The Shards (2026) s01e03 Episode Script
Help Me! Rhonda
1
[Bret] What do you do when your friends
think you're the boy who cried wolf?
Matt Kellner had gone missing in the dead
of night sometime in September of 1981.
[breathing shakily]
[Bret] But oddly, no one in my social
circle was that concerned about it.
Looking back,
I realize that's the gift of youth.
You think you'll live forever.
I bet Matt moved to Big Sur to deal drugs,
get out of the LA rat race.
[Robert] I agree.
I mean, who wouldn't?
I hear the Esalen Institute's amazing.
What?
That's lunacy. What about
the blood-stained backpack they found?
[sighs] Hon, I love you, but why are you
so drawn to worst-case scenarios?
You didn't even know him.
Don't mourn a death
that hasn't officially happened.
- Can we talk about happier things?
- Please. I need a cig.
[Susan chuckles]
[Bret] But then came October 1st,
the so-called first day of spooky season.
October 1st was officially
The Day the Fun Died.
Because that's the day
The Trawler got Really Rhonda.
[Dark synth music plays]
[all laughing]
Really Rhonda was in our class,
and everyone loved her.
Everyone thought she was hilarious.
Her father was a big ICM agent
who represented Sally Kellerman.
He paid the school
a handsome fee every year
to assure that Rhonda would be assimilated
and not locked away in the dungeon
that was a special needs class.
If X and B are both positive real numbers…
[Bret] Today we would understand
that Rhonda suffered
from a neurological condition,
but back then we just thought
she was darkly and convulsively
[giggles]
…Impulsive.
- [students laugh]
- Rhonda, please stop it.
I wanna fuck Chewbacca, motherfucker.
- [Bret] And a real truth teller.
- [students laugh]
- [Flanigan] Rhonda, do you want detention?
- Um…
George Washington sucks cocks
in hell, motherfucker!
Suck it, lick it, fucking ass-face! Fuck.
- [students laugh]
- Really, Rhonda? Really?
[Bret] And from that moment on,
that's what we all called her.
Really Rhonda.
[Ambient music playing]
I always felt an affection for Rhonda.
Because during one of her outbursts,
she could have easily told the truth
about me,
called me a fag or a gay face,
but she was kind to me.
I felt she purposely edited out
my secret truth.
Protected me somehow from
the pubescent cruelty of the other kids.
My favorite thing about Rhonda
was that she would not get off the
disco roller trend long after it was over.
She just didn't care
what people thought about her.
Can you imagine the gift of that?
Really Rhonda is such a good skater.
She's even better than Cher.
[Bret] Disco roller skating
is important to this tale,
because that's what she was doing
when she was taken.
["Don't Stand So Close to Me" plays]
There was only one disco roller
derby place left in town in 1981.
And Rhonda was the only patron
at Wheels that night of October 1st.
The Trawler knew that,
the loneliness of the place.
And on that night, he snatched
Really Rhonda from her happy place.
Young teacher ♪
And out of all of our lives.
The subject of schoolgirl fantasy ♪
She wants him so badly ♪
Knows what she wants to be ♪
Inside her, there's longing ♪
This girl's an open page ♪
Bookmarking, she's so close now ♪
This girl is half his age ♪
Don't stand, don't stand so ♪
Don't stand so close to me ♪
Don't stand, don't stand so ♪
Don't stand so close to me ♪
Her friends are so jealous ♪
You know how bad girls get ♪
Sometimes it's not so easy ♪
To be the teacher's pet ♪
Temptation… ♪
[Bret] When Rhonda missed her curfew…
So bad it makes him cry ♪
…her parents reported her missing.
[siren blares]
[police chattering]
[Bret] The police immediately checked out
the scene at Wheels.
- [officer] I'll check around back.
- [officer 2] Got it.
[Bret]
And that's when they found bloodstains.
[officer] Over here.
[Bret] Telltale clues
of a violent struggle.
I went to the scene of the crime
the next day,
oddly, instinctively.
The place Rhonda had joyously twirled
the night before was deserted.
The rotating disco ball, once a symbol
of joy, seemed sad to me, mournful.
Slowly twirling like a flag at half-mast
to announce all the ends of things
that 1981 had taken from us.
Matt.
Roller disco.
Really Rhonda.
And our sense of security.
[Sinister music plays]
[Rhonda whimpering] Please, please.
Please, please, help me.
[whimpers]
[breathing shakily]
[gasps]
[whimpering]
[The Trawler] Eat it.
[screaming]
[laughter]
[Bret] It took about three days
for everything to go back to normal,
and for everyone to forget about Matt
and Rhonda.
[no audible dialogue]
[Debbie] Oh, my God.
I love it when we skip lunch on the quad
and kick it at the Hamlet.
[Debbie] Yeah, me too.
Anyone want half my lunch?
- [Robert] Ooh.
- [chuckles] Oh.
Okay. [Giggles]
Okay, listen up.
Don't forget to take
your Flintstones vitamins this month
Or your diet pills.
Saturday is Robert's,
and next Thursday is Dance Off!
And no one is allowed to be hungover
because on Sunday,
we all need to practice.
Seriously?
That Dance Off! thing is really happening?
Oh, my God. I thought you were joking.
Does it look like I'm joking, Bret?
- ["Rapture" plays]
- [dancers cheering]
[Bret] Dance Off! Was
a daily televised cable access show
that featured regular teenagers dancing
to the hot hits of the day.
Teenagers like us.
A Los Angeles institution,
it had its heyday in 1974
and refused to die.
Toe to toe
Dancing very close ♪
[Bret] Debbie had been obsessed
with the idea
ever since Corazon Cha Cha Rodriguez had
gone on and held the camera's attention
for the length of an entire Blondie song.
And not just any Blondie song.
"Rapture," six minutes and 31 seconds.
Debbie saw that hot lava fame
and she wanted it for herself.
Becoming a star was her secret ambition,
but she was too cool to ever admit it.
Stepping lightly ♪
Hang each night in rapture ♪
I gotta say, I hate that show.
Okay, well, it's a rite of passage classic
in this town, and it's happening.
Guys, don't you think it's kind of
a bad look to be partying on TV
- with classmates missing?
- [sighing] Okay.
Well, it's what I want.
It's done, and you're all coming.
You're welcome. [Sighs]
Okay, so that's it then?
We just don't care anymore
about Rhonda or Matt?
Look, Bret, I'm not trying to speak
for the group here,
but I'm gonna speak for the group.
- Rhonda and Matt what's-his-face
- [Susan, Bret] Kellner.
They're missing.
They haven't been declared dead.
Maybe they ran away.
Oh, Bret, before I forget,
do you want to go shopping with me
after school for homecoming?
- Tuxedo Warehouse?
- [Robert] Tuxedo Warehouse?
- Is it too, uh…
- [Robert] You guys have that on the coast?
…I don't know, GQ?
I think maybe not GQ enough.
[Susan groans]
Homecoming. I don't even want to go.
What do you mean you don't wanna go?
W-Why do you keep saying that repeatedly?
You have to go.
You and Thom are totally gonna win
homecoming king and queen.
Aren't we a little old for homecoming?
[Robert] I would agree with that.
Homecoming feels like a word
that's, you know,
partial to overweight Midwesterners
who make floats out of
toilet paper scraps and suffer from gout.
[Debbie, Susan chuckle]
It's not like I even have an outfit.
You know what you would look great in?
A simple black slip dress,
something fresh, modern.
- [Susan] Hmm.
- [Robert] No jewelry.
Just décolletage.
Décolletage?
Maybe we should cancel the party too,
you know.
It's Robert's big welcome party, Bret.
It's my big welcome party, Bret.
It's gonna be
like Capote's Black and White Ball.
I'm so excited, thrilled.
Et cetera.
Bret's right.
We should do something.
Maybe we should post flyers.
That's a great idea.
Do something proactive.
Why don't me and you
do it together, Susan?
[Distorted eerie music plays]
Waitress, some more fries, please.
We're asking anyone with information
about Rhonda to please come forward.
You won't be in trouble.
The only way we're gonna find these kids
is if we look.
Or if they show up.
Right.
All of us have been haunted
by the story of Etan Patz,
six-year-old boy who disappeared
outside his home in SoHo, New York.
Was he kidnapped?
Was he murdered?
We don't know.
What we do know
is that because his picture appeared
on every milk carton in America,
his face is burned into the minds of the
people who are going to bring him home.
That is why we are handing out bottles
of Really Rhonda water
to increase awareness
- And hydration.
- [chuckles softly]
If you can't find a Perrier,
reach for a Really Rhonda bottled water.
Thanks again to Rhonda's dad
and all the heroes at ICM
for sponsoring our flyer, hydration,
and the Rescue Rhonda Fund.
Bravo, ICM.
Now, AV club, hit it.
["Help Me, Rhonda" playing]
Zero mention of Matt.
- Unbelievable.
- I'm sure they'll get to him.
I think the line of awareness products
for Matt Kellner could be historic.
"Bring Matt Home" pencils.
"Where Is Matt?" terry cloth come rags.
It's not funny, Thom.
I know,
but my dad used to tell me
to look on the sunny side,
and that's what I'm trying to do for you.
It wouldn't take much time ♪
For you to help me, Rhonda
Help me get her out of my heart ♪
[sniffs] What are you wearing?
Kouros.
[giggles] It smells so sexy.
Thanks.
It's for men.
[chuckles] Yeah, you can really tell.
- [Susan] Hi. For Rhonda. Rescue Rhonda.
- [Robert] Help Rhonda.
- Let's bring her home.
- [Debbie] If she wanted to,
she could be such a slut.
There's nothing stopping her.
I've always admired that.
You're a really good friend.
I am.
She was gonna be my wife
And I was gonna be her man ♪
But she let another guy
Come between us ♪
And it ruined our plan ♪
It's sparkling, like Rhonda.
You are really gunning for homecoming.
That's not what this is.
God, Thom, it's the '80s.
Don't be so cynical.
[Susan, Thom giggling]
Help me, Rhonda
Help, help me, Rhonda ♪
[piano playing]
[sniffs]
So tell me what your script is about.
Oh, I dropped the treatment off
with Steven. Did he not
Oh, yeah, I received it. I read it.
Steven loves it, by the way.
[smacks lips]
I just don't know what it's about.
I-I mean, why this story? Why now?
Well, the character is me.
A version of me anyway.
- His name is Bret Ellis.
- Hmm.
Well, that makes it interesting to you.
That doesn't make it interesting
to others.
Listen, every great movie ever made
is about loss.
The loss of love, friendship, innocence,
ideals, personal injury lawsuit.
So what has Bret Ellis lost?
Like, um…
My virginity?
Speak on that.
[car engine revs]
Where are we going?
Secret street.
Connects Beverly Hills to the Valley.
- I thought that was just an urban legend.
- No, not an urban legend, a suburban fact.
And only three people that I know of
have the combination to the gates.
- Beatty.
- [engine revs]
Nicholson.
And me.
[tires squeal]
[engine rumbles]
[Intriguing synth music plays]
[exhales]
8-1-7-0-6-6-6.
[Music continues]
[Music fades, ends]
[engine stops]
[breathes deeply]
Sometimes I come up here to be alone.
You could too, you know.
Think about your script.
To get inspiration as an artist.
This view is so inspirational.
We could, uh…
We could come be alone together.
[engine rumbling]
I thought you said only three people have
the code to this road.
I said that I know of.
Could just be
Jack's gardener or picture hanger.
Who knows?
[hand brake creaks]
Terry?
Yeah?
Could you…
Take me home?
Homework.
[Ambient music playing]
Yeah.
[engine starts]
[Bret] After Terry dropped me off,
I knew automatically
that I would be heading
to Matt Kellner's house.
When I turned onto Haskell Avenue,
I was suddenly struck with a fear
I had never experienced before.
It was an adrenaline that acted
as a warning for me to save myself,
but also mixed with an overwhelming
compulsion to move forward…
No matter how I felt,
how afraid I was.
[Racy synth music playing]
[Suspenseful music plays]
This was the last place I had seen Matt.
I missed him.
I wanted him back.
I was on a mission to find clues
about his disappearance.
I found them.
[Music continues]
[sighs]
As I sat there in the soft moonlight,
I realized that, at 18,
I was already staring into my past.
I remember this being
one of my first moments
when I realized how powerful memory was.
Or at least it was
the first time it hurt the most.
[sniffles]
[crying]
[exhales]
[phone ringing]
- Hello.
- [static on phone]
[caller breathing heavily]
Where's Matt?
What have you done with him?
Where's Rhonda?
- Why are you doing this?
- [heavy breathing continues]
Robert.
Robert!
[dial tone]
[Ominous music plays]
[inhales sharply]
[sighs]
[exhaling, sniffling]
[crowd applauding, cheering]
Wow.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Most people who win this award
thank everybody that helped them
get to this moment.
Instead, I'd like to take this brief time
I have here in the white-hot spotlight…
To say what I really feel
about how I got here.
How I clawed my way up
that mountain of success
- alone.
- [applause resumes]
To my first modeling agent
who told me I had an ass like a pear
and would probably be
a Sears catalog model at best…
- Fuck you, bitch.
- [crowd cheers]
Look at me now. [Sniffles]
To my daughter who's watching tonight…
You are the disappointment of my life.
And to my husband…
To my husband…
Who regularly reminds me that
I am a worthless piece of shit…
[slow clapping]
Lizzie.
Are you still holding on to
that actress thing?
How deeply sad.
You go ahead and make fun of me, Terry.
I'm fucking used to it, you know.
But I know I could have been
more than this,
more than just your stupid wife
rattling around this mausoleum
like a fucking ghost.
Sue told me I have an "it" factor.
Sue Mengers told you that
at a dinner party
where she was stoned out of her mind.
Everybody feels sorry for you, Liz,
so they fill your addled mind
with positive reinforcement
that you don't deserve.
Haven't all the therapists I paid for
helped you understand that?
If you would have let me,
I could have pursued my dream
and been somebody,
instead of your fucking plus-one.
Sure, absolutely.
Keep practicing your speech, babe,
with one of my three Oscars.
But don't forget to thank
your coke dealer.
[Seething synth music plays]
- [exhales shakily]
- [music ends]
[Bret] I already knew
Robert Mallory was a liar.
He was the only one at lunch
who didn't show
a flicker of concern
about the missing kids.
Almost like he knew
they were already gone.
["Games Without Frontiers" playing]
Jeux sans frontières ♪
Jeux sans frontières ♪
Jeux sans frontières ♪
Jeux sans frontières ♪
Hans plays with Lotte
Lotte plays with Jane ♪
[Bret] I committed myself
to the pursuit of a single goal:
Track Robert and prove he was The Trawler.
Suki plays with Leo ♪
Sacha plays with Britt ♪
Adolf builds a bonfire
Enrico plays with it ♪
[whistling]
Whistling tunes
We hide in the dunes by the seaside ♪
[whistling]
Whistling tunes
We're kissing baboons in the jungle ♪
It's a knockout ♪
If looks could kill
They probably will ♪
In games without frontiers… ♪
[Bret] Cielo Drive.
This is where,
almost exactly 12 years ago,
three members of the Manson Family
stabbed and killed.
Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger,
Wojciech Frykowski,
Steven Parent,
and nine-months-pregnant Sharon Tate.
I was obsessed with Joan Didion's
account of the Manson murders.
I read it over and over again.
I retyped the sentences on my typewriter,
trying to understand their architecture.
Like all aspiring writers
of my generation,
I wanted to write like Didion.
With restraint,
economy,
and total control.
If I could write like that…
I could be like that.
Or so I thought.
It's a knockout ♪
If looks could kill
They probably will ♪
In games without frontiers
War without tears ♪
[song ends]
[Bret] I didn't know
what he was doing there.
I only knew what I was doing there:
"Telling myself a story in order to live."
Part of me just wanted to knock
on the door or force my way in.
What if Matt was in there right now?
Or Really Rhonda?
Who knew what sort of
hideous agony he was inflicting?
Were they lying there bloody and beaten,
mangled and mutilated,
screaming out for someone, anyone,
to come to the rescue?
[exhales]
Being afraid is so lame,
I kept telling myself.
Being afraid is so lame
and you're not a pussy.
Eventually I would find out
that this remote mysterious house
was a rental property
of Robert Mallory's aunt.
Later, when the police interviewed me,
I told them the truth about
what I suspected was in the bag.
A human head.
[Dark synth music plays]
- [car door closes]
- [engine starts, revving]
[lock rattles]
[Music intensifies]
["Edge of Seventeen" plays]
Hello.
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
Just like the white-winged dove
Sings a song… ♪
Hello?
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
- He was no more ♪
- He was no more ♪
Than a baby then ♪
Well, he seemed brokenhearted ♪
Somethin' within him ♪
But the moment that I first laid ♪
Eyes on him ♪
All alone on the edge of seventeen ♪
[Bret] Being afraid is so lame.
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
[Bret] Don't be lame.
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Said, "Ooh, baby, ooh," said, "Ooh" ♪
Well, I went today ♪
[clatters]
Maybe I will go again tomorrow ♪
Yeah, yeah ♪
Hello?
Well, the music there
Well, it was hauntingly familiar ♪
When I see you doin'
What I try to do for me ♪
With the words of a poet ♪
And a voice from a choir ♪
And a melody ♪
And nothin' else mattered ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Said, "Ooh, baby, ooh," said, "Ooh" ♪
[metal clanks]
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
[muffled groaning]
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Well, then suddenly ♪
There was no one left
Standin' in the hall ♪
[muffled groaning]
Yeah, yeah, in a flood of tears ♪
That no one really ever heard fall
At all… ♪
[muffled groaning continues]
Up the stairs and down the hall
And not to find an answer ♪
Just to hear the call of a night bird ♪
[muffled groaning continues]
- Singin', "Come away" ♪
- Come away ♪
Please, please, please,
just please let me go home.
Please let me go home.
Motherfucker, cock, shit, cunt licker.
Fuck. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry.
Fuck. [Groans]
Please, please, please. [Whimpers]
[whimpers] No, no, no!
[screaming] Get the fuck off of me!
[screaming]
- Well, I hear you in the morning ♪
- Well, I hear you in the morning ♪
And I hear you ♪
My love ♪
[muffled groaning continues]
I'm a few years older than you… ♪
[groans]
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
[song fades out]
[Eerie music plays]
[rumbling]
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
And the days go by
Like a strand in the wind ♪
In the web that is my own
I begin again ♪
- Said to my friend, "Baby" ♪
- Everything stops ♪
Nothin' else mattered ♪
- He was no more ♪
- He was no more ♪
Than a baby then ♪
Well, he seemed brokenhearted ♪
Somethin' within him ♪
But the moment that I first laid ♪
Eyes on him ♪
All alone on the edge of ♪
Seventeen ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Well, I went today
Maybe I will go again tomorrow ♪
When I see you doin'
What I try to do for me ♪
With the words of a poet ♪
And a voice from a choir ♪
And a melody ♪
And nothin' else mattered ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh ♪
[Bret] What do you do when your friends
think you're the boy who cried wolf?
Matt Kellner had gone missing in the dead
of night sometime in September of 1981.
[breathing shakily]
[Bret] But oddly, no one in my social
circle was that concerned about it.
Looking back,
I realize that's the gift of youth.
You think you'll live forever.
I bet Matt moved to Big Sur to deal drugs,
get out of the LA rat race.
[Robert] I agree.
I mean, who wouldn't?
I hear the Esalen Institute's amazing.
What?
That's lunacy. What about
the blood-stained backpack they found?
[sighs] Hon, I love you, but why are you
so drawn to worst-case scenarios?
You didn't even know him.
Don't mourn a death
that hasn't officially happened.
- Can we talk about happier things?
- Please. I need a cig.
[Susan chuckles]
[Bret] But then came October 1st,
the so-called first day of spooky season.
October 1st was officially
The Day the Fun Died.
Because that's the day
The Trawler got Really Rhonda.
[Dark synth music plays]
[all laughing]
Really Rhonda was in our class,
and everyone loved her.
Everyone thought she was hilarious.
Her father was a big ICM agent
who represented Sally Kellerman.
He paid the school
a handsome fee every year
to assure that Rhonda would be assimilated
and not locked away in the dungeon
that was a special needs class.
If X and B are both positive real numbers…
[Bret] Today we would understand
that Rhonda suffered
from a neurological condition,
but back then we just thought
she was darkly and convulsively
[giggles]
…Impulsive.
- [students laugh]
- Rhonda, please stop it.
I wanna fuck Chewbacca, motherfucker.
- [Bret] And a real truth teller.
- [students laugh]
- [Flanigan] Rhonda, do you want detention?
- Um…
George Washington sucks cocks
in hell, motherfucker!
Suck it, lick it, fucking ass-face! Fuck.
- [students laugh]
- Really, Rhonda? Really?
[Bret] And from that moment on,
that's what we all called her.
Really Rhonda.
[Ambient music playing]
I always felt an affection for Rhonda.
Because during one of her outbursts,
she could have easily told the truth
about me,
called me a fag or a gay face,
but she was kind to me.
I felt she purposely edited out
my secret truth.
Protected me somehow from
the pubescent cruelty of the other kids.
My favorite thing about Rhonda
was that she would not get off the
disco roller trend long after it was over.
She just didn't care
what people thought about her.
Can you imagine the gift of that?
Really Rhonda is such a good skater.
She's even better than Cher.
[Bret] Disco roller skating
is important to this tale,
because that's what she was doing
when she was taken.
["Don't Stand So Close to Me" plays]
There was only one disco roller
derby place left in town in 1981.
And Rhonda was the only patron
at Wheels that night of October 1st.
The Trawler knew that,
the loneliness of the place.
And on that night, he snatched
Really Rhonda from her happy place.
Young teacher ♪
And out of all of our lives.
The subject of schoolgirl fantasy ♪
She wants him so badly ♪
Knows what she wants to be ♪
Inside her, there's longing ♪
This girl's an open page ♪
Bookmarking, she's so close now ♪
This girl is half his age ♪
Don't stand, don't stand so ♪
Don't stand so close to me ♪
Don't stand, don't stand so ♪
Don't stand so close to me ♪
Her friends are so jealous ♪
You know how bad girls get ♪
Sometimes it's not so easy ♪
To be the teacher's pet ♪
Temptation… ♪
[Bret] When Rhonda missed her curfew…
So bad it makes him cry ♪
…her parents reported her missing.
[siren blares]
[police chattering]
[Bret] The police immediately checked out
the scene at Wheels.
- [officer] I'll check around back.
- [officer 2] Got it.
[Bret]
And that's when they found bloodstains.
[officer] Over here.
[Bret] Telltale clues
of a violent struggle.
I went to the scene of the crime
the next day,
oddly, instinctively.
The place Rhonda had joyously twirled
the night before was deserted.
The rotating disco ball, once a symbol
of joy, seemed sad to me, mournful.
Slowly twirling like a flag at half-mast
to announce all the ends of things
that 1981 had taken from us.
Matt.
Roller disco.
Really Rhonda.
And our sense of security.
[Sinister music plays]
[Rhonda whimpering] Please, please.
Please, please, help me.
[whimpers]
[breathing shakily]
[gasps]
[whimpering]
[The Trawler] Eat it.
[screaming]
[laughter]
[Bret] It took about three days
for everything to go back to normal,
and for everyone to forget about Matt
and Rhonda.
[no audible dialogue]
[Debbie] Oh, my God.
I love it when we skip lunch on the quad
and kick it at the Hamlet.
[Debbie] Yeah, me too.
Anyone want half my lunch?
- [Robert] Ooh.
- [chuckles] Oh.
Okay. [Giggles]
Okay, listen up.
Don't forget to take
your Flintstones vitamins this month
Or your diet pills.
Saturday is Robert's,
and next Thursday is Dance Off!
And no one is allowed to be hungover
because on Sunday,
we all need to practice.
Seriously?
That Dance Off! thing is really happening?
Oh, my God. I thought you were joking.
Does it look like I'm joking, Bret?
- ["Rapture" plays]
- [dancers cheering]
[Bret] Dance Off! Was
a daily televised cable access show
that featured regular teenagers dancing
to the hot hits of the day.
Teenagers like us.
A Los Angeles institution,
it had its heyday in 1974
and refused to die.
Toe to toe
Dancing very close ♪
[Bret] Debbie had been obsessed
with the idea
ever since Corazon Cha Cha Rodriguez had
gone on and held the camera's attention
for the length of an entire Blondie song.
And not just any Blondie song.
"Rapture," six minutes and 31 seconds.
Debbie saw that hot lava fame
and she wanted it for herself.
Becoming a star was her secret ambition,
but she was too cool to ever admit it.
Stepping lightly ♪
Hang each night in rapture ♪
I gotta say, I hate that show.
Okay, well, it's a rite of passage classic
in this town, and it's happening.
Guys, don't you think it's kind of
a bad look to be partying on TV
- with classmates missing?
- [sighing] Okay.
Well, it's what I want.
It's done, and you're all coming.
You're welcome. [Sighs]
Okay, so that's it then?
We just don't care anymore
about Rhonda or Matt?
Look, Bret, I'm not trying to speak
for the group here,
but I'm gonna speak for the group.
- Rhonda and Matt what's-his-face
- [Susan, Bret] Kellner.
They're missing.
They haven't been declared dead.
Maybe they ran away.
Oh, Bret, before I forget,
do you want to go shopping with me
after school for homecoming?
- Tuxedo Warehouse?
- [Robert] Tuxedo Warehouse?
- Is it too, uh…
- [Robert] You guys have that on the coast?
…I don't know, GQ?
I think maybe not GQ enough.
[Susan groans]
Homecoming. I don't even want to go.
What do you mean you don't wanna go?
W-Why do you keep saying that repeatedly?
You have to go.
You and Thom are totally gonna win
homecoming king and queen.
Aren't we a little old for homecoming?
[Robert] I would agree with that.
Homecoming feels like a word
that's, you know,
partial to overweight Midwesterners
who make floats out of
toilet paper scraps and suffer from gout.
[Debbie, Susan chuckle]
It's not like I even have an outfit.
You know what you would look great in?
A simple black slip dress,
something fresh, modern.
- [Susan] Hmm.
- [Robert] No jewelry.
Just décolletage.
Décolletage?
Maybe we should cancel the party too,
you know.
It's Robert's big welcome party, Bret.
It's my big welcome party, Bret.
It's gonna be
like Capote's Black and White Ball.
I'm so excited, thrilled.
Et cetera.
Bret's right.
We should do something.
Maybe we should post flyers.
That's a great idea.
Do something proactive.
Why don't me and you
do it together, Susan?
[Distorted eerie music plays]
Waitress, some more fries, please.
We're asking anyone with information
about Rhonda to please come forward.
You won't be in trouble.
The only way we're gonna find these kids
is if we look.
Or if they show up.
Right.
All of us have been haunted
by the story of Etan Patz,
six-year-old boy who disappeared
outside his home in SoHo, New York.
Was he kidnapped?
Was he murdered?
We don't know.
What we do know
is that because his picture appeared
on every milk carton in America,
his face is burned into the minds of the
people who are going to bring him home.
That is why we are handing out bottles
of Really Rhonda water
to increase awareness
- And hydration.
- [chuckles softly]
If you can't find a Perrier,
reach for a Really Rhonda bottled water.
Thanks again to Rhonda's dad
and all the heroes at ICM
for sponsoring our flyer, hydration,
and the Rescue Rhonda Fund.
Bravo, ICM.
Now, AV club, hit it.
["Help Me, Rhonda" playing]
Zero mention of Matt.
- Unbelievable.
- I'm sure they'll get to him.
I think the line of awareness products
for Matt Kellner could be historic.
"Bring Matt Home" pencils.
"Where Is Matt?" terry cloth come rags.
It's not funny, Thom.
I know,
but my dad used to tell me
to look on the sunny side,
and that's what I'm trying to do for you.
It wouldn't take much time ♪
For you to help me, Rhonda
Help me get her out of my heart ♪
[sniffs] What are you wearing?
Kouros.
[giggles] It smells so sexy.
Thanks.
It's for men.
[chuckles] Yeah, you can really tell.
- [Susan] Hi. For Rhonda. Rescue Rhonda.
- [Robert] Help Rhonda.
- Let's bring her home.
- [Debbie] If she wanted to,
she could be such a slut.
There's nothing stopping her.
I've always admired that.
You're a really good friend.
I am.
She was gonna be my wife
And I was gonna be her man ♪
But she let another guy
Come between us ♪
And it ruined our plan ♪
It's sparkling, like Rhonda.
You are really gunning for homecoming.
That's not what this is.
God, Thom, it's the '80s.
Don't be so cynical.
[Susan, Thom giggling]
Help me, Rhonda
Help, help me, Rhonda ♪
[piano playing]
[sniffs]
So tell me what your script is about.
Oh, I dropped the treatment off
with Steven. Did he not
Oh, yeah, I received it. I read it.
Steven loves it, by the way.
[smacks lips]
I just don't know what it's about.
I-I mean, why this story? Why now?
Well, the character is me.
A version of me anyway.
- His name is Bret Ellis.
- Hmm.
Well, that makes it interesting to you.
That doesn't make it interesting
to others.
Listen, every great movie ever made
is about loss.
The loss of love, friendship, innocence,
ideals, personal injury lawsuit.
So what has Bret Ellis lost?
Like, um…
My virginity?
Speak on that.
[car engine revs]
Where are we going?
Secret street.
Connects Beverly Hills to the Valley.
- I thought that was just an urban legend.
- No, not an urban legend, a suburban fact.
And only three people that I know of
have the combination to the gates.
- Beatty.
- [engine revs]
Nicholson.
And me.
[tires squeal]
[engine rumbles]
[Intriguing synth music plays]
[exhales]
8-1-7-0-6-6-6.
[Music continues]
[Music fades, ends]
[engine stops]
[breathes deeply]
Sometimes I come up here to be alone.
You could too, you know.
Think about your script.
To get inspiration as an artist.
This view is so inspirational.
We could, uh…
We could come be alone together.
[engine rumbling]
I thought you said only three people have
the code to this road.
I said that I know of.
Could just be
Jack's gardener or picture hanger.
Who knows?
[hand brake creaks]
Terry?
Yeah?
Could you…
Take me home?
Homework.
[Ambient music playing]
Yeah.
[engine starts]
[Bret] After Terry dropped me off,
I knew automatically
that I would be heading
to Matt Kellner's house.
When I turned onto Haskell Avenue,
I was suddenly struck with a fear
I had never experienced before.
It was an adrenaline that acted
as a warning for me to save myself,
but also mixed with an overwhelming
compulsion to move forward…
No matter how I felt,
how afraid I was.
[Racy synth music playing]
[Suspenseful music plays]
This was the last place I had seen Matt.
I missed him.
I wanted him back.
I was on a mission to find clues
about his disappearance.
I found them.
[Music continues]
[sighs]
As I sat there in the soft moonlight,
I realized that, at 18,
I was already staring into my past.
I remember this being
one of my first moments
when I realized how powerful memory was.
Or at least it was
the first time it hurt the most.
[sniffles]
[crying]
[exhales]
[phone ringing]
- Hello.
- [static on phone]
[caller breathing heavily]
Where's Matt?
What have you done with him?
Where's Rhonda?
- Why are you doing this?
- [heavy breathing continues]
Robert.
Robert!
[dial tone]
[Ominous music plays]
[inhales sharply]
[sighs]
[exhaling, sniffling]
[crowd applauding, cheering]
Wow.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Most people who win this award
thank everybody that helped them
get to this moment.
Instead, I'd like to take this brief time
I have here in the white-hot spotlight…
To say what I really feel
about how I got here.
How I clawed my way up
that mountain of success
- alone.
- [applause resumes]
To my first modeling agent
who told me I had an ass like a pear
and would probably be
a Sears catalog model at best…
- Fuck you, bitch.
- [crowd cheers]
Look at me now. [Sniffles]
To my daughter who's watching tonight…
You are the disappointment of my life.
And to my husband…
To my husband…
Who regularly reminds me that
I am a worthless piece of shit…
[slow clapping]
Lizzie.
Are you still holding on to
that actress thing?
How deeply sad.
You go ahead and make fun of me, Terry.
I'm fucking used to it, you know.
But I know I could have been
more than this,
more than just your stupid wife
rattling around this mausoleum
like a fucking ghost.
Sue told me I have an "it" factor.
Sue Mengers told you that
at a dinner party
where she was stoned out of her mind.
Everybody feels sorry for you, Liz,
so they fill your addled mind
with positive reinforcement
that you don't deserve.
Haven't all the therapists I paid for
helped you understand that?
If you would have let me,
I could have pursued my dream
and been somebody,
instead of your fucking plus-one.
Sure, absolutely.
Keep practicing your speech, babe,
with one of my three Oscars.
But don't forget to thank
your coke dealer.
[Seething synth music plays]
- [exhales shakily]
- [music ends]
[Bret] I already knew
Robert Mallory was a liar.
He was the only one at lunch
who didn't show
a flicker of concern
about the missing kids.
Almost like he knew
they were already gone.
["Games Without Frontiers" playing]
Jeux sans frontières ♪
Jeux sans frontières ♪
Jeux sans frontières ♪
Jeux sans frontières ♪
Hans plays with Lotte
Lotte plays with Jane ♪
[Bret] I committed myself
to the pursuit of a single goal:
Track Robert and prove he was The Trawler.
Suki plays with Leo ♪
Sacha plays with Britt ♪
Adolf builds a bonfire
Enrico plays with it ♪
[whistling]
Whistling tunes
We hide in the dunes by the seaside ♪
[whistling]
Whistling tunes
We're kissing baboons in the jungle ♪
It's a knockout ♪
If looks could kill
They probably will ♪
In games without frontiers… ♪
[Bret] Cielo Drive.
This is where,
almost exactly 12 years ago,
three members of the Manson Family
stabbed and killed.
Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger,
Wojciech Frykowski,
Steven Parent,
and nine-months-pregnant Sharon Tate.
I was obsessed with Joan Didion's
account of the Manson murders.
I read it over and over again.
I retyped the sentences on my typewriter,
trying to understand their architecture.
Like all aspiring writers
of my generation,
I wanted to write like Didion.
With restraint,
economy,
and total control.
If I could write like that…
I could be like that.
Or so I thought.
It's a knockout ♪
If looks could kill
They probably will ♪
In games without frontiers
War without tears ♪
[song ends]
[Bret] I didn't know
what he was doing there.
I only knew what I was doing there:
"Telling myself a story in order to live."
Part of me just wanted to knock
on the door or force my way in.
What if Matt was in there right now?
Or Really Rhonda?
Who knew what sort of
hideous agony he was inflicting?
Were they lying there bloody and beaten,
mangled and mutilated,
screaming out for someone, anyone,
to come to the rescue?
[exhales]
Being afraid is so lame,
I kept telling myself.
Being afraid is so lame
and you're not a pussy.
Eventually I would find out
that this remote mysterious house
was a rental property
of Robert Mallory's aunt.
Later, when the police interviewed me,
I told them the truth about
what I suspected was in the bag.
A human head.
[Dark synth music plays]
- [car door closes]
- [engine starts, revving]
[lock rattles]
[Music intensifies]
["Edge of Seventeen" plays]
Hello.
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
Just like the white-winged dove
Sings a song… ♪
Hello?
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
- He was no more ♪
- He was no more ♪
Than a baby then ♪
Well, he seemed brokenhearted ♪
Somethin' within him ♪
But the moment that I first laid ♪
Eyes on him ♪
All alone on the edge of seventeen ♪
[Bret] Being afraid is so lame.
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
[Bret] Don't be lame.
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Said, "Ooh, baby, ooh," said, "Ooh" ♪
Well, I went today ♪
[clatters]
Maybe I will go again tomorrow ♪
Yeah, yeah ♪
Hello?
Well, the music there
Well, it was hauntingly familiar ♪
When I see you doin'
What I try to do for me ♪
With the words of a poet ♪
And a voice from a choir ♪
And a melody ♪
And nothin' else mattered ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Said, "Ooh, baby, ooh," said, "Ooh" ♪
[metal clanks]
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
[muffled groaning]
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Well, then suddenly ♪
There was no one left
Standin' in the hall ♪
[muffled groaning]
Yeah, yeah, in a flood of tears ♪
That no one really ever heard fall
At all… ♪
[muffled groaning continues]
Up the stairs and down the hall
And not to find an answer ♪
Just to hear the call of a night bird ♪
[muffled groaning continues]
- Singin', "Come away" ♪
- Come away ♪
Please, please, please,
just please let me go home.
Please let me go home.
Motherfucker, cock, shit, cunt licker.
Fuck. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry.
Fuck. [Groans]
Please, please, please. [Whimpers]
[whimpers] No, no, no!
[screaming] Get the fuck off of me!
[screaming]
- Well, I hear you in the morning ♪
- Well, I hear you in the morning ♪
And I hear you ♪
My love ♪
[muffled groaning continues]
I'm a few years older than you… ♪
[groans]
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
[song fades out]
[Eerie music plays]
[rumbling]
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
And the days go by
Like a strand in the wind ♪
In the web that is my own
I begin again ♪
- Said to my friend, "Baby" ♪
- Everything stops ♪
Nothin' else mattered ♪
- He was no more ♪
- He was no more ♪
Than a baby then ♪
Well, he seemed brokenhearted ♪
Somethin' within him ♪
But the moment that I first laid ♪
Eyes on him ♪
All alone on the edge of ♪
Seventeen ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh, said, "Ooh" ♪
Well, I went today
Maybe I will go again tomorrow ♪
When I see you doin'
What I try to do for me ♪
With the words of a poet ♪
And a voice from a choir ♪
And a melody ♪
And nothin' else mattered ♪
Just like the white-winged dove ♪
Sings a song
It sounds like she's singin' ♪
Ooh, baby, ooh ♪