Trying (2020) s02e01 Episode Script

1
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
I like church. It's cozy.
Of course you do.
Inside are candles, red wine and
cushions. It's basically our flat.
[CHUCKLES]
[JASON] Erica looks well.
That woman's Beyoncé to me, Jason.
Comes out of a marriage breakup stronger
and without once dragging
me to a yoga retreat.
Do you know how hard that is?
[JASON] Come on. Let's go.
- Why're you wearing canvas shoes?
- Oh, yeah.
Well, I I tried to not
overthink it, all right?
- Then I've ended up underthinking it.
- It's not very godparenty, is it?
It's difficult to think about
things the exact right amount.
Anyway, don't worry. No one will notice.
See you in a bit.
- You all right? [CHUCKLES]
- Yeah, yeah, fine.
- Why is Jason wearing those shoes?
- I do not know.
- Okay, should we
- Should we just pop inside?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
No, no, it's fine, it's fine.
I don't care who he dates.
[BABY COOS]
- She's very pretty.
- No.
[NIKKI] It's too early to tell.
Everyone's hot when they're 27.
We won't know for sure until she's 35.
Yeah, what do they talk
about? What has she done?
Women under 30 don't do
anything except juice.
- And tell people they're bisexual.
- Very true.
We're just gonna keep it simple.
People who obsess over the wedding day
are just trying to cover up the cracks.
Like, if the relationship's a six,
the day has to be a ten, you know.
- Exactly, don't overthink it. Yeah.
- Yeah.
How are you, mate? You all right?
Uh, writing more long form now.
- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah.
Doctor told me to, uh, keep
a food diary last month,
and I just, I really leant into it,
you know. Found my voice.
And an allergy to soy.
Yeah, so that's me, trying to crack
the Great American Novel for my sins.
But you're English, mate.
I think it gives me
a unique perspective.
- [MAN] Glad you made it.
- [WOMAN] Yeah.
Lovely to see you.
[BABY FUSSES]
- When's he moving out?
- Tonight.
I lasted six weeks. Erica, I have
no idea how you did 12 years.
Humans are resilient. Mandela did 27.
Yeah, not with Freddy he didn't.
[ELEANOR CHUCKLES]
[CONGREGATION CHATTERING]
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God and the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
[CONGREGATION] And also with you.
- Father, we ask you to bless this water
- Hey.
Why don't we bring your girlfriend back?
Because maybe he could do her
while we're here.
- Can we not?
- Not what?
Be that cliché.
Says the midlife crisis
wearing a friendship bracelet.
- [VICAR] Christ, our Lord, amen.
- [ERICA] Amen.
- [NIKKI, JASON] Amen.
- Amen.
Freddy and Erica, do you receive
this child as a gift from God?
- Yes.
- Yes.
Do you wish to give thanks
to God and seek his blessing?
- Yes.
- Yes.
Do you acknowledge this day that
God's love is already at work?
Mate, we're not really religious,
so if you wanna just cycle forward
to the water bit, that'd be great.
What name have you
chosen for this child?
- Samuel.
- Buster.
- What?
- Buster.
- His name is Samuel.
- Nope, it's not. I changed my mind.
You can't change your mind.
He's named after my grandfather.
- I never liked your grandfather, so
- [STAMMERS]
[PEOPLE MURMURING]
Together, the Christian
community welcomes
- Samuel Turner.
- Buster Turner.
Oh, my God.
Okay, guys, I'm I'm not sure
this is the ideal place for this.
I'm not naming him Sam.
- I'm not naming him Buster.
- [ERICA] Why not?
Because he's not a talking
bus in a children's cartoon.
Yeah, this really does sound
more like a pre-font sort of chat.
What about a little compromise?
What about Stan?
- 'Cause that's got letters from each.
- No.
Marlon.
Stan and Marlon? That's the
first two on your list, Jason?
- I don't know. I'm panicking. Um
- Luke?
Mm, it's just a sound really, isn't it?
John? Just Paul? George?
I'm just doing Beatles now.
- Parker.
- No.
- Why not?
- Because he's not a wealthy murderer.
Joh I don't George.
I'm back on Beatles again,
aren't I? Christ. Sorry.
- What's your name?
- M My name?
- Yeah, your name. Yeah.
- Thomas.
- Thomas.
- Ooh. [GASPS] Oh, I like that actually.
- Yeah?
- Little Tommy.
- Thomas Turner.
- Mm. [MOUTHS]
Yeah, okay. Yeah.
- [VICAR] Great.
- Oh.
Thomas Turner, I baptize you
in the name of the Father,
- and of the Son
- [NIKKI] Aw. [CHUCKLES]
and of the Holy Spirit.
- Amen.
- [SCATTERED] Amen.
- Amen.
- Namaste.
You can't rename a child out of spite.
Okay, you cheat on your wife,
she might rename a kid or two.
It is the risk that you take.
Actually, Nikki, from an evolutionary
perspective, monogamy is really
Okay, stop. I'm I'm not
absolving you of your sins, okay?
I'm not the women's pope.
Well, I actually have a
a very interesting article on bonobos
Freddy, Freddy, we've
got Penny here in five,
and I really need this not
to be happening, okay?
[JASON GROANS] We're
never going to find a kid.
- What?
- Ellie's gone.
- You're kidding.
- She only come on the site yesterday.
- What sort of a
- They go so quickly!
It's like trying to get
Glastonbury tickets.
- This is you.
- What?
You took too long again.
Yeah, but it's difficult choosing
a child from a photograph, isn't it?
You wanna get in there,
kick the tires a little bit.
- Jase.
- Um, this meeting. Is it gonna be quick?
What, the meeting that decides
all of our hopes and dreams
and defines the rest of our lives?
Yeah, it's just, I need
my stuff from Erica's,
- and I cannot see her right now.
- [SCOFFS]
Sorry, you want us to get it?
I just know she's not
watering my staghorn fern.
- Seriously, Freddy
- Okay. All right.
Fine, we'll do it. Can you
Can you give us a minute, please?
- Thank you.
- Jase.
His middle name is Ivan.
Thomas Ivan Turner.
His initials are "TIT".
Tit, Nikki, tit.
So she did name him after
you then, didn't she?
[CHUCKLES]
I wish you'd back me up a bit.
I don't like it when you
don't dislike things I dislike.
You know how betrayed I felt
when you started liking olives.
Yeah. And I stopped
eating them, didn't I?
For you, you little weirdo.
[DOOR BUZZES]
- Oh, right. Okay.
- Oh!
Hello? Okay, all right, Penny.
Come up now. Yeah.
- Right.
- Do you think she's gonna tell us off
for not finding a child yet?
No. It takes a long time to
find the right one, doesn't it.
Look at me. I had hundreds of
girlfriends before I met you, and
Okay.
That sounded better in
your head, didn't it?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, thought so.
- Come on.
- [EXHALES]
I just, uh, I don't
want this to slip by.
We need something in our
lives that's bigger than us,
something that will outlive us,
carry on after we've gone.
We will, all right?
We have loads of plastic
bags in our kitchen drawer.
[CHUCKLES]
- All right?
- Yeah.
- Ready?
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
- [PANTS]
- Oh. Hi. [PANTS]
- Hello. [CHUCKLES]
Is there CCTV on this street?
Uh, no, no. No, I I
don't think there is, no.
Oh, good, good. That's, uh
No, that's good. Good, it'll be fine.
- [JASON] Okay.
- Okay.
Anyway, I only have half an hour,
because my sister and her husband are
having a naming party for her new puppy.
[NIKKI] Aw.
Six months of marriage therapy,
and that's the best idea they've had.
I said cut to the chase, call
it "last throw of the dice"
'cause that's what it is. Ooh! Tea.
[PANTS] Anyway, it's
gonna be an absolute slog
because she has gone hard vegan.
- Sugar?
- Oh, no, thank you.
I'm sorry, but no amount
of tofu stir-fries
is going to un-hit that swan
with your car last summer,
so maybe just deal with
the guilt head-on, can we,
and stop burying it under
a lot of spinach triangles.
[PENNY SIPS, SWALLOWS]
Oh, long story. He was fine.
It was mainly his fault.
He was warned. Right.
Oh.
Mm. [CLEARS THROAT]
- [SIGHS] Gather, please.
- Oh.
- Okay. [CHUCKLES]
- For I have news.
[WHISPERING] I was never here.
This is an illusion. This
is not happening. Okay?
- Okay.
- Yeah, okay.
[LOUDLY] Okay, so, there is a boy.
His name is James.
He is a nice boy.
- [JASON] Oh, look.
- [NIKKI] Aw. [CHUCKLES]
I think he's your boy.
[BREATHES SHAKILY]
By means I do not wish to divulge,
I have advanced knowledge he
will be on the system in 24 hours.
I want us to be ready to go for him.
James?
James. James Newman-Ross.
James Newman-Ross.
- "JNR". That's good. That's good.
- [CHUCKLES]
Yeah. [CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
Hi, hi. Uh, sorry, sorry.
Um, just to say that she'll be
doing the kids' tea from six,
so absolutely no pressure,
but anytime in the next
45 minutes would be ideal.
Okay?
[INHALES]
- Aw, look at his little face.
- I know. Sweet. [CHUCKLES]
So exciting.
How do we know which of
this stuff's Freddy's?
If you can imagine a character in
a Bret Easton Ellis novel owning it,
then it's his.
[ITEMS RATTLING]
- Are you okay?
- Yeah. Fine.
Yeah?
- 'Cause you you really don't need to be.
- I'm fine.
I have a plan for the new
me. [CLEARS THROAT]
It's a combination of taking up running,
meditation and screwing other people.
- Oh. Are you dating?
- Yeah. Maybe.
[CHUCKLES]
I don't know. It's a lot of vagina
admin, isn't it? But I could.
That's it. The car's full.
He can come and get his
bloody staghorn fern later.
- Does that need watering?
- It does, yeah.
[NIKKI SIGHS] I can't believe
we're doing this. Have you got it?
[JASON] Yeah. Yeah.
[NIKKI] Why're you wearing all that?
Ran out of bags.
Ah, thanks, Nikki.
Thought I'd lost that.
Oh, my God. No woman would
ever have two blowtorches,
three different sets of
things for cracking lobsters,
but no colander. [STAMMERS]
[QUIETLY] What do you think of the flat?
I think it's like one big panic room.
- Horrible, innit?
- Yeah.
So, what do you think?
- Gorgeous, mate.
- So lovely.
- Beautiful, yeah, very
- Yeah.
'Cause sometimes things can
be too colorful, can't they?
Um, it's distracting.
What are you gonna do when
the kids come over, mate?
'Cause it is quite Sort of
I've ordered some
beanbags off the Internet
and, um, uh, maybe some cushions.
We can sort you out
with cushions, can't we?
We've got 30 or 40 spare ones
in our flat you can have, mate.
- [FREDDY] Oh!
- Jase.
Lobster crackers.
[SOFTLY] Four sets.
He likes football,
Nerf guns and Minecraft.
And his favorite food is a
chicken fajita wrap. [CHUCKLES]
Oh, that makes me feel old.
My favorite food when I was a
kid was fish fingers and beans.
[CHUCKLES] Yeah.
- Oi. What's the matter?
- Hmm?
- Nothing.
- Okay.
Why you being weird then?
I'm not. I'm acting completely normally.
Yeah, but that's what's weird.
Because normally with this sort
of stuff, you'd be all hyper.
- I'm fine.
- What's going on?
[STAMMERS] I d I don't wanna say,
because if I tell you, then that
makes me a terrible person,
and not being a terrible person
is the thing that I like
most about myself,
so
[SIGHS] Okay, I sort of assumed
that we'd be getting a girl.
- Oh. Okay.
- Yeah.
I sort of thought that we decided that.
No, I didn't realize we'd decided that.
No, I thought that you said
that you wanted a girl
because you wanted to
learn how to do the
What's it? The French plait thing.
Because the guy on the bus
looked cool when he did it.
The guy on the bus did look cool, but
How have we not discussed this? [SCOFFS]
So, sor Are you Are
you set on a girl, yeah?
Well, are you set on a boy?
I'm, no I Look, am I? [STAMMERS]
If I had to choose, then,
maybe selfishly, yeah.
Because, you know, because there's that,
there's that special bond
between father and sons.
Oh, really? How many conversations
do you have with your dad
that aren't about how to
get the TV back to HDMI1?
Actually, loads recently, because
he's just hurt his shoulder.
So now I can ask him about that too.
Jase, I just, I I
I don't understand them.
- Who? Who?
- Their choices. Men!
All men? Yeah?
Oh, I don't know, you [SWALLOWS]
You all react weirdly to things,
and you have emotions
in all the wrong places.
And you watch films that are basically
an hour and a half of fast driving.
You always like your hair
loads shorter than you should.
What are you talking about?
What am I supposed to
do with a boy, Jase?
Seriously. What? Do Do I
fill him full of confidence,
or do I take some of it away because
society already fills
him with confidence,
so if I do it too, I'm just
I'm gonna turn him into
- Into what?
- Freddy!
That is seriously the
worst-case scenario?
Do you know, Jase, it's [STAMMERS]
It really scares me
that you don't hate him
and what he's done as much as I do.
He's my mate though, Nikki.
What am I gonna do?
- And anyway, women can be dicks.
- Yeah, okay.
- Myra Hindley!
- Yeah.
That rude woman at the post office.
Queen Mary I.
Okay, three women in, and
you're back to the 16th century.
I could name you five
men off tonight's news.
But none of them are
four-year-old boys, are they?
Yeah, no, Jase, but they
were once and then society,
society just came in
and messed them all up.
How can I compete with society,
Jase? It's bloody everywhere.
I mean, we're the only people
that get to pick a gender.
Why would we not pick the best one?
Oh, have this week's
rankings come out already?
Sorry, I must've missed that.
This is a ridiculous conversation!
- Will you get the plates?
- I'm doing it.
Margaret Thatcher.
[SCOFFS]
Can I ask your advice?
- Are you serious?
- Yeah.
Oh, my God, that is wild. No one
has ever said that to me before.
It's always like, "Jen,
no one asked your opinion.
This is my wedding.
Go back to your seat".
Okay, um
But I will be honest with you,
'kay? I won't sugarcoat it.
You wouldn't want me to
sugarcoat it, would ya?
Uh, yes, I would. When
have I ever said that?
- Always sugarcoat it.
- Okay, fine. Go.
Well, it's it's about boys.
Okay, they look like their worst
bio photo is a good rule of thumb,
and always reply to a below-the-waist
nude within ten minutes.
[WOMAN] Hello. What can I get you?
Hi. Uh, two falafel wraps, uh,
one with extra pickle. Thank you.
Yeah, no, um, raising
them, not dating them.
- Do you think I could raise a good one?
- Oh.
- Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
- Yeah?
- Oh, 100%.
- Okay.
Just don't let them be fussy eaters.
My friend, Clayton, only
ate toast until he was 12,
and now he's really into S and M.
It's not a coincidence.
Okay, yeah. No, that
that's a handy tip.
And anyway, you know, bad
parents make interesting people.
Joel's parents divorced
when he was nine,
and he's the most
interesting person I know.
I mean, we can talk for hours, like,
even when we're not high. [CHUCKLES]
He does get quite angry at stuff.
Which is wild, 'cause I'm the lowest
maintenance person in the world.
I'm so low-maintenance,
I might still be going
out with some people.
Jen, does he sound like he's
the right person for you?
Yeah, no. We're on a break
at the moment. [CHUCKLES]
We couldn't agree what race
Ariana Grande was,
and it all just sort of spiraled.
- [WOMAN] There you go, ladies. Enjoy.
- Thank you.
Thank you. [CHUCKLES]
Mm. [INHALES]
Basically, just fill them with
love, and it'll be fine. [CHUCKLES]
Yeah. Yeah, you're right. [CHUCKLES]
[CHUCKLES] Oh, but not too much.
'Cause then they get too close
and resent all other women
for not being as good.
It actually happens a
lot with serial killers.
Did you see that one in South Korea?
He was really handsome,
which you don't really
expect in a murderer, do you?
No.
Has this helped?
Yeah. Massively.
Cool. [CHUCKLES]
[SIGHS] Look, are we
gonna talk about this
or just keep pretending
you wanna buy sunglasses?
I do maybe wanna buy some sunglasses.
There you go.
I like to have a choice.
Look, who says that our boy
is gonna be boyish anyway?
He might not be.
Gender norms are ingrained, Jase.
Erica bought Lauren a monster truck.
She put it in a dress and
pushes it around in a buggy.
I'm not sure how scientific
some of your arguments are.
So what if a monster truck
wants to wear a dress?
Good luck to him. Her. They.
I wanna be a guide to our child.
I wanna be wise, and offer
help and smooth their path.
How can I do that if I don't
know what it's like to be a boy?
You'd expect me to do that for a girl.
Yeah, because girls tell
you what they're feeling.
- They know how to ask for help.
- Do you? Bollocks.
You just sit on the sofa
hugging a cushion,
sighing louder and louder until
someone asks you what's wrong.
Boys are uncomplicated, okay?
They're just, you know,
bosh, straight lines.
It's like maintaining
a bit of machinery.
Bit of a wipe down with a damp
cloth now and then, they're golden.
- Oh, wow, another worrying opinion.
- Oh, hello, mate.
- Hello.
- How are you?
Haven't seen you in ages.
What you been up to?
- No staghorn fern?
- Sorry, come again?
- You didn't bring my staghorn fern.
- No, we couldn't fit it in.
Yeah, well, could you
pop back and get it?
- [SCOFFS, CHUCKLES]
- [CHUCKLES]
- Are you actually being serious?
- Yeah, well, I've had it since uni.
We spent yesterday afternoon
moving all of your stuff.
Not all my stuff, 'cause I
am light one staghorn fern.
Wow.
Go and get it yourself then.
We're not your interns, Freddy.
I can't. Me and Erica aren't talking.
We've got lots of stuff
on ourselves, okay?
And to be honest, mate, you're
acting like a bit of a selfish dick.
You think I'm selfish?
I once saw you unplug a
café's Christmas lights
- so you could charge your phone.
- Oh, come on! For a quick bump.
There were four people
Freddy, you're being a dick. Okay?
I thought you were a dick when
I first met you, but I thought,
"No, it's all right.
Everyone's a dick in their 20s".
But then when you were
still a dick in your 30s,
I thought, "He's under a lot of
pressure. He's got a new baby".
And let's face it, you know,
Erica's not, you know,
warm as toast, is she?
But you are still being a dick,
and there comes a point where you're
not acting like a dick anymore,
you're just a dick.
I'm not the sort of dick who
walks away from someone
because he's being a dick, but
you do need to be careful, Freddy,
because there are not
that many of us left
and you've already
thrown one of us away.
Okay?
- Nikki, can you call Erica, please?
- Yeah.
You, follow me.
- Are you two all right?
- Yeah, why?
- You don't need to talk?
- About what?
You just had an argument.
When?
- [CHUCKLES] Look at this.
- What? What?
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
- [FREDDY] Uh-oh.
- [CHUCKLES] That looks very sore.
- [FREDDY] I know, right?
- [CHUCKLES]
- Oh. Hello, hello.
- Hello.
One staghorn fern.
Thanking you.
- Okay, then.
- Mm-mmm. Hang on. Wait, please.
- What?
- Please.
The kids think they can
get us back together.
No, not back together, just
able to talk, all right?
I'm having enough trouble
getting my own family
without keeping your
one functioning too.
Okay, so this is neutral ground.
It's halfway between
where you both live.
Well, no, technically the canal
would be exactly halfway between.
I'm assuming no one wants
to go in there, all right?
So in that case, let's
do this on dry land.
- Do what exactly?
- Just sort it out!
Please! Sort it out for
for, um, Lauren and
- Thomas.
- Thomas!
[SIGHS] Okay, fine.
We need to talk about childcare.
You have got to take
more responsibility.
- Um, I've been babysitting.
- You have babysat twice,
and anyway, it's not even
called that when they're yours.
- Have you been watering this?
- My God.
I've had this since uni.
I don't want it neglected.
You've had her since uni too
and you've neglected her, so
That's a fair point, mate, yeah.
It's weird, the love affair
you've got with that plant.
It's not weird. It's special.
It's been there through everything.
[INHALES] All right. Fine.
- [NIKKI] What are you doing?
- Freddy! What are you playing at?
- What are you doing?
- Freddy!
No, you are right. It is just a plant.
You can't just chuck it away!
- Why?
- Because it's part of our family.
But you hate it!
I can hate something and I can
still be sad when I lose it!
Oh, f
- [NIKKI] Oh, my God!
- Oh, my God!
- What are you doing, Erica? Shit!
- [NIKKI] Oh!
- Freddy!
- No!
- Ah!
- Okay, come back! Just come back!
I can't. She needs me!
- Don't die, Erica. I'm coming.
- Freddy, I've got it.
- What are you doing?
- Backstroke is my best stroke!
I can't see you.
Help him!
I'm gonna stay here
and watch their stuff.
Mate, I'm gonna stay up
here and watch your stuff.
- Okay! Thank you!
- Jason!
What? It's a That's a very expensive
jacket. Very expensive jacket.
Where are you? Where are you? I'm
coming. I'm coming. I've got you.
[MURMURING]
Oh, my God! [SPITS] I
swallowed a lot of water.
[GRUNTS] Come on. Oh!
- Oh, my God, there's a boat! Guys!
- [ERICA SCREAMS]
- There's a boat!
- Oh, my God!
- There's a boat, guys!
- Oh, my God!
Okay, all right! Okay, okay, okay!
Stand up! Stand up, both of you!
Just stand up!
Oh.
- How do?
- Hiya!
- [JASON] Hello, mate.
- You all right? Hi!
[ERICA] Okay. Yeah, that
would be really helpful.
[JASON] Look at him.
He's like a new man.
- [NIKKI] Yeah, thanks to you.
- I dunno.
I just sort of always assumed
that I'd be good in a crisis.
When I was young, I used
to wanna be a fireman.
- Yeah?
- Mm.
- I think you'd make a good fireman.
- Do you think so?
Waiting outside,
watching all their stuff
while they're inside fighting fires.
[CHUCKLES]
[ERICA] Yeah. Saturday would be great.
Maybe a boy would be good.
Yeah?
I thought the world turned
us all into monsters.
Yeah, it has.
So maybe the world
needs one raised by us.
Yeah?
Yeah.
- James Newman-Ross. That is good.
- It is.
Come on.
"Excuse me, Doctor. My son,
James, has got blocked sinuses".
Hi, I'm James's mum.
I think we might have met at the
school fair". Yeah, I like that.
"James is bloody shoplifting again.
I just can't get through to him".
Okay, well, don't ruin it.
- Still sounds good though.
- [JASON CHUCKLES]
- Cheers. Bye.
- Thanks.
[WOMAN SINGING]
[SONG CONTINUES]
Go, go, go.
[LID CLICKS]
[SONG CONTINUES]