Manhattan (2014) s01e08 Episode Script

Previously on Manhattan You've got a nuclear physicist carrying your water? Dr.
Theodore Sinclair.
We had no idea you were a physicist.
Let me guess, something's recapturing neutrons.
Reactor fuel.
What if reactor plutonium isn't pure? Frank always assumes the worst.
You were married when I met you.
He wanted to start a new life.
He was naive.
What did you do at work today? Trick question.
If somebody asked that on the phone, I'd have to cut in.
Let us play.
You want me to sleep with They're all whores? It's $2.
50 for last night.
So what happens now? We go back to being sworn enemies? Well, as long as we're both stranded, how about a drop to drink? Or we could skip the drink.
I have to go back to the office.
What's wrong? I don't know yet.
ID, please.
Hello? Helen.
Well, look what Schrà dinger's cat dragged in.
I spent the last two weeks checking the alpha neutron reaction of every element on the periodic table.
You want a gold star? Beryllium, fluorine, boron, they're all fine.
Then I started to wonder, how much plutonium-240 is mixed in with the 239? Maybe we got a problem with spontaneous fission.
It's 5:00 a.
m.
I read a paper on the nuclear shell model.
It theorized that even-numbered isotopes have a higher spontaneous fission rate than odd.
I read that paper.
I know the guy who wrote it.
Are you gonna invite me in? Sure.
You can whisper fission rates in my ear.
Tell me secrets you can't share with your wife.
I'll laugh at your jokes, and you'll loosen your tie.
Maybe we could have a drink, see what happens.
Darn.
I'm fresh out of whiskey.
Who was that, a Christmas caroler? - No, just a soldier looking for a good time.
-Hmm.
Operator.
This call will be monitored for your protection.
Hello? Is anyone there? Anyone heard of Stephen Blackpool? What about Bill Sikes? Crosley, you must know some of these guys.
Allow me to hazard a guess.
Is Wilkins Micawber on the list? - Uh, right here.
- Yep.
He a friend of yours? He emigrated to Australia to embark upon a new life.
Unshackling himself from the chains of his own history.
Well, then how did he wind up in the British delegation to the Manhattan Project? He didn't.
It's a codename.
They all are.
Invented by Charles Dickens a century ago.
No? So they know how to choose pretentious pseudonyms.
Let's hope that they know something about physics.
A British scientist is worth two Americans.
Two-point-two, to be precise.
It's just like converting kilos into pounds.
Your countrymen are bringing quite a dowry with them.
More than two years of research.
They've had an atomic program since Hitler was in art school.
If we can recruit them, we'll finally have a fighting chance.
They've got to give us at least one Brit for implosion.
Oppenheimer barely tolerates our existence.
You really think he's gonna up and hand us Nicholas Nickelby? Oppenheimer's not going to hand us anything.
He's letting the Brits choose which group they join.
No offense, but who's going to choose this group over Thin Man? The Brits had 30 scientists working on implosion the past year.
They did? All we have to do is show them how far we've gotten on these test shots, and they'll come running.
Frank, if you'll accept the advice of a native, there is an art to seducing a proper Englishman.
Crosley's right.
Akley's probably fattening them up with filet mignon as we speak.
Crosley, you must have shared a dorm room at Eton with half of these guys.
Yeah, and shared a manservant at Oxford with the other half.
Yeah, I suppose I could serve as your cultural liaison.
I can find my own way out.
Not that you're not delightful company.
Isn't that Frank's wife? Dr.
Winter! Dr.
Winter? I hope this isn't a hanging crime.
You can release the prisoner into my custody.
Sir, she's un-credentialed.
She is a card-carrying member of the Botanical Society of America.
I will see that she doesn't blow up any bridges.
So what did you do to get sent upriver? I made an appointment at the security office.
Most of us spend our off hours avoiding the security office.
I don't have off hours or on hours.
Because I don't have a job because the Army won't let me.
That doesn't sound so bad.
If I had a six-month furlough, I'd catch up on my reading.
I wasn't looking for an intelligence post.
Apparently, I don't even have clearance to laminate badges.
They say I failed my polygraph.
Did you tell them you were thrilled to be here? Let me look into it.
Don't bother.
I stopped believing in Christmas miracles a long time ago.
Abby, where are you going? I just punched out.
I switched to the early shift.
Can you punch back in? What? No.
No, I'm taking a day trip to Santa Fe.
- You can shop for pottery tomorrow.
- No, I can't.
Santa Fe isn't going anywhere.
This is important.
I'm not shopping.
I know you won't approve, but I'm going to see Mother and Daddy.
Your parents live in Massachusetts.
I got a letter.
They're going to a millinery convention in Los Angeles on the California Limited, and it stops in Santa Fe.
- I'm going to surprise them.
- Jesus, Abby.
I'm going to ride one stop, 72 minutes, and then I will get off the train, and I'll take the bus back to Santa Fe.
I know it's against the Army rules, and I know we could get into trouble Fine.
Fine? But before you go, I need you to arrange an outgoing telephone call.
All right.
With no one listening.
Even you.
Just stay away from him.
No, Shirley, I'm not gonna discuss this with you anymore.
I don't want you standing under the mistletoe with that creep.
I need to cut in.
I need to make a call from this telephone right now.
Here.
Here's $18.
Buy her a honey-baked ham.
Operator.
Charles Isaacs.
I need an outside line.
Just a moment, please.
Is this the reactor building? Put me through to Daniel Ellis' office.
- Hold for Mr.
Ellis.
- No, no, no.
No, I need to speak to his secretary, Theodore.
Tell him it's Mr.
Donaldson calling.
Are you alone? Nobody's monitoring this call.
We have exactly five minutes.
There is something that I need you to do for me.
They don't look like they've been ravaged by a light breeze, much less the Blitz.
Englishmen never let a little thing like the apocalypse rumple our suits.
This may be harder than I thought.
Akley seems to have quite a head start on us.
Who's the ringleader? We get him, the rest will fall like dominoes.
The bloke with the cigar is Philip Bantliff, but he barely got a second from Cambridge in Statistical Mechanics.
He can't balance an egg on a spoon, much less opposing thermodynamic forces.
That's Brooks Matthews.
He's a third-rate experimental hack.
I'm sorry to say this.
They sent us Man United instead of Arsenal.
Speak American.
The A-team stayed home.
What about him? - We don't want him.
- Who is he? - His name is Hogarth.
- William Hogarth? He started the British implosion project.
He's the guy we need.
You know him? We're acquainted, yeah.
But believe me, Frank Well, good.
We'll all have high tea.
Can you show me your big smile for Grandma and Grandpa? Big smile.
Big, big, big.
Good.
Okay.
Ready? No, we said no disturbances.
It's a special delivery.
Ta-da! - Abigail! - Daddy.
hi! What in God's name are you doing here? A month with barely a phone call, now you scare us half to death.
- I'm so sorry.
- Come sit with your bubbe.
- You look beautiful, sweetheart.
- Aw.
- Such a boy.
- Have a seat.
Have you had an easy trip? Joey, come here.
Come here.
Miriam.
- Miriam.
- Come here.
It's okay.
Dr.
Hogarth.
I'm Frank Winter.
Glad you made it across the Pond.
Yes, Dr.
Winter.
Nice to put a face to the reputation.
Don't believe everything you hear.
Oh, no, I've read your work.
We're delighted to be here, to be anywhere other than there.
I believe, um I believe you know Paul Crosley.
- Dr.
Hogarth.
- What a long time it has been, Paul.
Why don't we catch up over dinner tonight? Lovely.
You got a call at the switchboard, Chuck.
Must have been a prank.
Guy said he was Christopher Columbus.
- Did he leave a message? - Yeah, he said to tell you 400,000.
Is he expecting you? Dr.
Isaacs? It won't work.
Thin Man.
I just got a message - from Theodore Sinclair.
- Who? It's not gonna work.
Not with reactor-bred plutonium.
Sit down.
Sit down.
Charlie, 600 scientists vetted the math.
Four of them have Nobel medals at home.
But their numbers don't account for reactor plutonium.
It's not pure.
It contains Pu-240.
We'll survive a little cork in our wine.
I read a paper once.
It theorized that even-numbered isotopes have higher spontaneous fission rates than odd.
- Whose paper? - So I got Sinclair to test a sample from the reactor.
- As long as it's under 300, we're fine.
- It's 400,000.
It'll pre-detonate.
Like a bad fuse.
Why did you tell me? Um What? Let's be honest with each other.
You don't really want the project to succeed, do you? I mean, you made that pretty clear since the moment you got here.
So Why'd you tell me? It's my job.
I made a commitment.
There are higher commitments.
You could have sat back, stayed quiet, watched Thin Man fail.
And let Heisenberg beat us to the punch? If we fall short with the combined brain power of all the Allies and a floating line of credit from the United States government, isn't there a chance that Werner Heisenberg will fall short, too? Of course.
And if we fail, and Heisenberg fails, it'll never get built.
We could all go home.
You could have kept quiet.
But instead, you walked into my office, and you sounded the alarm.
I thought you should know.
And now I do.
And now we'll reorganize all of our resources toward finding a solution.
And when we do drop the bomb, and make no mistake, we will drop it, all those lives will be on your head, Charlie.
But now I know That 20 centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? - Sir? - You should have kept your mouth shut, you goddamn, ungrateful, conniving little Jew.
Dr.
Isaacs? Never mind.
It can wait.
So this is Aunt Esther's family? Esther's on my side, sweetheart.
The Perlmans are your mother's cousins back in Minsk.
The ones with the textile factory? We thought they'd all made it out, but that letter arrived just before we left home.
Malka and the little girl got left behind.
The postmark was from June.
Now they say the whole ghetto has been liquidated.
What kind of word is that? It's like a sale at Filene's.
But what were they doing in the ghetto to begin with? Aren't they very well-to-do? We've called half of Washington trying to get information.
You're always warning me about jumping to conclusions.
I'm sure your cousins will turn up sooner or later.
Probably in a shallow grave.
Little corn has big ears.
I hope he's listening.
Children need to know what kind of world this is that treats good Jews like poultry.
Your father sheltered you too much.
Now let it go, Miriam.
You could never stand any ugliness.
Forgive me if I'm not interested in gloomy gossip about people I've never even met.
You haven't seen me or Joey in six months, and this is how you want to spend our time together? Now it's our fault that we haven't seen you? Joey's going to be in a holiday pageant.
He's playing the little lamb in the manger.
He's Jewish, Abigail.
Well, so was Jesus.
And I know you won't believe it, Daddy, but Charlie's been an absolute star at work.
And what is his work exactly? You know I can't talk about it.
But a lot of very smart and important people seem to think that Charlie is going to help end the war.
Maybe Charlie can help us.
He's got such an important government job, maybe he can find out where they've sent Malka.
Arrange some kind of special visa, I don't know what.
- No.
- We'll pay whatever it costs.
My love, my love, there is nothing that Charlie can do.
We've got 18 minutes till Albuquerque.
What, you're getting off? We have a suite at the Huntington in Pasadena.
Daddy, I don't know.
If they even knew I was here Open up, please.
Mrs.
Isaacs, would you please come with me? Now.
Mrs.
Isaacs, this is a serious infraction.
I would think a switchboard operator would know security regulations, chapter and verse.
Absolutely, sir, I do.
Well, then you see my confusion.
A day pass to Santa Fe is not a ticket to California.
I wasn't going to California, sir.
Just to Albuquerque.
Mrs.
Isaacs, if you and your husband are having a marital dispute No, it's nothing like that, sir.
Colonel Cox, I There has been There has been a terrible tragedy.
I don't know if you heard what happened in Minsk.
I have family there, and my cousin Malka Well, she's really more like a sister to me.
Now, now.
I know it was wrong, sneaking off like that, but I was trying to help my family through a difficult time, and I'm prepared to accept my punishment.
- There have to be consequences.
- Poor Malka.
I used to send her hand-me-downs every year.
I guess there's no need for those dresses wherever the Nazis have taken her.
It's just so hard not knowing.
If only we had some answers.
All right.
All right, listen, given the circumstances, I think we can let bygones be bygones.
Go home and get some rest, Mrs.
Isaacs.
Thank you, sir.
Three-martini lunch? Principal wants to see you in his office.
The St.
Louis Kid.
We missed you today at lunch with the Brits.
Lunatics.
You all right? You look like you just saw the Ghost of Christmas Future.
I think I'm coming down with something.
I used to get the flu every winter recess.
Here.
Kills the germs.
You wanted to see me, sir? You know what I do for a living, Charlie? I'm in upper management.
I spent 15 years at a university, dreaming about invisible particles, and suddenly, they handed me the keys to a world war.
Explain that.
There's gonna be some changes around here.
'Cause the Brits are joining Thin Man? No, this is bigger than a bunch of shell-shocked theoretical men.
Now that the reactor's up and running, I'm gonna be back and forth between Chicago, DC, God knows where else.
We're through designing.
It's time to build.
The design is locked? Now, I know that you've had your differences with some of the rest of the group, Lancefield in particular.
That's gonna have to change.
I'm appointing a number two to mind the shop, get the Brits up to speed while I'm away.
Now I mentored Tom Lancefield in Chicago and have watched him become a fine physicist in his own right.
He's the natural choice.
But he's not my choice, Charlie.
You are.
Sir? Promise me you're gonna work on your people skills, or you'll wind up like Frank Winter.
Don't get your hopes up.
Title doesn't come with a raise.
I'm not sure what to say.
Well, say that you won't make me look bad in front of the President of the United States.
You have your hand on the rudder, a staff of 600 at your beck and call.
You just got a promotion.
It wouldn't kill you to smile.
Can I think about it? I'm not sure I'm management material.
You know, I'm getting a little tired of this waffling, Charlie.
Desperate times require men of conviction.
You have till tomorrow to decide if you're one of them.
They say he was antisocial and knew nothing about people.
Typical of a Cambridge man.
He did die a virgin, after all.
But I've always believed Isaac Newton to be a humanist in his way.
The law of universal gravitation applies to men, just as to objects.
Consider the two of us.
Yes, quite a coincidence.
Oh, no, Paul.
You and I after so many years have been drawn together once more by the cosmos for a reason.
Dr.
Akley plied me with an 1896 Margaux which he'd been holding in his collection since before the war.
But then, that's mere table wine in Lord Crosley's cellar, isn't it? Lord Crosley? He didn't tell you? George Ill deeded his great grandfather more land in Mayfair than the Duke of Westminster.
- An exaggeration.
- Please.
A few well-placed fire bombs, and your man here is sitting on the throne, Dr.
Winter.
I'll make sure and curtsey.
Ah.
Bring us the sweetest, wettest bottle you have, love.
And let me know if you'd like me to go down in your cellar to pick it out.
We have a very limited list, sir.
But I'll bring you the check.
Put it on Paul's tab.
Paul joined you at the National Physical Lab after Oxford, correct? First in his class.
How could I have turned him down? His work was excellent, but his company was beyond compare.
He used to regale my wife and family with tales about, what was it, Woburn Abbey? You recall all those Christmases you spent with us? Still cleaning the foie gras out of my arteries.
- How is Mrs.
Hogarth? - Dead.
My condolences.
There was a time when I hoped Crosley would take a shine to my daughter.
Do you think maybe we should call it a night, gentlemen? I, um We have an early start.
A night cap.
There are a few things we should discuss with Dr.
Hogarth.
Perhaps Lord Crosley's right.
I have an 8:00 meeting with Dr.
Akley I should prepare for.
One drink.
Dr.
Hogarth, I'd like to talk to you about your work on implosion.
I enjoyed getting to know the Thin Man team today.
But it's been a long winter for a lonely widower in Europe, and there's one comfort Akley declined to point me towards.
Sit back and relax.
There are no wrong answers.
Stanley Church.
Do I know you? You interviewed a woman maybe nine months back, Liza Winter.
Denied her clearance.
I'm prohibited from discussing security procedures.
Yeah, I figured you'd say that.
Look, I wouldn't bother you, but this is a good woman with something to offer.
I think you've made a recommendation in error.
I don't make recommendations.
I interpret physiological data and pass the findings on to my superiors.
You've never passed along a false positive? - If you'll excuse me, I have to get home.
- What for? Not like you have a wife waiting up for you.
I'm sorry? We have an acquaintance in common.
Corporal Hayden from the ordnance division.
He mentioned you a while back.
Thought we'd have a lot to talk about.
A couple of middle-aged bachelors.
I'm not sure of what you're implying.
I think we're all entitled to a secret or two, don't you? Now, listen, you do me a favor.
Pull Liza Winter's file, give that physiological data a second look.
I don't know what you think she lied about She registered a fail on question 17.
What's question 17? "Have you ever received treatment or been institutionalized "due to a disorder of the mind?" How are your mother and His Highness, the Hat King? Still trying to shake me from the family tree? They're good.
How was work? Good.
Be 1960 before these noodles cook.
You're a nasty Yankee whore, aren't you? Sounds like he'll make a great addition to the team.
Better have a suitcase full of super-compression calculations for us.
If he's been working on implosion for 18 months, I bet he's got designs for a working model by now.
All right, that's it.
I've heard enough.
You let me know when Big Ben strikes 12.
Americans, so delicate.
Pussy got your tongue? Bring me another.
I'm having such a delightful time with the implosion group tonight.
And Lord Crosley will happily pay, won't you? Not exactly Suleiman's harem, is it? This is the entire menu? What a wholesome and unsullied creature you are.
Thank you.
Let us correct that immediately.
- Isn't that Fritz's lady friend? - Jeannie.
Poor Fritz.
I'm going.
Perhaps the three of us could get along together.
Experience Not her.
You can't have Jeannie.
I'm working, Crosley.
In your presence, Paul, I believe I can have anything I want.
Not her.
Here, Jeannie, take this, please.
Take the night off.
The slave would do well not to poke at the lion.
Oh.
She named him Henry, by the way.
Wanted your son to have a decent name before she gave him away.
Little Henry never did have a title, did he? What was your father's again, Paul? Best ironmonger in Liverpool? Does that pass to a child out of wedlock? Lucy thought you'd return eventually.
But I should have known you'd wash up on American shores.
What's the problem here? Your man is a confidence artist, Frank.
He conned my daughter into believing he was 1,000 things he isn't, most importantly, that he was the kind of man who doesn't flee England when he fathers a child.
All right, night's over.
You can both settle this when you're sober.
No, no, no, this is just fine.
And by the way, Dr.
Winter, no one from the delegation is joining your group.
Not one of the men.
Dr.
Hogarth, please.
Whatever my mistakes, you lived through the bombings.
You know implosion is the way forward.
- You have to help us.
- No, I do not.
You would let Hitler win this war No, I do not know implosion is the way forward.
It's a fantasy, a dream.
Not with super-compression and a solid sphere.
We are just months away from a fully functioning Theory which we've already disproved.
If you spent more time working, less time groping Army girls There's that American hubris.
My Christmas gift to you, I'll send over our research.
When you examine our papers, you'll find that shockwave control is mathematically impossible.
I imagine you're already fighting with propagation.
Soon you'll see the chaos is untamable.
Implosion is like a man.
The closer you look, the more you'll realize just how little you know about him.
Even if your group weren't full of misfits and liars, Dr.
Winter, a thousand geniuses couldn't master implosion in a thousand millennia.
Get this limey prick out of here.
- So, you traded away the afternoon shift? - Hmm.
I thought you and Frenchie were attached at the hip.
I prefer to spend afternoons with my son.
Well, she asked me to give this back to you.
Dr.
Hogarth is right about me.
None of that's my business.
Doesn't mean he's right about implosion.
Just because they couldn't do it, Frank, doesn't mean you can't.
The problem with us Brits, we are too beholden to our past.
You Americans, you barely have one, so it can't hold you back.
There's a reason you invented things like motor cars and airplanes.
Hubris cuts both ways, Frank.
But it doesn't control shockwaves.
Hogarth sent over his papers this morning.
There's a boy out there somewhere, and, um, I'm a part of him, or he's a part of me.
I thought I had spent the last two years trying to pretend he didn't exist.
Maybe it's knowing that he does exist is what brought me here in the first place.
I know I'll probably never meet him, and if I did, he'd probably hate me.
But, um I don't know.
I I suppose I still want to make him proud.
Ch.
- Ma'am, I'm sorry to bother you.
- So much for bygones.
If you're here to arrest me, I'm going to have to resist.
My son's asleep, and I don't have a sitter.
No, ma'am, the colonel doesn't know I'm here.
May I come in? How can I help you, Private? Cole Dunlavey.
I knew a Jewish fella back in Iowa, Mr.
Kripke.
Used to hire me to paint his fence every summer.
Paid me $10 just for a day's work.
When my dad got sick, Mr.
Kripke would help us get the crop in the silo.
Well, he sounds like a lovely man.
I don't like to eavesdrop, but I heard your conversation with the colonel.
I know how important family is in the Hebrew faith.
Hmm.
I file the intelligence reports.
This is everything we have on the situation where your people are.
You said that not knowing was the hardest part.
Hmm.
The Bible says that the Lord rained fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.
I don't know what he's gonna rain on Berlin.
- Hey.
- Hey.
Are you putting an addition on the house? Frank had them drawn up last year as a Christmas gift.
Plans for a greenhouse back in Princeton.
A woman must have money and a room of her own.
I have my shack.
But I've given up on the paycheck.
Frank's not here.
Yeah, I just left him at the office.
But about that paycheck, you can pick up your security badge in the morning.
They'll find you a job.
The whole thing was just a misunderstanding.
- Really? - Yeah.
It turns out the polygraph machine was on the fritz that day.
You didn't have to do that, Glen.
In fact, I asked you not to.
Did they show you my file? It's none of my business.
I see.
You're all right now.
Aren't you? If I had known, I would never have brought Frank into this.
I never would have dragged you to the middle of nowhere.
Yes, you would have.
Frank knew, and here we are.
But I'll take the job.
Thank you.
Because here we are.
Did you eat already? My cousins are dead.
What? The Perlmans on my mother's side.
Jesus.
I'm sorry.
Were you close? No, I never met them.
If I had seen them on the street, I would have walked right past.
Were they in an accident or No, they They were in Europe.
I don't see how they could have escaped with a toddler.
Did you know that in Minsk the Germans allot each Jew one-and-a-half square meters of living space? The adults, I mean.
The children were marched into the forest and buried alive.
Where'd you hear that? There are more than a million people missing.
Like they just vanished off the face of the Earth.
I don't even know how to think about a number like that.
You shouldn't be thinking about that stuff, Abby.
Why? Because I'm too fragile to stomach the truth? No, because there's no point getting worked up when there's nothing you can do about it.
What did Dr.
Akley say about the problem? What problem? Whatever you were talking about with that man in Tennessee.
- You listened in on the call? - Charlie, if something's wrong Everything's fine.
Whatever you heard, forget it.
You're right.
You're right.
I can't do anything about what's happening over there, but you can.
There's something I need to tell you.
There's a problem with Thin Man.
What? The spontaneous fission rates of plutonium-240, they're higher than 239.
Rates are always higher in even-numbered isotopes.
I know.
You wrote a paper about it.
I told you I read everything you ever published.
It's 400,000.
Akley's bomb will pre-detonate.
We're dead in the water.
We are, too.
What? Implosion won't work either.
Not without an army of scientists.
So what are we going to do about it?