Bad Travelling (❌💀❌) is the second episode of the third volume, and the overall twenty-eighth episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS.
3 Symbols:
- Cross
- Skull
- Cross
Synopsis[]
Release the Thanapod! A a ship's crew member sailing an alien ocean strikes a deal with a ravenous monster of the deep.
Plot[]
The episode opens with a textual preface describing sailors of antiquity traversing alien oceans and hunting jable sharks. It was common for ships to be lost at sea during these voyages, whereupon they would be said to have had a "bad travelling".
One such vessel navigates choppy waves during a storm and is suddenly attacked by a murderous crab-like creature known as a Thanapod. After killing three sailors, including the captain and helmsman, it drags and kills the sailor Turk below deck and takes refuge there. The remaining crew draw straws, with youngest sailor Cert going first, to decide who should confront the monster, and the most physically imposing of them, a man named Jorvan, picks the shortest straw. However, he intimidates his fellow sailors into turning against the ship's second-in-command, Torrin.
As Torrin heads below deck, the Thanapod uses the human corpse of Turk to communicate with him, asking to be taken to the populous Phaiden Island to satisfy its hunger. Torrin strikes a deal with the beast, securing his own safety and recovering the key to the captain's lockbox from the Thanapod's vomit. Emerging from the bowels of the ship, he arms himself with a gun from the captain's lockbox and explains his agreement with the monster to his fellow sailors. To satisfy the Thanapod's hunger for the time being, Jorvan suggests that they sacrifice Calis, a crew member injured in the attack. His protective brother Melis defends him, and Torrin states that they are in this together. Crew member Chantre states that this puts them back where they started, and Torrin says they face a tough decision. Jorvan is thrown to the beast himself under Torrin's orders, presumably for suggesting another man be sacrificed.
Unwilling to unleash the monster upon the inhabitants of Phaiden Island, Torrin proposes that they head for a deserted island a greater distance away but with a greater risk to their lives. The decision is put to a vote, with each sailor marking a ballot and putting it into a box. Later, Torrin reveals that he gave each ballot distinct marks, letting him know that there were cowards amongst them. Maril asks what he said, and Cert confirms that he said there are cowards. Torrin states there are two crew members voted to fulfill the creature's wish. It initially appears that he will kill Cert, but executes Calis and Melis instead with one bullet, and feeds them to the Thanapod.
Later, while Torrin scans the horizon in the crow's nest, a crew member named Deacon makes an attempt on his life. Torrin catches him in the act, whereupon the assassin drops the knife from his mouth, which lands next to Paln while he is carrying barrels, and he defends himself by claiming he was pressured into it by the others. The monster calls Torrin below deck to express its impatience, and numerous offspring likely born or hatched on the ship emerge.
At the bow of the ship, Torrin talks with his crew, dismissing what happened as an expression of low morale. Crew member Suparin refers to the Thanapod as Torrin's "friend", and Torrin responds sternly for the man to maintain course. He assures the group that their predicament is nearing its end. Yet with morale at an all-time low, five of the six sailors sneak into the captain's cabin and ambush Torrin in his bed that night, only to fall for a decoy. Torrin, who had anticipated the attack, easily kills his aggressors: he shoots Chantre through the back of her head before they realized he was there; chops Paln in the side of his neck with an axe; shoots Maril through the throat; Suparin in the torso; and Cert through the throat as he flees the room. He discovers Deacon in a chest; Deacon claims he refused to participate. He thanks Deacon, and the two toss the bodies of the crew down to the Thanapod. However, Torrin reveals that he did not need to mark the ballots as every single sailor voted to sail to Phaiden Island, and he pushes Deacon down to join his deceased crew members.
Near the island, Torrin, sole-surviving crew member, stops his ship. He meets with the Thanapod to explain that the hide and meat of the jable sharks they hunt are useless. As he hacks into barrels, spilling oil throughout the hold, he explains that they hunt them for the oil. He raises his pistol, and the Thanapod derisively reminds him that, "Shell protects." Torrin replies that it is not intended for it, and fires at a lantern, which releases flames down to the oil and sets the vessel ablaze. The beast and its offspring are unable to escape the burning ship, and it tries to catch Torrin but fails. Torrin leaps from the blazing vessel to a rowboat he had prepared, and rows away to safety at Phaiden Island.
Cast[]
Troy Baker at the Internet Movie Database voices Torrin- Time Winters at the Internet Movie Database voices Deacon
- Max Fowler at the Internet Movie Database voices Cert
Elodie Yung at the Internet Movie Database voices Chantre- Anthony Mark Barrow at the Internet Movie Database voices Melis & Calis
- Parry Shen at the Internet Movie Database voices Suparin
- Chantelle Barry at the Internet Movie Database voices Maril
- Jason Flemyng at the Internet Movie Database voices Paln
- James Preston Rogers at the Internet Movie Database voices Jorvan
- Fred Tatasciore at the Internet Movie Database voices Turk #1
- Kevin Jackson at the Internet Movie Database voices Turk #2
- An uncredited actor voices Unidentified Helmsman
Trivia[]
- Contrary to popular belief, Torrin was likely the ship's first mate, not captain, as he had to retrieve the captain's key to the gun box from the Thanapod.
- Thus it was the helmsman who was the captain that was eaten in the initial attack, and Torrin retrieved the key when the Thanapod vomited the captain's remains.
- Named sailors throughout the episode include Torrin, Cert, Melis, Chantre, and Suparin.
- Additional names are listed in the credits, but are not revealed in the dialogue: Turk, Maril, Calis, Deacon, Jorvan, and Paln.
- According to the short story the episode is based on, Turk is the sailor used as a talking corpse, Calis is the brother of Melis, and Jorvan is “first knife,” the large sailor who is sacrificed first. Paln is a watchman, and while it is not known exactly who Paln, Maril, and Deacon are just from the short story, it is known who they are due to their voice actors being credited with their names, and this allows for confirmation as to Calis, Jorvan, and Turk's identities (confirming the identities were not altered from short story to episode).
- Concept art released later confirmed the identities of all of the named sailors in the episode, although it omits the 2 unnamed sailors killed in the opening, and features an alternate captain model.
- Additional names are listed in the credits, but are not revealed in the dialogue: Turk, Maril, Calis, Deacon, Jorvan, and Paln.
- Two crewmembers were merely wounded in the initial attack, Suparin and Calis, while four were killed, including the helmsman and Turk.
- When drawing straws, it is implied that Jorvan was chosen to go below and investigate the Thanapod, but upon losing intimidated the crew into turning on Torrin.
- As every ballot had an identical vote, it is unknown why Torrin chose to kill Melis and Calis after the vote, though it is likely because Torrin wanted to waste as few bullets as possible.
- After the vote, Cert's lack of protest when it appears Torrin is about to shoot him and the flinching when he believes it to be coming foreshadows the reveal of his own vote to sail to Phaiden Island.
- It is possible that after Torrin stated two of them had voted to sail to Phaiden Island and he shot Melis and Calis, the rest of the crew, having also all individually voted to sail to Phaiden, had assumed that Torrin had messed up with his markings and rememberings of the ballots, and didn't say anything so as to avoid the same punishment.
- When Torrin pulls out his gun and the Thanapod states that its shell protects, it is referring to the gun and not the fire and oil that would prove deadly soon after.
- Torrin uses all 6 shots of the revolver throughout the episode, explaining why he only used one to shoot both Melis and Calis, and why he killed Deacon by pushing him down to the Thanapod directly.
- While it is unknown what the four sailors who died in the attack would have voted, they were the bravest of the crew who attacked the creature while most of the crew stayed back or ran away, meaning they would have likely been more willing to sacrifice themselves.
- The total number of crewmembers on the ship was originally 14, with four dying in the initial attack, and all except Torrin dying by the end of the episode.