CLOSE

CLOSE

Air date	October 31, 2022
Writer	Kris Straub
Director	Kris Straub
Episode guide
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CLOSE is the tenth overall entry in the Local 58 series and is designated as a "Special Presentation". It is easily the series' longest episode to date, with a runtime of 29 minutes and 44 seconds. The episode follows a live stream of space mission to send a cometary lander to the surface of an asteroid called 57838 Eidolon.

Synopsis

Taking place after the Local 58 network transitioned from analog to digital broadcasting, the Space & Aeronautics Regulatory Oversight (SARO) embarks on a project called the Cometary Lander Orbiter Survey Expedition (C.L.O.S.E.) Mission. The aim of the mission is to deploy a spacecraft consisting of a combined but separable orbiter and lander to get within range of a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) called 57838 Eidolon. Upon separation, the Orbiter will capture aerial video footage of the asteroid until the Lander can make contact with the asteroid's surface.

57838 Eidolon was discovered in 2006 and although it is classified as a PHA, it has been measured to still safely orbit the Earth for five more centuries. It has been observed well enough to make a general 3D render based off of it, but specific details of Eidolon's surface have not been effectively captured by the time of the C.L.O.S.E. Mission due to the asteroid's high rotation speeds and albedo. Shadows that are cast on to the asteroid at certain angles during its rotation can give it the appearance of a human skull, causing it to be colloquially called "Face in Space" and "Comet Skull".

Local 58's live broadcast of the C.L.O.S.E. Mission shows various facts about Eidolon as well as amateur photographs taken of the asteroid. As the Lander is within one and a half minutes of making touchdown on Eidolon, what looks to be a door appears within a giant crater on the asteroid. Upon touchdown, this unnatural structure does turn out to be a door, with a doorknob and keyhole. Soon, the door is opened and the video feed distorts before the drone is abruptly thrown off of Eidolon. The video then ends.

Callbacks

• The second photograph shown of Eidolon was taken on September 5, 2016 by Angela Gerhardt, who shares her surname with the recipient of the personalized Real Sleep cassette tape played during Real Sleep, Philip Gerhardt.
• The fourth photograph of Eidolon from May 19, 2020 was taken by Hank Heidemann, the host of the Skywatching TV series in the episode Skywatching.

Trivia

• An eidolon is a spiritual image of either a living or deceased person, meant to share the appearance of whom they are mimicking.
• Shortly after the episode's premiere on October 31, 2022, the YouTube video for it was unlisted, only able to be viewed through a public playlist called "SPECIAL PRESENTATION". Kris Straub has stated, however, that the episode is still canon.
  • This isn't the first time a Local 58 video has been unlisted, since the video NSSA-3 (atypical) can only be accessed by piecing together its link from clues found on the local58.tv website.
    • Both CLOSE and NSSA-3 (atypical) were made fully visible upon the release of Night Walk.
• The video has closed captioning in Hindi, but only occasionally displays the word “संगीत”, sangeet, meaning music.
• In the artist's depiction of 57838 Eidolon, a crimson liquid is seen flowing from the darkened eye socket. In either a coincidence or purposeful connection, in the last panel of Kris Straub's Broodhollow: Angleworm, blood is seeping from Cadavre's eyes, who is depicted as an apparition of his cartoon design with a skeleton.

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