Kings (2009) s01e10 Episode Script

Chapter One

DAVID : Previously on Kings You'II get no respect in this court.
You accept it and you move on.
By marrying me.
I always wanted to be royalty.
(CLEARS THROAT) You're nervous.
You wanted my answer, I'm in.
Deep as you need me.
Could you imagine if your father saw these? He'd have my head.
DAVID : Then, I should tell your father about us now.
MICHELLE: You can't.
I already Iive with God's disappointment.
I can't Iive with my father's.
What is your deepest secret? I could keep nothing from my king.
I've been Iying to you.
I told my dad everything.
PERRY: It began with the Charter, stolen.
(GLASS SHATTERING) (ALARM BLARING) It contained our history, signed by our elders, telling the story of our liberties and our pride, and it was taken.
From that day on, it was as if a new story had begun.
By the order of the King, I endeavor to write it.
(CHATTERING ON POLICE RADIO) Times have already changed.
OFFICER: Y es, sir.
New relationships born in hope now challenged.
Sixth grade, we took a class trip to see the Charter.
Who would have stolen it? I don't know, but I hate them.
HANSON: The people will be devastated.
Who could have done this? THOMASINA: Southern tribes have always remained hostile to the Crown.
RAINES: Wiretaps suggest the Charter is en route to the Ekron BIack Market hub.
Our national pride in the hands of thugs.
We've gone to war for Iess insult.
If it's a fight they want, we'II bring it to them, won't we, Captain Shepherd? Leave us.
Perry, stay.
Step up, Captain.
My advisor.
You and I are going to make this tragedy into an opportunity.
You will go south and do whatever is necessary to bring back what was stolen.
Sir, I know I Iied to you about me and Michelle.
I know that was wrong.
I'd do whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness.
Prove you're better than a Iie.
The Charter was stolen.
Bring it back.
As you ask.
You will go now, telling no one.
Not your family, not Michelle.
Supported only by your wits, a gun, some money, and a phone, should you wish to call and declare failure.
Succeed, and history will remember you, and you will have my forgiveness and my daughter.
But come back empty-handed, and that's all we'II see, empty hands.
Yes, sir.
Well, then.
Off you go.
PERRY: A dangerous journey, embarked on with bravery.
PROSTITUTE: Hey, baby.
Days passed without word of the Charter.
THOMASINA: Two weeks, and no news from Captain Shepherd.
Dangerous country, our southern border.
Perhaps he doesn't return at all.
You don't sound concerned.
Your faith was misplaced? AII faith is misplaced.
His Iie belies his ambition, whether he knows it or not.
But I see it.
What of the Charter? To hell with the Charter.
Today, we start a new one.
It's time for me to be the hero of my country again.
No, sit.
Sit.
I owe my country an apology.
The theft of a national treasure reflects not only on security, but on me.
The Ioss, a Iesson not to Iet stagnate a country that should Iead.
Today, I make amends.
The Charter spoke of ideals.
Perry, Article Five.
"Never to mistake yesterday's glory for tomorrow's security, but to always exercise "genius, judgment, and hope, never to rest assured "of what we have, but to imagine "But to imagine what we have yet to achieve.
" So, Iet us imagine.
Example, energy.
How do we achieve a 1 00% self-sufficient clean energy-fueled Gilboa? Don't be shy.
Give me Give me some ideas.
Resume renovation at Pella Dam.
A plan for wind farms on the PIains of Dan is in research stages.
Resume.
Accelerate.
Talk to the young.
Learn to think how they think.
(INAUDIBLE CHATTERING) Perry? Start a new book, one to be read 1 000 years from now about what began here today.
How we found and followed a vision.
The Book of Silas! (CHEERING) Stitch the waistline tighter.
I want to Iead with my best assets.
(EXCLAIMS) KATRINA: What do you think, darling? I don't.
Isn't that the point of being the groom? AII you have to do is show up and slide on the ring.
Speaking of which, I should have a proper rock.
We have plenty of stones in the treasury.
I already found a suitable diamond my Iast trip to Austeria.
Twenty carats.
Perfect for when they announce the engagement.
ROSE: Seeing the gown before the wedding.
(SCOFFS) No mind for superstition.
Well, young wives have nothing to fear from old wives' tales.
They Iook at her and Iaugh.
Hmm? You had an eye on greatness and the grip to hold it, and you'd Iet a quarrel with me pair you to a Iaughingstock.
You had a more interesting weakness than spite.
KATRINA: Hmm.
Did I Iose more weight? It just drops off me when I'm happy.
You blackmailed him into this.
Jack accepted my proposal freely, happily, once he saw the damage it would do you.
It will never happen.
Of course, it will.
I'm his only chance at happiness Ieft.
I know exactly what Jack is, and I don't care.
With me, Jack can be King by day and a bad boy with whatever boy he wants at night.
I might even join in.
When I marry Jack and knock out an heir, that will make you What? The royal granny? While I take your place as queen.
I'm off to Austeria to buy a ring.
Perhaps I'II pick you up something, Mother.
(BOTTLE SHATTERING) Bourbon.
You hear a Iot tending bar.
People pay twice that to keep me quiet.
I used to work in a garage.
I know what it's Iike to be invisible.
People forget you're there.
They say things.
Trust me, you're not that anonymous.
Errand boy for Silas, combing the South Iooking for the Charter.
Hitting every place that moves product.
Go home before you get hurt.
What you're Iooking for? You're asking the wrong people.
Are you the right one? I'II talk to them.
Let them know you're shooting straight.
Don't worry.
Nobody here Iikes trouble.
(SIGHS) GIRL: This is that guy I was telling you about.
He's got a Iot of cash.
MAN: Call Ashkelon before we deliver the shipment.
(MAN SNIFFING) How much? Do you have the Charter? No.
We don't talk until we know what you have.
Okay.
Okay.
Do you have it? Maybe I have it.
Maybe I don't.
(GRUNTING) (DAVID GASPS) MAN: (LAUGHS) Some hero.
SILAS: You see how much we can accomplish? AII it takes is a clear mind and a path cleared of obstruction.
My country is content.
Jack, engaged to be respectable.
The engagement tonight, you didn't ask me to get your gift yet.
Oh, I have better than a gift to offer.
(LAUGHS) SILAS: Thomasina.
Who is that woman? She's there every day, just standing there.
Like a bitter almond in the cake.
That's David Shepherd's mother.
What does she want? Do you wish her removed? It's a public space.
OWEN: You haven't eaten in days.
Take it.
You need your strength.
Eat.
Have some coffee.
DAVID: You followed me to the docks? I couldn't just Iet you die because you're an idiot, but I don't see any sign of that abating, since you're determined to find Ashkelon.
Ashkelon.
Is that who has the Charter? Just the word that's where it went, but you shouldn't concern yourself with that.
Silas, he sent me to find it.
Silas? He isn't worth your next trip to the toilet.
Why? Because of what he did to your father.
My father? He fought in Silas' army.
The 808th.
I was on the Southern front when he was wounded at Somas.
No.
My dad He fought on the Northern front.
Wounded at Foxland.
We fought up North until we got the order.
A few border towns were sympathetic to Gath.
Silas wanted an example made, so he sent our unit to torch a village and scare the rest.
To kill your own? We refused the order.
Silas wouldn't Iet that stand.
We had to die.
We were dropped, defenseless and alone, in the middle of heavy combat.
Your father got shot while tying off my Ieg.
(KNOCKING ON PROSTHETIC LEG) Silas would never do that.
Silas sent your father to get killed, David, just Iike he sent you out on this mission to get killed.
Now, you think about that before you do anything else for that bastard.
(SIGHS) I'm going to need something stronger than coffee.
You have anything? I'm a bartender.
(DOOR CLOSING) Your son keeps us waiting for his own engagement party.
Or perhaps it's the future princess.
Let her have her moment.
Ah.
(APPLAUDING) At Iong Iast, I present to you my future bride, Lucinda Wolfson.
A shame what happened to Katrina Ghent.
Oh, it's a tragedy.
Hmm.
But anyone foolish enough to drive those mountain roads in Austeria Uh-huh.
Or underestimate the mother-in-Iaw.
(LAUGHS) Jack and Lucinda.
(VIOLINS PLAYING) We are all terribly envious.
Not because you're royal and beautiful and in Iove, but because you are just beginning.
And what's more enviable than that? May your every day be a beginning.
We wouldn't be here without you, Mother.
If I wake up and this is a dream, I'm never going to sleep again.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Sir? Lucinda.
You reset the bar on Iovely.
Welcome to the family.
You'II find we're very warm.
Jack? I'm glad to see you're thinking about your future.
It will come before you know it.
(GLASSES CLINKING) SILAS: Your mother ordered the picture redone three times.
Too dark under the eyes.
It's a powerful Iikeness.
Your sacrifices haven't gone unnoticed.
Or your new discipline.
We've had difficult conversations.
I bade you retouch your image the same, feign Iikeness under the eyes, and you did.
I answer to you, sir.
It can't have been easy, fabulizing on that scale, taking a new fiancée when you could have been free.
It wasn't for nothing, or for shame, or a Iesson on the cruelty of being a king.
Well, you'II experience that soon enough.
Sir? You heard me.
An engagement gift.
On the day of your wedding, I will stand before all and designate this country a blood dynasty, with you as my heir, the future King.
That's if you want it so.
With all that I am.
They'II get your Iikeness right the first time and it will hang here, King Jonathan of Gilboa.
Trouble sleeping? The bed just feels too empty.
Red wine makes me sleep hard for an hour, and then toss and turn for seven after.
I'd take the hour.
Is something weighing on you? There was a woman in the Iobby in Unity Hall today, just standing there.
And what did she want? No idea.
I can't shake the image.
Don't Iet anything bring you down.
You've been a new man recently.
Your new advisor has made you young again, and once he's back, you'II be able to accomplish even more.
David.
I pass you and you're born, flailing in blood.
I pass you again, and you're at an age for Iove.
I never got to thank you for taking care of David.
Sending him on diplomatic training.
I Just want you happy.
You've been telling me for years to Iive my Iife.
You were right.
No regrets? For your vow? Dolls and stories, scared of the dark.
I couldn't stay a Iittle girl forever.
I thought you might.
His heir.
Without supplication or request.
A gift to be announced on the day of my wedding.
Hardly a present, to finally get what's owed, but surely changes our fortune.
And how is that? I'II be King on my own soon enough.
Your coup, we don't need to ally ourselves with the enemy.
No innocent people have to die.
It may take more than a month, Iike we want, but it will happen.
We save all that blood.
You'II still be by my side, as planned.
If you only had half as much mind as charm.
Your father has no intention of announcing anything or going anywhere, heaven or hell.
You've seen his Iies.
This is different.
He's different.
Hey! No one ever changes.
You were given an offer and you accepted.
In exchange, you ceded your right to whim.
The change of power happens on my clock.
Not his.
Not yours.
With you at my side.
Silas falls, and soon.
And be sure, there will be all the blood required.
The only turning back now Ieaves you in the same ditch.
Go back to your fiancée.
(SIGHS) Get used to your Iife.
You're engaged now.
PERRY: There were times the only answer would have been to end the toil and be done with it, go back to what was, but he pushed on and progress was made, steps taken against the wind with hopes on success despite everything.
(S IG HS) (ENGINE FALTERING) A-S-H K-E-L-0-N.
(CELL PHONE BEEPS) MAN: Edom Railyards.
I'm trying to track a shipment that came in from Shiloh a few weeks ago.
Yeah, we just got a big shipment from Shiloh.
It came through Ekron.
You got a tracking number? (CELL PHONE BEEPS) (VEHICLE APPROACHING) MAN: You got a problem with your bike? I need a ride to the railyards.
JACK: God.
JACK: God, you're Jack.
(BOYS LAUGHING) Lulu.
Stu and I were just discussing some security issues.
I'm sorry.
We just got the wedding invitations.
I wanted to show you.
That works.
Anything else? DAVID: You guys from Ekron? Gath.
I know.
Wrong country.
We dodged the draft a few years back.
Keeps us on the road.
Good boy.
Drinks all his milk.
Someone's yanking your Ieash.
Your neck must be rubbed raw.
Mmm.
You're a mess.
Feels Iike nobody's touched you in weeks.
You should ride with us.
(MOANS) I made promises.
I'm trying to get someone to trust me again.
If he was someone you should trust, would you be all the way out here, cold and Ionely? DAVID: I can't.
It's okay.
The rail yards.
Suit yourself.
(CLEARS THROAT) What was that? A goodbye.
Don't worry about it.
Rest.
You're on your way.
(PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) (INHALES) One, two One and two and one and two and Dad? One and two and one and two and one and two.
Follow the time, David.
You know the meter.
One and two.
One and two.
One and two.
One and two.
JUDAH: One and two.
One and two.
One and two.
One Dad.
Is it really you? You haven't Iearned your Iesson, David.
My Iesson? Keep playing.
If you stop, I'II have to go.
One and two.
One and two.
One and two.
Look at you.
You have practiced.
But I failed.
Remember what I always told you.
If you find yourself Iost, follow the time.
You'II find your way.
(DAVID GASPS) (SIGHS) It's time you Iearned your Iesson, David.
Follow the time.
(TRAIN HORN BLARING) Edom.
Which one? (DAVID PANTS) Where's the Charter? Where is it? Go to hell! Where is it? It's shipping out any minute.
You're too Iate.
You'II never find it.
ROSE: Your scores in protocol training were impressive.
A gift for remembering names.
Now, that's good.
You also have appointments this week.
Medical exam, psychological evaluation and background check.
It's all routine, but if there is anything rattling in your cupboard, spare us the embarrassment.
Dear, you're blushing.
(SIGHS) I flush when I talk about myself.
(LAUGHS) Oh.
Well, it's hard to stay shy in this home.
A Ievel of public exposure is to be expected.
Your periods regular? I beg your pardon? Your fertility.
At issue, front and center.
Have you ever been pregnant? No.
Well, I thought, once.
I'II be a good wife to Jack.
No.
You're mistaken.
You're not marrying Jack.
You're marrying this country.
You accept that ring, you become a vessel for the propagation of his kind.
If you can't manage that, you will have failed your only employment.
The chef is waiting in the kitchen.
Your choice on the wedding cake.
She's sweet.
Sweet people try hard.
You're taking a cudgel to an infant.
No.
I'm being honest with her.
We have three turbines down, sir.
Faulty placement caused stress from directional cross-currents.
Faulty? Initial research indicated wind patterns since found atypical for the area.
It's recommended we tear down existing turbines, rebuild further east.
How can this not be the right thing? This may not be the change the country needs.
Consider Iooking elsewhere for your success.
No.
No, no.
Push on.
I want this done.
The mother of the hero.
The hero of my son.
You've been waiting here some time.
Can I help you? I only wait for David.
We wait on him, too.
I'd be happy to send you word of his return, should he forget his upbringing and neglect to tell his mother.
You sent him somewhere.
I know it.
You've done something to him.
If David was charged somehow, I can assure you it was for a good cause and you'II be proud.
You don't have good causes.
You pretend to be a good man.
Like you pretend to be a young man.
But I don't wait here out of worry, but to see it when he comes home victorious, which he will.
His course is set on something.
I tried to change it.
You set that monster Ioose.
And the shame of it is, you and I, we'II be the only ones who will wish it never happened, and we'II have to watch.
(PANTING) (PIANO MUSIC PLAYING FAINTLY) JUDAH: If you find yourself lost, follow the time.
You'll find your way.
You know the meter.
One and two.
(GASPING) Geothermal drilling also on hold, due to seismic disturbance.
Construction on the wind farms halted pending assessment.
At this time, a timetable for the King's Renewal Initiative remains Indefinite.
You can still renew the Iand.
Perhaps it is not our energy that needs to be cleaned first.
What, then? Why does he reject all my offerings? (WHISPERS) What is it? It's the Charter.
It's back.
How? Mom.
You're here.
I just needed to see you.
I'm fine.
(ALL CHEERING) (CAMERAS CLICKING) Let all know I sent Captain David Shepherd to bring back what we had Iost.
Our pride.
(CROWD CHEERING) You called it the price of worthiness to be seen with your daughter.
I did.
Much to discuss.
CIear the boardroom! Call the Historical Archives.
Perry, stay.
Must have been a hell of an adventure.
It tested my faith in many things.
Did you intend for me to rescue your Charter? Or to die trying? As perhaps you've sent others to die before.
I intended it a test of mettle.
No Iess than I would ask my own natural born son, to come out deserving or dead.
Then, here I am.
Here you are.
My eyes opened.
To see my arms open wide, rejoicing in your triumph and giving you Ieave to press any noble intentions on my daughter.
Our country welcomes home its Charter and its hero.
PERRY: It is the historian's compulsion to look at events and see in them the story as it needs to be remembered.
As charged by the King, a new book did begin and a new day did dawn.
And on that day, a leader rose whose name would be carried as long as there is wind.
One who suffered and stumbled, but did not fall.
Not as Silas would have it, but as fate or necessity or God would.
It falls to me to write his story.
Do it.
Sir.
(MICHELLE SIGHS) Is it going to be Iike this? You going off and not being able to tell me where and for how Iong? (WHISPERING) No.
No more secrets.
(DOG BARKING) Hey, hey, hey.
Easy.
Easy.
KING'S OWN: David Shepherd, you're under arrest.
Has to be some mistake! KING'S OWN: There's no mistake.
Writ from the Crown.
You come with us, and now.
On what charge? Treason.
(LAUGHS) This is a mistake.
Michelle, this is a mistake! MICHELLE: David!
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