Grotesquerie (2024) s01e01 Episode Script
Pilot
1
♪
[OMINOUS DRONING]
[RAPID BEEPING]
- [GASPS]
- [PHONE RINGING]
The fuck?
God.
[GRUNTS]
[PHONE RINGING]
Speak.
Mm
Oh Slow down.
How many?
[SIREN WAILING]
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
[BRAKES SQUEAK]
[ENGINE SHUTS OFF]
Oh, Jesus.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
You're not gonna
believe this, Detective.
[LOIS] Try me.
[OFFICER] Family's name is Burnside.
Dad was a radiologist at the university.
Mom was a nutritionist there, too.
Three kids.
[SIGHS]
What the hell, Jack?
Just, uh
Just hand it over to the
Feds, Lois, we don't need it.
We don't.
The FBI? Why?
Because if this isn't a hate crime,
I don't know what is.
Hate against what?
Everything.
[OFFICER RETCHES]
[GAGGING]
[SIGHS]
[CAMERA CLICKING]
[RADIO CHATTER]
♪
[CAMERA CLICKS]
[TIMER TICKING]
[TIMER RINGING]
[BUBBLING]
♪
["WISH I DIDN'T MISS YOU"
BY ANGIE STONE PLAYING]
Oh, yeah, yeah ♪
[POLICE RADIO CHATTER]
Ooh, oh, yeah, yeah ♪
[THUNDER RUMBLES]
Same old story back again ♪
She's not a lover,
she's just a friend ♪
I'm sick and tired
for you to blame on me ♪
[TIRES SCREECH]
Now you think it's funny ♪
[GRUNTING]
The end is near!
You know it!
I'm gonna kill you!
I'm gonna kill you all!
Wake up! Wake up!
The end is near!
- You know it!
- [HORN HONKS]
Get out of the way!
I'm gonna kill you and
your black fucking soul.
I am not the one. Not today.
- [SIREN WHOOPS]
- The end is fucking here!
I know where you live!
I know where you live!
I know where you live!
Wake up! Wake up!
[SIGHS]
[RAIN PATTERING]
[MERRITT] Mom.
Mom, can you bring the taquitos, please?
They're almost done.
And don't forget the avocado salsa.
Yeah. Avocado. [SIGHS]
Fucking taquitos.
Christ.
[QUIZ SHOW CHATTER ON TV]
[CONTESTANT RINGS IN]
[MERRITT] What is perspective?
[TV HOST] We'll accept
perspective or perception.
[CHATTER CONTINUES ON TV]
[CONTESTANT RINGS IN]
[MERRITT] What is quintessence?
[TV HOST] Yes, you are right, for 800.
[CONTESTANT] "Go West," 800.
[TV HOST] Lewis and Clark were chosen
to explore this newly
acquired territory.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
[CONTESTANT] What is
the Louisiana Purchase?
[CHATTER CONTINUES ON TV]
You should really go on this show.
It's not the show I want to go on, Mom,
- you know that.
- But you would win.
Big. You would win big, too.
Since you want to talk about
what people should be doing,
what about the bike, huh?
- Mm-mm, mm-mm.
- You bought it over a month ago.
I haven't seen you on it once.
That's not the ride I
want to take right now.
That thing's a killer. No, ma'am.
My goodness.
Let me see if I can get this going.
- [CONTESTANT RINGS IN]
- [MERRITT] What is melatonin?
[LOIS] Let me see
[CHATTER CONTINUES ON TV]
Let me see?
That's the middle piece.
Goes in the center.
Look.
You should put it there.
Everything else will connect.
- And how do you know that?
- Because I can tell.
[CHUCKLES]
[GRUNTS]
[GROANS SOFTLY]
How is that rash, Mom?
- Let me see it.
- Uh-uh.
Let's just keep watching this.
Mm. All right.
Told you, you need to
be using that ointment.
[SIGHS]
The last thing you want
is to get an infection.
You remember how it was
when I got that bedsore.
I don't need you mothering
me, Merritt, I don't.
Who was Calliope?
[LOIS] I just want to
enjoy my goddamn drink
and decompress.
That's it.
[TAQUITO CRUNCHING]
[THUNDER RUMBLES]
Something happened. What happened?
Work? What happened?
You never ask me about work.
You never ask me questions.
You say you don't want to know.
Okay, so now I do.
Something's not right
with you. What's going on?
Leave it be.
- Leave it be.
- Yeah, something's off with you.
All right, whatever.
Okay. You know what I'm-a do?
I'm going to bed.
And I will go see Marshall tomorrow.
[GRUNTS]
[CHATTER CONTINUES OVER TV]
[CONTESTANT RINGS IN]
What is the continental
divide? [CRUNCHES]
♪
- [BEEPS]
- [AIR HISSES]
♪
♪
♪
[AIR HISSING]
[BREATHING SLOWLY]
[REDD] The ECMO machine supplies
oxygen straight to the blood,
patient has had dialysis twice.
Excessive acid in the body fluids.
Prolonged endotracheal intubation,
that's anything exceeding seven days.
And Mr. Tryon here has been
on the ventilator for
28 days.
Can we name any of the associated risks?
- Myopathy.
- Diaphragm dysfunction.
Uh, yes. Correct.
Gold stars all around. Excuse me.
Mrs. Tryon.
If I could have a moment?
[LOIS] Reassess?
R-Reassess what?
[REDD] It's a cost-benefit analysis.
We're not a major hospital.
Because we want to keep Marshall
on life support long-term,
there are places that'll do that.
And to be clear, I'm
encouraging this approach.
What would you do, uh,
if it were your husband?
Look.
Let's just be real, okay?
Fight for your man.
Do everything you can
to preserve his life,
his extraordinary mind.
My God, this man's a keeper.
And I think you know that.
I'm very fond of him.
[SIGHS]
Okay.
I don't mean to be
crass, Nurse Redd, but
- you don't really know him.
- Mm.
He's he's not with us.
I don't feel his spirit anymore.
Oh, it's there.
It is there.
Behind the tubes
and the toes and the fingers curling
in twisted, hideous, rigor mortis.
Even when I wipe that man's ass,
- I
- Excuse me?
Well, you don't do it, do you?
I do.
I'm a nurse.
That is what I do.
My God, the mind of this man.
The man of letters.
The professor of literature.
[REDD EXHALES]
I get a shiver in my quiver
just thinking about it.
[SCOFFS]
Are you aware
there are studies that
suggest that individuals
in medically-induced comas
are aware of their surroundings?
Helpful hint:
Maybe when you are here,
be a little more attentive, hmm?
Present?
- Excuse me?
- Yes.
According to my records,
this is what occurred
the last time you visited.
At 7:35, you arrived
and mumbled something
that sounded like, "Hey, how you doing?"
Not very loving.
What in the fuck?
[STAMMERS]
You have cameras in
his room recording me?
As a matter of fact, I do.
I had them installed in
every room on that floor
ever since an orderly impregnated
a very ripe young
woman in a coma in 2019
under my unsuspecting watch.
And my hospital was forced to settle
an unseemingly large, vulgar lawsuit.
At 7:39,
after a brief period of hand-holding,
you became distracted by your iPhone
- and began scrolling through
- Let me ask you.
You ever been married?
'Cause my guess is no.
You're correct.
This is what marriage is.
Showing up.
White-knuckling it
through the pain and regret
and fucking watching TMZ
and playing Candy Crush,
'cause at this point,
after all these years,
there are no more cocktail
conversations to be had.
[SCOFFS]
You have a good day.
And one more thing:
Mind your goddamn business.
You understand?
I don't take shit.
And while I appreciate
your care of my husband
my husband
I won't be judged by you
or anybody else at this point
in my long, exhausted life.
That part.
He knows.
He hears!
- He feels!
- [DOOR CLOSES]
[LOIS] There is nothing there.
All the DNA is from the family's.
And the secretion stuff
is still unidentifiable
and headed to the CDC.
No fibers,
- no cleaning agents, no bleach.
- [DEVICE WHIRRING, BEEPING]
[HANOVER] No prints, no cleaning.
- Seems almost impossible.
- [MONITOR BEEPING]
Lois.
Lois.
The, um
Quantico is sending a-a
a lab team,
but they won't find anything we missed
because we didn't miss anything.
What do we know about the family?
[LOIS] Well, by all
accounts, the Burnsides
are a comfortable,
loving, thriving family
made up of goodwill,
good jobs, good grades.
You have to really hate people
to do something like this.
It's-it's inhuman. No.
It's unhuman.
And more than that,
you have to have done
something like this before.
This is this is not a first-timer.
You know? That takes expertise.
[FINN] We're checking all the databases,
but nothing similar is coming
up as far as back as records go.
Something about it
seems so familiar to me,
like-like I've seen it before.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACH]
Detective?
There's some, uh, nun here to see you.
Says she's with this Catholic
news service or something.
A reporter nun.
♪
[SIGHS]
- Sister?
- Thank you, yes.
I'm Sister Megan. You made time for me.
[LOIS] I really didn't have much choice.
Can't turn away a nun at the door.
Our dear Lord and
savior might swoop down
and kick my ass for that.
[LAUGHS]
- Huh.
- I'm sorry?
You are young.
And the first nun I've ever seen
with a cell phone in her pocket.
- Mm.
- What is it I can do for you?
You have information
about the Burnsides?
No.
It's hard to explain.
Is there somewhere we can sit?
I could buy you a coffee
if you have the time.
I don't.
But we have good coffee here.
My husband got us one of
those machines from Italy.
Oh, wow.
That sounds perfect.
This way.
[WHIRRING]
I don't understand why
The Catholic Guardian
is interested in murder.
We're a more progressive
weekly newspaper,
put out by the followers
of Saint Claret,
- who was a writer.
- Uh-huh.
We're funded by the Order of Claretians.
It's an order based on knowledge.
We put faith in the
context of everyday life
and are more focused on social justice.
Mm.
So, liberal Catholics?
You want to drive traffic
to your dwindling online
site by talking about murder.
Uh the more gruesome, the better.
The more traffic.
The more readership.
Am I right?
The truth is, my reporting
on crimes and cults
has increased our online
readership significantly.
- Crimes and cults?
- As a person of faith,
I'm interested in rituals and cults
and their place in American life now.
They're replacing
traditional avenues of worship
and the way the battle
between good and evil
is manifested through them.
[EXHALES]
And you think the Burnsides
were murdered ritually.
How do you know that?
The Burnsides were devout.
Devout believers in social justice.
And the Church is a place
of justice and refuge.
Their priest
is a friend of mine.
I would like to talk to him.
Of course, Detective.
You have an entire family murdered.
Is that correct?
I have an ongoing investigation
into five homicides in one house.
Go on.
[PEN CLICKS]
On background.
[MOZART'S REQUIEM PLAYING]
[BABY FUSSING]
[MAN GRUNTING]
The mother Alison Burnside
and her two children
- were tied up
- [SAWING]
with some sort of tactical wire.
The father was salted and peppered,
seasoned with fennel seed
and cayenne and roasted
for two hours in a 375 degree oven
with sunchokes and baby carrots.
Mr. Burnside's cheeks were
thinly sliced
think carpaccio
and served along with his liver,
lungs
and kidneys
in some sort of a
sauce that we have yet to identify.
And there is evidence
that the family had eaten some of this.
And then, um
there is the matter of, um, the
you know.
[WOMAN HYSTERICALLY CRYING] No!
Please, please, please, please!
I don't know.
What was boiling
in the pot?
Think about the worst thing
you can never unsee,
boiling in a pot.
That's your answer right there.
The mother
and her children
died of heart failure.
Do you understand this?
They were watching
and their hearts stopped beating.
Died of some sort of a acute shock
watching this.
And then, we came in
because their neighbor,
Mr. Burger,
reported hearing loud
chamber music at 3:00 a.m.
[MOZART'S REQUIEM PLAYING]
[MEGAN] What kind of chamber music?
Vodka, Sister?
Mozart.
The Requiem.
It's the Requiem?
Yes. How did you know?
It seemed to fit.
Did you guess? Really, uh
You-you guessed?
♪
Tell me more, Sister.
Why do you say, "It fits"?
Is there something
else you're not sharing?
No.
I sensed it.
I sometimes It's logic.
A kind of logic. Internally.
It's Mozart mourning death.
His own, really.
♪
[SIGHS]
Well
maybe you could help
me with something else.
There was an odd liquid
all over the house
and we still don't know what it is.
Maybe you can help me figure
out what that shit is, too.
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
The smell changes every now and then
from citrus to amber.
Then rotting flesh and so on.
A burning smell.
Acrid.
[MEGAN] Acrid?
Smells acrid?
That could be from hair burning.
The keratin.
I see.
Keratin burning.
So, again, on background.
Why did you tell me all that?
On background?
Maybe because you're a woman?
Maybe because the notion of a nun
who's a journalist
covering crime, I like it?
I don't really know.
Are you a person of faith?
That's it. I'm not gonna
tell you everything, Sister.
And you have no theories of the case?
No idea, no suspect,
no clues of any kind?
It's like something you see in war.
What you are describing,
it's an atrocity, a war crime.
Something that happens in places
where there is no more
hope and no more order.
[LOIS] Well
maybe that applies to here,
and now, and us.
I asked you before if
you're a woman of faith,
if you believe in the Lord.
Do you?
Do I believe someone died for my sins?
Do I believe in divinity?
In the redemptive power of
of what?
No.
I do believe in prayer.
You?
Half the time.
Which is better than never.
♪
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
[FEMALE OVER TV] Waters by Clearview
invites you to join the great escape
to Florida.
Say so long to pollution, crime,
rising inflation, and bleak winters.
[WES SLURRED] Man get us
a five-dollar girl
up in here.
Do something strange for
a little piece of change.
[WEAK LAUGH]
[FEMALE ON TV] So come on down.
The sun is warming.
[MAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY ON TV]
[DOORBELL BUZZING]
[WES] Back, back, back again.
- [TV CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY]
- [SIGHS]
[D] What?
[DOORBELL CONTINUES BUZZING]
[LATCH RATTLES]
[FRANTIC BANGING AT DOOR]
[D] Syd, that you?
[DOORBELL AND KNOCKING CONTINUES]
[DOORKNOB RATTLES]
[DOORBELL BUZZES]
- [SIREN WHOOPS]
- Thought you were going
scuba diving or something.
[CRANBURN] Who needs the
Galápagos when you got
weekly mass murders right here at home.
Nance took the kids.
We had a wire on this
place six months ago.
I said we should've made a move then.
You don't bust these guys,
they end up busting each
other and at a far higher cost.
Lois, this wasn't a grab.
APB said "armed B and
E" Where is everybody?
They're all inside.
- Just call them.
- The feds?
You don't get paid enough
to be dealing with this shit.
You don't know how much I make.
It's not enough.
[FLIES BUZZING]
Careful. Cleaners took the day off.
[CARTOONS PLAYING OVER TV]
Anyone who does not need
to be in here right now,
take a small break.
Thank you.
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTERING]
[CRANBURN] Let's go,
guys. Come on, hustle up.
♪
[LOIS] My God.
[SIGHS]
Where's the blood, Jack?
Drained.
[LOIS] Drained where?
[CRANBURN] I couldn't tell
you, but before whomever,
whatever staged them,
we haven't found a drop of
it anywhere in the house.
Just that fluid again.
[LOIS] Just like the Burnside's.
Find the blood, Jack.
I mean, it's either
been dumped somewhere,
or being stored.
[STAMMERS] Call Holcomb County,
get the team of cadaver dogs down here
to sniff it out.
[WOMAN] Romans 6.
[JACK] The fuck are you?
[LOIS] Sister. You cannot be here.
Out. Out, out, out.
Let's go. Out. Now.
Fuck.
- [MEGAN] Sorry.
- What the fuck are you doing?
This is an active crime scene.
You know who comes to crime scenes?
Most of the times, it-it's the perp
- and you can't
- You're right. I'm sorry.
I'm gone.
Wait.
Come here.
Go inside. Take notes.
And don't touch anything.
- Lois, what are you doing?
- Doing?
I'm putting a fresh
pair of eyes on it, Jack.
You got a problem with it?
♪
Dr. Mayhew, a visitor at the main lobby.
[SIGHS]
Taquitos, Marsh.
Two dozen. Can you fucking believe it?
And, and I try to say,
"Slow down, slow down on the calories."
She tells me, "Slow
down on the drinking."
But since you've been in here,
she won't stop.
And now [CHUCKLES]
she's determined
to be on this insane reality show
Half-Ton something.
Hmm.
She made me watch it. I couldn't do it.
Mm-mm.
I couldn't do it.
She has aspirations
to be the star of this thing, Marsh.
Why would she want that?
I went by the old Five Spot Bar.
It's closed.
I guess you will go down
in history as the only man
to ever propose marriage
to a woman in that dive.
And on the day I
graduated from the academy.
Shit.
[CHUCKLES]
I pretended to be mad at you.
[SIGHS] But a shiny new badge
and a diamond ring
in the same afternoon?
I was a happy girl.
Come back to me.
Something is happening,
and I
and I need you.
I
can't quite put my finger on it.
I don't
I don't know how it started.
But it's like a hole
opened up in the world
to the to the center of nothingness.
[CHUCKLES]
You would [CHUCKLES]
You would say
"Evil has always existed
in the world, hon."
You would quote some
statistic that said there was
less murder,
more health,
less global horror.
"Never been a better time
to be alive, hon."
That's what you would say.
[SNIFFLES] I need you to c
to come back, Marsh,
because it's not getting better.
I need to hear your answers on this.
Something something
is happening around us.
Nobody sees but me.
[CRYING]
[UNLOCKS DOOR]
[CLOSES DOOR]
[CREAKING]
[RUSTLING]
[DOG BARKING OUTSIDE]
[SIGHS]
♪
♪
[RADIO TUNING]
[MOZART'S REQUIEM PLAYING]
♪
Stop!
[MERRITT] What the fuck?
Mom, what is happening?
Get back in the house.
Everything is fine.
Everything is fine?
Why are you firing your gun?
Have you lost your mind?
As a matter of fact, I have.
Get in the house.
Go, Merritt!
Get your ass in the house!
[MERRITT SIGHS]
[SCOFFS]
Come on.
- [SIREN WAILS IN DISTANCE]
- [DOGS BARKING]
I'm waiting.
" as he was raised from the dead,
by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in
the newness of life."
It's interesting.
Christ is crucified and walks again.
The sinner is invited to walk with him,
yet whoever did this
has cut them in half.
As if to say he is the
final word on death.
Or she.
This-this case
- What?
- [SIGHS]
Whoever is doing the
devil's work here is
Fucking with you?
Sister. Language.
You are an odd little
bird for a goddamn nun.
So I've been told.
Also, just my two cents,
with the way the world is going,
horrible news and
cataclysms at every turn,
everything now feels
personal to everybody.
Maybe you're right.
I used to feel so tough.
I don't want this case.
Who else in your department can you
authorize to investigate it, then?
Not a goddamn one of
the men that work for me,
that's for sure.
[EXHALES]
Then I guess you're stuck with me.
The Swearing Nun.
Damned straight.
[LOIS CHUCKLES]
[SIGHS]
Okay, so
we got the chemical report back
from the first crime scene
just before you arrived.
This is off the record.
Large concentrations
of sulfur dioxide.
Someone is messing with you.
Go on, Cagney to my Lacey.
- That's brimstone.
- What?
From the Bible.
It's what's in acid rain.
It's a curse, biblically.
It's what's behind the acrid
smell you described before.
Um, "The breath of Yahweh,
like a stream of brimstone,
doth kindle it." Book of Isaiah.
Or, "A third of mankind was
killed by these three plagues,
"by the fire, the
smoke and the brimstone
which proceeded out of their mouths."
Book of Revelation.
Always comforting, that one.
Great.
A religious psychopath.
♪
[OMINOUS DRONING]
[RAPID BEEPING]
- [GASPS]
- [PHONE RINGING]
The fuck?
God.
[GRUNTS]
[PHONE RINGING]
Speak.
Mm
Oh Slow down.
How many?
[SIREN WAILING]
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
[BRAKES SQUEAK]
[ENGINE SHUTS OFF]
Oh, Jesus.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
You're not gonna
believe this, Detective.
[LOIS] Try me.
[OFFICER] Family's name is Burnside.
Dad was a radiologist at the university.
Mom was a nutritionist there, too.
Three kids.
[SIGHS]
What the hell, Jack?
Just, uh
Just hand it over to the
Feds, Lois, we don't need it.
We don't.
The FBI? Why?
Because if this isn't a hate crime,
I don't know what is.
Hate against what?
Everything.
[OFFICER RETCHES]
[GAGGING]
[SIGHS]
[CAMERA CLICKING]
[RADIO CHATTER]
♪
[CAMERA CLICKS]
[TIMER TICKING]
[TIMER RINGING]
[BUBBLING]
♪
["WISH I DIDN'T MISS YOU"
BY ANGIE STONE PLAYING]
Oh, yeah, yeah ♪
[POLICE RADIO CHATTER]
Ooh, oh, yeah, yeah ♪
[THUNDER RUMBLES]
Same old story back again ♪
She's not a lover,
she's just a friend ♪
I'm sick and tired
for you to blame on me ♪
[TIRES SCREECH]
Now you think it's funny ♪
[GRUNTING]
The end is near!
You know it!
I'm gonna kill you!
I'm gonna kill you all!
Wake up! Wake up!
The end is near!
- You know it!
- [HORN HONKS]
Get out of the way!
I'm gonna kill you and
your black fucking soul.
I am not the one. Not today.
- [SIREN WHOOPS]
- The end is fucking here!
I know where you live!
I know where you live!
I know where you live!
Wake up! Wake up!
[SIGHS]
[RAIN PATTERING]
[MERRITT] Mom.
Mom, can you bring the taquitos, please?
They're almost done.
And don't forget the avocado salsa.
Yeah. Avocado. [SIGHS]
Fucking taquitos.
Christ.
[QUIZ SHOW CHATTER ON TV]
[CONTESTANT RINGS IN]
[MERRITT] What is perspective?
[TV HOST] We'll accept
perspective or perception.
[CHATTER CONTINUES ON TV]
[CONTESTANT RINGS IN]
[MERRITT] What is quintessence?
[TV HOST] Yes, you are right, for 800.
[CONTESTANT] "Go West," 800.
[TV HOST] Lewis and Clark were chosen
to explore this newly
acquired territory.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
[CONTESTANT] What is
the Louisiana Purchase?
[CHATTER CONTINUES ON TV]
You should really go on this show.
It's not the show I want to go on, Mom,
- you know that.
- But you would win.
Big. You would win big, too.
Since you want to talk about
what people should be doing,
what about the bike, huh?
- Mm-mm, mm-mm.
- You bought it over a month ago.
I haven't seen you on it once.
That's not the ride I
want to take right now.
That thing's a killer. No, ma'am.
My goodness.
Let me see if I can get this going.
- [CONTESTANT RINGS IN]
- [MERRITT] What is melatonin?
[LOIS] Let me see
[CHATTER CONTINUES ON TV]
Let me see?
That's the middle piece.
Goes in the center.
Look.
You should put it there.
Everything else will connect.
- And how do you know that?
- Because I can tell.
[CHUCKLES]
[GRUNTS]
[GROANS SOFTLY]
How is that rash, Mom?
- Let me see it.
- Uh-uh.
Let's just keep watching this.
Mm. All right.
Told you, you need to
be using that ointment.
[SIGHS]
The last thing you want
is to get an infection.
You remember how it was
when I got that bedsore.
I don't need you mothering
me, Merritt, I don't.
Who was Calliope?
[LOIS] I just want to
enjoy my goddamn drink
and decompress.
That's it.
[TAQUITO CRUNCHING]
[THUNDER RUMBLES]
Something happened. What happened?
Work? What happened?
You never ask me about work.
You never ask me questions.
You say you don't want to know.
Okay, so now I do.
Something's not right
with you. What's going on?
Leave it be.
- Leave it be.
- Yeah, something's off with you.
All right, whatever.
Okay. You know what I'm-a do?
I'm going to bed.
And I will go see Marshall tomorrow.
[GRUNTS]
[CHATTER CONTINUES OVER TV]
[CONTESTANT RINGS IN]
What is the continental
divide? [CRUNCHES]
♪
- [BEEPS]
- [AIR HISSES]
♪
♪
♪
[AIR HISSING]
[BREATHING SLOWLY]
[REDD] The ECMO machine supplies
oxygen straight to the blood,
patient has had dialysis twice.
Excessive acid in the body fluids.
Prolonged endotracheal intubation,
that's anything exceeding seven days.
And Mr. Tryon here has been
on the ventilator for
28 days.
Can we name any of the associated risks?
- Myopathy.
- Diaphragm dysfunction.
Uh, yes. Correct.
Gold stars all around. Excuse me.
Mrs. Tryon.
If I could have a moment?
[LOIS] Reassess?
R-Reassess what?
[REDD] It's a cost-benefit analysis.
We're not a major hospital.
Because we want to keep Marshall
on life support long-term,
there are places that'll do that.
And to be clear, I'm
encouraging this approach.
What would you do, uh,
if it were your husband?
Look.
Let's just be real, okay?
Fight for your man.
Do everything you can
to preserve his life,
his extraordinary mind.
My God, this man's a keeper.
And I think you know that.
I'm very fond of him.
[SIGHS]
Okay.
I don't mean to be
crass, Nurse Redd, but
- you don't really know him.
- Mm.
He's he's not with us.
I don't feel his spirit anymore.
Oh, it's there.
It is there.
Behind the tubes
and the toes and the fingers curling
in twisted, hideous, rigor mortis.
Even when I wipe that man's ass,
- I
- Excuse me?
Well, you don't do it, do you?
I do.
I'm a nurse.
That is what I do.
My God, the mind of this man.
The man of letters.
The professor of literature.
[REDD EXHALES]
I get a shiver in my quiver
just thinking about it.
[SCOFFS]
Are you aware
there are studies that
suggest that individuals
in medically-induced comas
are aware of their surroundings?
Helpful hint:
Maybe when you are here,
be a little more attentive, hmm?
Present?
- Excuse me?
- Yes.
According to my records,
this is what occurred
the last time you visited.
At 7:35, you arrived
and mumbled something
that sounded like, "Hey, how you doing?"
Not very loving.
What in the fuck?
[STAMMERS]
You have cameras in
his room recording me?
As a matter of fact, I do.
I had them installed in
every room on that floor
ever since an orderly impregnated
a very ripe young
woman in a coma in 2019
under my unsuspecting watch.
And my hospital was forced to settle
an unseemingly large, vulgar lawsuit.
At 7:39,
after a brief period of hand-holding,
you became distracted by your iPhone
- and began scrolling through
- Let me ask you.
You ever been married?
'Cause my guess is no.
You're correct.
This is what marriage is.
Showing up.
White-knuckling it
through the pain and regret
and fucking watching TMZ
and playing Candy Crush,
'cause at this point,
after all these years,
there are no more cocktail
conversations to be had.
[SCOFFS]
You have a good day.
And one more thing:
Mind your goddamn business.
You understand?
I don't take shit.
And while I appreciate
your care of my husband
my husband
I won't be judged by you
or anybody else at this point
in my long, exhausted life.
That part.
He knows.
He hears!
- He feels!
- [DOOR CLOSES]
[LOIS] There is nothing there.
All the DNA is from the family's.
And the secretion stuff
is still unidentifiable
and headed to the CDC.
No fibers,
- no cleaning agents, no bleach.
- [DEVICE WHIRRING, BEEPING]
[HANOVER] No prints, no cleaning.
- Seems almost impossible.
- [MONITOR BEEPING]
Lois.
Lois.
The, um
Quantico is sending a-a
a lab team,
but they won't find anything we missed
because we didn't miss anything.
What do we know about the family?
[LOIS] Well, by all
accounts, the Burnsides
are a comfortable,
loving, thriving family
made up of goodwill,
good jobs, good grades.
You have to really hate people
to do something like this.
It's-it's inhuman. No.
It's unhuman.
And more than that,
you have to have done
something like this before.
This is this is not a first-timer.
You know? That takes expertise.
[FINN] We're checking all the databases,
but nothing similar is coming
up as far as back as records go.
Something about it
seems so familiar to me,
like-like I've seen it before.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACH]
Detective?
There's some, uh, nun here to see you.
Says she's with this Catholic
news service or something.
A reporter nun.
♪
[SIGHS]
- Sister?
- Thank you, yes.
I'm Sister Megan. You made time for me.
[LOIS] I really didn't have much choice.
Can't turn away a nun at the door.
Our dear Lord and
savior might swoop down
and kick my ass for that.
[LAUGHS]
- Huh.
- I'm sorry?
You are young.
And the first nun I've ever seen
with a cell phone in her pocket.
- Mm.
- What is it I can do for you?
You have information
about the Burnsides?
No.
It's hard to explain.
Is there somewhere we can sit?
I could buy you a coffee
if you have the time.
I don't.
But we have good coffee here.
My husband got us one of
those machines from Italy.
Oh, wow.
That sounds perfect.
This way.
[WHIRRING]
I don't understand why
The Catholic Guardian
is interested in murder.
We're a more progressive
weekly newspaper,
put out by the followers
of Saint Claret,
- who was a writer.
- Uh-huh.
We're funded by the Order of Claretians.
It's an order based on knowledge.
We put faith in the
context of everyday life
and are more focused on social justice.
Mm.
So, liberal Catholics?
You want to drive traffic
to your dwindling online
site by talking about murder.
Uh the more gruesome, the better.
The more traffic.
The more readership.
Am I right?
The truth is, my reporting
on crimes and cults
has increased our online
readership significantly.
- Crimes and cults?
- As a person of faith,
I'm interested in rituals and cults
and their place in American life now.
They're replacing
traditional avenues of worship
and the way the battle
between good and evil
is manifested through them.
[EXHALES]
And you think the Burnsides
were murdered ritually.
How do you know that?
The Burnsides were devout.
Devout believers in social justice.
And the Church is a place
of justice and refuge.
Their priest
is a friend of mine.
I would like to talk to him.
Of course, Detective.
You have an entire family murdered.
Is that correct?
I have an ongoing investigation
into five homicides in one house.
Go on.
[PEN CLICKS]
On background.
[MOZART'S REQUIEM PLAYING]
[BABY FUSSING]
[MAN GRUNTING]
The mother Alison Burnside
and her two children
- were tied up
- [SAWING]
with some sort of tactical wire.
The father was salted and peppered,
seasoned with fennel seed
and cayenne and roasted
for two hours in a 375 degree oven
with sunchokes and baby carrots.
Mr. Burnside's cheeks were
thinly sliced
think carpaccio
and served along with his liver,
lungs
and kidneys
in some sort of a
sauce that we have yet to identify.
And there is evidence
that the family had eaten some of this.
And then, um
there is the matter of, um, the
you know.
[WOMAN HYSTERICALLY CRYING] No!
Please, please, please, please!
I don't know.
What was boiling
in the pot?
Think about the worst thing
you can never unsee,
boiling in a pot.
That's your answer right there.
The mother
and her children
died of heart failure.
Do you understand this?
They were watching
and their hearts stopped beating.
Died of some sort of a acute shock
watching this.
And then, we came in
because their neighbor,
Mr. Burger,
reported hearing loud
chamber music at 3:00 a.m.
[MOZART'S REQUIEM PLAYING]
[MEGAN] What kind of chamber music?
Vodka, Sister?
Mozart.
The Requiem.
It's the Requiem?
Yes. How did you know?
It seemed to fit.
Did you guess? Really, uh
You-you guessed?
♪
Tell me more, Sister.
Why do you say, "It fits"?
Is there something
else you're not sharing?
No.
I sensed it.
I sometimes It's logic.
A kind of logic. Internally.
It's Mozart mourning death.
His own, really.
♪
[SIGHS]
Well
maybe you could help
me with something else.
There was an odd liquid
all over the house
and we still don't know what it is.
Maybe you can help me figure
out what that shit is, too.
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
The smell changes every now and then
from citrus to amber.
Then rotting flesh and so on.
A burning smell.
Acrid.
[MEGAN] Acrid?
Smells acrid?
That could be from hair burning.
The keratin.
I see.
Keratin burning.
So, again, on background.
Why did you tell me all that?
On background?
Maybe because you're a woman?
Maybe because the notion of a nun
who's a journalist
covering crime, I like it?
I don't really know.
Are you a person of faith?
That's it. I'm not gonna
tell you everything, Sister.
And you have no theories of the case?
No idea, no suspect,
no clues of any kind?
It's like something you see in war.
What you are describing,
it's an atrocity, a war crime.
Something that happens in places
where there is no more
hope and no more order.
[LOIS] Well
maybe that applies to here,
and now, and us.
I asked you before if
you're a woman of faith,
if you believe in the Lord.
Do you?
Do I believe someone died for my sins?
Do I believe in divinity?
In the redemptive power of
of what?
No.
I do believe in prayer.
You?
Half the time.
Which is better than never.
♪
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
[FEMALE OVER TV] Waters by Clearview
invites you to join the great escape
to Florida.
Say so long to pollution, crime,
rising inflation, and bleak winters.
[WES SLURRED] Man get us
a five-dollar girl
up in here.
Do something strange for
a little piece of change.
[WEAK LAUGH]
[FEMALE ON TV] So come on down.
The sun is warming.
[MAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY ON TV]
[DOORBELL BUZZING]
[WES] Back, back, back again.
- [TV CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY]
- [SIGHS]
[D] What?
[DOORBELL CONTINUES BUZZING]
[LATCH RATTLES]
[FRANTIC BANGING AT DOOR]
[D] Syd, that you?
[DOORBELL AND KNOCKING CONTINUES]
[DOORKNOB RATTLES]
[DOORBELL BUZZES]
- [SIREN WHOOPS]
- Thought you were going
scuba diving or something.
[CRANBURN] Who needs the
Galápagos when you got
weekly mass murders right here at home.
Nance took the kids.
We had a wire on this
place six months ago.
I said we should've made a move then.
You don't bust these guys,
they end up busting each
other and at a far higher cost.
Lois, this wasn't a grab.
APB said "armed B and
E" Where is everybody?
They're all inside.
- Just call them.
- The feds?
You don't get paid enough
to be dealing with this shit.
You don't know how much I make.
It's not enough.
[FLIES BUZZING]
Careful. Cleaners took the day off.
[CARTOONS PLAYING OVER TV]
Anyone who does not need
to be in here right now,
take a small break.
Thank you.
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTERING]
[CRANBURN] Let's go,
guys. Come on, hustle up.
♪
[LOIS] My God.
[SIGHS]
Where's the blood, Jack?
Drained.
[LOIS] Drained where?
[CRANBURN] I couldn't tell
you, but before whomever,
whatever staged them,
we haven't found a drop of
it anywhere in the house.
Just that fluid again.
[LOIS] Just like the Burnside's.
Find the blood, Jack.
I mean, it's either
been dumped somewhere,
or being stored.
[STAMMERS] Call Holcomb County,
get the team of cadaver dogs down here
to sniff it out.
[WOMAN] Romans 6.
[JACK] The fuck are you?
[LOIS] Sister. You cannot be here.
Out. Out, out, out.
Let's go. Out. Now.
Fuck.
- [MEGAN] Sorry.
- What the fuck are you doing?
This is an active crime scene.
You know who comes to crime scenes?
Most of the times, it-it's the perp
- and you can't
- You're right. I'm sorry.
I'm gone.
Wait.
Come here.
Go inside. Take notes.
And don't touch anything.
- Lois, what are you doing?
- Doing?
I'm putting a fresh
pair of eyes on it, Jack.
You got a problem with it?
♪
Dr. Mayhew, a visitor at the main lobby.
[SIGHS]
Taquitos, Marsh.
Two dozen. Can you fucking believe it?
And, and I try to say,
"Slow down, slow down on the calories."
She tells me, "Slow
down on the drinking."
But since you've been in here,
she won't stop.
And now [CHUCKLES]
she's determined
to be on this insane reality show
Half-Ton something.
Hmm.
She made me watch it. I couldn't do it.
Mm-mm.
I couldn't do it.
She has aspirations
to be the star of this thing, Marsh.
Why would she want that?
I went by the old Five Spot Bar.
It's closed.
I guess you will go down
in history as the only man
to ever propose marriage
to a woman in that dive.
And on the day I
graduated from the academy.
Shit.
[CHUCKLES]
I pretended to be mad at you.
[SIGHS] But a shiny new badge
and a diamond ring
in the same afternoon?
I was a happy girl.
Come back to me.
Something is happening,
and I
and I need you.
I
can't quite put my finger on it.
I don't
I don't know how it started.
But it's like a hole
opened up in the world
to the to the center of nothingness.
[CHUCKLES]
You would [CHUCKLES]
You would say
"Evil has always existed
in the world, hon."
You would quote some
statistic that said there was
less murder,
more health,
less global horror.
"Never been a better time
to be alive, hon."
That's what you would say.
[SNIFFLES] I need you to c
to come back, Marsh,
because it's not getting better.
I need to hear your answers on this.
Something something
is happening around us.
Nobody sees but me.
[CRYING]
[UNLOCKS DOOR]
[CLOSES DOOR]
[CREAKING]
[RUSTLING]
[DOG BARKING OUTSIDE]
[SIGHS]
♪
♪
[RADIO TUNING]
[MOZART'S REQUIEM PLAYING]
♪
Stop!
[MERRITT] What the fuck?
Mom, what is happening?
Get back in the house.
Everything is fine.
Everything is fine?
Why are you firing your gun?
Have you lost your mind?
As a matter of fact, I have.
Get in the house.
Go, Merritt!
Get your ass in the house!
[MERRITT SIGHS]
[SCOFFS]
Come on.
- [SIREN WAILS IN DISTANCE]
- [DOGS BARKING]
I'm waiting.
" as he was raised from the dead,
by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in
the newness of life."
It's interesting.
Christ is crucified and walks again.
The sinner is invited to walk with him,
yet whoever did this
has cut them in half.
As if to say he is the
final word on death.
Or she.
This-this case
- What?
- [SIGHS]
Whoever is doing the
devil's work here is
Fucking with you?
Sister. Language.
You are an odd little
bird for a goddamn nun.
So I've been told.
Also, just my two cents,
with the way the world is going,
horrible news and
cataclysms at every turn,
everything now feels
personal to everybody.
Maybe you're right.
I used to feel so tough.
I don't want this case.
Who else in your department can you
authorize to investigate it, then?
Not a goddamn one of
the men that work for me,
that's for sure.
[EXHALES]
Then I guess you're stuck with me.
The Swearing Nun.
Damned straight.
[LOIS CHUCKLES]
[SIGHS]
Okay, so
we got the chemical report back
from the first crime scene
just before you arrived.
This is off the record.
Large concentrations
of sulfur dioxide.
Someone is messing with you.
Go on, Cagney to my Lacey.
- That's brimstone.
- What?
From the Bible.
It's what's in acid rain.
It's a curse, biblically.
It's what's behind the acrid
smell you described before.
Um, "The breath of Yahweh,
like a stream of brimstone,
doth kindle it." Book of Isaiah.
Or, "A third of mankind was
killed by these three plagues,
"by the fire, the
smoke and the brimstone
which proceeded out of their mouths."
Book of Revelation.
Always comforting, that one.
Great.
A religious psychopath.