Moon
"MOONLIGHT WHITE / WHITE LIKE EYES / NOT LIGHT BUT BLOOD / I DROWN IN HIM"
― Weather Service hijacking
The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits the Earth and is Earth’s only natural satellite. It plays a major role in the Local 58 series as a hazardous/deadly entity, particularly in Show For Children and (chronologically) later in Weather Service.
Through unexplained means, the Moon becomes capable of harming, possessing or killing those who view it with the naked eye. It can be inferred that this phenomenon hasn’t occurred before the events of Weather Service, considering the Moon and its nature are only being reported on at that point, among evidence from other episodes.
Show For Children
The Moon incident is alluded to in the children’s show broadcast, A Grave Mistake. It is represented as its own character, having an expressive face to fit in with the animation’s art style. The Moon has a subtle presence throughout most of the cartoon; as the protagonist, Cadavre, treads through the graveyard in search of his deceased wife, he is looked down upon with a grin. When Cadavre continues on after viewing a skeletal corpse and a bird-like creature, the Moon take on a different appearance, simply gazing at the viewer with wide eyes. Combined with the darker coloring and absence of music, its presence gradually becomes more ominous.
Eventually, Cadavre tires himself out and lies in a cave, staring up through the hole he had entered. The Moon, now photorealistic, moves into view, and has what appears to be an eyeball on its surface. The scene abruptly cuts back to an inanimate skeleton, Cadavre’s “corpse”, and the cartoon ends.
The ending scene is a clear allusion to the Moon’s eventual danger to humanity. Cadavre’s fate suggests that viewing the Moon is quickly fatal, rather than just psychologically harmful.
The animation itself apparently predates the actual Moon incident by at least 85 years. It is unknown to what extent the nature of the cartoon and the events of Weather Service are coincidental.
Weather Service
The Moon is a central plot point of Weather Service. After an EAS weather warning, we get a glimpse of the Moon itself, albeit barely in frame. The alert states that a warning for a “meteorological event” has been issued by the County Weather Service and that it is effective until tomorrow morning. It then advises against viewing this event—the Moon—with the naked eye.
The weather warning is then upgraded to a civil danger alert, advising to stay indoors and not to look at the night sky. Before more information can be given, the EAS is hijacked by an anonymous third party who claims that the event is “safe for all to view” and that the warning has been lifted. Another message reads, “GO OUTSIDE NOW.” Why the EAS hijacker would encourage viewers to endanger themselves, and whether or not they are related to the state of the Moon, is currently unknown.
The picture quality then plummets, along with massively distorted EAS tones and strange tones,a sign of heavy interference from the hijacker. The actual County Weather Service then appears to relay lines of text, insisting viewers to stay indoors, not to look up, and to face away from windows, minimizing the risk of viewing moonlight. The hijacker then resumes control of the station, and proceeds to broadcast a series of cryptic messages describing how the “Moon came in” and “found [them] thru the mirror.” This is implying that not all who view the Moon are doomed, and that the hijacker may have survived, possibly with an altered mental state. The episode ends with the hijacker offering the viewer to “look together” with them, and the broadcast cuts to the live camera feed of the Moon from earlier. Crowds of people are audibly screaming in the distance as the Moon descends further into the shot, to the point where over half of it is visible.
It is unknown if viewing the Moon through digital means, such as through a camera feed, would produce the same hazardous effects. It’s worth noting that the warnings say not to view it with the naked eye, however.
Other Episodes
The only segment of Contingency that includes the Moon is the shot of an astronaut saluting on the Moon, which was taken during the Apollo 15 missions in 1971. Otherwise, the Moon isn’t seen or directly mentioned during the emergency broadcast message.
A card is briefly shown during the end of the broadcast that reads, “THE 51ST STATE IS NOT A PLACE”. It has been the source of much speculation, with some theorizing that the “51st State” is in reference to (and is possibly a warning about) the Moon. Considering the Moon was sometimes called the 51st State after the first U.S. Moon landings, this is surely a possibility.
Despite the entirety of the episode taking place in the early morning hours, the Moon is never seen directly. Given that an event such as the one depicted in Weather Service would have catastrophic/ disastrous repercussions, it can be assumed that the Moon incident takes place some time after November 21, 2014.
It is unclear if or how the creature in the forest is related to the events of Weather Service.
Real Sleep takes place somewhere in 1983, and the Moon is never seen nor mentioned. Thus, it is impossible to tell if the tape is related in any way.
Skywatching
At first, the Moon is normal-sized just like it is on normal nights. However, when the camera operator zooms in, it looks different. It has a sort of skeletal appearance, as if the moondust is covering a living creature in it. On another note, moon dust is also being sucked into one crater. It also appears to have an arrow pointing at something. When the operator zooms out, the Moon becomes much larger, accompanied by a strange droning noise and a Thunderbolt siren winds up, just before the video freezes and displays the word "REJOICE". This could mean the Moon is not actually the Moon, but some kind of Eldritch abomination that survives in space.
Trivia
- The Moon, as seen in the later half of Skywatching, bears a striking resemblance to the moon from Majora's Mask and the Brethren Moons from Dead Space 3.
- It’s possible that the Moon itself isn’t causing the anomalous effects, but rather an entity on its surface. The Moon has never actually been shown to its full extent—it was still partially obscured at the end of Weather Service. This is further supported by Cadavre‘s death in Show For Children, which only happened once the Moon’s eye moved into frame. Its “eye” may represent this entity.