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Part 2 by Chris |
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At the hospital Billy is fixing a gurney when Selena arrives. They talk about pleasure and pain, and she slaps him when he rejects her "temporarily". They make a date for "Tonight... 9 o'clock... the pool table." Selena reminds Billy to "Bring your stickl" *g* Gail brings Caleb lunch, and he tells her about what happened with Tina and that Boone is angry with him because he stood up for him. "Maybe it's time that Boone learns to stand up for himself," Gail says. At that moemnt Lucas appears and tells Caleb "When you hurt someone you've lost 'em." He then goes on telling him he has to seduce her, looking meaningfully at Gail all the time, and they have a little back and forth. When Caleb has left, Lucas asks Gail, "What if the girl's already given herself over to him?". Gail answers, "Momentary lapse. She'll come to her senses." and smirks at him. She gets into her car, and he says something about the forces at work (didn't quite understand that). "Something she can't compete with. An almost supernatural desire." He pauses, then continues, "Did I ever tell you about the illusion of free will?" Gail is clearly uncomfortable. Ben is at the library trying to get information about the mysterious house. Merly's voice tells him to "Dig deeper." Merlyn shows him articles of her and her mother's death on the microfil machine. Her pictures becomes alive and she tells him that every picture tells a story. Ben yells at her, "What are you expectin' of me? I know he killed you, but..." Merlyn answers, "I wasn't the only one." At that moment Gail comes around the corner, and Ben asks her for help. They find out that the house now belongs to the bank, but the previous owner was Judith Temple - Caleb's mother. Ben and Gail go to investigabe. Before they get out of the car, Ben warns her about the horrible smell, but Gail doesn't smell anything either. When they go in Gail explains this was a sanctuary for kids without a home, runaways, etc. Gail says they used to call her aunt St. Judy. Gail goes upstairs and finds old children's drawings. In a drawer she finds a map with drawings by Judith, one is a self portrait and has "My Body is My Temple" written on it. The next one shows a doll being crushed by a boot, and says "The Temple has been violated". The next one is a picture of a young Lucas with an X across it, and the words "The illusion of free will." Ben is downstairs and suddenly Merlyn's half-rotted corpse appears and asks him if he saw her mother lately. He runs out in panic and hears a woman scream. When he looks up he sees a woman being pushed through a window, and she lands at his feet. When he looks up again he sees Lucas stand there in uniform, looking at the corpse - and then at him. At the same moment Gail comes out, surprising Ben. She tells him he looks like he saw a ghost, then goes on to show him the picture of Lucas. They conclude Lucas must have raped Judith, then she had Caleb, and Lucas pushed her out of the window. Merlyn appears in the window and nods down at Ben. Ben goes to the hospital room Judith had been in after Caleb's birth, thinking
about everything Lucas said and did. Merlyn comes in as a nurse and tells him he
should go back to the house. Ben says "There's nothing left for me to do,"
but Merlyn reminds him of Caleb and Gail. "She is with Lucas now. Maybe it's
not too late. Not if you take the scales Gail shows Lucas Judith's picture of him and confronts him with what she found out. "Now I know why you're so interested in Caleb. You're his father." - "Well there's a leap." - "Or am I wrong? Am I wrong?" Finally Lucas concedes, "No. Don't look so surprised." Gail wants to know how it happened, and he answers with a question: "How do you think?" - "Were you having an affair?" - "An affair? Is that what we're having?" He tells Gail that like her, Judith naively believed she could control her own destiny, but where they part company was at the bedroom door. Gail asks him if he raped her. He only quotes, "The illusion of free will," and Gail gets furious. "Yes or no?" Lucas throws her on the table. "Do you really want to know?" - "Yes! I know what you are, in my soul I know what you are!" - "Would you change me if you could?" Gail hesitates then says, "No." She pushes him off her and tells him "Tell me the truth for once." He answers, "Okay. I didn't do it." A little insert here, from RetroVision magazine #7, by Joey Drasner: In an early draft of the script, however, their relationship had a considerably different power dynamic. Without a shot of them in bed together, as in the final episode, their relationship is more ambiguous when Gail comes to see him in his office. She kisses him, then slaps him across the face for not telling her about his affair with Judith, Gail's aunt. She issues him a challenge: He will have to earn her respect. Later, after doing some investigating on her own, she meets Lucas by the burned remains of Caleb's house and Lucas tells her the story of his involvement with the Temple family. It appears to be a sincerely heartfelt confession, but when he gets to the part about Judith's "suicide", Gail catches him in the lie, and out of her fury and her need for control, she literally rapes him. In their last scene together, he apologizes to her for the lies and it is implied that they will try to work things out together. These scenes would have shown a very uncharacteristically vulnerable Lucas, but they also afforded Gail more gumption than she displays in the episode as filmed, particularly in her insistence that he prove himself to her. Their confrontation in the final version ends up resembling another reference to "The Godfather", as he lies to her about a heinous crime just as Michael Corleone does to Kay at the end of the movie.
To be concluded... |
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