and questions Molly, she tells him that it was a dream. He then learns Molly made the cube fly and he believes in her, realizing Molly can be anything if she believes in herself. The store returns to its former glory as Molly's confidence increases.

The first act takes place outside a spa overlooking a fjord. Sculptor Arnold Rubek and his wife Maia have just enjoyed breakfast and are reading newspapers and drinking champagne. They marvel at how quiet the spa is. Their conversation is lighthearted, but Arnold hints at a general unhappiness with his life. Maia also hints at disappointment. Arnold had promised to take her to a mountaintop to see the whole world as it is, but they have never done so.

The hotel manager passes by with some guests and inquires if the Rubeks need anything. During their encounter, a mysterious woman dressed in white passes by, followed closely by a nun in black. Arnold is drawn to her for some reason. The manager does not know much about her, and he tries to excuse himself before Squire Ulfheim can spot him. Unable to do so, Ulfheim corners him and requests breakfast for his hunting dogs. Spotting the Rubeks, he introduces himself and mocks their plans to take a cruise, insisting that the water is too contaminated by other people. He is stopping at the spa on his way to a mountain hunt for bears, and he insists that the couple should join him, as the mountains are unpolluted by people.

Maia takes Ulfheim up on his offer to watch his dogs eat breakfast, leaving Arnold alone with the mysterious woman. He quickly realizes that she is Irena, his former model. Irena constantly refers to herself as being 'dead'. During their conversation, she explains that posing for Arnold was akin to a kind of 'self murder', where he captured her soul and put it into his masterpiece, a sculpture called ''Resurrection''. He confesses that he has never been the same since working with Irena. Though ''Resurrection'' brought him great fame and an abundance of other work, he feels a similar kind of death as Irena feels.

Irena mysteriously alludes to killing all of her lovers since posing for Arnold. She claims to always possess a knife, and also admits to murdering every child she has had, sometimes while they are still in the womb. When Irena asks where Arnold is going after his stay at the spa, she dismisses the idea of the cruise and asks him to meet her up in the high mountains. Maia returns with Ulfheim, asking Arnold if they can abandon the cruise and join Ulfheim on his mountain hunt. Arnold tells her that she is free to do so and says that he is thinking of going that way himself.

The second act takes place outside a health resort in the mountains. Maia finds Arnold beside a brook. She has spent the morning with Ulfheim. The couple return to their discussion of Arnold's unhappiness, and he confesses that he has grown tired of Maia. He wants to live with Irena because she had the key to the lock which holds his artistic inspiration. Their relationship was never sexual, because Arnold felt it would have ruined ''Resurrection''. Maia is hurt but insists that Arnold should do as he pleases. She even suggests that perhaps the three of them could live together if she cannot find a new place to live.

Irena enters, and Maia urges Arnold to speak with her. The pair cast flower petals into the brook and reminisce sentimentally about their long-ago collaboration. At one point, Arnold refers to their 'episode', and Irena draws her knife, preparing to stab him in the back. When he turns around, she hides the knife. Arnold asks Irena to come live with him and work with him again, explaining that she can unlock his artistic vision once more. She insists that there is no way to resurrect a partnership like theirs, but they agree to pretend they can. Maia returns with Ulfheim, on their way to a hunt. She is happy and explains that she feels like she is finally awake. She sings a little song to herself, "I am free...No longer in prison, I'll be! I'm as free as a bird, I am free!"

The final act takes place on the rocky mountainside, with narrow paths and a shabby hunting hut. Maia and Ulfheim enter already in an argument over his sexual advances. Maia demands to be taken down to the resort. Ulfheim points out that the path is too difficult for her and she will surely die on her own. Arnold and Irena come up the path from the resort. Ulfheim is surprised that they have made it on their own, since the path is so difficult. He warns them that a storm is coming. Since he can only guide one person at a time, he agrees to take Maia down the path, and urges Irena and Arnold to take shelter in the hut until he can return with help.

Irena is horrified at being rescued. She is convinced that the nun will commit her to an asylum. She draws the knife again to kill herself. Arnold insists that she should not. Irena confesses that she almost killed him earlier, but she stopped because she realized he was already dead. She explains that the love that belongs to their earthly life is dead in both of them. However, Arnold points out that they are both still free, insisting that "we two dead things live life for once to the full". Irena agrees but urges that they must do it above the clouds of the gathering storm. They agree to climb the mountain so that they can be married by the sunlight. As they happily ascend out of view, Maia's song is heard in the distance. Suddenly, an avalanche roars down the mountain. Arnold and Irene can be seen carried to their deaths. The nun has followed Irena up the mountain and witnesses the horror with a scream. After a moment of silence, she says "Pax vobiscum!" (Peace be with you), as Maia's song still lingers in the air.

The player takes the role of Assil, the son of a respected architect in Cairo. Assil is a party animal but at some point one of his party-nights turned out sour. When he tries to have some fun in the pyramids with two friends of his, he accidentally breaks some urns and thus disturbs the mummy resting in the pyramid. The mummy punishes Assil by placing a death curse on him, and now he has 24 hours to remove the curse and save himself. Later in the game Assil meets the Arabian ambassador's daughter Thara, who is also a playable character.

Jan Klose, Creative Director at Deck13 Interactive, also cited ''Monkey Island'' to be an influence for the ''Ankh'' series.

Fashion photographer Dani Reynolds's life suddenly changes after the death of her husband. That's when she discovers that he was actually an undercover CIA agent. When she learns he had been murdered, she recruits Mac Harper, a former Special Forces Operator, to help her find her husband's killers.

Henry Towler, her husband's boss, then offers her the dead husband's job. Dani would pretend she was still a photographer and Mac would be her model. Henry would send them anywhere in the world where Americans are in trouble or criminals need to be caught. Once there, they act pretty much on their own.

After the death of actor Jon-Erik Hexum, who played Mac, the episode "Writer's Block" introduced Dani's new assistant, Jack Striker. Jack was a CIA agent who, like Mac, operated under the cover of a model.

At the end of the episode "Writer's Block", they explained that 'Mac' was not coming back and ran the following message that replaced the closing credits:

"When a star dies, its light continues to shine across the universe for milleniums [sic]...John-Eric Hexum [sic] died in October of this year... but the lives he touched will continue to be brightened by his light... forever... and ever..."

In the valley barony of Spielburg, the evil ogress Baba Yaga has cursed the land and the baron who tried to drive her off. His daughter has disappeared and his son has been transformed into a bear, while the land is ravaged by monsters and brigands. The Valley of Spielburg is in need of a Hero able to solve these problems. The player's character is a customized adventurer whose name and class is chosen by the player. The game follows the Hero, who is a recent graduate of the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School, on his journey into the land. He must help people and become a proclaimed Hero.

The adventurer battles brigands and monsters such as kobolds, solves side quests (such as finding lost items and spell ingredients) and helps fantasy creatures such as a dryad, a hermit and a colourful collection of furry creatures called Meeps. Fulfilling quests will grant him experience and money, which he may use to buy equipment and potions. The game is open-ended, which means the player can explore all the game at once and solve the quests in any order. During the quest, the character also meets recurring series characters such as the wizard Erasmus and his familiar Fenrus, and first hears tales of the benevolent faery Erana.

While the game can be completed without solving the secondary quests, in the optimal ending, which nets the player the maximum score and serves as canon for the remainder of the series, the player frees the baronet from a powerful curse and thwarts the plans of the witch Baba Yaga. Finally, the adventurer frees the baron's daughter, Elsa von Spielburg, from the curse which had transformed her into the brigand leader. By doing so, the adventurer fulfills a prophecy, restores Spielburg Valley to prosperity, and is awarded the title of Hero. After this, the Hero, along with the merchant Abdulla Doo and the innkeepers Shameen and Shema, leaves on a magic carpet for Shapeir, the homeland of the three, setting the plan for the sequel, ''Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire''.

Bob the Tomato and Dad Asparagus are driving Veggie children to see the popular singer "Twippo" in concert. During the drive, Laura taunts the other children because she won a backstage pass, which particularly annoys Junior. Bob briefly loses control of the van after being hit in the back of the head by a guitar, and Laura loses her pass in the chaos. To make matters worse, soon afterwards a porcupine shoots out two of the van's tires, and the van veers off the road and careens down a hill, stopping short of a river.

In a nearby restaurant, Bob blames Dad Asparagus for the crash and Junior tells Laura losing her pass was her own fault. Junior is met by The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, who tell Junior he was being rather tough on his friend and encourage him to show some compassion. To illustrate their point, they tell all the Veggies a story about a man of God named Jonah.

Jonah is a Prophet of ancient Israel who goes from town to town delivering God's messages. One night, God asks him to deliver a message to the people of Nineveh; however, Jonah is unwilling to preach a word of repentance to the Ninevites since they are people of corruption and instead tries to flee from the Lord by having The Pirates sail him to Tarshish. After leaving port, a guilt-stricken Jonah goes below deck to rest where he meets Khalil.

After experiencing a nightmare, Jonah awakens to find the ship beset by a great storm. Captain Pa Grape concludes the storm has been sent because God is angry at someone on the ship. The group decides to play Go Fish to divine who is at fault. Jonah loses the game and is forced to walk the plank and as soon as Jonah is off the ship, the skies clear. The Pirates attempt to reel Jonah back in, but before they can do so, Jonah is swallowed by a giant whale. The pirates attack the whale using a cannon with a bowling ball as ammo. The whale swallows the ball, disgorges Jonah's lifebelt, and swims away.

Inside the belly of the whale, Khalil finds a grieving Jonah and the pair are soon visited by a host of God's angels, who explain if Jonah repents, God will grant him a second chance. Upon repenting, Jonah and Khalil are spit up onto the shore, where they ride Reginald to Nineveh.

After Jonah is denied entrance to the city, the Pirates appear, explaining they won the Mr. Twisty's Twisted Cheese Curls sweepstakes which grants them free access to Nineveh where they are produced. The group is soon arrested after Larry accidentally steals the King's Cheese Curls and are sentenced to death. As a last request, they are granted an audience with King Twistomer. Jonah then delivers the message given to him by God the Ninevites should immediately repent of their ways forever or Nineveh will be destroyed; King Twistomer and the Ninevites quickly agree.

Still expecting God to destroy Nineveh for their past sins, Jonah watches and waits from a distance in the hot sun. God provides a plant to shade Jonah, only for Khalil to eat a single leaf off the plant, which kills it. Jonah laments the dead plant, and Khalil is disappointed Jonah shows compassion for a plant, but not the Ninevites. Khalil then tries to explain God is compassionate and merciful and that he wants to give everyone, both Israelites and non-Israelites, a second chance. Jonah refuses to accept this and states it would be better if he was dead. The story ends with Khalil and Reginald leaving Jonah to his sulking.

Back in the present day, the Veggies are disappointed in the anti-climactic ending, but come to understand the point of the story: God wants everybody to show compassion and mercy, even to those that do not seem to deserve it. Twippo then appears in the restaurant unexpectedly and offers to give everybody a lift to the concert, while Bob forgives Dad Asparagus and Junior gives his Twippo ticket to Laura. The film ends with a song and the arrival of a tow truck driver, who is none other than Khalil.

Amanda Lemmon is a nine-year-old orphan who is being sought after by the Butkises, a reclusive, secretive family known to "collect" kids via adoption. She actually wants Diane Barrows, her social worker, to adopt her instead. Diane would like to do so, but authorities will not let her because of her low salary, unmarried status, and social worker position. While at summer camp, Amanda meets a rich girl named Alyssa Callaway, who looks just like Amanda. She's just come home from boarding school, only to find that her billionaire father and the camp's owner, Roger, is about to marry Clarice Kensington, an overbearing, self-centered, gold-digging socialite.

Amanda and Alyssa soon become acquainted, each longing for the other's life and decide to switch places. While Amanda adapts to Alyssa's wealthy lifestyle and Alyssa gets to experience summer camp, they get to know the other's parental figure and discover that Roger and Diane would be perfect for each other. Desperate to set them up, they arrange many meetings between them, hoping that they'll fall in love.

Roger and Diane do seem to hit it off upon meeting, as she is pleasantly surprised with his kind and humble nature despite his wealth, and he, with her help, is able to work up the courage to visit the camp again, which he has not done since his first wife (and Alyssa's mother) died, due to painful memories of her untimely death.

Upon having spied Roger and Diane laughing and swimming together in the lake one afternoon, Clarice manipulates Roger into moving the wedding up from the next month to the next day and Amanda, while posing as Alyssa, finds out that she plans on sending her off to boarding school in Tibet afterward. Alyssa ends up being adopted by the Butkises without Diane's knowledge while posing as Amanda.

Roughly two hours before the wedding, Amanda proves to the family butler, Vincenzo, that she is not Alyssa. He visits Diane at the orphanage and tells her about the switch. Diane arrives at the Butkises’ residence via helicopter to pick up the real Alyssa and get her to the wedding. Diane discovers the only reason the Butkises had adopted so many kids was to put them to work in their salvage yard as slave laborers. Furious, Diane reclaims Alyssa (disguised as Amanda) and threatens to report the Butkises to social services, giving their other adopted children hope for salvation.

Vincenzo and Amanda try their best to stall the wedding. As Roger hesitates to say "I do," he recalls all the good times he had with Diane and realizes that he has fallen in love with her, and he therefore cannot marry Clarice. All of a sudden, Diane bursts into the church with Alyssa behind her. At that moment, Roger confesses his love for Diane to Clarice, who furiously slaps him. She tries to do the same to "Alyssa", blaming her for sabotaging their wedding, but is stopped by Vincenzo. As she storms down the aisle, the real Alyssa steps out from behind Diane, and Clarice claims that there is a "conspiracy", thinking that there are two Alyssas. She tries to slap the real Alyssa, but Diane steps forward in time, barking at her, "Back off, Barbie," and calmly informs her that she has something in her teeth. Humiliated, Clarice moves to storm out of the church again, but Alyssa deliberately steps on her wedding gown, causing the skirt to rip off and exposing her white knickers to the whole church.

An incredulous Roger learns that Alyssa has been with Diane, while he had Amanda, all this time and it becomes apparent to them that the girls had orchestrated their meet-ups all along, about which they are extremely smug. After some encouragement from them, Roger and Diane share a kiss, and the four of them board a horse-drawn carriage, driven by Vincenzo, to take a ride through Central Park.

Willard Young is a 10-year-old boy who is sent by his mother to stay with her best friend Lily Reed, who lives in the Delta shrimp-fishing country in a town called Paradise. At that town, Willard meets 9-year-old Billie Pike. Despite Billie being a troublemaker, she becomes friends with Willard. Lily and Ben also become fond of Willard despite the tragedy of their 2-year old son’s death. Soon, Billie teaches Willard to face his fears although Billie has troubles of her own. When Billie finds out her dad is a skater, she goes to a skating area with Willard only for her dad to tell her to leave much to Billie’s dismay.

Later at a party, Billie tells Willard his father left him and his mother for another woman. Upon hearing this, Willard becomes so upset that he runs away and goes missing for a while. When Ben finds him, he doesn’t trust him until he saves him from a bad accident. Later in the film, Lily blames herself for her son’s death but Ben reassures her. Towards the end of the film, Willard has to go home and he sees his mother’s new baby. The film ends with Lily and Ben kissing under their porch. That doesn’t mean that they have recovered from the tragedy but it does mean that they have regained their love.

Ryan Jeffers suffers a disability to his leg preventing him from trying out for sports and fitting in with other kids at school. He is currently the waterboy of his school's football team and has a crush on quarterback Brad's girlfriend. He often seeks escape through comic books and dreams of adventure, hiding the depression of his disability from his mother Kathryn.

One day, the owner of his favorite restaurant, his friend Ming, gives him a manuscript of Tao representing the five elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Wood and Metal. He advises Ryan to live his life no matter his physical limits. That night, Ryan and his best friend Chucky are approached by Brad and his friends who suggest an initiation for their group. Leading them to a water plant, Ryan is told he needs to cross a narrow pipe in order to sign his name on a wall of graffiti. Chucky recommends to Ryan, "why don't we make like Tom, and Cruise?" Ignoring Chucky's protests, Ryan attempts to cross the pipe. During this time, a water pipe opens up and throws Ryan into the water.

Ryan wakes in a strange forest and is attacked by assailants who are drawn off by a creature from the lake. He screams and runs in fear, but soon realizes his leg works. He meets a dwarf-like man named Mudlap before a beautiful girl named Elysia drives him off. She tells Ryan that he is in Tao. Ryan tells her about the manuscript, which had been stolen with his backpack. Believing it to be the Manuscript of Legend, Elysia takes Ryan to Master Chung and he meets four of the five warriors, anthropomorphic kangaroos each representing an element: Lai, Warrior of Wood; Chi, Warrior of Fire; Tsun, Warrior of Earth; and Yee, Warrior of Metal. He is told that Yun, the Warrior of Water had left them following an earlier conflict. Ryan thinks that the creature that saved him is Yun and that he has the manuscript. He is told that the manuscript would be sought by Komodo, a warlord who betrayed the Warriors and is stealing from the Lifesprings of Tao in order to stay young forever where the Warriors are protecting the last Lifespring. While talking to Elysia, Ryan is captured by Mantose, Barbarocious, and Dullard, but is saved by Yun who admits he doesn't have the book leading Ryan to believe Komodo has it. He convinces Yun to return to the Lifespring.

Ryan flees, wanting to return home, but Mudlap leads him into General Grillo's arms and he is saved by Chung. Yun, Yee and Chi go after the manuscript and fall into a trap after being betrayed by Elysia, who joined Komodo as vengeance against Yun for killing her brother by accident. They are nearly killed in a trap, but narrowly escape using their skills and they return to the Lifespring to prevent Komodo from ambushing the others. Komodo attempts to kidnap Ryan, but instead fights Chung. The battle is brutal, but Chung is ultimately defeated and killed by Komodo who then makes off with Ryan.

When Ryan awakens at Komodo's palace, Elysia explains of Yun killing her brother and tries to convince him to read from the book so that Komodo could possibly invade his world for more Lifesprings. Ryan realizes he can't read the book and this upsets Komodo, who tries to strike Ryan down. Elysia interferes and is struck down by Barbarocious. Komodo kills Barbarocious in rage as Ryan escapes. Komodo, now growing unhinged, returns to the Lifespring and challenges the Warriors to one-on-one combat, splitting into five versions of himself. He taunts and defeats the warriors while Ryan, after getting an apology from Mudlap for his betrayal, finds an inscription in the manuscript. Facing Komodo and taunting him, Ryan tricks Komodo into using his power on him, weakening him so that the warriors can use their powers to purify his spirit, reforming him to a kind man while purifying his surviving army. Ryan, now mortally wounded, is surrounded by his friends and Yee astonishes his comrades by thanking Ryan as he speaks for the first time in many years.

Suddenly, Ryan is back at the water plant before crossing the pipe. Realizing his desperation to fit in led to his accident, he changes it this time and refusing to go through with it. The water pipe opens like it did before, trapping Brad on the other side. His insults to his friends only prompt them to leave him behind for the police to find.

That night at home, Ryan apologizes to his mother for an earlier argument. When he goes to bed, he offers to tell his dog, Bravo, about Tao.

After getting dumped by his girlfriend Tiffani von der Sloot (Rebekah Kochan), University of Arizona student Caleb Peterson (Scott Lunsford) commiserates with his roommate Kyle (Jim Verraros), who notes that while he has trouble getting the men he wants, he could get any woman because he is gay. Later at a party, Gwen Anderson (Emily Stiles) dumps her boyfriend after he comes out to her. Caleb sees her and becomes infatuated and meets Marc Everhard (Ryan Carnes), with whom Kyle is infatuated. Marc, meanwhile, sees Caleb and is instantly attracted. Kyle comes up with a crazy scheme. He tells Gwen that Caleb is gay so she'll set him up with Marc. Kyle figures that Caleb can use Marc to get to Gwen, while Kyle uses Caleb to get to Marc. Also, Tiffani lives next door to Gwen and Marc so seeing Caleb date Marc would make her crazy.

Caleb and Marc go out on a date then go back to Marc's place to watch a movie. Marc tries to put the moves on Caleb, who is unresponsive. Suddenly Gwen, who is stuck at a friend's house and bored, calls. She talks to Caleb, relaxing and seducing him verbally while Marc takes advantage by performing oral sex on him. Gwen hangs up to come home and Marc masturbates next to Caleb. Caleb, feeling confused and insecure, leaves. He passes Gwen on her way home and she seduces him again, this time physically. They have sex in his convertible. Caleb goes home and goes to bed.

The next morning, Marc calls Caleb and leaves a message. Kyle overhears it and realizes that Marc and Caleb had sex. As Kyle storms into his room, Marc calls back. After the call Caleb goes to Kyle and tells him he has invited Gwen and Marc to dinner to clear everything up. He also says that he knows Kyle has feelings for him and that if he were gay he would love him back, and the two share a small kiss. Gwen and Marc come over for dinner and Caleb is chagrined to see that Kyle has invited Caleb's family as well. Kyle convinces Gwen to "pretend" to be Caleb's date and Marc to "pretend" to be his. Dinner is going well, if a little awkwardly, until Tiffani inexplicably crashes the party. Gwen takes it upon herself to out Caleb to his parents (Murph Michaels and Mattie van der Voort). His parents take it quite well and everyone ends up in a bizarre group hug.

After Caleb's family and Tiffani leave, Gwen verbally attacks Kyle, thinking he is trying to steal Marc from Caleb. She makes it clear that "someone like Marc" would never go out with "someone like him." Caleb convinces Marc to talk to Kyle and Gwen figures out the entire scheme, which she thinks is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for her in light of the lengths to which Caleb went to sleep with her. Marc goes to talk to Kyle and tells Kyle that he was into him all along, having feigned disinterest this whole time. They finally kiss.

In a post-credits scene, Marc and Kyle are shown shirtless, making out in his bed; it is implied they are about to have sex.

Squirrel Nutkin, his brother Twinkleberry, and their many cousins sail to Owl Island on little rafts they have constructed of twigs. They offer resident owl Old Brown a gift and ask his permission to collect nuts on his island. Nutkin, however, dances about impertinently singing a silly riddle. Old Brown pays no attention to Nutkin, but permits the squirrels to go about their work. Every day for six days, the squirrels offer gifts to Old Brown, and every day as well, Nutkin taunts the owl with another sing-song riddle. Eventually, Nutkin annoys Old Brown once too often. The owl seizes Nutkin and tries to skin him alive. Nutkin escapes, losing most of his tail. After this, he becomes furious when he is asked riddles.

The series focuses on the lives of some students and teachers at Nadesico Academy both at school and their private lives. The main character of the series is Kamikura Hiroki, who lives with his younger cousin Elis. Hiroki is training to become a full-fledged art teacher while also trying to take care of Elis. When his childhood friend Kiri starts working at the school, drama begins to flare as he has to juggle his work, private life, and the feelings for these two important girls.

Having fled the besieged Ragnar Anchorage, the convoy of refugee spaceships is relentlessly pursued and attacked by Cylons. The colonial fleet must execute a faster-than-light (FTL) jump every 33 minutes to escape the Cylons, who consistently arrive at the new jump coordinates approximately 33 minutes later. After over 130 hours and 237 jumps, the fleet's crew and passengers, particularly those aboard ''Galactica'', have been operating without sleep while facing the strain of nearly constant military action.

Upon the 238th consecutive jump, ''Olympic Carrier'' (a commercial passenger vessel with 1,345 souls aboard) is left behind and the attacks unexpectedly cease, allowing the fleet some respite. When the vessel arrives three hours later, President Laura Roslin and Commander Adama order Capt. Lee "Apollo" Adama and Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace to destroy it, believing that it has been infiltrated by Cylons and now poses a threat to the fleet's safety. The colonial pilots destroy ''Olympic Carrier'' while the rest of the colonial fleet jumps away. Baltar's internal Number Six explains to him that God is looking after his interests, implying that a scientist aboard ''Olympic Carrier'' was preparing to reveal Baltar's unwitting collusion with the Cylon attack on the colonies.

After the fleet's last jump, the Cylons do not return, and the President's survivor whiteboard aboard ''Colonial One'', the result of a fleetwide census, is updated with one additional soul (to 47,973) with the birth of the fleet's first child aboard ''Rising Star''—a boy.

Meanwhile, on Caprica, Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon is captured by a Cylon patrol and then "rescued" from his Cylon captors by a Number Eight in the guise of his crewmate Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, who shoots a Number Six to free him.

In the fleet

Boomer wakes up in the tool room of the ''Galactica'' hangar deck, soaking wet. Inside of her bag she finds a G-4 explosive and a towel. Upon emerging from the tool room, Boomer learns from Cally that its early morning, not evening as she believes. Returning the detonator to the arms locker, Boomer finds out that six others are missing and becomes panicked.

At the same time President Laura Roslin makes a ceremonial visit to the ''Galactica''. While Roslin believes that Commander William Adama wants the ceremony to feel more comfortable, Apollo changes her opinion on the matter by revealing that Adama hates ceremonial events and was only doing it because he thought it made Roslin feel presidential. While Roslin is on board, the ''Galactica'' begins transferring potable water to the ''Virgon Express'', a ship that relies on ''Galactica'' for its water supply.

As the ''Galactica'' transfers the water to the ''Virgon Express'', a panicked Boomer informs Chief Galen Tyrol of her discovery. Boomer is further panicked due to rumors of Cylons taking on human form and Cylon sleeper agents in the fleet. As the water transfer occurs, several explosions vent the ''Galactica's'' portside water tanks to space, venting 60% of ''Galactica's'' water supplies. Even with rationing, it's quickly determined that ''Galactica'' will run out of water in six days. With one-third of the fleet relying on ''Galactica'' for their water, they will run out within two days. A mission is quickly launched to search five nearby star systems for sources of water.

The subsequent investigation by Tyrol determines that five explosives were used to blow out the tanks and that there is still one detonator missing. The command staff quickly realize that there is a Cylon agent aboard ''Galactica''. Roslin and Adama turn to Doctor Gaius Baltar to identify the agent. In the past Baltar had claimed to find a way of detecting Cylon agents that had allowed him to "identify" Aaron Doral as a Cylon. Baltar quickly makes excuses about why his testing method is no longer viable and Adama assigns Lieutenant Felix Gaeta to assist Baltar. To buy himself some time, Baltar joins a card game led by Starbuck, with whom he unsuccessfully flirts.

With all of the other searches having failed to turn up water, Boomer and her ECO Crashdown search the last system for water. While Crashdown comes up with nothing, Boomer's scans reveal water on the moon they are investigating. However, the last detonator is attached to an explosive on the side of Boomer's seat and Boomer's Cylon programming attempts to compel her to detonate the bomb rather than reveal the existence of the water. Boomer manages to overcome her programming and announces the discovery of a source of water.

Back in the fleet, Boomer and Crashdown are greeted as heroes for their success. Boomer discreetly alerts Tyrol of the bomb in her Raptor; he removes it and gives it to the master-at-arms, claiming to have found it during routine maintenance. Though Tyrol is sure of Boomer's innocence, Boomer remains disturbed by the implications of everything that has happened.

Throughout these events, Apollo remains disturbed by his destruction of the ''Olympic Carrier'' three days prior. Roslin comforts Apollo and requests that he be her special military advisor. Roslin's misunderstanding of Adama's intentions with her ceremonial visit, and Apollo's clearing it up for her, have demonstrated to Roslin that she knows very little about the military and needs someone to help keep such misunderstandings from happening in the future.

On Caprica

Helo and the copy of Boomer return to "Boomer's" Raptor to find it swarming with Cylon Centurions. Unable to escape the planet this way, they are forced to retreat to search for another way off of Caprica.

That night, while camping in a forest, Helo and the Boomer copy discuss why she (supposedly) disobeyed orders to come back for Helo. The Boomer copy claims that she couldn't bring herself to leave Helo behind. At this point in their conversation, they detect a military signal on Helo's radio. While it is indecipherable, the two realize that it means that there are military units still active somewhere on Caprica, and intend to search for them.

William Riker arrives on Deep Space Nine and proceeds to charm the crew, especially Major Kira. She takes him on a tour of the station and its new ship, the ''Defiant''. Once aboard, he draws a phaser and stuns her, fakes a warp-core breach, and steals the ship with Kira aboard.

The station crew soon discovers that the thief is not Will Riker but his duplicate Thomas, who was created in a transporter accident and inadvertently stranded for eight years. Trying to distinguish himself from his more-successful doppelgänger, he has joined the Maquis. The heavily-armed ''Defiant'' under Maquis control now poses a serious threat to Cardassian forces. Commander Sisko is faced with the challenge of retrieving the ''Defiant'' intact while avoiding an incident with Cardassia that might start a war. He agrees to travel to Cardassia Prime to cooperate with a Cardassian operation led by Gul Dukat to hunt Riker down. The operation is observed by the Obsidian Order, the feared Cardassian intelligence agency.

After infiltrating Cardassian space and attacking an outpost, Riker takes the ''Defiant'' to the Orias system, which he believes contains a secret shipbuilding facility. When Sisko analyzes Riker's movements and realizes that his target is Orias, Dukat, believing the system to be barren and of no value, orders his ships to intercept. His Obsidian Order observer Korinas, however, warns him that any ship, Cardassian or otherwise, that approaches the system will be destroyed.

The ''Defiant'' manages to outrun its pursuers into the Orias system, but is confronted by several more Cardassian ships appearing from the system itself. Suspicious, Dukat confronts Korinas, inferring that the ships from the Orias system must belong to the Obsidian Order, who are strictly forbidden from possessing military equipment of any kind. With the ''Defiant'' trapped between the two fleets, Sisko arranges a deal with Dukat: In exchange for the ''Defiant'' s sensor logs of the system, which will provide evidence of the Obsidian Order's illegal military buildup, the ''Defiant'' will surrender to Dukat's lead ship and will be returned along with its crew to the Federation, and Riker will be sentenced to a Cardassian labor camp rather than to death. Kira persuades Riker to accept the terms. The opposing ships approach the ''Defiant'' and its Cardassian escorts, but abort the confrontation and return to the Orias system. Riker beams to the Cardassian ship, leaving Kira in control to return to Deep Space Nine.

In the bored suburban atmosphere of a Canadian city, Scott (Scott Speedman) decides to throw a celebratory get-together with friends in his parents' home. Unfortunately, there's a catch: Scott's parents happen to be particularly anal about the direction the carpet fibers lay and the distance from doily to table-edge. This means that the only part of the house that is safe, that is, the only part of the house with no carpeting and therefore no potential mess, is the tiled kitchen.

The festivities begin once the parents go off to a party of their own, leaving Scott and his buddy, Wayne (Tygh Runyan), with a house that would be entirely empty but for Scott's mysterious brother lurking in the basement listening to rock music. Scott's parents at the adult party, which descends into drunken bickering.

At the teen party, soon the girls are arriving, including Scott's girlfriend, Tammy (Laura Harris) — whom he plans on bedding before the night is over — and alcohol, drugs, music, more people, and everything else that characterizes a stereotypical house party follows. This includes calamity, as Scott quickly discovers just how much can go wrong in one night of kitchen partying.

In the fleet

Following the discovery of a new source of water, Chief Galen Tyrol and his teams determine that it is in the ice of a moon with an incredibly harsh climate. They determine that they will need a thousand men ideally to mine the water for usage in the fleet which is experiencing water riots due to the shortages.

Commander William Adama and Apollo suggest using the prisoners on the ''Astral Queen'' for the needed labor. The 1,500 men on the ship have been sentenced to hard labor and were on their way to parole hearings when the attacks occurred. Apollo suggests using incentives such as points towards their freedom to get the men to cooperate. Roslin agrees to use volunteers and assigns her Chief of Staff Billy Keikeya to help sort out which prisoners can be trusted and which cannot. At odds with Apollo, Adama decides to send someone he can trust to report to him on security matters. Due to his attraction to her, Billy suggests Petty Officer Anastasia "Dee" Dualla which is agreed to. Adama sends deck hand Cally along to make sure that the volunteers can actually use the needed equipment.

On the ''Astral Queen'', Apollo makes his proposal, but no one steps forward. Finally, a man comes forward to reject Apollo's offer. Billy recognizes the man as Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch) an infamous political terrorist from Sagittaron. Billy's admiration of Zarek creates conflict between him and Dee who, while from the same colony, doesn't approve of Zarek's methods.

Apollo attempts to negotiate with Zarek for his help, having admired and respected Zarek for a long time. During the negotiations, the prisoners escape and riot with the help of a guard and take over the ''Astral Queen'', taking the crew, Cally, Billy, Apollo and Dee hostage. Zarek then makes a broadcast to the fleet, demanding that Roslin and her ministers step down and free and open elections be held to elect a new government. Zarek argues his views with Apollo, stating that he doesn't see Roslin's presidency as legitimate due to her not being elected.

As the situation continues, Adama contacts Zarek in an attempt to defuse the situation while sending the marines and Starbuck to regain control of the ''Astral Queen'' and put an end to the situation. After Zarek refuses to listen to Adama and eagerly awaits the arrival of the Marines, Apollo realizes that Zarek really wants a bloodbath and to go out in a blaze of glory. Zarek reveals that his intentions are to become a martyr that will inspire the fleet to overthrow Roslin and Adama.

While Apollo and Zarek talk, a prisoner named Mason notices Cally's utter defiance of him. When Cally refuses to show him respect, Mason takes Cally to rape her. When Mason tries, Cally bites off part of his ear and Mason shoots and seriously wounds Cally. Though the commotion draws Zarek and Apollo to the scene, Zarek refuses to intervene, claiming that Mason's imprisonment turned him into a monster and "you reap what you sow." As Mason prepares to kill Cally, Apollo is able to overpower one of Zarek's men and use his gun to kill Mason.

As Starbuck and the marines arrive, Apollo gets Zarek at gunpoint but chooses not to kill him. Instead, Apollo acknowledges that Zarek is right about the freedom of law. Apollo offers Zarek a deal: in exchange for Zarek and his men helping to mine the water, they will give them their freedom and the ''Astral Queen''. Apollo also promises to hold elections within a year. Zarek agrees and orders his men to stand down. Though Starbuck still tries to kill Zarek, Apollo saves his life.

In the aftermath, Apollo reminds Roslin and Adama that Roslin is only supposed to finish out the last seven months of President Adar's term and then hold elections. Apollo has only obligated Roslin to what she is legally obligated to do. The prisoners have been disarmed and left the ''Astral Queen'' and are now mining the water for the fleet. After Adama leaves, Roslin privately admits to having been diagnosed with cancer to Apollo who agrees to keep it a secret.

While the crisis goes on, Doctor Gaius Baltar is approached by Adama about his Cylon detector. While Baltar starts to claim that he can't make one, his internal Six prompts Baltar to tell Adama that he needs a nuclear warhead to complete his detector. Despite ''Galactica'' only having five left, Adama reluctantly agrees.

Due to the water shortage, Starbuck and Colonel Tigh both compensate by drinking alcohol and being inebriated on the job. While Tigh chastises Starbuck's behavior towards the pilots, he also backs her up with Adama, causing Starbuck to attempt to reach out to him by sharing some of the newly mined water. Tigh rejects the gesture however.

Boomer continues to be nervous about the potential of her being a Cylon sleeper agent. Tyrol reassures Boomer that the master-at-arms investigation into the bombing has turned up no clues pointing towards Boomer as the bomber. Catching the two in an embrace, Colonel Tigh privately tells Boomer that the entire ship knows about their relationship which is against military regulations. However, while it was ignored while ''Galactica'' was in the process of being decommissioned, they are now in a combat situation and Tigh orders Boomer to put a stop to it. Boomer agrees to do so.

On Caprica

On Caprica 12 days after the Fall, Helo and the Boomer copy make their way through a deserted city with only two days of anti-radiation medication left to them. The two intend to locate a hospital to find more medication, but come across rats feasting on a corpse, disturbing Sharon. Helo reassures her that they will "make it all the way" and suggests that someone must be watching over them.

Unnoticed by Helo or Sharon, they are observed by a copy of Number Six and Aaron Doral. The two comment on Sharon's skill while the Six expresses sadness at the destruction surrounding them. While Six feels that humanity is their parents in a sense, Doral tells her that parents must die in order for children to come into their own.

In the fleet

President Laura Roslin visits ''Galactica'' doctor Sherman Cottle about her cancer. Cottle determines that Roslin's cancer is far beyond surgical means of removal and suggests an aggressive chemotherapy-like treatment. Due to her mother's experiences with the treatment, Roslin refuses and decides to instead go on chamalla, an alternative means of treatment.

During a party for the 1,000th landing of a Raptor pilot named Flat Top, an accident occurs, killing thirteen pilots and injuring seven more. Needing pilots, Commander William Adama orders Starbuck, a former flight instructor, to train more pilots. Haunted by the memories of her fiancé Zak Adama whose death she feels responsible for, Starbuck is overly harsh on the pilots ("nuggets") and fails them after the first day.

While discussing the situation with his father, Apollo inadvertently reveals that Starbuck holds guilt about something to do with Zak's death. After Adama confronts her, Starbuck tearfully admits that though Zak failed basic flight, she passed him due to their engagement. As a result, he had a fatal accident that killed him. Adama angrily orders Starbuck to reinstate the nuggets and to get out his sight.

Following Adama's dressing down of her, Starbuck begins acting like an actual flight instructor, leaving her issues out of the cockpit. However, while on a flight with nuggets Hotdog, Kat and Chuckles, eight Cylon Raiders suddenly appear. As ''Galactica'' launches Vipers, Starbuck sends the nuggets back and attacks the Raiders alone in a sure suicide run, hoping to hold them off and allow the trainees to escape. Disobeying orders, Hotdog returns to help Starbuck fight off the Raiders, destroying one before his Viper is disabled.

During a dogfight with the last Raider, Starbuck is able to take it out with a shot to the "head." However, the Raider collides with Starbuck's Viper, sending both ships into the atmosphere of a nearby moon. With her Viper in a flat spin, Starbuck is forced to eject and falls towards the moon.

On Caprica

Twelve days after the fall of the Twelve Colonies, Helo and the copy of Boomer follow the signal they picked up to a restaurant. Underneath the restaurant, the two discover a fully stocked but abandoned fallout shelter. Helo and Sharon find an automated disaster beacon which is what led them to the shelter. Outside, a copy of Number Six looks into the restaurant, apparently knowing Helo and Sharon are inside, but continues on her way.

In the fleet

After ejecting from her Viper, Starbuck awakens on a moon with a poisonous atmosphere. While avoiding being dragged over a cliff by her tangled-up parachute, Starbuck hits her knee on a rock, seriously injuring it. Starbuck is left trapped on the moon's surface with around two days of air and her radio broken.

Boomer is able to rescue Hotdog from his disabled Viper, but finds no sign of Starbuck. In response, Apollo begins a search and rescue mission for Starbuck, ultimately focusing the majority of the search on the moon Starbuck crashed on. Due to the composition of the moon's atmosphere, the search consumes over 40% of ''Galactica's'' aviation fuel reserves and leaves over a dozen Vipers down for maintenance. Even when Starbuck's air supply runs out, Commander William Adama refuses to abandon the search, relieving Colonel Tigh of duty when he disagrees and redeploying the CAP to the search despite it leaving the fleet essentially defenseless.

In the early stages of the search, President Laura Roslin offers her help, lending the civilian ships to ''Galactica's'' search for Starbuck. Doctor Gaius Baltar is reminded by his internal Six that they have at most three days before the Cylons realize their patrol is missing and send more ships. Baltar warns Roslin who presses on, but grows increasingly alarmed by Adama and Apollo's tactics. After learning of their history with Starbuck from Colonel Tigh, Roslin is able to make the two men see sense and call off the search.

While the search goes on, Starbuck searches for higher ground in hopes of being found. In her search, Starbuck finds the Cylon Raider she shot down before crashing on the moon. Finding the Raider intact aside from a hole in the "head" where her shot hit, Starbuck decides to hijack the ship to return to ''Galactica''. To Starbuck's surprise, she finds that the Raider is actually a living being instead of a mechanical ship and manages to repair the hole and figure out the Raider's controls.

As the fleet prepares to jump, they detect Starbuck's hijacked Raider on DRADIS. Unaware that the ship is under the control of Starbuck, Apollo is launched to intercept and destroy it. Starbuck is able to evade Apollo's attempts to destroy her and get over his ship, revealing her name written on the underside of the Raider's wings. Realizing that the Raider is under the control of Starbuck, the relieved Adama allows Apollo to escort it aboard ''Galactica''. On board, Starbuck is taken to the infirmary where she reconciles with Adama about Zak's death.

On Caprica

Fifteen days after the fall of the Twelve Colonies, Helo and Sharon remain in the fallout shelter they discovered under a restaurant a few days before. While the two have come to enjoy the place as a home, Helo expresses a desire to continue searching for a way off of Caprica now that they have three months of anti-radiation medication and his leg wound has healed.

While making breakfast, Helo is discovered by a patrol of Cylon Centurions. Helo destroys one, but is knocked unconscious by falling debris in the gunfight. Upon regaining consciousness, Helo finds the remaining Centurion gone and no sign of Sharon.

In the fleet

As Chief Tyrol and Boomer have an illicit encounter, a copy of Aaron Doral boards the ship amongst a group of civilians before making his way to C deck. There, Doral is spotted by both Colonel Tigh and Commander Adama. When confronted, Doral commits a suicide bombing, killing three people and injuring thirteen more.

In the aftermath, Adama reveals to ''Galactica's'' master-at-arms Sergeant Hadrian that the Cylons now have human form and that there are many copies of each model. Adama requests that Hadrian run an investigation into Doral's bombing. Citing the recent security breaches such as the water tank explosion, Hadrian requests an independent tribunal that will allow her to act separate from command review. Adama agrees despite President Roslin warning that such a tribunal could turn into a witch hunt. In light of the suicide bombing, Roslin reluctantly agrees to tell the public that the Cylons now have human form in hopes that despite the panic it will cause, that the action will help to expose more Cylon agents within the fleet. Roslin also shares with the press pictures of Doral and Leoben Conoy, the two known Cylon models.

While being visited by Baltar, an injured Starbuck suggests that Baltar's Cylon detector project, which is located on C deck, was the target of Doral's bombing. Frightened, Baltar decides to destroy his project but is forcefully stopped by his internal Six.

Hadrian's investigation is able to determine that a Cylon agent or collaborator used an open hatch on the hangar deck to reach a small arms locker where a Marine guard was killed and the explosives stolen. Hadrian focuses on Chief Tyrol after the deck gang, in an attempt to protect Tyrol, concocts three different stories about where he had been. Eventually Hadrian goes so far as to question Adama, implying that Tyrol and Boomer are both Cylon collaborators. Stating that Hadrian has lost perspective and turned the tribunal into a witch hunt, Adama dismisses it and has Hadrian arrested despite the tribunal pointing out that he has no power over them. In the aftermath of Hadrian's arrest, the tribunal places the blame on Specialist Socinus who had confessed to leaving the hatch open under interrogation to protect Tyrol. Socinus is stripped of his rank and confined to the brig. Despite knowing Socinus is innocent, Adama refuses to intervene on his behalf.

Following Socinus's arrest, Tyrol ends his relationship with Boomer, recognizing that his reckless actions caused an innocent man to be imprisoned. Tyrol begins to grow suspicious of Boomer, as she came through the hatch in question just before the bombing.

On Caprica

Seventeen days after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, following Sharon's apparent capture by Cylon forces, Sharon, a copy of Aaron Doral and Number Six watch Helo from a distance. The three have faked Sharon's capture by Cylon forces to test Helo's love for her by determining whether or not he will go after Sharon or will continue to find a way off of Caprica.

At nightfall, the three observe Helo as he apparently chooses to abandon Sharon before changing his mind. To continue on with the next phase of their plan, the Six brutally beats Sharon. Helo's search for Sharon leads him to a wrecked parking garage where he finds a Cylon Centurion dragging Sharon. Helo destroys the Centurion and "rescues" the beaten and bloody Sharon. Unknown to Helo, the entire event is watched by Doral and Six from a distance.

In the fleet

While conversing with his internal Six in his mental version of his house, Baltar dismisses the existence of God. Six, appearing hurt, then disappears from Baltar's mind. Moments after Six disappears, Baltar is called to the CIC where he learns that a woman named Shelly Godfrey is accusing him of being a Cylon collaborator. Shelly has the form of Six, but the entire CIC crew can see her to Baltar's shock. Shelly claims to be a systems analyst from the Defense Ministry who worked closely with Doctor Amarak. Shelly provides a photograph of a man entering the defense mainframe with an explosive charge that she claims is Baltar. Shelly's story is that Amarak gave it to her shortly before his death when the ''Olympic Carrier'' was destroyed. The picture contains a reflection of the saboteur and Lieutenant Felix Gaeta is assigned to clean up the image while Baltar's work on the Cylon detector and security clearance is suspended.

Baltar begins desperately trying to convince people that he is innocent and that Shelly is a Cylon agent out to discredit him because of his work on the Cylon detector. Baltar has no luck though Commander Adama becomes suspicious of Shelly when she tries to seduce him when Adama questions her story. In response, Adama has Shelly followed at all times by the marines. During this time, Baltar seeks his internal Six for help, only to find that she has completely vanished from his mind. At one point, Baltar tries to convince Gaeta in the head to believe him before assaulting Shelly.

In a desperate attempt to exonerate himself, Baltar distracts Gaeta with a fire alarm and attempts to destroy the damning photograph which Gaeta has managed to clean up, revealing Baltar's face. Baltar fails and is arrested for treason and finds no help even from President Roslin. Finally, Baltar prays to God for help and his Six returns to his side. Shortly afterwards, Gaeta returns with proof that the photograph was a fake and Baltar is exonerated. Gaeta notes that it was almost too easy to find the forgery, suggesting that Shelly wanted to be found out. Shelly has also completely disappeared with no trace of where she went.

At the same time that Baltar is being investigated, Chief Tyrol struggles to figure out Starbuck's captured Cylon Raider. While trying to help Tyrol, Boomer shows a disturbing affection for the Raider and later finds the word Cylon written on her mirror, panicking Boomer further due to her growing suspicions that she is a Cylon. Starbuck, after resisting physical therapy for her injured knee, is motivated to help Tyrol by a visit from Colonel Tigh and is able to once more get the Raider operating.

In the end, Roslin, who had a brief health scare due to overdosing on her cancer medication, publicly exonerates Baltar while exposing Shelly as a Cylon agent to the fleet. Baltar is left wondering if Shelly Godfrey actually ever existed or if she was just a manifestation of his internal Six meant to bolster his reputation. However, Six doesn't clarify the matter.

On Caprica

Twenty four days after being stranded on Caprica, Helo and Sharon flee through a forest pursued by two Cylon Centurions. After stopping for the night, Helo admits his love for Boomer, telling Sharon that he had always respected her relationship with Chief Tyrol but had wanted to be the one with her. The two subsequently make love during a thunderstorm with Helo not noticing Sharon's spine glowing red.

In the fleet

President Roslin has a dream where she is in a forest with a copy of the Cylon Leoben Conoy. As the dream ends, Leoben is suddenly sucked away from her. Upon waking, Roslin is informed by Billy Keikeya that the captain of the ''Gemenon Traveler'' has found a Cylon on his ship. The Cylon is a copy of Leoben who was identified by the pictures recently shared with the fleet. Despite Commander Adama urging Roslin to kill Leoben, she chooses to have Leoben interrogated. Adama chooses to assign Starbuck to the interrogation, believing that she won't be drawn in by Leoben's manipulations.

Boomer continues her strange behavior, now humming a lullaby to the Cylon Raider that Starbuck captured. Having followed Boomer's advice to treat the Raider as an animal rather than a machine, Chief Tyrol and Starbuck have had some luck in deciphering many of its basic controls, but Tyrol is now suspicious that Boomer is a Cylon and remains distant from her. Having heard of Baltar's Cylon detector, Boomer visits him to get tested. After Boomer reminds Baltar that she saved his life on Caprica and that Helo gave up his seat for Baltar, he agrees to use Boomer as a Beta test, learning in the process that Boomer's entire family is dead in a mining accident that destroyed her whole colony. Baltar's Cylon detector reveals that Boomer is indeed a Cylon, but Baltar's internal Six warns him that Boomer is likely unaware of her true nature and her Cylon side will kill him to keep the secret. As a result, Baltar lies to Boomer that she's a human.

On the ''Gemenon Traveler'', Starbuck interrogates Leoben who recognizes Starbuck by callsign even though Starbuck refuses to tell him her name. Leoben claims he has hidden a nuclear weapon on one of the ships in the fleet that will go off at 18:30 hours. Starbuck is forced to continue interrogating Leoben while the fleet searches for the bomb without success. As Starbuck employs multiple methods of torture, particularly waterboarding, Leoben claims to be able to see the future and speaks of his religious beliefs with Starbuck who believes that he is simply afraid that he is too far away from the Cylon homeworld to download when he dies and is lying as a result. Leoben shows a knowledge of Starbuck's past and an understanding of her character before revealing that the fleet will find Kobol and from there, Earth.

After another disturbing dream featuring Leoben and with less than an hour left until the bomb goes off, Roslin decides to visit Leoben herself. Roslin stops Starbuck's torture of him and extends a hand of peace to Leoben who admits that there is no nuclear bomb. Leoben claims that Starbuck is right: he is just afraid that he is too far away to download when he dies and he made up a lie as a result. However, Leoben whispers in Roslin's ear that "Adama is a Cylon." Disturbed, Roslin immediately orders Leoben blown out the airlock. As Leoben is airlocked, a shocked Roslin recognizes that the event matches the end of her dream.

After Leoben's death, Starbuck prays to the Lords of Kobol to take care of Leoben's soul despite her previous belief that he had none as she knows Leoben feared his soul would not reach God. Roslin meets with Adama over the events and has become secretly suspicious towards Adama due to Leoben's words to her.

On Caprica

The morning after having sex with Helo, Sharon meets with copies of Aaron Doral and Number Six in an abandoned playground. Sharon reveals that she has had sex with Helo and that while she believes that Helo loves her, he hasn't explicitly stated it. The two Cylons reveal that they are building a cabin nearby and Sharon is to convince Helo to build a life with her there or to kill him which Sharon promises to do.

However, after leaving the other Cylons, Sharon reflects on her life with Helo. After reaching Helo, Sharon tells him that they must run again and faster than they had before. When questioned as to why, all Sharon will tell him is that everything has changed.

Part 1

During the night, Catwoman steals a diamond necklace but Batman spots her. He chases her but she escapes him however, her cat, Isis, is nearly run over by a truck if not for Batman's timely intervention. Catwoman calls Isis to her using a whistle, hugs the cat and blows a kiss to Batman who in turn, whistles softly.

Later, at an Animal Rights Celebrity Auction, Catwoman's alter ego, Selina Kyle, outbids other women for a date with Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego. Suddenly, gunfire is heard and Bruce goes away to become Batman. He stops the terrorists who are attacking the police. Commissioner Gordon tells Batman that Red Claw, the most ruthless terrorist leader in the world is in Gotham City.

The next day, Bruce meets Selina at her apartment. Suddenly, Selina's lawyer, Martin, calls to inform her that Multigon International, an international company, has taken the land which she purchased for a mountain lion reserve. Bruce arranges a meeting with Multigon's chairman, Stern. Stern tells them that Multigon is planning to build a major resort and there is nothing he can do about it. When Bruce and Selina leave, Red Claw appears, telling Stern to have someone keep an eye on Selina.

The same night, Batman grills a mob boss for information on Red Claw while Catwoman breaks into Multigon. She takes pictures of their real plans for the major resort but a security camera gives away her presence to Red Claw. The terrorists break the door down but Catwoman escapes into the ventilation system. A terrorist corners her but she escapes into another airway. He follows her but her caltrops prick his limbs. The rest of the terrorists catch up to her but she climbs up a rope to the rooftop. She blocks the door using a wooden plank but the terrorists shoot it down. Catwoman makes a daring dash past Red Claw, flips over and leaps towards the next rooftop. Her hands grasp the ledge and Isis jumps over to safety. Red Claw fires a missile at Catwoman, the force of the blast knocks her over.

Batman swings by and saves her. Catwoman kisses him to show her gratitude. When they land on another rooftop, Batman tries to unmask her but she tells him to "keep the mystery". He replies that either he unmasks her or the police to which she tells him not to deny their connection. Batman tells her the law separates them, hurting her feelings. He tries to comfort her but she throws him over, though he grabs a protruding ledge in time. She tells him never to trifle with a woman's affections until next time and he replies that there will be a next time.

Catwoman returns home, unmasks herself and tells Maven, her secretary, that she might save the mountain lions yet. They are unaware that one of Red Claw's terrorists is watching and listening to them. He says, "But who is going to save you?"

Part 2

The mob boss tells Batman there is a train heist that night, but none of Gotham's criminals are initiating it. Batman asks Gordon, who deduces it might be a government train. Batman finds the train but Red Claw and her terrorists are already there. Red Claw steals a can of viral plague, threatening to release it knowing Batman won't allow it, allowing Red Claw to escape.

The next day, Bruce drives Selina to lunch when two of Red Claw's terrorists repeatedly bump into Bruce's car. Bruce turns around, driving towards them. The terrorists swerve away, driving off the bridge. Bruce and Selina return home and change into Batman and Catwoman, respectively. Bruce finds Isis's body hair on his jacket, deducing Catwoman's identity. Catwoman goes to the resort, taking pictures of the terrorists when two of them find her. Batman knocks them out, takes Catwoman with him and run away. However, Red Claw captures them, ties them in a shelter, releasing the plague on them. They break free and Batman pours petrol all over before throwing a grenade on it. The heat from the flames destroy the plague while the flames burn the resort. Commissioner Gordon and his policemen arrest the terrorists while Red Claw attacks Catwoman from behind until a mountain lion pounces on her and hits her off the cliff, injuring her.

Catwoman returns home and finds Maven gone. Batman emerges from the shadows, telling her Maven left because the terrorists were after both of them. Catwoman asks him why he didn't tell the police that he found her. He says that he didn't want her to be arrested like a common criminal. She asks him whether he cares or not, leaning forward to kiss him but he handcuffs her saying, "More than you'll ever know."

Suspecting that Commander Adama may be a Cylon agent due to recent odd behaviour, President Roslin tells Dr. Baltar that Adama should be the first person to undergo the now-functioning "Cylon Detector" blood test, a process that takes eleven hours to complete.

A lone Cylon Raider appears when Adama is suspiciously off-ship. A combat air patrol disarms it, but Col. Tigh deploys a Raptor to gather data on the enemy. Shortly after, Adama appears with Tigh's estranged wife, Ellen, who everyone thought had died in the initial Cylon attacks. Adama is suspicious of her sudden appearance and orders Dr. Baltar to put her blood test ahead of anyone else's.

After dinner with the reunited couple, where Ellen shrugs off Adama and Roslin's questions about her sudden reappearance, Commander Adama and Apollo go to Baltar's lab to check on her test results. A harried Baltar explains that Adama's and Roslin's conflicting orders have prompted him to switch between the tests twice already, delaying results. Tigh barges in and (prompted by Ellen) accuses Adama of pursuing his wife sexually. The shouting is interrupted by a call from CIC that the Cylon Raider has changed course, seemingly to make a kamikaze dive towards ''Galactica''. Since Tigh had already launched Vipers on a hunch, the Raider is destroyed and the fleet saved. Adama congratulates, then asks Tigh not to let anything (like his erratic wife) compromise his performance or let anything separate their friendship.

When her test finishes, Baltar declares Ellen to be a non-Cylon. Afterwards, however, talking to Number Six, Baltar refuses to confirm to her whether or not these were the real results.

Back on Caprica, Helo and Sharon avoid capture by running through a sewer system. At Sharon's suggestion, they head to the city of Delphi where they can find a ship and escape off Caprica.

President Roslin experiences a hallucination of snakes produced by the herbs she is taking to fight her breast cancer. Later, Priestess Elosha tells her about a prophecy of a leader of the human race in exile: the leader receives a vision of 12 serpents and later dies of "a wasting disease." The Priestess questions the president if she's indeed dying and both are surprised to seemingly confirm manifestation of ancient prophecy.

An asteroid made of tylium, a necessary fuel to jumping which is in short supply, is discovered, but it is being mined by Cylons. Commander Adama decides to take the asteroid by force and, with help from Starbuck (who is unable to fly a Viper because of a knee injury she received), comes up with a plan that uses the civilian fleet to draw out the Cylon Raiders. President Roslin is briefed on the plan and approves.

The raid begins with Cylon Raiders moving toward civilian freighters, but more are sent toward ''Galactica'', initiating a dog fight that draws the Raiders away from the freighters, which the briefing did not anticipate. Just as all seems lost, the freighters unveil a secreted squadron of 12 Vipers led by Apollo, who now have a clear path to the asteroid. Adama admits to Roslin that he strategically concealed this part of Starbuck's plan in her initial briefing.

In an attempt to perform in Starbuck's out-of-the-box style, Apollo avoids the facility's defenses by flying through the mine tunnels. He bombs its tylium containers, setting off a large explosion and destroying the base while leaving several years' worth of tylium for the fleet to mine.

Dr. Baltar is surprised at the success, as he had only been guessing when asked to identify the location of tylium containers. Head Six prompts him to begin thinking that he may have a role to play on behalf of the Cylon God that he had previously mocked, whilst Gaius is beginning to be faithful, encouraged as a chosen "instrument of God".

On Caprica, Helo and Sharon hide from the pursuing Cylons in an abandoned stable. They flee after spotting a nearby group of Cylon Centurions led by a Number Six copy, the first indication to Helo that there are humanoid Cylons.

President Roslin reconstitutes the '''Quorum of Twelve''', a representative body within the Colonial government. Tom Zarek, who had called for Roslin's resignation, is nominated to fill the vacant role of Vice President. Worried that Zarek may try to assassinate her if he wins, Roslin initially drafts her friend and confidante Wallace Gray to run against Zarek. After Gray proves uncharismatic, she pushes him aside in favor of Gaius Baltar.

Apollo and Starbuck arrest a man named Valance who has smuggled a handgun aboard ''Cloud Nine'', the ship where the Quorum meeting is being held. They suspect that he may have ties to Zarek but find him dead in his holding cell in an apparent suicide.

Baltar wins the election. Zarek warns Roslin he will be back during the presidential election in six months and claims he did not kill Valance.

On Caprica, Helo and Boomer prepare to hijack a Cylon ship to escape the planet when he sees another Number Eight copy that looks just like Boomer. Realizing that she, too, is a humanoid Cylon, he flees.

Part 1

When a habitable planet is found, President Roslin concludes that the planet is Kobol, the mythical birthplace of humanity. Commander Adama wants to begin permanent settlement of Kobol, but Roslin cites scriptures in her belief that Kobol will point the way to Earth. However, this would require retrieving an artifact called the Arrow of Apollo from Caprica; Adama is unwilling to commit vital military resources (particularly the captured Cylon Raider that can make long jumps) when he doesn't believe Earth even exists. Roslin convinces Starbuck to disobey her orders and take the captured Raider to Caprica to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo.

On Caprica, Helo nearly kills the copy of Boomer he has been traveling with but decides to keep her alive.

Afraid that she will hurt someone, Boomer tries to shoot herself but survives. She discusses her angst with Galen Tyrol. Commander Adama sends a survey team down to Kobol in three Colonial Raptors, one of which is shot down by Cylons, leaving several ''Galactica'' crew members stranded.

Part 2

Starbuck arrives on Caprica and, after a fight with a Number Six, retrieves the Arrow of Apollo. She discovers Helo with Boomer. Helo stops her from killing Boomer: although she is a Cylon, she is also pregnant with his child.

On Kobol, Head Six shows Dr. Baltar a vision of a crib in an ancient Opera House and declares that God has tasked him with protecting the "first of the new generation of God's children."

Adama demands that Roslin resign, since convincing Starbuck to disobey orders violated their power-sharing arrangement where he would make all military decisions and she would oversee the civilians. When she refuses, he sends a team of Marines to ''Colonial One'' to arrest her. A standoff ensues between Colonel Tigh and Apollo, and Roslin surrenders to avoid bloodshed. Both she and Apollo are sent to ''Galactica'' s brig.

Adama orders the Boomer on ''Galactica'' to destroy the Cylon Basestar orbiting Kobol: a captured Cylon transponder allows Boomer's Raptor to penetrate the Cylon defenses. The launch system jams, so she is forced to land the Raptor inside the basestar and release the nuclear warhead manually. There she encounters several copies of herself, proving to her that she is a Cylon. She flees in the Raptor, destroys the basestar and returns to ''Galactica''. Under the influence of her Cylon programming, Boomer shoots Adama twice in the torso.

With Commander Adama shot in the chest by Boomer, Col. Tigh is forced to take command as a Cylon Basestar arrives. Tigh has the fleet take an emergency faster-than-light jump to escape, despite the stranded survey team on the planet Kobol. When ''Galactica'' jumps, however, the rest of the fleet is not there.

Tigh interrogates Boomer in the brig. Boomer, horrified at her own betrayal, urges him to kill her, but he refuses. A medic is forced to operate on Adama in Dr. Cottle's absence. In a sequence of flashbacks, Tigh recalls how Adama got Tigh back into the Colonial Fleet following the First Cylon War.

In order to find the fleet, Tigh has ''Galactica'' jump back to orbit around Kobol with the ship's computers networked together (something Adama would have vehemently opposed because of the dangers of Cylon hacking) to calculate the jump coordinates before the Cylons can destroy ''Galactica''. He also paroles Apollo, still in the brig for his attempted mutiny, so that he can command the Vipers in the coming battle. As the battle rages, the Cylons attempt to hack ''Galactica'' s network, but Lieutenant Gaeta's five stage software firewall appears to hold, with the fifth stage not breaching until the same moment he disengages the network. A Cylon Heavy Raider crashes into ''Galactica'' shortly before ''Galactica'' jumps and meets the fleet. A group of Cylon Centurions emerges from the Heavy Raider.

On Kobol, Crashdown orders the survivors to take cover in a nearby forest. In an attempt to recover medical supplies that they left behind, he has Tarn, Chief Tyrol and Cally retrieve them, but Cylons kill Tarn before they get back.

On Caprica, Helo stops Starbuck from shooting Caprica-Boomer. As they argue, Boomer steals Starbuck's Cylon Raider, stranding them.

Having just jumped away from a battle with Cylons and rejoined the civilian fleet, a Cylon virus forces ''Galactica'' to switch to a limited emergency power as the crew fights off a boarding party of Cylon Centurions. Apollo releases President Roslin from the brig and she makes her way to sickbay just as the last of the Centurions are destroyed. With ''Galactica'' safe, Doctor Cottle makes his way to operate on a still-critical Commander Adama.

On Kobol, Tyrol and Cally return to the rest of the stranded survey team with the medical kit they had retrieved for a wounded Socinus only to learn that his death is inevitable. Tyrol reluctantly euthanizes him with lethal dosage of painkillers.

On Caprica, Starbuck and Helo stop at Starbuck's old apartment, where they listen to a recording of Starbuck's father playing the piano as Starbuck reflects on her life. They retrieve the keys to Starbuck's truck and escape the city in it.

In "Scattered", Head Six told Baltar that they would have a child. Crashdown ordered Specialist Tarn to retrieve medical supplies to treat the wounded Specialist Socinus, but Tarn died in a Cylon ambush. In "Valley of Darkness", Chief Galen Tyrol and Specialist Cally brought the supplies, but Socinus died anyway.

Kobol

Crashdown leads a brief funeral for Tarn and Socinus. Six tells Baltar that, because they died on Kobol, Tarn and Socinus have only oblivion waiting them. Later, Baltar asks why God would want to bring a child into a world so full of killing; Six replies that God wants to give humanity a chance at redemption.

Tyrol observes Cylons building a missile battery, which he believes they will use to shoot down human search parties. Crashdown orders an attack on the battery despite the team's inexperience in combat and inadequate equipment. Tyrol privately tries to persuade him to instead attack the guidance system, which is less heavily guarded, but Crashdown waves the bloody shirt of Tarn and Socinus and pulls rank. Tyrol is unconvinced but nonetheless silences Baltar's protests during Crashdown's briefing.

Six warns Baltar that one of the survivors will betray the others and that his life is in danger, because what happens on Kobol is not God's will. Crashdown refuses to change the plan even after discovering that the Cylons have reinforced the battery. Cally freezes up under pressure, and Crashdown threatens to kill her unless she obeys his orders. Baltar shoots Crashdown before he can carry out his threat; Six congratulates him.

Tyrol destroys the Cylon guiding system in time to save the rescue Raptors, which in turn destroy the Cylons. The survivors cover up Crashdown's murder. Baltar despairs at the thought that killing rather than culture is humanity's legacy.

''Galactica''

Doctor Cottle arrives and operates on Commander William Adama, saving his life. Cottle is unavailable to provide Roslin with her cancer medication, and she undergoes severe withdrawal. A drunken Colonel Tigh lashes out at his subordinates. The Quorum of Twelve demands access to Roslin, who is still in ''Galactica'' s brig. Ellen Tigh persuades her husband to agree, believing the sight of Roslin's delirious condition will undermine her authority. The plan backfires after Roslin's Marine guard smuggles her medication. She denounces Adama's coup and convinces at least some of the Quorum that she is the leader foretold in their sacred scriptures who will guide humanity to Earth. Furious, Tigh dissolves the Quorum and declares martial law.

When civilian ships protest martial law, acting commander Tigh orders Marines to take withheld supplies by force. On the civilian ship ''Gideon'', Marines open fire on a hostile but unarmed crowd of civilians, killing four. Fearing a split in the fleet, President Roslin and Apollo enlist help from Racetrack and Dualla to escape the brig, and go into hiding with Tom Zarek, Roslin's erstwhile political enemy.

Tigh has Chief Galen Tyrol thrown in a cell with Boomer who has recently been found to be a Cylon. He then orders Baltar to determine whether he is also a Cylon. Instead, Baltar injects Tyrol with poison and demands that Boomer reveal the number of Cylon agents still secretly aboard the fleet. After Boomer guesses that there are eight agents, Baltar administers the antidote and later clears Tyrol of being a Cylon.

On Caprica, Starbuck and Helo encounter humans who survived the initial Cylon attacks and formed a resistance group. After a firefight and a Mexican standoff, the two groups persuade each other they are not Cylons by discussing sports.

Back on ''Galactica'', a still-weak Commander Adama resumes command. Tigh confesses he has made mistakes, but Adama sympathizes with the pressures of command. An angry crowd gathers to witness Boomer's transfer to a specially-constructed holding cell. During the transfer, Specialist Cally shoots Boomer, who dies in Tyrol's arms declaring her love for him.

Caprica

Starbuck wakes up with Sam Anders. He tries to persuade her to stay on Caprica, but she insists on returning to ''Galactica''. She recommends the resistance give up fighting, move to higher ground, and wait for her to return with a rescue party.

Cylons ambush the resistance as they make plans to capture a Cylon Heavy Raider. Starbuck is shot and loses consciousness. She wakes in a hospital, where a doctor named Simon tends her. Simon explains that Anders brought her to the hospital but later died from a shrapnel wound. Simon laughingly dismisses Starbuck's suspicion that he is a Cylon and explains away her other concerns. He presses the idea that Starbuck have a baby, calling child-bearing women "a very precious commodity to us." Starbuck demurs.

Meanwhile, Anders, very much alive, leads a search party. Caprica-Boomer appears and promises to take them to Starbuck.

Starbuck is kept heavily sedated. She is suspicious after an unplanned emergency surgery following a pelvic examination, and her suspicions are confirmed when Simon calls her "Starbuck", a name she never revealed to him. Starbuck fakes sedation and sneaks out of her room, where she sees Simon talking to a Number Six copy. When Simon returns, Starbuck kills him by stabbing him with a fragment from a broken mirror. Searching for a way out, she discovers other captured human women, attached to machines. One woman Starbuck recognizes, a member of the resistance named Sue-Shaun, says they have become "baby machines" and "can't live like this." Starbuck breaks the Cylon equipment, killing the women. Fleeing, she encounters another copy of Simon, confirming that he is a Cylon. The resistance rescues Starbuck with the aid of Boomer, who provides close air support from a Heavy Raider.

Boomer explains that the Cylons have had no success reproducing on their own and are trying to reproduce with humans. Appalled, Starbuck volunteers to stay and help liberate these so-called "Farms". Anders reminds her of her mission, and she reiterates her promise to return with rescue, giving him her dog tags. He promises to liberate as many of the "Farms" as possible. She departs in the stolen Heavy Raider with Boomer and Helo to return to the human fleet.

The human fleet

Commander Adama returns to command and orders a ship-by-ship search for Roslin and Lee "Apollo" Adama, who are still on the run. After Apollo finds himself unable to go through with Tom Zarek's suggestion that he denounce his father publicly, Roslin sends a message to the fleet asking anyone who believes in the prophecies to follow her to Kobol. Commander Adama dismisses the message as "religious crap" and is astonished when almost a third of the fleet follows her.

Chief Galen Tyrol says ''Galactica''-Boomer was just a machine, but Commander Adama insists she was more than that. Nonetheless Adama explains to Tyrol that Specialist Cally will spend 30 days in the brig for unlawful discharge of a firearm (so not explicitly for murder). He also reminds Tyrol that the human-looking Cylons are made in many copies, so Tyrol will see Boomer again eventually, although that sounds more like a menace than a promise. Adama views Boomer's corpse in the morgue and weeps over her.

Deleted scenes

In a deleted scene, Apollo explains his refusal to denounce his father by telling Roslin that he was disappointed that she did not back him up when he mutinied to protect her in "Kobol's Last Gleaming". In his view, he has defied his father enough, and the struggle now belongs to Roslin. In another deleted scene, he promises to stick with Roslin regardless of the consequences of their imminent departure from the fleet.

In the previous episode, "The Farm", Adama returned to command following an assassination attempt by the ''Galactica'' copy of Boomer (''Galactica''-Boomer). Roslin led almost a third of the fleet back to Kobol to search for a way to Earth. Starbuck left Caprica with Helo and the Cylon known until then as the Caprica copy of Boomer (Sharon).

Part 1

Roslin struggles to persuade the Quorum of Twelve of Apollo's loyalty. Tom Zarek suggests arming the civilian ships in case ''Galactica'' attacks, but Apollo says they would stand no chance against the battlestar. Priestess Elosha reminds everyone that the Scriptures predict that a return to Kobol would result in lives lost.

Starbuck docks with Roslin's flagship. Before she can explain about Caprica-Sharon, Apollo sees her and puts a gun to Caprica-Sharon's head. Helo appears and draws his weapon on Apollo to defend Sharon. Roslin defuses the standoff by promising Sharon will not be harmed but then orders her thrown out the airlock. Roslin only relents when Sharon claims to know the location of the Tomb of Athena, where the Scriptures claim a path to Earth can be found. Roslin threatens to put Helo and Sharon, and thus their unborn child, out the airlock unless Sharon leads them to it.

Privately, Zarek admits to his aide-de-camp, Meier, that he does not share Roslin's religious convictions. They plot to kill Apollo so Zarek can replace him at Roslin's side.

On Kobol, Roslin leads a team that includes Apollo, Starbuck, Sharon, Helo, Zarek, Meier, Elosha, and several guards. Elosha is killed by a land mine. Cylon Centurions ambush the party, who fends them off with the help of Sharon; she grabs a stray grenade launcher and destroys one of the Centurions, to Apollo's surprise.

On ''Galactica'', Commander Adama assesses what resources remain after the defection of part of the fleet to "a religious fanatic and a terrorist", as he describes Roslin and Zarek. He appoints George Birch, an inexperienced but "honest and loyal" pilot, to replace Apollo commanding the Viper pilots; several accidents happen under Birch's leadership. Adama appears before the press; denounces those who followed Roslin, whom he describes as no longer President; and threatens to detain anyone who reports that he does not know where Earth is. Later, he confides in Anastasia "Dee" Dualla how hurt he is by betrayal. Dee replies that he has broken his promise to find the fleet a new home and suggests his hurt has more to do with his own feeling of helplessness than betrayal. Adama dismisses Dee brusquely but later asks for reconnaissance photos of Kobol, promising to reunite the fleet, "our family".

Part 2

Head Six tells Gaius Baltar that their child will be born in the cell built for ''Galactica''-Boomer. Baltar loses patience and starts mocking the idea that he could have a child with an imaginary woman. Six dons a casual appearance and tells Baltar that she is nothing more than a coping mechanism created by his subconscious following his participation in the genocide of humanity. She taunts him and encourages him to get a brain scan. Doctor Cottle finds nothing wrong and writes Baltar off as a hypochondriac.

Sharon continues to guide the party on Kobol based on her knowledge of human theology. Apollo remains suspicious of Sharon and Helo, but Starbuck vouches for them. Sharon tells Helo she has many memories as Boomer aboard ''Galactica'' and that their child will be female. Meier suggests to Zarek that they frame Sharon for Apollo's murder, but Zarek insists they wait until they've found the Tomb.

Commander Adama arrives on Kobol with Billy Keikeya and Chief Galen Tyrol. Roslin reconciles with Billy. Adama reconciles with Apollo and Starbuck. He attacks Sharon, recalling ''Galactica''-Boomer's betrayal, but is prevented from killing her by chest pain following his surgery. Adama reconciles with Roslin, acknowledges her role in saving his and Apollo's life following the Cylon attack on the Colonies, and joins her quest for the Tomb. Tyrol approaches Sharon uncomfortably; Sharon tells him she "remembers" him and hugs him.

Meier tells Sharon about the murder of ''Galactica''-Boomer and warns her to start looking out for herself and her unborn baby. After Adama arrives, Zarek orders Meier to stop plotting, to no avail. Sharon tells Helo she plans to "take matters into my own hands." Meier provides her a handgun, and she promises to ambush Commander Adama when they reach the Tomb. However, when the time comes, she shoots Meier instead, declares she has no hidden programming like ''Galactica''-Boomer's, and surrenders the weapon to Adama.

Adama orders Tyrol to guard Zarek, Sharon, and Helo and enters the Tomb with Roslin, Apollo, Starbuck, and Billy. Starbuck inserts the Arrow of Apollo into a statue of the archer Sagittaron, triggering a vision of a grassy field under a night sky. The party sees constellations representing each of the Twelve Colonies, and Starbuck realizes they are "standing" on Earth. Apollo recognizes a nebula among the constellations (he says it's the Lagoon Nebula, to which his father Adama says it's Astral Body M8) and concludes the fleet can plot its next direction based on it.

Returning to ''Galactica'', Adama promises to keep the fleet unified and reinstates Roslin as President. Sharon is placed in a cell built for ''Galactica''-Boomer. Helo speaks to Sharon about their baby through a direct phone line. Eavesdropping, Baltar realizes the connection with Six's prediction for their "child". Having ruled out the possibility that Six is created by a chip in his brain, and now concluding from her foreknowledge of Sharon's pregnancy that she cannot just be his own creation, he asks what she is. She answers, "I'm an angel of God sent here to protect you, to guide you, to love you." He asks, "To what end?" She replies, "To the end of the human race."

Deleted scenes

In a scene deleted from Part 1, Elosha confesses to Roslin that she had lost her faith before the Cylon attack on the Colonies. Seeing the hope in Roslin as Elosha administered Roslin's oath of office restored her faith. In a scene deleted from Part 2, Billy confesses to Roslin that he is an atheist but says he is joining her on Kobol because he believes in her and Commander Adama.

Batman follows a strange trail of heists pulled at various GothCorp offices, all by the same man: Mr. Freeze, a strange figure clad in a powerful suit and armed with a "freezing gun", a weapon that fires a beam capable of freezing anything into sheets of ice. Batman pieces together the stolen items and discovers that Freeze is building a massive cannon capable of casting a magnified ice beam, and that it is complete save for a single vital piece of equipment from GothCorp. Acting rapidly, he arrives at the GothCorp offices in time to engage Mr. Freeze, only to be partially frozen under a sheet of ice. As Freeze and his henchmen escape, he orders they leave behind one of their own, his legs accidentally frozen by Freeze's weapon. Batman chooses to help the man rather than chase Freeze.

After using a special chemical bath to revive the man, Batman (who has himself developed a cold from the encounter) visits GothCorp's CEO Ferris Boyle as Bruce Wayne, hoping to learn who might have a grudge against the company. Boyle says the only person he can think of is dead: a former employee and research scientist whose funding was cut. He apparently died in a laboratory accident. Later that night, during a dinner where Boyle is to be presented with a humanitarian prize, Batman sneaks into the GothCorp security offices, and finds a tape from the accident. It is a recording of an experiment conducted by cryogenics scientist Victor Fries. He has placed his terminally ill wife Nora in cryogenic stasis until he can find a cure for her cal condition. Boyle arrives and orders the experiment to be ended, claiming it is unauthorized and draining his company's funds. Boyle ignores Fries' warning that turning off the equipment would sentence her to death. In the ensuing scuffle, Boyle kicks Fries into a table of cryonic chemicals. As Batman watches the tape, Mr. Freeze (now revealed to be Fries himself having survived the accident) sneaks up behind him and captures him with his cold gun. Freeze confirms to Batman the accident left him unable to live outside of a sub-zero condition. Batman tries to reason with Freeze over how Freeze intends to destroy the man who ruined his life, even if anyone else gets killed in the process, but Freeze refuses to give up his plan.

Leaving Batman, Freeze arrives with his completed cannon at the humanitarian prize dinner. He fires the immense weapon at the building, slowly freezing it from bottom to top. After Batman escapes from captivity and attacks the cannon, Mr. Freeze kicks open a fire hydrant and freezes the water to get to the floor where Boyle is. Once there, he freezes Boyle to the waist before Batman intervenes. Freeze ends up overpowering Batman until he takes a thermos filled with hot chicken soup (which Alfred had provided for his cold) and breaks it on Freeze's helmet to induce thermal shock and shatter it. Freeze is subdued by the surrounding room temperature, after which Batman hands over the tape with the evidence of Boyle's crimes to Summer Gleeson, exposing the GothCorp CEO as a fraud and killer. Batman leaves the still-frozen Boyle with a disgusted sneer — "Goodnight... humanitarian."

Freeze is taken to Arkham Asylum and put in a sub-zero cell designed to hold him. The episode ends with Freeze tearfully gazing at a music box of his beloved Nora and begging her forgiveness for, in his revenge-driven mind, failing to avenge her, while Batman watches sympathetically from outside.

In "Resistance", Tigh ordered supplies taken by force from civilian ships. On the civilian ship ''Gideon'', Marines commanded by Lieutenant Joe Palladino opened fire on a hostile but unarmed crowd of civilians, killing four.

Biers is preparing a report on what she calls the "''Gideon'' massacre." Hoping to influence Biers to produce a more "balanced" report, Adama grants her unrestricted access to document life aboard ''Galactica''.

Biers conducts frank interviews with crew members and captures some pilots' hijinks on camera. After Kat overdoses on stimulants and botches a landing, Biers follows her to ''Galactica'' s sickbay. There, she discovers Doctor Cottle treating Sharon for a complication with her pregnancy. Adama confiscates the footage, but Biers secretly keeps a copy. She then records the crew during a successful defense against incoming Cylon Raiders and uncovers a disgruntled Palladino as the perpetrator of death threats and an assassination attempt on Tigh.

In her final report, Biers describes arriving on ''Galactica'' with a bias against the crew but changing her mind. Pleased with the report, Adama recommends it be shown throughout the fleet. On Caprica, several Cylons also watch the report, as well as the secret footage of Sharon. Its then revealed that Biers herself is a Cylon as another copy sits with the other Cylons. The Raider attack was so that the footage could be transmitted to the Cylons. Biers confirms that both Sharon and her child survived and calls the child "a miracle from God."

Deleted scene

In a scene deleted from the final episode, President Laura Roslin is shown coming up with the idea of inviting Biers to ''Galactica''. She is motivated by the upcoming presidential election and demands from the Quorum of Twelve for an investigation of the ''Gideon'' incident.

In "Valley of Darkness," a computer virus created by the Cylons shut down ''Galactica'' s power, but Lieutenant Felix Gaeta seemingly purged it. In "The Farm," Commander William Adama sentenced Specialist Cally to 30 days in ''Galactica'' s brig for killing the Number Eight copy (Boomer) who shot Adama.

Gaeta determines that the Cylon virus is still active, is responsible for a series of malfunctions aboard ''Galactica'', and threatens to take full control of the ship. Adama enlists Sharon's help. She confirms Gaeta's diagnosis and warns that a Cylon attack is imminent. Hundreds of Cylon Raiders and Heavy Raiders appear and hold formation, preparing to activate the virus. Forced to trust Sharon, Adama allows her to interface directly with ''Galactica'' s systems by inserting a fiber optic cable into her hand. Sharon helps delete the virus and broadcasts a virus of her own to the Cylon ships, rendering them helpless and easy pickings for the Vipers. Sharon is summarily returned to her cell.

Helo is ostracized by his crewmates for his relationship with Sharon. Haunted by memories of Boomer, Tyrol does not join the celebration of Cally's release. Tyrol and Helo argue about their respective relationships with Number Eight; the argument comes to blows. Inspired by Lee "Apollo" Adama's comment that "no one's expecting any miracles," Tyrol begins to build a new starfighter from salvaged parts. Despite initial skepticism, crew members from throughout the ship join the project. At Helo's suggestion, Tyrol uses carbon composites for the exterior, making it stealth capable. The completed fighter, known as the Blackbird, makes a successful maiden flight with Starbuck as test pilot.

At the Blackbird's dedication ceremony, President Laura Roslin, who has just learned she has weeks to live, praises the fighter's construction as "an act of faith." Tyrol reveals that the fighter is named ''Laura'' in her honor. Helo reconciles with his crewmates, and Tyrol visits Sharon in her cell.

A large unknown ship appears on ''Galactica'' s DRADIS. After a tense moment, the ship is identified as the Battlestar ''Pegasus'', a Colonial vessel previously believed destroyed in the Cylon attack on the Colonies. Cain boards ''Galactica'' with an armed escort and welcomes the crew "back to the Colonial Fleet." Cain relates to Adama and President Laura Roslin how she ordered a risky maneuver to escape the initial Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Adama recognizes Cain as his superior officer, but Cain promises not to interfere with ''Galactica'' s internal affairs.

Cain declines to resupply the fleet's civilian ships and integrates the battlestars' crews, transferring Apollo and Starbuck to ''Pegasus'' over Commander Adama's objections. Cain's executive officer, Colonel Jack Fisk, tells Colonel Saul Tigh how Cain shot his predecessor for refusing an order. Fisk claims his story is a joke, but Tigh believes it is true and relates the story to Adama. Adama reiterates his willingness to follow Cain, to both Roslin and Tigh, and insists that Apollo and Starbuck obey their transfer orders.

Baltar visits Gina, a Number Six copy held prisoner aboard ''Pegasus''. He and Head Six are horrified to discover that the ''Pegasus'' crew has systematically tortured and raped Gina. Baltar attempts to establish a rapport with Gina by providing food and confessing to his involvement with another Six copy on Caprica.

Helo and Tyrol rescue Sharon from imminent rape by a ''Pegasus'' interrogator but accidentally kill the interrogator in the process. Cain denies Adama's request that Helo and Tyrol be given a jury court-martial and sentences them both to death for murder and treason. Adama demands that Cain return them to ''Galactica'' and orders Vipers to escort a Marine assault team to ''Pegasus''. Cain refuses and sends the ''Pegasus'' Vipers to intercept ''Galactica'' s.

A young woman, named Noah, lives alone in a small apartment New York City. She is a mentally disturbed flower child, who retreats into her past, yearning for lost innocence. She recalls her childhood, searching for a "safe place." As a child, whose real birth name was Susan, she met a charismatic magician in Central Park who presented her with magical objects: a levitating silver ball, a star ring, and a Noah's ark. In the present day, Noah is currently and romantically involved with two totally different men named Fred and Mitch. Fred is practical, but dull. Mitch is dynamic and sexy, her ideal fantasy partner. Neither man is able to totally fulfill her needs.

In "The Farm", Starbuck promised Sam Anders she would return to Caprica to rescue him. In "Pegasus", Apollo and Starbuck plotted to steal the stealth-capable Blackbird to obtain reconnaissance photos of a mysterious ship escorted by a large Cylon fleet. Cain sentenced Helo and Chief Galen Tyrol to death for accidentally killing an officer to rescue Sharon. Adama ordered ''Galactica'''s Vipers launched toward ''Pegasus'', and Cain ordered the ''Pegasus'' Vipers to intercept them.

Part 1

Both Viper groups seek permission to fire, but neither Cain nor Adama grants it. The standoff is interrupted by Starbuck, who returns in the Blackbird with photos of the Cylon vessel. Cain and Adama call off their attacks and agree to meet on ''Colonial One'' as neutral ground. President Laura Roslin mediates an uneasy truce: the resolution of Helo and Tyrol's fate will be delayed until after the attack on the Cylon fleet. Later, Roslin warns Adama privately that Cain will strike against Adama again and urges him to assassinate Cain first. Adama demurs.

Impressed by what she calls Starbuck's "guts and initiative", Cain promotes her to captain and appoints her ''Pegasus'' CAG. Starbuck persuades Cain to reinstate Apollo's flight status though she demotes Apollo to Lieutenant and relegates him to delivery runs. Cain also promises Starbuck she will lead the fleet back to Caprica, destroy the Cylons, and rescue the survivors.

Doctor Cottle says Sharon will be all right. Adama apologizes to Sharon and orders her returned to her cell.

In Gina's cell, Cain abuses the Cylon prisoner. Gina begs Gaius Baltar to kill her. She tells him that the Cylon vessel is a "resurrection ship", where Cylons are downloaded into new bodies; if it is destroyed Gina can die permanently. Cain resolves to destroy the ship, believing mortality will deter the Cylon pursuit.

Colonel Jack Fisk tells Colonel Saul Tigh that ''Pegasus'' encountered a small civilian fleet. Cain ordered it stripped for parts, impressed some civilian personnel, executed the families of any who resisted, and abandoned the rest in space. Realizing that Roslin is right about Cain, Adama orders Starbuck to assassinate Cain once the attack on the Cylon fleet concludes. Likewise, Cain directs Fisk to take a detachment of Marines to ''Galactica'' to kill Adama after the attack.

Part 2

Two ''Pegasus'' crewmen confront Helo and Tyrol in the ''Pegasus'' brig and beat them with soap bars wrapped in towels; Fisk discovers the blanket party and ends it. Cain warns Starbuck not to let her conscience dictate how she behaves at difficult moments. Apollo agrees to help Starbuck with the assassination but expresses discomfort to his father. Adama invites Sharon to his quarters and asks why the Cylons hate humans; she replies that the Cylons don't hate humans but think them unworthy of life because of their tendency toward murder. As the battle nears, Starbuck and Fisk wish each other "good hunting".

The battle begins. Piloting the Blackbird, Apollo destroys the FTL drive on the resurrection ship, preventing it from escaping but is forced to eject after a damaged Colonial Raptor collides with the Blackbird. His spacesuit leaks oxygen and Apollo hallucinates before eventually allowing himself to suffocate. However, a search and rescue Raptor piloted by Racetrack locates Apollo and is able to revive him. The humans destroy the resurrection ship and the two Basestars guarding it. Cain and Adama contact Fisk and Starbuck respectively, but neither gives the order to assassinate. Both relieved, Fisk and Starbuck stand down.

Baltar signals his rejection of Head Six in favor of Gina by repeating to Gina a coquettish speech Head Six gave earlier. Baltar distracts the Marine guard so that Gina can kill him and take his side arm. Gina asks Baltar to kill her, but he urges her to seek justice, not death, and promises to hide her. Cain returns to her quarters following the battle to find Gina lying in wait for her. Gina shoots Cain and disappears.

Fisk and Starbuck eulogize Cain at her funeral. Fisk becomes Commander of ''Pegasus''. Apollo confesses to Starbuck that he wanted to die in space. Helo and Tyrol return to ''Galactica''. Helo and Sharon are reunited as Tyrol looks on. Recognizing that Adama now commands two battlestars, Roslin promotes him to Admiral. Adama helps the ailing Roslin to her feet and kisses her.

After conducting a praying ceremony, the three oldest children of the alien Fog Mother hunt for an ideal human to feed to their newly hatched siblings. They find Kana, the young friend of environmentalist reporter Kouji Segawa, when he is investigating pollution at the lake. Protecting Kana from the villains as they escape, Kouji is thrown over a cliff by the reptilian Agito and dies; Kana is taken by the insectoid, Zu. The Earth Spirits resurrect Kouji as Kamen Rider J to fight the Fog Mother with the Earth Spirits' emissary, Berry, as his guide. With Fog Mother sensing Kouji's presence, Agito tries to finish the job and is killed by J. Kouji enters the Fog Mother's domain, facing Zu in her proper form. J kills Zu as they crash into the fortress which is Fog Mother. After Zu dies, Kouji learns about Fog's intention to let her new brood devour humanity as Garai completes the ritual, sends Kana to the hatching chamber, and manhandles Kouji. Berry intervenes to free Kana from Fog's spell before he is struck down by Garai; Kana is sent down to her death, and Fog Mother begins attacking a nearby city to prepare for her children's awakening. J fights Garai in his true form (Cobra Man) in a heated battle. After he kills Garai, J is digested by Fog Mother as he tries to save Kana. Absorbing the life energy around him, J kills Fog Mother's newborn offspring, escapes from her bowels, and assumes the Jumbo Formation. After ripping Kana out of Fog Mother, J kills the monster. Escaping Fog Mother's destruction, Kouji brings Kana to a peaceful place as Berry watches from a distance.

Roslin lies near death in ''Galactica'' s sickbay. Doctor Cottle reports abnormalities in Sharon's unborn child's blood. Believing the child a threat to the fleet, Roslin orders her pregnancy terminated over Baltar's objections. Head Six, who regards Sharon's child as hers with Baltar, appears to Baltar and insists he intervene. Roslin's decision outrages Sharon and Helo, the child's father, who obstructs the entrance to sickbay. Baltar defuses the standoff by announcing that a transfusion of the fetus's abnormal blood may save Roslin's life. The procedure cures Roslin's cancer within days.

In a sequence of delirious flashbacks, Roslin recalls negotiating an end to a teachers' strike on Caprica as Secretary of Education. Her conciliatory approach angered then-President Richard Adar, with whom she was having an affair, but she refused to back down. She also recalls seeing Baltar with a Number Six shortly before the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies.

A civilian crew member sabotages some ammunition. An investigation reveals she is a member of Demand Peace, an underground group of Cylon sympathizers. Admiral William Adama feigns negotiation with Demand Peace only to arrest its representative, Royan Jahee, when he arrives on ''Galactica''. Demand Peace bombs a fuel refinery ship. Roslin meets with Jahee, agrees to hear his group's case, and warns that further violence will lead to harsh measures.

Baltar meets secretly with Gina on ''Cloud Nine''. Gina rejects his sexual advances but invites him to join Demand Peace; Baltar refuses. Head Six laments that saving Roslin's life prevented Baltar, who is vice president, from becoming president. Baltar concludes from a letter Roslin wrote to him in the event of her death that she will never trust him. Jahee returns to ''Cloud Nine'' and presents Gina with a gift from Baltar: a nuclear warhead Adama provided Baltar for research purposes in an earlier episode.

Haunted by his near-death experience after ejecting from the Blackbird, Apollo begins sleeping with Shevon, a prostitute on ''Cloud Nine'' who reminds him of his pregnant girlfriend who died in the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Dee asks Apollo whether their relationship is going anywhere; he brushes her off.

President Laura Roslin decides to crack down on the black market within the fleet. Commander Jack Fisk at first advises against it but then volunteers ''Pegasus'' to take the lead. Fisk is later found garrotted in his quarters. Assigned to investigate the murder, Apollo discovers Fisk was heavily involved in the black market, and that Vice President Gaius Baltar and Colonel Saul Tigh were among Fisk's trading partners. Roslin privately asks Baltar to resign; the suggestion insults Baltar and redoubles his determination to stay in office.

Responding to an emergency call from Shevon, Apollo rushes to ''Cloud Nine'' to find her bruised and distressed. Thugs enter Shevon's room and attack Apollo. As he is being strangled, a gangster tells Apollo to stop investigating Fisk's murder, threatens Shevon and her daughter Paya if he refuses, and knocks Apollo out. Apollo wakes to find Shevon and Paya gone and the wielder of the garrote murdered.

Tom Zarek enters the room soon after. He claims he refused to join Fisk's smuggling network and suggests that the murderer's corpse was given to Apollo as "a way out" of his investigation. Apollo is not dissuaded, so Zarek mentions a man named Phelan who runs the black market and gives Apollo the location of his ship. On Phelan's ship, Apollo discovers the black market is hoarding antibiotics and trafficking in children; Paya is among their prisoners. Phelan, who turns out to be the gangster from before, reveals that Shevon works for him and defends the black market as necessary. Apollo offers Phelan amnesty if he will release Shevon and Paya and shut down his operation. When Phelan refuses, Apollo wrests a bodyguard's handgun and kills Phelan. Apollo acknowledges that the fleet needs the black market and so doesn't shut it down. However, he warns the smugglers to remove the human smuggling, hoarding and murder parts of their operation or he will shut them down.

Roslin objects but acquiesces to the resolution. Zarek makes his way aboard Phelan's ship surrounded by his men, indicating that Zarek will take over the black market. Shevon refuses to see Apollo again, saying she cannot replace his lost love. Dee returns to Billy Keikeya.

Drunk in the pilots' mess, Starbuck vows to destroy Scar, a Raider known as the Cylons' ace of aces and dreaded for his sneak attacks. Kat challenges Starbuck, getting her to bet her beer stein labeled "''Galactica'' Top Gun". Later, Kat interrupts Starbuck during a briefing, breaks her record in a test of shooting a side arm accurately while dizzy, and chastises her after her advice gets a rookie pilot killed by Scar.

Sharon warns Starbuck that Scar is likely so competent and bloodthirsty because "he" has died and been resurrected many times. With the Cylon Resurrection ship gone, destroying him would make his death permanent.

Starbuck is troubled by memories of Anders, whom she promised to rescue from Caprica; Admiral William Adama and President Laura Roslin have refused to order a rescue mission. After the rookie's death, she drunkenly comes on to Apollo but rejects him during foreplay. They fight over her feelings for Anders. She leaves and continues drinking while watching archival gun camera footage of Scar.

Later, Starbuck is hung over and assigns another pilot to take her place on patrol. When Scar kills her inexperienced wingman, Kat blames Starbuck. They trade insults. Starbuck taunts Kat for her fear of Scar, and Kat punches Starbuck. Apollo arrives, cutting the altercation short. He orders the two pilots to fly together to protect a mining operation in an asteroid field.

As Starbuck and Kat patrol in their Vipers, Kat pursues a Raider she believes to be Scar. As Starbuck checks behind them, the real Scar appears and damages Starbuck's Viper. Starbuck plays chicken with Scar, to Kat's horror. Remembering her promise to Anders, Starbuck swerves at the last moment. She lures Scar into Kat's line of fire, and Kat shoots him down. Back in the mess, Starbuck yields her stein to Kat and toasts a succession of pilots who have perished since the war began. She claimed previously that she could not remember their names.

Later, while practicing boxing with Helo, she admits that, before she met Anders, she would have not thought twice about dying in the process of killing Scar, while Helo tells her that letting Kat take the shot was the right decision. She tells Helo that she can't get over the hope that Anders might still be alive, despite the unlikelihood. Helo suggests that before meeting Anders, Starbuck had something to die for, but now she has something to live for.

The press has learned that a Number Eight model Cylon is being held in ''Galactica'' s brig. Admiral Adama insists to President Laura Roslin that Sharon is a valuable source of intelligence. Billy, Roslin's chief of staff, urges Adama to tell the fleet about Sharon.

Billy proposes marriage to Dee, but Dee turns him down. Later he discovers Dee on a date with Lee in a bar on ''Cloud 9'' and is heartbroken.

Gunmen led by Sesha Abinell take over the bar, demanding that the Admiral hand over Sharon. Learning that Abinell is seeking revenge for her husband's death in a Cylon attack, Adama refuses and orders Starbuck to plan a rescue with several Marines. A ruse by Lee convinces the gunmen that the bar is losing oxygen, giving Starbuck an opening. Her attempt backfires, and she accidentally shoots Lee during the confusion. Dee and Billy attend the bleeding, unconscious Lee. Roslin argues to Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh they cannot give in to terrorists. As Abinell threatens Ellen Tigh, who is among the hostages, Adama agrees to hand over Sharon, but not alive.

Adama sends over the corpse of Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, the Number Eight copy who shot him and died, to give Marines time to storm the bar. Abinell shoots Boomer's corpse but discovers the deception shortly after. She orders Dee killed. Against Dee's advice, Billy grabs a gun and shoots the would-be executioner dead. As he dies, the executioner also shoots and kills Billy. The Marines kill the remaining gunmen, including Abinell, and free the hostages.

Roslin mourns Billy, whom she described as "the closest thing I have to family left". Dee awaits Lee's recovery in ''Galactica'' s sickbay as Starbuck looks on.

Daphne's close friend, Holly Graham, has asked the Mystery Inc. crew to help her investigate the disappearance of her uncle, Professor Alexander Graham (Tim Conway), a genius and inventor. The five arrive at the mansion, known as Mystic Manor, where they are greeted by Holly; she recounts how Daphne has told her about their past cases before inviting the group to come inside, but Scooby and Shaggy refuse. Fred, Daphne, and Velma follow Holly inside, leaving Shaggy and Scooby outside alone. When Shaggy goes to obtain a box of Scooby Snacks he notices hanging from a gnarled tree, he pulls on one of the branches and falls into a trap door. Frightened, Scooby explores the grounds and discovers a nearby playground where he collects a monster token, receives some clues for the mystery, and eats all of the Scooby snacks. He then enters the mansion and discovers Holly locked in a room. She explains that a specter called The Mastermind appeared, kidnapping Fred, Daphne, and Velma before imprisoning her, and gives him a map of the region for getting around.

Unable to navigate the rest of the mansion, Scooby returns to the front yard where he speaks with Graham's gardener (Don Knotts), who gives him a shovel. The shovel allows him to obtain a key to the nearby fishing village. Between the Fishing Village and the docks to the ocean, Scooby encounters Shaggy once again, who assists him with unlocking an entrance to the piers of the village before, again, vanishing without a trace. Soon Scooby comes to an old lighthouse, where he acquires one of Graham's inventions: a pair of springs, which allow him to double jump. Scooby uses this ability to obtain a key to the mansion's topiary garden.

Scooby makes his way back to the mansion grounds. He navigates the topiary garden, where he obtains one of the professor's inventions: a helmet, allowing him to destroy attacking monsters and bash through cobwebs. Scooby explores the mansion, making his way through numerous rooms, the library, and the attic, before arriving at the top of a tower. He meets The Mastermind, who reveals that he is responsible for resurrecting the monsters and ghosts the group has unmasked, before revealing Velma trapped in a cage, which is guarded by the Black Knight, the first monster Scooby ever encountered. Scooby is able to destroy him by pressing switches which electrocute him, before freeing Velma from her cage. She flees in terror, claiming to see the Creeper. Scooby does not follow her as he does not see the Creeper anywhere in sight.

Following this, Scooby explores a local cannery, along with the overhangs and some interconnected tunnels under the mansion, which lead him to a nearby cemetery. He rescues Shaggy from some monsters, before discovering Daphne held hostage by The Mastermind. The Mastermind proceeds to summon the Green Ghost, which attacks Scooby with green fire and electricity. Scooby is able to contain the Green Ghost with Daphne's help. Suddenly, Holly emerges from the brush. She and Daphne fall through a concealed door when Daphne rests against a tombstone, leaving Scooby alone once again. He uses a newly acquired invention, an umbrella, to explore a chain of old shipwrecks. Eventually, Scooby discovers Fred imprisoned in one of the ship's brigs, where he is confronted by The Ghost of Redbeard. He attacks Scooby by summoning numerous ghosts, but Scooby is able to smash him by dropping a treasure chest on his head. Velma arrives, still claiming to be chased by the Creeper. Fred discovers an image of the monster stamped on her glasses, and they head off to search for Graham's concealed laboratory. Meanwhile, Scooby and Shaggy indulge themselves with food, but Shaggy is scared off by The Ghost of Captain Cutler. Scooby acquires another of Graham's inventions: bubblegum, which he uses to trap monsters from being able to attack him.

Scooby makes his way back to the overhangs, where he begins navigating the dungeons under the mansion. He encounters numerous ghosts, which he is able to destroy and avoid using his newly acquired inventions: air-bubbles. Scooby eventually discovers Professor Graham's laboratory, which has become overrun with monsters, namely the Funland Robot and the Space Kook. Scooby rescues Shaggy from being eaten by a shark, before continuing onward into another room, where he reunites with the rest of the gang and Holly. Fred reveals that the ghosts are entirely fake: The Mastermind has been using holographic images of monsters and ghosts from their past to terrorize them. He constructs a plan, which calls for Scooby to distract The Mastermind. Scooby fights and defeats The Mastermind, stunning him. He is sucked up through a tube which spits him out in the mansion's parlor.

The gang and Holly make their way back to the first floor of the mansion. They unmask The Mastermind, only to discover Professor Graham in the costume. Velma argues that none of the clues make sense, before holding her glasses up to a mirror. The light reflected off the glasses and mirror reveal Holly operating a control panel behind a holographic wall. They realize the Holly they have been with the entire time has been a hologram when Shaggy attempts to touch her shoulder, but instead falls through her. Holly was able to escape the mansion and swap costumes with an incapacitated Professor Graham, making him look guilty. She was able to reconstruct images of the monsters, due to Daphne previously revealing details about the cases the gang had worked in the past. Holly admits to the scheme as a way of enabling her to take commendation for Graham's new invention and make money off of it, before she is sent to jail. Shaggy attempts to eat some food, only to discover it is a holographic image made by Scooby before saying "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!"

The episode primarily takes place on Cylon-occupied Caprica. After the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, the copy of Number Six (Tricia Helfer) that was responsible for disabling the Colonial defense system (affectionately known as "Caprica-Six") and Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (Grace Park), after being shot by Specialist Cally ("Resistance") were both "downloaded": a standard Cylon practice of rebirth which takes place if a model is to perish, and have both been hailed as Cylon heroes due to their efforts in infiltrating human society.

Both are having difficulties in adjusting to life on Caprica. In particular, Caprica-Six is having visions of Gaius Baltar (James Callis) that only she can see, much like Baltar's Inner Six, and Boomer is having problems accepting her Cylon nature to the point of the denial, even in danger of being "boxed", which means storing a Cylon's memories without consciousness out of its body. Number Three (Lucy Lawless) asks Caprica-Six to help Boomer in this regard. However, when Caprica-Six starts to associate more with Boomer, they both realize that the holocaust the Cylons effected was a sin. They also come to the conclusion that due to their unique perspectives, Number Three is searching for a reason to box them both, fearing their acquired humanity a flawed corruption.

Caprica-Six and Boomer are next shown conversing with Number Three. While the three move up a stairwell, explosives set by the resistance led by Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) detonate, trapping Anders, Three, Boomer, and Caprica-Six in a parking garage. While Anders is originally shielded and hidden by the blast, Caprica-Six breaks her leg. Number Three offers to euthanize her, but Caprica-Six refuses as she suspects that Number Three will take the opportunity to box her. Shortly afterwards, the three find Anders who Number Three intends to kill before being stopped by Boomer and Caprica-Six. As Number Three goads them, Boomer and Caprica-Six understand that their unique view of humanity through their love for Baltar and Galen Tyrol gives them a perspective that makes them a threat to the Cylon status-quo. When Number Three attempts to kill Anders, she is killed by Caprica-Six who, along with Boomer, allow Anders to escape. Recognizing that it will take some time for Number Three to resurrect and report them, Caprica-Six and Boomer form a pact to change the Cylon perspective of humanity together before finally being rescued from the collapsed parking garage by the other Cylons.

The episode's secondary plot takes place on ''Galactica''. The copy of Number Eight that defected from the Cylons gives birth by cesarian section to a baby who she and Karl Agathon (Tahmoh Penikett) call "Hera". However, President Laura Roslin, and her secretary, Tory Foster, and Dr. Cottle conspire to fake Hera's death fearing what would happen if the Cylons knew the child lived. President Roslin also did not want Hera to be raised by her Cylon mother, Sharon, whom she still does not trust. At the end of the episode, the child is given to a woman who believes the child was born on Pegasus, while Helo and Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) scatter the ashes they believe to be Hera's into space. Inner Six is outraged at Gaius for not preventing the death of "their child" and swears "God's vengeance on the entire human race for that monstrous, unforgivable sin."

Part 1

Captain Starbuck is green-lit to lead a group of 20 Raptors back to Caprica to rescue the human resistance led by Samuel Anders. The team utilizes a captured Cylon navigation device wired into the Cylon prisoner Sharon Agathon, to increase the Raptors' jump range allowing them to get back to Caprica in only ten jumps. On the first jump however, they lose track of a Raptor piloted by Racetrack, whose mis-jump causes her to arrive inside a nebula. Debating with her ECO whether or not to try to catch up with the others, they stumble across a planet hidden in the nebula that, although somewhat harsh, can support human life.

Vice President Gaius Baltar finds himself behind in the polls with two weeks remaining until the presidential election. Once Racetrack returns with data on the new planet, Tom Zarek realizes that it provides a crucial election issue: an opportunity for permanent colonization. He convinces Baltar to push the idea in his campaign, believing that people cooped up in the fleet for nine months will support it overwhelmingly. President Laura Roslin suspects that the Cylons may already know of the hidden world and that their stay should only be long enough to gather fresh water and to grow food supplies.

In ''Galactica'''s hangar, Chief Galen Tyrol is found after sleepwalking, restlessly asleep on the deck by Specialist Cally. He snaps and violently assaults her after she wakes him. He later seeks religious counseling from a priest named Brother Cavil. Tyrol explains his dreams of jumping off a hangar bay catwalk to his death. Cavil believes it is Tyrol's subconscious desire to kill himself manifested from a fear that he too could be a Cylon "sleeper agent" like Boomer. When Tyrol asks how Brother Cavil can be so certain he is actually human, Cavil sarcastically reassures him that he is not a Cylon "because I'm a Cylon and I've never seen you at any of the meetings" and that Tyrol should return to his duties without worry.

On Caprica, Starbuck's rescue team arrives and locates the survivors including their leader Sam Anders. Their resistance force has been reduced to no more than sixty. The survivors inform their rescuers that they are being pursued by Cylons and they come under immediate attack.

Part 2

After an 18-hour standoff on Caprica with the Cylons, Starbuck's rescue team finds that their enemy has completely withdrawn.

At the fleet, Cally is recovering from her beating by Chief Tyrol. Tyrol apologizes to Cally who forgives him and reveals that she has feelings for him. Roslin secretly meets with Baltar and asks that he table his idea for settling the planet he calls "New Caprica" until after the election. Baltar refuses, to Roslin's dismay. She then confronts him about seeing him on Caprica with the blonde Cylon woman, recalling her deathbed vision. Though visibly shaken by Laura's accusation, Baltar knows she has no proof and deflects her questioning.

When Starbuck's rescue team returns to ''Galactica'', an alarmed Chief Tyrol notices a copy of Brother Cavil among the rescued Caprican survivors and alerts security. The man admits to being a Cylon and is taken to the brig along with Sharon Agathon, who knew Cavil was a Cylon agent and didn't warn them. Sharon later explains to Helo that she didn't warn them because she believes Adama killed her baby and that she no longer cares what happens to her.

Kara and Sam Anders get reacquainted in a bunk room. Commander Lee Adama (Apollo) enters to introduce himself to Anders, but a drunken Thrace barely acknowledges Adama's presence and makes crude remarks about his new relationship with Petty Officer Dualla.

Roslin meets with the Cylon man who is joined in the brig by his sarcastic twin, Brother Cavil. The Cylon man brings the message that two Cylon "heroes" have convinced the rest of the Cylons that the attack on the Colonies, along with the pursuit of the fleet, were errors. They state that the Cylons need to find their own unique path to enlightenment and have decided to offer humanity a "reprieve". Roslin and Adama are skeptical and Roslin orders they be vented into space.

On election day, Baltar has a 5,000 vote lead over Roslin until the final batch of votes from the ''Zephyr'' are counted. Roslin wins the election against all predictions. Lt. Gaeta, who was in charge of the ballot counting, spots a major irregularity with the ''Zephyr'''s ballot papers and reports the matter to Col. Tigh. The truth is that Tigh himself, in collusion with Dualla and Tory Foster (Roslin's campaign assistant), has rigged the election in favor of Roslin. Gaeta takes the matter directly to Admiral Adama.

Adama confronts Roslin who admits she knew that Foster was planning to rig the vote. She stresses that Baltar cannot become president because he is working for the Cylons, explaining to Adama what she saw back on Caprica. He is shocked at her claims and though he has no wish to see Baltar as president he insists the vote rigging was illegal and would eventually weigh heavily on her conscience.

Roslin reluctantly cedes the victory to Baltar. Adama explains to Baltar that the original vote count was a "tabulating error". Baltar knows this isn't true but decides to let the matter rest and orders Adama to take the fleet to New Caprica.

Baltar later meets with the Gina version of Number Six (who he previously saved, then supplied with a nuclear warhead) and tells her they can live together at the new settlement, but she says she isn't going. While Baltar is sworn in as president on ''Colonial One'', Gina sets off the warhead. The detonation destroys ''Cloud Nine'' and several other ships caught within the blast radius. Despite the threat of a new Cylon attack, Baltar insists that plans to settle on New Caprica move forward.

The next scene opens 380 days later, when the people of the fleet have settled "New Caprica City". Above New Caprica, the remaining larger ships orbit with only skeleton crews. These include ''Galactica'' where Admiral Adama is now assisted by Helo, and ''Pegasus'', where Commander Lee Adama is now assisted by Dualla. The battlestars are no longer being maintained in combat-ready condition.

President Baltar has turned ''Colonial One'' into a messy bachelor pad. Gaeta works diligently as his aide, though Baltar largely ignores him. Laura Roslin has returned to teaching and works inside a makeshift school assisted by Maya. Tyrol is now the leader of a disgruntled worker union denouncing the deplorable conditions the people face under President Baltar. At his side is a pregnant Cally.

Sam Anders, now married to Kara, is bedridden with pneumonia. Dr. Cottle has no more antibiotics left to give him, but Tigh tells Kara that Commander Adama has antibiotics stored away as a medical reserve on ''Pegasus'' for his pilots. Kara reluctantly calls Lee, but neither seems to wish to talk to the other. Before Lee can respond to Kara's request, a fleet of Cylon ships suddenly jumps in. Admiral Adama is reluctant to abandon those on New Caprica but Apollo, knowing that they are outmatched, convinces him to jump away, leaving New Caprica undefended.

Gaeta rushes to inform President Baltar that the Cylons have appeared and that the fleet has jumped away. The Cylons fly over New Caprica in force and proceed to occupy the human settlement. The Humanoid Cylon Leoben Conoy searches for Thrace but finds only the bedridden Anders.

President Baltar meets with the Cylons who insist they will not attack unless the humans resist. They explain that New Caprica was found by accident when they detected, from over a light-year away, the signature of the nuclear explosion which destroyed ''Cloud Nine''. With no other option, Baltar surrenders to the Cylons on behalf of the people of New Caprica. Meanwhile, Thrace, Tigh, Roslin, Tyrol, Cally and others watch as Cylon Centurions march through the New Caprica settlement, and vow to resist.

While hiding out from the police, five of Gotham's notorious criminals - the Joker, the Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Killer Croc - gather at the criminals-only Stacked Deck Club. While passing the time with a game of cards, their conversation focuses on their mutual foe, Batman. In the conversation, Joker mentions Batman's recent victory over the Mad Hatter, Two-Face expresses doubt that he is one person, Croc theorizes he is a robot, and Penguin correctly theorizes that he suffered some crime-related trauma in the past that made him who he is. Eventually the subject leads each to an argument over who came the closest to killing Batman, and at the Joker's behest each criminal details their own story about how they "almost got 'im".

Ivy recounts how she had unleashed poisonous gas on Halloween, through thousands of pumpkins, only for Batman to thwart her plans by overcoming a trap she had created for him when he began investigating the sudden ill effects that Gotham's inhabitants suffered from. At first Poison Ivy managed to weaken Batman with the gas, and prepared to unmask him. However, Batman programs the Batmobile to chase her, and he used the opportunity to get out a mask from the Batmobile.

Two Face recounts how he had staged a robbery at a mint for $2 million in two dollar bills and had managed to take away Batman's utility belt and strap him onto a giant penny that he planned to catapult. However, Two-Face realized that Batman had stolen his coin and used it to break free, before apprehending him and his gang.

Croc attempts to detail how he nearly defeated Batman with a "big rock" during a battle in a quarry; unlike the others, none of the villains opt to listen to his story or learn how it went wrong.

Penguin recalls how he had turned a zoo aviary into a home for dangerous birds as part of a plot to kill Batman with several poison-beaked hummingbirds, only for the Dark Knight to soak them in water with the aviary's sprinkler, survive an attack by a cassowary, and inject himself with an antidote; Penguin was forced to flee as a direct result.

With his cohorts having told their stories, Joker recalls how he had been close to killing Batman the night before. After capturing the Dark Knight, Joker commandeered the set of a late-night talk show, holding the studio audience hostage. With help from his gang and Harley Quinn, Joker intended to kill his nemesis on live television through a "laugh-powered electric chair" and pumping the studio with laughing gas. Before Batman was subjected to a lethal dose of electricity, Catwoman broke into the studio, distracting Joker in the ensuing fight long enough for the Dark Knight to escape. Before she can keep Joker from fleeing the studio, Harley managed to knock Catwoman unconscious from behind, with Joker instructing that she be hidden away.

With his story over, Croc questions Joker on what he did with Catwoman, to which he answers that she was taken to a cat food factory to be dealt with once he was finished at the club. To Joker's surprise, Croc attacks him, revealing himself to be Batman in disguise. As the other villains prepare to deal with him, Batman reveals that they were lured there as part of a sting operation organised by Gotham police, who were present in the club, in an attempt to find out Catwoman's whereabouts from Joker. While Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock arrest the group, Batman heads out to the factory.

At the cat food cannery, Batman finds Harley taunting a bound, gagged and enraged Catwoman. Catwoman is tied down to an assembly line, set to be ground up and mixed with supplies of cat food. Harley attempts to escape by turning on the conveyor belt, forcing Batman to choose between apprehending her and saving Catwoman. Harley bolts while Catwoman struggles fruitlessly against her bonds. Batman, finding the machine's power switch, is able to capture Harley and rescue Catwoman. As Harley is arrested, Catwoman thanks Batman for the rescue, to which he states he owed her one for saving him from Joker's scheme. As Catwoman discusses their relationship and makes a pass on him, Batman pulls off his trademark disappearing act, leaving her to smile and mutter to herself "Hmm. Almost got 'im."

Four men on a bachelor party in New York ride the subway and, along with two strippers from the club, accidentally get off at a station that closed down in the 1970s. Trapped in the tunnels beneath New York, they witness the murder of a transit cop by three transients and find themselves on the run for their lives.

Richard Thayer, a shy, unassuming man (Valentino), is in love with a sheltered young woman, Elizabeth ("Beth") Lane (Myers). While the feelings are mutual and Richard wishes to propose, he can never find a moment to speak to Beth alone—she is constantly surrounded by admirers and her overprotective father (Wadsworth Harris).

Richard explains his predicament to his friends, young married couple William and Maude Harcourt (Charles Dorian and Mary Warren). They agree to help by hosting Richard and Beth at a private dinner at their home. Beth's father agrees to let her dine with the Harcourts, but insists that she keep to an 11:00 curfew.

The evening of the dinner William Harcourt receives a telegram from a prospective business associate, Bradford (William Dyer), informing him that he is arriving that night for a surprise visit. The announcement throws the Harcourts into a panic. William has recently mortgaged his home and life savings to buy a copper mine; he is counting on a $1-million investment from Bradford to save his business and house. He does not have any servants to welcome the millionaire, having fired them earlier in the day in a fit of rage.

Working together, the four friends devise a plan: Richard and Beth will pose as the Harcourts; the real Harcourts will play the servants because they are familiar with the layout of their house. The scheme initially works, but things quickly deteriorate when Bradford, an eccentric, overbearing man, starts flirting with Maude Harcourt and insisting that Richard and Beth turn in for the night. The situation worsens when Beth misses her curfew and her father shows up at the Harcourt home to look for her. Eventually, everything is solved, but not before Col. Lane is locked in the pantry, Richard falls out a window and William is tossed out of his own house.

The game focuses on Tetsuo, who has returned to his sensei's house only to be dispatched to a remote farming village where it seems as if the dead rise from the grave. Upon further investigation, Tetsuo finds out that the village has been having strange happenings ever since the old temple became overrun with demons. When he returns to the village after talking to the old guardian of the Temple, the village has been attacked, supposedly, as one of the dying villagers says, by "...ravens..." Also, it seems as if all the children have vanished as well.

'''''Framework part 1'''''

Shortly after renting an old country house, film star Paul Henderson mysteriously disappears and Inspector Holloway (John Bennett) from Scotland Yard is called to investigate. Inquiring at the local police station, Holloway is told some of the house's history.

'''''Method for Murder''''' (''Fury'' #7, July 1962) 

Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott), a hack writer who specialises in horror stories, and his wife Alice (Joanna Dunham), move into the house. Charles begins working on a novel focusing on Dominic, a murderous, psychopathic strangler; Charles becomes simultaneously enamoured and disturbed by the character. Charles soon starts to see Dominic (Tom Adams), who begins stalking and tormenting him.

Charles begins seeing a psychologist, Dr. Andrews (Robert Lang), who suggests Dominic is a split personality formed by him getting into Dominic's mindset to write the novel. Charles's visions of Dominic become even more pronounced. He sees Dominic strangling Alice, only for her to claim that Charles had been strangling her. At another session with Dr. Andrews, Andrews suggests Dominic is the result of darker sides of Charles’ personality being released by writing the novel, though Charles is sceptical. Suddenly, Dominic arrives and strangles Dr. Andrews while Charles watches in horror.

At the house, Dominic approaches Alice, only to reveal that he is actually Richard, her lover. Richard, an actor, had been pretending to be Dominic to drive Charles insane, so that Alice and Richard could take the money made from his novel and run off together. Alice gets a call from the police, and learns that both Dr. Andrews and Charles had been strangled to death. Alice asks Richard why he had killed them, as it was not part of the plan, only for Richard to reveal he now believes he is Dominic. Richard/Dominic then strangles Alice while laughing maniacally.

'''''Framework part 2'''''

Sergeant Martin informs Holloway that Richard/Dominic was later found standing over Alice's body, laughing. He says he believes that it was not merely a case of Richard/Dominic being driven to madness by the role, but some effect of the house itself. Holloway dismisses this as absurd, so Martin tells him another story, of the next tenant to inhabit the house.

'''''Waxworks''''' (''Weird Tales'' Vol. 33 #1, January 1939) 

Retired stockbroker Philip Grayson (Peter Cushing) moves into the house. Though initially he occupies himself with his hobbies, he quickly becomes lonely. One day, while wandering around town, he happens upon a wax museum. Grayson explores the museum and finds a sculpture of Salome which resembles a dead woman he had been in love with. The museum's proprietor (Wolfe Morris) explains that he based the likeness of the sculpture after his late wife, who had been executed after murdering his best friend. Disturbed, Grayson vows never to return.

His friend, Neville Rogers (Joss Ackland) arrives at his home while travelling on business. Grayson eagerly invites him to stay the night, and it becomes clear the two had both been romantic rivals for the same woman; however, the two had reconciled after her death. The next day, Grayson takes Neville around town, and the two spot the wax museum. Though Grayson tries to persuade him not to, Neville enters the wax museum and spots the sculpture, becoming obsessed with it. Neville tries to leave town, but is unable to abandon the sculpture. Staying at a local motel, he calls Grayson and informs him of his predicament. When Grayson arrives, he finds Neville has left for the wax museum. Grayson goes to the museum, and finds Neville's severed head has been added to an exhibit. The proprietor arrives and reveals he had framed his wife for his friend's murder, so that he could cover her corpse in wax and keep her to himself forever. However, men continue to become enamoured with her, and some, like Neville, become obsessed, which puts him into a murderous rage. The proprietor then murders Grayson with an axe, and adds his head to the Salome exhibit.

'''''Framework part 3'''''

Holloway asks if Henderson moved in next, and is told that there was one other tenant before him. However, Holloway does not stay around to hear this story, believing the whole thing preposterous, and instead decides to confer with the estate agent, A.J. Stoker (John Bryans). Stoker tells Holloway that he "tried to warn them" of the house's "secret", and asks Holloway if he has "guessed it yet". Holloway ignores this, dismissing this too as absurd, and instead asks him what happened to the tenant before Henderson. Stoker explains.

'''''Sweets to the Sweet''''' (''Weird Tales'' Vol. 39 #10, March 1947) 

Widower John Reid (Christopher Lee) moves into the house along with his pyrophobic young daughter Jane (Chloe Franks). John hires former teacher Ann Norton (Nyree Dawn Porter) to tutor Jane. Ann gradually bonds with Jane, and she helps Jane get over her fear of fire and teaches her how to read, but begins to suspect John is abusive: he does not allow her to play with other children or own toys, and does his best to keep her isolated.

Norton confronts John about his parenting, and asks if he blames Jane for the death of his wife, to which John responds that he is glad his wife is dead. Norton manages to get John to allow her to buy Jane some toys; when John discovers a doll amongst the toys bought, he snatches it from Jane and tosses it in the fire. Jane begins to secretly read books about witchcraft. One night, during a blackout, John discovers some of the candles are missing. John angrily questions Jane about this and slaps her, to Ann's horror. Jane secretly uses the missing candles to form a wax voodoo doll, which she uses to leave John bedridden.

He reveals to Ann that Jane's mother was a witch, and that Jane is as well; the reason for his parenting methods were to stop Jane from harming anybody. When Jane begins to attack John via the doll once again, he instructs Ann to find the doll and take it from Jane to stop her from killing him. Ann finds Jane standing next to the burning fireplace holding the doll; Ann tries to convince her to give her the doll, but Jane tosses the doll into the fire. Ann listens in horror as John burns to death and Jane smiles evilly.

'''''Framework part 4'''''

Holloway dismisses this story as most ridiculous so far, and demands the tenant tell him about Henderson. Stoker clarifies that he warned Henderson not take it, not believing it would be "right for his personality", but states that he gave in once Henderson insisted. He then tells his final story.

'''''The Cloak''''' (''Unknown'' May 1939) 

Temperamental veteran horror film actor Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee) moves into the house while starring in a vampire film being shot nearby. Henderson, a great fan of the horror genre, is angry over the lack of realism in the film, particularly over the cloak worn by his character (who happens to be a vampire). He decides to purchase a more accurate cloak, and to that end stops at an antique shop run by the enigmatic Theo von Hartmann (Geoffrey Bayldon). Von Hartmann offers him a black cloak after listening to Henderson's demands, and Henderson purchases it. Before he leaves, von Hartmann tells him to use the cloak for its intended purpose.

While in his makeup room, Henderson finds that when he wears the cloak, he has no reflection. Later that day, while shooting a scene where he sucks the blood from his costar and girlfriend Carla (Ingrid Pitt), Paul begins genuinely trying to suck her blood even after the scene ends. A horrified Carla demands he stay away from her. At midnight, the witching hour, Paul puts in the cloak again as a test. He grows fangs and begins to fly, much to his horror.

Paul reads in the newspaper that von Hartmann's shop has burned down and von Hartmann's corpse has been found inside; the corpse was identified as being several years old. Paul realises that von Hartmann was a vampire, and that he gave Henderson the cloak so that he could pass his powers on to Henderson, allowing him to die. Henderson apologizes to Carla and invites her over to his home; he explains to her his predicament, but she is skeptical and demands he prove it by putting on the cloak. Henderson is reluctant, as it is midnight, but he ultimately complies. Paul is relieved to find that nothing happens, but he quickly realises that the cloak had been swapped out for a prop. Carla dons the cloak and reveals she is actually a vampire sent to turn Henderson into another vampire, as most vampires admire his portrayal of their kind. Carla flies towards a screaming Henderson and begins to turn him into a vampire.

'''''Framework part 5'''''

Holloway refuses to believe Stoker and goes to the house, despite it being nearly midnight and the house having no electricity. He explores the house by candlelight, eventually breaking into a locked basement when he finds and kills Henderson, now a fully transformed vampire. He is himself then killed by Carla.

The next morning Stoker walks up to the house and breaks the fourth wall talking to the audience — asking if they understand the secret of the house: That it reflects the personality of whoever is living in it and treats them accordingly. He muses that perhaps the audience would be suitable, and "that there is nothing to fear, provided [they're] the right sort of person".

Laurie Harding (Paulo Costanzo) is a small shop clerk in the local Calgary mall. His world is full of tragic accidents - crosswalks, elevators, escalators and virtually anything associated with commercialism or technology is parodied as objects of fear and tragedy.

An elevator plunges 30 stories. A woman's scarf is caught in an escalator, strangling her to death. A man is struck by a car, right before Laurie had the premonition to not cross.

His own world is full of fear of these very events, his predictions of them, and his dependence on his less-than-sympathetic sister, Michelle (Camille Sullivan).

Michelle heads product development at the company Global Safety Inc., whose mission is to provide products to combat the "Fear Storm" which assails the city. With their "Early Warning 2 Safe System tm", the PDA-like device warns you of danger ahead of time and the "Safe Bracelet tm" senses your fear and allows you to beep for help.

Along with Laurie's prophetic powers, and the endless onslaught of accidents, the movie is full of absurd events: a mall announcer who continually requests a speaker of x foreign language - without any apparent reason; the same mall's population which slowly dwindles, being virtually empty by the film's end; an entire classroom population which is accosted simultaneously by hiccups;

Some of these are more apparently satirical of pop culture: to comfort himself, Laurie repeats commercial refrains, such "Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat"; his girlfriend, Dot (Emily Hampshire), does a survey on "how the clothes you wear define you" - one she both detests and is obsessed by.

These events are framed by the pretextual plot of Laurie conquering his fears — and by extension, the fears of those around him. However, by the film's end, it is doubtful that anything has been changed or achieved.

The film follows the experiences of a promising athlete named Steve and his friends who live in a small southern California town. Steve's three friends, Duff, Seb, and T, all come from wealthy families and spend most of their time getting high, drinking at parties, and harassing Ahkmed, a convenience store clerk. After finding a gun in a girl's house, Duff starts violently pursuing a life of crime with T, the loudmouthed instigator with a Napoleon complex, at his side.

After Duff kills a kid who volunteers at the police department, the story fades away and we come back to find Steve returning home from college a year later just after being successful in college baseball. Steve came back to get his dream girl, Heather Smith, who told him that if he made it as a baseball player she would consider dating him. Steve runs into Duff's gang. Things spiral out of control for Steve as we learn that Duff and T have become submerged in what they think is one of the hardest gangs ever. In fact, shortly after Steve joins up with Duff and T, he witnesses them kill a man in broad daylight in the middle of the street over $80.

As the story unfolds, it is clear that Heather is being used and abused by her new boyfriend Todd, whom she is reluctant to leave for Steve. Later Steve convinces Seb, who broke his ties with Duff's crew, to come out and party with Duff and the old gang for a night. T insults two Korean men by calling them Gooks, who then fire an Uzi into Duff's car, killing Seb. Duff and T were later sold out to a crooked undercover cop and the older brother of the man who was previously shot over $80. They killed T and then a narcotics officer, and his team busted the door down and were all killed.

The end of the movie has Steve and Duff driving along the street when a couple of young kids throw something at Duff's car causing the two get to out of the car and chase after them. As they get near the kids, one of them turns, pulls a gun, and shoots Duff and Steve, killing them both.

Plot summary

Bella Swan is a seventeen-year-old introvert girl who moved from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula to live with her father, Charlie Swan, the town's police chief. Her mother, Renée Dwyer, is traveling with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor-league baseball player. Bella is admitted to Forks High School, where she easily settles in with a group of friends. A somewhat inexperienced and shy girl, Bella is dismayed by several boys competing for her attention.

On the first day of her school, Bella sits next to Edward in biology class, but he seems to be utterly repulsed by her, much to her bewilderment. He disappears for a few days but when he returns, he is unexpectedly friendly to Bella. Their newfound relationship is interrupted after Bella is nearly struck by a van in the school parking lot. Edward saves Bella, narrowly stopping the van with his bare hands. Bella questions Edward about how he saved her life but he refuses to tell her anything.

During a campout, Bella meets Jacob Black, a local boy from the Quileute tribe. She learns from him that Edward and his family are actually vampires who consume only animal blood. Disturbed and riddled by recurring nightmares, Bella researches vampires. She compares the characteristics of the vampires in mythology to the Cullens and becomes convinced that Edward is a vampire. Bella is saved by Edward again in Port Angeles when she is almost attacked by a group of men. Furious, Edward drives Bella away and takes her to a restaurant for dinner and then back home. On the way, she tells him she knows that he is a vampire. Edward confirms her belief and confesses that Bella's blood is more desirable to him than anyone else's and he wanted to kill her on the first day of school. He tries to stay away from Bella to avoid hurting her, but over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

Their relationship is affected when a nomad vampire coven arrives in Forks. James, a tracker vampire, who is intrigued by Cullen's relationship with a human, wants to hunt Bella for sport. Bella and Edward are forced to separate as Bella escapes with Alice and Jasper (Edward's brother and sister) to hide in a hotel in Phoenix.

James calls Bella and claims to be holding her mother hostage. Bella sneaks out and hurries to save her mother. When she arrives, she finds that the hostage claim was a ruse. James attacks her, but before he can kill her, she is rescued by Edward and the other Cullens who kill James. However, James has already bitten Bella. Edward prevents Bella from becoming a vampire by sucking the venom out of her wound, and she is treated at a hospital, using the story that she fell out of a window as an excuse.

After they return to Forks, Edward takes her to the school prom, as Edward did not want Bella to miss any normal human experience because of him. Bella says that she wants to become like him, a vampire, but Edward reiterates he is against this.

Bella's desire to become a vampire increases throughout the series. Edward continues to refuse to turn her, as he thinks being a vampire is being a monster, and does not want Bella to suffer the same fate.

Main characters

• Isabella "Bella" Swan - A 17-year-old girl who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her father. Her mother moves to Florida with her second husband. Bella has a kind and awkward personality that is more mature than most girls her age. She is intelligent and observant, noticing and formulating theories about the Cullens' strange behaviors, physical features, and unusual abilities. As the novel progresses, Bella unconsciously learns how to make difficult choices and accept their consequences.
• Edward Cullen - A 103-year-old vampire who was transformed by Carlisle Cullen when he was near death with Spanish flu in 1918. He has a supernatural gift for reading people's minds. Since Edward's transformation into a vampire, he had never fallen in love nor believed that he needed to. He later realizes that his existence was completely pointless and without an aim. In Bella, he finds compassion, love, acceptance, and care. In ''Twilight'', Edward has a pessimistic personality influenced by Meyer's naturally pessimistic character. His character was also influenced by Mr. Rochester from ''Jane Eyre.''.

• James - A vampire with an unusual ability to track people. When the Cullens try to protect Bella, James figures she will be the biggest hunt of his life.
• Jacob Black - A non-vampire, Quileute who lives on the La Push reservation near Forks. Upon first meeting, Bella is charmed and impressed by Jacob in many ways. Jacob learns that he is similar to Bella in many ways. Her father Charlie sees that Jacob is safe boyfriend material, the kind of guy he would approve her dating.
• Carlisle Cullen - A handsome, conscientious doctor. As the patriarch of the Cullen clan, Carlisle started the practice of a 'vegetarian' (no human) diet. As a human in the 17th century, Carlisle was the son of an anti-'evil-being' pastor.

Bella Swan is a seventeen-year-old introvert girl who moved from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula to live with her father, Charlie Swan, the town's police chief. Her mother, Renée Dwyer, is traveling with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor-league baseball player. Bella is admitted to Forks High School, where she easily settles in with a group of friends. A somewhat inexperienced and shy girl, Bella is dismayed by several boys competing for her attention.

On the first day of her school, Bella sits next to Edward in biology class, but he seems to be utterly repulsed by her, much to her bewilderment. He disappears for a few days but when he returns, he is unexpectedly friendly to Bella. Their newfound relationship is interrupted after Bella is nearly struck by a van in the school parking lot. Edward saves Bella, narrowly stopping the van with his bare hands. Bella questions Edward about how he saved her life but he refuses to tell her anything.

During a campout, Bella meets Jacob Black, a local boy from the Quileute tribe. She learns from him that Edward and his family are actually vampires who consume only animal blood. Disturbed and riddled by recurring nightmares, Bella researches vampires. She compares the characteristics of the vampires in mythology to the Cullens and becomes convinced that Edward is a vampire. Bella is saved by Edward again in Port Angeles when she is almost attacked by a group of men. Furious, Edward drives Bella away and takes her to a restaurant for dinner and then back home. On the way, she tells him she knows that he is a vampire. Edward confirms her belief and confesses that Bella's blood is more desirable to him than anyone else's and he wanted to kill her on the first day of school. He tries to stay away from Bella to avoid hurting her, but over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

Their relationship is affected when a nomad vampire coven arrives in Forks. James, a tracker vampire, who is intrigued by Cullen's relationship with a human, wants to hunt Bella for sport. Bella and Edward are forced to separate as Bella escapes with Alice and Jasper (Edward's brother and sister) to hide in a hotel in Phoenix.

James calls Bella and claims to be holding her mother hostage. Bella sneaks out and hurries to save her mother. When she arrives, she finds that the hostage claim was a ruse. James attacks her, but before he can kill her, she is rescued by Edward and the other Cullens who kill James. However, James has already bitten Bella. Edward prevents Bella from becoming a vampire by sucking the venom out of her wound, and she is treated at a hospital, using the story that she fell out of a window as an excuse.

After they return to Forks, Edward takes her to the school prom, as Edward did not want Bella to miss any normal human experience because of him. Bella says that she wants to become like him, a vampire, but Edward reiterates he is against this.

Bella's desire to become a vampire increases throughout the series. Edward continues to refuse to turn her, as he thinks being a vampire is being a monster, and does not want Bella to suffer the same fate.

In 1888, Mary Kelly and a small group of London prostitutes trudge through unrelenting daily misery. Their friend Ann Crook is a former prostitute now married to a wealthy painter named Albert, and she has recently given birth to a daughter, Alice. When Ann is kidnapped, the women are drawn into a conspiracy with links to high society. Ann's kidnapping is followed by the gruesome murder of another one of the women, and it soon becomes apparent that each of the prostitutes is being hunted, murdered and mutilated post-mortem by a killer called Jack the Ripper.

The prostitute murders grab the attention of Whitechapel police inspector Frederick Abberline, a brilliant yet troubled man whose police work is often aided by his psychic "visions." Abberline is still grieving the death of his wife during childbirth two years earlier. His colleague Sergeant Peter Godley tries to grasp Abberline's strange theories. Abberline's investigations reveal that an educated person, likely knowledgeable in human anatomy, is responsible for the murders because of the highly precise, surgical methods used.

Ann is soon located in a workhouse after being lobotomized because doctors deemed her violent and insane. It is implied that the operation was performed in order to silence her.

Abberline consults Sir William Gull, a physician to the royal family, drawing on his experience and knowledge of medicine. During this meeting, Gull deduces that Abberline is struggling with opium addiction. Gull's findings point Abberline to a darker, more organized conspiracy than he had originally suspected. Abberline becomes deeply involved with the case, which takes on personal meaning when he falls in love with Mary.

Abberline deduces that Freemason influence is involved in the murders. His superior, a high-ranking Freemason, opposes Abberline's methods and suspends him from the case. Thereafter, Abberline persists and discovers that Gull is the killer. Gull was instructed to dispose of all witnesses to the forbidden marriage of painter Albert Sickert to Ann Crook, the mother of his legitimate daughter, Alice. Sickert is revealed to be Prince Albert, grandson of reigning Queen Victoria. Albert is dying of syphilis, which makes baby Alice the soon-to-be heiress to the British throne. Gull boasts to Abberline that he will be remembered in history for giving "birth to the 20th century." Abberline draws his gun, vowing that Gull will never see the 20th century, but before he is able to shoot Gull, he is knocked out by Ben Kidney, another Freemason.

The Freemasons try to eliminate Abberline without leaving any witnesses, but Abberline fights back and kills two of the assassins by overturning a carriage. Abberline rushes to save Mary but arrives too late, and blames his superior for not helping him or Godley on the cases. Gull's increasingly sinister behavior lends an insight into his murderous, but calculating, mind. Rather than publicly charge Gull, the Freemasons lobotomize him to protect themselves and the royal family from the scandal. Gull defiantly states he has no equal among men, remaining unrepentant until the operation, which renders him an invalid like Ann.

Abberline goes to the Ten Bells Tavern in Whitechapel and receives a mysterious letter from Mary. It is revealed that Gull had mistaken another prostitute, Ada, for Mary and killed her instead. To protect Mary, Abberline decides not to look for her, as the Freemasons are still watching him closely. He burns Mary's letter, knowing that he can never have a normal life with her. Sergeant Godley later finds Abberline dead of an opium overdose. Distraught, Godley places two coins over Abberline's eyes and mournfully says, "Good night, sweet prince."

Years later, Mary is shown to have adopted Alice, and the two are living in a cottage on a cliff by the sea.

Ryan Woodman is a bit of a geek with eyes for the school’s most popular girl, Ashley Grant. This induces cringing in his neighbor and best friend, Maggie Carter, a cute, intellectual girl. Football jock Chris Campbell, who happens to be Ashley’s cousin, has his eye on Maggie, and he offers to help Ryan get the girl of his dreams if Ryan does the same for him. Ryan and Chris agree on the deal, which has Ryan compose soulful e-mails for Chris to use on Maggie, while Chris advises Ryan to treat Ashley like dirt, with the reasoning it’s the only way to get her attention.

At first, neither guy finds it easy to change their ways; Chris comes on too strong for Maggie’s liking, and Ryan is too nervous to be a jerk to Ashley. But as they start to succeed, Ryan begins to see Maggie in a new light and wonders if he's pursuing the right girl. He realizes Ashley is not meant for him just as he tries to convince Maggie of Chris's affection for her. Meanwhile, Maggie questions her own interest in the narcissistic Chris. Ryan’s change in behavior, which includes insulting his geeky friends, also sinks Maggie’s opinion of him. Ryan learns Chris plans to “nail and bail” Maggie on the night of the school prom, a strategy he’s done with every girl he’s dated. Ryan tells Chris that this won’t work because Maggie is too good for that, but he blithely ignores him.

Ryan ends up confessing his feelings for Maggie and admits to her it was him writing her the romantic letters the whole time, not Chris. Feeling let down by the dishonesty, Maggie is hesitant to reciprocate his feelings. She ends up going to the prom with Chris while Ryan begrudgingly goes with Ashley. At an afterparty in a hotel, before Chris can get Maggie into bed, Maggie insists on tying him to the bed and blindfolding him, which he obliges. When Chris is fully restrained, Maggie tells him she has just played him and takes a Polaroid of him in the humiliating position. She leaves Chris in the room to be taunted and drawn on by other partygoers. Ryan ends up ditching Ashley and goes after Maggie. Back at their homes, Ryan tries to talk to Maggie over the balcony and apologizes for his wrongdoings. Maggie tells him how hurt she is over the deception, which had steered her into Chris’s popular clique and led her to mistakenly feel like she belonged, and he replies that she does belong – with him. They then realize their feelings for one another and kiss.

The story begins with a group of SPARTAN-IIIs being deployed to a Covenant fleet refueling depot in the year 2545. The soldiers destroy the facility, but all save two of the three hundred SPARTANs are killed. The narrative then moves back to 2531, where SPARTAN-IIs are deployed against human insurrectionists; though the team is almost captured, the timely intervention of Kurt-051 allows the team to complete their mission. Meanwhile, Colonel James Ackerson meets with the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). Ackerson announces his plan to create a new breed of SPARTANs which retains much of the supersoldiers' effectiveness, without the high price tag of the SPARTAN-II program. These SPARTAN-IIIs are trained by Franklin Mendez, as well as Kurt-051. With his death staged by ONI, Kurt-051 is placed in full charge of SPARTAN-III training, under the name and rank of Lieutenant Kurt Ambrose. The SPARTAN-III project is carried out on a secret ONI planet named Onyx, where there is also an archaeological excavation of ancient Forerunner ruins in an area known as "Zone 67". When a company of SPARTAN-IIIs goes missing in Zone 67, it is declared off-limits to all personnel.

Like the SPARTAN-IIs, the SPARTAN-III candidates undergo radical cybernetic and biological enhancements and are outfitted with special armor to increase their abilities. The first SPARTAN-III company proves highly successful, but is wiped out when ordered to destroy a Covenant orbital shipyard in 2537. Shaken by the massacre of his troops, Kurt improves the training regimen for his next batch of SPARTAN-III recruits, but they too are all killed in action so Kurt, in an effort to reduce casualties, institutes illegal biological modifications on the third company of SPARTANs. While conducting a training exercise near Zone 67, UNSC personnel find themselves under attack by alien robotic drones.

Meanwhile, Dr. Catherine Halsey, the SPARTAN-II project's creator, along with the SPARTAN Kelly-087 arrive in the Onyx system. As they near the surface of the planet they are attacked by more robot drones and crash, meeting up with the human survivors of the attacks. Halsey identifies the robotic drones as Forerunner Sentinels from the artificial intelligence Cortana's logs of the events of ''Halo: Combat Evolved''. Halsey sends a message back to Earth, which is under attack by Covenant; in response, Lord Hood sends the SPARTAN-IIs Fred-104, Linda-058, and Will-043 to Onyx.

At the Forerunner ringworld Delta Halo, the Covenant are in the midst of a civil war. Elites intercept Halsey's distress signal and learn of the existence of Onyx and its Forerunner technology. Both the Covenant and the UNSC forces which arrive at Onyx are attacked by Sentinels. The entire UNSC fleet at Onyx is destroyed by the ensuing battle, save for one stealth ship, the ''Dusk'', which stays hidden, observing the events.

The remaining human forces on Onyx discover a Forerunner city being rapidly uncovered by the Sentinels, and are guided into a massive sphere by Dr. Halsey. She determines that the entire planet is actually a "Shield World" constructed by the Forerunners to protect themselves from the firing of the Halo ringworlds, which are designed to eradicate all sentient life. Fighting off Covenant pursuers, the humans discover an entrance leading to a Dyson Sphere. Kurt remains behind in order to detonate two nuclear weapons to stop the Covenant from following the humans into the Sphere. Hiding at a distance from Onyx, the ''Dusk'' watches as Onyx's surface rips apart to reveal that the entire world is constructed of Sentinels, all connected together to provide an impenetrable defense around the Dyson Sphere at the heart of the planet. The Sentinels annihilate the remaining Covenant fleet vessels orbiting the planet and the Prowler retreats. Fred, now inside the Dyson Sphere, takes command of the survivors and orders everyone to search for method of escape.

Bernard lives happily with his wife Arlette and young son Thomas in a village outside Grenoble. One day a married couple, Philippe and Mathilde, move into the house next door. Bernard and Mathilde are shocked at meeting each other because years before, when both single, they had a stormy affair that ended painfully. At first Bernard avoids Mathilde, until a chance meeting in a supermarket reawakens long-buried passions and soon, while openly good neighbours, in secret they pursue an affair. Though both find the strain of living their normal family and working lives unbearable, it is Bernard who cracks first. After publicly revealing his violent passion for Mathilde at a garden party, he keeps away from her and the two households try to get on with their lives. But the rejected Mathilde then cracks and, after publicly collapsing at the tennis club, is hospitalised with depression. When she is released, she finds that to get far away from Bernard her husband has moved them out of the village. One night Bernard is woken by a banging shutter on the empty house next door and gets up to investigate. In the house, he spots Mathilde in the darkness. After they have made love on the bare floor, taking a gun out of her handbag she shoots first him and then herself.

The film is set in 1999 in Sierra Leone, a West African nation ravaged by a decade of civil war. Rebel factions such as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) frequently terrorize the countryside, intimidating Mende locals and enslaving many to harvest diamonds, which fund their increasingly successful war effort. One such unfortunate local is fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) from Shenge. While his family escapes the rebels, Vandy is assigned to a workforce overseen by Captain Poison (David Harewood), a ruthless warlord.

One morning, while mining a river, Vandy discovers an enormous pink diamond. Captain Poison tries to take the stone, but the area is suddenly raided by government troops. Vandy buries the stone before being captured. Both Vandy and Poison are incarcerated in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown, along with Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a Rhodesian smuggler and mercenary. Archer, a veteran of the 32 Battalion during the South African Border War, was jailed while trying to smuggle diamonds into Liberia. They were intended for Rudolph van de Kaap (Marius Weyers), a corrupt South African mining executive and a major part of the international diamond industry.

Hearing of the pink diamond in prison, Archer arranges for himself and Vandy to be freed from detention. He travels to Cape Town to meet his employer, Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), an Afrikaner formerly with the apartheid-era South African Defence Force, who now commands a private military company. Archer wants the diamond so he can sell it and leave the continent forever, but Coetzee wants it as compensation for Archer's botched smuggling mission. Archer returns to Sierra Leone, locates Vandy, and offers to help him find his family if he will help recover the diamond.

Meanwhile, RUF insurgents escalate hostilities; Freetown falls to their advance while Vandy's son Dia is among those rounded up to serve as child soldiers under a liberated Captain Poison. Archer and Vandy narrowly escape to Lungi, where Vandy encounters his wife and daughters in a refugee camp, but finds that his son has been taken by the RUF. Vandy and Archer plan to reach Kono, where Vandy buried the diamond, with an American journalist named Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), who is attempting to write an exposé on the illicit diamond trade. In exchange for her help, Archer promises to provide her the evidence she needs for her story.

Archer and Vandy, disguised as television journalists, travel with Maddy and a press convoy destined for Kono, but the convoy is ambushed by rebels and the three are forced to flee. While trekking through the jungle, they encounter Kamajor militiamen, who take them to the home of a friendly local named Benjamin Kapanay. The kindhearted Kapanay offers to drive them to Kono, though he is injured by an RUF child soldier on the way. The trio arrive in Kono after a harrowing journey, where Coetzee and his private army—contracted by the Sierra Leone government—prepare to repulse the rebel offensive.

Archer, having developed respect for Maddy, gives her the evidence and forces her to evacuate the country with other civilians; Archer and Vandy, having stolen weapons and supplies from Colonel Coetzee's army, set out for Captain Poison's encampment to retrieve the nearby diamond. Along the way, the two men begin fighting over what they perceive as the ultimate goal: Archer wants the diamond, while Vandy cares only about finding his son.

They arrive at the encampment where Archer, seeing they are heavily outnumbered, calls Coetzee's army via satellite phone to request an airstrike. Vandy, still desperate to find his son, sneaks into the encampment and locates Dia; due to Dia's brainwashing, he refuses to acknowledge his father. Vandy is captured but manages to escape once Coetzee's army arrives. Vandy finds Captain Poison and beats him to death with a shovel as the mercenaries overwhelm the RUF defenders. Coetzee then takes Dia hostage and forces Vandy to produce the diamond, but Archer kills Coetzee after realizing the colonel would eventually kill them both. Dia briefly holds the pair at gunpoint, but Vandy is able to talk him down by reminding him of who he was before his kidnapping. Pursued by vengeful mercenaries, Archer discloses he has been mortally wounded and entrusts the stone to Vandy, telling him to take it for his family. Vandy and his son rendezvous with Archer's pilot, who flies them to safety while Archer makes a final phone call to Maddy, who is in Cape Town; they share final farewells as he asks her to assist Vandy and his family, and he gives her permission to finish her article. Archer finally takes in the beautiful African landscape before dying.

Vandy and Maddy meet in London, where they execute an undercover operation meant to expose the van de Kaap operation's dirty dealings. Vandy exchanges the pink diamond for £2 million pounds and a reunion with his entire family. Maddy takes photographs of the exchange and publishes her exposé on the diamond trade and van de Kaap's criminal actions. Later, Vandy appears as a guest speaker at a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, where he is met with a standing ovation.

Inside a small shack, a robed figure dubbed "God Killing Himself" in the film's credits disembowels himself using a straight razor. After removing some of his internal organs, the robed god dies. A woman, Mother Earth, then emerges from his mutilated remains. She brings the corpse to arousal and uses his semen to impregnate herself. Time passes and Mother Earth, now visibly pregnant, stands beside a coffin. Wandering off into a vast and barren landscape, Mother Earth later gives birth to Son of Earth, a malformed convulsing man. He is soon abandoned by his mother, who leaves him to his own devices.

After an untold period of time wandering across the barren landscape, the Son of Earth encounters a group of faceless nomads who seize him by his umbilical cord. Upon being captured, the Son of Earth begins to vomit up organs, which the nomads excitedly accept as gifts. They then throw the man into a fire pit, where he burns to death. Son of Earth is resurrected by Mother Earth, who comforts her newly reborn offspring before they continue together across the barren landscape. The nomads soon return and proceed to attack the Son of Earth as Mother Earth stands in a trance-like state. Turning their attention to her, the nomads knock her to the ground, rape her, and murder her as her son watches helplessly near-by.

Once the nomads have left, a group of robed figures arrive to carry away Mother Earth's mutilated, disemboweled remains. The group returns to murder and disembowel her son, burying pieces of both mother and son into the crust of the earth. As time passes, the burial site soon becomes lush with flowers. Grainy photographs of God Killing Himself are shown. In the final scene, Mother Earth and her son appear in a flash-back, this time wandering through a forest.

Violeta lives with her uncle, because her mother died soon after she was born and she never knew her father. In addition to her uncle, Violeta stays with her grandmother from time to time as well. Violeta has a boyfriend named Ángel who gives her a pet dog.

While at her grandmother's house, Violeta discovers a time machine that her grandfather built, so she and her friends travel to different time periods. They visit several important events in Mexican history, learning these stories firsthand. The adults also end up traveling in time with the kids, and then it takes them all to recent time periods like the 1980s, where Violeta meets her mother and witnesses her own birth and her mother's death.

Later, she reunites with her father who is a well-respected doctor, and, after telling him and her uncle that she has found a time machine, they make a plan to save her mother the minute she gives birth to Violeta and take her to the future. Violeta's father successfully saves her mother.

Violeta's mother later wakes up and is told that she is in the future, and she sees that her daughter was the same girl who helped her to the hospital.

Mariana Cantú and Silvana Del Valle are twin sisters who are separated on the day of their birth. Mariana stayed with her biological mother, a modest seamstress named Rocio Cantu, her grandmother Doña Pura and her aunt Helena who, despite having all the difficulties, are very united and happy. Mariana is a noble, sweet, cheerful and much loved girl throughout the village. Meanwhile, Silvana is stolen by Regina to pose as her own daughter with her husband Rolando, who Silvana grows up believing is her biological father, as she cannot have children herself in order to keep him and his money at her side. Orlando loves his daughter deeply despite Silvana's strong temperament. She is also superficial and cold.

After 12 years, the twins meet again, and they see the uncanny resemblance between them. Silvana asks Mariana to switch places with her for a day so that she can audition as Silvana and get a part in a famous upcoming children's band called "Cómplices al Rescate", as Mariana can sing well and Silvana cannot sing at all. A while later, Silvana's "father" Rolando's heart illness becomes worse and he eventually suffers a stroke, which leaves him in the hospital. Regina, thinking Rolando has left all his money to her in his will, sees this as an opportunity to kill Rolando and have what she's always wanted, his fortune. Regina tells a weak Rolando that Silvana is not his biological daughter and that she has only been with him for his money the entire marriage. This angers Rolando, who then tries to get up and hurt Regina but ends up suffering another heart attack and dies on the scene.

Regina is then informed that Rolando had changed his will at the last minute, seeing as how she was always cold and never a real mother to Silvana, and left all the money to Silvana, leaving her nanny, Macrina and her godfather, Raul, in charge of the fortune until Silvana turns eighteen. This infuriates Regina, who then realizes that the twins have met and uses this as an opportunity to get the inheritance back under her name and remain rich. Regina and Gerardo then decide to kidnap Mariana too and force her to pose as Silvana, seeing as how she is actually able to sing, with the intention of making a fortune off of the Complices band and eventually, get back the inheritance. Macrina is now in charge of Mariana, and sees how Mariana is becoming friends with the Complices. She tells Mariana that perhaps the Complices will be able to help. Mariana opens up to Joaquin, Julia, Felipe and Andres, who agree to help return both twins to their mother.

Throughout the series they meet people like Joaquin and his siblings. Joaquin is an orphan along with his sister Julia and his brother Felipe. Their parents died in a car accident and the kids were left in the care of his aunt Florencia, who later gets tired of them and abandons them. With the help of their friend and neighbor Andres (who is secretly in love with Julia) and his parents, these kids can keep living alone in the home. This becomes their biggest secret, one they must keep at all costs from the world, especially their neighbor Doña Meche, who becomes obsessed with proving that the children live alone.

The twins are returned to Rocio, who is shocked to find out she truly did have twins as she suspected throughout her entire pregnancy. But being from a small, humble town, she was unable to get any sort of ultrasound done. Shortly after, Alberto asks Rocio to marry him. She accepts and the two wed. When the truth about what Regina and Gerardo did comes to light, Gerardo flees and Regina fakes her own death. Rocio and her family move into Silvana's adopted father mansion, which she had unknowingly inherited after his death.

This is where the second half of the story commences. While Silvana was posing as Mariana, she realized that Rocio really wasn't aware that she had twins and did not give her up shortly after her birth. This helps Silvana unlock her singing voice and allows her to sing as beautifully as Mariana. The two twins now begin singing together as the lead vocalists of the Complices. Regina comes back at this point under the alias Tania Belmont to take her revenge on Silvana. This becomes the main focus of the second half of the telenovela.

"Tania" opens up a new record label, Enter Records with the intent of starting a new band to destroy the Complices and get Silvana on her label so that she can gain her trust and get back Rolando's fortune. Tania offers Silvana a recording contract as the one and only vocalist of a new band she calls Silvana y los Bandidos (Silvana and the Bandits). Silvana accepts, leaving Mariana heartbroken and the other Complices hurting.

Diana (Sara Maldonado) teenage girl, who was emotionally neglected from her parents, and felt unwanted. After being expelled from her boarding school in Switzerland, Diana goes back to live with her parents. Diana's aunt, Pilar, comes over and witnesses a great deal fighting and tension within the household.

She offers solace to Diana by letting her live with her. Diana goes to the mall where she bumps into Braulio (Aarón Díaz). She keeps bumping into him in various places, especially school. Braulio was orphaned when he was about twelve years old.

He lives with his wicked aunt; his kind, but oblivious uncle; and his cruel cousin, Esteban (Jorge de Silva). Braulio has a friend named Conny (Sherlyn) who tries to date him, but he isn't interested. Conny absolutely hates Diana as he ''is'' attracted to her. Braulio later finds out that Diana comes from a rich background, something Diana never told him, which leads to them splitting up. Diana later ends up dating Esteban, not knowing that he is Braulio's wicked cousin.

The plot, in essence, tells the story of several teens in a school. The story lines are designed to affect pre-teen minds: The orphan Braulio, Diana at her boarding school, and Connie and her parents winning the lottery, to name just a few.

In addition to all this, when Aunt Pilar (Erika Buenfil) first registers Diana into school, she meets her long lost love, Álvaro, who works at the school. Álvaro also works with Emma, who has feelings for him, but now that Pilar is back in the picture, Álvaro only has eyes for Pilar.

Things change when Alvaro mistakenly thinks Pilar is married, and sleeps with Emma. After finding out his mistake, Álvaro goes back to Pilar, but keeps his affair with Emma a secret, even when Pilar asks if there was anything going on.

The jealous Emma finds out that Álvaro is dating Pilar after seeing the two at a restaurant. She later discovers she is pregnant and lies to Álvaro, telling him that she is positive that he is the father. (She doesn't mention that she had also slept with Esteban.)

A motley crew of Australian militiamen or 'chocos' from the 39th Battalion are stationed in a New Guinea village just after the Japanese invasion. The 39th Battalion are the only troops available to hold off the Japanese advance until the AIF arrives to relieve them. The story centres on an infantry section of the 39th Battalion. The section with their platoon commander, a veteran AIF lieutenant (Ben Barrack) who has served in North Africa, is on forward patrol when they are attacked by a Japanese force. The lieutenant is killed early in the battle and the section, led only by a recently promoted lance-corporal, Max (Simon Stone), decide to fall back. One of the men, L/Cpl Wilstead (Ewen Leslie), is bayoneted in the face by a Japanese soldier, and a Bren gunner called Blue (Christopher Baker) offers to stay and provide cover. However, the remaining men are cut off and surrounded in the dense jungle, with little hope of escaping. The Australians try to remain hidden until nightfall, when Darko (Travis McMahon) and Jack (Jack Finsterer) decide to go and find out where Blue is. They stumble across Blue, who is tied up and being tortured by Japanese soldiers. Darko and Jack look on helplessly as the Japanese soldiers bayonet him in the stomach and groin, and finally decapitate him with a sword. They return to their hiding place, shaken by what they have seen. The Japanese ambush the section and they run further into the jungle. Caught behind enemy lines in harsh terrain, Jack, to whom the others (including his brother, Max, have deferred) tries to maintain command of a small group of men. Suffering from malaria and dysentery, the remaining six men decide to make their way to Isurava, where the remainder of the 39th are fighting a desperate battle.

One of the soldiers, Sam (Steve Le Marquand), has been injured in the leg and orders the rest of the section to leave him behind. They refuse and he struggles along with a crutch. After a full day of walking, the men are exhausted. The next morning they awake to find Sam gone, having hidden himself in a hollow tree stump to avoid holding them up.

The men continue and are ambushed by a Japanese patrol. The Japanese soldiers are all killed, but Max is badly wounded by a gunshot to the stomach and is unable to walk. He is carried by all the men.

The section makes it to a village that has been destroyed by the advancing Japanese, and the Australians decide to take refuge. They bury the dead native villagers and an argument arises between Jack and Darko, a tough soldier who carries the section's Bren gun, over Max. Darko wishes to leave him behind as he is slowing the section down and they are needed at Isurava. Jack, however, wants to stay with him. However, Max decides to stay and let the others go and Johnno (Tom Budge), who has severe dysentery, stays with him. The men agree, and Jack, Darko and Burke (Luke Ford), Darko's number two, head off to Isurava. The journey becomes treacherous and Burke's dysentery is getting worse.

Meanwhile, at the village, a few Japanese soldiers arrive to search the village and in a desperate attempt to save the life of his mate, Johnno fires at the Japanese and runs into the jungle; however, he is tracked down and gunned down by the Japanese. A day or so later a New Guinea tribesman comes back to inspect the village and finds a badly wounded Max in the hut.

After a gut-wrenching climb, Jack, Darko and Burke are found by Australian troops, who take them to Isurava, where the situation is in dire straits. The AIF has finally arrived but they too are weak from the trek to Isurava. The 39th is no longer a capable fighting unit, and almost all of the men are too sick or wounded to fight. The three men check themselves into a makeshift field hospital for treatment. However an AIF officer comes in and asks for any available men from the 39th to help hold the line. Jack, Burke and Darko volunteer and they are assigned to a position held by men of the 2/16th Battalion.

That night the Japanese attack in waves against the Australian positions. The Australians, who are only equipped with rifles and machine guns, desperately hold off the Japanese. The Japanese are gunned down by the superior firepower of the Australians, but in the final seconds of the fight Burke is shot through the chest and dies in Darko's arms as the fight rages on. The Japanese end the assault and the battle is over.

The next day, the scant remainder of the 39th is paraded at Isurava village. The men are tired and haggard and receive news that they will be taken off the line and that they have just saved Australia from an imminent invasion. After the speech by the 39th's colonel (William McInnes), Jack and Darko withdraw with the rest of the soldiers. (The Australians withdrew from Isurava to take up positions at Brigade Hill.) While withdrawing, Jack and Darko spot Max being carried by Fuzzy wuzzy angels to an aid station. He has survived.

In ''Coup d'Etat'', Tao places a device in the hands of the U.S. Government that allows them to enter the Bleed, where it exploded, damaging a vessel of an alien race and starting an interdimensional war. The crossover had important consequences for the Wildstorm Universe with the Authority taking control over the U.S. Government and Stormwatch: Team Achilles being forced underground.

For ''Stormwatch: Team Achilles'' and ''Wildcats 3.0'', most of these consequences could not be explored as both series were cancelled shortly afterwards. The Authority taking control of the U.S. Government led into the events of ''The Authority: Revolution''.

The series begins with Automatic Kafka's first nanotecheroin trip. As Kafka ponders where his life has gone since the $tranger$ disbanded, The Warning is approached by the National Park Service who want to use Automatic Kafka for clandestine missions. Kafka avoids being trapped into service with the NPS by doing celebrity product endorsements and later hosting a lethal gameshow called The Million Dollar Detail.

After an issue focusing on a side character, the series moves to The Constitution of the United States, who leads a group of mercenaries in an attack on a jungle camp. As he finishes, a mysterious flight of military planes bombs the camp with exploding babies. He then returns to the United States, where he embarks on a career as a porn star.

Meanwhile, Kafka and Helen of Troy are enjoying a tryst when The Warning summons them to a social call with an old arch-enemy, Galaxia. Helen and Kafka both balk at the reunion, but eventually warm to the experience. Shortly thereafter, The Warning tricks Galaxia and kills him to power a machine that manufactures the mysterious exploding babies.

As Kafka wrestles with the suicide note left by his drug-dealer/assistant, a phantom butterfly arrives to "rescue" him "from the possible tedium of another so-called 'story arc'." The butterfly takes him to a comic shop, where he meets Joe Casey and Ashley Wood. The authors explain to Kafka that "You've been operating under different rules than most superheroes. You're part of an ongoing marketing experiment. Kids aren't flocking to superheroes like the used to, so now we've got superheroes for adults." Because they do not want to share their creation with other writers and artists, Casey and Wood erase Kafka as the last issue ends.

''Nine Lives'' differs from the normal Batman canon because it is set in the 1940s at a time when Gotham City is rife with organized crime. Rather than being a superhero story, it more closely resembles a detective comic book from the same era, before the idea of superheroes had been introduced. Though Batman still exists, members of his rogues gallery appear as normal criminals rather than mutated, disfigured or technologically enhanced characters, a similar approach to that of Christopher Nolan's Batman film series. Part of the story's appeal is its clever use of creating more human identities for supervillains such as Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face.

The story begins with noirish narration, following the Batman down a sewer in search of a crocodile. Upon finding and wrestling the animal he is hit on the head by a mysterious assailant. When he awakens, he is lying next to the body of Selina Kyle (Catwoman in the normal canon).

Once the body is discovered, Private Detective Dick Grayson (Robin) is accused by Commissioner Gordon of having something to do with the murder. As the story progresses we find out that Selina Kyle earned the nickname of Catwoman because she owned the Kit Kat Club (a place of ill repute). She used her sexual allure to keep the club from going under financially, but she later resorted to blackmail, because she knew the secrets of many of Gotham's most wanted criminals.

This is a book in two parts. The first, "The Enigma of Innocent Smith", concerns the arrival of a new tenant at Beacon House, a London boarding establishment. Like Mary Poppins, this man (who is tentatively identified by lodger Arthur Inglewood as an ex-schoolmate named Innocent Smith) is accompanied by a great wind, and he breathes new life into the household with his games and antics. During his first day in residence the eccentric Smith creates the High Court of Beacon; arranges to elope with Mary Gray, paid companion to heiress Rosamund Hunt; inspires Inglewood to declare his love for Diana Duke, the landlady's niece; and prompts a reconciliation between jaded journalist Michael Moon and Rosamund.

However, when the household is at its happiest two doctors appear with awful news: Smith is wanted on charges of burglary, desertion of a spouse, polygamy, and attempted murder. The fact that Smith almost immediately fires several shots from a revolver at Inglewood's friend Dr. Herbert Warner seems to confirm the worst. Before Smith can be taken to a jail or an asylum, Michael Moon declares that the case falls under the purview of the High Court of Beacon and suggests that the household investigate the matter before involving the authorities or the press.

The second part, "The Explanations of Innocent Smith," follows the trial. The prosecution consists of Moses Gould, a merrily cynical Jew who lives at Beacon House and considers Smith at best a fool and at worst a scoundrel, and Dr. Cyrus Pym, an American criminal specialist called in by Dr. Warner; Michael Moon and Arthur Inglewood act for the defense. The evidence consists of correspondence from people who witnessed or participated in the exploits that led to the charges against Smith. In every case, the defendant is revealed to be, as his first name states, innocent. He fires bullets near people to make them value life; the house he breaks into is his own; he travels around the world only to return with renewed appreciation for his house and family; and the women he absconded with are actually his wife Mary, posing as a spinster under different aliases so they may repeatedly re-enact their courtship.

Smith is, needless to say, acquitted on all charges.

Marius, a sensitive only child of a patrician family, growing up near Luna in rural Etruria, is impressed by the traditions and rituals of the ancestral religion of the Lares, by his natural surroundings, and by a boyhood visit to a sanctuary of Aesculapius. His childhood ends with the death of his mother (he had early lost his father) and with his departure for boarding school in Pisae.

As a youth he is befriended by and falls under the influence of a brilliant, hedonistic older boy, Flavianus, who awakens in him a love of literature (the two read with delight the story of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius, and Pater in due course makes Flavian, who is "an ardent student of words, of the literary art", the author of the ''Pervigilium Veneris''). Flavian falls ill during the Festival of Isis and Marius tends him during his long death-agony (end of 'Part the First').

Grown to manhood, Marius now embraces the philosophy of the 'flux' of Heraclitus and the Epicureanism (or Cyrenaicism) of Aristippus. He journeys to Rome (166 AD), encountering by chance on the way a blithesome young knight, Cornelius, who becomes a friend. Marius explores Rome in awe, and, "as a youth of great attainments in Greek letters and philosophy", is appointed amanuensis to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius's ''Meditations'' on Stoicism and on Plato, and the public lectures of the rhetorician Fronto, open Marius' eyes to the narrowness of Epicureanism. Aurelius's indifference, however, to the cruelty to animals in the amphitheatre, and later to the torments inflicted on people there, causes Marius to question the values of Stoicism (end of 'Part the Second').

Disillusioned with Rome and the imperial court which seem "like some stifling forest of bronze-work, transformed as if by malign enchantment out of the living trees", puzzled by the source of Cornelius's serenity, still Epicurean by temperament but seeking a more satisfying life-philosophy, Marius makes repeated visits alone to the Campagna and Alban Hills, on one occasion experiencing in the Sabine Hills a sort of spiritual "epiphany" on a perfect day of peace and beauty (end of 'Part the Third').

Later he is taken by Cornelius to a household in the Campagna centred on a charismatic young widow, Cecilia, where prevails an atmosphere of peace and love, gradually revealing itself as a new religion with liturgy and rituals that appeal aesthetically and emotionally to Marius. The sense of purposeful community there, set against the persecution of Christians by the authorities and the competing philosophical systems in Rome, contributes to Marius' mood of isolation and emotional failure. Overshadowed by thoughts of mortality he revisits home and pays his respects to the family dead, burying their funerary urns, and sets out again for Rome in Cornelius's company. On the way the two are arrested as part of a sweep of suspected Christians. It emerges that only one of the young men is of this sect, and Marius, unbeknown to Cornelius, makes their captors believe it is he. Cornelius is set free, deceived into thinking that Marius will follow shortly. The latter endures hardship and exhaustion as he journeys captive towards Rome, falls ill, and dying is abandoned by his captors. "Had there been one to listen just then," Pater comments, "there would have come, from the very depth of his desolation, an eloquent utterance at last, on the irony of men's fates, on the singular accidents of life and death."

Marius is tended in his last days by some poor country people, secret believers who take him to be one of their own. Though he has shown little interest in the doctrines of the new faith and dies more or less in ignorance of them, he is nevertheless, Pater implies, "a soul naturally Christian" (''anima naturaliter christiana'' ) and he finds peace in his final hours as he reviews his life: "He would try to fix his mind on all the persons he had loved in life, dead or living, grateful for his love or not. In the bare sense of having loved he seemed to find that on which his soul might 'assuredly rest and depend'. ... And again, as of old, the sense of gratitude seemed to bring with it the sense also of a living person at his side" (end of 'Part the Fourth').

The story begins with Cameron "Buck" Williams, a renowned journalist having recently survived an attempted invasion of Israel, on board a plane piloted by Rayford Steele en route to London. Suddenly, several passengers instantly vanish, leaving behind their clothes and other personal items. Upon being notified by flight attendant Hattie Durham, Steele contacts another pilot, only to learn that millions of people around the world have also disappeared in the same way.

Steele lands the plane in Chicago, which has descended into anarchy and chaos. He returns home and discovers that his wife Irene and son Raymie have vanished. He soon realizes that the Rapture, the taking of all Christians, has occurred. He later reunites with his distraught daughter Chloe. Williams arrives in New York City where he meets with his father. However, he soon receives a call from his British contact Dirk, who informs him of a rising European politician. He later learns that the politician is Romanian President Nicolae Carpathia, who gives a rousing speech at the United Nations.

Steele meets with Bruce Barnes, the pastor of the church he and Irene attended. Barnes reveals he was left behind for not truly believing in God and Christ. He then explains that the Tribulation, a period of chaos and suffering, will soon begin. Chloe, after some debating, ultimately accepts the truth and becomes a Christian with her father.

Williams soon learns that Dirk has been found dead of a "suicide" and that an associate has also died. He manages to secure a meeting in London with Scotland Yard detective Alan Tompkins. Tompkins reveals evidence that Dirk was murdered, and that he has uncovered a conspiracy involving Joshua Todd-Cochran, the head of the London Stock Exchange, and American banker Jonathan Stonegal. Tompkins is abruptly murdered at the meeting, and Williams barely escapes.

Williams later learns that Scotland Yard has deemed him a suspect in Tompkins death. He arranges an interview with Carpathia, who uses his power and influence to remove Williams from suspicion. Carpathia reveals his intention to broker a seven-year peace deal with Israel, and build the Third Temple in Jerusalem.

Williams meets up with Steele and Barnes, and informs the latter of Carpathia's plans. Barnes identifies them with those of the Antichrist, the prophesied end-times tyrant, and urges Williams to accept Christ before it is too late. Williams is skeptical and leaves, but Barnes decides to form the "Tribulation Force", a Christian organization with the purpose of resisting the coming reign of the Antichrist.

Williams arrives at the United Nations to attend an assembly hosted by Carpathia. He soon learns, to his shock, that Stonegal and Cochran are there. He reluctantly becomes a Christian before entering.

At the meeting, Williams realizes that Carpathia is indeed the Antichrist. Carpathia suddenly executes Cochran and Stonegal, no longer needing them, and brainwashes everyone (except Williams, who is divinely protected) to think they died in a murder-suicide.

Having narrowly escaped the meeting, Williams meets up with the Tribulation Force and becomes a member to prepare for the Tribulation.

Cole Cash also known as Grifter is supposed to meet up with his friend John Lynch in a bar. Both were soldiers in Team 7 and despite their differences over the years, they still trust each other. He then finds out that Lynch has been shot and is in a coma.

Cole decides to avenge Lynch and find out who killed him. His investigation leads to Tao, a former member and enemy of Grifter's team the Wildcats. Grifter is contacted by Holden Carver, a member of Tao's organisation, who turns out to be a sleeper agent. Lynch is the only one who knows about Carver's status as an agent and Carver hopes that Grifter can help him now Lynch is in a coma.

Grifter promises to bring in Carver, but returning to his room, he finds Tao. Tao tells Grifter that he had been under Tao's influence and that in fact Grifter himself was the one who shot Lynch. Tao then erases all memory of the past few days from Grifter's mind. Grifter returns to the bar to wait for Lynch, leaving Carver within Tao's organisation with no hope of extraction.

After Peter Bonamy suffers a heart attack, and subsequently leaves hospital, he leads his life more carefully than before. His wife Jane and daughter Rosemary molly-coddle him, and he also attends a heart-attack survivors group. Bonamy, from the comfort of his south London home, finds himself doing little, especially as he can not even drive his Porsche.

The first episode of the series was largely a re-make of the 1983 pilot episode. Unusually for a television sitcom, there was no audience at the recordings.

Kenneth Talley Jr. is a gay paraplegic Vietnam veteran living in his childhood home with his boyfriend, botanist Jed Jenkins. At the beginning of the play, he is due to return to his former high school to teach English, but has decided not to. Visiting Ken and Jed are Ken's sister, June Talley, and her daughter, Shirley, as well as Ken and June's longtime friends, John Landis and his wife Gwen, inheritor of a large industrial copper conglomerate. John is ostensibly visiting to purchase the Talley house for Gwen to convert to a recording studio, so that she can have a career as a country singer. Unbeknownst to anyone but June, John and Ken, Shirley is actually John's daughter, and the visit is also his attempt to gain joint custody of Shirley. Ken, meanwhile, believes that the singing career is a way of distracting Gwen so that John can take over her business. Other visitors include Weston Hurley, Gwen's guitarist, and Ken's aunt, Sally Talley, who still has her husband Matt's ashes in a candy box a year after his death. The play culminates with a "bidding war" between Sally and John for the house, after it is revealed that Ken plans on selling it to Landis. Sally ultimately outbids Landis and says she will give the house to Jed so he can finish his garden.

In 1956 Massapequa, New York, 10-year-old Ron Kovic is playing with his friends in a forest. On his Fourth of July birthday, he attends an Independence Day parade with his family and best friend Donna. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy's televised inaugural address inspires a teenage Ron to join the United States Marine Corps. After attending an impassioned lecture by two Marine recruiters visiting his high school, he enlists. His decision receives support from his mother, but upsets his father, a World War II veteran. Ron goes to his prom, and dances with Donna before leaving for basic training.

In October 1967, Ron is now a Marine sergeant on a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam, during his second tour of duty. He and his unit kill a number of Vietnamese villagers after mistaking them for enemy combatants. After encountering enemy fire, they flee the village and abandon its sole survivor, a crying baby. During the retreat, Ron accidentally kills Wilson, a young private in his platoon. He reports the action to his superior, who ignores the claim and advises him not to say anything else. In January 1968, Ron is critically wounded during a firefight, but is rescued by a fellow Marine. Paralyzed from the mid-chest down, he spends several months in recovery at the Bronx Veterans Hospital in New York. The hospital's conditions are poor; the doctors and nurses ignore patients, abuse drugs, and operate using old equipment. Against his doctors' requests, Ron desperately tries to walk again with the use of braces and crutches, only to damage his legs and confine himself permanently to a wheelchair.

In 1969, Ron returns home and turns to alcohol after feeling increasingly neglected and disillusioned. During an Independence Day parade, Ron is asked to give a speech, but is unable to finish after he hears a crying baby in the crowd and has a flashback to Vietnam. Ron visits Donna in Syracuse, New York, where the two reminisce. While attending a vigil for the victims of the Kent State shootings, they are separated when Donna and other protestors are taken away by police for demonstrating against the Vietnam War.

In Massapequa, a drunken Ron has a heated argument with his mother, and his father decides to send him to Villa Dulce (The Sweet Villa), a Mexican haven for wounded Vietnam veterans. He has his first sexual encounter with a prostitute, whom he falls for until he sees her with another customer. Ron befriends Charlie, another paraplegic, and the two decide to travel to another village after getting kicked out of a bar. After annoying their taxicab driver, they are stranded on the side of the road and argue with each other. They are picked up by a truck driver who takes them back to Villa Dulce.

Ron travels to Armstrong, Texas, where he discovers Wilson's tombstone. He then visits the fallen Marine's family in Georgia to confess his guilt. Wilson's widow Jamie expresses that she is unable to forgive Ron, while his parents are more sympathetic. In 1972, Ron joins the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and travels to the Republican National Convention in Miami, Florida. As Richard Nixon is giving an acceptance speech for his presidential nomination, Ron expresses to a news reporter his hatred for the war and the government for abandoning the American people. His comments enrage Nixon supporters, and his interview is cut short when police attempt to remove and arrest him and other protestors. Ron and the veterans manage to break free from the officers, regroup, and charge the hall again, though not successfully. In 1976, Ron delivers a public address at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, following the publication of his autobiography.

Part I: Igraine and Uther

The film begins with a battered, dirty, and injured Morgaine riding in a small boat through a misty river. Most of the film is a reflection through her eyes, with Morgaine as narrator.

Morgaine is eight-years-old, living with her pagan mother Igraine and Christian father Gorlois. Igraine's younger sister, Morgause, lives with them; their older sister, Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, High Priestess of Avalon, along with the Merlin, current holder of the title of the chief Druid, come to Igraine with a prophecy that she will bear the king who is destined to beat the Saxons. Igraine is distressed after being told that the child will not be Gorlois', and she refuses to bear the heir. Merlin explains that the father of the great king would be wearing a dragon on his arm, but Igraine will not listen. Morgaine has a vision, seeing her father dead. Viviane notes that Morgaine has "the Sight".

The High King, Ambrosius, summons his nobles to a feast to name his successor, Uther Pendragon. Igraine is immediately drawn to Uther; Gorlois interrupts their discussion jealously.

After Uther is crowned, Gorlois rebels against him. Igraine sends a message by magic to Uther. The next day, Morgaine and her aunt Morgause find that Gorlois has ordered his guards not to let the women out, or any men other than himself in. Merlin and Uther arrive, and Merlin puts a charm on Uther to make him look like Gorlois. At first, Morgaine is thankful her father is alive, but she noticed the dragon of the man's arm and begins to understand that her "father" is Uther. Later, when Gorlois' corpse arrives, Morgause ignores the drama, since the man who delivered Gorlois' body, King Lot of Orkney, takes notice of her, and she falls in love. Uther takes Morgaine and Igraine to Camelot, where Igraine gives birth to Arthur Pendragon.

Part II: Morgaine is taken to Avalon

Arthur and Morgaine grow up loving each other dearly. When Arthur is five and Morgaine is thirteen, Viviane and Merlin return, saying that it is time to take Arthur away for his training with Merlin as future king. Viviane then orders Morgaine to come with her to Avalon to be trained as a priestess. Igraine and Uther do not want Morgaine to go, but Viviane threatens to withdraw Avalon's support of Uther, and Morgaine and Arthur are taken away from Camelot. Arthur and Morgaine are torn apart tearfully from each other, Arthur heading north with Merlin, and Morgaine heading south with Viviane. Viviane then takes Morgaine behind a misty curtain into a utopian island, Avalon. Viviane trains Morgaine to gain power of the elements, and in the servitude of the Three-fold Goddess. It takes ten years for Morgaine to be initiated, her final test being to part the mists. Igraine has a distressful vision of Morgaine "being taken."

Soon after her initiation, Morgaine meets her cousin Lancelot (whose mother is Viviane), a handsome and bold warrior. He has come to seek his mother's blessing in battle, but she is reluctant to give it. Morgaine shows him a stone circle, and she begins to fall in love with him. Lancelot sees through the misty veil a few Christian nuns and some virgin postulants walking down a path. One of them strays and seems as if she is aware of Avalon's existence. Lancelot begs Morgaine to open the mists for her, and she does so. The postulant is startled, but quickly smitten with Lancelot, as Lancelot is with her. The girl's name is Gwenhwyfar, daughter of a Welsh king. Morgaine immediately dislikes Gwenhwyfar, and closes the mists on her, separating them. Lancelot, annoyed, decides to defy his mother and leaves.

A few days later, on Beltane, Viviane sends Morgaine to be a part of a fertility rite as "The Virgin Huntress", where Morgaine is to make love to the man who kills the king's stag. Both partners are masked, so neither knows who the other is; still afterward, Morgaine longs for it to be Lancelot, but believes she will never be certain.

Part III: Arthur is crowned

Arthur, having completed his training with Merlin, finds his father, Uther, in a battle against the Saxons, just before he dies. He is locked in a burning church, and Arthur calls to both God and Goddess for help. Viviane, on behalf of the Goddess, answers, and gives Arthur Excalibur in exchange for loyalty to Avalon and paganism as well as Christianity. Arthur quickly agrees, and defeats the Saxons.

Morgaine is finally released from Avalon and returns to Camelot for her brother's coronation. She reunites first with Morgause, who is now Queen of Orkney and has a teenage son, Gawain. She then finds her mother, old and worn, sitting by a window with the Bishop Patrick. Igraine says that she is becoming a Christian nun and moving to Glastonbury. She says that she wants to seek repentance for betraying Gorlois long ago and being twice widowed. Morgaine is startled by this news and distressed.

Meanwhile, Arthur has been given a Christian Princess as his bride. As Arthur introduces his bride to Lancelot, she is revealed to be Gwenhwyfar. Lancelot and Gwenhwyfar are bewildered by this twist of fate, and have an awkward first meeting. Arthur then happily reunites with Morgaine. But soon, Arthur naively reveals that he was the King's Stag at the Beltane feast. Morgaine, shocked that she'd made passionate love to her own brother, cries in despair and shame. In a brief scene, Morgause is seen performing an infertility curse on Gwenhwyfar, a woman "she has decided to hate," cursing her to barrenness.

Arthur is crowned king under both the Pendragon and Christian banners. The Bishop Patrick then weds him to Gwenhwyfar; Merlin and Viviane appear startled, this union seemingly unexpected even to them. Morgause whispers to her husband that Gwenhwyfar will never have children, making her son Gawain next in line to the throne. Morgaine feels sick and quickly leaves the celebration. Morgause follows her; Morgaine reveals that she is pregnant but does not mention that Arthur is the father. Morgause is surprised—Morgaine's baby would inherit the crown before Gawain.

Arthur is called away soon after his coronation, leaving Gwenhwyfar in Lancelot's care. They go riding one day, only to be attacked by Saxons. Lancelot saves Gwenhwyfar from being raped, and they hide. Gwenhwyfar and Lancelot kiss, but vow that their loyalties are to Arthur first, not each other, and they swear to never have an affair.

Part IV: Mordred is born

Morgause concocts a potion to help Morgaine abort her pregnancy. Viviane stops Morgaine before she can drink it. Morgause warns Morgaine to never be Viviane's pawn. Morgaine is furious with Viviane for letting this abomination happen: a bastard child fathered by her own brother. Viviane wants this baby to be Arthur's heir, whose pagan roots would make him the greatest ruler Britain has ever seen. Morgaine renounces Viviane and Avalon, and moves to Orkney with Morgause. In the middle of winter, Morgaine gives birth to a son, Mordred. Morgause is advised by her husband, Lot, to kill the child. Indeed, Morgause has ample opportunity to kill him, as Morgaine is unconscious due to a fever she develops after childbirth. She sets Mordred in front of a cold open window. Morgaine suddenly calls out in her fever that Arthur is the father. Morgause gets a new idea and saves the baby and takes him to be nursed. She tells her husband that she will tutor and raise Mordred so the boy will have her influence. She even nurses Mordred for the first time herself.

Part V: Morgaine returns to Camelot

This begins the second part of the miniseries. Morgaine, convinced by Morgause, decides to return to Camelot. Arthur has become the great king everyone has hoped for, and Gwenhwyfar is beginning to grow distressed at her inability to produce the son Arthur needs to succeed him. Arthur assures Gwenhwyfar that they are still young and have years to bear children.

Morgaine returns to Camelot and is greeted by Arthur. She is introduced to Sir Accolon, a pagan Knight of the Round Table and son of the elderly pagan King Uriens of North Wales. Accolon and Morgaine are drawn to each other. Meanwhile, Lancelot is dealing with increased stress over Gwenhwyfar and his growing desire for her. Gwenhwyfar, obsessed with bearing children, resorts to asking Morgaine for a fertility charm. Morgaine obliges, and gives her the charm on the night of Beltane.

On the night of Beltane, at a feast, Arthur gets very drunk. Meanwhile, Morgaine, feeling insulted by Arthur's lewd remarks towards paganism, leaves the feast and rides out towards the field where the pagans light the Beltane fires and dance. Accolon follows her outside. Arthur, in the meantime, is taken to bed, barely awake, by a spirited Lancelot and Gwenhwyfar. Arthur then brings up how he notices Lancelot and Gwenhwyfar looking at each other, and how Gwenhwyfar has no child. Arthur, blaming the lack of an heir on himself, suggests that Gwenhwyfar sleep with both him and Lancelot in the hopes of conceiving the needed heir. Arthur emphasizes that Gwenhwyfar will be able to swear that the child was conceived in the king's bed. Lancelot and Gwenhwyfar are both skeptical, but Arthur persuades them, and they all bed down together. Meanwhile, Morgaine and Accolon kiss amongst the dancing pagans.

The next day, Lancelot is feeling regret for what he has done with Gwenhwyfar and Arthur. Morgaine realizes that Lancelot will never love her, so she devises an alternative to Lancelot feeling regret and sadness all his life. Gwenhwyfar has, by this time, gotten her period, and therefore still remains barren. Her serving woman, Elaine, is ecstatic, as Lancelot (encouraged by Morgaine) has asked her to marry him (she was previously seen looking at him). Gwenhwyfar, angered and distressed, dismisses her. Gwenhwyfar is also annoyed at Morgaine, who promised the charm would work, and resents Arthur for insisting the threesome would work.

At Lancelot and Elaine's wedding, Morgaine speaks with Merlin. Viviane is absent from her son's wedding, as the pagan banners of Pendragon have been taken down from Camelot due to Gwenhwyfar being hysterically upset with the "painted savages." Meanwhile, King Uriens discusses taking a second wife (he is a widower) with Arthur, and out of spite, Gwenhwyfar suggests Morgaine. Arthur is not too keen on the idea, but he and Gwenhwyfar ask Morgaine. Gwenhwyfar carefully words the proposal, and Morgaine thinks it is Accolon proposing, and accepts. She only finds out too late that she was engaged to the father, and not the son. Morgaine decides that it would be for the best to go through with the marriage, as Wales was an important political ally. Merlin, upset by Morgaine leaving Camelot with Uriens, leaves the feast.

Part VI: Mordred learns of his birthright

Merlin, upon returning to Avalon, dies of old age and tiredness, with Viviane horribly upset, and Avalon filling with mist. Morgaine, ironically, finds her marriage to Uriens to be the few happy years her life would bring her. Accolon becomes like a son to her, and for the first time in her life, she feels like part of a family.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Mordred, Morgaine's son by Arthur, has grown to manhood. Viviane comes to him and tells him of his being next in line for the throne. Mordred takes this to heart and tells Morgause (whom he called "Mother") he is going to claim his birthright. When he arrives in Camelot, Arthur is planning to turn back the Saxons, who have come on Britain again in force. Mordred makes himself known to Arthur only as his nephew, his mother being Morgaine. Arthur is not told Mordred is his son, and Mordred is welcomed with open arms into Camelot.

King Uriens dies, and Morgaine decides to go back to Avalon. However, the mists will not open for her, and Morgaine believes the Goddess is dying. In despair, she crouches in the boat and lets herself float, only to be found by Igraine, still alive and living among the nuns. The women have a brief but happy reunion.

Mordred and Arthur, overlooking the knights one day, begin a discussion about the next heir. Mordred insists Arthur should name someone, but Arthur still believes Gwenhwyfar might still bear a son. Mordred insists he choose someone before Arthur dies in battle. Arthur says he needs someone of his own descent. It is here that Mordred reveals himself as Arthur's son and that Morgaine was the Virgin Huntress from long ago. Gwenhwyfar overhears this and runs away, embarrassed and despairing.

Part VII: The downfall of Camelot

Gwenhwyfar has fallen frantically into praying all day before her dozens of religious icons. One day Lancelot meets her there, and they plan a secret rendezvous, only to have Mordred overhear. Mordred catches the pair before they sleep together, and he threatens to take both of them before the king and have them hanged for infidelity. Lancelot and Gwenhwyfar escape, and they part for the last time. Gwenhwyfar enters Glastonbury, where Igraine meets her. Igraine takes her to Morgaine, still living there, and both women finally make amends with each other.

Morgaine goes back to Camelot, now in ruins, with various men crucified, hanged and decapitated along the walls of the palace. Mordred, Morgaine, Viviane, and Morgause all meet on the stairs to the palace. Viviane reveals Morgause's evil for all to see, reminding the people of the true ways of the Goddess; Morgause, in anger, takes a knife to kill Viviane, but Viviane catches the knife and accidentally stabs Morgause, who falls dead. Mordred, having thought of Morgause as his real mother, takes his sword and kills Viviane in turn. Because Viviane was Lady of the Lake, the sun is eclipsed, and Igraine senses her sisters are dead. Raven, a priestess who had taken a vow of silence, screams vocally for the first time in despair.

A final battle then is set to take place between the Saxons and Arthur's army. Lancelot joins him at the front lines just before the battle. Morgaine is off seeing over the cremation of Viviane and Morgause. Mordred has actually joined the Saxons and is leading them to Arthur. Morgaine sees this in a vision as the bodies of her aunts burn before her, and rides off to the battlefield. The fierce battle kills all until only Mordred and Arthur stand. Morgaine arrives all too late. She sees the bodies of Gawain, Accolon, and Lancelot among the thousands. Mordred and Arthur have both fatally wounded each other. Mordred dies first, in Morgaine's arms, but Arthur lingers. Arthur begs Morgaine to take him to Avalon.

Part VIII: A new incarnation

As in the beginning, Morgaine is in the boat. Arthur, barely alive, is lying in front of her; Morgaine tries to part the mists, but fails. Arthur holds out Excalibur, suggesting the Goddess needs an offering. Morgaine hurls the sword into the mist, where it is mystically transformed into a cross, and temporarily opens up the mists to Avalon. Arthur sees Avalon, and Morgaine declares, "We're home!" Arthur sees the beautiful land, and then dies. As Arthur dies, the mists close permanently.

Morgaine then goes to Glastonbury — not to live as a nun, but because she has nowhere else to go. She is convinced the Goddess is dead, until one day she sees a little girl praying at the feet of a statue that once represented the Goddess, but is now dressed as the Virgin Mary. Morgaine smiles, realizing that the Goddess has simply taken a new form, and that one day, perhaps the mists of Avalon will part again.

In the opening chapter Howells introduces the Talbert family, middle-class New England proprietors of a silverplate works that turns out ice-pitchers and other mundane household items. Daughter Peggy Talbert has just returned from her coeducational college engaged to a harmless but rather weak young man named Harry Goward.

Eventually, after many twists and turns introduced by the subsequent contributors, Harry Goward is dismissed as a suitor, Aunt Elizabeth is sent off to New York City, and a more suitable mate for Peggy is found in a college professor named Stillman Dane. Peggy marries Dane and the couple sails off to Europe with Peggy's brother Charles and his wife Lorraine for a honeymoon tour.

Joëlle (Pénélope Lamour) is a beautiful executive at an advertising company who is married to Eric (Jean-Loup Philippe). Her vagina is infected with a mysterious affliction, ostensibly after she is seduced by an attractive blonde girl, and begins to talk and lead her to indecent sexual acts. However, it is soon revealed that her problems root from her sexual hardships and obsessions as an adolescent. In the finale, she has sex with Eric and passes the "infection" to his penis.

''Escape from Woomera'' opens with three screens of text that explain the game's background. Players assume the role of Mustafa, who paid smugglers to bring him to Australia after his parents were killed by the Iranian secret police. After the boat transporting him crashed in the Ashmore Reef, Mustafa was brought to the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre, where he was given the identification number "RAR-124". After three months, Mustafa was informed that his request for asylum was denied, and that he would be repatriated to Iran. Believing that he would be tortured and killed upon his return, Mustafa decided to escape Woomera.Coyer, Dowmunt, and Fountain (2011), 174.

Because the game was never completed, only a small portion of the intended gameplay exists. During the playable segment, Mustafa, through conversations with other detainees, discovers that another detainee is planning an escape but needs a pair of pliers to make the attempt. Mustafa must join a work detail to gain access to the pliers, hide the pliers in a garbage can to prevent them from being found during a search, recover them at night (which requires Mustafa to find a way to pry open the area that the garbage cans are stored in), and deliver them to the other detainee. The playable section ends when Mustafa delivers the pliers.Coyer, Dowmunt, and Fountain (2011), 174–175.Poremba (2013), 2–4. Other interactions during the playable section include speaking with a detainee who, after complaining that a guard threw her copy of the Quran to the ground, mentions the existence of a partially built tunnel from a previous escape attempt.

Charlie Tuttle has just been made partner in a successful law firm, Whitfield and Morris. His boss and future father-in-law sends him to Paradise Bluff, Nevada, to request a continuance in a mail fraud case involving a cousin-in-law who is likely to be found guilty. But the timing of the trip conflicts with Charlie's bachelor party. After Charlie drives from California to Paradise Bluff, he is unexpectedly greeted by his best man, actor Richard Rietti who is determined to show his friend a great time prior to his wedding.

During the celebration, Charlie is knocked out in a barfight, and is later prescribed painkillers for the resulting pain. The next day — the day of the court appearance — Richard checks on his friend and finds Charlie has taken all of the pills in the bottle. Charlie winds up in no shape to appear in court that day, as legal counsel for con artist Benny Gibbs, so Richard impersonates Charlie. When the case unexpectedly goes to trial, Richard and Charlie must continue the charade, or they both will go to prison for perpetrating a fraud upon the court.

Charlie coaches Richard as to the use of the rules of evidence, masquerading as Richard's "assistant", surreptitiously using flash cards to tell Richard which basis for objection to use. Charlie eventually loses his temper and screams at the Judge Paul Graff, trying to overrule Charlie, when Richard disobeys Charlie and takes the "defense" in a broader direction, and Charlie is banned from reentering the courthouse. Later, Richard and Charlie devise a communication system involving a baby monitor and morse-code sounding of Charlie's vehicle's horn, heard through an open window, to instruct Richard as to which type of objection to use.

During the course of the story, Charlie meets and falls in love with an attractive waitress Billie Tyler who causes Charlie to rethink his impending wedding to his shrill, self-absorbed fiancée, Tiffany. As the trial nears its end, Richard becomes involved with the prosecutor, Elizabeth against whom he ultimately finds due process for "his client".

Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, and Scrappy-Doo are on their way to Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Girls, where they have been hired as gym teachers. However, once there, they find that it is actually a school for daughters of paranormal beings. The pupils include Sibella, the daughter of Count Dracula; Elsa Frankenteen, the daughter of Frankenteen Sr.; Winnie, the daughter of the Wolfman; Phantasma (usually called Phanty for short) the ghostly daughter of a phantom; and Tanis (named after an Egyptian city), the daughter of the Mummy–all inspired by Universal Monsters of the 1930s-40s. Other residents include a floating white hand; an octopus butler; a two-headed shark that lives in the school's moat; Legs, a spider that helps with the upcoming volleyball match; Miss Grimwood, the headmistress; and her diminutive pet dragon Matches. Frightened by this, Shaggy and Scooby are initially hesitant, but they ultimately agree to stay as gym teachers.

The following morning begins with the class and the new teachers taking ballet lessons. At their gym class, the girls for their upcoming volleyball match against the boys of the neighboring Calloway Military Academy. The boys rig the volleyball with a remote control, but because of an accidental squirt of ketchup, the boys lose the remote. Scooby accidentally swallows the remote and allows the girls to win instead.

The girls' fathers come for an open house party on Halloween night. Though Scooby and Shaggy fear being trapped in a house full of ghosts and monsters, the fathers are friendly and polite, and the party is a success. Before leaving, the fathers warn a fearful Shaggy and Scooby not to let any harm come to their daughters, lest they face severe consequences.

A power-hungry witch named Revolta and her minion the Grim Creeper plan to kidnap the girls and make them her slaves. She starts by hypnotizing Shaggy into taking the girls on a field trip to the Barren Bog. Matches wants to come with them but is told to stay. That same day, the Calloway Cadets are at the bog. On a hike, the Cadets are stuck in quicksand but are saved by Elsa and Tanis. Meanwhile, Revolta's spider bats slowly capture the girls one by one. Revolta and the Grim Creeper capture the girls and Revolta makes a potion that will turn them evil forever at the stroke of midnight. Figuring this out, Scooby, Scrappy, Shaggy, and Matches, who catches up with them, head toward Revolta's castle. Scrappy tries to convince the Cadets to join them, but they refuse believing that the girls stole the volleyball match. Arriving at the castle the gang faces an evil Mirror Monster that can change its shape to look like evil versions of those who look at its mirror, a giant Well Dweller, and Revolta herself. When the clock strikes midnight, Revolta gives the girls the potion through hairdryers which instantly takes effect. However, Scooby and Shaggy manage to interrupt the process and accidentally reverse the potion's effect. Elsa then throws Revolta's wand into the potion the witch was brewing, and the castle starts exploding with no way out. At the last second, the Cadets appear in a pedal power helicopter, who feel remorse for treating the girls the way they had in the past and respect them for saving their lives. As everyone flies away, Revolta swears vengeance.

Soon afterward, the Cadets and the Grimwood Girls throw a party celebrating Revolta's defeat and everyone's heroism. Despite being well liked by all their students, Shaggy and Scooby run away in terror when new monsters; such as an alien, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Godzilla Kaiju enroll their own daughters at the school for the following year. As they leave, they see the girls and Matches wave them goodbye. Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy then give them a last werewolf howl before driving off into the night.

Like much Gothic fiction, ''The Werewolf of Paris'' opens with a frame story in which the author explains his struggle with the fantastic elements of his tale. Here the narrator, an anonymous American working on his doctoral research in Paris, discovers a manuscript in the hands of some trash-pickers. He describes it as "the Galliez report: thirty four sheets of closely written French, an unsolicited defense of Sergeant Bertrand Caillet at the latter's court-martial in 1871."

A descendant of the cursed Pitamont clan, which destroyed itself in a long feud with the neighboring Pitavals, Bertrand is born one Christmas Eve to an adolescent girl who had been raped by a priest, Father Pitamont. Bertrand grows up with strange sadistic and sexual desires which are usually expressed as dreams. Sometimes the dreams are memories of actual experiences in which he had transformed into a wolf.

His step-uncle, Aymar Galliez, who raises the boy (along with his mother Josephine and a servant Françoise), soon learns of Bertrand's affliction. Bertrand flees to Paris after his assault on a prostitute, his incestuous union with his mother, and his murder of a friend in their home village. Aymar tries to find Bertrand by studying the details of local crimes, such as the mutilation of corpses and various murders.

Bertrand joins the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War, doing little fighting and finding love from a girl who volunteers at a canteen, the beautiful and wealthy Sophie de Blumenberg. Sophie, a masochist and obsessed with death, helps Bertrand avoid the violent effects of his transformation by allowing him to cut into her flesh in order to suck her blood.

Aymar finds Bertrand in Paris during the Paris Commune, but thinking that love has cured Bertrand, he decides not to take action. Fearing that he'll accidentally kill Sophie, Bertrand goes out one night to feed on someone else. He is caught attacking a fellow soldier and arrested. Aymar supports burning Bertrand at the stake, and provides the court with a summary of Bertrand's crimes, but the court sentences him to treatment at the infirmary of La Santé prison.

Aymar transfers Bertrand to an asylum after the reactionary Versaillists have retaken Paris, with great loss of life among the ''Communards'', who are executed en masse. Unbeknownst to Aymar, Bertrand suffers in a small cell, drugged when he is visited by his uncle. Bertrand eventually commits suicide by jumping from the building with another inmate whom he delusively believes is Sophie. Their deaths are similar to a suicide fantasy that Bertrand and Sophie enjoyed; the real Sophie had previously committed suicide on her own, unable to deal with her separation from Bertrand.

The narrative proper is followed by a grisly appendix citing a municipal report on the cemeteries of Paris. The report indicates that the grave of one "Sieur C ... (Bertrand)" contained the body "of a dog, which despite 8 years in the ground was still incompletely destroyed."

Two Arkansas firemen, Vince (Bill Paxton) and Don (William Sadler), meet a hysterical old man in a burning building. The old man hands them a map, prays for forgiveness, then allows himself to be engulfed in flames. Outside the fire and away from everyone else, Don does a little research and finds out that the man was a thief who stole a large amount of gold valuables from a church and hid them in a building in East St. Louis. The two decide to drive there, thinking they can get there, get the gold, and get back in one day.

While looking around in the abandoned building, they are spotted by a gang, led by King James (Ice-T), who is there to execute an enemy. Vince and Don witness the murder, but give themselves away and only manage to force a stalemate when they grab Lucky (De'voreaux White), King James' half-brother. Barricading themselves behind a door, they continue trying to find the gold. Adding to their troubles is an old homeless man, Bradlee (Art Evans), who had stumbled in on them while they were trying to find the gold.

King James eventually calls in some reinforcements. While doing some reconnaissance, Raymond (Bruce A. Young), the man who supplies guns to King James, finds Don and Vince's car and the news of the gold, and figures out why "two white boys" would be in their neighborhood. Raymond manipulates Savon (Ice Cube), one of James' men (who would rather just kill Don and Vince than follow James' approach of trying to talk to them) into shooting at Don and Vince, which eventually leads to Lucky being shot by accident. (Savon: "I guess he wasn't ''too'' lucky, huh?") King James is now furious and runs after Don and Vince, who have now found the stash of gold (having determined the map was drawn with the intention of looking UP at the ceiling, instead of down at the floor) and are trying to get out with it while avoiding King James.

The gold changes hands several times, once with Savon, then again with Bradlee, while people are shooting everywhere. Eventually, Don and King James meet and end up killing each other. Savon and Raymond also kill each other. The building they were in gets burned to the ground. Vince encounters Bradlee outside the building, and Bradlee tells Vince to run. (Vince cannot drive away, since Raymond ripped out the wires in his engine, gave him four flat tires, and cut the line to his CB radio). Once Vince is out of the way, Bradlee picks up the haul of gold that was left behind and walks away, laughing.

The game's protagonist Raikoh Minamoto (based on Minamoto no Yorimitsu) was born into a clan of executioners under the emperor's command. Raikoh was given the order to kill his own father. He couldn't bring himself to do it, so he stole Soul Shrine, his clan's ancestral sword, and fled the capital city of Kyoto. Upon his departure, the Great Seal separating the demon and human worlds was broken. Kyoto was all but leveled and a wave of demons appeared. Raikoh was almost killed by the flood of darkness, but a Princess banished to the netherworld saved him and held him in a state between life and death. The Princess gave him a new body in exchange for his services. She would allow him to repent for his sins as an assassin by saving the world from the demons unleashed upon it. Raikoh begins his quest to restore the Great Seal and stop the one responsible for its collapse.

After purging some Yasha Ravens from the outskirts of the former Imperial Capital, Raikoh is tasked by the Princess with restoring the four Essences; elemental ''ki'' that will help restore the Great Seal. Raikoh travels the landscape and restores the Essence of Gold, the Essence of Water, the Essence of Wood, and the Essence of Fire. At the Princess's behest, he then begins the ritual to complete the Great Seal, but is banished to the underworld by a mysterious figure.

In the underworld, Raikoh travels through mirror versions of the areas he has already traversed, and collects eight Soul Cords needed to ascend back to the land of the living. He then travels up the immensely tall Spirit Tower in order to return, but is chased by a large Orochi hydra. Upon his return to the living world, Raikoh travels to the citadel of Lord Michizane, now identified as the man who broke the Great Seal by the Princess, and the man who banished Raikoh to the Underworld. Raikoh frees the captured Essences from Michizane before dueling him above the clouds. Michizane is defeated, and Raikoh plays a flute at his gravestone.

On a second playthrough, it is revealed at the end of the game that the Princess knew Michizane intimately before the Great Seal was broken. She also appears either to vanish to parts unknown or to die herself; the nature of her departure is ambiguous.

Esther Blueburger is a 13-year-old Jewish outcast at her posh private school. Things are no better at home, where her twin brother is beginning to develop into a sociopath and her controlling mother pressures Esther to conform. She finds her only friend in a duck called Normal, and she frequently prays into a toilet asking God to "get me out of here". After escaping her own Bat Mitzvah, Esther bumps into Sunni, a rebellious girl from the local public school, who she had observed and spoken to on previous occasions.

The two girls form a friendship, and Esther begins attending Sunni's school, unbeknownst to her parents, under the guise of a Swedish exchange student. She revels in the easygoing nature of the public school and enjoys spending time with Sunni's friends and Sunni's laid-back single mother, Mary, who works as a stripper. As Esther gains popularity and submits to numerous acts of peer pressure – including attacking a girl from her old school – her friendship with Sunni starts to deteriorate. At her old school, meanwhile, her classmates have been led to believe that she was chosen for an elite social experiment, and when she returns she is treated like royalty.

Esther later discovers that Mary has died in a motorcycle accident, and a grieving Sunni is transferred to Esther's private school under her grandmother's care. Ultimately deciding that being true to herself is more important than fitting in, Esther discards her pretenses and renews her friendship with Sunni.

To her owners, apartment-dwellers on the upper East Side of New York's Manhattan Island, Rhiow looks like nothing more than their little black pet cat: a sweet-tempered, good-natured little creature who shakes them down for food at every opportunity, is always ready for a cuddle, and never ventures any further away than the apartment's terrace.

But a lot more could be said about Rhiow...for when her humans aren't looking, she has a life of her own that they don't dream of. Rhiow is a wizard, and heads an elite team of other feline wizards whose job is to keep the Grand Central worldgates running. With her teammates Urruah (a dumpster-living, foodie tomcat with a yen for opera) and Saash (the "Scotty" of their team, cerebral and witty, but always scratching at fleas that aren't there), they help keep the city's wizardly public transport system purring along.

...Until one morning matters get suddenly complicated with the arrival of Arhu, an abrasive feral tom-kitten in the middle of his Ordeal—the potentially deadly initiation through which every wizard must pass to come into his or her power. The chain of events triggered by Arhu's adoption into their team leads Rhiow and her companions out of their own New York and into another, more ancient, and far deadlier one—to a confrontation with the Lone Power that's intent on the destruction of cats and humans alike.

There, Rhiow and her team must deal with not only the sudden danger wound together with Arhu's fate, but a terrible secret concealed in the heart of the feline underworld, ready to burst out in annihilating force into the world of men, which as wizards they're sworn to protect. Now the cat-wizards' only hope of success lies in their uneasy bond with a race of creatures who've been their enemies for all time—and now hold the key not only to their own survival, but that of the human race...

Nick Naylor is the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a tobacco industry lobbying firm that promotes the benefits of cigarettes. He utilizes high-profile media events and intentionally provocative rhetoric in order to highlight what his clients view as an unfair crusade against tobacco and nicotine products.

The political satire is heightened by Naylor's informal association with lobbyists from other industries that are subjected to routine vilification in the media, e.g. Polly Bailey, a lobbyist for the alcohol/spirits industry, and Bobby Jay Bliss, who represents the firearms industry. Collectively, they form what is known as the M.O.D. Squad, a reference to the title of a police drama, although in this case, "M.O.D." stands for "Merchants Of Death".

A pivotal point in the plot occurs when Naylor is kidnapped by a clandestine group who attempt to kill him by covering him with nicotine patches. The search for the perpetrators of the crime leads to surprising results.

In this respect, the plot mirrors one of Buckley's other satirical novels, ''Little Green Men''.

Celebrity musician Eric Wood (Richard Baskin) plans to record an album of songs written by Carroll Barber (Carradine), who has been living in England. Carroll's aging manager Susan Moore (Viveca Lindfors) brings Carroll to Los Angeles for the recording sessions, and rents him a house from real estate agent Ann Goode (Sally Kellerman). Ann is unhappily married to furniture store owner Jack Goode (John Considine), who is pursuing their young housemaid, Linda Murray (Sissy Spacek). Linda in turn wants a relationship with her friend Kenneth "Ken" Hood (Harvey Keitel), a married young executive.

Susan expects Carroll to resume a past affair they had, but he rejects her and instead has sex with Ann when she shows him his house. Ann tries unsuccessfully to continue the affair by dropping in on Carroll at home and bringing Linda over to clean. However, Carroll shows himself to be a womanizer, seemingly incapable of connecting with anyone. He visits his wealthy father Carl, whom he has not seen in three years. Carl, with the help of Ken Hood, has built the small Barber family dairy into a major business. Carroll ends up having affairs with receptionist Jeannette (Diahnne Abbott) and his father's photographer mistress Nona (Lauren Hutton).

Ken works long hours at the Barber business and neglects his wife, Karen (Geraldine Chaplin), a housewife and mother who is obsessed with taxi rides and the Greta Garbo film ''Camille''. While Carroll is drinking and driving through the city, he randomly meets Karen and is drawn to her. He takes her to his home but when he tries to romance her, she reveals she is married (though not to whom) and departs. She later leaves him her telephone number, but refuses to take his repeated calls. Linda, who has moved into Carroll's spare room, invites Ken to visit her there, where he meets Ann.

Just before Christmas, Ken is thrilled to learn that Carl has made him partner in the business, but Karen is not happy that he will be spending even more time at work. On Christmas Eve, Ken gets drunk and calls Ann, but their date ends badly as Ken can't stop thinking of his wife. Meanwhile, Jack and Linda spend the evening together, which also ends badly when Linda asks Jack for money. Jack and Ann, both disappointed, return home and have sex with each other.

An angry Susan reveals to Carroll that Eric doesn't like his songs, and that she and Carroll's father bribed Eric to record the album in order to get Carroll to come to Los Angeles. Susan and Carl each hoped to build their separate relationships with Carroll, only to be thwarted by his lack of response. Karen, the only person who seems to have truly piqued Carroll's interest, finally appears at his home, but just as they are about to have sex, Ken telephones, upset and looking for his wife. Upon realizing that Karen is Ken's wife and seems primarily interested in her husband, Carroll leaves while Karen and Ken are reconciling on the phone, just as Linda arrives home. Linda, eavesdropping, hears the voice of Ken, her own crush, on the phone, saying the same things to Karen about relationships that he earlier said to Linda. Linda furtively disconnects the phone, then tries to bond with Karen, who imitates Garbo in ''Camille''. Carroll goes to the recording studio and discovers that Eric Wood has decided not to finish the album.

After leaving South Park to join the "Super Adventure Club", Chef returns and the boys quickly notice that he is acting strangely as he expresses a desire to have sex with them. They go to the Super Adventure Club headquarters and discover that the group is made up of explorers who travel worldwide, molesting children. When the explorers' leader, William P. Connelly, unsuccessfully tries to hypnotize the boys, they realize that the club has brainwashed Chef. In an attempt to restore Chef to his former self, the boys take him to a strip club. Chef returns to his old self, but the Super Adventure Club members appear, and kidnap him. The boys follow them back to their headquarters and rescue Chef.

As they are leaving, Connelly reminds Chef why he joined the Super Adventure Club in the first place, telling him that his life will be grand and eternal if he stays with them. Though the boys plead him not to, Chef walks back towards the club. However, the bridge that Chef is crossing suddenly gets struck by lightning and collapses, causing him to fall to his apparent death. As a funeral for Chef is held back in South Park, the Super Adventure Club members resurrect Chef as Darth Chef, now fully embracing the club's ethics.

The film starts with an adoption ceremony presided over by five old women (''Beshkempir'' literally means "five grandmothers"), in a village in Kyrgyzstan. The movie then flashes forward a decade or so to show the coming of age of the adopted child - Beshkempir. He is shown indulging in childhood pranks and activities with friends in a rural setting, like stealing honey from beehives and going to watch screened Hindi movies. However, approaching adolescence leads the boys to spy on a village woman's breasts, make clay models of the female form and pretend to make love and eye girls. Beshkempir is even shown as the message carrier between an older boy and his girlfriend.

Rivalry over a girl ''Aynura'' leads to Beshkempir's friend divulging the fact of his adoption to Beshkempir by calling Beshkempir a foundling, who had been unaware of his roots till then. Even though his grandmother denies the story, Beshkempir is upset, and this leads to numerous scuffles with his friend. Hostility is also shown between Beshkempir's adoptive mother and his friend's mother on numerous occasions, culminating in the friend's mother coming to Beshkempir's house to complain about Beshkempir beating up his son.

Beshkempir's adoptive father beats Beshkempir over the incident, who runs away and joins a fisherman. Meanwhile, Beshkempir's grandmother dies and asks that Beshkempir be told the truth in her will. Beshkempir is located and brought home, and is reconciled with adoptive family and friends. The funeral ceremony shows Beshkempir suddenly growing up by giving the customary speech at the funeral where he pledges to repay his grandmother's debts (if any) and to forgo any outstanding debts to his grandmother. The film ends with Beshkempir courting ''Aynura'' and a brief shot of an engagement ceremony.

Set in Sicily in the year 1860. Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, enjoys the customary comforts and privileges of his ancestry. War has broken out between the armies of Francis II of the Two Sicilies and the insurgent volunteer redshirts of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Among the rebels is the Prince's nephew, Tancredi, whose romantic politics the Prince hesitantly accepts with some whimsical sympathy. Upset by the uprising, the Prince departs to Palermo. Garibaldi's army subjugate the city and expropriate Sicily from the Bourbons. The Prince muses upon the inevitability of change, with the middle class displacing the ruling class while on the surface everything remains the same. Refusing to bend to the tide of changes, the Prince departs to his summer palace at Donnafugata.

A new national assembly calls a plebiscite and the nationalists win 512–0, thanks to the corruption and support of the town's leading citizen, Don Calogero Sedara. Don Calogero is invited to the villa of the Salinas, and he brings his daughter Angelica with him. Both the Prince and Tancredi are taken by Angelica's beauty. Soon thereafter, Tancredi makes plans to ask for her hand in marriage.

The Prince sees the wisdom of the match because he knows that, due to his nephew's vaulting ambition, Tancredi will be in need of ready cash, which Angelica's father will happily provide. With the blessing of both the Prince of Salina and Don Calogero, Tancredi and Angelica get engaged.

A visitor from the constituent assembly comes to the villa. He pleads with the noblemen gathered there to join the senate and to guide the state; he hopes that the Prince's great compassion and wisdom will help alleviate the perceived poverty and alleged ignorance on the streets of Sicily. However, the Prince demurs and refuses this invitation, observing that Sicily prefers its traditions to the delusions of modernity because its people are proud of their ancient heritage. He sees a future where the leopards and the lions, along with the sheep and the jackals, will all live according to the same law, but he does not want to be a part of this democratic vision.

He notices that Tancredi has shifted allegiance from the insurgent Garibaldi to King Vittorio's newly-formed army, and wistfully judges that his nephew is the kind of opportunist and time-server who will flourish in the new Italy.

A great ball is held at the villa of a neighbouring Prince which is attended by the Salinas including Tancredi. Afflicted by a combination of melancholia and the ridiculousness of the nouveau riche, the Prince wanders forlornly from chamber to chamber, increasingly disaffected by the entire edifice of the society he so gallantly represents – until Angelica approaches and asks him to dance. Stirred and momentarily released from his cares, the Prince accepts, and once again he recaptures and presents the elegant and dashing figure of his past.

However, he becomes disenchanted and leaves the ball alone. He asks Tancredi to arrange carriages for his family, and walks with a heavy heart to a dark alley that symbolises Italy's inordinate and fading past which he inhabits.

Joan Mitchell (Jan White) is the 39-year-old wife of a businessman, Jack Mitchell (Bill Thunhurst). They live in suburban Pittsburgh with their 19-year-old daughter Nikki (Joedda McClain), a college student. Joan is attractive, but unhappy and discontented with her housewife role. Jack is successful, but busy, domineering, and occasionally violent, embarking on long business trips every week. Joan has been seeing a psychotherapist because of her recurring dreams about her husband controlling her. He makes repeated references to needing to "kick some ass"—a colleague's, his own child's, his wife's. Eventually, he strikes Joan in the face.

Joan and her friends learn about a new woman in the neighborhood named Marion Hamilton (Virginia Greenwald) who is rumored to practice witchcraft. Prompted by curiosity, Joan and one of her friends, Shirley (Anne Muffley), drive over to Marion's house one night for a Tarot reading. It turns out that Marion is the leader of a local secret witches' coven.

Joan and Shirley drive home to Joan's house, where they meet Gregg (Raymond Laine), a student teacher at Nikki's college (with whom Nikki has a very casual sexual relationship). The four drink and talk. Gregg shows an interest in Joan, who rebuffs him. Joan throws Gregg out of her house after he cruelly tricks Shirley into believing that she has smoked pot. After taking Shirley home, Joan returns home to hear Nikki and Gregg having sex. Turned on, she quietly goes to her bedroom and begins touching herself until Nikki walks in on her.

The next day, a furious Nikki leaves without telling anybody where she is going, and soon afterward Jack leaves for yet another one-week business trip, with Joan feeling more lonely than ever. Joan buys a book about witchcraft. She conjures a spell to make Gregg attracted to her, and soon they are engaged in an affair. She also has increasingly terrifying nightmares, in which she is attacked by an intruder wearing a Satanic mask. As she explores witchcraft further, practicing rituals and researching spells, Joan's world continues to change. The police tell Joan they have found Nikki in Buffalo, New York and that she will be coming home in three or four days. After one last sexual encounter with Gregg, Joan tells him she does not want to see him again.

After another terrifying nightmare involving the masked intruder, Joan shoots and kills her husband, who has unexpectedly returned home early from his trip. Whether this event is accidental or intentional is not revealed. Joan is initiated into Marion's coven in an elaborate and campy ritual. The language used by the women makes reference to treasuring each coven member as part of the sisterhood. Cleared of her husband's death, which was ruled an accident, Joan attends a party with her friends. Prompted by a compliment on her beautiful and youthful appearance, she quietly reveals that she is a witch. She smiles wryly when people around her refer to as "Mrs. Mitchell", or simply "Jack's wife".

Mr. Jones (Richard Gere) is a man suffering from bipolar disorder, a disease that affords him periods of intense emotional pleasure and expansiveness but which also results in periods of suicidal depression. In one of his manic periods he jumps up onto the stage during a concert performance of Beethoven's ninth and starts conducting, in another he is on top of a construction site claiming he can fly. He is eventually taken to a psychiatric hospital where he meets Elizabeth "Libbie" Bowen (Lena Olin), a doctor who takes an interest in his condition and they slowly begin falling for each other whilst she tries to treat his condition.

Background

Each series of ''Blackadder'' depicts its protagonist, always a scheming and (except in the first series) witty man named Edmund Blackadder, in different periods throughout history. In ''Blackadder Goes Forth'', he is Captain Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), an officer in the British Army on the Western Front during the First World War.

Joined by his colleagues—the poor, stupid and unhygienic Private Baldrick (Tony Robinson), and the overly optimistic, upper-class and equally idiotic Lieutenant George St Barleigh (Hugh Laurie)—Blackadder tries constantly to escape his position and avoid the "big push", which he fears will result in his death. His efforts are hindered by the loud and intimidating General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett (Stephen Fry) and Melchett's strict, sardonic, and jobsworth staff officer, Captain Kevin Darling (Tim McInnerny).

Events

Captain Blackadder's trench receives a phone call from HQ: a full-scale attack has been ordered for the next day at dawn. Realising that this is likely to mean his death, Blackadder plans to escape by pretending to be mad: he puts underpants on his head and sticks pencils in his nostrils. His plan is thwarted when General Melchett arrives to see what is happening and remarks that he shot an entire platoon that used this exact method; Blackadder overhears and narrowly escapes Melchett's punishment by pretending he is relating the story to Baldrick.

Melchett leaves after George declines his offer not to participate in the push, and Baldrick suggests that Blackadder ask Field Marshal Douglas Haig to get them out; remembering that Haig owes him a favour, Blackadder decides to call in the morning. George, Baldrick and Blackadder discuss the War and the friends they have lost—George mentions the Christmas truce of 1914 (in which the belligerents stopped fighting to play football) and realises he is the only "Trinity Tiddlers" member still alive; this is paralleled in Baldrick's pets, who have all died. Back at HQ, Melchett surprises Captain Darling with a front-line commission. Darling's pleas to reconsider are misinterpreted, and Melchett insists that he go.

The following morning, Blackadder calls Field Marshal Haig and reminds him of his debt; Haig reluctantly advises using the previously attempted underpants method, ending the call with the "favor returned", sealing Blackadder's fate. Darling arrives, and his animosity with Blackadder dissolves as they are both put in the same situation. George tries to cheer everybody up, but finds himself as scared as the others. Darling states that he had hoped to live through the War, return to England and marry his fiancée.

The men are called to the trench to prepare for the big push. There is a moment of hope when the British barrage lifts, but Blackadder reminds his colleagues that they have stopped only to avoid hitting their own men. Baldrick tells Blackadder that he has a plan to escape certain death, but for the first time in any series, does not call it a "cunning plan". Blackadder replies Baldrick's idea will have to wait, but admits it couldn't fail to improve over his own plan to feign insanity because "who would have noticed another madman round here?" The series concludes with Blackadder earnestly wishing his comrades good luck, and they charge over the top into thunderous machine-gun fire. The sequence enters slow motion as a slow piano version of the ''Blackadder'' theme is played. The series ends as the violent chaos of No man's land fades into a tranquil field of poppies, with only birdsong to be heard, leaving the fate of the four ambiguous.

During the Great Depression in 1933 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, beer baroness Lady Helen Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini) announces a competition to find the saddest music in the world, as a publicity stunt to promote her company, Muskeg Beer, as Prohibition is about to end in the United States. The prize is $25,000 "Depression-era dollars" and musicians from all over the world pour into Winnipeg to compete. Chester Kent (Mark McKinney), a failing Broadway producer, decides to enter the contest representing America, even though he is Canadian and originally from Winnipeg. An old fortune teller predicts his doom, but Chester mocks this prediction by having his nymphomaniac amnesiac girlfriend Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros) masturbate him. Also entering the contest are Chester's father Fyodor (David Fox), representing Canada, and his brother Roderick (Ross McMillan), representing Serbia as "Gavrilo the Great" (even though he is also Canadian).

It is revealed that Fyodor is in love with Helen, who he had once hoped to marry. However, Helen and Chester had an affair, and an accident involving the three occurred when Fyodor stepped out in front of Chester's car as Helen was performing oral sex on Chester. Helen's legs were both amputated as a result, and Fyodor became an alcoholic, while Chester left for Broadway. With Chester returned, and his relationship with Helen renewed, Fyodor swears off drink and fashions prosthetic legs filled with beer in an attempt to earn Helen's love.

Roderick meanwhile discovers that Chester's girlfriend Narcissa is his missing wife, who has forgotten both their marriage and their son after the boy's death (Roderick carries the boy's heart in a jar, preserved in his own tears). Helen rigs the contest to favour Chester/America, and Fyodor/Canada quickly loses after singing "Red Maple Leaves," although Roderick/Serbia advances. Although Roderick and Narcissa have sex, she still doesn't remember their marriage, and he accidentally breaks the jar containing his son's heart (which is pierced by a glass shard), and although Helen loves her new glass beer legs, she still hates Fyodor. Fyodor then drinks a leg's worth of beer and falls through the concert hall rooftop to his death.

Helen appears in Chester's final performance, but her legs leak and explode when Roderick plays. Roderick then changes his tune to play "The Song Is You," which he had sworn not to perform until reunited with his wife. The song recovers Narcissa's memory and Chester, meanwhile, is stabbed to death by Helen (using a long shard from her glass legs). Chester refuses to let this sadden him, and staggers away, accidentally setting the building on fire with his victory cigar. Chester dies playing "The Song Is You" on the piano as the building burns.

Maureen Folan, a 40-year-old spinster, lives in the Irish village of Leenane, Connemara, in the early 1990s with her 70-year-old mother Mag, for whom she acts as caretaker. While Maureen is out, the Folan home is visited by Ray Dooley, a young man, who invites both women to a farewell party for his visiting American uncle. When it seems Mag is incapable of remembering this message, Ray writes it down for Maureen. As soon as he leaves, Mag destroys the note in the furnace. Upon Maureen's return, she admonishes her mother for depending on her as if she were an invalid; despite her bad back and burnt hand, Maureen thinks Mag is capable of doing more for herself. Maureen has already learnt of the party from Ray, whom she passed on her way in, so she punishes Mag for her dishonesty by forcing her to drink lumpy Complan.

Maureen, a virgin who has only ever kissed two men, buys a new dress and attends the party. She brings Ray's older brother, Pato, home with her. Pato is a construction worker who lives primarily in London, though he is unhappy both there and in Leenane. He reveals that, although he has barely spoken to Maureen in 20 years of acquaintance, he has secretly thought of her as "the beauty queen of Leenane" for a long time. She brings him to her bedroom.

In the morning, Mag empties her bedpan into the kitchen sink, a daily habit that disgusts Maureen. Pato emerges from the bedroom and prepares breakfast for a shocked Mag, revealing that Maureen insisted he not sneak out. Maureen then emerges, dressed only in her underwear, and flaunts her intimacy with Pato in front of Mag. Incensed, Mag accuses Maureen of having deliberately burnt her hand by pouring hot oil over it, and then reveals that it is actually she who is legally responsible for Maureen after having signed her out of an English "loony bin." After Mag goes to find the papers that prove this, Maureen tells Pato that Mag burnt herself trying to cook unsupervised, but she admits that she truly did suffer a nervous breakdown while working as a cleaner in England, 15 years earlier, when she was unable to endure the teasing of her English coworkers. She claims Mag sometimes tries to tell lies about the past, thinking Maureen is unable to discern them from reality. Pato is sympathetic, telling her that his opinion of her is unchanged. However, when he urges her to dress herself for warmth, she becomes insecure about her appearance and throws a tantrum. Mag returns with the documents, but Pato ignores her, departing after telling an upset Maureen that he will write to her.

Some time later, Pato writes from London, telling Maureen that he is going to work for his American uncle in Boston, and he wants Maureen to come with him as soon as she can. The letter also reveals that he was unable to perform sexually when they were together, but he tells her that it was only because he had drunk too much. He also tells her that there will be a going away party for him. He sends the letter to Ray, with explicit instructions to put it directly into Maureen's hands. However, when Ray comes to the house, Maureen is out and Mag persuades him to leave the letter with her, playing on his resentment of Maureen for failing to return his swingball that fell in the Folan yard when he was a child and for snubbing him recently in the street. After Ray leaves, Mag reads and burns the letter.

On the night of Pato's farewell party, Maureen is aware of Pato's plans but assumes he is uninterested in pursuing a relationship. However, she tells Mag that it was she who ended things with him. When she continues to talk about the sexual encounter, Mag teases her and accidentally lets slip that she is aware of Pato's impotence. Seizing on it, Maureen tortures Mag with hot oil until she confesses the letter's existence and contents. Leaving Mag writhing on the floor, Maureen quickly puts on her dress and rushes out to the party.

She returns home after midnight, telling an unmoving Mag that she caught Pato at the train station before he left, and they recommitted themselves to one another. At the end of the scene, Mag slumps to the floor, dead. Maureen has bashed her head in with the poker.

A month later, Mag's funeral is held following an inquest that exonerated Maureen. Ray visits, bringing word from Pato. However, it soon becomes clear that Maureen imagined her reunion with Pato; he actually left by taxi without ever seeing Maureen. And now he has become engaged to a woman with whom he danced at the party. Maureen asks Ray to send Pato a message, "The beauty queen of Leenane says 'Goodbye.'" Ray leaves after discovering and seizing his lost swingball. Left alone in the house, Maureen puts on Mag's sweater, sits in her rocking chair, and adopts her mannerisms.

According to the Marvel website, new series features Psylocke who finds herself in the Mutantkind world, "but when a face from her past returns only to be killed, she seeks help from others who feel similar to get vengeance."

Collected editions

The story of the game involves three aliens who were accidentally shipped a lingerie catalogue from planet Earth. After the catalogue was "used up" by the aliens, they travel to Earth in search of more photos of models. The aliens capture the main character of the game and give him tools in order to get models to remove their clothing and be photographed. If he does not comply, the aliens will destroy Earth.

Freelance cameraman Takuyoshi Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto) carries a camera everywhere he goes. He becomes obsessed with the idea of fear after seeing a frightened man shove a knife into his eye to commit suicide. Wishing to understand the fear that the man must have felt before his death, Masuoka descends into a labyrinthine underground area beneath the city, where he sees humanoid creatures that walk on their hands and knees and whimper like dogs. While searching the tunnels and passages, Masuoka encounters a homeless inhabitant who warns him about the "Deros". He then meets the ghost of Kuroki, the man who killed himself, and learns more about the underworld. After hours of searching, Masuoka discovers a mountain range with a village built by the underground dwellers. He finds a naked girl (Tomomi Miyashita) chained to a wall. He takes her back to his apartment and notices she doesn't eat, drink, or speak.

The girl, whom Masuoka dubs 'F', appears to be something other than human, and Masuoka becomes obsessed with understanding her. He sets up cameras that enable him to observe her from his cell phone when he leaves the apartment, and checks on her regularly. On a trip to the shopping mall, Masuoka sees F speaking to someone off camera, and a menacing man in black appears behind him. When he returns to the apartment, a woman in a yellow jacket is hiding in the stairway outside his door. Inside, Masuoka finds F in convulsions and unsuccessfully attempts to feed her. He discovers that twelve seconds of camera footage is missing, and receives a mysterious phone call from a payphone warning him that he is in serious trouble.

After being beaten with his camera by a stranger whom he filmed, Masuoka cuts his finger on the broken lens and returns home. He discovers that F survives on blood when she licks his finger, and cuts himself to feed her further. Masuoka begins to care for her by providing animal carcasses, deciding to treat F more as a pet than a human. The woman in yellow confronts him in the street, saying the girl is his daughter Fuyumi and asking where she is. Masuoka denies having a daughter and runs away, returning to the apartment to find it has been broken into and F has vanished. He wanders the streets searching for F and encounters the man in black, who expresses his disappointment in Masuoka's handling of her, speaking to him telepathically in the same voice as in the phone call. When Masuoka gets back to the apartment, he finds that F has returned and sees her hands are bloody.

When Masuoka leaves his apartment, the woman in yellow follows and demands that he speak to her. He walks to an alley without speaking, and turns his camera on. The woman says she wants to see her girl, at which point Masuoka stabs her to death. Later, he murders a young girl whom he met under the pretense of filming pornography. He drains their blood into bottles and feeds it to F. Masuoka calls the payphone and speaks to the stranger, who agrees that Masuoka is taking better care of F now. While filming for a news crew at the scene of the second murder, Masuoka sees a woman he filmed in her apartment previously. He takes F out of the apartment, and leaves her in a karaoke room to travel on his own for a period. Sitting on a dock, Masuoka discusses his interest in fear with Kuroki.

Masuoka becomes homeless and sleeps in the park where he killed the young girl. He briefly admits to himself that he murdered his wife and a stranger and treated his daughter like an animal, before seeing a pair of Deros and finding a cell phone that leads him back to his apartment to find F. His wife's ghost appears behind Masuoka in the elevator, and he enters the apartment to find F weak on the floor. F speaks to him for the first time, and he cuts his mouth at the corner to feed her. At the end of the film, F leads Masuoka back down into the underworld, and films him as it appears he has finally discovered the same fear that initially intrigued him.

Though most of the early part of the story is told in the third person from Ka's point of view, an omniscient narrator sometimes makes his presence known, posing as a friend of Ka's who is telling the story based on Ka's journals and correspondence. This narrator sometimes provides the reader with information before Ka knows it or foreshadows later events in the story. At times, the action seems somewhat dream-like. The story is set in the city of Kars which creates a sense of alienation for Ka as the city is unlike anywhere else in Turkey, due to its history as a Russian garrison town.

Ka is a poet, who returns to Turkey after 12 years of political exile in Germany. He has several motives, first, as a journalist, to investigate a spate of suicides but also in the hope of meeting a woman he used to know. Heavy snow cuts off the town for about three days during which time Ka is in conversation with a former communist, a secularist, a fascist nationalist, a possible Islamic extremist, Islamic moderates, young Kurds, the military, the Secret Service, the police and in particular, an actor-revolutionary. In the midst of this, love and passion are to be found. Temporarily closed off from the world, a farcical coup is staged and linked melodramatically to a stage play. The main discussion concerns the interface of secularism and belief but there are references to all of Turkey's twentieth century history.

Ka reunites with a woman named İpek, whom he once had feelings for, whose father runs the hotel he is staying in. Ipek is divorced from Muhtar, partly due to Muhtar's newfound interest in political Islam. In a café, Ka and Ipek witness the shooting of the local Director of the Institute of Education by a Muslim extremist from out of town. The shooter blames the director for the death of a young woman named Teslime, claiming she killed herself because of the director's ban on head-scarves in school. After the incident, Ka visits Muhtar, who tells him about his experience of finding Islam, which relates to a blizzard and meeting a charismatic sheikh named Saadettin Efendi. The police pick up Ka and Muhtar as part of their investigation of the Director's murder. Ka is questioned and Muhtar is beaten.

Though he has suffered from writer's block for a number of years, Ka suddenly feels inspired and composes a poem called "Snow", which describes a mystic experience. Other poems follow. At İpek's suggestion, Ka goes to see Sheikh Saadettin and confesses that he associates religion with a backwardness that he does not want himself or Turkey to fall into. But he feels a sense of comfort with the sheikh and begins to accept his new poems as gifts from God.

Ka is impressed by Necip, a student at the religious high school, who, like many of the young Muslims at the school, is quite taken by Kadife. The narrator lets the reader know that Necip will die soon. Growing tensions between secularists and Islamists explode during a televised event at the National Theater. A secular group puts on a classic play condemning head scarves; during the play, a number of soldiers take positions on stage. The leader of the theater group receives a messenger and announces the death of the Director of the Institute of Education. Immediately after this, the soldiers on stage start firing at the audience. Necip is among those killed. The police and military establish martial law, and Ka is taken in for questioning because he has been seen with Islamists. He is shattered to find Necip's body in the morgue and identifies him as the one who led him to Blue.

Ka is taken to meet Sunay Zaim, an actor whose group put on the play at the National Theater and who is now orchestrating the round-ups and investigations of suspicious persons. Zaim is a staunch Turkish Republican, who has played political leaders such as Robespierre, Napoleon and Lenin, but whose dream of playing Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, was frustrated. As the snow has made the roads and railroads impassable, no outside authorities are able to intervene in the coup. The isolation of Kars, and Zaim's's old friendship with the officer in charge of the local garrison, enabled him to become a revolutionary dictator in real life as well as on the stage, for at least a few days — his act being simultaneously a coup d'état and a coup de théâtre.

At this point, the narrator, who identifies himself as a novelist named Orhan, flashes forward four years and reveals that Ka spent the last years of his life obsessing over İpek and writing unsent letters to her before being murdered in Frankfurt. The narrator will play a much larger role in the story in the later chapters of the novel. We are clearly meant to identify the narrator with Orhan Pamuk himself, as he later names ''The Black Book'' as one of his works, as well as ''The Museum of Innocence'', which he would publish in 2008.

Turgut Bey attends a meeting at which representatives from the various factions opposed to the coup, including Islamists, leftists, and Kurds, attempt to produce a coherent statement to the European press denouncing the action. After Blue is arrested and held by the nationalists, Ka negotiates a deal with Sunay Zaim that will result in Blue's release, as long as Kadife agrees to play a role in Zaim's production of Thomas Kyd's ''The Spanish Tragedy'' and removes her head-scarf on live television during the show. Both Kadife and Blue agree.

After a scene in which Ka is seen confused and tormented by feelings of pain and jealousy, the narrative describing events from his point of view abruptly breaks off. The narrator explains that Ka had left behind a detailed account of his acts and feelings while in Kars, but that there was no reference to his last hours in the city, and it is left to his friend Orhan to try to reconstruct these by following in Ka's footsteps, visiting the places where he had been and meeting the people he had met.

Ka's actions immediately after leaving the theater remain a mystery which is never completely untangled. Orhan is, however, able to establish that Ka was later taken by the military to the train station, where he was put on the first train scheduled to leave once the railroad reopened. Ka complied, but sent soldiers to retrieve İpek for him. However, just as İpek said her farewells to her father, news arrived that Blue and Hande were shot. İpek was shattered and blamed Ka for leading the police to Blue's hideout. Instead of going to Ka, she and her father went to the theater to see Kadife.

In the end it is disclosed that a new group of Islamic militants was formed by younger followers of Blue who had been forced into exile in Germany and based themselves in Berlin, vowing to take revenge for the death of their admired leader. It is assumed that one of them assassinated Ka and took away the only extant copy of the poems he had written, the poems themselves are lost.

The film's plot focuses on an African teenager named James (Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe), who goes on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land on behalf of his village. Upon arriving in Israel, James is suspected to be an illegal foreign worker and, as a result, is arrested. Shimi (Salim Daw), a contractor of foreign workers, releases him on bail to work with him. After James explains to him that he did not travel to Israel to work, Shimi clarifies to him that since he paid for his release, James now owes him. Therefore, James is forced to interrupt his journey and begin working for Shimi.

Shimi tries to gain a profit at James' expense and makes him work for other people as well. Shimi's wife sees him as a kind of an amusement.

Salah, Shimi's father, soon discovers that James is exceptionally lucky rolling dice and he decides to exploit this in order to win in backgammon games against his friends. James hopes to pay his debt to Shimi so that he can finally reach Jerusalem, but as time passes he learns how to conduct with the locals. Salah keeps telling good-hearted and guileless James "Don't be a ''frayer'' (sucker)", and eventually James ceases to be one:[http://bombmagazine.org/article/2635/james-journey-to-jerusalem "James' Journey to Jerusalem"], an interview by Liza Béar he starts managing his foreign worker friends, and soon he becomes a cheap labor contractor himself, just like Shimi. James buys himself nice clothes, a mobile phone and a TV. As a result, he forgets about the pilgrimage.

Eventually James remembers the original reason for which he arrived in Israel, but it is already too late – he is arrested by the immigration police and transferred to an Israeli prison. The prison is located in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem, and so as he is handcuffed, James finally gets to see the city for which his village prays to.

Series 1

Henry Jay, a lacklustre and predictable government clerk compiling statistics and writing reports on computer fraud, suddenly finds himself with the threads of an international computer fraud in his hands. Forced to flee his wife and home when bodies start littering his path, he unexpectedly evades pursuit long enough to realise that his one chance at survival is to complete the puzzle and turn the tables on his pursuers – thus turning this very unlikely candidate into a "bird of prey".

Series 2

Again under attack, Henry Jay must escape the clutches of a professional assassin and the country they are in, find a way to eliminate the danger, and permanently safeguard his wife and himself.

Phil (McGregor) is a successful advertising executive and Maisie (Millar) is his young and hedonistic wife, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when Phil inherits his great-great grandfather's secret diaries. He becomes obsessed with research into solid geometry contained in the diaries and is fascinated by the theory of "a plane without a surface." His pursuit of this mythical geometric concept tears his marriage apart. The film is interspersed with flashbacks showing Phil's great-great grandfather discovering the same mysteries of the supernatural side of geometry as Phil is uncovering by reading the diaries.

Eventually Phil follows the instructions buried in the diaries and begins carefully folding a large sheet of paper in on itself like a lotus flower, then the folded paper emits a bright light, folds over itself and disappears. On seeing this, he dedicates his life to understanding more about the diaries and his great-great grandfather's mysterious disappearance.

He goes on to become obsessed with this transformation and the discussion in the book which links it to 'sexual intercourse positions' of which the diary claims there are only 17. After a love-making session with his wife, he proceeds to place another of the paper lotus flowers in the center of her curled body. As she curls into a foetal position unknowingly around the paper flower, she somehow completes the flower folding as had previously been achieved with just the paper. She spins around the paper flower several times and disappears, emitting tones of shock and fear. The film ends with Phil alone in bed.

In a twist departing from the standard superhero formula, White Dragon is a narcissist, forever worried about her good looks, even as she's fighting with Feather, a blind assassin nicknamed "Chicken Feathers" because of his propensity for using chicken feathers as his calling card.

Chicken Feathers is first challenged by White Dragon, an elderly woman with proficient skills in martial arts to almost match his, but not quite enough. Thinking that she has been fatally wounded, White Dragon transfers her kung-fu knowledge into empty shell Black Phoenix, turning the young woman into the prettiest martial arts expert around. The downside to having these extraordinary powers, which she does not fully understand, is bad acne, which she manages to prevent only by doing "noble" deeds like robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.

Phoenix is reluctant to take on her new role at first, but soon becomes interested in tracking down Chicken Feathers when she learns that her love interest, Second Prince Tian Yang, might become his next target. Using her flute-playing as bait, White Dragon finally faces Chicken Feathers in an attempt to defeat him before he can carry out the assassination. Chicken Feathers proves to be too good for the new White Dragon, however. When White Dragon tries to exploit his "weak points," she ends up injured(breaking her leg while trying to kick Feathers in the nuts) and dependent on Feathers, who does nurse her back to health after their heated battle. While Chicken Feathers plays nurse, White Dragon seeks to find his true weak point to stop him once and for all. What she finds instead is that Chicken Feathers has fallen in love with her, and that he is growing on her as well.

After a while her leg healed and Chicken Feathers found a letter for Second Prince Tian Yang and had it read by the town's doctor. This letter made Chicken Feathers thinking that Black Phoenix already has a boyfriend, namely the Second Prince Tian Yang. Chicken Feathers confronted Phoenix Black with this and they ended up struggling. Accidentally the girl stabbed her flute into the back of Chicken Feathers, which gave him a moment of sight. She ran away.

The Third Prince, brother of the Second Prince, apparently hired Chicken Feathers to kill his brother, this was revealed at the very last scene.

A peasant boy leaves his rural community and arrives in St. Petersburg to obtain employment. He stays in the basement apartment of a Bolshevik worker. When the workforce at the Lebedev factory goes on strike, the Bolshevik worker's wife fears their family will starve.

The boy is offered a job in the Lebedev factory. He naively tells the management which employees started the strike, and he leads them to the Bolshevik worker's home. This results in the Bolshevik worker and his fellow communists being arrested. The boy is shocked by the consequences of his actions.

The boy goes to the factory office, hoping to convince the boss to free the Bolshevik worker. After a violent fight with the management, the boy is arrested and forcibly enlisted in the Imperial Russian Army. Meanwhile, the aristocracy decides to enter World War I.

The war continues for three years, during which the Russian military suffers many casualties. In 1917, the Imperial government has prioritized making weapons over feeding its people, and starving citizens riot. The Tsar is overthrown and the Provisional Government is instated, to the delight of the upper class.

The working class decides to overthrow the capitalist ministers. The Russian soldiers are called back from the front to support the Provisional Government and "save the Revolution from communist traitors." The Bolshevik worker appears as the soldiers get ready to march on the city. The boy appears and makes his way to the front and orders the soldiers to lower their weapons, which they obey. The Bolshevik worker convinces the military to join the Soviet cause.

The Soviets attack the Winter Palace and, after a violent battle, emerge victorious. The next morning, the wife comes looking for her husband. She shares potatoes with the soldiers and tends to the boy, who had been wounded. She is happily reunited with her husband in a church. The film declares "St. Petersburg is no more," and "Long live the City of Lenin."

In ''Punguna'', Na Woon-gyu plays the role of Nicolai Park, a veteran of the Russian army, who has returned to Korea from European battlefields. Broke, hungry, and unable to find employment, he is taken in as a boarder by Kim Chang-ho. Chang-ho's friend, Cha-duk becomes romantically involved with Hae-ok, who had sold herself to support her parents. Cha-duk's wife, Yeong-ja becomes involved with Nicolai, who rejects her proposal to run away with him. The romantic complications spiral until Yeong-ja kills Cha-duk. The film ends with Nicolai departing for destinations unknown while the other boarders bid him farewell.

''Arrow Flash'' follows the protagonist Zana Keene (named Anna Schwinn in the European release, and Starna Oval in the Japanese release) as she fights against hostile aliens. The game contains references to ''Gundam'' and ''Macross''.

Successful science fiction writer John Henderson is finalizing his second divorce. Perplexed by his issues with women, realizing that none of them supported or encouraged him, John decides to initiate an experiment that will help him understand what went wrong in his relationships: he moves back in with his widowed mother Beatrice, occupying the same bedroom he had as a child. His sports agent brother Jeff thinks John is oversensitive to their mother's criticisms, while John believes that their mother favors Jeff.

John's relationship with his mother is characterized by constant bickering and power struggles; both are perfectionists strongly committed to their respective points of view. John believes she's overly critical of him, while Beatrice contends that he unfairly blames her for his personal failings. A rare bright spot in their relationship appears when she notices John's word processor and impresses him with her fast, flawless typing. Beatrice seems surprised by his interest in her life but is reluctant to discuss it.

When Beatrice cancels her plans to visit Jeff, he has a meltdown and argues with his wife over needing to constantly contact his mother. Jeff's wife tells him that he may need to evaluate his relationship with his mother just as much as John. John and Beatrice go to the zoo, where they finally reach some common ground. When they return home, Jeff is waiting; upset by the aborted visit, he came to talk Beatrice into visiting for the weekend. All three argue and Jeff leaves alone, with John satisfied that Jeff is the "sickie" while John is "pretty darn healthy to begin with."

Beatrice tells John that she has a friend, Charles, who comes through San Francisco every few weeks and stays over a few days, but while John is there this visit will be just for one day. John is surprised that she would call someone she is intimate with not important, but she dismisses it, saying they "just have sex occasionally". John meets Charles, who knows a lot about John because, as he tells John, Beatrice brags about him when he's not around. Beatrice and Charles go to dinner; in the car they discuss the evening, with Beatrice refusing to have anything more than dinner because of her son's visit.

While alone at the house, John discovers a box of novel and short story manuscripts that his mother wrote in her youth. He learns she was a skilled writer who went to college on a scholarship, only to have her talent discouraged by her husband and the then-prevailing social expectation that mothers should not have careers outside the home. John realizes now that his mother's passive aggression toward him stems from his career reminding her of her unfulfilled ambitions. Beatrice admits that John's observation is correct, and the two warmly reconcile.

The film ends with John meeting a single female fan of his novels, and Beatrice beginning to write a story based on John's moving in with her.

Russia, 1905. Vlasov is a pipefitter at a factory, an alcoholic, and an abusive husband and father. His long-suffering wife, Pelageya, is protected by their adult son, Pavel. Pavel later agrees to hide a small cache of handguns for local revolutionary socialists under the floorboards of the family home. His mother secretly observes this. Vlasov — a large, hulking man — is plied with vodka by agents of the Black Hundred, a reactionary group, who plan to use him as a thug against the instigators of a planned workers' strike at the factory. During the mayhem of the failed strike, Vlasov is accidentally shot to death by a revolutionary. Pelageya is devastated and pleads with her son to cooperate with the Tsarist police and army who are pressing his case. He refuses. Naively thinking that revealing her son's hidden cache will redeem him, Pelageya betrays her son's secret to the authorities. He is, nevertheless, arrested and tried for sedition under the cool gaze of a bust of Nicholas II and the contemptuous glare of local bourgeois society. His judges are bored with the proceedings and his defense council is incompetent. He receives a sentence of heavy labor for life. Pelageya now makes common cause with the revolutionaries who are planning to foment a prison break during a May Day protest. In the prison yard, the inmates overwhelm the guards and escape. Pavel escapes separately and makes a daring flight across the river on ice floes while under fire. Pavel and his mother are briefly reunited, but he is shot dead by Tsarist troops in the very act of embracing her. Now thoroughly radicalized, Pelageya becomes a defiant standard-bearer holding aloft the socialist flag and is gloriously trampled to death under the hooves of a cavalry charge. A final montage presents images of fortresses, churches, factories and, lastly, the battlements and towers of the Kremlin with the same flag waving triumphantly on top.

The plot concerns a young couple who have made a marriage vow with each other. Their marriage is thwarted when the woman is forced to marry a rich gangster. A fighter for justice called "Deuljwi(Field Mouse)" stops the wedding, kills the gangsters, and returns the bride to her betrothed.

This film is a melodrama telling a story of greed and lust. It begins with millionaire Min Bum-shik's wife and a steward plotting Min's murder in order to collect his money. Rapes, murder and prison sentences follow in the convoluted plot.

The two brothers form a love triangle fighting over a woman called oknyeo,and the elder brother is sacrificed through the fighting while covering up for his younger brother's sins for the happiness of his younger brother.

The plot concerns Sam-ryong, a deaf servant who is in love with his landlord's daughter-in-law. Critics praised the final scene of the film, in which the house burns, as a work of pioneering and experimental film making.

The plot concerns three characters who have lost hope in continuing their lives in Korea—Kokosu (Lee Geum-ryong), an old man who has lost his farmland; Dong-min (Na Woon-gyu); and Jong-hui (Jeong Ok), who had been betrayed by her boyfriend. Kokosu had been a bugler in the Korean military during the last days of the Korean Empire. Seeking a better life in northeast China, the three are attacked by Chinese "majeok" bandits and the Japanese while attempting the ice-covered Tumen River crossing of the China–North Korea border . With his last breath, Kokosu blows the army bugle he had carried with him all his life. Dong-min takes the bugle and continues playing it.

''Note: As the game is nonlinear, events described below may not necessarily occur in that order when playing the game.''

The player character's friend Dr. Roxanne ("Roxy") Westbridge purchases a reportedly haunted house in North Carolina and begins to perform paranormal tests there. A mutual friend asks the player character to check on her, as he is worried that she may be too hasty with the still undeveloped ghost hunting equipment. The player character drives to the house. Suddenly, in the middle of the road an apparition appears. The player character swerves to the right to avoid the ghostly shape and ends up in the nearby pond. The player character emerges soaking wet and explores the garage and house. Roxy appears to be unconscious in the garage with a device on her head, and the house has no electricity.

After restoring electricity, the player character discovers that Roxy has several types of ghost-hunting equipment: surveillance cameras; the BAR (Bulbic Activity Reader); a doorknob sensor which detects spiritual residue in doorknobs; the PeeK, a pocket television-like device which allows the user to listen to the sounds in the doorknobs and works with the BAR and cameras to observe spiritual activity from a safe distance; and the AMBER (Astral Mobility By Electromagnetic Resonance) headset device itself, which allows the user to enter the minds of ghosts to discover what they are thinking and seeing and to remind them of who they are so they may ascend. The last device is still in the testing phase and its use is considered to be very risky. Apparently Roxy's spirit was lost while she was attempting to use the AMBER device.

Through the combined use of the devices, the player character discover that there are three resident ghosts in and around the house.

Brice, a gardener who believed that UFOs would come to take him away, became obsessed with his employer's daughter, Mandy, who disliked him and didn't share his interests. When he believed that they were finally coming, he banged on the backdoor to the house and called Mandy, who answered. Mandy did not respond positively, so he killed her and placed the body in a hidden compartment under the gazebo he had built. Subsequently, he killed her parents and committed suicide after he realized what he had done. After the player character assists his spirit, Brice is received by the aliens; however, rather than being sent to paradise, he is sent to another unpleasant place.

Another ghost is Margaret, who committed suicide after her husband died overseas fighting in World War II. After the player character assists her spirit, she joins her husband's spirit in the afterlife.

The final ghost is Edwin, a child who was sledding when he ended up on the frozen pond. The ice broke and he was trapped beneath it and drowned. The player character reunites him with his teddy bear and clown doll in Edwin's underwater castle.

After the three ghosts are freed, the player character helps Roxy by doing some programming with her computer, which tells the player character to place the AMBER on her head then leave the area quickly. The player character stands a safe distance from the garage, which explodes. Roxy emerges from the flames seemingly unscathed and unaware of all the events that took place. She thanks the player character and explains the algorithms for AMBER probably need tweaking (hence the explosion); she asks if everything is all right in the house. Roxy excitedly explains the results of these tests of AMBER should be sent to the lab very soon. In the final moments of the game, Roxy asks, "Where'd you park your car?"

Troubadour, a French-accented turtle who loves songs, backstage of a show trying to remind the narrator that he promised to use one of Troubadour's songs. However, the narrator ignores the turtle and breaks his promise, but accidentally falls through a trapdoor just as the show is about to begin. Consequently, Troubadour is ushered in to tell the audience the story at the last minute. Panicking, Troubadour quickly picks up The Three Musketeers comic book and begins reading. He describes every single word and expressions of the characters as he is so into the comic.

In the beginning of the story, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto were lowly street urchins who were one day assaulted by masked bandits (played by the Beagle Boys), but were then saved by the Royal Musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan. Mickey is gifted one of their hats, inspiring him and his friends to follow their example and become musketeers. In the present day, the trio had gotten jobs as janitors for the musketeers' headquarters as a step to accomplishing their dream. Unfortunately, they are very clumsy and constantly cause messes. After an incident disturbs the captain of the musketeers, portrayed by Pete, he scornfully tells the trio that they could never become musketeers, on account that Donald is too cowardly, Goofy is too idiotic, and Mickey is just too short for the job, leaving the three downhearted. Meanwhile, Minnie Mouse, the princess of France and her lady-in-waiting, Daisy Duck, are in a palace discussing Minnie's obsession with finding her "one true love". After Minnie takes a walk in the palace garden, she narrowly avoids a large safe being dropped on her by the Beagle Boys.

The boys run back to tell their boss, revealed to be Captain Pete, that they were unsuccessful in assassinating Minnie; to which Pete chastises them for even trying to kill her as he wants her kidnapped so that he can take over the kingdom by the time of the Opera recital. Pete's lieutenant, Clarabelle then sends them all into "Le Pit", which is just a short pit, for failing to understand his orders. In response to the attempt on her life, Minnie then summons Pete, demanding he produce musketeer bodyguards to protect her. Realizing that skilled musketeers will jeopardize his plan to overthrow the princess, Pete then decides to falsely recruit Mickey, Donald and Goofy as musketeers, believing that they will be easy to get rid of, making the trio elated. After meeting each other and attacking Daisy by mistake, Minnie falls in love with Mickey and feels safe at the hands of his bravery. Pete gives a chance to the Beagle Boys to kidnap Minnie and Daisy, so he can become King tomorrow when he is announced at the Opera.

While Minnie and Daisy are protected by Mickey and his friends, who all go on a journey in a carriage, they are all ambushed by the Beagle Boys who manage to defeat the trio easily due to their stated weaknesses. The musketeers are then stranded, but Mickey encourages his friends to not lose hope and they all hurry to rescue Minnie and Daisy from an abandoned tower. Goofy rushes in first, running up all the stairs and out a window into a series of events that catapults him back into the tower. The musketeers then engage the Beagle Boys in another fight while Minnie and Daisy are locked in a cage. Donald runs away from the fight and leave Mickey and Goofy to be cornered, but Goofy manages to come up with an idea to jump out the window with Mickey to engage the same events as before in order force the bandits out of the tower and into the river. Mickey and Minnie then fall in love and spend time alone with each other as they head home.

Pete realizes that the trio are more of a threat than he originally anticipated, so he then plans to get rid of them individually. While on night duty, Goofy is lured away from the palace by Clarabelle, who uses a shadow puppet of Mickey with her hands to lure him into an ambush. The Beagle Boys appear before Donald and attack him, scaring him into hiding in a barrel, which the boys use to deliver him to Pete, who reveals his true nature after trapping him a guillotine, though Donald manages to escape. Pluto notices that Goofy is missing and informs Mickey, who then finds Donald hiding in a suit of armor. Donald tells Mickey the whole situation, and while the mouse refuses to give up, Donald quits being a musketeer and runs off, leaving Mickey and Pluto alone. Pete then ambushes Mickey and then locks him up in the Mont Saint-Michel. Mickey assures to Pete that his friends will rescue him, only for Pete to remind him that Donald abandoned him and informs him of Goofy's upcoming death, disheartening him. Pete then leaves the mouse in his despair and to meet his end when the tide comes in to flood the place.

Meanwhile, Goofy is chained up and about to be thrown off a bridge to his watery grave by Clarabelle. However, Goofy falls in love with Clarabelle and sings of her beauty, causing the cow to fall in love back and have a change of heart. She then saves Goofy and reveals that his friend, Mickey is in danger. They both then fall on top of Donald, who was trying to escape France via boat. The tide then arrives, where Mickey is about to drown. Pluto leads Goofy to Mickey's location while Donald is dragged along. Goofy fails to convince Donald to help him save Mickey, but thanks to a song from Troubadour ridiculing Donald's cowardice, an infuriated and now confident Donald decides to resume his duties as a musketeer and join Goofy. The duo are just barely able to save Mickey before he drowns, but Mickey is still despairing over the fact that their promotion was all a lie. Goofy then encourages him by stating that despite their flaws, there isn't anything they can't accomplish while together. Reinvigorated, Mickey leads his friends to stop Pete and save the princess.

At the theater, Pete and the Beagle Boys then capture Minnie and Daisy while they were alone and lock them in a chest. One of them impersonates Minnie and announces to the public that the throne is now being handed over to "King Pete the Magnificent". Pete celebrates his ascension to the throne and the opera begins. However, Pluto uses his nose to track down Minnie and Daisy. Mickey, Donald and Goofy arrive and battle Pete and the Beagle Boys onstage for the ladies, and Pete causes Donald and Goofy, along with his henchmen before challenging Mickey in a duel. Pete overpowers Mickey at first, but Donald and Goofy return and all three defeat Pete and knock him out unconscious, allowing them to rescue Minnie and Daisy, who profess their love for Mickey and Donald respectively. Clarabelle also arrives to show her affection for Goofy.

At the end, Minnie dubs Mickey, Donald and Goofy as official royal musketeers, and Troubadour announces that this was the day where the three heroes finally made their dream come true. Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the musketeers of France sing the final song "All For One and One For All" at the end of the film.

The game begins on April 28, 1912 with the arrival in Trewarthan, Cornwall, of Benjamin Parker, a cartographer who has been commissioned by a local doctor, Robert Demarion, to map the shifting sands beneath the water along the coast. Upon arriving, Parker notices a lighthouse on a nearby island not marked on any map. On his first night in the village, he dreams of a metal container flying through space.

The next morning, in Demarion's house, he learns Demarion discovered a cave beneath the lighthouse, in which he heard "a pulse, like the devil's heartbeat," and saw light patterns appear on the walls. Later that night, Demarion tells Parker the island is called Fetch Rock, and the lighthouse has a reputation for being haunted. He also explains that several hours previously, a ship passed by the lighthouse and found it in darkness. Demarion is afraid something has happened to the three lighthouse keepers (Oliver Drake, Robert Shaw and James Woolfe), and asks Parker to go there to investigate.

In the lighthouse, Parker encounters the voice of Shaw, who tells him Drake has turned into a demon, and although he and Woolfe tried to hide, Drake was able to find them. Parker also discovers an unsent letter written by Woolfe to his fiancé, in which he tells her he thinks Drake is possessed, as he has seen him turn into a blinding light and whisper the name "Malakai". Shaw and Woolfe planned to leave the next day (April 29), but the letter ends with Woolfe seeing a light underneath their door. Parker also finds a letter from Demarion to Drake written several weeks previously. In the letter, Demarion tells Drake he has hired Parker and plans on sending him to the lighthouse.

In Drake's journal, Parker learns Drake had also been dreaming of the metal object flying through space; "The fire burns across the sky as the comet plunges into the sea. The water boils with rage and hate. He is furious. He is alone, confused and afraid. Like a lost child, he is scared of the loss of guidance, and fears for his young mind." Of Shaw and Woolfe, he writes "they must be taken, and broken, and washed away. Take them from this place, and down to sea, wash them away." Drake says that when Parker arrives on the island, it will be "time for the final Dark Fall," and claims his "master" owns the island but desperately wants to leave.

Parker finds the cave mentioned by Demarion, but when he enters, he sees a strange light and his surroundings change. He emerges on Fetch Rock in 2004. The lighthouse is now a visitor center, although it has recently closed because of several "incidents". Inside, Parker finds a book which explains that when the three keepers disappeared, Parker was blamed for their murder, as it was believed he killed them and then committed suicide. The chief witness in the case was Demarion, who claimed to have seen Parker heading to the lighthouse the night of the disappearance. Parker also finds correspondence from Polly White, a ghost hunter, who is convinced she is the reincarnation of Woolfe, and wants to come to the island to investigate. During regression hypnosis therapy, she claims there are four "presences" in the lighthouse, but the fourth presence "doesn't exist in our time." She claims Drake "lost his soul" after accidentally "releasing the darkness" in the basement. However, Parker encounters the spirit of Woolfe, who tells him he tricked Polly into coming because he thought she could help him and Shaw escape their entrapment. He now realises he was wrong to do so, and advises Parker to save himself and Polly.

Parker returns to 1912, and encounters Shaw's spirit, who tells him "Malakai is all around us." Parker is transported to 2090 B.C. where he encounters the voice of Malakai, who tells him many have tried to understand him, including "the Drake creature" and "the Magnus creature," but none have succeeded. In the cave on the island, Parker finds the metal object both himself and Drake dreamt about, the words "#4 D.E.O.S. Malakai" written on it, and a computer terminal accessible on its side.

Parker jumps to 2090 A.D. at which time Fetch Rock has become the home of D.E.O.S., a scientific research group involved in deep space exploration. The facility is deserted, but Parker learns a worker named Magnus found the ruins of the lighthouse at the bottom of an elevator shaft. He also discovers the metal object in the cave is a space probe which worked by manipulating dark matter so as to jump vast distances in milliseconds. Malakai was the fourth such probe, but unlike the others, was equipped with a highly sophisticated AI which allowed him to control himself. Parker discovers the Project Manager's notes, which detail that shortly after beginning his mission, Malakai encountered an "unknown event" which damaged his on-board systems. In a panic, he tried to jump back to D.E.O.S. headquarters, but instead disappeared from their scanners, materialising on Fetch Rock in 2090 B.C. instead.

Parker travels back to the time of Malakai's arrival, and using clues he has picked up over the course of the game, reprograms Malakai, allowing him to return to his own time. Malakai thanks Parker, telling him "I can now return, leave this place and never come back. My time is calling to me, soon I will be with my kind. All that will pass is set back on course and will never suffer corruption. My past deeds forgiven, my past crimes reversed." The game then cuts to 1912, on the same night the ship reported the lighthouse in darkness. As the fog rolls across the sky, the lighthouse reignites.

A young law student, Armand (Rudolph Valentino) becomes smitten with a courtesan, Marguerite (Alla Nazimova). Marguerite is constantly surrounded by suitors, whom she entertains at her lavish apartment. She also has consumption and is frequently beset by bouts of illness.

Armand sees Marguerite at the opera and, later, pursues her when he attends one of her private parties. She rejects his advances at first, but eventually returns his affection.

The two live happily together until Armand's father, seeking to protect his family's reputation, convinces Marguerite to end the relationship. She finally relents and runs away to a wealthy client, leaving a note for Armand.

When Armand finds the note he is shattered. The sorrow eventually turns to rage, and he decides to plunge into Parisian nightlife, associating himself with Olympe, another courtesan. When he sees Marguerite at a casino, he publicly denounces her.

Marguerite gives up her life as a courtesan and quickly finds herself in massive debt. Her illness also takes a heavy toll. Eventually, as she lies dying in bed, her furniture and belongings are repossessed. She persuades the men taking her belongings to allow her to keep her most precious possession: a book - Manon Lescaut - Armand gave to her.

Marguerite dies lying in bed in her apartment holding the book Armand gave her, wishing to sleep where she is happy dreaming about Armand. Marguerite's maid Nanine, and her newlywed friends Gaston and Nichette are at her bedside as she dies. Unlike the original novel, the film does not depict Armand and Marguerite ever seeing each other again after the casino scene and offers no suggestion that Armand ever learned of Marguerite's sacrifice and true feelings for him.

Mr Jeremy Fisher and the Stickleback. Jeremy Fisher is a frog that lives in a damp little house amongst the buttercups at the edge of a pond. His larder and back passage are "slippy-sloppy" with water, but he likes getting his feet wet; no one ever scolds and he never catches cold. One day, Jeremy finds it raining and decides to go fishing. Should he catch more than five minnows, he would invite his friends to dinner. He puts on a mackintosh and shiny galoshes, takes his rod and basket, and sets off with "enormous hops" to the place where he keeps his lily-pad boat. He poles to a place he knows is good for minnows.

Once there, the frog sits cross-legged on his lily-pad and arranges his tackle. He has "the dearest little red float". His rod is a stalk of grass and his line a horsehair. An hour passes without a nibble. He takes a break and lunches on a butterfly sandwich. A water beetle tweaks his toe, causing him to withdraw his legs, and rats rustling about in the rushes force him to seek a safer location. He drops his line into the water and immediately has a bite. It is not a minnow but little Jack Sharp, a stickleback. Jeremy pricks his fingers on Jack's spines and Jack escapes. A shoal of little fishes come to the surface to laugh at Jeremy.

Jeremy sucks his sore fingers. A trout rises from the water and seizes him with a snap (Mr. Jeremy screams, "OW-OW-OW!!!"). The trout dives to the bottom, but finds the mackintosh bad-tasting and spits Jeremy out, swallowing only his galoshes. Jeremy bounces "up to the surface of the water, like a cork and the bubbles out of a soda water bottle", and swims to the pond's edge. He scrambles up the bank and hops home through the meadow, having lost his fishing equipment but quite sure he will never go fishing again.

In the last few pages, Jeremy has put sticking plaster on his fingers and welcomes his friends, Sir Isaac Newton, a newt; and Alderman Ptolemy Tortoise, a tortoise that eats salad. Isaac wears a black and gold waistcoat and Ptolemy brings a salad in a string bag. Jeremy has prepared roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce. The narrator describes the dish as a "frog treat", but thinks "it must have been nasty!"MacDonald 1986, p. 96

Wealthy children's author Cathryn (Susannah York) receives a series of disturbing phone calls in her home in London one dreary night; the female voice on the other end, sometimes cutting in on other phone conversations, suggests mockingly that her husband Hugh (René Auberjonois) is having an affair. Hugh comes home, finding Cathryn in distress. As Hugh attempts to comfort her, Cathryn witnesses a different man who is behaving as if he were her husband. She screams in horror and backs away, only to see her vision of the figure revert to her husband.

Hugh attributes her outburst to stress and her pregnancy. He decides to take her on a vacation to an isolated cottage in the Irish countryside, where Cathryn can work on her book and take photographs for its illustrations. Immediately upon her arrival, however, Cathryn hears voices saying her name and sees strange apparitions: While preparing lunch one day, she sees her husband Hugh pass through the kitchen, then transform into her dead lover, Rene (Marcel Bozzuffi). Rene continues to appear to her around the house, and even speaks with her.

Cathryn's paranoia and visions become increasingly pervasive, and are exacerbated when a local neighbor and ex-lover, Marcel (Hugh Millais), brings his adolescent daughter, Susannah (Cathryn Harrison), to visit. Cathryn becomes unable to distinguish Hugh from Rene or Marcel, as the men shift before her eyes. One day, Rene taunts Cathryn, asking her to kill him if she wants rid of him, and hands her a shotgun. She shoots him through the abdomen; Susannah, startled by the gunshot, runs into the house, and finds Cathryn standing in the den, having shot Hugh's camera to pieces. Cathryn claims the gun accidentally fired when she was moving it.

Seeking solace, Cathryn goes to a nearby waterfall, where she often sees her doppelgänger staring back at her. After one such occurrence, she returns to the house, where Hugh tells her he has to leave for business. She drives him to the train station and returns to the house, where she finds Marcel waiting inside. He begins to undress to have sex with her, but she stabs him through the chest with a kitchen knife. The next morning, she encounters a local elderly man walking his dog, and invites him to come inside for coffee, in spite of the fact that Marcel's corpse apparently lies in the living room (which suggests that she regards the "murder" as a hallucination, like her shooting of Rene); the old man declines the invitation. Later in the evening, Susannah stops by the house, and remarks that her father was not at home when she awoke that morning. Cathryn is alarmed by this, as it could mean that she really did kill Marcel. She is relieved to hear that Marcel did return drunk after midnight, and invites Susannah in for a cup of tea after reasoning that Marcel cannot be dead on her living room floor. Susannah asks Cathryn if she looked like her when she was young before ominously saying, "I'm going to be exactly like you."

After having tea, Cathryn drives Susannah back home. Marcel comes out of the house and attempts to talk to Cathryn, but she drives away. While on a stretch of road through a desolate field, Cathryn witnesses her doppelgänger again, attempting to wave her down. Back at the house, she finds both Rene and Marcel's corpses have reappeared in the living room. Cathryn leaves again, and encounters her doppelgänger at a bend in the road; this time she stops. The doppelgänger begs Cathryn to let her into the car, and the two begin to speak in unison. She then hits the doppelgänger with the car, throwing her off a cliff and into a waterfall below. Cathryn then drives back to her home in London. At her home, she goes to take a shower. While in the bathroom, the door opens, and the doppelgänger walks inside. Cathryn screams in terror, "I killed you," to which the doppelgänger responds, "Not me." The final shot shows Hugh's corpse lying at the bottom of the falls.

''Mrs. Tittlemouse'' is a tale in which no humans play a part and one in which events are treated as though they have occurred since time immemorial and far from human observance. It is a simple story, and one likely to appeal to young children.

Mrs. Tittlemouse is a "most terribly tidy little mouse always sweeping and dusting the soft sandy floors" in the "yards and yards" of passages and storerooms, nut-cellars, and seed-cellars in her "funny house" amongst the roots of a hedge. She has a kitchen, a parlour, a pantry, a larder, and a bedroom where she keeps her dust-pan and brush next to her little box bed. She tries to keep her house tidy, but insect intruders leave dirty footprints on the floors and all sorts of messes about the place.

A beetle is shooed away, a ladybird is exorcised with "Fly away home! Your house is on fire!", and a spider inquiring after Miss Muffet is turned away with little ceremony. In a distant passage, Mrs. Tittlemouse meets Babbitty Bumble, a bumblebee who has taken up residence with three or four other bees in one of the empty storerooms. Mrs. Tittlemouse tries to pull out their nest but they buzz fiercely at her, and she retreats to deal with the matter after dinner.

In her parlour, she finds her toad neighbour Mr. Jackson sitting before the fire in her rocking chair. Mr. Jackson lives in "a drain below the hedge, in a very dirty wet ditch". His coat tails drip with water and he leaves wet footmarks on Mrs. Tittlemouse's parlour floor. She follows him about with a mop and dish-cloth.

Mrs. Tittlemouse allows Mr. Jackson to stay for dinner, but the food is not to his liking, and he rummages about the cupboard searching for the honey he can smell. He discovers a butterfly in the sugar bowl, but when he finds the bees, he makes a big mess pulling out their nest. Mrs. Tittlemouse fears she "shall go distracted" as a result of the turmoil and takes refuge in the nut-cellar. When she finally ventures forth, she discovers everybody has left but her house is a mess. She takes some moss, beeswax, and twigs to partly close up her front door to keep Mr. Jackson out. Exhausted, she goes to bed wondering if her house will ever be tidy again.

The fastidious little mouse spends a fortnight spring cleaning. She rubs the furniture with beeswax and polishes her little tin spoons, then holds a party for five other little wood-mice wearing their Regency finery. Mr. Jackson attends but is forced to sit outside because Mrs. Tittlemouse has narrowed her door. He takes no offence at being excluded from the parlour. Acorn-cupfuls of honeydew are passed through the window to him and he toasts Mrs. Tittlemouse's good health.

Ginger, a yellow tomcat, and Pickles, a terrier, are partners in operating a village shop that offers a variety of goods including red spotty handkerchiefs, "sugar, snuff, and goloshes". Ginger inspires fear in their mouse customers and Pickles their rabbit customers. Ginger's mouth waters as the mice leave the shop with their parcels. The two extend unlimited credit to customers who never pay. The till remains empty. The shopkeepers are forced to eat their own goods.

Pickles cannot afford a dog licence and is frightened of the policeman (a German doll with a stitched-on hat). He is certain he will receive a summons. The two go over their records and think their customers will never pay them. When the policeman delivers the rates and taxes at the New Year, Ginger and Pickles decide to close shop thus creating great inconvenience for the villagers. Ginger grows stout living comfortably in a warren and is shown in one illustration setting traps. Pickles becomes a gamekeeper who is shown pursuing rabbits.

In the tale's lengthy coda, Tabitha Twitchit, the proprietor of the only other village shop, exploits the situation and raises the prices of everything in her shop. She refuses to give credit. Mr. John Dormouse and his daughter Miss Dormouse sell peppermints and candles, but the candles "behave very strangely in warm weather" and Miss Dormouse refuses to accept the return of candle ends from disgruntled customers.

Finally, Sally Henny-penny sends out a printed poster announcing her intention to re-open the shop. The villagers are delighted and overwhelm the shop on its first day. Sally gets flustered counting out change and insists on being paid cash but offers an assortment of bargains to the delight of everybody.

Potter put a crowd of familiar characters from the Peter Rabbit universe into the tale such as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Samuel Whiskers and Peter himself. It would prove a clever marketing device. From the literary angle, the many familiar characters create tension and suspense for the reader as most are the natural prey of the eponymous merchants. The reader wonders if the two shopkeepers will control their predatory instincts long enough to make a sale.

When an elderly priest, Father Damián receives word that he will be replaced by a younger priest, he states his dread at leaving the parish refuses to accept his arrival, though he relents. Coming to replace him is the young priest Father Sebastián (played by Cantinflas) who is assigned to the parish in San Jerónimo el Alto, where the town is indifferent to his arrival. Everyone around him gives him the cold shoulder, including Father Damián (played by Ángel Garasa), and particularly Damián's sister, Sara. The only resident to instantly warm up to him is Sara's daughter Susana. Added to the woes are the forthcoming enmity from the town's ''cacique'' Don Silvestre and his son Marcos.

Father Sebastián is at first struggling to adapt to the environment, but eventually his unconventional counsels begin to win over the townspeople, lecturing them on their duties in a modern society. Despite his unorthodox ways he manages to stay true to his Catholic ideals. Sometimes his actions are somewhat questionable, as when he refuses to baptize a child under a name that sounded too ugly, and by facing Marcos in a somewhat violent fashion. Still, other times his actions are noble, such as when he used the collection plate to redistribute the town's wealth more evenly. When accused of spreading communism, he quotes the 1891 socially conscious encyclical ''Rerum novarum''. He even ventures into politics, with a veiled attack on the municipal president couched into a sermon. Eventually, he brokers an irregular deal with Don Silvestre for some concessions for the poor of his parish.

When the overseeing bishop Juan José Romero arrives to confirm Father Sebastián's place in the parish, Father Sebastián pretends to have even more radical ideas for the church. Considering them too ludicrous Romero allows Father Damián to remain. In leaving, Father Sebastián gets the farewell crowd in a ten-fold, with the bishop revealing that Sebastián's tricks were not really what made him allow Father Damián to remain, but Father Sebastián's infuse of energy and determination.

A little girl named Lucie lives on a farm called Little-town. She is a good little girl, but has lost three pocket handkerchiefs and a pinafore. She questions Tabby Kitten and Sally Henny-penny about them, but they know nothing (especially since Tabby Kitten licks her paw, and Sally Henny-penny flaps back into the barn clucking, "I go barefoot, barefoot, barefoot!" neither of which is very helpful). Lucie mounts a stile and spies some white cloths lying in the grass high on a hill behind the farm. She scrambles up the hill along a steep path-way which ends under a big rock. She finds a little door in the hillside, and hears someone singing behind it:

:Lily-white and clean, oh! :With little frills between, oh! :Smooth and hot – red rusty spot :Never here be seen, oh!

She knocks. A frightened voice cries out, "Who's that?" Lucie opens the door, and discovers a low-ceilinged kitchen. Everything is tiny, even the pots and pans. At the table stands a short, stout person wearing a tucked-up print gown, an apron, and a striped petticoat. She is ironing. Her little black nose goes sniffle, sniffle, snuffle, and her eyes go twinkle, twinkle, and beneath her little white cap are prickles! She is Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, the animals' laundress and "an excellent clear-starcher". She keeps busy with her work. She has found Lucie's lost things, and launders them for her. She also shows Lucie items belonging to Mrs. Tiggy-winkle's animal customers. They have tea together, though Lucie keeps away from Mrs. Tiggy-winkle due to the prickles.

The laundered clothing is tied up in bundles and Lucie's handkerchiefs are neatly folded into her clean pinafore. They set off together down the path to return the fresh laundry to the little animals and birds in the neighbourhood. At the bottom of the hill, Lucie mounts the stile and turns to thank Mrs. Tiggy-winkle. "But what a ''very'' odd thing!" Mrs. Tiggy-winkle is "running running running up the hill". Her cap, shawl, and print gown are nowhere to be seen. How small and brown she has grown – and covered with prickles! "Why! Mrs. Tiggy-winkle [is] nothing but a HEDGEHOG!"

The narrator tells the reader that some thought Lucie had fallen asleep on the stile and dreamed the encounter, but if so, then how could she have three clean handkerchiefs and a laundered pinafore? "Besides," the narrator assures the reader, "''I'' have seen that door into the back of the hill called Cat Bells – and besides ''I'' am very well acquainted with dear Mrs. Tiggy-winkle!"

In the first season, the main character Krista Starr returned from military service in Iraq to learn that her twin brother, Zack, has died under mysterious circumstances. Her investigation reveals Zack had been a "familiar" – a kind of indentured servant of vampires, who agrees to do their bidding in the hopes his "master" will eventually reward him with eternal life. Krista's search for her brother's killer leads her to face Blade, as well as Marcus Van Sciver, Zack's killer. Marcus is a powerful vampire and high-ranking member of the House of Chthon. Smitten with Krista, Marcus decides to turn her into a vampire by injecting her with his blood. Krista is then approached by Blade, who injects her with the same serum he uses to control his own vampire instincts, and offers her a chance to help him avenge her brother's death and bring down Marcus and the House of Chthon, and revealed that Zack was trying to do a sting operation with Blade. The two form a reluctant partnership. The remainder of the first season follows Krista's attempts to maintain her cover in the House of Chthon, all the while struggling with her growing predatory nature, and Marcus's (supposed) efforts to develop a "vaccine" that will render vampires immune to all their traditional weaknesses (sunlight, silver, garlic, etc.). It is later revealed that Marcus's true purpose is to create a virus called the Aurora Project that will specifically target "purebloods", the ruling vampire class, and leave the turnbloods (normal vampires like Chase and Marcus, who were once human) unscathed. With Blade's help, he eventually unleashes his weapon in the series finale.

Casper (a caveman) and Fido (an apatosaur) go hunting for breakfast and come upon Daffy. Casper uses a slingshot to fire a rock at the duck who, until he realizes the danger, is casually floating along in a lake. He revs up to amazing speed, though barely keeping ahead of the rock. Finally, Daffy slides to a halt and, disguised as a traffic cop, causes the rock to wait while a swan crosses, as though at an intersection. After that, Daffy waves the rock through and takes off in the other direction. The rock realizes it has been tricked and backtracks but Daffy races between Casper's and Fido's legs. Fido, bending down to peer between his legs to see where Daffy has gone, has his head impacted by the rock. The dazed dinosaur performs a silly dance before floating to the ground, asleep.

Casper, upon seeing Daffy behaving decidedly not like a regular duck in water, says, "Gosh, that duck acts like he's crazy." Daffy replies, "That is correct; absolutely one-hundred percent correct!" and snaps the rubber of Casper's slingshot into the caveman's face. Casper decides to dive in after the duck and strips down. As he dives in, Daffy holds up a sign which indicates no swimming is allowed; Casper freezes in mid-dive then retreats to shore.

After ordering Fido to retrieve Daffy, which results only in Fido tying his own neck in a knot, the two leave. Daffy, however, knows that Casper will not give up, so he paints an image of himself on a rock. Indeed, Casper returns with a club, sees the image and bashes it; the reverberation courses through his body. Daffy gives the caveman a glass of water, which cures the issue and results in Casper thanking the duck and offering to shake hands. Daffy gives him a card advertising "...the biggest, most luscious Duck..." Casper and Fido head off in the direction indicated on the card, following a series of billboards (parodying advertising techniques of the era, including references to "The Breakfast of Champions" and "The Pause that Refreshes") Daffy has erected. They eventually reach an inflatable balloon duck which is being pumped up by Daffy. Casper is terrified by this until Daffy hands him a knife. Casper marches over and stabs the huge, angry-looking balloon duck. The ensuing explosion proves lethal enough to blow up Casper, Fido, and even Daffy himself.

The short ends showing the three in Heaven, lounging on clouds. Fido plays a harp while Daffy and Casper think about their mistakes. Daffy laments, "You know, maybe that wasn't such a hot idea after all!" Invoking Jack Benny's usual farewell, Casper says, "Good night, folks." as the scene irises out.

Elmer Fudd is laughing while lounging in his easy chair and reading his comic book (which is later revealed to have Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig on its cover), his dog nearby, sleeping comfortably in front of the fireplace. All is peaceful until a flea comes bouncing by, dressed in a farmer's-type outfit with a big straw hat, and carrying a satchel inscribed "A. Flea". Pulling out his telescope and spotting the dog, he whistles and shouts in excitement before beginning to sing "Food Around the Corner", which becomes a recurring theme throughout the cartoon. Having awakened the dog by bouncing off his nose, the flea, hiding by the animal's ear, begins softly crooning so as to lull him back to sleep. This is successful, so the flea finds a suitable portion to begin eating. He takes a bite, which immediately jolts the dog awake, "Yipe! Agony, agony, agony!" He then begins scratching and biting, causing A. Flea to run, though he manages to make it so the dog bites himself.

Elmer reacts, after the dog has leapt, whining, into his lap, by employing the use of flea powder. The flea is not phased, he simply skates on the powder as if it is ice. Elmer threatens to give the dog a bath if he witnesses him scratching again, which the dog – thinking about how much he hates baths – promises not to do. A. Flea continues searching for and measuring out various selections of the dog's person; he makes use of pickaxes, jackhammers and even explosives while the dog tries to withstand the itching and the overall pain. At one point, he deliberately angers the cat in order to enjoy the claws scratching his back. An angry-looking Elmer catches them and they both retreat as if they have been scolded.

Finally, after A. Flea sets off an explosion in his fur, the dog cannot stand it any longer. Yelping and dragging his posterior across the floor, at one point he stops briefly and says to viewers, "Hey, I better cut this out. I may get to like it." (reportedly an attempt by Clampett to bait the Hays Office censors, who ultimately left the gag intact). Elmer advances and the dog, realizing a bath is imminent, brakes and slides to a halt. He begs not to be taken for the bath, but Elmer grabs him and begins dragging him toward the inevitable. Suddenly, the flea is on Elmer, who begins to scratch. The dog then proceeds to carry him for a bath. There is a bar of soap on the floor on which the dog slips, landing both of them in the kitchen sink. The flea soon carries the two away on a plate, labelled as a "Blue Plate special", while singing about no more Meatless Tuesdays. Upon witnessing A. Flea carrying the dog and Elmer out of the house, Elmer's cat remarks, "Well, now I've seen everything." He then commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with a pistol (the shooting is cut from all modern airings).

Walter Sparrow is an animal control officer married to Agatha, with their son, Robin. Walter fails to catch stray dog 'Ned' and is late to meet Agatha. Agatha ends up browsing a bookstore and begins reading a book titled ''The Number 23'' written by Topsy Kretts. She later gives Walter the book as a birthday present. Walter starts reading the book and notices similarities between himself and the main character, a detective who refers to himself as "Fingerling." As Walter continues reading, he envisions himself and those closest to him as the book's characters, himself as Fingerling and Agatha as Fabrizia, Fingerling's new girlfriend etc.

Fingerling gets dispatched to a suicidal woman, 'Suicide Blonde', who rants about her obsession with the number 23, that it "rules her world" before jumping from her apartment balcony to her death. Fingerling examines the apartment and begins to read her scribblings of the enigma and soon begins noticing the number 23 everywhere he goes too. Walter visits the book store and learns the book is self published and there is no other works or further information on Topsy Kretts. Walter starts becoming obsessed with the 23 enigma, the idea that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23. Robin seems taken in by the enigma whilst Agatha dismisses any significance about the number. As Fingerling's obsession with the number increases, so does Walter's and Fingerling begins having nightmares about killing Fabrizia.

Concerned with Walter's growing obsession, Agatha refers him to her friend, Isaac French, who suggests Walter is being paranoid and recommends Walter finish the book to find the answers he's looking for. Isaac offers to speak to Agatha in the meantime. Fingerling tells his department shrink about his nightmares and about the number. Dr Miles Phoenix (Isaac) suggests he takes a break and offers to speak to Fabrizia. Fabrizia does not find Fingerling's vacation appealing. After Fingerling discovers Fabrizia has 23 pairs of shoes he destroys them, causing Fabrizia to storm out of their apartment, calling him insane. Not long after, Fingerling discovers Fabrizia is having an affair with Dr Phoenix and Walter begins growing paranoid of Agatha and Isaac's friendship.

Walter has a nightmare that he's stabbed Agatha to death. Fearing what's happening to him, Walter leaves home and stays in the King Edward Hotel, (room 23) to finish the book and clear his head. Miles discovers a murdered Fabrizia, stabbed to death. The police arrest Miles, who, not knowing if Fabrizia was role-playing or not, picked up the murder weapon. Fingerling flees the scene to a hotel where he, erratic, steps towards the hotel balcony, mirroring Suicide Blonde's final moments. The book ends abruptly, with no further information on Fingerling. Walter is convinced the number had gone after Fingerling and was now going after him.

Walter immediately spots Ned and chases him, blaming the dog for making him late and therefore having the curse in his life. Walter catches Ned and learns he's under the care of a local church, since Ned tends to visit the cemetery. Ned recently favours a certain tombstone, Laura Tollins, who died on her 23rd birthday, although her body was never found. Walter discovers the circumstances revolving Laura Tollins' death is similar to the book's events and believes Tollins' convicted killer is the book's author. Walter visits Kyle Flinch in prison and asks him what the number means. Kyle maintains his innocence, denying both killing Laura and writing the book. Since Kyle's name does not add to 23, Walter is convinced he's innocent. Robin, who has also read the book, finds a hidden address. Hoping it's the author's address, the family send 23 empty packages to the address occupant, in order to entrap them at the delivery office.

A suspicious looking man enters the post office and when Walter confronts him, the man is suddenly terrified, telling Walter he should be dead. The man attacks Walt with a box cutter before slicing his own throat. Agatha attempts to stop the bleeding and tells Walter to take Robin home. Before succumbing to his injuries, the man tells Agatha to go to an institute. Agatha sees that, like Walter, the man is obsessed with the 23 enigma. Agatha finds the man's former work ID badge and visits the institute which is now fenced off and abandoned. There, she discovers a patient box labelled W. Sparrow but before she can look further a figure approaches her, giving her a fright.

Meanwhile, Walter discovers a secret message within the book, telling him to go to his local park and dig beneath its steps. Walter and Robin visit the park and dig beneath its 23rd step discovering a skeleton. The two flee and call the police but upon returning, discover the body has been removed. Agatha meets them at the park, having been driven by Isaac. Driving home, Walter glimpses Agatha's muddy fingertips and realizes she moved the skeleton. Walter confronts Agatha, believing she is the author who had murdered the book's publisher to protect herself and removed the skeleton. Agatha at first admits only to moving the skeleton, but finally admits what she learned at the psychiatric hospital, that the book was written by Walter.

Agatha shows a confused Walter the patient box, inside are sources Walter used to write his novel. Seeing his old items, Walter begins partially remembering his past and flees to the King Edward Hotel. There he rips down the wallpaper of room 23 and discovers his past scribblings, the missing final chapter of the book, Chapter 23. Walter reads and remembers. Young Walter's mother killed herself which caused his father to do the same. Walter's father, an accountant, failed to leave a suicide note, only his notebook, containing the 23 enigma. In college Walter met Laura Tollins, who was aroused by danger. Tollins started flirting with her teacher Kyle Flinch to mess with Walter and with Walter's numeral obsession returning, Tollins had an affair with Flinch and broke up with Walt via note but Walter 'deciphered' her message and was convinced she was in danger and that the number wanted to 'kill her'.

Walter visited Tollins to warn her but she threatened him with a knife and, after a few harsh words, cut his arm. Walter went into a frenzy and stabbed her multiple times. Walter then fled with her body and proceeded to bury it under the park steps. Kyle Flinch later arrived, picked up the knife, incriminating himself. Walter arrived at the King Edward Hotel and began typewriting his suicide note which quickly becomes the book, changing the details of his confession into a fantasy. Walter then wrote the true events all over the room's walls before jumping out the window. Walter survived his suicide attempt but due to his head trauma and survivors guilt is left with amnesia. Walter was rehabilitated at the institute and discharged. Meanwhile, one of its doctors had obtained Walter's novel and began to succumb to the enigma, eventually publishing it under the name Topsy Kretts.

Back in the present, Agatha finds Walter at the Hotel. Walter remembers everything and tells Agatha he's a murderer but Agatha argues he isn't the same person. Walter tells Agatha to leave before he kills again. Walter flees the hotel and runs into the street. There, across the road Ned is staring at him. As Walter stares at the dog a bus comes towards him at full speed. Almost allowing himself to be run over, Walter steps out of the way at the last second when he realizes his son is watching, not wanting to repeat the cycle his own father created. Walter, hugged by both Agatha and Robin, finally exclaims that it's just a number.

Walter hands himself in to the police and awaits sentencing and is told a judge will likely go easy on him due to handing himself in. A funeral procession takes place in front of Tollins' grave, where it is implied her body has finally been laid to rest.

Philip "Philly" Fillmore (Eric Brown) is an adventurous 15-year-old high school student and the son of a rich businessman in Albuquerque, who has left town on an extended trip during summer break, leaving the young man in the passing care of Nicole Mallow (Sylvia Kristel), a sexy French housekeeper and Lester Lewis (Howard Hesseman), the family's chauffeur.

The following day, Nicole approaches Philly while he is reading a magazine in the garden. Initially asking about recommendations for her on night time activities, she get's to know that all previous housekeepers have been elderly women and tries to tease Philly. Resenting initially, Philly becomes infatuated with her. When Nicole goes out for shopping, Philly sneaks into her room and touches her bras and panties. He frequently uses his binoculars and observe her through the windows, deliberately walks next to her when she is sunbathing besides the pool and rides his bicycle in-front of her room. When she finally spots him peeping into her room that night, she tells him to come inside and close her door. To Philly's utter shock, she means for him to close her door from the inside and then watch her undress. She seductively strips her night dress, stockings and the bra. However, it's too much for Philly when topless Nicole asks him to touch her breasts. When he frightfully objects, she steps back, throws the bra at him and takes off her panties and offers it to him. When he sees her fully nude, he panics and leaves, but not before thanking her. He shares the story with his best friend Sherman.

Next morning, Nicole invites Philly to visit her at night after she finishes the dishes. After a game of Tennis with Sherman, Philly looks for Nicole but couldn't find her in her room. While searching, he is surprised to find her in his father's bathtub. She requests him to rub her back and then invites him to remove his clothes and join her in the bathtub. At first he objects, but instead she keeps sweet-talking him until he finally gives in. However, he decides to wear swimming trunks. Once in the bathtub, she spoons and kisses his cheek and neck from behind before kissing him in the lips. When she tries to take off his swimming trunks, he insists that she turn off the lights first. She agrees, but once she touches his penis, he again panics and rushes out. She follows him to apologize, passionately kisses him good night and directly invites him to sleep with her, the sexual element of which he fails to comprehend at first. After flirting in a movie theater the following evening, they return home and kiss, but he but backs off when she reacts without fondness to the notion of marrying him. After a day of hiatus, they two reconciles and decides to go on a romantic date to a French restaurant where their love and lust blossoms. After kissing as usually while returning home in the car, they reach home and have sexual intercourse.

Nicole is revealed as an illegal alien; Lester is using this secret to blackmail her into helping him in a larger blackmail scheme against Philly. Lester intends that Nicole seduce Philly then fake her own death during sex. Lester would then 'help' the panicked Philly to secretly bury Nicole. Her body would later disappear, and a note would order Philly to steal $10,000 from his father to prevent exposure of his role in Nicole's "death".

When Nicole has second thoughts, Lester threatens to also expose her as a child molester. Nicole has truly fallen in love with Philly, and she reveals the truth to him. Philly convinces his tennis coach (Ed Begley Jr.) to pose as a police detective and intimidate Lester with questions about Nicole's disappearance. Lester panics but is caught with the money before he can flee the country. Nicole and Philly return the money to the safe, but they decide not to expose Lester's treachery. In turn, he reluctantly decides not to expose Nicole's illegal alien status nor her acts of child molestation, knowing that Philly could easily expose his attempted embezzlement scheme to his father and the police, and as a result, he keeps his job.

Nicole fears that Philly's father will eventually discover their affair, and decides to leave. Before she does, she and Philly have passionate sexual intercourse one last time. Summer vacation ends and Philly returns to high school, thanks his teacher for advising him to pursue girls whose age is more appropriate for him and, in order to "discuss" this matter more closely, successfully asks her out to dinner. The film ends with Philly smiling.

Lord Emsworth, enjoying the views around his castle with a telescope on the turret above the west wing, spies his younger son Freddie Threepwood kissing a girl in a spinney by the end of the water-meadow. Enraged, he confronts the young man, who reveals the girl is named Aggie, and is a "sort of cousin" of Head Gardener Angus McAllister. Emsworth demands that McAllister send the girl away, but the angered Scotsman hands in his notice.

Realising that McAllister has gone, he realises that deputy head gardener, Robert Barker, is not up to the job of preparing his precious pumpkin, "The Hope of Blandings", for the Shrewsbury Show, Emsworth heads up to London to retrieve the man. Outside the Senior Conservative Club, he runs into Freddie, who, unable to get the subject of pumpkins out of his father's head, awkwardly hands him a note and runs off. Emsworth learns from the note that Freddie has married Aggie that morning.

Despairing that his son has landed him with the cost of supporting a wife, Emsworth wanders into Kensington Gardens. Entranced by the flowers, he absent-mindedly picks a handful of tulips, arousing the wrath of a park-keeper. A police officer and crowd gather round, and Emsworth attempts to defend himself, but nobody believes a genuine Earl would dress so scruffily.

Just in time, Angus McAllister turns up and confirms Emsworth's identity; he is accompanied by Mr Donaldson, who tells Lord Emsworth that he should be supportive of his son. Learning that Donaldson is a wealthy man and plans not only to take Freddie far away but also to put him to work, Emsworth is delighted, and gives his blessing warmly, sending Freddie a message "not to hurry home".

Emsworth approaches McAllister humbly and offers to double his salary if he returns to the castle. He does, and soon afterwards the gargantuan Blandings Hope wins first prize.

Beach, long-serving butler at Blandings, is considering handing in his notice after 18 years, unable to bear the shame of his master Lord Emsworth's rather disreputable new beard. His Lordship himself, unaware of these ructions below stairs, is worried by a telegram from his younger son Freddie, who is back in London from America.

Visiting Freddie, Emsworth learns that the boy has fallen out with his wife Aggie; having written a scenario for Hollywood to impress her, he tried to persuade a prominent starlet to promote it for him; however, he is seen dining with the girl by Jane Yorke, a friend of his wife. Yorke tells Aggie she has seen Freddie with another girl, and she promptly leaves him.

Freddie tries to persuade his father to plead with her on his behalf, convinced by his movie knowledge that an appeal from a white-haired old father never fails, but Emsworth refuses. Later, however, realising the danger of Freddie returning to Blandings if his marriage is not patched up, he relents, and pays a call at the lady's hotel.

Finding the door to her room open, he potters vaguely in, and is chased into the bedroom by a small yapping dog, only to find she is in the bath. Her friend Jane Yorke holds him up with a gun, believing him to be a burglar, and while he is trying to explain himself, and Freddie, Freddie himself enters disguised as an old man with a white beard.

Seeing a cable from Hollywood accepting his scenario, Aggie believes Freddie's story and forgives him, to Jane's disgust. Jane is ejected, and Emsworth, on hearing that he looks like Freddie in his false beard, decides to shave off his own, much to Beach's relief.

Lord Emsworth, keen that his fat pig, the Empress of Blandings, should win the 87th annual Shropshire Agricultural Show, is distraught when his pigman, Wellbeloved, is sent to prison for fourteen days for being drunk and disorderly in a Market Blandings inn.

The pig immediately goes off her feed, and with the vet baffled, Emsworth is in no state to listen to his sister Connie's bleatings about his niece Angela breaking off her engagement from Lord Heacham in favour of the quite unsuitable James Belford, who Emsworth himself always liked, being a friend of the lad's father, a local parson.

Emsworth, still distracted about his pig, is sent to London to have stern words with Belford; dining with him at the Senior Conservative Club, conversation turns to pigs, and Belford, having spent two years on a Nebraska farm, proceeds to impress Emsworth with his knowledge of pig-calls of all states. He teaches Emsworth the master call, the "pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey" to which all pigs will respond, and Emsworth heads home happily.

Falling asleep on the train, Emsworth forgets the call, but while talking to Angela in the castle grounds, is reminded of it by the sound of Mrs Twemlow's gramophone. He, Beach and Angela all try the call on the Empress, but to no avail; just when all looks black, Belford arrives, shows them how the call should really sound, and to everyone's delight the Empress tucks heartily into her food. She goes on, of course, to win the contest.

On Deep Space Nine, Kira has recently been promoted to the rank of Colonel. A cult worshipping the Pah-wraiths is gaining strength in reaction to the closing of the wormhole. Meanwhile, the Romulan Empire establishes a delegation on the station, led by one Senator Cretak. Cretak asks Kira to petition the Bajoran government to allow the Romulans to set up a hospital on the uninhabited moon of Derna. Later, security chief Odo reports the Romulan hospital is turning away wounded Starfleet personnel, and appears to be heavily armed. Kira demands that the weapons be removed immediately, but Cretak refuses.

Worf is frustrated that the USS ''Defiant'' is assigned to nothing more dangerous than escorting cargo runs. He confides in Chief O'Brien that he is worried that Jadzia won't enter Klingon heaven, Sto'Vo'Kor, because she didn't die in battle; the only way to ensure her place in Sto'Vo'Kor is by winning a glorious battle in her name. General Martok recruits Worf to join a dangerous mission that will ensure Jadzia's place in Sto'Vo'Kor; O'Brien and Dr. Bashir decide to accompany him.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Sisko is taking extended leave on Earth. He separates himself from his family, doing nothing but playing the piano in his father Joseph's restaurant; his son Jake is worried about his father's attitude. Benjamin experiences a vision from the Prophets: he sees himself digging frantically in the sand on the planet Tyree, and uncovers the face of a woman whom he does not recognize. Joseph eventually reveals that the face belongs to Benjamin's biological mother Sarah, who abandoned the family when Benjamin was a year old and later died. Joseph also gives Benjamin a necklace of Sarah's, which has ancient Bajoran writing on it reading "Orb of the Emissary"; Benjamin decides to travel to Tyree to search for this Orb. The next night, he is attacked by a member of the Pah-wraith cult, attempting to prevent him from finding the Orb; after he heals, Joseph and Jake decide to go to Tyree with him. As they are about to leave, a young Starfleet ensign, a Trill, who Benjamin does not recognize, arrives and introduces herself as "Dax".

In the near future, Christianity has dominated everything, including politics, television, the Internet, and film. The leaders of the semi-theocracy include Reverend Jimmy, a televangelist who is the spiritual advisor to the President, and Pastor Bob, a laid-back reverend who is obsessed with golf and competes with Jimmy for spiritual dominance. Ironically, though Jimmy says he has spoken to God about almost everything, their teachings are the opposite of Jesus Christ's ideas of peace, love, and forgiveness towards everyone. Jimmy even claims on his program that bombing Europe will bring the Second Coming.

However, a jaded ex-reporter, Johnny Greco, bitter towards Jimmy, has already found it, in an Irish-Hispanic Catholic named Jay, who performs incredible miracles of healing sick people, preaches against what Christianity has become, and values peace, tolerance, and love for all humans. Dismissive at first, he soon begins to believe in what Jay is saying, and begins to think that Jay truly is "the real deal". Unfortunately for Jay, things happen as they previously did and Jay, some of his closest apostles and Reverend Jim (who Jay converts) are killed. However, Jay's apostles continue to spread the word of his actions and teachings and form a new religion. The book ends: :THE END :AND THE BEGINNING

''The Promise'' starts a year after ''The Chosen'' left off, with Danny having just started his graduate program in psychology and Reuven having started rabbinical school. The novel begins in the summer of 1950 when Reuven is dating a college student named Rachel Gordon. Rachel and Reuven take Rachel's cousin, Michael Gordon, to a carnival, where Michael has a mental breakdown over a carnival game. In the coming days, Michael's father Abraham Gordon, a secular rabbi and teacher, informs Reuven that Michael has a history of mental illness and that he will probably need to live in a treatment home with psychological oversight. Abraham Gordon, a friend of Reuven's father, is a controversial figure; Gordon's books, which question the existence of God but seek to reconcile these questions with Jewish tradition, have caused him to be placed in cherem; Gordon keeps a scrapbook of the many times he has been attacked in the press.

At Hirsch University, Reuven's Talmud teacher, Rav Kalman, is a rigidly religious Holocaust survivor who vehemently disapproves of Reuven's father's secular method of Talmudic study, which proposes that passages of Talmud contain scribal errors that can be deduced through critical reading of the relevant medieval commentaries and the study of variant readings. During Talmud class, Reuven and his fellow classmates listen to Rav Kalman's regular tirades about how the modern world is destroying Jewish life. One day, he directs one of his tirades at the Zechariah Frankel Seminary, where Abraham Gordon serves as a professor. He later tells Reuven that he is not allowed to enter the Zechariah Frankel Seminary; Reuven had been seen there checking variant readings for his father's book on the critical method.

That fall, Reuven and Rachel agree that they are merely good friends (not romantic partners), and Michael is sent to live in the treatment center that Danny is doing his residency in. Danny meets Rachel when a treatment plan for Michael is being developed and they begin dating. Meanwhile, Reuven's father's book is published, which further infuriates Rav Kalman. He writes an extensive article criticizing the book's method of Talmud study after first enlisting Reuven's help in understanding the method, which infuriates Reuven. The clash between orthodoxy and modernity creates tension at the school where Reuven's father teaches, as the school's new faculty members (many of whom are Holocaust survivors) vehemently disagree with Reuven's father's ideas.

As a result of Michael's worsening condition, Danny comes up with an idea for an experiment; to completely isolate Michael in a silent room with no contact with the outside world. Abraham and Ruth (Michael's mother) Gordon agree to Danny's experiment and it begins, much to Michael's chagrin.

As Reuven's rabbinic ordination (smicha) examinations approach, Rav Kalman tells Reuven that he must make a choice: to use his father's method and fail, or to use the traditional method of Talmud study and become a rabbi. At the same time, word leaks out that there will be a new department in the university that will teach Talmud in a secular manner, which infuriates Rav Kalman. Reuven's father informs Reuven that he may be offered a position in the planned rabbinics department.

As the months pass, Michael descends into silent catatonia, which sends panic through Reuven, the Gordon family, and Danny (whose career hinges on the experiment).

Eventually, Reuven takes his smicha examinations. Deciding to be true to himself, Reuven uses his father's method of emending the text of the Talmud in order to clarify more complicated passages. This surprises even the dean and the more progressive Rav Gershenson (who was Reuven's teacher in ''The Chosen''), yet the two men are impressed with Reuven's knowledge and creativity. On the other hand, Rav Kalman appears to be angered and annoyed.

In the end, Rav Kalman gives Reuven smicha, stating that although he vehemently disagrees with his methods, he can hear the love of Jewish text in his voice, something he had not heard since his students were killed in the Holocaust. As a compromise between the school and Rav Kalman, Reuven's father's cannot teach in the rabbinics department at Hirsch, yet Reuven is given a post in the department, where he will be allowed to use the critical method, and where Rav Kalman promises to fight with him about it. Reuven's father instead accepts a post at the Zechariah Frankel Seminary. At Reuven's graduation ceremony Rav Kalman and Reuven's father politely shake hands and Rav Kalman tells him that he has never had a student with more audacity as Reuven, yet he has also never had a student with more respect.

After months of confinement, Michael finally talks when Reuven visits and mentions that Rav Kalman is giving him smicha -- the same Rav Kalman who had attacked Reuven's father in the press. Michael reveals that his anger and other problems stem from the fact that his father is an outspoken secular rabbi who is hated and attacked, which made Michael feel alienated and uncomfortable; he hates his father and his mother, and yet, he also loves them, and fears that his hate will hurt them irreparably. Michael secretly wished the elder Malter's work would prevent Reuven from receiving smicha, and therefore, Reuven would hate his father, and have something in common with Michael. Having expressed his true feelings, he embraces his parents and is now ready to begin traditional therapy with Danny.

Rachel and Danny marry, and at the wedding, Danny tells Reuven that he will write his doctoral dissertation on his experiment with Michael. The novel ends where it starts, with the Malters and Gordons on vacation in the country.

~Brief summary of the plot~

On the day of Prince Dolor's baptism, there was a great procession. His well-to-do nurse was fiddling with her dress while holding the Prince and she dropped him, causing damage to his spine (probably). But she told no one. A fairy godmother appears to the Nurse and reveals she knows what happened. The Prince's Mother (the Queen) dies. The Prince's legs never grow strong. He cannot walk; he can only crawl with his arms. The King dies, too. The Regent family moves into the castle (with many kids) and the Prince's Uncle rules the kingdom. Things are good throughout the land, but Prince Dolor is ignored. The new King sends Dolor away and tells everyone that Dolor died.

Dolor is sent away to live in the lonely tower in the middle of a wasteland. There are no doors in the tower. It is 100 ft tall. But he has many books, toys and maps. His only companion is his nurse. And a deaf mute Black Knight brings them food and things. The Nurse is a 'prisoner', too. They use a ladder to get up into the tower. The Black Knight visits once a month. The Prince likes to be quiet and look out the window at the lonely plains. He does his lessons and schoolwork. He loves books. He learns of the kingdom of Nomansland. But he feels that to read of things and never see them is sad. If only he could fly he wished. And he wishes he had someone who would be nice to him. He was lonely.

An old grey woman appears. She says I am your fairy godmother. Dolor asks, "Will you bring me a boy to play with?" She says no. But gives him a gift: A travelling cloak. When the nurse comes into the room to see who he was talking to, she disappears. The cloak looks like a poncho. He didn't know the magic powers it holds.

One day he gets sick and his fairy godmother comes to visit. He asks her why he can't walk. She tells him he will never walk. He is sad. She asks where is your cloak? He had put it in the closet. She teaches him how to use it with the magic words and reminds him to open the skylight.

When he says the magic words it grows bigger. At first he forgets the words that make it fly. And he forgets to open the skylight. When he was finally out flying around the tower, he felt wonderful. But he saw only dreary planes, the stars and moon. He got very cold. But he forgot the magic words that would take him home. The cloak took him faster and faster away from the tower. He became frightened. He calls out for his fairy godmother to please, please remind him of the magic words to bring him home. And he hears a voice tell him the word. When he gets home, he puts the cloak away and it shrinks and bundles itself up. The nurse didn't know he was gone, but is cross with him for leaving the skylight open. Its freezing in here!

When Prince Dolor went to bed that night he couldn't wait to go out flying again tomorrow. The next day, he did his lessons and schoolwork quickly and went out on the cloak again. He saw all kinds of flowers and trees and grass, birds and small animals that scurried away from him. He wished he could see better and his godmother sent him some spectacles.

He plays with his toys the next day and thinks about his toy horse and wishes he had a real horse. That night when he went out, he brought with him some food and water and a coat and he flew for a long time. He fell asleep while flying. When he awoke he was no longer in the wasteland. He was in the countryside. He saw rivers and hills, animals, trees, and even a waterfall. He wished he could hear everything better and his godmother sent him some silver ears that fit over his own. He wondered if he would see any people. He wished so much to have a little boy to play with. His flying cloak dipped lower and brought him closer to see a boy running in the field with his horse. As he watched, the little prince cried because he knew that he himself would never be able to run that way. Then a lark flew into his lap and he was happy again because this was such a strange and wonderful thing.

He wondered about his mother and father. He wondered what happened to them. The lark stayed with him and lived right outside his skylight. He decided after seeing the running boy that he didn't want to fly around any more because it made him sad. A few months later he wondered if he will ever be the king as princes are supposed to. His nurse wrote on a paper "You ARE a king” and she finally wrote out his whole history for him. She was afraid to speak in case a spy heard her break the rule about not telling him.

That night he used the cloak and asked it to show him not what he wanted to see but “what I SHOULD see.” The flying cloak took him to see the big city of Nomansland. A magpie came to fly next to him and spoke to him with a strangely familiar voice. The magpie shows him the palace – the biggest building he ever saw and showed him the regent King, his uncle – who had just died and was lying there looking like a wax figure. The bird showed him that the town was beginning to revolt. There was a revolution going on. He saw terrible fighting in the streets. He didn't want to see any more and he went home to his tower to sleep. When he woke up re realised his nurse was gone. He sees hoof prints outside his tower. He realises that the Black Knight came and got the nurse and took her away. He is alone in the tower for many days.

He almost runs out of food and is very sad and lonely when one morning he hears a trumpet. A huge parade of people from the city had come to his tower. They were singing and celebrating for they had heard that he was alive. The nurse and the black night rode to the city to tell them about Prince Dolor. He was crowned the new king. He rules the city for many years. When he gets old, he tells the people of the kingdom that he will leave and never come back. He gets on his cloak (which no one ever saw before) and flies away.

Hours after the events of the previous film, the ambulance transporting the lifeless Eve has lost its way, but when the co-driver tries to radio their superiors, the driver, Dr. Bruce Abbot, stops and holds him at gunpoint. They are ambushed by Portus, who kills the co-driver with his tongue. Abbot discovers both Portus and Eve in the back of the ambulance; Portus strangles Eve to death while she gives birth to a newborn alien, which Abbot flees with. Government agent Wasach orders an autopsy, discovering Eve's pregnancy, then has her body burned.

Abbot returns to his usual job teaching biochemistry at a university, where he teaches his belief that it is wrong to decide whether a species should live or die. He raises Eve's child in his home and she grows into a young girl who he names Sara. One night at Abbot's office, he is visited by Portus, who has dramatically aged and is critically ill. While Abbot tries to treat him, Portus demands to see "it" (Eve's child) and reveals to Abbot that there are other half-breeds suffering from similar illnesses. Afterward, he dies horribly while sitting in the chair. Shocked by these events, Abbot approaches Dean, one of his students whose funding for an experimental power plant project is in jeopardy and asks for his aid in perfecting the alien DNA to save the species. In return, Abbot promises Dean a share of any funding or awards their work receives.

In Abbot's absence, Sara pupates inside a cocoon and emerges as an adult. Abbot's superior, Dr. Nicholas Turner, arrives at the house seeking Abbot and comes across Sara, who initially tries to seduce him but then rejects him. He attempts to rape her and Sara kills him. Sara leaves to seek a mate and Abbot returns home, and sees evidence of Sara's transformation and disposes of Turner's body. Sara eventually connects with another half-breed, but discovers his illnesses and knocks his tooth out. As Abbot and Dean continue their experiments on Sara, Dean begins to bond with her. Abbot informs Dean of the government's "Project Athena", which created Sil in the first film and Sara's heritage as the child of Patrick Ross infected with alien DNA from Mars and Eve, Sil's clone. The half-breed that Sara rejected breaks into the lab, mortally wounds Abbot and attempts to impregnate Sara, but is killed by hydrochloric gas Abbot sprays over the lab. Left alone, Dean ponders whether to continue Abbot's work, and Sara urges him to save her species.

Dean's roommate at the university, Hastings, discovers a website posted by a woman named Amelia who wants to date biochemists. After snooping through Dean's notes, he forwards them to Amelia, who agrees to meet him. En route, Amelia - who is another half-breed - has sex with and murders a gas station attendant who attempts to rape her. At the campus, she senses Sara and kidnaps Hastings, taking him to Abbot's home. Both Amelia and Sara force Hastings to work on perfecting the alien DNA using Sara's purer biology to save the half-breeds and create perfect mating partners for them. Agent Wasach, whose team also monitored Amelia's website and discovered its connection to Project Athena, picks up Dean and helps him save Hastings.

Dean, Hastings, and Wasach flee to Dean's experimental power plant with Sara and Amelia in pursuit. While attempting to keep Sara's harvested eggs away from them, the three decide to try trapping Amelia and Sara in the plant's core, but this tactic risks causing a catastrophic meltdown. Dean drops the eggs into the core, prompting Amelia to attempt to kill him, but Sara attacks her and throws her into the core as well. Dean, Hastings, and Wasach manage to close the core in time to prevent a meltdown.

Later, Hastings visits Dean at Abbot's home and discovers both Sara and a half-breed alien boy. Dean reveals that he actually managed to pull Sara to safety before sealing the plant's core, then completed the refined alien DNA to create a mate for her so she would not be alone. After the boy is grown, Dean tells Sara she is on her own and to be careful, but before Sara and her mate leave, Dean asks Sara why she saved him from Amelia when there was no reason to. She does not answer; however, it is implied that she has come to care for him. Dean then reassures the nervous Hastings by revealing that he had ensured that Sara's mate would be sterile, preventing them from reproducing.

Adam, a 23-year-old self-employed security technician, is hired by businesswoman Alice Comfort to set up a security system in her flat. After finishing the work, Adam falls asleep on her roof-garden. When Alice arrives home and finds him there, she impulsively asks him to accompany her to a housewarming party for her boss. He is unsure, but eventually agrees. Whilst at the party, Alice and Adam have passionate sex.

Driving home from the party Alice overtakes a slow-moving vehicle, while Adam shouts an obscenity at the driver. Shortly after, Alice accidentally hits a stag. While she and Adam are dragging the animal off the road, the car that Alice overtook earlier pulls up. Three men get out, who proceed to beat up Adam and then rape Alice.

A month passes, during which Adam and Alice physically heal but both remain emotionally wounded. On returning to work, Alice receives notification that, while she was hospitalised following the assault, her father had died. Alice drives out to his country house to put his affairs in order, and discovers a locked chest that she recognises from her childhood. Driving home, she passes a group of riders on horseback, one of whom she recognises as one of the rapists. She gets his name - Heffer - from another rider.

Alice contacts Adam, and he makes his way to her father's house where she tells him that she's found one of the men responsible for attacking them. Alice shows Adam the contents of her father's locked chest: a sniper rifle and silencer that her father apparently smuggled home after being discharged from the army. Alice says that she intends to avenge herself against Heffer.

They stake out Heffer's home with the intent to kill him. But a young woman (later identified as Heffer's daughter, Sophie) comes out of the house looking for her dog, which Alice has killed. Alice and Adam, disturbed by having to confront the fact that their attacker is a human being, with a family, return home.

Over the next few days the couple try to decide if they should go ahead with their plan. Adam, who has been impotent since the attack, steadily becomes more aggressive and committed to the idea of murdering Heffer. Alice, however, has grown reluctant to kill Heffer now that she has seen him in a human context; instead, she sends Adam to set up security equipment in Heffer's house to try to determine the identities and locations of his friends who participated in the gang-rape.

Adam succeeds in breaking into Heffer's house and ends up in Sophie's room; initially, he merely attempts to keep her quiet so that he can get out of the house, but he has a sudden fit of rage and begins raping her. In the middle of the attack, she escapes from his grasp. Adam returns home, able to maintain an erection for the first time since the attack.

The next day Alice uses a laptop computer that controls the security cameras and watches Heffer in his house. She realises his intention is to kill himself, and after grabbing her rifle rushes to his house. Alice finds Heffer in his garage, sitting in his car with the engine running, attempting to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. She gets him out of the car and into fresh air, saving his life. In the midst of a delirium induced by carbon monoxide, Heffer (who doesn't recognise Alice) confesses that, a month ago, his friends had intended to rape his daughter, but he convinced them to rape and beat a woman and her friend in the middle of the road instead.

Just then, Alice and Heffer hear Adam calling from outside, and Heffer suddenly turns violent, grabbing her roughly, but Alice hits him and frees herself. Adam then bursts into the house, beats Heffer, duct-tapes him to the kitchen table, and holds him down while Alice sodomises him with the barrel of the rifle that she has fetched from her car; once she is finished, she prepares to kill him, but - now pitying him because of the circumstances surrounding the rape - she decides not to pull the trigger. Adam, infuriated, takes out a hunting knife and carves out Heffer's eye. Horrified, Alice runs away; driving back to her father's home, Alice spots Sophie hitch-hiking, and invites her into her car. When Sophie realises she isn't being taken home, she asks Alice where they're headed. Alice replies, "Somewhere safe."

Back at Heffer's house, Adam taunts Heffer until he hears a car pulling up; as one of the attackers approaches the house, Adam fatally shoots him in the head before pursuing the remaining attacker through the grounds. Adam shoots the man in the leg as he flees, causing him to fall to the ground. He then bludgeons the wounded man to death with the butt of the rifle.

In the final shot of the film, Adam walks away from his victim and approaches the screen for a close-up shot, looking directly at the camera. The viewer is left to reflect on the violent revenge that has just been exacted.

The tale begins in a farmyard which is home to a duck called Jemima Puddle-duck. She wants to hatch her own eggs, but the farmer's wife believes ducks make poor sitters and routinely confiscates their eggs to allow the hens to incubate them. Jemima tries to hide her eggs, but they are always found and carried away. She sets off along the road in her poke bonnet and shawl to find a safe place away from the farm to lay her eggs.

At the top of a hill, she spies a distant wood, flies to it, and waddles about until she discovers an appropriate nesting place among the foxgloves. However, a charming gentleman with "black prick ears and sandy-coloured whiskers" persuades her to nest in a shed at his home. Jemima is led to his "tumble-down shed" (which is curiously filled with feathers), and makes herself a nest with little ado.

Jemima lays her eggs, and the fox suggests a dinner party to mark the event. He asks her to collect the traditional herbs used in stuffing a duck, telling her the seasonings will be used for an omelet. Jemima sets about her errand, but the farm collie, Kep, meets her as she carries onions from the farm kitchen and asks her what she is doing and where she keeps going. She reveals her errand, Kep sees through the fox's plan at once, and finds out from Jemima where the fox lives.

With the help of two fox-hound puppies who are out for a walk at the farm, Kep rescues Jemima and the "foxy-whiskered gentleman" (Mr. Tod) is chased away and seen again in The Tale of Mr. Tod. However, the hungry fox-hounds eat Jemima's eggs. Jemima is escorted back to the farm in tears over her lost eggs, but, in time, lays more eggs and successfully hatches four ducklings.MacDonald 1986, p. 111

The Schwartzes live their ordinary lives in the aptly named (and fictional) small town of Bellwether, Connecticut. When she thinks her two children do not need her any longer, Lila Schwartz, a sexually active woman, leaves behind her family, calls herself Lila Munroe and moves to California, where she trains, and later works, as a lawyer. Faced with the dual challenge of having to raise two teenage kids while remaining successful in his demanding job as a publicist and speech writer, Bernard Schwartz more and more relies on medication to cope with everyday life. The real trouble begins when he accidentally swallows two incompatible antidepressants and falls into a coma shortly thereafter.

While he is unconscious Bernard Schwartz has a stroke. When he wakes up again he is seriously handicapped—his speech is slurred, his walk is unsteady and his memory is permanently impaired. Similar to a child, he has to learn the meanings of many words. Instead of going to school, Chris teaches his father as best as he can.

In spite of his enforced preoccupation with his "sleeping" father, Chris Schwartz notices that his own life goes on without any major change. Still a virgin, he fantasizes about having sex with Lisa Danmeyer, Bernard's neurologist and actually has his first sexual encounter ever at his father's rehab centre with a sexy speech pathologist who performs fellatio on him.

At the same time Cathy, his 16-year-old sister, is on the brink of abandoning her Jewish roots and converting to Roman Catholicism. However, she also develops a crush on Francis Dial, her brother's best friend and classmate. Chris cannot believe that his younger sister might have sex before he does, but in the end this is exactly what happens, an unwanted teenage pregnancy being the result of their union. At first the young lovers are unsure whether Cathy should have an abortion or not, but Cathy soon makes up her mind to keep the baby.

After fifteen years, Joshua Judd (Charles Ogle) tells his adopted son, Amos (Valentino), that his real father was an Indian maharajah overthrown by Ali Khan (Bertram Grassby). Amos, then a young boy (played by an uncredited Pat Moore), was rescued by General Devi Das Gadi (George Periolat) and taken to America for his safety. (Joshua's merchant brother had been a trusted friend of the late maharajah.)

Amos attends Harvard University. There he incurs the hatred of Austin Slade, Jr. (Jack Giddings), whom he beats out for a spot on the rowing team. At a party celebrating a rowing victory over arch-rival Yale, a jealous Slade calls Amos "yellow" and pours a drink on him, causing Amos to punch him. Slade grabs a chair as a weapon, but Amos ducks, and Slade falls through an open window to his death. Amos is cleared of all wrongdoing, but the newspaper story attracts the notice of Amhad Beg (J. Farrell MacDonald), Ali Khan's Prime Minister.

That summer, at a party hosted by close friend Stephen Van Kovert (William Boyd), Amos becomes attracted to one of the other guests, Molly Cabot (Wanda Hawley). By chance, Molly and her family decide to vacation in Amos's hometown. As they become better acquainted, Amos overcomes Molly's initial dislike of him. However, Molly tells her father (Edward Jobson) that she cannot marry someone who is not one of her "own people", however much she loves him. Instead, she agrees to marry longtime suitor Horace Bennett (Robert Ober), who had been a good friend of Slade's. Bennett tells Amos to stay away from his future wife, but when he also calls Amos a murderer, Amos chokes him into apologizing. As he leaves, Amos is struck in the head by a rock thrown by Bennett. Seeing this, Molly rushes to Amos's side and breaks off her engagement to Bennett.

The happy couple decide on an early wedding, but Amos has a vision showing him being murdered the day before. He has had visions before; all came true, even if he tried to prevent them. His family is supposedly descended from Prince Arjuna; the god Krishna granted Arjuna and all his descendants the gift of prophesy. When he reveals this to his future father-in-law (who has already witnessed the accuracy of Amos's visions), the latter suggests he lock himself away in the sanatorium of a friend for the day.

Amos does so, but Amhad Beg and his men find and kidnap him. Just as they are about to kill him, Amos is rescued by the mystic Narada (Josef Swickard), who also can see into the future, and his followers. Narada convinces him to forgo his own happiness and return to India to overthrow the tyrant. When Amos is welcomed by his people and the army revolts, Ali Khan commits suicide. The new Maharajah of Dharmagar takes comfort in his latest vision, which shows his wedding to Molly.

According to the NES version's manual, this game stars Bub and Bob, the original duo.''Bubble Bobble Part 2'' (NES) instruction manual On the game's back cover, they are also said to be Cubby and Rubby, Bub and Bob's descendants.

As seen in the game intro, Bub, and a girl named Judy, were sitting in a park. Suddenly, a floating skull character, who is one of the Skull Brothers, captures Judy into a bubble, and sends her and Bub into the air. Two characters named Drunk (from the original ''Bubble Bobble'') follow the skull and take Judy away. Bub turns (or is turned) into a bubble dragon and heads off to rescue his girlfriend. There is also a two-player mode, implying that Bob has suffered the same events as Bub had. However, the manual states that Judy is a friend of both.

In the Game Boy version, a character named Robby has to rescue people from a village, who, according to this version's intro, have been captured by a skull character.

The tale begins with three feline siblings – Tom Kitten and his sisters Moppet and Mittens – tumbling about the doorstep and playing in the dust. Their mother, Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit, expects "fine company" for tea so she fetches the children indoors to wash and dress them before her friends arrive. Tom is "very naughty" and scratches his mother while she grooms him. Tabitha dresses Moppet and Mittens in clean pinafores and tuckers, and Tom in "all sorts of elegant uncomfortable clothes" taken from a chest of drawers. Tom is fat and bursts several buttons, but his mother sews them back on again.

Tabitha turns her kittens into the garden to keep them out of the way while she makes hot buttered toast for the party. She tells them to keep their frocks clean and keep away from the pigsty, the dirty ash pit, Sally Henny Penny, and the Puddle-Ducks, and then returns to her work. Moppet and Mittens soon have their pinafores smeared with grass stains. They climb upon the garden wall and lose some of their clothing in the ascent. Tom has a more difficult time gaining the top of the wall "breaking the ferns, and shedding buttons right and left". He is disheveled when he reaches the top of the wall, and loses his hat, but his sisters try to pull him together. The rest of his buttons burst.

Three Puddle-ducks come marching along the road – "pit pat paddle pat! pit pat waddle pat!" Jemima Puddle-duck and Rebeccah put on some of the dropped clothing. The kittens lose the rest of their clothing descending the wall. Moppet invites Mr. Drake Puddle-duck to help dress Tom. He picks up various articles of Tom's clothing and "he put[s] them on ''himself!''" The three ducks set off up the road just as Tabitha approaches and discovers her three children with no clothes on. She pulls them off the wall, "smacks" them, and takes them back to the house. "My friends will arrive in a minute, and you are not fit to be seen; I am affronted!" she says.

Tabitha sends her kittens upstairs, and tells her guests the kittens are in bed with the measles. However, "the dignity and repose of the tea party" is disturbed by the "very extraordinary noises overhead" as the playful kittens romp in a bedroom. An illustration depicts the bedroom in complete disorder and Tom in his mother's bonnet. The next illustration shows Tabitha entering the room. The author interrupts to promise the reader she will make a larger book about Tom some day. In the last pages, the Puddle-ducks have lost the kittens' clothing in a pond, and they have been looking for them ever since.

Two people are attacked in a cemetery by slices of bread, which is hurled at them. The people escape in their car as more bread hurls itself at them from offscreen. They make it to a farmhouse where they and others are besieged by rampant slices of killer bread. One person is smothered to death, leaving behind a corpse strewn with white bread. News reports speculate that an explosion at a bakery is animating all manner of bread. During Catholic Mass in an emergency shelter, the worshippers are attacked by Communion wafers. The group in the farmhouse fortify their defences, using toasters (instead of torches) to frighten off the bread, and barricading the doors and windows with sandwich bags (instead of wooden planks). Two women seek refuge in the basement, unaware that there is a lunch bag next to them. The bread inside kills them and one of the men, leaving only one person alive. Meanwhile, the two hamburger buns float away from the women they kill. At the end of the film, the sole survivor is smothered by the bread.

Rather than presenting a straightforward narrative, the film tells of Liszt's life through a series of surrealistic episodes blending fact and fantasy, and full of anachronistic elements. At the start of the film, Liszt is caught in bed with Marie d'Agoult by her husband the Count d'Agoult. The count challenges Liszt to a fight with sabres but Marie begs the count to let her share Liszt's fate. The count then orders his staff to trap Liszt and Marie into the body of a piano, nailing it shut, and then leaving it on railroad tracks.

The scene then is shown to be a flashback triggered by the camera flash of photographers backstage before one of Liszt's concerts. Richard Wagner appears, and Liszt introduces him to his circle of colleagues, including Gioachino Rossini, Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin, and Hans von Bülow. Liszt then pays Wagner to allow him to perform a variation on a theme from ''Rienzi''. At the concert, Wagner is put off by Liszt's crowd-pleasing showmanship at the expense of serious musicianship, which includes his adding the melody of ''Chopsticks'' to his ''Rienzi'' variation. However, the crowd, consisting entirely of young screaming girls, go wild at Liszt's performance, storming the stage. Liszt uses von Bülow to proposition potentially wealthy females in the audience during his performance. One of them is Princess Carolyn, who relays to Liszt her address in Russia.

The next scene shows Marie's and Liszt's domestic life plagued by jealousy over his constant touring and his infidelities. At this point, they have three children, the oldest being Cosima. Domestic life has strained Liszt's creativity. Liszt prepares to depart to St. Petersburg to play for the tsar. Marie threatens to abandon him if he decides to go. Liszt then suggests to Cosima that he would sell his soul to the devil to compose brilliant music again. As Liszt is leaving, Cosima consoles him that she will pray to God every day so that Liszt will meet the devil and be able to sell his soul to him.

In Russia, Liszt meets Princess Carolyn at her court. She begins to seduce him, offering him the ability to compose the brilliant music he wanted in exchange for total control of his life. In one of the more ostentatious scenes of the movie, Liszt then experiences a hallucination where the women of Princess Carolyn's court assail him but then become seduced by his music, which strokes his libido and gives him a 10-foot erection. Carolyn sinisterly observes from afar as the women celebrate his giant erection with a chorus line. The women then drag Liszt and his erection to a guillotine in which Carolyn reveals that the bargain for Liszt's newfound musical prolificity is the forfeiture of his libertinism.

The next scene shows Liszt in Dresden during the May Uprising, conflicted about not supporting his friends in the revolt and spending all his time isolated to compose music (it is heavily implied that Marie and his two youngest children have been killed). Wagner, now a political criminal on the lam, reappears and asks Liszt for money so that he can escape the country with his family. As Liszt tends Wagner's wounds, Wagner secretly drugs Liszt, who passes out. Wagner then reveals himself to be a vampire with a mission to write music that will inspire a new German nationalism. He then proceeds to suck Liszt's blood and compose on the piano. Before departing, Wagner leaves him his latest political pamphlet, a Superman comic (a play on Friedrich Nietzsche's Superman).

Liszt and Carolyn travel to the Vatican to get married after the pope agrees to grant her a divorce from her husband. The wedding ultimately is voided by the intervention of her husband and the tsar. Furious at the pope's political impotence, Carolyn threatens to write an anthology on her disagreements with the church (''Causes intérieures de la faiblesse extérieure de l'Église en 1870''). Liszt then proposes that he will join the church as an abbot.

Liszt's life as an abbot is shown to be disobedient as he is caught in bed with a woman. The pope then explains that Wagner has seduced Cosima as his wife and has begun to lead a devilish cult organised around his music. He orders Liszt to travel to Wagner's castle to exorcise him and return him to the Christian faith or else Liszt will be excommunicated and his music banned.

Liszt travels to Wagner's castle, where he observes a secret ritual portraying a devilish Jew raping several blonde-haired Germanic nymphs. Wagner then appears with Cosima, dressed in Superman outfits, and sings how "the flowering youth of Germany was raped by 'the beast'" and that a "new messiah" will soon arrive to drive out the beast. At the conclusion of the song, Cosima marches the audience, composed entirely of children, out with a Nazi salute as they chant that they "will be the master race".

Liszt confronts Wagner, who is unaware of what Liszt has seen, and inquires about his ambitions. Wagner confesses that he has been building a mechanical Viking Siegfried to rid the country of Jews. When Wagner awakens Siegfried with his music, the creature turns out to be crass and slow-witted. Liszt sneaks holy water into Wagner's drink, but the water has no effect. Wagner then reveals himself to Liszt as a vampire and threatens to steal his music so that Wagner's Viking can live. Liszt rushes to the piano and plays music, exorcising Wagner and bringing him to near death. Cosima, witnessing Wagner's moribund state, imprisons Liszt and then resurrects Wagner in a Nazi ceremony as a Frankenstein-Hitler wielding a machine-gun guitar. Trapped, Liszt observes as Cosima leads the Wagner-Hitler to gun down the town's Jews, after which she kills Liszt by stabbing a needle through the heart of a voodoo doll made in his likeness.

In heaven, Liszt is reunited with the women he has romanced in his life and Cosima, but it never is explained how she got there after killing Liszt, who regret their behaviour toward him and each other and finally live in harmony. In the final episode, Liszt and the women decide to fly to Earth in a spaceship to destroy Wagner-Hitler who has now ravaged Berlin in a fiery machine-gun frenzy. Once Wagner-Hitler is destroyed, Liszt sings that he has found "peace at last".

Hitomi Kisugi, along with her older sister Rui and her younger sister Ai, run a café called "Cat's Eye" in Tokyo. The sisters lead a double life as a trio of highly skilled art thieves, stealing works of art which primarily belonged to their long-missing father, Michael Heinz, who was a famous art collector during the Nazi regime. Hitomi's fiancé is Toshio Utsumi, a clumsy young police officer who is investigating the Cat's Eye case. Despite being a frequent visitor to the café he is unaware of the double life of the girls. Hitomi regularly informs the police in advance about her next job using a signature "Cat's Eye" calling card, and then uses Toshio's research about the security surrounding the target to help plan the job.

At the end of the series, Heinz leaves a note for his daughters stating that he cannot reveal himself yet because the mafia may kill him, but he may appear in five years' time. However, the "Heinz" turns out to be the sisters' treacherous uncle Cranaff, who betrayed Michael years earlier. After losing a final bet to Cat's Eye, Cranaff decides to atone for his sin by setting fire to the museum, killing himself. Hitomi eventually admits to Toshio that she is part of Cat's Eye and flees before he can arrest her. Toshio vows to track her down, attempting to "arrest" Hitomi at the airport with a wedding ring. He resigns from the police force and travels to America to find Hitomi, but finds that she has lost her memory due to viral meningitis. Toshio spends time with her until her memories come back, and the two rekindle their relationship.

The campaign, which is 15 missions long, includes the Black family in a more historical setting. The first act, ''Fire'', follows Nathaniel Black (John Black's son and Amelia Black's father) as he spends the family's entire fortune supporting the American Revolution. The second act, ''Shadow'', follows Amelia Black's son, Chayton Black, and his actions in the Black Hills during Red Cloud's War (1866–1868) and the Great Sioux War (1876–1877). The home city for both acts is the Black Family Estate.

Act 1: Fire

Nathaniel Black (loosely based on Joseph Louis Cook) is the half-Iroquois son of the late John Black from Act 2 in the previous game, raised by his mother Nonahkee and his uncle Kanyenke (Ká:nien in ''Definitive Edition''). The campaign opens as Nathaniel and Kanyenke are trying to discourage the Mohawk and the Seneca from fighting in the American Revolutionary War. However, they are ambushed by a group of Mohawks and head to an Oneida village nearby. From there they counter-attack and destroy an enemy Town Center, thus causing their enemies to flee. When Nathaniel and Kanyenke return to their village, they find that the Mohawk and a group of Hessian mercenaries led by Colonel Sven Kuechler, have raided the village and captured Nonahkee. They rescue Nonahkee, but Kuechler and his main army escape, leaving the Iroquois Confederacy to dissolve. Nathaniel's village supports the colonists, and Nathaniel heads to Boston where his men help defend a redoubt on Breed's Hill from the British. After George Washington takes command, a series of defeats drives the colonials back across the Delaware, where they are joined by Nathaniel. Here, Washington leads a small force, including Nathaniel, across the Delaware where they attack a Hessian encampment at Trenton and defeat the rearguard of the army at Princeton. This is followed by another victory at the Battles of Saratoga. However, the army is once again defeated at Brandywine and Germantown and is forced to camp for the winter at Valley Forge, where they suffer greatly from the cold. This leads Nathaniel to use most of his family's fortune to supply the army throughout the winter. The next scenario is the fictional battle of Morristown, where Nathaniel has his chance for revenge on Kuechler, who leads an attempt to destroy the capitol building of Morristown. Using artillery shipments he receives from Washington, Nathaniel sneaks around the Hessian flank and relieves Morristown. Refusing to accept defeat, Kuechler joins the fight with Nathaniel and is killed. After Kuechler's death, Nathaniel is said to have fought at Charleston, Camden, and King's Mountain. As the tide begins to turn, the French join the war and help the revolutionaries gain a victory at Yorktown, where Nathaniel is instrumental in capturing several redoubts. With the Revolution won, Nathaniel returns home a poor man having spent his family fortune on outfitting his volunteers and supplying the troops at Valley Forge. During the epilogue video of the campaign (where Nathaniel is at Yorktown), the "Old Coot" (secretly Morgan Black) from Acts 1 and 3 in the previous game can be seen watching his great-grandson's victory.

Act 2: Shadow

In 1866, Chayton Black, Amelia Black's half-Lakota son whose father died when he was too young to remember, is expanding the Falcon Railroad Company westward along the Bozeman Trail but winds up in the middle of Red Cloud's War. He helps defend the wood trail from the Sioux and becomes friends with Fort Laramie's quartermaster, William "Billy" Holme, an aged American Civil War veteran. Ten years later, in 1876, Chayton returns to the west and again meets up with Holme, now a sheriff, who informs him of a gold rush in the Black Hills of Dakota. After defending many mining camps from Sioux attacks, Chayton goes to see the Sioux chief Crazy Horse and establish a peace treaty. However, Holme and some of the miners ambush the Sioux before Chayton can begin negotiations, wrecking any chance of peace. Despite the sheriff's warmongering, Chayton still sides with Holme and defends his workers as they gather wood for a new fort. However, once the fort is complete, Holme orders Chayton to destroy a Sioux village without provocation. Chayton refuses and, turning against Holme, allies with the Sioux to destroy the fort, forcing Holme to flee into the hills. Chayton then convinces the newly arrived General Custer to give him one day to find Holme, who is the real cause of the unrest. Chayton puts on Sioux clothing and blood-red war paint and, joining with Crazy Horse, chases down Holme and corners him in a mine. Holme pulls a gun on Chayton, who draws his gun more quickly and shoots Holme, sending him stumbling into some gunpowder kegs and falling down a mineshaft to his explosive death. Chayton then tries convincing General Custer not to attack the Sioux, but Custer refuses and demands that Chayton choose sides: the United States or the Natives, saying that he can no longer sit on the fence. Chayton agrees, bidding Custer goodbye and siding with the Sioux. He helps gather the Sioux and Cheyenne nations and fights with them at the Little Bighorn. After the battle, Amelia Black narrates that she never saw her son again, but she has heard that Chayton was either killed at Wounded Knee in 1890, taking a dozen cavalrymen with him, or lived out his days in the Black Hills with his wife and children.

In ''Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition'', Chayton's story is significantly revised, with he and Holme having known each other since the Civil War. Chayton's Sioux ancestry is also more focused on, and his Lakota uncle "Frank" Warbonnet replaces both Amelia and Crazy Horse's roles.

The story is a love triangle, mixed with politics. Roommates and radicals Andy Hobart and Norman Cornell are two earnest young men using their San Francisco apartment as a publishing office for their magazine, ''Fallout'', which is dedicated to fighting "the system" in America, but they barely make a living working on the magazine. Former Olympic swimmer Sophie Rauschmeyer, an all-American Southern girl, moves into the apartment next door. Her friendliness and charm leave Norman hopelessly smitten, but what is love at first sight (or, as the play has it, first smell) for Norman is not reciprocated. Norman's obsession with Sophie causes Andy to hire her just to sustain the magazine's operation. Meanwhile, Andy is fielding telephone calls from the irate printer who wants to collect the money due him, and distracting the landlady from thoughts of back rent with motorcycle rides and surfing expeditions. While she is convinced that they are editing a dangerously subversive magazine, Sophie soon finds that her real source of annoyance is that the wrong man is pressing his attentions on her. Sophie then falls for Andy, though they are at odds politically, threatening to destroy the magazine and the men's friendship.

On a one-week Mediterranean pleasure cruise aboard the yacht of movie producer Clinton Greene, the guests include: actress Alice Wood; her talent-manager husband Anthony Wood; secretary turned talent agent Christine; screenwriter Tom Parkman and his wife Lee; and film director Philip Dexter. The trip is in fact a reunion; with the exception of Lee, all were together at Clinton's home one year before, on the night a hit-and-run accident resulted in the death of Clinton's wife, gossip columnist Sheila Greene.

Once the cruise is underway, Greene, a parlor game enthusiast, informs everyone that the week's entertainment will consist of "The Sheila Greene Memorial Gossip Game." The six guests are each assigned an index card containing a secret that must be kept hidden from the others. The object of the game is to discover everyone else's secret while protecting one's own. Each night, the yacht anchors at a different Mediterranean port city, where one of the six secrets is disclosed to the entire group. The guests are given a clue, then sent ashore to find the proof of who holds the card bearing that secret. The game for that night ends when the actual holder discovers the proof. Following the first day's game, suspicion begins that the "pretend" secrets are in fact true. This is confirmed when Alice is talking to a man off camera, whose identity is hidden. She says that ´YOU are a SHOPLIFTER’ applied to her and that she was caught shoplifting before she became famous. She downplays the incident, telling the mysterious man (while they share a cigarette) that she has his secret and shows him the ´YOU are a HOMOSEXUAL’ card. She says she will keep his secret, and there are hints of an affair. She is eager to know what the other secrets are, and a bit scared of the whole game.

On the second day, Christine is nearly killed when someone turns the boat's propellers on while she is swimming near them. Christine becomes hysterical with shock when the rest of the guests come to her rescue. The second game secret is revealed to be "YOU are a HOMOSEXUAL." In the evening, Greene goes ahead to the designated island and prepares for the ‘game’ ahead of the guests. It takes place in a monastery, with all guests dressed in hooded monks’ robes; in addition to the robe, Greene is dressed up as Alice, with a wig and makeup. In one scene, Greene falls out of a confessional box with bloody wounds on his face. Later that evening, when the guests gather together on the yacht to discuss the game, they notice that Greene has not returned. When Greene hasn’t show up the next day, the guests return ashore to the monastery, and discover his corpse. Although the group initially assumes that Clinton died when a stone column collapsed during the storm, Parkman points out several clues that suggest otherwise.

Parkman reveals that Greene has been murdered by one of them. Playing detective, he points to clues that he and Dexter found at the crime scene. He suggests that everyone should literally put their cards on the table. Five cards reveal: YOU are a SHOPLIFTER, HOMOSEXUAL, EX-CONVICT, INFORMER, and LITTLE CHILD MOLESTER — and Parkman delays revealing his card. Alice reveals she was the shoplifter, and Parkman says ‘YOU are a HOMOSEXUAL’ applies to him, since he had a brief encounter with Greene years ago, before he was married to Lee. All these secrets are from the past; Anthony reveals that he is the ‘Ex-CONVICT’ and is shocked how Green has come to know so much about them — either since Shelia was a gossip columnist, people confided in her, or due to common industry gossip. Dexter gets nervous as accusations point to him being the child molester, and mumbles nonsense trying to cover it up. Christine reveals that when she was a secretary in the film industry, during the Second Red Scare she informed on left-leaning actors to further her career and become talent agent. Out of guilt, she says that she now tries to help them find work.

Finally, Parkman reveals he had the "YOU are a HIT-AND-RUN KILLER" card. It is implied that the hit-and-run killer murdered Clinton to conceal his or her involvement in Sheila's death. Lee, who has been drinking, tearfully confesses to having killed Sheila while driving drunk the previous year, and to killing Clinton the previous night after he provoked her by blaming her for Sheila's death. Distraught, she locks herself in her cabin, where Parkman tries to reach her, but can‘t. Shortly thereafter, she is found dead, with her wrists slit, in the bathtub in Greene’s cabin, and the case seems to be closed.

On the final night of the cruise, the crew and most of the guests go to a party onshore, but Dexter, who brought no money, remains on the ship. Parkman sees lights on the ship blinking on and off, and returns to find Dexter pondering loose ends of earlier events. Dexter suspects that Lee had "killed" a dead body, and that the real murderer had rearranged the scene to implicate her. Dexter points out that the six "secrets" spell out "SHEILA," and that a picture taken the first day has each of them standing under a letter of Sheila's name that corresponds to their clue, except for the final letter "A", which breaks the pattern.

With this, it becomes clear what had actually happened: after Alice (with whom Parkman had been having an affair) confessed to being a shoplifter on the first night, he changed out his own card – "YOU are an ALCOHOLIC," the missing A – for a more condemning one, "YOU are a HIT-AND-RUN KILLER," knowing both secrets applied to his wife Lee. While he was showering before the second game, he arranged for Lee to see that new card, and think the game's purpose was to expose her for her role in Sheila's death. On the second night, he murdered Greene, and framed Lee for the deed. Then, he spiked her bottle of bourbon with sleeping pills, and after she drank it, carried her body into the bathtub and slit her wrists, making it seem like a suicide. Her estate, worth $5 million, therefore went to him, making him (a) wealthy and (b) free to pursue other romantic interests. Dexter had also attempted to kill Clinton with the boat's propellers to prevent his secret from coming out. Parkman then tries to kill Dexter, but is stopped when Christine comes up to the yacht for a sexual rendezvous. Dexter then blackmails Parkman: in exchange for keeping the secret that Parkman killed Clinton, Parkman must finance Dexter’s next film with the money from Lee's estate.

Estelle Rolfe (Anne Bancroft) is a middle-aged, divorced and outspoken social activist whose behavior causes her devoted grown son Gilbert (Ron Silver) some consternation.

After being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, Estelle's last wish is to meet the movie star she has admired and idolized all of her life, the reclusive Greta Garbo.

Initially, Gilbert's wife Lisa (Carrie Fisher) sympathizes with his mission to fufill his mother's wish to meet Garbo. However, after Gilbert begins missing work to devote more time to search for the elusive actress and spends their entire savings in the process, Lisa has had enough and she leaves him. Gilbert's co-worker Jane Mortimer (Catherine Hicks), a winsome, aspiring actress takes a liking to Gilbert and a romance gradually develops, but first comes Gilbert's increasingly frantic search for a famous woman who does not care to be found.

A lead takes Gilbert to aging paparazzo Angelo Dokakis (Howard Da Silva), who had previously photographed the elusive Garbo and is acquainted with her habits and possible whereabouts; but after several days of staking out her apartment building they are unable to find her. After several other unsuccessful attempts, another lead takes Gilbert to an elderly actress named Elizabeth Rennick (Hermione Gingold) who once knew Garbo. She advises Gilbert to look for her at a local flea market.

With very little time to spare, Gilbert finally comes face-to-face with Garbo at the flea market and he tells her of his mother's condition. Without a word, Garbo goes directly to the hospital and sits at Estelle's bedside.

Gilbert is content that Estelle's wish to meet Garbo had been fulfilled. As he and Jane are strolling in the park, she is suddenly startled by the sight of Garbo approching them. Jane is amazed when Garbo pauses to say hello to Gilbert.

The film opens at a convention of recliner salesmen, where Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray) gives a motivational speech based on his book ''Get Over It''. Jack shares the example of his father dying before he was born as a difficult circumstance that must be overcome to succeed. At Jack's engagement party, his agent Walter (Jeremy Piven) updates him on all of his upcoming speaking engagements, and the pair hope that one of the engagements is high profile enough to lead to an infomercial.

As the party winds down, Jack reads telegrams from well wishers. One of the telegrams is from an attorney in Baltimore about the large estate of his recently deceased father Kirby. Jack's mother shortly admits that she lied about his father passing away when he was born. In truth, she left him because she felt he would be a bad example for Jack.

The attorney in Baltimore shows Jack a contract which mentions $35,000. Thinking this is the size of his father's estate, Jack signs the contract. In fact, it is the amount of property damage that the attorney has suffered because of Vera, Kirby's elephant. Vera and Kirby were a traveling circus act, and she is a highly trained elephant. Kirby left a note for Jack that instructed him to call "Blockhead" in Kansas City if there are any problems with Vera. Jack contacts Mo (Janeane Garofalo) at the San Diego Zoo, who happens to be transporting a herd of elephants to Sri Lanka in a few days. She helps Jack ascertain that Vera is a breeding age female, and she agrees to pay $30,000 for the elephant.

Jack and Vera board a train bound for San Diego, but the conductor (Keith David) insists on a bribe. Jack's $600 only gets them as far as Kansas City, where he looks up Blockhead, who is an old circus buddy of Kirby's. Blockhead shows Jack the extent of Vera's training, including a photo of Vera standing on her hind legs, which was a trick that she would only do for Kirby. He puts Jack onto an animal trainer in Los Angeles named Terry Bonura (Linda Fiorentino) who works in show business. Terry offers Jack $40,000 for Vera. So, he and Blockhead attempt to drive to L.A., but his truck breaks down. Jack rents a semi-truck and continues on his own. With no experience driving a big rig, Jack blows out the transmission.

Stuck at a truck stop, he encounters Tip Tucker (Matthew McConaughey) who is a fast-talking, deeply paranoid trucker bound for L.A. Jack slips outside to call Tip's mobile phone, and he tricks Tip into thinking his load has been canceled. Tip agrees to take Jack and Vera to L.A. instead. Along the way, Tip makes a phone call and realizes he has been tricked by Jack. He attacks Jack with a tire iron, but Vera intervenes and saves Jack from a beating. Tip drives off threatening to come back with the police.

Jack and Vera walk into New Mexico to evade Tip. They stumble into a monsoon that is threatening to tear apart a village church. As the villagers struggle to hold the walls up, Vera intervenes, holding the wall up with her head. The wall still threatens to collapse, and Jack gets her to stand on her hind legs to brace the wall for good. The villagers help Jack and Vera board a train that will finally take them to L.A.

As he is about to sign the contract to sell Vera to Terry, Jack realizes that she subjects her animals to a grueling workload, and he witnesses one of Terry's trainers abusing another elephant with an electric goad. He steals one of Terry's trucks and drives to San Diego. Tip found Terry's business card in the cab of his truck, and he arrives just as Jack leaves.

At the San Diego airport, Mo is loading her elephants onto a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane. The tarmac security guard will not let Jack and Vera in because they are not on the manifest. Jack pulls the truck into the passenger drop-off in front of the airport and races through the terminal with Vera. At gate security, Tip finally catches up to them, waving Terry's electric goad. Jack convinces the security guards that Tip is more of a threat than Vera, and they deal with Tip while Jack and Vera catch up to Mo on the tarmac.

Mo explains that she has spent her entire budget and has no money for Vera. Jack confesses to Mo that he will miss Vera, but he knows she would be better off with other elephants. The film ends with a series of captions that indicate Jack left his fiancee for Mo, and the couple witnessed the birth of Vera's first calf in Sri Lanka together. Jack's ex-fiancee married his agent and Jack's mother ran their life. Tip Tucker also managed to get away and is still roaming the roads of America. The captions conclude by saying that ''Get Over It'' never made it to a 2nd printing, but Jack's memoir of his cross-country trip with Vera was a runaway besteller.

Commandant Eric Lassard decides the police force is overworked and understaffed, so he comes up with the idea of recruiting civilian volunteers to work side by side with his officers in a program called "Citizens On Patrol" (COP).

Carey Mahoney and his friends Moses Hightower, Larvell Jones, Eugene Tackleberry, Zed, Sweetchuck, Laverne Hooks, and Debbie Callahan are in charge of training the civilians. The civilians include the enormous Tommy "House" Conklin (who Hightower used to babysit), gung-ho senior citizen Lois Feldman, Tackleberry's own father-in-law, and skateboarding delinquents Kyle and Arnie. The latter pair were caught by Capt. Harris, and the judge was about to throw the book at them until Mahoney speaks to the judge to let Arnie and Kyle join the COP program as alternative punishment. The judge agrees, and the boys are joined by their attorney, Butterworth.

Believing "the concept of citizens doing police work is asinine", Harris is determined to see the COP program fail and take over Lassard's job at the academy. When Lassard leaves on an overseas conference, Harris, and his right-hand man Lt. Proctor, are put in charge of the academy and Harris immediately plots to make the COP volunteers quit and leave police work to officers.

The volunteers, however, do well in their training. Mrs. Feldman excels in firing Tackleberry's .44 Magnum, and they bond amicably (she reminds him of his mother). In training in water safety and drowning victim rescue, Zed "rescues" a cadet but 'loses' his Mickey Mouse watch, saying it was the last thing he ever stole before joining the academy. However, he gains a love interest, a reporter/photographer Laura, who has come to view Lassard's COP program and becomes attracted to Zed. Unfortunately, Harris ruins the moment, insulting them both and inspiring Zed to replace Harris' Right Guard deodorant with mace, which burns his armpits. Despite pranks pulled on him during training, Harris is still determined to make the Citizens on Patrol program fail.

Jones learns that volunteers House, Kyle, and Arnie feel ready to go out and arrest criminals, so he, Mahoney, Hightower, and Tackleberry prank the boys, locking them in a prisoner transport van with Hightower, who is posing as a Voodoo practitioner who reanimates his "dead" brother (Tackleberry), as a Jason Voorhees-esque maniac with a chainsaw to make them take training more seriously. Later, after Captain Harris yells at Zed again, calling him a disgrace, Laura comforts him, saying she thinks he is perfect.

After COP volunteers accidentally foil an undercover police sting, the program is suspended, much to Harris' delight. Mahoney believes he did it on purpose to shut down the COP program, paying him back by putting superglue on the mouthpiece of Harris' bullhorn, semi-permanently sticking the mouth guard to its rims. Sometime later, Harris gives some prominent citizens a tour of his precinct when Proctor is tricked into releasing every inmate at the precinct 19 jail, including a team of ninjas, and special guest Randall "Tex" Cobb. After the criminals imprison Harris and his guests, they escape into the street, only to run into Mrs. Feldman, who immediately informs the Lassard academy.

When Lassard's officers hear of the jailbreak, COP volunteers are dispatched with the regular officers to catch the escaped felons. After stopping a robbery and a high-speed air balloon chase, the felons are all recaptured. Meanwhile, House, Kyle, Arnie, and Butterworth save Harris and Proctor from drowning in the river after the latters' attempt (and failure) to participate in the chase, and Zed impresses his girlfriend Laura by saving Sweetchuck's life after they both fall out of a plane in mid-air. Several of the police chiefs who witness Lassard's program in action congratulate and compliment him on the program and his officers, much to Harris' dismay.