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Transcript of Millennium episode "Darwin's Eye"

Presented below is an episode transcript of Darwin's Eye from Chris Carter's Millennium TV series. These transcripts have been provided thanks to the dedication and time consuming hard work of Millennium fans Libby and Maria Vitale. Millennium - This is who we are is extremely greatful to Libby who has painstakingly checked, updated and edited each one for accuracy to make sure that they are as true to the actual episodes as possible.

 

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Darwin's Eye - Transcript


Season:

3

MLM Code:

#MLM-318

Production Code:

3ABC18

Original Airdate:

1999-04-16



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318 Darwin's Eye

[MLM–318 (3ABC18)]


Written by Patrick Harbinson
Directed by Ken Fink
Edited by Peter B Ellis
Air date: 16 April 1999

[Transcribed by Libby]

 

[A tiffany lampshade of flowers, leaves.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Ok so this is how life is supposed to be. Over millions of years we move forward, we evolve, in a series oftiny incremental steps.

[Sitting in the light of the lampshade is a man, making an origami flower.]

[In a corridor of an institution, a man is kneeling on the floor. At first it looks as though he is kneeling, looking in a room, but the door is closed and it is a headless body, the shoulders propped against the door.]

GERVASE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
DERBY COUNTY, VIRGINIA
WOMAN'S VOICE: And each tiny step is a tiny improvement. It has to be. Survival of the fittest, that's what it's about. If you don't move on, you end.

[The man continues folding the paper flower.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Or, you're ended.

[An alarm rings in the institution. Outside in the misty night, a young woman wearing a white inmate uniform, is running away from the building.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: So, we start with the primal ooze, and we end up with Mozart – Hitler – me.

[Guards are running through the grounds, searching with flashlights, outside the high chain link fence around the building.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Which explains everything.

[She's running fast, casting looks behind her.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: And explains nothing.

[On the nearby road, a car drives along, its headlights illuminating the trees and bushes alongside the road, and the mist.]

[The woman is still desperately running.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Because not everything evolves.

[In the corridor, the dead man is still propped against the door.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Some things just happen. Like the eye, even Darwin worried about the eye.

[In the car, a young man is driving. He's wearing a uniform of some kind.]

[The woman has now reached the outer perimeter fence.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: The iris, lens, retina.

[She bumps into the fence with a sob. The guards are getting closer. Desperately, she starts climbing the chain link fence.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: How could any of those things evolve in isolation? How could they be useful on their own?

[She clambers over the top of the fence and drops the ground outside and continues running.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: So how did the eye happen? How? Accident, it just happened.

[The guards have now reached the fence she has just climbed over.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: We don't know how, we don't know. One minute we're blind, next minute we see. Like the dinosaurs are lords of the earth for millions of years, then a big damn rock hits the Yucatan peninsula, and they're gone.

[In the car, the young man is driving along.]

[In the institution, a closer view of the dead man.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Ended.

[She reaches a bank in the woods and slides down on to the road, where she holds up her hands to an oncoming truck.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: One minute we're here.

[The truck sounds its horn and she jumps out of its path as it roars past.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: The next minute, we're gone.

[In the car, the young man is still driving, his law–enforcement badge now visible on his jacket.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Accidents happen. That's life.

[She runs out into the road holding her hands out.]

WOMAN: Stop!

[The young man, a Deputy, slams on the brakes and skids to a halt. The car has the familiar row of red, white and blue lights on the roof. He gets out of the car and runs over to her.]

DEPUTY: You OK? Are you hurt?

[She's weeping. She puts her arms around his neck.]

WOMAN: Please help me. They're trying to kill me.
DEPUTY: Who's trying to kill you?

[He sees the glow of lights in the dark, misty woods.]

WOMAN: They are. They're going to kill me. Don't let them get me.

[The Deputy raises his eyebrows.]

DEPUTY: You're from the hospital. Listen, lady ...

[Suddenly she pulls back away from him. She's grabbed his handgun and points it at him. He puts his hands up.]

DEPUTY: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[She cocks the gun. The Deputy watches her carefully, as the guns wavers in her hand. She is shaking, frightened.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: But what I want to know, what I want to know, is what makes the accidents happen.

 

[The man slides back the top of a wooden box. Inside are compartments containing folded flowers and a chess piece.]

 

[In the institution, now even closer to the dead man, who is dressed in a long white jacket. The blood is spilled down the wall and onto the floor.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Because something must.

[Closer view now, of the headless body.]

WOMAN'S VOICE: Or someone.

 

[An African–American man puts the wooden box containing the folded flowers, into a large envelope.The envelope is addressed to: Emma Hollis, 578 Anderson Hill Road, Alexandria, VA, 22143.]

[Main titles]

[A wired glass porthole window. Someone is looking through; wearing very garish lipstick. It's a large peephole into a room off an institutional corridor. Around the corner comes Frank and Baldwin, accompanied by a female member of staff.]

BALDWIN: His name's Roger Shivley. Nursing orderly. Been here less than a week. Seems the killer escaped from her cell when Shivley took her night–time medication.

[They are now approaching the crime scene, a deputy standing by the outline of the body, the blood still evident.]

BALDWIN: He chased her. She made it to one of the treatment rooms. Got ahold of some dissecting knives and took his head off.

[Frank checks the crime scene photographs in the folder he's carrying.]

BALDWIN: The killer's name is Cassie Doyle, known as Cass in here. Sent here in '92 aged 15 for the murder of her mom and dad.

[They've now reached the place where the man died.]

BALDWIN: I guess she wanted to relive all the excitement. Oh, she, uh, she cut dad's head off too.

[Frank doesn't respond to Baldwin's typical behaviour. He crouches down to floor.]

FRANK: Is Shivley's head still missing?
BALDWIN: Yeah. We're combing the grounds for it. It's possible she took it as a souvenir.

[Cass's room. The walls have areas covered in writing. Baldwin, Frank and the woman are present.]

FRANK: You allowed her to do this, Dr Heath?
DR HEATH: At first we tried to stop her, confiscated pens and pencils. She started writing in her own blood. We had to give up.
BALDWIN: I've looked at it. It's gibberish.

[Frank looks at one area where numbers have been written in a spiral.]

FRANK: Eight, 24, 79.

[Frank realises.]

FRANK: Oh, August the 24th, 79AD. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii. These are all eruption dates.

[Other areas showing dates, some of them written in squares like in a crossword puzzle.]

FRANK: There's Etna, Fuji, Mount St Helens.

[He looks at Baldwin.]

BALDWIN: OK. So she, uh, she reads books and she makes lists. Does that tell us anything?
FRANK: It might. Was this all photographed?
BALDWIN: Yeah. The local crime scene boys are going to send by the blow–ups. Mr Black, with all respect, we've got a missing 20–year–old psycho here. I mean, I need to know where she's going, not ...
FRANK: If you want to know where, we have to find out why. The answer might be here.

[Frank turns to Dr Heath.]

FRANK: She was mute. She never said a word?
DR HEATH: Not for seven years.
FRANK: She's speaking now.

 

[The deputy's car is being driven along a deserted rural road. It's day.]

RADIO: The suspect's name is Cass Doyle. Five foot four, 110 pounds. Blonde shoulder–length hair, blue eyes. She must be considered dangerous.

[The deputy is driving.]

RADIO: Charlie Two, what's your location? Over.

[The deputy checks in his rear view mirror. Cass sits up from the back seat, still holding the gun.]

CASS: You're Charlie Two, aren't you? Then tell them.
RADIO: Charlie Two, do you copy?

[The deputy picks up the handset.]

DEPUTY: This is Charlie Two. I'm about two miles north of Vantage, just short of Madison. Charlie Two out.
RADIO: Charlie Two, ten–four.

[He replaces the handset.]

DEPUTY: Look, lady. You should give up. This is all just going to end really badly if you don't.

[Cass is sat forward, holding the gun close to the Deputy's neck.]

CASS: What's your name?
DEPUTY: Joe.
CASS: I know it will end badly, Joe. The FBI will be here soon, if they're not here already. They'll never give up.
JOE: Give up what?
CASS: Trying to kill me.

 

[Hospital grounds. FBI agents seaching the area. Baldwin and Frank at the outer fence where Cass climbed over.]

FRANK: Why are we here?
BALDWIN: We're looking for that head.

[The two start walking alongside the fence.]

FRANK: No, why is the Bureau here? It's a single homicide, an obvious perpetrator. Why not the local police?
BALDWIN: I was ordered out here. That's good enough for me.
FRANK: Is there a reason Agent Hollis isn't here?

[Baldwin stops and looks pissed off by this question.]

FRANK: I mean, this is no reflection on you Agent Baldwin, I just want to know.
BALDWIN: She's on leave. Apparently she's exhausted so McClaren told her to take a couple of weeks off.

[Frank nods.]

BALDWIN: I'm going back up.

[He walks away.]

 

[A men's bathroom. Two men are standing at the urinals.]

MAN#1: Suppose you must be used to these weird ones.

[The camera pans, carefully, to show that these two are a deputy and Baldwin.]

DEPUTY: Is he your boss, Frank Black?
BALDWIN: No. No, he just consults for me every once in a while.

[Baldwin zips up.]

DEPUTY: Is he like one of those profilers?

[Baldwin moves over to the washbasin.]

BALDWIN: You know, that stuff is really kind of outdated.

[The Deputy has also moved over to the wash basin.]

BALDWIN: Take one look at a crime scene, you think you know what a killer's ...

[He stops when he sees blood in the water in the washbasin. Another drop of blood splashes into the water. Baldwin slowly looks up. The blood is dripping down from the edge of a tile in the suspended ceiling.]

BALDWIN: Oh, my god.

[Baldwin looks around and grabs a floor mop. As the Deputy watches, fascinated, Baldwin carefully uses the mop handle to lift up the ceiling tile. The severed head tumbles down, barely missing Baldwin as he steps away, and hits the basin, landing on the floor.]

 

[On a table, the envelope addressed to Emma Hollis lies empty. She slides open the top of the wooden box, revealing the compartments. She takes out one of the folded flowers – it's in the shape of a palm tree. She looks at it carefully, then replaces it and takes out another object – a chesspiece, but the top has been removed. She opens the drawer of a bureau, which containes several other similar boxes, and places the recent box inside. She is at home. A nearby table holds a sewing machine. She reaches for her cell phone and dials. As it rings, she glances over to the bureau – on the top are framed photographs of her sister, Melissa, and her father.]

 

MAN'S VOICE: This is the Doyle living room.

[A screen shows a grainy picture, as from a camcorder. A lounge, a dog sat on a chair.]

MAN'S VOICE: There's no disturbance here.

[The view changes to show the blurry outline of a sheriff.]

MAN'S VOICE: We're, uh, going to go upstairs now to the master bedroom, where we found Mrs Doyle.

[The FBI briefing room. Frank is watching a recording taken during the police investigation into the Doyles' deaths.]

[The screen shows the upstairs bedroom.]

MAN'S VOICE: In bed. Shot in the back of the head, just behind the right ear.

[Blurry close up on the woman's head.]

MAN'S VOICE: It looks like it was point blank. Entrance and exit wounds are consistent with a .9mm.

[On the screen, the Sheriff puts a handkerchief to his mouth, he shown signs of distress throughout. He speaks to the cameraman.]

SHERIFF: I want you to get this, too.

[The camera pans around the room, showing a bedside table on which there are framed photographs splashed with blood, and then onto the floor, where a photograph, possibly of Cass, is lying, the glass and frame broken.]

HOLLIS: Frank.
FRANK: Hey!

[Frank pauses the video. Hollis has just entered the room, dressed informally in jeans.]

FRANK: Heard McClaren told you.
HOLLIS: Yeah.
FRANK: Hey, don't be ashamed of needing a rest, Emma.
HOLLIS: I'm fine, Frank. I'm just going nuts in my apartment, that's all. [nods at the screen] This to do with the runaway girl?
FRANK: Yeah. You been following this?
HOLLIS: Yeah, I saw Barry Baldwin on TV. Not quite his normal suave self.
FRANK: No, he just had a head drop on him.

[Hollis, a little surprised, laughs. Frank hits the pause button again on the remote.]

FRANK: Crime scene. It's the child's parents' house, seven years ago. The mother was dead upstairs in the bedroom. The father ...
SHERIFF [on video]: Some kind of pursuit here. The girl had the gun, so I guess dad's running. Till they get to the shed. I found the body, the father's body, over here. Right next to the woodpile.

[The screen shows a body wrapped in a sheet, a lot of bloodstaining.]

SHERIFF [on video]: They found Cass, the daughter, over here –

[The video shows blood staining on the wall.]

SHERIFF [on video]: – just sitting, next to the murder weapon.

[The video shows a long–handled wood axe.]

SHERIFF: You want to hold that up?

[A hand picks up the axe. Frank hits the pause button.]

FRANK: So they never found the head. It was an isolated house. Police didn't even show up till 36 hours after their deaths.
HOLLIS: She must have been strong, to cut a man's head off.
FRANK: Well, they think she shot him first. Used his service revolver. The same way she killed the mother. Mr Doyle's head was never found, so they couldn't prove it either way.

[Frank moves to the table and picks up the crime folder.]

FRANK: The Gervase Hospital. An orderly was killed. Decapitated.

[He hands the file to Hollis, who looks through the crime photographs and stops on the photo of the orderly's head.]

FRANK: His head was found in the ceiling of the men's room.
HOLLIS: No blood anywhere. She cleaned up?
FRANK: Yeah.
HOLLIS: So she hides the head, but arranges the body in full view. Kneeling, as if in prayer. In prayer to whom, for what?

[Frank shakes his head.]

HOLLIS: Why are we on this, Frank?
FRANK: Favour to local law enforcement, apparently.
HOLLIS: The mother – where was she shot?
FRANK: Single shot to the head, behind the ear.
HOLLIS: Like an execution?
FRANK: Yeah.
HOLLIS: Well, pretty impressive for a 15–year–old. Any signs of trouble before?
FRANK: No. She was an excellent student. Brilliant, even. Had an IQ of 130.

[Frank begins putting out the photographs of Cass's cell on the table.]

HOLLIS: Does any of this make sense, Frank?
FRANK: The hospital room. If there's sense to be made, it's here.

 

[The police car. Cass is sat in the back listening tearfully to the radio.]

REPORTER: Seven years after police found 15–year–old Cassie Doyle waiting calmly beside her parents' butchered bodies, the girl has escaped from Gervase ...
CASS: I didn't do it.
JOE: They found you with the bodies.
CASS: I found my mother and father dead. What was I supposed to do, just run away?
REPORTER: FBI Special Agent Barry Baldwin, who now heads the manhunt ...
CASS: FBI. I told you. Why do you think they're involved?
JOE: 'cos you killed somebody.
CASS: Why is the FBI investigating a murder? Isn't that your job? Ask them. Get on the radio and ask why men in suits are here. It was men in suits who did it.

[Out through the windscreen, Cass sees a police roadblock ahead. She slides down in the back seat.]

CASS: Stop! Stop!

[Joe stops the car a little way away from the roadblock. He watches as FBI and men in suits check a car.]

CASS: You did something, didn't you. Some trick with the radio.

[Joe shakes his head.]

CASS: How could you do that to me?
JOE: I didn't do anything. Look, this had to end. Give up, please.
CASS: And let them kill me?
JOE: Why would they kill you?
CASS: Because of what I know.
JOE: What do you know?
CASS: I could show you. I could show you – there's a place that I could show you everything.
JOE: What is it?
CASS: Oh, just take me there and I'll show you.

[At the roadblock, two men in suits notice Joe's police car parked a little way off and they become curious. Joe sees them begin to walk towards him.]

JOE: Look, they're coming. What are you going to do?
CASS: They're going to kill me like my mother and father. Please don't let them, Joe, please don't let them.
JOE: They're not going to kill you.
CASS: They are, they are. I know what I know.

[Joe is very uncertain, now.]

CASS: Everything connects. A butterfly flaps its wings – I die.

[She places the gun on the front passenger seat.]

CASS: Here.

[Joe puts his hand on the gun, still watching the oncoming men in suits.]

CASS: I couldn't have hurt you, Joe. Not ever.

[Joe gets out of the car and walks towards the two men in suits. In the back seat of the car, Cass watches as the three men stop and talk. Then Joe turns and walks back to the car as the two suited–men return to the roadblock. Joe gets in the car.]

JOE: Keep your head down.

[He starts the car and drives on as agents move the roadblock to let the car through.]

[fade to black]

[polaroid fade up]

[A wooded area. Day. An agent is taking photographs of a police car, an officer searches inside, while Baldwin watches. Another car draws up and Baldwin walks over to it – it's Frank's jeep. Frank and Hollis get out.]

BALDWIN: Hollis. I thought you were on leave.
FRANK: What happened here?

[Frank and Hollis walk past Baldwin towards the police car.]

BALDWIN: The car is Deputy Joe McNulty's. One of the mobile units involved in the search. Radio contact till about 1.15, when we waved him through one of our roadblocks. Then he vanished.

[Frank has felt the hood of the car for warmth, then checked his watch.]

BALDWIN: Passer–by saw the car, called it in. McNulty's house is about 400 yards that way. His car is gone, still no sign of the body.
FRANK: There won't be a body.

[Baldwin stares at him.]

BALDWIN: How do you know that?
FRANK: For seven hours the girl was in the back seat. He drove through a roadblock with her. He's on her side now.
HOLLIS: They've been driving seven hours. But they're less than 20 miles from where they started. Where's she going, Frank?
FRANK: I don't know. I don't think she does.
BALDWIN: It's obvious. She's going home. For her father's head.

[Frank turns away and neither nor Hollis respond.]

BALDWIN: No, she, she's the only one who know where it is. She's going to get it.

[He eagerly takes out his cell phone.]

HOLLIS: But her home is less than 50 miles from here. Why hasn't she gone there already?
BALDWIN: Maybe she has.

[He smirks at her. Frank signals with his eyes to Hollis and they walk back to the car, leaving Baldwin to phone in his idea.]

 

CHRISTOPHER HARVIN STATE PARK
SUMTER COUNTY, VIRGINIA

[Cass is hiding behind some trees and watches as an unmarked dark blue car arrives. Joe, now in civilian clothes, gets out holding a bundle.]

JOE: I brought you some clothes and some water.

[One of the items is a bowl, and Cass rubs her grubby hands.]

JOE: You should probably get changed so we can get going.

[He puts the items down on the ground and Cass starts to peel off her clothing. Joe immediately turns around when she takes off her top.]

CASS: What is it?

[She realises, and picks up a towel to wrap around herself.]

CASS: It's OK. You can turn around now. I'm decent.

[Joe looks briefly.]

CASS: I'm sorry. I guess I'm not used to privacy.

[Joe again looks at her. She smiles.]

CASS: Like my tattoo?

[She pulls aside her bra strap. The tattoo is two crossed palm trees.]

[Joe turns away again.]

JOE: It's OK.
CASS: Did it myself.

[She starts washing her hands.]

 

[Briefing room.]

BALDWIN: Our best guess is that Cass Doyle's destination is her parents' old house in Luray, where she may have some unfinished business.

[Half a dozen other people are also there, including Frank, who is sat at the table, and Hollis who is standing against the back wall.]

BALDWIN: Luray sheriff has been warned. He'll be keeping a watch on the house. Now, she is most likely going to be in a 1994 blue Ford Explorer, driven by Derby County Sheriff's Deputy, Joseph McNulty. Whether or not he's a willing accomplice at this time, we do not know.

[Baldwin crosses to a display board of photographs.]

BALDWIN: Now, these were taken from the walls of her room at the hospital. There may be some meaning in them, they may just be a smokescreen. As far as we're concerned, she's a multiple killer and we want her on the inside. So let's get out there.
FRANK: The orderly who was killed. Roger Shivley. Do we know anything more about him?
BALDWIN: Nothing significant, other than his bad luck.

[Baldwin puts up a slide with the orderly's photograph. As Baldwin continues his briefing, Hollis has noticed a crossed–palmtree drawing in one of the photographs of Cass's cell wall.]

BALDWIN: Joined the hospital six days ago after ten years in the Army Medical Corps.
FRANK: His military record?
BALDWIN: Kuwait, Somalia. I really don't know what significance this ...
HOLLIS: Hang on. The palms. It's military insignia. Like the kind used by the German Afrika Corps in the Second World War.

[She goes over to the display board.]

HOLLIS: It's been picked up by other special forces units since then.
BALDWIN: I'm sorry, Agent Hollis. Are you suggesting there's a connection?
HOLLIS: I don't know. But maybe we should be looking a bit harder into this. I mean, what these walls have to say. Like her father's background, for example. Maybe he's ex–special forces.
BALDWIN: Fine! Do you want to do that, Agent Hollis? Or are you, in fact, on leave.
HOLLIS: I'm happy to do that.
BALDWIN: Good. The rest of us will help the local PD find the girl.

[He walks out.]

 

[Later. Hollis is carrying out a computer search and relays her results to Frank who is standing a short distance away.]

HOLLIS: Cass's dad. Kieron Doyle. Colonel, US Marine Corps, three tours in Vietnam. Desk job at the Pentagon, defense procurement. Transferred to State Department, 1985. First overseas posting, 1988, cultural affairs officer, US embassy, Tokyo, Japan. But look at his security clearance. Highest level.

[Frank comes over to her desk.]

HOLLIS: There's something else. He was a cultural affairs officer and didn't speak a word of Japanese.

[Frank sits down next to her.]

FRANK: CIA?
HOLLIS: Given his background, I'd say DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency. My dad – he was in that world. A research scientist. There's a game we used to play: 'Spot the Spy'.
FRANK: Cass's father is a spy?
HOLLIS: 1990, '91, nothing, or at least nothing they want us to know. Then, 1992, security officer, Gibson Desert, Western Australia. Didn't last long. April 7th, 1992, he gets compassionate leave for unspecified reasons. He's posted home. Arrives April 11th, 1992.
FRANK: And a week later, he's dead.
HOLLIS: OK. If I were paranoid, I could read it like this.

[She stands up and moves around the area a little while she talks.]

HOLLIS: A senior military intelligence officer, with access to highly sensitive materal, is suddenly shipped home. As soon as he gets there, he and his wife are murdered. She by a single bullet to the head. He, we don't know how, because his head is never found. But his daughter is at the scene, the assumed perpetrator. So traumatised, she doesn't speak for seven years. That doesn't make sense, does it?

[Frank shakes his head.]

HOLLIS: Unless he was about to divulge something, so they silenced him, but somehow he got it to the girl first and now they're after her.
FRANK: Who are 'they', Emma? I mean, this whole military intelligence thing, we're running with it because a girl drew crossed palms on a wall. That's all.
HOLLIS: [strongly] No. We are running with it because a whole lot doesn't make sense. You know that.

[Frank is a little puzzled by her outburst, which has also attracted the attention of other staff working nearby. Hollis notices this. She's a little abashed.]

HOLLIS: I'm sorry. Maybe I am reading too much into this.

[She notices a page in book, showing various military insignia. Under the crossed–palms insignia is the legend – 'Alamos Div. [Sand Rats]'.]

HOLLIS: You know what? I'm going to call it a day.
FRANK: Emma.

[She starts picking up her belongings.]

HOLLIS: I guess McClaren was right. I do need a rest. See you later.

 

[The park in Sumter County, Virginia. Cass is admiring the view. She is now dressed in ordinary clothes.]

CASS: It's so beautiful.
JOE: Yeah, yeah, it is.
CASS: My dad used to take me walking places like this.
JOE: Dad, huh?
CASS: You still don't believe me. We were just a family. We were a normal family.
JOE: How'd it happen, then?
CASS: How does anything happen? All of this, trees, mountains, river. All of it was just a ball. This ball of gas. Spinning in space, you know? One of billions. But somehow this one ball of gas flowered. Into earth, sea, sky. You and me. How can that have happened? Accident. One in a billion. Everything about us is an accident.
JOE: What?
CASS: That blue eye that you see me with. Darwin's eye. Iris, cornea, retina. An accident evolution couldn't explain. We happened by accident. We're going to end by accident.

[Joe sighs then smiles.]

JOE: How can you believe all that stuff, Cass?
CASS: We happened by accident. Didn't we?

[Slowly, she reaches out and takes his hand. They stand together, hands clasped, looking at the view.]

 

[Hollis' home. She has taken out all the wooden boxes and opened them. She takes out from separate boxes, two folded paper palm trees and places them in a crossed configuration. Sighing, she puts one down but hits her hand against the box, and the top of the palm tree falls off. She picks it up and looks at it. She gently unfolds it and smooths it out. It looks like a piece cut out of a magazine. It shows an eye. She quickly pulls out another paper shape and unfolds it. Then more. Twenty in all. She has laid them out on the floor and puts down the last one. It's a photograph of a young girl.]

HOLLIS: Melissa.

 

[Later. The man is folding another flower. Someone knocks on the door but he doesn't respond. Then Hollis enters the apartment and sees her father.]

HOLLIS: Daddy.

[He's sitting, almost naked, covered by a blanket, on the floor.]

HOLLIS: Daddy?

[Hollis stands in the doorway and calls him again. He still doesn't repond.]

HOLLIS: Daddy?

[Now he looks round.]

MR HOLLIS: No.
HOLLIS: Daddy, please.

[She goes over and pulls the blanket up around him.]

MR HOLLIS: Melissa?

[fade to black]

[polaroid fade up]

[A bedroom. Photographs of the Hollis family on the bedside table. Mr Hollis is in bed, asleep.]

DR ARNETT: Physically he's fine, Emma. He's just exhausted.
HOLLIS: Exhausted by what?
DR ARNETT: What he's going through. He can feel he's losing his grip on reality, on memory.
HOLLIS: But it's so sudden. He's too young. I don't understand.

[The doctor leads her away, out of her father's room.]

DR ARNETT: Is it sudden? Yes. Is he young? Yes. I told you before, this disease chooses its own pace, Emma. But he'll be able to lead a normal life for a while.

[The doctor picks up his overcoat.]

HOLLIS: He can't live on his own.
DR ARNETT: I agree. He'll need a live–in, or he could come live here with you, or perhaps your mother.
HOLLIS: She kind of abrogated responsibility 20 years ago.

[The doctor nods. Then he notices the pieces of paper that Hollis had laid out on the floor.]

DR ARNETT: Who's that?
HOLLIS: My sister, Melissa. She was murdered at our home when she was ten. My father had folded her face into flowers.
DR ARNETT: You should let him sleep as long as he likes. I'll come by tomorrow first thing. If anything crops up, just call me.
HOLLIS: Thank you.

[He leaves.]

 

[Video, very grainy. Cass being interviewed.]

MAN: We know what you did, Cass. We're just trying to find out why.

[Frank is again in the briefing room, watching the video.]

MAN: Now, if you don't understand, well, that's OK, too.

[The date of the video shown on the screen is 1.18.92.]

MAN: You've got to tell us what happened to your daddy.

[Cass isn't responding.]

MAN: Don't you want him to be buried like a Christian?

[Frank focusses on Cass's hands. Her fingers are tracing over a crossed–palmtree scratched into the surface of the table. He looks over at the display of photographs from her hospital room. He looks closer at the drawing of the crossed–palmtree and runs his finger over it, and comparing it with the motif shown on the video. Baldwin enters the room.]

BALDWIN: Mr Black.
FRANK: Agent Baldwin. How are you doing?
BALDWIN: We have a sighting up in the mountains. Hikers saw them up at a beauty spot.

[Baldwin is checking places on a map pinned to the display board, with map pins.]

BALDWIN: Asylum, road block, McNulty's car, mountains. Girl's house is here.

[The first four pins are close together. The pin for the house is some distance away. Baldwin seems less certain than he did before.]

BALDWIN: You see a pattern?

[Frank looks at the crossed–palmtree. He has a vision of an explosion, toppling palm trees.]

FRANK: She's marking time.
BALDWIN: Marking time for what?
FRANK: I don't know. [muttering, to himself] I don't know. I don't know.

 

[Hollis's home. Hollis kneels down next to the bed where her father is sleepinhg.]

HOLLIS: Daddy? It's me, Emma. What do the palms mean? Why did you turn her eyes into palms?

[He is still asleep. She kisses him and leaves. As the door closes, he opens his eyes.]

 

[Elsewhere. It is night. Joe drives his car into motel car park. Cass, in the front passenger seat, looks at the scene.]

JOE: Is this it?
CASS: No, but we need to sleep.
JOE: Cass. You said you were taking me where ...
CASS: Not yet.

[Joe is not very pleased about this.]

JOE: Cass, you said you could prove everything. You said that's where we were going.
CASS: Not yet!

[She reaches out and strokes his neck.]

CASS: I'm sorry. Where we're going, what you're going to see, isn't good. This here, with you, this is the closest that I've ever been to happy. I don't want it to end. Not yet.

[Joe leans over and kisses her.]

[They enter the motel office. Cass keeping behind Joe.]

JOE: We'd like a room.
CLERK: Ok, coming up. Numero 146. That'll be thirty–five dollars.
CASS: 327.
CLERK: That's on the second floor.
CASS: That's what we want. 327.
CLERK: Ok. Numero 327.

[Joe hands over the money and takes the key. He and Cass turn to leave.]

CASS: You think he recognised me?
JOE: He just thinks you're Madonna.

[They leave the office. Cass turns back and looks at the Clerk who just seems bored.]

 

[Hollis's home. The phone rings. The answer phone kicks in.]

ANSWERPHONE: Hello, this is Emma Hollis. Please leave a message.
FRANK: Emma, it's Frank. I'm sorry for calling so late, I just wanted to tell you something about the palms.

[The phone is picked up.]

MR HOLLIS: Hello?
FRANK: Who is this?
MR HOLLIS: This is James Hollis.
FRANK: Oh, you're Emma's father.
MR HOLLIS: I am. I'm afraid Emma went out.
FRANK: Uh, do you know where she went?
MR HOLLIS: She was concerned about the palms.

[Frank is puzzled.]

FRANK: Well, could you please tell her I called?
MR HOLLIS: I will tell her.
FRANK: Are you staying there with Emma?

[Mr Hollis sees the pieces of photograph Hollis had laid out on the floor.]

MR HOLLIS: Yes. I'm losing my mind.
FRANK: I'm sorry?
MR HOLLIS: I will tell her about the palms.

[He hangs up.]

 

[The asylum. Hollis and Dr Heath walk down a corridor. Dr Heath indicates Cass's room.]

HOLLIS: Thank you.

[Dr Heath leaves. Hollis goes into the room. It's dark, and the blinds are drawn. She walks back into one corner, facing the walls where Cass had been writing. She slides down to the floor.]

 

[Hollis's home. Mr Hollis is sat on the floor by the unfolded pieces of photograph. He picks one up and begins to re–fold it.]

 

[In the asylum, Frank has arrived and walks into Cass's room. He sees Hollis sat in the corner.]

HOLLIS: Hi.
FRANK: Are you OK, Emma?
HOLLIS: Yeah. I just thought I'd take a look at the real deal.
FRANK: The real deal?
HOLLIS: The really mad. She is nuts, isn't she? All this is just gibberish really, isn't it?
FRANK: I phoned your apartment, Emma. I spoke to your father.

[Hollis is a little distressed.]

HOLLIS: He's not well. That's all.
FRANK: I called you because I did a search for the crossed palms. There was nothing in Cass's father's record. Not anything. If this means anything, it only means something to her.
HOLLIS: Yeah. But what?

[She gets quickly to her feet.]

HOLLIS: What?

[She switches on her flashlight and plays the light around the walls. The crossed palms, the numbers written in a spiral, the numbers in the crossword–puzzle format. She plays the beam across the walls and senses something. The beam comes to rest on writing set out in the design of an eye. She backs away into the corner and switches on a bedside lamp. She bends it up so the beam shines over the far corner. The pattern of writing on the walls forms the image of a face.]

HOLLIS: Oh, my god.
FRANK: It's her. It's all about her.

 

[Motel room. Cass comes out from the bathroom. She and Joe embrace. She is wearing a shirt, he is shirtless. They fall slowly back onto the bed, Cass on top.]

CASS: Close your eyes.

[She moves her hands over his face, to close his eyes.]

JOE: Cass.
CASS: Don't look. Promise me you won't look.

[She takes off her shirt.]

CASS: Yeah, that's it. Keep them shut.

[They make love. Just as Cass reaches a climax, light streams through and casts a shadow of crossed palms on the ceiling. ]

CASS: See now!

[Joe opens his eyes.]

[fade to black]

[polaroid fade up]

[The asylum. Hollis and Frank walk down a corridor.]

HOLLIS: But if it's all her, what are the walls about?
FRANK: She's trying to make sense of what happened.
HOLLIS: Which was? This cannot just be about her.
FRANK: Emma, don't keep looking for conspiracies. Things are much simpler than they seem.
HOLLIS: Well, while my father's cutting up my sister's face and turning it into flowers. What's simple about that?

[Frank stops her and they face each other.]

FRANK: I didn't know. I'm sorry.
HOLLIS: No. I shouldn't have mentioned it. What do you want me to do?

[They continue walking.]

FRANK: Are you OK to?

[Frank stops her again.]

HOLLIS: Yeah. I'm OK.
FRANK: I want you to go back to Quantico. I need more background on Roger Shivley.

[Hollis nods and walks off.]

 

[Autopsy room. A hand begins to pull the sheet off a body.]

DR HEATH: Want to see the head or the body?
FRANK: Can you tell if he had sex?
DR HEATH: When?
FRANK: Before he died.
DR HEATH: What on earth is this about?
FRANK: Can you tell if he had sex?
DR HEATH: I'm no pathologist, but...

[She checks in the documentation.]

DR HEATH: There was semen in the urethra. He had sex just before he was killed.

[Frank starts to leave.]

DR HEATH: What's going on, Mr Black?
FRANK: Thank you.

 

[Motel room. Cass and Joe are in bed. Cass turns and looks at Joe, who's asleep. She gently touches his shoulder. Then she climbs out of bed.]

 

[FBI office. Hollis is on the phone.]

HOLLIS: Corporal Roger Shivley. There's a note on his file of an investigation by the military police into an alleged rape in Saudi Arabia. Case never came to court, but Shivley left the army shortly after that.

[Frank is driving.]

FRANK: The pathologist's report suggests he had sex before he was killed. The body was placed in the kneeling position but clearly it didn't mean praying. It meant spying. A Peeping Tom. The door he was kneeling against was a bathroom, a shower, something.
HOLLIS: Yes. Inmate's shower room. Where is this heading, Frank?
FRANK: Why cut off his head? Because he had seen her. By cutting off the head, she blinds him. She unmans him.
HOLLIS: But her father?
FRANK: He'd been away three years, going through God knows what. High stress, secret ops. He returns home and finds his daughter a young woman.

[Hollis closes her eyes and sighs.]

HOLLIS: He raped her.
FRANK: But not at the house. The head wasn't found at the house.
HOLLIS: Then where?
FRANK: What do we have? Wild palms, crossed palms.
HOLLIS: Look in a local directory, see if you can find anything.

[Hollis nods, and replaces the phone.]

 

[Motel room. Joe awakens and stretches. The bed next to him is empty.]

JOE: Cass?

[He gets up and goes into the bathroom. He turns on the water in the basin, sees a small amount of debris on the basin, then notices a large, rather grubby, cardboard box next to the toilet. He slowly looks up and sees one of the ceiling tiles has been moved. Then suddenly Cass is behind him and puts her arms around him. Joe gasps in surprise. Cass is smiling.]

 

[FBI office. Hollis is on the phone.]

HOLLIS: OK. Only four miles from Cass's house there's a Palm Court Motel. That's all I can find.
FRANK: That sounds like the place. Call out the cavalry. Tell them to come quick and quiet.

 

[Palm Court Motel. Frank drives up in his red Jeep. The balcony of the second floor contains a crossed–palm sign.]

[Frank goes into the office. The clerk is sat down with his back to the counter, his head leaning back against the counter edge. Frank reaches over and taps him on the shoulder. The clerk whirls around in surprise.]

CLERK: What the hell are you doing?
FRANK: A young couple checked in last night.

[Frank holds up his ID.]

FRANK: A blonde, straight hair. Which room.
CLERK: 327. She asked for 327.

[Frank walks across the car park. He sees the door numbered 327. He looks into a car. Hung on the rear–view mirror is a crossed–palms sign. As he looks closer, a dog in the car jumps up and starts barking at him.]

[Inside the motel room, Cass hears the barking and goes to the window. Frank is now on the second floor balcony. Cass is becoming distressed.]

CASS: Stay in there, Joe. I want you ... stay in there and don't come out. OK? Please?

[Frank has reached room 327 and knocks on the door.]

FRANK: Cass?

[Cass gestures to Joe in the bathroom.]

CASS: Shh.

[Cass is holding a handgun. She walks towards the door as Frank knocks again.]

FRANK: Cass, I know you're in there.
CASS: What do you want?
FRANK: I just want to make sure you're OK.
CASS: Who are you?
FRANK: My name's Frank.
CASS: But who are you, Frank?
FRANK: Where's Joe, Cass? Why can't he speak to me?

[Cass runs back into the bathroom. She caresses Joe's face.]

CASS: Don't say anything. Stay quiet.
FRANK: Let me speak to him.
CASS: He doesn't want to. He's with me. Are you one of them?

[Outside, there are the sounds of a car being driven fast. Frank looks around and sees police cars arriving in the car park at high speed and with lights flashing. A SWAT team led by Baldwin comes running quickly around a corner. As they take position, Frank gestures with his hands to Baldwin for them to stay back.]

[Inside the motel room.]

CASS: What was that?
FRANK: It's just someone moving in next door.
CASS: It's them, isn't it? They're here to kill me.
FRANK: Nobody's going to kill you, Cass. Let me inside so we can speak, you and me and Joe.

[Cass points the gun and unlocks the door. SWAT members take cover by a corner, pointing their weapons. The door opens and Cass points the gun at Frank. A SWAT team member takes aim. Cass pulls Frank into the room.]

BALDWIN: [into radio] What's he doing? Anyone got a shot?

[The door closes, much to Baldwin's dissatisfaction.]

[Inside the room, Cass is still pointing the gun at Frank, who leans up against the wall.]

FRANK: Where's Joe, Cass?

[She gestures towards the bathroom with her gun hand. Then turns it again towards Frank.]

FRANK: Joe!

[Frank starts walking slowly towards her.]

FRANK: We're running out of time, here, Cass.

[Cass is very upset.]

FRANK: Did you let Joe see you, Cass?
CASS: What do you mean?
FRANK: Did you let him see you?
CASS: Well, he had to see me. He has Darwin's eye.
FRANK: Let him go. You don't want to hurt him, Cass.
CASS: I could never hurt him. I love him.
FRANK: Then let him go.

[She turns and runs into the bathroom. Frank follows.]

CASS: I would never have used it. I couldn't have.

[She holds Joe's decapitated head in her hands.]

[The door burst open and the SWAT team enter. Frank puts his hand over his face. Baldwin enters. Frank picks up the handgun which Cass had put down by the basin. She is still holding Joe's head. As the SWAT team get to the bathroom, Frank stops them and hands over the handgun. Cass looks at Frank.]

CASS: I didn't do it. I didn't.

 

[Now Cass is being led away in handcuffs. Baldwin comes out into the bedroom area with the cardboard box and shows it to Frank.]

BALDWIN: They found this in there too.

[Frank pulls up the lid of the box to look inside, then quickly drops the lid.]

BALDWIN: She packed it in lime. Hid it in the ceiling.

[As Cass has reached the doorway, the headlights of a passing vehicle casts a shadow of the crossed–palm. She looks over at Frank. Then she's taken away.]

 

[Hollis's home. Hollis sees that some of unfolded paper flowers on the floor have been re–folded. The phone rings, startling Hollis. She goes over and picks it up.]

HOLLIS: Emma Hollis.

 

[A photocopier in a shop. Dozens of photocopies of the same picture – a scene of palm trees – lie on the floor. Hollis has arrived and is talking to the manager.]

MANAGER: He's made hundreds of copies, all of the same, but he will not stop. I asked, but he was violent.

[The customer is Hollis's father.]

MANAGER: He's frightening my customers. You must make him stop.

[Hollis goes over to her father. She puts her hand on his arm.]

HOLLIS: Daddy? Please.
MR HOLLIS: No!
HOLLIS: Daddy, stop. Stop.

[She switches off the machine, and pulls her father away, her hands either side of his face.]

HOLLIS: Daddy. Stop it, now, stop it. Stop.

[Mr Hollis is uncertain, upset.]

HOLLIS: Stop.

[Then he starts to smile.]

MR HOLLIS: Emma. Where've you been?

[She leans her face against hers, relieved.]

HOLLIS: I was working. I'm sorry.
MR HOLLIS: No, that's OK. We got to earn a living, haven't we?

[Hollis smiles.]

HOLLIS: Yeah.

[Arms around each other, they walk away. But Hollis looks back at the hundreds of photocopies of the same picture – palm trees blowing in the wind.]

 

[The asylum. Passing down the corridor and seeing into the rooms. Seeing the inmates.]

CASS: [voice over] How much do we see with Darwin's eye? How much are we seen?

[Now room 204, the door closed, looking through the round window in the door.]

CASS: [voice over] We watch. And we're watched.

[Cass inside sat on the bed, staring at a blank white wall. Frank looks in.]

CASS: [voice over] Something imposes order, and something imposes accident. Order and accident. One and the same.

[Cass slowly gets up and goes over to the wall.]

CASS: [voice over] What matters is survival. Survival of the fittest.

[As Frank continues to watch, she starts to write very carefully on the wall.]

CASS: [voice over] Darwin was right about that, anyway.

[Frank turns away and starts walking away down the corridor.]

[fade to black]

[end titles]

Starring:

Lance Henriksen (Frank Black)
Klea Scott (Emma Hollis)

Guest Starring:

Peter Outerbridge (Barry Baldwin)
Tracy Middendorf (Cass Doyle)
Peter Simmons (Joe Doherty)
Kevin McNulty (Dr Arnett)
and
John Beasley (James Hollis)

Co–starring:

Lesley Ewen (Dr Heath)
Alfred E Humphreys (Sheriff Randall)

Featuring:

Alex Zahara (Dane)
Kurt Evans (Clerk)
Cam Chai (Ranjit Patel – Store Manager)
Shawna Delgaty (Young Cass)

Music by Mark Snow
Editor: Peter B Ellis
Production Designer: Mark Freeborn
Director of Photography: Robert McLachlan
Executive Story Editors: Kay Reindl and Erin Maher
Production Manager: Kathy Gilroy–Sereda
Co–Producer: Patrick Harbinson
Co–Producer: Kathy Gilroy–Sereda
Co–Producer: Paul Rabwin
Producer: Michael R Perry Producer: Thomas J Wright
Supervising Producer: Marjorie David Co–Executive Producer: Frank Spotnitz
Co–Executive Producer: Ken Horton
Co–Executive Producer: John Peter Kousakis
Written by Patrick Harbinson
Directed by Ken Fink

Executive Producer: Chip Johannessen
Executive Producer: Chris Carter



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