(Bobby and Rebecca in Bobby's office at night.)
Bobby: I think I should just tell her to walk.
Rebecca: We can't let her walk.
Bobby: Rebecca, I am not about to let her extort me, and- -
Bobby: I don't like the way she did it and this is my practice.
Rebecca: (at same time as Bobby) You say "me" like you're the only one
involved, you're not- -
Rebecca: Bobby, listen to me. This firm is not just you and me anymore.
There's Eugene, Ellenor, and Jimmy- -
Bobby: They're not behind what she's doing.
Rebecca: They don't know the numbers. And if they did, they might say give
her some equity.
Bobby: And if I do? What's to stop Eugene from wanting a piece, then
Ellenor- -
Rebecca: Maybe it's time to deal with that.
Bobby: I don't need to- -
Rebecca: Yes you do. Hey. I'd like to make more money. We all would. This
is a firm, now, you have a group of people committing to it. Committing to a
promise by you to build this place into something.
Bobby: I won't have a gun put to my head.
Rebecca: Y'know what. Sometimes, I think you put the gun to your own head.
(She's out the door.)
------------------------------
COMMERCIALS
(Helen at her desk, in her office. Bobby Show enters.)
Show: Excuse me.
Helen: Mr. Show.
Show: I know I kinda digressed up there on the stand, see, I got nervous and
I was thinkin' if you put me up again, see, I could be more vivid.
Helen: (polite) I think we accomplished what we needed to accomplish but
thank you.
Show: See, I left some things out. He peeled away, big screech y'know, for
effect I could describe it, I don't have to mention pinky.
Helen: Mr. Show. I know you'd like to testify again and collect another
witness fee. But I don't think I'm going to recall you.
Show: (feeling a little hurt) Oh. Okay. Well. Okay. If you need me . . .
you know where I am.
Helen: Okay. (Lindsay appears at the door.)
Show: Thank you. And I think you're a real nice lady, too. I'd be remiss
without saying that.
Helen: Thank you. (Show exits.)
Lindsay: Who was that?
Helen: Homeless guy looking to collect another witness fee. My stupid
hit-and-run case. I'm gonna miss Rebecca's luncheon.
Lindsay: Oh G-d, I need you there, I won't have anybody to talk to.
Helen: It didn't go well?
Lindsay: Oh no.
-------------------------
(Raymond on the stand, Eugene is questioning him.)
Eugene: We need for you to describe how this happened, Raymond.
Raymond: Well, like I said, Charlie drew the ace . The ace means he's gotta
go with the toughest guy for sixty seconds.
Eugene: And that was you?
Raymond: I didn't say it was me. But . . .
Eugene: Kind of like a vote?
Raymond: Yeah.
Eugene: But Raymond . . . Charlie Johnson was your boy, your friend. You're
the one who invited him in.
Raymond: Yeah.
Eugene: Well . . . C'mon. Why didn't you take it a little easy on him? I
mean, he's not allowed to fight back. This is your friend.
Raymond: I did take it a little easy. But I couldn't . . .
Eugene: Couldn't what?
Raymond: I had to hit him some. If I didn't, they wouldn't let him in, it
had to be a real initiation.
Eugene: So you did hit him pretty hard?
Raymond: I was mostly jabbin'.
(A flashback to the alley is shown. Charlie is surrounded by the gang
members. He doesn't fight back. Raymond is describing this off screen.)
Raymond: Like I said, he couldn't hit back. (The fight is shown.) It had to
go on sixty seconds. I did a lot of punchin' on the shoulder and the back
‘cause I knew that wouldn't do much. But I hadda hit him some in the head.
And then- -
Eugene: (also not shown) Then what?
Raymond: (still off screen, with the flashback in slow motion.) I was
throwing a right to his . . . he kinda swerved . . . and I hit him right on
the throat. He just grabbed himself . . . and he went down. And I could see
he couldn't breathe. I stopped and tried to help him. I thought maybe he
swallowed his tongue, I stuck my fingers in his mouth. But he couldn't get
air. He couldn't get air. And then he was twitchin' on the ground. He
couldn't get air. (Back on screen, fighting back tears.) And when the
paramedics came . . . they said something about his windpipe. I crushed
something inside his throat. And they took him away. And then he was dead.
He was dead
(Eugene sits down and Simmons gets up.)
Simmons: You say you hit him some. You hit him hard, didn't you Raymond?
Raymond: If I didn't he wouldn't have been let into the gang.
Simmons: The gang you talked him into joining. The gang you got him to sell
drugs for at age eleven. The gang- -
Eugene: Objection.
Judge Camp: Sustained.
(Simmons holds up a picture of Charlie, taken at the morgue, with a bruised
face and open eyes.)
Simmons; Who is this Raymond?
Eugene: Objection!
Judge Camp: Overruled.
Simmons: Who is this?
Raymond: That's Charlie.
Simmons: That's Charlie after you killed him, isn't it?
Eugene: Objection. This is grandstanding, he's trying to inflame the jury- -
Simmons: What's the matter, you don't want the jury to see the victim?
Judge Camp: Hey! The objection is overruled.
Simmons: How did he get these bruises on his face, Raymond. (Silence) I'll
ask you again, Sir. How did he get these bruises on his face?
Raymond: I had to hit him some.
Simmons: You had to hit him some.
----------------------------
(The firm is having a meeting, with everyone but Eugene.)
Lindsay: It isn't just about money.
Bobby: Then what is it?
Lindsay: It's about some direction- -
Bobby: How many times do we need to play this record, "the firm needs
direction".
Lindsay: (at the same time as Bobby) It's about the firm having some kind of
growth plan- -
Lindsay: (yelling) Do you want to let me talk or not?!
Rebecca: Bobby,let her speak.
Lindsay: The economy is way up, the business of law is way up in Boston, we
are good lawyers. And this place is still scratching. Why? Management. It
doesn't have any.
Bobby: You think you could do better?
Lindsay: Do I think I could do better? I think he (Jimmy) could do better.
Jimmy: Hey you don't have to start comin' at me, first it's my big head, now
my management skills- - Lindsay: (At the same time as Jimmy) You're a great
seat-of-the-pants lawyer Bobby, but you're a seat-of-the-pants administrator
too.
Rebecca: (At the same time as Jimmy and Lindsay) This isn't gonna work if
everybody talks, if we don't do this one at a time.
Ellenor: Quiet!! For G-d's sakes.
Lindsay: Oh, go shoot a rat, Ellenor!
Ellenor: What the hell is wrong with you, now I'm the enemy too?
Lindsay: (at the same time as Ellenor) If you haven't go anything
constructive to say- -
Jimmy: (at the same time as Ellenor and Lindsay) Maybe she's pregnant, are
you pregnant women act like this pregnant. (Just a side note: When this
episode was being filmed, Kelli Williams, who plays Lindsay, was pregnant
with her son, although it was hidden by camera angles during production.)
Bobby: (at the same time as Ellenor, Lindsay, and Jimmy) You don't seem to
get along with anybody, Lindsay, maybe it's you, not me.
Bobby: Alright!
Jimmy: Look. May I say something, then I'll shut up, I'll make it quick.
Bobby: Go ahead.
Jimmy: Are you two sleeping together?
Lindsay: Nice, Rebecca.
Rebecca: I didn't tell.
(They all yell at Lindsay, accusing her of sleeping with the boss. They all
leave, with Lindsay walking out behind them. Eugene enters the room.
Business as usual, he drops his case on the table and goes back to work.)
--------------------
(Jamison has his client, Feldman, on the stand.)
Feldman: He jumped out. I thought I hit him, I heard a thump. But I looked
around and I didn't see anything. So I drove off.
Jamison: Well, Mr. Feldman . . . why didn't you stop?
Feldman: I did stop. I looked around.
Jamison: You didn't get out of your car?
Feldman: No, I didn't.
Jamison: Why not?
Feldman: I suppose I was afraid to. I was in a very bad area. Driving a
Mercedes. I didn't want to get out.
Jamison: But you struck a man?
Feldman: Yes, and I thought he'd run off. Plus, I really wasn't sure it
wasn't staged.
Jamison: Staged?
Feldman: I thought maybe it was one of those . . . y'know where people kind
of . . . I thought he made it seem like I hit him, so I'd stop, get out . . .
only to be mugged. Like I said, I was in an awful neighborhood. I was
afraid.
(Jamison sits down and Helen gets up.)
Helen: Don't you think you should've at least checked? You hear a thump, you
think you've hit somebody- -
Feldman: I did check, I looked around.
Helen: You stayed in your car. If a man were prone on the ground, how would
you see him from in your car, especially at night?
Feldman: In retrospect I probably should've gotten out. But like I said, I
was afraid.
Helen: But why didn't you call the police?
Feldman: Well, I probably should have.
Helen: Yes, why didn't you?
Feldman: Because I really thought it was just a robbery attempt. And since I
wasn't victimized, I didn't figure the police to do anything.
Helen: So you didn't even call them? You had a car phone.
Feldman: Look, I was scared. I didn't think I hurt anybody and the only
thing going through my mind was get the hell out of there.
Helen: Why didn't you notify your insurance company, your car was damaged.
Feldman: I . . . I was going to.
Helen: You were going to.
------------------------
(Simmons is giving his closing argument.)
Simmons: It's okay to punch people in the head so long as we call it
initiation. Some gangs require that you go out and cap somebody to get into
the club. I don't know about you . . . but I've had enough. For all his
remorse, Ladies and Gentlemen, there sits a gang member three times convicted
on drug offenses, twice on prior assaults, and this is the man who lured the
victim into drugs, into gang life, and this is the man who killed the victim
with his own fists. What are we supposed to do here? Have a group cry for
these poor kids, disenfranchised by society? Gangs are the only community
they know, their fathers leave, their mothers work, society just isn't there
for them, so it's okay to punch, to initiate, to fire a random shot on a
drive-by, these are poor unfortunate victims. I don't buy it. You want to
work on community outreach programs, great, where can I sign up to help? But
first . . . we need to attack gang violence head on. If you kill, you go to
jail, damnit. Don't tell me you had a lousy home life, don't tell me your
dad was a drunk. If you sell drugs, if you recruit people into gangs, if you
kill, then damnit, you go to jail. You go to jail.
(He sits and Eugene gets up.)
Eugene: I have a ten-year-old boy. My greatest fear is somebody like him
(Raymond) might come along and convince him . . . (A side- note: In the
third season, Eugene's son was correctly arrested for selling drugs.) "Hey,
you're nothing without the colors". I hate gangs as much as he (Simmons)
does. But this trial isn't about putting an end to gangs or gang violence.
All this trial is about . . . is whether this man intended to kill Charles
Johnson. Or was he so reckless that he should've known he put the victim at
an extreme risk. He didn't. You heard the doctors. Crushed windpipe. Was
it foreseeable that Raymond with one punch was going to kill his friend, of
course not, did he want to kill his friend? You know he didn't, he wasn't
even trying to hurt him; you know that. And so does the prosecution. That's
why . . . he didn't get up here and go after Raymond Burnette. He went after
gangs. He said, "Let's stop these gangs, the gangs are the culprits". And
maybe he's right. But this isn't a forum to cure the ills of society, it is
about one death, one defendant, and his intent. If you don't find that
intent, you can't punish him just because he's in a gang. Who or what he is
. . . that isn't on trial. If it were, I might say convict. For the sake of
my boy, I might pray you convict. But this trial is about the act. And this
act was an accident. Let's not see the twelve of you go back there and turn
into a gang. (He sits.)
-----------
(In the office late at night. Rebecca is packing up and Lindsay is working
at her desk. Shirley Yellen enters.)
Shirley: Rebecca, hi. I was hoping I might catch you.
Rebecca: Shirley, what's up?
Shirley: Well . . .
Rebecca: Oh, Lindsay Dole, this is Shirley Yellen, from "Save Our Animals
Association".
Lindsay: Nice to meet you.
Shirley: A pleasure. You're not going to believe this. Marcy Kealing works
dispatch at precinct twelve, y'know she's our board of governors.
Rebecca: (thinking) I don't know her.
Shirley: Well she certainly knows you since you're about to be one of our
honorees. Um. She says you evidently killed a rat?
Rebecca: Yeah. In the office here.
Shirley: Ugh.
Rebecca: What?
Shirley: It's just . . . the politics of it, that's the last thing we need
running in the papers, one of our honorees is a rat killer.
Rebecca: (insulted) I'm not a rat killer.
Shirley: I know, but you know the media, it's just the little anecdote they
get all creamy over.
Rebecca: What are you saying, Shirley?
Shirley: Nothing. It doesn't mean anything, I just want to have a response
in case somebody asks me. Don't worry about it.
Rebecca: Okay.
(Shirley looks around the office, maybe to look for rats.)
Shirley: Well. I'll see you at the luncheon.
Rebecca: I'll walk you out.
(They leave and Bobby enters a minute later.)
Lindsay: Hi. (Bobby is not looking at her.)
Bobby: Rebecca told me your reason for springing this in front of everybody
instead of taking it up with me privately. I don't buy it. (Lindsay just
looks at him.) There's no excuse for you not coming to me one-on-one.
Lindsay: Bobby, I'm afraid what I might say to you one-on-one.
Bobby: What's that supposed to mean?
Lindsay: It means I might say that I think you're dysfunctional. Look at
you. Fancy suits in a dumpy rat-infested office. As you try to get ahead,
you fight yourself at the same time. And it hurts everybody here.
One-on-one, I was afraid I might say that.
Bobby: If that's the way you feel, why do you stay?
Lindsay: Because my best friends work here, I don't want to leave. And I'm
in love with you.
(He is shocked and just stares back. That music plays in the background.)
Lindsay: I say that . . . with no hope that you'll love me back. I don't
even know that I want it. But . . . I dunno. Maybe as a result of my loving
you I also see you. And I know with you in charge, and only you in charge,
this firm is maxed out. And you might be too.
(Lindsay leaves, and Bobby just stands there.)
------------------------
COMMERCIALS
----------------------------
(Det. McGuire gets off the elevator.)
McGuire: Helen. Sorry I'm late.
Helen: We haven't started.
McGuire: Guess who took a knife in the throat last night?
Helen: Who?
McGuire: Your star witness. Show. Mr. Cyclops got into some beef with
another homeless guy, they both wanted to sleep on the same heating vent. He
lost. (He says this with no emotion.)
Helen: (absolutely stunned) Is he dead?
McGuire: Yeah.
Jamison: (passing by) Helen. We just got called.
Helen: Oh. Okay.
McGuire: I'm gonna try to steal a quick cup of coffee.
(Jamison and McGuire walk away, but Helen just stands there, stunned.)
-----------------
(The Bobby, Ellenor, Eugene, Rebecca, Lindsay, and Jimmy are sitting at a
table at the "Save our Animals" luncheon. Everyone feels awkward.)
Jimmy: This is really good a thing. Saving dog shelters, it's nice that they
honor you for this. Y'know, the Jewish people believe one of the greatest
things is kindness to animals. I'm not Jewish, though.
Eugene: You look Jewish.
Jimmy: If you're insinuatin' Jewish people have big heads, that's prejudice.
And mine's normal size.
Shirley: (walking up to the table) Rebecca. Can I steal you for a second?
Rebecca: Sure.
(She gets up, and it's awkward at the table.)
Eugene: Let's not spoil this for Bec, huh? Whatever our problems. (Very
obviously directed toward Bobby and Lindsay.)
Jimmy: Y'know, in my family, if things were like tense, we'd all butter each
other's bread. Let's try it.
(He moves to grab Eugene's bun, but Eugene slaps his hand.)
Eugene: (annoyed) Don't touch my bun. (His beeper goes off.)
(Rebecca and Shirley are shown, talking on the side.)
Rebecca: You gotta be kidding me.
Shirley: You're still getting the award, of course you are. But the board
just wants to talk about the incident after, I wouldn't give it another
thought.
Rebecca: Then why are you telling me?
Shirley: Because some of our more zealous members might make a fuss. I want
you to be prepared.
(Rebecca is getting angry.)
---------------------------
(Jamison is doing his closing.)
Jamison: He didn't know he'd hurt anybody. You heard him. And who among us
wouldn't have been afraid to get out of the car in that neighborhood? And who
knows . . . it could've been a staged thing, an attempt to rob Mr. Feldman.
We don't know who this John Doe was, what was in his mind, what he was up to.
He could've been some crazy nut. He could've already been hurt when he
stumbled out. There's a lot of unanswered questions here. What we do know
is this is a good man. A very good man. Who didn't know that he'd hurt
anybody.
(He sits down and Helen gets up.)
Helen: (quietly, still touched by Show's death) When I get up to do my
closing arguments, I often look to the gallery, at the victim, or the
victim's family, to remind myself who I am fighting for. But there's no
family out there today. We don't even have a victim in all this, when you
think about it. Somebody jumped out of darkness, now he no longer exists.
But nobody know he existed anyway, what was really lost? Of course Mr.
Feldman wasn't going to get out of his car to check. Why should he? If a
man dies in a forest and nobody hears him cry . . . then he doesn't make a
sound, does he? The other day I was stopped at traffic light and some bum
came up asking to wash my windshield. I couldn't tell you what he looked like
‘cause I never looked at him. I never do, just stare straight ahead.
Stopped at the lights, or walking down the street, I never look at ‘em. Do
you? Easier not to. But uh . . . when you run one of these bums over . . .
maybe we should stop the car. Get out of the car. Take a look. Mr. Feldman
knew he hit somebody. That's all we know. I guess the question for you to
go back and decide . . . Is there any intrinsic value to human life? Or does
he have to be somebody? I don't know. It's your call. (She sits down.)
------------------------