The Pageant

The Pageant is the third episode of season one. Content warnings: racism, discussions of historical atrocities, and descriptions of diseases.

The transcript for the episode can be found here.

Episode Description
In which some history is learned.

Summary
The episode opens with Abbie singing as they make coffee. They stop when Lily comes down with the mail; she attempts to make conversation, but Abbie hands her a card stating that they don't make small talk before 7.30. AM. Stunned by this, Lily takes a lap of the hallway, and Abbie reads their mail - student loans and an invite to the Founder’s Day History Pageant and Meat Raffle being held that evening.

When Lily returns to the kitchen, they discuss whether they plan to the pageant - Lily was never in town when it was on and hasn't seen any of the people attending for years, and Abbie isn't big on meat or pageantry. Dot comes down a few minutes later, and is excited by the prospect of the pageant, saying the town hadn't had one in around a decade, a fact which irks Abbie given the event is supposedly 'annual'.

Dot convinces Lily to go, with the promise that they can leave early if it's too weird. Abbie is still unwilling, but when Dot mentions that the possibility of getting access to a supposed restricted library collection full of rare primary sources about the town, Abbie relents and goes to chose an outfit.

As Abbie leaves the kitchen, Lily asks Dot if she's still smoking, since Lily smelt smoke the night before. Dot deflects with a joke before admitting that yes, she was still smoking. Lily also asks if Dot was taking her medications, since she found Dot's pill caddy and it was filled with murky water. Dot replies that the caddy made her feel old. Wes made her a tie-dye box for her meds, which she prefers.

Lily asks about the special collection, and Dot admits to making that up in order to get Abbie to attend the pageant.

As they arrive in town hall that evening for the pageant, Dot introduces Abbie to Hazel Gibbons, the head librarian, who expects Lily to make a speech after the pageant about her living in Mount Absalom again. Inside, Lily meets Marisol Cabrera and helps her get the sound system working. They chat for a few minutes; Marisol's niece is over for the summer and is filming the pageant, and they both commiserate over having an older town resident try to hook them up with their son.

After the attendees sing Mount Absalom's town anthem, the pageant - performed by the Cricket Scouts and led by Hazel - begins. It depicts a small group of travellers arriving in Ohio Country in 1796. As they lead their oxen to a stream, they find a lone man crying. The man - Reverend Silas Lodge - had been planning to build a town, but his travelling companions had apparently been killed by 'a tribe of angry Native Americans'. (In the audience, Abbie is furious by this racist historic revisionism.) The travellers, who had recently lost their reverend, ask Silas to become their new reverend, and the group pledges to build a new town and name it Mount Absalom, after a nearby hill. The pageant ends with the discovery that the town is the perfect place to grow celery.

After the performance, Hazel calls on Lily to perform her speech. Abbie grabs the mic, and begins a speech pointing out the inaccuracies in the pageant; not only in the way it depicts Native Americans as bloodthirsty and murderous, but also how Reverend Lodge was found surrounded by around fifty bodies, apparently dead by chorea. Abbie then storms out of town hall.

Dot follows them out, offering them a cigarette and sympathy. Abbie is regretful that they lost any chance at getting access to the primary sources in the library's restricted collection. Dot admits to lying about them to get Abbie to attend the pageant and meet people in the town. Abbie, angry at Dot, goes to leave, telling Dot that to call when she wants to be picked up.

Lily comes out soon afterwards to check on Dot. Lily's happy to stay at town hall a little longer, since she's talking to Marisol again. The three of them go back inside to attend the raffle.

The episode ends with Hazel calling Chester Warren, asking him how Abbie found out about the special collection.

Post-Credit Fact
The Fenwood House was originally the Lyle Homestead and was built by one of Mount Absalom’s founding families, the Lyle’s, two hundred and twenty-two years ago… today.

Cast

 * Clarisa Cherie Rios as Lily
 * Marsha Harman as Dot
 * Kathleen Hoil as Abbie
 * Krista D’Agostino as Hazel
 * Amelia Bethel as Marisol
 * Abby Doud as Mason
 * Kat Evans as Stacy
 * Jeffrey Gardner as Dylan

Crew

 * Writer: Jessica Best
 * Sound design: Ryan Schile
 * Director: Jeffrey Nils Gardner
 * Music composer: Stephen Poon
 * Recording engineer: Mel Ruder
 * Lead sound designer: Ryan Schile
 * Executives Producers: Eleanor Hyde and Jeffrey Gardner
 * Theme performed by:
 * Stephen Poon
 * Lauren Kelly
 * Gunnar Jebsen
 * Travis Elfers
 * Mel Ruder
 * Betsey Palmer