Changes

Cate, Junebug, Johnny, and Ezra debark at the floating gas station, which changes its position along the Echo nightly. Cate talks with Junebug about the roaming heavy storm upstairs outside, and possible flooding and other damages, but says she looks forward to the mushrooms that it'll bring, and she can search for them with Val. The gas station attendant tells Junebug he has crystals for sales, and recounts how he used to reside in Cleveland, Ohio, living off inheritance in hotels, until he ran out of money and took up his current job.

On board, Ezra makes observations from the captain's chair and Cate talks to him about the floating gas station, what the dials and gauges on the dashboard mean, and her home-brewed "[[wikipedia:kykeonKykeon|kykeon]] [[wikipedia:kombuchaKombucha|kombucha]]." She tells him that she relies heavily on landmarks and lights, as compasses don't work well on the Echo. She tells him about the landmarks they've passed so far – Duck Island, the Lighthouse, and the Story Cliff. Noticing they should have passed Dinosaur Rock by now, but haven't, she sends Ezra to the map room to help Will update the charts.

On his way there, Ezra records more sounds. He encounters Conway, who tells him that he doesn't use maps, and instead remembers roads using landmarks or asks for directions. After walking past Shannon, who is trying out Clara's [[wikipedia:thereminTheremin|theremin]], Ezra finds Will who asks him for information to update the charts, since locations on the river often end up shifting in position. As a thank you, he offers a selection of old maps charting underwater islands.

[[File:The Rum Colony.png|thumb|left|''When she was a child, she collected feathers — not the way a hobbyist collects trinkets, but the way a clump of dust collects more dust by static electricity.'']] Shannon, Junebug, Johnny, Will, and Conway get off at the Rum Colony, a drowsy beachside bar illuminated by torchlight. The reverberations of Cyrano's lap steel guitar drift through the nighttime air. Shannon wanders the beach with her flashlight. She talks with Will, who is relaxing on a couch, and with Conway, who is drinking flower-flavored alcohol at a table by himself. Conway tells her how he feels buried by memories of his past, and says he doesn't belong in the "here and now." Shannon continues to explore and finds various shining relics on the beach, including a damaged VHS tape, a faded photograph, a matchbook, a feather, a styrofoam cup with coffee in it, a bottle with a sleeping crab inside, and a box of sand.

[[File:The Rum Colony 2.png|thumb|right|''Will never has any money. Good for him.'']] At the bar counter and surrounding tables, Shannon meets [[Sonny and Dawn|Sonny]], who woefully mourns the world's environmental problems such as melting polar ice caps and toxic runoff, and his wife [[Sonny and Dawn|Dawn]], who apologizes for his pessimistic attitude. Nearby, the bartender, [[Patch]] talks to Junebug and Johnny. He tells Junebug that she just missed a lady with an engine for sale who she was planning to meet, and offers them drinks from dozens of options, but they decline. At the stage, Johnny talks with Cyrano, who expresses that he's hoping for tips on his performance but can't appear to the audience as if he cares if he receives them. As Cyrano plays a [[My Light Heaven|song]], Johnny sets out to collect tips from the bargoers, but is only able to find who give various amounts; he also finds a $20 bill lying in the sand.

While some of the crew goes to drink, Shannon stays aboard and watches old tapes on the TV in the video room. The videos focus on a variety of subjects, from documentaries about birds to weather programs to a taping of a funeral. One video features a young Will taking calls about supernatural stories, just to listen, with a banner hung in the background reading "I BELIEVE YOU."  [[File:Mammoth video room.png|thumb|left|''That awful hum ... it seems to start before Shannon even hits "play."'']]Shannon inserts a tape labeled "???" and begins to hear a humming sound. [[Weaver]] stands in a dingy room with blank, gray walls and video equipment in the corner, looking directly at the camera. [[File:Mammoth video room.png|thumb|left|''That awful hum ... it seems to start before Shannon even hits "play."'']] She begins to speak. Only the hum continues, but Shannon recalls her words as they appear in captions on the screen:

Shannon walks upstairs to the main deck and finds Will and Shannon Cate trying to remember the sound of the "mammoth's song," a tune that used to play from a music box hidden in the animatronic mammoth. She asks about the tapes, to which Cate explains the VCR automatically records over anything left in it, but the only signal they get the public-access community television TV station [[WEVP-TV|WEVP]]. Believing they'd have a lot in common, Cate suggests to Shannon that she meet [[Dashiell Morse|Dashiell]], who used to do volunteer work for the station before being let go. She mentions that she recently dropped him off at the [[Echo River Central Exchange|telephone exchange]], and that they'll be stopping there again later to deliver mail and pick up trash.

The group waits in line at a floating phone booth, bobbing and swaying in the water. Ezra says he plans to make a call, either to [[Julian]] or to no one in particular. [[Conway]] drops jumps into the water and swims back to the boat to look for more alcohol.

Cate walks up to the phone and calls a woman named [[Summer]], one of her clients. She and says she's doing well except she can't get comfortable enough to sleep, so she's up watching TV, to which Cate suggests a natural remedy. Cate tells the others that she is a birth [[wikipedia:Doula|doula]], and that many of her clients seem to appreciate someone with experience who doesn't treat pregnancy like an "illness to be cured" as is often true with nurses. [[File:Phone.png|thumb|left|''SHANNON: ''(To WILL.)'' So, any important messages? <br />WILL: Every single one.'']]

The phone rings and Shannon answers. [[James B. Carrington|Carrington]], if encountered in [[Act I]], is [[Wrongle|seen at a payphone]], carrying his signature pair of antlers, as a neon sign reading "Hard Times" illuminates the brick wall behind him. He says that he was trying to call a friend who is a lighting designer in Chicago, but believes the storm is affecting the phone lines. He asks Shannon for her help with his upcoming [[Death of the Hired Man|play]], which will be held at dawn in the location provided in [[Act II]]. Besides the fact the cast and stage crew are all delayed by the bad weather, he needs help on deciding how to show the image of the moon in the performance, as light is a central theme in [[wikipedia:Robert Frost|Frost]]'s original poem on which the play is based. Shannon suggests a solution – either a photo of the moon, an actor in costume, or telling the audience to close their eyes and imagine it. He thanks her and says he hopes they will be able to make it to the premiere.

Security camera footage begins playing. Two employees, [[Mimi]] and [[Jenn]], watch and discuss the undated video tapes of the group's visit to the center, mentioning they were discovered by their coworker [[Darryl]] along with old questionnaires that were never processed. The two read the group's completed questionnaires and reference them against the security footage they're viewing. In the first tape, Shannon wanders around a room to inspect a poster and bookcase before sitting down to answer written questions on the purpose of her visit, her first memory, descriptions of the items in the room she just looked at, etc. Upon seeing the name "Márquez" on Shannon's file, Mimi is taken aback, and recollects her time with WEVP-TV, a the community television station and cooperative forcibly-funded by the [[Consolidated Power Company]] which used to screen her video art she created before it was being demolished in a flood. She says that she hasn't heard of Shannon Márquez, but did know a ''Weaver'' Márquez, who worked at the station before leaving on "weird terms." As they switch to an extended monitoring tape showing the group's arrival at the dock, Jenn remarks that Conway looks like "one of those creepy distillery guys."

The next video tape shows a cat, [[Coconut]], who Jenn mentions disappeared from the center one day without a trace. Shannon walks over, underneath an archway, to feed Coconut. The video tape cuts to yet another room where Shannon listens to a tape of doors opening and closing, with a questionnaire asking her to recall her thoughts before and after listening to the recording. Mimi and Jenn switch to viewing an extended monitoring tape showing Will sitting in a waiting room; Mimi comments that he looks familiar, likely having worked at the university when she was an undergraduate student. Mimi recounts her time in college and her distressing final year in which her boyfriend, [[Charlie]], died suddenly by falling off a roof while back home visiting his [[:Category:Lysette's family|family]].

Cate, Junebug, Clara, and Ezra sit playing a card game about memory while listening to music on a cassette tape over the ''Mammoth'''s P.A. system. [[Conway's dog]], Val, and a [[black cat]] lounge about and relax.

As they talk, a large, old battleship filled with mewing cats floats by, which Cate calls the ''[[Iron Pariah|The Iron Pariah]]''. The two watch it for a bit, although are too far away to hear or see it distinctly, and return to the boat.

Cate tells Ezra she's going ashore to hunt for mushrooms, and asks him to wake Will so he can man the tugboat. On his way to the lower deck, Ezra records various sound samples. Next to Will's bunk, Ezra records a cassette tape playing a recorded university lecture titled "History of the Philosophy of Death," in which the lecturer discusses personalities lingering after death and quotes [[wikipedia:Thomas Edison|Thomas Edison]]. At one point, the lecturer takes a question from a student in the audience named [[James B. Carrington|James]]. Will wakes up and tells Ezra of his dream about being a cat aboard the roaming the ''Iron Pariah''.

Cate thanks Shannon and Conway for making a delivery to the [[Echo River Central Exchange]] — or, as the power company has called it since they took over, "Consolidated Auxiliary Switch Number 30." She says they'll want to talk to [[Poppy]] about the parcel, reminds Shannon to meet Dashiell, and says that they'll rendezvous on the other side at Sam & Ida's for an early breakfast stop.

As they drift away, two skeletal figures pass by in a small boat and wave at Conway, who waves back with his skeletal arm. Shannon looks at him oddly. He ; he tells her his leg and arm don't hurt anymore, and instead feels as if nothing's there. He says the distillery workers can help him take care of his medical bills for his leg, and help him get everything together on a plan, and consolidate it. Worried, Shannon tries to talk him out of it, but he says he has a feeling everything will work out. He suggests that Shannon take his truck, as the antique shop is closing and the distillery has its own trucks.

The two, dog in tow, pull into the entrance to the Echo River Central Exchange. Shannon sees Flora who has come to retrieve her paper boat. She reveals she drew a picture of Ezra inside it, and that it's traveled 250,000 miles. On the other side of the river, Shannon talks with Dashiell who is repairing old phones at a reception desk. He tells her about its the Exchange's history as a train station, reclaimed by the Bureau for the phone company after a flood. He mentions he works on wiring for WEVP in the "Crystal Room, " an underground area of resonant, amplifying rock formations where the cable signal is located. He says he used to work with Weaver, who handled archives, but doesn't know where she ended up and that she isn't too popular around the station anymore. For more information, he directs her to the Silo mail stop, where other volunteers are located.

Shannon , now having lost Conway, reconvenes with the ''Mammoth'' crew at Sam & Ida's, a floating, stilted restaurant on [[Lake Lethe]]. Cate, Will, and Junebug sit at a table deciding on their to-go order for Clara, who is back on the ship practicing for her concert. Shannon talks with Johnny and Ezra off to the side, who are playing a crane game, and tells them that Conway either left or was taken. She returns to the table to order food while Ezra plays for either a stuffed octopus, a bag of clam shells, a cowboy hat, or a pair of headphones.

Johnny and Ezra look at the restaurant's plastic food display and discuss Ezra's parents, and how he misses them. Shannon talks with Cate and Junebug about how Conway left his truck to her, and vows to complete his delivery. [[Ida]] appears and Shannon orders her Clara a seafood dish – "something primordial." Ida tells Ezra the story of the [[wikipedia:shellacShellac|shellac]]-covered dinner preserved on the table, how she and her husband [[Sam]] were inspired by two divers with bottomless appetites who ate there, which became a turning point in their career.

Shannon walks back to the boat as [[Emily, Ben, and Bob]] float by, playing "[[This World Is Not My Home]]." [[File:This World Is Not My Home.png|thumb|right|''SAM: Just passing through. Hey, aren't we all?'']]

The tugboat arrives at a small houseboat neighborhood. From the deck of the ship, Clara plays a [[Music for Rivers|solo theremin piece]]. ; Ezra can choose to watch from shore or assist her by playing the sounds he recorded as part of the performance. Junebug and Johnny reminisce about a previous performance of Clara's at a flower shop where Cyrano opened for her. The two discuss Ezra, who seems directionless and lost, and Johnny brings up the possibility of having him join them. Junebug worries what this development could do to their relationship that they built together, from simple robots to unique individuals, but soon reconsiders, saying they would both appreciate his company, and considers teaching him to play the drum machine with them. As the memory of Clara's flower shop concert come to an end, so does her performance on the Echo, and the crew members return to the boat.