 |
Stub This article or section is a stub. You can help the The Deep Wiki by expanding it! |
The Twilight Zone is the twenty-fifth episode of Season 1, and the twenty-fifth episode overall.
Synopsis[]
"A weird glowing fish has lured every fish in the area to its bioluminescence. When Kaiko and Will also fall under its spell, Ant and Fontaine must rescue their parents - while wearing blindfolds against the hypnotic glow."
Plot[]
Off the coast of Taiwan, the Aronnax surfaces in the middle of large pocket of bioluminescent bacteria. Kaiko notes how odd it is to find such a large concentration of it as it normally be eaten by fish. As they investigate they the sonar shows no fish within a 5km radius!
Will receives reports from Taiwanese fishermen about the severe lack of fish being caught showing how big the problem is. Outside, Ant detects high levels of all the common food sources eaten by most fish further adding to the mystery. The Aronnax dives deeper to see how far down the problem goes. At 1000m the Aronnax enters the Midnight zone where the sun's light can't reach and everything lies in complete darkness and over 190 atmospheres a pressure are squeezing against the hull. The Nektons find Angler Fish at the bottom which indicates that the problem is at a higher depth. The Aronnax then accidently runs into volcanic thermal vents with currents so strong they pick up pieces of the seabed, but is able to pull away without serious damage. After returning to the Twilight Zone where some of the sun's light can reach, the Nektons pick up something on sonar that turns out to be every fish in the area circling some sort of light. Kaiko takes the White Knight out to investigate. As she nears the center the fish seem to completely ignore her, then as she nears the center of the cluster she identifies the light as some sort of creature about half the size of the Rover but then suddenly starts talking strange and ignores the others calls to her, as if she's in a trance.
As more fish get drawn to the light, Professor Fiction informs the others (via transmission) that nothing in their database matches this phenomena. Will guesses that the light is some sort of bioluminescent lure, which is used by fish to help catch prey. which in this case could be Kaiko. Will takes the Rover to try and rescue Kaiko but not before Ant gives him a pair of welding goggles to help block the light from his eyes. As the creature moves around Fontaine theorizes that the strong currents from the volcanic vents may have forced the unknown creature higher up and deduces that since fish at this depth haven't seen a bioluminescent lure before it's unknown what effect it would have on them. Will reaches Kaiko, but the goggles aren't enough to keep the light's hypnotic effect out and Will falls into a trance too. Fontaine is forced to close the shields to prevent her and Ant from also being hypnotized. Ant tries to bring Will back using the Rover's remote control but a hypnotized Will overrides it and returns towards the creature, leaving Ant and Fontaine on their own!
Ant and Fontaine take the Shadow Knight and Swamp Knight out respectfully but Ant covers up the Knights windows to stop any light getting through, forcing them to navigate with instruments only. Ant also activates the Shadow Knight's stealth mode to help. They reach the center and find Will and Kaiko completely oblivious to their presence. The creature then starts moving towards them which turns to be a large Angler Fish. The Angler takes an interest in Ant and comes close to him as if it's found something or wants to it eat him! After a tense few moments. Fontaine tells Ant to deactivate stealth mode which makes the Angler turn away, revealing that it was attracted to the Shadow Knight's stealth glow, which is similar to it's own. Following this revelation, Ant gets an idea.
Ant plans to use the Shadow Knight to carry a mirror outside and lure the Angler with its own reflection down deeper. Once deep enough the other fish instinctively back off from the pressure leaving just the Rover and the White Knight which Fontaine will retrieve using the moon pool claw while simultaneously following behind Ant in the Aronnax. For the most part the plan goes smoothly and the other fish all break away, despite the extreme pressures Ant continues luring the Angler to the bottom where he belongs. Fontaine grabs the Rover with the claw but Will tries to break away from it. After running into more volcanic vents, Ant tries to push Kaiko back to the Aronnax, but during the struggle Kaiko removes Ant's window protection and he becomes hypnotized by the light. Will breaks free from the arm but crashes into Ant sending him past the Angler. Realizing its all up to her Fontaine grabs the Rover again and turns it around so Will is facing away. Will regains consciousness and Fontaine tells him to keep his eyes shut while he helps try to grab Kaiko. She swings the claw around, accidently hitting the Angler in the process. Following her word for word, Will is able to grab Kaiko with the Rover arms and bring her aboard where returns to normal. Ant, having woken up from crash, is then attacked by the Angler which shatters the mirror but it then follows its own reflections in the falling mirror shards down to the bottom where it is reunited with it's own kind. Everyone returns to the Aronnax safe and sound.
Trivia[]
- The Twilight Zone is in reference to the Mesopelagic zone — ocean depths from 200 to 1,000 meters — and to the American television suspense/thriller anthology series of the same name. The Twilight Zone series is noted for its eerie tone, supernatural phenomena and twist endings.