Alison plopped down on her sofa. "Dear Lord I've been needing this" she sighed. Felix sat down beside her with a bowl of fresh popcorn. "So true, sister" he agreed, grinning. "This is our Christmas morning!" he observed while grabbing the remote and switching the TV on. "Popcorn Cosima?" he asked as she joined them on the couch. "Maybe later" she replied while briefly revealing a joint from her purse. "It's medicinal of course; takes away the pain long enough to run tests on our DNA".
"Well you're not working now" Alison quipped with a look of disapproval.
"Yeah for the first time in like 10 days!" she fired back. "This is my reward! A distraction from life and death research!" Felix passed the bowl to Alison instead who aggressively took a handful. "Can't beat reality TV" he said as he nudged Cosima in approval. "Their problems are so mundane. And I love it!" he exclaimed as he bounced around, spilling some popcorn. "Oh, sorry Alison" as he noticed the mess.
"Hm? Oh, no problem. I don't even care anymore" she stated. "I've got bigger problems. Clearly. Donnie bought this couch anyway." Cosima looked across the couch to her. "Cleaning. Mundane problem number five-hundred and sixty-three" she joked. Felix rubbed his hands together as a commercial teased the season premier. "What's going to be the theme tonight?" he wondered. Hate your boss? Can't find a job? Broke up with a girlfriend? Sure as hell won't be my foster-mum and niece are kidnapped and my sister is risking her life to get them back."
"Shit, we really need this show to start" Cosima observed.
"Agreed" Alison stated curtly. "I miss my old problems. Keeping up my figure, Donnie's farting, soccer schedules...there's no going back."
"You're not alone Alison" Cosima consoled. "I thought it was rough being on my own in a new city with no time to meet anyone. Then I got a call from Beth." Felix chimed in, "At least we've got each other. And the escape of reality TV." Cosima chuckled and turned philosophical. "Reality, reality, reality. What is reality anyway?"
"Helena would say we're not real" Alison pointed out. "Sometimes I think I agree. How can any of this actually be real? The normal people are on the TV."
"They couldn't relate to us, that's for sure" Felix added.
"Nope. Impossible. We're in the twilight zone" Alison added. They both looked at Cosima to get her take. She twirled her dreadlocks deep in thought. "Well...I don't know. Who's to say the people on TV don't need an escape sometimes? I think the universe has more layers to it than we realize."