This encounter has really moved Ben. He drives home admiring a beautiful sunset and he tries to come up with something profound and lands on "Oh who am I kidding. It's fucking beautiful!"

Ben heads home and has a sweet moment with Abilene's fat younger brother, about 10 years old, who asks him to help him unjam his gun, and if he can sleep on his floor.

The next scene, we're taken through a montage of Ben interviewing a number of people about Abilene, each one surprising him with their intellect and their breadth of knowledge on topics he wouldn't expect them to know anything about. Ben reports back to his podcast contact in NYC, and then goes to a rodeo to really experience the small town Texas life. Has a deep-fried twinky, he gets teased by the announcer of the rodeo for supporting the University of Texas, rather than Texas Tech, and then they head to the party where line dancing is going on.

Here Ben finally gets to meet the drug dealer his temporary roommate suspects might be the killer. A super cholo hardass, when Ben gets him alone and asks him about Abilene, the guy comes clean that he was in love with her, because she was so sweet to him when nobody else was. But to Ben's surprise, he agrees that Abilene was murdered, but that it wasn't him. He then repeats the same thing her brother did "She'd never taken so much as an Advil in her life." (Someone also makes a pretty good quip about him being Joe Rogan meets Seth Rogan--a shot at Ben obviously being a Jew, and that may be loaded a bit all on its own--but it's really neither here nor there as far as the movie is concerned best I can tell. But who knows.)

Our assumptions are once again challenged though by the revelation, proven by a picture of him with his niece in Tulsa for an Adele concert the night that Abilene was killed. But he likes that people think he killed her because it's good for his drug dealer street cred. He reveals that Abilene died at a party that "Everybody goes to but everyone says they weren't there."

At this point Ben has a lucid moment. He doesn't have great proof but he's got a gut feeling that there's something bigger going on. This is big for Ben, because up until now he hasn't put any stock in gut feelings. He wants evidence and evidence only. Yet this place seems to be changing him somehow. Albeit subtly for now.

Next scene, Ben starts doing some real investigative work. He talks to Mike and Dan, the local deputies, and they tell him where that party takes place isn't their jurisdiction, and that he needs to talk to the county Sheriff. The Sheriff tells him a little about the drug trade in that area, but he also says that's not his jurisdiction, an area called "the after party." He points him to Highway Patrol, since it happened along the highway. But Highway Patrol points him to Border Patrol, who also says it's not their jurisdiction. As it turns out, that spot is at the intersection of overlapping jurisdictions, giving all of them a reason to say it wasn't their problem.

Ben goes home and pops in the thumb drive Q gave him when he first met him (which I forgot to mention earlier) and watches a video about Abilene talking about how her little brother sleeps on her floor cause he's afraid of ghosts.

The next scene, Ben is trying to connect the dots and record some good material. He notes that intuition is a real thing, and that if enough people believe something, despite not having proof, they might still be on to something.

Ben walks outside and his car blows up. Kind of out of nowhere, and it turns out it was just a prank some Texas Tech fans played on him for daring to root for the wrong school. Ben hardly even knows football exists so he's amazed when he finds out the reason, but there's a couple of reasons this is important. First, it's kinda funny. But second, he ends up in the hospital, and the family he's staying with comes to pick him up. Ben says:

I can't believe you're all here.

To which the mom replies:

Well where else would we be?

Ben's heart is clearly warmed, and they all go to Whataburger together. While they're eating, the grandma asks him if he has family in Texas. He says no and she says "You do now." Coup de gras, you can tell that Ben is sold on these people. He gets a call from the lady back in New York saying the story was great but now that he's in real danger it's time to come home. She tells him her conscience tells her she has to choose a person over a story (she's actually a very good person, you can tell, especially within the context of everything).

He refuses, and goes back inside to eat with the family at Whataburger. Then the grandma lets slip that Abilene was a "huge pill popper."

This is the crisis moment of the film. Ben realizes these people haven't been perfectly honest with him, and suddenly he feels completely hoodwinked and bamboozled, and that he's been investigating nothing at all. He and the brother go outside and they get into an argument, and here's where something else gets really interesting to me.

In another breakdown I did of a Q connection to the movie "The Adjustment Bureau" I noticed something exceptionally important (can't remember what it is right now--I wrote the thing like two years ago, but I remember it was important) happened at exactly one hour and 17 minutes into the film. With that in mind, I decided to go back to this movie and skip to that exact moment in this film, and it turns out, that's the exact moment the crisis happens. I said it was in the Whataburger, but it was really in the parking lot as the brother is trying to explain to Ben why he lied to him. At exactly one hour and 17 minutes in, right after the brother says "It's complicated" Ben opens his mouth and says:

It's not. It's all actually very simple. Everything here is actually really simple, and maybe that's why it took me so long to understand it. You follow your heart. Well maybe it's time to look around and ask yourselves how that's working out for you. Maybe you should follow your brain for a change. Because when you follow your heart, the earth is flat, climate change is a hoax, vaccines contain microchips and Mexican drug dealers killed your sister. You invent these insane fucking narratives to explain why your lives are such shit shows because the truth is too scary for you to face, which is that you did it to yourselves. Do you know what people say about you guys where I'm from?

Let me guess. Bad things.

No. Worse. We say good things. "We took them seriously when we should've taken them literally." You're neither. You're not serious people. And maybe it's time for you all to take us seriously and literally because where I'm from is fun and interesting. And the people are rich and diverse and meanwhile your town looks like THIS.

(the mom) Bless your heart

And I know what that means. And bless your heart. And your heart. Bless all your fucking hearts.

The brother reminds him that if not for them, nobody in the world would have gone to see him in the hospital when his car blew up, and then says he probably wouldn't have done anything good for Abilene and Ben reveals she was just a girl in his phone. Then the brother punches him in the stomach and as he's reeling on the ground, the mom gives him a nice little speech:

I don't know the whole story. But life IS complicated. Evern around here. If you can believe that. I'll tell you what i think. People don't do drugs for no reason. They do them because they're in pain. Pain like...maybe caring for someone who doesn't know your name? So I don't know Ben. But if you're looking for someone to blame. You may not have needed to come all this way. Bless your heart.

They leave without him, and there's not an uber for hours, so he's forced to walk back to the house, but despite all that, they still let him in the door and let him stay there that night.

He records something on the way home:

You were right, Elouise. I was the story. A self absorbed know-it-all who thinks he's gonna figure out the meaning of America and all he learns is how empty he is. I was the one living the myth. They say you regret the things you don't do. I didn't love. I have no story. I guess that's the story. I am the story, and the story sucks. The story is nothing. I'm coming home.

The little boy sleeping on his floor that night says that he's scared. Ben asks of what, and the boy says "Of ghosts." Ben says ghosts aren't real. The boy asks "If they aren't real, how come everyone knows what they are?"

Ben replies:

They're real as an idea. But they're not real real. That's what's scary about ghosts. That they aren't real. If they were real they wouldn't be scary at all. We'd just smile and say "Hi ghosts." Wouldn't that be cool? If when someone wasn't there anymore there was still a little piece of them that could surprise you sometimes? But there's not. There's nothing. That's what's scary about ghosts. That the little piece of someone who think might still be there...isn't there at all. Do you feel better?

Not really

Yeah, me neither.

The boy then says something that makes Ben realize the code to Abilene's phone and he opens it up. He finds a text thread with his name on it but that's not actually the text thread he had with her. She's been using his name as cover for someone else she's seeing. He calls it and his phone doesn't ring, which means someone else's is ringing.

This encounter has really moved Ben. He drives home admiring a beautiful sunset and he tries to come up with something profound and lands on "Oh who am I kidding. It's fucking beautiful!"

Ben heads home and has a sweet moment with Abilene's fat younger brother, about 10 years old, who asks him to help him unjam his gun, and if he can sleep on his floor.

The next scene, we're taken through a montage of Ben interviewing a number of people about Abilene, each one surprising him with their intellect and their breadth of knowledge on topics he wouldn't expect them to know anything about. Ben reports back to his podcast contact in NYC, and then goes to a rodeo to really experience the small town Texas life. Has a deep-fried twinky, he gets teased by the announcer of the rodeo for supporting the University of Texas, rather than Texas Tech, and then they head to the party where line dancing is going on.

Here Ben finally gets to meet the drug dealer his temporary roommate suspects might be the killer. A super cholo hardass, when Ben gets him alone and asks him about Abilene, the guy comes clean that he was in love with her, because she was so sweet to him when nobody else was. But to Ben's surprise, he agrees that Abilene was murdered, but that it wasn't him. He then repeats the same thing her brother did "She'd never taken so much as an Advil in her life." (Someone also makes a pretty good quip about him being Joe Rogan meets Seth Rogan--a shot at Ben obviously being a Jew, and that may be loaded a bit all on its own--but it's really neither here nor there as far as the movie is concerned best I can tell. But who knows.)

Our assumptions are once again challenged though by the revelation, proven by a picture of him with his niece in Tulsa for an Adele concert the night that Abilene was killed. But he likes that people think he killed her because it's good for his drug dealer street cred. He reveals that Abilene died at a party that "Everybody goes to but everyone says they weren't there."

At this point Ben has a lucid moment. He doesn't have great proof but he's got a gut feeling that there's something bigger going on. This is big for Ben, because up until now he hasn't put any stock in gut feelings. He wants evidence and evidence only. Yet this place seems to be changing him somehow. Albeit subtly for now.

Next scene, Ben starts doing some real investigative work. He talks to Mike and Dan, the local deputies, and they tell him where that party takes place isn't their jurisdiction, and that he needs to talk to the county Sheriff. The Sheriff tells him a little about the drug trade in that area, but he also says that's not his jurisdiction, an area called "the after party." He points him to Highway Patrol, since it happened along the highway. But Highway Patrol points him to Border Patrol, who also says it's not their jurisdiction. As it turns out, that spot is at the intersection of overlapping jurisdictions, giving all of them a reason to say it wasn't their problem.

Ben goes home and pops in the thumb drive Q gave him when he first met him (which I forgot to mention earlier) and watches a video about Abilene talking about how her little brother sleeps on her floor cause he's afraid of ghosts.

The next scene, Ben is trying to connect the dots and record some good material. He notes that intuition is a real thing, and that if enough people believe something, despite not having proof, they might still be on to something.

Ben walks outside and his car blows up. Kind of out of nowhere, and it turns out it was just a prank some Texas Tech fans played on him for daring to root for the wrong school. Ben hardly even knows football exists so he's amazed when he finds out the reason, but there's a couple of reasons this is important. First, it's kinda funny. But second, he ends up in the hospital, and the family he's staying with comes to pick him up. Ben says:

I can't believe you're all here.

To which the mom replies:

Well where else would we be?

Ben's heart is clearly warmed, and they all go to Whataburger together. While they're eating, the grandma asks him if he has family in Texas. He says no and she says "You do now." Coup de gras, you can tell that Ben is sold on these people. He gets a call from the lady back in New York saying the story was great but now that he's in real danger it's time to come home. She tells him her conscience tells her she has to choose a person over a story (she's actually a very good person, you can tell, especially within the context of everything).

He refuses, and goes back inside to eat with the family at Whataburger. Then the grandma lets slip that Abilene was a "huge pill popper."

This is the crisis moment of the film. Ben realizes these people haven't been perfectly honest with him, and suddenly he feels completely hoodwinked and bamboozled, and that he's been investigating nothing at all. He and the brother go outside and they get into an argument, and here's where something else gets really interesting to me.

In another breakdown I did of a Q connection to the movie "The Adjustment Bureau" I noticed something exceptionally important (can't remember what it is right now--I wrote the thing like two years ago, but I remember it was important) happened at exactly one hour and 17 minutes into the film. With that in mind, I decided to go back to this movie and skip to that exact moment in this film, and it turns out, that's the exact moment the crisis happens. I said it was in the Whataburger, but it was really in the parking lot as the brother is trying to explain to Ben why he lied to him. At exactly one hour and 17 minutes in, right after the brother says "It's complicated" Ben opens his mouth and says:

It's not. It's all actually very simple. Everything here is actually really simple, and maybe that's why it took me so long to understand it. You follow your heart. Well maybe it's time to look around and ask yourselves how that's working out for you. Maybe you should follow your brain for a change. Because when you follow your heart, the earth is flat, climate change is a hoax, vaccines contain microchips and Mexican drug dealers killed your sister. You invent these insane fucking narratives to explain why your lives are such shit shows because the truth is too scary for you to face, which is that you did it to yourselves. Do you know what people say about you guys where I'm from?

Let me guess. Bad things.

No. Worse. We say good things. "We took them seriously when we should've taken them literally." You're neither. You're not serious people. And maybe it's time for you all to take us seriously and literally because where I'm from is fun and interesting. And the people are rich and deverse and meanwhile your town looks like THIS.

(the mom) Bless your heart

And I know what that means. And bless your heart. And your heart. Bless all your fucking hearts.

The brother reminds him that if not for them, nobody in the world would have gone to see him in the hospital when his car blew up, and then says he probably wouldn't have done anything good for Abilene and Ben reveals she was just a girl in his phone. Then the brother punches him in the stomach and as he's reeling on the ground, the mom gives him a nice little speech:

I don't know the whole story. But life IS complicated. Evern around here. If you can believe that. I'll tell you what i think. People don't do drugs for no reason. They do them because they're in pain. Pain like...maybe caring for someone who doesn't know your name? So I don't know Ben. But if you're looking for someone to blame. You may not have needed to come all this way. Bless your heart.

They leave without him, and there's not an uber for hours, so he's forced to walk back to the house, but despite all that, they still let him in the door and let him stay there that night.

He records something on the way home:

You were right, Elouise. I was the story. A self absorbed know-it-all who thinks he's gonna figure out the meaning of America and all he learns is how empty he is. I was the one living the myth. They say you regret the things you don't do. I didn't love. I have no story. I guess that's the story. I am the story, and the story sucks. The story is nothing. I'm coming home.

The little boy sleeping on his floor that night says that he's scared. Ben asks of what, and the boy says "Of ghosts." Ben says ghosts aren't real. The boy asks "If they aren't real, how come everyone knows what they are?"

Ben replies:

They're real as an idea. But they're not real real. That's what's scary about ghosts. That they aren't real. If they were real they wouldn't be scary at all. We'd just smile and say "Hi ghosts." Wouldn't that be cool? If when someone wasn't there anymore there was still a little piece of them that could surprise you sometimes? But there's not. There's nothing. That's what's scary about ghosts. That the little piece of someone who think might still be there...isn't there at all. Do you feel better?

Not really

Yeah, me neither.

The boy then says something that makes Ben realize the code to Abilene's phone and he opens it up. He finds a text thread with his name on it but that's not actually the text thread he had with her. She's been using his name as cover for someone else she's seeing. He calls it and his phone doesn't ring, which means someone else's is ringing.

This encounter has really moved Ben. He drives home admiring a beautiful sunset and he tries to come up with something profound and lands on "Oh who am I kidding. It's fucking beautiful!"

Ben heads home and has a sweet moment with Abilene's fat younger brother, about 10 years old, who asks him to help him unjam his gun, and if he can sleep on his floor.

The next scene, we're taken through a montage of Ben interviewing a number of people about Abilene, each one surprising him with their intellect and their breadth of knowledge on topics he wouldn't expect them to know anything about. Ben reports back to his podcast contact in NYC, and then goes to a rodeo to really experience the small town Texas life. Has a deep-fried twinky, he gets teased by the announcer of the rodeo for supporting the University of Texas, rather than Texas Tech, and then they head to the party where line dancing is going on.

Here Ben finally gets to meet the drug dealer his temporary roommate suspects might be the killer. A super cholo hardass, when Ben gets him alone and asks him about Abilene, the guy comes clean that he was in love with her, because she was so sweet to him when nobody else was. But to Ben's surprise, he agrees that Abilene was murdered, but that it wasn't him. He then repeats the same thing her brother did "She'd never taken so much as an Advil in her life." (Someone also makes a pretty good quip about him being Joe Rogan meets Seth Rogan--a shot at Ben obviously being a Jew, and that may be loaded a bit all on its own--but it's really neither here nor there as far as the movie is concerned best I can tell. But who knows.)

Our assumptions are once again challenged though by the revelation, proven by a picture of him with his niece in Tulsa for an Adele concert the night that Abilene was killed. But he likes that people think he killed her because it's good for his drug dealer street cred. He reveals that Abilene died at a party that "Everybody goes to but everyone says they weren't there."

At this point Ben has a lucid moment. He doesn't have great proof but he's got a gut feeling that there's something bigger going on. This is big for Ben, because up until now he hasn't put any stock in gut feelings. He wants evidence and evidence only. Yet this place seems to be changing him somehow. Albeit subtly for now.

Next scene, Ben starts doing some real investigative work. He talks to Mike and Dan, the local deputies, and they tell him where that party takes place isn't their jurisdiction, and that he needs to talk to the county Sheriff. The Sheriff tells him a little about the drug trade in that area, but he also says that's not his jurisdiction, an area called "the after party." He points him to Highway Patrol, since it happened along the highway. But Highway Patrol points him to Border Patrol, who also says it's not their jurisdiction. As it turns out, that spot is at the intersection of overlapping jurisdictions, giving all of them a reason to say it wasn't their problem.

Ben goes home and pops in the thumb drive Q gave him when he first met him (which I forgot to mention earlier) and watches a video about Abilene talking about how her little brother sleeps on her floor cause he's afraid of ghosts.

The next scene, Ben is trying to connect the dots and record some good material. He notes that intuition is a real thing, and that if enough people believe something, despite not having proof, they might still be on to something.

Ben walks outside and his car blows up. Kind of out of nowhere, and it turns out it was just a prank some Texas Tech fans played on him for daring to root for the wrong school. Ben hardly even knows football exists so he's amazed when he finds out the reason, but there's a couple of reasons this is important. First, it's kinda funny. But second, he ends up in the hospital, and the family he's staying with comes to pick him up. Ben says:

I can't believe you're all here.

To which the mom replies:

Well where else would we be?

Ben's heart is clearly warmed, and they all go to Whataburger together. While they're eating, the grandma asks him if he has family in Texas. He says no and she says "You do know." Coup de gras, you can tell that Ben is sold on these people. He gets a call from the lady back in New York saying the story was great but now that he's in real danger it's time to come home. She tells him her conscience tells her she has to choose a person over a story (she's actually a very good person, you can tell, especially within the context of everything).

He refuses, and goes back inside to eat with the family at Whataburger. Then the grandma lets slip that Abilene was a "huge pill popper."

This is the crisis moment of the film. Ben realizes these people haven't been perfectly honest with him, and suddenly he feels completely hoodwinked and bamboozled, and that he's been investigating nothing at all. He and the brother go outside and they get into an argument, and here's where something else gets really interesting to me.

In another breakdown I did of a Q connection to the movie "The Adjustment Bureau" I noticed something exceptionally important (can't remember what it is right now--I wrote the thing like two years ago, but I remember it was important) happened at exactly one hour and 17 minutes into the film. With that in mind, I decided to go back to this movie and skip to that exact moment in this film, and it turns out, that's the exact moment the crisis happens. I said it was in the Whataburger, but it was really in the parking lot as the brother is trying to explain to Ben why he lied to him. At exactly one hour and 17 minutes in, right after the brother says "It's complicated" Ben opens his mouth and says:

It's not. It's all actually very simple. Everything here is actually really simple, and maybe that's why it took me so long to understand it. You follow your heart. Well maybe it's time to look around and ask yourselves how that's working out for you. Maybe you should follow your brain for a change. Because when you follow your heart, the earth is flat, climate change is a hoax, vaccines contain microchips and Mexican drug dealers killed your sister. You invent these insane fucking narratives to explain why your lives are such shit shows because the truth is too scary for you to face, which is that you did it to yourselves. Do you know what people say about you guys where I'm from?

Let me guess. Bad things.

No. Worse. We say good things. "We took them seriously when we should've taken them literally." You're neither. You're not serious people. And maybe it's time for you all to take us seriously and literally because where I'm from is fun and interesting. And the people are rich and deverse and meanwhile your town looks like THIS.

(the mom) Bless your heart

And I know what that means. And bless your heart. And your heart. Bless all your fucking hearts.

The brother reminds him that if not for them, nobody in the world would have gone to see him in the hospital when his car blew up, and then says he probably wouldn't have done anything good for Abilene and Ben reveals she was just a girl in his phone. Then the brother punches him in the stomach and as he's reeling on the ground, the mom gives him a nice little speech:

I don't know the whole story. But life IS complicated. Evern around here. If you can believe that. I'll tell you what i think. People don't do drugs for no reason. They do them because they're in pain. Pain like...maybe caring for someone who doesn't know your name? So I don't know Ben. But if you're looking for someone to blame. You may not have needed to come all this way. Bless your heart.

They leave without him, and there's not an uber for hours, so he's forced to walk back to the house, but despite all that, they still let him in the door and let him stay there that night.

He records something on the way home:

You were right, Elouise. I was the story. A self absorbed know-it-all who thinks he's gonna figure out the meaning of America and all he learns is how empty he is. I was the one living the myth. They say you regret the things you don't do. I didn't love. I have no story. I guess that's the story. I am the story, and the story sucks. The story is nothing. I'm coming home.

The little boy sleeping on his floor that night says that he's scared. Ben asks of what, and the boy says "Of ghosts." Ben says ghosts aren't real. The boy asks "If they aren't real, how come everyone knows what they are?"

Ben replies:

They're real as an idea. But they're not real real. That's what's scary about ghosts. That they aren't real. If they were real they wouldn't be scary at all. We'd just smile and say "Hi ghosts." Wouldn't that be cool? If when someone wasn't there anymore there was still a little piece of them that could surprise you sometimes? But there's not. There's nothing. That's what's scary about ghosts. That the little piece of someone who think might still be there...isn't there at all. Do you feel better?

Not really

Yeah, me neither.

The boy then says something that makes Ben realize the code to Abilene's phone and he opens it up. He finds a text thread with his name on it but that's not actually the text thread he had with her. She's been using his name as cover for someone else she's seeing. He calls it and his phone doesn't ring, which means someone else's is ringing.