SYNOPSIS
Guest Stars: Bill Paterson, Jonathan Coy
Screenplay by John Brown
Edited by Yvann Thibaudeau
Directed by Ian Sharp
Location of Aurora: Scotland
Prologue: Queen Victoria is attending a service at the chapel at Balmoral Castle. At the end of his sermon, Chatsworth and a group of men enter and grab the vicar, who is wearing a vest of dynamite. They prevent him from blowing up the dynamite, but are unable to prevent him from taking poison hidden in a ring he is wearing.
Phileas leaves a gaming establishment and enters a waiting carriage. Chatsworth is in the carriage and explains that the Queen has requested Phileas' help personally with security for a large gathering at Balmoral Castle. It will be one of the largest gathering of foreign monarchs at this meeting at Balmoral. Chatsworth tells Phileas that he should go to Castle Banquo near Balmoral first, where his host will be an old friend of Phileas' father, a Sir Nicol McLean. The name means nothing to Phileas. Phileas exits the cab at the train station and Chatsworth drives on alone. Suddenly Chatsworth pulls off a mask to reveal that he is not Chatsworth at all but someone else.
Phileas arrives at Castle Banquo and is met by Sir Nicol McLean, who says he knew Phileas' father well. As they have a welcoming drink, they raise their glasses to toast to the Queen. Sir Nicol hits his glass against Phileas' itoo hard and he breaks the glass Phileas' hand. Sir Nicol is apologetic and shows Phileas his room so that he may clean up. Before leaving his guest, Sir Nicol comments about Phileas' father being a great joker, which perplexes Phileas since he doesn't remember his father ever telling a joke. .As this goes on above stairs, the butler stoops and picks up the broken glass in the hall and carefully handles the piece that has some of Phileas' blood on it.
On board the Aurora, Rebecca, Jules and Passepartout are playing a board game. Jules remarks that it is pleasant to play for fun. Rebecca comments that Phileas does like to play to win, with nodding agreement from the other two. They prepare to land at Castle Banquo.
At the castle, the butler Strachan has carefully put the blood-stained glass in a special device that sits next to another object involving a bellows and pipes like those of a pipe organ. This device begins to emit a strange low noise. Phileas is in bed, but is tossing restlessly rather than looking relaxed.
Rebecca, Jules and Passepartout arrive at the castle and are greeted by Sir Nicol, who gives them a rather dramatic tour of the castle and its bloody history. He explains that Phileas is somewhere on the grounds and that they will all be having dinner together. Phileas is, in fact, tossing restlessly on his bed.
They are having dinner that night at the castle and Phileas seems a bit strange. Several times, his voice seems to stammer over "b"s. When Sir Nicol tells Phileas that he resembles his father, he is seems to smile with pleasure. Sir Nicol clarifies the comparison by saying that Phileas' father was a man of who brooked no opposition. Sir Nicol relates a tale of Boniface throwing a waiter out a window for undercooking eggs. Phileas smiles at the story, but Rebecca reminds them that Boniface did not like eggs at all. Sir Nicol says that Boniface did before the incident. He adds that Boniface was on a hair trigger at all times and could be a very violent man. Rebecca seems a bit perplexed by this description. After dinner, Sir Nicol takes them on a tour of the torture chamber in the castle, with its rack, thumbscrews, and iron maiden. When Jules remarks that civilization has come a long way since they used such devices, Phileas makes the strange statement that every now and then he thinks the old ways are the best.
That night, Rebecca is woken by the sound of arguing voices. She follows the sound of the voices, which seem to be coming from the torture chamber. She hears Sir Nicol and Phileas arguing, then Sir Nicol pleading for Phileas not to put him in the iron maiden. As Rebecca goes down the stairs to the chamber, a man she assumes is Phileas rushes past her going up the stairs. She enters the chamber and cautiously opens the iron maiden, where she sees the bloody body of Sir Nicol. Distraught, she runs to Jules' room and awakens him. They go back to the torture chamber to investigate, but there is no trace of the body. As they discuss whether Phileas is capable of such murder, Phileas arrives in the chamber. He is angry, and accuses Rebecca and Verne of both being willing to believe he is a cold blooded murderer. He drags them to Sir Nicol's room and wakes up their host, who seems to be in good condition. Rebecca apologizes for the interruption. Phileas stalks off angry and hurt, his stammer getting worse.
Later that night, Jules is awakened by a woman screaming. He follows the voice and finds a young woman behind a half-bricked-up wall. She says that she fell in love with a shepherd and that her uncle, who comes out of the air in a flying ship, put her in there. Jules rushes off to get tools, Rebecca and Passepartout. He explains to the others that there is a girl bricked into a room by Phileas, who is her uncle. Phileas comes out of his room and says that that is ridiculous. When they go to investigate, they find no one in the room. Jules runs to look over the adjoining balcony and sees the body of the young woman at the base of the wall. But when the others rush to look there is no body. Jules tries to apologize to Phileas, but Phileas does not accept the apology and stalks off, with his stammer getting worse.
Once again, Strachan is in the room with the strange machinery, calibrating the machine by using the piece of blood-stained glass. The sounds once more come out of the pipes and travel through a long network of metal tubes until they arrive in Phileas' room through a sounding horn situated above the bed on which Phileas tosses restlessly.
Rebecca, Jules and Passepartout are trying to reason out what is happening. They decide that something seems wrong about Phileas, but also that they are much to willing to believe the worst of him. Rebecca says that they are projecting all of their fears onto him. They know he is capable of violence, but they also know that he wouldn't do the things they thought he'd do. Or at least they think they do. As this conversation continues, Phileas and Sir Nicol meet on a parapet and talk about violence. Sir Nicol says that all men like violence, but Phileas says that he has never taken pleasure in violence.
Later that night, Passepartout goes to check on Phileas and bring him something to drink. As he knocks on the door and starts to open it, an ax is hurled from inside the room and smashes into the door. Passepartout runs back to Rebecca and Jules for help, but Phileas enters the room and throws an ax into the wall, saying that now they all believe he's a killer. Phileas is angry and is swinging the ax. Passepartout grabs a shield and a mace and swings at Phleas, knocking him down. When Phileas stands and turns to look at Passepartout, he sees a League of Darkness henchman in place of Passepartout and attacks. Rebecca grabs a pike to divert his attention from the valet. There is an instant when Phileas seems bewildered and asks what she thinks she is doing, his expression perplexed and his voice with no stutter. A moment later, the image of Rebecca changes for Phileas into another League of Darkness person and the stutter comes back. He knocks out Verne, who was holding a pistol, and he and Rebecca begin a violent swordfight. As they fight, unseen hands drag first the unconscious Verne, and then Passepartout, out of the room. Phileas knocks down Rebecca and prepares to deliver the death blow.
Phileas is standing in the midst of the hall in a daze, with the bodies of Rebecca, Jules and Verne, covered with blood, lying on the floor around him. Sir Nicol enters and says that they must put Phileas into confinement for his own safety. Strachan injects Phileas with a drug and leads him away. Sir Nicol then directs his servants to clean up the pigs' blood that was put on Rebecca, Jules, and Passepartout, and then thanks his servants for their help.
Phileas is in a cell in the castle in a straight jacket. Sir Nicol comes in and says that he had tried to warn Phileas of his violent tendencies. Phileas is a shattered man, confused and crying, as Sir Nicol explains that the reason Phileas can't remember killing the others is that whole sections of his memory have been blanked out. This has happened all his life, Sir Nicol explains, because the British government and Boniface were feeding Phileas chemical substances designed to increase his aggression and turne him into a killing machine. Sir Nicol says that Phileas should not blame himself but blame the government, and specifically the Queen. He says that the next time Phileas hears someone say, "God Bless the Queen", Phileas will know what to do.
It is daylight when Phileas and Sir Nicol get in a carriage and drive off. In the sound machine room of the castle, Strachen explains to an assistant that the others will soon be loyal members of the League of Darkness. They go int to look at the bound Rebecca, Passepartout and Jules, only to find that their prisoners are not bound. Strachen and his assistant are quickly overcome, and Jules breaks up the sound machinary. Although beaten, Strachen gloats and says that they are too late, that their queen is as good as dead. Rebecca, Jules and Passepartout rush to the Aurora.
Phileas and Sir Nicol enter Balmoral Castle and pause on the ground floor. Sir Nicol says to Phileas "long live the queen" and then leaves the building as Phileas walks up the stairs to the room where the Queen is conducting her meeting. He walks in and brushes past Chatsworth. Phileas explains to the Queen that he has uncovered a government conspiracy that he intends to put an end to immediately. He opens his cloak to reveal a vest of dynamite. Just as he is ready to set it off, Rebecca comes swinging through the the window. Phileas does not believe it is Rebecca, but Rebecca says he's been deceived. Jules and Passepartout also enter the room. Phileas says that although she is a very good impersonator and even sounds like his Rebecca, she is not his Rebecca. Rebecca tearfully pleads that she is indeed his Rebecca and says that she can prove it. She reminds him of a childhood incident when at the time of a fair at Shillingworth Magna, she and Erasmus stole the apples from the orchard and Phileas took the blame because he wanted them to stay there. Phileas starts to remember slowly and stammers that he didn't want to be alone there. Rebecca reminds him that he conquered the stammer he once had as a child and he can conquer this too. His arms lower from the wires that would trigger the explosion and Rebecca carefully removes his cape and then the dynamite vest, reassuring Phileas that he is indeed a good man. She tosses the vest to Jules, who tosses it to Passepartout, who flings it out the window before the explosion takes place. The Queen is saved.
