It’s Tuesday and tomorrow is Waiver Wednesday. I have a ton to say about the Giants, so we need to wrap this thing up tonight. Okay, here we go–recap: Joe and Jane are working to solve the problem while DARPA Dave (he has a name now!) is pursuing his own plan and is certain it will work.
It won’t.
Dave refuses to accept this and when Joe becomes vocal about how much the world is in danger thanks to Dave, Joe is kicked off the project. This is basically the beginning of our dark moment. Joe is kicked off and decides that he is fine with that and is going to leave. Jane, who is beginning to have feelings for Joe, recognizes that he’s not the guy she thought he was, which causes the relationship black moment when she agrees that he ought to leave. Now they’ve fallen apart, DARPA Dave is about to screw everything up, and the Volcano is still going to end the world.
Then it blows. Not entirely, but the meddling of DARPA Dave causes the side caves to flood with lava and Dave and his team die. It’s a terrible commotion and it prevents Joe from actually leaving. He comes back, finds Jane and tells her they have to execute the plan right away. The use her secret caves to get close to the thing and realize the only way to solve the problem is to get a crazy amount of water to the source right away. How do you do that? You blow up Lower Falls Waterfall. The resulting torrent of water will neutralize the active portion of the Volcano.
They go to do it and there is some hair-raising action as they try to plant charges and escape. In the end the plan works and they narrowly escape. The Volcano blows, changing the landscape of Yellowstone forever, but the water changes how it erupts–no explosion, but there is lava runoff that spreads across the national park. In the end Jane and Joe are on an island with water rushing around them and into a wasteland of lava below. They kiss and that is the end.
A story handled in 40 minutes. Nothing left but the writing.