Limetown
Limetown is a scripted podcast fiction series, created by Two-Up Productions, that debuted on July 29, 2015, and became the number one US podcast on iTunes less than two months later.[2] The show has drawn comparisons to the popular podcast Serial and the 1990s television show The X-Files.[3][4][5] The series was written and directed by Zack Akers and produced by Skip Bronkie. The second season debuted on October 30, 2018.
| Limetown | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Presentation | |
| Created by | Zack Akers, Skip Bronkie, Dave Yim |
| Written by | Zack Akers, Chris Littler, Dan Moyer |
| Directed by | Zack Akers |
| Voices | Annie-Sage Whitehurst |
| Language | English |
| Production | |
| Production | Skip Bronkie |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 11 |
| Publication | |
| Original release | July 29, 2015 |
| Cited as | Vulture's Top 10 Podcasts of 2015[1] |
| Related | |
| Adaptations | Limetown (TV series) |
| Website | www |
Awards
| Award | Year | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy of Podcasters Awards | 2016 | Best Fiction Podcast | Won | [6] |
| iHeartRadio Podcast Awards | 2020 | Best Fiction Podcast | Nominated | [7] |
Plot
Limetown is a fictional story told as a series of investigative reports by Lia Haddock (played by Annie-Sage Whitehurst), a journalist for American Public Radio (APR), detailing the disappearance of over 300 people at a neuroscience research facility called Limetown, in Tennessee.[2]
Episode listing
Although the creators planned seven episodes for the first season,[2] only six were produced:[8] Very short teasers were broadcast after some episodes.[9]
| No. | Title | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "What We Know" | July 21, 2015 | |
| Ten years ago Limetown was a self-contained research facility with on-site staff housing. One day, a vague 911 call brings the police to the front gates, but security doesn't let them past and the first responders are ordered to stand down. After three days, the gates are opened, but the site is completely devoid of any trace of people, save for what looks like the result of a pyre containing traces of the remains of Oscar Totem, one of the lead researchers. Lia Haddock, a reporter for American Public Radio, is drawn to the mystery due to her uncle Emile, a Limetown resident. Despite numerous investigations and Congressional inquiries, nothing was ever resolved. She goes through interviews with various people, including fellow reporters, the head financer's biographer, an FBI agent on the case and even loved ones of the missing who believe they're all still alive, to start a dedicated series to the missing people and all who remember them, but she ends the episode with a surprise call from an alleged survivor who wants to meet with her. The survivor demands, in a tense, choked voice, they both meet alone, ending with they'll leave the details with her colleagues and affiliates, before the call ends. | |||
| 2 | "Winona" | September 6, 2015 | |
| The woman contacting Lia claiming to be a Limetown survivor only goes by "Winona". Winona insists to Lia to understand and sympathize that she chose to hide and she always feared the cost of coming out of hiding. After a mistake in forgetting their meeting place and being confused when Lia called her back, Winona apologizes, saying she needs notes for her memory loss and directs Lia to the motel she's staying at. Although she clearly has some sort of brain damage, she recounts living in Limetown with her husband and daughter, Sylvia, as well as an experience watching a man (whom she refers to as "The Man We Were All There For") experiment with some sort of telepathy, specifically trial runs where he draws exact pictures as test subjects in another room at the exact same time, copying their movements despite being cut off from each other and the subjects not noticing "The Man". He knew she was watching, sent her a telepathic message to go back home to her family. She refuses to answer most of Lia's questions and seems to imply that she has been instructed on what to do and that Lia has a role to play. She refers to the last day of Limetown as "The Panic", the day she was told to leave, again subliminally and Lia surmises that The Man We Were All There For was Oscar Totem. She gives Lia a phone on which the next survivor will contact her and smashes a teacup when presses for more questions. A man comes to Lia's motel room door late at night, repeatedly smashes his head against the door bellowing her name and yells at her that it's her warning before he rapidly smashes his head against the door then stops. Lia opens the door, but there's no one there, just the night. | |||
| – | "A quick apology" | September 26, 2015 | |
| Lia gives a formal apology for releasing the recording of the manic man who threatened Lia at her door. The police investigated and found a fatal amount of blood, but the body was never found and presumed to have been taken. Lia justifies with her refusal to be afraid and her insistence the team will move forward, already contacting the next survivor and ready to report with a conversation with them in the next episode. | |||
| 3 | "Napoleon" | October 12, 2015 | |
| Via the cell phone that Winona provided, Lia makes contact with another survivor who calls himself The Reverend, whose real name is revealed to be Dr. Warren Chambers and is also a motivational preacher to people who are dying, the particular session he holds to "Campground" in the background. He recounts how he was a veterinarian until his wife died and was part of an experiment where he and a pig named Napoleon, whom he named based on "Animal Farm", were implanted with devices that allow them to communicate mind to mind. The Reverend recounts how the empathic connection between the two, thanks to the implants and regular supplements they would take, made the pig the living creature best connected and understanding of him than he's ever experienced otherwise. After Napoleon becomes traumatized from a badly-timed emergency, which was revealed to be a false-alarm even when he was sedated from getting violent and panicking, The Reverend senses Napoleon is extremely depressed, latently scared of the trauma, unable to recover knowing there was too much to fight and comprehend, leaving him to sit and wait for other options to open. The Reverend can't take it and decides to kill the pig with a sledgehammer, Napoleon knowing and gladly accepting and giving thanks for his death, and ends up experiencing Napoleon's death. Despite him damaging his own brain to kill the tech and the deactivation of the hardware in his head, The Reverend reveals the implant was advanced to further trials, laughing at how the public never knew, saying what he felt from Napoleon led him into devotion. He refused to say more out of fear despite Lia's insistence she wanted his story and to save him and others by exposing the dangers and tragedy. The Reverend gingerly kisses Lia's head and walks her to her car, later ending up being killed by a drunk driver the next day. Lia stated in the beginning she could reveal so much personal information because the Reverend Chambers died from the collision. Lia cries after the interview at a gas station and becomes suspicious of his death, her suspicions furthered when she receives a threatening, taunting call from a strange man playing mobile music from the phone in her mother's house, repeating her name and looking through her yearbook. When her mom reaches the phone, Lia repeatedly orders her to take everyone and leave to hide, to which her mother replies, "Is it happening?", before hanging up. Lia regrets the damage done and says, emotionally, she will continue despite even the threats to her family, over which she insults the hidden violent stalkers. | |||
| – | "The 911 call" | October 31, 2015 | |
| Lia places a 911 call asking for police to come to a specific address; that of missing survivor Dr Max Finlayson, saying she heard shots over the phone. Against the advice of the operator, she hangs up and drives back. The phone call was leaked to the news and a report is played on the podcast. Lia refuses to answer until the next episode, citing it as "a complicated and perilous situation". | |||
| 4 | "DDoS" | November 2, 2015 | |
| Lia is contacted by Max Finlayson, the head neurologist at Limetown. He confirms that the purpose of the facility was to develop and test a cranial implant that would allow mind-to-mind communication. Supplements, regularly taken, help channel the communications, but Lia is appalled to find out psychotropic drugs are in the pills. Removal of the implant causes severe brain damage, as was the case with Winona. The device was a success and when Lia asks about The Man We Were All There For, Max refuses to name him and says he was the secret piece to the tech, but he reveals he saw an accordion folder with an embossed hummingbird in Oscar's office, believing that Oscar was secretly planning on selling the technology to a mysterious third party, likely relating to his murder. Max is extremely paranoid and keeps a gun nearby at all times and has his house equipped with a megaphone system that can offer him an out if he's ever in danger. He doesn't know or won't say who killed Oscar and gets personal when Lia accuses him of withholding. After Lia leaves and starts driving back, Max calls her saying "Goodbye, Dorothy" and thanking Lia for the two speaking and the sound of the sirens from the speaker system are heard. Max is then implying multiple people in the house saying they have a message: "Don't try to run." and then blasts are heard, fully revealing what prompted Lia to call 911. | |||
| – | "The central question" | November 17, 2015 | |
| Despite the clear danger involved, Lia and APR agree to continue the story and investigation. Lia plays a call to the tipline of the sister of Kenneth, a missing survivor, who insults them and threatens with lawsuits when she orders them to stay away from him. Lia admits she was close to stopping the production, but she was convinced otherwise when she got a call from the next survivor wanting to tell their story: Deirdre Wells, the ex-wife of Finlayson. Lia says after she failed to save Max, she owes Deirdre a meeting for her story to be released. | |||
| 5 | "Scarecrow" | November 23, 2015 | |
| A paranoid Lia meets in an unnamed country with Max's ex-wife, Deirdre, despite her crew and bosses insisting a phone interview and other insurance precautions. She calls out Max for not telling the whole truth and explains her side of the story, saying she's responsible for The Panic and the world deserving to know the truth, even for Max, whom she says "deserved better". She goes into their relationship, including how she is "Dorothy", in reference to The Wizard of Oz and Max is "her scarecrow" because they'd "miss each other most of all". She then elaborates how Oscar came to his lectures before leaving a mock World Fair pin saying, "I Have Heard the Future" and offering a partnership in Limetown, to which Deirdre reluctantly agreed to accompany him on after previously relentless opposition. No one knew Limetown and the citizens were the experiment, making a group with implants in them and a control group without. When the success of the implants became clear, a rift grew between residents with the implant and the control group, who take on the name, "The Old School", for themselves. Deirdre herself was without the implant while Max had it, causing them to grow apart. The Old School became somewhat more militant over time despite Deirdre insisting on it being a compassionate support group, led by a man named Spence, who worked at the supplement counter in the town, all of which the town admin's were oblivious or apathetic towards. To try and rectify the situation, Max decides to secretly give her the implant, but in a concerning panic, looking horrifically shaken. When the Old School figures out what happens, Spence, seeing Deirdre's implant when Max and she read each other's minds in what she hoped was a perfect moment in a long time, they riot. The medicinal supplements, the necessity for implant users to filter out most brainwaves, are destroyed. The implant users panic and crumble in empathic excruciation and the Old School mobs violently, which ends with the execution of Oscar Totem at a makeshift pyre in the middle of the town square. She recalls The Man sending subliminal messages a couple of times through innate psychic abilities to connect with the citizens, but especially when armed soldiers came and whisked them all away, it was barely working. She finally reveals to Lia that The Man We Were All There For was her uncle Emile who was the basis of the implants, saying she must already know, being a part of everything and warning to not give in to the people trying to kill them before leaving. Lia, in shock and at a loss because of never knowing all this time what she's been missing, tries to remember her uncle on her trip back, then goes to her attic looking for something to give her more. She finds her scarf from high school and to add to her overwhelming confusion and high-tension, she finds the same pin Oscar left for Max attached to it. Tennessee Waltz by Patti Page closes the episode there. | |||
| – | "Answers" | December 8, 2015 | |
| APR receives a mysterious picture-encrypted message offering all the answers to Limetown with a recording of a hiding room in which two people are panicking before being sieged, revealed as official footage of the situation surrounding the famous 911 call from Limetown during The Panic. The recording contains instructions on how and where Lia can meet the next survivor, as well as various conditions, the most prominent one is that the interview must be broadcast live the day it is to happen. | |||
| 6 | "Cost-Benefit Analysis" | December 14, 2015 | |
| APR agrees to do a live interview with another survivor. Lia, wearing her scarf, is escorted by an Australian prostitute to an abandoned restaurant where the survivor opens a wine cellar door and offers her coming into a room with a table, two chairs, a light and a gramophone. The survivor is a firm-hired consultant who currently calls herself "Lenore Doogle". Lenore was hired to be the city manager and all around troubleshooter, with a printed accounting ledger as her proof. She spoke with Emile and worked with him through his testing. She says she sent tapes from Limetown, especially from The Panic, to Mark in the mail, which she says should arrive in a day or two. She reveals far more than Lia expected, much of it while a kitchen timer ticks, set for 12 minutes, yelling at Lia to stay and listen when she's trying to shut off the mic and stop the interview. Secretly, she acted as a mole for a mysterious company who wanted the technology for military purposes. It was she who fed information to Oscar in order to convince him to sell out the town and Emile. She left the folder with the hummingbird sticker as a plan to ensure being provided a reward and asylum for selling the technology. When The Panic happened, Lenore contacted the Company who extracted all the implanted people via the network of limestone caves that ran under the town, killed the Old School by putting them through alkaline hydrolysis, destroyed all evidence and bribed and threatened the remaining survivors, now all over the world, into silence and solitude. As an added surprise and shock, Lenore reveals that she personally saved one person without the implant under orders: Winona's young daughter Sylvia, warning her over the air, "They know, it's time". She finally reveals Emile is still alive and had contacted her to tell her side of the story, but he has since disappeared and now the Company wants him back. The only reason they let Emile lead Lia to talk to survivors was to use her as bait to draw out Emile. Lenore then takes a suicide pill and hands another to Lia before the timer stops and the door is busted down, armed men coming running into the room, much to Lia's terror, but still saying, "If you can hear my voice, don't let this end here, don't let them win" before the mic cuts off. | |||
| – | "A statement from American Public Radio" | December 15, 2015 | |
| APR's Gina Purri announces their decision to stop the investigation into Limetown due to the danger it caused and announces investigations are under way, by APR and the FBI. She reveals Lia has been missing since the final interview and, with an honorary dedication, ends with promising to help rescue Lia, imploring, "Please, pray for Lia Haddock". | |||
| No. | Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "London" | October 30, 2018 | |
| An interrogation room setting introduces an unnamed interrogator and Charley Latimore, a high-skill fixer and mercenary who is being held captive in chains. The interrogator enquires all about her dreams, to which she says she doesn't dream. After making quips about the mediocre accommodations, the interrogator asks where Charley first offered her services, to which she replies the call on a radio show named "Sincerely Sandra", which is played to reveal "Lia" requested "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot. The messages is a ransom in cut and spliced audio clips of Lia with the message, "My uncle, Emile Haddock, you're going to find me in pieces if you don't do exactly what I say. I'm waiting for you at The Bridge. You have 72 hours. Goodbye.". Charley bluntly says, with a high-profile job and a lot of money, she was eager to take on the task. Playing footage of personal notes at an airport before fast-forwarding, Charley says she's "thorough" while the interrogator says she's "paranoid". She meets with her potential employer whom she has contacted and with whom she has set up a meeting, Eugene Demeter, a nervous wreck over being involved in the conspiracy and out of his mind trying to get out of facing penalties. She meets him and gives him several instructions to be discreet in making evidence and activity harder to find, not drawing suspicion and being careful in communicating with her, arranging meetings, the entire dirt-under-the-rug operation as a whole. Eugene keeps being disturbed by his subordinates and federal agents wanting to reach him, enough to the point where he rips the phone out of the wall and screams at his aid. He's appalled by Charley's demand of 1.2 million pounds for her services, but eventually caves in and hires her despite his opposition and shock as well as the finances being his kids' college fund. She reveals she stole the tapes Lenore mailed, ripping the audio from them. She gives them to Eugene, telling him to meet her at the Pink Nori eatery not far from the building. She closes saying to ask the agents a lot of questions "because everyone wants to know where Lia is except the guy who took her", slipping out covertly and leaving. She meets Eugene at the restaurant, who brings the first payment and has ordered his subordinates to go home and await instructions. He tells her the name of Lia's captor, Daniel Rasmueller, referring to him as "the employee from hell". While heavily drinking, Eugene elaborates he partnered with him to drop off payments at a marina Lenore covertly commissioned him to do for extra money. Daniel, being a large man, appeared from the shadows and confided the payments were hush money to Limetown survivors. At some point, Eugene wanted out from having enough money, but Daniel made a veiled threat at his son to keep him working as well as quiet. Charley puts together the timeline of events, how Daniel terrorized Lia, killed the survivors, then kidnapped Lia, surmising Daniel wants Emile, no longer caring about the Company. To the disbelief of Eugene, Charley says she's going to kill Daniel and Lia to make the world no longer care and eventually forget the conspiracy. She instructs Eugene to go to a motel room she has reserved for him under a false name and wait for her call. The tape ends with the interrogate getting from Charley that's when she first heard of Daniel. She criticizes him for using misnomers for the mailed tapes and evades and fires back at the interrogator trying to pry her perspective. She urges him incredulously to play a tape showing Lenore, Daniel and two other employees, Ken and Kelly. They discuss how they plan to kill everyone in the town except for Emile, but Daniel has serious, strong objections despite Lenore's apathy. Daniel suddenly says half the town has the tech, so they have to be studied for longer. Lenore, pleased with the option, says Daniel is responsible for the survivors and if they slip, talking or otherwise, he dies with the rest of them, forcing him to agree. Charley's asked about another tape that shows there was more devastation after Limetown. She's averse and outright terrified to hear the tape while she's being berated beforehand, vaguely taunted by the interrogator so she doesn't fight the tape being played. It reveals burning, screaming, Danial going mad and Emile panicking and begging Daniel to stop. The interrogator asks a crying Charley, "Are you ready to tell me where Lia Haddock is?", and when she says she can't say, he states they'll continue days later when she refuses. He abides by Charley's request to leave the lights on and leaves Charley alone in chains. | |||
| 1.5 | "The Alison Recording" | November 5, 2018 | |
| In the middle of a chaotic, loud tape of intermixed noises to torture Charley, the interrogator furiously storms in demanding the tape with Alison Haddock, along with other inquiries like "Did you hurt her?". Charley admits to sneaking it without Alison knowing, she chose the "embarrassing" option of her smartphone, unlocking it for Emile snarking he could've just asked and directing to the voice memo. She says Alison was disguising herself and sitting at a bar alone, quipping she seems "used to being in grief" to the mild provocation of the interrogator. The recording starts nearing the end of the talk, Alison saying she "broke the deal". She then says she promised to tell Lia everything, but she lied, saying there's one thing she left out: Alison saw Emile again, in St. George, Utah, having a feeling when she remembered he saw a "cheesy space movie" there. Once she found out about "scavenging" break-ins and got more confident, she found Emile by a campfire in the desert, homeless, withered, with long hair. She cupped his face begging him to come home, but he kept muttering, "Glass Joe made them swim". When Alison was turning back, Emile mentioned another disaster happened that traumatized him severely, that there's a girl he needs to protect from "Glass Joe" before falling back into his trance. She revealed the girl is Sylvia, "Winona"'s daughter, who was smuggled out by Lenore, Alison shocked and heartbroken when she found out Sylvia was saved. When Charley pressed her further, Alison emotionally snaps back she's grappling for answers, but she failed to save her husband, daughter and Emile and she was let down by her own incapabilities, as well as a hidden uniqueness of hers she implies relates to Limetown and the conspiracy. The recording ends, with Charley confirming she first heard about "Glass Joe" at that time and the bar meet's how she ended up reaching Sylvia next. The interrogator thanks her "for cooperating", but before he leaves, she snorts, "what does drowning feel like", to which he retorts back "I'm gonna find what hurts you" before restarting the loud tape and slamming the door shut. | |||
| 2 | "Bordeaux" | November 12, 2018 | |
| The episode starts with a tape of a woman, later revealed as Sylvia, saying she gets notices of someone killing Limetown survivors and is on the run to not be murdered as well. The interrogator stops it, then rewinds to a trivia bowl in a pub, where he wants to start. Charlie sits in a bar examining the crowd and staff, when she finds Sylvia behind the counter, Sylvia running when she notices she's after her. Charlie gives chase and tackles her to the ground, headbutting her to stop her struggling "because she was being difficult", to the chagrin and disgust of the interrogator. He and Charlie ask each other "why don't you care about hurting people". Sylvia starts to resists and swear at Charley when Sylvia walks away, but Charlie convinces her by mentioning Emile, especially since she finds out Sylvia knows about Daniel. Sylvia says she's in charge of deciding how she answers Charley's questions, then the two of them start walking. She elaborates on how Lenore smuggled her out, conditioned her into a fake life, Sylvia going between jobs and institutions, which manipulated and traumatized her overtime as she was worn down and hidden all over the world. As they both get on a train, she talks about how she met Emile years alter, assuming she's gonna go home to meet her parents again. But he says to her Daniel is traveling around the world executing Limetown survivors and disguising their deaths, which Lenore gives Sylvia updates on with her care packages, revealing the specifics of the clip in the beginning of the episode. She goes to get her hair dyed at a salon, but when she's left alone, she's terrorized, scalded with water her hair's under, and felt around her scalp by Daniel, who she knows is there despite her eyes being closed. She opens her eyes and sees him, to which he says "Boo" and shoves a towel on her face before disappearing. She says she ran out of the salon and fled the city, traveling around the world more intensely than she ever had, because that one day, Lenore's assistant typed the wrong country where Daniel was in. She decided to travel the world herself more to make her own life and gain independence. Before Lenore killed herself on air, she sent Sylvia international identities and supplies, such as license plates, which she kept in her car trunk and showed to Charley. She wanted to be a dance teacher and open up her own school, but Limetown stole her freedom and opportunity, adding insult to injury, she lost hope hearing Winona, her damaged and disoriented mother, on the radio special Lia was hosting. When she mentions the Bridge, Charlie starts up in alert and presses her vehemently on what it is. All she knows is it's in Halifax, Canada, which is where she met Emile. She's upset Charley doesn't know where her family is, then says she's leaving because Charley found her, ending with wanting a sign if Daniel's dead before driving off. The interrogator pries on what surprised Charlie during the talk, and Charley says she was livid Eugene never told her about Daniel's murder spree. The next tape reveals a confrontation she had with Eugene on his hotel phone, Eugene going even more insane and unnerved as time passes. Charlie's even more exasperated and provoked when she finds out the Bridge is why Lenore resigned. Eugene can barely tell her more, so she hangs up. Charlie denies she was afraid of Daniel, saying she has no fear. The interrogator retorts back she's lying, she screamed on a tape and asks about it. She says a bloodied, mutilated deer charged out from the bushes and she was nearly hit by them. She's asked again by the interrogator "Are you ready to tell me where Lia Haddock is?", responding with silence. She's then left alone again with the tape of the deer and her set on repeat to try and madden her some more, before the episode cuts out and ends. | |||
| 2.5 | "The Majda Tape" | November 19, 2018 | |
| A little girl named Majda is asked to take out a contact in her eye. She sends silent messages saying she's fighting the attempts and angry they wanna take it out. She hits her mom and screams when they try some more. Eventually, despite protest, she gives and relinquishes the contact. She's asked about dreams she's been having by a presiding doctor she hates, and after some hesitation, she vaguely implies "he" comes into her dreams and haunts her. She said "he" tells her to do things, which they reply with like when she sneaked walnuts into her dad's breakfast and made him get an allergic reaction. She said "Glass Joe" manipulated her, which is the thing she mentions is in her nightmares. When she's asked who "Glass Joe" is, she starts breathing heavily before she stops and whispers "I am". The tape then ends. | |||
| 3 | "Halifax" | November 26, 2018 | |
| Charley throws a ball around the room, but she doesn't catch it one time and it rolls away. The interrogator brought gingerbread cookies he bought, and when Charley asks for the ball, he asks if her ball so she'd tell him where Lia is if he took it, which she's unfazed by. She's then asked about Maggie Kempner, the only survivor of the Bridge. Charley said she found her through payouts she received after the bridge face a deadly disaster, then, as is shown in the tapes, she asked around, trying to find other who knew her, until a florist directed her with instructions and she found Maggie's house in the wilderness. She knocks on the door, realizing it's open and someone's still there. She finds Maggie, who fires a handgun she was holding under her chin but narrowly missed her at the last second when she changed her mind. Charlie disarms her and stops her from hitting her head, assuring her she doesn't want to kill her and walking her to her kitchen table. Maggie thinks she's playing games, assuming Daniel and Emile are dead from the fire at the bridge. When she faces the truth, she's shocked. She's asked about all she can say about the Bridge, which she takes outside so she can smoke. Maggie says she wanted to kill herself for a while and knew she must be someone who was hired help, saying "i learned a long time a go that monsters rarely look like monsters". The interrogator is surprised by how Charlie can get others to talk and just sits and listens to it all, which she sums up by saying she says what meets them on eye level, hearing the things she doesn't know already to be prepared for more later. She's also asked how Maggie was, which she responds with pretty bad, scolding the interrogator's regret for her since she was another victim of the Company, which he retorts by scolding her lack of empathy from his viewpoint. Maggie continues with her account, saying she was hired to care for the children on the Bridge, referred by her ex, an unethical medical practitioner, and she didn't wanna see her dad deteriorate from Alzheimer's. She was brought onto the bridge, made to sign an NDA, and couldn't stand the staff or the endangering, confrontational procedures, but she bonded with Daniel, who was a bodyguard for Emile and at the Bridge with his kids Tyler and Macy. She loved taking care of the kids, especially when they and she stood up for each other, tearing up and getting devastated remembering what she experienced with the kids and what happened to them in the end. She feeds the chickens in her coupe, walks with Charlie to her garden and the memorial she set up as an "apology for outliving them". During all that, she relays what happened with the Contact, a mind-linking eyewear developed to be tested on everyone on the Bridge, a barge on a harbor dock, how even the kids got it. She found it freaky how the barge got so quiet, except for the occasional emotional responses out loud, she was especially averse to the contact not catching lies and overwhelming users with more "sophisticated" emotions, which was especially difficult for her because she encourages the kids to not rely on the contacts so much, losing their own abilities and mature development. She delighted in Tyler's and Macy's company, noting Daniel being quiet and antisocial but being a real softy with his children, telling dry cheap jokes, but they all cherished their activities and company together, even going off the barge to eat at Don Quixote, or "the Dick", a Hispanic restaurant they walked to for meals often. She's especially devastated and at the end even cries when she recalls how she left to handled her father's affairs after he died. Macy was sad she didn't wanna talk with her while she was gone, Maggie regretting it even more when muscles took Maggie away, kept her in a room with who's revealed to be Lenore, and told her a fire "by accident" was set at the bridge, everyone died, even seeing charred corpses as proof. She regrets signing another NDA and taking lump sums so she never reported, and wanting to point a gun at herself instead of the problem. She immediately recognized Lenore on the broadcast and shocked by the realization the Bridge stole the tech from the Limetown experiments. When she's heartbroken to be reminded Daniel and Emile are still alive after the entire tragedy, she's repeatedly inquired about the bridge while she babbles everyone else must've survived as well. She finally gives Charlie the info she needs: the dock's at Popes Harbour, still there even after the Bridge is gone. Maggie wants to come with Charlie to talk down Daniel, save him and Emile, relentless even when Charlie threatens her and tells her to disappear again. When Maggie fights and begs more, she's punched out by Charlie and the recording ends. Charlie reveals she "finished" what Maggie "started": she shot her and disguised her death as a suicide, because she didn't want to be followed and compromised. The interrogator leaves, locking her in again. She gets back to throwing the ball around the room. | |||
| 3.5 | "The Cortez KO" | December 3, 2018 | |
| An old tape of a boxing match between Daniel and another boxer named Cortez. Daniel throws his signature punches and weakens Cortez, only for Cortez to fight back and beat him down, winning the match ended Daniel's career. The tape ends and is taken out of the player. | |||
| 4 | "The Bridge" | December 10, 2018 | |
| Charlie's smiling because she's confident on how things'll end. The interrogator retorts "you're all about efficiency" because she's says "fear isn't useful". As the interrogator rewinds the tape in the player, which Charlie recognizes, he says "it's a reminder" to Charlie about her complicity in the Company's actions with her own, the two arguing about hearsay from him and Daniel to Charley before it's played. Charlie's driving up to Don Quixote, getting out of the rain to get a booth in the restaurant after eventually agreeing to the regulations. She surveys the customers and employees, asking her waiter questions about any recent activity. He struggles with answering her questions and gets confused, thinking she wants the manager. Charlie, seeing she's getting nowhere, goes to check out the restrooms. The office is locked, and the interrogator finds it hilarious she walked in on the men's room when it was occupied. She's back at the table, and she's brought soda water. After hearing the voice of the employee and a comment on Rohypnol, she realizes Daniel's in front of her. He pins her down and forces her not to leave despite her threats and demands. Even when she points a gun at his groin, he refuses to let her leave. She's forced to walk into his office, all the while he's making more dry jokes. He believes she wants "Glass Joe" more than Emile. He tells her it's just a ghost story in his family. He was a talented boxer, but he had a "glass jaw", or weak chin, so that weakness being hit a lot is what led him to quit. When his kids found old tapes of his matches, especially the ones he lost, he made up a "bad guy" he named "Glass Joe" who was always beating him up. His wife, Gadeesha, was killed by a car fire, which he told his kids because she didn't like euphemizing to the children. With one difference: the kids thought "Glass Joe" killed their mom, which led to horrible nightmares. With a gun in Charley's hand to keep watch on Daniel, they left the office and start walking along the road in the rain. Daniel said he hoped things would change when he got a job in the Company. When he escorted Emile, who was in shock, out of the facility, he told Emile what happened, which devastated him all the way along the right. They stayed at a motel before their transfer and passed the time, but Emile couldn't take the tragedy, so he was found by Daniel contemplating suicide, his wrists exposed, a razor blade on the faucet. Daniel regrets that "was all for show" because Daniel wanted to not be lonely, but he still told him about his family, "Glass Joe", and enough bad jokes that one made Emile laugh so much he talked about his own family and life as well. Daniel encouraged him, more to his regret, that the Bridge could be different, if they perfected the tech, another disaster wouldn't happen. Emile, Daniel, and Tyler and Macy arrived on the barge, as the acclimation to the setting was starting, they grew closer because Daniel watched over him. Emile got jealous when he wasn't involved, again concerned about Limetown, with Daniel encouraging him once again. Emile then ends up motivated to perfect the contact and actively participate, but he also made it mandatory everyone got the contact, even the children. The studies went on, but the admins never cared to give notice the kids saw it as a toy, them making their own fantasy worlds, especially when they played just thinking to each other in the nursing room they took because it wasn't being used. The more mature thoughts and emotions before being taught filters and blocking people out also seriously traumatized and impacted the kids. But they eventually came to their own peace and acclimated to the new tech, but dreams were harder to work with wearing the contact, especially since the kids wore them at night against the rules. Emile dreamed of Limetown, thus so did the kids. Tyler asked what happened, Emile was scared of being blamed, so he said "Glass Joe" caused the riots and public execution. The kids were suddenly scared of "Glass Joe, who punishes for not doing what he wants", they even hallucinated and envisioned their own fears that "Glass Joe" was equated with by their imaginations. They blocked out the adults, who didn't pay much mind, and they started to both fear and hallucinate "Glass Joe" even more, manipulated to do awful things "Glass Joe wanted". They eventually reach the dock, charred from the fire, and Daniel tells what happened during the fire. It was during an anniversary party where everyone loved celebrating their time and effort on the boat. Everyone was so conked out, they couldn't stop the kids from disappearing, which Emile woke Daniel up for. Daniel realized Emile knew what happened, which Daniel felt putting his contact back in: the kids were swimming in the sea water, carrying the toddlers, because "Glass Joe said the boat was on fire, and the kids had to swim", listening to nothing more than an imaginary figure, until they all drowned and disappeared in the waters. Charlie then again inquires about the fire. Daniel, speaking in third-person, strongly suggest he hallucinated "Joe", dissociating into a psychotic state that led him to burn the boat with everyone but Emile inside, which eventually drove him to also murder the survivors so they didn't suffer any longer, then reach Emile to "finish the job". Charlie knows Daniel's losing it, so she cocks her gun again and demands Lia's location. He demands her to turn off the recorder so she only knows where Lia is. It's heavily implied when she gets the answer, she kills Daniel off the record. Charlie still insists she doesn't need to answer to the interrogator, who's outright appalled she's withholding an answer of a dangerous dead murderer. Since yelling and guilting her doesn't work, she taunts him about a voicemail Emile left to Daniel to beg him to stop. When she reveals the interrogator is the one who sent the message it's obviously apparent from connecting the dots the interrogator has always been and is Emile Haddock. Lividly, he growls and throws a chair when Charlie keeps insulting him on his cowardice and inadequacy. When Charlie says he'll never know the answer, he says he has all the time he needs. When Charlie says Lia doesn't, Emile hisses there's another thing he's ready to try. | |||
| 5 | "Limetown (Finale)" | December 17, 2018 | |
| Charlie walks through the forest with Emile, blindfolded on top of the chains she's shackled to, walking to an unknown destination to further break and provoke Charlie for answers. She loses her blindfold and she laughs and says Emile's a "fool" for bringing her to the gates of Limetown, unfazed by the sight of the gates. He says she's been to the city before, making her demand in surprise how he knows. All he does is beckon her along. She's still confident she knows how it'll end, but she humors him, describing the town in detail as she walks along. He eventually has her enter one house, noting the windows looking in on each other so residents wouldn't be alone. She points out the cuckoo clock on the wall. He says when both of his parents died, his foster home had a cuckoo clock he couldn't stand the noise of. But he loved including it in every house because although it told him he wasted time being sedentary, he cherished that it's a part of him. He winds the clock so it doesn't chirp and disrupt the two, ironically by getting the music to play. As they walk out, toward the pyre, he says Oscar was obsessed with The Republic and the idea of a society where everyone has a job and does it. Charlie starts to blame and berate Emile, which he loves because he gets into Charlie's mind more. Emile says he's failed everyone he's met, including not paying attention to lies of others he was tied to and he heard when we suspected "his perfect town" was starting to crumble, ending with she can hide herself from him, which she denies even doing. Emile says he wants to continue the conversation and wants to talk about "her". Charlies assumes Lia, but Emile reveals she has a twin sister, Cleo. He has her join her at the movie theater, still persistent on breaking through her blocks and the bargaining she continues to get him to believe what happen to Lia and to be released. He starts the breaker, then turns on the movie. It's also revealed Cleo hid in the theater when the Panic happened. She sits with him when he plays "Death on Mars", the movie he watched in Utah that's a favorite of his. Charlie's encouraged to talk about her and her sister. She says there's truth to the usual twin jokes they heard. She thought of her as better, even though she never hated her. They were each other's only friends even in their teen years, when they moved around to different forts their army father was stationed at. That was when their first tragedy happened, him being so traumatized, he hanged himself from a tree he sat and spaced under. They both got an empathic sense of their dad and finding him dead, even though Cleo found him first. Cleo felt the need to "redeem and prove" herself after and excelled in her ventures and accomplishments from then on, Charlie in the army, at the same place their dad fought. Charlie pretended for her sister since she didn't deserve to be excruciated by "debt and guilt", but it didn't work because that's why she accepted being at Limetown. Then she criticized Emile, challenging him for supporting himself and being appalled he let what was built for him be destroyed at everyone else's expense, getting more livid when Emile presses further, intolerant of Emile not taking a hint. Emile, during "Death on Mars" elaborates how the Martian was abandoned and how the Earth is distantly in every shot to show distance and loneliness. Charlie continues to say Cleo ran to her after she was saved, which she regretted not seeing as a sign of how she was traumatized. They reunited at their dad's house, but Charlie noticed their connection of empathy was severed. Emile says the Martian is a prisoner sent from Earth meant to find something so he could come home. Emile talks about he has the strongest empathy and psychic abilities of everyone he knows, but Charlie is objective against it because their loved ones feel it especially in their personal devastation. Charley, oppositional of talking more about Cleo, especially since thinks the tech was destroyed, but Emile reveals the technology was finalized and is ready for distribution. It's enough to get Charlie to continue: Cleo had identity crises and serious signs of trauma. She had the chip, but it hurt her so much, she tried to cut it out with a knife. Charlie tried to appeal to her, be empathetic again to save their connection. Cleo said she wanted to go the beach, so they both went to spend the rest of the day. Cleo waited for the sun to set so she could get rocks from a fort a kid built. She put them in the pockets of the dress she was wearing. Charlie tried to stop her, but Charlie finally saw how she lost her sister, helped her get some more rocks, and left her to drown in the ocean. Charlie hates Emile provoked her emotions and starts to seemingly cry. When Emile finally goes for prying Lia's location, Charlie stops and then starts to laugh. She insults Emile on trying to expect a state and reaction from her. The she reveals she has no twin sister and her name's not "Charley". She made it all up and let Emile catch her and hold her captive so she'd have Emile waste his time, knowing Emile would use his psychic abilities to get into her head, so she gave him images and a story he wanted. Emile is shocked, frazzled, oppositional, in denial, and getting extremely emotional and panicked over what he'll never know about Lia. Charlie, delighting in terrorizing him and leaving him answerless, taunts him with two possibilities on what happened to Lia: Charlie found Lia in Australia, interrogated her brutally, then sold her as well as her mother; or she killed Lia, brutally, torturing her and disfiguring her along her scars, her last words being "tell my uncle 'Apple' says goodbye". Emile tackles Charlie, and yells at her to tell him the truth. Charlie picks the chains, gets up, tells Emile it's over and he can't find the answer, and leaves him to grieve and cry as the film ends. Lia is revealed indeed alive, held hostage in a testing room, being asked "tell me about your dreams, tell me everything you remember", if they're "percipient". She says she dreamed the Company thought they won, that Limetown was forgotten again. The end is left open by her says she has faith the story will always be remembered, just before the credits are read off. | |||
Other media
Prequel book
Two-Up Productions signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster to produce a prequel of Limetown in novel form. It was written by Cote Smith and released on November 13, 2018.[10][11]
TV series
On October 8, 2018, it was announced that Jessica Biel would star as Lia Haddock for a Limetown TV series, to air on Facebook Watch.[12] Stanley Tucci was cast as Emile Haddock.[13] The first season run of 10 episodes premiered October 16, 2019.[14] The series was cancelled by Facebook Watch after its inaugural season. It is now available on the NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock.
See also
References
- "The 10 Best Podcasts and 10 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015". Vulture. December 11, 2015. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
- "Limetown, a chilling new podcast, is your paranormal Serial replacement". Vox. September 28, 2015. Archived from the original on December 28, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
- "Serial meets The X-Files in Limetown, a fictional podcast drawing raves after just one episode » Nieman Journalism Lab". Niemanlab.org. August 28, 2015. Archived from the original on December 26, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
- Melissa Locker (October 25, 2015). "Limetown: the podcast that bridges the gap between X-Files and Serial | Culture". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
- "Limetown podcast preview". Chicago Tribune. October 9, 2015. Archived from the original on January 16, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
- "Academy of Podcasters: Past Winners". Academy of Podcasters. Podcast Movement. Archived from the original on October 3, 2017.
- "2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards: Full List of Winners". iHeart. Archived from the original on January 18, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
- "Limetown". Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
- "Limetown — Two-Up". Twoupproductions.com. May 12, 2017. Archived from the original on July 28, 2018. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
- "An update from Two-Up". us11.campaign-archive2.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
- "Limetown Page". Two-Up. Archived from the original on July 16, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- Andreeva, Nellie (October 8, 2018). "Jessica Biel To Star In 'Limetown' Facebook TV Series Based On Podcast". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on July 20, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- "'Limetown': Stanley Tucci, Marlee Matlin, Kelly Jenrette Join Facebook Watch Series". Deadline Hollywood. December 6, 2018. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- Limetown. Facebook Watch. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
External links
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