I May Destroy You (2020) s01e06 Episode Script

The Alliance

1
I don't think
she's enjoying this.
It's not on the list.
Does that mean
it's not really "self-care"
if it's not on the list?
It's basically painting, alie?
And painting's on the list.
- Kwame?
- What?
Look, I love that you're getting
your inner Banksy on, yeah,
but we're not here
for ourselves,
we're here for Arabella.
Seems fine to me.
She seems fine?
If she's fine,
then why is she on her phone?
I dunno,
maybe someone called her?
You know what,
let me break this shit
down to you.
You know how our nervous systems
are like electric systems?
You know, like when
your laptop breaks down
and most things shut down to,
like, basic functioning mode?
So, you need to borrow
my laptop, or?
No.
I'm saying our nervous systems
also shut down to safety mode
when it's overloaded
with too much stimulation,
too much danger.
Hashtag trauma,
hashtag double click
for double rapey shit
that she's been through.
So, no, she's not fine.
She's vacant, she's empty,
she's a shell of herself,
she's dying inside,
but if you
aren't looking for it,
you ain't gonna see it.
Okay.
Any suggestions?
- For what?
- For looking after our friend.
What are you doing?
The, uh, survivors'
support group thing.
Okay, cool.
Kwame, get ready. Let's go.
Uh, well,
it's for survivors only, so
- Is it?
- Yeah.
What's the name of this group?
I don't think it has a name.
So how did you find it?
Um, socials, Facebook, I think.
Okay.
What?
Is it, like
you know
- What?
- Kosher? Halal?
What?
You need to be
around people who affirm you.
Okay?
Just be careful and just
- I am.
- Mm-hmm.
Do careful people
meet with strangers
from social networking apps?
I mean, the king of Grindr here
would say "yes,"
but I propose "no."
It's Theo's group.
- Who?
- Theo.
Theodora.
Theodora from school?
- Yeah.
- She has what?
A support group.
And where does she host that?
In a halfway house?
I like her.
We've been messaging.
- She's nice.
- Bella,
the poster girl for Childline
can't help anyone in trauma.
As your friend,
I can't let you go.
Stop being silly.
My name is Theo Leigh Daniels.
I made this support group
because I wanted people
who've been through
sexual exploitation
of any kind to find each other,
to bring well-being,
and to empower one another
in a safe abuse-
and oppression-free space.
I hate abusers.
I think that abuse,
grooming, assault,
domestic violence
are the most vile, abhorrent
qualities of our species.
I've been abused,
I've been exploited.
One in every two women have.
And 89 percent of trials
end in exoneration.
So I created this group
for survivors
to talk,
to share common experiences,
and hopefully
encourage one another.
I know that I sound
like a right icy bitch,
but I'm lovely, I promise.
So the floor is open,
it's a conversation.
Please don't name anybody.
You never know,
the creep in the office
could be
somebody's brother, so
uh, in class,
we call every man Bob
and every woman Barbara.
The other day,
I was at a work party
and "Bob," co-worker,
puts his hand on my knee
but really subtle, like.
Mid-conversation,
we're chatting away,
not even flirting,
and he puts it there
and I felt weird.
It's when they put their hand
just on the small of your back.
Does anyone report it?
They ask you what happened.
Then you try to define
what happened.
I hear myself out loud
and start undermining myself.
Yeah, 'cause belittling
your problems
makes their lives
a lot easier, don't it?
And these people get paid.
Exactly.
And really, their jobs
ain't supposed to be simple,
so how dare they cut corners,
fucking pricks.
I had a not great experience,
a drug-facilitated
sexual assault,
and I was trying
to get back on track,
and then someone
from my workplace
sexually assaulted me.
Someone said it was my fault,
and maybe it was,
because twice, you know?
I'm here to learn
how to avoid being raped.
There must be some way,
'cause if there isn't,
that means at any time,
someone could just
drag me into a bush
and it would happen
all over again and I'm
I just
I don't know
what kind of world
that would be?
Uh, it's the kind of world
where there are places like this
that you can come
and talk about it
and know that you're not alone.
And that is the thing
to focus on, okay?
That you are not alone.
- See you next week.
- Bye.
- See you later.
- Bye, see you later.
- Have a great week.
- Thank you. Bye.
- See you next time.
- Thank you. Bye.
You are so fucking great.
So are you, mate.
You're fucking awesome.
- There you go.
- Thanks, babe.
- Bye, babe.
- Bye.
- See you later.
- See you.
How you doing?
Come here.
I like you so much more
now we're wrinkly and fucked.
I, uh
Anytime you need me, yeah?
I wish I got
to know you more in school.
Ah, we'll just start now.
Yeah.
Theo?
Theo?
- Theo?
- What?
I don't know
what to do about her!
Who's taking me school?
"Who's taking me?"
What are you, the fucking Queen?
What's in your hand?
It's got anything
to do with you.
"Nothing to do with you."
It's got nothing
to do with you.
I took this.
It's Daddy's birthday.
Martin's birthday, yeah.
- Did you get him a present?
- No.
Why don't you use this
as a present?
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
Go get me my school stuff, then?
Go on.
Someone's gotta take
the monster to school.
Daddy.
Thank you.
Happy birthday, Martin.
Thanks. You remembered.
I'm off.
- You haven't eaten.
- Yeah, I'm late.
Are you sure
you're even gonna make it?
You must be tired,
being out all night.
You're never gonna fool me.
I swear to God, Mom,
your insanity is actually
fucking up my mornings now.
I went bed, I slept,
then I woke up in my bed.
If I disappeared to have
a fucking shit,
I'm sorry.
You were wearing
your clothes, though.
What?
You changed your clothes.
Well, yes, I did
change my clothes, course I did.
I'm not gonna wear
my PJ's to school, am I?
Jack, in fact in fact
What did we do this morning?
Did you see me in PJ's
this morning?
Answer yes or no, so the idiot
in the room understands.
- Did you see me in my PJ's?
- Yeah.
And then did you help me
change out of my PJ's
- into my uniform?
- Yeah.
- Passed me my tie, didn't ya?
- Yeah.
Done.
Sort yourself out, Mom.
Get some help.
I'll take you tomorrow,
yeah? Yeah?
Martin, happy birthday.
Come on.
You're wild, man, I love it.
What you doing?
Stop.
Stop.
Ryan?
What?
Well, delete it.
I won't share it,
it's just for me.
- All right, fine.
- Are you dumb?
What? You said delete it.
You're literally dumb.
- I swear to God.
- I'm gonna delete it.
And you're still chatting.
- Delete my number, yeah?
- I never saved it.
Like I'm the only guy trying to
make a archive in these streets.
Coming at me like some psycho.
What'd he give you?
Is that how it works?
- What?
- He never said that.
- Who?
- He just said you like
that kinda shit.
- Who?
See?
That's what I'm saying.
Probably bare man done it,
and you wanna war
with me, like
But Dillan didn't try
and take pictures
So how do you know I was talking
about Dillan then?
I've seen it, so don't try it.
I didn't take any good ones
anyway.
They're fucking shit.
Your face ain't even in 'em.
What if I gave you a tenner?
Twenty?
Thirty quid.
Dillan, you prick.
Well, how much have you got?
that's eleven
eleven pound fifty.
And what about in there?
- That's all I've got.
- Are you sure?
Look, there's loads
of little pockets.
True.
There's bare pockets.
Sometimes this bag
gets on my nerves.
My mom got it
from Roman Road Market,
you know that one stall
at the back?
Any time she gets something,
it's always shit.
No, no, after, after.
All right. All right.
Cool.
And can I get a pic of you,
like, bent over? Like doggy?
Yeah.
And then like
like looking over sort of thing?
I'm gonna cum now, so
Yeah. I'm gonna cum.
Mad.
For real, though
I really like you.
Yo! I found even more, like
eighty, eighty-five,
eighty-seven
ninety
one
hundred and three
You're gonna be rich after this.
That's 21 pound and three p.
Thanks, Ryan.
Ta.
- D'you know what, yeah?
- For someone so pretty,
I'm surprised Rochelle
is so nice.
Yeah, well, she's disabled.
What?
Yeah.
She ain't got no sense of smell.
What?
Arabella, you're lying.
No, I swear down
'cause of her mom.
She used to, like,
sniff crack and heroin
when she was pregnant, so
"ansonia" of the nose,
it's a real thing.
I actually thought
you had that, you know.
Why?
Well, you can smell
fried chicken from a mile away,
but can't smell the B.O.
coming from your own armpit.
So, a crotchet
is what sort of minim?
- Arabella?
- Half.
Good.
And also twice as fast.
- So if we wanted to hear
- Oi, Arabella?
What you eating?
Popcorn? Oi, feed mans.
Terry, enough!
Good. And what about this?
Who remembers what that is?
Treble clef.
And this is the bass clef.
So treble, bass.
So going back
from the beginning,
we have minim, two beats
- Miss?
- Yes, Terry?
Psst.
Theo?
What's happened?
Theo, talk to me.
Ryan.
I didn't want to.
He made me.
He had a knife.
Lesley, go and get
a nurse right away.
Dominic, get Mrs. Tang, run!
This ain't got shit
to do with me.
Ryan, you've said
you engaged in sexual activity.
It was normal sex.
I didn't hurt her.
I didn't even wanna hit it.
Okay, well, I did,
but I wasn't gonna force it,
it wasn't that deep,
you know what I mean?
In fact, I'm the victim here.
I think she jacked my phone.
How come she ain't in here?
She's been raped
at knifepoint, is why, Ryan.
She's with the medic.
She she was bleeding.
What? No.
The police are on the way
- What? Sir, for me?
- To ask you
well, I don't know
what they're gonna, um
Ryan.
- Sir, let me holler Marcus.
- Enough, Ryan. That's enough.
Look, I have to keep you
in this room
until they get here.
Please don't make that
difficult for me.
I'll be waiting
on the other side of the door.
Sir, but can I talk
to Marcus quickly?
Mad ting.
Mad.
I saw it first!
Rape.
The remains of a rape.
Right there.
Over man's shoulder 'n ting.
All I can say is,
I didn't know
that boy could read and write,
let alone rape and stab a bitch
all at the same time.
If he can manage that,
what's the world coming to?
Stay tuned to Terra TV
for updates.
End of program.
Yo, I should actually do that.
"Terra TV" would be sick.
Oh my days, a Halloween ting!
- Like every year.
- Why Halloween?
That's the only day they'll let
anyone as butters as you
come close to a camera, bruh.
Wow.
Oi, Mr. Miller
But you lot know
Ryan didn't do nothing, innit?
The blood don't lie
The blood never lies, Marcus.
- The shots don't lie.
- What?
Wait, I had to turn it off
'cause I ain't tryna bate tings.
Ryan sent me something, innit.
Get her!
I want a phone
that takes photos,
- that's bad.
- Mm-hmm.
A camera inside the phone,
you know?
- Is it bare expensive?
- Dunno, my dad sent it to me.
All right, see, look.
- Is that Theo? Bella?
- Rah.
- That was today.
- See what I'm saying?
Wait
She faked it?
She must have.
The shots don't lie.
The blood is the lie,
d'you know what I mean?
The blood is the lie.
And she's white.
We could've done
the exact same thing,
all we'd get is detention.
White girl tears
have high currency, you know.
Did you see Miss Mott?
High alert, bro,
she had tears in her eyes
when she saw the blood.
I thought I was
the only one that saw that shit.
I saw that, one moist eye duct!
Meanwhile, I sneeze
and Miss Mott is talking about
I'm showing signs
of intimidation.
What kinda
Catholic school is this?
Can't even say "Bless you"
when a blackie sneeze!
I swear down, if I cried,
all Miss Mott would see
is weapons of mass destruction
leaking out my eyeballs.
Oi, remember
Mr. Merchant and Alesha?
- When she was crying.
- Oh, the book!
He dashed the book at her head!
I was like,
"What planet am I on?"
She was out
for like two seconds.
I thought he'd killed her.
Alesha got up like Jesus.
Oh days.
You shown Sir?
Boy, nah.
- They're gonna arrest Ryan.
- Got too many pics in this phone
police might arrest me for,
innit?
What? Who else?
- Leanne?
- No way.
Skets be undercover.
- Ryan's fucked.
- Boy, Ryan was sloppy.
Can you send that pic
to my phone?
Yeah.
- 'Cause the shots don't lie.
- The shots don't fucking lie.
- The blood is the fuckin' lie.
- The blood is the lie.
- All right, safe. In a bit.
- In a bit.
Yes!
Yeah?
Hey, look.
Yes!
You lot saved me, man.
Come on.
Obviously.
- This is the alliance.
- Whoo!
Ryan, any words, my brother?
- Speech.
- Speech, speech!
Thank you
for the support, innit.
Got my sisters behind me, fam.
Family, nothing's gonna stop me.
Come on.
- Come on.
- I ride for you, bro.
- We ride for you.
- We ride for you.
- Do or die.
- All fucking day.
- Come what may.
- We ride for you.
- Done though.
- The alliance is spicy, you see.
Hey, can't let that shit
happen to blud, you feel me?
- Address the crowd.
- Oh, fuck that!
Another day being heroes, yeah?
We just helped our brother
escape from Babylon.
Okay. Okay.
Okay! Is it? Is it?
'Cause people think they can
chat shit and get away with it,
but they can't, you know why?
Why?
Tell them why, T, tell them.
- The alliance is real inna dis.
- Real inna dis.
- Blood ties!
- Blood ties.
All fucking day!
Psst! Fuck you!
Hope you got plasters!
With your nonce dad.
Fucking African monkeys.
Ra ta ta!
How you even see us?
Three, two, one, go.
Theo why?
I told you.
- I told you she was going off
- Yeah, yeah. We get it, Mary.
You knew she was going wayward.
What do you want?
A job on the weather channel?
All right.
After everything
you went through with your dad?
Don't talk about my dad.
I'm sorry,
but the way this goes
is I care for you, yeah?
You're in my care.
So sometimes I'm gonna
have to say some things
that you don't wanna hear.
And I have to say
after you yourself
experienced something like that,
to go through
all the custody proceedings
Your mom's told me how painful
it was for you to say
the disgusting things your dad
did to you and your mom
in front of all those people.
Then just to make it up?
About an innocent kid?
I can't understand.
My dad never touched me.
Now he knows.
What are you saying?
What's she saying?
Well, she wanted sole custody,
so she made me lie.
- No, I didn't, Theo.
- What?
You told me to say shit
that didn't happen.
- It's
- I was seven. I was seven.
What is she saying?
I'm saying your wife
is a mastermind liar.
She said
he was smacking her about.
Not that I ever saw
a bruise on her.
The only thing I remember is
he was a lot poorer than you
and you don't do fuck all, Mom.
You've come in handy
is all I'm saying.
That is not how it went.
When you're seven,
you don't know what to believe,
so when you told me
to say all that, I just said it.
Turned me
into something else, man.
Sorry for all this, Martin,
I think you're great, I do.
I like you and all that,
I just miss my
My name is Theo Leigh Daniels.
I made this support group
because I wanted people
who've experienced
sexual exploitation of any kind
to find each other,
to bring well-being,
and to empower one another
in a safe abuse-
and oppression-free space.
I hate abusers.
I think that abuse, assault,
grooming, domestic violence
are the most abhorrent,
vile qualities of our species.
I've been abused,
I've been exploited.
One in every two women have,
and 89 percent of trials
end in exoneration.
So I created this group
for survivors to talk,
to share common experiences,
and hopefully,
encourage one another.
I know that I sound
like a right icy bitch,
but I'm lovely, I promise.
So, a lot of messages
this week
It's declined.
Can I get a selfie, please?
Oh, I just wondered
if an earlier transfer
of fees was something
that was possible.
Contracts
They're a little like things
we've agreed.
Sex with men is not safe
for me right now,
and I'd like to have sex
with a female.
- Leave the females alone.
- Yeah? Where ya goin'?
I'll just leave.
Yeah, yeah.
Let's transport, Arabella.
Destination self-care.
- Bella.
- You probably hate me now.
I can never hate you.
- Oh. Wow.
- How have you been?
I'm brilliant.
Yeah. I'm living my best life.
My job is to speak the truth.
I can't be complicit.
The guideline says to avoid me.
I'm taking her to yoga,
dance class, meditation.
I make her feel good.
Thank you for looking after me
this past year, yo.
Previous EpisodeNext Episode