After the Hunt (2025)
Genre: Psychological drama, crime, drama, thriller
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Nora Garrett
Stars: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny, Lio Mehiel, David Leiber, Thaddea Graham, Will Price, Christine Dye, Hugo Micheron, Lailani Olan, Ariyan Kassam, Nora Garrett, Frankie Ferrari, Burgess Byrd, Sadie Scott
Release Dates: August 29, 2025 (Venice); October 10, 2025 (United States)
Plot Summary: In September 2019, Alma Imhoff, a philosophy professor at Yale University, and her therapist husband Frederik host a dinner party. Alma recently returned to her post after taking an extended medical leave; she experiences frequent bouts of pain and takes prescription medication. In attendance are Hank Gibson, Alma’s colleague and best friend; and Maggie Resnick, her top PhD student.
Alma and Hank are both up for tenure. Maggie finds a mysterious envelope in the bathroom cupboard containing old mementos, and pockets a newspaper clipping from the envelope. Frederik privately opines to Alma that Hank and Maggie are unremarkable, and that she is drawn to them only because they greatly admire her. Hank walks Maggie home.
The next day, Maggie is absent from Alma’s class. Alma finds Maggie outside her home later that night and Maggie, who is a lesbian, confides in Alma that Hank invited himself in for a nightcap and then sexually assaulted her. Maggie finds Alma insufficiently supportive and leaves. Alma speaks to Hank shortly afterwards, who denies the allegation, and argues that Maggie is fabricating it because he accused her of plagiarizing her dissertation.
Alma further upsets Maggie by speaking to the dean without her permission. Maggie and Hank separately ask Alma for her support. Alma returns home and notices the newspaper clipping is missing from the envelope, prompting her to burn most of what was in it. The next day, Hank is fired, and storms into Alma’s classroom, angrily accusing her of not standing up for him to protect her own career. Hank bursts out, and Maggie walks outside. Alma follows Maggie and comforts her, inviting her to dinner that night. Maggie also mentions to Alma that a reporter approached her to talk about the allegation.
The following day, Alma goes out for a drink with a colleague of hers, Dr. Kim Sayers, the university psychiatrist. Maggie goes public with her allegation in the Yale Daily News. She also translates the German-language newspaper clipping, revealing that, as a teenager, Alma accused her father’s friend of raping her, but later recanted the accusation. She meets Alma and asks if this is why she reacted the way she did to Maggie’s allegation. Alma, angry that Maggie violated her privacy, tells her to leave her alone.
Alma is caught forging a prescription for herself from Kim, and her tenure consideration is paused indefinitely. Afterwards, Alma runs into Maggie on campus and confronts her, making her own accusation of plagiarism, criticizing her work ethic, her mirroring of Alma’s mannerisms and dress, her privilege as the child of wealthy Yale donors, and accuses Maggie of a performative relationship with her non-binary partner, Alex. Alma further insinuates that no one believes Maggie’s allegation against Hank, prompting Maggie to slap her.
Alma retreats to her wharfside vacation apartment and finds Hank sleeping there, having kept his borrowed keys from a past visit. Both wounded from recent events, they discuss Hank’s behavior. While he acknowledges flirting with students, he again denies that he raped Maggie, or that he ever had sex with students, saying the only professional boundary he ever crossed was a past affair with Alma, who he still harbors feelings for. They share a tender kiss, which he attempts to escalate to sex, despite Alma telling him no multiple times until she shoves him and kicks him out of the apartment.
Alma returns to campus the next day, not realizing Rolling Stone has published an article in which Maggie heavily criticizes how she and Yale have handled Maggie coming forward. Alma is confronted by Alex and a group of other student protestors and collapses as her stomach ulcers perforate.
In the hospital, Alma tells Frederik her truth about her sexual assault as a teenager, which he knows few details of: she initiated a sexual relationship with her father’s friend, and when he ended the relationship to be with a woman his age, she fabricated a rape allegation against him that was later recanted but led to his suicide. Frederik points out that even if she feels that way what happened was statutory rape.
In an epilogue set in January 2025, Alma is now dean, having published an article about her teenage statutory rape that helped to restore her career. She gets drinks with Maggie, their first time seeing each other since the earlier events. Maggie has moved on and is happy with her life, and Alma claims that she is too. Maggie expresses doubt that Alma is truly happy or that Alma’s article was not a cynical move, but concedes that it no longer matters to her. As Alma pays and leaves, Luca Guadagnino yells “cut!” off screen.
* * *
After the Hunt (2025) | Transcript
(CLOCK TICKING)
(CLOCK CONTINUES TICKING)
WOMAN: Have a good day, madame.
(DOORBELL BUZZES)
(TICKING CONTINUES)
Good morning, Professor.
Good morning.
Not wallowing in myopia.
Kierkegaard said that, I think…
Yeah, but isn’t that, like, implied?
That it’s preferable for one to focus only on themselves.
Mmm. Busy week, Alma.
Mmm. I’m aware.
PATRICIA He’s at Knox’s lecture, sucking up. Ha!
ALMA: See you tonight, Patricia.
(CLOCK CONTINUES TICKING)
Foucault paints a picture of public torture performed in order to maintain the social contract of a time in which displays of power…
(DOOR CLOSES)
Faviola.
The table looks beautiful.
Thank you.
(CLOCK STOPS TICKING)
(MELLOW JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ALMA: I’m not contesting the… perceived existence of a collective morality.
I’m… saying that…
I’m saying that pretending that the ethics of a society hasn’t always started with the highly biased stone-throwing court of public opinion…
Maggie.
(SOFTLY) Uh, yeah.
Is a convenient illusion.
Aimed at what?
Aimed at making us, as people, feel as though we once had a plan for ourselves. We were… better or more united.
Weren’t we?
Would you say we’ve always agreed on…
God or sex or race or politics, or were there just fewer voices, less easily amassed in dissent?
That reminds me, what did you say?
What was the thing you said?
What’s that thing you said?
“Performative discontent.”
Discontent.
Ah! Oof!
You read Maggie’s dissertation, right?
Of course.
HANK: She’s giving me little scraps.
That’s all I’m getting, little scraps.
But what I have read is…
Is barely coherent?
No.
I’m curious what you think, Alma.
I think it has potential to be great.
Truly great.
So why’re you hiding it?
Why? Why? You’re tight.
Why’re you so tight?
All your generation, everyone in your generation, you’re so tight.
Fuckin’ why. I’m so sorry.
Look at life. Look at that.
Perfect. Exemplar.
What are you scared of?
Scared of saying the wrong thing or, uh, offending someone.
I’m sorry about that.
When did offending someone become the preeminent cardinal sin?
I mean, I don’t have a date exactly…
That’s fine.
…but maybe it’s around the same time your generation started making sweeping generalizations about ours.
Are you scared that we’re gonna think less of you if it isn’t perfect?
Whatever shame you have around your self-expression, it is… it’s false. It’s bullshit.
It’s bullshit.
Bullshit.
It’s bullshit.
Bullshit?
HANK: You can’t corrupt your individual purpose, your clarity of voice. It’s… it’s too lucid.
Okay. Um…
That feels like my cue to use the restroom.
Why?
‘Cause you need the restroom or…
ALMA: Oh, honey, uh, don’t go to the usual one, ’cause Frederik has a… project in there.
Uh, go to the guest one down the hall.
‘Kay.
And then she said that all along, you know?
Man, I cannot…
I agree with her in the beginning…
(INDISTINCT CHATTER CONTINUES)
MAN 1: Keep it up, okay?
This is exactly the tactic and it’s doing things.
MAN 2: Well, I don’t wanna always be a contrarian.
MAN 1: Why not?
My sense is that the two of you might feel rather bereft once you’ve gotten the thing you’ve been so fixated on for the past six years, hmm?
Sometimes… a wish fulfilled… can be more baffling than the… longing preceding it.
It’s not a sure thing.
Oh… Hey, come on, Alma.
Don’t let your modesty veer into delusion.
It’s not a, um… it’s not a mountaintop, Fred.
It’s not some egoic… teleological pursuit to tenure. It’s…
It’s a threshold. It’s just a threshold to more freedom… to freedom, to follow any impulse, any desire, any interest you want without fear of systemic reproach.
FREDERIK: Oh, I’m not questioning its value.
I’m saying that…
(SMACKS LIPS)
Well, it is a significant thing to work your whole life for, hmm?
Being above accountability, uh, consequence.
What happens if, uh, one of you gets it and the other doesn’t?
(CHUCKLES)
(CHUCKLES) Oof.
If it’s me and not you, will you be angry?
Yeah, I’ll be rageful. Yeah.
Me too.
(LAUGHING) If it’s you and not me. Furious.
FREDERIK: Or will the strain of it be too much for your friendship?
Hank, I’m fearing, doesn’t like to lose.
(SNIFFLES)
(MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING)
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
(WHISPERING) Shit.
Fuck.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
But seriously, how many of the people we teach…
Mmm, mmm.
Have private lives that wouldn’t pass today’s muster?
Hmm.
All. Well, most. Plenty.
Most. Precisely. So…
But we forgive it.
Why? Because… we have to figure out…
Best to forgive it.
…how to forgive it, because they’re canonical.
Nietzsche easily lends himself to Lebensraum propaganda.
Carl Schmitt… doesn’t just lend himself, he was a Nazi.
HANK: Sure, sure. Um…
Hegel, uh, couldn’t… control little Hegel.
Okay.
Heidegger.
Little?
Heidegger treated Arendt like shit.
Well, that whole dynamic, fucked up.
So I don’t think we can appropriate blame one way or the other.
Aristotle, xenophobe.
Oh, they were all racist.
HANK: Yeah.
And Freud was a misogynist.
HANK: Hmm.
ALMA: Did you hear that, darling?
HANK: Freud was a misogynist, darling.
Oh, it was a different time.
(ALMA AND HANK LAUGHING)
ARTHUR: Um, you know, if you’re worried about tenure…
(SOFTLY) You okay?
ARTHUR: …you shouldn’t be.
Yeah.
Me? Oh.
Oh…
(CLEARS THROAT) Um…
Well, I mean, you were gonna get it anyway, but you’ll definitely get it now.
ALMA: What do you mean?
MAGGIE: Let’s not.
ALMA: No, come on, I’m interested.
Illuminate us.
Okay. Okay.
You can’t deny it’s the culture.
Mmhmm.
The common enemy has been newly chosen, and it is the straight, white, cis man.
MAGGIE: Okay, Arthur, I’m so sorry, ’cause I just had, like, I had no idea that you were going through this… that you were feeling so victimized.
ARTHUR: I literally never said that.
You didn’t have to.
But you’re still bemoaning the fact that you’re… white and male and, uh, straight and, regrettably, cis… in a time when the overt culture is just pretending, like, you know it’s pretend, right, pretending to not prefer these things, and that makes you, what, the first man in this room or… or in history…
History.
…to feel fucked over by society’s bad opinion?
(STUTTERING)
No.
All I’m saying… is that it used to be that a man would edge out an equally qualified woman because he was a man.
But now a woman does just edge out an equally qualified man because she’s a woman.
(MAGGIE LAUGHS)
So let me get this straight.
What you’re saying is… that even despite… the many professional accolades I have accrued over the years in a… deeply misogynistic environment, even despite coming back after a… protracted absence, only to affirm my singular position as a woman in the field, my prospective tenure couldn’t possibly be earned because its awarding happens to coincide with higher education’s sudden subservience to inclusivity.
(SCOFFS) Did I get that right, Arthur?
No, I mean, I’m not…
Did I miss anything?
I’m not trying to…
Tart.
Hey, it’s a tart break.
It’s a tart break.
Everybody here.
Hey! You’re beautiful.
ARTHUR: I didn’t mean to…
You’re beautiful.
You did great.
You did fine. Oh, yeah.
You could’ve backed me up… a little bit, man.
HANK: It was, it was fun while it lasted.
I wanted you to see how you did on your own.
You did okay.
ARTHUR: Okay.
HANK: Have some tart.
ARTHUR: You wanted to watch the Titanic sink.
HANK: Drop the grandiosity, eat the fucking tart.
ARTHUR: Uh, no.
I never wanna eat again.
HANK: Tart.
MAGGIE: Don’t be so dramatic, Arthur.
I mean, it’s just a comment.
(HANK CHUCKLES)
HANK: Maggie, give it to him.
He’s, you know, it takes courage to be that kind of a moron.
MAGGIE: Yeah, maybe you shouldn’t, Arthur.
Think of that?
A slow death might suit your newfound martyrdom. Arthur.
ARTHUR: Tart.
Don’t forget the cream.
(CHUCKLES)
We won’t forget the cream.
FREDERIK: Thank you.
ALMA: That will be all.
Don’t talk.
Bye, Fred.
See you. See you in class.
Make him stop talking.
Thank you, sir. Thanks.
Make him…
Good night.
Oh, that boy can just talk and talk and talk and talk.
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
Hmm.
HANK: I don’t think there’s anything wrong…
Don’t look at me like that.
Oh, I didn’t say anything.
You’re the worst at hiding your feelings.
Well, coming from the welterweight champion, I’m flattered.
I’m fine. I haven’t had any pain in weeks.
It was a nice evening.
I’m just capping it off.
I imagine it was nice, hmm, for you.
Nice to bask in Hank’s continued obsession.
The least he could do is hide it better.
We’re friends. Always will be.
Hank’s and Maggie’s… adoration of you.
Maggie. Just…
MAGGIE: Stop. (LAUGHS) Just because Maggie is gay… it doesn’t mean she’s in love with me, Frederik.
I’m saying you tend to choose people, hmm?
HANK: Maggie.
Elevate people to the status of your approval because they worship you on bended knee, huh?
Not because of any actual merit on their part.
Maggie is brilliant.
Hmm, is she?
Or does she just think you’re brilliant?
(SNAPS FINGERS) Huh?
I don’t know.
“I don’t know.”
Hi. Oh, sorry. Sorry.
Oh. Hi.
Oh, did you have a nice night?
Yeah.
The pork was too tough.
Oh, well, if you roast it past 145 degrees, it is technically kosher.
MAGGIE: You never did that, but your efforts are duly noted.
Well, I put something together for you to take to Alex.
Oh, no, they’re not coming back for a minute.
They’re still in Boston.
No, it’s already done.
Look, it’s done, right?
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
MAGGIE: Thank you.
Thank you.
And thank you both for a lovely evening, really.
These things are never lovely, but you’re sweet to lie.
(CHUCKLES) Nice, hmm?
Thank you.
There you are.
Thank you so much.
That enough? Let’s see…
Whoa!
Okay.
(HANK SPEAKING FRENCH)
(FREDERIK SPEAKING HEBREW)
(IN ENGLISH) Okay. Well…
(SIGHS)
Ciao. Hmm.
Freddie, hooyah.
Cheers, Henry.
(ALMA CHUCKLES) Say that ten times fast.
That was freakin’ phenomenal.
Peace out…
Thanks for everything.
…as the students say.
Phenomenal fifth, Fred.
MAGGIE: Good night.
FREDERIK: Good night.
MAGGIE: Peace out.
(ALMA EXHALES)
ALMA: Hank, no smoking in the hall.
No smoking in the…
Go. Go.
(CHUCKLES)
HANK: You can have your own, you know.
You want, you want your own?
MAGGIE: You know it’s not the seventies anymore, right?
HANK: Narc.
Stop.
Teacher’s pet.
Fuck off.
I don’t know, I think you’re the teacher’s pet, huh?
(BOTH CHUCKLE)
Come on.
(LAUGHS)
MAGGIE: Fuck off.
Fuck off.
(SIGHS) Hugo.
(BOTH SPEAKING FRENCH)
(CLOCK TICKING)
Faviola?
I’m sure we wore you out tonight.
What do we owe you?
FAVIOLA: It’s 350, madam.
(EXHALES)
I don’t know what we’d do without you.
Thank… (GASPS) Thank you.
(GRUNTING) Miss Mendelssohn?
Are you all right?
(PAINED GRUNTS) Take your water.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Ah, thank you. Thank you.
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
Thank you.
(UNEASY MUSIC PLAYING)
(BREATHING DEEPLY)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(ALMA VOMITING)
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
(TOILET FLUSHES)
(GARGLES, SPITS)
(EXHALES, SNIFFLES)
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
(STUDENTS CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
Good afternoon.
We were discussing Foucault’s expansion on the Panopticon.
Right?
The Panopticon, or the police state in which we all as citizens are conscripted to observe and study one another for missteps, as opposed to being at the mercy of an ultimate authority.
This unconscious enlistment…
FREDERIK Making a cassoulet tonight.
See you later?
HANK Yes to drink ALMA Meet at Three Sheets
(DOOR CLOSES)
(SIGHS)
(CLEARS THROAT)
ALMA TO MAGGIE ????
There we go.
(YELPING)
(LAUGHING)
Can you behave yourself?
Nobody, nobody panic.
It’s been a long day. Oh!
Wait, wait, wait. No, look.
Did you talk to Micheron last night?
No.
I listened to Micheron…
Oh.
You’re just jealous… last night.
…’cause he’s better looking than you.
Ah! (GASPS, SIGHS) I was trapped with Find, and he, oh, just oozing the desperation of still being relegated to adjunct.
It’s awful.
Yeah. It’s a…
(BOTH CHUCKLING) Believe me.
That’s the thing about horse races.
Now tenure is what?
Winning the Kentucky Derby?
This particular equine metaphor, yeah.
All right, so what’s the thing?
Oh.
(WHISPERING)
Only the thoroughbreds have a chance at winning.
MAN: Here, take these.
Do you think what Frederik said after dinner… there’s anything to that?
I don’t know what you’re referring to… but almost positive of my answer. (CHUCKLES) No, just, what’s gonna happen?
You know, when… when it’s won, when it’s over.
Everybody talks about, you know, reaching for the brass ring but nobody says what you do when you win it.
Hey, is this mine?
BARTENDER: Sure thing.
I think we celebrate.
BARTENDER: Ladies.
Enjoy those.
And then we just get right back to work.
Next publication, the next book.
Opera Completa… All right.
The Locke lectures.
All right, all right, all right. Okay.
(CHUCKLES)
(GRUNTS)
Where is Fred tonight?
Making a cassoulet.
WOMAN 1: Can I get a beer, please?
BARTENDER: Sure thing.
(SIGHS)
(CHUCKLES)
It’s just a withering thing to say about a man.
(CHUCKLES) Um…
It’s quite a good cassoulet.
He’s gonna break eventually, you know.
No.
He won’t.
Yeah. No, he won’t.
Mmm.
Talked to Maggie today?
No, she wasn’t in class.
No call, no show.
I think I’ve just extended her too much rope.
(STUDENTS CHEERING, SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
MALE STUDENT: Hey!
How we doin’? You good?
Hey. Hey.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER) I miss when it was only us that liked this place.
I can’t hear you. (CHUCKLING) You okay?
Yeah. (CHUCKLING) Uh…
You got this?
Once a poor kid…
Always a cheap bastard.
Mmm-hmm.
(BOTH CHUCKLING)
Stop doing that to me.
What is this?
Bye.
Bye.
(KISSES)
That’s on me. That’s for you.
Keep working on that.
(LAUGHS)
Check, please.
BARTENDER: Coming right up.
Here you go.
(ELEVATOR DOOR OPENING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Maggie, what’re you doing here?
Um, I came by, I went to your office, but you weren’t there.
Oh. All right, well, why don’t you come inside?
MAGGIE: Is Frederik home?
Probably.
Um, Jesus, you’re soaking.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
I… I need…
I need to speak with you.
Okay. Come on, let’s just go inside.
I’ll get you a towel.
Alone, please.
Um, okay.
Yeah, I guess it’s just, um…
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
Hank walked me home like I said he would.
It was friendly.
You know, he’s Hank.
Everybody loves Hank. Um…
And, uh, Alex isn’t home.
I think I said yesterday, they’re still in Boston, um…
(STUTTERS)
He asked for a nightcap, which, you know, fine, whatever, and…
I think, I don’t even remember what I poured us.
It was something Alex brought home from a party a few weeks ago.
(SLOW TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Uh…
It was fine.
I don’t know. I don’t think I realized how drunk he was until I saw him, like, stumble in the kitchen. Um…
Uh… And… he started asking, like, inappropriate questions.
I guess first, you know, it was about my work.
The… My paper.
And then he asked about Alex and if we had any men in the relationship, and…
Um… when he kissed me, I almost, I thought it was like a joke or something.
I didn’t do anything.
Um, and then he kept going, and…
I said no… and he kept going and, um…
When he left, I showered.
(SHUDDERING BREATHS)
What are you saying happened?
MAGGIE: What do you mean?
What are you saying he did?
Isn’t it obvious?
He…
He crossed the line.
He kept going after I said no.
ALMA: But what actually happened?
Why do you need to know?
He assaulted me.
Does it need to get worse than that?
Do you need to hear a…
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
Does anyone else know?
Just you, so far.
And I don’t know. I…
Why me?
What?
Uh, I, um…
I don’t know. I just…
It’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?
To tell someone, and I just…
You know, given your history…
What does that mean, my history?
(STUTTERS) What do you mean?
I don’t know. What…
Why are you saying that?
I didn’t mean anything.
What does it mean?
You asked it.
It’s gotta mean something.
I just thought your history supporting women in the department.
I don’t know, that’s…
Okay.
Why don’t you just come inside?
I can get you a towel…
No. I’m sorry. I’m… and we can talk.
(BREATHING DEEPLY)
I’m sorry.
(FOOTSTEPS RECEDING)
(SIGHS)
(KEYS JANGLING)
(UNNERVING MUSIC PLAYING)
(SIGHS)
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
FREDERIK: Hmm.
It’s late.
Mmm. I’m sorry. The paper.
Of course, the paper.
ALMA: If I don’t publish this month…
Mmm. Your position isn’t as secure, etcetera, etcetera.
Publish or perish.
Mmm-hmm, up or out.
(SIGHS)
I missed the cassoulet.
Oh, I left some in the oven.
I don’t deserve you.
Hmm.
(SIGHS)
Who did you see today?
What?
No, no, no, it’s just, you never wanna talk about my work.
That’s not true.
Oh.
Darling, please.
We’re too old and too married to lie to each other so blatantly, hmm?
I saw a teenager who hates me… a woman who’s lying to herself about her husband’s cheating… and another patient. New.
A referral from Tim?
Hmm? Told you about him.
ALMA: I thought he annoyed you.
(CHUCKLES) ALMA: Interesting?
Uh, remains to be seen.
(MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING)
(SIGHS) Have…
Have you ever…
Yes?
Have you ever disagreed with a patient over… a sensitive issue?
Course.
You know, most people don’t come to analysis looking to break old patterns.
They’re looking to affirm that they don’t need help.
Did you tell them so?
(FREDERIK CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
My father told me a story once from when he was first building his practice.
He, um…
He was working with a young woman who was…
(CHUCKLES)
So wedded to her own misery, it drove him mad.
And one day, he told her she lacked the ability to overcome repeating the same patterns for the rest of her small, miserable life.
She never came in again.
Hmm.
Obviously.
Why?
What’s this about?
ALMA: Nothing.
Mmm, I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I think I’m just starving.
Dinner awaits.
(ALMA CHUCKLES)
Again, I don’t deserve you.
FREDERIK: Again… no one is contesting that.
(ALMA SIGHS)
Did something happen?
With a student?
No.
(INHALES)
I wonder if…
I can be cold sometimes.
Cold? You?
ALMA: I mean it.
(SIGHS)
Impenetrable, maybe, hmm?
Aloof, sure. But no, no…
I don’t think you’re cold…
(UTENSIL CLANKS)
…or unfeeling.
I didn’t say unfeeling.
(ALMA CLEARS THROAT)
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
(SIGHS)
Hey, thanks for comin’.
ALMA: I don’t have a lot of time.
What do you want?
Uh… Can we talk inside?
Okay, look.
I don’t know what she’s told you or what’s already going around with the faculty.
(SIGHS)
I know I sound like one of those guys, but there’s…
I feel like there’s no way to avoid clichés here.
In fact, everything about this feels like a fuckin’ cliché.
And I know… (CHUCKLES) I know that by saying that, I’m making myself out to be the victim.
Just blameless entity in this fucking ouroboros of he-said-she-said.
But see, this is…
(INHALES SHARPLY)
This is what I mean.
I’m damned if I do, I’m damned if I don’t.
Everything I say has been said before by someone in my position, who was probably guilty.
Therefore, I’m guilty by association. But…
Hey. Hey.
Hey. Ready to order?
Yeah. Please. Thank you.
Mmm-hmm.
I’m fine.
Okay.
I’ll have my usual.
Yeah. You got it.
Thank you.
Nothing for you?
No.
Okay.
“My usual”?
(UNEASY MUSIC PLAYING)
Yeah.
Okay.
It’s not true.
Alma, it’s just… It’s not.
I swear.
It all happened so quick, like wildebeest scattering from an approaching lion.
One minute you’re part of the pack, next minute, your leg is in the jaws of some apex predator and everyone’s thinkin’, “All right. Well, damn.
Glad it wasn’t me.”
I’m not sure that’s what everyone is thinking.
WAITRESS: Okay.
We got the saag paneer.
Ooh, yeah.
Yep. And we got the tandoori chicken.
Tandoori chicken. Oh, yeah.
And then, we’ve got the garlic naan.
Garlic naan…
Give me that garlic naan.
(CHUCKLING) Yeah.
Goddamn. Thank you.
And the basmati rice.
Oof.
And then a plate.
Just in case you wanted it.
Yeah, just in case I need to… Yeah.
Sorry.
Yeah, you can give that to her. Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
And then, you guys got cutlery?
You okay?
We’re all good.
All right. Great. Okay.
Appreciate you, Billie.
Enjoy. Yep.
Thank you.
ALMA: So, are you gonna tell me why this is not true?
Or did you just ask me here to check to see if I was bearing pitchfork?
Caught Maggie cheating, a few months ago.
Didn’t think much of it, really.
She, um, you know, I talked to her, she said she was under enormous pressure.
I told her…
You know, I gave her a pass, and she…
(INHALES DEEPLY)
Well, yeah.
But I wasn’t convinced.
Not totally.
And then…
Her dissertation?
What about it?
You don’t know?
I knew immediately.
She plagiarized it.
She lifted directly from Agamben’s Homo Sacer. His notion of… simultaneous subjectification and desubjectification, it’s reproduced almost word for word.
You had to have seen, too.
Didn’t you?
So, when you brought it up at the dinner… you just wanted to see what I would say?
Or you were trying to catch us out?
I wanted to see how she would react.
Especially in your company.
ALMA: Mmm.
HANK: Test my hunch.
ALMA: Test your hunch?
I mean, we did go back to her apartment that night.
I asked her for a nightcap.
(CHUCKLES) Why? Why?
Yeah, I know. I know.
That was a mistake.
A huge fuckin’ mistake.
I just, I thought that if we were on her turf, off campus, she would be, she would be… more open, less guarded, you know?
I wanted, perhaps erroneously, stupidly, to…
ALMA: Definitely stupidly.
To see if what I assumed was true, was true.
So, we had the drinks. And…
You know, at this point…
(CHUCKLES)
I’m fucking nervous.
I mean, you know who her parents are.
They donated half the fuckin’ campus, so…
And then, and then, unprompted, she says to me…
(INHALES SHARPLY)
…that her partner was out of town.
Truthfully, listen, I know this sounds so brutally male, but…
I really did think she was coming on to me.
(CHUCKLES)
And I’m fuckin’ terrified!
‘Cause of the climate in higher education these days.
Then why would you go to a female student’s apartment?
And drink something she poured you?
Believe me, in retrospect?
(IMITATES SPEECH IMPEDIMENT)
I fuckin’ know!
(SPEAKING NORMALLY) But I was stubbornly stuck on this.
I needed to bring up my suspicions to her… to let her know she would be held accountable.
So, I did. I told her I suspected she plagiarized, and she reacted just like…
(IMITATES WHOOSH)
Like, cold, ice calm.
Denied it. And then… the next day… it’s like… like… (SCOFFING CHUCKLE) An utter fabrication.
(INHALES)
And now, it’s gonna be… it’s gonna be her word… against a lifetime of hard work and good deeds, and advocating for women in philosophy, workin’ three fuckin’ jobs.
You know.
And it took me years to get through all that debt and red tape.
And I’m not gonna let it happen.
I can’t. I won’t.
I’m not gonna allow.
I worked too hard.
Done too much to get here, to let it all just be taken away, just ’cause some lying little fuckin’ bitch with a shit ton of money, exploiting this shallow cultural moment says I should.
(SIGHS)
All right. Please don’t ever fucking say that to anyone but me.
(HANK CHUCKLES) They’re gonna wanna speak with you.
Why me?
HANK: Since it was after your party she’s sayin’ all this happened.
Now that you know the truth, my hope is that you will not allow what is correct keep you from doing what is right.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(DOOR CLOSES)
Professor Imhoff. I don’t believe I was expecting you.
She’s not on the schedule, sir.
If you have a minute, I’d like to speak with you.
Alma, sit.
(GRUNTS)
So…
I imagine you know why I’m here.
A formal inquiry is going to be conducted, yes, with all haste and via the appropriate channels.
Well, I think it’s important I preempt those channels.
I believe there is a conflict of interest that would preclude me from speaking either without bias or without the assumption of bias should I be asked.
But I believe I will be asked.
I’m just relieved you’re not here about tenure.
It’s a minefield, Alma.
A fucking minefield these days.
You keep the fancy stuff for show?
I hate that Laphroaig shit.
But what looks good, looks good, and against all odds, I’ve found myself in the business of optics rather than substance.
I have to teach later.
Ah, of course. Purpose.
Not just…
Sisyphean administration.
Maybe your secretary could use some.
Hey, be nice to Wendy.
She still believes what she does is important.
So, this “conflict of interest,” do I wanna know?
It’s nothing like that.
Good. Thank God.
So then, off the record?
(INHALES)
Off the record.
HANK: (CLEARS THROAT) How many more times do you think we’re gonna have to pretend that…
Dr. John Ensler is capable of anything remotely close to…
(INHALES DEEPLY)
…illuminating conversation.
You’re here.
HANK: Yeah.
Told you I would be.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
You look strange.
(CHUCKLES) You scared me.
I’m eating cheese.
Hmm.
Got a watered down red.
Save you a spot.
(PEOPLE LAUGHING)
(SIGHS)
Popular discussion topic.
Who would have thought?
(SIGHS)
(CLEARS THROAT)
I was surprised the other day.
I reacted poorly.
It’s not news that’s easy to hear.
Imagine telling it.
I reacted in a way that I shouldn’t have, as a teacher and someone who considers you a friend.
He’s in there, Maggie.
I…
(SIGHS)
ALMA: I didn’t think he would come, or I would have warned you.
I have a right to these spaces.
(BREATHES HEAVILY) I have just as much right as he does.
You don’t have to go in there.
Okay?
I need the lecture credit.
(CHUCKLES) I’ll sign off on it.
Who cares?
Who cares. Right.
(INHALES SHARPLY)
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
I’m, um… (SMACKS LIPS) I’ve decided to press charges against Hank.
And I’m hoping…
It would mean a lot to me…
Um… if I had your support, of me.
More specifically, um, your testimony.
If we have to go to trial.
You have a lawyer?
Yeah.
Hmm.
Sort of. I don’t know.
Alex? Isn’t she prelaw?
They’re in their second year, and it’s more of a consulting thing.
I don’t know.
Did you go to a clinic to collect DNA evidence and photos?
I don’t think we should be talking about this here.
Yes…
I did.
Right. The university one.
That’s good.
Uh, no. The one on Whitney.
And I…
I went, but I…
I don’t know. I was there.
Um, I was…
I walked, you know.
And I was by myself.
It was late, and, uh, there was this group of guys there and they were just, like, standing outside and staring at me.
I don’t know. I…
I panicked. And I know I shouldn’t have, but I…
I saw a security camera… and so, they’ll have me walking up.
And, um, I…
I went to you first.
So, even without, you know, a certain type of physical evidence with the tape and with your testimony, it should, you know…
(STUTTERING) …there could still be, like, a case.
Right?
Maggie, I didn’t see anything.
I don’t know what you want me to say.
I believe you.
You know I believe you.
I told the Dean of Humanities as much today.
You did?
I did, but I…
I don’t know what good I could do in your case if it comes to that.
In fact, I might hurt it.
How?
The last thing you said to me that night was that he was gonna walk you home.
And then I saw the two of you in the hallway, together, leaving willingly is what it looked like to me, if I were to be asked under oath.
Yeah, but that’s not what I’m… what I’m asking for.
What I’m saying…
Everything okay?
Yes, Professor Angler.
Thank you.
ANNOUNCER: Everyone, please take your seats. They’re starting.
You should hurry.
ANNOUNCER: We’ll be starting momentarily.
(CHUCKLES)
ANNOUNCER: Please join me in extending… Maggie.
Alma…
ANNOUNCER: …a warm welcome to the esteemed researcher, scholar, and transregional studies expert…
I can count on you, right?
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Hugo Micheron.
DR. HUGO MICHERON: Thank you! It’s such a pleasure to be here.
(ALL APPLAUDING)
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
(REGGAE MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS)
(SNIFFS)
(MATCHES RATTLING IN BOX)
(CRACKLING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(DOOR OPENS)
Who presented last?
Arthur?
(UNEASY MUSIC PLAYING)
Excuse me.
What are you doing here?
(SIGHS)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Who are you?
How could you?
What are…
Go to my office.
Just wait for me…
I was fired this morning.
Not suspended. I was fired.
STUDENT: He’s gonna see us.
Don’t open the door.
ALMA: If you wanna talk, we can talk, but not here, and not now.
Not here.
I told you the truth.
You just blatantly ignored it just to save yourself.
You are being paranoid.
Just go to my office and wait for me.
Oh, no. Oh.
No, I think I’m right on top of something.
Something that I just couldn’t see before.
You see, I used to think that you and me, we had a mutual fealty to integrity, to the ethics that you so glibly teach.
But I’m realizing I gave you too much fucking credit.
You sound insane right now.
Professor Imhoff?
Are you okay?
Oh. Uh…
No, I don’t know, actually, Katie. I’m not sure.
This blood on her hands may never wash off.
Stop it. Yeah, I’m fine, Katie. Thank you.
FEMALE STUDENT: Yeah, we should go. Come on.
KATIE: No. No.
I need to stay here.
(HANK BREATHING HEAVILY)
You know the truth and you won’t say it.
Because it’ll make you look bad.
You’re lettin’ them fuckin’ ruin me, ruin my fucking life and you could easily stop it.
You give me too much power, Hank.
I did not do this.
You did this to yourself.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Oh, that’s convenient.
Yeah.
(SIGHS)
Yeah, I know.
I fell on my own sword… but you were the one holding it.
“Let innocence make false accusation blush…”
“And tyranny tremble at patience.”
Fucking coward!
Fuck you.
HANK: Fuck you!
Hey! Fuck you!
(CHUCKLES) Fuck you!
(MAGGIE BREATHING HEAVILY)
Fuck all of you!
Fuck you!
Fuckin’ privileged… coddled hypocrites!
Ugh!
Alma, Alma.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(SIGHS)
(PANTING)
(MAGGIE SOBBING)
(VOICE BREAKING)
It really happened?
I didn’t just make it up, right? It’s real?
If it’s real to you, it’s real.
(SOBBING)
Everybody keeps looking at me like I did something horrible.
But he’s the one.
He’s the one.
You want my advice?
Please.
Tell me what to fucking do and I’ll do it, please.
Please, just help me.
Okay. Okay.
Tonight, come over, and we can talk.
Or not talk. You don’t have to have the answers.
I’ll cook.
Well, Frederik will cook.
All right?
(SNIFFLES) Okay?
Okay.
(MAGGIE SNIFFLING)
(SIGHS)
(MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING)
FREDERIK: It’s late.
Why don’t we start?
I’m sure she’s on her way.
You’d start without me, if I was late.
Oh, you’re being childish.
I wish I had the leeway to be childish in this relationship.
Give it 10 minutes, okay?
And even then, we’ll probably still… be waiting.
Probably, yes.
Why?
Because it’s fucking polite.
Because you care more about kowtowing to a mediocre student with rich parents than you do about…
(DOORBELL BUZZES) Hmm.
(DOOR OPENS)
MAGGIE: Hi.
I wasn’t expecting you.
ALMA: Who were you expecting?
Mmm-hmm-hmm.
So, Maggie, how’s the dissertation coming?
Um…
It’s coming along.
Mmm.
And what is it that you’re exploring?
It’s not particularly interesting.
Well, I’d like to hear.
Please, I’m curious.
Okay. Um…
Well… it’s mainly concerning the, um, resurgence of virtue ethics.
Or the outward display of moral character as the new model for personal morality, as opposed to following, uh, social duties and rules or Karmic thought.
Things like that.
Sorry if it’s a bit confusing.
It’s so boring, I’m sure.
No, no, no.
I like listening to you talk.
How often do you make doro wat?
I’m curious. What drew you to virtue ethics?
What drew me…
Well, I’m…
You’re spending, what, four or five years of your life on this, right?
Why?
What, um…
(CHUCKLES) What turns you on about it?
Um…
Well, it’s become very popular, of late.
Hmm.
And as you might know or even recall… it was sort of invented in the ’60s and ’70s, when society was radicalizing and now that we’re radicalizing again, I find that interesting.
Interesting?
MAGGIE: Yes. Interesting.
Frederik.
I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?
No, no, no. I’m sorry.
I’m intruding.
Forgive me.
I’m sure without me present, you ladies can talk about such interesting topics with much more freedom.
Excuse me.
(BOMBASTIC MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS)
(ALMA SIGHS)
I’m sorry, Maggie.
He’s an asshole.
(CHUCKLES)
Does he want me to feel, like, stupid or something?
(MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING MUFFLED)
(SMACKS LIPS)
(SCOFFS)
Alex didn’t want me to come tonight.
Well, she’s also an asshole.
Yeah, they can sometimes…
“They.”
…be a little bit…
(SCOFFING) “They”. Right.
Stop.
Okay.
They thought it would do more harm than good to be back here so soon with you all.
ALMA: Well, I guess we didn’t prove them wrong.
Yeah, they don’t find you especially trustworthy.
ALMA: What do you think?
(LOUD MUSIC BLARES)
(MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING MUFFLED)
You know, I used to think I could rely on myself, that I could… (INHALES) …trust my instincts, about people, about myself.
Now, (SMACKS LIPS) I’m not so sure.
I certainly didn’t anticipate this getting so big so fast, or being something that would resonate with so many people.
Like, a lot of women, you know, D-Ming me, stopping me on campus, with similar stories and…
A reporter approached me.
I declined to comment… but she gave me her card.
I kept it.
And…
And I don’t know.
(ALMA CLEARS THROAT)
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
Don’t do it, Maggie.
Don’t tell your story to someone who just wants to turn it into something they can sell.
I… I am telling you, if you move forward with this, if you press charges, you will become radioactive.
Hmm? I… I…
I know that you want to believe in the fairness of the system, but…
(SMACKS LIPS)
Higher education is run by white men and you need those white men to hire you, and they won’t because they will be terrified you will do the same thing to them if they ask you to work late or touch your shoulder for too long.
It, not your work, is what anyone is going to see when they look at you.
I promise.
(SIGHS)
And what if I don’t care to be a career academic?
(LOUD MUSIC BLARES)
(EXHALES, SMACKS LIPS)
You need to decide what you care about, yourself or…
(LOUD MUSIC BLARES)
You need to decide what you care about, yourself or what you want to do for yourself.
And which would you choose?
I think you know.
Sometimes, it’s about taking the long view.
Can we just stop being smart for, like, one fucking second?
I… I… I feel like you’re completely removing me from what happened to me.
Like, you’re speaking in these hypothetical riddles about women writ large when I’m sitting right here in front of you.
I just… (SCOFFS) I thought you wanted my advice.
I do… I did. I do.
I don’t know. It’s just, um…
(SMACKS LIPS) So…
Because women are penalized for speaking out, I shouldn’t?
That’s your logic?
I mean, that’s just so…
And then what? He just gets to get away with it?
And relocate to another university and give speeches, and write books and sleep with other students all over again? That is…
Well, I think Hank is pretty well fucked, so I wouldn’t worry about that.
So you think I ruined his life? (CHUCKLES) I didn’t say that.
Am I not owed this?
I mean, this happened to me, and I’m not even allowed to speak about it?
You can do whatever you like, Maggie.
(LOUD MUSIC BLARES)
(EXHALES)
(MUSIC BLARES)
(SIGHS)
(SMACKS LIPS)
Just not with your support.
I support whatever you choose, but I think what you want is restorative justice and what you are getting is vengeance.
And I would be doing a disservice to you to let you believe otherwise.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
(YAWNS)
(PHONE RINGING AND VIBRATING)
(GROANS)
(RINGING STOPS)
(SIGHS)
(SHOWER RUNNING)
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING OVER PHONE)
(CELL PHONE VIBRATING)
(MUSIC CONTINUES)
(SIGHS)
(CELL PHONE VIBRATING)
(KNOCK AT DOOR)
(EXHALES)
You free?
(SIGHS, CLEARS THROAT)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(MUFFLED MUSIC PLAYING)
KIM: It’s not long now, right?
ALMA: What?
KIM: Tenure.
I keep meaning to check in.
Do you not want to talk about it?
ALMA: I haven’t thought about it.
I’m always thinking about it.
KIM: Well, I, for one, have no doubt.
I’m okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You okay?
Hey, Professor.
KIM: Shall we?
Hey. Let’s go, let’s go.
(LOUD INDISTINCT CHATTER)
KIM: Oh, fuck! I have to pee.
ALMA: Hover, don’t sit.
They’re all genderless now so we don’t even know who to blame for all the piss everywhere.
Rich kids are filthy.
(SCOFFS)
Because they’ve been looked after their entire lives.
Of course they are.
Hmm?
Good morning.
(GROANS)
Take your drink.
So, are we gonna talk about it?
What?
Maggie Resnick of the Resnicks.
Has she talked to you?
Oh. Doctor-patient confidentiality.
That is deeply honorable and fucking boring.
I’m not technically her doctor.
Sometimes. This is between the two of us, right?
I won’t be screwing anything up between you two?
No.
I believe her.
I think Hank crossed a line.
I think he violated something she held to be deeply sacred.
The student-teacher relationship.
And I think one could make the argument… that, when a power differential is involved… consent and the ability to give it is inherently incapacitated to the point of rendering the question all but moot.
But I have had a lot of wine.
I know this isn’t very correct of me.
But after all these years, it’s gotten so fucking hard for me… to listen to these kids when they have had everything, everything handed to them in their lives, insist that the world stop at the first small injustice.
(SIGHS) There’s almost this possessiveness they have to their pain.
How they nurse every slight, every bump in the road every blip of victimization as if it’s the only thing that can affirm them.
Whatever happened to stuffing everything down… and developing a crippling dependency habit in your thirties, like the rest of us?
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
KIM: (CHUCKLING) You know?
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
(HEAVEN KNOWS I’M MISERABLE NOW BY THE SMITHS PLAYING)
They’re playing this here?
(MEN CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
Bold.
What?
KIM: Morrissey.
Oh.
I think this is The Smiths.
Oh, potato, potahtoh.
I love this song.
So, what do you think?
About what?
All of it.
The student, the professor.
I think… it was only a matter of time and, um, it’s hopelessly banal.
Didn’t you have to pee?
(CROWD LAUGHS)
You never talk about yourself.
I never hear from you, about your personal life, your family.
(CHUCKLES)
All I know is what I hear from Fred.
Mm.
Well… (SMACKS LIPS) Misconstruing my need for privacy as having something to hide would be a mistake.
(SMACKS LIPS)
Respectfully, Alma, I’m not sure that it is.
Look. Maggie and I did talk.
And when we did, she mentioned a favorite teacher of hers… a mentor, the target of her Electra complex, perhaps.
All right. Let’s not bring Jung into our conversation.
KIM: Fine. Well… this person was less than supportive when she came forward and this lack of support made her wonder why this teacher was unforthcoming, which made her question said teacher’s deeper motives.
Anyway, without saying too much I just thought you should know.
And I thought you should be ready.
Ready for what?
Well, backlash, potentially.
I mean, these are insane times we’re living in.
Now, if you want anybody to talk, you can come to me anytime on the record or off, or I could put you in touch with some very excellent people…
Why would I trust a therapist who violates her clients’ privacy?
Shit. I…
That was uncalled for.
(STAMMERS)
It’s okay. I’m gonna…
I’m sorry. I’m…
Be right back.
(SIGHS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(INHALES THROUGH TEETH)
Oh.
I, uh…
I’m off. I’m…
I’m sorry. I’m an ass.
I’m buying the wine.
And I mean it.
I… I apologize.
(THE LAST OF THE FAMOUS INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOYS PLAYS)
Who keeps playing this?
Fuck yeah.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
(CONTAINER LID OPENS)
(PILLS RATTLING)
(KISSES)
(ALARM RINGING)
(ALMA GROANS)
(WATER RUNNING)
(SIGHS) Mm.
(GROANS SOFTLY)
(SIGHS)
(AVEC LE TEMPS BY LÉO FERRÉ OVER RADIO)
Did you see this?
In the Yale Daily? What?
“Promising young Philosophy PhD candidate, Maggie Resnick,” “tells her all-too-familiar story in her own words.”
“Said, ‘I was prepared for hard work, prepared for the difficulties inherent’in being a Black woman in an elite, white, male-dominated…’ ” Oh, my God.
And Hank.
I almost feel bad for him.
Did you know anything about this?
No.
She didn’t say anything to you?
(CLEARS THROAT)
Campus will be a zoo.
I… I’m gonna go to the wharf to work. I’ll be home late.
But that’s it?
What, you’re fine?
Guess I’m just an unfeeling cunt.
(CLOCK TICKING)
(CLOCK CONTINUES TICKING)
(DOOR SLAMS)
ALEX: Babe, I’m back.
Hi!
ALEX: You’re there?
MAGGIE: Yeah.
Kiss?
You’re all sweaty.
Mm.
Is that new?
MAGGIE: Um…
Did your mom get it for you?
No, I think she left it, like, when she was here once. Or…
Mm.
Looks like something she’d want you to wear.
(GRUNTS)
The reporter called to, um, congratulate me.
That’s great!
I mean, I guess. I don’t know.
Yeah. I mean, I guess…
It’s just, like, kinda fucked up, maybe, to, like, be congratulated on being assaulted?
No. I’m sure she congratulated you for your bravery.
Look, we talked about this.
Fallout is inevitable.
It’s your courage that’s gonna inspire other people in pain.
Yeah, I guess…
(INHALES SHARPLY)
It’s just, like, amazing to me, you know. Like, a young Black woman can get assaulted and all these white people figure out a way to make it about themselves or how to process their shit.
Or, like, get a leg up at their job.
She was like, “Oh, we might get picked up by The Times.” And I was like…
“Neat?” (CHUCKLES) Like, “Congrats on your fucking Pulitzer or whatever.”
Can I?
Come here.
Let me get close to you.
(KISSES)
She hasn’t called.
Mm.
Your mom?
Alma.
She hasn’t said anything.
(SIREN WAILING IN THE DISTANCE)
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
(DOOR SLAMS)
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING IN DISTANCE)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(MAN SHOUTING IN SPANISH)
(UNEASY MUSIC PLAYING)
(ALMA SIGHS)
(GRUNTS)
(UNEASY MUSIC CONTINUES)
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
(TYPING)
(UNEASY MUSIC CONTINUES)
(UNEASY MUSIC INTENSIFIES)
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)
(THUDS)
(GROANS)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(GROANS)
(INHALES THROUGH TEETH)
(GROANING)
(VOMITING)
(GROANS)
(EXHALES)
(WATER RUNNING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(PILLS RATTLING)
(GROANS)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(GROANING)
SECRETARY: Uh-huh. Hmm.
Kim’s not in.
I’ll just…
Okay, go in.
I’ll tell her you’re here.
SECRETARY:
Yeah, and the other one.
Oh, hi. Alma’s in there.
(DRAWER CLOSES)
KIM: Oh, good. You’re here.
Sorry I’m late.
I was compelled to interrogate Donna on her insistence on eating and then lying about eating my Chobani for the 50th fucking time.
What’s up? (SIGHS) Oh, uh… Nothing. I gotta go.
Well, Alma, it’s not even 7:00.
We said after 6:30.
No, I just…
I thought I had more time.
Well, you asked to see me.
No, it’s not important.
I’ll see you later.
Night, Kim.
Alma Imhoff, 013168.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
This is a controlled substance.
I’m gonna have to get the pharmacist to sign off.
Hold on a sec.
Are you okay, ma’am?
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(WINCES)
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
Mrs. Imhoff? I just need to check something.
(SIGHS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(COUGHING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER OVER LAPTOP)
(WOMAN MOANS OVER LAPTOP)
AUTOMATED FEMALE VOICE: Naked girls want to play with you. Download now.
(WOMAN MOANS OVER LAPTOP) Naked girls want to play with you. Download now.
(WOMAN MOANS OVER LAPTOP)
(FREDERIK SNORING)
AUTOMATED FEMALE VOICE: Naked girls want to play with you. Download now.
(WOMAN MOANS OVER LAPTOP) Naked girls want to play with you. Download now.
(WOMAN MOANS OVER LAPTOP) Naked girls want to play with you. Download now.
(WOMAN MOANS OVER LAPTOP) Naked girls want to play with you.
(ALMA GRUNTS)
(FREDERIK SNORING)
(ALMA GRUNTING)
(SIGHS)
(GRUNTING)
(SIGHS)
(OPERATIC MUSIC BLARING OVER SPEAKERS) God.
Frederik, can you turn the music down?
Frederik!
(MUSIC ENDS)
(SIGHS) Frederik!
(ALMA SIGHS)
Can you please turn the music down?
(COMPOSITION BY JOHN ADAMS PLAYS OVER SPEAKERS)
What, you don’t like my beloved Adams?
(SIGHS)
(MUSIC VOLUME REDUCES)
I like coffee.
(LAUGHS)
(ALMA SIGHS)
Last night was nice.
Oh?
FREDERIK: Mmhmm.
Well, we haven’t slept that close together in…
(CHUCKLES)
I don’t know how long.
It was nice.
You look so different when you sleep.
(SCOFFS) Wretched?
FREDERIK: Mmhmm.
Like you looked when we first met.
I was 29 when we first met.
(LAUGHING)
(SCOFFS)
(FREDERIK LAUGHING)
Oh, you looked beautiful.
(LAUGHING)
(CHUCKLES)
(FREDERIK GROWLS)
(ALMA GROANS)
(FREDERIK GRUNTS) Frederik…
(FREDERIK MOANING)
(GRUNTS) Frederik.
What?
(SIGHS) What? What? What?
It’s been months since we were intimate.
If it’s the beard, I can lose it.
If it’s the belly, that might take a little bit longer, mmhmm.
Or is it because I’m not in the Philosophy department?
You’re my husband.
I married you.
Won the battle, but lost the war, have I?
(ALMA SIGHS)
I’m still here, aren’t I?
Hmm?
FREDERIK: How’s the paper coming?
ALMA: Uh…
Finished, more or less.
FREDERIK:
(HESITATES) Finished?
Finished-finished. Wow.
MAGGIE Can we talk?
FREDERIK: That’s cause for celebration, hmm?
FREDERIK: Maybe we could, I don’t know…
FREDERIK …have some people over, or…
What, go out, huh?
Hmm? Maybe? To the city?
Whatever you like.
Uh…
Yeah. Sounds good.
FREDERIK: Hmm? Mmhmm.
(MUSIC VOLUME INCREASES)
Kim, it’s Alma. Call me back.
(SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING)
(MAN SHOUTING IN SPANISH)
MAGGIE: We could have done this from my apartment.
I wouldn’t want to run the risk of being deposed.
I thought Alex wasn’t a “real lawyer” yet.
Well, someone should tell them that.
What did you wanna talk about?
I don’t want you to be angry.
(WOMAN SHOUTING IN SPANISH)
I don’t know why I took it. I…
It was a strange, impulsive thing.
But I can’t help but wonder if… if something like what happened to me…
(VOICE SHAKING)
happened to you…
Why didn’t you tell me?
ALMA: May I?
You translated it online?
I guess it’s impossible to keep anything to oneself these days.
You don’t know anything about me.
And whose fault is that?
You are not entitled to any information about me in my life.
And yet you have so much of mine.
I haven’t asked you for anything.
You take it anyway.
Yeah, (STAMMERS) At first, I thought it was maybe because we were close or you had some sort of interest in me as a human being.
But now, now I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t some sort of sick vampiric kink of yours to let me bleed myself dry while you give nothing in return.
(ALMA SCOFFS)
(WHISPERS) Thank you.
I already have a husband.
That’s how you treat people who care about you?
I told Kim.
I really think you should talk to someone about this.
(MUSIC CONTINUES)
I’m trying to help you.
No.
No.
You… are trying to convince me and yourself that violating my privacy was moral and good because it proved you right.
Leave me alone, Maggie.
Go.
Go!
(ALMA SIGHS)
(VOICEMAIL BEEPS)
Fuck.
Kim, it’s Alma, calling you for the 15th fucking time!
Fuck!
(SIGHS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Adorno writes in his Minima Moralia…
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
(IN ENGLISH) “There is no right life in the wrong one.”
What is he really saying?
Okay. What he’s saying is there is no right life in the wrong world.
We are either of this world and its conditions or we are awake to what is right, and therefore, cast out of society, alienated.
But then, why attempt to act morally if it’s truly impossible?
Isn’t that just nihilism?
KATIE: I think, um, Hannah Arendt’s explanation of Ulysses’ Paradox could be relevant.
So, Ulysses is sitting at the Phaeacians’ court, and, um, a blind poet…
Aoidos.
Aoidos. Right.
Um, Aoidos starts singing the story of Troy and of a hero, Ulysses, whom he doesn’t know is sitting in front of him.
And suddenly, Ulysses starts to cry.
And Arendt says, “Of course, he never cried before” “hearing that what had actually happened.”
“Only by listening to the narration” “did he fully understand its true meaning.”
And what does that mean to you?
That Ulysses recognizes himself as a hero only when his story is told to him by someone else.
But not just someone else, “The Other,” a blind poet who has no external sight, only self-sight, and therefore, more knowledge.
ARTHUR: And so, such an account by “The Other” can mitigate nihilism and give us a sense of linearity?
Of purpose?
KATIE: When you say “The Other,” who exactly are you referring to?
Stop being so literal.
Trying to take the philosophical “Other” and turn him into a sociopolitical binary is like a sweaty tourist at a modern museum of art who points at a Pollock and says, “My kid could do that.”
It’s immature and regressive and totally misses the fucking point.
Okay. In the universal human condition of…
Of a…
Katie?
Sorry. I don’t understand.
What…
What part of the argument that you helped frame do you not understand?
It… (SIGHS) Well, it seems to me, like, you’re condoning literally, not conceptually, othering someone despite seemingly advocating for the opposite.
(SCOFFS)
(ALMA LAUGHING)
(SIGHS)
You do realize this is a philosophy class, right?
What is it that you think we are doing here?
What is wrong… with your question, Katie, and why I don’t care for it is that you are assuming when I refer to “The Other,” I mean something bad.
When, in actuality, you are the one who is instinctually and unconsciously making that association.
I don’t think she…
Don’t think, Arthur!
You, Katie, are advocating for the human rights of a symbolic poet, while, in actuality, refusing to allow “The Other” to exist at all, because you think that acknowledging difference, naming it, is wrong.
So, what is right? Hmm?
(SIGHS) What could make you happy?
Shall we build a society to your exact specifications?
Should I build a world for you that has all the edges rounded out?
Pad your chosen cell with niceties and fucking trigger warnings? Hmm?
That’s not what I’m here for.
I am here to fucking teach, okay?
Okay? Okay.
Okay.
Good. Great. Good.
Marcus!
Fucking Marcus is here.
You wanna add anything to this?
No, Professor Imhoff.
Okay.
(CLOCK TICKING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(CLOCK TICKING)
I wish I didn’t have to call this meeting, and I’m sure you all wish you didn’t have to be here.
We’ve experienced a terrible breach of Yale’s values.
A wake up call for me, certainly, and for all of us.
As many of you know, a female PhD student has brought allegations against a male professor.
(ALL MURMURING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
DEAN RJ THOMAS: Professor Imhoff?
Can you stay behind a minute?
(DOOR CLOSES)
(CLOCK CONTINUES TICKING)
DEAN RJ THOMAS: Well, no sense in dragging this out further.
It’s come to our attention that you filled a prescription under Doctor Sayers’ name that she did not prescribe to you.
(KIM CLEARS THROAT)
Wait, what?
DEAN RJ THOMAS: Walgreens on Park flagged the prescription for being filed without an online corollary.
When Doctor Sayers realized who’d filled it, she brought it to us.
I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.
(CLEARS THROAT) Alma… there’s a pretty unassailable paper trail here.
Kim has decided not to press charges, but we need to decide collectively, what disciplinary actions must be taken.
I think it’s safe to say the tenure conversation is… paused.
(TICKING STOPS)
(STAMMERS) Paused?
Indefinitely.
Oh.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
FEMALE STUDENT 1: I just think it’s fascist.
FEMALE STUDENT 2: But it’s in the paper, so…
FEMALE STUDENT 3: Yeah.
It’s not really been my thing, but…
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Alma, what are you doing here?
ALMA: I’d like to talk.
That’s not a good idea.
Maggie?
ALMA: Don’t you have some obscure protest to go be publicly angry at?
Okay, it’s fine.
I’m fine.
ALMA: She’s fine.
Maggie…
They… go away.
(CHUCKLES)
MAGGIE: (WHISPERS) It’s okay. Promise.
Okay. Okay.
FEMALE STUDENT 1: Did she just use ‘they’ as a slur?
MALE STUDENT 1: Yeah.
FEMALE STUDENT 2: Guys.
MALE STUDENT 2: Dude, come on.
FEMALE STUDENT 1: It seems, like, totally insane.
MALE STUDENT 3: I know.
FEMALE STUDENT 3: Should we go over?
ALEX: No, it’s fine.
You know, Alex is right.
Probably shouldn’t be talking like this.
ALMA: People used to say that you were like my shadow.
Frederik actually used to say it all the time.
That you were taking on my mannerisms, copying the way I dress.
Okay, you can stop.
MALE STUDENT: So, this is what we’re writing a report on?
Yeah?
FEMALE STUDENT 1: Yeah.
FEMALE STUDENT 2: Yes.
MALE STUDENT: Okay.
FEMALE STUDENT 2: It’s just gonna be like…
What did she say?
(WHISPERS) I know you have feelings for me.
What is this?
What are you doing?
Alex is right there.
Frederik is wrong about a lot of things, but he was always right about you.
You are the worst kind of mediocre student with every availability to succeed but no talent or desire to do so.
Yet so many resources, so much of other people’s time, is wasted on you.
Not the least of which, mine.
And your paper, so obviously plagiarized just reeking of laziness combined with, with your desperate hope that you will be worth your endowment.
Okay.
I don’t know what you think you think you’re talking about…
Spare me. Please.
Please.
I don’t feel comfortable having this conversation with you anymore.
(WHISPERS) Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable, Maggie.
Not everything is supposed to be a lukewarm bath for you to sink into until you fall asleep and drown.
And there are no rewards in death for suffering as much as fucking possible in life.
You’ve constructed a life that hides your accidental privilege, neediness, desperate desire to impress.
At least I have the self-respect to be obvious about what it is that I want.
(WHISPERS) But you?
It’s all lies.
Living in an apartment that’s ten times cheaper than what you can afford?
Dating a person you have nothing in common with because you think their identity makes you interesting?
Fawning over me because you think my affection offers you credibility, another adoptive mother to replace your own insufferable one.
It’s all lies.
Christ, it’s no wonder everyone thinks you lied about Hank, too.
(ALMA GASPS)
(GASPS) Fuck.
(WHISPERS) You stupid bitch.
You have no idea what you’ve just done to me.
Hey, hey, that’s enough.
Let’s go.
ALEX: You okay?
MAGGIE: Yeah, Alex.
ALEX: You okay, babe?
MAGGIE: I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
It’s all right.
ALEX: Well, what did she fuckin’ say to you?
MAGGIE: I’m fine.
ALEX: Oh, my God. Fuck.
Come on, let’s go.
I got you. I got you.
Let’s just get out of here.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER ON TV)
(CARD READER BEEPS)
Thank you. Goodbye.
(ICE CLATTERS)
(INHALES SHARPLY)
(EXHALES)
(SCOFFS)
(DOOR THUDS)
(HANK EXHALES)
HANK: Hmm.
Oh, yeah, this is embarrassing.
How long have you been here?
(EXHALES) Today?
(INHALES DEEPLY)
I’ve just been comin’ off and on.
ALMA: How did you get my keys?
Why are you here?
It’s my apartment.
HANK: You gave me the keys last Christmas, when my sister was visiting.
I never gave ’em back.
I’ve had a shit day.
You want a drink?
Yeah.
(SIGHS)
HANK: You want?
No, thank you.
Actually, yes.
(HANK CHUCKLES)
(LIGHTER CLINKS)
Look at us.
(EXHALING THROUGH TEETH)
(SIGHS) Two Icaruses.
(GLASSES CLINK)
You’ve heard.
Word travels fast.
(ALMA SIGHS) Last I checked, we were still living.
What’s being alive when your livelihood is stolen from you?
(CLICKS TONGUE)
I feel like, deep inside, I always expected this.
I expected the rottenness in me to be seen by other people right before I managed to expunge it.
Spoken like a true woman.
Never felt myself to be rotten at all.
Spoken like a true man.
A man you loved once.
(HANK CHUCKLES)
Yeah.
Knew I was right about that.
(ALMA TUTS, INHALES)
Didn’t keep you from wanting me to say it.
Yeah. Dead right, I’m a simple man.
Want my feelings to be reciprocated.
You loved me?
(HANK CHUCKLES)
Come on. Told you.
(SIGHS) Told you.
Countless times.
It never went away.
Not for me.
Why… Why do you think I’m here?
You’re not, you know.
What?
A simple man.
(SIRENS WAILING IN DISTANCE)
Maggie hit me.
(CHUCKLES) Whoa, whoa.
Uh, what?
Well, she slapped me.
She slapped you?
Mmm.
Goddamn.
Okay, well, I do wish it was the other way around, but…
Well, I mean, I did belittle all of her life choices and told her that I knew about the plagiarizing, so it wasn’t entirely unwarranted.
You told her what I told you?
No. The dissertation, I knew before you told me.
It was clear, as you said, anybody looking at it, so…
You knew?
All this time? You knew?
Why didn’t you tell me?
I didn’t think it mattered.
You didn’t think…
(SCOFFS) you didn’t think it mattered?
What would you have done?
Draw a line between two disparate points and make a case against a young woman who said you abused her?
It’s grasping at straws.
Yes. Yes. Exactly that.
You sound like a desperate man.
I am a desperate man.
I’m absolutely, positively fucking desperate!
(HANK PANTING)
You just would have given them more rope to hang you with.
I wish… I wish they would.
I wish they would.
Rather than let me just die here in obscurity.
You know how many fuckin’ times I thought about jumpin’ into that fuckin’ wharf?
Do you?
Nothing I would have done could have changed what’s…
You don’t know that.
You don’t know that!
You can’t know that.
(HANK EXHALES)
ALMA: Mmm.
Do you think…
Do you think I did it?
What?
Do you think I raped her?
You flirted with all of ’em, Hank.
(SCOFFS) I flirted?
I flirted. Yeah.
So fuckin’ what?
All of who?
All of your students.
You could have fucked any number of them.
So, you’re jealous? Is that…
I’m uncertain.
‘Cause I didn’t.
‘Cause I didn’t. ‘Cause…
’cause, like a fuckin’ idiot, the only person I ever broke the rules…
(SOFTLY) to fuck was you.
(SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(HANK SOBS, SNIFFLES)
Shit. (BREATHES DEEPLY) Fuck!
Fuck.
Jesus Christ.
(HANK GROANING)
HANK: Shit. Fuck!
You’re an idiot. Let me see.
Let me see. Hey.
Jesus!
Hey.
You’re an idiot.
ALMA: Okay.
Mmmm. Hank.
Hank. Stop. Please. Hank…
(ALMA GRUNTING)
ALMA: Stop it!
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Get off!
(HANK GRUNTS) Jesus. God.
Get out.
This was a mistake. Get out.
Please, get out.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
HANK: (SOFTLY) Oh, shit.
(EXHALES)
(CELL PHONE VIBRATING)
(METAL THUDDING)
(GROANS)
(SIGHS)
(UNEASY MUSIC PLAYING)
(HORN BLOWING IN DISTANCE)
(CAR LOCK BEEPS)
(KEYS JANGLING)
(MAN 1 CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
(MAN 2 CHUCKLES)
MAN 1: Shit.
MAN 2: Yeah. Anyway.
Let’s get outta here, man.
MAN 1: Yeah.
Yeah, man, let’s roll, man.
(MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING)
(ENGINE TURNS OVER)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(CELL PHONE VIBRATING)
ALEX: The article came out today.
I know, we just need a statement from her.
And, honestly, the administration, too.
That’s her!
FEMALE STUDENT 1: Professor.
Look, look.
Oh, shit. Yo. There she is!
Professor.
ALEX: Everyone, come on!
FEMALE STUDENT 1: Professor!
MALE STUDENT 1: Professor!
FEMALE STUDENT 1: Professor, we just…
ALEX: Professor Imhoff!
FEMALE STUDENT 1: Are you gonna hold Yale accountable?
We just wanna have a conversation with you, okay?
No. Okay. I’m sorry. I…
All we want is accountability.
FEMALE STUDENT 1: Professor, we just wanna chat.
MALE STUDENT 2: We want justice.
I’m sorry. I just…
Please. Just…
ALEX: Do you believe Maggie Resnick?
Are you willing to say that what he did was wrong?
You don’t understand what…
We want accountability.
Will you give us a statement?
No, I… (GROANS) They need to hear the truth, and…
(STUDENTS GASP, EXCLAIMS)
(ALMA GROANS)
ALEX: Oh, shit.
FEMALE STUDENT 2: Is she okay?
I don’t know. Fuck.
(STUDENTS MURMURING)
ALEX: Guys, give her space.
Give her space.
PROFESSOR: Step back.
Give her some room.
ALEX: We didn’t touch her.
I swear. No one touched her.
She just collapsed.
(DOOR OPENS)
(LIGHT SWITCH CLICKS)
(MONITOR BEEPING)
FREDERIK: (SOFTLY) Hey.
How are you feeling?
Like shit.
Well, multiple perforated ulcers’ll do that to you.
Doctor said you must have been in a lot of pain.
Why didn’t you say anything?
You, um… got a lotta calls.
All from the same number.
And, uh…
It’ll blow over, huh?
Some other catastrophe will break, and it’ll all be forgotten.
Read it to me.
Al, I…
Please.
“It’s what Resnik refers to” “as the ‘Feminist Generation Gap’…”
“Saying, ‘Alma had to fight for everything” “‘she should have been given…”
“‘But she can only conceive of progress in the way” “‘that she achieved it…”
“‘By subsuming herself” “‘to the abusive patriarchal agenda.'” “‘Alma failed me as a teacher,” “‘but beyond that, she failed me as a woman…”
“‘As a mentor. And now,” “‘I’m just another Black woman ‘who hoped for equal and fair recognition” “‘from a white woman,” “‘but got nothing but tokenistic subjugation” “‘in return.'” We can fight this, yeah?
Do a counter oped or something?
I wanna share something with you.
I told you, when I was a child that my father’s best friend sexually assaulted me, abused me.
None of that is true.
(CHUCKLES)
We were in love.
He was so kind.
He was so handsome, and…
I could just stare at him from across rooms.
I would go… to work, sometimes, with my father, just so I could see him.
I couldn’t focus in class.
School, my friends, just, everything felt so pedestrian.
Except for him.
He was the only thing that felt real to me.
He kissed me for the first time the day after my 15th birthday.
And…
When…
Six months later, maybe.
He said I was too young, but I had insisted.
It was the happiest time of my life.
Then, out of nowhere, he said he… (CLEARS THROAT) That he met someone else, and… someone that was more appropriate.
He started bringing her to my parents’ parties and… throwing her in my face like he was… trying to prove how little he cared.
It was so cruel.
So, I made up a story… that I knew would hurt him the most.
And three years later he committed suicide.
I had already retracted the story by then, but… it didn’t matter.
I’d wanted to hurt him the way I thought he’d hurt me and I did.
Alma, you were… you were… very young.
Young girls want adult things to happen to them… sooner than they’re ready for them all the time.
But it’s always the adult’s job to protect the innocence of a child.
No.
I didn’t give him a choice.
Hmm.
There’s always a choice.
It doesn’t matter if you wanted him, it doesn’t matter if you threw yourself at him, he should have rejected you outright.
No. He did.
He did. He refused me.
He was a good man, and I destroyed him with a lie.
Alma.
It wasn’t a lie.
You keep thinking he did nothing wrong.
You keep blaming yourself.
Do you think you can allow yourself to see the truth in that?
The truth… is that I love him.
And I love you.
(ALMA EXHALES)
(ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(ROMANTIC MUSIC CONTINUES)
MALE STUDENT: Oh, my gosh.
There’s so many people in there.
FEMALE STUDENT: I know.
It’s, like, 10? What, 12?
(BOTH CONTINUE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
REPORTER 1: (ON MONITOR) This is new. Yeah, we’ve been watching… It then spreads, from these trees… Look at all these embers just… I don’t know if you can pan up, but look at all these embers just flying up. You see them in the smoke. All of that.
Those can… Those… The winds are a little…
Have died down here. But those can just get picked up by winds for miles and they can go for miles and light down… you know…
(KNOCKING AT DOOR)
REPORTER 1: …fall on somebody’s roof… and a whole new fire will pop up. So, this house is gone. Dean Imhoff?
Your four o’clock.
You said to remind you?
Thank you, Peter. I was just getting ready to leave.
REPORTER 1: This house is now underway. The left side of this house is ignited.
Horrible, don’t you think?
REPORTER 1: And also now the house nearby it.
Absolutely.
REPORTER 2: Yeah. This…
REPORTER 1: But liter…
I mean, these embers are like snowflakes.
They’re falling all around us.
The sun, I mean, this, it looks so crazy. If you… You can’t even see the sun.
It is completely blacked out.
NEWSCASTER: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced Friday that it’s ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Earlier this week, Meta announced that it’s ending its thirdparty factchecking programs in the United States. It’s also changing its hateful conduct…
(HINDI MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS)
(MEN SPEAKING PUNJABI)
(DOOR OPENS)
(MELLOW JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(MAGGIE SIGHS) Sorry I’m late.
Sorry I ordered without you.
It’s fine.
The wine here is surprisingly good.
MAGGIE: Oh, I mean, I don’t drink anymore, so…
Nobody does.
It’s good to see you.
MAGGIE: Yeah.
You look the same.
You’re lying.
No.
But the people who only live for one thing never seem to age.
(SMACKS LIPS) You know, this is where Hank used to take all of us?
That was his table, right over there.
Sometimes I still wonder where he is.
(TAPPING ON TABLE)
Oh, um, making a pile of money spin doctoring for some Democrat.
“The death knell of intellect is politics.”
That’s what Frederik always says.
Are you still together?
We’re still together.
(MAGGIE CHUCKLES) And Alex?
Uh, (LAUGHS) but I hear they’re doing very well.
On track to make partner somewhere.
You know, I read your article.
I thought it was very smart.
Your confession, the contrition.
It was well written, though, didn’t you think?
I think it was written for you to get everything you wanted.
And how ’bout you? Married?
Engaged.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
Who’s the lucky…
Uh, Nia.
She’s great. I mean, so intelligent and just…
Do you wanna see?
Sure.
Wow. She’s gorgeous.
How old do you think she is?
Forty-three.
She’s the Director of Curatorial Affairs at the New Whitney.
You can keep going.
You know, I think I spent so much time wishing for you to fail, I figured it’d make us even or something.
It probably doesn’t matter now, but I know I hurt you, Maggie, and I’m sorry.
I don’t know if you were expecting more, I just…
That’s nice.
I think I was more confused than anything at the time.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be you or be with you.
And now?
I mean, I always knew we were different, but now I know that that’s a good thing.
I like being alive to what happens to me, and nothing affects you.
I lost everything.
And look at you now.
You think I’m a bad person?
Oh. (CHUCKLES) Does that even matter?
I gave up on the idea of retribution a long, long time ago.
But I am curious.
After everything, are you… are you really happy?
Yes, I really am.
Then I’m happy for you.
You did it.
You won.
(DOOR OPENS)
(SOFTLY) Check, please.
(MELLOW JAZZ MUSIC CONTINUES)
(SIGHS HEAVILY)
(MELLOW JAZZ MUSIC FADES)
(HINDI MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS)
Cut!
(UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYING)
