[MEDICAL MONITOR BEEPING]
- [SIGHS]
- [BEEPING CONTINUES]
[SLOW, MELANCHOLY MUSIC]
♪
[GIA] Right before he left his office,
right before he got into one
of the worst car accidents
the New Jersey state
troopers had ever seen,
my father called me.
I was at an internship that
I thought was important.
I watched the phone ring,
his number on the caller ID.
"Daddy calling."
Daddy was always calling,
and he was always there with gasoline
and prosciutto slices at midnight,
and I'd be f*cked up forever
because I'd been loved so well.
[GROANS SOFTLY]
I didn't pick it up.
I let it go to voice mail.
He didn't leave a long message.
"Hi, baby. It's your dad, just
calling to say I love you."
[SIGHS]
It took me years to listen
to it, years to wait
because I was so worried
there would be a clue in it.
"I'm about to die, little girl.
Just... just calling to say
I love you one last time."
And had I just picked up the phone,
had I just focused on the
real important thing...
But how can you ever know?
It will come to me in a dream?
I was supposed to write a
book to prove to my father
that I didn't have to be a doctor, too.
I didn't have to save people his way.
What was my way, though?
So far, I'd known two women
who had mostly saved me.
I couldn't tell at first
if I was saving them back.
I hadn't yet met the person
who really needed me.
And the specific joints
that had broken in me
were the very pieces
I could use to help her.
Tell the world her name.
[CROWD] Not guilty! Not guilty!
[WHOOPING AND CHEERING]
[UPBEAT DRUMBEAT PLAYING]
[CHEERING, WHISTLING]
[CHEERING CONTINUES]
[MARCHING BAND PLAYING BRUCE
SPRINGSTEEN'S "I'M ON FIRE"]
♪
[CHEERING]
[WHOOPING, CHEERING]
[CHEERING CONTINUES]
♪
[BELT SNAPS]
[WHOOPING]
[SONG ENDS]
[BREATH QUIVERING]
[PANTING]
[CROW CAWING]
You already know, I guess.
I know you like to read
about it in the paper, so...
[SOFT, GENTLE MUSIC]
Not fricking guilty.
Reinstated as Teacher of the Year.
With back pay.
♪
[GIA] I couldn't accept my dad's death.
I couldn't throw out his new slippers.
I paid psychics money I didn't have
to tell me I would see him again.
I felt the only reason
to hang around was
to be there for others
who'd also lost the unlosable.
- I got you.
- [SNIFFLES]
I love you, Mags.
You're supposed to
hug me back, you dummy.
[CROWS CAWING]
Why'd it have to be you? Hmm?
You know how many f*cking
assholes are still alive?
[CRYING] Why did it have to be you?
[DAVID] Maggie?
- Are you okay?
- [PANTING]
Yeah. What?
Nothing. I just...
Your therapist said, uh,
we can't leave you alone.
- We're not.
- [CROWS CAWING]
[DAVID CHUCKLES]
Dad hated crows.
You can't shut them up.
[LAUGHS SOFTLY]
[DAVID] Cawin' all the time.
What?
They want me just to shut up and die.
Take it easy, man. We're not, like,
- in The Godfather.
- Hmm.
[PANTING]
- This reporter called me.
- Another one?
Well, this one wasn't from around here.
- She's from New York or...
- Even better.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- What did she want?
- My story. Hmm.
Well, f*ck her.
- Well, yeah, but...
- But what?
What about telling my story?
Mags...
remember the way Dad exploded at stuff?
It was no good for him.
We got to be better.
Maybe it's not the worst thing
to just put our heads down,
let this sh*t go away.
And what?
And let that fucker be the good guy?
Fricking Teacher of the f*cking Year!
His name...
up in f*cking lights. No.
[CROW CAWING]
- Where are you going?
- [LAUGHS]
To caw!
- [CROWS CAW]
- [DAVID LAUGHS]
[SLOW, GENTLE MUSIC]
♪
[CROWS CAWING]
♪
[GIA EXHALES]
Any pain?
Always.
Good.
Dr. Dewar called me.
You haven't made an appointment.
♪
[PIA] I have to be honest, mia bambina,
I don't know if you have
it in you to be a mother.
You're like me.
[GIA] Just before my mom d*ed,
she asked me to help her
google an old boyfriend.
- Was he fat?
- [LAUGHS]
I love googling old boyfriends
and seeing how fat they are now.
He was rich.
She could have had a
completely different life.
But was he fat?
I don't know.
I didn't help her.
You... didn't schedule the scan yet.
Is that right?
I'm not ready yet
to find out for sure that I'm dying.
You're going to find out how to
treat whatever it is you have.
I just have to finish something first.
Well, get to it.
You're the mother now.
[BABY COOING]
- Stop.
- What?
[GIA] That's Jack. What do I do?
Hope he didn't come here to k*ll you.
- That's... Are you kidding?
- You asked.
He would k*ll himself
before he k*lled me.
Oh. Well, in that
case, we should be fine.
- No, no, wait. Wait, wait.
- What?
Maybe we should go back to the hospital.
- Gia... stop.
- Sloane.
What the f*cking f*ck, Gia?
[SLOANE] Okay, calm down.
You a new friend?
- Mm-hmm.
- Well, you got to be careful
because she goes through friends quick.
Oh, I go through 'em even quicker.
[SIGHS]
- Gia, today's your due date.
- She came a couple days early.
I had an emergency C-section.
- Well, is she okay?
- Yeah.
Sorry that I didn't call you.
Why would you call me?
Because my baby was being born?
I mean, no need for that, right?
She has been going through a lot.
- I don't f*cking know that?!
- You want to have
a conversation, or do
you want to scare the sh*t
out of your daughter?
- [COOING]
- Hey, sweetie.
[SNIFFLES]
[COOING]
[JACK] What's her name?
[GIA] She doesn't have one yet.
She's the most beautiful
thing in the world.
[LAUGHS]
[GIA SNIFFLES]
Yeah. I know.
[COOING]
We could, uh... we could
name her after your mom.
I grew up Pia and Gia,
and I was really hoping
to avoid passing along
that childhood trauma.
Well, if you add "Jack" in
the middle, it's less lame.
Do you want to hold her?
Mm-hmm.
[GIA SNIFFLES]
Be really careful with her head.
Yeah.
Ooh. [LAUGHS]
I was thinking, um...
Fox.
[JACK SNIFFLES]
You know, 'cause she's
a-a wild beast. [LAUGHS]
I f*cking love it.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
[LAUGHS]
- Little Fox.
- Yeah. Yeah.
[GIA BABBLES]
Hey, Mama Bear, you're gonna
- scare the sh*t out of your little Fox.
- [LAUGHS]
Isn't that my job?
[SIGHS]
Come on.
You can't tell me you don't want this,
that you don't want a family.
I don't want to lose
a family. [SNIFFLES]
Gia, I swear to you,
I will not die.
- Oh.
- You will not die.
Not until she's, like...
you know, 187 years old.
[SNIFFLES]
Do you swear?
I f*cking swear.
I swear to you.
You're married to a chef. This is silly.
[LAUGHS SOFTLY]
- Well?
- Well?
When are you gonna cut the bullshit?
[LAUGHS]
This isn't good for
Sophie, the separate homes.
- I'm right in the barn, Mom.
- Like a horse.
Excuse me? Like a what?
Whatever happened between you
and Richard, you need to fix it.
You want me to take responsibility?
Naturally.
It's all connected, you know.
- I'm sorry?
- I didn't just
materialize like this one day, Mom.
You made me like this.
The way I wanted to be a
woman to the outside world.
The world couldn't care less
about how you want your
Black woman-ness regarded.
You want to know why I
flushed the toilet twice
all those times?
You.
Please.
And you want to know
what I did to my marriage?
I'm not sure what you've heard, Mom,
but it's not that we
f*cked other people.
We've been doing that.
The night the sh*t hit the fan,
I was riding the oyster farmer,
and the white girl was sitting
on my husband's beautiful face.
I'm in the barn like a horse
because I lied to my husband
because I wanted more.
More even than what he gives me.
- And it's all because of you.
- Enough.
Sorry, Mom.
[SLOW, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
[SIGHS]
[RICHARD EXHALES]
Just needed to get some makeup, so...
[SNIFFLES]
Nice job on the cake.
Looks like a horse head.
Uh, might look like a horse head,
but it tastes like horse sh*t. [LAUGHS]
Really?
Oh, Richard, I miss you so much.
Can we just... ?
Please?
[CRYING] Please.
- I am begging you.
- Don't, don't.
- Don't-don't do that...
- Please.
- Don't do that!
- Please, I miss you.
I miss you so much. I
miss everything about you.
Can you please just let me come home?
- Please, please. [CRYING]
- Do you know
that over the course
of our life together,
sometimes I'd have to
stop and go, "Now hold up.
Is my wife a slut?"
Is my wife a f*cking slut?!
Some nights, you know,
I felt old.
And I watch you with
these young dudes, and...
I'm sorry.
[RICHARD SIGHS]
[RYAN] At first, they thought
it was a regular brontosaurus,
but then, the scientists,
the Argentinian scientists...
Mom?
[SLOW, MYSTERIOUS MUSIC]
♪
- [MUTTERS]
- [RYAN] Where are we going?
- Mom?!
- Yes, sweetie?
- Are we going to the park?
- Huh? Yeah. No.
- We got to go home.
- You promised me we were going
- to the park.
- I did not promise anything.
- Look.
- Yes, you did!
I said, if there was
time, and there's no time.
Yes, you did! You promised
- we were going to the park.
- I... [SIGHS]
You just don't remember 'cause
you're looking at your phone
- and not listening to me.
- [LAUGHING]
All you do is look at your dumb
phone all day, all the time!
- All right. Hey.
- You're a bad mom!
Hush up now. We're gonna go to the park.
Do you know that it costs
an extra 19 buckaroos
to leave Elliott at daycare for
two more hours? So this is...
I mean, right, that's,
like, five Daniel Tiger toys.
Daniel Tiger's for babies.
Well, you're my baby.
Whatever.
Okay.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Okay.
Checking one thing.
- Mom?
- Yeah?
Can you not look at your phone?
Of course, sweetie.
Can you leave it in the car, please?
Oh.
Thanks.
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING]
- What do you think?
- It's great. Thank you.
- Cash all right?
- Absolutely. Thanks.
♪ Cannot wait till I get home ♪
♪ Almost there... ♪
[DOORBELL JINGLES, CHIMES]
[MONEY SHUFFLING]
[CASH REGISTER CLOSES]
♪ Think about you every day... ♪
Hey, ma'am, your change?
She doesn't need the change. She's rich.
- [DOORBELL JINGLES]
- Hey!
Stop making me chase
you. I'm f*cking pregnant.
I ran six miles a day
when I was pregnant.
What do you want?
You kidding?
[LAUGHS]
I started telling people.
At first, I was ashamed, and
then I was like, "f*ck that."
I'm not the one who should be ashamed.
You are a f*cking slut. [LAUGHS]
What are you gonna do
when Sophie starts
asking you about this?
When she asks why there
are friend's houses
she won't be able to go to?
When my daughter asks me
why she can't go over
to someone's house,
why a grown-ass woman would
hold something against a child,
I'm gonna tell her it's because
that person is a f*cking assh*le.
And you can hate me
instead of hating your man.
That's cool. But one thing?
We should probably stop
calling each other sluts.
You don't want that
sh*t to come back around.
[CHILDREN SHOUTING]
- Mom?
- Mm-hmm?
Okay, so ready? Watch this.
- Wait. Ready for what, hon?
- [LAUGHS] Wait. Watch this.
Wait. Watch what?
- Wow!
- [LAUGHING]
- That was so cool. [LAUGHS]
- [LAUGHS]
When did you learn how to do that?!
- I don't know.
- [LAUGHS] Hey.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
- Hey, Mom?
- Yeah?
- I have to go poop.
- Oh. [LAUGHS]
- [FLIES BUZZING]
- Oh. Oh, God.
It's all right, honey.
- It's just a toilet.
- God. Ew!
Can you stop taking the
Lord's name in vain, please?
- Okay.
- Okay. Look. Gosh.
I never thought I'd miss diapers.
- What?
- All right. Um...
Mama's gonna make it nice and clean.
- [RYAN GROANS, LAUGHS]
- Okay.
You know what, Ryan?
I'm gonna be right outside.
- Wait. No. Please, Mommy, stay with me.
- Ryan. It's okay.
- Please.
- Ryan, just poop.
It's okay.
I'll be right here.
[RYAN] Oh, God.
[PANTING]
[SOFT CREAKING]
[SOFT, GENTLE MUSIC]
♪
You done?
[RYAN] Uh, almost. Like, two minutes.
Two minutes?
[ENERGETIC MUSIC]
♪
[YELPS]
Are you kidding?
[ENGINE STARTS]
Oh, come on.
Oh, come on.
♪ Rockin' out to that music ♪
♪ Love the way that I'm movin' ♪
♪ All I need is you
and my boyfriend's... ♪
We made it.
♪ Come on, baby, let's do it ♪
♪ All I need is you ♪
♪ And my boyfriend's you tonight ♪
♪
♪ Hey! Hey! ♪
Mommy!
Hi. [LAUGHS]
Oh!
[GASPS] Ah.
You excited to get this party started?
Yeah?
What? What's wrong?
Dad just told me Leanna
and Bailey can't come.
Like, all of a sudden.
Did he say why?
Well, that's their loss.
You hear me?
[SCOFFS]
Come on!
[UPLIFTING MUSIC]
♪
[SIGHS]
[RYAN] Mom, help!
[KEYS JANGLE]
Ryan?
[HIGH-PITCHED RINGING]
[MUFFLED] Ryan?
Ryan?!
Ryan?
Excuse me. Have you seen a little boy?
- No.
- [INDISTINCT, MUFFLED CHATTER]
He was just in the bathroom.
He's got to be close by.
- Ryan?
- [RYAN] Mommy!
Over there.
- Ryan?
- [RYAN] Mom!
[PANTING]
- Help!
- Oh, my God! It's okay. It's okay.
It's okay, honey. I got you.
I got you. Grab on to me.
It's okay. It's okay.
[GRUNTS] It's okay.
- Help.
- It's okay.
[CRYING] Oh, God! I'm
so sorry. I'm so sorry.
Oh, God! I'm so sorry.
Thank you, God, for my son.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
[SNIFFLES, SIGHS]
- Say no to Knodel!
- Say no!
Say no to Knodel!
- Say no to Knodel.
- [MAN] It's over. You lost.
Go home, you ugly bitch.
- Hey, f*ck you, p*ssy! f*ck you!
- David!
- Stop the car, why don't you?
- David.
- David, David, David, stop.
- f*ck you!
- Stop.
- What? It's fine.
- No.
- He's a f*cking assh*le, Maggie.
Put that sign down
- before you get your ass kicked!
- Get the f*ck out of here.
- Just drive. Just drive.
- [MAN 2] Nobody cares, douche!
[CAR APPROACHING]
Haven't you ruined Mr.
Knodel's life enough?
You don't know what
you're talking about.
Well, we know you're a fat liar.
- Uh-huh. Okay.
- Maggie.
No, okay. What are you gonna do?
- Call the cops?
- Yeah, actually I am.
Smile, you f*cking stupid bitch!
- Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
- No, they're f*cking stupid,
- David. This is stupid.
- It's not.
- It is stupid. Let's just go.
- Maggie.
- Have to go to work.
- You can't listen to idiots.
Those girls are dumb and mean.
[MAGGIE] No one believes me.
Does that mean everyone is an idiot?
[PANTING]
David?
You don't get it, do you?
No one believes me.
Not one single person.
You don't even think Aaron did
anything that wrong, do you?
What?
Do you think he did anything wrong?
- I am out here with you.
- Yeah, you're out here with me.
But you know what I
mean, David. You know.
Okay, what if he broke into my house,
put a Kn*fe to my
throat and r*ped me, huh?
What would you do then?
Just hold these f*cking
signs with me out here?!
I don't know!
You-you wouldn't do anything
if someone r*ped your little sister?
Fine. I-I would kick his
f*cking ass. I would k*ll him.
- Is that what you want me to say?
- So what is... what is the difference, then?!
- Huh?!
- He didn't do any of that!
There. Exactly.
You don't believe he did anything.
[DAVID] Hey.
- I believe that he hurt you.
- Hmm.
I believe that you are hurt, okay?
David, I was a kid.
He was my teacher.
Teachers are supposed
to protect the kids.
I-I don't...
You don't know.
I don't know what the
f*ck to say, Maggie.
[NEWSMAN] Up first in
local news, Aaron Knodel,
North Dakota's Teacher of the
Year, has been found not guilty
after being accused of
having a sexual relationship
with an underage female student in 2009.
Now, Mr. Knodel was acquitted on three
of the five charges against him.
Two of the charges
- were dropped...
- [MAGGIE] Are you kidding me?
... after prosecutors opted
against another trial.
The school board voted unanimously
to offer Mr. Knodel back pay.
- [TV CLICKS OFF]
- All right, back to work.
No, no, please. Let's keep watching.
Just calm down, okay? Back here.
[MAN] She knew what she was doing.
[MAN 2] Stop talking, dude.
- You don't like it here?
- I don't like having a job,
and neither do you.
Everyone treats me like
I'm a fricking idiot. Or a slut!
- [MAN CLEARS THROAT]
- Uh...
- Yeah?!
- Maggie, hush. Please.
If you can't keep your
private life at home,
you just can't work here.
My private life? Hmm?
Is all over the f*cking TV you
were letting everyone gawk at!
Why don't you take the
rest of the day to cool off?
f*ck you.
Peace out, Perkins!
Hey, bud, Mama's gonna talk
to her friend for a sec.
Want to play with my phone?
[RYAN] Okay.
[VEHICLE DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
Oh, you brought, uh...
Yeah. But, um...
I only wanted to talk to you real quick.
Hello.
Fresh pack?
Why don't you take the whole thing?
What?
I just bring 'em for you
so you'll leave these
meetings wanting to meet again.
[AIDAN SNIFFS]
Kid, you kind of smell like sh*t.
Do you know I thought
there was a magic formula?
That I could...
I thought, "Okay,
maybe if I wait for 14 minutes
while standing on my f*cking
head saying The Lord's Prayer,
then-then this man will
write me back and... "
- [LAUGHS]
- Look.
Uh, ki... kid, you
know I'm not a free man.
That's bullshit, Aidan.
You felt plenty free when
you were cumming inside me.
But it's not your fault.
[INHALES SHARPLY]
And anyway, I don't...
That stuff was good for me.
It was fun for me.
Hmm, I mean, it was...
heartbreaking fun,
but it was still fun. Right?
[BOTH LAUGH]
And I needed fun in my life.
Yeah.
You're the most fun, Kid.
I'm sorry.
Please don't be sorry.
That is something I want you to know.
I was in control.
Just wanted...
what you could not give me.
My God, I still want that thing.
Well, I still want that thing, too.
[SNIFFLES]
[EXHALES SOFTLY]
This is over.
[SOFT, MELANCHOLY MUSIC]
♪
You know...
Kid, you know I care.
For you.
No, you don't.
Got to go.
I got the boy.
Got to get my other boy.
I got to...
make dinner.
And I smell like sh*t
'cause I'm covered in sh*t.
Hey. Will you just...
Will you just take this
for the smokes then?
Kid, come on. Will you just take this?
[SEAT BELT CLICKS]
Kid, come on.
[RYAN] Mom?
[OPTIMISTIC MUSIC]
♪
[GASPS SOFTLY]
[BIRDS SINGING]
[WATER RUNS, STOPS]
[GROANS]
- [THUD]
- Oh! sh*t!
What the hell?! f*ck!
[PANTING]
You're a crazy bitch.
And I'm tired of not sleeping
next to my g*dd*mn husband!
[GRUNTS]
You don't ever call your wife a slut.
Do you hear me?
- [SCOFFS]
- I... am not...
- a slut.
- Mm-hmm.
Nobody is.
That words means absolutely nothing.
And I may be messy as
hell, but I'm f*cking great.
And you don't deserve me.
- Mm-hmm.
- Nobody does.
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
[SLOW, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Hmm.
[RICHARD CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
[RICHARD MOANS]
[SLOANE MOANS]
[SLOANE YELPS]
[BOTH LAUGHING]
[BOTH MOANING]
Oh! sh*t.
♪
[BOTH MOANING]
[RICHARD GROWLS]
[SLOANE MOANING AND PANTING LOUDLY]
[BOTH MOANING]
[SLOANE PANTING HEAVILY]
[RICHARD GRUNTING]
[SLOANE CRIES OUT]
[SLOANE GASPING]
- [SLOANE PANTING]
- [RICHARD SIGHS]
♪
[SLOANE PANTING]
How about we have it be
just you and me for a while?
[SLOANE CRIES QUIETLY]
[CRYING] I am so sorry.
No, you're not.
But I am.
[SLOANE LAUGHS]
♪
[RICHARD MOANS]
[SLOANE SNIFFLING]
[ENERGETIC DRUMBEAT PLAYING]
[STUDENTS CHEERING]
Let's go!
[CHEERING, CLAMORING]
[WHOOPING, LAUGHING]
[MARK] Hey, Mags?
I think I was wrong, kiddo.
Dad?
Sometimes you need more
than a little boost from God.
[LAUGHS]
You have the power, Mags.
It's already in you.
I know it won't be easy,
but I want you to go get those f*ckers!
I love you, Mags.
- [PANTING]
- [SLOW, GENTLE MUSIC]
- [RHYTHMIC CLAPPING]
- [CROWD] Not guilty! Not guilty!
- Not guilty!
- [LIGHT CLACKS ON]
Not guilty!
[GIA] Why is it easy to say,
"I love you inside of me,"
but not just, "I love you"?
Lina asked me,
"Why is loving someone who
doesn't love you back a humiliation?"
Because we are condemned
when we take our faces off.
We are condemned when we
break from the script.
A script none of us even wrote.
You got to say your name.
Got to tell the whole world your name.
- Maggie.
- Maggie.
- Maggie.
- Maggie.
[GIA] Lina knew.
- Maggie.
- Sloane knew.
Maggie.
They realized it was
time to stop pretending
that what they wanted didn't
matter as much as it f*cking should.
[WHISPERING VOICE] Maggie.
- [VOICE 2] Maggie.
- [VOICE 3] Maggie.
- [VOICE 4] Maggie.
- [VOICE 5] Maggie.
- [VOICE 6] Maggie.
- [VOICE 7] Maggie.
[WHISPERING VOICES CONTINUE]
Maggie!
[GASPS] Maggie.
[SIGHS] Maggie.
Maggie.
Maggie.
Hey.
I got to go.
I'm catching the next ferry.
Wait, what? What-What's going on?
I just wanted to come and say bye.
You want to calm down
and come in for a second?
- No. I don't have time.
- You have time.
- Sloane, I don't have...
- Gia, I know the ferry schedule.
- She's sleeping.
- I got it.
- [FOX FUSSING]
- [SLOANE SIGHS]
Where are you going, and where is Jack?
Oh, Jack's in New York getting his sh*t.
- So he's coming back?
- Mm-hmm.
And that's a good thing, yeah?
I'm dying, Sloane.
You have no idea how easy
it is for death to find you,
and unless you experience
it, you don't worry about it.
If I cut it off right
now, then it'll hurt less.
And you're making this decision for him?
And for me. And for everyone.
[LAUGHS] If you leave like
this, it's basically kidnapping.
You know, one thing that I, like,
really dig about you is, you
usually mind your business.
Who's the one running around
asking everyone on Earth
what it feels like to suck
a d*ck and eat a p*ssy,
pretending to be a journalist?
I was telling your story.
- Ah.
- That's you.
That is wildly, uh...
altruistic.
Look, you don't want to talk to
me anymore, you don't have to.
You would not be the first
to stop, and I totally get it.
Okay, girl.
I just came to say goodbye.
Then, goodbye.
[FOX BABBLING]
- Thank you.
- Mm-hmm.
[CAR DOOR OPENS, CLOSES]
[ENGINE STARTS]
[GIA] If you're a woman,
they'll find the worst things
they can say about you.
It's cruelest when other women do it.
See you.
[DRIVER] Take care now.
[GIA] They'll call you fat,
they'll call you a whore.
A bad mom.
[KNOCKING]
Hey.
[GIA] They'll do it
because it's been done to them.
[PHONE RINGING]
It's Gia. Leave a message.
- Bye.
- [BEEP]
[JACK] I had this feeling,
as I was on the boat
on the way to this elitist
piece of sh*t island,
that you'd disappear.
I would never do this to you.
And then, uh, my second thought was, uh,
"No, no, no.
Uh, no one is that much of a cliché."
"No smart person is
that much of a prisoner
to their own psych 101 bullshit."
You know, and the tragedy here
is that you think this is interesting.
That being an unhinged sociopath
somehow makes you interesting.
That this poor man's
gonzo journalism act
is f*cking interesting!
All you are, all you ever will be,
is a bad... mom.
And you know what else?
Your f*cking teeth are
not age-appropriate!
So f*ck... you!
Bitch!
God! Aah!
[SLOW, GENTLE MUSIC]
[GIA] I think we all do the
best we can, is what I think.
And I think anyone who has
something to say can go f*ck himself.
You got a phone I could use?
[SNIFFLES] I need... I
need to call the police
to report a child kidnapping.
- [PANTING]
- Huh?
A child's been abducted.
Thank you.
[SIGHS]
Uh, do-do I... ?
Should I dial locally,
or do I just dial 911?
- I don't know.
- [QUIETLY] f*ck...
[GIA] I'd learned so
much from the women.
I'd learned from them what I had
not yet learned from my mother.
[FOX COOING]
But I wasn't done,
and the book could
not be done until her.
Until Maggie.
She was the kind that left a legacy.
I read it in her story in the paper,
I could hear her screaming
between the lines,
and I could feel all the
regular people out there
thrusting their hands out
in an attempt to quiet her.
♪ I got a notion to say
what doesn't feel right ♪
But now was not the time to be quiet.
♪ Got an answer in your story today ♪
- ♪ It gave me a sign that didn't feel right... ♪
- Gia?
Hey. Oh, my God.
- Just driving through?
- Yeah, exactly.
♪ You've been here before... ♪
Who is that?
Uh, I was actually gonna
ask you the same question.
I don't know. I just
found it in the booth.
Uh... you don't know who might have... ?
[LAUGHS]
Do you want to sit?
- [MAGGIE SNIFFLES]
- I'm sorry I just, like, showed up like this.
I don't really know what I'm doing.
I just wanted to meet you.
That's not weird or anything.
- Yeah, I know. Sorry. [LAUGHS]
- [LAUGHS]
You can stop saying "sorry."
♪ Day after day... ♪
- [LAUGHS SOFTLY]
- I guess I just wanted
to say to you that, like,
no matter what happens,
even if we never speak again,
I believe you, Maggie.
I believe that everything you
said happened to you is true.
And that what that guy did
to you is so utterly wrong.
He was your teacher.
He was supposed to give a sh*t
about what happened to you.
But he didn't. He gave a sh*t
about what happened to him.
You really f*cking believe me?
I really f*cking believe you.
♪ I wanted to know if
I could go home... ♪
I could never do what you've done
- and stand there and be okay.
- [SIGHS]
Like, when my father d*ed,
I-I didn't leave my house
for, like, five years.
[EXHALES]
Maybe then you... you should stay.
We could be brave together.
- Yeah?
- Mm. [LAUGHS]
Maggie, I want to tell
the world your story.
Because there are people out
there who will believe you.
I think, like, lots of people.
♪ So don't knock it,
don't knock it... ♪
[SNIFFLES]
When I told you to pick
a place, I said to myself,
"If she picked Donut
Hut, then I'll meet her."
- [LAUGHS] Really?
- Yeah.
It was my dad's favorite.
[CHUCKLES]
Hmm.
So you'll stay?
Yeah.
Can I hug you?
- Yeah.
- ♪ Don't knock it ♪
I f*cking believe you.
♪ So don't knock it, don't knock it ♪
♪ You've been here before ♪
Thank you so much.
♪ So don't knock it, don't knock it ♪
♪ You've been here before ♪
[GENTLE MUSIC]
♪
[GIA] The other thing
people always wanted to know
besides, "Why these three women,"
was, "What did you learn?"
Talking to these women
and to hundreds more
for hours and hours and
living in their towns
and going to the doctor with them
and going to meet their
lovers, and what did you learn?
What I learned is
somewhat the same answer
to the question of,
"Why these three women?"
Because they are all of us.
Because we are all in this together.
And everybody counts
the exact same amount.
Even the b*tches and the sluts.
[EXHALES DEEPLY]
We don't want to hear that other
women struggle with their weight,
with their looks,
with aging, with status.
We want to pretend those
struggles don't exist.
That we don't look for the lost
or broken parts of ourselves
in the shape of other people.
♪
[LAUGHS]
Why Lina?
Why this unhappy housewife?
- ♪
- [DIALOGUE INAUDIBLE]
Why Sloane with her unruly desire?
And Maggie?
Why name her desire at all?
And wasn't hers actually just trauma?
But people att*ck nuance.
They att*ck aberration,
even as they bemoan
the lack of representation
of this group or that one.
What I learned is this.
We don't want to hear about
what another woman wants
if it's something married,
if it's something brutish,
if it's something we have wanted,
too, and did not get.
We don't want to hear a
young woman feels actualized
by the gaze of a man,
even if hearing that
and witnessing the fallout
it wreaks is the very thing
that helps another woman
not make the same mistakes.
What I learned is that
we all want to be loved.
We all want to be seen and loved
for who we truly are.
But even just saying that can be
the scariest thing in the whole world.
You know what I learned?
It doesn't matter what she wants.
Just let her go and try and get it
because that is what
she f*cking deserves.
That's what I learned.
[EXHALES]
["FIRE" BY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN]
♪
♪ I'm driving in my car... ♪
Wait. You got to turn on the...
- [MAGGIE] Oh.
- Excuse me.
[SIGHS] Thanks.
♪ I'm pulling you close... ♪
You guys going to New York for vacation?
Uh, yeah, sort of.
[ARLENE CHUCKLES]
- She's gonna be on TV.
- Mom.
- What?
- The Today Show.
- Really?
- [SIGHS] Oh, my gosh.
[ARLENE] She's in a book.
- Yeah. [LAUGHS]
- Mm-hmm.
Holy smokes.
I've never met anyone on TV before.
- That's pretty cool.
- ♪ Late at night ♪
- [BELL DINGS]
- ♪ I'm taking you home ♪
♪ I say I want to stay ♪
♪ You say you want to be alone ♪
♪ You say you don't love me ♪
♪ But you can't hide your desire ♪
♪ When we kiss ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Fire ♪
♪ You got a hold on me
right from the start ♪
♪ A grip so tight, I
couldn't tear it apart ♪
♪ My nerves all jumpin',
actin' like a fool ♪
♪ Your kisses, they burn,
but your heart stays cool ♪
♪ Romeo and Juliet ♪
♪ Samson and Delilah ♪
♪ You can bet ♪
♪ Their love they couldn't deny ♪
♪ Your words say split ♪
♪ But your words, they lie ♪
♪ When we kiss ♪
♪ Oh, fire ♪
♪ Fire ♪