The Pit | Episode 8

November 5, 2019·33 min·2 clips

Trapped alone in a spirit pit that erases memories one by one, Dave holds onto a single memory of Katie to avoid being consumed entirely.

The episode opens with a darkly comic flight announcement narrated by Linda, warning passengers that the only emergency options are suicide or falling asleep. Thirteen hours into the flight, all three survivors are burning themselves and smoking to stay awake. Dave is microsleeping and hallucinating — at one point talking to Katie's ghost. Linda uses the memory of Katie as emotional leverage, setting a timer and counting down the final two hours in fifteen-minute increments. At ten minutes out, Mateo discovers the runway is blocked by a refueling truck and announces a water ditching. The plane lands in the ocean. Felix rescues Dave and Linda by speedboat; Mateo does not surface. On shore, Felix drives them to meet his father Robbie, an old man who immediately tells Dave he dreamed of him — confirming he is the whale figure from Dave's prophetic visions. Robbie gives them a gray herbal tea that restores them better than any stimulant. Dave asks Robbie what is causing the catastrophe. Robbie explains that spirits from a close-far dimension have broken through a crack in the world and are taking people during sleep; his tribe, the Morandi, survived by developing the ability to control their dreams. On the drive to the tribe, Dave collapses from exhaustion before they arrive. He enters a spirit realm — a pit of darkness — where a figure named Lyman strips his memories away one by one. Dave focuses on a memory of Katie to resist. The memory becomes vivid enough to anchor him. He wakes in the jungle with Felix and Linda supporting him. The Morandi, who appear as sleepwalkers, carry Dave to their village — a cluster of shelters on a jungle river. Linda tells Dave that while he was unconscious she noticed his physical scars have vanished. Dave and Linda sleep safely in the village for the first time.

As heard by us

Sleep-starved survival horror that keeps getting stranger.

The Edge of Sleep turns a long-haul flight to Papua New Guinea into survival horror, starting with catastrophe jokes and then grinding a pilot and two passengers through exhaustion, hallucinations, and worse choices.

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Why you'd press play

Sleep-deprived survival horror on a doomed flight, with a crash landing and weird restorative tea.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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