S02E12 - Return Address

"Return Address" is the twelfth episode of Season 2 of We Can Fix Pawbert. It follows directly on "The Cartographer", in which a seized file revealed that Soren Natz, the lynx Pawbert loved at fourteen and believed his father had killed, was relocated rather than murdered. With Soren traced to another country under a changed name, ZSI offers to open a secure channel, and Pawbert has to decide whether he wants to use it.

Synopsis

Pawbert Lynxley has not slept since learning that Soren Natz, the lynx he loved at fourteen and believed his father had killed, is alive and was relocated rather than murdered. At the safehouse the next morning, Luther reports that ZSI has traced Soren to another country, where he has lived for eleven years under a changed name, and can arrange a secure video call through diplomatic channels. Pawbert asks for the call, and for Luther to wait outside the door. Soren, now twenty-six and wary, opens with the nickname he used when they were teenagers. He says Milton sent him away and renamed him, and refuses Pawbert's apology for his father. He never married. He also refuses further contact: he buried the past to survive, and letting it back in would take apart the life he built. He asks Pawbert never to look for him again. When Pawbert tells him about Luther, Soren says he is glad, and before disconnecting he affirms that what they had in the garden was real. Pawbert leaves the room shaking, and Luther holds him. Afterward he tells Luther the eleven years of guilt are over and what he has instead is closure. That evening he tells Nick and Judy, Nick makes pancakes for dinner, and at night Pawbert says his own goodbye and sleeps.

Plot

Before dawn at Site Two, Pawbert sits by the living-room window with the early photo album from Lillian's closet open in his lap, held on the same page for hours. He has not slept. Every time he closes his eyes he sees the word from the file Garcia pulled out of Draftwell's records: RELOCATED. Luther wakes to an empty bed, finds him at the window and sits down beside him without pressing. Pawbert asks what happens if relocation turns out to have been another word for a killing, and Luther tells him he will be there whatever the answer is. Pawbert then gives him the one detail about Soren he has never told anyone: the nickname, Paw.

Later that morning Nick stirs a pot of oatmeal at the stove while Judy fills time with case files, and the domestic routine barely covers the waiting underneath it. Luther's phone buzzes with a message from Agent Ross. Garcia's search has come back. Soren Natz is alive, has lived outside Zootopia for eleven years under a changed name, and has employment records and a residential address. ZSI can facilitate contact through a secure video call on diplomatic channels, but only if Pawbert wants it. Nick and Judy both tell him the decision belongs to him alone. Pawbert says he has to know, and Luther writes back to Ross.

While the call is arranged, Pawbert admits what Milton left in his head at the prison: that Soren has long since married a female and buried the shameful part of his youth. Luther answers that Milton says things designed to hurt, and that whatever Soren chose does not change what the two of them had. Wanting the truth after eleven years of believing he got his first love killed is not selfish, Luther tells him, and he is not jealous. What he wants is for Pawbert to be able to set the guilt down. Pawbert decides to take the call alone and asks Luther to stay close. Luther promises to wait outside the door.

Pawbert takes it at the desk in his room with the door shut. The ZSI secure channel routes through encrypted diplomatic systems, and the screen resolves on Soren at twenty-six, a year older than Pawbert and harder than the lynx he remembers, guarded in a way that took years to build. Soren speaks first, using the nickname. Neither of them knows how to begin.

Soren lays out what Milton actually did. The cleaner solution was to send him away, change his name and pretend he had never existed. When Pawbert starts to apologize on his father's behalf, Soren stops him and refuses to let him carry any of it: Pawbert was fourteen, and searching for him would have gotten him killed. Soren says he survived and made something in a different country under a different name. He never married; he tried once and could not go through with it. He followed the coverage of the arrests and the trial, and watched Pawbert testify against his family.

Pawbert asks whether they can stay in contact at all, and Soren refuses. He spent eleven years burying every part of it in order to stay upright, and letting the past back in, letting Pawbert back in, would take him apart. He asks Pawbert never to look for him again. Pawbert says he understands, and tells Soren he had to bury things to survive too. Soren asks whether he is alone. Pawbert tells him about the wolf who was assigned to protect him and became something more, and Soren's guard drops for the first time: he is glad, and he always hoped Pawbert would find someone who saw him the way he did. Before reaching for the disconnect, he tells Pawbert that the garden and the kiss were real.

Luther has spent the whole call sitting on the hallway floor with his back against the wall. When the door opens, Pawbert cannot speak, and Luther stands and opens his arms. They spend the afternoon on the bed while Pawbert works through it aloud. He had expected friendship, or a thread he could hold, and what he has instead is closure. Luther points out that Soren does not want the past in his life, which is not the same as not wanting Pawbert, and that each of them built something out of what happened. Pawbert finds himself lighter rather than worse. Soren is alive and out, and eleven years of guilt for a death that never happened are finished.

In the evening Pawbert tells Nick and Judy that Soren has asked him not to make contact again, and that he understands why. Nick's response is to cook. He makes pancakes for dinner with Judy supervising, and the pack eats around the kitchen table arguing about whether one of them resembles Chief Bogo. Pawbert offers to teach Nick to cook.

That night, in bed with Luther, Pawbert says that what Soren told him about the garden was real and so is this. Soren has stopped being a ghost he carries and become someone he used to know, someone who made it out. He says his own goodbye aloud in the dark, and sleeps.

Key Moments

• Pawbert sits sleepless at the window before dawn, unable to stop seeing the word RELOCATED
• Luther finds Pawbert at the window and sits with him without pushing for conversation
• Pawbert tells Luther the nickname Soren used for him
• Ross's message arrives: Garcia has traced Soren, alive under a changed name in another country
• ZSI offers to open a secure video call on diplomatic channels and leaves the decision entirely to Pawbert
• Pawbert decides to make the call despite fearing what he will find
• Luther reassures Pawbert that Soren's place in his past does not threaten their present
• Pawbert asks Luther to wait outside the door rather than sit in on the call
• Soren appears on screen at twenty-six, hardened and guarded, and opens with the nickname
• Soren describes Milton's cleaner solution: sent away, renamed, erased
• Soren refuses to let Pawbert apologize on Milton's behalf
• Soren says he never married, having tried once and failed to go through with it
• Soren refuses any further contact and asks Pawbert never to look for him again
• Soren softens on hearing about Luther and says he always hoped Pawbert would find someone
• Soren affirms that the garden and the kiss were real, then disconnects
• Luther is waiting on the hallway floor when the door opens and holds Pawbert without a word
• Pawbert names closure as what he is left with and sets down eleven years of guilt
• Pawbert tells Nick and Judy that Soren asked him not to make contact again
• Nick makes pancakes for dinner and the pack eats together
• Pawbert says his own goodbye to Soren in the dark and sleeps

Key Lines

Locations

• Site Two — living room, bedroom, kitchen, Pawbert's room, hallway

Items

• Early album with Lillian — Open in Pawbert's lap through the pre-dawn scene; set aside on the couch before the call
• ZSI secure channel — The encrypted diplomatic link carrying the video call, opened on the laptop in Pawbert's room