"Most importantly, I am the only one who can keep this ship on a straight keel. Me, you need intact. Unconsumed."
During a stormy night on a lonely sea, a giant crustacean called a thanapod boards a ship tasked with hunting jable sharks. Its arrival turns the crew against each other as the ship's navigator, Torrin (Troy Baker), is presented with a choice.
This episode is David Fincher's animation directorial debut. It is based on the short story of the same name by Neal Asher.
Tropes:
- All There in the Script: Other than Torrin, Cert, Chantre, Melis and Suparin, the crewmembers aren't named in dialogues but are listed in the credits as Turk, Calis, Maril, Deacon, Jorvan and Paln.
- Anti-Hero: Torrin tricks, schemes and murders fellow crew members... but his ultimate goal is to prevent a dangerous monster and its massive brood from ever reaching the human settlement it wants to be sailed to.
- Appeal to Force:
- Implied in the first case. When the crew draws straws to determine who will be sent below deck after the thanapod, the man who draws the short straw chooses to interpret the selection as being for the position of captain. Considering he's by far the largest member of the crew and he immediately chooses Torrin to go after the abomination, the other sailors are easily cowed.
- When Torrin gets access to the only gun on the ship, he manages to assert control over other sailors predominantly due to nobody being too eager to get shot.
- Asshole Victim:
- Everyone in the episode (save, possibly, the ones killed early on in the thanapod attack). First is the big sailor, who uses his muscles to bully others and avoid his fate, forcing someone else to go in his place. He is the first of the survivors to be thrown to the thanapod. Everyone else is more than willing to sacrifice an innocent town to the thanapod rather than risk their lives, and all end up being fed to it as well.
- Some of the crew feel the residents of Phaiden Island would be this, which makes them even less willing to potentially sacrifice themselves.
- Audible Sharpness: All the bladed weapons make very strange noises when moved - including a knife being thrown in hand, repetitively "cutting" air.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Cert is significantly younger than the rest of the crew, appearing to be barely an adult (or maybe in his late teens). Unlike the rest of the mutineers, he stands paralyzed during the fight after their ambush fails and after Torrin shoots him, he visibly regrets having to do so.
- Bittersweet Ending: Torrin survives, as the last crew member. He also manages to (probably) kill the monster and its offspring. However, prior to that, he had to kill every single member of the crew, fend against a mutiny and burn the ship down. And even with this victory, there is still the horrifying reality of there undoubtedly being more similarly evolved thanapods in the oceans.
- The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: The crewman who tried to sneak up on Torrin in the crow's nest drops a knife he held in his teeth. It falls down and drives into the deck with the pointy end of the blade.
- Blofeld Ploy: Torrin asks Melis to step to the right with the apparent intention of killing Cert, only to actually kill Melis and his brother in one shot.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Torrin quickly establishes himself to the thanapod as the only indispensable member of the ship because only he can keep them on course. This allows him to barter for the key to the lockbox containing the gun.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The sharks mentioned in the Opening Scroll turn out to be a key part of defeating the thanapod, as they are mainly hunted for their oil.
- The thanapod being unable to fit through the doorway to the cargo hold is crucial both to Torrin's initial survival when he first encounters it, and his escape once he sets the barrels of oil on fire. It also means the beast can't easily get out of the hold again, leaving it to be burned to death.
- The Chessmaster: Torrin is capable of routinely manipulating the crew to do the thing he wants, but always giving them the illusion that they are calling the shots or making the decisions together.
- Cold Equation: There is a man-eating monster in the ship's hold that only wants passage to the nearest island, with near-insatiable hunger. There is nothing to feed to it, except the surviving crew. Who and in what order should be given to it to allow the rest to stay alive?
- Convenient Cranny: Torrin repeatedly survives the crab's attack by fitting through an opening the crab cannot follow.
- Dead Guy Puppet: The thanapod uses a torso with the head of one of the sailors it killed as a puppet to communicate with the living.
- Death World: The sea is constantly covered in fog and dark clouds cover the sky non-stop. Going into water is pretty much a death warrant, due to the plethora of man-eating creatures and outright monsters in it.
- Dirty Coward: The crew is made almost exclusively out of gutless, yet still dangerous people. They will do anything to save their hides, but at the same time won't risk their own lives, especially when given an alternative. The only time when they outright stand against Torrin is when they think he's asleep and even that is their lowest point: assaulting him only when they know he won't be able to shoot any of them and they can get away without a scratch. One wonders what even made such a yellow-bellied bunch seek out such a dangerous job as sailing, especially in a monster-infested sea.
- Drawing Straws: Once the captain gets killed in the opening, Torrin, the sole remaining officer, suggests drawing lots to determine who will be sent down to face the monster. Instead, the guy who draws the short straw, being the largest among them, declares himself captain and forces Torrin to go.
- Eaten Alive: The sailor who drew the shortest straw ends up being devoured with neither the crew nor the thanapod bothering to kill him first. However, his gruesome death is portrayed as Laser-Guided Karma, given he first decided to ignore his fate and forced Torrin to go into the hold and face the monster. Another sailor is eaten alive in the opening, still screaming and kicking while shoved down the thanapod's maw.
- Establishing Character Moment: When Torrin is forced to face the thanapod, he doesn't resist and goes willingly, thus differentiating himself from the rest of the crew who refuse to face the monster. Secondly, once the monster establishes that it can talk and makes demands to go to Phaiden Island, Torrin proves himself able to remain calm under pressure and crafty enough to negotiate with an Eldritch Abomination.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Admittedly, every member of the crew besides Torrin is completely willing to sic a hungry thanapod on a city of civilians. However, Melis also faces down the crew in order to protect his injured brother from being sacrificed to the monster (making him the only person besides Torrin in the entire episode to care about someone besides himself).
- Everyone Has Standards: Torrin has little issue with manipulating, killing, and sacrificing the rest of the crew to the thanapod, but he refuses to let the creature reach a heavily populated island alive.
- Explosive Breeder: As with real-life crabs, the thanapod hatches dozens of its offspring after boarding the ship.
- Foreshadowing: When Torrin threatens Cert, the latter is terrified but doesn't protest otherwise. This strongly hints that he indeed voted to sacrifice Phaiden Island. It turns out, all of the crew did.
- Gender Is No Object: Two of the sailors are female and presumably the briefly present helmsman/captain.
- Genius Bruiser: Torrin. He's able to hatch a plot to kill the entire crew on the spot once they all vote for Phaiden island, and when the time comes to enact his plan, he successfully kills off every single one of them by himself.
- Giant Enemy Crab: The thanapod. A huge sea crab, about the size of a bus and with an exoskeleton completely impervious to the weapons the sailors have.
- Gothic Horror: The short puts great emphasis on building atmosphere, along with constant fear of the unknown and unforeseen.
- Guile Hero: Torrin is a particularly morally ambiguous version.
- Gunpoint Banter: After securing a deal with the monster and getting a key to the captain's gun box from it, Torrin negotiates with the rest of the crew while waving the gun around to assert his authority.
- Hidden Depths: Torrin is an intelligent, educated master manipulator, and plays both the thanapod and the crew like the fiddles on the soundtrack. Turns out he's also very handy in an actual fight, especially since he lured his enemies right where he wants them. And as cunning, manipulative and ruthless as he may appear, it turns out he's the only member of the surviving crew that isn't willing to sacrifice possibly thousands of innocent people to save his own life.
- Humans Are Bastards: The remaining crew is made almost entirely of self-serving assholes with loyalty to nobody but themselves. They betray, sacrifice and backstab each other non-stop, in a desperate attempt to be the last man standing of the crew. Ironically, this only helps Torrin survive and send the ship far away from the destination the thanapod wanted.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Torrin is the epitome of this trope. His successful manipulation and calculated murders of his mutinous crewmates coupled with burning the ship, while extreme and risky, ultimately ensured that the thanapod and its offsprings would never threaten Phaiden Island.
- I Lied: Subverted. When arranging the ballot for the choice between Phaiden Island and a further, deserted island, Torrin insists that the votes will be secret. Once the votes are cast, he then tells the crew he covertly made sure he could identify the ballots so he could shoot those cowardly enough to choose Phaiden Island, which is two of them. When everyone but himself and one other is dead, he reveals that he lied about marking the ballots: he didn't have to do any marks, they all voted for Phaiden Island.
- Immune to Bullets: The thanapod boasts that its shell will repel Torrin's bullets. He explains that the gun isn't for it, and shoots the lantern above the pool of shark oil he's just released.
- In the Back:
- Attempted by one of the sailors, who was sneaking up on Torrin. He is fended off with a wordless threat.
- When the mutineers are busy whacking at the Sleeping Dummy, Torrin gets the drop on them and without even announcing his presence, kills his first target with a bullet to the head.
- It Can Think: Despite being a massive crab, the thanapod is capable of thinking and communicating using the body of one of the crew members, demanding to be led to Phaiden Island and accepting Torrin's bargain and terms. Judging by the reactions of the crew, none of them realized that thanapods were capable of this.Torrin: Listen carefully, I am in no mood to repeat myself. The thing speaks.
- Kill It with Fire: Ultimately, Torrin uses the fish oil in their hold to set the ship ablaze and kill the thanapod.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The big guy who forces Torrin to go into the hold, rather than honor the Drawing Straws agreement, is the first to be fed to the thanapod. None of the others steps in to help, and they end up serving as meals for the thanapod as well. By contrast, Torrin is the only member of the cast who's prepared to do the best thing for the greatest number of people and seems willing to sacrifice himself (albeit he intended everyone else in the crew to precede him) and he's the sole survivor of the story.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Torrin is a callous, manipulative man who doesn't even blink when lying or killing people, ultimately being personally responsible for the death of his entire surviving crew. However, he still has the moral high ground, as the other sailors are even worse and would eagerly do the exact same things as Torrin, along with delivering the man-eating monster and its massive brood to a port city - something that Torrin considers unthinkable.
- Literal Metaphor: The crew are crabs in a basket, pulling each other back inside, rather than working together to survive. All while a giant crab is feeding on them as a result.
- Lured into a Trap: Torrin conspicuously tells a crew he knows to be mutinous that he intends to rest and to wake him when they reach their destination. When they inevitably try to take advantage of this opening, he's waiting in ambush.
- Monster Is a Mommy: As Torrin discovers when the thanapod calls him back for a chat, it's not trying to feed itself, it's trying to feed its many children.
- Monster Organ Trafficking: The crew is basically whalers who hunt "jable sharks" rather than whales, and for much the same reason (oil, the flammable kind).
- The Mutiny: Repeatedly:
- The first mutiny happens right after the thanapod attack when the man chosen to investigate the monster forcibly takes the position of captain from Torrin.
- The second mutiny happens after Torrin chooses not to transport the thanapod to Phaiden. The rest of the crew attempt to force one skittish member to assassinate him in order to protect themselves.
- The third mutiny is performed by the whole crew when Torrin tells them he's going to finally catch a nap. As he instead sets up a Sleeping Dummy, he is able to lay an ambush for the mutineers while they are busy whacking at the empty bed, killing them all.
- The Navigator: Torrin is the only crew member to survive the initial attack with navigation skills and uses it as a bargaining chip - both the crew and the monster need him to survive as long as feasible.
- The Needs of the Many: Torrin gives the crew a choice: a short cruise to the inhabited Phaiden Island, where the thanapod wants to go and will likely massacre the settlement there, but will only require a few of them to die along the way; or a few days longer to reach an uninhabited island, which will require more of them fed to the beast as sacrifice, possibly all of them, but the port will be safe. The crew is manipulated into making a vote for it, but in reality, it's Torrin using it to play them, as he already made the decision and every other person voted to send the ship to the Phaiden Island.
- Nerves of Steel: Torrin's greatest strength throughout the short is this. When faced with an intelligent monster that could rip him apart without a thought, and a crew who's willing to toss him to said monster, it's his ability to keep cool that allows him to negotiate and manipulate the situation to his advantage.
- Noble Demon: Torrin is one step away from outright Villain Protagonist, yet remains the most moral member of the crew and would rather get everyone killed on the ship, than unleash a monster with its brood on a port city.
- No-Sell: The thanapod's shell is impervious to blades and bullets. The only way to kill it is by roasting it alive.
- Number Two: Torrin is the First Mate and The Navigator of the ship until the death of the captain by the thanapod and ensuing circumstances launches him into a de facto leadership position.
- Offhand Backhand: When one of the crew members sneaks on Torrin, he just points a gun in his direction, cocking the hammer, without saying a word. The man instantly backs down.
- One Bullet Left: Torrin uses it to break a lantern and thus ignite the oil in the ship's hold.
- One-Hit Polykill: Intentionally so. Torrin only has a single drum of bullets in the revolver, so he arranges for his target to align where he needs him, using a single shot to kill two men.
- Only Six Faces: Almost all male characters have near-identical faces, making it hard at times to tell them apart.
- Opening Scroll: The episode opens with text explaining that the sailors are hunting the jable shark.
- Paranoia Gambit: Torrin's actions with the vote and executing the two brothers. By claiming that they were the only ones who were cowardly enough to bring the creature to Phaiden Island, he planted the seeds of doubt in the rest of the crew, who each believed that Torrin had made a mistake, yet were unwilling to question it lest they out themselves as cowards in turn.
- Pragmatic Hero: While the word "hero" is debatable when applied to Torrin, he's definitely pragmatic and has a strong enough moral compass to refuse setting the monster on an island full of people. He doesn't hold back a bit when manipulating his crew and then murdering them all when it turns out they'd rather let the monster go on a killing spree instead of dropping off it on a deserted island.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner:Torrin: As you know, there's not much eating on a jable shark. The meat is greasy [hacks a barrel] and the hide is too thick for any garment. [hacks another] What they do have in abundance... is oil. [draws pistol]
Thanopod: Shell protects!
Torrin: It's not for you. [BANG!] - Revolting Rescue: Torrin has to reach into a heap of crab vomit to get hold of the captain's key.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The last surviving sailor got locked by the mutineers in a chest for refusal to participate (or at least so he claims, but considering Torrin was able to open the chest with barely any effort it's suspect), but it makes no real difference. Torrin points out that the vote was a sham since all of them voted for sending the monster to Phaiden Island, so the sailor was willing to save himself over the islanders. For that, Torrin pushed the last sailor into the hold.
- Secret Test of Character: The vote was for Torrin to see if the crew would be brave enough to spare innocent civilians at the price of their own life. It turns out that everyone failed.
- Serrated Blade of Pain: Torrin goes into the hold the first time while carrying a sword with jagged teeth like a saw. Intimidating in appearance, but the sword still doesn't have any effect on the Thanapod.
- Sleeping Dummy: Torrin rigs one up after telling the crew he intends to take a rest, correctly anticipating they would attempt to kill him while he was vulnerable.
- Sole Survivor: Torrin is the last crew member alive. Not by circumstance - he personally killed almost every single other sailor.
- Tempting Fate: After feeding Melis and his brother to the thanapod, Torrin muses that a double feeding should mean double the time between feedings, then cautiously adds "One would hope." He's right to be paranoid, as the thanapod isn't just feeding itself.
- Threatening Shark: Monstrous "jable sharks" are said to infest the oceans and be a major source of profit and danger for the human populace. We see their severed heads in the hold and one eating a flying fish in the foreground, but they aren't actually seen threatening any of the crew. Rather the antagonists are a crab and inhumanity, but it does offer the means to kill off the former (namely, via the shark's flammable oil).
- Title Drop: The Opening Scroll says that lost vessels were said to have had a "Bad Traveling".
- Trapped-with-Monster Plot: A thanapod boards the ship and, during the ensuing melee, falls into the cargo hold where it can't easily escape and the crew likewise can't remove it. Thus begins the plot as the characters have to find a way to dispose of the beast without it killing them all.
- Villainous Valour: Above deck, Torrin is outnumbered and surrounded by his treacherous crew. Below deck, he must bargain with a monstrous crab that is Immune to Bullets and able to kill a man easily. Through guile and manipulation, Torrin ultimately prevails over both and saves a community of innocent people in the process.
- Wham Line: Two main examples.
- Thanapod (speaking for the first time): Phaaaaaaiiidennn Iiiiiiislannnddd.
- Torrin (to his last crewmate): In the spirit of fairness, I lied before. I didn't actually mark the ballots. I didn't have to. Every one of you made an 'X'.''
- What You Are in the Dark: A very, very dark example. Torrin kills people left and right and incites the crew members against each other, but has ultimately a noble goal of saving the inhabitants of the Phaiden Island, even if they have been ungrateful toward the crew in the past. Although given how the crew treats each other, the people of Phaiden Island might have a reason to be unfriendly.
- Wooden Ships and Iron Men: This alien world has a level of technology not out of place with the Age of Sail. The characters are working a wooden sailship as rugged whalers except with oil-filled sharks instead of baleen whales. The most advanced thing seen in this episode is Torrin's revolver.
- Would Hit a Girl:
- The first victim actually eaten alive is a female sailor whose screams can be heard as she's shoved head-first into the thanapod's mouth during the opening.
- When ambushing the mutineers, Torrin's first target is Chantre, one of the two female sailors in their crew, simply because she was the closest person to his position.
- The second female meets her demise when being used as a Human Shield by a fellow mutineer, only for Torrin to callously Shoot the Hostage.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. A small crew of a damaged ship must reach the nearest land while transporting a man-eating monster, dependent on the main character, who's their navigator. The main difference is in aesthetics and in the tone of the story: while Explorations had a hopeful ending despite all the horror, Bad Travelling plays the story as hopeless and brooding.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Torrin manages to account for/manipulate practically everything that happens after he's forced to go down into the hold. The thanapod wants to go to Phaiden Island? He immediately establishes that he's the one person on the ship it can't eat, and thus gets hold of the key to access the one gun on the ship and is able to dispose of the man who usurped the title of captain and can intimidate the others. He suggests dropping the thanapod on an uninhabited island, but the rest of the crew is reluctant? He puts it to a vote, and kills the two who (apparently) voted against him, meaning the others are cowed into going along with him and there's more food for the thanapod, giving them more time to get to their destination. It turns out that the Monster Is a Mommy and needs even more food for its offspring? He baits the crew into mutiny, kills all of them and placates the creatures with their bodies. Finally, he moors a fair distance away from Phaiden Island and sets the oil in the hold alight so the thanapod and its offspring perish, and is still close enough to land that he can row himself to safety.
- You Can't Fight Fate: The sailor who drew the shortest straw at first uses it as an excuse to force himself as the new captain and remains confident in his raw strength saving him. But once Torrin negotiates with the monster and gets a hold of the only gun on the ship, the sailor is still fed to the thanapod as its first meal, just as he would have been if he went through with the verdict of the straw drawing.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Torrin only kills the last surviving sailor after they've fed the other mutinous sailors to the thanapod, suggesting he only spared the man as long as he did because he didn't feel like dragging all the corpses by himself.
