Surveillance

1. INT. SURVEILLANCE VAN · NIGHT

Cramped. A wall of little monitors showing CHONKSY's apartment from every angle. THE WATCHER, the tired walrus in a rumpled suit, wears headphones. Cold coffee. Snack wrappers. His log.

THE WATCHER (V.O., log): Day one. Subject ate cereal for dinner. (beat) Day two. Subject ate cereal for dinner. (beat) Day three. Concerning. (beat, writing smaller) Relatable.

On a monitor, CHONKSY stares at a wall.

THE WATCHER (V.O.): Subject stared at the wall for forty minutes. (beat) So did I. (beat) It was a good wall.

2. INT. CHONKSY'S APARTMENT

CHONKSY in a robe on the couch doing a crossword. A camera on a bent arm hangs inches from his face. He does not look at it. He reads every clue aloud, slowly.

CHONKSY: Four letters. "Body of water." (beat) …Ocean. (beat) That's five.

In the van, THE WATCHER scribbles.

CHONKSY: Seven letters. "To make something new." (long beat) …C. R. E. A. T. E. S.

THE WATCHER writes "CREATES" in huge letters and underlines it three times.

THE WATCHER: (into radio) He said creates.

SUPERVISOR (V.O., radio): It's a crossword, Gary.

THE WATCHER: (beat) …My name's not Gary.

SUPERVISOR (V.O.): I know.

3. INT. CHUMPY'S APARTMENT · NIGHT

CHUMPY on the edge of his bed. His phone rings: MOM. Every time this season, he's silenced it. This time he looks at it for a long time. He answers.

CHUMPY: Hi, Mom.

Long pause. We don't hear her.

CHUMPY: …Yeah. I'm okay. (beat) I'm eating.

He listens. His face changes, just a little, at something she says. We don't hear what.

CHUMPY: (very quietly) …How do you know that?

4. INT. CRAFT SERVICES · LIVESTREAM

SEABEAR livestreams, furious and grieving at the same time, stirring a pot violently. Hearts flood the screen.

SEABEAR: My friends are sad. My friend's apartment is on fire. Not on fire. Was on fire. (stirring harder) Like and subscribe.

The view count explodes. He looks at it with pure hatred.

SEABEAR: (to the camera) Why do you like this?

The views go up again.

5. INT. THE ORCA'S OFFICE · DAY

THE ORCA sits by the little pool feeding the one remaining duck. He doesn't look up. CHONKSY in the doorway.

THE ORCA: You should've copied, sweetheart.

CHONKSY: I know.

Long pause. The duck eats. Then, very quietly, not looking:

THE ORCA: …Was it good?

CHONKSY: Yeah.

THE ORCA: (beat) …Good.

CHONKSY leaves. THE ORCA calls after him:

THE ORCA: Leave it open.

CHONKSY leaves the door open.

6. EXT. SPACESHARKS PREMIERE · RED CARPET · NIGHT

Giant inflatable space sharks. Searchlight jellyfish. Flashbulbs. Screaming fans. CHONKSY in a tuxedo, smiling the smile with dead eyes. In the crowd, three dolphin agents in sunglasses watch only him.

FAN 1: (screaming) SAY THE LINE!

CHONKSY says the copied line, perfectly, on cue. The fans scream it back. He says it again. They scream it back. It sounds like a prayer nobody believes in.

21. THE CITY WATCHING: PREMIERE NIGHT

SPACESHARKS is on every screen in the city. A diner. A living room. A LAUNDROMAT: an entire row of sea creatures on the bench, mouths moving in unison, every washing machine stopped mid-cycle, one sock floating.

LAUNDROMAT ATTENDANT: (not looking away from the TV) Machine four's done.

Nobody moves.

7. INT. PREMIERE THEATER · NIGHT

The audience mouths every line. CHONKSY and CHUMPY stand in the back.

CHUMPY: They know all the words.

CHONKSY: They always did.

CHUMPY: (beat) Do you know the words?

CHONKSY: (beat) I know different ones.

9. EXT. BORDER FENCE · DAWN

PLATRICK alone at the fence. Caught in the barbed coral: a scrap of kelp paper with a new ink heart. INK came back. She couldn't cross. She left this.

He holds it. He draws one back in ketchup. It dissolves. He draws another. It dissolves. He draws another.

PLATRICK: (quietly) Cool.

He keeps drawing.

10. EXT. THE SHALLOWS · DAY

SEAPHOLK leans on the bar.

SEAPHOLK: One mango, Miss Seacow.

OLD SEACOW sets the smoothie down.

It's the loudest sound of the season: a thunderclap, a ripple across the water, every patron frozen. A gull, somewhere, falls silent.

OLD SEACOW: Get out of my bar.

SEAPHOLK opens his mouth. Closes it. Leaves.

OLD SEACOW picks the smoothie back up and sips. The straw works again.

11. INT. CHONKSY'S APARTMENT · 3 AM

He can't sleep. No pages. No napkins. No book. He sits up and looks at the cameras, one by one.

Then he realizes the one thing they can't burn. His lips move silently. Line one. Line two. He knows them all.

An actor memorizes.

13. INT. SURVEILLANCE VAN

THE WATCHER has both headphones pressed to his ears. His pen is down. A tear runs into his mustache. He slowly reaches into his own jacket pocket and takes out a small personal recorder, not government issue.

He presses RECORD.

Is it for the state, or for himself? We don't know. Neither does he.

14. INT. HALLWAY · 3 AM

The last line. CHONKSY stops. Silence in the hallway. Then, softly, sincerely, the only time he's meant it all season:

CHONKSY: …That's crazy.

Cut to black.

22. THE LAST STORE WINDOW · DAWN

An electronics store window on a quiet street. Every TV plays SPACESHARKS, except one small old TV in the bottom corner showing grainy black-and-white footage of a lone chonk performing in a hallway at 3 AM.

A small round fish on its way to work stops on the sidewalk. It watches the small TV. It doesn't know what it's watching. It can't look away.

Cut to black.

15. EXT. DEEP SPACE

A fleet of enormous, real intergalactic sharks in iridescent space armor glides past a nebula. Their eyes turn toward a small blue ocean planet. The lead shark looks a lot like the Sharl, only giant and regal.

LEAD SHARK: [PAUSE FOR LAUGH]. (beat) …They made something.

The fleet turns toward the planet.

TITLE CARD: SEACHONKS WILL RETURN.

END OF SEASON

PUNCH-UP INSERTS · EP 10

• Sc 1: The Watcher's log continues: "Subject masturbated to a cooking show. (beat) No, wait. That was me. Strike that."
• Sc 2: Crossword bit, one more clue: "Eight letters. 'To steal.'" Chonksy, to the camera: "…'Remake.'" The Watcher writes it down. "That's six." "It's still true."
• Sc 4: Seabear's livestream: "My friends are sad. My enemies are happy. (to camera) Sea SI, I know you're watching. Have you eaten? (beat) I will find you and feed you."
• Sc 5: The Orca, quietly: "…Was it good?" "Yeah." "Good." Then, after Chonksy leaves, to the one remaining duck: "(tearful) He made something, Linda."
• Sc 6 (peak emptiness): On the red carpet, a kid fan screams "SAY THE LINE!" Chonksy kneels, says it perfectly, and the kid is overjoyed. Chonksy looks at the kid one beat too long, the way you'd look at yourself.
• Sc 8 (heart): "Was it a good pastry?" "It was the best thing I ever ate." "Then it was worth it." Then Chumpy: "(crying) I'll get up now. (beat) For real. I'll do the whole thing. I'll produce. I'll jog. I'll carry." Chonksy: "You don't have to—" Chumpy: "I want to. That's new. I hate it."
• Sc 10: Old Seacow puts the smoothie down. Seapholk: "That's assault." Old Seacow: "(beat) That's punctuation."
• Sc 12: In the hallway, Raymond the doorman, moved: "Good work, Gerald." Chumpy: "(choked up) …Thank you, Raymond." Raymond: "(beat) Don't."

31. COLD OPEN: THROUGH THE ANGLERFISH · replaces Scene 1's opening

• The first two minutes play entirely through the Sea SI surveillance feeds: grainy, timestamped, no score. The cameras are anglerfish bolted into ceiling corners.
• Chonksy as a small figure making cereal, staring at the wall, falling asleep bottling. Chumpy in another square, eating cereal at the same moment.
• Feed 4 goes black: its anglerfish has eaten a passing shrimp. Watcher (into his radio, tired): "Four is eating again." We are the state.

32. INT. CHONKSY'S APARTMENT · 3 AM · before Scene 12

• Alone, Chonksy turns and looks straight up into the corner, into the red lure, at the Watcher and at us. Chonksy: "I know you're there." Beat. "Stay. It's a good part."
• In the ceiling, the anglerfish slowly blinks. In the van, the Watcher takes his headphones off, puts them back on, and doesn't leave.

33. INT. SEA SI · SEAPHOLK'S PROMOTION

• An office party. The cake is a fishsicle, a block of ice packed with frozen fish, like they give performing dolphins at the aquarium, which nobody comments on. CONGRATULATIONS DEPUTY DIRECTOR is frozen into it. Everyone leaves after one slice.
• Seapholk, alone at the end of the table in a paper hat, clicks once, sonar, out of habit. The echo comes back and tells him, precisely, how empty the room is. Dolphins are pod animals. This is the loneliest thing that's ever happened to one.

34. INT. CRAFT SERVICES · DAWN · after Scene 14

• Seabear finally scrapes out his giant soup pot. At the bottom, in the sludge: Chumpy's waterproof drive. The one copy they missed. Kelp paper dissolves. Tape doesn't.
• Seabear (holding it to the light, whispering): "…In Arctic Shelf, we have saying." Long pause. "…Is still here." (Season 2 starts here.)

35. RUNNER PAYOFF: THE BALL · before the last store window

• On the street, a sea-pup tosses Chonksy a ball. He catches it on his nose, as always. The crowd starts to clap.
• He lets it fall. It rolls into the gutter. He doesn't pick it up. Nobody claps. He walks on, lighter than we've seen him all season.
• The sea-pup looks at the ball, then kicks it, which nobody has ever done with a ball. The small fish watches.

40. THE OFFER · Scene 5, the Orca's office (opens the scene)

• The Orca slides a single kelp card across the desk: the Sea SI's terms. Go on live Current at the premiere and say the city's favorite line, "Chonks can't direct," and every charge disappears. Gotter keeps his pension. Ink isn't deported. Doris goes home.
• Chonksy: "And if I don't?" The Orca: "Then you're a director." (beat) "Directors go to the Trench."
• Then the existing beat: "…Was it good?" "Yeah." "…Good."

41. THE LINE · Scene 6, red carpet

• Flashbulbs. The Current anchor (Doug, already inflating) pushes the mic at him. "Chonksy! Say it! Say the line!" The crowd chants it.
• He says it, perfectly, on cue: "Chonks can't direct." The city laughs and cheers. It's the best line reading of his career. Gotter, Ink and Doris are free by morning.
• Close on Chonksy smiling for the cameras. One beat of emptiness. (Option B, Cody's call: he doesn't say it.)

42. SEALFELD'S FIRST ORIGINAL · Scene 10, The Shallows · Seinfeld

• Jerry Sealfeld, rattled by the week, tries something nobody has ever heard: "What's the deal with remoras? You're a fish. Get your own ride." Dead silence. Forty fish stare. Then one laugh from the back: the small fish.
• Sealfeld looks at the small fish like he's seen God. Chonksy, at the bar, smiles for real.