animatrixText=Courtesy of zionmainframe.net [Int. Matrix. Detective Ash is sitting down in what looks like a train or a streetcar, pointing a gun at something, and lighting a cigarette.] Ash [v.o.]: A case to end all cases. [pause] You know what I mean, Dina? [pause] I used to think being a private detective was cool. Like Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe, right? But there's nothing cool left to it. On top of that, both my fridge and my bank account are empty. [We hear a phone ringing. We see an old rotary phone that looks identical to the one in Neo's apartment, and the one in the TV repair shop.] Ash: Wait. OK, Dina, let's bet. If it's another suspicious husband, I'm out of this business forever. Dina [a cat]: Meow. Ash: Hello? Agent [v.o.]: Mr. Ash, we have a job for you. Ash: And you need me to check on your wife, right? Agent [v.o.]: We're looking for a computer hacker. This hacker goes by the alias `Trinity' and that's all we know. Ash: [aside] Well, it looks like we're still in business, Dina. Dina: Meow. Ash: Fine..and who will I be working for? Agent [v.o.]: I can't say. Ash: You can't say. Well, call me back when you can say - that's not the way I do business. It was a real pleasure chatting with you. Agent [v.o.]: Before you hang up, take a look at your bank account balance. [Ash does as he's told, and sees the figure 800,000 on the screen. Cut to: Ext. Matrix - a busy city street. Ash is in his office.] Ash [v.o.]: I didn't get a good feeling about the case. [We see Ash using a war dialer and looking at multiple screens with maps of the city, much like Tank's schematics on the Nebuchadnezzar]. Ash [v.o.]: But I had no good reason to turn the guy down now. [Ext. Matrix. Ash is walking through the city. Cut to: Ash's office]. Ash [v.o.]: This Trinity was well-known in hacker circles. A real artist, by the sound of it. [Ext. Matrix. Ash is standing on a fire escape ladder.] Ash [v.o.]: So I knew I could get that close. The question is, could I get closer? I had a few tricks up my sleeve for getting the hackers. While I was searching, I found something strange. Other detectives had been on the case, too, and their investigations had all been... Let's just say, troubled. One of the guys killed himself. Another disappeared. And another went crazy. So I paid the one that was left a visit - the crazy one. [Ash is in a room, with `FIND THE RED QUEEN' written in bright red paint on the wall above the windows. A man is kneeling in the room, on what looks like a giant chessboard - he's the detective who went crazy.] Crazy Ex-Detective: Trinity doesn't exist, man. He's not real. He's a... a figment, a cipher, a jabberwocky. And who am I? Who the hell am I?! Ash [v.o.]: Did I mention he was crazy? [Int. Matrix. Ash is in his office, browsing through `Alice in Wonderland'] Ash [v.o.]: Chessboards... Jabberwocky... Red Queen... I started searching all the usual hacker hangouts for someone with an `Alice in Wonderland' m.o. Hacker bulletin boards, anonymous mail boxes, chatrooms. And it was in one of those that I picked up Trinity's trail. [Int. Computer screen] ## UNAUTHORIZED USER LOG ON: WHITE_PAWN > Red Queen. Can you see me? I am looking for Trinity. I am told he is through the looking glass. RED_QUEEN > No. It is you who is through the looking glass. WHITE_PAWN > How can I meet you? RED_QUEEN > You'll have to jump the first of six brooks. I'll be there at 20:05. ## USER LOG OFF RED_QUEEN ## > SYSTEM ERROR SHUTTING DOWN. [Int. Ash's office.] Ash: Six brooks... I'll be there at twenty oh-five... [He is looking through `Alice in Wonderland' with a magnifying glass.] Ash: Of course! Crossing the second brook takes her into the woods! Alice jumps the first brook, and then she boards a train! [Ext. Matrix - Ash is running outside.] Dina: Mrrrow! [the cat is holding Ash's hat in her mouth. She tosses it to him.] Ash: Thanks! [Ext. Matrix - Train Station. A train is pulling away, with Ash struggling to catch up.] Ash: Hey! Hey! [He pulls himself up, and boards the train]. [Int. Train - Ash opens the door to a booth, gun drawn, and is faced with Trinity's gun pointed at him.] Ash: I knew this was some kind of trap. Trinity: There's a difference, Mr. Ash, between a trap and a test. Ash: You were testing me? Trinity: You made it. I'm impressed. Ash: Flattery will get you everywhere. Trinity: I'm not here to flatter you. I'm here to save you. [She places a smaller version of the de-bugging machine on his left eye, presses a lever, and a bug comes out of Ash's eye, stiffening in the glass vial on top.] [Int. Train - In another booth, three passengers' RSIs are taken over by agents. Cut to: Trinity's booth.] Ash: What just happened? Trinity: Mr. Ash, dream of having an eye exam lately? [Cut to: Three men in white coats in an operating room with Ash on the table, his left eye held open by three metal clamps. Cut to: Trinity's booth.] Ash: Yeah..how'd you know? Trinity: [holding up the bug] You've stepped to the edge of the looking glass. Ash: So that means that I wasn't dreaming. They hired me as a way to get to you, didn't they? [We hear a noise that sounds like a scream. Trinity opens the door and looks to the left, where there are three agents at the end of the hallway.] Trinity: Go! [Trinity and Ash run, as the agents shoot at them. They get behind a door to another train car, slamming it shut.] Ash: What the hell is going on here? This is really crazy. Now I understand what happened to those other detectives. They went nuts. Male Voice [v.o., behind the door]: Hey! What are you doing? Ash: Well, I've gotten out of worse jams than this. I am not gonna let them get you. [As they proceed to the next train car, Ash stops and leans his head down, holding on to a chair]. Ash: Ugh. [Trinity stops, watching as his RSI courses between Ash and an Agent] Ash/Agent: What's... happening... to me? Trinity: I'm sorry. You didn't make it, Mr. Ash. [She fires at him, and Ash slumps over in his chair, himself again. Trinity continues walking.] Ash: I wish I could go with you. I don't blame you, you know. Everything that happened, Trinity, it... it was all my fault. All that `through the looking glass' stuff [ugh] I can't get my head around it. I'm old-fashioned. Trinity: There's a difference between a test and a choice. [She sighs] For what it's worth, I think you could've handled the truth. Ash: It was just a job. Good-bye, Trinity. Trinity: Good-bye. [She shoots at the window in front of her, and escapes through the resulting hole.] [Ext. Matrix - Train is rolling along the tracks, there's no sign of Trinity.] [Int. Train, Ash's car - The three agents walk in. They walk to where Ash's hat sits atop a seat back, not finding him. We see a gun appear, and the Agents turn backwards, towards Ash, who's lighting a cigarette and pointing his gun at the three agents. This is where the episode began.] Ash [v.o.]: A case to end all cases. [Fade to black.]