Eight

At The Briars, Llewellyn Wren threads an old reel to show the group a film of his 1970s Division 19 attempt to replicate Toronto’s Philip Experiment using a fictional entity, Elwood Hondo. Before the screening, Llewellyn’s cabinet curiosities and the group’s banter establish his polymath background and their mixed politics and beliefs.

The film shows Llewellyn leading a séance around a card table as participants taunt “Elwood.” Chairs crash and fly, a chair walks open-and-shut, and the table levitates, compelling participants to stand to keep their fingers on it. A reel-to-reel recorder self-operates, replaying a warped loop of “We Are the Champions,” devolving into unsettling sounds; scribbles appear over a Black participant’s eyes as he turns to the camera.

In the present, Donna snaps on the lights to stop the film and a sconce bulb explodes, startling everyone. Colin notes strange incidents often accompany this footage. Donna calls the film psyops fakery, proposing it was meant to spook adversaries with weaponized ghosts.

Llewellyn counters with Soviet “Goblin Scheme” history and warns that inviting the unnatural can make it stay. When Gwen asks about the man with scribbled eyes, Llewellyn confirms George Lane died weeks later in a freak collision with a fawn and that Elwood’s disturbances subsided afterward, though minor effects persist.

The group absorbs the implication that a fabricated ghost can produce real, dangerous outcomes. Llewellyn serves Scotch; Arthur takes his first harsh sip, while belief and skepticism harden on both sides.