Session 2

November 2, 2020·21 min·1 clip

Tessa describes a Vietnam-era massacre recorded on the tape, where soldiers shot women and children who ran to them for help.

The episode opens in a psychiatric examination room where Tessa Dixon is being questioned by a military doctor referred to as 'Doc.' The doctor asks about the tape — an audio recording Tessa acquired from her recently deceased grandfather. Tessa notes that her own voice was recorded over the tape, a fact she attributes to supernatural manipulation rather than her own actions. She describes the tape as physically heavy in a metaphysical sense, weighed down by the shadows of those who have listened to its contents. Tessa recounts her first day of basic training, dramatized as a vivid 'shark attack' scene where drill instructors scream at recruits arriving by bus. Drill Sergeant Wilson singles Tessa out by name and pushes her aggressively during a loaded pack run. Despite this harassment, Tessa believes Wilson developed a crush on her. After a barracks conversation about sexuality with fellow recruits Phillips and Conti, Tessa returns to find her bunk has been ransacked. She erupts in front of the unit, demanding to know who searched her belongings. She's sent to Corporal Wilson's office — where she asks for a battle buddy to be present as protocol requires and is denied. The Corporal invokes her grandfather's name, implies he had contraband, and offers to protect her if she surrenders it voluntarily. Tessa stonewalls. She later learns the tape had not been taken, as it had somehow relocated to the bathroom. Back in the present interrogation, the doctor reveals that no record exists of the meeting with Corporal Wilson, and witnesses say Tessa tossed her own bunk. Tessa insists the doctor is wrong. She argues that not everything can be explained by science or medical training, and that the universe has a balance that can be disturbed. She then reveals the tape contains audio from a Vietnam War massacre — soldiers burning village huts and then shooting the civilians who ran outside seeking help, including mothers and their children. She narrates this with escalating intensity, physically moving toward the doctor. The scene is interrupted by a guard being called. Tessa's closing warning is that the doctor, by listening to the tape in the session, is now part of its curse. The episode ends with production credits for Q-Code's Ghost Tape.

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