Presumed Innocent (2024) s01e05 Episode Script

[PANTING]
[JADEN] Dad!
- [RUSTY] Get out of my fucking house.
- [BARBARA] Rusty, stop!
Get out!
- Get inside!
- [JADEN] Okay, okay!
- Babe, babe, babe. Look at me.
- [CRYING]
[RAYMOND]
Rusty? What the hell is going on?
- [BARBARA] Honey, baby, look, he's gone.
- [RAYMOND] Rusty, talk to me.
- [BARBARA] Breathe, breathe, breathe.
- [RAYMOND] Rusty?
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[BARBARA]
So you thought he had information,
and you went to his house.
Then he comes h-here for For what?
To intimidate you?
Rusty, you could have killed him.
What if he goes to the police?
[RUSTY] He won't.
How do you know?
He won't.
[BREATHES SHAKILY]
[PUNCHING KEYS]
[PUNCHING KEYS]
[KNOCKS ON DOOR]
- Tommy?
- [TOMMY] Yeah? Mmm.
I'm being told I'm the first witness,
or one of the first.
I would like to know why.
The defense will be arguing
prosecutorial bias,
and you can puncture that
straight out of the gate.
If you expect me to say I think
Rusty committed murder,
- I'm not doing it.
- [STAMMERS] No.
I don't expect for you to say anything.
I just expect for you to tell the truth.
You have a problem with that?
What is it with you two?
You have some kind of thing with him?
[STAMMERS] With Rusty?
- [TOMMY] Yeah.
- Mmm.
[TOMMY] If there were,
I would need to know about it.
You ever kiss him?
Inappropriate.
Irrelevant.
Go fuck yourself.
You're being called
as a witness to attest to the
relationship between Carolyn and Rusty,
and I need to know
you have professional objectivity.
If professional
objectivity is really a concern,
perhaps you should recuse yourself.
Mm-hmm.
You know, there's been a lot
of restructuring going on around here,
and I want you to know that Nico and I
value loyalty above all else.
[DOOR OPENS]
- [BREATHING HEAVILY]
- [COFFEE POURS]
- [SPOON CLATTERS]
- [BURPS]
[FARTS]
[SLURPS]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
[SIGHS]
[GROANS, BREATHES DEEPLY]
[SLURPING]
[GROANS]
- [BREATHING HEAVILY]
- [HEARTBEAT THUMPING]
- [EXHALES SHARPLY]
- [HIGH-PITCHED RINGING]
[RINGING STOPS]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
- [WATER RUNNING]
- [GRUNTS]
- [BREATHES HEAVILY]
- [LORRAINE] It just exploded?
Yeah. Went everywhere.
All over the office.
[SIGHS] Raymond, all these nightmares,
they're all telling you the same thing,
which is what the evidence
- Can we not?
- is telling you.
Is there any evidence, even a scintilla,
that points to somebody else?
Lo, it's not a question
of evidence pointing to somebody else.
It's the lack of evidence
- Pointing to him.
- that points to Rusty.
I know. The burden.
Shall we talk about the burden
you'll be bearing?
Can we not?
He didn't do it.
Hmm. Doesn't matter.
You argue for the defense now, anyway.
[RUSTY PANTING]
[TREADMILL BEEPS]
[TREADMILL BEEPS]
[GRUNTS]
[HIP-HOP PLAYING IN THE DISTANCE]
[BRIAN] Let's go, Laura. Hurry it up.
[ENGINE STARTS]
[CHATTERING]
- [DOG BARKING]
- Fuck!
[BARKING CONTINUES]
[BARKING CONTINUES]
- Hey! Hey, what the hell are you doing?
- Whoa, whoa. Hey, hey. Hey, hey. Hey.
[BREATHES HEAVILY] Hey,
I just wanna talk.
I'm calling the cops.
You're gonna call
the cops after the other night?
Fine. Oh, why don't I drive you there?
We can fill out the report together.
The hell is wrong with you?
I just I just wanna talk to you.
Okay?
Just Just
Just have a conversation with me.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
You assaulted. You trespassed.
- He can claim that you're extorting him.
- I-I assaulted him?
I trespassed?
Hardly believe that he would come
Best way for him to get ahead of that,
- right, is to go to the police.
- [STAMMERS]
If he can curry favor with the cops
by characterizing you
as a fucking sociopathic nutjob,
which, from where I stand, Rusty,
it's the direction of the spiral
that you're in, I'm [STAMMERS]
Mya.
She's a fresh mind.
She's objective.
Listen to this theory of Rusty's.
Liam Reynolds is our best suspect.
He had a motive.
- Getting fucked over!
- [PEOPLE CLAMORING]
[RUSTY] And despite being in prison,
he had the means.
He knew people on the outside.
And according to Rigo, who has been
talking to some of the inmates,
Reynolds has intimated
that he killed her.
She was about notches on her belt.
Even if Reynolds were involved
I would gladly crater her skull.
[GROANS] What I'm saying
Carolyn buried the evidence.
[RAYMOND] Which was inconclusive.
No, Carolyn buried the evidence, Ray.
[PHONE RINGING]
- [CAROLYN] Hey.
- Did you get the results back?
Um, nothing unexpected from the prelim.
And Ratzer,
his semen was at the homicide scene.
So it's not the fucking reach
that you're making it out to be.
Okay. But that's not our case.
- [RAYMOND] She's right.
- [SIGHS]
Hey, there are two things I've learned
in my professional experience.
One is that prison informants,
they will say or fabricate anything
to improve their plight.
Two, those who commit murder,
they tend to threaten, to boast,
to fuck other inmates up the ass.
What they do not tend to do
is walk around intimating.
I'm sorry.
And even if Reynolds was involved
[SIGHS] I still don't see
how this Ratzer guy helps us now.
What I'm saying is the two of them
could be connected, Raymond.
Maybe they know each other.
This is my fucking life.
Yeah.
I know, and I would like to save it
because you came to me
to defend your life, your freedom.
But Rusty, whatever our strategy
[CHUCKLING] it's not going to be,
"Hey, there's this guy who knows
this other guy who's in prison,
both of whom had spermatozoa
at the same apartment
of some dead prostitute."
Who was tied up
exactly like Carolyn was.
Not exactly.
Similarly.
[GROANS] My God. Fine.
Well, you know what?
You can ask Ratzer yourself.
He's gonna be here tomorrow.
What?
Yeah.
He's on the treadmill.
Oh, yeah. My suggestion.
He attacked a man last night.
Better the treadmill.
Mom, did he do this?
No. No, honey.
Your dad has a lot of rage inside him
but not this.
[RUSTY] Ratzer, I think it could be him.
You sure it's not your bias?
Could be that.
What does Mr. Horgan think?
Ray thinks it's a dead end,
and he thinks that
I'm becoming a loose cannon.
[JADEN] Is he right?
[RUSTY] Maybe.
I mean, you do kind of seem like
you've jumped the tracks a little.
What is that supposed to mean?
I mean, you beat a man up.
Jay, he came to our house.
He threatened you. He threatened Mom.
What was I supposed to do?
I don't know.
I'm scared for you.
Oh, honey.
[SIGHS]
It's okay.
[SIGHS]
[GROANS]
- Hey, Tommy.
- Hey, Carolyn.
- You're stalking me?
- [TOMMY CHUCKLES] I am stalking
Okay, listen. It's come to my attention
you don't wanna work with me,
and, um
Who said that?
Oh, God. [CHUCKLES]
Never mind who said it.
Is it true that you
don't wanna work with me?
- [CAROLYN] I
- [TOMMY] Just tell me.
- [CAROLYN] I said
- [SIGHS]
I-I prefer to [CLEARS THROAT]
first chair my own cases.
And if I were to second chair,
then I'd rather it be with Rusty,
since he's chief deputy prosecutor,
and career-wise, you know
- Yeah, I know. It makes s-sense.
- Yeah.
It just came back that you
specifically didn't wanna work with me.
I didn't say that.
I Maybe I was misconstrued.
[KNOCKS ON DOOR]
- [NICO] Working late.
- [GROANS] Yeah.
Listen, this Liam Reynolds,
the one who killed Bunny Davis?
[TOMMY] What about him?
[NICO] That's exactly it.
You know, I've been hearing things.
That he made
credible threats against Carolyn.
- [TOMMY] He's in prison.
- [NICO] And
yeah.
But you checked him out?
We did, and if the investigators turn up
anything new,
we'll look into it.
But you don't think
there's any there there, do you?
- He's in prison.
- Yeah.
Liam Reynolds is a dead end.
Right now,
our focus is Rusty Sabich, isn't it?
Yeah.
[TRAIN HORN HONKS]
- [PATRONS CHATTERING]
- ["GUILT" PLAYING ON SPEAKERS]
[WHISPERS] Barbara.
[LINE RINGING]
[CLEARS THROAT] Clifton,
it's, uh it's Barbara Sabich.
[CLIFTON] Yeah. Oh, um,
I was hoping you'd call.
[NO AUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
I'm sorry. Th-This was a mistake.
This was a bad idea.
[CLIFTON] Um,
who who was it who said,
"We regret the ones we don't make"?
[CLEARS THROAT]
["RISK IT ALL" PLAYING ON SPEAKERS]
Makes me feel safe.
Oof.
Isn't that bad in the art world?
[CHUCKLES]
[BARBARA] Not for me.
And honestly, safe has been
a little elusive for me lately.
Lewis Carroll.
What?
"In the end, the only choices
we regret are the ones we didn't take."
Thought it was Oscar Wilde.
Now I feel a little less safe.
I really don't want to be the one
to make the first move.
I don't want you to do anything
you don't want to.
Oh, I want.
[CLIFTON] Mmm.
I just shouldn't.
- [CHUCKLES]
- Mmm.
But I want.
[INHALING DEEPLY]
I had no involvement with that.
But you had an involvement with her,
Mr. Ratzer.
Your semen secretions
were found in her apartment.
But I wasn't there that night.
Oh, so you do have
memory of her after all?
You had sex with this woman?
Yeah, it's possible.
Possible?
Look, I had relations with prostitutes,
okay?
You know, and, uh, she looks familiar,
all right?
[BRIAN SIGHS]
But look, hey [STAMMERS]
I love my wife, okay? [STAMMERS]
But after [STAMMERS] four children,
she had little to no interest in sex.
So, sometimes, yeah. Not often.
And this man?
Nah, I don't know him.
I've never seen him before.
[MYA] Are you sure?
[BRIAN SCOFFS] Yeah, I'm sure.
Why would I lie?
[MYA] Are you worried about
being implicated in her death,
which maybe you already are,
since your DNA was found at the scene?
[BRIAN SCOFFS]
[SIGHS]
We know Liam Reynolds did this.
If you do know this man,
now would be the time to tell us.
We're gonna have to pursue this further.
[CHUCKLES] Look,
I-I don't know this man, all right?
We know you were there.
I've never seen him before and
and I I had nothing to do with that.
[BREATHES HEAVILY]
[CHATTERING]
[OFFICER 1] Arms out.
- [OFFICER 2] Next.
- [OFFICER 3] Turn around for me.
- [OFFICER 1] That's good. In line.
- [OFFICER 2] Morning.
[OFFICER 1] You're all good.
[REPORTERS CLAMORING]
[REPORTER] Mr. Molto,
can I get a quick comment on the record?
We understand that
there's been the tender of a plea.
This office will not be entertaining
any plea.
The defendant is accused of murder
and no lesser charge
will be so much as considered.
Beyond that,
we look forward to a fair trial
where we can exact
the appropriate measure of justice.
I'm sorry, that's all I got.
A-And what would
the appropriate measure of justice be?
[CHATTERING]
[SHUTTERS CLICKING]
Actually
I will say this.
There has been a grotesque
and systematic lack of accountability
that's been going on
for too long in this city.
Actually, I would say in this country.
Wall Street criminally plunged
innocent people into poverty
with their mortgage schemes,
and not one banker went to prison.
Pharmaceutical companies
prioritized profits
over patients' lives with their opioids.
No one from that
industry went to prison.
So, the message has been sent
and received in America,
that if you're high enough,
you can do and get away
with just about anything.
Well, not anymore. No, sir.
[REPORTERS CLAMORING]
Tommy, can can you tell me
how that was helpful to us?
Tommy.
- Tommy, I'm asking you a question.
- Just give me a second.
Okay.
[INHALES SHARPLY]
Uh
I really appreciate the appointment.
[SIGHS]
I'm really [EXHALES HEAVILY]
I'm grateful for the appointment,
really.
What I don't appreciate, and I won't
tolerate,
is this low-grade distrust.
I'm I'm good at what I do.
Do Do you think I would give
you this case if I didn't think that?
Well, I know a lot of people
around here that have
[CHUCKLING]
like, some kind of a problem with me.
And the reason is
they're picking up on cues,
and not just from Raymond and Rusty,
but from you.
[NICO STAMMERS] Tommy.
[SIGHS]
W-What's happened to you
- [TOMMY] For the record
- in the last month?
For the record
[SMACKS LIPS]
To have the best shot at conviction,
I need to cultivate respect
and goodwill from the jury pool, right?
That's why I made the statement.
I'm the good guy in all this.
Potential jurors, they need to know it
and better yet, they need to feel it.
They need to understand
that something is so
because Tommy Molto says it's so.
[SHOWER RUNNING]
[REPORTER SPEAKS
INDISTINCTLY THROUGH DEVICE]
- [RUSTY] Jaden, it's 7:30, honey.
- Honey, is your bag ready?
I mean, it's right there.
[CLEARS THROAT] Hey.
No murder trials at breakfast,
especially mine.
Turn it off.
I have a gigantic zit on my face.
Can you please tell
me if it's cancerous?
- It is not.
- It's huge.
- It's probably stress.
- [JADEN] Are you sure?
Let me see. Let me look.
- You look nice. You have an interview?
- [BARBARA] Thank you.
- Uh, therapy, actually.
- That's gotta be a brain tumor.
You're dressed like that
for your therapist?
I am.
- She likes me to look pretty.
- Where is my phone?
I swea Can somebody call my phone?
- Will you ring your father's phone?
- [CHUCKLES] I'll call it.
[RUSTY] I swear to God that it's here.
- Ringing.
- [KYLE] There.
- [PHONE RINGING]
- [UTENSIL CLINKING]
[JADEN] Must be near.
Who is this?
This is Jaden.
[RUSTY] What are you thinking?
Nothing.
I don't believe you.
[CHUCKLES] This is nice.
That's it.
It is nice.
Can you tell your mom
she looks beautiful for me?
[CHUCKLES] I can.
[CHUCKLES]
- [RUSTY] Okay. Bye, you guys.
- [KYLE] Bye.
[BARBARA, JADEN] Bye.
[CAR ALARM SOUNDS]
- Stop touching. You're making it worse.
- [JADEN] I'm not touching it.
What W-Why is
Why is Kyle's bike in the trash?
I don't know.
I-I-I didn't put it there, honey.
It is trash.
I mean, the gears are shot and the,
you know the chain
keeps coming loose.
So I just
Okay.
[GRUNTS]
[KEYS JINGLING]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[DR. RUSH] And this was when?
[BARBARA] A week or so ago.
And we had a session last Monday.
Dr. Rush, can we please
not make this about untruths?
- I just can't
- [DR. RUSH] No, no, I've No, I'm
Oh, and and and clearly, you've
[STAMMERS] you've been
considering having an affair with him
far longer than that.
An aff [CHUCKLES] It was just a kiss.
That wasn't
just a kiss.
It sounds like it was a
like it was a romance.
[CHUCKLES]
Yeah.
Well, it was romantic.
- [DR. RUSH CHUCKLES]
- [BARBARA] Deeply romantic.
[SIGHS]
Maybe that is why
you didn't tell me.
I don't know why I didn't tell you.
I [SIGHS]
I'm not ashamed.
I'm not.
[STAMMERS, BREATHES HEAVILY]
[SIGHS]
Knowing I could.
Knowing I was
wanted.
Yeah.
Desired. I felt relieved.
You know
when I was, um, at Clifton's place,
I was walking up the stairs,
and I remember thinking
Jaden would be so proud of me.
- [CHUCKLES]
- [DR. RUSH] Jaden?
I feel her
[CRYING] I feel her judgment.
[SNIFFLES]
And I [SNIFFLES]
I mean, I could be projecting
because I judge myself
[CRIES]
for staying with him.
[CRIES] For forgiving him.
[SNIFFLES]
For loving him. [SNIFFLES]
Yeah, I could have fucked Clifton
[SNIFFLES] but I didn't.
[EXHALES HEAVILY, SNIFFLES]
So you tell me [SNIFFLES]
is that something I
should be proud of?
[RAYMOND] Hey.
Hey.
Listen, I'm
I'm not saying it's unwinnable.
I can win this case, Rusty.
But you need to let me.
Can we allude to the son
or Liam Reynolds? Sure.
But our case is not
somebody else did it,
or at least,
not somebody else specifically.
Our defense is that
they cannot prove you did it.
We need to establish
a credible alternative to me.
Otherwise it it's
I disagree.
Does Barbara think you're guilty?
Of course not. What are you getting at?
Are you sure?
Yes, I'm sure.
Lorraine is 100% convinced
that you did it.
Well, it's obviously not coming from me,
and she's not one to readily
believe what's reported in the news.
She and Barbara are close.
Barbara knows that I am innocent.
I hope so, 'cause this case,
it may come down to her.
How so? She can't establish an alibi.
[RAYMOND] She, as your wife,
- can attest to your demeanor
- No, no
later that night.
How you acted behaved,
- whether you were agitated
- no, no. We are not
- putting her on the stand.
- distracted.
- She could testify
- No, Ray.
from her very unique perspective
that you could not possibly
have committed
- a murder in the hours before.
- [SIGHS]
That sends a message to everyone
watching that she believes in you.
She believes in your innocence.
That counts for something.
I know that much.
Also, it goes without saying,
but I'm gonna offer it all the same.
Between now and the trial,
let's not be beating anybody else up.
[REPORTER] We're finally here.
Tomorrow, the trial that has not
only grabbed the attention of Chicago,
but the whole country, is set to begin.
Rusty Sabich will be brought
before a jury of his peers
to face charges for the
murder of his former colleague,
Carolyn Polhemus.
[SHUTTERS CLICKING]
- [THUNDER RUMBLES]
- [NO AUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
[SHUTTERS CLICKING]
- [NO AUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
- [SHUTTERS CLICKING]
[SIREN WAILING]
[NO AUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
All right.
Mr. Molto.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
we already met during voir dire,
but allow me to introduce myself again.
My name is Tommasino Molto,
but I'm from Chicago like you,
so it's Tommy.
I'll be prosecuting the case along with
Mr. Nico Della Guardia,
who you also met.
We represent the State.
We'll present to you
evidence of a crime.
You will weigh this evidence,
you'll deliberate upon it
and, ultimately, you'll decide
if it proves the defendant's guilt.
This man is accused
in the murder of Carolyn Polhemus.
And we will present to you testimonial,
physical,
scientific and forensic evidence
that will lead you to form a conclusion.
One word about the victim.
I knew her.
And we all knew her.
Um, she was a colleague
in the district attorney's office.
Loved by all.
From an evidence standpoint,
it shouldn't matter that I knew her.
Admired her. That I miss her.
That has no evidentiary
meaning or value,
but I won't pretend
that it doesn't matter.
So if I show my feelings,
let me apologize for that right now.
Prosecutors are expected
to be tough, right?
Unfeeling.
Just functionary.
Well, we are functionaries
of the only universally accepted system
for distinguishing wrong from right.
We're bureaucrats.
I suppose you imagine that,
after years of making charges
and trying cases and seeing defendants
come and go,
that we'd become inured.
It was all just a kind of blur.
Well, not today, because I did know her.
Today, you all of you
have taken on one of the most solemn
obligations of citizenship,
and your job is simply
to find the truth. The facts.
And it's not an easy task,
as we all know.
As memories fail,
recollections become shaded
and evidence points
in different directions,
you might be forced to decide
about something
that no one seems to know
or be willing to say.
And the evidence, in this case,
the details are unspeakably gruesome.
I'm gonna show you an image.
It's quite violent.
[JURY GASPS]
Right. So if you were watching this
at home, you would turn it off,
not watch, not listen, not see this.
No one should have
to watch it or listen to it.
But here, you must.
You have to, right?
It's a real crime. It's a real victim.
Carolyn Polhemus.
And she had a son,
Michael.
So there's real pain.
In the end, you don't have to try
to figure out why it happened.
A person's motives, after all,
may be forever locked away inside them.
But you do have to try
to determine what occurred.
Otherwise, we won't know whether or not
this man deserves to be
freed or punished.
And if we can't find the truth,
what is the hope of justice?
That's why Carolyn
got into this line of work.
That is why we all got
into this line of work.
Hope for justice.
So, in the end, I
I won't be asking you to cry
for Carolyn, though you might.
And I won't be asking you
to feel for her family and her son.
Of course you will.
I simply implore you to be true.
To be faithful to the truth.
Which, Carolyn,
that's all she would have asked.
Just be faithful to the truth.
Thank you.
[SIGHS]
Fuck.