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Directed by: Adam Davidson
Written by: Wayne Loren Wilson
Synopsis
Mitch walks down the beach in Mexico, toward an older man sitting in front of a shack. The surfer's former acid hookup, known as the Chemist, has given up his lab and now goes by his real name: Erlemeyer. Mitch isn't looking to trip, but he's hoping the psychotropic guru can help him find some answers to his levitation and Shaun's resurrection. "Do I cross a line," Erlemeyer asks, "to ask, with all that shaking up there, why you'd be down here getting s**t-faced in some cantina?" Mitch admits he lost his nerve, and Erlemeyer follows him back to Imperial Beach to get to the bottom of things.
But, a new and more pressing mystery has developed in Mitch's absence. Despite a house surrounded by Freddy, Palaka and Bill, Shaun has disappeared in the night. Cissy begins to wail the moment she finds his empty room. Outside, Bill notices that Zippy, whose cage had been sitting in the car all night, has vanished as well. Cissy calls Tina, thinking Linc has lured Shaun off somewhere, but when Tina finds the promoter jogging on the beach, he's as miffed as everyone else. Cissy barges into Butchie's hotel room, telling him Shaun's gone and, "I want to know where your 'friend' is who said he would be." Butchie heads off to Cass's hotel to find John, while Cissy drives to the café where Dwayne has received a second puzzling message on his computer, this time a black banner with two stick figures instead of one. As Cissy bumps past Dickstein in the café doorway, she announces Shaun's departure, and Dwayne replies, "We know." Showing everyone the picture, Dwayne explains that the contact should give them assurance that Shaun is safe, but Cissy's not buying it. She leaves to canvas I.B. for her grandson, and Dickstein begins to draft a response to the message.
At the Snug Harbor, Palaka remembers he'd brought a Teddy bear as a gift for Freddy when the boss arrived from Hawaii. What with the broken wrist and the miracles, he'd forgotten to present it to him. Worried that the bad luck an un-given gift draws may have caused all these calamities, Palaka hands him the Teddy. At first Freddy throws the bear into the parking lot, but when Palaka begs him to take it – to help Shaun if nothing else – the criminal stalks across the parking lot with the stuffed animal and bestows it on Barry, who's more than happy to accept.
Butchie knocks at Cass's hotel-room door, announcing himself meekly, but when she opens up, he forces his way in and holds her against the wall with his hand on her chest. "Your roommate grabbed my kid," he says. Cass tries to help by showing Butchie the footage she's shot with John, explaining that he seems to be on "autopilot," delivering pre-programmed responses in situations he's trained to recognize. Frustrated that Cass – who's spent more time with John than anyone – can't shed any light on his missing son or his father's levitation, Butchie scribbles down some phone numbers for her and leaves to meet Kai.
Cissy scavenges I.B. for anyone who's seen or heard from Shaun, and while she doesn't turn up anything substantial, she recruits some aid for the cause. Vietnam Joe, who she finds fishing on the pier, puts the word out to his buddies at the V.F.W., and Bill – approaching his cop friend Anderson – secures some under-the-radar police work. Butchie catches up with Kai at the surf shop, assuring her that John wouldn't hurt Shaun because "his automatic pilot wouldn't be an asshole." Backing this statement with some nonsense logic about John not taking dumps, Butchie collects Kai in his arms. Tina walks in on the moment, and the two follow her outside, where Linc is recruiting Jake's help to find the kid. Promising Linc he'll hire a private investigator and ply some political connections to enlist help from the F.B.I., Jake takes a step back when Butchie approaches his former promoter. "Every f**king promise I ever made, I broke," Butchie says to Linc, before dropping him with a punch to the face.
Dr. Smith, after perusing some rundown commercial space for a clinic he plans to open, visits the Snug Harbor and finds Barry outside the lounge, obviously distressed. Barry explains that he's been receiving visions of Shaun and Gilbert Rollins in the bar, and Dr. Smith shares his own fears about opening the clinic. Together, they step inside the lounge to face Barry's demons. After taking a look around, they exit to the parking lot, where Ramon appears with an Avon catalog he's received from Rosa. He implores Barry to flip to the middle of the pamphlet, where a group of stick figures have appeared in the pages' margins. Dr. Smith runs to grab his own catalog and confirms that the symbols have appeared there as well. "This is huge," the doctor says. Later, the three of them meet with Dickstein and Dwayne in the lounge, where Dwayne shows the reply he received to Dickstein's message: More stick figures. On the bar's wall, a row of the symbols appear out of thin air.
Mitch and Erlemeyer arrive at the house, oblivious to Shaun's disappearance. But Cissy – after smacking Mitch viciously in the face – fills him in. The Chemist steps outside and begins to clean up Mitch's desecrated clubhouse, while Mitch slowly dials down Cissy's anger inside the house. After she explains the events of the past few days, he says, "Someone has to walk point ... Talk to the cops, the press, the whole deal. I'm here, let me take it." Before long, Mitch is standing in the driveway, giving an uncomfortable and disorganized press conference. Cissy and Erlemeyer watch from inside, while Linc looks on with a weeping Tina from her Mustang across the street. He suggests she step in front of the cameras as the worried mother, but she declines, telling Linc, "I'll fall apart. I'll f**k it up."
As the day ends with no clue to Shaun's whereabouts, Freddy offers an angry prayer to a power he can't name. Dwayne waits at the café – trusted with the key after Jerri closes up – for more contact via the internet. Butchie, board in hand, wades into the surf while Kai watches from the beach. Above them on the pier, Cass films.
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"His Visit: Day Eight"
