"MOONLIGHT WHITE / WHITE LIKE EYES / NOT LIGHT BUT BLOOD / I DROWN IN HIM" ― Weather Service hijacking
The Moon as seen in Skywatching.
The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits the Earth and is Earth’s only natural satellite. It plays a major role in the Local 58 series as a hazardous/deadly entity, particularly in Show For Children and (chronologically) later in Weather Service.
Through unexplained means, the Moon becomes capable of harming, possessing or killing those who view it with the naked eye. It can be inferred that this phenomenon hasn’t occurred before the events of Weather Service, considering the Moon and its nature are only being reported on at that point, among evidence from other episodes.
Show For Children[]
The Moon incident is alluded to in the children’s show broadcast, A Grave Mistake. It is represented as its own character, having an expressive face to fit in with the animation’s art style. The Moon has a subtle presence throughout most of the cartoon; as the protagonist, Cadavre, treads through the graveyard in search of his deceased wife, the Moon stays up in the sky looking down upon him with a wide grin. After Cadavre continues on after witnessing two open graves containing a hideous corpse and a strange bird-like creature, the Moon take on a different appearance, simply staring at Cadavre with a wide-eyed, haunting expression. Combined with the darker coloring and absence of music, its presence gradually becomes more ominous.
Weather Service[]
The Moon is a central plot point of Weather Service. After an EAS weather warning, we get a glimpse of the Moon itself, albeit barely in frame. The alert states that a warning for a “meteorological event” has been issued by the County Weather Service and that it is effective until tomorrow morning. It then advises against viewing this event—the Moon—with the naked eye.
The weather warning is then upgraded to a civil danger alert, advising to stay indoors and not to look at the night sky. Before more information can be given, the EAS is hijacked by an anonymous third party who claims that the event is “safe for all to view” and that the warning has been lifted. Another message reads, “GO OUTSIDE NOW.” Why the EAS hijacker would encourage viewers to endanger themselves, and whether or not they are related to the state of the Moon, is currently unknown.
The picture quality then plummets, along with massively distorted EAS tones and strange tones,a sign of heavy interference from the hijacker. The actual County Weather Service then appears to relay lines of text, insisting viewers to stay indoors, not to look up, and to face away from windows, minimizing the risk of viewing moonlight. The hijacker then resumes control of the station, and proceeds to broadcast a series of cryptic messages describing how the “Moon came in” and “found [them] thru the mirror.” This is implying that not all who view the Moon are doomed, and that the hijacker may have survived, possibly with an altered mental state. The episode ends with the hijacker offering the viewer to “look together” with them, and the broadcast cuts to the live camera feed of the Moon from earlier. Crowds of people are audibly screaming in the distance as the Moon descends further into the shot, to the point where over half of it is visible.
It is unknown if viewing the Moon through digital means, such as through a camera feed, would produce the same hazardous effects. It’s worth noting that the warnings say not to view it with the naked eye, however.
Other Episodes[]
Contingency[]
The only segment of Contingency that includes the Moon is the shot of an astronaut saluting on the Moon, which was taken during the Apollo 15 missions in 1971. Otherwise, the Moon isn’t seen or directly mentioned during the emergency broadcast message.
A card is briefly shown during the end of the broadcast that reads, “THE 51ST STATE IS NOT A PLACE”. It has been the source of much speculation, with some theorizing that the “51st State” is in reference to (and is possibly a warning about) the Moon. Considering the Moon was sometimes called the 51st State after the first U.S. Moon landings, this is surely a possibility.
You Are On The Fastest Available Route[]
Despite the entirety of the episode taking place in the early morning hours, the Moon is never seen directly. Given that an event such as the one depicted in Weather Service would have catastrophic/ disastrous repercussions, it can be assumed that the Moon incident takes place some time after November 21, 2014.
It is unclear if or how the creature in the forest is related to the events of Weather Service.
Real Sleep[]
Real Sleep takes place somewhere in 1983, and the Moon is never seen nor mentioned. Thus, it is impossible to tell if the tape is related in any way.
Skywatching[]
At first, the Moon appears as normal in the sky. However, after the host of the show displays a few known constellations, they zoom in on the Moon, adjust the lens to make it more clear, and title it "HIS THRONE". A sudden transition then shows a zoomed-in look at the moon's surface, which includes not just the expected craters and mountains, but large swaths of seemingly organic, webbed mass like rotting wood or cancerous flesh. The moon also appears to have an atmosphere of some kind, as there are visible wind currents and dust storms on the moon's surface, as well as what appears to be a massive spiracle-like chasm drawing large amounts of lunar regolith into a deep, dark hole.
The final shot of the moon's surface appears to be an enormous artificial structure of some kind set within a valley, consisting of a large cluster of cylindrical towers and several smaller towers connected by "walls". The most prominent feature, however, is a gigantic equilateral triangle carved into the ground nearby, connected to the structure via a massive "canal", making the structure resemble a vast arrow.
After fading to black and zooming back out, the night sky is overcast with cloud cover, and the moon and stars are no longer visible. The lens changes once again, and the moon re-appears, now so close/massive it takes up most of the sky. The southern half of the moon appears to have been broken or rotten away, and an air raid siren is going off as birds scatter. This rotten/broken hemisphere appears much different from the previous zoomed-in views of the moon's surface, suggesting the moon has either transformed or that this is a different phenomena altogether.
As the camera adjusts for a clearer view of the moon, a previously unseen man slowly walks into view, raises their hands to the moon in reverence, and all sound is muted as title text appears saying "REJOICE" before cutting to static.
Trivia[]
- The Moon, as seen in the later half of Skywatching, bears a striking resemblance to the moon from Majora's Mask and the Brethren Moons from Dead Space 3.
- It’s possible that the Moon itself isn’t causing the anomalous effects, but rather an entity on its surface. The Moon has never actually been shown to its full extent—it was still partially obscured at the end of Weather Service. This is further supported by Cadavre‘s death in Show For Children, which only happened once the Moon’s eye moved into frame. Its “eye” may represent this entity.
- This is evidenced by the fact that the Moon is referred to as "HIS THRONE" in Skywatching, implying that it is not the Moon that is the danger, but instead an entity living on or within it.
- The rotten/broken southern hemisphere of the Moon during this sequence almost looks like a skeletal figure not unlike that from You Are On The Fastest Available Route, curled in a fetal position and mostly buried, suggesting this may either be a fossil, or that the "moon" here is an "egg" of some sort.