Great Expectations (2023) s01e02 Episode Script

1
Soon it'll be you hitting
the iron and making the tools.
If I had two guineas in my pocket,
instead of two pennies,
I'd remove my shackles and be gone.
There is a lady who lives uptown.
Miss Havisham.
Thirteen years ago,
Miss Havisham decided
to adopt a baby girl.
Now, Miss Havisham has decided
that this girl needs company.
Your lady has offered to pay,
for every visit I make to her house.
Rather than be a blacksmith,
I'll be someone more
resembling a gentleman.
I don't want to take over
the blacksmith shop.
I'm sorry, Joe.
Biddy, I'm doing a good thing.
So why are you sad or angry or
Pip Gargery.
Clever, odd and also completely blind.
Don't let us all down, Pip.
So what is she like?
This is him, Miss Estella.
Are you scared?
Of what?
Who's there?
It's Pip, ma'am.
Mr. Pumblechook's boy.
I want to watch you play.
Now.
Summon the beast within me.
Come upstairs now.
Sick, sick fantasy.
Sick, sick.
You know what they say, Pip?
Love is blind.
When I was young,
I was blinded by love.
And now you, Pip.
You can find out how that feels.
Remember Estella,
the rules of the game state
that you must not move.
Find her and she's all yours.
Are you ready?
You know what's coming, don't you?
Turn around.
I myself walked
blindfolded all the way to the altar.
The man I loved,
the man I was to marry,
failed to appear.
I stood there all alone.
I returned home, blinded by tears.
My heart broken, like a glass bottle.
The shards of glass pierced my lungs.
So I could barely breathe.
Estella, speak.
Over here, Pip.
Love makes a fool of you, Pip.
Makes you stumble and fall.
Wounds you.
I do not care for this game,
Miss Havisham.
If you don't play, you don't get paid.
What would your sister do to you
if you failed on the first day?
Oh.
Oh.
Ah.
If you could see yourself, Pip,
you would see that love
has made you look like a sweep.
Like an urchin.
Careful.
There's nothing there, Pip.
Do you trust her?
This love of yours.
She is not my love.
Not yet. Decide, do you trust her?
I heard her move.
You said the rules of the game
are that she is not allowed to move.
And there it is, Pip.
The most important lesson of all.
And one you would do well to learn.
Love cheats. Love hurts.
Do you understand, Pip?
Love is unkind.
Did you like that game, Pip?
No.
I did not like that game, Miss.
Then see it as part of your education.
And so it begins.
Torture, then solace.
Solace, then torture.
Miss Havisham,
if the lesson of the game is
that one should beware of love,
then you should know I have no intention
of falling in love with anyone just yet.
May I ask what is your intention?
My intention?
Mm-hmm.
My intention
Is what?
is that I might learn from you,
and from you,
how to become a gentleman.
Gentleman.
I want to become a gentleman,
so that I can make my fortune.
And how will you do that?
With mighty ships.
And what is aboard these mighty ships?
Tusks, elephant tusks
and any other ivory.
He's seen pictures in a picture book.
The boy is tedious,
even beyond my expectation.
He's ambitious.
I can't sleep at night.
Instead, I look at the ships
on the Thames,
heading for the world.
Estella.
What a prize creature
we have fished from the river.
And as for love, Miss Havisham.
I believe once
you have made your fortune,
love is not so hard to find.
Joe.
With your wife's help,
and thanks to her ability
to write in a legible hand,
I've been through your accounts.
Our reckoning.
Your reckoning, yes.
I'll be happy to sign them for you
and give them to Inspector of
Taxes when he's next in town.
That is very good of you, sir.
I even found 10 shillings
we didn't know we had.
Oh. Well
let me shake your hand, Mr. Pumblechook,
for all you've done for us.
You know what? Your verbal thanks
will be more than good enough.
Good day to you both.
Hope you weren't idle
while we were reckoning.
Chains and shackles for
the prison ship, Redemption.
Let's get 'em loaded up
for the morning, then.
I, myself, am quite exhausted
from all that addition and subtraction.
Will you tell people
the truth about what happened here?
I doubt they will believe it.
Hmm, poor boy.
The madness has only just begun.
Do you really want
to become a gentleman?
I like to make you laugh.
So, yes.
Gentleman are not so forward.
So teach me.
How to walk, how to sit,
how to bow, how to thrash.
Who would I thrash?
Those below you.
Those who offend your
impeccable sense of decency.
Estella,
your life here must be horrible.
My life here is horrible,
but it's the only life I have.
I intend to find a rich man
as soon as I can
and have him take me away from here,
as far from here as I can go.
Cairo looks nice in the picture books.
Could you take me to Cairo?
Do you even know where Cairo is?
Yes.
I know exactly where Cairo is.
And one day, perhaps I will go.
Miss Havisham asked,
for the cleverest boy in the village.
Which is what I am.
Are you the strongest?
Come with me.
Herbert.
Herbert, come out here.
There's someone
I want you to meet, Herbert.
He's a blacksmith's boy.
Wearing his father's boots,
by the look of things.
And he's in love with me.
Put them up.
- Put them up, now.
- What'd you do that for?
It's a duel, Pip.
This is what gentlemen do.
Laws of the game. Regular rules.
You see, Herbert loves me, too.
I don't love you.
If you're afraid, then I win.
Win what?
Look at Herbert.
Look how a true gentleman behaves.
Withdraw your
declaration of love for her.
I have made no such declaration.
Why would you have us fight
for no reason?
Because I like elephants.
And I don't want you to take
away their tusks.
Will you just fucking stop?
Oh, will you teach me that word?
My vocabulary is evidently lacking.
Please forgive me.
I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have used that word.
Before it was ash on your face,
now it's blood.
How quickly things progress
in the world of a gentleman.
Who the hell was that boy?
Add "hell" to my register of shocks.
Forgive my "hell".
He's my cousin.
Not by blood.
Because I'm adopted.
But unlike you,
he is destined to be a gentleman.
He is, I think,
a particular kind of gentlemen.
No.
They're all of a particular kind.
The rules, the laws,
the manners, the expectations.
That's the thing.
The expectations.
London eats them up.
Or they do worse to others
in places like Cairo.
Is that what will happen?
And when you finally get
to where you are going,
and they ask,
"Where were you born, Pip?
"What is your surname, Pip?
"What was your family profession, Pip?"
"How much is your father worth, Pip?"
What will you say?
Of course, I will lie.
Well
Perhaps you have what it takes
to become a gentleman after all.
Wait, Estella.
When should I return?
Who says you'll be invited to return?
Estella, please.
Estella, this is my chance.
Shut it.
- Shut up.
- You're next.
We didn't fucking do anything.
Priest, you talk to them about Heaven,
then we'll send them to Hell.
You got 10 minutes.
What the hell are you doing in there?
We only have 10 minutes.
I must get the papers to Newgate
within a quarter hour,
or my clients will die.
Mr. Jaggers.
I'm your fool,
your prisoner.
Legally, I should put on my wig first.
You gargle sin
Your signature,
or your shame.
You should know, Mr. Jaggers,
that just a moment ago,
I had a pistol in my hand
and I put it to my head.
I have told you before.
If you ever did decide
to take the easy way out
of your little predicament,
I would release the letters you
wrote to the young man anyway.
And your immortal soul will look down
upon your horrified family
as they forsake your memory.
And the world will remember you
not as an illustrious judge,
but as a sodomite.
Now,
in the name of justice,
Arthur Michael Ackland.
Sentence commuted, prisoner released,
conviction quashed.
"whence thou camest,
"and from whence to a place of execution
"where thou shalt hang by the neck
"till the body be dead.
Dead, dead, dead."
May the Lord have mercy upon your souls.
Amen.
Stop this execution.
Conviction quashed
for the named prisoner
by order of Judge Mansell-Haig,
presiding Judge Old Bailey,
named prisoner reprieve.
Which one of us is reprieved?
You, my friend,
chose the wrong lawyer.
Cut my client free.
So, Pip,
everything, all at once.
What does Miss Havisham look like?
Very tall and very dark.
What victuals did you eat?
We had cake and wine on gold plates.
And was there anybody else there?
Four dogs, four immense dogs.
They fought for veal cutlets
from a silver basket.
And the girl?
Estella.
She is quite plain.
When are you going back there, Pip?
There's the thing.
- You see
- Yes.
Joseph Gargery,
Mrs. Gargery.
I come with news of Satis House.
Miss Havisham has informed me
via an intermediary,
the delightful Miss Estella,
that Pip was nothing
but a credit to his family
and conducted himself almost
as well as a gentleman might.
They're not my words.
They're the words
of Miss Estella herself.
- Mmm.
- Like a gentleman, Pip.
And how much did Miss Havisham
pay, Mr. Pumblechook?
Ten shillings.
And as the,
uh, broker of this agreement,
I will take my share in lieu of the tax
which I helped you avoid paying.
Three shillings, Mr. Pumblechook?
Yes, Pip. And that's not the best bit.
Miss Havisham has asked you to return
next Wednesday, and every Wednesday.
And to continue with what she calls
your personal and private education
in pursuit of your elevation
to the position of
gentleman.
Hmm.
Why, you ungrateful little bastard.
A lady offers you a leg up
and you just sit there
with your nose turned up.
How could such a brat ever become
- a gentleman?
- A gentleman,
fights duels and sails to Cairo
to see pyramids
and knows that love is blind.
That is to say, we learn the things
that are needed to be learned
in order to better ourselves.
And I will become better.
- Better than us?
- Of course.
Sister, I've already explained to Joe
that when I'm of age,
I'll be leaving for London
and then the colonies.
And if I fail,
then at least I'll be looking east,
down the River Thames,
aflow past these tiny parishes,
to the empire.
Our empire.
Sorry I'm late.
We didn't have an appointment, did we?
Our tradition was always
to come here after school
if we had an interesting day.
And I imagine your day
was very interesting.
I made one thing very clear.
I have no intention of
falling in love anytime soon.
Who asked about love?
It was an assumption.
- Did you put them right?
- Yes.
- And I might need your help.
- With what?
Everybody knows you're
the cleverest person in school,
but you're a girl, so,
your cleverness is seen as
Like horns on a horse.
Odd, alarming, and of no practical use.
But of use to you.
You have access
to the whole school library.
Oh, I see.
I will be your tutor
so that you can impress them.
Yes.
And she pays me to go, so I'll pay.
How much will you pay me?
She pays 10 shillings,
so I will pay two shillings.
- 10 shillings?
- I know.
I'm going to try to be worth it.
So I need to perform well.
Perform? What is it, a circus?
Actually, yes.
Two shillings a week, yes?
I don't want money, Pip.
So what do you want?
My mind and my library are all yours.
You can't catch me.
I can run like a gentleman now.
That is not fair!
I can't run in this dress.
Do you want one?
Yes, thank you.
Wrong answer.
Come on.
A gentleman must not
eat or drink anything
while wearing gloves.
A gentleman should not engage
in conversation
with a lady who is not his wife,
if they are not accompanied.
Mama.
A gentleman can link arms with a lady
only when they are walking
on uneven ground.
We are in Regent's Park, Pip.
The ground is uneven.
Now we're walking in the park
and a lady you know is approaching.
What do you do?
- I say hello.
- A gentleman
does not greet a lady in public,
unless the lady greets him first.
Wait, wait.
I should be writing this down.
A gentleman does not initiate action.
It is considered vulgar
to initiate action
in the presence of a lady.
Instead, a gentleman
should assist the lady
in the action
that she herself initiates.
Sit, Pip.
Do not cross your legs.
Why on Earth is he still sitting?
A gentleman must stand
when a lady stands.
Today, Pip. How to enter a room.
"A gentleman should be able
"to come into a room
without the least embarrassment.
"To not have an answer ready
to any question
"is ridiculous to the last degree."
So, Pip, a question.
What is the best way to skin a squirrel?
Observe, absorb, improve.
Yes, Mr. Pumblechook.
Arms by your side,
straight back, head up.
Keep your back straight.
I keep no record of these things.
But Miss Havisham tells me
today is your 18th birthday.
A gentleman would not mention it.
Hmm. Nevertheless,
we have a surprise.
On this, the occasion
of your 18th birthday.
- A cake?
- Not a cake.
Where are we going?
The time has come for a very
important lesson, Pip.
You must be proficient in all things.
Horse riding, dancing, boxing, and sex.
I really, really can't countenance this.
If you are to be a gentleman,
this is an absolute requisite.
You must countenance all things
that give you profit and pleasure.
Without concern for issues of morality.
Morality is for Sunday morning.
And virgins are for Christmas.
Mrs. Gibbons?
Mrs. Gibbons, this is Pip.
Yes, I see him every Sunday at church.
I've watched him grow into a man.
Happy birthday, Pip.
Feel free to behave any way
you wish with Mrs. Gibbons.
Every man in the front three pews
of the Sunday congregation
has availed themselves of my services.
I'm told it is your time to move
forward in the congregation.
You see, Pip,
a gentleman only has
to observe good manners
with those who are members
of his own class.
Those below are for using.
Do you want to write that down, Pip?
Those below are for using.
Why don't you leave the boy with me?
You two dark souls
are scaring him to death.
Have fun.
The Lord's my Shepherd ♪
I'll not want ♪
He makes me down to lie ♪
He leadeth me ♪
The quiet waters by ♪
Today, dearly beloved,
I will speak to you about the
importance of honesty and fidelity.
Hurry up, Pip.
Walk on.
Come on, move, move, move.
Remember that beast we ran to ground
all those years ago, Pip?
Magwitch.
His name was Magwitch.
I wonder if he's
still got my file and pinchers.
Manacles, shackles, and chains.
New and repaired for the Redemption.
Your old man's a fine craftsman.
How many of these can you make in a day?
Twenty-five, I'd say.
I'll need a good supply of them.
On the return trip from Australia,
we call in at Port of Spain,
in Africa.
We load up there
and sail on to Charleston
- in America.
- Aye, and to secure
our African cargo bound for America,
for their own safety, we have
need of plenty of these
to stop them falling overboard.
- You mean manacles for slaves?
- And chains.
Hundred yards of chains.
Could you fulfill such an order?
We could not countenance such an order.
Threepence a link.
Sixpence a lock.
Trade's illegal, sir.
No revenue to pay.
I pass this way twice a year.
I said we could not countenance
such an order.
Now pay me what you owe.
If you want to pick up
sacks of gold, not purses,
you have to consider what
you will and won't countenance.
Ah, a letter from one
of your oldest clients.
From Miss Havisham of Gravesend.
She says, "The time has come."
Whatever that means.
So the boy is 18 already.
What boy?
Take down my reply.
Okay, yeah.
"Dear Miss Havisham,
I've received your"
Wait, wait, wait.
"Dear Miss Havisham,
"I received your letter
regarding your proposal.
"And I am ready
to fulfill my obligation.
"I can take no account of the quality
"of the boy in question,
"since I've never met him.
"But, if you can assure me,
"that by the allotted date
stated in your letter,
"this boy,
"Pip Gargery,
"would be sufficiently accomplished
"in manners and education,
"then I will happily,
"throw the boy
to the wild beast of this city,
"who would consume his youth
"as they would a fresh oyster,
"before throwing the empty shell
back into the river
"from whence it came."
Of course you don't really
want me to write that.
No.
No.
Neither myself,
nor Miss Havisham will ever
speak the true purpose
of this experiment.
Just write,
"I will happily accommodate
this boy in my chambers
"and help him to meet the expectations
"with which you will have by then
"heavily burdened him.
"The old hag's desire
for revenge on all men
"is a thing to behold and admire.
"Your humble and devoted servant,
"Carmichael J. Jaggers.
"QC."
Bonjour, Monsieur Pip.
Comment allez-vous?
What?
Bonjour, Monsieur Pip.
Comment allez-vous?
I have no idea
what you're talking about.
Zut alors.
Quelle dommage.
Au revoir.
Biddy.
On the last Wednesday of every month,
apparently, unknown to me,
they only speak French.
And a gentleman
must be able to speak French.
So you want books?
Dictionaries, schoolbooks,
menus, anything.
But the books will take
two weeks to arrive,
leaving me two weeks to start learning.
They want miracles.
I want to offer them miracles.
Arrive and say in French,
"Hello, Estella. How are you?
Isn't it a fine day?"
Something like that.
Wait, is that French,
or are you just making noises?
A horse with horns, Pip.
Dix huit ans.
Dix huit ans.
Mmm.
Dix huit ans.
Ou habitez-vous, Pip?
Biddy, you've got to go slower.
Where do you live?
J'habite a
J'habite a
J'habite a the marsh.
J'habite a
J'habite a at Gravesend.
- Gravesend.
- How do you say Gravesend?
Gravesend.
Je vais, tu vas,
il va, elle va, on va, nous
Irons?
Vous allez
Again.
Je vais, tu vas, il va, elle va,
on va, nous allons, vous allez,
ils vont, elles vont.
Mm-mmm. Again.
You're such an excellent boatman,
I believe we could do it.
Mmm.
French, please.
I am happy, Biddy.
Because they are both
very pleased with my progress.
I am indeed exceeding expectations.
Dance where?
Look, Pip.
A beautiful society ball
built by my father
on the proceeds of opium,
indigo and slaves.
Estella.
Now go and ask her to dance.
Miss Havisham, I can't dance.
A gentleman simply
must know how to dance,
so Estella is going to teach you.
Go!
Mademoiselle.
All you have to do
is everything I tell you to do.
Step forward with your left.
Glide to the right.
And back with your right.
And again.
Mm-hmm.
Step outside. Step to my right.
Good.
Heels together when you bow, Pip.
Again.
Come with me, Pip.
So, Pip, are you in love with her yet?
I told you, my intention
is not to fall in love.
Love is not
always the result of intention.
Do you love her?
Well
then you must do more to impress her.
Buy some better clothes.
Clothes that fit a gentleman.
Use the money I give you.
I give that money to my family.
Oh, Pip.
Handsome boy.
Now a man.
So kind.
Kiss me.
What?
Just here on my cheek.
Now buy yourself
a new suit of clothes with this.
It's the finest opium
ever produced by China.
My father's private stock.
I use it myself.
Go to the docks and sell it
for no less than £6.
For £6, you will be able
to buy a suit of clothes
that will impress any woman.
Miss Havisham.
Do you think it is at all possible
that Miss Estella might love me?
Oh, Pip.
Come here in clothes that hide
the blacksmith's boy you were
beneath the gentleman you will become.
Then you can ask about love.
Go.
Take particular care with the shoes.
And burn those blacksmith boots.
Changed your mind and saw sense?
No.
These manacles are for prisoners only.
But I'd like to show you this.
I'm sure you have use for it.
Too virtuous for the slave trade.
But ready for the opium trade.
Six pounds, no less.
Looking good, Pip.
Thank you.
Estella,
I stand before you, a gentleman.
Dressed and shod by the profits
of honest commerce.
Miss Havisham says to tell you
that your education is over.
What do you mean?
She means you're not
invited into this house anymore.
Or ever again.
Your education is complete.
Except for one last lesson.
Estella.
To be a gentleman,
it must always be you
who holds the key to the gate.
Otherwise
Otherwise, you'll always
be disappointed.
- Always.
- Estella, no, no.
Estella, Estella, stop.
Estella.
I'm in love with you.
I am looking for a boy
by the name of Pip Gargery.
The moment has come Pip.
The most important moment of your life.
Come with me now.
Gasp
Who are you?
Has it all been confirmed?
The gentleman is respectable.
We are to be married.
Cannot even think about
marrying that idiot.
Look at me!
Girls of your birth really
don't have choices.
When I reach London, I
will settle my affairs
with the boy and with the girl.
The only way out is to change the world.
How do we change the world, you and I?
Come back here.
You are real?
I am real.
Why have you locked the door?
Because today's the day
when everything changes.