Bull (2016) s04e02 Episode Script
Fantastica Voyage
1 MAN: Ladies and gentlemen, Whitney Holland.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING.]
I grew up on a farm.
Couple hundred acres.
Every day, my dad would go out to the field.
Bale hay, feed slop to the pigs, shovel cow dung.
[INHALES.]
I can still smell that cow dung.
[AUDIENCE CHUCKLES.]
And then the summer before my ninth birthday, there was this amazing heat wave, and with it, this unrelenting drought.
The kind of drought that just seems to go on forever.
And I remember my dad doing everything he could to save the crops, save the animals, but the crops dried up.
Animals started to die.
And then, one late August morning, my father dropped dead in a cornfield.
[AUDIENCE MURMURING.]
Dehydration and heart failure.
He was 32 years old.
By the way, I'm not talking about India or Africa.
I'm talking 150 miles up the New York State Thruway.
Less than three hours from this vast body of water.
Makes no sense.
In a world with so much water, why are so many people without? - This - [AUDIENCE GASPING.]
is the Freshwater Honeycomb.
It's a passive, nonelectrical desalination tool.
It acts like a chemical magnet, separating salt from water on a molecular level.
It's inexpensive and doesn't rely on any exhaustible energy sources.
Imagine this, ladies and gentlemen, happening on a global scale.
An endless supply of water provided by the world's five oceans, hundreds of rivers, and thousands of lakes, and purified by the Freshwater Honeycomb.
My tech team tells me we're only 90 days away.
[AUDIENCE MURMURING.]
Ah.
So who wants in? [CLAMORING.]
[KNOCKING ON DOOR.]
Come on in.
[TAPS KEYBOARD.]
I hear you told them 90 days.
To scale up to what? 25 million gallons a day? That would be a good start.
You know that's not gonna happen.
Not in 90 days, maybe not in 90 years.
No, I don't know that's not going to happen, and you don't either.
Whitney, not every problem can be solved simply by adding enthusiasm.
Okay, Derek, it's 10:00 at night.
What do you need? Some new piece of software? What-what new gizmo do you need? What-what new biochemist do you want me to try to steal from It's none of that.
Whitney, I'm done.
I'm just done.
You keep taking people's money, promising them the moon, and I'm supposed to be your Neil Armstrong and give it to them, and I'm telling you I can't.
What? Derek, we've been here before.
You're just tired.
You're nowhere near done.
500 gallons is great for a demonstration, but we need to prove we can scale up the Freshwater Honeycomb to handle whole municipalities, city water systems, state water I've been trying to tell you for a month.
It can't.
You know it.
We both know it.
And tomorrow the D.
A.
is gonna know it.
[CLICKS TONGUE.]
Psst.
How did he score vacation time? He didn't, not that I'm aware of.
[KNOCKING ON DOOR.]
Beautiful.
I'm still using the ones I got in college.
Funny you should say that.
They're for my daughter.
Your daughter? You guys are taking a trip together? She called me last night.
She won a scholarship, a journalism scholarship, to study abroad for six months in Jordan.
Jordan, ah, Middle East.
How do you feel about that? Thrilled, excited, proud of her.
[CHUCKLES.]
Scared for her.
The packet that they sent keeps talking about how safe it is, even though we know it's in a part of the world that, you know, is a little scary.
But if you want to be a journalist, a serious journalist, and she does - My God.
- [CHUCKLES.]
1,500 students applied, and they picked her.
I mean, you're looking at a guy who didn't leave Georgia until he was 18 years old.
It is obscene how proud I am.
[CHUCKLES.]
[KNOCKING.]
Yeah.
I'm guessing you've read the papers, seen the reports.
The federal government is taking me to court.
Criminal court.
Uh Charging me with two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, nine counts of wire fraud, some other, less consequential things that I can't remember right now, though all the charges do end with the word "fraud.
" You're on the front page.
WHITNEY: Oh, that's pithy.
So, why do you think the government is suddenly coming after you? My friend my head of R & D, he just became convinced we were chasing a ghost, that there was no way we could get to where we needed to go, so he went to the Feds.
MARISSA: But why do that? If he was unhappy, why not just quit? I think I became so good at raising money that he got spooked.
And when it was just a lark, when we had no money, no one to answer to, there was no pressure.
But when people heard what we were up to, they started throwing money at us.
I mean, it's been a wild couple of years.
But the more successful we got, the more Derek just froze.
I'm guessing he thought that if he could recast himself as the whistleblower rather than the co-conspirator, that he might be able to work again.
The government is claiming your water desalination technology is incapable of being applied to anything other than personal use application, but that in your pitches and demonstrations and investment prospectuses, you've been selling it as the answer to the global water shortage.
They say you're peddling a pipe dream.
Look, I'm not a nut.
I'm not a scam artist.
I'm not saying I've discovered something that can help you lose weight or make your hair grow back.
I'm not saying I can help women fill out their bikinis or men look more manly in their Speedos.
I'm saying I can help quench the thirst of the world.
I can help water crops in a desert.
The ramifications are huge.
I mean look, there are four things every human being on this planet needs: air to breathe, food to eat, a piece of land to stand on, and water.
You figure out the water part, everything else falls into place.
You can grow more food, you can plant more trees to help create more oxygen, and people can live anywhere, no matter the climate.
This is real.
This matters.
MARISSA: I get that the guy choked, but why sell her out to the government? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Well, it's all about the money.
As soon as he called the Feds, he stopped being a disgruntled employee and became classified as an SEC whistleblower.
And as an SEC whistleblower, if the government wins, he gets a percentage of whatever cash judgment the court levies.
[SCOFFS.]
The plot thickens.
You're not gonna represent her, are you? What's your issue, Benny? First of all, you promised me that I could have some say in the cases we take around here.
And second of all, we just sat with that woman for a half an hour, and she didn't say a single thing I can use to mount a defense.
Do you believe what she told you? Do you believe she was lying to you? I'm not sure that's relevant.
I think it's the only thing that is relevant.
If she believes what she's saying, what she's selling, then there is no criminal intent.
And if there is no criminal intent, then there is no crime.
But, Bull, how do we do that? How do we prove what someone does or doesn't believe? Especially if the thing that she believes in doesn't actually exist? Well, for what it's worth, I believe her.
You think she can change seawater into drinking water? You believe she can change the world? I believe she believes she can.
Of course you do.
Well, I don't.
Benny I told you that I would listen to you, and I have listened to you, and what you said mattered to me, but I'm taking the case.
So, how does this work? Well, today is about trying to select a jury that's at least open to hearing the arguments we're gonna make in court.
And how do we do that? Yes, Dr.
Bull, how do we do that? Well, the first thing we have to try and do is reframe what this trial is about.
The assistant United States attorney wants to make it about the things you promised versus the things you were actually able to accomplish before they pulled the plug on you.
BENNY: Well, that is what the trial is about.
Not if we have anything to do with it.
I want to use the jury selection process to put the idea in their head that what this is really about is something different entirely.
And that would be? Belief systems.
There are people who believed for the longest time that phones had to be black, with rotary dials, and be connected with wires that disappeared into the wall and ran from pole to pole along the side of the road.
And that that's what phones are and that's what phones will always be.
That cars could only run on gasoline, that movies could only be seen on giant screens in air-conditioned theaters, and that news could only be delivered via black newsprint on white paper.
Flying cars.
Anybody here think we'll ever see them? In our lifetime? [WHISPERS.]
: Maybe we got a live one.
Well, don't anybody get their hopes up.
David Murphy is a financial planner, considers himself fiscally conservative.
Doesn't seem like he'd fit the bill.
Well, you might be right.
You might be wrong.
Hard to know without getting a peek at his belief system.
So you're thinking, one of these days, you'll be hovering over Fifth Avenue in your brand-new convertible.
Something like that.
And please don't take this the wrong way, but you look like you've been around a while.
Like you've seen a thing or two.
Where does all of this fanciful optimism come from? It's not fanciful optimism at all.
It's more like once bitten, twice shy.
Ah.
How do you mean? Well, 20 years ago or so, a man came to me for some investment capital.
He wanted to put it in a new company he was starting.
Said he was gonna sell books over the Internet.
I absolutely did not understand.
I asked him, "How are the books going to come out of the computer? "Are they, are they gonna ooze out of the slot for the f-floppy disk?" I-I basically threw him out of my office.
Do you know how rich I'd be if I had just been a better listener? Can we clone this guy? BENNY: Your Honor, this juror is acceptable to the defense.
What about you? What about me? I read you dropped out of college.
I did.
I had this idea for the Freshwater Honeycomb and I didn't want to wait four years to get going on it.
Well, the prosecution is gonna try and use your lack of formal education as proof that you don't really know what you're talking about.
And then they're gonna bring in a bunch of experts, like your ex-employee Derek Goodman, that have all kinds of degrees and doctorates and associations with institutions of higher learning, and they are going to testify that you are just plain wrong.
Sounds delightful.
That's why I want to use voir dire to undermine that assertion.
I'm sorry.
You lost me.
What assertion? That there is a correlation between the amount of education one receives and one's ability to innovate.
To see beyond what is there and imagine a thing that's not there yet.
And I want to put that idea out there before the trial even starts.
How many people think there's a relationship between the amount of time one spends getting a college education and their ability to change the world? So, Henry Ford.
The founder of the Ford Motor Company and one of the earliest proponents of the assembly line, which ushered in the age of mass production.
Lots of college? I don't know.
Did they even have college back then? I assure you they did.
Well, then, yeah.
I would suppose so.
Actually, he never went.
Not a single day.
How about Coco Chanel? Here is a woman who not only revolutionized fashion in her day, but really sort of created the concept of branding, the idea of putting her name on a variety of products.
Did she go to college? [CHUCKLES.]
Why are you picking on me? I-I don't know.
All-all these people are from a long time ago.
[CHUCKLES.]
True, true, true.
A-And by the way, she never went to college.
She grew up in an orphanage where she learned how to sew, and that was pretty much the extent of her formal education.
All right, so, let me give you some contemporary names.
Steve Jobs.
You ever heard of him? The computer guy? Yeah, sure.
He probably went to a bunch of colleges.
Nope.
Went to one, never graduated.
So my question to you is simple.
Do you think, just because someone has a bunch of degrees, that that makes them an expert? Or that, uh, sometimes, maybe when someone doesn't have the best education, they have something else? A vision of the future maybe? And that they may have something unique and wonderful to offer mankind? Yeah.
I think there are people like that, definitely.
You feel like summertime - Excuse me.
- [QUIETLY.]
: Sorry, excuse me.
Thanks.
You took this heart of mine You'll be my valentine In the summer In the summer You are my only one [LINE RINGING.]
Just dancin', havin' fun Hi.
This is Anna.
Leave me a message and I'll call you right back.
[PHONE BEEPS.]
Hey, little girl.
It's your dad.
Uh, I'm standing in front of your dorm room door.
Uh, kind of thought we had agreed to get together and celebrate some of your good news, but, uh Anyway, I-I brought you a gift.
But it looks like you're not here.
Could you give me a call back and let me know if we're still good for tonight? Or just that you're okay? It's 7:15.
I can stand here for another couple minutes if you want to call me back.
[SIGHS.]
Love you.
Do love me, do love me, do, do love me, do love me, do [PHONE BUZZING.]
Do love me, do love me, do Do love me, do love me, do - I need you - - Do love me, do love me, do - Do love me, do love me, do - Hoo! - Is it summertime magic That makes me want to dance all night long? It's your summertime magic.
We started testing our Freshwater Honeycomb about seven months ago, trying to replicate how it would be used in a municipal setting.
The pressure with which the water hits the filter is controlled by a combination of volume, speed, and pipe diameter.
Using a pipe 60 inches wide, we noted that at 477 gallons per second, the filter did its job.
The problem started to manifest when we tried to push through more than 477 gallons per second.
The filter itself starts to disintegrate.
The cellulose material and the filament that holds it together would start to appear in the supposedly clean water as microparticles.
Invisible to the naked eye but in the water nonetheless.
Effectively, the filter was no longer cleaning the water but actually polluting it, making it dangerous to drink.
Once those materials hit the human stomach, they could very well tear it apart.
Ah.
And as director of research, who did you share these findings with? Um, the defendant.
CRUZ: So you don't believe anything you said had any impact on her? DEREK: Well, just the fact that she was continuing to court investors.
Telling them that we were 90 days away when I was plainly telling her that what she was promising was not possible on any timetable.
CRUZ: Thank you.
Nothing further.
MARISSA: I'm guessing you already know what I'm about to tell you.
I could read this jury on a moonless night with a blindfold on.
Good morning, Mr.
Goodman.
- Doctor.
- Ah.
Doctor.
My apologies.
And you are a doctor in what? Well, I have a doctorate in civil engineering as well as a second doctorate in arid lands resource sciences.
Wow.
That is impressive.
Sounds like you know a lot about desalination.
Well, I do pride myself on being something of an expert in my field.
Terrific.
So it's reasonable to assume that you know everything there is to know about, uh, seawater - and desalination and - Well, I don't think anyone knows everything about anything.
Great point.
So, when you say no one could scale up the Freshwater Honeycomb for use in municipal water purification application, what you're really trying to say is, "I," meaning you, "couldn't scale up "the Freshwater Honeycomb for use in municipal water purification applications.
" Isn't that correct? Objection.
Asked and answered.
- BENNY: Your Honor.
- Badgering the witness.
- Your Honor - JUDGE: Save your breath, Mr.
Colón.
The question has not been asked and answered.
And the counselor is not badgering the witness.
Objection overruled.
Ask your question again.
Isn't it true, Dr.
Goodman, that all you can say with any certainty is that you couldn't do it? You couldn't scale it up? - [GALLERY MURMURING.]
- BULL: Ooh.
What is that I'm feeling? Could it be attitudes shifting? - Yes.
- I mean, for all you know, there could be some kid sitting in his or her garage right now with just the fix for this thing.
- [SCOFFS.]
- I doubt it.
I didn't ask you if you doubted it.
I had asked if what I am saying right now is possible.
If a solution is possible.
I suppose anything is possible.
Exactly.
Anything is possible.
Sir, how much do you stand to make if the government wins this case? Isn't it true that if the government prevails in this case, as a whistleblower, you stand to profit? Actually make some real money? I'm sorry.
[CHUCKLES.]
Let me put it another way.
Isn't it true that you stood to make considerably more by not finishing your work and leaving the company and turning state's evidence than if you'd stayed and done the job you'd originally been hired to do? I mean, we're talking millions, right? CRUZ: Objection.
Relevance? No, that's all right, Your Honor.
I withdraw the question.
I think the jury could connect the dots.
Nothing further.
[SIGHS.]
What's going on over there? Looks like you're having a troublesome bowel movement.
[CHUCKLES.]
You did great, Benny.
We got 'em on the run.
I think you're mistaking a momentary change of fortune for a real victory.
That was, that was everything.
That's our whole defense.
I've got nothing else to fight with.
Don't be ridiculous.
Tomorrow we present our case.
We put Whitney on the stand.
Did you see those YouTube videos I sent you? Girl could sell sawdust to a lumber mill.
[CHUCKLES.]
She's just trying to finance her dream, and that is not a crime.
But, Bull, the law does not differentiate between a run-of-the-mill lie and a lie for a worthwhile dream.
To the law, it's all a lie.
It's all a fraud.
Come on, Bull, you saw that film.
The most current version of this thing disintegrates before water starts flowing at anything approaching the required speed.
There's no way she didn't know she was lying, and that's fraud.
MARISSA: So, everybody, we've all been working very hard trying to pull this together for you and Benny and the client.
Uh, why don't we let Taylor start? Thanks.
Uh, some little bumps in the road we need to discuss.
So glad you're going first.
Whitney didn't, in fact, drop out early to pursue her Freshwater Honeycomb dreams like she told us, like she told every reporter who's ever done a story about her.
She had to leave.
- They made her leave.
- Because? Because she was in arrears.
She had a habit of writing tuition and housing checks that bounced.
The school would give her second and third chances to make good on her bills, offered her campus jobs to make money, but she'd no sooner pay off one bad debt and then write another worthless check.
Finally, they had enough.
I'm sorry, Bull.
You think the prosecution knows? Who cares? I think you guys are making a mountain out of a molehill.
Well, I don't agree.
It's not a molehill.
Writing bad checks, that's fraud.
That's the exact crime she's being accused of right now.
You're forgetting her father had died.
They'd lost the family farm.
Of course money was an issue.
Did she pay the college back? Did everybody get everything they were owed? Yes.
Eventually.
Probably with the salary she paid herself after the investors came on board.
I'm confused.
Are we trying to prove her guilt or prove her innocence? Hit me with a real problem.
Guess that's my cue.
Uh, so I went upstate to see her mother today, with no help from Whitney, I might add.
What does that mean? Well, I asked her for her mother's info the day she came in here, and she never sent it.
Finally had to figure it out on my own.
And? And she wouldn't talk to me.
The neighbors seem to think Whitney might be paying the bills.
She got a new car, had the house painted last spring.
Where are you going with this? Again, I'm talking to the neighbors, and according to them, Whitney's family never owned a farm.
And her father worked on a farm, but he didn't die of dehydration.
His blue jeans got caught in a combine machine.
It pulled him in and chewed him up before anyone could, uh, shut it off.
What time are we due in court tomorrow? We reconvene after lunch.
1:00.
Okay.
Reach out to Whitney.
Tell her I want to meet her here tomorrow morning, 10:00 a.
m.
Okay.
And somebody find a polygraph examiner.
I want to do a little work with Whitney.
You want to examine her with a lie detector? You do know that those tests are not admissible in court.
It's not for court.
It's for me.
Was it something I said? It's just a technique we use to prepare clients to testify.
See which questions make you anxious.
Identify any possible triggers.
Okay.
Sort of surprised Dr.
Bull isn't here.
Well, he will be reviewing the results before we go into court this afternoon.
I'm sure he'll have a conversation with you about it before you testify.
I'm amazed she agreed to do this.
She's got to know we're onto her.
Well, it's a good sign.
It means she thinks she has nothing to hide.
All right, let's get this show on the road.
EXAMINER [OVER EARBUD.]
: Good morning.
Is your name Whitney Holland? Yes.
Are you 26 years old? Yes.
Ask her if she grew up on a farm.
Did you grow up on a farm? I grew up near a farm.
EXAMINER: I need you to answer yes or no.
WHITNEY: No.
I did not grow up on a farm.
Ask her if her father died of a heart attack.
Did your father die of a heart attack? No.
- In a field? - EXAMINER: In a field? During a heat wave? - During a heat wave? - Of dehydration and sunstroke? Of dehydration and sunstroke? Trying to save his crops and animals? Trying to save his crops and animals? No, he did not.
He died in an accident involving some farm machinery.
Well, there goes your defense.
If she knew she was lying when she told people those things, then there's criminal intent.
Game over.
Ask her if the Freshwater Honeycomb will ever actually be able to purify enough water for a small municipality.
Absolutely.
- A large city? - EXAMINER: A large city? Without a doubt.
Are you 90 days away from being able to prove that? EXAMINER: And are you 90 days away from being able to prove that? I don't know.
Possibly.
If the government will let me continue my work.
[CHUCKLES.]
What are you smiling about? - [PHONE BEEPS.]
- [LINE RINGING.]
Hi, this is Anna.
Leave me a message and I'll call you right back.
[BEEPS.]
Hi, Anna.
It's Dad again.
Listen, I-I know you said that you needed a couple of days, but, um, well, see, I'm trying to help out with this travel stuff.
You know, passports, doctor visits, but I feel a little funny setting them up and I haven't talked to you.
Call me back, please? Thanks.
Love you.
- [PHONE BEEPS.]
- [SIGHS.]
[EXHALES.]
Kids.
Where do they come from? Tell me about it.
Were you ever 19? Nope.
Went straight from old enough to vote to bitter divorcée.
Whatever it is, it's gonna be fine.
I know.
Intellectually, I know that, but it's just that I-I wasn't there to be her parent for so long, and now I'm here and I'm ready and I'm proud, but she's getting older, and so, for whatever reason, she's not wanting a parent right now, and it makes me crazy.
This, too, will pass.
[FOOTFALLS APPROACHING.]
You look like the cat who ate the canary and then decided what he really wanted was fish.
I can't make up my mind about you.
Do you lie to hide the truth, or tell the truth to hide your lies? I always tell the truth, except when I'm selling myself.
Then I do my best to tell a good story.
People appreciate a good story when they're being sold something.
A product, a person, an idea.
Especially an idea that doesn't exist yet.
Like a desalination filter? Like many things, like gravity.
Story is, an apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton's head, but that didn't really happen.
Turns out, he was sitting under a different tree when he saw the apple fall off another tree, the one he wasn't sitting under.
It's not nearly as good a story, but the myth about the apple hitting him in the head doesn't do anything to diminish the importance of his theory, the importance of his discovery.
Clearly, people prefer the myth to the truth or they wouldn't keep repeating it.
Just because my father didn't die in the middle of a drought doesn't change the fact that my filter can and will do what I claim.
And what about the 90 days? You told investors you were 90 days away.
That's me selling.
That's me exciting my investors and motivating my research team.
It's like when Thomas Edison was working on his light bulb.
He tried a thousand different materials before he found one that would glow without burning up, but one day there it was.
I'm just looking for the right kind of sponge, the right kind of filament.
And who's to say I'm not 90 days away? She said to the man wearing completely clear eyeglasses.
No prescription.
To convince people of what? To hide from what? Misspent youth? A face that's a tad too pretty to be taken seriously as a trial scientist? As a scientist of any kind? I'm not the one on trial for fraud.
And I'm not the one who has to take the stand and answer questions about all those lies.
About which I will tell the absolute truth.
Just like I did this morning.
That's gonna confuse the hell out of the jury.
That's why I hired you, jury guru.
I know you get it.
I know you can explain me to them.
And what if I can't? What would you suggest? I go in there and lie? Of course not.
For one, you would be committing another crime, and for two, your attorney my associate would never knowingly suborn perjury.
Well, if you can't make my testifying to the truth work, tell me now so I can find new counsel.
I know I will eventually get that filter to do what I need it to do.
You really believe it, don't you? Well, we should head into court, then.
And, if you wouldn't mind, keep the glasses thing to yourself.
So at this point, you're working In my kitchen.
We got the water from one of the fountains in Prospect Park on a 90-degree day.
I mean, it was brown.
We ran a gallon of the water through our little homemade filter.
Poured another gallon into a sterile container and had them both tested.
The filtered water was everything we hoped it would be.
It was clear, it was ready to drink.
The other gallon was pretty damn toxic.
[CHUCKLES.]
It was just Derek and I at that point.
I don't think it's possible to hug someone harder than we hugged each other that day.
BENNY: So let me ask you a question.
You had a filter that worked.
You could have sold it to any one of a number of companies for use in personal drinking mugs, for camping, for survival kits after natural disasters? Yes.
Why not just sell it and be done? Because it was never just about the money.
It was, and is, about knowing there's a real problem, a real need, and realizing that you might be able to fix it.
You might be able to make things better.
I mean, we're all here for a reason, right? I mean, why did Edison's company devote all of those resources to developing the incandescent light bulb? We had candles, we had gas lights.
I think he thought he could make things better.
I think he thought he could make life better.
Thank you.
[WHISPERING.]
: Come on.
"He thought he could make life better.
" Even I teared up.
You lied to investors about the circumstances surrounding your father's death, didn't you? - Yes.
- And, contrary to what you told reporters and investors, you didn't leave college because you were consumed with this idea about a revolutionary new desalination filter, but because you couldn't pay your bills and had bounced several checks.
Isn't that right? Both are actually true.
You admit you told investors that you were within months of having the filter field-checked and ready when your director of research indicated quite clearly that he felt that no further upscaling was possible on the Freshwater Honeycomb.
Isn't that true? I didn't agree with my director of research.
I didn't ask if you agreed.
I was pointing out that you didn't share his assessment with your current or future investors, which feels deceptive.
In fact, it feels like there's a pattern of deception at Freshwater Honeycomb.
Objection.
The witness is here to answer questions, not to be lectured to.
Okay.
Here's a question.
How is your life better today than it was, say, three years ago, before investors were lavishing you with money in the hopes of cashing in on the success of Freshwater Honeycomb? If, by better, you mean financially, I have made no secret of the fact that my life is markedly different.
But I'd also like to mention that those investments pay for 200 employee salaries.
They pay for research tools and offices - and lab rentals and - Are you a liar? Your Honor! It's a simple question.
Not about the filter.
Not about what I believe it can do.
Not about the things that count.
So we should just believe what you tell us about this filter, which doesn't yet exist, even when almost everything else you have told us is a lie? Yes.
I have no further questions, your Honor.
That was a very nice closing argument.
Well, he wrote it.
Mostly.
It was fine.
You know, we can appeal.
I mean, if they find you guilty, we'll immediately file for an appeal.
Not that that's a foregone conclusion, I'm just saying that, uh [STAMMERS.]
Jury deliberations are funny things.
Lots can happen.
Uh, people start to compare notes, minds get changed, uh It's not over till it's over.
This is me.
Thank you both for everything.
Yeah.
We'll give you a call the second we hear.
[CAR DOOR CLOSES.]
I'm sorry.
What are you sorry about? Jury's not even back yet.
Come on, you called it.
You called it the second she first walked through the door.
[SIGHS.]
It wasn't her, Bull.
It was I know.
The lies.
The untruths.
Once the jury knows you're willing to make things up to get what you want God, I'm arrogant.
I thought we could get them to see it was just a means to an end.
The end was so worthwhile.
Hmm.
You two are the same person.
You know that, don't you? You set your sights on something that's almost impossible, and you don't let anyone talk you out of it.
It's one of the things I love about you, man.
Sometimes I wonder if it isn't all a lie, this thing we do, this jury thing.
I mean what was the point? According to Marissa, by the time the AUSA was done with her closing, it was a shutout.
Was a field of red.
And she is betting that by tomorrow morning, we are back in court, and Whitney is behind bars by tomorrow afternoon.
[EXHALES.]
I mean, I'm really no good at this at all.
JUDGE: "Dear Judge Graves.
"As you know, we have been deliberating "for four solid days.
"All of us are united in our verdict "with the exception of one juror.
"This juror refuses to budge, refuses to debate.
It is difficult to see a way forward from here.
" I'm going to call everyone back into the court in an hour, officially declaring a mistrial.
My assumption is you're going to want to retry this as quickly as possible? Absolutely.
Your client, will, of course, remain out on bail.
What's your first availability, gentlemen? Unfortunately, our office is booked for the next seven months.
All right, then.
Seven months it is.
I'm going to pencil it in, and I would hope that if things change, you'll let us know so that we can move this forward.
Now go get your client so we can make this official.
[QUIETLY.]
: Seven months? We don't even know what our next case is.
I ever tell you how my dad died in a tsunami in the Mojave? My God, in a million years, that is not where I saw this going.
Well, like I told you, deliberations are a funny thing.
But seven months? It seems so far away.
I wanted to give you time to work on that filter.
You get that thing to do the things you say it can do, and there is no fraud and there is no case.
Okay.
I appreciate that.
But the truth is, at this point, I have no money.
Ever since the government filed this case, investors have been pulling their money out.
Creditors have been demanding payment.
It may make more sense to just get this over with.
That's not to say I don't appreciate what you're trying to do, but Ms.
Holland.
Um, forgive me for intruding.
I'm, uh, one of the jurors.
Uh, the foreman, actually.
I have to tell you, I am positively fascinated by what it is you're trying to do, and I was hoping you might be able to find room for me to help, perhaps provide some additional capital.
Uh, if I'm doing something improper, uh, one of you will tell me, right? All sounds proper to me.
I look forward to speaking with you.
This may just work out.
I take back what I said.
I think I may actually be pretty good at this jury thing.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING.]
I grew up on a farm.
Couple hundred acres.
Every day, my dad would go out to the field.
Bale hay, feed slop to the pigs, shovel cow dung.
[INHALES.]
I can still smell that cow dung.
[AUDIENCE CHUCKLES.]
And then the summer before my ninth birthday, there was this amazing heat wave, and with it, this unrelenting drought.
The kind of drought that just seems to go on forever.
And I remember my dad doing everything he could to save the crops, save the animals, but the crops dried up.
Animals started to die.
And then, one late August morning, my father dropped dead in a cornfield.
[AUDIENCE MURMURING.]
Dehydration and heart failure.
He was 32 years old.
By the way, I'm not talking about India or Africa.
I'm talking 150 miles up the New York State Thruway.
Less than three hours from this vast body of water.
Makes no sense.
In a world with so much water, why are so many people without? - This - [AUDIENCE GASPING.]
is the Freshwater Honeycomb.
It's a passive, nonelectrical desalination tool.
It acts like a chemical magnet, separating salt from water on a molecular level.
It's inexpensive and doesn't rely on any exhaustible energy sources.
Imagine this, ladies and gentlemen, happening on a global scale.
An endless supply of water provided by the world's five oceans, hundreds of rivers, and thousands of lakes, and purified by the Freshwater Honeycomb.
My tech team tells me we're only 90 days away.
[AUDIENCE MURMURING.]
Ah.
So who wants in? [CLAMORING.]
[KNOCKING ON DOOR.]
Come on in.
[TAPS KEYBOARD.]
I hear you told them 90 days.
To scale up to what? 25 million gallons a day? That would be a good start.
You know that's not gonna happen.
Not in 90 days, maybe not in 90 years.
No, I don't know that's not going to happen, and you don't either.
Whitney, not every problem can be solved simply by adding enthusiasm.
Okay, Derek, it's 10:00 at night.
What do you need? Some new piece of software? What-what new gizmo do you need? What-what new biochemist do you want me to try to steal from It's none of that.
Whitney, I'm done.
I'm just done.
You keep taking people's money, promising them the moon, and I'm supposed to be your Neil Armstrong and give it to them, and I'm telling you I can't.
What? Derek, we've been here before.
You're just tired.
You're nowhere near done.
500 gallons is great for a demonstration, but we need to prove we can scale up the Freshwater Honeycomb to handle whole municipalities, city water systems, state water I've been trying to tell you for a month.
It can't.
You know it.
We both know it.
And tomorrow the D.
A.
is gonna know it.
[CLICKS TONGUE.]
Psst.
How did he score vacation time? He didn't, not that I'm aware of.
[KNOCKING ON DOOR.]
Beautiful.
I'm still using the ones I got in college.
Funny you should say that.
They're for my daughter.
Your daughter? You guys are taking a trip together? She called me last night.
She won a scholarship, a journalism scholarship, to study abroad for six months in Jordan.
Jordan, ah, Middle East.
How do you feel about that? Thrilled, excited, proud of her.
[CHUCKLES.]
Scared for her.
The packet that they sent keeps talking about how safe it is, even though we know it's in a part of the world that, you know, is a little scary.
But if you want to be a journalist, a serious journalist, and she does - My God.
- [CHUCKLES.]
1,500 students applied, and they picked her.
I mean, you're looking at a guy who didn't leave Georgia until he was 18 years old.
It is obscene how proud I am.
[CHUCKLES.]
[KNOCKING.]
Yeah.
I'm guessing you've read the papers, seen the reports.
The federal government is taking me to court.
Criminal court.
Uh Charging me with two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, nine counts of wire fraud, some other, less consequential things that I can't remember right now, though all the charges do end with the word "fraud.
" You're on the front page.
WHITNEY: Oh, that's pithy.
So, why do you think the government is suddenly coming after you? My friend my head of R & D, he just became convinced we were chasing a ghost, that there was no way we could get to where we needed to go, so he went to the Feds.
MARISSA: But why do that? If he was unhappy, why not just quit? I think I became so good at raising money that he got spooked.
And when it was just a lark, when we had no money, no one to answer to, there was no pressure.
But when people heard what we were up to, they started throwing money at us.
I mean, it's been a wild couple of years.
But the more successful we got, the more Derek just froze.
I'm guessing he thought that if he could recast himself as the whistleblower rather than the co-conspirator, that he might be able to work again.
The government is claiming your water desalination technology is incapable of being applied to anything other than personal use application, but that in your pitches and demonstrations and investment prospectuses, you've been selling it as the answer to the global water shortage.
They say you're peddling a pipe dream.
Look, I'm not a nut.
I'm not a scam artist.
I'm not saying I've discovered something that can help you lose weight or make your hair grow back.
I'm not saying I can help women fill out their bikinis or men look more manly in their Speedos.
I'm saying I can help quench the thirst of the world.
I can help water crops in a desert.
The ramifications are huge.
I mean look, there are four things every human being on this planet needs: air to breathe, food to eat, a piece of land to stand on, and water.
You figure out the water part, everything else falls into place.
You can grow more food, you can plant more trees to help create more oxygen, and people can live anywhere, no matter the climate.
This is real.
This matters.
MARISSA: I get that the guy choked, but why sell her out to the government? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Well, it's all about the money.
As soon as he called the Feds, he stopped being a disgruntled employee and became classified as an SEC whistleblower.
And as an SEC whistleblower, if the government wins, he gets a percentage of whatever cash judgment the court levies.
[SCOFFS.]
The plot thickens.
You're not gonna represent her, are you? What's your issue, Benny? First of all, you promised me that I could have some say in the cases we take around here.
And second of all, we just sat with that woman for a half an hour, and she didn't say a single thing I can use to mount a defense.
Do you believe what she told you? Do you believe she was lying to you? I'm not sure that's relevant.
I think it's the only thing that is relevant.
If she believes what she's saying, what she's selling, then there is no criminal intent.
And if there is no criminal intent, then there is no crime.
But, Bull, how do we do that? How do we prove what someone does or doesn't believe? Especially if the thing that she believes in doesn't actually exist? Well, for what it's worth, I believe her.
You think she can change seawater into drinking water? You believe she can change the world? I believe she believes she can.
Of course you do.
Well, I don't.
Benny I told you that I would listen to you, and I have listened to you, and what you said mattered to me, but I'm taking the case.
So, how does this work? Well, today is about trying to select a jury that's at least open to hearing the arguments we're gonna make in court.
And how do we do that? Yes, Dr.
Bull, how do we do that? Well, the first thing we have to try and do is reframe what this trial is about.
The assistant United States attorney wants to make it about the things you promised versus the things you were actually able to accomplish before they pulled the plug on you.
BENNY: Well, that is what the trial is about.
Not if we have anything to do with it.
I want to use the jury selection process to put the idea in their head that what this is really about is something different entirely.
And that would be? Belief systems.
There are people who believed for the longest time that phones had to be black, with rotary dials, and be connected with wires that disappeared into the wall and ran from pole to pole along the side of the road.
And that that's what phones are and that's what phones will always be.
That cars could only run on gasoline, that movies could only be seen on giant screens in air-conditioned theaters, and that news could only be delivered via black newsprint on white paper.
Flying cars.
Anybody here think we'll ever see them? In our lifetime? [WHISPERS.]
: Maybe we got a live one.
Well, don't anybody get their hopes up.
David Murphy is a financial planner, considers himself fiscally conservative.
Doesn't seem like he'd fit the bill.
Well, you might be right.
You might be wrong.
Hard to know without getting a peek at his belief system.
So you're thinking, one of these days, you'll be hovering over Fifth Avenue in your brand-new convertible.
Something like that.
And please don't take this the wrong way, but you look like you've been around a while.
Like you've seen a thing or two.
Where does all of this fanciful optimism come from? It's not fanciful optimism at all.
It's more like once bitten, twice shy.
Ah.
How do you mean? Well, 20 years ago or so, a man came to me for some investment capital.
He wanted to put it in a new company he was starting.
Said he was gonna sell books over the Internet.
I absolutely did not understand.
I asked him, "How are the books going to come out of the computer? "Are they, are they gonna ooze out of the slot for the f-floppy disk?" I-I basically threw him out of my office.
Do you know how rich I'd be if I had just been a better listener? Can we clone this guy? BENNY: Your Honor, this juror is acceptable to the defense.
What about you? What about me? I read you dropped out of college.
I did.
I had this idea for the Freshwater Honeycomb and I didn't want to wait four years to get going on it.
Well, the prosecution is gonna try and use your lack of formal education as proof that you don't really know what you're talking about.
And then they're gonna bring in a bunch of experts, like your ex-employee Derek Goodman, that have all kinds of degrees and doctorates and associations with institutions of higher learning, and they are going to testify that you are just plain wrong.
Sounds delightful.
That's why I want to use voir dire to undermine that assertion.
I'm sorry.
You lost me.
What assertion? That there is a correlation between the amount of education one receives and one's ability to innovate.
To see beyond what is there and imagine a thing that's not there yet.
And I want to put that idea out there before the trial even starts.
How many people think there's a relationship between the amount of time one spends getting a college education and their ability to change the world? So, Henry Ford.
The founder of the Ford Motor Company and one of the earliest proponents of the assembly line, which ushered in the age of mass production.
Lots of college? I don't know.
Did they even have college back then? I assure you they did.
Well, then, yeah.
I would suppose so.
Actually, he never went.
Not a single day.
How about Coco Chanel? Here is a woman who not only revolutionized fashion in her day, but really sort of created the concept of branding, the idea of putting her name on a variety of products.
Did she go to college? [CHUCKLES.]
Why are you picking on me? I-I don't know.
All-all these people are from a long time ago.
[CHUCKLES.]
True, true, true.
A-And by the way, she never went to college.
She grew up in an orphanage where she learned how to sew, and that was pretty much the extent of her formal education.
All right, so, let me give you some contemporary names.
Steve Jobs.
You ever heard of him? The computer guy? Yeah, sure.
He probably went to a bunch of colleges.
Nope.
Went to one, never graduated.
So my question to you is simple.
Do you think, just because someone has a bunch of degrees, that that makes them an expert? Or that, uh, sometimes, maybe when someone doesn't have the best education, they have something else? A vision of the future maybe? And that they may have something unique and wonderful to offer mankind? Yeah.
I think there are people like that, definitely.
You feel like summertime - Excuse me.
- [QUIETLY.]
: Sorry, excuse me.
Thanks.
You took this heart of mine You'll be my valentine In the summer In the summer You are my only one [LINE RINGING.]
Just dancin', havin' fun Hi.
This is Anna.
Leave me a message and I'll call you right back.
[PHONE BEEPS.]
Hey, little girl.
It's your dad.
Uh, I'm standing in front of your dorm room door.
Uh, kind of thought we had agreed to get together and celebrate some of your good news, but, uh Anyway, I-I brought you a gift.
But it looks like you're not here.
Could you give me a call back and let me know if we're still good for tonight? Or just that you're okay? It's 7:15.
I can stand here for another couple minutes if you want to call me back.
[SIGHS.]
Love you.
Do love me, do love me, do, do love me, do love me, do [PHONE BUZZING.]
Do love me, do love me, do Do love me, do love me, do - I need you - - Do love me, do love me, do - Do love me, do love me, do - Hoo! - Is it summertime magic That makes me want to dance all night long? It's your summertime magic.
We started testing our Freshwater Honeycomb about seven months ago, trying to replicate how it would be used in a municipal setting.
The pressure with which the water hits the filter is controlled by a combination of volume, speed, and pipe diameter.
Using a pipe 60 inches wide, we noted that at 477 gallons per second, the filter did its job.
The problem started to manifest when we tried to push through more than 477 gallons per second.
The filter itself starts to disintegrate.
The cellulose material and the filament that holds it together would start to appear in the supposedly clean water as microparticles.
Invisible to the naked eye but in the water nonetheless.
Effectively, the filter was no longer cleaning the water but actually polluting it, making it dangerous to drink.
Once those materials hit the human stomach, they could very well tear it apart.
Ah.
And as director of research, who did you share these findings with? Um, the defendant.
CRUZ: So you don't believe anything you said had any impact on her? DEREK: Well, just the fact that she was continuing to court investors.
Telling them that we were 90 days away when I was plainly telling her that what she was promising was not possible on any timetable.
CRUZ: Thank you.
Nothing further.
MARISSA: I'm guessing you already know what I'm about to tell you.
I could read this jury on a moonless night with a blindfold on.
Good morning, Mr.
Goodman.
- Doctor.
- Ah.
Doctor.
My apologies.
And you are a doctor in what? Well, I have a doctorate in civil engineering as well as a second doctorate in arid lands resource sciences.
Wow.
That is impressive.
Sounds like you know a lot about desalination.
Well, I do pride myself on being something of an expert in my field.
Terrific.
So it's reasonable to assume that you know everything there is to know about, uh, seawater - and desalination and - Well, I don't think anyone knows everything about anything.
Great point.
So, when you say no one could scale up the Freshwater Honeycomb for use in municipal water purification application, what you're really trying to say is, "I," meaning you, "couldn't scale up "the Freshwater Honeycomb for use in municipal water purification applications.
" Isn't that correct? Objection.
Asked and answered.
- BENNY: Your Honor.
- Badgering the witness.
- Your Honor - JUDGE: Save your breath, Mr.
Colón.
The question has not been asked and answered.
And the counselor is not badgering the witness.
Objection overruled.
Ask your question again.
Isn't it true, Dr.
Goodman, that all you can say with any certainty is that you couldn't do it? You couldn't scale it up? - [GALLERY MURMURING.]
- BULL: Ooh.
What is that I'm feeling? Could it be attitudes shifting? - Yes.
- I mean, for all you know, there could be some kid sitting in his or her garage right now with just the fix for this thing.
- [SCOFFS.]
- I doubt it.
I didn't ask you if you doubted it.
I had asked if what I am saying right now is possible.
If a solution is possible.
I suppose anything is possible.
Exactly.
Anything is possible.
Sir, how much do you stand to make if the government wins this case? Isn't it true that if the government prevails in this case, as a whistleblower, you stand to profit? Actually make some real money? I'm sorry.
[CHUCKLES.]
Let me put it another way.
Isn't it true that you stood to make considerably more by not finishing your work and leaving the company and turning state's evidence than if you'd stayed and done the job you'd originally been hired to do? I mean, we're talking millions, right? CRUZ: Objection.
Relevance? No, that's all right, Your Honor.
I withdraw the question.
I think the jury could connect the dots.
Nothing further.
[SIGHS.]
What's going on over there? Looks like you're having a troublesome bowel movement.
[CHUCKLES.]
You did great, Benny.
We got 'em on the run.
I think you're mistaking a momentary change of fortune for a real victory.
That was, that was everything.
That's our whole defense.
I've got nothing else to fight with.
Don't be ridiculous.
Tomorrow we present our case.
We put Whitney on the stand.
Did you see those YouTube videos I sent you? Girl could sell sawdust to a lumber mill.
[CHUCKLES.]
She's just trying to finance her dream, and that is not a crime.
But, Bull, the law does not differentiate between a run-of-the-mill lie and a lie for a worthwhile dream.
To the law, it's all a lie.
It's all a fraud.
Come on, Bull, you saw that film.
The most current version of this thing disintegrates before water starts flowing at anything approaching the required speed.
There's no way she didn't know she was lying, and that's fraud.
MARISSA: So, everybody, we've all been working very hard trying to pull this together for you and Benny and the client.
Uh, why don't we let Taylor start? Thanks.
Uh, some little bumps in the road we need to discuss.
So glad you're going first.
Whitney didn't, in fact, drop out early to pursue her Freshwater Honeycomb dreams like she told us, like she told every reporter who's ever done a story about her.
She had to leave.
- They made her leave.
- Because? Because she was in arrears.
She had a habit of writing tuition and housing checks that bounced.
The school would give her second and third chances to make good on her bills, offered her campus jobs to make money, but she'd no sooner pay off one bad debt and then write another worthless check.
Finally, they had enough.
I'm sorry, Bull.
You think the prosecution knows? Who cares? I think you guys are making a mountain out of a molehill.
Well, I don't agree.
It's not a molehill.
Writing bad checks, that's fraud.
That's the exact crime she's being accused of right now.
You're forgetting her father had died.
They'd lost the family farm.
Of course money was an issue.
Did she pay the college back? Did everybody get everything they were owed? Yes.
Eventually.
Probably with the salary she paid herself after the investors came on board.
I'm confused.
Are we trying to prove her guilt or prove her innocence? Hit me with a real problem.
Guess that's my cue.
Uh, so I went upstate to see her mother today, with no help from Whitney, I might add.
What does that mean? Well, I asked her for her mother's info the day she came in here, and she never sent it.
Finally had to figure it out on my own.
And? And she wouldn't talk to me.
The neighbors seem to think Whitney might be paying the bills.
She got a new car, had the house painted last spring.
Where are you going with this? Again, I'm talking to the neighbors, and according to them, Whitney's family never owned a farm.
And her father worked on a farm, but he didn't die of dehydration.
His blue jeans got caught in a combine machine.
It pulled him in and chewed him up before anyone could, uh, shut it off.
What time are we due in court tomorrow? We reconvene after lunch.
1:00.
Okay.
Reach out to Whitney.
Tell her I want to meet her here tomorrow morning, 10:00 a.
m.
Okay.
And somebody find a polygraph examiner.
I want to do a little work with Whitney.
You want to examine her with a lie detector? You do know that those tests are not admissible in court.
It's not for court.
It's for me.
Was it something I said? It's just a technique we use to prepare clients to testify.
See which questions make you anxious.
Identify any possible triggers.
Okay.
Sort of surprised Dr.
Bull isn't here.
Well, he will be reviewing the results before we go into court this afternoon.
I'm sure he'll have a conversation with you about it before you testify.
I'm amazed she agreed to do this.
She's got to know we're onto her.
Well, it's a good sign.
It means she thinks she has nothing to hide.
All right, let's get this show on the road.
EXAMINER [OVER EARBUD.]
: Good morning.
Is your name Whitney Holland? Yes.
Are you 26 years old? Yes.
Ask her if she grew up on a farm.
Did you grow up on a farm? I grew up near a farm.
EXAMINER: I need you to answer yes or no.
WHITNEY: No.
I did not grow up on a farm.
Ask her if her father died of a heart attack.
Did your father die of a heart attack? No.
- In a field? - EXAMINER: In a field? During a heat wave? - During a heat wave? - Of dehydration and sunstroke? Of dehydration and sunstroke? Trying to save his crops and animals? Trying to save his crops and animals? No, he did not.
He died in an accident involving some farm machinery.
Well, there goes your defense.
If she knew she was lying when she told people those things, then there's criminal intent.
Game over.
Ask her if the Freshwater Honeycomb will ever actually be able to purify enough water for a small municipality.
Absolutely.
- A large city? - EXAMINER: A large city? Without a doubt.
Are you 90 days away from being able to prove that? EXAMINER: And are you 90 days away from being able to prove that? I don't know.
Possibly.
If the government will let me continue my work.
[CHUCKLES.]
What are you smiling about? - [PHONE BEEPS.]
- [LINE RINGING.]
Hi, this is Anna.
Leave me a message and I'll call you right back.
[BEEPS.]
Hi, Anna.
It's Dad again.
Listen, I-I know you said that you needed a couple of days, but, um, well, see, I'm trying to help out with this travel stuff.
You know, passports, doctor visits, but I feel a little funny setting them up and I haven't talked to you.
Call me back, please? Thanks.
Love you.
- [PHONE BEEPS.]
- [SIGHS.]
[EXHALES.]
Kids.
Where do they come from? Tell me about it.
Were you ever 19? Nope.
Went straight from old enough to vote to bitter divorcée.
Whatever it is, it's gonna be fine.
I know.
Intellectually, I know that, but it's just that I-I wasn't there to be her parent for so long, and now I'm here and I'm ready and I'm proud, but she's getting older, and so, for whatever reason, she's not wanting a parent right now, and it makes me crazy.
This, too, will pass.
[FOOTFALLS APPROACHING.]
You look like the cat who ate the canary and then decided what he really wanted was fish.
I can't make up my mind about you.
Do you lie to hide the truth, or tell the truth to hide your lies? I always tell the truth, except when I'm selling myself.
Then I do my best to tell a good story.
People appreciate a good story when they're being sold something.
A product, a person, an idea.
Especially an idea that doesn't exist yet.
Like a desalination filter? Like many things, like gravity.
Story is, an apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton's head, but that didn't really happen.
Turns out, he was sitting under a different tree when he saw the apple fall off another tree, the one he wasn't sitting under.
It's not nearly as good a story, but the myth about the apple hitting him in the head doesn't do anything to diminish the importance of his theory, the importance of his discovery.
Clearly, people prefer the myth to the truth or they wouldn't keep repeating it.
Just because my father didn't die in the middle of a drought doesn't change the fact that my filter can and will do what I claim.
And what about the 90 days? You told investors you were 90 days away.
That's me selling.
That's me exciting my investors and motivating my research team.
It's like when Thomas Edison was working on his light bulb.
He tried a thousand different materials before he found one that would glow without burning up, but one day there it was.
I'm just looking for the right kind of sponge, the right kind of filament.
And who's to say I'm not 90 days away? She said to the man wearing completely clear eyeglasses.
No prescription.
To convince people of what? To hide from what? Misspent youth? A face that's a tad too pretty to be taken seriously as a trial scientist? As a scientist of any kind? I'm not the one on trial for fraud.
And I'm not the one who has to take the stand and answer questions about all those lies.
About which I will tell the absolute truth.
Just like I did this morning.
That's gonna confuse the hell out of the jury.
That's why I hired you, jury guru.
I know you get it.
I know you can explain me to them.
And what if I can't? What would you suggest? I go in there and lie? Of course not.
For one, you would be committing another crime, and for two, your attorney my associate would never knowingly suborn perjury.
Well, if you can't make my testifying to the truth work, tell me now so I can find new counsel.
I know I will eventually get that filter to do what I need it to do.
You really believe it, don't you? Well, we should head into court, then.
And, if you wouldn't mind, keep the glasses thing to yourself.
So at this point, you're working In my kitchen.
We got the water from one of the fountains in Prospect Park on a 90-degree day.
I mean, it was brown.
We ran a gallon of the water through our little homemade filter.
Poured another gallon into a sterile container and had them both tested.
The filtered water was everything we hoped it would be.
It was clear, it was ready to drink.
The other gallon was pretty damn toxic.
[CHUCKLES.]
It was just Derek and I at that point.
I don't think it's possible to hug someone harder than we hugged each other that day.
BENNY: So let me ask you a question.
You had a filter that worked.
You could have sold it to any one of a number of companies for use in personal drinking mugs, for camping, for survival kits after natural disasters? Yes.
Why not just sell it and be done? Because it was never just about the money.
It was, and is, about knowing there's a real problem, a real need, and realizing that you might be able to fix it.
You might be able to make things better.
I mean, we're all here for a reason, right? I mean, why did Edison's company devote all of those resources to developing the incandescent light bulb? We had candles, we had gas lights.
I think he thought he could make things better.
I think he thought he could make life better.
Thank you.
[WHISPERING.]
: Come on.
"He thought he could make life better.
" Even I teared up.
You lied to investors about the circumstances surrounding your father's death, didn't you? - Yes.
- And, contrary to what you told reporters and investors, you didn't leave college because you were consumed with this idea about a revolutionary new desalination filter, but because you couldn't pay your bills and had bounced several checks.
Isn't that right? Both are actually true.
You admit you told investors that you were within months of having the filter field-checked and ready when your director of research indicated quite clearly that he felt that no further upscaling was possible on the Freshwater Honeycomb.
Isn't that true? I didn't agree with my director of research.
I didn't ask if you agreed.
I was pointing out that you didn't share his assessment with your current or future investors, which feels deceptive.
In fact, it feels like there's a pattern of deception at Freshwater Honeycomb.
Objection.
The witness is here to answer questions, not to be lectured to.
Okay.
Here's a question.
How is your life better today than it was, say, three years ago, before investors were lavishing you with money in the hopes of cashing in on the success of Freshwater Honeycomb? If, by better, you mean financially, I have made no secret of the fact that my life is markedly different.
But I'd also like to mention that those investments pay for 200 employee salaries.
They pay for research tools and offices - and lab rentals and - Are you a liar? Your Honor! It's a simple question.
Not about the filter.
Not about what I believe it can do.
Not about the things that count.
So we should just believe what you tell us about this filter, which doesn't yet exist, even when almost everything else you have told us is a lie? Yes.
I have no further questions, your Honor.
That was a very nice closing argument.
Well, he wrote it.
Mostly.
It was fine.
You know, we can appeal.
I mean, if they find you guilty, we'll immediately file for an appeal.
Not that that's a foregone conclusion, I'm just saying that, uh [STAMMERS.]
Jury deliberations are funny things.
Lots can happen.
Uh, people start to compare notes, minds get changed, uh It's not over till it's over.
This is me.
Thank you both for everything.
Yeah.
We'll give you a call the second we hear.
[CAR DOOR CLOSES.]
I'm sorry.
What are you sorry about? Jury's not even back yet.
Come on, you called it.
You called it the second she first walked through the door.
[SIGHS.]
It wasn't her, Bull.
It was I know.
The lies.
The untruths.
Once the jury knows you're willing to make things up to get what you want God, I'm arrogant.
I thought we could get them to see it was just a means to an end.
The end was so worthwhile.
Hmm.
You two are the same person.
You know that, don't you? You set your sights on something that's almost impossible, and you don't let anyone talk you out of it.
It's one of the things I love about you, man.
Sometimes I wonder if it isn't all a lie, this thing we do, this jury thing.
I mean what was the point? According to Marissa, by the time the AUSA was done with her closing, it was a shutout.
Was a field of red.
And she is betting that by tomorrow morning, we are back in court, and Whitney is behind bars by tomorrow afternoon.
[EXHALES.]
I mean, I'm really no good at this at all.
JUDGE: "Dear Judge Graves.
"As you know, we have been deliberating "for four solid days.
"All of us are united in our verdict "with the exception of one juror.
"This juror refuses to budge, refuses to debate.
It is difficult to see a way forward from here.
" I'm going to call everyone back into the court in an hour, officially declaring a mistrial.
My assumption is you're going to want to retry this as quickly as possible? Absolutely.
Your client, will, of course, remain out on bail.
What's your first availability, gentlemen? Unfortunately, our office is booked for the next seven months.
All right, then.
Seven months it is.
I'm going to pencil it in, and I would hope that if things change, you'll let us know so that we can move this forward.
Now go get your client so we can make this official.
[QUIETLY.]
: Seven months? We don't even know what our next case is.
I ever tell you how my dad died in a tsunami in the Mojave? My God, in a million years, that is not where I saw this going.
Well, like I told you, deliberations are a funny thing.
But seven months? It seems so far away.
I wanted to give you time to work on that filter.
You get that thing to do the things you say it can do, and there is no fraud and there is no case.
Okay.
I appreciate that.
But the truth is, at this point, I have no money.
Ever since the government filed this case, investors have been pulling their money out.
Creditors have been demanding payment.
It may make more sense to just get this over with.
That's not to say I don't appreciate what you're trying to do, but Ms.
Holland.
Um, forgive me for intruding.
I'm, uh, one of the jurors.
Uh, the foreman, actually.
I have to tell you, I am positively fascinated by what it is you're trying to do, and I was hoping you might be able to find room for me to help, perhaps provide some additional capital.
Uh, if I'm doing something improper, uh, one of you will tell me, right? All sounds proper to me.
I look forward to speaking with you.
This may just work out.
I take back what I said.
I think I may actually be pretty good at this jury thing.