The Whale | Episode 1

September 24, 2019·25 min·2 clips

Dave wakes to a world where everyone went to sleep and never woke up — and describes it as quieter than any apocalypse he imagined.

The episode opens from the future — July 8th — where Dave narrates a world in which the sun is shining, birds are chirping, and everyone is dead. There are no burning buildings or zombie hordes; the world simply went to sleep and never woke up. The story then jumps back to the night of July 4th, the night before the catastrophe. Dave is working a night security shift at Dexa Labs, a tech company outside Santa Mira, with his friend and colleague Mateo. Dave falls asleep at his desk and has a dream about being underwater, finding a whale the size of a battleship that speaks to him and inhales his sleeping pills before glowing brightly. He wakes to find his pills actually scattered across the room. Mateo had watched him mumbling and throwing pills around while apparently asleep. Dave is also trying to adjust to sleeping alone after a breakup. Mateo tries to sign Dave up for dating apps over his objection. The two are interrupted by a van that parks in the lot with its engine running. When they approach, the driver claims to be a veteran — a lie that Mateo quickly catches. The driver refuses to show his sleeping daughter and speeds off. Dave notices the bumper sticker has both a donkey and an elephant. Back at the office, Dave gets a late call from Katie, his ex-girlfriend, who says she misses him. She eventually reveals she had been sleeping with a knife under her mattress because of fear connected to Dave, but their conversation is cut short before she explains. Dave leaves work early and drives to a mutual friend Randy's party, arriving after it ends. The dealer Gus confirms a woman matching Katie's description was there and that Randy got angry on Dave's behalf. Dave finds Randy passed out and cold, unable to be revived. He drives Randy to the hospital, where a nurse examines him on the sidewalk, confirms he is dead, and then explains that all of the hospital's patients died in their sleep overnight.

As heard by us

A talk-heavy opener that lets the pressure keep building.

The segment starts in strained conversation and keeps tightening the pressure. Katie's admission that she sleeps with a knife under her mattress hits hard, while Dave's evasiveness leaves the exchange with an uneasy drift.

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Why you'd press play

A tense opener that turns a lab parking lot into a threat you can feel coming.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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