Chemical Wedding 2008

1947: Crowley visits Trinity College

The elderly Aleister Crowley meets with Symonds and Alex at Trinity College to discuss resurrecting from the dead with sex magic rituals. From a betrayed letter, he learns one of his students disclosed the 'Moon Child' ritual. Crowley curses those who steal his time and spits blood before dying. Symonds takes Crowley's watch as the moment ends.

The 50-year jump: Christmas at Trinity College

Fifty years later, during Christmas on the Trinity College grounds, Symonds narrates as a university lecturer and head of the local Masonic lodge. Alex is now a physicist bound to a wheelchair. A scientific project about linking a person to virtual reality uses the fictional Z93 supercomputer, and Dr. Mathers arrives from Caltech with a virtual reality spacesuit while journalist Leah Robertson arranges an interview.

Caltech's Dr. Mathers arrives with a VR spacesuit

Dr. Mathers arrives from Caltech to oversee the Z93 project and demonstrates the virtual reality spacesuit. Leah Robertson conducts an interview with him, introducing the human–computer interface at the center of the mystery. The lab at Trinity College becomes the focal point for the experimental setup.

Victor and Haddo plant Crowley's binary code in Z93

Victor, a Crowley fan working as a programmer on the project, and literature professor Haddo conspire to place Aleister Crowley's binary code—the locations and contents of all rituals—into Z93 as a virus. Before the first official tests, Victor takes Haddo to the laboratory and Haddo puts on a spacesuit.

Crowley inhabits Haddo; Aeon of Horus foretold

The next day, Crowley appears in Haddo's body and begins causing obscenities in lectures. He promises the Aeon of Horus will begin in three days when he is fully incarnated. Leah Robertson is the only one who suspects Haddo is Crowley and she conducts an investigation in the library.

Crowley seeks followers and the final ritual

Crowley forces Victor to participate in a sex ritual, strengthening his hold on the ritual network. He begins to recruit followers as the countdown to his full incarnation continues. The tension escalates in the lab as the team tries to understand the threat.

Brent in the spacesuit: VR journey and death

Mathers and Victor place Professor Brent in a spacesuit and Brent enters virtual reality, where he encounters Crowley. He suffers a heart attack, and his brain stops responding to the outside world. Leah and Mathers, with Symonds, try to prove Haddo was in the spacesuit before Brent's journey.

Investigation into Haddo's spacesuit involvement

Leah and Mathers, aided by Symonds, interrogate Brent under hypnosis to uncover Masonic terms that could reveal Haddo's involvement. They extract only a few terms, leaving the evidence inconclusive for the moment. The team shifts focus to deeper investigation into the ritual connections.

Search for the Chemical Wedding location

Crowley searches for the red-haired girl to complete the 'Chemical Wedding' ritual, which would stabilize his power but cost multiple lives. Leah tails Crowley and Victor toward the site of the future ritual, trying to intervene before catastrophe strikes. The pursuit intensifies the sense of impending doom.

Elemental from Parsons and Hubbard revealed

Alex explains that he brought from CalTech an Elemental—the result of a ritual performed in 1947 by Parsons and Hubbard—that could unlock the mystery. The team contemplates using it to locate Leah and disrupt Crowley's plans. The revelation reframes the stakes of the experiment.

Mathers enters the spacesuit to locate Leah

Mathers dons the spacesuit to locate Leah, while Symonds stays at the control panel, switching the disc with Brent's journey recording and preparing to trigger the Space Flight Simulator to reverse time. Mathers discovers Brent was traveling into a black hole that consumes space and time. The tension mounts as the plan to reverse events takes shape.

Time reversal and the Haddo confrontation

Crowley materializes during the ritual, and Mathers appears near him but is separated by an invisible barrier. He breaks the barrier, knocks the syringe containing Leah's blood away, and fights Crowley. Symonds then activates the Flight Simulator and time begins to flow backward, undoing the last events.

Post-reversal amnesia and the parallel world threat

After the reversal, no one remembers the last three days. Alex explains there exists a parallel world where Crowley incarnates, making the situation more perilous. A lying newspaper claims Al Gore won the US election, and the watch Symonds carried has disappeared, hinting at altered reality.