Take Me to Your Leader

Take Me to Your Leader
Episode Information
Episode	10
Season	2
No. in Series	20
Air Date	March 16, 2010
Directed by	Jim Hense
Produced by	Douglas J. Cohen (Executive Producer) Louis C. Tarantino (Executive Producer) Sam Dolan
Wrtten by	Jim Hense Sam Dolan
Episode Guide
Previous	Depths of Destruction

Take Me to Your Leader is the tenth and final episode of season two and the final episode of Life After People: The Series. It originally aired on March 16, 2010.

Synopsis

The leaders of man are gone and how the structures and testaments devoted to world leaders factor adversely without human sustainment. The national homes of world leaders, from the White House to the United Nations Headquarters at New York City, falls to the rising tides and the former homes of leaders of mankind like the Palace of Versailles, the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Forbidden City, and Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello would surrender for one final time. There would be no one to remember the world leaders, as the entombed body of Ulysses S. Grant at Grant's Tomb would be buried for the first time in history and Mao Zedong's mysterious body at the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong would rather suffer a different fate than decay. Bo, the United States president's dog, returns to the wilds as his instincts take effects. The episode explores Hunters Point Naval Shipyard which was abandoned from contamination cause by the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Plot

Prologue

The presidents, prime ministers, dictators, and kings are gone and their worlds of extreme security and luxury were left behind. From the White House, to the Forbidden City, and the Palace of Versailles, one of the powerful places will last the longest as if there's no one to declare war on nature's advancing armies.

1 Day After People

In Washington, D.C., the White House, the home of the most powerful man in the world, stands unguarded. Originally known as the President's Palace or the President's House, Theodore Roosevelt made a long-standing nickname official in 1901 when he added the words White House to the presidential letterhead. The while walls of the famous house will last for a very long time but not for their distinctive color because the walls are made from Aquia sandstone, a local prized for its toughness. The stone was quarried along a tributary of the nearby Potomac River and was also used to construct the United States Capitol. Steven S. Ross stated that the White House façade is not all smooth because it is made of sandstone and it is not white. The White House sandstone is naturally greyish and the episode questions why it is white because answering to itself that legend has it that after the British set fire to the house during the War of 1812, it was painted white to cover up the burn marks but in truth, soon after the walls were completed in 1798, workers applied coats of lime-based whitewash to seal the rough stone and later, the white paint was applied as a more effective barrier against moisture. By the late 20th century, the sandstone walls were regularly repainted with each time requiring 570 gallons of white paint. If the walls are well protected, the windows are impenetrable. The Oval Office is fitted with bulletproof glass which was first installed in 1941 after the hysteria follow the attack on Pearl Harbor.

After people, the bulletproof glass will keep nature out but there's an intruder in the Oval Office, Bo, the president's dog, has crossed to the West Wing. Bo is the last in a long line of sometimes bizarre presidential pets like Woodrow Wilson's sheep, Benjamin Harrison's goat, and William Howard Taft's cow. Bo is a Portuguese water dog which is originally bred to work on fishing boats, diving for fish, retrieving broken nets, and guarding boats for their masters. Elena Gretch stated that the Portuguese water dogs are one of the oldest breed of domesticated dog going back thousand of years and the dogs were competent, intelligent, and can handle many different tanks. Soon, Bo will have to leave the White House and use his intelligence to survive. However, danger would await on the streets of the nations capital.

2 Days After People

In New York City, the vast complex of the United Nations Headquarters once welcomed leaders from almost 200 member countries and the flags, arranged alphabetically from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, still flutter along First Avenue. The 39 story Secretariat Tower looms over the cavernous General Assembly Building where all the 1,800 sets are empty. In the UN's vast subbasements, an eerie glow still filters through the hallways and offices. The glowing and dark markers guided workers safely out of the building during the 2003 Northeast Blackout that darkened New York City and they owe their glow to a substance called strontium oxide aluminate which being exposed to light, its electrons are pushed to a higher energy state and in the dark, they lose energy giving it off in wavelengths of greenish-yellow light. Steven S. Ross stated that the emergency lighting takes its energy from the regular building lights and after the lights go off, there'll be an eerie glow. However, the markers can only glow for up to 20 hours and with no electric lights to recharge it, the vast labyrinth soon join the rest of the city and the world in total darkness.

1 Week After People

Around the world, mankind leaders remain embalmed and entombed but for one great communist leader, the recipe for immortality was a botched job. Few dared to oppose Chinese premier Mao Zedong whose policies and executive orders were believed to killed up to 70 million people. On September 9, 1976, he died at the age of 82 and despite Mao's last wishes calling for his body to be cremated, officials debated over what to do with his body. Dr. Howard Oliver stated that Mao's body lay in state for a couple of weeks before they started to preserve it. In the 1970's, embalming was rare in China and so scientists charged with preserving Mao's corpse for austerity had to first do some research. Dr. Howard Oliver stated that one of the things that scientists read was if one embalm the body with a large amount of formaldehyde solution, it would preserve the body indefinitely or so they thought specifically 16 liters of fluid into the system but the scientists went a little further and infused 22 litters of fluid into the system which is a complete disaster. The mistake caused bloating and extensive skin damage but somehow they were able to create a presentable corpse that could be viewed for decades in a court sarcophagus inside at the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square. Dr. Howard Oliver stated that the Chinese bring the body up from the basement every day for a few hours and no more than 4 hours but sometimes, they don't bring the body up at all. The secret of Mao's body would be revealed in life after people.

2 Weeks After People

In Manhattan's Riverside Park, no one is buried in Grant's Tomb and nobody ever was because the real answer to the classic riddle "who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" is that Ulysses S. Grant and his wide were both entombed above ground and technically not buried at all. Ulysses S. Grant was once the most famous man in the world and so popular was the former Civil War general and United States president that in 1897 when his mausoleum was dedicated, more than 1 million people showed up. The body of General Grant took a tortured path to its final resting place and like Chairman Mao, he was the victim of a botched embalmment job. When Grant, a legendary chain smoker of cigars, died of through cancer in 1885, it was hoped that this body could be preserved to go on a public tour. Dr. Howard Oliver stated that the body lay in the refrigerated coffin for several weeks and if it's not at least 37 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit, it wouldn't have preserved his body very well and the refrigeration they used was an icebox. When the public got its first look at Grant, they were horrified because the face was blackened with decay. What no one knew was that the general's face had begun to deteriorate before he died because the cancer blocked the blood circulation above his neck. Dr. Howard Oliver stated that the embalmer did the best he could but the face itself deteriorated more than the rest of the body. His body rests in a granite sarcophagus inside the largest mausoleum in North America. After people, Grant seems well protected, but an enemy force has the general surrounded.

3 Weeks After People

A nearly 200 year old mansion in Virginia houses the groundbreaking inventions of one of America's greatest men. From a great clock powered by descending cannonballs, to a copying machine used to make duplicate documents, and one of the first indoor toilets in American history. The home is Monticello, personally built and occupied by president Thomas Jefferson and despite his opposition to slavery, many of Jefferson's own slaves helped to build his dream house and was built to last like no other home in America at the time. Robert L. Self stated that it's extremely well made, constructed out of brick which is very unusual for the area where most of the houses around were made of wood, and one of the more innovated features of the house is the metal shingle roof. The current shingles are 316 grade, a surgical grade of stainless steel and the roof was designed to include 13 skylights, a concept far ahead of its time. After people, it's a potential gateway for destruction. Tanya Komas stated that the skylights in any structure, old or new, do tend to leak fairly quickly compered to the roof itself or even vertical windows so it would be a particularly vulnerable area of the building. The home of the author of the Declaration of Independence is holding back Mother Nature's revolution for the moment.

1 Month After People

With the world leaders are gone, new forces are looking to seize power. Outside of Paris, France, the Palace of Versailles with its spectacular gardens sits untended. It is one of the most opulent homes built by any leader in history because the palace is 500,000 square feet, 10 times larger than the White House. It's construction in the late 1600's nearly bankrupted the nation and it is the location where the angry mobs of the French Revolution captured Maria Antoinette and her husband Kind Louis XVI, taking them away to Paris, and eventually the guillotine which overthrows the French monarchy. In 1919, Versailles was one of the few places that could accommodate the hundreds of dignitaries that had descended on France to negotiate the treaty ending World War I and the peace agreement would become known as the Treaty of Versailles and was signed at the palace's famous Hall of Mirrors. At more than 235 feet, the hall is longer than a Boeing 747 it's lined along 1 wall with 367 mirrors, most originally installed in 1684, and each mirror contains mercury, a deadly ingredient. Every 10 square feet of mirror required more than 100 pounds of the toxic liquid metal and inhalation of mercury vapors cause inflammation of the lungs and respiratory failure. In fact, it actually killed some of the craftsmen who made the mirrors and after people, the centuries old poison could determine the fate of the historic hall in a life after people.

1 Year After People

Former president Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello continues to hold off nature's assault even the skylights are holding out thanks to Jefferson's innovative design. Robert L. Self shows one of the main skylights over Jefferson's bedchamber and one can see the glass overlaps shingle-fashion that have the course above overlapping below it which sheds the water making it very effective and they don't have to see any leakage at all occurring in the skylights even in a blowing rain. The skylights have proven effective at keeping out moisture for many years but Jefferson's home might not be as strong as it appears because unlike the opulent kings of France, Jefferson had to manage his budget carefully. Steven S. Ross stated that Jefferson was perennially short of funds and the problem is that he had to live off the cash flow of his farm. Jefferson's money troubles forced him to come up with some creative construction techniques that might doom his treasured home.

8 Years After People

Bo, the former first dog, has survived on his own. Falling back on the survival skills of his ancestors, the Portuguese water dog has sought sustenance from the sea by first scavenging in the banks of the Potomac and soon found his way to the nearby Chesapeake Bay. Elena Gretch stated that Portuguese water dogs worked on fishing boats and seafood was always a staple part of their diet and Bo could sniff out clams, other shellfish, or dead fish that wash up on the shore which could be very likely if he could get south towards the Chesapeake where it would be an abundant food source for Bo to scavenge and survive on for his lifetime. By turning to the food source of his ancestors, Bo has found the way to survive and thrive after people.

20 Years After People

Act 1

The White House has returned to its original color grey. Birds are the new unelected residents and while the house itself is holding up well, it's future might have been more bleak if it wasn't for a renovation in the mid-20th century. Tanya Komas stated that the wood had been rotting, People had to drill through the beams to add conduit for pipes and electricity and overtime, it was determined that it needed to be almost entirely reconstructed. Travis Taylor stated when Truman was president, they actually had to move out of the White House because it is becoming dangerous. As it turned out, leaving the White House set up even more dangerous situation for the president. During the 4 year renovation, Truman lived across the street in the Blair House, normally a guest house for visiting heads of state and on November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to assassinate him on the Blair House and a gunfight broke out on the steps, killing a White House policeman and one of the would-be assassins, Truman meanwhile was unharmed. Completed in 1952, the renovations gave the White House a new 25-foot deep foundation supporting interior steel frame walls. The mansion's exterior walls have a less certain future because the local sandstone turned out to be not as tough as the original builders believed. In 1814, the White House was gutted in a fire set by British troops and despite the walls were still standing, workers sent in to repair the house discovered that moisture had been penetrating the stone for years causing extensive damage. After the discovery, marble and granite became the stones of choice for the capital's monumental buildings. Being exposed to moisture over long periods of time, the surface of the sandstone White House walls can turn to mud and it's exactly happening after 20 years without people as the White House grounds are returning to the watery wetlands they were before the first colonists arrived.

Act 2

The rusting buildings and splintered docks of a former naval base conceal a dark history at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco Bay where the most fearsome weapon ever launched by one of mankind's leaders set sail into world history.

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard

Visiting Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, it conceals a dark history from a former naval base. Nicholas Veronico and Tanya Komas explores and explain the history and fall of the naval base. It is home to 18,000 workers during World War II and the place was the point of departure for hundreds of warships heading to the Pacific. No mission was more important than the one that began in the summer of 1945 when parts of the atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" were delivered to the base. Nicholas Veronico stated that on July 16, 1945, the cruiser Indianapolis was alongside the wharf with the components for little Boy were loaded and 10 days later, she delivered the bomb and shortly thereafter dropped on Hiroshima. It was the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon which kills an estimated 140,000 people and along with the second bomb dropped on Nagasaki, it put an end to the war. Many of the buildings constructed on the base during World War II are still standing with the mess hall once fed thousands of sailors and dock workers, is a wreck of peeling lead-based paint, decaying fixtures, and corroding appliances. Tanya Komas explains that it is one of the oldest structures on the base and being constructed of wood, it goes through a lot of deterioration but some of it is holding together fairly well at the point but across over are the support that is severely deteriorated cause by water and moisture getting in that rots the ends of the beam which it was actually fallen down on the sides of the column and what's left is a piece of conduit that is holding the thing together.

After the war, Hunters Point took on a newer and darker mission. It began in 1946 after the United States military conducted secret tests on the effects of nuclear blasts on warships out on the Pacific and the surviving ships from Operation Crossroads were towed back to Hunters Point for decontamination. Workers sandblasted the hulls, unknowingly exposing themselves to dangerous levels of radiation and allowing radioactive plant scraps to fall into the bay. It's the beginning of a toxic saga at Hunters Point. Nicholas Veronico stated that the knowledge gained from decontamination the ships from Operation Crossroads saw the naval radiological defense lab to be established at Hunters Point. Scientists with the NRDL turned the base into the world's most advanced laboratory for studying the effects of nuclear radiation on everything including living creatures and some believe there may been human testing but what is certain is that farm animals were systematically exposed to radiation to simulate the effects of nuclear fallout. The research caused widespread contamination but all the while people continued to live and work in the place where locker rooms stand forgotten, latrines are deep in the clutches of mold and decay, weeds choke the officers' quarters, and broken windows offer refuge for hundreds of birds. The vast manufacturing buildings where submarines and other warships were welded together are empty and silent. Nicholas Veronico stated that it was once the plate shop were men and women were burning and welding during the war and after that, the concrete's chipped and start to crack, paints coming down, the windows are broken, and the ceilings falling in. The ship building machine tools were long ago removed and sold for scrap but much of the office furniture and business machines from another era sit in forgotten decay. The radiation laboratory was shutdown in 1969 but the work done is still blamed for at normally high rates of certain cancers found in the San Francisco Bay area. In 1989, the base declared a toxic superfund site and slated for cleanup and decontamination and the work is still going on in 1991 when the United States government finally shuttered Hunters Point along with dozens of other military bases as part of widespread cost-cutting measure. The episode concludes the exploration stating that being built for a time of war, it's a time of peace that is tearing Hunters Point apart.

30 Years After People

One great leader of mankind, Chinese premier Mao Zedong remains surprisingly intact in his court sarcophagus at the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. With none of the environment control systems operational, Mao's body should've long ago decomposed. Dr. Howard Oliver stated that the Chinese botched the job of infusing the formaldehyde which lead to problems later and no matter they do, they've still created a huge problem which they can't recover because the body has to deteriorate and no way that it won't deteriorate. The episode questions why the human form still be visible after all these years before answering to itself that some believe that the body isn't Mao at all. Dr. Howard Oliver stated that one of the things the Chinese did was to create a wax figure of Mao and the was figure being looked more like Mao Zedong than Mao's actual body to looked exactly like him. If it is the case, the body on display in Beijing is destined to crack and warp rather than decay.

50 Years After People

Just one mile from Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the imposing wooden buildings of the Forbidden City are covered in a thick blanket of snow. For 500 years, the massive complex was the seat of power for China's emperors and built in the 1400's, it has 9,999 rooms. The episode questions why not 10,000 before answering that because 9 is a lucky number in Chinese culture. The tallest of all the structures is the 122 foot high Hall of Supreme Harmony, the emperor's ceremonial seat of power. In the hall's center sits the emperor's ornate throne, surrounded by 6 gold covered columns rising 100 feet to support the roof and each one carved from a single piece of wood. After 50 years, extensive wood rot and termite damage have put the Hall of Supreme Harmony in a dangerously unharmoniously condition and the smaller columns can no longer support the weight pressing down from above. Steven S. Ross stated that the pillars making up the outer walls of the palace are vulnerable to attack by water while Travis Taylor stated that high wind might cause it to break sooner or a heavy snow load on the ceiling. With either reasons, the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony collapses into the interior but the six solid wood golden pillars still protect the emperor's throne. Steven S. Ross stated that the six pillars are likely to continue standing and the pillars are the emperor's sentinels

Meanwhile, snow and rain have bestowed a different fate upon the great Palace of Versailles because the once famous gardens are consumed by forest. Inside the palace, Louis XIV's great Hall of Mirrors is the mirror image of devastation as the famous gardens have worked their way indoors. Steven S. Ross stated that the Hall of Mirrors has many little nooks and crannies which naturally catch soil, create cold, dust, and seeds from the gardens below. The chandeliers and much of the roof fell long ago and the 8,000 square feet of mirrors are in dire straight. Steven S. Ross stated that the roof above the Hall of Mirrors as it fails would leak quite a bit and water would cascade down the walls that hold the mirrors in place from both behind the glass and in front of the glass. The mercury in the mirrors has prevented mold and fungus from colonizing them, keeping the antique glass from deteriorating and falling out of its framing. However, after 50 years after people, water is steadily rotting the oak supports that hold the mirrors to the walls and one by one, the glass that once reflected the faces of world leaders as they ended the war to end all wars submits to a final surrender itself as the mirrors falls.

100 Years After People

In Manhattan, Grant's Tomb is holding strong but a relentless force is moving to attack. Steven S. Ross stated that the building would stand for a long time but it's going to be assaulted by the troops that are going to assault it are the trees around it. The trees are London trees, so notorious for producing organic debris that New York City officials banned any new plantings of the trees for decades. Steven S. Ross stated that the London planes are bad for buildings because they shed their bark all throughout the year and the shed bark plus the leaves from the tree form very fertile soil for ivy and other vines to grow. Grant's Tomb has been left unattended before from the beginning in the 1960s, mismanagement by the National Park Service left the monument exposed to damage from water intrusion, plant growth, and extensive vandalism that even the tomb was used for ritual animal sacrifices possibly by Caribbean immigrants practicing a religion called Santeria. Grant's Tomb was viewed as a national disgrace before it was finally restored and rededicated in 1997. After a century of unchecked tree growth and creeping vines has draped the granite mausoleum like a shroud.

150 Years After People

Without maintenance, Monticello's 13 ingenious skylights are long gone because the glass is destroyed by hail and falling tree branches and the stainless steel shingles could not prevent the wooden roof supports from rotting and collapsing. Thomas Jefferson's home was a masterpiece but money troubles sometimes dogged him. Steven S. Ross stated that the result is that he cheated on the materials used in the home. The façade of the entryway looked like stone but it was really wood painted with sand particles to resemble stone and the stone columns on the west side of the house were brick covered with stucco. Jefferson's cheats were convincing, but there's no fooling Mother Nature as Monticello crumbles piece by piece.

175 Years After People

In New York City, the General Assembly Chamber at the United Nations Headquarters is long out of session and is about to adjourn permanently. Steven S. Ross stated that the General Assembly Building is a steel and concrete structure with a very irregular roof and the roof beams have to span a very wide area and at any time, there'll be a large space enclosed with no interior columns and have a failure point. The building is the location where chatter of dozens of languages once heard and after 175 years, it requires no translation at all as the roof collapse into the chamber.

The General Assembly Building is outlasted by the 39 story Secretariat Building but just barely because the steel curtain frame is a teetering rusted skeleton. Despite a deep foundation and a heavy duty steel and concrete base, the Secretariat Building was built on filled in land reclaimed from the East River. Steven S. Ross stated that the problem are the areas of the sub-basements are below the level of the waterline and because of the lower levels would flood, it expose the steel framework to brackish water to saltwater while Travis Taylor stated that the major motions of the water slamming into it continuously. Steven S. Ross stated that the saltwater itself could cause enough corrosion to bring the building down all at once. The Secretariat Building collapse and falls into the East River below.

At Washington, D.C., 175 years of neglect has left the White House looking anything but presidential. Although the walls are intact, parts of the roof have fallen and nothing can stand up to what's happening in Washington, D.C.. Travis Taylor stated that in 2006 to 2007, there's an Army Corps of engineers study on the area around the White House and around the Capitol Mall which turns out that the levees are inadequate to prevent flooding of the area and the White House sits right in the middle of the 100 year floodplain. Steven S. Ross stated that even thought the White House itself is on a little hill, the sub basement goes down about 25 feet and the sewer lines from the White House back down of the mall have cover the slope. He continues that as water rises to the south of the White House, the sewer lines will fill with water and overflow right back into the White House sub-basement. The porous White House sandstone is degrading to mud and the home of every president since John Adams slides into a watery grave.

230 miles away back in New York City, in a tangle of dense forest along the New York's Hudson River, the presidential monument of Grant's Tomb is losing its battle with the trees. Ulysses S. Grant's granite tomb was built to last but the destructive London plane trees have breached the inner sanctum. Steven S. Ross stated that the area around the mausoleum is a soil creation machine and once one start to create a lot of soil, it'll create more trees. In the time of humans, Grant's body laid in a sarcophagus above ground level and after 175 years, the relentless soil production and tree growth have covered him beneath 6 feet of earth and for the first time in history, there's truly someone buried in Grant's Tomb.

Epilogue

Mankind's leaders had the power to reshape the world in their image and Mother Nature rules over all the land in a life after people.

Transcript

Life After People Wiki has a transcript for this episode. To see it, click here.

Errors

• The one shot of the interior in the 1 month segment is not actually the Palace of Versailles, instead, it is located in the New Herrenchiemsee Palace, 900 km to the east in Bavaria.
• The construction of the Palace of Versailles did not actually bankrupt France and France at the time was still a kingdom, not a nation.
• Mao Zedong was actually the Chairman of People's Republic of China while Premier is the second most powerful position behind Chairman in Chinese Politics.
• The Forbidden City's 9,999 rooms was actually a myth and the total amount of rooms are around 8,750.
• Despite the flooding from the East River, the chambers of the General Assembly Building shows no water flooding the chamber.
• After the collapse of the Secretariat Building, it floats in the East River.

Trivia

• The title is a reference to a science-fiction cartoon catchphrase which is said by an extraterrestrial alien who has just landed on Earth in a spacecraft to the first human they happen to meet.

Gallery

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