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The angel thing

The angel thing is the fire-hot, humming, light-covered entity that lives in the sea off Marblehead and is the final enemy of The Summer Service.
Type Monster / entity
Aliases The glowy thing; glowy ring thing; spinning death wheel; the alien submarine; the thing under the water
Abilities Intense heat; a hum that nearly broke a submersible; amphibious travel at 60 to 80 knots; screeching vibration
Weaknesses The flashlight weapon; survived a half-kiloton nuclear blast
Status Dead (as of Summer Service 06)
First appearance Unrecorded Summer Service 02 (known from the team's account in Summer Service 03); first on screen in Summer Service 06

Description

The team never settles on one name for the thing. Kurt Larson calls it the "glowy ring fuck thing that scared the shit out of me underwater" and the "spinning death wheel under the water that eats ships for dinner" (Summer Service 03), and in the finale simply "a big glowy thing" (Summer Service 06). Andre calls it "the angel thing" in his narration of the finale. Andrew Howard describes what the team saw on the dive as something "covered in lights, gyroscope looking something or other" that "hummed" (Summer Service 03).

In the finale it appears as a bright light rising from the ocean, screaming and trenching out the ground as it moves. At one point it freezes, makes a long, unearthly fluting noise and turns back toward the sea; a guest at the table calls the sound "a whale with depression" (Summer Service 06).

Unrecorded session

The team's first encounter with the thing was in Summer Service 02, a session that was played but never recorded. It is known only from what the characters tell others in Summer Service 03. See Lost episodes.

Abilities

  • Heat. As it closes in on the team, paint blisters, the tires of their car catch fire and burst, and the upholstery starts to burn. Andrew's flashlight case begins to melt in his hand (Summer Service 06).
  • Hum. On the dive, Andrew says, the thing resonated at a frequency that might have broken apart the team's submersible (Summer Service 03).
  • Speed and range. A submarine's sonar tracks it at 60 to 70 knots, then 80 knots, and the operator swears it "went on land." On land it heads straight for the team (Summer Service 06).
  • Vibration. Near it, the team struggles to function under a vibration that seems to be shaking them apart (Summer Service 06).

Weaknesses

Huell Kendrick fires the W54 warhead from the team's Davy Crockett at the "mysterious light." The blast knocks down the plant's fence and sets distant trees alight, but the creature screams and comes on, brighter and faster. Andrew Howard then sticks his hand out of the car and hits it with the flashlight weapon (a Kick Some Ass roll of 8, so both sides take harm). The creature lurches, spirals into the ground about 20 feet from the car, sprouts bubbling legs of every kind of animal ("a panda," says Zack) and dies, then burns as a pillar of flame at a very high temperature. The Geiger counter in the car barely reacted to the nuke but starts going off when the thing dies (Summer Service 06).

History

The Summer Service

The dive and the wreck (unrecorded). Andrew tells Big Bill that the team's dive found a stealth wreck with a bite out of it, and that a lit, humming craft returned while they hid with their power and lights off, moving as if searching for something. He says he no longer thinks it is a sea monster but an "alien submarine" (Summer Service 03). See The stealth wreck.

The dream. That night Andrew is visited by the gray-skinned dream visitor, who says "I think they damaged it. It can't cool itself anymore." He warns Andrew to stay away from the water: "It's not like the bug thing. I don't think you can hurt it." He asks whether Andrew is high enough in government to order a nuclear strike ("That might work"), and says that getting too close "will kill you. Or change you" (Summer Service 03).

The weapon. The next morning Kurt, still shaken by what he saw underwater, asks his private contacts for a Davy Crockett, a MOAB or at least the meanest anti-materiel rifle he can find. His old arms-dealer contact Carter sends the Davy Crockett in Summer Service 04 (Summer Service 03; Summer Service 04).

The chase. The finale opens with a cold open aboard the USS Oklahoma City. The sonar operator reports that the contact went on land, an explosion, and then "the craziest sound I've ever heard." It returns, closing at 60 to 70 knots and then 80 knots, and the captain orders everything conventional fired. Later in the episode, Big Bill tells Andrew that "we lost one of our submarines too" (Summer Service 06).

The finale. On the flooded freeway the creature trenches toward the team, stops, cries out and turns back toward the sea. The radio contact says the team "pissed it off" with their earlier claymore, and explains that it is not there to help the convoy of infected, so it will have to come out of the water when the convoy attacks the nuclear power plant. The team fires the nuke when the creature comes into view, and finishes it with the flashlight (Summer Service 06).

What remains unknown

  • Its origin, and whether it is a vessel (Andrew's "alien submarine") or a living creature. Its legs of every animal species at the moment of death suggest the latter.
  • Whether it is connected to the worms in the communion wine. In Summer Service 05, Kurt wonders aloud whether the glowy thing and the nerve agent are parts of a factional dispute, with someone else trying to contain the worms before the team arrived (Summer Service 05).
  • Why Andre calls it an angel. The sermon in Summer Service 01 describes angels as "terrifying monsters constructed by God to wipe out sin," but no one at the table connects the sermon to the creature (Summer Service 01).

Appearances