The Watcher (2022) s01e07 Episode Script

Oh, my God.
People are losing their minds
over your pots.
Half your pieces have already sold.
That took all of 25 minutes.
Oh, my God.
I feel like I'm gonna pass out.
Mmm.
Where's Dean?
Oh, he's home with the kids.
They had homework and
Yeah, we still don't feel great
about leaving them alone.
But, uh He and you are
Are you guys okay?
Uh Probably.
Ask me again in five minutes.
Well, maybe this will do the trick.
I heard back
from Miami Basel and Geneva Basel.
Remember? I wasn't sure which one
you were going to get invited to?
Well, both, it turns out.
Really? Oh, my God.
You did it.
You have burst onto the scene, Nora.
This is what it looks like
to finally arrive.
I feel like this is some kind of prank.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
Wow.
This is, um
I'm speechless.
Nora, where'd you just go?
Oh, I'm sorry. It's It's Dean.
Bailing on the house
has him convinced that he's a failure.
And here I am doing all this.
It's hard.
Yeah. Bruce, it's Nora.
Sorry it's so late. I just, uh
Did you have
Okay, not a single offer?
What? Yeah. I mean, it's been two weeks.
Okay, so
Just drop the price.
Yeah, we have to get rid of it.
There we go
Hey.
This isn't what it looks like. Okay?
I just I couldn't sleep.
My mind was kind of racing.
I started thinking about John Graff
and I had an idea.
- No, no, no.
- Just listen to me for a second.
- No, I'm not gonna listen. No.
- There's one thing that we overlooked.
Okay.
Okay. It's actually
something that you said.
What was that?
Theodora was right, okay?
I meet this guy. Right?
He tells me his name is John.
And then later when
Theodora tells me the John Graff story,
I just picture this guy, right?
I mean it makes sense.
I probably will always picture him
from now on,
but what if he's John Johnson?
That's a stupid name.
- But you know what I'm saying, right?
- This has to stop.
What if you're right?
He's just a guy, right?
Just a guy, just an imposter,
just somebody who was put up to it, right?
He's not gonna go into hiding
because he's not John Graff, right? So
What if we hired
a composite sketch artist to draw him?
- No. Dean.
- Listen to me.
And then we could put it
on flyers all over town
and we can see if neighbors recognize him.
Dean, this has to stop! Okay?
Just admit that we lost. We lost.
- Yeah, I know.
- No, you don't.
You somehow think that this is not over
and I'm telling you right now, it is over.
- Did you happen to ride the subway today?
- What?
It was so fucked up.
There were 2-hour delays. Do you know why?
Canal Street station, morning rush,
8 train is pulling in
and some psycho pushes two strangers
onto the track. Dead, just like that.
This fucking city.
Something's going on.
It's like a sickness
and I tried to get us someplace safe,
and here we are
back in our old place again,
and I can't accept it, Nora.
- We had it.
- No, we didn't.
- We had the house
- We never did.
we had the life
and somebody ripped it away from us,
and I I am gonna get it back for us.
- We can't.
- The house isn't selling.
- Let's just take it off the market.
- No. No, Dean!
We were this close to figuring it out.
We had it!
No, we weren't!
We never had the first fucking clue!
We're never gonna know.
We're never going to know.
It's like, some rando shoving strangers
in front of the train, that was us.
It's just some random act of violence.
That's all.
We have to face it now, okay?
We face it and just get on with our lives.
Okay?
- What are you doing here?
- Um
- Oh, they're beautiful. Thank you.
- Yeah.
Hey.
Um I hope you don't mind us coming.
Your daughter called to say things had
taken a turn for the worst, so
Yes, they, um
They removed me from the trial.
Some tests came back
and it's everywhere now.
Jesus Christ. I'm sorry.
Look, if there's anything
anything you need, anything at all.
Yeah.
Actually, yes.
Yes, if you don't mind,
there's a bodega
right by the side door of this place.
Yeah?
I would like an ice-cold Coca-Cola
and a pack of Parliament lights.
Uh I don't think you can smoke in here.
I don't give the tiniest fuck.
- You got it. Coming up.
- Yeah.
Come here.
- May I?
- Yes.
I can tell something's eating at you.
Oh, uh
Yeah. The house. It's not selling.
What does that mean, another bankruptcy?
No. I think, financially,
we're actually going to be okay.
My art's finally taken off.
I have a sold-out show,
I have two more coming up.
Look at you, Ms. Nora Brannock.
It's
It's Dean.
He's really
really losing it.
He's got the whole wall of suspects
back up again in the apartment.
I have seen that happen.
A mystery you can't seem to solve,
it will drive you crazy.
It's the human condition.
That need to know.
Not knowing, that's the killer.
My hero.
- Unpacked it for you.
- Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
Light me up, handsome.
This was worth it, though.
Dean! Hey, have you seen this? Page Six?
"New Twist in Murder House Mystery."
Great.
"Sources tell us that
a new round of threatening letters
have thrown the veracity of the owners'
claims of harassment into serious doubt."
"At least three letters from a so-called
'Watcher' were sent to neighbors,
each of whom was
once considered a suspect themselves."
"What else is suspicious?"
"These new letters were mailed from
the lower Manhattan processing facility,
very near to where the current owners
of 657 have recently moved."
"Signs that once pointed to harassment
now point to hoax."
Dean, did you send them those letters?
Maybe I did.
You're just making
everything so much worse.
They don't deserve it?
A taste of their own medicine?
Okay, I'm not doing this.
I'm not doing that and I'm not doing this.
Have I made myself totally clear?
I'm going to figure out
who did this to us, okay?
I accept that, now.
You should do the same.
I am going to figure out
who ruined this family!
It's you. You're the one who's
ruining this family by not letting go,
by losing any grip
on what's actually important!
If you value being married to me,
you will drive to Westfield
and you will apologize to
every single person you wrote a letter to.
Do you hear me?
I can't do that.
I didn't ask whether or not you could.
I asked if you heard me.
- Hey.
- Hey.
You look nice.
I'm going out.
- Not gonna have dinner with the kids?
- No, you are.
I'm going to be a normal person
and have drinks and dinner with Marjorie.
Have you done what I asked?
No, when was I supposed to do that?
Okay. Well, I'd get on that if I were you.
Mom, are you going out?
Yeah, I'll come in
and kiss you good night.
Bye, Mom.
Hey.
You can feel
however you like about this person,
but promise me you will not retaliate
against those around him?
Yeah. Oh Sure.
Dean, this is going to
be hard for you to hear.
Did you find out who did this?
The previous owner of the house
was me.
What the fuck are you talking about?
I sold you the house.
Why didn't you tell me that?
Why do you think?
Because you're The Watcher?
Let me tell you one last story.
The day we met, I told you
about my husband, how he cheated,
but once I found out who the woman was,
once I knew,
he and I lived happily ever after.
Well, that was true for several years,
but we got divorced.
We just grew apart.
And because I was the primary earner
and he was the parasite,
I had to pay alimony to him.
So, I started gigging again.
I toured occasionally.
I still had my detective side hustle.
And even though I gave him half my money,
I was able to suck away a little nest egg.
Eight years ago, he had a stroke and died.
Suddenly, I wasn't
getting drained every month,
but I couldn't find a house.
For five years I looked.
Nothing I really loved, you know?
I knew it the second I laid eyes on it.
Put an offer in on the spot.
Thirty days later, it was mine.
I even joined the Country Club.
And that's when I got diagnosed.
It had already spread.
The doctors here said
there wasn't much they could do,
but there was an oncologist in Mexico
who thought otherwise.
But he was expensive, so I had no choice.
I had to sell the house.
I felt like it had all been
some kind of prank, you know?
Like I'd been given this taste
of paradise and it was all ripped away.
And then, I shit you not,
I got a phone call from
a probate court in Sarasota, Florida.
Turns out that my parasite,
from the early days of our relationship,
had hidden away
$1.4 million in royalties.
I hadn't needed to sell after all.
I could tell you loved it.
Almost as much as I did.
I just had to do one thing
and I could get it back.
Convince us to sell.
See. I had gotten one of those
"Ode to a House" letters
the first month I lived there.
Dear 657 Boulevard,
can I just say I think you're just about
the most stately house I have ever seen.
I was so charmed by it,
but I didn't know what it was.
So, I looked it up.
I saw who Roger Kaplan was and all
the students who'd done the assignment.
And how much they loved him.
And I also saw The Watcher letter
that Carol Flanagan posted,
accusing Roger of sending it.
I didn't think much of it.
Forgot about it, really.
But then I remembered.
It was a perfect plan.
I found a manual typewriter on eBay
with the same typeface as the letters.
It wasn't hard at all.
Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard.
Allow me to welcome you
to the neighborhood.
If you're telling the truth
You
You got away with it.
Why would you confess it to me now?
They covered my tracks, Dean.
There was no way
you were ever gonna find out the truth
and I knew that would drive you mad.
And you don't deserve that.
What about John Graff?
Well, it was no coincidence that
I was the only person
to find evidence John Graff existed.
Because he didn't. I made him up.
The hard evidence.
I wrote those letters
he supposedly got from The Watcher.
The crime scene photos,
they were from a murder in Colorado.
And the guy you talked to
pretending to be John Graff,
I hired him.
And pigtails?
She was a performance artist,
if you can believe it.
I noticed when I was there in the daytime,
you never turned the alarm on.
So I had her dress up as a landscaper
and climb through the one window
that Dakota's cameras
didn't cover so well.
She hid in the basement
until you went to bed.
I never knew about
the tunnels in the basement.
When you mentioned finding them,
that was news to me.
Maybe that was how Jasper got in
and took rides in the dumbwaiter,
which I had nothing to do with,
by the way. That was all on him.
Andrew Pierce did live in the house,
but he was a lunatic
and an addict and very suggestible.
And here she is sucking on his finger.
Does this mean that
he's gonna become a fucking vampire?
Andrew, I want to talk about
the letters you and your wife received
from somebody named The Watcher.
What letters?
What are you talking about?
I've never seen these before.
The police found them at the scene
when your wife committed suicide.
They were in her purse.
They never told you?
No.
But it doesn't surprise me.
All of these cops Westfield, NYPD,
they all protect each other.
But, wait. Hold on. Um
So your wife never mentioned them, either?
No, no, no. I
I mean, I don't think so.
Wait, I do remember getting letters.
But they weren't threatening letters.
They were
They were flattering.
They were flattering, I think.
Did they begin with the phrase,
"Ode to a House"?
Yes. I remember now. Yes.
"Ode to a House."
We got a bunch of those.
As for Mitch and Mo Who knows?
Chamberland wasn't in on it.
Neither was Karen.
Neither of them knew
that I lived in the house,
or in Westfield, for that matter.
Detective Chamberland.
I called him up
the day I mailed the first letter,
so that I would be fresh in his mind
when the idea of
a private investigator came up.
Theodora? Of course I remember you.
How the hell are you?
This was never about you, Dean.
You're a
You're a good man with a wonderful family.
It was about the house.
It was such a good house.
I don't understand.
I feel like I'm gonna puke.
I know.
We We trusted her.
She was in our house.
We shared everything with her.
And she was
She was our friend.
Hey, I know.
Come here. I know, come here.
I know.
Hi. Come on in.
Okay.
Look, I just want to say that
I'm sorry I sent you that letter
and I'm pretty ashamed of myself.
Who cares?
No, no. It was a stupid thing to do. Okay?
I can admit when I'm stupid.
You know, the thing is that
I was really angry at everybody, really,
but I had no idea about Mitch.
Had I known, I swear to you,
I never would have sent that letter.
Yeah.
When your husband dies of an embolism
and your son is in the loony bin
because he killed two people,
it kind of puts
everything into perspective.
So, why the change of heart?
Well, because we know who did it now.
- What, the letters?
- Yeah.
The letters, all the weird stuff. Uh
It was that private investigator we hired,
Theodora Birch, your old neighbor.
Old neighbor where?
Old neighbor here, at our house.
Theodora Birch. Gorgeous Black woman,
wore gloves all the time,
was a member down at the Country Club.
Had to sell the house
'cause she needed money for cancer
Hold on, hold on.
Samantha and Ted Forrest,
that's who sold you your house.
Older couple, extremely private.
We run into them down in St. Augustine.
There was never
a black woman living there.
Not in the 25 years
I've lived here, at least.
And she was never a member
down at the Country Club.
I know all the people of color
who have memberships there
and, you know,
nobody should be proud of this
There aren't too many.
So, a Theodora Birch?
No, I would have remembered that.
Hello, Nina. I'm so sorry.
We're Dean and Nora Brannock.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Thank you so much for coming today.
It's nice to meet you in person.
This must be Suvi. Hi, Suvi.
Can you say hi?
Your grandmother
spoke about you all the time.
Aww.
She loved grandma, huh?
Look, um I don't know how to say this,
but did your mom
Did she ever say anything about our case?
Even just a little bit?
A little bit, yeah.
This is gonna sound crazy, but your mom,
she told me, very close to the end,
that it'd been her the whole time.
That she wrote the letters,
that she owned the house before us.
Um Yeah, that isn't true.
What?
The last couple of weeks before she died,
I saw her working on something.
It was almost like
she was writing a story,
but she wouldn't let me read it.
One, two, three
And then finally she said
Fine. I'll tell you the truth.
Okay.
She said she wanted to
give you two some peace.
I think she wanted peace, too.
She didn't want
her last case to go unsolved.
She wanted to know
the end of the story, so she
She wrote herself into it.
Yeah, okay. So, what is it?
Okay. Um
Right.
Yeah.
Well, I'll have to talk to him.
What, all of it? Or
We're home!
- Just easy, please. Someone has news.
- They're right here. What?
- I made the basketball team!
- Oh, my God!
What? How did that happen?
- One second.
- Hey. How about, "Congratulations"?
No, I just I mean, he's so short.
- I'll play point guard.
- Good answer. There you go.
That sounds good. Call you back.
- What are you doing?
- Give me five minutes.
Thank you.
- How about Spud Webb over here?
- What!
Oh, my God!
- I'm so proud of you.
- Yeah.
And I have some news.
We have an offer.
All cash, no contingency,
they really want it.
- What's the number?
- 275.
I know, not amazing,
but Bruce thinks
with some of the furniture thrown in,
we can make another 125, 150.
And who's the buyer?
I don't know. It's an LLC.
Right. Of course.
Yeah. And get this.
The one thing they want to change,
the kitchen.
- What? Are you kidding me?
- Mm-hmm.
I guess not everybody's into
butcher block countertops.
Hey, come on. These people have no taste.
- Touche!
- All right, Brannock family.
What do we say, huh?
I say yes.
I say yes.
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Yes!
- Yes!
It's my great pleasure
to call this meeting of the new,
expanded Westfield Preservation Society.
Yes, and now we could
all just introduce ourselves? Mo?
Oh, me?
Okay. Hi, I'm Maureen.
My friends call me Big Mo.
I live right down the street there
and I'm recently widowed, sadly.
So I'm very grateful to Pearl
for including me.
You know what they say, idle hands.
Uh, hi, there. I'm Roger Kaplan and, gosh,
I have loved old homes
since I was a little boy,
and I'm very happy to be here.
And we're very happy to have you here.
Um And I'm Pearl Winslow, of course.
And this is Jasper, our secretary.
And William?
Oh, uh Hello. I'm William Webster.
I sometimes go by Bill.
I first moved to Westfield around 1995.
1995?
Yes, well, I'm just, uh
I'm very interested in keeping
this town the way that it ought to be.
So
Thank you.
Your name is Bill?
Ah You look very familiar to me.
Oh.
Well, Bill works in the public library,
so you probably recognize him from there.
Oh, I think I know
where I recognize you from.
I think you know me
from the public library.
How's your family, Bill?
There's a new owner next door.
There is a new owner next door.
Thank you, Jasper.
Jasper, why don't you
tell us what you think you saw.
Big slabs of
pink marble going in the kitchen.
Pink marble.
I never even knew there was such a thing.
Well, it's a big step up
from that butcher block, don't you think?
- Yeah.
- Right?
Listen, sorry, if I may,
I understand the need for preserving,
um, the facades of historic buildings,
but do we have jurisdiction over the way
that people design their interiors?
Well, um Not officially,
but we do make
very strong recommendations.
And what would we feel would be
the appropriate countertop material
to be used in the kitchen like the one in
Yeah, 657.
As a matter of fact,
I've actually been in the house
many, many years ago.
I do remember that
the countertops were original.
They were polished black walnut,
if you can believe that,
which would have been very common
in a Victorian built around 1920.
That is very helpful. Thank you.
Jasper, polished black walnut.
Write that down.
Follow me.
Keep going, keep going, and
Open your eyes.
Oh, Georgia. Oh, my God.
I think you've really captured me.
I think I'm going to be really happy here.
- Thank you so much.
- Of course.
- We'll talk tomorrow.
- Yes!
All right, bye-bye.
Oh, wow.
Wow. Hey, guys.
Wow, this is so curated.
Wow, nice. Thank you.
It's so me, you know.
Wow. A single girl
taking care of herself.
Thank you. See you tomorrow.
I thought this moment
might happen one day.
Can I get you something to drink?
How about some chilled Whispering Angel?
I've got Snapple.
I've got a fridge just stocked full of
Oh, my God
everything.
So, it was you all this time.
It's kind of obvious looking back, but
Always pushing us to sell the house.
It was me, what?
Are we really going to
go down that road again, Nora?
You did this.
You're the one who made the big stink
about some dumbass letters,
that weren't even scary.
And then your Oh, my God.
Someone, like, stepped on
your son's pet beaver or muskrat,
whatever the fuck it was.
You're the one that tanked
your own house's resale value.
That's right, Nora.
I snatched up your fucking house!
Because it's good business!
You and Chamberland
wanted it for yourselves, didn't you?
He's who we saw down in the tunnels.
Please. We dated for a hot minute
and then we broke up.
I'm sorry I'm living your best life, Nora.
But that's not my fault. It's yours.
And now I want to
say something to your face.
Get the fuck out of my house.
You know, I have a feeling
that things just aren't going to go
the way you want them to.
So I'd be careful.
What, are you threatening me?
No
but I will be watching.
Hello!
Hi! We're your new neighbors.
We just wanted to come by
and introduce ourselves.
I'm Pearl, and I think you know Maureen.
Hi, I'm Karen Calhoun.
So nice to meet you.
And this is little Baron.
- Oh
- Oh, a dog.
Well, we couldn't
agree on what to make you,
so I did my famous caramel swirl blondies.
They actually keep
very well in the freezer.
And I made a classic English walnut pie,
if you can believe it.
Okay, here, you get down.
You go on. Go find your squiggle.
Yeah, go find it.
Uh
Uh, listen, ladies, um
Right now I happen to be doing keto,
so I'm not going to take those.
- Oh!
- But I think you both should enjoy them.
Okay.
Gosh.
K-A-R-E-N. Karen.
Is that the land line?
Hello?
Hello?
Hello?
What the hell?
No, no, no!
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God!
Shit!
Oh, you fucking bitch!
Hello.
Hi. How are you doing?
Why are you calling me, Karen?
Well, I was wondering if you could come by
or you could send somebody to come
and, you know, check out the house.
I think someone could be in here
and I just
I
I think maybe it's Nora.
What?
Maybe you could sweep the house,
you know,
and just see if anyone was in here.
- Oh, no, no, no.
- That's not happening.
No, I'm not coming over
and I'm not sending anybody over.
I don't like being made
to feel ashamed for having ED.
- What?
- You and me, we're not friends.
Not after how it ended.
And, you know, I got a lot of friends
and they're not happy
with the way you acted either.
Don't even bother calling 9-1-1. Okay?
Because you said
you wanted to be on your own
and that's what you're gonna get.
Wait.
Oh, fuck.
Baron, sweetie?
What are you barking at?
Hey. Baron.
Okay.
What the fuck?
Baron, did someone come through here?
Oh, shit.
Baron. Come. Come on.
Baron, come. Come on, yeah.
Come. Good boy.
So, you guys are gonna come,
like, first thing in the morning, right?
Yeah,
we should be there 6:30-ish, 6:45.
Okay, great.
My main issue really is the black mold.
Yeah, we bring in
dehumidifiers. The whole thing.
Oh, good. Thanks. Good night!
Dear Ms. Calhoun,
welcome to your nightmare!
Your reputation precedes you.
657 has been calling for some time now.
When did you first hear it?
I heard the house first call to me.
It asked me to bring it people like you,
those who put greed before anything else.
This won't be the last
you'll hear from me.
I wish to only congratulate you
on your magnificent new home.
And I know our friendship
will grow and grow with time.
I can't wait to know everything about you.
There are so many secrets inside 657
that you are bound to discover.
I look forward to sharing them with you.
I am The Watcher.
Sorry about the past couple of weeks.
I keep getting my days screwed up.
Not a problem. How are you feeling?
Yeah, good. Good.
You know, I feel like I'm finally
Actually, the whole family
I feel like we have finally moved on.
- That's really good to hear.
- Yeah.
Carter is doing great.
Ellie
Ellie is on this kick now
about wanting to go to Brown,
so, we're heading up there
next week for a visit.
- Wow.
- Yeah, right?
I mean, if you'd have told me
that I'd have a kid
who might be going to an Ivy,
I'd be like,
"No, that's some kind of clerical error."
And Nora?
Oh, well, she had another show
last Friday. It's unbelievable.
She She's like
Look, I mean, I'm not in that world,
but, evidently, she is the hot new thing.
So, that's awesome.
And how are you and Nora?
Your relationship?
Yeah, we're good. We're good.
We're through it, I think.
It was definitely a hard year, right?
But we've moved on,
you know, from the house,
from all of that stuff. That's behind us.
Speaking of, Karen had to sell.
I mean,
something must have gone down, right?
Because she was
only in that house for, what, 48 hours?
Maybe she flipped it, but, I don't know.
If that was the plan,
she did a terrible job of reading
the market because she sold it.
Guess Guess how much. Seriously, guess.
- Um
- 2.6.
2.6!
She fucking lost her shirt.
I don't know who bought it,
but whoever did,
they got the deal
of the century, man.
You're talking about the house again.
Yeah, well, you asked about it.
No, I didn't.
I can't let it go.
I can't just get over it.
I feel like somebody played
a fucking practical joke on us
and I'm never gonna know why they did it.
At this point, I can't even
tell you how they did it, but they did.
And I'm supposed to just get over it?
I don't know how to do that.
So I gotta keep on
I keep on trying to
make this story have a happy ending,
but it's not going to.
Five minutes ago,
when you were talking about your family,
that did sound like a happy ending.
But that's not how it feels to you, is it?
Hey, Jasper!
Jasper, come here.
Come on. Come on, let's go.
Come on.
Oh, good catch!
Can I help you?
No, I'm just
A beautiful house.
Thanks. Just moved in.
Is that right? Congratulations.
Ben.
Ben?
John.
It's nice to meet you, John.
You live in the area, or
Yeah, just a few blocks that way.
Cool.
See you around, then?
Definitely.
Hi.
Hey, where are you?
Uh Just stuck in traffic.
Holland Tunnel's backed up,
I'm in this long line.
How was the interview?
You know, it was good. We'll see.
Hey, babe. Um
I know I probably haven't
said this enough, but
just
I really, really appreciate
all the work you're doing.
Therapy and everything. I
It just makes such a difference.
I'm really happy.
I just hope you are, too.
Yeah, thanks.
I am happy.
I love you so much.
I love you, too.
Home soon.