Pitfall

Pitfall

Pitfall is the fifty-third episode of TribeTwelve and the 11th video of season 2. It was uploaded on July 4th, 2016.

Description

i fell

it hurt

Transcript

[Noah stands filming the entrance to the boardwalk at Victor Park at night. He fumbles for his keys in his pocket and turns around to his car, locking it with the remote. It beeps and the lights flash. Noah turns back to the entrance of the boardwalk.]

Noah: [breathless] For you, Milo. For you.

[Noah turns on his night-vision, which triggers the bright red distortion and slowed-down music from "Crawlspace". As he slowly walks on to the boardwalk, he hears a chuckle and a stick breaking behind him and, breathing heavily, quickly pans the camera back to reveal no-one. The distance between him and the entrance to the boardwalk is much farther than it should be. He turns back around.]

Noah: [panting] What...?

[He pans behind him and back again, and more maniacal laughter is heard in front of him to the right. He hurriedly pulls a small switchblade out of his pocket, and extends it, then retracts it and puts it back into his pocket.]

Noah: Oh no... my phone! No, no! [pause] I left it at the car.

[Noah turns and runs back the way he came, camera pointed at the boardwalk.]

Noah: No, no!

[After a few seconds of running, he slows, slowly panning the camera to the right to reveal the observation tower.]

Noah: No no no no no no, no no, this-- this is the other way, this, this is further down, where's the entrance? It's not here. This is not-- the entrance, where is it?

[He turns around and runs back the way he just came, away from the direction in which he parked the car. He soon slows, and pans to the left to zoom in on a spindly tree with a knot in its trunk. As he watches, the knot rolls into an eyeball as distorted laughter is again heard.]

Noah: Ugh, ugh!

[He turns and runs in the same direction as before, making noises of disgust]

Noah: What the fuck was that?

[Cut to the boardwalk in front of Noah as he runs down it. A path appears on the left, and he pans up to show the observation tower again.]

Noah: No.

[He turns and runs back the other way down the boardwalk. Cut to Noah panning along the railings on either side as he walks. He pulls the car keys out of his pocket an presses the lock button twice. The car beeps from behind him.]

Noah: What? How could it...? How could it be from that way...

[He pans the camera front to back]

Noah: ...if I came from...?

[He runs in the direction of the sound.]

Noah: ...The fuck outta here.

[Cut to the base of the observation tower. Noah ducks down to where the Crawlspace under the desk in his room once teleported him.]

Noah: C'mon, c'mon, take me home...

[He alternates between standing and crouching down in the spot.]

Noah: C'mon... take me home! Damn it!

[He crouches a few more times.]

Noah: Fuck!

[He turns and runs back out onto the boardwalk. The camera footage clips as he runs, the observation tower coming up on his right again, but he keeps running. The tower once again appears on his right.]

Noah: What the fuck.

[He keeps running, but it comes up on his right again.]

Noah: Where's the entrance? It's not here! [Whimpering.] What the fuck...

[He turns and runs again. The camera clips and the observation tower comes up on his left. The camera tilts down to his shoes for a few seconds as he breathes heavily.]

Observer: [casually] Oh, well look who it is!

[The Observer is standing on the first level of the observation tower. He laughs maniacally.]

Noah: Kevin!

[Noah runs up the tower.]

Noah: I'm gonna fucking get you!

[Noah runs up the stairs, looping the same area several times. Cut to Noah with the camera focused on his face.]

Noah: I've been walking up these steps, for five minutes. It looks like I'm making progress.

[He pans over the edge to show he's no higher up than when he started.]

Noah: Sure does! I just can't get to the top. A few steps back down...

[He takes a few steps down and is at the bottom of the tower.]

Noah: ...and I'm at the bottom again!

[He begins climbing again, slowly.]

Noah: This place is impossible.

[Cut to Noah climbing slowly, his hand on the railing on the left. He sighs, exhausted, and turns the corner to show he's reached the top.]

Observer: Hey, Noah!

[Noah pans to his right to show the Observer jogging along the boardwalk past the tower, laughing and waving to him. Noah starts running down the stairs.]

Noah: [growling] Get back here!

[Noah runs down the stairs for twenty seconds then pans over the side to show the ground is still the same distance away.]

Noah: What? Oh... no... [growls] Stop fucking with me!

[He starts to run down the stairs again. Cut to the camera on Noah's sweaty face. Minor visual distortion.]

Noah: I can't get down. The steps go on forever. I've been walking down these steps for hours. A few steps backward and I'm at the top again. Trying to wear me out. Tenderize the meat.

[He shakes his head.]

Noah: I can take it.

[He looks at the camera.]

Noah: Done it before, do it again.

[He shakes his head again.]

Noah: Fuck these parlor tricks!

[He gets up and looks over the inside railing, showing a drop of a few stories. He does the same over the outside railing. He takes a few steps to the very top of the stairs and pans around below him. He notices something behind him on the railing and runs over to it. It's a fortune cookie fortune that reads:

"You are lost and insecure. Now is a lucky time for you take a chance."]

Journal: [whispering] Hey, Noah.

[Noah pans over the railing to reveal it on the boardwalk below.]

Journal: Down here.

[Noah zooms in on it.]

Journal: It's me. I've missed you.

Noah: Could be a mirage.

Journal: Come down and get me.

[Noah sighs.]

Noah: It's not that far.

Journal: Noah, wait. You're playing a game.

[Noah swings his legs over the edge of the railing. While climbing, Noah points the camera behind him.]

Journal: They're tricking you. He's coming for you now.

[The Observer runs up the steps behind Noah, smiling.]

Journal: Noah, behind you. Noah!

[The Observer gives Noah a shove, and we hear a mixture of the Observer's laughter and Noah's screams. Noah falls and the camera spins. The ground is much farther down than where Noah thought it was.]

Noah: [screaming incoherently] Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! This is it! I'm fucking dead! I'm free!

[Noah yells some more before falling through some branches and hitting the boardwalk, his camera landing next to him showing his face and torso. Noah coughs and moans, and blood drips from his mouth as flies buzz around his head. The background ambience steadily grows louder and louder. Footsteps are heard at a walking pace. Someone picks up Noah's camera and turns the night vision off, removing the red distortion, and zooms in on Noah with a light on.]

Stranger: Hey man, hey! Hey man!

[He sees the blood next to Noah's mouth.]

Stranger: Dude. Hey man, we gotta get out of here.

[Noah moans and looks at him.]

Stranger: You gotta-- you gotta get up, man. Dude, you gotta get up.

[Noah shields his eyes against the light, moaning.]

Stranger: You don't look so good, dude. We gotta get out of here, man! C'mon!

[He grabs Noah's arm.]

Noah: What...?

Stranger: You gotta get up, dude!

[He helps Noah up.]

Stranger: Come with me. I gotcha, I gotcha. Trust me, alright? I'm your friend.

[He helps Noah walk with him.]

Stranger: Let's get outta here. I'm just gonna bring you to the hospital.

[There is purplish-red visual distortion.]

Stranger: There we go. Good, good, you're doing great.

[The camera shows their feet as they walk together, over what appears to be concrete.]

Stranger: It's alright, I gotcha. C'mon, almost there. Alright, just a little bit further. Through this door.

[They step off concrete and go through a doorway onto bitumen.]

Stranger: We're almost there, man.

[They step off bitumen onto black tiles, then white.]

Stranger: They'll fix you up good, man. They'll fix you up real good.

[Their sneakers squeak on the tiles.]

Stranger: Yeah, right there. Over there. You're doing really good, man. You're doing great. Have a seat.

[Noah sits down and the camera is put on his lap. It shows what appears to be the doors of a hospital.]

Stranger: Now, you stay right here, man. I'm gonna go get the nurse. I'm gonna be right back, okay? You just sit tight. Try not to pass out.

[As the figure walks towards the doors and Noah gasps for air, struggling to breathe, we see that the stranger walking back towards the hospital doors is Kevin.]

Noah: What did... y...

[He coughs and picks up the camera, distortion around his hand as it grabs the front.]

Noah: K... Kevin?

[Noah gets up and tries to walk, but falls to the ground, coughing. He gets up again and leans on a pole, showing a sign on the wall that says "Museum of Medical History" and mannequins dressed up as nurses in the window. Slow, ominous music starts playing. Noah stumbles towards the sliding hospital doors and sees a corridor with lit pillars through them. The doors open when he stumbles up to them, but they reveal the unsaturated boardwalk. Noah pans to his right to show that the observation tower is right next to him. He stumbles to the ground and coughs up blood heavily as the Observer laughs nearby. Still on his knees, Noah sees a fortune on the ground just to his right. It reads:

"A drowning man will grab a snake."

The Observer laughs maniacally, and the camera pans away from the fortune before cutting to black. The final frame of the video is an image of Noah lying on the ground below the tower, with text from the Observer reading, "YOU FELL FOR IT".]

Gallery

Analysis

• The image at the end of the video is taken from the perspective the Observer would have after pushing him.
• Noah's fall from the observation tower was teased over a month before this video by Firebrand on Noah's Twitter account.
• This is the first time we get clear, undistorted audio of Kevin's voice. The Observer, using Kevin's normal voice and inflection, also shows himself without much distortion.
• The following songs appear slowed down and reversed throughout the entirety of the video:
  • Welcome to the Machine - Pink Floyd
  • Highway to Hell - AC/DC
  • Circles - Soul Coughing
  • Endless Stairs - Super Mario 64
  • Correct Solution - Super Mario 64
  • Sweat (A La La Long) - Inner Circle
  • Free Falling - Tom Petty
  • Game Over - Super Mario 64
  • Parasite - Nick Drake
  • Disconscious - Fountain Plaza
  • Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N’ Roses

• One of the many hidden images in "Fortunes" foreshadows the events of "Pitfall". In it, one can see Noah screaming under the observation tower.
• The images in the reflection of the Observer's glasses in "DEATHTRAPEXODUS" also foreshadowed both Noah hitting the ground and Kevin's appearance in the hospital.

Speculation

• The clarity of the Observer's appearance, the direct laughing and teasing, using Kevin's normal voice to bait Noah into another trick, all points to the Observer more freely using his power to play with Noah, or him being much stronger and playful here as this is the Collective's domain. Either way, Observer seems much less reserved, most likely taking more chances to break Noah down before Firebrand can get what he wants.
• It is unknown whether Kevin himself is helping Noah to the hospital, or simply the Observer in Kevin's guise
  • It's also possible that HABIT was possessing the body of Kevin, considering the purple distortion being overlapped by red, suggesting their is a power struggle.