Grotesquerie (2024) s01e10 Episode Script
I Think I'm Dead
1
♪
[SIGHS DEEPLY]
[SNIFFLES, EXHALES]
[SOBS]
[EXHALES]
[SIGHS]
♪
[INSECTS TRILLING]
["DEDICATED TO YOU" BY
JOHN COLTRANE PLAYING]
If I should write ♪
A book for you ♪
That brought me fame ♪
And fortune, too ♪
That book would be ♪
[SIGHS]
You can't be here.
Lois, please come sit.
Please.
Redd, would you come
out and sit as well?
She's making her famous,
uh, Cincinnati chili
and lavender lemonade.
We-we weren't sure where
you were with your sobriety, but
so we have options.
Cincinnati what?
Chili. It's, um
the secret is cinnamon and
unsweetened chocolate, yes?
- And Worcestershire sauce.
- Oh.
[REDD] And of course, mild cheddar.
- The sharp doesn't melt right.
- Mmm.
- Good?
- That's good.
- Mmm. Mmm.
- Great!
What the fuck is this freak show?
[RATTLING]
Come. Come, come. Come sit.
I'll make you something.
Now, please, just hear me out.
Admittedly, we have screwed a lot up.
We haven't been guardians
of our good fortune,
such as the miracle of your recovery.
There's so much good,
so much worth holding on to.
Like?
Cheers, honey.
A structure. A foundation. A history.
Merritt may well be finding
happiness of, uh, of some sort,
but I think she still needs us.
She needs a united front.
Let's follow the example
of the young.
Let's all live together.
Marshall, are you insane?
We've served each
other divorce papers
Nothing is final yet.
You said you hated me! [LAUGHS]
So what? Me, you,
and the gourmet madam,
we all gonna share the same bed or what?
Oh, well, no, uh, no.
That's, that's not exactly it.
- And not, not that I'm not fluid
- No, no, no.
That part of us [CHUCKLING]
That part of us you and I
- is over.
- [REDD CHUCKLES] Marshall thinks
that he and I should
move into the guest room
and you should stay where you are.
And you're all right with this?
Well, I did live in
a commune [CHUCKLES]
for a couple of months in the 1980s.
And well, none of us
are getting any younger,
no spring chickens here. [LAUGHS]
And I do like cooking for a crowd.
The old ways don't work anymore.
Th-There must be new paradigms.
I love you.
I do not hate you.
One says things in life, but family.
Ed, your affair with Ed,
everything we've done to each other
Fuck.
Don't tell me I am still in a coma
and I'm dreaming?
- Am I?
- [CHUCKLING] No.
[CHUCKLING]
You gaslit me for years.
Let me be clear, Marshall.
I intend to move
forward with this divorce
smoothly and efficiently.
I don't want to love or hate you.
I just want to be at
peace with what you are.
But, Lois, we have an opportunity
to do something deep,
- something-something better.
- [SHUSHING]
Marshall, I told you
she wouldn't go for this.
You know, women our age, we
can't forgive these things.
Please, Lois.
[SIGHS] I need both of you so badly.
Accountability is everything.
Please.
Just
Jesus. Go.
Just go.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR SLAMS]
♪
How the fuck did I end up
in this terrible desert town?
- But
- [STAMMERS] It offers nothing.
Nothing!
I mean, there's no, there's
no decent proper movie theatre,
there's If you want
a bagel, good luck.
And th-there's not
even a decent florist.
[STAMMERS] I thought you liked silence.
I hate it!
What's that about?
And I think I hate
you, too, a little bit,
you know, just to be perfectly frank.
Yeah. God.
Yeah, I suppose this is the moment
that I-I-I tell you, yeah.
Tell me?
I know. I know.
I know it now
because I suspected and I found out.
Why did you seduce me if
you didn't really want me?
What are you talking about?
Oh, oh, stop.
[LAUGHING]
[MOCKING] Oh, what
are you talking about?
One of the women came to see me.
And she'd spoken to
several other faculty wives.
Yeah, I do hope you find some way
of, you know, addressing
this compulsion.
- Fucking in
- Y-You should know. I fight it.
For many, many years, I-I
believed in a moral code.
No, but we now know
that such a thing does not matter.
Wh-What? So-so now you
just take whatever you want?
But hear me. Hear me here.
This plan that you
just presented to Lois,
I only went along
with it for one reason.
Which is?
I knew she'd turn you down.
And I wanted to be present
for your final humiliation.
[INHALES]
Oh, geez, I've got to get to the club.
I've got to get those girls in shape.
Their pasties keep falling off
and I don't think it's an accident.
♪
I have so much love
to share. I love you.
- I love my wife.
- I know.
But
I'll give you till the end of the week,
and then I want you gone.
It will be like you never happened.
Kind of a bad dream.
Which is meant to be forgotten.
♪
[MARSHALL] But maybe the
management of our terror has been
unequal to the task? Like
during the end of days
of the Roman empire, we too
face insurmountable obstacles,
internal decay and external pressure.
And economically,
economically growing
inequality and instability.
Rome used slave labor.
Well, we do too, really.
Does that sound familiar?
Because they too had
environmental collapse.
Rome's moral decline
is just like today's.
We-we-we see it all around
us. We see it all around us.
No moral coherence or consequences.
Add to that cyber warfare
and a cascade of global conflicts
we insist on meddling in,
and ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to Ancient Rome!
[DOOR CLOSES]
And, uh
just like Rome
we still cling to our
outmoded modes of how to be.
Our small gods,
our prayers
the very ways we manage our terror
they did no good in Ancient Rome
and they do no good here today.
It's every
every man for themselves.
Thank you, class. That
that's it for today.
I-I need this space, I need to talk
to these fine officers
that are coming here today.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
[DOOR OPENS]
[HANOVER] Professor.
Hi.
[DOOR SHUTS]
Hello, Chief. W-What can I do for you?
Professor, a student
of yours, Mary Colsby,
has made a very serious
charge against you.
Against me?
Sexual assault.
Is this Ms. Colsby?
Y-Yes. Yes.
Uh Gale, look,
Ms. Colsby and I had a relationship,
but it was as consenting adults.
Uh there was no assault,
much less a rape.
And we even parted on-on good terms.
[CHUCKLES] Uh this is not true.
She has a very different account.
And we have to ask you
to come downtown with us.
A-Am am I under arrest?
Marshall, I am not cuffing
you and not making a spectacle,
but you are in custody, yes.
Wh What
W-What about my work? My-my teaching?
My-my-my job?
W-What's gonna happen to me?
I think if the past is any
indication, you'll be fired.
What about my word? W-What, my
D-Don't I have a say in t-th
- I-I'm gonna fight this.
- You will have the chance to.
I-I will. This is, this
is just another instance
of a Black man being strung
up on the word of a woman.
Th Uh, no, no. Look, look. Look.
My texts.
The texts. Look. Look.
Listen: "Marshall, I'm
glad we can remain friends,
you did the right thing,
and you were gracious
and kind in doing it.
It makes me love you more."
Does-does that sound like something
y-you'd send to a rapist?
But look, here's look:
"Marshall, I'm free between classes.
Do you want to meet for coffee?"
Does that? Or-or "Marshall,
I need your advice
on which modern history
professor you like.
- Is Hartley okay?"
- And yet, we have her account
and the D.A. decided to go ahead.
- And I tend to believe women in these matters.
- [MARSHALL] Megan.
I am sorry.
Megan
It's addiction, isn't it?
Addiction? S-Stop. Wait.
Y-You have these-these, uh, pathologies
that you don't have the
slightest understanding
of what you're saying.
T-The, the Everyone's an
amateur shrink these days.
You cannot continue to destroy
people's lives in this manner.
Megan, is there something you can do?
[STAMMERS]
How many times have you
dined at our house? Uh
Meg-Megan.
Marshall, call your lawyer.
[RECEDING] We're gonna print you
and we're gonna take a picture
and you'll be home by dinner.
♪
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
You're being released
on your own recognizance.
I suggest you find some sort of help.
You need it.
[DOOR OPENS]
[MARSHALL] It makes no sense to pretend
to be some ancient stoic
enduring what comes,
when all my choices have
led me to this dark wood.
It makes no sense to try and salvage
the marriage, the career.
The stain of my mistakes
cannot be expunged,
like the woman in the play
who said, "Out, damn spot."
When a man of my
generation, color, is marked,
the expulsion from
the world of the living
is all that is left.
I might be remembered
for some small bit of good, I hope.
I love so many people, so much.
How it hurts to disappoint them.
I suppose this is the last
proof that I am indeed, still,
for a few minutes at least,
still a member of the human race.
[MARSHALL] Am I dead?
[REDD] Well, let's see.
[MONITOR BEEPING STEADILY]
No.
Trazodone and Ambien can,
of course, do the trick,
but in a man your size,
with a full stomach
And, luckily, you were
low on your prescriptions.
I found you.
They pumped your stomach, and
yeah, here we are.
Was it a cry for help?
Or a real attempt?
Nothing has changed
between us, Marshall.
I know about the arrest.
How?
This is not a large city.
Your daughter's here. I called her.
[GRUNTS]
[WEAKLY] I don't want to see her.
Oh, what you want is beside the point.
You've made your position clear.
Sometimes I think it's brave to leave.
It's no achievement to
stay if you hate this party.
But it's also, it's terribly
cowardly at the same time.
My understanding of philosophy
made me accept the
nothingness that is to come.
Which you would have poured
all over your daughter,
drenched her in it, you selfish man.
[MONITOR BEEPING STEADILY]
And now, you've taken
away everyone's choice.
We can only be angry and grateful
and angry and grateful until we are not.
[REDD SNIFFLING]
I'll give you a few days to
get your things and get out.
I don't have anything left to say
other than
I apologize
for what's left of my self.
The so-called self.
Dad, listen to me.
Just listen.
You are the only father that I have.
But you make it really hard
for me to still want to know you.
But I-I do.
I don't know how to turn off loving you.
I don't want to see a
world without you in it.
I have so much life to come.
Like, so much.
Children.
Pain, love.
Fear.
A crazy mother.
Please.
Please try to think of a time
that's gonna be better than this moment.
[SNIFFLES] It's possible.
It's possible. Maybe better.
I
I don't I don't know if
- I don't know if I can.
- [SNIFFLES]
Maybe this moment is
the best I can hope for.
Well, then so be it.
That has to be enough.
♪
[INHALES]
I love you so much.
[SIGHS]
♪
[PHONE BUZZES]
[SETS MUG DOWN]
[TYPING ON PHONE KEYBOARD]
♪
[ENGINE IDLING]
What is this, Ed?
Just come with me, Marshall.
I joined a group.
A men's group that helped me.
♪
[EXHALES]
What, uh
what happened to the mullet?
I had to face some hard truths.
I cut it.
All part of
cleaning up my act.
What kind of group is this, exactly?
Is it religious?
No.
Support and brotherhood.
'Cause we all got one thing in common.
And that is?
Let me ask you a question.
Are you an angry man?
Have I sensed that before?
My anger
[CHUCKLES] it is my salvation.
♪
- [ENGINE SHUTS OFF]
- [DOORS OPEN]
[DOOR SHUTS]
[SMYTHE VIA SPEECH TECH] Gentlemen,
tonight is special.
[WATER DRIPPING]
A new friend is among us.
One who is lost.
It is our duty to show him the way.
We cannot be afraid of offending people.
That is the price of honesty.
And tonight we will
invite our new friend
to have an honest conversation.
Hello, Ed.
And hello, Professor.
You get used to the
mustiness of the space.
I am Dr. Milton Smythe.
Ed has spoken often of you.
We've chosen to interview you
so we all can get to know you.
Sit, gentlemen,
so we can complete the circle of truths.
Welcome to the Mexicali Men's Club.
- [LAMP BUZZING SOFTLY]
- [WATER DRIPPING]
Professor, the, uh
the new pronouns
how do you feel about them?
Yes.
Your question about the new pronouns.
I-I have many students who are trying
to define and explore their identities.
Um
We have discussions,
and I do ask them what
pronouns they'd like to use.
But, you know, I-I-I will admit,
I-I'm getting confused,
trying to keep up with the variants,
such as xe
xe-xem
xyr. I, you know
I-I But I get it, you know
- [MEN] Boo. Boo.
- [EDDIE] Hey, shut the fuck up.
- How 'bout we have some decency?
- [DOOR CLOSES]
It is confusing,
but it costs absolutely nothing
to respect those who
don't follow your norms.
So, if you can't get on board with that,
then just shut it.
Now, Marshall, how do you see
the role of men in the
culture, um, shifting?
There's a revolution.
A correction.
And-and some of these
are too drastic. Uh
Witch hunts. Men being accused of
and convicted without evidence.
Like you?
Men and boys being marginalized.
And-and now, men who point them out
are perceived as predatory
and-and dangerous.
[CHAIR SCRAPES FLOOR]
As a result of all these accusations,
we're becoming the defensive gender.
Second-guessing our nature to
the degree that is cancerous,
as though strong men are frightening.
But I think
I think weak men are
much more dangerous.
- Yes. Yes.
- [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Yes. Yes.
- [APPLAUSE STOPS]
- Strength is everything.
I mean, I remember working at that mall
wearing that damn Cinnabon outfit
all up and down those halls.
I couldn't even take it off on my break.
You guys have no idea. My lowest moment,
even though I was the night manager,
was when I would walk by women
and they would laugh in my
face, like I was nothing.
I was just trying to make a living.
That crushed me.
I had to learn not to
just be angry, you know?
Because the stronger path
and I learned this with
the men in this room
was to find success and rigor.
And that is hard.
It is.
It is.
[EDDIE] Marshall, you were recently
"Me Too'd" and cancelled,
and-and I believe,
and I know the founders
of this group believe,
[DOOR CLOSES]
that you can't just erase people
who make mistakes.
So how do we move forward?
I am
frankly struggling with this.
I am angry that
a consensual affair
between adults was used to hurt me.
And I'm
I'm now sullied,
- and my name is
- Has been destroyed,
and that sucks.
Damaged, at the very least.
But it's now up to me
to reclaim it somehow
and not shy away from the fight
to seek truth and
insist on what is right.
We're folding.
Did you know that men
die of suicide in far
greater numbers than women?
[MEN MURMURING]
And I'm going to admit right now
that I recently attempted suicide.
W-W-Where does it end?
Perhaps the issue is that
we need to return to a
a much more traditional
model for society.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Uh, yes, sir, you have something to add?
[SMYTHE VIA SPEECH TECH] A return
to individual responsibility,
the importance of hierarchy
and order,
correct?
Yes.
Yes, I believe that a way
to return to those principles
is through consequences.
Many of the men in
this room have said
given everything that's
going on around us,
the crime, the lawlessness,
- the divisive culture
- Mm.
that it feels like we're living
- in a goddamn horror movie.
- [MEN AGREEING]
- Am I right?
- [MEN] Yeah.
Have you ever felt that?
Perhaps it is time to find the boogeyman
and slaughter it,
so that it never again
rises out of the lake
or out of the fog
or never again tries
to take what is ours.
I think I speak for all of us
Welcome to the Mexicali
Men's Club, Professor.
- [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
- [EDDIE] We would love for you to join us
as we seek a way out of this nightmare.
Please stand and be acknowledged.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE]
Maybe she heard about my dad
and decided to do it to herself, too.
But she called me on her way here.
She checked herself in.
She said she was scared.
Yes, that's what Admissions said.
Yeah, well, I tried to see her,
but she doesn't want to
see me or anyone. Just you.
Merritt, how are you?
Both parents in extreme crisis
this is a lot to handle.
Dr. Witticomb, I'm okay.
I just need you to figure
out what's happening to her.
Please.
I think I'm dead.
Really dead.
[WITTICOMB] Literally dead?
You're the only person
I trust to confirm it.
The nurses let me see my blood pressure
and my pulse, but
I didn't believe it.
What happened, Lois?
It all came together, a shock.
The world is not real.
And I've crossed over.
I thought about
cutting my carotid with
a pair of poultry shears.
But you didn't.
So, that's good.
What started it?
I realized I never really woke up
from that coma, did I?
I am in some otherworld.
The otherworld.
And you think I'm not real either?
I've accompanied you here?
Maybe to take you back?
You are very much alive. Listen to me.
There's a neuropsychiatric condition,
Cotard's syndrome,
and what it is, is you just
simply think you're dead,
or your organs are putrefying,
or the world is an illusion,
but mostly you're dead.
It is a reaction to going
through too much to bear.
Now, s-stay with me.
What triggered it?
First thing?
It was [CHUCKLES]
I couldn't believe it.
Marshall asked me to be a
part of some sort of ménage
with him and his girlfriend.
Utterly surreal.
- Mm.
- I'm very fluid.
But it's the new paradigm.
The man I knew would
have never done that,
nor would Redd.
It's the otherworld.
A kind of hell, made up
of sick jokes so elaborate [SCOFFS]
nothing living could construct them.
And what else? What else
made you think you were dead?
My doctor.
Dr. Charles Mayhew.
[SCOFFS]
He was having orgies in my room.
[WOMAN MOANING]
[LOIS] I could hear it. I even
saw some of it
through the curtains around my bed.
Like flashes of a nightmare.
My doctor, a supposed man of virtue,
was also an agent of chaos.
So I confronted him.
Having sex parties?
These are exactly the kinds
of tricks that our mind
plays on us when we emerge
from these coma states.
There are many different hallucinatory
electrical storms that can occur.
I mean, certainly you
don't actually believe
that I'm having orgies in here?
Yes, I fucking do.
I do believe it. Mm-hmm.
You know why?
Because you are not who
or what you say you are.
It's some sort of
- demonic rite
- I really wish
that you understood how even
the suggestion of impropriety
would not be good for
me in this day and age,
even if nobody believed you,
which, for the record,
they won't. Nobody will.
They simply won't. I
fucking saved your life.
I know what I heard.
I heard it.
Mm. I also recall,
in my coma state,
a story about a young
girl who got impregnated
against her will
while she was unconscious.
You did that, didn't you?
- Uh So, fuck you.
- You did it.
Uh, and I never did any
of those vile things.
In fact, I'm the one who
saved your life. Um
God, I feel so fucking
sorry for your husband.
You're an impossible woman.
You're insufferable, and you're so
judgmental of him and me
and, I'm assuming, all men.
You are corrosive to
your fucking core, Lois.
Multiple times, your
husband came up to me and
he said something to the effect of,
"Hey, you know, just between you and me,
couldn't you just
accidentally bump the switch?
Turn off the machine
that's keeping her alive
and send the old
vegetable on up to heaven?"
And I always thought that
the guy was fucking with me,
but now I realize that
he was so insistent
on wanting you to fucking die
because you are such a
massive fucking bitch.
I see now, very clearly, that you
would not have ascended into heaven,
but rather descended into hell.
Because it is a place that you
create for yourself, every day
and every hour with your arrogance
and your confident false superiority.
It is a hell of your own making
in which you burn yourself
and everyone else
who you come into contact with.
This is not the real world.
This is the otherworld,
and I I am dead.
And he's right.
[SNIFFLES]
I
created this hell I am in somehow.
[WITTICOMB] Lois, I promise you, this is
temporary. Please, trust me.
Tell me,
what else convinced you
you were in the otherworld?
The only reason I can confess
is 'cause I'm dead.
I killed someone.
A terrible man beating women. Megan,
the one who has my job, her man.
Cold blood.
An execution, really.
- [GUNSHOT]
- [BODY THUDS]
[WITTICOMB] Where's the body, Lois?
Did you dispose of it?
[LOIS] See? S-S-S-See,
this is what I'm saying.
This is where it gets strange
and odd, okay? I left the scene.
I told Megan I would take care of it
'cause I needed to get my head together.
- I needed to get supplies and stuff, you know?
- Supplies?
Y-Yes. Um, shovel, trash bag, lime.
I wasn't in my right mind.
I was so stunned I lost track of time.
I don't even know how
long I had been driving.
And then I got my shit together,
and I said, "No. No, no, no.
You are not going to
cover this up because
this was self-defense."
This was a bad man,
another bad man.
I said, "Let me get my shit together
and go back and face what I have done."
And?
Megan was gone. The body was gone.
The entire room was scrubbed clean.
No body, no crime.
And I'm thinking,
"The cleaners have been here,
and they covered all this up."
- The cleaners?
- People
who specialize in the
art of the cover-up.
Erasing traces of blood,
viscera, brain smear,
- what have you.
- [WITTICOMB] Such as?
[LOIS] The best one
I know in the vicinity
is Glorious McKall.
I mean, she's she
was an acquaintance.
So what did you do?
I went silent.
I went deep.
I followed Megan in my car.
And guess what I found?
- [WITTICOMB] Hmm?
- Proof.
♪
And I confronted her ass.
What are you looking at?
I got you, you sneaky bitch.
- Oh, yes.
- Lois?
- What's going on? You seem
- Unhinged?
Ding, ding, ding.
I killed him
to help you out.
And then you move the
body, you clean up my mess,
and you don't say anything?
Glorious McKall would do that.
She would take her
victims and grind them up
and feed them to her hogs.
Is that what you had her do?
Lois
sit down.
I don't know what you're talking about.
- I saw you with her.
- With who?
Glorious McKall.
I saw you talking to her.
Getting her to clean up my mess.
What I want to know is why
you didn't say anything.
- Why?
- Lois
I did meet with Glorious
to help her.
A member of her crew was
having a fentanyl moment,
she was very emotional about it.
This man was like her son.
I've known her for several
cases, so I met with her.
I offered resources.
That's what you saw.
Where's the body?
Where's your man?
- My man?
- Justin.
I haven't seen him in weeks.
I don't know.
Lois, listen to me.
You're messed up.
You need help.
Let me help you.
[LOIS] She said I needed sleep.
Care.
As if I could accept that anymore.
[LAUGHS]
In that moment
the chaos and the madness,
it all flashed together,
and I realized
I have crossed over.
I I'm in the place
that you go to in the afterlife,
and I'm being forced
to live in my sorrow,
my misdeeds
and my wreckage.
- [TAPS ON TABLE]
- This.
This is
my hell I am forced to live in.
And you
you are just a clever demon,
who's sent to torture me with comfort.
Lois, that's not true.
I care about you, your well-being.
And I think you know that to be true.
And then there's the final reason
that I have a hard time accepting
that I'm back in any
kind of literal reality.
It's the last piece
of the jigsaw puzzle.
[WITTICOMB] The piece
right in the center,
connected to everything else?
[MERRITT] That's the middle piece.
Goes in the center.
It connects everything.
You don't miss a detail, do you?
There was a quintuple homicide,
all under one roof.
A whole family.
The mother, the father,
the baby,
the damn pot on stove.
Just like my dream, it happened.
Where did it happen? Was it local?
I didn't read about it
in the news or online.
Media blackout.
- Procedure.
- Lois, what are you getting at?
A copycat killer,
who copied my dreams.
And the only person
who could have done that
has access to my files.
You know what the fuck I'm getting at.
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
Lois, you are a singular
and unique case.
The interviews we did
following your emergence
from the coma state, these recordings,
they are immensely valuable resources
to those in neuroscience,
neurocognition, philosophy.
I told you this when we began.
You signed, your entire
family signed waivers,
giving us permission to record
and document this process
and share them internally for
scientific research purposes.
How many people,
Doctor,
have access to my file?
- Who?
- Hundreds.
- How many people?
- Your daughter,
for one, a medical professional
with access to the medi-platform.
Anybody who has access to your
computer or your passwords.
Your husband could be a suspect.
We could write an exhaustive list, but
there's another, more
likely suspect, no?
Someone
somebody who knows these grotesqueries
better than anyone.
You.
You just said moments ago
that you murdered a man
"in cold blood, execution style."
We are talking about a person
that killed a baby.
You think I'm capable of that?
Well, let's examine
this like a detective:
Rationally, scientifically, logically.
You recount losing time,
disassociating, seeing
things that aren't there.
You spent years denying
how sick your job made you.
I've seen your cases.
A woman in a world of crime and killers
trying, almost by herself,
to manifest justice?
All alone?
Is not that the motive of Grotesquerie?
Is he not a machination
of your own mind?
Didn't you murder that
Stop.
I am still in it.
I am still in a coma.
Stuck in an endless circle.
There is established wisdom in my field.
Do not tell a delusional person
they are living in a delusion.
But I'm gonna level with you, Lois.
I don't think you murdered that family.
I don't think there
was a quintuple murder.
You are awake.
The world is real.
But you are hearing and
seeing things that are not
If it's all in my head,
why all the religious imagery?
Because you convinced yourself
you were the last good person
in the world: A cross
between a saint, a crusader,
a holy warrior, a prophet.
When all you are, all you were,
in reality, is a small-town detective
in a very, very dark time.
[CLICKS TONGUE]
I'm gonna go to my room now.
Thank you.
[KEYS JANGLING]
[CREAKING]
♪
♪
[LOCKS BUZZING]
[KEYS JANGLING]
[KEY TURNING IN LOCK]
[CREAKING]
[MEGAN CRYING]
[SNIFFLES]
[SOBBING LOUDLY]
Again, I need to apologize.
For falling apart back there
where you were getting care.
And I hate myself for coming
to you and asking for help
when you're clearly in the
middle of a mental health crisis.
Then why did you?
When they called me
to this crime scene
[SWALLOWS LOUDLY]
Sorry, it's a lot.
It's-it's worse for me,
even than the recent family murder
with remains in a boiling pot.
Worse how?
- It's
- I-I've been here before.
It's bigger.
It's more calculated.
It's immense
in its scope. Beyond me, I think.
And because I know some of
these people slaughtered.
Lois
you-you-y
you know some of them, too.
I'm done.
- I'm done.
- Lois. Lois.
Please. We need you.
- I need you.
- None of this is real anyway.
Lois, it is real.
[WHISPERING] It is real.
I promise.
What's here is is evil.
Do I believe in the devil? No, I do not.
What I believe is here today, these
these astounding
murders by Grotesquerie,
have been created by
someone who understands
that fear
is what the devils who walk amongst us,
the mortal devils we all know, created
so we could stay in line.
You are not dead.
You are not dead.
You, here, right now
promise you, I promise,
I promise, this is real.
[QUIETLY] You did shoot my boyfriend.
I did call Glorious McCall
to get rid of the body.
That happened.
Sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Why
did you lie to me?
'Cause I had to protect
you from my mistake.
[SIGHS]
Please.
[INHALES]
[SIGHS]
Show me.
♪
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
♪
♪
The Jesus figure. He
He touched me.
My heart.
He moved you?
He literally touched my heart.
With defibrillator paddles.
Shocked me back to life from a very
dark sleep.
Or so I thought.
Who are the rest of
these people, though?
- Homeless?
- Unhoused.
I was only able to identify
one other person.
Someone I knew vaguely.
Mary Colsby.
Who is she?
[MEGAN] She was many things.
Most recently, the woman
who accused your husband
Marshall of assault.
♪
[INHALES DEEPLY]
My God. [SIGHS]
All right, people!
Bag every piece of evidence!
Print every surface!
Do your jobs and do them well.
Meet me in my old office in one hour.
- You're gonna help us?
- Who else is gonna solve
this case, Jack? Her?
Lois, that's unkind
and fucking unnecessary.
And it's also the goddamn truth.
And we need to start
telling each other the truth.
Huh?
Jack, I know who did this.
♪
One hour.
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
[SIGHS DEEPLY]
[SNIFFLES, EXHALES]
[SOBS]
[EXHALES]
[SIGHS]
♪
[INSECTS TRILLING]
["DEDICATED TO YOU" BY
JOHN COLTRANE PLAYING]
If I should write ♪
A book for you ♪
That brought me fame ♪
And fortune, too ♪
That book would be ♪
[SIGHS]
You can't be here.
Lois, please come sit.
Please.
Redd, would you come
out and sit as well?
She's making her famous,
uh, Cincinnati chili
and lavender lemonade.
We-we weren't sure where
you were with your sobriety, but
so we have options.
Cincinnati what?
Chili. It's, um
the secret is cinnamon and
unsweetened chocolate, yes?
- And Worcestershire sauce.
- Oh.
[REDD] And of course, mild cheddar.
- The sharp doesn't melt right.
- Mmm.
- Good?
- That's good.
- Mmm. Mmm.
- Great!
What the fuck is this freak show?
[RATTLING]
Come. Come, come. Come sit.
I'll make you something.
Now, please, just hear me out.
Admittedly, we have screwed a lot up.
We haven't been guardians
of our good fortune,
such as the miracle of your recovery.
There's so much good,
so much worth holding on to.
Like?
Cheers, honey.
A structure. A foundation. A history.
Merritt may well be finding
happiness of, uh, of some sort,
but I think she still needs us.
She needs a united front.
Let's follow the example
of the young.
Let's all live together.
Marshall, are you insane?
We've served each
other divorce papers
Nothing is final yet.
You said you hated me! [LAUGHS]
So what? Me, you,
and the gourmet madam,
we all gonna share the same bed or what?
Oh, well, no, uh, no.
That's, that's not exactly it.
- And not, not that I'm not fluid
- No, no, no.
That part of us [CHUCKLING]
That part of us you and I
- is over.
- [REDD CHUCKLES] Marshall thinks
that he and I should
move into the guest room
and you should stay where you are.
And you're all right with this?
Well, I did live in
a commune [CHUCKLES]
for a couple of months in the 1980s.
And well, none of us
are getting any younger,
no spring chickens here. [LAUGHS]
And I do like cooking for a crowd.
The old ways don't work anymore.
Th-There must be new paradigms.
I love you.
I do not hate you.
One says things in life, but family.
Ed, your affair with Ed,
everything we've done to each other
Fuck.
Don't tell me I am still in a coma
and I'm dreaming?
- Am I?
- [CHUCKLING] No.
[CHUCKLING]
You gaslit me for years.
Let me be clear, Marshall.
I intend to move
forward with this divorce
smoothly and efficiently.
I don't want to love or hate you.
I just want to be at
peace with what you are.
But, Lois, we have an opportunity
to do something deep,
- something-something better.
- [SHUSHING]
Marshall, I told you
she wouldn't go for this.
You know, women our age, we
can't forgive these things.
Please, Lois.
[SIGHS] I need both of you so badly.
Accountability is everything.
Please.
Just
Jesus. Go.
Just go.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR SLAMS]
♪
How the fuck did I end up
in this terrible desert town?
- But
- [STAMMERS] It offers nothing.
Nothing!
I mean, there's no, there's
no decent proper movie theatre,
there's If you want
a bagel, good luck.
And th-there's not
even a decent florist.
[STAMMERS] I thought you liked silence.
I hate it!
What's that about?
And I think I hate
you, too, a little bit,
you know, just to be perfectly frank.
Yeah. God.
Yeah, I suppose this is the moment
that I-I-I tell you, yeah.
Tell me?
I know. I know.
I know it now
because I suspected and I found out.
Why did you seduce me if
you didn't really want me?
What are you talking about?
Oh, oh, stop.
[LAUGHING]
[MOCKING] Oh, what
are you talking about?
One of the women came to see me.
And she'd spoken to
several other faculty wives.
Yeah, I do hope you find some way
of, you know, addressing
this compulsion.
- Fucking in
- Y-You should know. I fight it.
For many, many years, I-I
believed in a moral code.
No, but we now know
that such a thing does not matter.
Wh-What? So-so now you
just take whatever you want?
But hear me. Hear me here.
This plan that you
just presented to Lois,
I only went along
with it for one reason.
Which is?
I knew she'd turn you down.
And I wanted to be present
for your final humiliation.
[INHALES]
Oh, geez, I've got to get to the club.
I've got to get those girls in shape.
Their pasties keep falling off
and I don't think it's an accident.
♪
I have so much love
to share. I love you.
- I love my wife.
- I know.
But
I'll give you till the end of the week,
and then I want you gone.
It will be like you never happened.
Kind of a bad dream.
Which is meant to be forgotten.
♪
[MARSHALL] But maybe the
management of our terror has been
unequal to the task? Like
during the end of days
of the Roman empire, we too
face insurmountable obstacles,
internal decay and external pressure.
And economically,
economically growing
inequality and instability.
Rome used slave labor.
Well, we do too, really.
Does that sound familiar?
Because they too had
environmental collapse.
Rome's moral decline
is just like today's.
We-we-we see it all around
us. We see it all around us.
No moral coherence or consequences.
Add to that cyber warfare
and a cascade of global conflicts
we insist on meddling in,
and ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to Ancient Rome!
[DOOR CLOSES]
And, uh
just like Rome
we still cling to our
outmoded modes of how to be.
Our small gods,
our prayers
the very ways we manage our terror
they did no good in Ancient Rome
and they do no good here today.
It's every
every man for themselves.
Thank you, class. That
that's it for today.
I-I need this space, I need to talk
to these fine officers
that are coming here today.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
[DOOR OPENS]
[HANOVER] Professor.
Hi.
[DOOR SHUTS]
Hello, Chief. W-What can I do for you?
Professor, a student
of yours, Mary Colsby,
has made a very serious
charge against you.
Against me?
Sexual assault.
Is this Ms. Colsby?
Y-Yes. Yes.
Uh Gale, look,
Ms. Colsby and I had a relationship,
but it was as consenting adults.
Uh there was no assault,
much less a rape.
And we even parted on-on good terms.
[CHUCKLES] Uh this is not true.
She has a very different account.
And we have to ask you
to come downtown with us.
A-Am am I under arrest?
Marshall, I am not cuffing
you and not making a spectacle,
but you are in custody, yes.
Wh What
W-What about my work? My-my teaching?
My-my-my job?
W-What's gonna happen to me?
I think if the past is any
indication, you'll be fired.
What about my word? W-What, my
D-Don't I have a say in t-th
- I-I'm gonna fight this.
- You will have the chance to.
I-I will. This is, this
is just another instance
of a Black man being strung
up on the word of a woman.
Th Uh, no, no. Look, look. Look.
My texts.
The texts. Look. Look.
Listen: "Marshall, I'm
glad we can remain friends,
you did the right thing,
and you were gracious
and kind in doing it.
It makes me love you more."
Does-does that sound like something
y-you'd send to a rapist?
But look, here's look:
"Marshall, I'm free between classes.
Do you want to meet for coffee?"
Does that? Or-or "Marshall,
I need your advice
on which modern history
professor you like.
- Is Hartley okay?"
- And yet, we have her account
and the D.A. decided to go ahead.
- And I tend to believe women in these matters.
- [MARSHALL] Megan.
I am sorry.
Megan
It's addiction, isn't it?
Addiction? S-Stop. Wait.
Y-You have these-these, uh, pathologies
that you don't have the
slightest understanding
of what you're saying.
T-The, the Everyone's an
amateur shrink these days.
You cannot continue to destroy
people's lives in this manner.
Megan, is there something you can do?
[STAMMERS]
How many times have you
dined at our house? Uh
Meg-Megan.
Marshall, call your lawyer.
[RECEDING] We're gonna print you
and we're gonna take a picture
and you'll be home by dinner.
♪
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
You're being released
on your own recognizance.
I suggest you find some sort of help.
You need it.
[DOOR OPENS]
[MARSHALL] It makes no sense to pretend
to be some ancient stoic
enduring what comes,
when all my choices have
led me to this dark wood.
It makes no sense to try and salvage
the marriage, the career.
The stain of my mistakes
cannot be expunged,
like the woman in the play
who said, "Out, damn spot."
When a man of my
generation, color, is marked,
the expulsion from
the world of the living
is all that is left.
I might be remembered
for some small bit of good, I hope.
I love so many people, so much.
How it hurts to disappoint them.
I suppose this is the last
proof that I am indeed, still,
for a few minutes at least,
still a member of the human race.
[MARSHALL] Am I dead?
[REDD] Well, let's see.
[MONITOR BEEPING STEADILY]
No.
Trazodone and Ambien can,
of course, do the trick,
but in a man your size,
with a full stomach
And, luckily, you were
low on your prescriptions.
I found you.
They pumped your stomach, and
yeah, here we are.
Was it a cry for help?
Or a real attempt?
Nothing has changed
between us, Marshall.
I know about the arrest.
How?
This is not a large city.
Your daughter's here. I called her.
[GRUNTS]
[WEAKLY] I don't want to see her.
Oh, what you want is beside the point.
You've made your position clear.
Sometimes I think it's brave to leave.
It's no achievement to
stay if you hate this party.
But it's also, it's terribly
cowardly at the same time.
My understanding of philosophy
made me accept the
nothingness that is to come.
Which you would have poured
all over your daughter,
drenched her in it, you selfish man.
[MONITOR BEEPING STEADILY]
And now, you've taken
away everyone's choice.
We can only be angry and grateful
and angry and grateful until we are not.
[REDD SNIFFLING]
I'll give you a few days to
get your things and get out.
I don't have anything left to say
other than
I apologize
for what's left of my self.
The so-called self.
Dad, listen to me.
Just listen.
You are the only father that I have.
But you make it really hard
for me to still want to know you.
But I-I do.
I don't know how to turn off loving you.
I don't want to see a
world without you in it.
I have so much life to come.
Like, so much.
Children.
Pain, love.
Fear.
A crazy mother.
Please.
Please try to think of a time
that's gonna be better than this moment.
[SNIFFLES] It's possible.
It's possible. Maybe better.
I
I don't I don't know if
- I don't know if I can.
- [SNIFFLES]
Maybe this moment is
the best I can hope for.
Well, then so be it.
That has to be enough.
♪
[INHALES]
I love you so much.
[SIGHS]
♪
[PHONE BUZZES]
[SETS MUG DOWN]
[TYPING ON PHONE KEYBOARD]
♪
[ENGINE IDLING]
What is this, Ed?
Just come with me, Marshall.
I joined a group.
A men's group that helped me.
♪
[EXHALES]
What, uh
what happened to the mullet?
I had to face some hard truths.
I cut it.
All part of
cleaning up my act.
What kind of group is this, exactly?
Is it religious?
No.
Support and brotherhood.
'Cause we all got one thing in common.
And that is?
Let me ask you a question.
Are you an angry man?
Have I sensed that before?
My anger
[CHUCKLES] it is my salvation.
♪
- [ENGINE SHUTS OFF]
- [DOORS OPEN]
[DOOR SHUTS]
[SMYTHE VIA SPEECH TECH] Gentlemen,
tonight is special.
[WATER DRIPPING]
A new friend is among us.
One who is lost.
It is our duty to show him the way.
We cannot be afraid of offending people.
That is the price of honesty.
And tonight we will
invite our new friend
to have an honest conversation.
Hello, Ed.
And hello, Professor.
You get used to the
mustiness of the space.
I am Dr. Milton Smythe.
Ed has spoken often of you.
We've chosen to interview you
so we all can get to know you.
Sit, gentlemen,
so we can complete the circle of truths.
Welcome to the Mexicali Men's Club.
- [LAMP BUZZING SOFTLY]
- [WATER DRIPPING]
Professor, the, uh
the new pronouns
how do you feel about them?
Yes.
Your question about the new pronouns.
I-I have many students who are trying
to define and explore their identities.
Um
We have discussions,
and I do ask them what
pronouns they'd like to use.
But, you know, I-I-I will admit,
I-I'm getting confused,
trying to keep up with the variants,
such as xe
xe-xem
xyr. I, you know
I-I But I get it, you know
- [MEN] Boo. Boo.
- [EDDIE] Hey, shut the fuck up.
- How 'bout we have some decency?
- [DOOR CLOSES]
It is confusing,
but it costs absolutely nothing
to respect those who
don't follow your norms.
So, if you can't get on board with that,
then just shut it.
Now, Marshall, how do you see
the role of men in the
culture, um, shifting?
There's a revolution.
A correction.
And-and some of these
are too drastic. Uh
Witch hunts. Men being accused of
and convicted without evidence.
Like you?
Men and boys being marginalized.
And-and now, men who point them out
are perceived as predatory
and-and dangerous.
[CHAIR SCRAPES FLOOR]
As a result of all these accusations,
we're becoming the defensive gender.
Second-guessing our nature to
the degree that is cancerous,
as though strong men are frightening.
But I think
I think weak men are
much more dangerous.
- Yes. Yes.
- [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Yes. Yes.
- [APPLAUSE STOPS]
- Strength is everything.
I mean, I remember working at that mall
wearing that damn Cinnabon outfit
all up and down those halls.
I couldn't even take it off on my break.
You guys have no idea. My lowest moment,
even though I was the night manager,
was when I would walk by women
and they would laugh in my
face, like I was nothing.
I was just trying to make a living.
That crushed me.
I had to learn not to
just be angry, you know?
Because the stronger path
and I learned this with
the men in this room
was to find success and rigor.
And that is hard.
It is.
It is.
[EDDIE] Marshall, you were recently
"Me Too'd" and cancelled,
and-and I believe,
and I know the founders
of this group believe,
[DOOR CLOSES]
that you can't just erase people
who make mistakes.
So how do we move forward?
I am
frankly struggling with this.
I am angry that
a consensual affair
between adults was used to hurt me.
And I'm
I'm now sullied,
- and my name is
- Has been destroyed,
and that sucks.
Damaged, at the very least.
But it's now up to me
to reclaim it somehow
and not shy away from the fight
to seek truth and
insist on what is right.
We're folding.
Did you know that men
die of suicide in far
greater numbers than women?
[MEN MURMURING]
And I'm going to admit right now
that I recently attempted suicide.
W-W-Where does it end?
Perhaps the issue is that
we need to return to a
a much more traditional
model for society.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Uh, yes, sir, you have something to add?
[SMYTHE VIA SPEECH TECH] A return
to individual responsibility,
the importance of hierarchy
and order,
correct?
Yes.
Yes, I believe that a way
to return to those principles
is through consequences.
Many of the men in
this room have said
given everything that's
going on around us,
the crime, the lawlessness,
- the divisive culture
- Mm.
that it feels like we're living
- in a goddamn horror movie.
- [MEN AGREEING]
- Am I right?
- [MEN] Yeah.
Have you ever felt that?
Perhaps it is time to find the boogeyman
and slaughter it,
so that it never again
rises out of the lake
or out of the fog
or never again tries
to take what is ours.
I think I speak for all of us
Welcome to the Mexicali
Men's Club, Professor.
- [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
- [EDDIE] We would love for you to join us
as we seek a way out of this nightmare.
Please stand and be acknowledged.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE]
Maybe she heard about my dad
and decided to do it to herself, too.
But she called me on her way here.
She checked herself in.
She said she was scared.
Yes, that's what Admissions said.
Yeah, well, I tried to see her,
but she doesn't want to
see me or anyone. Just you.
Merritt, how are you?
Both parents in extreme crisis
this is a lot to handle.
Dr. Witticomb, I'm okay.
I just need you to figure
out what's happening to her.
Please.
I think I'm dead.
Really dead.
[WITTICOMB] Literally dead?
You're the only person
I trust to confirm it.
The nurses let me see my blood pressure
and my pulse, but
I didn't believe it.
What happened, Lois?
It all came together, a shock.
The world is not real.
And I've crossed over.
I thought about
cutting my carotid with
a pair of poultry shears.
But you didn't.
So, that's good.
What started it?
I realized I never really woke up
from that coma, did I?
I am in some otherworld.
The otherworld.
And you think I'm not real either?
I've accompanied you here?
Maybe to take you back?
You are very much alive. Listen to me.
There's a neuropsychiatric condition,
Cotard's syndrome,
and what it is, is you just
simply think you're dead,
or your organs are putrefying,
or the world is an illusion,
but mostly you're dead.
It is a reaction to going
through too much to bear.
Now, s-stay with me.
What triggered it?
First thing?
It was [CHUCKLES]
I couldn't believe it.
Marshall asked me to be a
part of some sort of ménage
with him and his girlfriend.
Utterly surreal.
- Mm.
- I'm very fluid.
But it's the new paradigm.
The man I knew would
have never done that,
nor would Redd.
It's the otherworld.
A kind of hell, made up
of sick jokes so elaborate [SCOFFS]
nothing living could construct them.
And what else? What else
made you think you were dead?
My doctor.
Dr. Charles Mayhew.
[SCOFFS]
He was having orgies in my room.
[WOMAN MOANING]
[LOIS] I could hear it. I even
saw some of it
through the curtains around my bed.
Like flashes of a nightmare.
My doctor, a supposed man of virtue,
was also an agent of chaos.
So I confronted him.
Having sex parties?
These are exactly the kinds
of tricks that our mind
plays on us when we emerge
from these coma states.
There are many different hallucinatory
electrical storms that can occur.
I mean, certainly you
don't actually believe
that I'm having orgies in here?
Yes, I fucking do.
I do believe it. Mm-hmm.
You know why?
Because you are not who
or what you say you are.
It's some sort of
- demonic rite
- I really wish
that you understood how even
the suggestion of impropriety
would not be good for
me in this day and age,
even if nobody believed you,
which, for the record,
they won't. Nobody will.
They simply won't. I
fucking saved your life.
I know what I heard.
I heard it.
Mm. I also recall,
in my coma state,
a story about a young
girl who got impregnated
against her will
while she was unconscious.
You did that, didn't you?
- Uh So, fuck you.
- You did it.
Uh, and I never did any
of those vile things.
In fact, I'm the one who
saved your life. Um
God, I feel so fucking
sorry for your husband.
You're an impossible woman.
You're insufferable, and you're so
judgmental of him and me
and, I'm assuming, all men.
You are corrosive to
your fucking core, Lois.
Multiple times, your
husband came up to me and
he said something to the effect of,
"Hey, you know, just between you and me,
couldn't you just
accidentally bump the switch?
Turn off the machine
that's keeping her alive
and send the old
vegetable on up to heaven?"
And I always thought that
the guy was fucking with me,
but now I realize that
he was so insistent
on wanting you to fucking die
because you are such a
massive fucking bitch.
I see now, very clearly, that you
would not have ascended into heaven,
but rather descended into hell.
Because it is a place that you
create for yourself, every day
and every hour with your arrogance
and your confident false superiority.
It is a hell of your own making
in which you burn yourself
and everyone else
who you come into contact with.
This is not the real world.
This is the otherworld,
and I I am dead.
And he's right.
[SNIFFLES]
I
created this hell I am in somehow.
[WITTICOMB] Lois, I promise you, this is
temporary. Please, trust me.
Tell me,
what else convinced you
you were in the otherworld?
The only reason I can confess
is 'cause I'm dead.
I killed someone.
A terrible man beating women. Megan,
the one who has my job, her man.
Cold blood.
An execution, really.
- [GUNSHOT]
- [BODY THUDS]
[WITTICOMB] Where's the body, Lois?
Did you dispose of it?
[LOIS] See? S-S-S-See,
this is what I'm saying.
This is where it gets strange
and odd, okay? I left the scene.
I told Megan I would take care of it
'cause I needed to get my head together.
- I needed to get supplies and stuff, you know?
- Supplies?
Y-Yes. Um, shovel, trash bag, lime.
I wasn't in my right mind.
I was so stunned I lost track of time.
I don't even know how
long I had been driving.
And then I got my shit together,
and I said, "No. No, no, no.
You are not going to
cover this up because
this was self-defense."
This was a bad man,
another bad man.
I said, "Let me get my shit together
and go back and face what I have done."
And?
Megan was gone. The body was gone.
The entire room was scrubbed clean.
No body, no crime.
And I'm thinking,
"The cleaners have been here,
and they covered all this up."
- The cleaners?
- People
who specialize in the
art of the cover-up.
Erasing traces of blood,
viscera, brain smear,
- what have you.
- [WITTICOMB] Such as?
[LOIS] The best one
I know in the vicinity
is Glorious McKall.
I mean, she's she
was an acquaintance.
So what did you do?
I went silent.
I went deep.
I followed Megan in my car.
And guess what I found?
- [WITTICOMB] Hmm?
- Proof.
♪
And I confronted her ass.
What are you looking at?
I got you, you sneaky bitch.
- Oh, yes.
- Lois?
- What's going on? You seem
- Unhinged?
Ding, ding, ding.
I killed him
to help you out.
And then you move the
body, you clean up my mess,
and you don't say anything?
Glorious McKall would do that.
She would take her
victims and grind them up
and feed them to her hogs.
Is that what you had her do?
Lois
sit down.
I don't know what you're talking about.
- I saw you with her.
- With who?
Glorious McKall.
I saw you talking to her.
Getting her to clean up my mess.
What I want to know is why
you didn't say anything.
- Why?
- Lois
I did meet with Glorious
to help her.
A member of her crew was
having a fentanyl moment,
she was very emotional about it.
This man was like her son.
I've known her for several
cases, so I met with her.
I offered resources.
That's what you saw.
Where's the body?
Where's your man?
- My man?
- Justin.
I haven't seen him in weeks.
I don't know.
Lois, listen to me.
You're messed up.
You need help.
Let me help you.
[LOIS] She said I needed sleep.
Care.
As if I could accept that anymore.
[LAUGHS]
In that moment
the chaos and the madness,
it all flashed together,
and I realized
I have crossed over.
I I'm in the place
that you go to in the afterlife,
and I'm being forced
to live in my sorrow,
my misdeeds
and my wreckage.
- [TAPS ON TABLE]
- This.
This is
my hell I am forced to live in.
And you
you are just a clever demon,
who's sent to torture me with comfort.
Lois, that's not true.
I care about you, your well-being.
And I think you know that to be true.
And then there's the final reason
that I have a hard time accepting
that I'm back in any
kind of literal reality.
It's the last piece
of the jigsaw puzzle.
[WITTICOMB] The piece
right in the center,
connected to everything else?
[MERRITT] That's the middle piece.
Goes in the center.
It connects everything.
You don't miss a detail, do you?
There was a quintuple homicide,
all under one roof.
A whole family.
The mother, the father,
the baby,
the damn pot on stove.
Just like my dream, it happened.
Where did it happen? Was it local?
I didn't read about it
in the news or online.
Media blackout.
- Procedure.
- Lois, what are you getting at?
A copycat killer,
who copied my dreams.
And the only person
who could have done that
has access to my files.
You know what the fuck I'm getting at.
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
Lois, you are a singular
and unique case.
The interviews we did
following your emergence
from the coma state, these recordings,
they are immensely valuable resources
to those in neuroscience,
neurocognition, philosophy.
I told you this when we began.
You signed, your entire
family signed waivers,
giving us permission to record
and document this process
and share them internally for
scientific research purposes.
How many people,
Doctor,
have access to my file?
- Who?
- Hundreds.
- How many people?
- Your daughter,
for one, a medical professional
with access to the medi-platform.
Anybody who has access to your
computer or your passwords.
Your husband could be a suspect.
We could write an exhaustive list, but
there's another, more
likely suspect, no?
Someone
somebody who knows these grotesqueries
better than anyone.
You.
You just said moments ago
that you murdered a man
"in cold blood, execution style."
We are talking about a person
that killed a baby.
You think I'm capable of that?
Well, let's examine
this like a detective:
Rationally, scientifically, logically.
You recount losing time,
disassociating, seeing
things that aren't there.
You spent years denying
how sick your job made you.
I've seen your cases.
A woman in a world of crime and killers
trying, almost by herself,
to manifest justice?
All alone?
Is not that the motive of Grotesquerie?
Is he not a machination
of your own mind?
Didn't you murder that
Stop.
I am still in it.
I am still in a coma.
Stuck in an endless circle.
There is established wisdom in my field.
Do not tell a delusional person
they are living in a delusion.
But I'm gonna level with you, Lois.
I don't think you murdered that family.
I don't think there
was a quintuple murder.
You are awake.
The world is real.
But you are hearing and
seeing things that are not
If it's all in my head,
why all the religious imagery?
Because you convinced yourself
you were the last good person
in the world: A cross
between a saint, a crusader,
a holy warrior, a prophet.
When all you are, all you were,
in reality, is a small-town detective
in a very, very dark time.
[CLICKS TONGUE]
I'm gonna go to my room now.
Thank you.
[KEYS JANGLING]
[CREAKING]
♪
♪
[LOCKS BUZZING]
[KEYS JANGLING]
[KEY TURNING IN LOCK]
[CREAKING]
[MEGAN CRYING]
[SNIFFLES]
[SOBBING LOUDLY]
Again, I need to apologize.
For falling apart back there
where you were getting care.
And I hate myself for coming
to you and asking for help
when you're clearly in the
middle of a mental health crisis.
Then why did you?
When they called me
to this crime scene
[SWALLOWS LOUDLY]
Sorry, it's a lot.
It's-it's worse for me,
even than the recent family murder
with remains in a boiling pot.
Worse how?
- It's
- I-I've been here before.
It's bigger.
It's more calculated.
It's immense
in its scope. Beyond me, I think.
And because I know some of
these people slaughtered.
Lois
you-you-y
you know some of them, too.
I'm done.
- I'm done.
- Lois. Lois.
Please. We need you.
- I need you.
- None of this is real anyway.
Lois, it is real.
[WHISPERING] It is real.
I promise.
What's here is is evil.
Do I believe in the devil? No, I do not.
What I believe is here today, these
these astounding
murders by Grotesquerie,
have been created by
someone who understands
that fear
is what the devils who walk amongst us,
the mortal devils we all know, created
so we could stay in line.
You are not dead.
You are not dead.
You, here, right now
promise you, I promise,
I promise, this is real.
[QUIETLY] You did shoot my boyfriend.
I did call Glorious McCall
to get rid of the body.
That happened.
Sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Why
did you lie to me?
'Cause I had to protect
you from my mistake.
[SIGHS]
Please.
[INHALES]
[SIGHS]
Show me.
♪
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
♪
♪
The Jesus figure. He
He touched me.
My heart.
He moved you?
He literally touched my heart.
With defibrillator paddles.
Shocked me back to life from a very
dark sleep.
Or so I thought.
Who are the rest of
these people, though?
- Homeless?
- Unhoused.
I was only able to identify
one other person.
Someone I knew vaguely.
Mary Colsby.
Who is she?
[MEGAN] She was many things.
Most recently, the woman
who accused your husband
Marshall of assault.
♪
[INHALES DEEPLY]
My God. [SIGHS]
All right, people!
Bag every piece of evidence!
Print every surface!
Do your jobs and do them well.
Meet me in my old office in one hour.
- You're gonna help us?
- Who else is gonna solve
this case, Jack? Her?
Lois, that's unkind
and fucking unnecessary.
And it's also the goddamn truth.
And we need to start
telling each other the truth.
Huh?
Jack, I know who did this.
♪
One hour.
♪
♪
♪
♪