 Commission, those folks who provided funding that helped the work that you see tonight, also thanks to our media sponsors, so thanks to National Singing WPLN and now PlayingNational.com for their help in getting the word out about the festival as well. I also want to say a big thank you to National Public Television, they are great roommates in many ways and one of the ways they are is that they help us with the equipment that we need to be able to live stream the readings that you're seeing on HowlRoundTV, so we're on the internet. So thank you to National Public Television for that. And of course my thanks would not be complete at all without saying thank you to the person without whom we would be here in any way, shape, or form. This woman believes in the American theater, she believes in the importance of new works toward keeping the American theater lively and she puts her money where her heart is. So of course a big thank you to Mark Ingram. As we launch our next season, Tennessee Rep is about to be 30 years old, it's our 30th anniversary of being, I know. And so one of the things that we're doing to help that celebration is we're launching something new, a membership program. So if you're a supporter of Tennessee Rep, we're incorporating a whole bunch of ways that you can actually interact with us in cool ways. That sounded really enticing in a way, I wasn't sure how that would come out, but you should go online and see what I mean. And they're different levels of membership. So we hope you'll consider being a member of Tennessee Rep for a celebration of our 30th anniversary. And while you're online looking at that information, you can just pop over to the subscription page and buy a subscription if you haven't done that yet. We'll have a great season next year, so we hope you'll look into it. I also want you to have a big fundraising party on Sunday, so if you really enjoyed this season, you'd like to have a chance to mix and mingle with the actors who made this season possible. We hope you'll join us for a river of relief on Sunday evening. It's a dinner and entertainment, and there's plenty of information about that in the back of the room and online. So we hope you'll consider looking into that. The cast of company is going to be doing some things to come and do that. Alright, a quick overview of the Ingram New Works Project. It has three parts. A fellowship, a lab, and a festival. The fellowship is something we offer to a playwright's national repute whose work we admire and who we firmly believe will continue to make important contributions to the American theater. And we were so honored this year when our fellowship was accepted by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tony Ward-winning playwright Doug Wright. You can see it back there. So, Joey Breedy has played 30 Friday setting eyes this week. It's called Posterity, and you don't want to miss it. It's really a lovely, lovely piece of work. Also now, in addition to the fellowship, we have the lab. And in the lab, we have four playwrights who have been with us here kind of throughout the whole season. It's a season-long lab environment. And those four playwrights come to the lab at the beginning of the year with just an idea for a play. And our goal is to make it possible for them to bring that play to life and to provide whatever resources we can. I would like to recognize those four playwrights. We've had such a great time with them this year. So, there's Nate Epler. Nate? Where are you? And Jordan Kramer is here. Now a part of the third component, the festival. And one of the things, many things we try to provide for our playwrights is the opportunity to hear their plays read aloud. By professional actors in front of a living audience. And you qualify. And everything that you're responsible for plays are useful to them. It's really lovely how you're here to help us fulfill the need to have this kind of information. So, thank you for that. Additionally, besides just watching the play and responding however you're going to respond, there are some paper surveys you can fill out. If you resist filling out paper and you actually might need some time to think about the play, which is possible. You can also do it online. So, maybe you'll go to our website and fill out the survey form. It's really simple and easy. And it's actually really helpful for us in figuring out the future. So, I hope that you'll consider doing that. And then, immediately following the play reading, we'll have a bit of a tough back. A little chance to chat about the play. You can give a chance to ask questions and meet the playwright. And I'm going to make a plan with Nate Epler. So, I'll have to stick around for a few minutes after that. There'll be rain and stuff outside. There is an intermission in tonight's meeting. So, during that time, I suggest you go back and buy some concessions. Actually, the proceeds for concessions support our professional internship program. So, you can justify those M&Ms for very good reasons. And lastly, please check if you will now make sure that your cell phones are silent. Go ahead and turn them off, please, Will. I promise you, you'll be far too excited to join us on your phone. So, we appreciate that. Thanks again for being here. It really means a lot to us to have the privilege to work with these playwrights and have a part of giving them born. And I hope you'll feel the same way I ask them to do the work. I know that you will. So, thank you so much for your support of Newark. So, now enjoy, please. Good monsters by Nate Epler. By Nate Epler. Act one. Tuesday, nighttime. A backyard about an hour north of Nashville, but still south of Kentucky. It's in the kind of house that when they moved in, they thought they'd lived there a year. Tops. That was four years ago. A charcoal grill, weeds, dirt, trash, a pile of broken TVs, a kiddie pool, a new 30-pound bag of rock salt. There's a sliding door into the house in a window that looks out onto the yard from the kitchen. The word bad is smeared on part of the house. It's pretty dark out, but we can see it. Frank is trying to wash it off. Frank is around 40 and built like a guy whose name, nickname, is Frankenstein. Dump truck is in a lawn chair drinking a beer. He's about the same age as Frank and even out of uniform you can tell he's a cop. It's like everybody dies and nobody learns a lesson. The best scenario is you're on the other side of the parking lot when it happens, right? But I say, maybe you were supposed to be there, okay? Everybody's all like, wrong place, wrong timer. This is a fucking capital T tragedy. But had it not happened, who knows when she'd have gone on? Next time she does have a gun. Maybe next time she shoots somebody, okay? We're like, what? Supposed to wait? I mean, right? Can't shoot till we get shot? Whoa, what is that? We ain't still over there, are we? No, we're over here, mate. There's a road. If you've not done what you did, I guarantee some real bad shit would have gone down as far as she's concerned. Little ticking time bomb or whatever. Because as she got away with it, why would she have been like, I'll never do that again? Right? She wouldn't. She'd be like, I got away with it. I'd escalate this motherfucker. Had she not been there and had she lived, she wouldn't have known what would have happened. The only opportunity for her life to make a change in her life and learn a lesson is she dies. But then she don't learn it because she's dead. It's messed up. I'm saying I don't see this as your fault, man. I don't see how nobody else can either. You're a good man. Then it's a billion-bored what, post-pum? Yep. A man who's ready to bleed without pain. Ain't nothing you can do about it. That's bullshit right there. You're goddamn bad. Everybody else is on the side, though. Captain's on the side. We got you back. Captain wants me to see that guy again. Fitness evaluation? Pretty sure it's more than that. All right, man. I ain't heard of that. You want another one? Dump truck moves toward a small red cooler. Hey, hey. That's not... There's none in there. That's a star lane. There's more in the Florida room. Frank moves the cold cooler away from dump truck and slides open the door. He walks inside to get a chair for dump truck. I'll see why you had to be out there moonlightin' in the first place. Shit, right? Money. Dump truck looks at the graffiti. Frank returns with a beer for dump truck. Good kids. Frank goes back to scrubbing. Why are you just getting around at that night? We're just gonna do it again, right? Every time I get it off, you know, they just... The Darlene says it's gotta come down, so... What do you think they put it on the front of the house so everybody can see it when they drive by? I think it's just for me and Darlene. We use the hose. I'm using the hose. Yeah, but you're not. The faucet's working. The hose just ain't doing... I mean, look, there's like a kink in it or something. No pressure. You got a broken hose. How do you break a hose? I'm not a plumber, man. Well, me either. I'm not. Maybe I knew it, then, huh? I probably don't want you down at the Walmart, though, huh? Yeah, probably not. You been back there? No. You got an ace, though. They got hoses. I'm supposed to stay... I mean, Mark Shane says I gotta... I can't go nowhere, man. Lo's got hoses. You told me I had a gotcha going to pick up all that fucking rock salt. Yeah, thank you. I know it. I told you whatever you need, right? I meant whatever you need. That's the deal. It's for the ants. It's a 30-pound bag, Frank, like a shitload of ants, huh? I gotta ring the whole yard. I read it on the Internet. Darlene, you know, she just wants me to take care of it, you know? Look, if you want me to go back out and get your hose, I'll go back out and get your hose, but you can't hide here forever. Don't want to mean? Just till the trial. Well, when's that gonna be? I mean, when's Mark Shane figure it out? Yeah, I'm sorry, man. I quit asking for it. Don't drop drinks, Frank's growing. Didn't she have parents? Where are they and all this? She's got a dad, for sure. Like a real one from over there and all, or like a doctor? Pretty sure a doctor. Calls sometimes. Who does? The dad? Yeah. Here? What the fuck is he calling here for? Says he got a gun. Says he's gonna come over. Whoa, whoa, whoa. He's threatening you? Not exactly. What's not exactly? Says he's gonna come over and shoot himself. Who? Yeah. Why would you shoot yourself in somebody else's house? That's what he says. Well, that's just dumb. Shoot yourself in your own house. Or like at your office. Wait, so he gonna break into your house and shoot himself and you don't get shot first or nothing? He does not leave you be. Yeah, but not in the house, in the backyard. Why the backyard? He didn't say. But he said the backyard. Yeah, he was specific. Fuck that shit. Think he's pretty messed up, man. Fucking grief. Lost his daughter, right? The doctor's daughter. What? I mean, what's he got to do with you? Besides the obvious. Think it's just the obvious. He's the one writing on the side of your house twice a week. Pretty sure it's kids, man. Let me stake it out. No. Come on, man. I'll park the problem like two bucks over and hide behind Big Frank's TV collection. Scared shit out of her. No. Fine. Dump truck. You don't know how it went down. It was you and it was her. Yeah, in the 2020 high sights or whatever. Yes, she didn't have a gun, but didn't nobody know that till after, so you got lethal. We could have gone another way. Who cares? I'm more like, let's move along to figure out what's going to take to get you out of this backyard and back on job, okay? A light near the door flickers like a strobe and then goes out. Right? You all right? Yeah. Sorry. I didn't know what that was. I'll get you light bulbs when I get you hoes. I thought it was... I don't know, man. That's cool, man. Stress. Fuckin' out. It's like not a whole lot making sense right now. That's all. When stuff don't make no sense no more, you gotta make it make sense. Know what I mean? I just choose, man. I don't care if it's true or not. You can't live upside down forever. Chapter nine. She'll be out. She's always running late. I don't think they care too much. Uh-huh. I don't know how you do it, man. Always been like this. It's the arrangement we got. Yeah, but right now, all this shit going on, I think you have her down at First Assembly of God every damn day or something. Thank you for giving her a ride. What? What? What are you laughing at? Nothing. It's funny. I don't know, man. Some things get laughed at, some don't. Don't everybody have no wild time? She is, okay. It's just... Not like I'm dropping her off at school, man. Darlene enters. She's wearing a jogging suit and high heels. Too much makeup, big earrings, big purse. We're cutting off the motherfucking air. Right, Darlene? I'm not fucking around. Shutting off the way. Hey. I got my blue light running into my eyes and looking like a goddamn gay raccoon by the time I get there. Go turn on the air in the prowler. Yeah. See you, Frank. Yeah. Jump truck exits into the driveway. I don't know. Been cold. Saw me get the shivers. It's motherfucking July. I think it's all right for you to be going out. On calls, I mean... Why wouldn't it be? I mean, with all we got going on, me not being able to be there. You can't drive me no more because of the news van. But what if something... You think my clients won't see that? I walk up there and there's like fucking news van from the hotel parking lot. Private dancer means private, pretty sure. Then maybe stripping in hotel rooms don't make sense right now. Don't everybody want to drive all the way to Nashville to see titties, Frank? I'm saying if I can't be there to protect you, maybe we should just rethink the whole thing and not do it for like a while. Maybe. Leave without pay. I know. That makes me the breadwinner. Whatever we gotta do, we gotta do. And that means making $400 every time I can make it. Pretty sure I won that argument, huh? I love your friend at the sign. Yeah. What's my word? Yeah. What's my word? Security. Bing, bing, bing, security. Whatever it takes, right? Right, the end. You gonna see that guy more? I'll be up when you get back. That ain't no answer. I mean we can talk then. We're talking now, ain't we? Well, yeah. You have to do that. Yup, I know. FOP is only gonna go so far because this whole deal was off duty, Frank. I know. That means you gotta start getting paid when it's damn possible. Then keep you out of this all over but you gotta get something here, right? Anybody get something? I mean paychecks, right? And how do we start getting paychecks again? Right. So you gonna go see that guy more? Yeah. Yeah. Look. I know it didn't go so well the first time but you gotta get back in there, okay? What are you afraid of? Starling. Frank. You're gonna be late. Bye. Bye. Don't be on the internet. Frank's growth. Later now. One of the TV's turns on. We see static but it makes the wrong noise somehow. Frank walks over and turns it off. Zero enters. She's about 16 and 80 but she's lived in the United States most of her life so she's dressed like every other American teenager. Please go away. Please just leave me alone. I'm gonna turn around and you're gonna be gone. I'm gonna turn around and there's gonna be nothing there. Boo. Jesus Christ. Hello, Frankenstein. Why won't you leave me alone? Why do you keep coming here? You break it, you buy it. Okay. I want you to listen to me. You like my love note? Kids did that. You didn't send me one back. I feel like you don't like me like I like you. It's time for you to go away. No. If you're not gonna go on your own, I'm gonna... Frank takes the folded piece of paper out of his pocket. Go toward the light. You need to live in the light so go on. Go on now. Don't get any closer, okay? You don't want... Listen to me now. If you go ahead and go now, I won't have to use the salt, okay? Just go to the light. I told you last night if you came back, I'm not doing this anymore. Do you hear me? Please don't make me have to hurt you again. Please. You're your worst. Okay. Okay? Frank gets the bag of rock salt. Okay. You brought this on yourself? Yeah. I'm the one that shot me in a parking lot. You are threatening me. This is self-defense. This is justifying. Frank grabs the salt and tries to tear the bag open. Calling me tonight to get the bag open. Frank uses his teeth to tear the bag. He grabs a handful of salt and tosses it on the ground in front of him. You see that, huh? Uh-oh. Fuck now, huh? This is my wrong good. Frank checks the piece of paper. Frank opens the bag wider. He starts to pour it in a circle around the stage, periodically checking the page to make sure he's doing it right. What are you doing? You aren't as strong as you think you are. Do you like to read about this on the internet? It's going to work. I can't even tell you what I would do to, like, see the internet. I've probably gone into all my accounts, so you can post some Jesus stuff every five minutes. I've got my profile picture as, like, the sun becomes a cloud. You missed a spot. What? Right there. I got it. Uh, yeah, no. I'm pouring it out. I didn't miss anything. Well, the stream skipped then. I got it. Yeah, but look. Stop telling me what to do. I mean, I don't know. Fine. Frank goes back over the spot. Zero is inside the circle of salt now. Am I supposed to be on the outside of him? What? Are you, like, trapping me in or, like, keeping me out? Frank checks the paper. Probably it doesn't say anything about this. It doesn't matter. Well, it doesn't. Frank finishes the salt circle. There. Now you... You know, you go into the light. It's supposed to be on the outside of the circle. It doesn't matter where you are. You used the wrong kind of salt. I didn't use the wrong kind of salt. Why are you mad at me? Go away! No! Please! You keep coming here and... What do you want from me? I'm not going to apologize to you. You could have had a gun. Did I go? I'm not the bad guy. I don't want an apology. Then what do you want? Just tell me. Tell me what you want. I'll give it to you and you can just leave me alone. Just off while I watch. That's as lonely. Listen to me. Do you like being alone in the dark? I don't. Please. This way we don't have to be alone. Get your gun. I'll get started on the suicide note. That's not happening. Go get the gun. No. Bring it out here. We'll take a look at who you really are, and if you can listen to all of it and not blow your freaking brains out, you win. Stop it. Why? What's left? I'm going to let you be a cop again. And Darlene, she's just waiting for the right moment to jump. Don't. Don't do that. Don't hit Matt at me. I'm not the one that might be married a hooker. She's not? You know how you guys got together. Why would she stick around? Don't. You're bad. They all know it, and you do too, don't you? It's just us. You can tell me the truth. You know you're the bad guy, right? Because you are the bad guy, right, Frank? Frank throws a handful of salt at zero. Shit! It burns! I didn't mean to. Frank grabs her. He tries to brush the salt off. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't want it. Stop that. Whatever you're doing, I want you to stop it. The buzz gets louder. The light strolls. You want to play with me, Frankenstein? Stop it. Let's play. Stay back. Zero. Zero covers Frank's eyes with her hand. The stage goes black. Stop it. We know who you are, don't we, Frank? We've seen your insides. Now, all you have to do is crack you open for everybody else to see. Leave me alone. I will never leave you alone. Do you understand me? You. You are mine until there is none of you left. And when you have nothing left to give me, when I have brought you to your knees, when you are at my feet, begging me to show you mercy, I will bend down and whisper in your ear, no, I'm not done with you yet. Lights come back up. Lights come back up. Lights come back up. Zero is gone. The word bad is everywhere. On every surface and every shape and size over and over again glowing. Frank is surrounded. The words fade, flicker, and go out. Frank is alone. Wednesday, daytime. Frank is sitting in one of the lawn chairs with his feet in the kiddie pool. Darlene enters with two TV trays, goes back into the house. Darlene enters with some plastic cups and a two-liter. She sets the stuff on one of the TV trays. You can't hear a dude if I'll fucking waste. What are you doing? Waking your shoes on. What? Hey, face man. You ain't allowed to be all checked out all the way, okay? Like you're missing shit. We got stuff going on here for real. Darlene tries to pull the kiddie pool away from Frank. Hey, all right. We having company? Okay, so, I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't figure out how to tell you, and then I thought we might be seeing how you've been lately. It'd be better if you didn't know it was coming, but you asked, and I don't see why until you write it. We are having company? Her name's Josie. Whose name's Josie? What? You know, I ran into her and she's been following the case, kind of, because you know, it's like, everywhere, and she's sort of a lawyer, right? We have a lawyer. Yeah, I know. Well, you got Mark Shane. Yeah, I bet. Mark is sort of like, I mean, sort of, budget. You know how I said we can't buy Cheerios? No, Mark is Cheerios. Shouldn't be, you know, $5 a box and we got to get great value toasty oats. Mark Shane is great value toasty oats. Wait, what's going on? So, we got toasty oats, but we're in a Cheerios situation. Darlene. So, you need to talk to her. Trust me. She's going to get us out of here. Dump Truck enters from the driveway. He's wearing his police uniform. He's carrying a hose. Hey, hose delivery. Hose delivery. What? The hose is broken. What? I asked Ray to go to Walmart and... No, we don't shop there no more, period. And we don't want their products in our motherfucking house, okay? Yeah, but... No, this is not a discussion. This one's from Lowe's, anyway. Ray. What? Josie enters. She is dressed like a lawyer. Big sunglasses, big smile. Am I on the right place? Darlene. Who's this? Hi. Hey. Come on in. You're Frank, right? So nice to meet you. This is her? Yeah. I already have a lawyer. You're a lawyer? Yeah, we can... He really wants to talk to you. I don't want to waste your time. Cheerios, Ray. Frank, I assure you, it is not my intention to circumvent him. Side step, your relationship with your... your current lawyer. I know what circumvent means. Okay. Are you part of the family? That's right. Everybody calls me dump truck. On account I crap a lot. So nice to meet you. He don't want you. Very sure I need me, a lawyer. Darlene told me she said... Gulf War One. Right. Well, thank you for your service. Both of you. You're welcome. Do you do TV repair, Frank? Oh, those big Franks. Oh, uh-huh. Where'd you meet Darlene? Don't want to talk to me, huh? Nope. Okay. You know what? I'll go. You don't need me. Sorry to bother you. Who's your lawyer? Mark Shane. Okay. Well, I haven't heard of him. I bet he's good, though. He's good enough for you. He is good enough for me. Did the department help you retain him? Get his services? Yeah. Oh, good. Then he's looking out for them, too. Good. He's not your wife's lawyer, though, is he? I said he's not your wife's... What do you want? I don't want to bullshit you here, Frank. Then don't. I won't. Okay. I bet we agree on one thing. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Somebody's gonna pay this tab. Now, I don't want it to be you, but can it be you? Yes. Yes, it can. Is that preferred? How can I prefer that? After getting to meet you and your lovely wife and dump truck here and learning all about your years of service, which, again, I thank you for, but somebody's got to pay. No free lunches, like the man says. You agree? No free lunches? I love her. You say Mark Shane has your best interest at heart. He's looking out for you. He's looking out for the department. Fine. I believe you, but it stops there because he is not looking out for Darlene. He'll do what's best. What if what's best is you plead out and do six years? Who looks out for Darlene while you're locked up with all the other murderers down at River Bend? All right, you know what? You're right. That's probably being dramatic, but what about the civil trial? Because there will be one. And it will not be cheap. And how do you pay for it, Frank? How do you save up for illegal defense when you're on indefinite leave without pay? So Darlene just spilled it all, huh? I don't know Darlene well, but I like what I've seen so far. I like her. And I've seen what happens when the bills pile up. It was a mistake in a parking lot. And if you're not very careful about how you handle it, you're going to be paying for it for the rest of your life. I have a lawyer. I don't need another one. Darlene enters with the pizza rolls. I don't think you do. I think Darlene does. You want to be Darlene's lawyer? I am Darlene's lawyer. She hired me last night. Last night? You hired her last night? It was... Yeah, it was going to be sort of a surprise. How was that a surprise? You didn't know, and now you do. Not all surprises are ponies. We can agree on that much. Two feet by the time we get to the end of the trial. Mark Shane says it won't go to trial. Oh, won't it? Okay. Television lately? The trial has already started. What are you trying to get here? This is a tragedy. Tragedy has a cost. And if it has a cost, it must be worth something. Hey, this is the stuff that you need to hear. Josie takes two magazines out of her bag. Dump Truck, do you know who this is? That's that slut that's married to that rapper. That's right. And do you know who this is? Josie shows him a second magazine cover. Frank is on the cover. Yeah? Yeah. We all know who this is. That's you, Frank. She made ten million last year. How much did you make? You're both on the cover of a magazine this month. Surely you made about the same, right? It was nice meeting you, but I think you're done. When will it end? Thanks, I've seen it. I think a lot of people are asking themselves that question these days. But I guess that's not the question I'm asking myself. I get the question I'm asking myself is, why did you pick her up? Okay. After you shot her, you ran to the body. We're done. I've seen the security camera footage and the picture. Everybody's seen the picture. Here it is on the cover of Time. You lifted her into your arms. I'm going inside. You, holding the teenage girl you just shot. Tears in your eyes. Are you running towards something? Away from something? Are you going for help? Or is that look just, I don't know, shock? There is something in your eyes here that I don't think I have ever seen before. Fuck you, okay. Everybody wants to know the story of this picture, and of course they do. I do. But you're not saying anything. So I suppose we're all sort of having to make it up as we go along. And I get it. You want to be the strong, silent type. But America doesn't like that anymore. We don't allow for silence. The void will be filled with or without you. I don't have anything to say. That's why you need me. Do you know how much your average reality star makes? No, you want to put me on TV. You're already on TV. In fact, you're a star. Right. This story isn't going away. We all want to know how it's going to turn out. And we're going to keep watching until we're satisfied. Okay. Your show's a hit. And so far, you haven't been smart enough to be a part of it. She is saying that they're making money off of you without you getting your fair share. I got it. They're doing it by making you look bad, Frank. See, just tell him. Right now nobody knows nothing about you. You shot that little girl in the picture. I appreciate you coming by, but this is over. Okay, we're not doing this. I know you need me, Frank. Because I need you. I've been looking for the right kind of story to tell. I think people are willing to pay for the right kind of story. I don't care what she says. Okay, I'm not cashing in or whatever. I wouldn't. I don't think I'd call it cashing in. You're in an unusual situation, which has unusual costs. And there are unusual ways of generating the funds to pay for it. How do we start? Well, I think a website first for the legal defense fund and expenses. Cover your end first, huh? People like Donate, like over the internet. I can guarantee $15,000 in the first month. First two weeks. Maybe that is if we can get an interview right away. How does that sound? Could you use $15,000? Taxes eat that up. Uncle Sam gets his taste. That's all I'm saying. 15's the low end. We can get more depending on Frank's level of participation. What kind of lawyer are you? I'm a crisis manager. Sort of a storyteller. All our good stories are failing us, Frank. Our fairy tales are suddenly worthless. The one about the guy who worked hard and got ahead. The one about the guy who did the right thing and was rewarded. The one about the guy who did his job and we all thanked him for it because it was what we asked him to do in the first place. But we desperately crave stories. How else are we supposed to make sense of a world turned upside down? So we take the shitty stories instead. The guy who did it on purpose. The crook who got away with it. The man who did just what we expected because he's a racist cop piece of shit. These are the stories we tell ourselves now and we're telling ourselves that kind of story about you. I'd like to get in the way of that. I'd like to give them a reason. I'd like to give them an understanding. I'd like to give them a different story. Like what? For the rest of your life, you're going to be the man who shot that girl. The next few months will determine if you are the racist monster who shot that girl or the hero cop who shot that girl. And we want to say in which it's going to be, don't we? So we define you. We have to get down to the center. You know what I mean? They won't buy it if you don't have some kind of damage, some kind of pain, something they can relate to but not relate to too much. Like relate to at a distance. Is there a word for that? Whatever that is, that. That's what we want. The thing at a distance. This is the pain. This is the original sin. This is what crosses your mind in the parking lot that night. And it doesn't even matter what it is because we all have it. We all have that thing, that pain at the center of us. And if you show us yours, we will see a reflection of ours. So when you get on your knees and say that I'm sorry and beg for forgiveness, they won't just say yes, I forgive you. They'll say yes. I understand why you did what you did. And in your place, in that moment, in that parking lot, I would have done the same thing. Now, do you want my help? Yes. It's a lot, isn't it? You don't have to decide right now. I'm at the Marriott by the highway. Darlene, thank you for inviting me over. I just like this right now, okay? He's really, really interesting, really. Frank, thank you for coming by. We'll talk again soon. I want there to be a happy ending. I want this story to have a happy ending. I think this story can have a happy ending. I want there to be one anyway. We're thinking the same thing. Good. Don't try it. So nice to meet you. Thank you for your service. Josie Exit. Asshole for that woman trying to fucking help us. You met her last night. You are going along with this. Did you hear me? Do you hear me? Listen, because you do not give me the motherfucking silent treatment, okay? We talk about our shit. Just what? Stay out of it, Darlene. Stay out of it. Maybe I'm gonna go ahead and go. What in the name of sweet motherfucking Jesus Christ is wrong with you, exactly? Yes, so I'm gonna go ahead and go ahead and go. Because that woman is right, okay? I'm fucking sorry or whatever that little girl had to die but this don't have to be all bad for us, okay? So... Jesus, right? Shit. Yeah, so... You good? Okay then. Bye, y'all. Thank you for the beat to roll. All right. I'll see y'all before. You want to just sit there and die? Is that it? Pulls the kiddie pool back over to where it was and puts his feet back in it. Wednesday night, Frank is alone with zero. Frank is on the laptop. Darlene is probably in the house watching TV. There are people like shopping there right now. Trampoling over the spot where I freaking died like it never even happened. Like stepping over my freaking memory on their way to get, like, Diet Cokes and Bunions and shit. Should have, like, all stopped forever or whatever, right? Like they should burn that whole place to the ground. I mean, how could it all just keep going? That doesn't even make sense. Are you listening to me? Are you trying to figure out why the salt didn't work? I can't hear you, okay? Then why did you answer? I'm not gonna... We're not talking. We should get some drugs. I'm not an addict or anything. I'm just, like, freaking bored for real. Is that why you were shoplifting? You getting money for drugs? I stole genes. From freaking Walmart. What kind of drugs could I buy with freaking Walmart genes? Like crap drugs, I'm sure a jerk. I'm sorry. For insulting me or for, like, murdering me in a parking lot. You know what? We're not talking. Tell me a story about Kuwait. What? You were there longer than I was. I don't, like, know anything about it. No. Why are you treating me like we're not friends? Who could be, like, closer than I am? Please stop reading over my shoulder. See, it says right there, salt doesn't do much. The sites all... A lot of sites say different things. Hold someone's hand and repeat the following incantation. Oh, please ask Darlene to do that with you. Seriously, I would love to watch that conversation. What you're doing is rude. Go to my Facebook page. No, just fucking just stand over there, okay? Please. Come on, I want to see what people are saying about me. Please fucking god damn it. Yes. Closer to the fireworks. Get your gun out. I'm gonna email this guy and I'm gonna get a fucking exorcist in here. Do you hear me? Okay, we're gonna get a fucking exorcist and we're gonna cast you out back to wherever the fuck you're supposed to be, okay? You're like a victim. I'm going to exorcise you. You're thinking Darlene will let you put it on the credit card or you figure that, like, the exorcist is gonna do it out of the kindness of his heart or whatever. And for real, he probably wouldn't tell anybody he did it. I mean, it's not like you're famous right now or anything. It's not like you're all over the news every day for killing an unarmed teenager for no reason. You're not having second thoughts, are you? I only ask because you're being quiet and I thought maybe you realized you were stuck with me and so maybe you just better do as I say. Is that what you were thinking while you were being quiet? Okay. Go to my Facebook, but it's not under superior. It's under zero. What? They call me zero. Who called you zero? Like, literally every single person except that. You let people call you zero? Yes, Frankenstein. I do. Why? Why do they call you that? Because my cousin, not my real cousin, but, you know, freakin' perfectly adorable Haley couldn't say Saphira. Like, how hard is it to say Saphira? Like, not hard at all. And besides, Haley was five and three. Like, I couldn't say something at five. Dad would have, like, made me practice and shit until I got it right. But not Haley because Haley's not adopted or whatever. And she's perfect. Freakin' Uncle Harry and Aunt Linda let me do literally whatever she wants and have, I don't know, like, pictures of her every waking minute, like, for real. And so when she tried to say Saphira, she said zero and everybody thought, oh, isn't that so freakin' adorable or whatever. And I go, like, that's not my name. And they were like, we love Haley and isn't she cute? Let's take some pictures. Stop. Please go back to wherever you go when you're not here. Right next to you is the only place I want to be. We don't have to look at the internet if you don't want to. There's other games we can play. Stay away from me. I'm not, I'm not going to do what you want me to do. Of course you are. How can you live with, like, the weight of what you did to me? Where's your gun? I got rid of it. Yeah, I know you did this. Zero sits on the red cooler. Get off that. Frank sets it in a chair. I wonder if I'd sit in that. I mean, like, now? You know, like, that can seal me down and shove me in there. How big was my basket? Did you see it? I bet it was freakin' pink on the inside. Or, like, unicorn stickers on it. Freaking scrapper keeper. You should have just burned me for me down the drain. Stop talkin' like that. Dark lean is at the kitchen window. What are you doin' out there? Nothin'. Go back to bed. Who are you talkin' to? I'm not. I'm watchin' the internet. Well, fuckin' turn it down then. Why are you gilling? I shot you. I did it. I'm a killer. I was afraid. I thought you had a gun. I thought you might have a gun. Because you were stealing. Because, and you didn't, and I know that now, but how could I? If you had had a gun, I would be dead. I would be dead. And they would be cryin' over my casket. Why didn't he even draw his sidearm? What kind of cop is that? What kind of man is that? How could he have not known that she had a gun? And you'd be out... I don't know where you'd be. I'd be at home. I even say that. It's not true. You'd be out doing God knows what right now, and you're telling me that's better? I'm dead in the fuckin' ground, and you're out doin' crank with your boyfriend. That's better? Yes. Fuck you. Would you do it again? Goddamn right I would. Then it's not an accident. I did what I was supposed to do. You're saying this is your job? Sal enters through the gate. He looks pretty rough. He has his hands up. Okay. Hey. Who? No. I want you to know. Oh my God. What are you doing here? I just want you to know I have a gun. Sal lifts up his shirt. He has a gun in his waistband. Hey. It's my dad. I have it. I have it with me, but I'm not gonna use it, okay? I'm not even gonna touch it. You need to put that gun on the ground now. Sorry I didn't call first. This is like so embarrassing. I want you to know I'm waiting for him. You'll tell me what to do. Can we go with the Jesus stuff? Sir, I'm not here to do anything. Not now. I'm sorry I didn't call first. Put the weapon on the ground and step away. It's okay. Don't worry. I'm not... Don't worry. I just wanted to tell you face to face. You need to put that on the ground. I don't think I'm gonna hurt myself. I'm sorry about the phone call. I've been scared. The house is... She was there and now she isn't. But not all the way. She was never very good at cleaning up after herself. So it's just... It's through every room. He's like Chris hiding after I'm dead. When I'm there it's very quiet. And I need that. That's made it good because I'm listening really close. I've been listening for him. And I want you to know when he tells me what to do, I'm gonna do it. Sorry. I'm gonna count to three and when I get to three that gun is gonna be on the ground and we're gonna have a problem here. There's no way it's loaded. But do we have a problem here? However it ends up for us, you and I, bad or worse, figure only have to do it once. Where did you even get a gun? I bet he had to like follow it from one of those past holes at church. I don't know why he does what he does. But why he asks what he asks. That's him. Invisible hands. Mysterious. One. So mysterious. Sometimes it feels like he might not even be there. But... I'm sorry. I don't know why I was laughing. That's not funny at all. Two. Three. Frank pulls his gun out of the red cooler. Put the gun down now. Wait. No. I taught her to read. Don't do that. Don't just let him go home. Get out of the way. She wouldn't have survived there. She was smaller than the others. I had to take her. I had to. It was everything I had. $6,000 in cash. And my belt. The tall man asked for my belt. When I gave him the backpack, I thought they might kill me. That's when it occurred to me. After the tall man already had the cash, I didn't think of it before. I was... I don't know, emotional. I had a lot of logic to what I was doing right now. And they could have, too. They could have killed me. Nobody knew I was there, really. Everybody else was back at the hotel. The house was far away, off by itself. And I liked dog shit. Small. Two or three rooms, I think. The other man was carrying superior. And I thought, well, if they shoot me, I hope they take her to one of those other rooms. But I think that's something a two-year-old probably shouldn't see. I don't know what she'd seen before. Really, maybe she'd seen worse. See, the man gets shot in the head. I thought... I thought that's something a two-year-old might remember. The tall man sat there, and he counted the money, and he looked at me and said, And your belt. It wasn't even a nice belt. Please, put the gun down. No. Gave him the belt, and we walked away. We walked out. That'll really remember. I know I had her up against my chest, like a... like a football. And I was... It was kind of funny. I had to hold my... my pants up with my other hand. I lost a lot of weight that year. My pants were too big. And we walked like that together until we could... get somewhere we could get a car to take us to a hotel. Back to the hotel. He didn't cry. Oh, I did. I did cry. We got to the car. We got to the hotel. We got to the room. And I thought... I didn't think... Oh my God, what have I done? I didn't think that. You know? I think later, when I told the story, I told it that way sometimes, but that's not true. I didn't think... I didn't think... Oh my God, what did I do? I put her on the bed. And I thought, you're safe. I was wrong. The blinds inside the Florida room open up. Darlene is standing there behind the glass door. What the fuck is that? Don't come out here, Darlene. I'm on you every day. Why do you have a gun in your hand? Did you hear me? Hey, get the fuck out of here! Stay right there, Darlene. I'm calling goddamn cops. You hear me, motherfucker? Darlene, you're not calling the cops. The fuck I'm not! Officer Wayne... Nobody's calling anybody. Is that your fucking gun? Officer? Darlene. Jesus Christ, fine! Just stay right there. Officer. Call the fucking cops. Don't call the cops! Officer! I think about killing you every day. It tells me to do, but I hope it tells me to come over here and kill you. I don't know if that's the kind of thing you'd ask me. Mysterious ways. And I thought that you should know. Didn't seem like the kind of thing I should tell you over the phone. I'll call next time. Fuck him over. Cell exits. Darlene slides the door open and comes out. The cordless phone is down. Put the phone down. Darlene, after you yellin', you got... you got some motherfucker over your point and gun at you. He wasn't pointin' it at me. That's Zero's dad. Who the fuck is Zero? Safira, the girl, the girl. That's her dad? Yes. And he come over here with a gun. I'm calling goddamn cops. He's not coming back, it's over. The fuck it is? Nothing happened. What do you mean, nothing happened? It didn't, there's just not... He's gone, it's fine. What the fuck is wrong with you? It's over. What do you do that for? Where are you? I'm right here. Jesus! What you doing with my husband? Stop hittin' me, stop that! You don't, you don't get it. What? You wanna play dad, how did you? He wasn't here. Darlene! You don't wanna do anything. You don't wanna fuck me anymore. You sure as shit don't wanna talk about it and you don't wanna see anybody. You just wanna hide in your little back door until the sky falls down, huh? Fuck you. Fuck me what? Fuck me what? You see where we are here? You see what's on the goddamn line? There are people out there trying to send your ass to jail. We're just about as broke as I have ever been in my life. We got strangers wandering through the back yard looking to throw your motherfucking brains out. God damn it! We are gonna lose it all unless you wake the fuck up. Go back to bed. I'm too near Frankenstein. Yeah? Where would you go? Quit hittin' me. What you gonna do about it? Darlene hits him again and again. Stop it! Fuck that. Darlene... Darlene, I swear to God. I'll bring you again. Why not? She punches it! God damn it! Stay here. Happy? So you're back over here tomorrow and you gonna play ball or I'm gonna walk out that motherfucking front door. Do you hear me? I said do you hear me? Yes. And the next time somebody wanders into my back yard with a gun, you come get me. I'll bury him out there and not think twice about it. You just sit there and watch. Darlene exits back into the house. Frank is alone on stage at zero. The fourth of July, Ford refrigerator box covered the panel of the sliding door of the grill shatter. This end up is pointing the wrong way. Frank is on stage with Big Frank. Frank has a bandaid sort of across his eyebrow from where Darlene decked him. Big Frank is in a wheelchair. Bald, big cataract sunglasses. He's in some kind of red, white and blue sweatsuit. Big Frank is sitting in front of the TVs. Frank is on the other side of the yard. Dump truck enters, rolling a grill. All right motherfuckers, where the party at? Oh shit, that's sorry Big Frank. Goddamn, I didn't know he's gonna be here man. I'm sorry about that. It's fine, let me get that. Frank grabs the grill from Dump Truck and rolls it into place. Looking good Big Frank. You got some cool new glasses, huh? Gonna be able to see lots better, yeah? Okay. They kinda look like a supervillain for one new movie, huh? Kinda badass. You wanna come over and hang out with Mr. Oldman and wait for the TVs? Yeah, yeah. You don't like it when you do. Oh, okay. Just let him. I got you. You wanna keep his eye on the stock, huh? Well here you go Big Frank. You just stay right here. I'm gonna go over here with Frank and get this grill started up, what you say? Yeah, that sounds good. Get you a hot dog. Can he eat hot dogs? Here man, let me help. I got it. No, yeah, but I mean like you know. Geez man, one person kinda job. Okay. Do you, I mean, did you fall? Yep. Okay. Okay. You all right, though? Yeah. Nothing, uh... Nothing what? Going on? Nope. Yeah. You know, we got nothing like you won't tell me. Pardon me? Tell you? No. Oh, god damn it. What the fuck, of course you fuckin' told me, man. Was it really that guy? It wasn't no big deal. He just, he's just messed up. No kind of friend. He keeps fuckin' around like that. He's gonna get fuckin' shot, man. Shit. After your other ends with that family, you think he stays fuckin' far away from you as it could, right? It's fine. I said you pulled a gun on me. Yeah. Did you? Look, let me just, let me finish this here. Look, look, because look, I'm fine with it. Okay, fuck him. I'm just saying, maybe with all you got going on right now, maybe you should be fuckin' around with it. Darlene exaggerated. I just wanna see you back on the job, man. I ain't gonna tell nobody about the dude coming over here. Josie enters with a cupboard dish. Dump truck. Hey, Frank. Hey. Uh... Macaroni salad. Where should I put it? I'll take it. Dump truck goes inside with the macaroni salad. Well, who is this? Oh, hey, no. Darlene, that lawyer's here. What are you... Is this big, Frank? Yeah, he, uh... Nice to meet you, bitch! He's not deaf. Okay, Darlene led me to believe there were some medical issues. Yes, I'm one of them. I'm Josie King. I'm a friend of your son. Yeah, yeah. I like your TVs, big Frank. Don't. Just, just... I leave them alone. Sure. How you feelin' today, Frank? I feel. Fair enough. What? Darlene said we'd get a chance to talk a little today. And I think that's good. She did, huh? I think that's a good thing. Well, that's great. She said you were excited to... Well, we're willing to cooperate. The two of you had a chance to talk, I take it? Uh-huh. Great. Doesn't have to be formal, I think. Just a few questions. We want to be prepared. Yeah. Always be prepared, like the man says. I'm gonna get the grill going. We'll do it later. The man also says no time like a present, doesn't he? Look. Your father did TV repair? Ah. He had his own shop? Sort of. No. I mean, yes, but... Did he learn that in the Army? I saw that he was... No. He wasn't in the Army? No, he was. Oh. But he already knew how to... Oh, it said he was a radio operator. He liked to take stuff apart even before he went in. The Army doesn't always teach you something new. Sometimes it just turns up the volume of what's already there. And he was discharged... OTH, doesn't it say that? And what's... Other than honorable. Don't bother asking, because I don't know the details. Is he why you went into the Army? Lie. Dad couldn't get the job done, so I had to go in and finish it up for him. More like, was it a family tradition? Dad's not why I joined up. Sure. Okay. Sure. And you never knew your mother, right? What? I said you never... What the fuck did you just say to me? I said you never knew your mother, because she died while... Yeah, I never really got to know her. I'm trying to imagine the kind of questions we might get asked in the interview. What interview? What do you mean, what interview? Darlene and Dump Truck enter. Darlene is wearing a skimpy, star-spangled bikini. Dump Truck is carrying a plate of hot dogs. Here come the mate! Josie! Hey! Sorry. Look at you. It sure is. Real mate hot, yeah. Yeah, I didn't. Maybe we could get you some shorts for the photos, though. Photos? Or a towel. Don't worry, I got it. Hey, no, man. She wanna get some photos of the family. Maybe an America towel. We can't take a prank out today. Photos for what? I did. He's doing real good. Good. Frank said he didn't see getting my eyes under shit. What else has he got? That's not what I said. Frank? Yes, you did. And I go, like, you're gonna take away the one thing he's got? He's gonna see his shows every day, right? Like, shit, he didn't like that before the strokes. Well, isn't he? My dad was exactly the same. Just the same. What? Just the same, right? Macaroni salad. Dump truck then. I wasn't sure what to bring. Great. Oh, I got potato. Family recipe. Oh, for real? No. He's too much loud and fluid or not enough. You know what I mean? Don't like? Josie grabs the camera out of the bag. That's perfect. The two of you at the grill. Jeez! Josie takes a picture. Flash. Is it good? Oh, it's up. Well, I got a man. Go ahead. You know what a tiny guy is. You know, we can do this later. Yeah, let's. Frank can't wait to talk to you. Ain't that right, Frank? Well, you know, there is a... Well, I'm not sure. But you know how they can be. I mean, they'll go to any length just to dig up the worst. And so what I said to Frank was always be prepared. Yeah, like a goddamn boy scout. Exactly. I am so glad I met you. No. It seems like we'd be friends even if it wasn't for this, right? It does, doesn't it? You know what, I'll let you... No, no, no. I wanted to ask, and you too, darling, and Josie takes a pile out of her bag. Scott Michael Barnes. Scott Barnes, right? Scotty Barnes. Scotty Barnes, okay? Well, nobody wants to ask. Scotty Barnes. Scotty's ain't got any history. No, let's be careful about... Let's not... We have to choose our words carefully. We can't appear to be upset or to use upset words because this is what they do. For ancient history. And sort of tight... Well, you know what I mean. They try to upset us, and then they use that against us too. Now, the facts are clear, of course, but... Is that the file? You drew your gun on and fired on Scott Michael... Sorry, Scotty Barnes at Concord Village Apartments. Is that correct? This is a little over four years ago? Yeah, but... And he was in the commission of a crime? He had a gun. This is the file that's in here. Yeah, well, okay. Was he in the commission of a crime? He drew a gun on a police officer. He took a fucking shot at me, so, yes, I guess he was in the commission of a crime. A dog barked somewhere. He shot a refrigerator. Yeah. And you were in... I was in the hallway near the front door. You shot him from the hallway, and he shot the kitchen? No. Was the refrigerator somewhere else? No, it was like... The kitchen was between me and... And who shot first? Zero enters. She's with the pile of TVs. She stares at big Frank, who is still staring at the TVs. We could skip that one. And how did you come to be at the Concord Village Partners? I was out. I was on duty. Did you receive a call? Suspicious activity. I was near there, and I saw a suspicious activity. That dog barks again. It's probably pretty nearby. The other guy's out in the car, right? Thank you, dump truck. You didn't have any other reason to be there? No. Did you know Darlene filed charges against Scotty Barnes a month prior to the shooting? Nope. When did you start dating? He always forgets sorry on anniversary. Was it before or after you shot the man she accused of assault and battering? I dropped those charges. I know, I'm just asking questions. One doesn't have anything to do with the other. I'm sure it doesn't. Your wife, your future wife, is attacked by a man you later shot when you happened to cross him breaking into an apartment. It's a small town. It sure is. So you shot him in the stomach, and he shot the refrigerator? He shot first. See, there it is. I knew we'd get to the right answer eventually. Fuck you, lady. Do you know what I mean when I say pattern of behavior? The dog barks. He shot at me. He went down. He lived. He's doing a 20-year bid. It was a good shoot. I know, it says so right here. And I bet anyone who got their hands on this file or who decided to look into it again would come to the same conclusion. Unless they were trying to prove some sort of pattern of behavior. Okay, I see how it kind of looks like that, but it wasn't like that. Were you there? Absolutely not. Dump truck goes back to trying to light the grill. Neither was I. And neither was anyone else, but well, I don't have to tell you. You know how people like to start filling in the blanks. It was a good shoot. Well, you really don't ask about all that. I would. Okay, now I've tried like 15 matches. Let me see. Josie takes another photo of Frank and Dump Truck at the grill. Flash. Sorry, the first one was... Okay, much better. Was that the only time you drew your weapon? Was that what? The dog barks again. The only time you... I mean, besides the recent shooting. Obviously, besides the recent shooting. Yeah. Oh, shit. What was his name? The guy with the... Okay. It was awesome. This guy had it coming. The dog barks. So we get a drunken disorderly down at the old Starlighter, right? And I mean, by the time we get there... Frank. Frank, what was his name? That guy would be that Trans Am. Well, by the time we get there, dude, whatever his name was, he's already out of the joint in his car, all right? And I mean, the minute we step out of the prowler, he comes and beats the shit white Trans Am headed straight for me. And I'm round the back of the car, and he damn near runs me over, right Frank? I'm like knocked on my ass. And before I know what's what, Frank has it out, and he's just a load on this car. Like there he is, walking through the parking lot, calm as hell, putting round after round in this motherfucker. You fired at the car? Back tire blows, and his fishtail's bad, right? Okay? And he goes up on two wheels, like squee, like he might tip over, and then he's like, swoop, and he's back down on four wheels like that right there, like, got you, motherfucker. I am not even joking around. He's one of the coldest saves I ever saw. I got on the radio, and I was like, y'all, Frankenstein just killed Trans Am. Did you injure the man? I mean, he's more fucked up from how he crashed it. What was that dude's name? The Dogbarks. Another Dogbarks in response. Yeah, I swear to God, it's a real ass kicker name, kind of named because of what Trans Am, you know what I mean? Was it a complaint filed? Like Jesse? Because I didn't see in any of the paperwork anything. No. It was totally justified. I mean, that's clear-cut attempted right there. You had to stop that car. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! The dogs bark at each other. It was so badass, and that's the kind of cop you want to be, in motherfucking control. Look into it to be sure. But those are the only times. What? Those are the only times you discharged your weapon, while on duty. Yeah. Oh, good idea, let's get one with you and your father. Josie sets up to take the photo. Darlene goes to Big Frank to turn around his wheelchair. Oh my God. Yeah! Frank will turn you back around in just a minute, Big Frank. Yeah, yeah. Get out of the way. Another photo. Flash. Josie and Darlene look at the photo. Oh, it's bright. Can I get a copy of that one? More barking. We should, uh, you know what? We should, we should get him inside. Just put him back in front of the TV. You want to go inside, Dad? Yeah. Yeah. You see? All he ever says is, yeah. He needs sunshine, don't he? Can you stay cooped up all day? Can you, Big Frank? Darlene puts Big Frank back in front of him. Josie gets another file. The information on your time in Iraq is a little more, well, you know how the military is. I mean, the things I've read online, I'm not sure what's true and what isn't. What are you asking all these questions for? What exactly was your job in Iraq? Is job the right word? It was a door kicker. Is that a term of art? It's like, say it's first through the door. More barking. And you saw action? Sure. They're going to want to talk about because of her background. I didn't know she was fucking Iraqi. Kuwaiti. Kuwaiti. Barking, barking, barking. Say fucking whatever, right? It matters. I didn't know. I thought she was black, all right? She was with a black kid. I thought she was a little black girl. So, let's agree to never say that out loud. In any situation. I didn't shoot her because she was fucking black. She wasn't black. I shot her because I thought she was going to shoot me. Barking, barking, barking. Of course. And I think we can all agree that those things that you just said about her racial status, that none of us could be sure exactly what was meant by them, and therefore don't ever need to repeat what was said. We're calling this together, okay? Yes, exactly. And again, these questions, it's all about the pattern. This. Then this. Then this. What you did before, and how it affects what you did then, or now, or whenever. How it colors, it colors in the sense of our understanding of it, not, you know, any other sense. To put it bluntly, they're asking, could this have been avoided? Did this happen before? I never shot any fucking kids in Iraq. Of course not. I mean, sure, good. You want to know if I shot people in Iraq? Okay, man. Well, I think we can all. I mean, the expectations. Calm down, Brian. We're all on your side. Barking, barking, barking. It's more like if there were any unusual circumstances. Unusual? Or if, and I mean this sincerely, if after. Here's how it goes. You do awful shit. Horrible shit. Shit you wouldn't watch on your worst fucking enemy, and you just keep doing it until you can't remember doing anything else until it feels normal. Do you understand? There is no unusual. Barking, barking, barking. Okay. If you're going, you wake up and you fight your way through and you keep going because that's what somebody told you. And would somebody please shut up those motherfucking dogs? We can do all of this later. I'll help. You know what? I'm going to cook these dogs on stovetop. Grills not charcoal got wet, probably. Tastes better on stovetop. Think so anyway. Don't truck exits. I have me. I don't trust any of them. The dog barks again. The sky starts getting dark. They're going to tear you apart. Peace by peace. What will you look like when they put you back together? One of the TVs turns on. On screen, we see a firework play in reverse. A constellation of sparkles stuffed back into a white dot. A pup. Frank isn't sure of what he's looking at. Another firework in reverse. Another pup. He feels it. Her plays in reverse, projected on the side of the house. A huge pup. The sky explodes in fireworks, all in reverse, all popping and bursting again and again. Fireworks everywhere, all backwards. Pop. After pop. After pop. Clean opens the curtain of the Florida Rim. At sea strength. Darling closes the curtain. Frank is alone at zero. And the fireworks continue to burst. End of act one. Right. Game was Frank's way. It never showed me how to be anything else. That's still not it, is it? Something's wrong with me. Yep. I'm like broken. I'm like broken. Now my outsides look how my insides feel. Sorry about mess. Love, Frank. No one's pretty good. You're helping. What happens when I die? Like, do you go to hell or whatever? Do I go anywhere? Well, there's no heaven. No hell either, then. Oh no, there's definitely a hell. Is it worse than this? I'm totally messing with you. For real, there's nothing. There's something. There's not. The universe is cold and getting colder. Everything will end in a black sky. The light will fade to nothing and nobody will be there to watch it go out. Jesus. I think you maybe need to just concentrate on the note. You sit me away. Why didn't you let me come back? Love, Frank. Jesus. But we should keep the sorry about the mess part. You sit me away. Why didn't you let me come back? Sorry about the mess. Love, Frank. Or PS, sorry about the mess. I can't. I can't keep listening to you. I can't keep doing this. Oh yeah, I know. There's a way out. A solution. I think we both know this is the kind of problem that can be solved with a boy. Dump truck enters in uniform. No, no. You look like hammered shit. I don't feel right. I guess not, huh? Shit. Look, it's not like you're the one going on TV. You gotta throttle back a little. Yeah. Look, man, she's gonna do fine. They both will. And it ain't like this is the last time, right? They gonna go out there and tell your side to anybody who listens. Right? She ready? Yeah. No, I don't know. She's probably more nervous than you are, huh? She probably looks better, though, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Seriously, man, you're for real sick. I'm not sleeping, Greg. Okay. I probably can't go on like this, man. I mean, right? You gotta do something here. See? Yeah. Darling enters from the Florida room. She looks good. She's dressed for a TV interview where she's supposed to come across as a supportive, probably conservative, and very likely religious life. She looks the part. You ready? Frank said. No, he ain't. No, seriously. Look at him. He's all fucked up. He'll be late. We'll go with the lights on. See if he's got a fever. You got a fever, Frank? No. Say he's fine. He's in the interview. He's been dragging his goddamn feet all week because he's too stupid to know and people are trying to help him down my ass. Fuck. I'm not fine. Sarlene goes back inside. She loves you, man. She just, you know, she ain't really a nurturer. I wonder why'd you marry a stripper, right? What's that? Have you ever been stupid? It's cool, man. That's whatever. Have you ever seen stuff? I mean, think that you saw something, but you didn't see something. You didn't see it, but you did. Careful, Frank. It's fine. Like what? Like anything. Look, man, I bet it did look like she had a gun. And even if it was nothing at all, that move, right? That reach down to the waistband term? We are trained in this series of truth. We are trained to respond to that, okay? That move gets a goddamn reaction out of anybody in blue. I don't care who you are. A goddamn pacifist or a hard-charging prick. You do bad stuff. You pay the consequences. That's a trade-off. That's what you're talking about, right? You thought she had one? No. Yeah. No. Yeah. Whatever you thought you saw, you saw. Shit, man. I mean, well, they won't, right? Fucking perfection. That ain't gonna happen, man. We do our best. We clock out. We go home. You don't like it? Well, try living in a world with that cop for 15 minutes and see how far you get in my ride. Darlene comes back out. What are you, Frank? You hang in there, man. Just, I don't know. Keep your head down. Don't do anything. We got you. You'll bet it. Dump truck exits. Okay. Get your gun. Frank gets his gun out of the red cooler. I feel really close to you right now. It's nice. We gotta write out the note first, though, okay, Frank? Don't just sit there. I still see you, Frank. You can't hide. Leave me alone. You're shivering again. I'm not gonna kill myself. You scared? Did you hear me? I like you scared. Makes me think you might do something drastic. Go what? It should be tonight. Doesn't it feel like it should be tonight? We should do it tonight. I'm not scared of you. I know. I'm afraid of myself now, and the only thing I know how to do is kill the things I'm afraid of. Love, Frank. We're not doing that anymore. P.X., sorry about the mess. I'm not writing any fucking note. Sure you are. It's not for you. It's for them. Like, it's polite. Him was your so unfair, and then I snuck out of your room. They're trying to help me. Who is? Darlene's right. You think so? They got me. They got my back. Okay. What's what? That. The vertical blinds to the Florida room slide open, but the Florida room is gone. It's a hotel room now. Behind the glass doors, we see dump truck on the bed in uniform. Darlene is stripping out of the outfit we just saw her in. Dump truck watches. Well, this seems suspicious, huh? What is that? You tell me. Stop it. I'm not in the room. What can I do about it? Stop it right now. I'm not doing anything. Can you see okay for where you are? You don't want to miss this. This isn't happening. The interview. One of the TVs turns on. We see Josie on the screen. She is being interviewed. I think we can all agree Officer Wayne tried to do the right thing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wait. No, that's not. They're supposed to be. Another TV turns on. It's the same feat of Josie. I think it's our responsibility to ask what are the situational characteristics and what are the individual characteristics of the officer and the citizen involved in the incident. Where's Darlene? Right there. Seriously. Can you see okay for where you are? A few more of the TVs come on. What a situation seems to be on the surface isn't necessarily what it is when you start to strip things away. This isn't real. Look at him. He's like, no, no, no. We shouldn't. Even though you can totally tell he doesn't mean it, he's still like making the effort to say it. He's a good friend. No. Darlene, no. I mean no hesitation. She knew before they got there. Look at her. She knew days ago. When do you think she decided to fuck your friend? Stop. Don't get mad at me. She's the one who planned this. I bet she shaved your pussy and everything. Frank aims the gun at zero. A second Josie appears on the TVs out of sync with the first set. The question I want to ask is, why isn't anyone asking what did the perpetrator do to force Officer Wayne to use force? Stop this. Now. I think I'm one of those problems a bullet can't solve. You know what I mean? Darlene dances. She strips. Under the conservative outfit is exactly the sort of thing you'd expect a private dancer to wear to a hotel room party. The two separate interviews of Josie start to overlap. We have to assign personal responsibility here. Her actions led directly to this outcome. She is the cause of this unfortunate situation. Without her, what happens? Choices were made before Officer Wayne entered the picture. She is a criminal who was engaged in a criminal act. No one is disputing that. Without her, Officer Wayne ends his shift peacefully and goes home to his wife. Without her, Officer Wayne doesn't even draw his gun. Does she fuck all of her clients? She's a dancer. Just the people you're close to? No. You're right. This is probably some kind of misunderstanding. So Farazel is as responsible for her own death as Officer Wayne was. Of course he bears some responsibility. You've seen that lingerie before. That's the kind of lingerie you wear when you know somebody's gonna see it, huh? And so do we. Is it because you can't freaking get it up? Because you shot a kid? Is that the deal? Or was there trouble before that? When's the last time you guys did it? I don't want to engage in victim blaming. I swear to God. She's looking out for herself, right? Accident is too small a word for what happened, but it is literally the case. This was an accident. This only happened once. This would never happen again or on a different day or under different conditions. A perfect storm of circumstance. She learned a lesson from you, huh, Frank? Shoot first. Frank, we want this. She says, we have an understanding. She says, in what can you say to that? Better to say nothing he thinks and then he's glad he didn't because the bra comes off. He wants to be used so bad he can't face it. Darlene's bra comes off. She gets on her knees in front of dump truck. We see her from behind. We see dump truck's face. Stop. No. Yes. Can I ask a question? Isn't this exactly what we asked him to do? Well, he doesn't seem to have any problem getting it up, huh? Does that always work? Darlene lowers her head into dump truck's lap. Zero touches Frank's gun. Didn't we ask him to protect us? This isn't the one that got me, is it? I like it, though. You like that, she says? Is this what she wanted, she says? He doesn't have to answer, she knows. And in that way, all parties are responsible for what happened. Why can't I touch you? Can we judge them for that? Is that fair? My blood got in your mouth after you picked me up. How could we have protected against it? If something got mixed up, maybe I guess that makes sense. Do we have to fear everyone? We could be closer than us. We are the reason Officer Wayne was in that parking lot that morning. If you're not comfortable with this, you can pretend I'm hurt. Do you think that he's pretending to be you? Darlene stands up. Darlene and dump truck are getting into bed together. The blinds to the Florida room start to close. Wait. If he's going to jail, we should too. Show's over. Bring them back. You think it's his fault or hers? We can't defend ourselves from accidents, from circumstance. We can't protect against the things that already happened. All we can do is move on. Open the blinds. Herbert, you know how it's gonna end. God damn it. You're all alone. It's not real. It's you. No. You're doing it. My pleasure. Leave me alone. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. Leave me alone. You're shooting yours at zero. Nothing. The TVs flicker off. It's dark. Zero and Frank are alone. Later that night, Frank in handcuffs. Police lights in the driveway. Zero is at the front, looking out at the commotion next door. Oh, there's another one. Another one just pulled up in front of the neighbor's house. You don't have to tell me every time a cop car shows up. This is exciting. Dump truck comes out of the house in uniform. He's carrying two rifles. What are you doing with those? They're coming with me. And a knife. You can't have those. The fuck I can't. Well, let's start over. How about you answer my questions honestly this time, or I'll take your fucking guns. How about that? What were you shooting at? Nothing. Nothing. Your neighbor's in the front yard now. You just decided to out of the fucking goddamn blue to pop off a couple of rounds in the middle of your fucking neighborhood. He's frying pretty hard. And you just happened to fire in the direction of your neighbor's house and you just happened to shoot their goddamn dog. Is he gonna make it? Fucking answer that, Frank. I wasn't aiming at the dog. Yeah? You won't tell me who you were aiming at. Nobody. Why are you lying to me? The girl's dad brings a fucking gun into your backyard, threatens your life a couple of days later. Here the fuck we are back in your backyard, chops fire and you're saying one thing ain't got nothing to do with the other. It was an accident. Did you hit him too? Frank, I never done this. I'm saying am I getting another cold night because the grieving father's bleeding to death on his way home. He wasn't here. And you're sticking with that. Fucking to me like that for a man. I'm trying to, you know, like clean this thing up and you're giving me the goddamn man some lamps like I don't know what's what. Well, I fucking know what's what, man. You fucked up for real. Any other fucking night be fine. But tonight, why they're on TV? You see how that's like making up the best time to pull this shit. You get why this is bad, right? Take off the handcuffs. Captain's out there without nines and crawls and tees for real. Everybody's watching that. It was an accident. You understand we got like no time at all to come up with something that flies here, right? You say it wasn't her dad fine. Fuck you, I don't believe you, but fine. Was it somebody else? No. Sit back down, Frank. Frank, sit down. You're really being cool about this. I mean it for real. You're like a way better friend than he deserves. Dump truck's radio goes off. Stand by, Kyle. I would be like insane with jealousy or whatever. It didn't happen. Tan said, what? Nothing. Ask him if he was at a motel. Ask him. No. What? Ask him if he was at a motel. I'm not asking. What the fuck are you saying? Ask him. Were you at a motel? I was at the scene. Did you get it in Darlene's medicine cabinet or something? Okay. Don't fuck around with that shit, man. You can't handle it. The radio goes off again. I said 10-6. Goddamn. Got what she's like. And you know, like, so what? That he's your best friend. Where you going? You ain't going nowhere. Now why do you act like you don't want my help? Darlene enters. She is as pissed as she has ever been. Whoa. Fucking asshole. All right, now. Let's know. Dr. Strange, Darlene. It was an accident. Calm down. You shut the neighbors fucking dog. What is the matter with you? I'm not going to kill everything. I can't even look at you. Look, look, look at me. Fucking Frank. Hey, hey, look at me. Aw. You ain't got no time for this. You got, like, no time at all for the news gets here, right? And you don't want to be here when that happens, right? You're just going to get your shit and go, okay? Okay? Yeah. All right, go on. One bag for real. Darlene goes inside the house. Yeah, there's definitely not anything going on there. Darlene. No, no, no, no. I'm on your side here. All right. Sure. What about her? There you go. That's more like it. Frank, you had enough shit go down the night, right? You don't need to think about it. You don't need to think about it. Just calm down. Why? Where are you taking her? I'm not taking her anywhere. She's gone. You the one that called her? Told her what happened? No shit. Fucking found out as soon as I did. We were standing right next to each other. It's already on the news. No way we were. You were with her? Yeah. At the TV station. I took her down there. Yeah. You saw me pick her up. Shit, man. You okay? Didn't stop nowhere first. For real? You didn't stop by the motel? What fucking motel you talking about? Come here. What? Headbutt Stump Truck. Ah, shit! Fuck, what the fuck you do that for? Stump truck gushes blood. Frank jumps on top of dump truck. They sort of wrestle around even though Frank is handcuffed. Get the fuck off me, man. What is wrong with you? Stop it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. What's wrong with you? Stop it, Frank. Stop it! Stump truck gets away from Frank. Frank scrambles to his knees. He's a bull ready to charge. Tell me she didn't suck your dick. What? Tell me she didn't suck your dick. You gotta calm down, Frank. You got 15 cops and two news crews at the end of your derp. Frank comes at dump truck again, it's sort of a tackle. Stump truck gets his baton loose. Frank, dump truck hits Frank in the back. It's brutal, but Frank keeps coming. Frank knocks dump truck over, they're on the ground again, dump truck loses his baton, he is struggling. Tell me she didn't suck your dick! Dump Truck manages to kick Frank away and gets his pepper spray from his belt. Dump Truck sprays Frank in the face. Frank recoils. Dump Truck picks up the baton and hits Frank in the back of the knees. Frank falls to the ground but keeps moving. Dump Truck hits him a couple of times with the baton. What the fuck is wrong with you? Stay down! Stay down, Frank! Fucking roll over. Don't you stumb it, goddamn it! I said fucking roll over! Frank finally rolls over. Dump Truck is on him, his knee is in Frank's back, holding him down. What you want to do here, huh? You want to go out front and get your ass kicked on 10 o'clock news? You ungrateful piece of shit! You know what I'm trying to do for you? Do you? Answer me! I saw it! Fucking saw it! Let go of me! You are making it awful hard for me to be your friend right now. Praying you, my fucking friend. I'm not, huh? You don't want to be my friend. You have any idea what I put on the line for you? Fuck you. Fuck me! Get up, motherfucker! Get up! I'm a cranky fucking head up in your fucking backyard! Get up! Both men stand. Separate. Not to get worse. Darlene enters from that... Get on out of here! You did this! I'm fine, baby. Thanks for checking on me. What the fuck is wrong with you? I love you too, baby. Why are you gonna fuck everything up? And then you go killing dogs and fighting cops in our backyard? Don't you need any help from me, baby? You fucking do it on your own, Frank, in time. Come on now! You try that for a little while and you see how far you get. God damn it! I said, let me alone! You gotta get on out of here right now! You fucking did it, didn't you? Say it didn't happen! Tell me, go on! You fucked up! You hear me? You need to get your head right! Tell me it didn't happen! Tell me, motherfucker! Tell me she didn't suck your dick! Tell me, man! Fuck you, tell me! She's your problem now, huh? What you want, isn't it? It's a goddamn dream come true. Why do you keep pushing me, man? You really won't go through this alone. You want to be me, huh? You want to be me, motherfucker? Try it sometime. You can't handle this. You can't be me. Dumb truck collects the guns and exits. Frank is left alone with zero. She moves closer to him, checks his injuries. The cordless phone rings. Frank answers it. Hello? Not as good a night as in? Frank hangs up, drops the phone. You're not going anywhere already. Frank sits and waits. The next day, daytime. Frank kneels next to the kiddie pool. His head and shoulders are submerged in the water. Zero is looking out over the fence into the street. Frank whips his head out of the water, takes a breath. He goes back under. Drowning doesn't seem like you. Frank comes back out of the water. Hanging, maybe. I mean bullet to the head, number one, for sure, but, like, number two, hanging in the basement or the garage or whatever. I'm not trying to drown myself, still trying to get that shit out of my eyes. Clear my fucking head. I bet it's not working. Yeah, no. You still out there? Why did he drive all the way over here? He's just gonna sit in the car all night. I sort of can't even see him anymore. Maybe he's lying down. Frank goes through the can, finds a full beer, opens it. No. I don't know. I think it was Basra. I'm remembering that wrong. Ray could tell you, he always knew when we worked. I always thought everything over there looked like everything else, but, you know, Ray, I always tell the difference. So, not like you know where I'm talking about it. It's highway eight. We're on highway eight. And there's all these, I mean, there are abandoned cars kind of all up and down the highway. Burned like a while ago. Some kind of horror show parking lot, right? All the time. All of a sudden there's a pop. You know, we all go, what the fuck was that? And we're all like, was gunfire, right? Yeah, but okay, is there gonna be more, you know? Because there was only one shot. Not even sure it was a shot. It was whatever it was. And the sergeant, he's like, as you know, he's the guy in charge, okay? He's like the boss. He turns and fires at the spot he thinks the pop came from. So then it's on. We all turn. But I don't even get my gun up. I pound it on his rifle, okay? So it's jammed and he's like, wham, wham, wham! And it brings it right back up, cheap to stock, pulls the trigger. Well, the whole fucking thing just blows up right there. Neck and jaw gone, like that. Fucking thing was overcharged. He didn't do the bottom of the space to fucking off. I mean, okay, he's dead. Not dead yet, right away. So we all stopped. Nobody's firing back at us. The sergeant was bleeding to death right there in the fucking asphalt. And we're all looking at each other like, what the fuck are we supposed to do now? Because, okay, there's no fixing this. Most of his jaw's gone. He's moving, gagging. He's trying to talk. There's no words coming out. He's trying to give orders or something, but instead he's just choking on blood and gun parts and all of a sudden it hits me. Somebody needs to fucking take over. Somebody needs to take charge of this fucking situation. And I will be goddamn it if it's gonna be me because what the fuck, I'm not getting... All of a sudden I'm freezing cold all over. I'm scared. Like a kid or something. So I don't say shit. And I guess every single one of us feels the exact same way because nobody says shit. We just watch it. No one takes charge. It's not like the movies where, okay, the guy goes down and the next guy in line starts shouting orders over the explosions. We're just left there for a minute. Some fucking war hang time. He's bleeding all over the asphalt. I mean, it's everywhere. I mean, okay, I mean, you know, but all of a sudden he stops eventually. He should have cleaned the fucking thing. All that sand. I mean, you know, it gets everywhere. It's sand. It's just everywhere. I mean, that's all there is. I wanted you to tell me a story about Kuwait. I don't know any stories about Kuwait. Honestly, I was only in Kuwait for a couple of days. I want to remember it as if it was on fire. Well, you could tell me anything about it and I wouldn't know the difference. I only remember it from pictures. Yeah, but it's not. I mean, it's not so bad, okay? You would have died over there. It's not really a safe place for kids. Frank goes back into the water. Yes, Darlene enters through the driveway followed by Josie. Frank comes back out of the pool. Let's not... What's he doing? Let's say what we came to say. Hey. Frank, I think maybe before you say anything that Darlene say what needs to be said. Don't you think you owe her that after what you put her through last night? Isn't that the least you can give her? Because I think, and I'm sorry if I'm out of line, but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't say it. I think you owe her a great deal more than just having her say. But as her lawyer, I think I'd advise her insofar as what she can get from you is concerned that she should aim low. What's going on? It's so fucking wet. Darlene, it has to be today. I have some difficult news to share with you. I have some difficult news to share with you. I have some difficult news to share with you. I have some difficult news to share with you. In this way, yeah, I know. Frank, we cannot continue in this way. What? What happened last night was... It was an accident. Why are you even saying that? I don't know about you believe that. No one believes that. We're not here to talk about the incident with the firearm in specific, it got the ball rolling. It was an accident. Frank, I think you know both Darlene and I witnessed you threatening that dog on the 4th of July. What the fuck is she here? Why do you need a lawyer to talk to your husband? Seriously, do not say what's going on here. It's an ambush. You got to know what you were mad about last night. You murdered the neighbor's dog. Your limit. You've reached your limit. I've reached my limit. There's like a line, Frank, and I'm past it. What line? I don't know, Frank, like a regular line, like a circle. You just kept pushing until I was on the outside and you were all alone in the middle. For Christ's sake, I did not push. I'm at risk here. You've put me at risk here and I can't do that no more. Can't do that no more. I don't even know what you're saying right now. She's talking about leaving me. Yes, yes. That's why she's here. I refuse to defend myself against you. I've been hurting her. I need to let somebody else defend me. You're not safe with me. Your violent nature is putting me at risk. I would never hurt you. There are other ways to be put at risk. What are you talking about? Last night's incident. Your failure to disclose the threats from the dead girl's father. Your marital failures. My what? That's not very safe, is it? Wait, what? I gotta protect myself. I feel like you're gonna hurt me. I wouldn't hurt you even if I wanted to hurt you. That's a threat. I was a witness to that threat. It wasn't a threat. Then I hope you endeavor to choose your words more carefully. A style reaction to this situation is understandable because it's what we've come to expect from you. Do you understand that? I don't want to talk to you. You're conforming to inheritance. You're leaving me because I fired my gun in the backyard. And because you murdered a dog while I was on TV, saying you weren't no violent fucking maniac. Okay, that's good. You're talking to me now. You're done talking to Darlene. Or precisely, she's done talking to you. For the time being, she can't hear you right now. She's standing right there. You're behaving the way a violent person would. The way a person predisposed to violence would behave. The kind of person that would react violently even if the situation did not warrant it. Darlene? You can't hear him. I know you can hear me. You're like ten feet away. You solve your problems the same way, over and over again. Sort of a compulsion, except you choose to do it even when you know it's wrong. And that makes everyone think you're going to do it again. Look, why are you... You said you were going to help me. Point of order, I said I was going to help Darlene. You said... I was in a different position, then the optics have changed dramatically. You said you were going to help. That was when you were a hero. Now we're someplace else. We can all agree on that, right? There's an awful lot of swinging in the American consciousness, and the trick is being on the right side of it. V is for victory, and we all support the troops. We support the troops, but not a warm-up of war. We support war, it's a crime, and you're a baby killer, it's a spectrum of range. Darlene, can we please get outside of here and talk? It wasn't an accident! I'm not talking about the dog, I'm talking about the fucking girl. You're drowning in your fucking depression, or guilt or whatever, fuck, it's not a whole of you. Of course I'm guilty, I'm supposed to be guilty! I shot a little girl! First of all, God damn important, who the fuck is she? She ain't shit to me! I care about me, I'm supposed to care about me. I am first on my motherfucking list, motherfucker, and that is how it is supposed to be, that is the world we live in, and I don't know where the fuck you're at. Alright, that's all very colorful. Not how you dragged me down with you, okay? I do not want to go where the fuck it is and I'm a good person. You got me into this! Okay, I'm going to tell you a story. I was in trouble with a bad guy, so she went to an even worse guy for help. I think you can guess how it turned out. You talking about Scotty? Starters? You broke your fucking nose in two places, did you forget about that? The part I remember is how you were on the phone waiting fast and telling me how we got to get our stories straight. That's the part I remember. That's what you wanted, that's what you fucking asked for. That's what you wanted. Things about you that used to be good for me are bad for me now, okay? I'm the bad guy. You're the even worse guy. This is your fault. America doesn't forgive. We get so distracted by our next meal we forget to keep an eye on what we're eating and I think it's time to let that natural process begin. I don't want forgiveness. Good, then we understand each other. You're just done with me. You bring violence with you wherever you go. And Darlene needs safety. I just don't think she can safely be around a person like you. I don't think anybody can. Because I'm dangerous. Exactly. I'm a monster. Yes. You're right. There's no place for me. Guys like me should be put down. But you'd need a guy like me to put a guy like me down so you'd probably fuck on that front, huh? I understand you're angry. Lady, I'm as fucking dangerous as you say I am. Why are you standing so close? Josie steps back. And now I'll have to inform the police that I've been threatened too. You're the monster. I don't think you're saying things very clearly right now. Let's walk you out of here. I don't recommend staying here alone. I meant both of you. Let's walk you out of here. Josie takes Darlene's hand. They exit. Good that they're gone. It should be discussed when we do it. It disappears together. That feels like a happy ending. You're the reason this is all fucked up. Eventually everybody blames the victim. I think that is so weird. How am I supposed to know what I was thinking? I don't know what happened before I shot you. I don't either. I think I remember being in your arms, but maybe not. I don't remember. I don't know if I thought you had a gun or not. I think death is probably just hard to remember. I just reacted. The training takes over. I don't care why you did it. I don't think anybody cares why you did it. They pretend like they do, but it's so they can keep you away. It's just easier to let you be a monster. If you're a monster, all they have to do is be on the lookout for monsters. It's not like I want to do it. Monsters aren't even what you should be looking out for. It's the stuff that fades into the background. It's the stuff you take for granted. Most things feel safe as long as you don't look too close. It was an accident. Just because it was an accident doesn't mean you aren't responsible for what you did. And you know what you mean. And you know what you did, right? Across the line. There's no going back. That's the gun. Zell enters. He is carrying a gun. You're late. I was out in the car. I saw your wife. You don't. You said you were alone. I'm alone. Okay then. Anywhere you like. I don't want to do this. Yes you do. You're going to have to get a little closer, okay? We're made how we're made. You're part of the dead girl. You're the killer. You brought us both to this spot. Now. I know what I have to do. I must get lower. I have to forgive you. He wants me to forgive you. No. He's right. Here. Zell tries to give Frank the gun. Why are you giving me that? Don't give me that. Take it. I don't forgive you. She won't rest. No. She'll stay there. Frozen in that parking lot. Believing to death over and over again. Nope. Never moving on. Never going home. No. I killed your daughter. I know. And I had to let her go. What is wrong with you? I have to do this. How the fuck can you forgive me? What kind of person are you that I shot your fucking daughter, you asshole? I know. I don't want to do this. She wants. This is what she wants. No. She would want me to forgive you. She was still alive when I got to her. She was drowning in blood, but she was still alive. That must be how you wanted it. She said dad. Don't tell him that. He was quiet. He wasn't much left, but she was asking for you and you weren't there. That's not true. There are no acts. I was there. It took a little while for her to die. No one dies in a way that's not his choosing. She wants me dead. She doesn't want you to forgive me. Don't listen to me. She told me. She comes to me. I see her. So do I. Say nothing can bring her back, but that's not true. Everything brings her back. I have to let her be dead, though. Forgive you. Frank punches Zell in the face. The gun falls away somewhere in the backyard. Frank proceeds to beat the ever-living shit out of Zell. You do not get to forgive me. Why would you even say that? Frank is tossing him around. Frank punches. Brutal. Just taking him apart. Look at me. I'm a monster. Frank grabs his arms. Frank hits Zell with his own hands. She's buried on the ground and I get to be out here. Does that seem fair to you? Frank is using Zell's hands to hit himself now. Come on! Hit me! Come on! Kick my fucking ass! I killed your little girl. What are you waiting for? Frank, let's go with Zell. Come on, man. Look what I did. There is no undoing that. I can't ever go back, okay? You go too far. You don't ever get to come home. I pointed a gun at your little girl. And she was on the fucking ground before I thought twice about it. It wasn't until after that. Frank finds the gun. Frank puts it in Zell's hands. Take it. No. Please. I didn't even say I was sorry. I would do it again. I would. I know I would. Look at me. I'm guilty. I did it. I killed your daughter. I know. Frank holds the gun under his chin. Here. I'll hold it for you. All you have to do is pull the trigger. No one will blame you. Everyone will understand. Please. Let go. Please. They'll understand that you'll be a hero. No. Frank moves the gun to his forehead. Do it. Please. Please just do it. I deserve it. You know I deserve it. Please. You have to do it. I can't do it. You have to. Oh, God damn it. Stop. Please. You can't. You can't leave us here. Don't leave. Please don't. Please don't leave me here. I'm not done with you yet. End of play. I don't know right now what's popping for you. What's at the top of your head? What's an idea that you have or a feeling that you have or something about a character or a moment in the play that's really immediately with you somehow. Just right off the top of your head. What are you thinking about right now? America doesn't forgive it for me. Thank you. Good. Thank you so much. Well. Fireworks going back where it's been hurting. Fireworks going back where it's been hurting. Fireworks going back where it's been hurting. Thank you. What up? All bleeding stopped eventually. Yeah. Thank you very much. It takes you a lot of different places in a lot of different ways. I'm interested in how you responded today. Was there any time when you were particularly caught off guard as something went away you didn't think it was going to go? Some others the story fell on you that you found surprising or subversive or particularly entertaining. How did the experience of the story with its different kinds of storytelling and by that I mean less what was that? Who can kind of tell me what that experience was like today? He seduced me right from the beginning. Yeah. The characters were so engaging and charming and fun to be around. So then he really kind of gets into this really serious stuff that gets inside me. But I thought it was brilliant. Anybody else have a feeling about dump trucks? I just figured it does and hang around the wall. But it was the vocabulary and the pattern and the way that he talked. I know those people. I've heard of people. I'm afraid I just have to say I'm still overjoyed by the absolute fabulous actors that we have and characters. How in the world anyone saw them as these people? I thought that was just like who in the world would have ever thought of characters. I don't know if I've ever cast them that way. They're beautifully cast. Yeah. Yes, sir. It really struck me with the this particular story even though it happened in this workplace it's repeating itself in the Northeast and sometimes in the Pacific Northwest I appreciate the fact that this story captured something that's probably a universal truth by submitting it. Cool thing, but at one point or through most of the play I disliked everyone that I was watching. At some point? I really didn't want to see them anymore because they were making me aggravated but I think that's a cool thing. Yeah, so in real life this person dump truck would be someone that I would stay very far away from. But that moment when he's like you don't want to be my friend Frank? I was like moved. I felt very conflicted by that. How do you feel about him? What do you know about him? Did you have any trouble with the story? What his story was? How did you see your idea about him? Any response to him? He was this more or less at the setting than I expected. I kind of put him in a caricature and was like oh he's never done anything like this before. Oh wait, he really now how do I, and he didn't always do what you want in your house. He's going to come around, he's going to do the right thing. He doesn't. Every time I thought I was like okay now's the time to just feel about him. Did you do that? I was just thinking that from the moment you started talking I felt like you didn't do it. Really? You got that saying? I didn't know if I would write a character within a desperate situation and then it seemed like oh he might get out of it and he's like oh no I didn't get out of it but there was a little bit of hope. I never felt any hope. I felt bad because in Japan you're just doing everything wrong. And not that he could have done anything right but it was kind of like watching No Exit so I can play with him. I can hear him forever. I can hear this though. Sorry about that. I was trying to help you about it. That's really helpful. At the very beginning I felt that Frank felt bad for what he had done. As the play moved on I felt like maybe he felt bad because he didn't feel bad and it took zero to make him feel bad for what happened and he started saying well I did this and I had to do this and we were trained for this and I don't know I just got that sense that that re-moisture Thank you. On all supports because the most telling thing is in Frank's there's some line about that Frank reminded me of one of those friends that you defend and defend because you want to see the good in them so far away and he comes back to that line Darlene said to him the things about you that used to be good for me are now bad for me and that's how Frank played to me they finally all got the point where they were like you just can't, like you want to man Well Renee told me to say that line slowly. She said that's an important line don't run over that one. I tried I just had a lot of trouble with why are we putting God like Frank in this situation in our world gun violence is what we're talking about here and that's pretty sober and we can laugh about it and it's beautiful but I hope it's worth and we shouldn't be putting God's like Frank in that situation do we have some bounce off that do we have some no it's heavy I'm going to need to take a fight no we're going to Frank you can sympathize with him and yes he killed a girl because she was brown did he? I shot him sure he didn't get my head blown off I shot him it was in a world where I could get my head blown off it is now it's about gun violence but I also thought it was about the CFP we're not talking about people we thought it out but all of that was because he was human and yes he was he said he was and he said he would do it again he's going to do it again I'm going to say it to you Simmerman thank you I'm glad you keep it Frank it's not on the same level that's all I'm interested in how that fell on you so that's an honest response to that did it sound similar or different he was I felt like Frank's character he was our victim as a society we took this guy he's whatever he is they can have a few anger issues wow good we can use that we trained him to go to war we put him in other jobs where that war training might come in handy and he used to follow orders but so unlucky for him he was just the way he did he did exactly whatever he was what we got him to do what we trained him to do and then we did the rest of what we did we made him work out whatever our own story is and that was why the other character of the order was the Prince she was like the character of life thank you for that I'm just thinking that it's important to see that all of this is going that zero only exists that the thing that's been done not being victimized by this it didn't have a feeling about zero is it you'd like this to be personal in his mind, not in his mind where you're at the matter and where you lay down on this I don't know if I should admit this but I was not drawn into any implications about our responsibilities Frank and his resistance to his own pain which she was there to sort of fight again it just seems such a universal thing to me that that's what we do is try to resist our own pain not be there and that is the only thing that can offer us redemption and I don't know if this was directed on purpose into the end of the play but for me at the end of the play I saw wow he's going to sit in his pain and he might even be okay in some way that somehow be unable to in any way resist now going into his pain that there might be redemption Frank and that was what that last moment was for me thank you very much thank you I think she kept asking and put him in our way and I was doing things oh really? because I mean that was in 20 years I mean I don't know exactly when the play was but it wouldn't have surprised me to see that I think it was a little bit shady but it was almost like a love so you have some kinship it's not a good thing to do on a spiritual level but of some kind that laid me down kind of I just want to say that when the play ended going back to what I felt felt sad felt sad for years I felt or hurt so much by the end of the play that I think he's gone through this does anybody have a go ahead John that you shelf a guy on purpose during this year Scotty? Scotty? when I learned that because I was totally totally totally told him to do it so I was happy at the end when he didn't die because he got to stay because until that point I was just a product of his of his he'd think about that and not me so that made a difference for you about are you raising your hands are you raising your hands I just think it's interesting going off this point that the one time that he technically by training used his fire incorrectly because he saw her move in a way that encouraged him to shoot is the time that he gets in trouble and the previous time when he used his fire on technically called for incorrectly he gets by and it's like it opens the door you'd like to share about Belle how does that land on you just kind of a gut feeling about the story the situation what I'm saying is I must ask those father and daughters honestly I mean I understand she was one who got killed in the world of love but I didn't see her in that I saw a symbolic of actually the devil I mean I saw that symbolism up for that guilt and the unforgiveness that he put it before himself and then the father was unforgivable so it's almost like the devil in me and the anger of God going kill, don't kill, kill don't kill, you know so I saw that deeper I only ever saw her it's just him that's the side of him and that's the other side that you every day you go I can't believe I did I'm sorry I didn't really see her as her own character I mean I understood what the fun was I mean from the very beginning when she first started out I said that's him and behind that's you you know the other side of you and what the torment is where you're met well I appreciate the character as the ambivalence or the dichotomy maybe even a society the father has just reason to kill the man who killed his daughter or that's his religion and whoever he's talking to tell him that he's supposed to forgive he keeps waiting for the things to tell him to kill him or to kill himself and then he thinks oh no he's telling me to forgive that's my that's what I'm told to do and Frank doesn't want to be forgiven because you've got that that guilt and that pain is still there and you can't you're kind of so difficult to deal with forgiveness and I just thought on me that that's what happens to Sarah Chavez and ladies and gentlemen he gets forgiven and he can't deal with being something I know about Haley seriously because he saves her from this bad possibly horrible childhood and then if we believe Zero she was ignored for Haley you know and so he comes back and says my little baby did you killed my baby girl but from what Zero said she was a second class sift and then an outlaw she said the only person who doesn't call her Zero is her father he was a cousin right yeah those are cousins also I think there's a really beautiful detail about if I could have pronounced the word dad it would have been practice and philanthropy like that I have a fondness for Zell when I hear a detail like that for me I want to comment on the character Zell who was one area that I thought was going to be brought into play that wasn't because it's a treatise on violence I could think about terrorism and jihad and you know the reference to the Middle East it's a fascinating character that he's Arabic and Catholic or Christian but I could think that maybe there was something there that wasn't going to be touched on especially when he talked about coming over and killing himself from the backyard because the whole idea of terrorist bombers was a fact that would sacrifice their own life for some other cause so that kind of resonated with me but it didn't quite get developed and I thought you know I have a treatise on violence that maybe was an area that could be developed further in the fight thank you was Zell supposed to be Arabic I never got a feeling for the name is so ambiguous I never got a feeling for the background why was he there and how could he have bought her and all of that I thought left it up to you to figure out he couldn't be that necessary he could very well be Muslim as well like that's in the Quran as well it's going to be about Jesus well that's true I enjoy the of the word bad that frame is bad and so he's the broken one he's the one that's messed up but in all the characters there's a great sense of brokenness and when I enjoyed about Zell and Frank so much it seemed to be dealing with it and Frank, not that one of the other characters is off but in their roughness that it wouldn't deal with that but those two in their way I'm going to be springing it up is this like hanging from for you yes so it's hard a little bit to talk about where it starts because I felt like I noticed that there were like a lot of people getting shot in Walmart parking lots and I'm not kidding I know that it happened a couple of times and so I asked other people about it and they said no we're not noticing and I asked my brother he and I usually we have the same internet history I guess he was like no and so I felt like I've noticed that when I am preoccupied with something or when I feel like there's a pattern somewhere or something it usually means that I'm already composing and my head and I should probably just lean into it and so for whatever reason that's kind of where that started because I woke up and I wrote down the sentence a ghost haunts a monster it was just like on the mind when I woke up and it seemed like there was something there and so those two things and then some other stuff like clearly like some other stuff like narrative collapse and the militarization of police and the big business of grief in America no minor stuff that's where it started yeah we didn't even talk about big things like the media yes sir and I heard the report on on the way you guys kind of had the work stuff leading up to it and what we did and stuff and if you could talk about a little bit of was was because we got shot a male at some point no the genders flip-flop around a little bit no not for me I am I my job is sort of like to keep things as complicated as possible like for me and you and it seemed to be the most complicated choice to shoot a teenage girl that was in the commission of crime I feel like there's like a lot of the plays about Frank recognizing or failing to recognize or however you want to describe that crossing a kind of moral event horizon and it being super clear is important and I think that this is but lately we have a tendency to say well you know like 15 but he was stealing and they were like that's kind of an adult and I don't know why that is I mean it's still a kid as far as I'm concerned maybe no kid should be shot in parking lots or definitely no kid should be shot in parking lots but like if it was a girl it seemed to be a little more complicated so like right from the get go it was always that you know what I mean it was always a girl she always didn't have a gun and it was always jeans she was never born she was always jeans what else do you want to hear Nate talking about get that as a writer we were just talking about the break how fat it was to put this as a writer did you hear these voices in your head when you were writing or did the actors bring their own voices for example how much what we're hearing is what you expected to hear how much yeah that's an awesome question I don't think with this particular play I was working for any particular actor and like when I started out right but there are awesome actors here you know and so I got to have a wide array of really fantastic actors come in and hear them work on the play that's what we do in the lab so technically so different actors beyond these actors right here Aaron Parker and Jen Richmond Chris Bosen Phil Perry the authors and the lab director and Renee all work together and at a certain point we all do we all do you just get used to you start working on it and you're like oh I think it would be cool to have this person in or I think I'd like to work with this person and I will admit a little bit I knew right from the beginning that I wanted to work with Megan on this particular role and like initially Josie had like so much to say like Josie was like and I unfortunately had to cut down Josie really significantly and she's still talking a lot there's a lot to say but like I'm getting away with a lot because Megan's awesome yeah for sure for sure but that is one of the advantages of the lab I think that the playwrights have an opportunity to hear how much change you know because the other night we heard it went from 16 characters to so did you have a huge change in the direction of this or was it pretty much the way it started like character and like the basics of the plot weren't really altered that much Zell changed the most over time wouldn't have you just changed the way no I have hired your sense of humor and your sense of comedy and your twist and your irony and your dark comedy and all and I'm just wondering if it was this funny when you were writing it because I was sitting there I was just imagining that's okay that's an awesome question so there are times when you type and you're like don't everybody want to drive all the way to Nashville to see titties Frank? it's hilarious when you type and you're like oh that is funny well I'm done for the day I was sitting here and I was especially this sort of deadpan stuff from David and Jenny I was just thinking actors could miss that actors could play all that stuff in a more serious way I think they brought a lot of that stuff it doesn't always seem funny to me right and I think it's just the natural way like just hearing other people saying aloud is what different than you doing it by yourself in your office and so they always found the right way to go and there were plenty of things that I thought were funny I mean I know the play a lot better because of them and the program that's very difficult to be on your own so there were plenty of things that I was like oh that's really funny to me and it's not funny it's just like a horrible problem like oh I don't know or they found really a lot in a line or a moment it's a follow-up question though would it be fair to say though that it's one of the concerns of all the playwrights involved to figure out a way to get it on the page in such a way that subsequent productions of it would be able to interpret the way it's done yeah yeah that's kind of like the magic trick but I mean like they're I don't know I have kind of a fake job right it's sort of a fake job being a playwright no I mean it right but it's like hard and one of the things that is hard is making sure that the things that are there are because they were really present in the play and somebody else would be able to pick it up as opposed to you know like it has everything to do with the actors doing it I think David Compton is the interpretation of dump truck eating pizza roll right like it's probably like the funniest it's gonna get like if we can get near it though with some other news can we get a video just a bit yeah it's like a really long stage direction now what is big Frank doing in the play you mean you didn't say like you weren't sure why he was included yeah I think well yeah well I mean I'm interested to talk about that but I would is there anybody that like really into big Frank like really that wants to talk about big Frank what you do probably sure there's a falcon over there I wanted to ask the same question yeah I think you know that's so that actually came from the thing I read about a person who actually had that job who's like is a crisis manager of sorts and they were literally willing to do anything in order to get the client and they were talking about the worst thing they would do because they're not exactly lawyers you know I was like oh this is important but I think that includes and I think it's worth me re-examining right like I hear you guys that I think the idea is that this is a world of like it's a world of fathers right this isn't really like a mother play it's a world of fathers and they are absent very absent and this particular one gives us a little bit of information about what's going on with Frank like what's going on with Frank's history what's going on with Frank with his father like he's a guy who shot a kid in a parking lot pretty close to the week that he took his dad in for cataract surgery right there's like a piling effect there and then as Dean pointed out there's like the metaphor of like kind of old and decrepit America shitting its pants while half blind watching televisions on broken TVs so like yes there is a breathing pants pooping metaphor over here in the corner but I mean I think that was the idea about it and also you know it's July 4th I mean I think the family always comes over like one of my favorite lines comes out of a conversation about big Frank where he says sometimes the army doesn't teach you something new it reinforces what's already there turns it up as long as we're going to talk about like American patterns and all that stuff it seemed worth it to physical and audio I just want to say to you that the best of the most you've said something about the big Frank I would be very curious to count like physically count how many times little Frank says yes right like that's his first six lines and I think when you're considering like we sent him away why would he let him come back and literature and turning up the volume those things like all he can say is yes and now he is reduced to yeah it's like super interesting to consider like the American male well they only check him out of the home they check him out they only check him out of the home for the publicity of the photos for Josie I need more stage directions and she says I mean we checked him out of the home for this Frank I should have told you to say that slower I appreciate that thank you so much for being here you guys I think we should end the evening with a pause but it's wonderful