Poker Face (2023) s01e08 Episode Script

years ago.
That's it!
You understand!
I know you do!
Ohh!
Hey, kiddo.
I feel as if I've stepped into a,
a time machine.
Oh, my God,
is that a Steenbeck?
The perks of being a drop-out.
I can just do what I do, my way.
It's nice.
I don't think in all these years
that I've told you, but
I'm sorry.
No, Laura, it was my fault,
not yours.
After what happened,
I needed to leave the company.
Besides, it was almost 30 years ago.
I kept up with your work, you know.
The superheroes in space
with the fourth dimensional explosions.
New tools.
That's all that is. CGI.
I think you would have loved
it if you gave it a shot.
I needed something real to hold on to.
Uh, the service was nice.
Laura, you're here for
a reason, aren't you?
These were always my favorite.
I don't know how you do it,
capture a soul with latex and paint.
Do you think it's possible
to be forgiven by the dead?
No. I tried for 30 years.
The best we can do is forgive ourselves.
Max and I were getting divorced.
Well, I haven't spoken to
him for years. I'm sorry.
We were still partners at work.
We kept the facade,
but at home,
things had gotten really bad.
On the day he died, I asked him to come
and see me to talk through
some of the final things
in the divorce agreement.
One thing led to another, and I
I started a fight.
It was the same old fight.
Sing it again.
But this time,
something broke.
He ran outside from the house,
and he turned and looked at me
one last time
and jumped.
Oh, Jesus.
Before he went over the edge,
his eyes
Arthur
I came here to hire you.
No. No.
I came here to beg you.
I need you to make me one
of your maquettes of Max.
I need to look into his eyes
and beg the forgiveness of a ghost.
And maybe he'll forgive
me and maybe he won't.
Maybe I'm damned to
follow him over that cliff.
But I need to know.
That's why I'm here.
You can say it.
I've lost it. I, I must sound nuts.
Grief is a strange creature.
I just can't let that be the last time
that I see his face.
I need to apologize.
I need to beg his forgiveness.
And you're the only one
who can bring him back for me.
You are the only one who can understand.
I know you do.
You would do the same thing.
Max.
Oh, Max, I'm
I'm so sorry.
My God, Laura!
My God!
- How could you?
- It was 40 years ago.
If I could undo it, I would.
But it's done.
We're here and now.
Forget that you saw it.
And let it go.
Laura, I can't.
I can't lie about this.
I came here to tell you that I'm going
to take the footage to the police.
- Please.
- No!
No, there's no other way.
I've made up my mind.
Okay.
Just
Just hold on.
Thank you.
Has, has anyone else seen the footage?
No one else but me.
I wanted to tell you first
before I went to the police.
I owe you that.
Thank you.
I think you should tell Arthur. Tonight.
I think he would want
to hear it from you.
Before all this comes out.
Max, you're right.
All of this is right.
And now that I have accepted it,
it's like a weight has been
lifted from my shoulders.
Thank you for being
strong for both of us.
I, I can't feel my hands.
What did you do?
It's already in your system.
In, in a few minutes, your
heart will start to slow.
It will be painless.
Just like falling asleep.
Max, there's nothing that you can do.
Just let it happen.
You're insane.
The footage is locked
on my drive, Laura.
You can't get to it.
I have all of your passwords.
I'll delete the file and
burn the original film.
This is everything, Max.
This is everything that is mine.
And I, I can't let you take it.
Max! Max!
You understand!
I know you do!
You would do the same thing.
Look into my eyes, Laura.
Remember this.
Ohh!
Oh, my God.
Oh shit.
Thank you.
LAM Archives.
Raoul.
How you doing? It's Laura.
I need you to pull some film
for me and bring it to the house.
It's from the "Dragonfish"
behind-the-scenes shoot in the '80s.
It's reel number 1-6-6-3-2-4-6.
- How's the family?
- Doing great.
Johnny's getting honor
roll this semester.
- How's the shop?
- Never better.
That's fantastic.
- How's the new job?
- Terrific.
I like my coworkers. It pays the bills.
- That's wonderful.
- Sure.
It's a bit of an adjustment,
but I'm loving married life.
- How's it look?
- Great.
Best cut ever.
Oh, my God, the mountainous volume,
the sheer metric tonnage
of bullshit in this place,
every word, I swear to God.
I think maybe I'm getting
more sensitive or something.
I'm developing an eye
twitch. Can you see that?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
How do you handle it?
It's a barbershop.
Hey, I need you to deliver
this to 52 Cherokee.
Old farmhouse just outside of town.
Extra little for you.
Ah!
- What's in it?
- What do you think?
- Right.
- In the case of a one-year-old Yamir.
Not the father.
You are not the father!
Every time.
Hello?
Hello. Got a delivery.
Bag of human hair. Hello.
Jesus.
- Hey.
- Oh.
Oh, hi.
I got your bag of hair from the, uh,
the barbershop.
Ah, right.
Right.
Right, right. Uh
Hair.
You're welcome.
Uh so, uh
no need for an explanation.
I, uh
I'm Charlie, by the
way. Uh, Charlie Cale.
- Arthur.
- Hey, Arthur.
So, uh, just leave it, uh
leave it here?
Perfect.
Too easy.
Hey, man, uh, listen,
I'm gettin' the vibe
you want to be left
alone, and, and I really,
I respect that, so I
apologize in advance, but
well, with the hair and the, uh
the monster in the window,
consider my interest piqued.
So, uh, what do you do?
Charlie, usually, I, I like
to talk about what I do.
But today, I just buried an old friend.
So right now, all I feel
like is getting shitfaced.
My eye's not twitching.
Uh
which is to say, that's the first
honest thing I've heard all week.
Uh, and I'm sorry for your loss.
Hey, listen, I,
I didn't know what kind
of a griever you are,
but if having some company helps,
I, uh, I'm in no rush
to get back to work.
Sit, leave, doesn't matter to me.
That blessed honesty.
Gotta say it's manna from heaven.
Ah!
Mm.
That one stung, Arthur.
So when I blew smoke out,
it was supposed to go out the trunk,
it didn't, it went out the ass.
And it covers the first
three rows of people.
They split.
Everybody else gets out.
Ahh.
Hello.
Art. Jesus.
You are a cool, cool dude, man.
God, this is a major relief,
because with the hair and everything,
I thought maybe you were potentially
some kind of a serial killer.
Well, if I was a serial killer,
I wouldn't need hair.
I'd already have hair.
Well, you could be a
serial killer of the bald.
Aha.
Should I call you a cab?
I got the Cuda. I got the car.
So I'm all set.
You're not going to drive.
No, no. To sleep in.
You know, there's a cot right up there.
You could crash here tonight.
Oh, that's not scary at all.
That's great.
Yeah.
Jesus.
Monsters, monsters, monsters.
Wow, wow.
Holy cow.
All this comes from inside your head?
I mean, it must be a
horror show in there.
Hell, you got no idea, kid.
Monsters.
Screams from the void.
Void screams?
- Yeah.
- Very heavy.
All right, So I'm standing
and I'm looking and I'm thinking.
And so, feel free to say it's a no-go,
but do you need an assistant?
Now, before you answer
that, I should warn you
that I only accept cash,
and you can feel free to underpay me.
Well
why not?
Welcome to the House of Horrors,
Charlie Cale.
All right.
Mamma mia.
Don't touch those.
Oh. Yeah, sorry, I just,
I see you working on it
all the time, I got curious.
So, uh, what's it, uh,
what's it going to be?
I'm calling it The Orpheus Syndrome.
Oh yeah? What's it about?
It's a non-narrative.
Oh, uh, you want some
of this jelly toast?
- It's freaking delicious.
- You bought jelly?
Mm, no. It's, uh, you had
some of it in your fridge.
You know, that's fake blood.
Do you know how expensive that stuff is?
That costs more than real blood.
Arterialicious.
Oh shit.
- Fuck, Arthur. I'm sorry.
- No, no, no.
Don't worry. I'll take care of that.
- You hang this
- Yeah. Okay.
on the film bin.
- I'm sorry.
- That's all right.
Arthur, I need you to make me
one of your maquettes of Max.
I need to look into his eyes
and beg forgiveness from a ghost.
And maybe he'll forgive
me and maybe he won't.
Maybe I'm damned to
follow him over that cliff.
But I need to know.
That's why I'm here.
Are you okay?
We got a new job.
I'm going to need you
full time for a few weeks.
Hey, uh, look, uh
I know this is weird,
but, uh, whatever that
lady asked you for,
whatever she told you she was here for,
she wasn't.
Okay? She was lying.
I could tell.
Oh. Snoop.
I, I don't know what lies mean
when you're that deep in grief.
She's a friend.
I gonna help her.
Let's get to work.
So to help your friend,
we're building a model of
your dead friend's head.
Twisted web.
So this is Max, huh?
And, uh, what's her name? Laura.
Those were the good
years, the early years.
What happened? Why did
you stop working with them?
Pair of monsters or what?
No, it wasn't that.
Well, what was it?
It was my fault.
It was supposed to be my
big debut as a director.
Creature feature, "Black Lagoon"-style.
And we had a terrific young actress,
Lily Albern.
She died on the set.
And, and it all died that day.
Christ, Arthur, fuck.
It was an accident.
We were shooting a scene
where she went underwater
and the sea monster attacked her.
We had a big tank set up
with an emergency system.
If she had an issue in the tank,
she would hit a button
and this red emergency
light bulb would go off,
and we'd cut and pull her out.
Eyebrows.
It was a crazy day.
We were running behind,
and Lily was having trouble in the tank.
She'd go in, and the
red light would go on.
We would cut and pull her out.
Over and over again.
I got frustrated.
Everybody was.
And then on the last take,
everything went perfect.
The sea monster attacked her.
She thrashed. She struggled.
We got it.
So we were elated.
But
she wasn't moving.
And when we pulled
her out of the tank
she was dead.
Fuck.
Why didn't she, uh, set
off the red light bulb?
I don't know.
I, I, I can't believe that it was
because I was frustrated with her
and she didn't want to let me down.
But
I do believe that.
I believe that
I killed her.
So that's why you walked
away from all this?
You better believe it.
I, uh, I lost a friend.
She was my best friend, uh, Natalie.
And, uh, you know, I wonder
if I could have saved her,
but I didn't.
And so I walked away too.
You know, I keep thinking
it's behind me, right?
But then I keep just, like,
playing it back out again,
trying to, trying to make it right,
trying to change it.
I don't know.
I mean, does it ever end?
Do I believe that the
dead can forgive us?
No, I don't believe that.
Bullshit.
- What?
- I mean, if you didn't think
the dead could forgive us,
you wouldn't be making your whole movie,
the, uh, "The Orpheus Syndrome."
I mean, that's what it's all about.
Bringing the past back to life
like a ritual of penitence.
Ritual of penitence?
Who appointed you Pope?
I was recently anointed. Thank you.
I, uh come on, man. Cut the shit.
I mean, you got Orpheus
who's going through film gates
into the underworld, which
looks like a water tank
to bring a girl back from the dead.
The guy's got a movie camera for a face.
The other guy, that Cyclops monster,
he's got a red light bulb for an eye.
I mean, I'm not judging.
Just, you know, it all makes sense.
You got to revisit the
past to get past it, huh?
You think that's true?
Hey, dominae vomingus dingus.
I'm gonna make some Hot Pockets.
- You want some?
- Yeah.
All right, Arthur.
- It's cool.
- Yeah?
Yeah.
LAM Archives.
They still got you in the basement, huh?
Arthur. Haven't heard your voice
in such a long time.
How are you, my friend?
Uh, I'm fine.
I need you to do a favor.
I need you to pull some footage for me.
Reel numbers 1-6-6-3-2-3-4
through 1-6-6-3-2-4-6.
That was everything on
April the 12th, 1989.
Are you sure?
- That's, um
- I know.
I know what's on there.
I'm not supposed to check anything out.
But that's okay, buddy.
Um
Max was digitizing everything
for the 40th anniversary.
He got through that
pile of stuff already.
Nobody's going to miss it.
Thank you, old friend.
I'll bring 'em over tomorrow.
Yeah.
Hey, I'm Raoul.
Um, I'm here to deliver
some film to Arthur.
Is he around?
That's terrific. He's inside.
I'm, uh, I'm Charlie,
his, uh, assistant and head deliverer.
You're the head of delivery.
No, I, uh, I deliver heads.
- All right.
- All right. Cool.
Yeah, he's right in there.
Okay. Thank you.
I like your car.
I like the Honda.
It's my mother's car. It's okay.
Ah geez. Nice patch of concrete
too much to ask for, I guess.
That was it. That was it.
Jesus fucking Christ!
Are you fucking kidding me?
- I can't do it.
- You can do this.
We need you to do this, honey.
This is what you're being paid for.
This
Raoul. How you doing? It's Laura.
I need you to pull some film for me
and bring it to the house.
It's from the "Dragonfish"
behind-the-scenes shoot in the '80s.
It's reel number 1-6-6-3-2-4-6.
I'm sorry. I don't have it.
Wha Uh, what? What do you mean?
It's with the rest of
the "Dragonfish" footage.
I don't have any of
it. I checked it out.
What the fuck, checked it out.
What are we, a lending library?
To whom did you check it out?
Sorry, Laura.
Arthur has it.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna call him right now,
and I'm going to go over there,
and I'm going to
to go get it for you.
Don't worry about it, Raoul.
Forget I ever called.
Please, don't be mad at me.
I've spent my whole life
thinking that I killed that girl.
I'm sorry.
If I had thought
I never would have. I'd never.
I thought she was being
I don't even know, an actress,
a silly actress.
And we had put everything
into that production.
Our houses. All of us.
And we were bleeding
money. I shielded you, too.
You didn't even know
how in the hole we were,
every day we went over.
Arthur, it was an accident.
Raoul said that Max had digitized
these reels.
Did Max see this?
Did he tell you he saw it?
I am so sorry
that you held this for all these years.
But I did, too.
I did it and I held it
so you boy geniuses
could make your monsters
and not have to wonder what it all cost.
I was doing the dirty work,
always, for both of you.
And you can pretend
that you didn't see it,
but don't you fucking judge me for it.
I move forward. Always forward.
And I am not going to lose what I built.
And you're right that the
dead can't forgive me
but they also can't hurt me.
Laura, let me ask you this.
Did you have anything
to do with Max's death?
He jumped right in front of me,
like he wanted to punish me.
My hand to God.
No one will see this footage.
Thank you.
Arthur, I am so sorry.
Oh.
Oh, he wouldn't.
Arthur!
Arthur. Arthur.
Stay calm, ma'am. The
police will be there shortly.
Can I get your name and information?
Would you just, just
send somebody quick?
Okay? Please.
Shit.
Arthur, man.
I'm sorry, I gotta go, okay.
All right.
What the fuck?
Oh, his heart was always
He always had trouble with his heart.
I'm just happy he didn't suffer.
I'm calling with a legal question.
LAM funded Arthur's work.
I'm, I'm wondering when we can
get possession of his workshop.
Well, today, if we can.
I'd like to see what's
there and pull some pieces
for our 40th anniversary
celebration tonight.
As a tribute.
Okay.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
Okay. Well, work at it and call me back.
Excuse me.
- Hi.
- May I help you?
I was, uh
Hi.
Laura, right?
I'm Charlie. I was, uh
I was Arthur's assistant.
I dropped off the head.
Right.
How may I help you?
Uh
Well, gee, this is,
this is sort of weird.
I thought I'd know how
to put it when I got here,
but it was so sudden, his death.
And, uh, well, I'd gotten
kind of close to him.
Like, I really cared about the guy.
Anyway
he never left the house.
Like, literally never went anywhere.
But I think
maybe the day he died,
he came to see you.
Ah, gosh, I, I'm sorry.
You know what? I feel
really intrusive here.
Maybe I shouldn't have come.
I shouldn't have come.
I'm sorry.
No, I get it. It's, it's all right.
Why don't you come inside?
- Thanks.
- My mother had a framed embroidery thing
over our commode growing up
that said "Strange Blessings."
And that's what yesterday
made me think of.
I didn't expect him,
and he just showed up out of the blue.
And I'm so glad he did,
that I, I got to say goodbye to him,
see him one last time.
Strange blessings.
God. But he wanted to
talk about the past.
About Max. All of it.
I'm sorry. And if I'm
overstepping, please.
But, uh, do you feel like in talking
and whatever you guys said,
that maybe he reconciled his guilt?
Look, I don't know what I'm asking. I
Maybe I just want to know
if he got some peace in the end.
Peace?
I don't know.
Peace, that's, that's
many different things,
but I, I think
No. I know that he was,
he was able to let go
of blaming himself for Lily's death.
Does that help you?
Oh yeah. That's
that's, wow.
That's, uh, albatross.
Over here. Thank you. I, uh
Geez. Uh, thanks.
I
And look, uh,
I'm sorry to show up and bother you.
No. It feels good to give
someone else some comfort.
Arthur gave me that
too with his maquettes
and our conversation.
That's great.
Yeah, it really did help me.
Yeah. Well, I bet. I
bet. How could it not?
Oh.
Helped me to say goodbye to him
and feel some kind of release
that I wasn't responsible
for Max's death.
Uh, thank you so much for coming by.
It's really great to meet
you. Take care, Charlie.
Uh
You said you weren't responsible?
What?
Uh, could you repeat
what you said before.
I think my hearing is going.
That I wasn't responsible
for Max's death?
And that like Arthur had to let go,
I have to do the same.
Max's death wasn't my fault.
And Arthur's heart problem
just caught up with him.
Neither were a result of my actions.
I didn't kill them.
Are you okay?
- Yeah.
- Well, goodbye, Charlie.
I hope I've given you some peace.
What?
Hey, Head Delivery.
No, she killed both of them,
okay. She basically told me.
Not even basically, she just told me.
I mean, not directly, but, you know,
she was lying, and I could
tell she was lying, so.
What is this, a woman's intuition?
No, it's not like a
tampon commercial, okay.
It's a real thing.
It's no big deal, but I can detect lies.
Wait, what are you doing here?
Oh, Arthur, he checked out some film,
and then Laura requested the same reel,
so I'm in some deep shit.
- And I gotta get it back.
- What?
Yeah, I know. Weird coincidence.
I mean, nobody's looked
at this stuff for years.
Coincidence, my foot.
Okay, so let me get this straight.
You dropped the film off to Arthur.
I went to drop the head off to Laura.
He was watching the film.
Then when I got back from
Laura's, he had gone there.
So whatever he saw on that film
made him go to Laura's, yeah?
Okay.
What's on those reels?
It's behind the scenes
of the "Dragonfish" set
the day Lily died.
- Oh shit.
- Yeah, I thought it was pretty dark.
He wanted to see it,
but he was going through some shit.
Yeah. Got to face the
past to get past it.
All right, man.
Well, we got to watch that stuff.
We got to see what he saw.
How does this thing work?
Is it like a VCR?
- Hold on. Laptop, please.
- Yeah.
Laptop.
Okay.
Okay. Here, Max was
digitizing the entire archives.
I think I could get a
copy from our cloud drive.
Double-Oh face scan, Batman.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah. Security's nuts. Okay.
Good, good. Uh, let's, uh,
let's start with this one, 2-4-6.
- Two-four-six. Two-four-six.
- Okay.
Hmm. That's weird.
The files showed up for the reels
245 and 247 but no 246.
- Max.
- What?
So if Max had this on his files,
you'd need his face, right?
Okay, so, Laura, used the
maquette to access the files
and, uh, delete it.
She what?
B b-but
Wait a second,
we have the original film.
Oh God. Shit, man.
Arthur was killed for whatever
was on that reel of film.
Look, we got to find it before
Hide!
All this stuff goes to LAM,
but bag up the loose film separately.
I'll take care of that myself.
- I want every bit of film.
- Yes, ma'am.
Don't leave a scrap behind.
You got it.
All right.
Whoever you are, come out, come out.
I can smell your Hot Pockets.
Come on, fanboy. Out!
Raoul.
- What's that?
- You tell me.
Arthur brought that reel of
film to my house last night
and burned it.
True. Shit.
He burned it.
It was all destroyed.
- Bullshit.
- And I don't know
what you think is going on here,
but this is over.
So go get back in your fucking basement!
Hurry up!
Hurry up!
What are you looking for?
I want every last piece of it.
Don't miss a single loose scrap of film.
I want it all bagged
up. It's going to me.
He spliced it out.
Yeah, I'll take the Medusa head next.
Need help with that?
There it is.
That's great.
I, I also want to have a,
a tribute to Arthur tonight.
All the maquettes from his workshop,
from my home, from the office,
I want a whole room dedicated to him
and to the film that
he never got to finish.
Well, I'll be there in
an hour. Get it done.
This evening is going to belong
to Arthur and Max.
- Laura wants all this stuff up on the second floor.
- Yeah, yeah.
Okay? And we don't have much
time. We're already running late.
Why are you carrying it like a baby?
He's fragile.
Oh, fuck my life.
gone in, like,
five minutes upstairs.
You're not Laura.
Okay, but I'm speaking for Laura.
So pretty much, uh
Can you please hold on a minute?
Thank you.
What's going on?
It's company policy that
nothing leaves the archives.
You violated that policy,
so I'm afraid we're going
to have to let you go.
Are you serious, Laura?
It's company policy.
It's me.
Hey, look me in the eyes, Laura.
Laura, what is wrong with you?
Security will escort you out.
Um, we have a problem.
There's a horse loose on the premises.
Where are you, witchy woman?
Where are you, witchy woman?
Not here.
Medusa?
No, not Medusa. Shit.
Ah? Oh, yes!
There it is.
Oh shit.
Horse, who are you?
Oh.
Hi.
Okay. Uh, all right,
all right, all right.
I'm sorry. This thing is not
designed for quick removal.
Escort her off the premises.
And if she steps one hoof
on this property again,
have her arrested.
Oh, my God, look.
Look, that's the horse
from "Caligula's Revenge."
That's so cool.
Amazing.
Charlie?
Raoul. Hey.
Okay. I'm not even going to ask.
Oh, it's my purse.
Uh, listen, So I found the film.
Okay. Check it out. He
spliced part of it out.
And then he hid it
in one of his monsters
in the, uh, in the snake hair.
The Medusa from "Zazamoosh."
Yes. Yeah, the Medusa from that.
Shit, wait.
Is that one of those
sad "you're fired" boxes?
Yeah. You know, 40 years, man.
She couldn't even look me
in the eye when she did it.
Shit, man. I'm sorry, that's
I was sick of that basement,
and I guess she was a murderer.
So time was right.
Hey, uh,
you think your, uh,
keycard is turned off yet?
Thank you, everyone.
We are so glad that you are here.
Tonight is bittersweet.
I never expected to be celebrating
without Arthur and Max by my side.
Okay. It's now or never, right?
- Oh no. It's going to be now.
- Okay.
I know that if they were here tonight,
they would be so happy
about what I have done
to keep this company alive.
Or at the very least,
they would understand.
I, I hope that they would understand
why I did what I did.
Ooh.
I'm sorry. I
Very funny.
As we look back on our history
there are so many
moments to be proud of.
The When Lily died
on the set of "Dragonfish,"
I thought it would end us forever.
But tonight,
we put the past behind us
once and for all!
What I mean is
the past cannot
- Sorry.
- Excuse me.
The past, uh, cannot
hurt us.
I, um
I'm, this is
I have to go
Just
play it.
LAM began as a humble
practical effects shop
conceived by three Cal Arts
animation students in 1975.
Arthur, Max, and Laura
founded the company
on one simple idea,
that imagination could be made real.
This collective
childhood love of monsters
is what inspired them to build LAM.
Throughout the years, this powerful trio
have set the standard
for monster creation.
And in order to feel real,
it has to be real.
We see, uh, creation of life from clay
not only in the Bible,
but in every ancient
mythology around the world.
When I'm in my studio
I am bringing things to life.
And there's just no other feeling
Stop it! Shut it off.
You feel like
Shut it off!
you're divine.
Shut it off. Shut it off.
Stop it!
Stop it!
Oh
Max.
Max?
Max!
Max!
Look into my eyes, Laura.
Remember this.
No!
- Hey.
- Charlie.
Oh fuck.