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Text replacement - "Death of the Hired Man" to "Death Of The Hired Man"
{{Acts}}[[File:Krz-act4-560Act IV poster.jpg|right|x200px]]
'''Act IV''' of {{KRZ}} was released on July 19, 2016. It introduces [[Cate]], [[Will]], and [[Clara]] to the main cast of characters.
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== Synopsis ==
The silhouette of the trumpeting mammoth fades into view, its mechanical body jerking and coming to a halt. Standing on the edge of the tugboat, a man named [[Will]] struggles with the operation manual. [[Junebug]] approaches and the two talk about the [[Echo River]], where he's been traveling for over half his life. Will notes that they picked her and the group up at the [[Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces|Bureau]], and says he hopes that this doesn't mean she had been traveling the {{ZeroLink}}.
[[Shannon]] stands at the helm of the ''[[Mucky Mammoth]]'', looking out at the water. She circles around the side of boat to talk to Will, and asks him for his story – a classically trained organist with a minor in French literature, he used to teach theater at the local university until a budget cut hit and he was demoted, left to do odd jobs around the campus. Eventually, he found his way to the Echo, where he met [[Cate]], the captain, and has been traveling up and down the river ever since, and helps with maintenance, mail, trash, and recording their journey. Shannon goes to talk to Cate, who assures her that they're indeed on their way to  [[File:The Mucky Mammoth.png|thumb|left|''CONWAY: I've got to repay my debt. Hell, I should be grateful for the opportunity — if you want to die with any dignity, you've got to settle up. That's why it's such a damned shame when people go sudden.'']] Shannon goes to talk to Cate, who assures her that they're indeed on their way to [[Dogwood Drive]], the site of [[Conway]]'s delivery, but notes that the river is dicey tonight; in addition, they must make other stops as well – dropping off mail, picking up garbage, and delivering on a few favors – before reaching the [[Silo of Late Reflections|Silo]] mail stop. She introduces Shannon to her dog [[Valkyrie]], whom she calls Val, and tells her to take advantage of the amenities: fresh air, cozy beds, and hot tea – and also mentions that the video room on the boat contains some interesting-but-weird VCR tapes, including one of a woman talking with no sound except for a strange hum. As Cate heads back inside, [[Ezra]] runs up to Shannon and asks for batteries for a tape recorder [[Johnny]] lent him.
Ezra heads inside the cabin where he encounters Junebug and Johnny sitting with another musician named [[Clara]]. They tell him that him she's come from Lithuania to play a concert on the Echo River, after which she'll continue on to play in Nashville and Atlanta, and then the coast. Junebug also mentions another musician, [[Cyrano]], and notes that he's playing tonight at the [[Rum Colony]] where she was supposed to meet with a woman to pick up some old engine parts three hours ago. Johnny sends Ezra out with his tape recorder to collect "found sounds" for Clara to use in her performance. As he exits, Conway walks into the room and grabs a beer from the fridge with his now-skeletal right arm after being sober for 15 months. He heads outside and has a conversation with Shannon about his drinking. He reminisces about [[Lysette]]'s kindness, and says that he has to repay his debt to the [[Hard Times Distillery|distillery]].
[[File:Gas station.png|thumb|left|''AL: GLORYITISGOODTOBEAMONGFRIENDS!'']]
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.
A man named [[Norm]] enters and talks with Junebug, mistaking her for a woman named [[Loretta]] who he was planning to meet for a date. He mentions he may head down to the [[Rum Colony]] later, and asks for her advice on his online dating profile. Junebug browses the available food, drink, and crystals; in deciding to pour some coffee for herself into a styrofoam cup, she accidentally drops the pot. Meanwhile, Johnny talks to a man named [[Al]], who tells the story of how, looking for an ice floe, he became lost on the Echo without a lantern and almost starved to death. Preparing to eat his last apple, he noticed it was rotten, infested with a maggot which hatched just as he was about to take a bite. Thinking about the futility of the insect's life, he paused and, in that moment, its lower abdomen lit up. Using the lightning bug's glow, he found his way out of the complex river cave.
=== The Mucky Mammoth ===
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.
[[File:Echo River 2.png|thumb|right|''WILL: It's not usually on the ''lake'', though ... that was strange.'']]
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.
=== Sailing down the Echo ===
=== The Rum Colony ===
[[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.
On the other side of the beach, she encounters Bureau clerks [[Luis]], [[Ed Böhm|Böhm]], and [[Rebecca Metzstein|Metzstein]], while [[Rick]] is passed out in the sand. They tell her they're celebrating a milestone, although none of them know the details. The celebration was intended to be held at the Bureau, but the shipment from [[Hard Times Distillery|Hard Times]] never arrived, as the driver was in an [[Act I|accident]] en route.
[[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.
After Cyrano's song, Johnny and Junebug agree that they're ready to set off, and Shannon goes to get Conway. As she approaches, three glowing skeletal figures sit around his table, visible only in her flashlight beam. She asks who he's talking to and, startled by her presence, he says it's nothing to worry about and the two return to the boat.
=== The Mucky Mammoth ===
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:
:'''''WEAVER:''' ... mail, school, and these magnificent, tragic horses. Go underground, as deep as you can go. The air is cool and the earth is damp, and when you close your eyes you are surrounded by the dead. Remember where that is? You'll find your way from there. I think this place is what you're looking for. Some of it will wash away soon, but I think you'll be happy here, even without the mail, school ...''
The text repeats on loop and Shannon stops the tape.
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.
=== Sailing down the Echo ===
=== A phone ===
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.
Will walks up to the phone to listen to his messages. The screen splits to show a bear scavenging at the [[Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces|Bureau]], and human voices read out audio recordings. The messages feature [[Here And There Along The Echo|players']] personal anecdotes, stories, and feelings:
</table>
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.'']]
Clara calls her older sister [[Nadia]] in Lithuania who is on the balcony of her apartment complex. Nadia tells her that their [[Andrius|Uncle Andrius]] has recently been moved to hospice care and is not accepting visitors. She suggests he would see Clara if she came home to visit, but Clara says it would be impossible to make it back in time anyway.
[[File:Phone 2.png|thumb|right|''NADIA: Maybe you know him better than I do, but ... I just don't believe anyone would really want to die alone.'']]
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 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.
[[File:Dogs lounging.png|thumb|right|''If a few stray stones ended up at the bottom of Lake Lethe, too, we'll never know.'']]
=== The Radvansky Center ===
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."
[[File:Radvansky Center.png|thumb|left|''MIMI: Weaver's video showed up again right before the flood. Actually, I think it might have been the last thing we ever broadcast.'']]
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]].
On the following video, Shannon stands in a room with multiple TVs where she watches a number of videos about doors and answers questions about them. Mimi and Jenn discuss what happened with Weaver – a few months after her departure, bizarre events started happening around the station that persisted for years, such as interference during regular broadcasts via a jamming signal that blacked out the feed. After a few moments, a video of Weaver staring at the camera would come on, accompanied by a sinister-sounding hum and captions in an unconventional font. [[File:Radvansky Center 2.png|thumb|right|''MIMI: I just get this awful feeling whenever I see them. Like I knew them once, but not anymore ... like when they make up a dead person to look like an old photograph of themselves. <br />JENN: Sort of familiar, sort of strange.'']]
=== The Mucky Mammoth ===
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.
=== Sailing down the Echo ===
The two reconvene, identify found mushrooms, and discuss family. Cate tells Ezra left home when she was young and almost had a baby, and now helps other women with difficult pregnancies. After her mother passed, she bounced around jobs and shelters before ending up on the Echo, and now considers family to be those who come aboard her ship. Ezra tells Cate about his missing parents – his dad who used to sell windows and mom who worked at a bakery and bar – and about Julian, his brother. He discusses with Cate a large stone monument he discovered, along with graffitied rocks and cypress trees.
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.
{{anchor|Sailing down the Echo 7|The ''Mammoth'' sails on…}}
=== The Mucky Mammoth ===
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''.
=== Sailing down the Echo ===
=== Echo River Central Exchange ===
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.
[[File:Memorial.png|thumb|left|''SHANNON: I don't think you ever forget anger like that. <br />CONWAY: I guess that's what a memorial should do, huh? Help you hang on to your feelings. Otherwise, they fade away; that's just what time does.'']]
[[File:Bat sanctuary.png|thumb|right|''CONWAY: I just mean: all people need is enough to ''pretend'' we're home, and we can make it anywhere.'']]
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.
In the sanctuary, which also functions as an artificial hibernaculum, Shannon and Conway encounter a number of facts about bats, echolocation, diet and agriculture, and information about the history of [[wikipedia:White-nose syndrome|white-nose syndrome]]. In the darkness, they talk about Conway's family, Lysette's illness, and the friend that Shannon was speaking with on the phone when they first met.
[[File:Echo River Central Exchange.png|thumb|left|''FLORA: I'm a romantic. <br />SHANNON: Really? What does that mean to you? <br />FLORA: It means I like poems and rivers and mysteries.'']]
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 meets with Poppy, the Exchange's switchboard operator, who thanks Shannon for the package. She clarifies that Dashiell is still allowed to work as a hobby, but doesn't technically work for the Exchange anymore; when the power company took over, they attempted to automate the work after buying up the phone lines and firing the majority of the staff, leaving only [[Loretta]], [[Angie]], and her. After a few months, she was its sole remaining employee.
=== Sam & Ida's ===
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.
[[File:Sam & Ida's.png|thumb|left|''IDA: Yes, it's all about ''patience'' down here. Everything grows more slowly in the dark.'']]
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.
Down below, Sam returns from a diving expedition with a small eel. He muses about having listened to the divers boast and attempt to one-up each other in telling grand fishing stories, and having made a mental map of routes which have now helped him catch fish for the restaurant for 15 years. He says, however, he is afraid he could die any day following a false story told by the divers for the sake of winning their competition. A he walks up the stairs, Ira brings out the food, and the group prepares to leave.
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?'']]
=== Sailing down the Echo ===
[[File:Clara performance.png|thumb|right|''JUNEBUG: When I met you — when we met, we were nothing, just these little gray shadows. And we grew, and filled in, and ... but we did all that together.'']]
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.
[[File:Silo.png|thumb|left|''JUNEBUG: Tired? Don't worry, lady. We're almost there.'']]

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