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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Today we catch up with Jen and Kira, 42:21-44:23 on the Blu-ray.

First, there’s an establishing shot of some plants alongside the water. Look carefully and you can spot some critters mucking about in the tall grass. In the distance we can hear singing. Fade to a shot of Jen, Kira, and Fizzgig in a boat, heading down the river. Kira is singing, and piloting the boat as well. Just where did she get this boat, and what is it made of? There’s a fleeting reference in the tie-in material about Gelfling boats being made of “bone and crystal,” but I don’t think that applies here. Kira’s boat appears to be a gigantic leaf, really. Part of some ancient petrified plant, perhaps? Whatever song this is, it has no lyrics beyond, “Ahh, ahh, ahh.” (Amusingly, a fan at the DarkCrystal.com boards started a poll asking everyone to vote on whether Kira is either “a great Gelfling singer” or “the greatest Gelfling singer.”)

This raises an interesting question. For all the talk about music in this world, is there any mention of songs with lyrics? There’s a huge Gelfling concert orchestra playing in one of Legends of the Dark Crystal’s most powerful scenes, but no singing there. The mysterious narrator of Creation Myths (whose identity has still yet to be revealed, by the way) quotes an old Gelfling “rhyme” but that does not necessarily mean song lyrics. Even if songs with lyrics do exist on this world, clearly it is the pure sound of notes which gives music its importance in The Dark Crystal.

We can see the sky in the background and the wind in the characters’ hair, which reveals that this scene was filmed outdoors, bringing to mind the great opening of The Muppet Movie with Kermit on the log. Jen picks up his flute (not a euphemism) and plays along with Kira’s singing. Animals on the bank watch them from a distance. The website states that location filming for the movie took place in Yorkshire, England. Could that be this scene?

This little song of theirs goes on for a while. Why is this in the movie? For one, remember that music is an important part of this world. As noted in an earlier post, the Creation Myths graphic novel tells us that this world was created not with light or with “the word” but with a song. We’ve seen the crystal shard be effected by harmonics, and we’ve seen the Mystics chant in action. Even in these dire times, music is still an important part of these characters’ lives. Also, it’s a great bonding moment for Jen and Kira. The dream-fasting thing kind of precludes small talk, so here is a way for them to get to know each other and make a connection, in a way that is purely cinematic.

The good times can’t last, though. Fizzgig, watchful “dog” that he is, senses something coming and growls. We see a Crystal Bat in the sky, looking somewhat tattered around the wings. Kira knows exactly what this means and she tells Jen to “get down.” (Get down where? There’s on a boat. Maybe she just means for him not to show his face.) Kira pulls out a bolo-style weapon, twirls it, and flings the projectile, handily knocking the bat out of the sky. (Amusingly, the screenplay calls this weapon a “weighted thong.”) Where/how did Kira learn to use this thing? As we’ll soon learn, Garthim raiding parties are a fairly common occurrence among Kira’s people. Also, if we’re to believe Kira is of the Gelfling Vapra clan (info on all the clans can be found at DarkCrystal.com, I won’t repeat them all here), the Vapra were supposedly experts in camouflage. This stands to reason that they had something to hide from, so Kira’s people, whether that be Gelflings or Podlings, have trained themselves for protection when exploring the woods.

The bat splashed down into the water. Kira tells Jen that what the bats see, the Skeksis see, too. She further says she doesn’t think the bat saw them. They continue down the river, but we can see the bat poke its head out of the water, watching them. We get a close-up shot of it, with Jen and Kira reflected in its big crystal eye. It also has a couple of bone-like structures on the sides of his head that look a lot like antlers.

The next shot is of the Mystics, making their long journey. This is, again, a device to show the passage of time. The sky behind them is darker now, giving us the feeling that it’s later in the day, and their creeping progression from one side of the screen to the other gives us a sense of moving forward. How much time passes for them appears to be longer than the amount of time passing for Jen and Kira, however, which has me wondering if the Mystics’ rarely-mentioned magic is at work here. Either way, when we rejoin Jen and Kira in the next scene, there’s no question time has passed.

Next: Party down with the Podlings!

****

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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it. Today it’s one of the most disgusting – and therefore one of the most beloved – scenes in the movie, 38:01-42:20 on the Blu-ray.

You’ll recall that we left off on an absolutely adorable shot of a Nebrie and its two babies, in a moment of extreme cuteness. But in this movie, which has given so many children so many nightmares over the years, such cuteness cannot stand, so we fade from the cute Nebries to a dead one, on a plate, about to be served as dinner to Skeksis. We’re in the castle, and the dead-eyed Podling slaves are carrying dead Nebrie to the dinner table. The plate also contains what looks like potatoes and some small hard shells, no doubt a lobster-like delicacy. The Skeksis hit the point home by saying, “Roast Nebrie, my favorite,” and, “I want the rare piece.” I guess “rare” in this case means something unique, that each Nebrie has only one of. I’ll leave it to your imaginations as to what that might be.

Yes, this is the famous dinner scene. The camera pulls back, and we see all the Skeksis sitting at their table, in oversized chairs, chowing down. This goes on for a while, with no dialogue, just shots of them all eating, with wonderfully gross sound effects of them chewing, slurping, and even belching. Two of them fight over a piece of meat. Another has a long metal spike attached to his fingertip, as a sort of eating utensil. The General dips a piece of meat in some sauce. The Gourmand (that’s right, the fat one is the Gourmand) plunges his whole face into a bowl and emerges with meat tendrils dangling from his mouth. Another rips meat off a bone with his beak.

Another Skeksis, the Ornamentalist, goes against type, daintily gnawing on a bone rather than chomping down on it, and then delighting with pleasure at its taste. On the Blu-ray’s bonus features, Jim Henson discusses portraying the Ornamentalist during this scene. This is where he states that despite the male pronouns, the Skeksis are in fact sexless, and that he sees a lot of feminine qualities in them, the Ornamentalist in particular. If you rewatch The Dark Crystal with the approach that the Skeksis are a bunch of dithering old ladies, suddenly it’s a whole different movie.

The General is not so pleased with the meal, declaring a chunk of meat to be “rotten” and tossing it over his shoulder. There’s a shot of a couple of rodent-like critters on the floor the Skeksis toss meat to. They look a lot like Philo and Gunge, the Trash Heap’s sidekicks from Fraggle Rock. Then… more eating. More meat hanging from the Skeksis’ mouths as they eat. Finally, the Skeksis Ritual-Master breaks the silence, reminding the others that the Gelfling, Jen, escaped. The General, speaking with his mouth full, argues that no Gelfling has ever escaped the Garthim. This is not true at all, as we saw Gelflings fight, defeat, and escape from Garthim in the manga Legends of the Dark Crystal. The General is clearly exaggerating in this scene, to maintain intimidation over the other Skeksis.

With that dialogue exchange done, we get even more eating. Showing increasingly deplorable table manners, the Skeksis pick their teeth, and one sticks his beak into a bowl of liquid. (Water? Soup? We don’t know.) He then shakes his head kind of like how a wet dog shakes itself, and he takes a napkin from a Podling slave and wipes his face. OK, so maybe there are some table manners. Another Skeksis demands, “More food!” A Podling arrives with a bowl full of small mouse-like critters. “Dessert! Crawlies!” a Skeksis says. One of the Crawlies, still alive, hops out of the bowl and skitters across the table. Several Skeksis try to grab or smash it as it runs past, but it avoids them. At the end of the table, the Gourmand catches it, and immediately stuffs the poor little thing into his mouth, saying, “Not bad at all.” Brian Froud has mentioned this scene in many interviews over the years, saying the Crawlies were cheap little wind-up toys he found at a local toy store. He likes to point this out, arguing that you don’t always need multi-million dollar special effects when simple innovation will do.

This has been just over two minutes of screentime devoted to nothing but the Skeksis eating. What are we to make of this? To start, it’s a contrast to the previous scene where Kira was all harmonious with nature, here we see Skeksis being all gross and carnivorous, eating the animals that Kira was so kind to. Second, all this helps establish the “reality” of this world, so we’re not thinking of these creatures as merely puppets. We see them biting into meat, tearing the meat of the bone with their jaws. We see them interacting with liquid, the water dripping from their mouths. It’s all about selling the Skeksis as living things, and further immersing viewers into this fantasy world. Also, note that the Skeksis are not sitting around a dinner table, but are seating in a single row, facing outward. This no doubt made filming easier, but it’s also a reminder as to their past. The tie-in fiction states that they once held grand balls inside the castle, and this dinner setup is clearly a remnant of those glory days. Look in the background of this scene and you can see junk all over the floor, more tattered curtains on the walls, and so on, all showing how far into disarray this world has become.

A few Garthim enter the room, and the Skeksis get all excited because they think the Garthim have captured Jen. The Garthim have a big sack with someone struggling inside it. The Skeksis demand, “Release the Gelfling!” Only, it’s not a Gelfling, it’s Aughra inside there. She struggles her way out of the bag as the Skeksis react with surprise. She calls the Skeksis fools, and tells them “Of course I’m no Gelfling you putrid lizards!” She then adds, “I’ll get my eye to you.” I’ll admit it: I have no idea what she means by that. Whatever it means, the Skeksis react with fear upon hearing this, as if it’s a threat. The Ritual-Master deduces that Aughra was with Jen and was helping him. He demands to know where Jen is. Aughra responds only with “Gone.”

Aughra approaches the Skeksis, taking a moment to punch one of the Garthim out of frustration. It doesn’t hurt the Garthim, but it makes Aughra look pretty badass, standing up to the big scary monster. She asks why the Skeksis didn’t just ask her to begin with, instead of sending their soldiers to attack her home. (Would she have helped them if they asked nicely? We’d like to think not, but it’s hard to say. Remember how scatterbrained she acted when she first met Jen.)

Aughra then loses it, going on an epic rant: “Moldy mildew mother of mouthmuck! Dangle and strangle to death!” The Ornamentalist doesn’t like this, saying “How crude!” The Ritual-Master calls Aughra a “harridan” and states that the Skeksis are the lords of the Crystal. (I looked it up. “Harridan” means a hag, shrew, or scolding woman.) Aughra takes a second to examine a piece of glassware on the Skeksis’ table, and then reminds them of the prophecy, that a Gelfling will end Skeksis’ power. Note that here it’s a definite that this will happen, when in other instances the prophecy only said it might happen. Aughra does her slapsticky sit-down-with-grunt thing again, and she says the Gelfling will come and “make you crawl like the worms you are.” Oohh, so she’s using the prophecy here not so much to be accurate, but to stick it to the Skeksis, no doubt in retaliation for them trashing her home.

For first-time viewers, this is mostly humorous stuff, in that the Skeksis captured her instead of Jen. Once you’ve read the tie-in fiction, though, this scene has a whole new dynamic. Aughra and the Skeksis know each other, and they’ve known each other for a very long time. Therefore, the Skeksis have every right to be afraid of her, because they know how important she is to this world, and she has every right to snap at them, because she’s seen all they’ve done and how far they’ve fallen. Instead of just a wacky mix-up, this scene is about years of tension between these characters finally coming to a head.

The General demands, “Find the Gelfling now!” The Ritual-Master orders the Crystal Bats to fly, commanding them to “Search the water, search the land, search the sky.” We see the Crystal Bats take off from the ceiling and fly off. As they do so, we can see the Garthim leading Aughra away. This shows that, despite her ripping into them, she’s still their prisoner. Then there’s the Wizard of Oz flying monkeys shot, with the Crystal Bats flying off into the sunset sky. The tie-in materials tell us that, like the Garthim, the Crystal Bats are artificial creatures created by the Skeksis. Each one is affixed with a crystal that somehow broadcasts images back to the Dark Crystal, in the castle. According to canon, the Skeksis grew hardier and hardier Crystal Bats over the years, to the point where they can command the Garthim through the Crystal Bats, so they no longer have a need to leave the castle. The canon features SkekMal the Hunter, and SkekLach the Collector, who both used to travel outside the castle, hunting Gelflings. They are both absent in the movie and their fates are currently unknown. Can we speculate that their demises led to a greater prominence for the Crystal Bats? All we know for sure is the Crystal Bats are looking for Jen. We’ll find out what he and Kira are up to next time.

Next: Rollin’ on the river.

****

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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it. Time to meet one of the main characters, 34:32-38:00 on the Blu-ray.

When we last left Jen, Fizzgig jumped out and scared him, forcing backward into some mud. Then a mysterious hooded stranger approached. As she approaches, we see enough of her face that she doesn’t need to remove her hood. She’s a blonde female Gelfling. This is Kira. Then there’s a closeup, and she pulls back the hood for reveal anyway. She addresses Fizzgig in a strange language, and then addresses Jen in that same language, trying several times to reach him. At first, I thought she was trying a bunch of different languages on him, but DarkCrystal.com informs us that she’s speaking the Podling language to him. The site has translations for all of her other language sayings, but they’re not anything you can’t already glean from watching the movie.

Jen says in (let’s face it) English that she’s a Gelfling like him, and that he thought he was the only one. Kira responds in (might as well face it) English saying that she too through she was only one. But wait, are these the last two left? Both the Skeksis and Aughra believe that all the Gelflings are dead, but if these two are still alive, what if there are others that survived? We don’t know, of course, and are only left to speculate. For now, let’s go with that the movie tell us and assume there are just these two left.

Kira offers to help Jen out of the mud. Their hands touch and… ooohh boy, now we’re into it. What happens next is a series of images flashing across screen as Jen and Kira see each other’s memories. They’re also hearing each other’s thoughts as this happens, for some additional exposition. This, as we’ll soon learn, is called “dream-fasting.” It’s basically information overload.

Here’s what happens:

Young Kira surrounded by fire, referencing a war. A Garthim can be seen running around in the background.

Kira’s mother hiding her inside a hollow tree. Then Mom gets taken away by a Garthim. This is the only other time in the movie we see another Gelfling, but it goes by so fast that we can’t really get a sense of who Mom is. You don’t suppose they just re-used the Kira puppet for this scene, do you?

Jen remembers being found by one of the Mystics (the “big one” he says). He describes the Mystics as being able to “make the monsters disappear.”

Young Kira wandering into the Podling village, and a Podling greeting her with a huge smile.

Jen recalls the Mystic master giving him a bath. It’s during this shot that Kira informs him what dream-fasting is.

The podlings feeding young Kira. She says her “new mum” among the Podlings named her Kira.

Jen among the Mystics, saying that he thought the Mystics’ valley stretched on forever.

Kira hiding from Garthim, as she exposits that Garthim raiding parties capture the Podlings.

Jen and the Mystic Master, saying the Master was at once family, mentor, and friend.

Kira picking flowers, with her saying she’s able to speak to flowers and all living things.

Jen being educated by the Mystics, saying he learned numbers, words, and “the shapes of kindness.”

There are few other quick images of Jen and Kira’s respective educations as the dream-fast fades, ending with both them revealing a desire to find someone else. Their hands part and the dream-fast ends. OK, what is going on with this dream-fasting business? Is it a too convenient of way to get across a lot of information at once, dare I say a cheat? You could make that case, especially since dream-fasting won’t be mentioned again. Now that it is a part of the movie, though, what can we make of it? In the tie-in graphic novels, we see dream-fasting used a courtship ritual, and it’s done with one Gelfling asking permission of the other first. Because Jen and Kira don’t have much experience with being around their own kind, they can probably be forgiven for not knowing this stuff. But Kira does know dream-fasting, so either the Podlings or her mother taught her about it, but the Mystics, trapped in their peaceful routines, never mentioned it to Jen. In a “bigger picture” sense, think about what dream-fasting means for a society on the whole. When they can open their memories to one another at any time, that means Gelflings have no secrets among each other, they must not lie to each other, and they must be comfortable enough with embarrassing memories not to hide them.

Jen starts sinking father into the mud, and Kira tells him to hold still. Kira calls a song-like command to the water surrounding Jen, and a giant beetle-like creature rises up from under Jen. Kira tells him this is a Nebrie. Learning this is something of a rarity, in that a lot of the background animals throughout the world don’t get their names specified. Kira reintroduces herself, and repeats that they were dream-fasted. Remember that the voiceovers were a late addition to the movie to make it less confusing for audiences, which is why characters sometimes repeat themselves.

Fizzgig reenters the scene, reminding he that he’s the plucky animal sidekick. Kira picks him up and properly introduces him to Jen. Jen reaches to pet Fizzgig, but Fizzgig growls at him. Kira chides him, and Fizzgig looks sad. So, what’s the deal with Fizzgig. First, know that the name is only two syllables, Fizz-gig. Too many people over the years have pronounced it with three syllables, like Fizz-i-gig, but that’s just wrong. We saw earlier that Fizzgig has a second row of teeth in the back of his mouth, helpful for both attacking and chewing, I suppose. Finally, know that Fizzgig is not just his name, but also the name of his species, so it’s like naming your dog “Dog.”

Kira says Jen seems strange to Fizzgig, and Jen shows he has some sense of humor as he says Fizzgig is the one who seems strange. Kira says he’s just nervous and that the Skeksis are always watching. Here we see the first of many instances of her knowing a lot more about the world than he does, as she’s already aware of who the Skeksis are and why they’re a threat. She invites Jen to come with her. As they walk off, there’s a comedy bit where Fizzgig growls at the Nebrie, only to have it roar back at him, scaring Fizzgig off. Then, in a moment of extreme cuteness, two lil’ baby Nebries emerge from the water for some sweet Nebrie parent/child bonding. Remember this moment of cuteness, because it’s about to be destroyed in the next scene.

Next: It’s suppertime!

****

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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it. Today we’re at 32:27-34:31 on the Blu-ray.

Jen is sitting in the woods/swamp, contemplating the crystal shard. He says, in voiceover, that although he has the shard, he doesn’t know what to do with it. (I suppose Augrha’s earlier answer of “heal the Dark Crystal” wasn’t enough of an explanation for him.) He wonders if he’s supposed to take it somewhere, and what’s so special about it. This is another scene that is often criticized for the characters saying the same things twice, but remember that the voiceover was added after early test audiences were confused by the film, so the voiceover is her so we don’t lose the plot amid all the otherworldliness.

Then, the shard shows Jen an image, not unlike how the Crystal showed the Skeksis an image earlier. This time, Jen sees a Skeksis smashing the Crystal with a staff, striking the Dark Crystal. The movie doesn’t linger on this, or give us any long-winded explanation. It’s up to us to surmise that this definitively connects the shard with the Dark Crystal. That it’s a piece of the Dark Crystal broken off by a Skeksis. For advanced reading, we of course have the tie-in books and website. Just after the second great conjunction, when the Crystal turned dark and in the minutes right after the Skeksis and the Mystics were divided into separate beings, the Skeksis were wild and animalistic, killing two Mystics on the spot – accidentally killing two of their own at the same time. In this mad frenzy, one of the Skeksis struck the Crystal, breaking off the shard. It fell into the caves beneath the castle, along with several other, lesser shards broken from the castle’s surface, where they were later recovered by Aughra for her keeping. Why did the Skeksis break the Crystal? It was in defiance of Aughra, who was pleading with them to make things right. As for which Skeksis broke the Crystal, it isn’t clear. Some fans believe it was the Skeksis scientist, but it looks like it could be any one of them. All this is depicted in detail in the Creation Myths graphic novel.

Another question to be asked is, why does the shard show Jen this? Is it merely answering his question, or is it and the Dark Crystal slyly setting events in motion to the point where the Dark Crystal will eventually be healed? We can only speculate.

Back to the scene, Jen hears something and looks around. Interesting sound design here, as the “something’s nearby” sound clearly stands out from the other ambient sounds in the forest. Jen says, “I don’t like this” in voiceover, and walks forward. He’s startled by a group of plants that withdraw into the ground all at once. (For this shot, all the screenplay says is, “closeup on flowers.”) We get a few glimpses of a hooded figure darting about in the trees while Jen looks around, cautiously.

Look closely: A tree in the background is pulsating, as if breathing in and out with working lungs.

Jen sees a footprint in the wet soil. We don’t see it in relation to him, so at this point it could be a gigantic footprint for all we know. Jen hears something else and hurries forward. Despite his earlier comment about not liking this, he doesn’t seem fearful but instead excited as to what he might find. He comes to a log covered with moss, too dark to see inside.

Here’s where we get the big jump scare. Does it work? That depends. As soon as we see the log, and the camera ever so slowly pushing in on it, we know there’s going to be a jump scare, but a lot of us jump anyway. In Roger Corman’s memoir, he writes at great length about the long, dark hallway in movies. He says audiences know something is bad at the end of the hallway, but they’re still burning with curiosity as to what it is. Therefore, a jump scare is not just surprise, but surprise and relief. That’s the case here, as Fizzgig jumps out and scares the audience. Jen, too.

Jen falls back into some mud while Fizzgig – a little dog-like creature – continues to growl at him. Jen dismisses Fizzgig as a potential danger, instead grousing, “Oh, no, right in the mud.” (More about Fizzgig in the next post, I promise.) Then, the hooded figure steps out of hiding. We see just enough of the stranger’s face to tell that this is something familiar…

Next: Bow-chicka-wow-wow.

****

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I freakin’ love The Dark Crystal! Let’s watch it! Today we’re looking at two short scenes that are far more important than they first appear, 30:42-32:26 on the Blu-ray.

First, we check in with the Mystics. They’re preparing for their big journey. We see one of them turn around, and there’s a neat little bit of puppetry were his toes move like fingers. One Mystic says in voiceover, “At last the Crystal calls,” and, “it is time to return to the castle.” So, is this just an expression, because they know it’s almost time for the great conjunction, or did the Crystal call them in a similar way that it called to the Skeksis earlier? Or is it somewhere in between, like the Mystics can merely feel a “pull” toward the Crystal? We don’t have the specifics, so we’re only left to speculate. We get a great shot of the Mystics’ valley, with them on the move, panning over to a close-up of one walking toward the camera. One can only imagine the logistics of creating this shot, with a lot of puppets all operating in tandem on different parts of this one huge set.

The screenplay tells us that the Mystic speaking is the Ritual-Guardian, going so far as to specify his name, urZah. He’s the same one who spoke during the Master’s funeral, making him the most talkative of the Mystics. The World of the Dark Crystal book agrees, stating that urZah “spoke more freely than the other urRu.”

There’s a fade, and the next shot is of the Mystics slowly marching down a huge mountainside. This raises a huge question: How much time is passing? The passage of time is suspect throughout the entire movie, but it stands out the most in these shots of the Mystics on their travels. They move really slowly, and, as we’ll see throughout the film, they appear to cover a lot of distance. Jen, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to travel as far or for as long. Is it possible that the Mysics are using magic, to cover a long distance in a short amount of time. The movie doesn’t tell us this, but it’s a possibility, considering how little we know about how magic works on this world. (Yes, I’m also aware that it’s a film editing thing, and that editors employ tricks like this all the time to create the illusion of the passage of time from scene to scene. Shut up and let me have my fun.)

These next bits are hard to describe, but I’ll do my best. We cut to a forest/swamp setting. A few flowers on a log spin their petals like helicopter blades and take off flying (the screenplay calls these “flying mushrooms”). A small creature pokes his head out of a pond, and the thin tree next to him actually walks out of the water and onto land. A mushroom, one that looks like an actual mushroom this time, bends down and ducks under the water. A creature the screenplay identifies as a “weasel,” but which appears to have a turtle-like shell runs across the screen, chasing a small bug, trying to catch it in its mouth. Only, it gets swallowed by a big grassy mound, like a big Venus fly trap. An insect, called a “stick creature” in the screenplay, climbs up the side of some vegetation. The top of a cactus-like plant has what looks like a little tuft of hair, which moves in and out suggesting that the plant is taking breaths. In the background, a bunch of similar plants simultaneously sprout hairlike growths.

What’s going on here? These are pretty much just Muppet Show-type gags, the little one-joke interstitial skits that used to tie scenes together on that series. Another thing is that in fantasy, it’s not enough to establish fantasy elements at the beginning of the story and leave it at that. You’ve got to keep re-establishing fantasy elements throughout, to keep things interesting and exciting for readers/viewers. This is why so many fantasy stories are travelogues, so that characters can discover new fantasy weirdness in each new place they visit. But this is more than just mood-setting. On the Blu-ray’s commentary, Brian Froud makes a case for this scene being a mission statement of sorts for the whole movie. He repeats over and over two statements on the nature of this world – that everything is alive, and that all things are connected. This and the tie-in books emphasize that, on this world, there are no distinctions between animal, vegetable, and mineral. There are descriptions of stuff like trees that walk, animals that remain motionless like boulders for years on end, and even rivers that contain the world’s memories at their deepest depths. Knowing that everything, absolutely everything, in this world is a living creature adds to our enjoyment of the movie, and the richness of this fantasy world.

The camera pans around some plants, where we find Jen contemplating the crystal shard, and that’s where we’ll pick things up next time.

Next: Laugh it up, fuzzball.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.