Fatal Attraction (2023) s01e08 Episode Script

1
Previously on Fatal Attraction
People are talking. You've been seen.
YVETTE: Stella Chapman.
When's the last time you talked to her?
I mean, she hasn't showed up
to work study since Tuesday,
and she's not answering her texts.
I-I wish I could help.
Is this a picture of the woman
- who took you to the park?
- That's her.
She took my fucking kid.
She kidnapped her right off the bus.
EARL: Alexandra Forrest,
she's saying that you showed up
- at her place and you assaulted her.
- DAN: She's lying.
But she's dead. I'm gonna find her body,
then I'm gonna put you under the prison.
We're gonna do it. Pay for it.
The lawyer, the retainer.
I've been so worried
that you aren't gonna know
how much I loved you.
DAN: It's my paperwork for a new trial.
Why I deserve one. Alternative suspects.
I read your application.
You lied to the investigating detective.
You lied under oath at your trial,
you lied at your parole hearing.
I'm denying your motion for a new trial.
I don't need another trial to tell me
what I already know.
Thank you for coming.
Why wouldn't I?
How else was I going
to find out what you want?
[QUIET CHATTER]
I don't know where to start.
It doesn't matter.
Just start anywhere. Dive in.
You asked what I want.
I want to give you
the benefit of the doubt,
as far as what
you might have known and when.
What Dan told you,
said to you. Let you believe.
Whatever it was, by now you gotta know
that none of it was real.
I'm sorry about this.
Thank you.
I really, really am, about all of it.
I just can't imagine what you
must be feeling right now.
You've been put in
such a terrible position.
[INHALES]
Or that's how it must seem.
Until you make yourself realize
that it's how you look at it.
What do you mean?
Well, if there's only one way
for something to end,
there's only one decision to make
how are you gonna get to that ending?
Are you gonna fight,
even though fighting is pointless?
You'll just exhaust yourself
and everybody around you
until they can't even
feel bad for you anymore,
if they ever did.
Just make it as hard and ugly
as possible till you lose,
which you were always going to do, or
not?
Were you
Did you do something to my mother?
I'm pregnant.
Yeah, no.
I don't believe you.
But there is something
wrong with you, I can see that.
I don't know what you're trying
to do here, but you're delusional.
You need help.
Did you tell Dan that you called me?
Does he know that you're doing this?
Oh.
[CLICKS TONGUE, INHALES]
Oh, you don't even know
what you don't know.
Which is what?
Don't act like you have
some secret here.
You don't have anything.
Just stay the fuck away from my family.
I just want to give you
the benefit of the doubt
about what Dan's been telling you,
about what he's been
letting you believe.
About what's real.
[SOBBING]
DAN: I just need you to
remember who they are!
- It's very important.
- You're right in her face.
- We need to do this right now.
- MIKE: Give her a minute, Dan.
Ellen, Daddy is not mad at you.
Did they tell you where they took you?
- Did they
- BBETH: That's enough!
Ellen, did she tell you who she was?
- BETH: Come here.
- Did she tell you her name?!
BETH: What happened?
Nothing.
So, Ellen, this is important.
Nothing bad.
We walked around.
What?
We had cotton candy.
[EXHALES]
That's fine. I don't care about that.
I only care that you're okay.
She knew you.
- Both of you.
- How? Knew us how?
She knew things about you.
Knew your name, knew where you worked.
She said Dad sent her.
He didn't. And we don't know her.
What else did she say?
I have to go to the bathroom.
Is that okay?
Of course it's okay, silly.
- Are you hungry?
- Grilled cheese?
BETH: I think I did this.
I made it happen.
ARTHUR [OVER PHONE]: Made what happen?
By talking to her, making her angry.
You made her burn a house down?
She fucking tried to kill me.
She didn't care if I died
or if anyone died.
You-you were there.
Yeah, I was.
I can't think.
But why, why would she take Ellen,
but then bring her back?
To prove she can. To send a message.
It's not a message
if you don't know what it means.
She knows.
She knows,
she knows what she's thinking.
She knows what she's gonna do next.
All I can do is just wait
and react after it happens.
Well, where's Dan?
I mean, what does he say?
He's off somewhere with Mike
pretending that they can
figure out something to do,
pretending that they can
- read her mind.
- Beth
But the truth is,
is if he could stop her,
he would have done it
before I ever knew she existed.
But he didn't
because he can't.
[SNIFFLES]
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
[LOCK CLICKS]
Where were you?
With Mike.
We're going to the FBI.
When?
- What are you gonna tell them?
- Tomorrow.
[INHALES]
And we're gonna tell them everything.
- And then what happens?
- We can talk about this
some more if you like, but
I really need to lay down.
[FOOTSTEPS RECEDING]
[SIGHS]
JORGE: What the fuck? This is crazy.
You deserve that fucking trial.
I mean, obviously, I saw
you were getting Judge Webb
when I read it, and I knew
she was up for reappointment.
But for real, what the fuck?
Webb must really be scared
of the D.A. or something?
No idea why that would be,
considering how far back they go, but
[SIGHS] I'm sorry.
- It's okay.
- No, it's a bunch of bullshit.
Mikey, how could you let this happen?
What?
I'm smart, but I can't
see around corners.
Breakfast buffet still not set up?
Eh, they're doing it now.
I didn't want to hover.
JORGE: You're gonna appeal it, right?
What were you thinking
you would do while you do that?
Well, I was hoping
that I could come back here
and get the job that I used to have.
JORGE: Yes, exactly. Great plan.
Also, before all this,
I'd actually been thinking about
a more supervisory role for you.
Managerial. Paralegal
program director-type thing.
More, but not astronomically more money
for a way more annoying gig.
It's great, right? You're welcome.
Stop trying to snatch defeat
from the jaws of victory.
Yeah.
Separate, but not unrelated,
I have the authority to offer
you a legal investigator gig.
Oh, dear. And I have
the authority to accept.
I know none of this makes
the other things better,
but at least I'm getting what I want.
ELLEN: I take the first two entrees
on the menu, and I compare them.
And then, whatever one that wins,
then I take the third one,
and I compare it to that.
And then so on.
And then, whatever the winner is
of all of the entrees,
and I compare to the specials,
if there are any,
and that's how I decide
- what I'm going to order.
- Mm.
Is the restaurant still open
at this point?
Maybe you like paying money
to feel vaguely dissatisfied
after you eat, but I, however, do not.
That reminds me of something
your mother use to say.
Which I can't actually
remember right now,
but I promise you it was perfect.
Did your mother talk to you about
what she and I were discussing?
[SIGHS]
I'm not gonna be getting a new trial.
The judge denied me.
Can you go to another judge?
I can appeal, yeah.
Are you going to?
[SIGHS]
I have 30 days to file notice.
But then, after that,
there would probably be
another year or so of process.
And even at the end of all that,
the likelihood of
a new judge overturning
the old judge's decision is
unlikely.
So
I have to think about it.
BARTENDER: Here you go.
Thank you.
There used to be this dive bar on Pico.
Mike loved this place.
And when you ordered one of these,
the swizzle stick,
instead of being this,
was a slab of thick-cut bacon.
That slaps.
Sounds awesome.
Mm-hmm.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
Yeah.
It really was.
Is that place still there?
I'm gonna assume no.
To freedom.
Hey, you're Dan Gallagher.
I am. What can I do for you?
Steve Scirocco. I do criminal defense.
I know. I watch the news.
You consulting with
one of the partners here?
No, I am one of the partners here,
as of, uh, day before yesterday.
Merged my practice with these guys.
Let them pay my overhead, right?
Let me focus on the razzle-dazzle.
Congratulations.
They must be very excited.
- Or they should be.
- is right.
But, also, they are.
Speaking of excited,
I'm excited you're here.
Not sure why, but thank you.
Well, imagine you're me.
Imagine you find out that Dan Gallagher,
former head of Major Crimes Bureau
before going to prison for murder
is now a paralegal at the firm
you just joined.
The spit take I did
ruined my favorite shirt.
Unless you lost
your memory or something.
- You haven't, have you?
- No.
There you go.
Couldn't be more useful to me
if I'd baked you myself.
In fact, I got a case on deck
I've already told everyone
I'm pulling all your free hours
to help me out on.
You watch the news.
It's been getting a lot of play.
Rebecca Richter?
Yes, the the Murder Mistress.
Pretty lazy headlining, I agree.
Especially when "Home Richter's"
right there for the taking.
That case seems pretty light, unless
No, no. What you saw is all they got.
They offered to plea to manslaughter,
which tells me they're scared, so,
I want to go all-in.
According to Rebecca,
the husband had a temper.
She thinks the wife
found out about them,
confronted him,
and then he figured out a way
to pin the killing on Rebecca
who's loaded, by the way.
Her father made a shit-ton
developing in the Central Valley.
So what's your strategy?
My strategy's to get you the case file.
Then you tell me what my strategy is.
How's that? [CHUCKLES]
That sounds great. I'll take a look.
Great. Hyped to be working
with the man, the myth.
And, um
I'm looking forward
to hearing the story.
- What story?
- What you did.
And how. The real one.
I mean, they took their pound of flesh.
You paid the piper.
You don't have to go wide,
or even public,
but you don't have to pretend anymore.
At least not with me.
I'm not pretending.
I didn't kill that woman.
Of course. Of course you didn't.
Because we don't know
each other well enough yet.
But we will.
So eventually you'll tell me.
You won't be able to help it.
I can't wait.
[CLICKS TONGUE]
He said, "You know, well,
obviously she fell off the roof."
I say, "She fell off the roof.
What if she was thrown
off the roof?" He goes,
"Well, I got nothing to indicate that."
- [LAUGHS]
- Shit. Fuck. You know,
I used to hate You get a
report from a guy like that,
and it's all, you know,
"the undersigned conversed
with the oversigned about
the fuckin' aforementioned."
- What the fuck are we doing?
- Exactly.
- Here you go, sir.
- Oh, hey. Thank you.
- [SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY]
- That's you.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
Yeah, write write the shit
so that when you read it
in front of a jury,
they can understand the shit.
Thank you. And so
after you get transferred,
the guy who picks up your fucking case
and has to work it,
he can understand the shit.
- Yeah.
- You know?
"The premises in question
were presently unoccupied."
- So Just say nobody was home.
- "He wasn't home."
[BOTH LAUGH]
[GROANS]
Thought you told me 1:30.
- I did.
- He did,
but when I'm hungry, I eat.
So how's it going?
I can tell by your face
you already know
the answer to that question.
Sorry.
Why? If you're so sure I'm the guy?
Yeah, but you don't think
you're the guy,
so it must have been
a gut punch, considering.
- You gonna appeal?
- I told you he isn't.
Yeah, I-I know you did,
but it just seems like
something a guy who says
he's not the guy would do.
The guy who's not really the guy
is fucking tired, okay?
EARL: Mm-hmm. It's tiring, isn't it?
Thinking about people killing
other people and why.
Next question.
So, out of all the alternates
that you guys have found,
who you think it is?
Drug dealer doctor makes
the most sense to me.
You know, somebody he's working
with or working for.
Told 'em what she said.
They told him she's gotta go.
Bibbity-boppity-boo.
How did you read my application?
Well, you filed it
with the court, cool guy.
The records room pulled it for me.
What, you're surprised
that I'm motivated
- by my own fucking case?
- DAN: No.
I'm just confused,
- since you're so sure I did it.
- Which he didn't.
Except he's so sure
that you didn't do it.
- And if he's right
- Yeah. Which I am.
which he isn't,
I want to be there to see it for myself.
So what happens now?
You guys drive around
in a van solving mysteries?
[LAUGHS] No, not mysteries.
A mystery.
Who killed Alex Forrest?
[WHISPERS]: You did.
But yeah.
[UPBEAT SONG PLAYING THROUGH SPEAKERS]
♪
BETH: He said he hadn't decided.
Uh, yeah, but he was just
talking about how long
that process would be,
you know, like like a year.
And how at the end of it he was
pretty much already sure
that the answer would be no.
So why bother?
ELLEN: Yeah, that's what it seemed like.
[GROANS]
- What?
- Nothing.
It's just, whatever you're up to
over there,
it feels a little bit to me
like the difference between
tactics and strategy, that's all.
Oh, that's all, is it?
ARTHUR: Mm-hmm.
So he's done, then? He's just gonna
let it all go?
ELLEN: Guess so.
But, I mean, isn't that what you thought
that he should do to begin with?
Yeah.
I just never thought he would.
Strategy is your broad-spectrum goal.
Tactics are your short-term
steps you take to achieve
your strategic goal.
ELLEN [MUPPETY VOICE]: Meh,
meh-meh meh-meh-meh, meh meh meh.
[CONTINUES BABBLING]
How does he cook in Mike's mom's garage?
Or is it just takeout?
ELLEN: Uh, there's a kitchenette.
But I think Mike cooks for both of them.
By which you mean he melts
cheese on top of Tater Tots?
And the problem with that would be what?
- [CHUCKLES]
- So hang on.
Let me just understand this.
Me hanging onto
the eight of clubs because
I knew that you were
waiting for it was tactical,
not strategic?
Gin. Or was it maybe both?
ARTHUR: What are you, like,
some type of Bond villain?
- ELLEN: Mm-hmm.
- Hmm?
Should we have him over
to eat or something?
Or would that be too weird?
We'll find out when we do it.
JORGE: Perfect timing.
Thank you.
You all right?
Steve Scirocco came to see me.
Oh, shit, yeah, I was supposed
to give you a heads-up about that.
- He's a lot, huh?
- Mm-hmm.
But he's also
our managing partner's friend
since high school, so he's here
till he doesn't want to be.
Pretty much the definition
of "necessary evil."
He wants you on that Murder Mistress.
Yeah. Yeah, that's what he said.
Well, I-I won't let him
monopolize you, okay?
I got something on deck right now.
I can fit in two, three pro bono
criminal cases a year.
Steve would just have to share you.
What?
He thinks that I killed her.
Wanted me to tell him everything.
He wants me to have done it.
What is that?
[SIGHS]
You know Sammy "The Bull"
Gravano's got a podcast?
Or YouTube Channel, maybe.
Talking about killing his best friend,
his brother-in-law, 16, 17 other people.
Sitting in a big armchair
next to a fucking fireplace.
That's what that is.
Murder is a brand now.
You want people to know
you're not a killer,
but a lot of them would
like you better if you were.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
- Hey. Where have you been?
- Really?
People have been
asking questions about you.
Yeah? What'd you tell them?
I said I didn't know.
You are unbelievable.
What are we talking about now?
Someone called Admissions,
said that I lied on my application
about the probation, the conviction.
They kicked me out of school.
Without my aid package,
I can't even stay in L.A.
I'm gonna have to go back home.
Who?
Who called them?
- You, Ellen.
- They told you that?
No one here knew but you.
People always assume
no one knows things.
It was a juvenile record. It was sealed.
Are you sure?
- Are you fucking kidding?
- No, really. Are you sure?
Did you do everything that it takes
to make sure that
a juvenile record is sealed?
Because you know that
it doesn't actually
just happen automatically, even though
they would like to make you
think that it does.
Ellen, you did this.
Why?
[SIGHS]
I don't know.
Why would I do it?
I can't even
You're a fucking liar.
Well, you would know.
[EXHALES]
Marked patrol car, me and my partner.
Midnight to 8:00 a.m.
in the springtime, lovely time.
We stop in and get a coffee. I come out,
and this couple's running toward me.
"Help, police! Help!"
What's going on? They go,
"We were at a house party
over on Magnolia."
And they're looking out over the, uh,
you know, one of those glassed-in
kind of backyard
greenhouse type of things.
But it's got furniture
in it, too, a table
and there are some chairs,
and they got this
slice of tree trunk
coffee table in there.
How do you remember what
the coffee table looked like?
Wasn't this the '90s?
[SCOFFS] And anyway, they look down,
and there's a guy in there,
and he's walking around,
- and he's talking to himself.
- Yes, please.
They go, "Oh, look at this.
He's probably just an actor
rehearsing his lines or something."
But then he stops and he bends down,
and he picks up a circular saw
that he'd plugged in already,
and he flops his arm
down on the tree trunk
- No.
- coffee table, and crank!
- Oh!
- Ah! Ugh.
- He saws it off.
- Will you get out of here?
- No, he did. He really did.
- No, no, get out of here
with your limb-sawing gross story
at my brunch table.
Hey, don't get all sensitive on me.
- We all saw what you did to those eggs.
- [DAN CHUCKLES]
- You scrambled the shit out of 'em.
- ELLEN: Egg after egg
after egg; you were out of control.
- All I could do was watch helplessly.
- Well, anyway,
there was a big green planter
in the corner of the courtyard.
Nice emerald deep green, and well done.
Anyway, that's where I found it.
- The arm?
- The arm.
- BETH: What!? It was planted in there?
- No, no.
He just laid it in there.
He didn't plant it.
[LAUGHS]
DAN: Sylvie Rubidoh.
Her kids report her missing.
- [PHONE RINGING]
- Husband said that he was at work,
but we know he's lying, 'cause
he gamed the log-in system
and snuck out.
Can you arrest someone
- for murder without a body?
- [PHONE BUZZING]
DAN: We can, but we usually don't.
- [JULIA SIGHS]
- All right.
They're just gonna keep calling
if you do that?
- That's your favorite, right?
- DAN: Yeah, until they give up
and pass it off to Frank, who
still needs to redeem himself
after that whole county jail thing
that he foisted off on me. Am I right?
When you're right, you're right.
- Let me help.
- Want to do the honors?
Please.
- All right.
- BETH: Mm-hmm.
JULIA: Mm, bigger.
Really?
- All right.
- [CHUCKLES]
Well, how's this?
That'll do, pig.
So, wait, you were saying
you don't usually arrest
a suspect if you don't
have the body; why not?
It's hard enough to win a murder case
when you do have a fuckin' body.
And at the end of the day,
we want to win.
Or at least not know
that we've already lost.
ARTHUR: Honestly, I think it's better
if we keep it like we had it last time.
Or if we're gonna change the schedule
from last time, I think
we should put Saturday
at the end of the week,
not in the middle.
Okay, so that yeah, that's fine.
- So we'll do Friday chemo
- Mm.
Saturday I'm full of steroids,
and I can run errands and whatever.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, ooh. Uh,
But then I'm okay, usually,
by Wednesday.
- Right?
- Yeah. That works.
You have to tell them
that we want to change, though.
I'm scared of Eileen.
She doesn't have to think
you're funny to like you.
I know.
But why doesn't she like me?
- I'm the best.
- Well, true.
- [JULIA CHUCKLES]
- I mean, but give the woman a break.
I mean, her job is oncology scheduling.
You know who doesn't like you,
though, is Rosie.
Ugh! I wouldn't, either, if I were her.
My veins are the worst.
They're so deep,
so hard to get to, so collapse-y.
Not like your veins,
just out there, springy.
Your veins laugh at my veins.
- Yep, that's what they do.
- [GIGGLES]
- How's it feel now?
- Good.
Yeah?
But now the other foot is
numb and tingly all over again.
- Really?
- No.
[BOTH LAUGH]
I would've did it.
JULIA: Go hear live music.
- We used to do that all the time.
- Mm.
Snowmobile the Continental Divide again.
Yeah, I liked that.
That tree, the redwood
that you can drive through.
- Mm.
- The Chandelier Tree.
Some of these are gonna
take some logistics.
I know.
Plus, Dr. Anastasia has to
- clear me for travel.
- Yes.
- Watch Singin' in the Rain with Ellen.
- Mm.
Meet Cindy's baby.
See the sun set
- over the ocean from a boat.
- Mm-hmm.
Read the final book
of the Morrigan quadrology.
I thought you told me no one
knows when that's coming out.
They don't.
I asked the guy at Barnes & Noble,
and apparently she hasn't even
started writing it yet.
- Where does she live, Maine?
- Mm.
- I'll go talk to her.
- [LAUGHS]
"Ms. George, you don't know me,
but my wife is your biggest fan."
"So I'm gonna need you to put
19, 20-hour days in
"on this thing until it's done,
"'cause I'm not leaving without it.
Show me to the guest room."
[LAUGHS]
- How great would that be?
- Mm.
I I'm almost I'm almost sorry
I read the first three books.
I mean, not really, but
I can't believe I'm not gonna
find out how it ends.
Remember, I was gonna
take the boat out every weekend
after the divorce.
You did say that a lot, Bruce.
It just never happened.
And now there's Joanna,
who hates the ocean.
Oh, uh, keys.
Lockbox codes.
Uh, the marina has 24-hour access.
Guard fees are paid up.
Go nuts. [CHUCKLES]
- I appreciate it.
- Yeah. Consider her your boat, okay?
I'll just, I'll kick
selling it down the road
until
until you don't need her anymore.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.
Okay?
- Thanks a lot.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- Baby, we're here.
- Hmm?
Oh. Oh.
Right now?
Well, it could be now.
Or it could be another day.
Maybe that's the move
if you're not feeling up to it.
Um [CLEARS THROAT]
No, because I'm not up to it
is why it has to be now.
Okay? [CHUCKLES]
- All right, let's do it.
- All right.
- It's gonna be beautiful, come on.
- [LAUGHS]
- You're gonna love this.
- Ooh. [GRUNTS]
I'll get it.
JULIA: Okay.
ARTHUR: My God, I'm so sorry.
He said it was only
a few times, that it's over,
that it ended badly. [SNIFFLES]
Well, do you believe him?
I He thinks that
she came to break in, steal things.
She didn't think anyone was home,
and that my mom surprised her.
W-W-Wait a second.
Wh-what are you, what are you saying?
Is there any evidence?
He's a fucking prosecutor.
Would-would he believe him?
ARTHUR: Look, I'm sorry,
this isn't helping.
So what-what can I do?
BETH: Don't tell anyone, especially her.
ARTHUR: What can I do, huh?
What can I actually do, though?
BETH: Nothing.
What could you do?
Make it so it didn't happen?
You can't do anything.
[EXHALES]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
♪
[SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE]
[DOOR SHUTS]
Oh, hey, I rang the bell
for the super, no answer.
A guy coming out let me in.
I'm here for the walk-through.
I'm the super. What walk-through?
Oh, come on, nobody gave you a heads-up?
Baratta Properties send you? Ugh.
I don't need any more
oversight bullshit.
I take good care of this place.
I need somebody to look at the elevator.
That's who needs to walk through here,
a fucking actual elevator repairman.
Well, good, 'cause here I am.
I thought you said walk-through.
Well, 'cause how am I gonna know
whether it's the hydraulics,
or do I, do I need to get a part built?
- I mean, if I don't look at it
- Okay, shit.
Great. Finally. Sorry.
Uh, I gotta go buy a P-trap,
some other shit.
- You good to do your own thing?
- I'm good.
All right, you need to come in and out,
just use the fire door, it's broken.
Great.
[GRUNTS]
♪
ARTHUR: So, you, uh,
you up for some mac and cheese?
Is it the frozen kind?
No. Beth made it, but
it-it doesn't have to be that.
But it has to be something, because
I know, I know.
- Uh, just don't heat it up.
- Okay.
I need it to not smell like anything.
[CHUCKLES] All right.
Oh, and a side of ibuprofen, please.
You got it.
Don't move, I'll be right back.
♪
♪
[SIGHS DEEPLY]
It's ready. Come on.
Let me help you.
Sorry it took me a minute.
All right.
[BUZZING]
BETH: She knows.
She knows what she's thinking.
She knows what she's gonna do next.
All I can do is just wait
- and react after it happens.
- Where's Dan?
He's off somewhere with Mike
pretending that they can
figure out something to do,
pretending that
they can read her mind.
But the truth is,
is if he could stop her,
he would have done it before
I ever knew she existed.
But he didn't because he can't.
[BETH CRYING]
- Mm
- Baby.
I need
Beth needs help.
- I'm gonna go help her.
- Mm.
Help her. Mm-hmm.
He said that I knew that he was married.
That I knew, and that I did it anyway.
And so that I only have myself to blame.
STANLEY: Wait, what did you do?
He said he's gonna have me arrested!
He said that he could just
make up a bunch of charges,
and that everybody's gonna
go along with it
because he'd just do that.
When? When is that gonna happen?
I don't know. He said it
when he was leaving.
I don't know, I don't know.
Well, they can't arrest you
if they can't find you.
Come here. Grab your stuff,
get in the car.
You leave right now, you'll be
here by tomorrow night.
- We'll figure this all out together.
- Okay, okay, okay.
- Go now.
- Let me call you from the road.
[SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE]
[CRIES OUT]
[GASPING, GRUNTING]
[GLASS SHATTERS]
[GASPING, CHOKING]
[ARTHUR PANTING]
[ARTHUR GROANS]
[ARTHUR WHIMPERS, EXHALES]
[ALEX BREATHING QUIETLY]
♪
[ARTHUR PANTING]
[GRUNTING]
[PUNCHING KEYS]
[DOOR BUZZES OPEN]
ANDREA: They're both
set in Victorian England,
but you want the Inspector Pitts
ones; I'm in love with him.
I know he's not real.
JULIA: Have you ever read Louise Penny?
- Mm.
- First two books in a series
set in this cozy little town in Quebec.
Everyone leaves their doors unlocked.
Hot chocolate, tobogganing, murder.
- In.
- [CHUCKLES]
What's tobogganing? Sledding?
All the way in.
You need the coffee
and the sleep, Artie, honey,
not the coffee instead of the sleep.
And by you, I mean we.
Oh, I know.
Skinny caramel latte, extra shot, right?
Yes. Are you kidding? The best.
Absolute best.
JULIA: He really is, isn't he?
ANDREA: All right, I'm-a get going.
I'll be back Tuesday
unless there's something
you need before then. Just call me.
So, but that's a real thing, right?
I mean, I pay the consult fee,
so now you
I'm ethically bound, yeah.
Is that what you mean?
Yeah, uh, whatever you talk about,
I, uh, I will never,
I can't ever disclose.
Good?
- Okay.
- So,
what are we talking about?
I have a friend that's in prison
for a murder that he didn't commit.
Okay. How do you know he didn't do it?
Well, I know it because, um
- because I did it.
- Okay.
What are you looking for from me?
I want to come forward, confess.
Get him out, get him back
with his family.
I know I should have come forward
and done this before, but, look,
my wife, she has cancer.
And I don't
Look, I don't know, I just thought
I'm sorry, is this something
that you can help me do?
Do you have evidence for this,
what you're saying?
I mean, what can you show
to prove that it was you?
Well, I can talk about how and why.
I mean, the details of what I did.
So just your word?
I mean, unless the police have something
that they didn't know or use
that was important.
That didn't fit on focusing
on Dan being their guy.
On Dan? Dan who?
Dan Gallagher.
Wh
- Your friend is Dan Gallagher?
- You know him?
Well, I mean, I know of him.
Of course.
I never thought he'd get arrested.
Then I couldn't believe that
he couldn't figure his way out
of something that he didn't do.
I mean, of all people,
if he couldn't, who could?
No one.
He never had a chance.
I mean, even in a world
where prosecutors admit
that they're wrong, he was a whale.
One of the biggest gets
the D.A.'s office ever put down.
- He's innocent.
- Not to them.
To them, he's a resounding victory
that they won from a judge and a jury
with shock and awe.
And now you just want to show up
- and-and tell them it was really you?
- Yeah.
They'll keep Gallagher
exactly where he is,
and they'll lock you up for perjury.
What-what kind of cancer are
we talking about, your wife?
Ovarian.
Hmm. Well, is she hanging in there?
[SIGHS] Look, you paid for my counsel,
so here's my counsel.
Go home and take care of her,
and be grateful you got away with it.
[SCOFFS]
If you even did it.
I'm not even sure I believe you.
[BREATHING DEEPLY]
Hey, pal.
Hey, Beth said it'd be okay if I
Yeah. Sure. Thanks for coming.
What, are you kidding?
Of course, of course, yeah.
I mean, it's a hard thing here.
I mean, I know it was a hard thing,
and now it's different.
Which is also hard.
Yeah.
It's better to have loved and
lost than to never have
loved I don't know.
Yeah, no, I know.
I mean, I don't feel it,
- but I know it.
- Yeah.
[KIDS LAUGHING]
Oh. Hey.
- Hey, could I ask you something?
- Sure.
Why do you think
he cut them off, Beth and Ellen?
I mean, what was he thinking?
To do that just seems
- Crazy?
- No.
It seems impossible to me.
Not to me.
It's painful, devastating.
Not impossible.
Not to someone who knows
what he's up against.
- What, the time, you mean? The years?
- No, the system.
What he knows it is. I mean
what he knows it can be.
How once you're inside, it's over.
Once that thing has you,
you're fucking done.
And you worked for that thing
all these years, right?
I mean, what you're describing
is what you served
for all that time, no?
That's how I know what it is.
I mean, you go in pretty wide-eyed,
thinking institutions are people.
And then, one day, you realize..
no institutions,
no people.
It's just a fucking machine.
It chews.
It fucking spits.
It's not what you thought it was at all.
And in its service, neither are you.
You know, I
Oh, shit. Yeah.
There I go.
That's my specialty,
making shit about me.
- I'm sorry. Uh
- It's okay.
Julia was Um, she is
She's a beautiful soul, she is.
Yeah.
- Yeah, hey.
- Thanks, Mike.
You tell anybody I cried, I'll kill you.
ARTHUR: Okay, so a run is
YOUNG ELLEN:
Um, at least three in a row,
all of the same suit, and aces are low.
ARTHUR: Very good.
All right, so why don't we
just do one, see how it goes.
We don't have to keep score
until you get it.
We're gonna keep score.
Well, of course we are.
'Cause we've been talking
about it a whole two minutes,
and you already know as much as me.
All right, no mercy.
Hardly any mercy.
Maybe a little mercy.
- I don't know as much as you.
- Oh, stop it.
It's actually weird
how tiny your head is
with all the stuff you know.
- You know things, too.
- I do.
I mean, I know some things.
Like, for instance, I know you
can't hum while holding your nose.
No, don't even try it.
- Just believe me.
- [DOOR OPENS]
- Hi, Mom.
- [DOOR SHUTS]
BETH: Hi.
No, no, just believe me.
[CHUCKLES]
MIKE: So I run it under cold water,
and I pack it in ice in a towel,
and I run it over to the hospital,
but it didn't matter,
they couldn't save it.
- The cut was too clean.
- Circular saw.
Yeah, but don't worry,
'cause they gave him
a new plastic arm
with a little metal hook
on the end of it.
- Aw.
- Oh, that's nice.
Then, one cold winter night
- He cut it off.
- No, he did not.
We get a 911 call
from a restaurant downtown
saying there was a naked guy
standing outside their windows
holding his thinger-dinger in a hook
that he had for a hand.
- Hey!
- Oh
Okay!
- Coffee, anyone?
- No, I'm okay, thanks.
- Not now.
- You know what I would love?
Could I have one more little piece
of the red raspberry muffin cake thing?
Yes. It's good, isn't it?
- Yeah, it's great.
- Arthur made that.
- ARTHUR: Yeah.
- Wouldn't expect any less.
- Cheers.
- Salud!
♪
[BIRDS SINGING]
- Taking off soon?
- Yeah.
Yeah, me, too, but
my ride doesn't look like
he's in a hurry
to get anywhere, does he?
- Do you want me to bounce him for you?
- [CHUCKLES]
Broom him from the establishment?
That's okay, thank you.
Maybe in a little bit.
Okay.
It's nice out here. It's very peaceful.
I'm happy to hear
that the thesis is going well.
[EXHALES] Yeah, me, too. [WEAK CHUCKLE]
It's it is tricky, though.
Toni Wolff didn't do
a lot of writing herself,
so most of what's out there
is, like, through people
who knew her
talking or writing about her.
Or not.
Like, for instance,
supposedly Jung wrote
this entire chapter
about her in his autobiography,
and then just deleted it.
Which, if you wanted people
to be less interested in her
Yeah, it's maybe not the move. Mm-hmm.
She did write this one,
like, really groundbreaking essay,
though,
on the four feminine structural forms.
- Four, you say?
- Mm-hmm.
Not three, not five.
So there's the Mother.
- Makes sense.
- Right? Amazon.
She's, like, the boss,
fighter, multitasker.
- Um, Hetaira.
- No, you lost me now.
[LAUGHS] Friend, lover, wife.
And then the Medial,
which is the psychic, intuitive healer.
Yeah, I guess that about covers it.
Plus, they have these
shadow sides, too, right?
So it's like the "smother,"
or the "career-driven bitch,"
or the prostitute or mistress.
It's hard to describe exactly what
the Medial woman's
shadow side is in a word,
but if she misinterprets
the messages she's getting,
she will destroy you.
That all sounds fascinating.
I can't wait to read it.
- Yeah. Me, either.
- [CHUCKLES]
I just, um, I just want to say that
[SIGHS]
I know that you think
that you already know
what's gonna happen, but
I think that you should appeal.
Just keep asking for a new trial.
Even if it takes a year,
or however long,
I just feel like you have to try.
You have to always keep trying.
Jung said, "It's important
to affirm one's own destiny.
"Because in this way, we forge an ego
"that endures the truth,
and is capable of coping
with the world, and with fate.
"And then, to experience defeat
is to also experience victory."
[EXHALING]: Hmm.
See you.
[SNIFFLES]
[EXHALES]
MACKSEY [ON RECORDING]:
The first stage was to confront
what he called the persona,
a structure made up of
the societal masks we wear
a child, parent, boss,
fri-friend, lover
to confront those masks
and separate them from
[RECORDING GARBLES] true self.
The next stage of individuation
is confrontation with our shadow.
Our shadow self is the part
of us that's been hurt.
And then we reject it,
[RECORDING GARBLES]
trying to protect ourselves
from being hurt aga-again
Acknowledging our shadow means
admitting our capacity for
darkness-darkness-dark-dark
Darkness.
I should really start doing that,
using the recorder.
I mean, it's right there.
There-there-there
there. Also, it might
be relevant, Toni Wolff
- was Jung's mistress.
- ELLEN: Might be relevant?
MACKSEY: Which his wife
knew and was okay with.
ELLEN: Well, what was Jung's
source of information
on that? Was it him?
Was it him?
MACKSEY: Don't make me chase you
girlfriend.
[RECORDING GARBLES]
Don't make me chase you.
YOUNG ELLEN: All the birds and animals.
Like antelope and deer and stags.
ALEX: Stags and deer
are actually the same thing.
A stag's just a really big
male deer with antlers.
I think you're right.
But they started to realize
that Majnun would never hurt them,
that he was like them.
- That he avoided people, too.
- Yeah.
And they could've attacked him,
but they didn't.
They helped him instead.
The foxes swept the floors
clean with their tails,
and the vultures would block
his eyes from the sun
so that he could see, and the predators
stopped killing, even for food.
The lions and tigers and bears.
And wolves and jackals and hyenas.
Majnun had this big,
giant, peaceful family.
That sounds amazing.
I want that for you.
I do, too, but with dogs, too.
Tigers and foxes and dogs.
Oh, and hippos.
Yes, of course, hippos.
Hippos are the most.
Are you okay?
Yeah, I just want to tell you something.
It's it's something that I wish
somebody had told me,
so I didn't have to learn it myself.
I probably would not have
liked hearing it,
but it would have
been better just to know.
What is it?
It's who you can trust
and who you can't.
You probably think
you already know how to tell,
but I promise you, you really don't.
I mean
your parents, they're
they're pretending that nothing's wrong,
and they're saying everything
is okay, but it's really not.
They're lying to you.
Both of them, but especially your dad.
That doesn't mean
that he doesn't love you.
I know that he does.
But someone can love you
and still lie to you.
Some people
it's just what they do.
It's what the world is like.
But you can handle it
if you know how.
How?
You let them think they're fooling you.
You act like you believe them,
but you never forget
who they really are.
And you never let them stop you
from getting the life that you want.
And if they try
you leave them.
They don't get to leave you.
Ah, it's such a beautiful day.
I really like being here with you.
Where's the book?
I want to know how it ends.
MACKSEY [ON RECORDING]:
Ellen, I've been afraid
to be this direct with
any another person.
No matter what my colleagues
[DISTORTED]:
think or say, I-I-I need you.
Please be with me.
I didn't think it was possible
to even dream of a woman like you.
[CLEARS THROAT]
So completely generous
[DISTORTS] and loving.
I want you in my life
for the next morning
and every one after.
We can be together forever.
If you abandon me now,
there is only darkness.
What's going on?
Hello to you, too.
How did you get in here?
You have a hide-a-key rock.
I used to have one, too,
when I was in middle school.
Ellen?
Why are you in my house?
I feel like you're mad at me.
Are you mad at me?
[TENSE MUSIC PLAYING]
ALEX: There's only one way
for something to end.
There's only one decision to make.
How are you gonna get to that ending?
I have no idea how
people are gonna react.
When you read it,
it's kind of like this,
"Oh, sh!"
If we're watching this
and it's being told to us
like a mystery,
is it gonna feel satisfying
if the actual killer
is the same killer from the movie?
I spend a lot of time thinking about
what the lives of people
who are taking care of
other people in extremis
are like psychologically,
the way that grinds you down.
When I was deciding to do the show
and on the fence about it,
I had a friend who had
been suffering from cancer
for many years.
So, I said to her,
"I've been asked to do this
but I don't think I'm gonna do it."
And she said, "Oh, I totally
think you should do it."
And then shortly after that, she passed.
And so, I wanted to commemorate her
as a character in the show.
[INHALES] I have a friend
that's in prison
for a murder that he didn't commit.
ALEXANDRA: And then just sort of
thinking about Arthur
as a person who knows
how to get things done.
He's there with his sleeves rolled up
and he would approach
his wife's illness the same way,
but he feels totally powerless.
It gets me emotional even now.
To know that Julia was dying of that
and there was nothing more I could do.
And at the same time,
I'm watching somebody
who I love and care about,
her life get destroyed.
ALEXANDRA: And so,
when Beth comes to him
when her life is in devastation,
part of his, you know,
lizard brain starts to work on,
"I could fix this somehow."
Beth needs help.
- I'm gonna go help her.
- [SIGHS]
Help her. Mm-hmm.
BRIAN: Whoa, wow, whoa, wait a second.
Because that means he got in the car,
started it, hit stop signs, red lights,
and didn't change his mind.
He went there and did this.
So, of course, he's had
to have snapped, right?
Who's Arthur to get to
play judge and jury?
Who is he to decide?
Well, I know it because, um
because I did it.
ALEXANDRA: It kind of was
a natural evolution
to start thinking about Arthur
and to not make him just
a mustache-twirling villain,
to make him a person
who is doing a terrible thing
for a good reason
and then having to live with it.
ALEX: Yeah. I just wanna
tell you something.
It's something that I wish
somebody had told me
so I didn't have to learn it myself.
It's who you can trust
and who you can't.
SILVER: We just get these
very quick glimpses
of Ellen in the feature film
and Alex really wanted to explore
what that trauma did to Ellen
and what happened in the years since.
I think the theme of it
is very Greek tragedy
in the sense of
your sin will find you out.
It felt important
to show Dan the consequences.
It can be dealt with,
but it can't be erased.
I think now is an ideal time
to re-examine this story, reopen it.
I would want to know more of
her side of what's going on.
It can be a constant conversation.
You couldn't watch it
without asking more questions
or finding sympathy for her.
Your parents, they're
they're pretending that nothing's wrong.
They're lying to you.
ALEXANDRA: She's going down the road
that Alex is going down.
She's just better at lying about it.
SILVER: Making Ellen become Alex.
It's not punishment necessarily,
but it's something that
he never did the math
of how the women in his life
were actually gonna be impacted by this.
To freedom.
ALYSSA: I think it's like a
incredibly complicated journey.
There's a lot of pain
and a lot of misunderstanding
throughout the whole show.
If she misinterprets the messages
that she's getting,
she will destroy you.
ALYSSA: Her overall goal has always been
that she wants to have
this man in her life.
I think her allegiance
has always been with him
but he's just done too much
to her to live in that space.
ALEXANDRA: She's very aware of
everyone else's shadows,
but she's not aware of her own.
SILVER: We all remember that scene where
Alex made a tape for Dan,
from the original film,
and he's listening to it.
So, I think the audience
is gonna be going,
"Wait a minute, what are these tapes?"
"And who is this?"
And then, the reveal
that she herself is stalking
is going to, I think,
blow everybody's mind.
Why are you in my house?
I feel like you're mad at me.
ALEXANDRA: "Are you mad at me?"
really is just sort of a hallmark
of the emotional relationship insecurity
that someone with a personality disorder
in that realm would feel.
Even though Ellen and Alex
are different in some ways,
in some ways they're very the same.
And so, to use that specific
wording also felt important
to connect those two people.
Are you mad at me?