Remarkably Bright Creatures

Cameron arrives at the address Simon Brinks’s assistant gave him, he finds nothing more than a gray door leading into what looks like an ordinary apartment building. Following instructions to head to the basement, he steps into the elevator, confused but ready. The basement is dim, lit by rows of fake candles, and as Cameron follows the hallway, he’s stunned to find himself in a small cocktail lounge. A girl with green hair is stacking glasses behind the bar, and when she sees Cameron, she tells him they’re closed. But when he says he’s there to see Simon, she, seemingly bored, says she’ll go get him.

When Simon finally appears, he’s more disheveled than Cameron expected—it’s hard to believe this is the elusive real estate developer he’s heard so much about. Simon immediately says he knows who Cameron is and explains that he asked him to meet here—rather than at of his other properties—because he built this speakeasy, Mudminnow, for Daphne. He mentions the girl with green hair is his daughter, Natalie, and for a brief moment, Cameron wonders if she might be his sister. Just as Cameron begins confronting Simon for never caring about him, Simon gently interrupts: he isn’t Cameron’s father—he and Daphne were nothing more than best friends.

Cameron places the class ring on the bar and asks why Simon gave it to his mother, but when Simon inspects it, he says it isn’t his—the initials engraved on it are EELS, while his own ring says SOB. He disappears into a back room he uses for storage and returns with the 1989 Sowell Bay High School yearbook. He explains that he and Daphne grew close while living in the same run-down apartment complex during high school. They used to talk about getting rich and opening a speakeasy together, but eventually, Daphne fell into addiction, and they lost touch.

Simon remarks that Cameron reminds him of Daphne—both are much smarter than people give them credit for. He tells Cameron that Daphne once dreamed of being on Jeopardy! and often kept her real self hidden from a family she felt never truly saw her. He adds that she would’ve been proud of Cameron, and whatever choices she made that felt like abandonment were probably made with more love than Cameron knows. Feeling deflated, Cameron leaves.