[Tree, Carter, Ryan, Samar and Dre gather at the lab. Tree explains the situation to them]
Tree Gelbman:
[to Ryan]
Listen to me carefully. I need to stay here in this dimension. Okay? So just close the loop.
Ryan Phan:
Look, we have no idea how this even happened in the first place.
Tree Gelbman:
Well, you're all brainy science people, right? So you'll figure it out.
Samar Ghosh:
You realize we're messing with things we have no business touching, right?
Tree Gelbman:
[sharply]
Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you built the big dumb thing! Just... just please do me a favor and try to figure this out, okay? Please.
Ryan Phan:
Look, this is gonna be a trial-and-error situation. We have to rule out every variable in order to narrow down the correct algorithm that will close the loop.
Tree Gelbman:
Okay.
Andrea 'Dre' Morgan:
It's days, maybe weeks of work. And if what you're saying is true, there's no way to keep a record of our progress.
Tree Gelbman:
[cluelessly]
I'm not following.
Samar Ghosh:
[shakes his head, approaches the board]
Okay. Um... say we test, like...
[using a marker, Samar circles several equations]
Samar Ghosh:
...dozens of variables. By the end of the day, the loop will reset, right?
[Tree nods]
Samar Ghosh:
So everything we earned gets...
[Samar erases the equations he circled]
Samar Ghosh:
...erased. There's no way for us to track our progress simply because we just don't remember anything we learned.
Andrea 'Dre' Morgan:
And we'll be back to square one.
Tree Gelbman:
[throws up her hands in frustration]
Great.
[Tree sinks into a chair, hopelessy]
Tree Gelbman:
I'm screwed.
[silence falls]
Carter Davis:
Wait, no, I got it.
[Carter stands and approaches the board]
Carter Davis:
Okay, you said everything resets but your memory, right?
Tree Gelbman:
Yeah.
Carter Davis:
All right, well, then... you're just gonna have to be a living record.
Tree Gelbman:
Wait, you mean memorize everything?
Carter Davis:
Yeah.
Samar Ghosh:
That's genius.
Andrea 'Dre' Morgan:
Yeah.
Tree Gelbman:
No. No, no, no, no. That's not genius. I'm not a scientist. And hello? I mean, you do realize there's a killer after me, right? That means I'm gonna have to die over and over again until you guys figure out how to close the loop.
Samar Ghosh:
[hesitantly]
I mean, I guess you could just kill yourself before they find you.
Tree Gelbman:
[sarcastically]
Wow. Another genius idea.
Andrea 'Dre' Morgan:
Um, better than being chased by some crazy guy in a baby mask.
[Tree wears a desperate expression]
Carter Davis:
I mean, do you have a better idea?
Tree Gelbman:
[sighs]
I knew you were gonna say that...
[for the next days, the gang works hard to find the correct algorithm. Tree does her best to memorize the complicated equations. With every try, the screen gives the same message "sequence failure". Every day, Tree watches Danielle and Carter kiss, and she is filled with jealousy. To her delight, she spends time with her parents. She finds creative ways to kill herself - dropping a toaster into a bath, drinking a liquid cleaner, skydiving without a parachute, jumping into a woodchipper, jumping from a clocktower. With every passing day, she grows weaker]
