Steam – Eighth Night
The eighth performance of Steam was improvised on 1/28/12.
Episode Summary
The Federal Reserve Bank in Washington DC has been robbed! Yvette Cloud looks on in horror as citizens snap up the spare bills swirling in the breeze. Among them: Joshua Mew, ship’s engineer on the Victoriana. Yvette chides Mew for his greed, and reveals the perpetrators of the crime: Victor, the Victoriana’s evil twin ship, possessed by the nefarious Black Cloaks. Yvette and Joshua jetpack back to the ship.
On the Victor, the Black Cloaks’ leader Adelaide McKenna consults with her cohort, Roger Rogér. Former crew members of the Victoriana, they’re successfully effecting mayhem around the entire country—destroying all the potatoes in Idaho, for one. What’s worse, the Victoriana has been mistaken for its evil twin, and is a wanted ship on its own.
In the middle of Central Park, Wilhemina Wyldeheart and Captain Hamwich Leon investigate a mysterious source of power, which seems to exist underneath every major city on Earth, and which the Black Cloaks have been extracting for their own purposes. With a gruesome blood sacrifice, Wilhemina and Hamwich open a great hole in the ground, and leap into the darkness below.
Back on the Victoriana, Yvette hears the Lady Electra Spencer calling to her from within the ship, where she’s been trapped. Yvette enlists Leto, who also has a mysterious magical power, to try contacting Electra. Joining their magical powers together, they extract her from the hull of the ship; she’s returned, though not quite as herself. Much like Leto, the Lady Electra is now partially a machine.
Joshua Mew, meanwhile, shares a healthy portion of liquor with his crewmate Kit. At her insistence, Joshua Mew steers the ship to New York City as well, so they can seek out the long-absent Wilhemina Wyldeheart and Captain Hamwich Leon. As he points the ship northward, Joshua too feels the presence of Lady Electra.
In the White House, President McKinley is flustered by the wave of crime caused by the Victor. Suddenly, an intruder in the Oval Office: Roger Rogér, second in command of the Black Cloaks! Roger easily dispatches the president’s Secret Service agents, but the President calls for a secret weapon: an agent of The Hand, the international organization dedicated to combating the Black Cloaks. With ease, The Hand’s agent sends Captain Rogér to his grave. It’s too late: the President is mortally wounded! With his dying breath, the President gives his Hand agent one final instruction: go to New York City, where the Black Cloaks are obtaining their power.
Benjamin Cumberbatch, the young seer, consults his All-Seeing Orb and for the hundredth time witnesses the same vision: killing Wilhemina Wyldeheart. He now realizes that Wilhemina is a Black Cloak and must be destroyed.
In the depths underneath Manhattan, Wilhemina and Hamwich come to—only to find themselves surrounded by evil, terrifying spirits. Wilhemina quickly sets a magical spell to give them a moment’s respite—not only from the evil around them, but from that within themselves. Briefly relieved, they promise to keep fighting the Black Cloak “infection” inside each of them.
Out of nowhere, Adelaide McKenna appears! She casts a spell to freeze Hamwich Leon, and talks to Wilhemina, her childhood friend. Adelaide implores Wilhemina to come with her to the side of the Black Cloaks, but Wilhemina’s love for Hamwich is too great—and she knows that Hamwich would likely die if she did so.
Wilhemina sees Hamwich’s ring, a token of his love, glistening on Adelaide’s finger. “Why do you want him too?,” Wilhemina asks. Hamwich, stirred by the ring, rumbles to life; but Adelaide has left, more furious than ever.
Joshua Mew returns from an unsuccessful trip into New York City to find Wilhemina and Hamwich. He is stunned to find Lady Electra back among the living! This is nothing, though, compared to what Electra gives him: a kiss, passed through her from Sarah, Joshua’s deceased wife, whose spirit still dwells in the ship.
Colonel Solomon Fitzgerald is also overjoyed to see Electra again, perhaps to the chagrin of Yvette, with whom she’d grown close. Yvette summons the entire Victoriana crew and lowers them into the great hole, landing underneath Manhattan. They find themselves in a ticking blackness, and realize they’re inside a giant machine made entirely of bones! Joshua follows Kit’s voice into the blackness while Yvette strikes out to find Wilhemina.
Wilhemina and Hamwich reach the very heart of the dark realm beneath New York City. Through a doorway, Wilhemina sees a shadowy figure: The Master. Overtaken by her evil power, Wilhemina kneels at his feet.
Just then, Yvette projects her magic onto Wilhemina, giving her a burst of strength to resist. Wilhemina leaps up, draws her knife, and battles the Master! After a struggle she disembowels him, bathing herself in his blood. As he dies, a spark of energy passes into Wilhemina.
Yvette and the crew of the Victoriana arrive just in time to see Wilhemina covered in blood. Benjamin realizes his vision has come true: here is Wilhemina, and now is the time to kill her! Before anyone can react, Benjamin spears Wilhemina through the back!
The crew is aghast at the sudden loss of their friend just as they’ve found her. Yvette rebukes them, though: “Now is not her time!” She summons all that remains of her magic power and transfers her life force to Wilhemina, returning her to life. The crew gathers round to witness the apparent miracle, but just then: a deep, unsettling laugh from Wilhemina.
Joshua Mew, meanwhile, is lost.
What have the crew awakened by reviving Wilhemina? Will the evil ship Victor return to battle the Victoriana? Is The Hand poised to destroy it as well? And what is this evil energy that gives the Black Cloaks their power?
