Synopsis
As Diana slips into a coma after her savage beating, she reaches for the light in front of her but hears the voice of Doctor Psycho that she is not yet ready to pass over to the other side – at least not yet – not until she has seen things as they truly are – as he sees things – and as he sees her. She finds herself lying in a grassy meadow, as Psycho uses his skills to conjure the vision in her subconscious.
He holds out his hand and helps her to her feet. She asks him who he is and smiling awkwardly, he replies that it is complicated. “Let’s just say I’m someone who knows you. The real you.” As they continue to take a stroll through the beautiful landscape she asks if he is a guide to lead her from this life to the other. He responds that this is the “sticking point”, because she keeps referring to this life as if it were the only one she could have possibly lead, when in fact there is so much more. He is a guide of sorts, but one whose powers allow him to make other people see what he wants…and to show them what exists only in their mind.
Taking her hand, he leads her over the rise of a hill to show a rocky mountain terrain. She asks where they are and he replies “The place of your birth.” She shakes her head and states that she was born on Themyscira. Psycho in turn responds that this is indeed where she was born, long before Themyscira existed. They see a woman abandoning her baby only a few days old and Psycho continues to explain that Diana had been born to a powerful warrior and his graceful young bride. A station of privilege and honour had awaited her – had she not been born blind.
Diana replies that this is insane but Psycho explains that it is the way of this warlike people. Those who represented a burden were left to the fates. Diana assumes that this is perhaps how Hippolyta had found her but as they see an old woman pick up the baby she sees it is not the Amazon Queen. Psycho continues to show more visions as he explains how Diana, the baby, was taken back to a village of outcasts – each of them afflicted with some Physical frailty abhorrent to the supermen over the mountains. They did not perceive Diana’s blindness as a curse and neither did she herself. When her adopted mother died in a raid by the male warriors she became leader and when those same warriors returned the next harvest Diana, and her army were waiting for them!
Diana holds her head in her hands, unable to comprehend all she is seeing and says that none of this can be true as she remembers one of it. He replies that it is simply because that is what her mind is telling her. Memories are like fire flies dancing in the mind. Memories never tell the truth. “Look without eyes and tell me…does this feel real?” “Yes” she replies.
The vision suddenly changes to an ocean, across which a sailing vessel makes its way. In this life Diana had been born to a captain amid the squalor of a slave ship. Her black mother was just one of the many captives stolen from their families and bound for the harem of a foreign warlord. Her mother had been a remarkable woman and had lead a rebellion against their captives and took the ship for her own. Rather than flee for safety she turned her fellow captives into her crew and made the vessel a weapon. Her guile was uncanny. She made war upon the warlord for years until eventually dying in battle with the old king himself, leaving her ship and her legacy to Diana.
Again, a totally confused Diana asks Psycho how this can also be her life as well as the other one he had shown her? “They can’t both be true can they?” she states. Smiling, he replies “Ah! Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Again the visions changes once more and this time Diana sees herself as an African Princess, born to a warrior king who raised her as a son. But when she reached puberty and refused to marry she had been cast out of the tribe. She made use of her militaristic skills watching over the city, protecting it from slave trading scouts despite her exile. Eventually she even dared to
Diana tells Psycho that this tribes woman does not even remotely resemble her, but he says that she still thinks her crude body limits her eternal self. It is the nobility of her spirit that is the true line running through these lives, not the physical form. A perplexed Diana can barely take all this in as Psycho shows her one last life – perhaps the most absurd of all.
He reveals Themyscira and tells her that in this life she had not even been born naturally but had instead been formed of clay by Hippolyta. Raised on an island by a race of female Amazon warriors cloistered away from the outside world, she had been trained and educated to be a paragon of her culture. Until a man sought forbidden refuge on the island and she had come to his aid and followed him back to Man’s World – to become a champion to all of humanity. “A Wonder”.
Diana closes her eyes in frustration and cries that it cannot be! But Psycho continues that these lives were just a few of the many she has lived. Now she knows what he knows. No matter how far back he casts his awareness he encounters her essence. Every era somehow finds a way to create her. She seems to be essential to the structure of existence itself. “You were meant to be Diana.” She replies “That’s crazy” but he responds that it’s only crazy if her perspective is limited to the physical world – his is not. In her world this knowledge makes him a mad man. A Psycho.
As the visions fade into blinding light around them she jokes that he is making her a Psycho too, but he says that she is merely disorientated by the sudden influx of truth. And truth brings fear. She has been cut off from her source. She feels it now doesn’t she? The immortal force aligned against her have eroded her heritage, leaving her cornered in this one, bleak feeble present…so it can eliminate hope from existence once and for all.
Diana again holds her head in her hands, trying to process all she has seen and says that everything he has shown her has felt real – like memories she never knew she had. The dolls she had found at the temple and the drawing that Harry had made of her…thye were the edges of her memories pushing into her life. She then turns to face him and adds ” But you. I don’t remember you.” How had he entered her mind? Why does he want her to remember these things so desperately? “Who are you really?” she asks. He stammers, unsure how to answer. “I can’t. You’ll be angry. I’m ugly, my body twisted…you’ll push me away.” She promises that she will not and if all the things he’s shown about her are true then her word must be good for something.
“I was…I am your enemy” he replies sheepishly. “I don’t see how that could possibly be true. Show me please.” she replies. Reluctantly his form changes before her eyes into a grotesque dwarf. “There. That wasn’t such a big deal was it?” she says smiling. “You do look familiar. What is your name?” He replies Doctor Pys…Edgar. My name is Edgar.” She then asks him why her so called enemy would show her all these things and help her find her way? He replies so she can put things right and back to the way they were. “When we were enemies? Why would either of us want to do that?” she asks. Shedding a tear, he replies that he could then be part of her life again..and he close be to her once more. That’s sweet” she smiles, “In a profoundly creepy way.”
Kneeling down so she can look him in the face she adds that he did however help her and when this is all over she will try to remember that. He takes her hand again and leading her, he says that this is far as he can take her. He has arranged care of her physical body but as for matters of the spirit she will have to take it up with the Gods, pointing to what looks like a citadel in the distance. As she turns to head towards the structure he adds that he has one last thing to say to her. All her life she has been meant for greatness. It was her heritage, expected by her mother, her sisters, her fellow heroes and even those who merely dreamed of her. “I have witnessed the power of your adversary. Expectations will not be enough. It is not enough merely to become Wonder Woman. You must choose it. Create yourself.”
As she makes her way to the foot of the citadel she can almost hear a chorus of voices saying the same thing. “Create yourself.” Suddenly a wall of water thunders towards her, threatening to sweep her away. But she will not be halted, fighting her way through the torrent.
“You cannot drown in the flood when the waters defend your home.”
She manages to clamber onto the rock face and as she climbs up the sheer face an avalanche of boulders threaten to bury her, but she again smashes her way through.
“You cannot be buried among the dead when your substance is the Earth itself.”
Taking flight she heads towards the Citadel at the top of the rocky outcrop but violent winds attempt to blow her off course.
“You cannot be scattered by the winds when you ride the storm.”
As she enters the Citadel, other ghostly images of many previous versions of Wonder Woman point the way as she walks towards a flaming cauldron. As she reaches into the flames she states ” I choose this.” A blinding light engulfs her..
“You cannot burn when the fire itself is your soul”
In the hospital ward a nurse suddenly sees Diana stir from her coma and she quickly calls for Doctor Etta Candy. “You won’t believe this, but your patient, the trauma case from this morning…she’s awake!”.
