1212 - February 16, 1971

[bunniefuu]

[eerie music]

NARRATOR:Collinwood in parallel time.

This is a fateful night in the great house.

Once during each generation, a member of the family

is chosen by lottery to spend a night

in a mysterious, locked room.

All who have entered have either d*ed or gone insane.

A terrifying secret harbored in the room

has remained unknown.

But soon it will be revealed to one person,

for Flora Collins has decided that

the lottery must be held tonight.

[dramatic music]

I have prepared the slips, and placed them in the vase.

Each one will draw a slip.

Five of them are blanks.

But one slip has been marked with an X.

Whoever draws the X will go into the room.

Who will begin?

I'll begin.

[dramatic music]

[eerie music]

[suspenseful music]

Are we ready to announce?

[suspenseful music]

Let's get it over with, I'll begin.

No, let me.

I drew a blank.

Blank.

Blank.

I can't bear this.

Be quiet, Quentin.

Be quiet, Gabriel.

I drew a blank.

Catherine?

[gasping]

It's Catherine, she drew the X.

She drew the X.

No, Gabriel.

I drew the last blank.

[dramatic music]

It can't be.

MORGAN: Open the slip.

Open the slip.

No.

MORGAN: Open it!

No, I'm not going to!

You drew the X.

You shall have to go into the room.

I won't go.

You hear me, I won't go!

I'm afraid you have no choice.

This, this isn't fair.

Now you listen to me.

It's as fair as it possibly can be in a thing like this.

You predicted you'd get it, now it's come true.

You voted to jeopardize the lives of the three women.

That's what you deserve.

Now please, don't want me to have any sympathy for him,

'cause I don't.

Morgan, this is the time to set personal feelings aside.

Whoever goes into that room,

deserves the sympathy of the whole family.

You'll never get me in that room!

FLORA: Stop him.

QUENTIN: Gabriel.

GABRIEL: You hear me, you'll never get me.

He's locked the door.

There's a key in the drawer.

We'll go after him.

Oh, Gabriel.

I wish it hadn't been he or any of you.

I would rather I had been chosen.

We would never permit that.

No, they have to find him and he has to go through it.

But he's right, you know.

It's not fair.

Not to him and not to any of us.

I think that what we've done to Gabriel,

and to ourselves, is revolting.

[panting]

[leaves crunching]

[yelping]

[loud thudding]

You'll have to k*ll me to take me back now.

QUENTIN: You were headed for the village, weren't you?

Quentin, listen to me.

Morgan, please listen to me.

You listen to me, there's nothing to talk about.

I'll give you anything.

I'll give you anything, I'll give you every cent.

My inheritance, you can split it.

Alright, settle down!

Now, you said if you lost, you'd take this like a man.

I don't care about taking it like a man.

I'm not going into that room.

Can't anyone understand that?

MORGAN: We understand that, dear brother.

But it makes no difference.

Listen to me.

Now you listen to me.

Now, you're going to go back.

Now either I hit you and I carry you back,

but tomorrow night, you're going into that room.

[dramatic music]

[suspenseful music]

[door clanking]

JULIA: You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Oh, now don't you start lecturing me.

There's nothing wrong with being afraid

of going into that room.

Anyone of us would have been afraid to go into that room,

But anyone of us would have gone in with courage.

Ah, that's fine for you to say.

You didn't get picked, did you?

Are you aware of what your behavior

has done to your mother?

Now what does she expect?

What do any of you expect?

MORGAN: What are we going to do with him, Aunt Julia?

If I let go of him, he'll just run away again.

We'll keep him under lock and key in the tower room.

Oh no, you don't, not the tower room.

You've given us no other choice, Gabriel.

Even if you told us, you gave us your word

that you wouldn't leave, we could not accept it.

Oh, what a lovely little, civilized family we are.

You'll be given anything you want until tomorrow evening.

Including all the liquor you need.

You know, Julia?

You're really beginning to sound like a real executioner,

preparing a last meal for the condemned man.

Why don't you get a minister

and have him perform the last rites?

JULIA: I'm not enjoying any of this, Gabriel.

Yes, you are.

Oh, you all are.

You're all so glad that you didn't get chosen.

Where's Mother?

She's in her room, she can't help you now.

Oh, take him upstairs.

Come on.

GABRIEL: That's it, boys.

Come on, take the dead man upstairs, that's it.

[knocking on door]

Come in.

Julia?

Catherine, I have something, something to say to you

that's rather important.

CATHERINE: Well, what is it?

Well, it concerns certain attitudes

that you have had since coming to this house.

CATHERINE: What attitudes exactly?

Well, you've been against the lottery from the beginning.

It had to be postponed because of you.

Because it was postponed, Melanie became seriously ill.

You mean to say that you're accusing me

of causing Melanie's illness?

If the lottery hadn't been postponed,

she would not have been ill.

CATHERINE: Oh, that's absurd.

And tonight, you tried to stop the lottery again.

Very well, but when I saw that I couldn't,

I agreed to go along with the feelings

of the rest of the family.

You're new here, new to our ways.

Of course you're entitled to whatever opinions you have.

But I would caution you not to try to impose

yourself on this house too quickly.

What exactly do you mean by that?

I mean that you are not the mistress of this house.

CATHERINE: Is it your impression that I am trying

to take over the family?

Oh, you're an ambitious person.

There's nothing wrong with ambition.

As along as it doesn't affect the rest of the family.

We don't like change.

We will not accept it.

I see.

Are you finished?

Not quite.

Since you objected so to the lottery,

I might assume that you would

do something to change the outcome of it.

To change it?

JULIA: Yes.

You probably think that you're alone

in feeling sorry for Gabriel.

It's not true.

We all feel very sorry about the ordeal he has to face.

But not one of us would stop him from going into that room.

And you think that I might?

Yes, I do think you might.

You would regret it.

The curse must be appeased.

It is our duty as a family to appease it.

There is no other way.

[dramatic music]

[mysterious music]

You need anything, ring the bell.

Thank you so much.

[door lock clicking]

[dramatic music]

[ominous music]

Is he in the tower?

Yes.

How is he?

MORGAN: He has a flask with him,

he'll be alright after a while.

May I have the key?

What for?

FLORA: I want to go up and see him.

Mother, I don't think that's a good idea.

Quentin, I owe it to be with him now.

MORGAN: Mother, you owe him nothing

after what he did this evening.

He is still my son.

I don't care what he's done.

Perhaps I can give him some small amount of courage.

Very small, indeed.

Now listen, I understand how you feel,

but I think it would be very dangerous.

You, you may even feel sorrier for him.

He'll encourage it, Mother.

And then, I'm afraid you might do something

that we'd all regret very much, later.

FLORA: I give you my word, I'll only try to comfort him.

Now, which of you has the key?

Thank you.

Quentin, I think one of us should go up there

and keep an eye on her while she's in the room.

No, no, no, no her word's good enough for me.

She said she wouldn't let him go, and she'll keep her word.

MORGAN: Are you alright?

I, uh, just felt dizzy for minute, that's all.

Would you like me to get Doctor Fletcher?

No, of course not.

I'm alright.

It's just been a very strenuous night.

[dramatic music]

[door lock clicking]

Hello, Gabriel.

Oh, Mother.

You've come to take me out, haven't you?

Oh, tell me yes.

You know, Mother, I was sitting up here the whole while,

I was thinking just how Mother always used to protect me

in the past, and she never let anything happen to me,

and she certainly wouldn't let anything happen now.

Would she?

[door slamming]

But Mother, you've got to show some mercy.

You've got to show some mercy, please.

Gabriel, we're helpless.

Helpless to change our destiny.

You were born with a curse,

and there's nothing we can do about it but try to endure it.

You're not going to help me, are you?

When the lottery was held last, it was your father

who drew the slip that was marked with an X,

who spent the night in the locked room.

He did so bravely and with a sense of family responsibility.

You are your father's son.

It has fallen on you to carry out

the most serious obligation this family has.

Mother, I thought I was going to get some pity from you,

but all you're doing is encouraging me

to go into the room.

If I had drawn the losing strip,

I'd go in without hesitation.

Well, that's fine for you.

But you're you and I'm me and where does that leave us?

Where we started.

You're your father's son,

and the tradition is yours to uphold.

I brought you this.

I thought it might give you some comfort tomorrow night.

What is it?

It was your father's.

It was his favorite book on meditation.

He took it into the room with him that night.

Fat lot of good that did him.

Mother, don't you know that that isn't what I need?

I don't need a book on meditation.

Don't you understand?

FLORA: I understand very well.

What you need is something I cannot give you.

But you can get me out of here.

No, I cannot.

As much as I would like to, it's impossible.

You were chosen fairly.

The one who was chosen cannot be changed.

I'm sorry, my son.

I will pray for you.

[door lock clicking]

[heavy breathing]

Quentin!

Hot, so hot.

Julia, stay away.

It's the plague.

Plague.

[dramatic music]

[ominous music]

I just came Melanie's room.

She's weaker.

I just hope she'll last out until tomorrow night.

CATHERINE: Until Gabriel goes into the room?

Yes.

CATHERINE: And you think that will

solve everything, don't you?

What's wrong?

Everything that's happened tonight, that's what's wrong.

The whole idea of this lottery is barbaric.

It's terrible.

Come, there's no point of going through all this again.

CATHERINE: Will you stop and think about it?

Will you just think about it clearly once?

Look Catherine, I know how strange it all seems to you.

Strange?

I think we should all be ashamed of ourselves.

We couldn't be more cruel to Gabriel

if we just took him out and sh*t him to death.

Catherine, I think you're being

very irrational about this.

I think I'm the only one in this house

who isn't being irrational.

I think it's absolutely vicious

to force Gabriel to go into that room.

You're the one who thinks this curse is a farce.

If you're right, nothing will happen

to Gabriel when he goes in.

CATHERINE: I can only think of the t*rture

he's going through right now.

Oh, Catherine, please.

Let's don't discuss this any further.

Let's just forget about it.

Now you're beginning to sound like Julia.

What is that supposed to mean?

She came in here about an hour ago.

Decided to give me a little lecture.

And?

She tried to put me in my place.

She accused me of being ambitious,

of trying to impose my feelings on the rest of the family.

She had no right to do that.

I admit, I do have opinions.

But I've always felt that I had the right

to express them without fear of retaliation.

I've never been so humiliated in my life.

Well, I promise you it will never happen again.

I'll see to that.

Morgan, come quickly.

Julia, I want to speak to you about something.

Not now.

There's no time.

The plague.

Quentin has the plague.

[dramatic music]

[clock chiming]

Well, what did the doctor say?

He only confirmed what we already knew.

And by tomorrow night we may all have the plague.

Yes.

Mother, I think Gabriel should

go in the room this evening.

No.

There's not enough time left tonight.

Whoever spends the night in that room,

must spend a full night.

All we can do is wait, and pray for Melanie and Quentin.

And Gabriel.

Yes, and Gabriel.

I think he ought to be told about Quentin.

Mother, I don't think that'll give him any encouragement.

FLORA: Quentin is his brother, he ought to know.

Very right.

I'll tell him.

I'll come along and see if there's anything I can do.

I'm very sorry, Mrs. Collins.

I'll be in our bedroom if I'm needed.

[door lock clicking]

Julia!

He's gone.

[dramatic music]

[eerie music]