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"Dreams"
Season 1, Episode 9
Airdate: December 14, 2010
Dreams
Credits
Writer(s): Darin Morgan
Director: Brenton Spencer
Episodes
Previous
"Field Trip"
Next
"Phone Home"

"Dreams" is the ninth episode of season one of Tower Prep.

Ian, Suki, and Gabe have the same dream about a yellow elevator, which leads them to discoveries about the founder of Tower Prep.

Summary[]

Gabe wakes up in bed and finds Señor Guapo talking to him about responsibilities beginning in dreams. Gabe notes that the last time he heard his sock monkey speaking, he ended up in parole. Ian wakes up and asks the sock monkey what means, but the monkey doesn't respond. Ian suggests they ask the Great Unknown, who is busy packing. He explains that his name really is the Great Unknown and he's leaving Tower Prep. Gabe asks to see his face, and the Great Unknown says he's a hideous freak. Ian rips off his hood to reveal... Headmaster.

The next day, Gabe is walking the hallways in his underwear, and CJ is carrying Suki's head in a box. They enter a corridor and find themselves in the underground tunnels, and a yellow elevator door opens ahead of them as a light shines out. They scream…

… and Gabe wakes up from his dream. He describes his dream about the elevator, and Ian says that he had the same dream. They both woke up before they could see what was in the elevator, and Ian dismisses it as nothing. However, they discover that the Great Unknown has left, just like in their dream. They wonder if they're still dreaming, but Gabe quickly confirms that they're not.

Psychology is teaching and discussing dreams. He asks them to share their dream journals that he assigned them. Suki talks about her dream where she's the most popular girl at Tower Prep, with CJ, Ian, and Gabe as her attendants. However, she speaks with an old man's voice, and they come to an elevator with yellow doors. Suki reassures Ian and kisses him, but doesn't see what is in the elevator. Ian and Gabe admit that they had the same dream, but Psychology insists they had a shared stimuli that touched upon their unconscious minds.

At the observatory, Ian insists that the dreams mean that the elevator is the key to escape. CJ notes that since they got their assignment to document their dreams, she hasn't had any dreams. Gabe finds a record to play and starts dancing with Suki, but hears the voice of Señor Guapo singing on the record. It's the same voice that Suki was speaking, in her dream, and Ian figures that if the man exists, then the elevator must notice and they subconsciously noticed it in the tunnel.

The group goes to the tunnels to find the elevator, but Gabe wonders why they should want to find it. They find the elevator, which is protected by an early-model retinal scanner. The elevator starts up and they hide in a nearby passageway. A doctor emerges, wheeling an unconscious student on a gurney. They don't recognize the student, and they figure they were brought to Tower Prep through the elevator. CJ didn't dream because she was never brought to Tower Prep.

The next morning, the new student wakes up in Ian and Gabe's room. Ian tries to calm him down, but the student attacks him until Ian can calm him down and explains that the same thing happened to him that happened to the newcomer. He introduces himself and the newcomer identifies himself as Conner Owens. Gabe arrives and Conner almost takes his head off with a kick. Ian explains what's happening and Conner apologizes, and then is informed that there's no easy escape.

Conner reluctantly puts on the school uniform and goes to breakfast, where Whisper 119 serves his favorite breakfast for him. Ian introduces Conner to Suki and CJ, and Conner wonders why they're treating the situation so normally. As he talks, CJ analyzes him and determines that he's not who he says he is. All she can determine is that Conner is pretending to be something he's not. Whisper 119 calls the new students to Orientation, and Ian warns that if he doesn't go to Orientation, he'll be taken to Headmaster. Conner wants to see Headmaster, and throws his food at the wall so the Monitors take him to Headmaster.

Conner continues to defy Headmaster in his office. Ian sneaks in through the passageways and listens as Conner accuses Ian of being Headmaster's goon, complains about the wall around the school, and asks why Ian wants to know if he remembers a yellow elevator. Headmaster takes notes and then tells Conner that he'll be rooming with Ian because he's so similar. He refuses to answer Conner's questions at first, and then bends over and whispers an answer in his ear. Headmaster then tells a strangely compliant Conner to go to Orientation. Ian reports what he heard to the others, and they wonder why if he's working with Headmaster, he pretended not to be in the privacy of the office. Ian notices that he has been with Conner the entire time, and he never saw the wall. Ian and Gabe return to their room and Conner hastily hides his laptop. He says that his meeting with Headmaster was weird, and then asks if he can trust them. Once they reassure him, Conner shows them the Tower Prep orientation video on his computer. He explains that he hacked into Whisper to download the video, because he saw something in it that raised his suspicions. He plays it back for them and reverses the audio, revealing a subliminal message using the old man's voice from their dreams. When he slows it down further, they see a split-second image of an elderly man with one eye. Ian thinks that he looks familiar, and they figure he's been placed in the tape at the moment when Headmaster talks about answering questions. Ian and Gabe show Suki and CJ the video and note that in the background, there's a yellow door. Ian suspects that Headmaster may have given Conner the video as part of a plan to reveal them. As Gabe toys with a paperweight, an eye in an acrylic block, Ian realizes that it's the old man's missing eye. When the others wonder why Ian wants to believe Conner, Ian notes that the paperweight has been there since before he arrived at the school, so it can't be a trap. CJ notes that if Ian is right, then Conner is on their side. The others agree, and Ian agrees to take Conner into the tunnels but not the observatory. If they confirm that the eye unlocks the retinal scanner on the elevator, then they'll bring Conner to the observatory. Ian goes back to his room via the hidden tunnel to show Conner what's going on, and invites him along. They go to the elevator and the eye opens the elevator to who it identifies as Cornelius Tower. They all go in and Conner hesitates, but finally goes in with them. As the look around, Gabe puts on what appears to be a set of headphones and goofs around. They deliver an electric shock which wipes his recent memories. Someone comes up in the elevator, and Conner finds another retinal scanner. The eye isn't sufficient, and Suki provides the voice of the old man. The system identifies her as Cornelius Tower, and the doors open. They get out just in time as a doctor arrives. The group discovers that they're in Cornelius Tower's office, and he's the founder of Tower Prep. There are complete maps of the area, which show that they're on a peninsula rather than an island. CJ finds a video tape, showing Cornelius working with a restrained patient and insisting he's trying to help. Ian sets off a dictation machine, which has Cornelius recording his earlier life as the spoiled son of a millionaire. His failure as a writer led to a nervous breakdown, and he became obsessed with psychology. Cornelius became a psychologist and then recruited to be a spy during World War I. After the war, he has a second breakdown and practices other careers as a jazz musician, stage magician, and hypnotist. When traveling in the Far East, he learned more mystic secrets. His father died and left him a fortune as well as an unexplored peninsula of land. During his third breakdown, Cornelius decided to turn the land into a place to develop advanced technology and protect rare animals. However, his main concern was collecting special human begins who could improve and advance... The dictation ends and Cornelius starts choking. They wonder who he was making the recording for, and Suki wonders if it's all big story. Ian suggests it might be a hoax to cover up the real truth, and wonders if it might all be true. On the dictation machine, the recording continues to play, and Cornelius tells of how corporate lackeys took over Tower Prep and corrupted it. Before Cornelius can say what they were turning the students into, the recording cuts off again. The group wonders what to do next, and Conner suggests that they take as much as they can since they don't know if they'll ever be able to get back. They all touch fists, and Conner finally joins in. They go out through the lab, and the doctor attacks them with a bone saw. He goes berserk, demanding that they leave. Gabe jumps into the elevator and the door closes behind him. It starts descending... and Gabe realizes he's not wearing any pants. Gabe wakes up from where he dozed off in Cornelius' office. They go out through the lab but there's no doctor like the one in Gabe's dream. As they return to the tunnels, Ian starts telling Conner about the observatory. He tells Ian to tell him later and take Cornelius' material there, while he gets Suki and CJ back to their room. Later that night, Ian wakes up and calls to Conner. He gets no response and goes to Conner's bed, but only finds Señor Guapo under the sheets. Ian hears Cornelius' record playing, and follows the music to an office. Conner is there, in a suit, and Ian wonders how he knew about the door to Cornelius' office. Conner says that there are people on the outside that want to see Tower Prep returned to what it once was. They sent him as a scout, but now he has to leave because he's been found out. He tells Ian that he'll be back for him and the others, and that with dreams come responsibilities. Ian notes that CJ didn't dream of escape, but Conner the comment, bows to him, and calls Ian "my liege." He then tosses a rope up into mid-air, climbs up it, and disappears... And Ian wakes up. The Monitors come in and search the room as Headmaster arrives to order a search of the grounds. He asks Ian where Conner is, and Ian realizes that Conner isn't who Headmaster thought he was. The group goes back to the observatory and discovers that all of the material from Cornelius' office has disappeared. They figure that Conner took everything, but CJ finds a photo of Cornelius with a young boy. Ian realizes that it's himself as a young boy.

Characters[]

Guest starring[]

Trivia[]

  • Throughout the episode, the phrase "In dreams begin responsibilities" is repeated. "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" is the title of a 1937 short story by Delmore Schwartz. His most famous work, the story describes a young man who experiences a dream of sitting in a movie theater, watching a film about his parents' courtship. He grows increasingly agitated as the film plays, knowing that their troubled relationship will lead to future unhappiness, and yells out, upsetting the theater patrons. The story ends as an usher throws him out of the theater, and the man awakens on the morning of his twenty-first birthday.
Redbaron

Comparison showing original photo (left) and still from "Dreams" (right)

  • When Tower claims to have shot down the Red Baron Manfred von Richthofen, an actual historical photograph of Australian soldiers gathered around the wreckage of Richthofen's triplane is shown. Tower has been added to the picture via photo manipulation. (See comparison to the right.)
  • The Indian rope trick is mentioned in Cornelius Tower's story and later is performed by Conner in a dream. This is fitting for Cornelius Tower as a hoaxer, because the trick itself is believed to be a hoax, not just in the sense that it's a magic trick, but the idea for the trick itself originated from a hoax.
  • When Cornelius talks about gathering endangered species, a photo of a thylacine is shown. The thylacine was a carnivorous Australian marsupial believed to have become extinct in the first half of the 20th century. There have been unconfirmed, cryptozoological reports that the animal still survives in the wild. Interestingly, the tiger quoll, another carnivorous Australian marsupial, was mentioned in "New Kid".
  • In Cornelius's office, his voice recording was played back on a telegraphone, and the video on his monochrome television played on a Beta cassette player.

Gallery[]

Episodes
New KidMonitoredWhisperBufferRooksBook ReportElectionField TripDreamsPhone HomeTrustSnitchFathers
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