- A stay-at-home housewife is looking forward to acquiring a heavily marketed device that promises to make everything better forever, but the product has an unsavory truth.
- Janet Warren suffers from depression after the stillborn death of her baby two years earlier. And doesn't see the appeal of the Egg, even though advertising insists it will make everything better forever and Janet's neighbors swear by it even though they've never seen it - yet.—Gislef
- A commercial plays about the future, and who is "the future". It says that everyone is, and ends with promoting the Egg even though it doesn't show it.
-----
A commercial airs for Intimacy Goggles.
-----
A commercial plays for everyone to go to their Fulfillment Center to get their family's Egg. The announcer says that the Egg will make everything okay again, forever.
-----
Janet Wallace lies on her bed, and wakes up, and looks at photos of her husband and a woman on the nightstands. She curses to herself and peers at the smoke detector on the ceiling, goes into a long-abandoned room and sniffs at the odor, and grabs a baseball bat. Leaving, Janet looks around the house for the source of the odor. The doorbell rings and Janet answers it to find her neighbor Ellen Jones there. After letting Ellen in, Janet tells her that she's losing time. Ellen suggests that Janet might be fainting, and Janet says that she's "whooshing" rather than fainting. It happens at regular intervals to her, and she hears a series of chords and then finds herself waking up.
Ellen says that the light in Janet's kitchen is the same as in hers, and criticizes the countertops. Janet says that she'd start over if she could, and wonders if what she's experiencing is caused by a brain tumor. She wonders what anyone could look for, and asks Ellen to be there when it happens and tells her what she sees. Ellen points out that she has an appointment at her fulfillment center, and wonders if she can go early or late. Janet says that her appointment isn't until 4, and Ellen wonders how she can wait to get her Egg. Janet says that she's excited to get it, and Ellen says that it will make everything okay forever. When Janet wishes they would show them the Egg, Ellen ignores her statement and says that it should help with everything.
Janet hear something and points at the ceiling, wondering if it's happening again.
A commercial plays about the Warren family having a meal, and the husband Dick takes his son to the Immolation Center to burn things.
-----
A commercial promotes the Egg even though it doesn't show it.
-----
Part One: It's Ugly. 11:30 a.m.
Janet and Ellen wake up on Janet's bed, and Ellen wonders if it's happening. She wonders how they got up there from the kitchen, and Ellen figures she should go to her appointment. Janet finds a twig her hair, and says that she saw the Egg. Ellen says that she couldn't have, and then asks if she was there. Janet doesn't know if she saw it for real, or imagined it in a commercial. She says that it was ugly, and Ellen disagrees, saying that they wouldn't go to the trouble of making it for all of them just to make it ugly. Janet thinks it's strange that all they know is that they have to have one, and wonders if it has to do with what is happening to them. Ellen tells Janet to include her, and she just came over as a good neighbor. She insists that they don't have the twig in her hair when they talked earlier, but Ellen says that she doesn't know and she has to be home for her hour of fulfillment.
Janet grabs Ellen to stop her from going, wondering if the Egg and the whooshing are related. Ellen is shocked that Janet is touching her, and Janet insists that something is happening. The neighbor drags her away despite Janet clutching at her ankle. Ellen finally pulls herself away, insists that they don't have the same problems, and runs out. Janet looks at the twig and realizes that there is a scuff mark on one of her shoes.
Part Two: Real. Human. Being: 12:15 pm
Janet calls Meghan at the customer service office while going through the many pills in her medicine cabinet. She asks for Dick, and Meghan says that Dick is in a meeting. Meghan says that Dick wanted to remind Janet when her Fulfillment appointment was, and notes that Janet doesn't seem excited about going. Janet asks Meghan why she wants her family's Egg, and Meghan just says because it's coming out. Meghan doesn't have a family, but wants everything to be okay forever. She says that she wants everything to be okay for the world, and says that things in the world definitely aren't okay. Meghan talks about human beings, and Janet figures that it must be something for the whole planet.
Janet goes outside and calls, asking for a real human being rather than automated voice. She asks for a supervisor, and Janet asks to talk to someone about the Egg and what it is, while looking around for where the twig came from. Janet is transferred and put on hold, and Janet finds the tree the twig came from. Her neighbor, Marge Stevens, arrives home holding an Egg package and saying to herself that everything will be all right. Janet runs to the edge of the grass separating their homes and asks if she can see the Egg. Stevens tells her that she can't and goes inside, clutching at the package.
A Meghan comes on Janet's line and asks how they can assist her. Janet introduces herself and wonders if it's possible to cancel her family's Egg. Meghan wonders why, and Janet says that she doesn't know what it is or what the Egg is supposed to do. Janet says that she changed her mind, and Meghan voice asks what the reason is for the change in Janet's mind. Janet says that she doesn't want the Egg anymore, and Meghan says that they're processing her request. When Janet asks if they'll send a confirmation of the cancellation, the line goes dead.
Janet goes back to her bedroom, looks out the window, and holds up the twig. She sees a scuff mark on the windowsill outside, and it matches the mark on her shoe. Janet goes to an empty nursery, finds a box with a baby monitor, takes the monitor out, and sets it up in her bedroom next to her TV. She sits down and waits for the "whooshing" to begin again. Nothing happens, and Janet goes about her daily business.
-----
A commercial plays about Janet, and the announcer says that no one blames Janet for crying in the middle of the day because she can't pick the right paper towel. Janet is relieved when she picks the right paper towel to clean up a mess.
-----
Janet wakes up on her bed, then goes to the monitor and plays back the recording. It shows her being levitated unconscious, by a tractor beam out of the bedroom.
Part Three: The Madwoman in the Oxygen Tower: 1:33 pm
Janet goes outside, looks at the tree, and calls Chantal the Stargazer at the day care that she runs. Chantal answers from her home, and Janet asks if they can talk like real human beings. When Chantal agree, Janet says that she might have been abducted. She asks if her planets say anything about it, and Chantal says that the planets say that only Janet has the power to change her destiny, and she shouldn't let herself be controlled by anyone, and she should resist gravity.
Sizing on the idea, Janet gets a tetherball from her shed. She then go up to bedroom and confirms that one of the chair is wider than her window. Janet ties the tetherball to her leg and wraps it around the leg of the chair. The tractor beams comes on, renders Janet unconscious, and pulls her out the window. The chair catches on the window. Outside are three aliens--Kanamits--and they see Janet in a tree above them. They wonder what they should do, and they consider taking Janet without her leg. One of them is hungry at the thought of Janet's leg. They bicker about their shared mind and pronouns, and wonder what to do about Janet.
Janet wakes up, as the Kanamits worry about any human waking up, because humans have their own terrible minds and wishes. Interrupting, Janet realizes that she's stuck and asks what they're doing with her. The Kanamits say that they don't know and they only work there, and Janet demands to talk to their supervisor.
Part Four: Like the Great Glittering Cities of Your World: 2:49 pm
The Kanamits force Janet to talk her life, and how she delivered a stillborn baby girl two years ago. Janet talks about everything that she has that she hates. The Kanamit workers take Janet to their supervisor, a female queen, on one of their saucers. The Queen tells Janet not to make any individualized threatening movements, and Janet asks if the Queen is afraid of her.
Janet wonders why the Queen is afraid of her, and she says that they're afraid of how humans change their minds so often. The Queen says that they have a shared mind, and there isn't enough energy to change the one mind, and Janet realizes that they've been watching them since first they heard their radios in 1945.In the 1950s, they watched the television signals human broadcast . They thought the studio audiences were evidence of a single shared mind, but were disappointed when they learned it was artificial. The Kanamits watches the TV commercials to study what human wanted and needed, and why they were often different.
When Janet points out that they don't watch their commercials anymore, and they evolved past them. The Queen says that they influence the humans' subconscious minds. Janet points out that she's not in charge of anything, and the Queen says that a human is most vulnerable when it lacks something. Janet wanted something that what she had, Janet points out that all humans are like that, and the Queen points out that Janet's grief powers her wanting and it's visible from safe. Janet wonder what the Kanamits want to do with humanity, and asks the Queen what the Egg is. The Queen admits that she laid all of the Eggs.
Ellen drives home with her Egg.
The Queen tells Janet that Egg was humanity's idea, so that everything can be okay forever. She assures Janet that everything will be okay forever because there won't be any humans around to change their minds about it.
Ellen takes the Egg into her home. It hatches and vaporizes her into a cloud of blood.
-----
A commercial plays about a girl finding a buried box in the forest. Inside is her baby doll.
-----
Janet calls to her captor, asking what time it is because she wants to go home. The Queen tells Janet that she'll be safe with them, and Janet says that she just wants to be at her designated Fulfillment Center like a normal person. When the Queen reminds Janet that she tried to cancel her family's Egg, Janet says that was before she knew what it was. The Queen asks if Janet knows that her Egg is a spawn designed to eradicate the human race, and Janet says that she does but it doesn't matter to her. She just wants to hold it, for a little while, because it's hers.
Back in her bedroom, Janet wakes up and hears emergency sirens outside, and people screaming. After looking in her empty nursery and saying that it would be better if her baby girl was coming home with her, Janet drives to the Fulfillment Center to get her Egg. People run out with their Eggs, including one of Janet's neighbors who is glad to see her there and says the Egg will make everything better. Chaos and panic spread and the Kanamit saucers hover over it all.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content