SELAH: So you’re saying an exploding meteor would create sound.
TWIG: Exactly. According to reports in 1757, there was no sound at all. No damage, either.
SELAH: What about some kind of crazy solar storm, or aurora borealis?
TWIG: It’s possible, but unlikely. A solar stormwould happen across entire regions, and yet, there are no records from surrounding settlements corroborating this event. Not to mention, auroras don’t flash like lightning. They shimmer. They roll like waves. This was a single, massive burst. So unless this was some kind of unknown atmospheric phenomenon that happened only over Foggy Hollow, that leaves us with …
(A dramatic orchestral sting plays: dun-dun-duuuuun!)
SELAH: Supernatural explanations.
TWIG: What are your theories, Selah?
SELAH: I have two. First, it could have been just like Minister Van Buren said. An actual warning from God. Maybe it was about the fire. I mean, if that’s the case, it came four and a half decades early, but a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day and all that jazz.
TWIG: Okay, what’s your second theory?
SELAH: As cliche as it might be, it has to be said. Extraterrestrial visitors.
TWIG: ET phone home.
SELAH: Ugh, don’t talk about that movie. It’s sosad. Anyway, those are my theories. Let’s hear yours.
TWIG: I have three. The first is time travel.
SELAH: Great Scott!
TWIG: Doc Brown and his DeLorean aside, hear me out. What if settlers glimpsed a scene from the past or the future—a tear in the space time continuum?
SELAH: A flash of daylight from an entirely different day.
TWIG: Exactly.
SELAH: I like that theory. What else ya got?
TWIG: Mass possession.
SELAH: Yikes.
TWIG: It could have been an attack on the mind. A supernatural entity broadcasting a message directly into the settlers’ brains. Which would make the flash not a real flash, but a shared hallucination.
SELAH: Courtesy of the aliens.
TWIG: My third and final theory is similar to your God theory. The flash could have been some sort of celestial being descending from the heavens.
SELAH: Like an angel?
TWIG: If your glass is half full. Or a demon, if your glass is half empty.
SELAH: I’m building a theory off your theory. What if the Great Flash wasn’t something crashing down, but somethingwaking up?
(A high-pitched, maniacal cackle of glee fades into eerie silence.)
TWIG: Definitely food for thought.
SELAH: So what about this year’s comet?
TWIG: By the time this episode airs, it will be twenty-one days, thirteen hours, and sixteen minutes from making its first appearance in the sky. But don’t count on noticing anything unless you have a telescope. It’ll grow steadily bigger and brighter until Halloween night, when you won’t be able to miss it. I recommend a pair of sunglasses, just in case another flash makes an appearance.
