Manhattan (2014) s02e03 Episode Script

Previously on "Manhattan" When the time comes, someone will contact you.
He'll have the other half of this.
- Crosley.
- Hi.
This is really not a good time.
Are you We'll be forming a new test group.
There will be an announcement soon.
How did you know that Mrs.
Winter was the girl for you? Was it like Einstein discovering special relativity? That took Albert a couple years.
- I'm Abby.
- Elodie.
Enchanté.
- Callie! - Sorry, ma'am.
If you took her away, I'd never see her again.
There was an incident in Ithaca.
I made a mistake.
You're all right now, aren't you? Jesus, Glen, I can't do this without you.
You're gonna have to.
They want me off the Hill.
- Where is he? - Your husband is at another site proving his loyalty to his country.
_ Brought you a newspaper.
Sunday "Times.
" They took it from me at the door.
They're afraid the news will upset us.
I trust you'll tell me if Hitler invades Nantucket, starts a world war.
Speaking of Fascists, I thought I'd bring your sister next week.
I'd rather nobody know I was here.
Where's your wedding ring? We're not allowed to wear them.
Why? So you'll forget you've got a husband? So we don't swallow them and choke ourselves.
You lost count.
You took too many pills.
It does not make you suicidal.
Let's look at the silver lining.
I finally took up a hobby.
- Nurse.
- Yes.
Someone must have shown her the newspaper.
Come with me.
I'm sorry.
Visiting hours are over.
Thank you.
I am going to bring you home.
Callie's going to hate this scarf.
Come here.
Yeah.
I'll see you next week.
What was science fiction yesterday is a reality today.
Hahn and Strassmann work at the Kaiser Wilhelm Insti-- - No, no.
Turn that back, please.
blocks of all matter.
German scientists have managed to split the atom, releasing 200 million volts.
A major discovery in physics, atomic energy could become a promising source of fuel in the decades to come.
It's called a neutron.
It's a particle inside the nucleus of an atom.
When you bombard uranium with neutrons, you can split it apart, releasing all of that, uh-- that energy, that power that's locked inside.
Imagine the sun rising in the west.
And you know how to build this contraption? I know it can be built.
Hitler is already stockpiling uranium.
I have been to Germany.
I know their starting lineup.
They will succeed at this.
So you're telling me I need a bomb that doesn't exist to win a war that we won't be involved in when it starts? - We'll-- - If it starts.
We'll get in.
You know we will.
- We'll take it under consideration.
- Thank you.
Saw Elaine last week at the university club with her new beau.
Someday you got to tell me how to unload a wife so smoothly.
It's all in the wrist.
Gentlemen.
All right, so who's next in your little black book? Maybe it's time to close the book.
Some genies belong in their lamps.
So are we going to talk about it, kiddo? What do you think we're doing right now? I mean whatever is really going on inside that egg head of yours.
Obsessing over hypothetical chain reactions so you can ignore what? The perils of the tenure committee? Cornell's fine.
And Liza? What does she have to say about all this? Liza's got enough on her mind right now.
She still on her research sabbatical? We need to think bigger.
You must know someone with a line to the president.
We can still drive back to the city.
Leave the cap on this bottle.
Open a beer instead.
Without getting my autograph book signed? I don't want to be the guy who lives to regret it.
Do you? _ Right there.
Thanks.
Editor said the writer's on assignment and unreachable.
I informed him that wartime secrecy guidelines prohibit them-- Census record.
Get me this reporter's individual census record, his last income tax return, and his current home address.
Yes, sir.
Colonel.
_ I trust you informed them of their mistake.
I have.
Why not bring Frank back and we can clear up this confusion? There's some confusion I'd like to clear up right here concerning the source of this story.
I'm not permitted to leave the Hill.
And all my correspondence is monitored by you, yes? You know, if Dr.
Winter were in less than comfortable circumstances-- Which he isn't.
I would worry they may not improve after today's events.
Perhaps you'd like to repeat that, Colonel, to my colleagues here on the town council.
May I have everyone's attention, please? Due to the new J-1 secrecy restrictions, as of today, the town council is disbanded.
What? What did he say? Where's the rest? That's it for today.
Bad behavior.
What did I do? Not your bad behavior.
Right away, Dr.
Oppenheimer.
There must be another secret city in California.
He calls over there three times a week.
Do you ever, um-- Listen to Oppenheimer's calls? Pretty sure that's a war crime.
Hmm.
But I think I heard Roosevelt's voice once.
Get my care package? I thought gift-giving was a bourgeois convention.
Although I don't have any neckties with Arabian slaves on them.
I had a dream.
You were a greyhound and we were climbing a mountain.
And when we reached the summit, you jumped up and licked my thighs until I came.
I strangled you with your leash.
The destruction of the one is the production of another.
Isn't that what Jung says? Bring the necktie to San Francisco.
I'm going to make you beg for air.
Okay, well, let's just say we had invented space travel and you had the chance to go to-- to Jupiter, for instance.
- Evening, Dr.
Isaacs.
- Have a good night.
Oh, my God.
Suck-ups.
Anyway, Jupiter, the most majestic and mysterious of all the planets in the solar system-- but there's a catch.
It's a one-way ticket.
You will never see your friends or family again.
Are there girls on this spaceship? It's a journey of 365 million miles.
You'll get to see the Galilean moons, the Great Red Spot, but you have to give up everything.
You're standing on the threshold of the capsule and you have to decide do you go? - Shit, no.
Do you? - Ah! I don't know.
I mean, on the one hand, you're the first interplanetary tourist, like Vasco da Gama, but then on the other hand, you start thinking about your family and-- Oh, shit.
What's the matter? Jesus Christ.
Hi.
Excuse me.
Hi.
Just looking for someone, sir.
Excuse me, sir.
Excuse me.
- I need to talk to you.
- Fritz? In the lab, we were running the plasma generator, and he was splicing a cable.
- Who was? - Thatcher.
- Okay.
- And just-- after Sid, and then after Akley, and this whole stupid war-- Fritz, slow down.
Calm down.
It could have been me hooking up that wire.
We couldn't wake him up.
We couldn't wake him up.
He was choking on his tongue.
- Is he all right? - I don't know.
I don't know.
It's just everything is so fragile.
Just life, I mean.
I-- I can't go to Jupiter! Who am I kidding? I can't even-- What are you saying, Fritz? What I'm saying is just-- Is that a decoder ring? I know that I'm no war hero or even brave, and I have sciatica, and-- I do! - I mean-- - What do you mean? I mean, um-- - I will.
- You will? Yeah.
Robert Oppenheimer's having an affair.
What? Three days a week he calls a woman in San Francisco.
A doctor.
He's going to visit her this weekend.
He's going to Washington, D.
C.
- Jesus, Abby.
- What? You told me no one's supposed to listen to his calls.
Imagine you're me, sitting at a switchboard day after day knowing what none of the other girls know.
Abby, remember what killed the cat? Stay out of other people's marriages.
Do you remember the first thing you ever said to me at the registrar's office in Chicago? I remember you had food in your teeth.
- And you told me.
- Yeah.
All my life, I felt like I was walking around with food in my teeth, and no one would ever tell me.
But you have been my majordomo ever since.
- A majordomo is a butler.
- I-- Are you getting all misty-eyed on me? Is this about Thatcher's accident? It's about me and Jeannie.
Holy shit.
You did it! What did she say? You want to be the best man? Ah! Guys.
Guys! They just posted the roster for G group.
None of us made the list except for you, Fritz.
Wait, wait.
Me? - Yeah.
- Ah, so what? You want to answer directly to Charlie Isaacs? I'd rather report to a guy who reports to a guy who only has to see his pretty-boy face once a month.
I mean, we practically invented implosion.
G group's going to test it.
The culmination of 300 years of physics and we're going to be sitting here polishing our slide rules.
I'm not joining any group without you guys.
There's more to life.
Like what? Go tell her.
- Oh, you're right.
- Just go.
Helen! Wait up! Wait up! Wait up! Sir? I'm sorry to interrupt.
What is that on your face? I know it's against protocol, but I have a rash.
I will shave right away, sir.
You look like Paul on the road to Damascus.
Keep it.
Yes, sir.
But, sir, um, we found the reporter.
Or he found us.
Ah, W.
D.
Lorentzen.
I see my reputation precedes me.
Listen, I don't suppose you could spare a soft drink from one of those tents? I had to walk the last mile.
The taxi driver wouldn't bring me any closer.
I was under the impression you preferred hard drinks.
That you preferred them to employment at your last three newspapers.
I see my reputation does precede me.
Okay, then.
No refreshments.
Shall we talk Frank Winter? Whoever referred you here was misinformed.
Aw, shucks.
This was the last stop on the caboose.
It's the oddest thing.
It seems that half of America's physicists have just disappeared.
Poof.
Like the Rapture.
I imagine you've read the code of wartime practices for the American press.
I'm really more of a First Amendment guy.
See, my theory, American's missing geniuses are camped right on the other side of that fence.
And whatever they're up to, you don't want the Krauts or my readership knowing about it.
So before you call in the cavalry, you should know that if my editor doesn't hear from me by press time, there will be a special feature in tomorrow's paper.
A treasure map leading right to your doorstep.
So tell me, does the name Frank Winter ring a bell after all? Why don't we go get you that soft drink? Yeah.
Attention, please.
All vehicles entering the motor pool must show updated vehicle passes before security parking.
Liza.
Did they tell you anything about Frank? I was just about to come find you.
Are they bringing him back? You see the irony here, right? I mean, you're asking me to risk my hide so that you can be reunited with your husband? Look, I don't think he's going to be coming around the mountain any time soon.
I tried.
They bought you off.
Let's say you're testing a theory about hydrangeas and the theory doesn't pan out.
But in the course of experimenting you find, I don't know, that plants are sentient and crave human blood.
Now, are you going to go back and start over with the hydrangeas or-- They sold you the scoop on the gadget.
Is that what Frank's life is worth? I've been hired to write the official chronicle of the Manhattan Engineering District.
Unfettered access.
Did you tell him who gave you the tip-off about Frank? I would never reveal a source, even under penalty of torture, which, by the way, I don't put past that sadist of a colonel out there.
They don't give out Pulitzers for propaganda.
I didn't know the Allmans had moved.
And in their place you found a long-lost college chum.
Imagine my surprise.
Yet it wasn't just a campus you shared with Mr.
Lorentzen was it? I wonder how your husband would feel about your recent visit with an old flame.
Let's call him and ask.
Then again, I'm old-fashioned when it comes to the sanctity of marriage.
Your husband, on the other hand, holds a more progressive view.
Where's Frank? He lied to you, medicated you with barbiturates after philandering with a woman half his age and half your intelligence, and yet you persist in agitating for his return.
You have a wife, don't you, Colonel? She didn't choose to join you on the Hill? My wife is not well, but thank you for your concern.
And if you should vanish into the desert, I imagine she would do everything in her power to find you, despite your imperfections.
But you didn't do everything in your power, Dr.
Winter.
Your daughter did.
Mr.
Lorentzen declined to name his source, but the telephone company was glad to do its patriotic duty in a time of war.
She's only a child.
The operator is holding an open line to your sister's apartment.
Your daughter is on the other end.
If you want to help your family, you're going to tell her to be a good girl.
The wedding china? We never get to use it anymore.
What do I call him? Dr.
Oppenheimer or Robert? I told you to stay out of it.
It didn't mean invite him over.
Careers aren't made between 9:00 and 5:00, they're made between soup and dessert.
- Honey.
- Mm? This has nothing to do with my career and you know it.
Meeks had one task-- to find a projector for the stag film.
I found "War Times Tiddlers," designed to stiffen the resolve of our service members.
Well, I found something way better.
Wollensak Fastax eight millimeter.
Why just watch a film when you can shoot your own? - Right? - Your own stag film? No.
We were adapting "Auro, Lord of Jupiter" from Planet Comics.
It was-- it was gonna be legendary.
And Meeks very graciously let me play Auro.
And I was Tara, Auro's trusty saber-toothed tiger friend.
Okay.
Great character.
But alas, Jupiter fell to the Brits.
This is Fritz's swan song as a bachelor.
You wanted to spend it in a burlap diaper.
- Whereas I felt it might be more appropriate-- - Oh! - Here comes the bride.
- What? Whoa, no, no, we're not supposed to see each other before the wedding! Help! Ah! I heard it was you that set up Jeannie and Fritz.
You got any more eligible bachelors up your sleeve? Oh, it's not your sleeve they wanna get up, believe me.
I thought scientists might be different.
You must be new around here.
Paul Crosley.
I don't believe we've had the pleasure.
What pleasure is that? Well, why don't you name a few of your favorites and we could try them all? Cheers.
So you're, uh-- you're new around here? Did you kill that bed sheet yourself or what? It's all I ever want.
Meat, meat, meat.
Robert says it's the iron.
- Mm.
- What about you, Abby? Any cravings? Oh, it's usually just whatever they're out of at the commissary.
Oh, the commissary's a disaster.
You should see the shopping list I foist on Robert when he's traveling.
You do a lot of traveling, don't you, Dr.
Oppenheimer? If I spent any more time riding the rails, they'd make me a Pullman porter.
I suppose it's just Washington mostly - when the president says jump.
- Abby.
National security.
He's heading there first thing in the morning again.
I haven't been off the Hill in almost a year.
I suppose I'm just trying to live vicariously through someone else's adventures.
If Washington is your idea of an adventure, I'm afraid cabin fever is the least of your problems.
Ah.
How did the two of you meet? You're so perfectly matched.
Well, I had just married my third husband.
Of course, Robert isn't the type to steal a man's wife, so I reeled him in the old-fashioned way-- I got pregnant.
This one is just for good measure.
What a fascinating necktie.
Is that Aladdin? My uncle saw his first wife right before the wedding and then she fell off a lake steamer on their way to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon, so I'm just saying I don't wanna risk it.
Cros? Hello? Cros? Crosley, are you there? - Anyone? Hello? - Hey, forget about me, Fritzy.
This is Gloria.
I hear you're from Jupiter.
She's all paid up.
And let's consider this an early wedding present.
One more proper goring before the old bull head's out to pasture.
Huh? - Why don't you take the night off? - Hey, wait.
- Thanks, Gloria.
- Prins.
Hey.
Hey! Well, now you owe me $2 and a half.
What is wrong with you? Why won't you be happy till everybody else is as depraved and miserable as you are? Says the girl who's been crying into her cups because Isaacs left her off his precious list.
Suddenly you're the protectoress of marriage? You think I would've made a good wife, Paul? Huh? I didn't love you.
- I'm sorry.
- Let's not delude ourselves, tulip.
Love didn't enter the equation.
You traded up for the prince of the project.
And look where it got you.
I mean, I've heard of birds sleeping their way to the top, but you're the first I know who slept their way to the bottom.
There's a tract in the Mojave Desert that meets all the criteria-- flat as a pancake, remote enough that no one's gonna wander in with a picnic blanket.
No Indians.
Or if you don't like California, there's the Gulf Coast, Padre Island.
We're testing a weapon of war, not building a summer house.
We identified a site in Colorado.
Two in New Mexico.
The Jornada del Muerto Desert.
- It means-- - "Route of the dead man.
" Pick one.
You're the director of G group.
Direct.
I spent all day licking my wounds wondering what was wrong with me, - why I didn't make your idiotic group.
- Helen, calm down.
And then I realized it's not me, it's you.
It is chilly in here, isn't it? And you left me on the bench because you can't control your hard-on? Go home, you're drunk.
- Thank your wife for dinner.
- And you! Everybody knows you were the third choice to run this project.
None of us would even be here if Frank hadn't convinced Albert Einstein we needed a bomb.
- This entire project exists because of Frank.
- Helen.
Hey.
- What are you doing? - Where is he now? I had to work 10 times harder than any man to get here.
It was just sex, Charlie.
Get over it.
Hey, I picked the best team for the job.
Remind me of her name.
She's just a colleague from the tech area.
- They never stop working, do they? - Mm.
Honestly, Charlie and I are happier than we've ever been.
You know, with the baby and everything.
Men always think they want a woman who really understands them, but when they get one, they learn what a terrible burden it is to be known.
Your husband's not going to Washington tomorrow.
Oh, the Army is always changing Robert's schedule at the last minute.
He's going to San Francisco.
You work the switchboard, don't you? Well, I bet you overhear all kinds of secrets.
I hear things, too.
I hear you like the taste of girls.
I do not need marital advice from a deviant.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
Oh.
Oh, God, uh, was I not supposed to? - Um, sorry.
- You did great.
You did great.
Wow.
You're a pro.
Well, I mean-- I'm not saying that, uh-- I mean, you're not obviously, uh-- you're not a pro in that sense.
But wait, you're-- you're not a pro, are you? I've, uh-- I've never been asked if I was a hooker on a first date before.
Oh, God, no, well, I'm sorry, I-- I didn't mean-- it's just-- it's just, uh, a lot of the nice girls here, like Jeannie, they sometimes-- um-- wait, are we on a date? Yeah, sort of.
'Cause we could go on one.
I mean, like a-- a regular one, like to the theater.
Do you like the theater? "Young Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
He thinks too much.
Such men are dangerous.
" Wow, you can recite Shakespeare? Next you're gonna tell me you have a copy of Planet Comics number one in your purse.
Jim.
Jim.
Just a-- I'll be out in a second.
You gonna ask a girl in? You should take up smoking.
Covers the smell of burnt papers.
Did they teach you that in spy school along with the use of fellatio as a tool of persuasion? No.
That I learned in high school.
Did you want me to apologize for the blowjob? I want you to go back to wherever they found you.
I found them, same as you.
Oh, no.
We are not the same.
The class struggle uses whatever human material is available - to fulfill its objectives.
- I'm not a Communist.
I only reached out to your associates because the Army shot my friend.
The Oriental.
- I read your file.
- His name was Sid.
Do you think that they would have killed Sid if he'd looked like you? If you're not a Communist, why are you risking your own neck to give them a bomb? Not a bomb, the bomb.
It's-- it's the queen.
Do you-- do you ever play chess? The queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard.
That's what we're building here for an army that shoots its own citizens.
If we are the only ones who have it, we'll probably blow up the world.
But if-- if Stalin has a bomb in his pocket, too, the game ends in a draw.
It's a stalemate.
Nobody dies.
I was trying to do the right thing.
No, you were.
- You still are.
- Really? Didn't feel that way when I was shoving a body in the trunk of a Buick.
What? Did they leave that detail out of my file? Hmm? Your comrade killed a guy two feet away from me.
Now I can't sleep at night.
- Who was it? - I don't know.
It was military intelligence.
It doesn't matter.
I'm all through with the class struggle.
They're expecting weekly reports and I'm supposed to deliver them.
Yeah, well, I hope they don't shoot the messenger.
You don't get it.
They killed a government agent.
What do you think they're gonna do to a dropout from Pittsburgh or to a scientist who's got cold feet? Even if-- even if I wanted to help, the project's been reorganized, I'm on the C team.
I don't have access anymore.
Not to the kind of information they want.
Well, you're the genius.
Right? What are we gonna do? Hey.
You know, uh, when Helen Prins showed up here, that was, uh-- that was about the test we're planning.
- I promise you have nothing to worry about.
- I know.
Aside from that, "Mrs.
Lincoln," it was a lovely evening.
You should have Robert Oppenheimer's job.
Spy killer on guard duty.
The colonel must be scared of this broad.
Have fun with Mrs.
Winter.
_ - You sure about this? - Yeah, trust me.
I got 'em from one of the Indian maids.
She makes them herself.
This is real silver.
Yeah.
That'll work.
You got any last advice before I walk the plank? Uh, well, um, yes, as a matter of fact.
Um You should take the assignment with G group.
It doesn't matter what you think of Charlie Isaacs.
This test-- this test is the start of a whole new era.
This is like Auro's interplanetary cruise ship crash-landing on Jupiter.
I don't know, I-- I just-- I don't need the prestige.
- Maybe most guys do, but-- - You have food in your teeth.
I am telling you the truth, buddy.
No one else is gonna.
You cannot let an opportunity like this pass you up.
I ju-- it's just-- I like working with you.
I wouldn't know what to do without you.
That's, um-- that's why you're gonna convince Isaacs to put me on the team, too.
You know my work.
He'll listen to you.
Let's go to Jupiter together.
Bombs away.
Bombs away.
Well, here we go.
Crosley, wait up.
Whoo! Whoo! Do you have any idea what kind of a man you're working for? You say you love Callie? This is quite a way of showing it.
Callie drove to Canada this morning with her aunt.
She's safe.
You spoke to her? Colonel lets me use his phone to talk to my folks when he's out and no one monitors the line.
What other perks do you get for turning me in? - Crystal City, Texas.
- What's that? Your next plum assignment? It's where they're keeping your husband.
And why should I take your word for that? You don't have to.
I can get you as far as the Lamy train depot.
All right.
You're good to go.
- Have a good evening.
- You have a good night.
_ It's called dance therapy.
When we're focused on our feet, we're distracted from our brains.
The body is spinning, the mind is still.
My wife doesn't need waltzing lessons.
It's been three months.
I've yet to hear a diagnosis, much less a prognosis.
It's fascinating, really.
- The science is so new.
- Psychiatry, is it a science? Dr.
Winter, would you like to discuss this privately? - No, I wouldn't.
- The treatment takes time, Frank.
Yes, but do you feel better? Every week you're less yourself.
Self is a fluid concept.
- Often in the first year of treatment-- - The first year? I can understand why certainties would be appealing to a man in your field.
Isn't there a superego somewhere that requires your attention, Doctor? Would you come with me right now? We've barely begun the psychoanalysis.
- We have a lot of work to do.
- Your work is out there.
- Dr.
Winter, perhaps we might look at a-- - We can leave Ithaca.
- We can make a fresh start.
- Have you been fired again? Any sudden change at this stage of her treatment-- In the last month, I have fielded recruiting calls from three universities.
My vote is Princeton, but it's your decision.
It's your career.
Liza, they're recruiting you.
- Liza.
- Princeton will give you a dedicated lab.
Dr.
Winter, let's continue this discussion in my office.
It's not you that's sick.
It's this place.
And don't forget we have the Friedmans at 6:00.
I know it's downtown, but I don't wanna hear it.
Not after you dragged me to Bensonhurst for that supper last week.
You with a beard.
Now that's something I'll never cotton to.
Office hours are Mondays at 4:00.
I'm afraid it can't wait.
Oh! Good to see you, Glen.
I'd ask how on earth, but I don't want to know.
Miriam, this is Dr.
Liza Winter.
We were on the same scientific retreat last year.
In Quebec.
I hope you fared better than Glen in all that snow.
Worse, actually.
Miriam, would you give us a minute? It was nice to meet you.
That's my companion.
- The provost's sister.
- Oh.
Seems as though you landed on your feet.
Don't be fooled.
The pyramids look grand, too, but they're still tombs.
Every physicist worth a title is back where we both came from.
Glen Frank's in trouble.
Heavy is the head, eh? What, he send you here to crib my calculus notes? Frank never took that job.
He disappeared same time you did.
I think he's in Texas.
What the hell's in Texas? A Department of Justice internment camp.
Look, one thing I know about Frank, he always manages to find a chair when the music stops.
This one might be electrified.
Helping your husband is what landed me back here in purgatory.
There are things that you don't know, Liza.
I know that Frank dragged me across that desert so that you two could build an atomic bomb.
Is there anything else? I'm sorry.
A long time ago, I was stuck in a place that I didn't belong.
I almost forgot who I was and then Frank remembered.
Whatever happened between you two, whatever he did, that is not him.
That place, that bomb turned him into someone else.
I don't have any strings left to pull.
What would Frank do? He's expecting you.
Dr.
Einstein.
I believe you know my husband.