Episode 298e. Bubble Guppies: Les Miserables (part 5)

Jean Valjean (Mr. Grouper), known as Prisoner 24601, runs from the ruthless Inspector Javert (Mr. Grumpfish) on a journey beyond the barricades, at the center of the June Rebellion. Meanwhile, the life of a working class girl, Fantine (Molly), with a child is at turning point as she turns to prostitution to pay money to the evil innkeeper and his wife who look after her child, Cosette (Oona). Valjean promises to take care of the child, eventually leads to a love triangle between Cosette, Marius (Gil) who is a student of the rebellion, and Eponine (Deema), a girl of the streets. The people sing of their anger and Enjolras (Goby) leads the students to fight upon the barricades.

Characters

 * Mr. Grouper as Jean Valjean
 * Mr. Grumpfish as Javert
 * Molly as Fantine
 * Oona as Cosette
 * Monsier Yellow as Thenardier
 * Hypletta as Madame Thenardier
 * Gil as Marius
 * Goby as Enjolras
 * Deema as Eponine
 * Nonny as Gavroche
 * Crabs, Lobsters, and Snails as Convicts, and People

Trivia

 * This might be similiar to the 2012 "Les Miserables."
 * This is the first time to have some characters die.

Story
Paris Police HQ -

The Police Headquarters is on the Isle de la Cite: a huge bureaucracy. Javert is standing inside looking out of a door leading onto the roof. As he sings he walks out onto the roof and stands by the symbol of the HQ, a monumental stone eagle. He looks down at the lights reflected in the river below. Then up at the great city. Javert too has a God, and this is his prayer.

Mr. Grumpfish: There, out in the darkness! A fugitive running! Running from God! Fallen from grace - God be my witness! I never shall yield! Till we come face to face - Till we come face to face... He knows his way in the dark! Mine is the way of the Lord! Those who follow the path of the righteous! Shall have their reward! And if they fall! As Lucifer fell - The flame! The sword! Stars in your multitudes! Scarce to be counted! Filling the darkness! With order and light - You are the sentinels! Silent and sure! Keeping watch in the night - Keeping watch in the night... You know your place in the sky! You hold your course! And your aim! And each in your season! Returns and returns! And is always the same! And if you fall! As Lucifer fell! You fall! In flame! And so it must be, and so it is written! On the doorway to paradise! That those who falter! And those who fall! Must pay the price! Lord, let me find him! That I may see him! Safe behind bars! I will never rest till then! This I swear! This I swear by the stars!

Javert stands silhouetted against the stars, his arms raised up to the night sky.

Rue De La Chanvrerie -

The fellow student comes down the street, his mind full of thoughts of Cosette.

Cafe Musain -

The fellow student arrives at the first floor front room. Here a group of students are cleaning rifles and sharing their excitement at the coming revolution: Enjolras, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Joly, Grantaire, Feuilly, Prouvaire and others.

Goby: Well, Courfeyrac! Do we have all the guns? Joly, Prouvaire! Our time is running short!

Tobias: Students, workers, everyone! There’s a river on the run! Like the flowing of the tide, Paris is coming to our side!

Pablo: Enjolras! At Notre Dame! The sections are prepared!

Trevor: At Rue du Bac! They’re straining at the leash!

Goby: Grantaire, put the bottle down! Did we get the guns we need?

Corpitch: Give me brandy on my breath! And I’ll breathe them all to death!

Goby: The time is near... So near it’s stirring the blood in their veins. And yet beware! Don’t let the wine go to your brains. For the army we fight is a dangerous foe. With the men and the arms that we never can match. It is easy to sit here and swat them like flies. But the National Guard will be harder to catch. We need a sign! To rally the people! To call them to arms! To bring them in line!

Joly turns goes over to the fellow student at the back, a faraway look on his face.

Joshua: Marius, wake up! What’s wrong today? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.

Jonesy: Some wine, and say what’s going on!

They sit.

Gil: A ghost, you say? A ghost maybe! She was like a ghost to me - One minute there - then she was gone!

Corpitch: I am agog! I am aghast! Is Marius in love at last? I’ve never heard him. Ooh and Aah. You talk of battles  to be won! And here he comes like Don Juan! It is better than an opera!

They burst into laughter. But Enjolras isn’t smiling.

Goby: It is time for us all. To decide who we are. Do we fight for the right? To a night at the opera now? Have you asked yourselves? What’s the price you might pay? Is this simply a game? For rich young boys to play? The colours of the world! Are changing day by day - Red - the blood of angry men! Black - the dark of ages past! Red - a world about to dawn! Black - the night that ends at last!

Gil: Had you seen her today! You might know how it feels! To be struck to the bone! By a moment of breathless delight! Had you been there today! You might also have known! How the world may be changed! In just one burst of light! And what was right seems wrong! And what was wrong seems right!

Jonesy: Red!

Gil: I feel my soul on fire!

Jonesy: Black!

Gil: My world if she’s not there!

Boys: Red!

Gil: The colour of desire!

Boys: Black!

Gil: The colour of despair!

Goby: Marius, you’re no longer a child - I do not doubt you mean it well! But now there is a higher call! Who cares about your lonely soul? We strive towards a larger goal - Our little lives don’t count at all! Red!

Boys: The blood of angry men!

Goby: Black!

Boys: The dark of ages past! Red - a world about to dawn! Black - the night that ends at last!

A scuffle at the door - Gavroche struggling with the barman. Courfeyrac lets him through.

Nonny: Listen! Listen to me!

Tobias: Listen, everybody!

Nonny: General Lamarque is dead!

Enjolras turns to his companions.

Goby: Lamarque is dead... Lamarque... His death is the hour of fate. The people’s man... His death is the sign we await! On his funeral day they will honour his name. With the light of rebellion ablaze in their eyes. From their candles of grief we will kindle our flame. On the tomb of Lamarque shall our barricades rise! The time is here! Let us welcome it gladly with courage and cheer!

Boy: Let us take to the street with no doubt in our hearts.

Tobias: But a jubilant shout!

Jose: They will come one and all!

Boys: They will come when we call!

As the students sing, Eponine enters wanting to talk to Marius. Marius sees her.

Valjean's House -

Cosette is pacing in her bedroom. It’s a pretty room, the best room in this small summer house. Her shutters are open, giving a view of a wild unkempt garden. She looks at herself in a mirror, aware of her looks perhaps for the first time.

Oona: How strange - This feeling that my life’s begun at last! This change - Can people really fall in love so fast?What’s the matter with you, Cosette? Have you been too much on your own? So many things unclear - So many things unknown... In my life. There are so many questions and answers. That somehow seem wrong. In my life! There are times when I catch in the silence! The sigh of a faraway song! And it sings! Of a world that I long to see -Out of reach! Just a whisper away! Waiting for me! Does he know I’m alive? Do I know if he’s real? Does he see what I see? Does he feel what I feel? In my life! I’m no longer alone - Now the love in my life! Is so near... Find me now! Find me here!

Valjean knocks and opens her door. He closes her shutters.

Mr. Grouper: Dear Cosette. You’re such a lonely child. How pensive, how sad you seem to me. Believe me, were it within my power. I’d fill each passing hour. How quiet it must be, I can see. With only me for company.

Oona: There’s so little I know. That I’m longing to know. Of the man that you were. In a time long ago... There’s so little you say. Of the life you have known. Why you keep to yourself. Why we’re always alone. So dark! So dark and deep! The secrets that you keep! In my life. Please forgive what I say. You are loving and gentle and good. But papa, dear papa. In your eyes I am still like that child. Who was lost in a wood.

Mr. Grouper: No more words - No more words. It’s a time that is dead. There are words. That are better unheard. Better unsaid.

Oona: In my life! I’m no longer a child and I yearn! For the truth that you know! Of the years... Years ago!

Valjean leaves and goes into his own bedroom. A simple wooden shack at the back of the summerhouse, Valjean himself lives with spartan simplicity - he has given the best room to Cosette. Cosette follows. Valjean sits on his bed, his back to Cosette. Cosette follows. Valjean sits on his bed, his back to Cosette.

Mr. Grouper: You will learn. Truth is given by God. To us all in our time. In our turn.

Rue Plumet -

Marius rushes down the street, with Eponine following. At the far end is the walled garden behind which lies Valjean’s house.

Gil: In my life! She has burst like the music of angels! The light of the sun! And my life seems to stop! As if something is over! And something has scarcely begun! Eponine, you’re the friend. Who has brought me here. Thanks to you I am one with the Gods! And heaven is near! And I soar through a world that is new! That is free!

Deema: Every word that he says! Is a dagger in me! In my life. There’s been no one like him anywhere! Anywhere, where he is! If he asked... I’d be his!

Gil and Deema: In my life. There is someone who touches my life -

Gil: (sees Oona in the garden) Waiting near!

Deema: Waiting here!

Gil: A heart full of love!

Cosette sees Marius. She comes up the garden path towards him. She sees Eponine by Marius's side.

Gil: A heart full of song! I’m doing everything all wrong - Oh God, for shame - I do not even know your name. Dear Mad’moiselle? Won’t you say? Will you tell?

Cosette holds the wrought-ironwork of the gate with both hands, eyes on Marius. Eponine looks on and suffers. Marius wraps his hands round Cosette’s.

Oona: A heart full of love! No fear, no regret!

Gil: My name is Marius Pontmercy.

Oona: And mine’s Cosette.

Gil: Cosette... I don’t know what to say -

Oona: Then make no sound.

Gil: I am lost -

Oona: I am found!

Gil: A heart full of light -

Gil and Oona: A night bright as day -

Gil: And you must never go away, Cosette - Cosette!

Oona: This is a chain we’ll never break.

Gil: Do I dream?

Oona: I’m awake.

Gil: A heart full of love -

Deema: He was never mine to lose. Why regret? What could not be?

Oona: A heart full of you -

Deema: These are words he’ll never say! Not to me, not to me! Not for me!

Gil: A single look and then I knew!

Oona: I knew it too!

Deema: His heart full of love...

Gil: From today -

Deema: He will never feel this way.

Oona: Every day...

Gil and Oona: For it isn’t a dream - Not a dream! After all!

Valjean comes to the door.

Mr. Grouper: Cosette! Cosette!

Cosette turns and runs in to the house. Valjean walks down the overgrown garden path to the gate. Marius moves quickly away, instinctively nervous of discovery, and hides behind the wall. Valjean peers into the shadows. He senses that perhaps Cosette has been talking to someone. He looks pensive. Valjean returns inside. Cosette has dropped a keepsake through the gate. Marius picks it up. Marius makes his way back down the street, filled with thoughts of his love. Completely forgetting Eponine is there. Shadows move up the street from the other direction. It’s Thenardier and his gang. They gather at the wrought-iron gate.

Shady: This is his lair! I’ve seen the old fox around.

Rootie: He keeps himself to himself. He’s staying close to the ground.

Monsier Yellow: I smell profit here! Ten years ago. He came and paid for Cosette. I let her go for a song. It’s time we settled the debt. This’ll cost him dear.

Chimpy: What do I care? Who you should rob? Gimme my share! Finish the job!

Monsier Yellow: You shut your mouth! You’ll get what’s yours!

Brujon starts working on the gate lock. He finds Eponine lurking in the shadows.

Chimpy: What have we here?

Monsier Yellow: Who is this hussy?

Rootie: It’s your brat Eponine! Don’t you know your own kid? Why’s she hanging about here?

Monsier Yellow: Eponine, get on home! You’re not needed in this. We’re enough here without you.

Deema: I know this house, I tell you! There’s nothing here for you! Just the old man and the girl. They live ordinary lives.

Monsier Yellow: Don’t interfere! You’ve got some gall! Take care, young miss! You’ve got a lot to say!

Chimpy: She’s going soft!

Chuckolaptor: Happens to all!

Shady: Go home, Eponine! Go home, you’re in the way!

They huddle round the garden gate, which is now broken open.

Deema: I’m gonna scream! I’m gonna warn them here!

Monsier Yellow: One little scream and you’ll regret it for a year!

He goes to the gate and opens it. Eponine screams. Valjean, now in his own bedroom, hears the scream and turns to the window. Thenardier and his gang shrink into the shadows, as Eponine’s scream ends at last.

Monsier Yellow: Make for the sewers! Get underground! Leave her to me! Don’t wait around!

He turns on Eponine and slaps her hard across the face.

Monsier Yellow: You wait, my girl! You’ll rue this night! I’ll make you scream! You’ll scream all right!

His men have levered up a grating, and now Thenardier and the gang disappear down into the sewers.

Valjean's House -

Valjean comes running into Cosette’s room. Valjean takes her in his arms.

Mr. Grouper: My God, Cosette! I heard a cry in the dark. I heard the shout of angry voices in the street.

Oona: Three men I saw beyond the wall... Three men in shadow moving fast!

Mr. Grouper: This is a warning to us all! These are the shadows of the past!

He moves away to his own bedroom.

Mr. Grouper: Must be Javert. He’s found my cover at last. I’ve got to get Cosette away. Before he returns.

He comes back to Cosette.

Mr. Grouper: We must get away from shadows. That will never let us be. Tonight we leave Cosette!

Oona: To where?

Mr. Grouper: Rue de L’Homme Armee.

Oona: No! No!

Mr. Grouper: And then a ship across the sea. Hurry, Cosette! Prepare to leave. And say no more. Tonight we’ll away!

Oona: (overslapping) No! Please no! We can’t go!

Mr. Grouper: Hurry, Cosette! It’s time to close another door! And live another day!

Valjean leaves to start packing. Feverishly, Cosette scribbles a letter.

Garden -

Cosette hurries down the garden to the gate, and goes to put the folded letter in the grill where her and Marius’s hands entwined. Then she sees Eponine. Eponine steps forward. She thrusts her letter into her hand.

Oona: Please give this to Marius! He must know where to find me.

She runs back inside.

Rue Plumet, Bridge, Rue De La Chanvrerie -

Eponine crumples up the letter. She walks sadly away down the street. Rain is just starting to fall.

Deema: And now I’m all alone again - Nowhere to turn, no one to go to. Without a home, without a friend. Without a face to say hello to. The city goes to bed. And I can live inside my head. On my own. Pretending he’s beside me. All alone. I walk with him till morning. Without him. I feel his arms around me. And when I lose my way I close my eyes. And he has found me.

She crosses a bridge over the river.

Deema: In the rain! The pavement shines like silver! All the lights! Are misty in the river! In the darkness the trees are full of starlight! And all I see is him and me forever and forever! And I know it’s only in my mind - That I’m talking to myself and not to him. And although I know that he is blind. Still I say there’s a way for us. I love him. But when the night is over. He is gone - the river’s just a river. Without him the world around me changes - The trees are bare and everywhere. The streets are full of strangers. I love him. But every day I’m learning. All my life I’ve only been pretending. Without me, his world will go on turning. A world that’s full of happiness. That I have never know. I love him. I love him. I love him. But only on my own.

Her solitary journey has brought her to the Gorbeau slum. She goes inside.

Gorbeau Tenement -

Eponine stands outside Marius’ door. She opens the letter, reads it, then hides it in her pocket. She pushes open Marius's door. Marius looks up.

Deema: I came to tell you she’s gone.

Gil: Gone? What do you mean?

Deema: She’s gone to England.

Marius sets off at a run towards the Rue Plumet.

Rue Plumet -

Marius finds the gate broken open, sees the house beyond dark and deserted. He pushes in to the garden, up to the house windows, sees the rooms empty within. He stands staring, in shock. Eponine has followed him, and watches him in silence.

Carriage -

Valjean and Cosette sit on either side of the carriage, apart, staring out of their respective windows. A stark contrast to the carriage scene when Valjean sang to Cosette as a little girl.

Mr. Grouper: One day more! Another day, another destiny. This never-ending road to Calvary. These men who seem to know my crime! Will surely come a second time - One day more!

Rue Plumet -

Marius is by the empty house.

Gil: I did not live until today - How can I live when we are parted?

Carriage -

Mr. Grouper: One day more!

Oona: Tomorrow you’ll be worlds away! And yet with you my world has started!

Rue Plumet, Carriage -

Eponine sings at the gate, Cosette and Valjean sing in the carriage, and Marius sings in the dark garden.

Deema: One more day all on my own...

Gil and Oona: Will we ever meet again?

Deema: One more day with him not caring...

Gil and Oona: I was born to be with you!

Deema: What a life I might have known...

Gil and Oona: And I swear I will be true!

Deema: But he never saw me there.

Cafe Musain Ground and 1st Floor -

Enjolras and the students have a production line under way for making bullets. The rifles are now stacked and ready for the uprising. Grantaire is downstairs flirting with a barmaid. Madame Hucheloup the proprietress of the Cafe Musain is sewing a red revolutionary flag to help the students.

Goby: One more day before the storm!

Marius is walking back sadly through the Rue de la Chanvrerie. Eponine follows him at a distance.

Gil: Do I follow where she goes?

Goby: At the barricades of freedom!

Gil: Shall I join my brothers there?

Goby: When our ranks begin to form -

Gil: Do I stay and do I dare?

Goby: (from top of stairs, Jonesy's benefit) Will you take your place with me?

Grantaire rather reluctantly goes upstairs.

All: The time is now! The day is here! One day more!

Paris Police HQ -

Javert is briefing a hundred uniformed police about the coming day in a grand ornate old room at Police Headquarters.

Mr. Grumpfish: One day more to revolution. We will nip it in the bud. We’ll be ready for these schoolboys. They will wet themselves with blood!

Carriage -

Mr. Grouper: One day more!

Cafe Musain -

Monsieur and Madame Thenardier are in the ground-floor bar, slyly watching a student smuggling some rifles up the stairs disguised in a piece of cloth. Joly takes a tray and collects empty tankards. As he ascends the stairs, Madame Hucheloup tries to get him to give the tankards back.

Monsier Yellow and Hypletta: Watch’em run amuck! Catch’em as they fall! Never know your luck. When there’s a free-for-all. Here a little dip! There a little touch - Most of them are goners! So they won’t miss much!

The drinkers in the bar raise their glasses to the students with their rifles. The students appeal to them. Grantaire is drunk already. Joly starts to melt the tankards in a pot to make more bullets. Marius enters the ground floor and takes the red flag from Madame Hucheloup that she has just finished. The citizens on the ground floor join the students.

Boys and Crowd: One day to a new beginning! Raise the flag of freedom high! Every man will be a king! Every man will be a king! There’s a new world for the winning! There’s a new world to be won! Do you hear the people sing?

Marius enters the first floor to join them at last.

Gil: My place is here! I fight with you!

Rue De L'Homme Armee, Rue De La Chanvrerie, Cafe Musain Ground and 1st Floor, and Police Station -

Valjean and Cosette arrive at their new hideout. Marius ties the red flag onto a flagpole.

Mr. Grouper: One day more!

Gil and Oona: I did not live until today. How can I live when we are parted?

Eponine outside the cafe, gazing longingly towards Marius.

Deema: One more day on my own...

Javert in the police station to his men.

Mr. Grumpfish: I will join these people’s heroes. I will follow where they go. I will learn their little secrets. I will know the things they know.

Mr. Grouper and Mr. Grumpfish: One day more!

Gil and Oona: Tomorrow you’ll be worlds away. And yet with you my world has started.

Mr. Grumpfish: One more day to revolution. We will nip it in the bud. We’ll be ready for these schoolboys -

Monsier Yellow and Hypletta: Watch’em run amuck! Catch’em as they fall! Never know your luck! When there’s a free-for-all!

Mr. Grouper: Tomorrow we’ll be far away.

Mr. Grouper and Mr. Grumpfish: Tomorrow is the judgement day.

All: Tomorrow we’ll discover! What our God in heaven has in store - One more dawn! One more day! One day more!

Enjolras and Marius hold their flag at the first floor window with the students beyond them to see that citizens have spilled out of the Cafe Musain into the street and have all joined in the final chorus.

End of Part 5