The Shadow · S1 · E4 · The worm

He sat with the body seven days, until a worm fell from its nose.

Epic of Gilgamesh, Standard Babylonian version, Tablets III–VIII

Scripted. Not yet filmed.

The story, as told

168 words. The narration, exactly as spoken.

Together they went where no king had gone. They cut the cedar forest and killed the thing that guarded it. They killed the bull of heaven. The gods kept a ledger. For all that, one of the two would have to die. It was not the king.

Enkidu dreamed of the house of dust, where the dead wear feathers and eat clay. He cursed the great door he had carried from the forest. Then he blessed the woman who had brought him in. He was sick twelve days.

Gilgamesh covered the face like a bride's. He tore out his hair. He would not give the body to the earth. On the seventh day a worm fell from the nose. He put on a lion's skin and walked into the wilderness.

The king who feared nothing had met the one thing he could not fight. You learn what the shadow was worth by losing it.

The reading

the shadow (its loss); the four sights, second sight (the dead friend)

The bill arrives

The gods keep a ledger, and the entries are the guardian and the bull. Someone must die for them, and it is not the king. Enkidu dreams of the house of dust where the dead wear feathers and eat clay, curses the cedar door he carried out of the forest, and then, told that the curse is unjust, blesses the woman who brought him in. He is sick twelve days. Jung's second sight, after the equal, is the dead friend: the ego discovers that the part of itself it had come to love can be taken away.

The worm

Gilgamesh will not give the body to the earth. He veils the face like a bride's, tears his hair, and sits with his friend for seven days, until a worm drops from the nose. That detail is in the tablet, and it is the most honest line in the poem: grief ends not when it is resolved but when the body insists. He puts on a lion's skin and runs. In the film he casts no shadow at all from here on, because the shadow is what he has lost.

You learn what the shadow was worth by losing it.

How it was cut

13 shots, each a ten-second silhouette scene, cut to the sentence it carries.

Shot 1 · hook
He sat with the body seven days, until a worm fell from its nose.
Shot 2 · setup
Together they went where no king had gone. They cut the cedar forest
Shot 3 · setup
and killed the thing that guarded it.
Shot 4 · setup
They killed the bull of heaven.
Shot 5 · twist
The gods kept a ledger. For all that, one of the two would have to die. It was not the king.
Shot 6 · push
Enkidu dreamed of the house of dust, where the dead wear feathers and eat clay.
Shot 7 · push
He cursed the great door he had carried from the forest. Then he blessed the woman who had brought him in.
Shot 8 · push
He was sick twelve days.
Shot 10 · spike
Gilgamesh covered the face like a bride's. He tore out his hair.
Shot 11 · spike
He would not give the body to the earth. On the seventh day a worm fell from the nose.
Shot 12 · button
He put on a lion's skin and walked into the wilderness.