East of Eden (2026) s01e01 Episode Script

1
I believe there are monsters
born in this world to human parents.
A monster is a variation
from the accepted normal
to a greater or less degree.
But evil is not always apparent
at first glance.
It can come cloaked
in beauty or goodness or power
or love.
It is at the heart of our oldest stories.
The sinful woman who eats from the tree.
- Oh God.
- The jealous boy who kills his brother.
Hey.
Help me lift her
so we don't disturb her wounds.
Charles.
Charles!
There are all kinds of monsters.
Some move undetected
through the world all their lives.
A child may be born perfect of body
but without kindness
or the potential of conscience.
Still, you must not forget,
everyone is normal to himself.
And to a monster,
the norm must seem
monstrous.
Adam.
We need the sheriff.
- Just get the doctor first.
- Adam, this is a mistake.
Adam's mother died
when he was only a baby.
Drowned herself in a puddle of rainwater.
Within a year,
his father found another wife,
had another son.
Charles.
And if either boy received love,
it was from his brother.
At least that's what Adam told me.
The drum, the drum, the distant drum!
The foe, the foe, they come, they come!
The soldiers awake, awake to glory!
With falchions red and bayonets gory!
Don't just stand there admiring it.
Reload!
Faster.
You don't have this much time.
Adam, you have to go faster. Faster.
Charles!
Pick up the gun!
Reload!
A soldier never puts down his weapon.
Cover first, then assist.
- Understood?
- Yes, sir.
Adam.
Sir.
Are you capable of loading
your own weapon?
I am, sir.
My mother says the training
is for our own good.
We're fortunate being brought up
by a hero of the Civil War.
Father will make us into great soldiers.
I'll never be the soldier
you will be, Charles.
Perhaps.
But you can try.
Faster.
Don't have enough time. Faster.
Shh.
And who might this be?
General Lee.
You can teach him to heel.
Did that already, didn't we?
Happy birthday, sir.
I believe Charles has
a gift for you as well.
Don't you, Charles?
I saw you needed a new knife, sir.
I earned the money chopping wood.
Thank you, Charles.
Oh.
What do you think of that, General Lee?
Father wasn't expecting
something so costly.
That's all.
He didn't look at it twice.
And he took your pup to bed with him.
How did you know?
How did you know what Father would like?
I didn't. I swear.
Charles?
Put out the light.
Put it out.
You're shooting to miss.
Adam.
Not at all.
You can hit a target in practice,
but you can't hit a deer?
If I wasn't around, what would you do?
Swallow your distaste or starve?
- Oh, planning on going somewhere?
- Soon as the army will take me.
If I could hold Father off a year,
we could enlist together.
I think I could face it
with you by my side.
How will you shoot at men
when you won't even kill for our supper?
I'll volunteer for detail,
or I'll assist medical.
Mother.
- Adam shot us a rabbit.
- Hey, don't lie.
- It was Charles, of course.
- Quiet.
Your father has a visitor from the GAR.
Just before dawn, he drew up a new plan.
Buford would defend to the west.
I delivered the orders myself.
Two days later,
we had victory at Gettysburg.
Wow. And I'd heard Buford
had acted on his own.
Small men like me play our part.
Not to be remembered
but to turn the tides toward good.
I must say, Mr. Trask, your work
with our veterans has been impressive.
Washington will be grateful
for your spirit of service.
Hm.
Will the boys and I be accompanying you
to Washington, sirs?
No.
My time there
will be taken up with business.
Do you intend for your boys
to soldier like their father?
When Adam finishes school next month,
I will enlist him in the cavalry.
And Charles
Charles will remain here
on the farm to look after the place.
My business has left me
with little time for farming,
but my family's tilled
this land for six generations.
One hates to see it left fallow.
You know what this is?
It's the bullet they gave you to bite
while they cut off your leg.
It's a pity
there's no great war for you to join.
But these Indian campaigns will give you
ample opportunity to prove yourself.
Why not send Charles instead?
Father, anybody can see
he'd be a greater soldier,
and it's what he wants.
To put Charles in an army
would be to loose things
which in him must be chained down.
Why do you favor him?
Because you don't punish him
how you do me.
- Now you let him stay out of the army--
- Adam.
Don't you see?
I love you better.
I always have.
I love you better.
Why else would I have given myself
the trouble of hurting you?
Charles.
Brother.
Wait.
You should turn back.
Now do him.
Give me a minute, Charlie.
Gotta get myself cleaned up first,
don't I?
Bring me another whiskey
while you're at it.
Spending all our money today?
Adam, have you ever had a woman?
My half brother here hasn't experienced
womanly love of any kind.
Never even had a proper mother.
Go on and get yourself undressed, sweetheart.
I won't be a minute.
She's one of the best I've had.
- I wouldn't treat you to less.
- Hm.
What did Father say to you before,
when you were alone?
Nothing.
I saw him talking to you,
the way he talks to men.
- What was he saying?
- Just more war stories.
Do you know what I think?
I think you're a goddamn liar.
How long have you known?
Known what?
That he would retain me here,
to keep house
like a woman.
How'd you get him to agree to that?
I knew no more than you did.
You won't last a week in the army.
- They'll send you home in pieces.
- I know.
Father sends me off to die.
Which, to him,
is the greatest honor. But me,
who's more deserving, he casts aside.
You're taking him away from me.
- I don't know how. How are you doing it?!
- Charles.
I haven't done anything.
I do every everything
to make him give me any scrap of love.
I'm
I'm worse than a woman.
I'm a fool.
Hey.
I know. I know.
Charles. Charles.
Charles, stop. Stop.
Stop!
That everything?
This'll be easy.
Troop A! Mount and ride!
Well? What'd you see? How many were there?
There's not many.
There's only a few horses.
Troop C! Mount up!
The rest, mount up!
He'll see you now.
Adam.
Hewes. This is my son.
He's just finished
five years in the cavalry.
A private soldier, as I was.
I was discharged a corporal, sir.
Bring a bottle of whiskey, Hewes.
Shall I send for chipped ice?
Ice?
My son is a soldier. I was a soldier.
What do we want ice for?
Some men find it a struggle
to return to civilian life.
Not to worry.
I'll get you assigned to Washington.
There's no limit to the heights
a young man like you might reach.
I don't have any experience
in government, sir.
You had none as soldier either.
You were decorated, weren't you?
Three times, sir.
See?
You should consider yourself fortunate
to have a father who's able
to pave the path for you.
And Charles?
Charles. What about Charles?
I thought he might like to join you
here in Washington as well.
You know, while you were out soldiering,
Charles has turned that farm to profit.
He hardly requires your pity.
It's not pity I feel for Charles.
I have business to attend to.
Hewes will direct you to my hotel.
They're expecting us there for dinner.
- I won't be spending the night, sir.
- Of course you will.
I'm taking the evening train
to report to my regiment in the morning.
You haven't reenlisted?
I have.
Five more years?
But you don't like the army.
No, sir.
Are you defying me?
Yes, sir.
I wonder if you realize
just how much influence I have.
I can have senators defeated
and pick appointments
like apples.
I can make men
and destroy men.
Yes, sir.
Is that all you've learned?!
The dumb resistance of a soldier?
Report back to your regiment.
You'll rot in the barracks.
"So we do not lose heart."
"Though our outer self is wasting away,
our inner self
is being renewed day by day."
"For this light, momentary affliction
is preparing for us
an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison."
"As we look not
to the things that are seen
but to the things that are unseen."
"For the things
that are seen are transient,
but the things
that are unseen are eternal."
Amen.
Now that your mother is gone,
what will you do?
- Continue farming?
- What else?
I thought perhaps you'd like
to return with me to Washington.
Your brother once mentioned
you might like to join me there.
Adam said that?
Surely the time for that is past.
If you're going be alone here,
you'll have to learn to cook.
Or take a wife.
That was the choice I faced
after Adam's mother died.
Be grateful you don't have
another mouth to feed.
Had to siphon all my whiskey down
that baby's throat just to calm him.
He couldn't understand
his mother would never return,
no matter how he cried for her.
I did think that he would maybe show
for the funeral.
How would he know?
Didn't you write him?
Since he was discharged,
I haven't had a word from your brother.
God knows where he might be.
Sharper than a serpent's tooth.
It's true.
I offered that boy everything.
Bring the dogs up.
There's a law against vagrancy in Georgia.
You better come on out!
Check the first two cars.
There they go!
Whoo!
- You were in the campaigns?
- Yeah, they had me in Texas.
I did two stints up north.
- When were you discharged?
- About five years ago.
- It'll be three years for me.
- Hm.
Where you headed now?
A real-life paradise.
I hear things grow so fast in California,
you have to plant and stand back
so you don't get knocked over.
You were a preacher?
What happened?
You stopped believing in God?
My congregation stopped believing in me.
What about you, Trask?
You running to something
or from something?
Are those the only options?
Whereabout do you call home?
Nowhere.
Come on, everyone's from somewhere.
You can't call a place a home
if you can't go back there.
What happened?
Someone done you wrong?
You done someone wrong?
Something like that.
People can change.
Might be worth going back there to see.
Mm. Yeah.
What if
you could close your eyes and then poof.
You open them again,
and no one can see you.
But you can see everything.
Imagine the places you could sneak.
You could go anywhere,
and no one would know.
Free.
Brother Adam,
I'm writing in the hope
that your old regiment
will send this letter on
to wherever you might be.
In the wake of my mother's death,
I find myself alone with thoughts
that I'd rather not be alone with
like your absence all these years
and why you have not returned.
I fear I am the reason
that you've stayed away.
I assure you,
the anger that I once felt is gone.
All that remains is
Whoa!
a great aching
a great emptiness.
When I think of you,
it feels like something isn't finished
like a job left undone.
Oh
I fear Father
damned us to the wrong fates.
I should have been out
wandering the world, and
you should have been here.
Wherever you are,
if this should reach you,
come home, brother.
Come home.
Yeah, well, um
There's no sense in keeping a place clean
when there's no one here to see it. Yeah.
Besides, the, uh
The farm's what,
you know, takes up all my time.
I've added 100 acres.
And, uh
put up a curing barn, actually.
Um
- What happened?
- Hm?
Oh, yeah. Fight with a plow.
Well, it sure marked me
all out of proportion.
Did you, um
Did you get my letters?
Yeah, I, uh
I made up so many stories
about, um, where you were
and what you were doing.
It seems strange.
I guess I could just ask you.
I heard about the campaigns
in the papers, killing Injuns and
That sounded like a good time.
You know
they've still got girls above the inn.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a new operation now,
run by a man out of Boston. But, um
Well, he moves the girls through,
you know, fast.
It's a new pair every couple of weeks.
And if, um
Yeah, well, you're welcome
to come with me if you'd like.
- You're burning that bacon.
- Oh, well
Uh
It'll just be crisp.
I like it crisp. Uh
You know, if, um
If you're planning on staying
you're welcome to my mother's old room.
I I'm sorry to hear about Alice.
Mm.
You never thought about leaving?
What, and start over again at my age?
Men past our age are headed west.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I got the farm to take care of.
If Father wants the farm run,
let him do it himself.
- What?
- I'm sorry.
I just thought you must have known.
I mean, it was in the papers.
Adam, our father's dead.
It was galloping pneumonia.
I mean, he went right out.
It was about a month ago.
They had a big funeral for him
up in Washington.
The vice president was there, and
I have the newspaper clippings
if you'd like to see them.
I should've come home sooner.
Yeah, I guess you should've.
You gonna tell me where you've been
all this time, brother, or what?
Oh
- Can a man eat first?
- Yeah, all right.
So I was thinking maybe
we could saddle up tomorrow.
I'd like to get your opinion on some land.
Something bothering you?
I found Father's army papers in his study.
Have you looked at them?
Mm.
"Cyrus Trask, 14th Connecticut Infantry,
enlisted June 1862,
discharged October 1862."
That's a mistake.
He wasn't discharged till the end
of the war, after he lost his leg.
According to those papers,
he was injured in September of '62
and discharged one month later.
Well, that would mean
that he wasn't at Gettysburg
or Chancellorsville
the Wilderness
or Richmond or Appomattox.
I mean, he wasn't at any of it.
Couldn't have been.
Maybe.
How the hell did he get away with it?
Charles.
"A private soldier,"
and no one even questioned him.
- His whole life was a lie.
- We don't know that.
As you said,
it could've been a clerical error.
Somebody could've easily put down
the wrong date.
I've been keeping something from you.
What is it?
It's Father's will.
He left everything equal to me and you.
It's over $100,000.
You mean more like $100.
I didn't believe it either at first,
but there's no mistake.
A hundred thousand in gold certificates.
Now, where'd he get that money?
- Maybe he earned it.
- On a salary of $135 a month?
So maybe he had it all the time,
and we never knew.
Or maybe our father was a thief.
- You have no proof he stole anything.
- Adam, these are his official papers.
Discharged in '62.
- Years before the war was even over.
- What does that have to do with the money?
If he lied about the war,
Adam, then anything is possible!
He probably broke into
the treasury at the GAR,
taking money from a veterans fund or--
Charles, our father knew big men.
There's such a thing as speculation.
He could've gotten in on a good thing.
This money will free us.
We can go where we like, do what we like.
We can shed the lives Father chose for us.
No, I can't take it.
Charles, we can sell this place
and start over.
I hear things grow so fast in California,
you have to plant and stand back.
What?
Charles.
Oh God.
Adam.
- Fetch the doctor.
- We need the sheriff.
- Just get the doctor first.
- Adam, this is a mistake.
Let go.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
That wound, it'll scar if I don't wash it.
Will you allow me?
Yeah?
Okay. Ready?
Easy. Easy. Easy.
I know.
I know.
I know.
You are growing smaller and smaller.
So small, no one can find you.
No one can hurt you.
No door can keep you out,
and no door can close you in.
So small, you have almost disappeared.
But you will not, Cathy.
You will not disappear.
Rejection, anger, revenge.
That is the story of mankind.
I fear Father damned us
to the wrong fates.
She is going to tear you to pieces,
and I don't wanna watch it.
In the whole world,
there's only evil and folly?
- Is that what you think?
- I know it.