01x10 - The Understudy

[bunniefuu]

Previously on "Manhattan"...

(g*nsh*t)

What did I do?

Two more for me and the spy k*ller.

What do you want from me?

- (expl*si*n)

(Baby crying)

(Radiation detector crackling)

Akley: As we approach the finish line,

I will be stepping back from day-to-day operations.

You will report to Charlie Isaacs.

Are you ready to start working?

You mean keep working on implosion with Frank?

Abby: Tom... he touched me.

You have to do something.

Men will be men.

Was it normal, what happened between us?

You fell asleep. (Chuckles)

Frank: If you know who I am, then you know I've spent the last year working on implosion. I need detonators.

(Chuckles) You don't know me.

Charlie: We've created a monster.

A useful monster.

You remember, you knocked on my door.

And now 50 of my guys are working on your problem.

Our problem.

(Music playing over radio)

♪ I'm building a home, a beautiful home ♪
♪ Someday I shall go there to nevermore roam ♪
♪ Are you walking with Jesus to your home upon high? ♪
♪ Be sure you are ready for the sweet by-and-by ♪
♪ I'm building a home, a beautiful home ♪
♪ Someday I shall go there to nevermore roam ♪
♪ I'm building a home, a beautiful home ♪
♪ As I travel that highway I'm building my home. ♪

You want me to wait?

I think you ain't gonna be staying here long.

No, thank you.

Thank you.

Man over P.A.: All personnel must stop at the main gate checkpoint for identification and passes whenever leaving from or arriving to Los Alamos.

Can I help you?

Is this PO Box 1663?

You got a pass?

No, but I got a letter from this postmark.

Ma'am, I recommend you get back in the cab.

Else you're looking at 40 miles of hard road back to town.

My husband lived here. He d*ed here, too.

I'm sorry, no one gets in without a preauthorized pass.

His name was Sidney Liao.

I don't know anything about that.

I'm not leaving until someone explains how my husband d*ed in the middle of a desert solving physics equations.

Ma'am, you have my condolences, but...

Turn me away, and I'm sure I can find a reporter who won't.

Tell them I need to speak to Frank Winter.

(Rings)

Colonel Cox's office.

Right away.

(Theme music playing)

Manhattan 1x10
The Understudy

You know what Thomas Edison used to do when he hit a brick wall?

He'd take naps.

We didn't hit a brick wall.

We hit the Grand Coulee Dam.

Good morning.

Dr. Glen Babbit, Mr. James Meeks, may I present to you Grover and...

Earl, is it?

(Door closes)

What the hell was that?

Apparently we're taking in refugees.

The maintenance staff has opened a franchise in our back room.

We're working in the broom closet now?

Well, at least one department's adding staff.

What happened to compartmentalization?

Oh, yeah... no, we are meant to speak in hushed tones when the janitors are present.

Only our particular secrets no longer warrant safekeeping.

Oh, Frank's gonna tear 'em limb from limb.

On the bright side, we now have a mop on the premises.

Well, you think h*tler's got Werner Heisenberg bunking up with a janitor?

Say what you like about the Third Reich, they do respect hierarchy.

(Scoffs)

Frank.

We've got houseguests.

Oh, so I heard.

And you're not upset?

Would it make any difference if I were?

Anyway, you watch, I'm gonna straighten out this shockwave problem and the custodians will move into Akley's office, or we will.

You're leaving already?

Uh...

We hardly knew ya.

A meeting across town.

Et voilà.

(Both chuckle)

(Kisses)

How long has it been since your husband did that?

Hmm?

(Chuckles)

What time is it?

If I'm late again, the girl's gonna quit.

You don't have to wear so much makeup, you know?

You're beaucoup plus belle without it.

My mother always said a woman should never leave the house without lipstick unless it's in a coffin.

Come to dinner tonight. I'm cooking.

Coq au vin.

Will, um... will Tom be there?

Cherie, love affairs are a reward for putting up with our husbands.

All the more fun to do it right in front of them.

We're not having an affair.

You don't have to feel guilty for taking pleasure in life.

Well, it wasn't much of a pleasure last time I had dinner at your house.

Your husband put his hands all over me.

(Scoffs) What?

Practically assaulted me.

Why didn't you tell me?

I will k*ll him.

I will poison his dinner.

If I wanted to make a production out of it, I would have told Charlie.

You don't want to know what he would have done.

Right away, Dr. Chandler.

In the utility room.

Right behind you.

What happened?

There's been a contamination.

A contamination?

Can you lend a hand?

Of course. What... ?

Don't draw any blood.

- (Water spraying)

(Nurses clamoring)

Does this hurt?

Not a bit. It never does.

Has this happened before?

We need to get these clothes bagged and out of here.

Yes, Doctor.

Put some gloves on first.

Morning. I brought the kid.

Come on.

My mother told me unwelcomed guests should never show up empty-handed.

Thought you could use some help with the contact dermatitis.

Yeah, Number One has it, working with TNT.

Number One?

So are we good for today?

Not good.

But I'll accept your presents.

The w*r must be won.

We take 32 exploding bridgewire detonators, we activate them simultaneously.

So you want to know how to synchronize detonators.

Believe it or not, that's the easy part.

What we have to do is redirect the shockwaves from those charges into one perfectly symmetrical implosion.

30 British scientists couldn't do it in a year.

They abandoned their implosion project.

The British are quitters.

Just look at your Revolutionary w*r, huh?

(Chuckles)

Drop on... three, two, one.

See?

What?

Our detonation waves are convex.

They need to be concave to make implosion work.

You want all these tiny explosions to turn themselves inside out?

That's the goal?

Yes.

(Scoffs) Fish swim, birds fly, cows sh*t.

All right?

They each true to its nature.

An expl*si*n goes, "Boom!"

The force of energy expands.

Right. So how do we reverse it?

- That's simple.

Yeah?

Yeah. You can't.

(Laughs)

(Continues laughing)

(men muttering)

Judge in his chambers?

I have no idea where he is.

Huh. Well, I'm sure you'll be the first to know.

Could you pass that along, please?

What is it?

It's a parting gift from the little Dutch girl.

I just bumped into her in the yard.

Oh, you bumped into Helen, did you?

It's Frank's late-night toils.

Someone found them in the chem lab and gave them to her, thought she was still with us.

Glen: Did you help Frank with these calculations?

I had rehearsal. We open Friday night.

Has Fritz been doing detonation specs for Frank?

Fritz has been waylaid in metallurgy the last three days.

Remind me which classic of the stage you're butchering this time.

"Our Town." I'm playing the William Holden role.

I thought you were just the understudy.

Everyone in the theater knows the whole show rests on the understudy.

I apologize for the accommodations.

We're not really set up to entertain visitors.

You're not what I pictured.

He told me all about you.

Who did?

Sid.

He never mentioned a beard.

Anyway, I can't believe this is what it took for us to meet, Dr. Winter.

What else did Sid tell you?

He talked about the others...

Jim and Fritz, Glen, Helen.

Did he ever mention... (Chuckles) what he was doing in the State of New Mexico?

I didn't even know he was in New Mexico.

Did he ever give you any messages to pass along to associates or to friends?

Just our daughter.

After your husband's death, did you receive any unusual visitors or packages in the mail?

You're not Frank Winter, are you?

There's no one here by that name.

Your parents are watching your little girl?

Yes.

Well, I imagine Gracie misses her mother very much.

Mrs. Liao, you traveled a great distance to be here.

Your train leaves tomorrow, all expenses paid.

When you get home to Oakland, you will forget all about the past and you will focus on your daughter's future instead.

I'm not going anywhere until I know what happened to my husband.

And if you were to learn that he d*ed in a tragic car accident?

Did he?

Or that he sacrificed his life on behalf of his country?

I need to see his death certificate and any formal report from the army.

You're confused, Mrs. Liao.

You think you want the facts, but that's not why you're here.

You want a bedtime story to bring home to your little girl.

You want a fairy tale.

Excuse me?

I spent a lot of time in China.

You're a tenacious people.

I could give you the brush-off, but you'll just keep coming back.

This is your husband's file.

It was sealed by order of the w*r Department.

Your husband was not a hero.

He was a spy.

He was sh*t dead while in the process of stealing government secrets.

That's not possible.

You have a long trip ahead of you tomorrow, Mrs. Liao.

Get some rest.

I'm sorry for your loss.

What about a change in temperature?

Could that redirect the blast?

Wave refraction might...

Only the direction, not the speed.

Well, maybe we use an anisotropic media.

We have to invert the blast, not just bend it.

Please don't.

Powdermen, we work with expl*sives.

We chew.

You as well?

Sure.

Good. Come on, Frank.

(Lazar chuckles)

So...

Oh, Christ.

Is it supposed to burn like that? It hurts.

(Laughs)

So the two of you are friends how?

What do you mean?

Well, he's a man.

You're more like a boy.

Thanks.

He's a dinosaur. I'm a plagiarist.

I'm not sure friendship was ever written in our cards.

Huh.

He lifted one idea, but his paper was solid.

Lazar: You think this one is smart?

For a boy.

Well, I'm done for the day.

You've wasted enough of my time.

We don't need your time, Lazar.

We need your workspace.

Try back tomorrow.

(Music playing)

What are you doing?

Your belt is pinching me.

Yeah, we should stop.

(Chuckles) Why?

Because it's wrong.

Put to death what is earthy in you... sexual immorality, impurity... passion... evil desire.

You think I don't pay attention in Bible study?

To the words maybe, but not the meaning.

Well, I just don't happen to think desire is evil.

If there is a God...

If?

He gave us genitals for a reason.

Uh, this isn't it.

(Chuckles)

You know, I am trying to understand your point of view.

The least you could do is meet me halfway.

Fornication isn't halfway, Callie.

Why...

(Chuckles)

Why are you even with me anyway?

I am beginning to wonder.

What I think is...

I think it's a pretty good way to rebel against your parents.

Going steady with the guy who sh*t their friend?

As a matter of fact, that's the thing I like the least about you.

Sid was my friend, too, you know?

Callie, I'm sorry. I'm just...

No.

Get out of here before my father comes home, or he's gonna be the one sh**ting.

(Music playing)

This is awfully public.

Yes.

That's why I wanted to meet here... so there was no misunderstanding my intentions.

I see.

Elodie, you have been a wonderful friend at a time when I really needed one.

But whatever you think is happening between us, it needs to end.

I'm sorry.

Is this about what Tom did?

No.

This is about you and me.

Woman: Elodie.

Oh.

I thought this dump felt more cosmopolitan than usual.

Ida. Mwah.

Hank.

(Both chuckle)

This is Abby Isaacs.

Hello.

We're colleagues at the switchboard.

Oh.

Mm-hmm.

Pleased to meet you.

Does your husband know you're out on the town with this minx?

Oh, I have half a mind to ditch my husband and join them.

Oh, hey.

I finally finished it.

Ah.

Only took me, what, a hundred years?

Well?

I don't know.

I thought it would be racier.

Oh, he certainly set Europe on fire.

I thought that was h*tler.

What's the book about?

Ida: There's this guy named Meursault.

He's kind of a pill. His mother dies.

He sh**t an Arab and he winds up in prison.

Oh.

It's about the fact that our lives are absurd.

There's no God.

There's no morality.

And society invents rules to keep us from happiness.

But every minute of every day you're free to decide who to be and how to live.

So it's a comedy.

(Chuckles)

Sounds to me like the author never lived in a town where you can't leave.

He lives in occupied Paris.

Anyway, you're free to walk away from this Hill any time you like.

I think the colonel might disagree.

Just because there may be a consequence doesn't mean you have no choice.

Hank: Yeah, well, my choice is to go to bed. Ida?

Would you like to join us?

I'm sorry?

Another time.

(Chuckles)

Great to see you.

Bye.

What was that about?

Well, they're... bons vivants.

Usually, they trade partners with the couple next door... like an American square dance.

You're joking.

Abby, you've been in the switchboard long enough to know that everybody inside these fences has a secret life.

You're no exception.

The difference is you're keeping the secret even from yourself.

Elodie...

No.

Why shouldn't we enjoy ourselves while we can?

Life is short.

And it's getting shorter all the time.

What does that mean?

That's why we're here, right?

So our husbands can invent the end of the world.

You woke up early.

You got home late.

What's for breakfast?

Nothing.

Nothing?

I'm not hungry. Why would I eat?

Because that's what people do in the morning.

"L'Etran-jer"?

"L'Etranger."

Oh.

I took four years of high school French.

(Scoffs)

What?

Nothing. Just... no.

You buy gossip magazines for the photo spreads.

Suddenly you're reading Baudelaire?

You're not building a radar system, are you?

What?

That's what you told me when we first got here.

Is it true?

Abby, it's complicated.

Lying to your wife?

I can't tell you any more.

I'm not allowed.

Of course you can.

In every single moment, we have a choice.

I'm protecting you.

By building some machine that could wipe us all off the face of the earth?

I'll make my own breakfast.

Why didn't you tell me you did all these additional calculations on the detonation specs?

Slipped my mind.

You're working with Charlie Isaacs, aren't you?

You got him and Helen feeding you calculations, stealing Akley's resources out from under his nose.

Jesus, Frank.

Isaacs came to me.

The plutonium at Site X will never be pure enough.

Thin Man will predetonate. It is doomed to fail.

And then they will be forced to help us overcome the shockwave problem.

No. No, the minute the army discovers that Thin Man is useless, they'll shut us down and throw all their manpower into trying to fix it.

So the plan is to put everybody around you in jeopardy?

The plan is to prove implosion works before the plutonium arrives.

And when I do that, no one's gonna give a sh*t how I got there.

We hit the wall.

It's a mile high, but you're not gonna scale it by standing on the shoulders of Thin Man.

I have to try.

- And the collateral damage?

We won't get caught.

This entire Hill was built on secrets, Frank.

They're traded around like ration stamps.

When this falls apart, you'll face jail time.

But G2 is already convinced that I'm a Commie.

- I'll face the f*ring squad.

Glen.

You put our fate... my fate... in the hands of Charlie Isaacs.

I've come to trust him.

Oh, you've come to trust the little sh*t that put the bull's-eye on my back, a plagiarist, a rat who steals from other scientists.

I guess that's why they call it "the fog of w*r."

Liza, I'm glad I caught you.

Oh?

Your help yesterday was appreciated.

Every reason to believe the men will be fine.

Just glad I could help.

I hope it didn't scare you.

Those men work with expl*sives all the time.

The scrubbing was just to be certain all the residue was off.

I understand.

I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of patient confidentiality.

You really shouldn't mention this to anyone outside the clinic.

Of course not.

Punching out?

Yes, I am.

Good night.

Liza.

It's been a long day for all of us.

Should you and I maybe have a drink to wash it down?

That...

Oh, that's so kind of you, Doctor.

Um...

I really must get dinner on the table, but...

You know, a wife's work is never done. (Chuckles)

Another time.

Another time.

(Chatter)

G34, please step out of line.

Sorry. You'd think that's a number I could commit to memory.

Is there some kind of problem?

My pass is up to date.

You're coming with me.

Why?

(Door opens)

It's just you, Private Dunlavey?

No MPs to hold me down this time?

Sit down.

Is this how things go around here?

You get me arrested for no reason, you put a couple of quiet b*ll*ts in me, you get another promotion?

I just want to talk.

I have nothing to say to you.

You can't tell anyone I told you this.

And hardly anyone knows.

Sid Liao's wife is here, on the Hill.

Annie's here?

Have you seen her?

Not myself.

But I thought you might want to.

Where is she?

She's being questioned by the authorities, but she'll be released and sent off soon.

I hear she'll be on the workers' bus out this afternoon.

Why are you doing this?

"Let us lie down in our shame and let our disgrace cover us."

Do you have to do that right now?

Uh-huh.

What are you doing anyway?

Air pockets... drilling them out, filling them back in.

You're drilling into TNT?

Uh-huh.

Dispersion relations.

What?

You... you reference them in your paper.

My paper?

All right, uh...

Just think about a wave deep in the ocean.

It's convex until it moves into shore.

Then it turns in on itself and it forms a tube.

The shallow ground... it works just like a lens.

The shape of a wave actually begins to invert.

So we need to slow down the middle of the shockwaves.

Yeah, then flatten and invert them.

We use a charge as our shallow ground.

- Is that possible?

It's like the Munroe effect.

A navy man at the turn of the century invented incendiary warheads.

Bazooka rockets.

Charlie: He called them "shaped charges."

But a nuclear core is no rocket.

It's a thousand times more sensitive.

We'll just have to find a way to...

To perfectly mold the shockwaves.

We could vary the burn rates.

Can you make that happen?

Baratol burns slower than TNT, and I can blend to any speed you want.

Then we would just... just... just flip the shockwaves inside out and bend them into a single symmetrical implosion wave.

Jesus, Frank.

Hey, Annie.

Are you... are you okay?

I'm so sorry about Sid.

I wanted to call, but...

They wouldn't allow you.

Not even a letter.

Jim, what is this place?

What the hell was Sid doing here?

I can't talk about it.

That's what Sid always said.

You know what else he told me?

That he was coming home.

He... he d*ed for his country.

They told me he was a spy, Jim.

He wasn't. He never would have done that.

We were married six years.

You think I don't know that?

I'm sorry, Annie.

I...

Would you deliver a message to Frank Winter for me?

Of course.

Tell him that... tell him it's very kind of him to send the money, but I don't want another dime that comes out of this place.

Frank's been sending money?

Every month, ever since it happened.

Tell him he has nothing to feel guilty about.

Why would Frank feel guilty?

Because he brought Sid here in the first place.

I'm glad you're here.

Last time I talked to Sid, he told me that he was being transferred to some other secret location.

We all were.

The army changed its mind.

Man: Next stop... Santa Fe.

Take care of yourself.

You, too, Annie.

(Radiation detector crackling)

(Crackling)

(Exhales)

(Crackling)

(Exhales)

Frank: I'll get Crosley working on manufacturing specs for the aluminum pusher.

Fritz and Meeks can measure the Baratol burn rate.

Helen and I will get our guys onto the modeling calculations.

This is good. (Chuckles)

Yesterday you said it was impossible.

Well, yesterday it wasn't, today it is.

Don't be smart, boy. I was right both times.

Za vashe zdorovie.

Any idea what he said?

Something about friendship?

(Knocking)

Hi.

Could you give this to PFC Dunlavey?

You another one of his adoring fans?

We're in Bible study together.

Hey, spy k*ller.

A pretty girl left this for you, said she thought you'd want it back.

(Knocks on door)

(Laughs) Already finished?

What is it?

Do you know why I learned French?

Because it was important to my mother.

Every August Charlie and I spend our vacation at the Chatham Inn... the same place that I've been summering since I was a little girl.

It never occurred to me to go someplace new.

Well, you deserve to see the world.

My whole life I have been exactly the person everyone expected me to be.

I don't even know what I want.

What do you want right now?

(Knocks)

Lenses.

expl*sive lenses, shaped charges... that's how we do it.

How do you control the speed?

By varying the burn rates.

With Baratol. Oh, my God!

Charlie's fine.

You idiot!

Liza?

It's all poisoned.

What, our clothes?

Everything... our dinner plates, our silverware.

It's all radioactive.

I work with radium.

Trace elements have followed me home from every lab I've ever worked in.

There's nothing to worry about.

It's in Callie's room.

It's on her shoes.

It's on her toothbrush.

Don't... don't be absurd.

Liza.

Liza, Liza, stop. Stop.

I think it's in the air, maybe the water.

This place is poisoning us and everyone who's in it.

When Callie gets home, we have to strip her down.

Okay.

And we have to scrub her skin.

Just calm... calm down.

Calm down and listen to yourself for a second.

I'll show you.

If you're looking for the janitors to clean up something, they all left for the night.

Actually, I am trying to clean up a bit, but I don't need a broom.

You're Meeks, correct?

Jim.

Pleasure.

You've been here, what, Jim, eight months?

Must be quite a change from Maine.

I imagine your mother misses having you nearby.

She's been ill, hasn't she?

Do I know you?

I handle personnel issues in the Manhattan District.

I end up reading a lot of files.

I can tell you the issue here... we barely have any personnel left.

Yeah, it does look a little bit lonely around here.

Is your boss in?

I have some questions for Dr. Winter.

Yeah, well, I have some questions for him, too.

You know, I always like to hear about things on the ground.

Maybe you'd like to share some thoughts about Dr. Winter's management style?

(Radiation detector clicking slowly)

It... it was going off everywhere here just before you came back.

Come on.

You know, I should never have let it out of my sight.

You know, the army could have come in here while I was outside, or G2.

You know, they could have rewired it.

They could have rewired it, Frank, to cover their tracks.

Sweetheart, sweetheart, nobody has been in our house, okay?

It was working.

(Sobbing)

They're less than a year old.

They should be fine.