Episode 3 The Living and the Dead

We can make it work, can't we? I love it here. We have to.

-Yes.

-Yes, what?

-Yes, I think it's a brilliant idea.

From this moment on, I am going to be the farm manager.

'Don't expect everyone to welcome these changes.'

No good will come of this.

I want your baby, Nathan Appleby.

For you and Mr Appleby, to help you get with child.

Do you believe in ghosts?

In all your years of dealing with the dead and the dying and the bereaved,

have you ever seen anything that you could not explain?

Never.

-GWEN:

-'I used to hear a boy's laughter in the house. Then one day, no more laughter.'

Gabriel... They've seen him.

Are you seriously telling me you all saw a ghost?

'When I was looking for Charlie, I saw lights rushing towards me.'

CHARLOTTE: 'Charlie's missing.'

SHE WAILS

There are no ghosts. There's just you and me.

# Do not cross the hayfield

# The hayfield, the hayfield

# Do not cross the hayfield

# As sinks the blood-red sun

# Ghosts glide from the hayrick

# On the hayfield, the hayfield

# Ghosts glide from the hayrick

# In the eerie glow

# Do not cross the hayfield... #

Hello, scarecrow.

Oh, sorry. I disturbed you.

No, I couldn't sleep either. Too excited.

-The harvest.

-Yes! Of course.

Work the land instead of the mind.

Good medicine.

What for?

Insomnia.

It wasn't your fault Charlie died.

Arrogant.

To think you can determine these people's fates with your magic psychology.

When, actually, it's you...

managing the harvest, who really affects our livelihoods and happiness.

Exactly.

You're cleverer than you look.

# ...Do not cross the hayfield

-# The hayfield, the hayfield... #

-Come on.

# ...Do not cross the hayfield

# As sinks the blood-red sun

# Ghosts glide from the hayrick

# On the hayfield, the hayfield

# Ghosts glide from the hayrick

# In the eerie glow

# The reaper crossed the hayfield

# The hayfield, the hayfield

# Reaper crossed the hayfield

# Sank the blood-red sun... #

-WOMAN'S VOICE:

-You must make the sacrifice.

SOFT CREAK

Who's there?

Mother?

DOOR CREAKS

-WOMAN'S VOICE:

-Do it.

No.

What's the matter, Peter? What are you doing in here?

Nothing.

Just go back to sleep.

DOOR SHUTS

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

# This one night

# This one night

# Every night

# And all

# Fire and sleet and candlelight

# And Christ receive thy soul. #

One more day.

So be it.

So go and enjoy your extra leisure before the hard work begins.

Away you go.

It's tomorrow.

Toy soldiers you gave him.

You feel you just want to get away, but often,

after a loss, it can be very beneficial to stay

and...

Grieve?

Yes.

You're the clever doctor, aren't you?

Knows what's best for us.

Understands our minds.

-I'm sorry I couldn't save him.

-So am I.

The cottage will still be here if you want to come back.

We won't.

There's something here.

Took my Charlie.

Took John.

Something bad.

Something wrong.

-MAUD:

-Take care.

-SHE SNIFFS

-Go on.

HE CLICKS TONGUE Walk on.

Bye-bye.

Ahhh.

Wash your woes away.

HE EXHALES

-CHARLOTTE: Gideon...

-Ma'am.

I want to check the twine supply for the sheaving.

What's the matter?

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

What's wrong? Hm? Hm?

Peter...

There's a woman in the old millpond.

-Under the water.

-She's dead?

She must be.

Show me.

-I... I can't go in again.

-No. Just direct me.

She's there, in the middle.

You didn't see her?

No.

-I must have imagined it.

-Yes.

Yes, you must have.

-WOMAN'S VOICE: He can't help you.

-Shut up!

I beg your pardon?

I-I-I beg yours, sir.

You often blurt things out like that?

Insults or profanities? No?

Do you suffer involuntary spasms or hear voices?

You... You helped the reverend's daughter when...

-Yes.

-..she was disturbed.

Yes, I did.

Well, I could arrange for you to see a doctor in Bristol.

There's... There's no need for a doctor. I'm... I'm sorry if I mis...misled you.

No, it's, um...

FOOTSTEPS RECEDE

ETHEREAL RAGGED BREATH

-CHARLOTTE: Gwen...

-Just a moment.

Have they just got the harvest in?

That's it.

It's a salt-and-silver print. How old is it?

1861.

-Where did you find it?

-I thought you just put it up.

-Oh.

-I did. Shall I take it down?

Oh, don't be silly. I love it.

-I should do one this year.

-Yes, you must.

Where are your parents?

-There.

-Ah!

-And you're a glint in their eye.

-Can I...?

Yes. Sorry, Gwen. Thank you.

HE CHUCKLES QUIETLY

-Everyone's a bit...

-Mm.

When the reaping's imminent, the tension in the air.

I almost wish it were over.

It will be.

-But now...

-Oh!

..I'm going to distract you.

Go get your camera.

One of my childhood haunts.

There'll be some good pictures inside.

It's beautiful.

What's that?

What's happened to the fish?

I don't know.

Did you see someone?

No.

So come on. Show me inside.

Hm.

Ohh!

-The millstone.

-Mm.

As a boy, I saw it as an altar,

where a high priest might make a sacrifice.

-You were an interesting child.

-Thank you.

Right, come on. Let me show you upstairs. You'll like it.

-You sound like a hotelier.

-Stayed in a lot of hotels, have you?

-In my younger, wilder days.

-I don't want to know.

WINGS FLUTTER

What was that?

There's nothing here. It was probably a bat or something.

You're right. I like it.

So why is it derelict?

Well, the old miller died,

and they tried to keep it going,

but abandoned it after the bad harvest of '62.

-And then the steam mill opening...

-Hm!

-Progress.

-Mm.

-50 seconds.

-I like being on this side of the camera.

I can move.

-If it was me, I would have started the reaping already.

-She knows what she's doing.

-Filling our coffers today.

-Yeah, but not next week.

Not next month if this harvest ain't a good 'un.

Hark at the young. More full of woe than us old ones.

If I told you last harvest that you'd be listening to a young woman

learned her farming from a book...

See, you don't see no ill because she done dazzled you, Uncle.

I think Gideon's adapting remarkably well, Jack.

And his vision is clear.

We must evolve and embrace the new.

-You'll take a cup, Mr Denning?

-Oh, thank you, Simon.

And the old.

The old and the new.

-MEN:

-The old and the new.

Ah!

Ah, Mrs Hare.

Mr Appleby.

May I speak with Peter?

Yes.

Well, he's not here this moment, but I expect him presently.

-Mm.

-Please, come in.

Take some tea.

He's a good boy. Clever.

Schoolmaster said he could have gone to university...

on a scholarship.

Really? Why didn't he?

It's better to learn a trade.

And stay here.

-Safe and sound.

-Just the two of you, isn't it?

-His father died when he was small?

-Hence no more children.

-And how is Peter?

-What are you doing here?

Peter!

Manners, please.

Discussing me?

What you been telling him?

Nothing.

Peter!

You concocting a plan? To put me in a Bristol asylum?

No. I've come to ask you if you poisoned the millpond.

All the fish are dead.

I... I didn't do anything.

But you've come to accuse me and...and talk about me and discuss my...

Are you sure you saw them?

Maybe your mind's playing tricks on you, too.

-Maybe you're hallucinating.

-No, I'm not.

Because my wife saw them, too.

There's nothing wrong with my mind.

If you say so.

You're the expert.

I'm sorry I can't help you.

But I'm glad it's only dead fish you've seen.

And not dead people.

SHE GASPS

SHE SIGHS

You want a lock on this, stop people bursting in.

Look at this. It's strange.

It...looks a little like a woman standing there.

Hm. A little.

Must be imperfections in the silver bromide.

So? Did he admit to poisoning the fish?

No. I believed him.

Could be natural causes...disease.

But he's clearly somewhat disturbed.

-What? I'm not treating him.

-I'm not stopping you.

-I know.

-If you feel the need...

-He's not my responsibility.

Unlike the harvest. So...let's eat and get to bed early, because tomorrow, it begins.

-WOMAN'S VOICE:

-Come out.

Into the wheat.

You must make the sacrifice.

-Your mother's blood.

-No.

Or the harvest will perish.

You're up with the lark.

Hard to sleep before harvest.

-What you been doing?

-Nothing.

Nathan?

-BOTH:

-Didn't mean to disturb you.

It's beginning to get light.

You beat me, Gideon! I wanted to be first here.

The crop has been cursed.

-What are they?

-Happened before, in '62.

Black devils - destroyed the whole harvest.

What about the other fields?

All of them. They're everywhere.

How do you get rid of them?

You can't.

Now I know what you were doing out here. Cursing the harvest.

No. No, I wasn't.

We have an infestation.

These acts of nature do happen from time to time.

They're only insects. They're not devils. This is not a curse.

It's a problem.

Let's solve it.

May I borrow your bag?

We will pick these beetles off one by one.

We will harvest them and then we will cut our wheat.

I know it won't work, but it's better than doing nothing.

I'm going to look at my books.

I lied when I said I don't hear voices. I do.

It's her under the water.

And in the field at night last night she said to me...

the harvest'll perish...

unless I sacrifice my mother.

No, Peter, you don't have to do that. That's a delusion.

I heard her. I saw her.

But you don't have to believe her. Peter...

Not here.

SHE SIGHS

Mrs Hare...

Remember this happening in '62?

No. I was too young.

Well, perhaps best forgotten.

Must have been very distressing for everyone. Even a child.

Especially a child.

Peter seems agitated today.

His nerves are highly strung, that's all.

And these...

horrible things...

Enough to drive anyone mad.

He is fine.

And I can take care of him.

So, please, no more talk of asylums.

He... He doesn't deserve to be punished.

Punished?

No, I'm just concerned.

For both of you. And if Peter were to become aggressive...

He won't.

Excuse me, Mr Appleby.

I feel a little unwell. I should go home and lie down.

Can you lock your bedroom door?

Gwen!

Gather all the sugar we have.

All the sugar?

We heat it until it caramelises. Keep stirring. I'll put another pan on.

-It's beginning to melt.

-Good. Bit longer. Nathan...

-I need some twine and lamp oil.

-All right. What are you making?

-Magic.

-Science.

Thank you for your endeavour, everyone. You can stop now.

We have a new method.

Now, watch me plant this so you can do the same.

Beware of the crop catching fire.

Say a prayer.

It's working.

Right, then, let's plant the others.

Right, everyone. One each.

Spread out.

It's like the end of the world.

Or the beginning.

JACK: Peter Hare.

-Jack.

-Uncle saw you out here.

Hatching mischief.

No, I was... I was just...

..taking the air.

You what?

Taking the air?

God, you've always been an odd one, Peter Hare.

I remember him in the schoolroom.

Sharp as a knife, he was.

I remember you saying that you hated this village and every soul in it.

Damned us all to hell.

It was only cos you made me eat worms.

They still growing inside you?!

What's done is done.

I don't know what you've been dabbling in, but the new mistress has broke the spell now.

So let's have no more. Right?

You hot?

You look hot.

Like a drowned rat.

Leave it, Jack. Best get back to work.

Thank you, everyone. It's been a long day.

Have a good rest tonight and we'll carry on tomorrow.

Well done. Very good work.

Peter...

How are you?

Better, thank you.

I'm sorry I was so excitable.

No, no. They were disturbing - the insects.

Crawling into our minds.

Disaster averted.

Without a sacrifice.

Maybe she's gone now.

Are you going to the Wheatsheaf with the others?

No?

Walk with me to the house.

Come on.

I want to show you something.

That's your mother as a child.

Thank you, Gwen.

I was always looking at that picture when I was younger.

Asking my mother who everyone was.

Who's that woman?

Yes, she had an odd name. What was it?

-Um...

-Clarity Winlove.

Clarity.

Say she was a healer and helped women who wanted to conceive.

Yes, I remember my mother talking about her now.

Absolutely adamant that those potions really worked, while I,

a pedantic student, insisted it could only be a placebo effect.

What happened to her?

She left the parish that year of the plagued harvest, so I'm told.

Thank you for your hosp...

hospitality.

I should go.

Are you worried about him?

Oh...yes and no.

You can never be sure what someone is capable of.

-Are you worried about me?

-Yes and no.

I wonder...

when you're helping people...

looking for what's wrong with them...

What?

..what else you're looking for.

Aren't your hands full enough with the harvest?

With me?

They are now.

BABY CRIES

BABY CRIES

BABY CRIES

BABY CRIES

Who's there?

CRYING CONTINUES

-CHILD'S VOICE:

-Rock-a-bye baby on the treetop.

When the wind blows, the cradle...

Gabriel.

What's wrong with me?

-CLARITY'S VOICE:

-You will reap what has been sown.

THUNDERCLAP Nathan?

Is that rain?

The harvest, Nathan.

What?

What woke you?

The storm.

Nathan...

Let's go.

Move on.

THUNDER RUMBLES

They're here.

Bad storm. Didn't see it coming.

Load up the wagon. We'll get it to the barn.

FARMWORKERS SHOUT

Keep going.

John...

-Gideon!

-Yes, sir.

Help me.

-We'll unload and come back.

-We'll gather more together.

The devil wants to drown us all.

Hyah!

SHE SHIVERS

-CLARITY'S VOICE:

-They will blame you for the rain unless you stop it.

So stop it.

Make the sacrifice now, while she's sound asleep.

GENTLE BANGING

Why have you locked it? I just want to talk to you.

-In the morning.

-I need to ask you about someone...

..who you knew as a child.

Clarity Winlove.

Mother, please.

I don't... I don't know who you mean.

You liar!

SHE SOBS

You... You may not love me.

And that may be my curse.

But I love you, Peter.

You liar.

SHE GASPS SOFTLY

Go home and get some rest, and pray for better weather.

-That's all we can do.

-Sir.

-He's conjured it.

-You shouldn't have doused him.

I flushed him out. Now we know.

And them creatures...

Now this.

The mistress be no match for him.

Now, happen we have to end it ourself.

The old way.

I don't know.

Leave it with me.

HE SIGHS SOFTLY

I should have started reaping three days ago.

-You couldn't have known.

-I'm too green.

No-one could have known, Charlotte.

It's just...

bad luck.

Bad luck? There's been a lot of that lately.

Losing John,

losing Charlie...

We haven't lost the harvest. We've saved almost a third.

A quarter. The rest is out there, drowning.

Perhaps you've brought the curse with you, Nathan.

What do you mean?

Maybe it's me.

Well, I wasn't born here.

I don't belong here. I...

I brought in that machine. I judged the reaping wrong.

See? I'm the problem.

I'm the curse.

That's lunatic talk.

Monomaniacal.

Are you some kind of expert?

I dabble.

These misfortunes have absolutely nothing to do with you.

There is no curse.

You're quite convincing.

Thank you.

Now go and get dry before you catch your death.

KNOCK ON DOOR

-Peter's not here.

-It's you I've come to see.

Do you remember Clarity Winlove?

No.

-No, I don't.

-But you know the name?

Yes.

That's right.

She left the village and she went to America.

She had a distant cousin.

-That's the story?

-Well, that's what happened.

That's what my parents told me.

God rest their souls.

-I'm sorry it's distressing.

-It's not.

It's... It's nothing to do with me.

No, I'm not accusing you.

Everybody's accusing me.

It's like Jack Langtree just now, when I told him Peter's not here.

"You sure?" he says, like I'm lying,

like he thinks I'm hiding him.

-Why would he think that?

-I don't know.

It's the bad harvest.

-Everyone's on edge.

-What did he want?

A wheel fixing.

A scapegoat.

# The sun went down and the moon rose

# On the hayfield, the hayfield

# Sun went down and the moon rose

# On the bleak hayfield... #

Peter!

# The reaper crossed the hayfield

# The hayfield, the hayfield

# Reaper crossed the hayfield

# Sank the blood-red sun

# Do not cross the hayfield

# The hayfield, the hayfield

# Do not cross the hayfield... #

Caught like a hare in the gin.

I remember you hiding here before.

Don't scare me.

So is this where you do it?

Sacrificing?

Casting spells?

Summon up those black beetles?

And bring on that rain?

No... No.

You cursed the harvest, Peter Hare.

It's not his fault.

It's mine.

It's mine.

Come with me.

Now, if you float, you're a witch.

-And if you sink, you're innocent.

-No!

Please, no!

PETER GROANS

CLARITY'S VOICE: This is what was done to me.

You'll reap what you sowed.

You're floating, see?

Proof.

You are a witch.

What have you done, Jack?

Oh, Peter.

Oh, Peter.

-Peter.

-Turn him on his side.

Leave him.

-Come on.

-Take me.

-PETER COUGHS

-Oh, thank God.

-That's it.

What I owe her.

It's what I owe her.

Maud...

-Maud...

-It's what I owe her.

-For what I did.

-What did you do?

It was a terrible time.

The harvest was ruined.

The village seemed damned.

And Clarity frightened me.

The way she looked at me.

And one day,

I saw her...

give a potion to my mother

-to put in my father's food.

-To help them to conceive.

I can see that now.

But as a child,

as an only child,

I told myself she was a witch.

An evil witch. And I...

I lied.

I told my parents

I'd seen her...

curse the wheatfield.

And they brought her here.

And they ducked her.

And they drowned her.

And they sank her down with chains.

I've been so full of guilt and I fed you on fear.

-Forgive me.

-Maud...

Of... Of course I do.

Of course I forgive you.

You're my mother.

-MAUD SOBS

-You must forgive yourself.

You must.

You were just a child.

Time to let her go.

Let's get you home.

Nathan?

Go with them.

Clarity Winlove...

..show yourself.

You sat...

..by my wife...

as she slept.

You touched her womb.

Was it a blessing or was it a curse?

HE SIGHS

Is Jack Langtree here?

Celebrating killing a man?

-He died?

-No, you're lucky he didn't.

Or I would have you hanged for murder.

Well, there's something wrong here of late, you cannot deny.

Looked to me like he be the cause.

I was just trying to rid us of evil.

Oh, you want to rid us of evil, do you?

Go.

Now.

Never return to my land.

You are banished, Jack.

I was going anyway.

This place is damned.

You can't deny you've all felt it.

Ever since you returned.

DOOR OPENS

DOOR CLOSES

I weed on them an hour ago.

-Patience.

-I'm not pregnant.

I think you are.

GWEN CHUCKLES

Don't tell a soul.

I don't want Nathan to know until I'm absolutely sure.

Thank you.

I havee, I havee, I havee.

-ALL:

-What havee? What havee? What havee?

The neck. The neck. The neck.

CHEERING

We did it.

FOLK MUSIC PLAYS

-Strange summer.

-Hm.

Disturbing.

Forgive me.

Bound to apologise on my part for what my nephew Jack... Well...

I do bear guilt for my suspicions

and for not quashing his.

P'raps I should, like him, be put beyond the pale.

What's your judgment, Peter?

Water under the bridge.

Go get yourself a drink, Gideon.

Sir.

MUSIC STOPS

CHEERING

RHYTHMIC CLAPPING

-WOMAN:

-Go on, Mrs Appleby.

-MAN:

-Your turn, Mrs Appleby.

-MAN:

-Go on, Mrs Appleby.

-WOMAN:

-Mrs Appleby, come and dance with us.

MUSIC STARTS

# Her husband plays the master

# Why should the missus go free?

# Why shouldn't she go to heaven

# To heaven as well as he?

# Oh, she is a good provider... #

-So alive.

-What?

You're so alive.

# So drink, boys, drink

# See that you do not spill

# For if you do, you shall drink two

# For this is our master's will...

MUFFLED: # So drink, boys, drink

# See that you do not spill

# For if you do, you shall drink two

# For this is our master's will... #

You are transgressing against God and nature.

Don't you think I want it to stop?

But whichever way I turn, the dead are there.

Why are you lying?

BABY CRIES

I have given you everything. Everything I have.

# Ghosts glide from the hayrick

# On the hayfield, the hayfield

# Ghosts glide from the hayrick

# In the eerie glow

# Do not cross the hayfield. #