Redshirts

Abnett and then back to Dahl, conveying the message The other you is a flake with his expression. Dahl shrugged. Actors were actors.
    “You know what convinces me that you might be telling the truth,” Abnett said.
    “The fact you’re sitting in a room with an exact copy of yourself?” Hester said.
    “No,” Abnett said. “Well, yes. That. But what’s really helping me wrap my head around the idea you’re telling the truth is him. ” Abnett pointed at Kerensky.
    “Me?” Kerensky said, surprised. “Why me?”
    “Because the real Marc Corey wouldn’t be caught dead in a Best Western attempting to prank an extra whose name he can’t be bothered to remember,” Abnett said. “No offense, but the other you is a complete asshole.”
    “So’s this one,” Hester said.
    “Hey,” Kerensky said.
    “Having another me around is hard to swallow,” Abnett said, and pointed to Kerensky again. “But another one of him? That’s actually easier to accept.”
    “You believe us, then,” Duvall said.
    “I don’t know if I believe you,” Abnett said. “What I do know is that this is very definitely the strangest damn thing that’s ever happened to me, and I want to find out what happens next.”
    “So you’ll help us,” Dahl said.
    “I want to help you, but I don’t know if I can help you,” Abnett said. “Look, I’m just an extra. They allow me onto the set for work, but it’s not like I can bring anyone else in with me. I get a few lines with the regular cast, but otherwise we’re told not to bother them. And I don’t talk to the show runners or other producers at all. I couldn’t get you in to see any of them if I wanted to. And even if I did, I don’t think any of them would believe you. This is Hollywood. We make things up for a living. And the story you’re telling is completely nuts. I tell it to anyone, they’ll just throw me off the set.”
    “That might keep you from getting killed a couple of episodes from now,” Hanson said, to Dahl.
    Abnett shook his head. “No, they’ll just recast the part with someone who looks enough like me to work,” he said. “You’ll still be killed off. Unless you stay here.”
    Dahl shook his head. “We expire in five days.”
    “Expire?” Abnett asked.
    “It’s complicated,” Dahl said. “It involves atoms.”
    “Five days is not a lot of time,” Abnett said. “Especially if you want to kill a show.”
    “Tell us something we don’t know,” Hester said.
    “Maybe you can’t help us directly,” Duvall said. “But do you know someone who could? Even as an extra, you know the people who work high up the food chain.”
    “That’s what I’m telling you,” Abnett said. “I don’t. I don’t know anyone on the show who could move you up the ladder.” His gaze rested on Kerensky, and he suddenly cocked his head. “But you know what, maybe I know someone outside the show who could help you.”
    “Why are you looking at me like that?” Kerensky asked, unsettled by Abnett’s gaze.
    “Are those the only clothes you have?” Abnett asked.
    “I wasn’t given the option of packing,” Kerensky said. “Why? What’s wrong with the uniform?”
    “There’s nothing wrong with the uniform if you’re at Comic-Con, but it’s not going to work for the club I’m thinking of,” Abnett said.
    “Which club?” Dahl asked.
    “What’s Comic-Con?” Kerensky asked.
    “The Vine Club,” Abnett said. “One of those very secret clubs mere mortals can’t get into. I can’t get into it. But Marc Corey rates, barely.”
    “Barely,” Dahl said.
    “That means he has first-floor access but not second-floor, and definitely not basement,” Abnett said. “For second-floor you have to be the star of your own show, not part of the supporting cast. For the basement, you have to make twenty million a film and get a slice of the gross.”
    “I still want to know what Comic-Con is,” Kerensky said.
    “Later, Kerensky,” Hester said. “Jesus.” He turned to Abnett. “So, what? We get Kerensky to pose as Marc Corey and get into the club? What does that do?”
    Abnett shook his head. “He doesn’t pose as Corey. You have him go to the club and do to him what Andy here did to me. Draw him out and get him interested and maybe he will help you. I wouldn’t tell him you want to kill the show, since that means he’d be out of a regular job. But otherwise maybe you can get him to introduce you to Charles Paulson. He’s the show’s creator