AFBH 19
. Episode 19.
More on Lord Foul’s Equation, a reverie from Covenant, and a wide-ranging expert.
http://fantasybedtimehour.com/episodes/EP19.php
###Pages
They don’t really cover pages in this episode, although the website says pages 271-281, the action sequence says 271-281, and Julie says 238-254 “again”. The action sequence references page 260.
###Expert
Jason Scott
###Intro/Beginning
This episode begins with karaoke, Julie singing Justin Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body” to Heatherly. Julie is wearing a long white glove on her right hand. After “I’m going to have you naked by the end of this song”, Julie pulls down the sheet, exposing Heatherly’s right breast (02:35), which is covered only by a yellow pastie. Julie is embarrassed, while Heatherly claims it was “a Fantasy Bedtime Hour sheet malfunction” (02:46). This is all a reference to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.
After a fadeout, Julie suggests doing it again, and after Heatherly suggests doing it a little differently says “no, exactly the same!” and the same karaoke track begins (02:59). This time, though, Julie sings the intro to the episode. She claims they’ll be reading pages 238-254 again (03:28), but this seems to have been a lyrics malfunction.
###Analysis of Pages
Heatherly suggests doing something different, saying that she feels that “Lord Foul’s Equation is so vital to the story that I did some studying on it, and Julie, I really think I get something in it” (03:59). She goes to p245 and summarizes part of Covenant’s message. After she gets to “six times seven years earlier than it would be else”, Julie says “okay, you’ve totally lost me” (04:58), and Heatherly says that she’s going to break it down.
Heatherly presents a large sheet of paper with “Lord Foul’s equation to eradicate hope” written on the top (05:15). Using a beer bottle as a pointer, she goes through the lines on the sheet. The lines are:
> Without Staff = victory in 7 years.
>
> With Staff = Victory in (6 x 7) + 7 years
>
> 6 x 7 = 43
> 43 + 7 = 50
>
> = 50 years.
Apart from six times seven actually being 42, Heatherly is correct here, having figured out that what Foul means is that with the Staff the Lords can resist him for as long as 49 years—as he states in the first line of his message (p36, p245).
Heatherly follows this up by saying that if they do not bring the Staff before the Council, every human in the land will be dead before ten seasons have passed (06:15). She then holds up the other side of the sheet of paper (06:24), which has the following written on it:
> Every human dead before 10 seasons have passed = All Dead in 2 1/2 years given that there are 4 seasons per year
(Foul actually said that every human in the Land would be dead before ten seasons have passed if Covenant did not bring the message to the Council. The two-and-a-half years figure fits well with Foul’s claim that if the message is not delivered, Drool will rule at Lord’s Keep within two years (p36, p246) .)
###Key Misunderstandings
6 times 7 is 42. The Lords, according to Foul, will be able to resist him for as long as 49 years if they get the Staff of Law from Drool.
All the humans in the Land would die in two-and-a-half years, according to Foul, if Covenant did not bring his message to the Council of the Lords.
###Action Sequence
The Fantasy Action Sequence begins at 06:43.
It opens with the following scrolling text, and Covenant saying them in voiceover:
> Pg. 260
>
> “Why don’t you ask me about where I come from.
>
> I’ve got to tell you. The world I come from,
> doesn’t allow
> anyone to live
> except on it’s [sic]
> own terms.
>
>
> Those terms…
> Those terms
> contradict yours…
>
> That your world
>
>
>
> is a
>
>
> DREAM!!!”
We then (07:14) see Covenant sitting down in the same room, and chair, that he was in for the Council of the Lords. He says “Oh, I remember it like it was yesterday…” and a flashback scene begins (07:18).
We see hands, female and male, exchanging wedding rings, as we hear Covenant talking about his marriage with Joan. Cutting back to Covenant speaking, he says “and then I remember, I fell into this precipice”, and we see him falling (from the action sequence in Episode 2 (07:35). Covenant says it came from nowhere, and fell, and then that he saw Drool (who we see in a shot from Episode 3), who Covenant describes as “incredibly fit for a cave boy” (07:54).
Describing Lord Foul, Covenant says he was a “strange man, huge, but not, and scary, but sweet, like a lamb dressed up like a dragon eating churros” (08:06). He says that Foul “prattled for hours” as we see shots of Foul from Episode 3.
Covenant says he fell through the sky, woken by a hot teenage girl. We see shots of Lena from Episode 6. Covenant says “then afterwards, I raped her, and I met her mother” (08:38). We see Covenant and “Atrium” walking, from Episode 8.
Covenant says he remembers something about gay men strapping him to a tree and torturing him with things in “sort of a pleasurable, discotheque, 1970s high-on-cocaine sort of way” (08:51), over shots from Episode 9.
Covenant describes the Dance of the Wraiths, and the attack of the ur-viles, over clips from Episode 12.
Covenant then says, over clips from Episode 13, “then, for reasons I cannot explain or know to this point, Atrium, full of rage, foaming at the mouth, perhaps it was something to do with raping her daughter I don’t know, but she pawned me off on this horrible giant, who in turn took us to Revelstone”—at this point we see the “City Hall” shot of the outside of Revelstone from Episode 16 (09:26)—”so that I could speak to the, um, Council of the Lords”—a shot from Episode 18, of the Council leaning back after Covenant relays Foul’s message (09:32)—”where I gave them an eloquent speech that was received with much dismay and spite” (09:35).
He then says that he knows that none of it is real, and then goes on to point at a variety of unseen others (presumably the Council of the Lords), telling them each that they’re not real, or not here, or a dream.
The Fantasy Action Sequence ends at 09:52.
###Expert
The next expert is said by the girls to be a “real” expert, and they say that he even challenged their Resident Expert, Tadhg O’Higgins (10:10).
The expert is Jason, who appears on screen at 10:16. He is wearing the expert jacket. He brings a gift, which is a bag of something that he claims is graveling (10:36). It appears to be candy, and he says he bought it at “Wonderful Foods”. He has read Lord Foul’s Bane six times (10:55), which he finds embarrassing. He then clarifies that there are six books and that he read all of them six times. Heatherly gets excited at this point and says “thirty-six!” (11:03), at which point she and Julie get confused about how many times he’s actually read Lord Foul’s Bane. They do not ask how many times he understood the book.
Heatherly goes over her chart (11:30). When Julie asks if Heatherly’s chart and hypothesis are correct, Jason says “no” (12:30) and opens Lord Foul’s Bane at page 36, impressing them because he knew exactly where Foul’s message begins—and because they think that 36 is also the number of times he’s read the book. He points out that 7 x 7 is 49. Heatherly then quotes from p245-246, and goes over the 7 and 6 x 7 again. Jason asks her how much 6 times 7 is (14:00), and she says “43″, pointing to her sheet of paper. Jason then reads from p245, quoting the 7 times 7 piece again, saying it’s 49. Heatherly insists that she’s not wrong, and Jason goes over it again, prompting Julie to ask if the people of the Land know what this means. Jason says they probably don’t know how to add (14:48) and then rules out the possibility of their having calculators. Heatherly, still trying to figure out what’s wrong with her equation, says “6 x 7 is 43″, to which Jason says “yes, that’s correct” (15:17), and Julie says “7 times 7 is 49″, and Jason says “now I’m confused” (15:20). Heatherly, staring at the camera, says “it’s 42″ (15:23), but is “corrected” by Jason, who says it’s 43 (15:27). Staring above the camera again, Heatherly says “6 times 7 is 42″ (15:35), and is again “corrected” by Jason. A moment later jason realizes that it is 42, as Cameraman Jenn has apparently been trying to point out to them for quite some time. They finally agree on 49, and go on to the other side of Heatherly’s sheet. She asks what the point of the seven years is, because if they’re all dead in two-and-a-half, then how will they appreciate that there’s no hope in seven (16:27)? Julie says “if they don’t get the Staff, all humans die in two-and-a-half years”, to which Jason says “that’s right” (16:31). Jason looks through the book to try to find the answer. He doesn’t come up with the fact that the “ten seasons” deadline is in the case of Covenant not getting the message to the Council, rather than having anything to do with the recovery of the Staff of Law. He instead focuses on Lord Mhoram, and as an aside says that “Lord Mormon” is an acceptable pronunciation “in an odd way” (17:05). He says that “Lord Mormon” has foreseen that they will die in two years and won’t even last to seven years. He seems to be referring to Mhoram quoting Foul, “Drool Rockworm has the Staff, and that is a cause for terror. He will be enthroned at Lord’s Keep in two years if the message fails”, p268. Julie asks who’s right, “Lord Mormon or Lord Foul”, and Jason says Foul.
Julie’s next question is a significant one: “Drool Rockworm has the Staff, so why is Lord Foul making all these threats?” (17:38). Jason says that Drool thinks he has more power than he has, and that he’s drunk with power. Julie asks if Drool is friends with Foul. Jason says that Foul allowed Drool to find the Staff of Law, and now he’s getting the Cavewights to dig for the bane—Lord Foul’s Bane, the Illearth Stone (18:09).
Julie asks “is this stone the one that binds them all?” (18:25), and Jason says “no, I don’t even want to get into that”, and is about to say something about the previous expert but is cut off by Julie asking “what if the Council finds the Illearth Stone?” and then following that up by asking if the Council would then give Foul seven years before they eradicated him from the Earth. Julie then comments that if she had the power, she would make people suffer with equations before killing them all, but they would have to figure out the equations first. Jason says “with your minions, like the Cavewights”, and Julie says that Heatherly and Jenn are her minions (19:02).
Heatherly wants to know why Foul, if he’s so powerful, doesn’t just take the Staff from Drool (19:13). Jason then says he doesn’t think that Lord Foul has a corporeal body. They go back and forth on this, including Jason becoming disturbed that they think that Drool’s body is hot.
Recapping, Julie says “they’re screwed either way” (20:33), to which Jason says “yes”. She says “they’re screwed either at seven years or fifty years”—which Jason doesn’t correct—”and they’re only screwed because all hope will be eradicated from the earth, but humans, if they don’t get the Staff, will die in two-and-a-half years, but either way, everybody who survives will always lose because they just don’t have any hope left?” (20:51). Jason points out that there is uncertainty due to the white gold that Covenant has, which is paradoxical in nature, but Julie is convinced that either way they die, unless they get the Illearth Stone “which binds them all” (21:48) (Jason says “no binding” in response to this).
Heatherly says that she thinks that Lord Foul is “totally frontin’” (21:59) and trying to get them to panic with this equation, and that he’s not that powerful. Jason agrees with this.
Heatherly then asks about the Bloodguard, wanting to know if the Haruchai who have to replace fallen Bloodguard are excited about it or are unhappy. Jason says they’re probably unhappy (23:04). He adds a note about the Haruchai, claiming that they were inspired by the Ghurkas.
He asks what the ur-viles, black Demondim coming from the Earth, remind the girls of (23:39). Julie asks if they were inspired by Darth Maul, to which Jason says no, and says, black stuff coming from the earth that creates a lot of evil, to which Heatherly shouts “oil!” (23:47), and Jason says “exactly”.
They tell him that he’s on par with me, and he says “Oh yeah, that guy, that actually got the Ranyhyn mixed up with the Ramen? That’s pretty hard to do” (24:09). Then he points out that the name of the Ranyhyn is clearly an onomatopoeic reference to horses neighing, and also points out that “Ra-men” is pretty clearly referring to “men”.
He says that he does however appreciate the acting work in the portrayal of Thomas Covenant in the action sequences, likening it to “Mickey Rourke on acid” (24:39).
They start chart-writing at 24:55, on the topic of “What do you think the Land looks like when all the hope is eradicated?” (24:54).
Chart-writing ends at 25:27.
Julie’s chart (25:41) shows that after hope is eradicated from the Land, they’re going to open a Wal-Mart super center, and that they’ll turn the Land into a giant parking lot.
Heatherly’s chart (26:05) shows people “sitting around a lot and watching TV”.
Jason’s chart (26:14) shows the Land as a serious and barren place, with lots of exclamation marks across the sky, the eyebrows, eyes and mouth of Lord Foul, dead Stowndownors, dead Ranyhyn, and a bloody moon.
The “post-coital” segment begins at 26:58.
Heatherly says her favorite part was having a deeper understanding of Lord Foul’s Equation (27:19).
Julie says that her favorite part was when they got seven times six wrong (27:29).
Jason says he can’t remember what his favorite part is (27:39), and his closing remarks are “don’t try and read this book and add” (27:48).
###Words Defined
None.
###Firsts
First time in a non-compilation episode that they don’t really cover new pages.