Death by Lightning (2025)
Director: Matt Ross
Created by: Mike Makowsky
Based on: Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
Original release date: November 6, 2025
Stars: Michael Shannon (James A. Garfield), Matthew Macfadyen (Charles J. Guiteau), Betty Gilpin (Lucretia Garfield), Shea Whigham (Roscoe Conkling), Bradley Whitford (James Blaine), Nick Offerman (Chester A. Arthur)
Premise: The show depicts the presidency of James A. Garfield, leading up to his shooting by Charles J. Guiteau, who had been an admirer of his, and his ultimate death.
* * *
Death by Lightning – S01E01 – The Man from Ohio | Transcript
At the 1880 Republican National Convention, the lives of Ohio Congressman James Garfield and newly released convict Charles Guiteau are forever altered.
[“Everyday People” by Sly & The Family Stone playing]
[volume rising]
♪ The butcher, the banker
The drummer and then ♪
♪ Makes no difference what group I’m in ♪
Let’s pick up the pace, fellas.
Clear all this stuff on out of here.
Yo, Rico! Get moving.
♪ There is a blue one
Who can’t accept the green one ♪
♪ For living with a fat one
Trying to be a skinny one ♪
♪ Different strokes for different folks ♪
♪ And so on, and so on
And scooby, dooby, dooby ♪
Who the fuck is Charles Guiteau?
[loud clanging]
[unsettling music playing]
[gasping]
[scissors snipping]
Guido, Gui, Gui… Guiteau?
Guiteau.
That’s French, isn’t it?
[Guiteau] Only by name, sir.
I’m as American as any man.
Born in Illinois, er, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York.
Hmm, so you’ve uprooted often then.
I go where the opportunity leads.
You sit before us today having been found guilty of false pretenses.
It was a misunderstanding.
Um, an honest mix-up between tenant and landlord.
And evading your arrest as well.
[clang]
[grunts]
[grunting]
That’s not how I recollect it.
We have a letter from your father.
From my father?
[judge] He says you’ve long been estranged.
That you were occupied upstate with the Oneida free love colony.
Well, he’d be mistaken.
[moaning]
The suggestion alone is ludicrous.
To speak candidly on behalf of the panel, Mr. Guiteau, you seem to us a liar and a fraud.
We fail to see how you’ve served as anything more than a drain on good society.
A drain?
[chuckling] A drain on good society?
That’s, well…
No, that’s not right.
That’s not how this is… this is supposed to go.
No, sir, uh, you, you sit there and you ask me to prove my worth.
Well, let me tell you.
I sit now in the same position as any one of our forbearers.
Are we not a nation built wholly from rogues and migrants and freethinkers?
Isn’t that the whole point of this thing?
Here and only here, a man can be anyone.
[solemn music playing softly]
He can amass a fortune.
He can influence millions through… through words or action, his… his name ringing down through the ages.
Not a drain, no.
Not a drain but a credit.
[solemn music continues]
Hell… under the right conditions, he might even be made president.
[opening theme music playing]
♪ I’ll be glad when you’re dead
You rascal, you ♪
♪ When you’re dead ♪
♪ And in your grave
No more women will you crave ♪
♪ I’ll be glad when you’re dead
You rascal, you ♪
♪ I’ll be oh, so glad
When you’re dead, you rascal, you ♪
♪ I’ll be so glad when you’re dead
You rascal, you ♪
♪ I’ll be standing on a corner full of gin
When they bring your dead body in ♪
♪ I’ll be glad when you’re dead
You rascal, you ♪
[distant screeching]
[scraping]
[evocative music playing]
[birds chirping]
Hey, Dad.
Yeah?
Mom says it’s breakfast.
[Garfield] Just a couple more.
Hey, Mollie.
What would you say to a new bedroom?
One you didn’t have to share with two younger brothers?
I’d be overjoyed, in theory.
But seeing as it’s taking you nearly a month to build a picnic table…
Hey, now, that’s not just any table.
That’s a feat of modern engineering.
[Mollie scoffs] Right. Like your, uh, irrigation dam that flooded Mom’s garden with sewage.
I might have flown too close to the sun on that one.
[Garfield] Oh.
I didn’t hear you come in last night.
He was where we left him.
Working away on his table like a madman.
No great wisdom has been without a touch of madness.
[Mollie chuckles softly]
Well, good morning!
[Mollie] Hey!
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
[grunts] Show of hands, who would like their eggs poached?
I’ll take our soft-boiled, Dad.
Uh, I’ll take mine poached, actually.
Pancakes.
Pancakes.
[knocking on door]
Oh.
Mollie.
[Mollie] Good morning, Joe.
I hope I’m not interrupting a family meal.
I’m just here to drop off mail.
Letter for the congressman.
From John Sherman.
General Sherman’s little brother?
[Garfield] And the treasury secretary.
Says he’s gonna run for president.
He wants me to nominate him at the convention next week.
[sniffles]
The party refuses to reelect Hayes.
They want their weight behind a different candidate.
Not Grant again.
Grant’s very popular.
The public still sees the man who won the war.
They turn a blind eye to the scandals.
And New York has its claws in him.
They parade him around their banquets like some puffed-up old totem.
That’s no way to talk about a war hero.
And you would be there to… to give a speech?
I’m sure I’m not the first he’s asked.
Any politician with aspirations would be crazy to go up against New York.
Mmhmm.
But he knows my ambitions are more earthbound.
A perfect man to throw to the wolves.
[Crete] Mmhmm.
So what’s that twinkle in your eye?
[chuckles softly]
[evocative music playing]
[clattering of bags on carriage]
Oh.
It’s a few light reads from your pile.
I can’t have you falling behind.
Very considerate.
Whatever you do out there, don’t forget this.
You have my word, darling, I swear.
Mm.
[kisses]
All right.
[evocative music rises]
[gates close]
Franny?
[louder] Franny?
[Franny] Charlie!
[Guiteau] Franny!
[Guiteau laughs]
[steam whistle blares]
You have no idea how glad I was to know that you were safe.
This business is bad for my health, and I ought to settle down and put in the work and earn my way rightly.
And no more habits.
Well, you have a room at our house for as long as you need it. You know that.
And perhaps George could see if there’s a clerkship open in the patent office for you.
Patent law is a business for those who lack their own ideas.
I’m sure I can never be fulfilled there.
But look, I have a new concept.
It’s a newspaper format.
And it’s something good, something honest.
Something that will give voice to the common man.
The Daily Theocrat.
That’s a nice name, Charlie.
I know what you’re thinking.
But I still have a few friends left in Chicago.
Men who maybe see value in such a thing, and if I can amass the seed funds…
And of course, I would need my sister to run the arts page.
But that’s… I mean, that’s ridiculous.
I haven’t picked up a brush since I was a teenage girl.
And it was your dream, wasn’t it?
[giggles]
[horse neighing]
[evocative music playing]
Welcome to Chicago, Congressman.
Thank you.
[whinnying]
[growling]
What is that stench that hurts so bad?
Uncle Charlie!
Oh! What’s that disgusting stench?
[giggling] Uncle Charlie!
[Guiteau] I’m coming to get ya!
[Guiteau grunting]
I can smell…
[panting]
Charles.
[Franny] Hello, darling.
How’s the patent game, George?
Good.
[evocative music resumes]
[Sherman] I’m sure you’re curious why I’d ask you to speak on my behalf.
Well, I saw you once on the floor of the House before you left for Ohio.
How you talked, how they listened to you.
Mr. Sherman, I can assure you I’m no different than any other man.
Oh, don’t be modest. You’re a fighter.
You survived the river of death.
[flies buzzing]
[distant artillery fire] My brother talks about how you boldly shirked your general’s orders, how you rode headlong into rebel fire.
You helped save Tennessee for the Union.
Oh, that’s too generous.
There was no heroism in it.
I was moving on impulse.
[Sherman] But for a greater good.
You’re not afraid to do what’s right.
Hm.
[men laughing]
Listen. [clears throat] I’m under no illusions about my prospects.
I’m gonna lose.
But we might at least be able to push the party toward reform, lest we yield to the majority view that two terms’ worth of Grant’s grift and corruption merit another.
[Garfield] Hmm.
Twothirds of all federal revenue flows through the port of New York.
Roscoe Conkling, he controls New York.
He’s got the party by the balls.
And I guarantee you that within a week, he will have Grant selling offices to the highest bidder.
But if his is the popular will…
Is it?
[playful music]
[sniffs]
[indistinct chatter]
Thank you.
Hello, sir.
My name is Charles Guiteau, and I’d like to apply for a credit loan.
Oh, no.
I remember you, sir.
It may have been four or five years past, but I remember you clear as day.
You must have me confused with some other patron.
I have never been to this establishment.
[banker] Yes, you certainly have.
You’re the gentleman that threw the paperweight.
[chuckles] That doesn’t sound quite right.
I’m sure I’d recall…
Well, that was clearly a throw performed by a righthanded man, and I am a lefty.
[door opens]
This bank wouldn’t know a sound investment from a copper penny!
And I feel sorry for you, most of all.
Oh!
[guard] Get to walking.
[man in crowd] Mr. President!
[clamoring] President Grant!
President Grant!
[clamoring]
[Guiteau] Mr. President! President Grant!
President Grant! Mr. President!
Oh, forgive me!
I’m one of your biggest boosters, sir.
All my life, I’ve been following your career with great interest, and I would like to… Sir!
[clamoring continues]
Oh, Senator Conkling, sir!
I’m a great admirer of your work in New York.
Oh, you don’t say. That’s kind.
Yes, and I’m eager to, uh, punch my ballot for your ticket come November.
I’m designing a newspaper, see, and we plan to endorse your whole slate.
[man] Senator.
Nice to see you.
Oh, hey! Please, uh, be respectful and give the senator his space.
I’m serious! It’s an awful pain.
[man] Senator…
Um, sir, I was hoping you might find time to have a chat with a party faithful.
I know a handsome pub nearby with malts.
I would love to have a malt, but I fear I’m all booked up, Mr…
Guiteau. Charles Guiteau.
All I ask for, sir, is an opportunity.
I’ve had some good ideas I worked out in my spare time on how the president can expand his message to the common man.
That happens to be a topic my friend Chester here is very passionate about.
Oh, so…
Hit the road, chief. We ain’t buying.
You’re a very well-covered fellow.
[laughs]
Oh!
[tense music playing]
Oh, so you deny he made off with those $60 from our drawer the last time he blew through town?
That could have been a burglar.
The police report was inconclusive.
How is it you’re the smartest woman I know, but when it comes to him, you’re…
[Franny] Charlie has never had it easy, George.
Father was especially hard on him.
Blamed him for our mother’s illness, and he had that awful stutter.
He joined a sex cult, Frances.
That was purely anthropological.
[George laughs] Oh, come on!
It was research for an aborted book.
George, you cannot ask me to cast my own brother out on the street.
I won’t do it.
[George] I don’t plan to just sit idly by as he breaks your heart again.
[Franny] Is that what you’re afraid of?
I have some very good news.
The bank has approved me for a loan.
Oh, Charlie!
Is this for your newspaper idea?
The bank manager himself came in, and he shook my hand.
Which bank was it, exactly?
George, please.
I’m joking. I’m joking.
[Guiteau and George laugh]
We’re all very proud of you, Charlie.
How about a toast? To The Daily Theocrat.
May mention of its name strike fear into the heart of every Tribune editor.
[Guiteau gasps]
The Daily Theocrat.
The Daily Theocrat.
We always knew you had it in you.
[exhales]
I, uh… [clears throat] I appreciate you hosting me in your home, George.
And I’ve been thinking, um…
About how I might be of use here.
Longer term?
And we’ve had our differences, that… that’s clear.
But it would mean a lot to her, I know, if we could be friends.
There’s only one way this story ever ends for men like you.
[tense music rising]
And we both know there’s only one thing you can do for your sister.
[distant coughing]
[coughing continues]
[coughing grows louder]
[coughing]
[coughing loudly in room]
[Garfield] You were in the war, Mr. Stockton?
Aye. Michigan.
Seventh Volunteer.
The Seventh.
That would’ve put you at Antietam.
Antietam, Chantilly.
Lost my two boys at Cold Harbor.
I’m so sorry.
War is an awful business.
Would you do it again…
If you knew everything you stood to lose?
My boys stood on the front line.
They saw what was coming, and they held their ground.
They died for an idea.
An idea bigger than them. [dry chuckle] Bigger than any man.
Hmm.
[Stockton] Well, I’d best be going.
You ought to use this bed.
Just till sun up.
[dry chuckle]
I wouldn’t deny a man his berth.
I insist. I have no use for it.
I have a task that requires my renewed attention.
[solemn music creeping in]
[horse hooves clopping]
[bustling street chatter]
[solemn music rising]
Thank you.
[music builds]
[solemn music soaring]
[music fades]
[chairman] First up, Representative Joy speaking for Senator Blaine.
[clears throat]
Christ, Blainsy, when’s your man due back at the morgue?
[Arthur chuckles]
Does anyone else perceive a draft?
[scattered cough]
[softly] Christ.
I shall propose as candidate he who’s commonly called James S. Blaine.
And my middle name is Gillespie, you insipid twat.
[applause]
I think Blaine would be a very good president.
Indeed.
Mm.
[applause follows]
[gavel bangs]
[chairman] Senator Conkling speaking for President Grant.
I’ll see you again in four years.
[scattered murmuring]
[growing murmurs from the crowd]
[indistinct chatter]
[crowd falls silent]
[Conkling] When asked whence comes our candidate, we say from Appomattox!
[crowd erupts in cheering]
Show me a better man!
I dare you!
Name one and I am answered!
[renewed cheering]
[chanting] Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant!
Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant!
Grant, Grant!
Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant!
Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant!
[chanting fades]
[indistinct whisper]
[Conkling softly] Appomattox.
Appomattox. [chuckles]
[urinating]
[Conkling] It’s got a certain ring to it.
Yeah.
Thank God Lee didn’t surrender at Foggy Bottom.
Heh.
Haven’t seen you on the floor in some time, Jim.
Farm keeping you busy?
Well, a touch of the earth every now and again can prove a kind remedy, Senator.
[Conkling] Oh, I manage to get my hands dirty from time to time.
Good to have you back in the fold, Jim.
You had lots of promise once. We like you.
Not just me, the president too.
He says he can see you making a real impact.
Interior, maybe?
Land Bureau? That sort of thing?
I’m hardly qualified for that job.
You own a fucking farm, don’t you? [chuckles] If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be late for my speech.
You shouldn’t have come back, Jim.
Pardon me?
Take it from someone who’s been at it a while.
Go back to Ohio. Enjoy your quiet farm.
You’ve got too much heart for a business this filthy.
Tears you apart.
Hell, it’s got to.
A man like you?
You’d be dead before you hit the ground.
[gunshot]
[gavel bangs]
[chairman] Congressman Garfield speaking for Secretary Sherman.
[indistinct chatter]
[quiet cough]
[indistinct chatter]
[chatter subsides]
This should wrap it up.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. President.
Friends.
Today I have sat by and borne witness to the shows of many big men.
I’ve bore them with a deep…
Disquiet.
This assembly seems…
It struck me as a human ocean in tempest.
I’ve seen the sea lashed in a fury, flung into spray, but it is not the billows, rather, the calm level of the tide from which we draw its depths.
Are we in oceanography by mistake?
[crowd chuckles]
That is to say, it is not your present temper that marks the pulse of the people.
Not here, in this turbulent hall, do we stake the destiny of our republic.
[heckler] Where else would you have it be?
Not here!
But by the millions of firesides that have endowed us on their behalf.
[contemplative music playing]
[Garfield] Those citizens guided by a love of home and country, weariness for the past, but hope for the future.
It is with them that God prepares his verdict.
[contemplative music continues]
Lest we forget ourselves that not two decades ago, this same republic bore with it chains of bondage!
Men’s souls paralyzed, the demon of slavery preying upon the virgin West, and it was our party, and a great man who stood here before many of you today, he stood in this very spot, and he kindled a light.
A light stoked from embers that would come to consume every shackle and slave pen in a fire of freedom.
We should join together in lifting into the firmament of the Constitution those immortal pillars of justice and truth.
That every man is equal and free…
[grunts] Come on!
…no matter what he is…
[grunts]
…or how he got here.
[axe thuds into log]
[Garfield] It falls upon us to hold ground as a party, to show those millions of firesides.
We want a man whose life and opinions embody all that is right and good about this place.
A man who, from a mountain’s height, looks forward, prepared to meet the dangers to come with dignity and courage.
God damn it!
A man who has stood the blaze of that fierce light which browbeats us all, but whose fiercest ray finds no flaw in his armor, no stain upon his shield.
We want a man!
We want a man!
[heckler] We want Garfield!
[sudden silence]
[soft murmuring spreading]
[solemn music playing]
[ragged breathing]
[Franny] Charlie.
[shaken grunt]
[fearful cry]
[grunting]
[breathing shakily]
[murmuring continues]
I speak, of course, of your servant, John Sherman, from Ohio.
His record of honor speaks for itself, and I gladly offer him now for your consideration.
Thank you, and good night to you.
[single clap echoes]
[more applause joins in]
[cheering erupts over applause]
[applause continues]
Thank you.
[resonant note holds beneath cheers]
[quivering breath]
[footsteps descend quickly]
[gasping]
[tense music playing]
Fran?
[George] Frances.
[tense music continues]
[Guiteau] Wait.
[door opens]
[door closes]
[resolute music pushing forward]
379. That’s our majority.
The crystal number.
We can count on New York and the rest.
Illinois will be solid.
I have no faith in the wisdom of delegates, Chester.
They seem to derive a unique kind of communal joy in falling prey to human error.
Well, when we’re in need of extra chuckles, brass knuckles.
[resolute music heightens]
[chuckles]
Gentlemen!
We’ll now move to a vote with peace, dignity, and decorum.
Alabama is 16 for Grant, three for Sherman, and one for Blaine.
The state of Arkansas bestows all its 12 for Ulysses Grant.
It’s not over yet, sir. Just in the A’s.
We from Illinois have resolved 24 votes for Grant…
Forty-two. We’re owed 42.
…and ten for Blaine.
[man 1] Indiana goes two for Grant, twenty-five for Senator James Blaine, two for John Sherman.
We don’t have it. It won’t work.
Ohio pledges its 44 votes for the Secretary, John Sherman.
[man 2] Pennsylvania will go 33 for Grant, twenty-two for Blaine, two for Sherman, and one for Congressman James Garfield.
[crowd murmurs in surprise]
Well, someone’s having a bit of fun, Jim.
[clears throat]
[man] Rhode Island pledges its eight…
[expectant music swells]
The final count stands at 305 for Grant, 282 for Blaine, 94 Sherman, 32 Edmunds, 31 Washburne, ten for Windham, and one for James Garfield.
Has Grant won it?
He’s got a plurality, but not a majority.
No. They go again.
[music persists]
You don’t want Grant on this ticket any more than I do.
John, the two of us, we can put an end to this.
[Sherman] My men will not support you.
And even if they did, you would still need the votes of Washburne and Edmunds.
And I will fight for everyone if the end result is I get to wipe that smile off Conkling’s face.
[Sherman] You should listen to yourself.
Do you honestly think you’d be any better than Grant?
I do. John, I think you’d be better than Grant.
But you have no path.
No path.
[laughing]
[man 1] We’ll talk after this.
[man 2] Thank you, sir.
Hello, sir.
It’s a great honor to meet you.
It was you, wasn’t it?
It was me, sir.
I was very impressed by your speech.
Oh, very kind.
You do realize I’m not running.
[Grier] I do.
My task, as I understood it, was to vote for the man most capable.
I believe that to be you, sir.
[chuckles] You mistake me.
My support is for Sherman.
You can vote for him or anyone else, but you will dare not use my name again.
[Grier] We’re the party of Lincoln.
We ought to live up to it for once.
Fran, it was a silly mistake.
It was a silly mistake. I was…
I was only trying to be of help.
Do you remember how restless you were as a boy?
All those little wagers we’d make?
Ten cents, was it, if you could just keep your arms and legs still for five minutes?
I always lost that bet.
[chuckles softly] And you would sneak me a dime anyway when Father’s back was turned.
I will never forgive myself for running off to school and leaving you alone with him.
[Guiteau] No, no.
You’re not to blame for any of that. No.
[inhales]
George spoke with a physician this morning.
The man knew of a place.
A place?
Oh.
[Franny] It’d only be for a short while.
And you could come back to your newspaper afterwards.
This is what you want from me?
It’s right, isn’t it?
It’s healthy.
I trust you.
If that’s what you think is best.
My…
Passion can get the better of me.
But it’s your passion that sets you apart.
It’s what makes you remarkable.
[determined music playing]
The 12th vote’s in.
Grant holds and gains one.
Blaine drops to 279.
Sherman’s up two to 97.
It’s a deadlock.
[driving music rising]
[clamoring]
[man 1] Roscoe!
[man 2] Recast our republic!
This is a racket!
[gavel bangs]
Gentlemen! Please!
[clamoring continues] Be not fooled by the guru with the turkey gobbler’s strut!
Gentlemen!
We must hold fast as a party.
Gentlemen, I beseech you.
Chairman, I beg of you…
[music continues]
[baby crying]
Mister, please?
I haven’t eaten at all today.
Please, mister.
Not now.
[woman shushes baby]
[baby continues crying]
[Guiteau laughs]
[man] South Carolina is 11 for Grant.
[snoring] One for Blaine!
Two for Sherman!
[Blaine] Christ, he won’t quit.
By now he’s promised more ambassadorships than there are nations on Earth.
What number vote are we at? 20? 21?
Thirty-four, Senator.
[gasps]
[Jenkins] Senator?
Don’t mind me, Jenkins.
I’m just… staking out my rafter.
Wisconsin will give two votes for Grant.
Shit.
[man] One vote for Blaine.
Shit.
And 16 votes for the man from Ohio, James Garfield.
[renewed murmurs of surprise]
Uh, Mr. Chairman, sir.
Ohio rises to submit a question of order.
Yes, I imagined you might.
[Garfield] I challenge the correctness here.
Surely no man has the right to announce a person’s name without their consent.
Such consent I have not given.
The gentleman from Ohio does not state a question of order.
Mr. Chairman, I’m not asking…
Sit down, Congressman.
No person having secured a majority, another ballot will be taken.
Thank you.
Did James Garfield, of all people, really just win 16 votes?
Seventeen, actually.
Can’t forget the little shit from Pennsylvania who’s thrown in for him the last 33 cycles straight.
Get him back in line, Chester.
We’re not bleeding one more vote.
[indistinct chatter]
John.
Oh.
[Sherman] Well, there he is.
The great man from Ohio, Mr. James Garfield.
I’ve never been so fucking humiliated in all my life.
I will not accept any of those votes.
I yield every single one to you.
It doesn’t work like that, Jim.
Well, understand, when I pledge my loyalty, Mr. Secretary, I do not waver.
[Sherman] Loyalty?
Nobody makes a speech like that unless he craves it for himself.
[persistent, driving music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
Alabama’s 20 votes for Grant.
All 12 of Arkansas for Ulysses Grant, and let this thing be ended now.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
[man] Connecticut goes one vote toward Grant, and another 11 for Jim Garfield.
[applause]
Illinois goes 24 votes for Grant, six for Blaine, and seven, Garfield!
[applause]
[tense music playing] Delegates from Iowa give our 22 votes to Garfield.
[clamoring]
No, this is a bad-faith vote.
I demand a hold on these proceedings, sir.
You’re…
We are all of sound minds, Senator.
Are you? You can kiss the deputy treasury goodbye, motherfucker.
Maine moves her 16 votes from Blaine to James Garfield!
[crowd bursts into cheers]
Make the same appeal, in my name, to Maryland, Michigan, and every delegate who has voted for me.
[music continues]
[man 1] Six for Grant, and ten for Garfield!
Four Grant, 42 Garfield!
[man 2] And by the way, 21 for Garfield!
I want all of New York.
[man 3] Nebraska goes six for Garfield!
New York goes 50 Grant!
Twenty, Garfield.
Twenty votes from New York, you goddamn…
It’s a free vote, Senator!
[music heightens]
No, no, no, no. Stop! Stop it.
Stop. Gentlemen…
Sincerely, I’m very flattered, but I simply cannot…
I cannot…
Ohio pledges its 44 votes… to Garfield.
[shushing] No… Stop it. No. No!
Take it back.
It’s already done, Congressman.
[man 4] Oregon…
John. Please.
[man 4] …six for Garfield!
John.
John!
See you in four years, Roscoe.
[man 5] Vermont switches its ten to Garfield!
[man 6] Wisconsin votes 20 for Garfield.
[cheering continues]
[loud cheering and clamoring]
[indistinct, busy chatter]
[Guiteau] Excuse me. Uh, what’s going on?
It’s Garfield.
He’s making a break for it.
Who the hell is Garfield?
[clamoring]
[gavel bangs]
[chairman] Order, gentlemen! Order!
[gavel bangs]
Three votes for John Sherman.
Fortytwo for Senator Blaine.
306 for the president, Ulysses Grant.
[scattered cheers] And 399 votes for James Garfield, the man from Ohio!
[loud cheer and applause]
[dark percussive hit reverberates]
[cheering muffled under brooding echo]
[brooding music playing]
[applause rises beneath the music]
So what say you all?
Shall the nomination be made unanimous?
[loud cheering]
Gentlemen, please.
[applause softens, then stops]
James A. Garfield of Ohio…
I rise to move that the man be named unanimously as the nominee of this convention.
[poignant music swells quietly]
[cheering]
Hoorah for James Garfield, the next President of the United States!
[cheering continues]
[gasps and murmurs of amazement]
[poignant music continues]
Woo!
[cheering continues] It’s yours, Congressman.
You didn’t ask me if I wanted it.
Everyone wants it.
[poignant music builds]
Congratulations.
What’s your next move, Senator?
What else? We gut the bastard.
[poignant music soaring]
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Sir!
We expect great things!
And I of you.
Excuse me.
Grand Pacific Hotel, please.
[crowd chanting] Garfield! Garfield!
Garfield! Garfield! Garfield! Garfield!
Garfield! Garfield!
[tense music bursts]
[crowd] Garfield! Garfield!
Garfield! Garfield! Garfield! Garfield!
Garfield! Garfield! Garfield!
Garfield!
[crowd] Garfield! Garfield! Garfield!
Garfield! Garfield!
Garfield! Garfield!
Garfield! Garfield! Garfield!
George! George!
All his things have been cleaned…
[music fades]
[George] Son of a bitch!
[George exhales]
[driving music playing]
Here you are, my good man.
Thank you so much.
What line of work are you in?
Politics.
I’m going to help get a man elected to the presidency.
[woman] Hm!
[train whistle calls out]
[music builds and ends]
[closing theme music playing]
[music fades]
* * *
Death by Lightning – S01E02 – Party Faithful | Transcript
In the runup to Election Day, Garfield welcomes the nation to his front porch, while Guiteau struggles to ingratiate himself with Party leadership.
[indistinct chatter]
[music blooms gently]
[man] Look, there she is.
[woman] She’s here. Mrs. Garfield.
[Joe] Whoa, people, please.
This is a private home.
Give the family some space.
Joe, what are they all doing here?
Ma’am, Mr. Garfield just won the party’s nomination for president.
[music rising with realization]
[Conkling] Everybody gets in line, from the sewage worker on up.
New York and its purse strings are closed.
I’ll prepare one of my memorandums.
And break skulls if you have to.
They want to reform the party out from under us, let’s oblige them.
We’ll sit on the sidelines, hands in our pockets, and deliver their sorry-ass ticket to Kingdom Come.
Four years, they’ll be begging us for Grant.
This whole debacle will die a fucking footnote, if that.
[Arthur] Understood.
Gentlemen, where is your candidate?
Where’s Garfield?
He left for his hotel, Senator.
What the hell is he doing there? Go.
Get him here, now.
You, go, get him back here.
Right away, sir.
These delegates are getting restless.
They want to go home.
We need to put forth a running mate, and we need to do it now.
Well, I, for one, say we ought to nominate Senator James Blaine.
That’s your brilliant idea?
You’re the best man for the job.
That’s an insult.
It’s the vice presidency.
Besides, Garfield’s coalition and my own are one and the same.
I’ve got no extra support to give him.
No, for us to have any chance at eking out a win in November, we need New York.
Sir, I…
[Blaine] It has the largest vote share.
Biggest donor base, control of the papers.
You can’t seriously be suggesting we offer the position to Conkling.
His politics are the definition of corrupt.
He’s a cancer on our party.
We don’t need Conkling.
We just need his machine.
Someone who knows where the bodies are buried and how best to loot them.
Might not be above a shameless appeal to personal glory.
Someone who can command the right kind of influence.
A collector for the New York Customs House, through which threequarters of all federal revenue is amassed.
[intriguing music playing]
Negotiates a complex network of job appointments.
Ah!
[Blaine] His generosity repaid in the form of…
Bless you.
[Blaine] …party contributions.
Whatever his moral leanings, he’s one of the more effective civil servants in the bureau.
[thwack]
[groans] Give him another one.
[thwack]
[intriguing music continues]
[Blaine] And exceedingly popular, to boot.
[yelps]
Besides, there’s no place where the powers of mischief are so small as in the vice presidency.
Arthur!
Chester Arthur!
Come here!
Come here, you big old son of a bitch!
Who will be the one to tell Garfield?
Well?
Has Ohio made their offer?
They have.
Thank you, Tony.
What are the bastards willing to trade to get my name on the ticket alongside Garfield’s?
What?
For God’s sake, wipe that dumb look off your face and tell me.
The Ohio men have offered me the vice presidency.
Sir.
[laughing]
[Conkling continues laughing] I’m serious.
They offered it to me.
You?
Yes, sir.
They offered the second-highest office in the land to a customs collector for the Port of New York?
Huh.
This smacks of Blaine.
Well, in that case, you ought to drop the damn thing as you would a red-hot shoe from the forge.
I sought you to consult.
Consult? What is there to consult about?
There’s something else to be said.
You know me.
You know I have not been right since my Nelly passed earlier this year.
Jesus Christ.
[Arthur] I feel…
I’ve lacked purpose, as if a ship without a rudder.
The office of the vice president is a greater honor than I’d ever dreamed of.
Chester, dear friend…
If you wish for my favor and respect, you will contemptuously decline it.
[tense music playing]
[Arthur] Senator Conkling…
I shall accept the nomination.
[music turns decisive]
And what’s more, I shall carry with me the majority of the New York delegation.
Oh, shall you?
Fucking ape!
Get out.
[scoffs]
[music builds]
[opening theme music playing]
♪ I’ll be glad when you’re dead
You rascal, you ♪
[music fades]
[indistinct chatter]
[Garfield] Excuse me.
There he is.
Jeez.
James, you said it’d be a light reception.
[clears throat] Jim, meet your running mate, Chester Arthur.
I’ve heard lots of nice things.
Ah.
Yeah, you… you two, you’re gonna get along swimmingly, I’m sure. [clears throat] Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow Republicans!
Here’s to a winning ticket!
[applause and cheering]
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
[laughing]
[applause continues]
Oh, oh… I… Mm…
Don’t trouble with it.
We’ll bring another glass straightaway.
Thank you, Frederic.
And I’ll take another copy of the paper.
[Frederic] I’ll see to it myself, Mr. Guiteau.
Oh, and maybe this time I’ll try the Madeira.
Excellent choice.
[chuckles]
[clears throat]
You like the man?
[man] Yes, he’s wonderful.
A congressman from Ohio.
[evocative music playing]
[horse whinnying]
[evocative music continues]
[bell tinkles softly]
Good morning, ma’am.
I’d like to put in for a word with James Garfield, the candidate.
My name’s Guiteau.
I’m an old friend of his from Chicago.
I’m very sorry. He isn’t here now.
Oh, that’s fine, that’s fine.
When do you expect him back?
I have a couple other appointments today, but I can move things around, and…
What do I know?
Nobody tells us volunteers much.
Well, maybe I should just, uh, go upstairs and doublecheck anyway.
For both our sakes.
[woman] Hang on! Mr. Cousteau!
Mr. Cousteau!
Oh, Senator Blaine!
Just the fellow I was hoping to speak with. Uh, Charles Guiteau.
I read every word of every speech you’ve given.
Is that so?
Yes.
And I especially admired the way you tore apart that rascal Conkling on the House floor back in ’66.
The singed cat and the Bengal tiger.
I was quicker in my youth and far better at making lifelong foes.
A great oratory should inspire such depth of feeling.
It’s… it’s a lesson I incorporate into my own rhetoric, and I think you’d really enjoy this sermon I composed on behalf of our man, Garfield.
See, I was an early booster of his back in Chicago.
With your endorsement, I’d love to join the fold and start stumping on the roster and getting the word out.
Have you any sort of following?
I’d say, moderate to considerable, in between my essays and the lecture circuit.
And I run an independent paper in Illinois, The Theocrat.
Oh.
“Guiteau,” that’s French Huguenot, isn’t it?
[chuckles] Yeah, you got a good ear.
[speaking French]
[in English] Well… [chuckles] …yes.
[speaking French awkwardly]
[Guiteau laughing]
[in English] Indeed, uh… [clears throat]
Sad to say, our roster is pretty much full at present.
Uh, we’ll make sure this goes through the proper channels, nevertheless.
Keep up the good work, Guiteau.
Your support means the world to us.
[tense music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[door opens]
You didn’t even write.
I learned you won the vote from the, uh, people on our lawn.
And now you would have me believe, like some fool, that a man just falls upward toward a presidency.
You looked me in the eyes before you left for Chicago and you swore that we were past this.
And I let you go.
I know.
Do you… do you know?
I…
What it did to us the last time you ran off to Washington in search of glory?
I’m sorry, Crete.
New York is a long ride from Ohio.
We need to get your things sorted.
I have no plan to go to New York.
[Crete exhales]
I’ve already told them that I intend to do all my campaigning from home.
I am in the middle of many projects.
I am building an ugly table, for example.
Where better to get to know a man than from his front porch?
[cries softly]
Do you know what I see when I look at you?
Because it’s not some big general or a congressman.
Or a president.
You see the boy you knew at college, mopping floors to pay his tuition.
And sneaking the editor of the paper love poems in Latin just to watch her blush.
Mm.
Your poetry was terrible.
Well, it seemed to have worked.
If I am to do this, we do it together or not at all.
[gentle music playing]
[Guiteau] I’ve read everything on the man I could get my hands on.
Did you know that he was born even poorer than I was?
His father was dead at two.
Mother couldn’t afford shoes for him until he was seven.
Like, destined to-to-to-to-to drown anonymous in some Ohio ditch until he stepped up onto that stage in Chicago.
All he needed was four and a half minutes.
Four and a half minutes to secure his place in the annals of history, to-to-to-to rise above his station from a pauper to a king.
I mean, how the fuck does that happen if not for an act of God?
Mm.
And he’s lefthanded too.
We both are.
Never seen someone get so hot and bothered over a politician.
Myrna, I want to invite you to the rally in October as my guest.
All the party bigwigs will be there.
What’s Chester Arthur doing there?
He’s the vice presidential nominee.
Had a regular who went by that name once.
It can’t be the same guy.
I’d have a better chance of being vice president than that big idiot.
I’m telling you, Myrna, there is…
An energy in the air since Garfield came into being.
And I feel, for the first time in years, that we’re on the precipice of something…
[sighs]
…desperately exciting.
Yeah.
Okay.
But I’ve got my eight o’clock.
Oh.
This is twice what we agreed on.
I know, I know, but…
May I just sit on the bed with you a minute more?
[man 1] Here you go, young man.
Mr. Garfield thanks you for the bread.
[man 1] Thank you.
Martin, if you could. Thank you.
[man 2] A humble gift for the next president.
[goat bleats]
[laughs]
Oh no, come on, goat.
I must admit, it’s strange to be received this way, on the front porch of a politician.
Well, I’ve always rated myself a fairly bad politician.
[men chuckling]
With respect, Congressman, mm, all of us here, we are used to hearing a lot of talk from men in power such as yourself.
We soldiers didn’t put our lives on the line for a Republic that’ll deny us freedom at the polls.
Furthermore, that will impugn us with literacy tests the proctors themselves can’t pass.
I know words won’t mean much right now, but I swear this will be part of my fight.
On my honor.
We fought together, gentlemen, for freedom, not poll tests.
I’d rather be with you and lose than against you and win.
[laughs]
You truly are a bad politician.
[laughter]
[women exclaim]
[Evelyn gasps]
Oh, Mr. Cousteau, you shouldn’t have.
It’s the least I could do, Evelyn.
Everybody knows the volunteers in the Women’s Auxiliary keep the lights on in here.
Matter of fact, I was just remarking to Senator Blaine last night at the Gaiety Club that…
Say, that old sourpuss, is he in yet?
Hancock is outspending us by a two-to-one margin.
The South is plying him with cold, hard Dixie cash in hopes of turning back the clock.
We need big-ticket New York donors.
Arthur, are we boring you?
What?
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Do you think we put you forth for vice president based on good looks?
I already told you fellas, I’ve done all I can.
Raffle off some Cabinet post to a Vanderbilt.
Such spoils were how Conkling won his elections in the past, but it is also true…
Would you get your feet off the table?
Mm…
[Blaine] Thank you.
Your running mate, James Garfield, won the nomination because it turns out that the people actually want a government that they can trust.
They see the old ways as cynical, corrupt.
Yeah, and they’re how we’ve stayed the majority party since the war.
But rather than harp on us, Senator Blaine, you might want to consider spending more quality time in your home state.
That Maine special election you have next week is far from a sure thing, I hear.
If the governorship goes to the Democrats, we’re screwed in November.
My friends tell me that Hancock’s camp gains ground in New England.
Mr. Arthur, I am New England.
The Northeast will come in solid.
I’d stake my career on that.
No, the matter at hand is our game in New York.
If I may… I was just walking by, and I couldn’t help but listen in.
Have you tried an appeal to rank and file donors?
Garfield is the people’s candidate, and, uh, he gives voice to the proletariat class.
And if every worker in America were compelled to chip in a dime, you’d easily make up the deficit and empower a whole new voting bloc.
Who is this man?
What is he doing here?
Why is he still talking?
Oh, I’m a friend of Senator Blaine’s.
I was just in the area, and I figured I’d swing by and check on the status of my speech.
Your what?
My speech, the stump speech that I intend to give in… in October at the rally.
You very kindly offered to take a look.
Did I?
[Foster] Cousteau, sir.
The Huguenot.
Oh… [chuckles] Hold on a minute. Have we met before?
Uh… have we? I don’t believe so.
[Arthur] Yes, I never forget a face.
Was it not your ass I kicked outside of the Standard Club in Chicago?
[Blaine laughs]
Think I’d remember that, huh?
Might we have met in Newport?
Perhaps you summered together in the Mediterranean.
[chuckles]
I think not. Our tastes are not quite as Greek as yours, Senator.
[laughing]
I’m sure it’ll come to me later on.
It was Chicago.
But on the topic of my speech.
Uh… it’s still under consideration.
Wonderful. By whom?
Him.
Oh! I’ve actually taken the liberty of producing a few extra copies…
No, that won’t be necessary.
…for you fine gentlemen.
We’re quite busy.
[inhales]
What did I ever do to you, Senator?
You think me such a fool that I don’t feel you mock me?
[chuckles]
Why would you treat a person with such contempt when… when… when he only asks to lend a friendly hand? Mm?
Do any of you have any idea how many more of us there are?
[solemn music playing]
Like me.
Who have never had a taste for politics till now.
I came all this way because James Garfield is pushing the most progressive plan this country has ever seen.
I’m here because I believe in change.
And all I ask from you is a chance to prove my worth.
So bring me in. However you see fit.
And put me anywhere.
And I’ll work like a dog for you.
I will! I will!
I can make an impact.
[solemn music rises]
[music stops abruptly]
[gasps]
Mmmmmm!
[brooding music playing]
[music fades]
[man 1] He made off with a small fortune from his sister and her husband in Chicago.
A Mr. and Mrs. Scoville.
[man 2] Mr. Scoville is awfully concerned about Charlie’s wellbeing.
Mm.
Well, like I said to you gentlemen, that wee toerag cleared off weeks ago.
So, unless there’s anything else I can help yous with, I have ten minutes to spare.
[intricate music playing]
A farm boy like you know how to work one of those?
[Joe] I’ve sent a telegram or two.
[music heightens]
[mechanical tapping]
Sir? The special election results from Maine, they’re in.
[intricate music builds]
Maine falls for the first time in 30 years.
Two thousand votes.
[men murmuring]
Jesus.
Gentlemen, I am truly sorry that I could not deliver a better omen for November.
I believe that I would prefer to perish in private. Good evening.
What now?
We get fucking sloshed, that’s what.
Myrna!
Myrna!
What?
Hurry up.
Ugh! Calm your loins, big lad.
[Myrna grunts]
That’s your best throw?!
[man] Hey, Guiteau! Wait right there.
[frenzied music playing]
[man] Guiteau!
Hey!
[horse whinnying]
[man] Give it up, Guiteau!
It’s over!
Guiteau!
[frenzied music continues]
[crowd cheering]
Oh!
[crowd cheering]
[honkytonk piano playing]
[panting]
[rowdy cheering]
[overlapping chatter]
[man 2] Hit her!
[man 1] Guiteau!
Hey!
[drink spills]
Hey! Who let your mug in here?
[man 1] There! Come here, Charlie boy!
What’s the meaning of this shit?
[man] This man is wanted in Chicago.
That’s a lie!
Oh yeah? You’re not Charles J. Guiteau?
No, I’m not!
Guiteau, no, you halfwits!
This man you have here is Cousteau.
[man] Sure, pal.
Call the guy whatever you want.
We’re taking him.
Sir!
I’m not your pal!
Read a fucking newspaper!
My name’s Chester Arthur, and I’ll be met with some respect.
Chester Arthur?
Yeah, sure, I see the resemblance.
We got Chester Arthur over here.
He is Chester Arthur.
I’m Chester goddamn Arthur, son of William Arthur, chief collector of the Port of New York and next vice president of you cocksuckers!
[silence]
This man, what’s more, is a friend of the Republican Party.
You will release him this instant.
You lay a hand on him again, and I’ll personally bring the entire wrath of New York to bear on you both.
You read me, you profligate fucks?
Yes, sir. We’re very sorry, sir.
Just a simple mix-up is all.
[chuckles]
[laughter]
Music! Fighting!
Sausages!
[cheering]
[honkytonk piano resumes playing]
Box!
Sir, I have… I have no words.
I cannot thank you enough.
I must repair. Accompany me.
I will. I will.
[retching]
[vomits]
[Arthur panting]
[retching]
[vomiting]
[Guiteau] Sir. Here, sir.
[Arthur coughs]
[breathing heavily]
[exhales]
You’re a good egg, Cousteau.
[exhales] That brash and ill-advised display you put on back at headquarters, that stuck with me.
Oh.
[Arthur] Men like us, we have to claw our way up.
You speak a lot of truth, sir.
You’re damn right I do.
I got loads of worthy ideas to offer…
Yes.
I know you’ll make for a fine vice pre…
[Arthur retches]
[vomits]
Fine vice president indeed, sir.
And… and we need voices like yours in Washington.
I’ll never be vice president.
Our ticket is positively fucked.
But you just said moments ago that…
Piss and vinegar!
I’m first mate on a sinking ship with a hole in it the approximate size of Maine.
Moreover, I’ve successfully alienated the one true friend I had left in this world.
No! What do you mean?
You have scores of friends.
You’re one of the most beloved men in all of New York.
They don’t like me. They fear me.
I like you.
You do?
Yes.
In fact, I think you share a lot in common with Garfield.
You’re both outsiders ascending the ranks on merit. Huh.
Also, um…
Am I to understand that you were very recently made a widower?
My darling Nell. [cries] Pneumonia took her from me, like, this last January or so.
And yet, you were brave enough, while nursing a broken heart, to answer the call of your countrymen.
Right?
Right.
I do feel that people tend to forget that part.
I happen to be shouldering a terrible weight.
You are, without q…
Without question…
[groaning]
[Guiteau grunts]
…the man to meet this moment in history.
[toilet flushes]
And I know that Nell would agree were she here with us tonight.
Well, that’s a nice thought.
Though you didn’t know Nell, she was a fairly vocal Confederate sympathizer.
Fuck.
Indeed.
[Guiteau] There we go.
Well, you’ve given me a heck of a lot to think about this eve, my good man.
Well, I’m just glad I could be of counsel, sir.
[Arthur exhales]
Yes, yes.
Perhaps if I take the reins, play an ace or two up my sleeve, I may just be able to deliver a fighting chance for us after all.
Yes. And now that I have your ear, sir, on the topic of the rally next month…
[Arthur chuckles]
You are still angling for a slot.
Wily bastard you are.
[laughs] Well, it takes one to know one, sir.
[both laugh]
It takes one to know one!
Shit, why not?
I’m sure we can find a place for you.
Consider it done.
Au revoir, Cousteau.
Guiteau. Guiteau.
[evocative music playing]
[laughing]
[banging on door]
[Garfield] Well, well, well.
They exiled you to Siberia, huh?
I have neither the will nor the capacity to show my face in Maine at present.
Here.
Crete.
Senator Blaine.
Have we got any spare rooms left?
Just the honeymoon suite, my dear.
[bleating]
[briefcase clatters]
[goat bleating]
[sighs] You made your bed, Chester.
Now lie in it and shut the fuck up.
You would really rather sit by and watch your own party lose, to suffer Hancock instead, purely out of spite?
There’s only one way to save this party from itself.
His ticket must crash and burn.
And me to burn with it.
Have you forgot that I’m your friend?
You were…
You were the first to ever believe in me.
You trusted my capabilities.
You gave me a shot in this life, and I went out and I fucking killed for you.
And I still can… kill for you.
Blaine know you’re here?
Blaine is out.
Wiped off the map from the beating he took in his home state.
I’m telling you, Garfield is pliable.
He can be influenced.
He can be steered if needed.
You needn’t waste four years on Hancock.
Not when I’m inside the White House.
Chester A. Arthur, Vice President.
[both chuckle]
[mischievous music playing]
[Conkling] May I have your attention?
If you come from Ohio or Maine, kindly show yourselves the fuck out.
Get the fuck out.
Round up the donor pool, Chester.
We’ve got a rally to organize.
And could someone please go rouse that son of a bitch from his farm?
Time for him to meet his public.
[music ends]
Sitting here with you, on this porch, reading our books in peace, it’s my favorite thing.
Then why go to Chicago and stand up and give that damned speech?
Because nobody was saying what needed to be said.
Not a one of them.
[exhales] I waited. I waited, I hoped.
If just one other man in that hall would stand up and tell the truth, I swear to God, if that’d happened, I’d have kept my mouth shut.
But now I have to consider the possibility that I might be able to fix all the things that terrify me about this country.
I mean, what if you and I could actually make a difference?
“To begin in 1861, this nation was convulsed…”
[muttering]
Thank you, Frederic.
The chef braised the meat especially well today.
[Frederic] I’ll let him know.
[chuckles] Thank you.
[solemn music playing]
[clears throat]
I’d like to share a story with you all today.
The story of a hero.
Garfield has shown how a man from the humblest of circumstances can come from obscurity to fame.
It is my great pleasure to introduce you to the man from Ohio, soon to be your 20th president, James A. Garfield!
[cheering]
Fellow citizens.
We stand, all of us today, at a critical precipice.
The elevation of the Negro race from slavery to full citizenship is the most important political change we’ve known since the origin of our Constitution.
Their advancement has improved the health of the Republic beyond measure.
But there are some among us who still refuse the emancipated their basic rights.
We must be ready to confront this evil head-on, to rub out ignorance and fear, and to promote a shared wisdom in their stead so that not only some but all may rise!
[cheering]
A new coalition run by the people to safeguard America’s future.
Equal opportunity as the law of the land!
Let us hold together and keep it!
[crowd cheering]
[triumphant music playing]
Welcome home. [grunts] I have good news and bad news.
Let’s start with the good news.
We’re closing the fundraising gap.
Donors are beginning to show.
[Garfield] Oh.
The kindness of Roscoe Conkling, I assume?
[chuckling]
There is nothing kind about it.
He weighed his options.
He judged he’s better off sticking with us than Hancock.
Is he?
[exhales] One bridge at a time, Congressman.
This is the bad news.
Let’s get you in the house, Crete.
[people clamoring] China out!
Jim?
China out! China out!
China out! China out! China out!
China out! China out! China out!
China out!
[man] Disgusting!
[Blaine] They’re asserting you wrote a letter to one H. Morey, a Massachusetts unionist.
It says that you endorsed the importation of laborers from China, competing for wages with the American workers.
Well, it’s nonsense.
I’ve never even met a Morey from Massachusetts.
I didn’t write it. It’s a fraud.
And rife with misspellings.
We will issue a denial, a strong condemnation.
We will sue this rag, The New York Truth, into extinction.
That’s it?
You’re not even going to consider the toll on the workers?
Young lady, we take this stand in support of American workers.
Not those, the ones out of China.
They have as much a right to be here as anybody else.
You and Mom have said so yourselves.
It’s just not a stance one can take so freely in this heated a climate.
You can’t get elected alderman in America, let alone president, if you take that stand.
But it’s wrong.
Why aren’t you saying anything?
He said he’d help people, fight for them.
I watched him tell a group of Black men he’d just as soon be with them and lose than against them and win.
Are these any less human?
Mollie.
You’d doom an entire people just to win.
[door closes]
I know you’re angry.
[Mollie] I see the logic.
You can’t help anyone if you don’t get elected.
Doesn’t mean I like it.
Harry read me a writeup from one of the papers in New York.
It had to do with your part in the war.
You always said you spent two years in a tent copying correspondence.
Mmmm.
You know better than to believe everything you read in the paper.
But is it true, though, you fought at Shiloh and those other places?
Dad, you’re the one that taught us a lie by omission is a lie nonetheless.
No, I think that was your mother.
[Mollie] Why’d you never say anything?
[pensive music creeping in]
It isn’t how the writeups make it sound.
When you’re there, you feel no glory.
You see no purpose.
And after, you have a choice to make.
You can let darkness define who you are…
Or you can fill up your world with joyful things.
Things to give your life weight.
And one day you hope light will overwhelm dark.
That, uh, meaning may come from what you saw.
Has it worked, do you think?
I’ll keep you posted.
[softly] Okay.
[Garfield] Mm.
[suspenseful music playing]
[reporter 1] Mr. Conkling!
[reporter 2] A word!
Any predictions for today’s election, Senator Conkling?
[Conkling] Not now, boys. Democracy calls.
[rapid telegraph tapping]
[music heightens]
Sorry.
[door opens]
Maryland and Virginia for Hancock, and Pennsylvania for Garfield.
I was owed Maryland, I think.
New York has come in safe for J.G.
by a margin of 20,000.
[cheering]
That’s 34… That’s 35!
Thirty-five electoral votes!
[clicking]
Hancock has taken New Jersey.
That’s a mistake. Check it again.
I said check it again, you bastard!
Come on!
[suspenseful music soaring]
Can we win without Delaware?
I don’t know.
[staccato telegraph clatter]
Indiana.
[door opens]
Abram?
[Abram] He won.
Who won?
[panting]
[suspenseful music builds]
You won.
[cork pops]
[cheering]
[triumphant music playing]
[cheering]
Oh my God.
We did it! We did it! We did it!
[laughs]
[laughs]
Unbelievable.
[indistinct chatter]
A is this one.
Wait, so I’m doing it like this?
Look, you should try it. It’s really good.
[Blaine] To the method in your husband’s madness.
Oh… yes.
[emotional music playing]
We got him elected to president.
[music ends]
[closing theme music playing]
[music ends]
* * *
Death by Lightning – S01E03 – Casus Belli | Transcript
Treachery from within the White House complicates Garfield’s attempts to appoint a Cabinet. Guiteau tries everything to secure a Presidential audience.
[cow bellows]
[Guiteau] Come on.
Fucking useless.
[cow lows in protest]
Hey, hey.
[moos] Come on.
[grunts]
Come on, you son of a bitch.
[moos] Fuck.
[exhales in frustration]
[urgent breathing and panting]
[“Do They Hang Too Low” by Oscar Brand playing]
[heavy breathing]
♪ Any old storm, any old port ♪
♪ Life is long, love is short ♪
♪ You’d better get a woman
Get a woman if you can ♪
♪ If you can’t get a woman
Get a clean old man ♪
♪ Do they hang too low?
Do they swing to and fro? ♪
♪ Can you tie ’em in a knot?
Can you tie ’em in a bow? ♪
♪ Swing ’em round your shoulder
Like European soldier? ♪
♪ Do they hang too low in the mornin’? ♪
♪ Any old storm, any old port ♪
♪ Life is long, love is short ♪
♪ You’d better get a woman
Get a woman if you can ♪
♪ If you can’t get a woman
Get a clean old man ♪
[woman moaning loudly]
[music ends]
I’d like to open up the floor to deliberations.
I would like to deliberate on the topic of Brother Charles.
Yes, I too would like to speak on the subject of Brother Charles.
Must we do this every single week?
Charles, it is only through the practice of receiving our peers that we can hope to achieve spiritual perfection.
His behavior has been a matter of grave concern.
He’ll often speak ill of the cooperative, take more than his fair share at meals.
I caught him spying with lust upon Joseph and I in the greenhouse.
Esther, you fucking wish.
[Noyes] Charles!
With deference, Elder Noyes, I will not stand by idly and accept this slander on my name, not when I have pledged myself to God as I have.
Do you doubt the principles of our community, this church that’s given you a home these past five years?
I’ll admit, I-I-I fear that the culture of free love has grown perverse, yes.
He’s just upset none of the sisters will share an experience with him.
Is that true? Have not one of you had a desire to know this man?
They’ve devised a nickname, sir, with regard to Brother Charles.
What sort of nickname?
“Charlie GetOut.”
[laughter]
I would sooner not be loved than by any of you harlots or sinners.
I made a mistake thinking I could ever reach enlightenment at a place like this.
Menial farm work and-and-and casual fucking may satisfy this bunch, but there is a greater destiny out there for me.
Mark my words.
My name will be known one day all across this country.
[laughter]
[Guiteau] Laugh away.
But remember, he who laughs last, laughs best.
[opening theme music playing]
♪ I’ll be glad when you’re dead
You rascal, you ♪
[rhythmic squeaking from bed]
[“Wiener Blut” by Johann Strauss II playing]
[Garfield] Hmm?
There’s my cheerful husband.
[Garfield chuckles]
[chuckling]
We’ll only stay an hour, I promise.
This is your night. Enjoy it.
[man] Mr. President.
Mr. Douglass.
[Crete exhales] I’d like you to know Blanche K. Bruce, senator from Mississippi.
Oh, I believe we met briefly in Chicago at the convention.
You were for Grant, if memory serves.
[Bruce] I will not dare deny it.
Those I represent cannot afford to lay all their chips on an underdog.
Were I faced with your stakes, I probably would have made the same bet.
Let it be water under the bridge.
[chuckling] Ah.
I admired your strong words during the campaign.
I only hope they will be paired with even stronger action.
The Black man held the line for you in the South, and at his own peril.
I needn’t remind you just on whose tab we owe our champagne tonight.
I haven’t forgotten.
Our administration will be staffed solely with the most progressive, qualified of…
[laughter]
Greetings, you bastards.
I am skunked.
Your drink of choice, Mr. Vice President?
Sausages!
[laughter]
[Conkling] Senator Blaine. Mrs. Garfield.
[Blaine] Oh!
Crete, have you met Kate Sprague?
Not in the official sense, but I’ve heard truly impressive things.
Mrs. Sprague, will the governor be joining us in town tonight?
Oh, he’s detained, sadly.
[Blaine] Oh.
Back in Rhode Island.
Roscoe’s graciously offered to escort me to the ball.
I would be rude not to ask after your wife, Senator Conkling.
She’s minding the homestead up in Albany.
The climate this far south never much agreed with Julia.
Mr. President.
Oh…
Would you excuse me, gentlemen?
Mrs. Sprague.
Mrs. Garfield.
Good to have you out and about, Blainsy.
You’ve been sorely missed.
Political cockroaches like you and I, Roscoe, we can only stay in exile so long.
Did you enjoy the president’s speech?
Bleeding heart vaudeville.
Crow on about reforms, fetch good press.
I suspect some of it may be sincere.
Yeah, well, I could give a fuck.
You’d better remind our man Garfield just who it was that saved his campaign at the 11th hour while he was off slinging pig shit in Ohio and you were licking your wounds.
New York doesn’t work pro bono.
He can grandstand all he wants, but we expect to be remembered.
[laughs]
Lighten up, Blainsey. Our side won.
Roscoe, I’m ready to start dancing.
Then dance we must.
Mrs. Sprague, give my best to Governor Sprague.
Oh.
I love it when old men are catty. [chuckles] Oh. Here we are.
Thank you.
Oh, happy to be of service.
Then I don’t know what you’re doing here. [chuckles]
[laughs]
Oh, this city still manages to bring out the worst in people somehow.
I blame the formal attire.
It makes it, uh, awfully difficult to use a toilet.
[both laughing]
That’s funny.
You should try on a bustle and then let’s talk.
[chuckling]
[exhales]
I don’t know what I was thinking.
I’m not built for this sort of world.
Well, as my sister always likes to say, the world is what we make of it.
And there’s no use giving up before we’ve even begun.
Not sure I caught your name.
Charles Guiteau.
I’m proud to say I’m one of the men that helped make your husband president.
Oh.
Yes.
That makes much more sense.
Speaking of which, I ought to hunt him down.
Oh, no, wait, wait, wait.
Oh, oh, sorry. No, no, I’m not, I’m not…
I just… I-I-I-I would love a moment with him is all.
To conduct a postmortem on the campaign to see if I can be of further help to him.
Please?
I will be sure to let him know.
Have a nice evening, Mr. Guiteau.
Ma’am.
[Arthur]
♪ Because they look so neat ♪
♪ Oh, them golden slippers! ♪
♪ Oh, them golden slippers! ♪
Oh, Mr. Vice President Arthur, sir!
Hey!
[Guiteau laughs] We really gave those devils a taste of our medicine back in November, eh, my old friend?
[both laughing]
Oh, I can’t tell you, sir, the pride I felt that night when the numbers came in for us.
To be a force in a great movement much larger than myself.
Shit!
Indeed, indeed.
And we have a rare opportunity, don’t you think?
To effect the kind of mandate that only comes along once in a generation.
I gotta tell you, sir, I’m ready.
What’s it now?
I’m ready to be called up, sir, in an official capacity.
I would very much like to be part of this organization.
Mmmm!
Hm! Okay, yes.
Yes, sir? Yes?
That’s splendid! That’s splendid news!
I had a sense you would agree.
We’ll make an unbeatable pair, you and I.
I wonder where I could be used for the greatest public benefit.
Um, some consulate, perhaps, to strengthen our ties with Europe?
I have a little French. My name is French.
Okay, okay, okay, listen.
I need you to do something for me.
Something very, very important.
Anything, anything.
I need you to find the sausage man.
The sausage man?
[guard] You, there!
May we examine your invitation to tonight’s event, please?
I’m the Vice President, you fuckin’ pricks.
[chuckles] Apologies, sir.
We mean this fellow with you.
We discovered a broken window in the East Wing and have reason to suspect someone snuck in.
[snorts]
[both laughing]
Your invitation, please.
This is not what it appears.
Let’s take it outside.
No, let’s not take it out…
No, get your hands off me.
Sir, will you please tell them that I belong here?
Get your hands off me!
Sir, will you tell them who I am?
I don’t have the slightest fucking idea.
[dramatic music playing]
[man] No!
Get off the… Hey!
Careful!
Stop! What are you doing?
Get off the bike! Get off!
[dog barking] The dog does not belong here!
Ooh!
Take the dog out!
Stop!
Can’t we keep him?
[man] Will you stop?
[dog barking] Stop!
[music stops]
[Blaine] Conkling wants Secretary of State.
Oh, does he?
The senior-most role in my cabinet?
[Blaine] We wouldn’t have won the election without him.
God knows I wasn’t much help in Maine.
[Garfield] Oh, stop it.
Well, I’ve drawn up my own list of appointees.
Here, have a look.
Me.
I need a Secretary of State I can trust.
I’m dealing with a rogue vice president, as it stands.
I’m honored, Mr. President.
But for your sake, I ought to reject it.
You’re the best man for the job.
Of course I am.
All the names on your list are, and not one of them is remotely viable.
These are all progressives, avowed enemies of the spoils system.
They won’t even get hearings.
Conkling owns a third of the Senate.
[Garfield] His hold isn’t so firm.
I believe some may be swayed.
All due respect, Mr. President, there are none who can be swayed.
They are all cronies bought and paid for by the New York State Customs House.
When did you get so damn cynical?
I’m a realist.
There is no one alive who hates Roscoe Conkling as much as I.
But as long as he holds three quarters of our federal revenue hostage, he is the party.
No, he’s not.
The people are.
And I swore an oath to them when I took this office.
It’s time to put an end to the era of the power broker once and for all.
He won’t go quietly.
That’s why I’m asking for help.
We die, we die together.
[solemn music playing]
[indistinct]
[door opens]
[Guiteau] Excuse me.
Excuse me, sir.
Um, I demand an audience with the president.
You’ll have to wait your turn.
No, I don’t think you understand.
I’m not one of these people.
My name is Charles Guiteau.
I was a campaign notable in New York.
I was a notable too, in Michigan.
Sir, the Knights of Peoria have raised over $450.
Hold on, these men have not…
And I’ve got a…
[door opens]
The president wants you all to know he values your time.
Just… be patient and keep to a single file, please.
[clamoring]
I’ll be right here!
My name is Charles Guiteau!
He’ll know who I am.
[muffled clamoring]
[indistinct chatter]
Sir?
Yes.
As your private secretary, I would strongly advise you to reconsider meeting with constituents today.
I’ve made up my mind, Joe.
An elected official, no matter the rank, isn’t worth his salary if he can’t find time for the people he serves.
Calling hours are open to the common man five days a week, though.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend time with the common man than politicians.
Darling, might we at least pay for some form of protection?
We haven’t vetted any one of these men or frisked for weaponry.
[Garfield] Oh, nonsense.
Assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightning.
It’s best not to worry too much about either one.
[door opens]
[door closes] I didn’t vote for him.
[sighs]
[knocking on door]
[door opens]
[clears throat]
[door closes]
Mr. President, I come before you today with a special request.
[man] Mr. President, I don’t beseech you lightly, but on behalf of all Godfearing whites…
Minister to Belgium?
Denmark.
He sees himself on the Supreme Court.
No, I cannot read, but I am a quick study.
There is the small matter of my criminal record.
Might I bend your ear about the Jews?
Heck, mister, just put me anywhere that you please.
As long as it pays. [chuckles]
[Garfield] They’re relentless.
Shall we put a pin in it for today, sir?
Are there that many more out there?
[indistinct chatter]
Oh, Jesus.
Brazen office-seekers.
The scourge of every president from Washington on.
Not after we reform civil service.
Seeing as though I got you on the spot, you think one last brazen seeker could steal a minute of your time?
Just so long as there’s a drink involved.
A senator always comes prepared.
Hm.
[chuckles]
[indistinct chatter]
[door opens]
Folks, I’m afraid today’s calling hours for the president have come to an end.
But never fear, they will resume tomorrow, and every day hence. Thank you.
Can I at least get a number in advance to secure my spot?
Fuck.
Hello, Levi. You know why you’ve been called to the morgue this evening?
Believe me.
I didn’t…
Accept a job from Garfield?
Because I’m pretty fucking sure that’s exactly what you did.
A good one, too.
Secretary of the Navy.
I know how you love your boats.
How could you possibly know it was offered already?
[tense music playing]
Mr. Vice President?
I don many a hat.
[Levi] You’d conspire to torpedo your own president’s agenda?
There is no agenda. Just two types of men with very contrary ideas on government.
Navy’s not the job for him.
If I were you, I’d stay right where you are in the House.
Would you concur, Vice President Arthur?
Hm. House? Yeah.
House is a much cozier prospect for Mr. Morton in the long term.
In the long term.
So, this is what we’re gonna do.
[music ends]
I made this decision wholly of my own volition without any outside influence at all.
Family time is very important to me.
[Blaine] Bullshit!
Tell me what Conkling said!
All right.
Could you help me understand, because less than 24 hours ago, you sat in that very spot and accepted the post gladly.
I’m sorry.
Good luck with your search.
He’s gonna kill as many of your appointments as he can until he gets what he wants.
[knocking on door]
Senator Allison, also here to speak with you, also says it’s urgent.
There goes your treasury pick.
We need to get ahead of this now.
Ahead of it?
It’s like he’s got a copy of the jobs list.
Didn’t that only go out to key White House personnel?
[Joe] Yes.
[soft chuckle]
[Garfield] Forgive me, am I interrupting something?
Mr. President.
To what do I owe?
Well, I believe we’ve been long overdue for a candid dialogue.
May I?
So, have you been enjoying your duties at the White House thus far, Mr. Arthur?
My duties?
I wasn’t aware I had any.
The Vice President’s job is purely ornamental.
Kiss babies, attend functions, play Santa at the holiday party.
Normally that’s true, but have you been down to the Capitol lately?
I do my best to avoid that fucking shithole at all costs.
Fair enough, except are you aware we currently have a deadlock on the Senate floor?
3737 split of support.
Hm.
In that rare situation, the Vice President is deputized to act as the tiebreaking vote.
And in the case of my appointments…
I am the difference between them being blocked and going through.
[Garfield] Mmhmm.
You have an opportunity now to exhibit genuine leadership.
[laughing]
Come on.
I’m no leader.
And even if I were, my politics are not your own.
Let’s not be under any illusions here.
I was only ever offered this job as a means of kneecapping Conkling.
You’re right.
And it was a stunningly stupid calculus.
You are, without a doubt, the least qualified candidate on Earth for this role.
And if I had my say, I’d have tapped just about anyone else over you.
At least that was my initial view.
But since your selection, I’ve had a chance to do some reading up on you.
I was surprised to learn, for example, that you were once a respected lawyer before Conkling and the Customs House.
Your clients were the poor, the weak, the disenfranchised.
Early in your career, you represented a Black woman who’d been thrown off a streetcar.
I can’t figure why a man like that would pivot to machine politics.
Yeah.
One can only punch up and lose so many times.
Better to be within the system than perpetually without.
And now that you’re within?
Once he has finally seen the summit, what does Chester Arthur actually stand for?
[Conkling] Mr. President.
Oh, Senator.
[Arthur] Roscoe.
Word around town is you’re having trouble holding on to some of your appointees.
Yes? What is it, do you think, with men losing their spines lately?
Quite the epidemic.
Ever a pleasure, gentlemen.
[Conkling] Perhaps you’d have greater success directing your search elsewhere.
New York, maybe.
[tense music playing]
Poor bastard.
He has no clue he’s already dead.
[indistinct chatter]
[door opens]
I think that might be it.
[Guiteau] Excuse me. Forgive me.
I just wanted to ask, will calling hours be on time this morning?
Only because I wish to plan my day accordingly.
I’m afraid the President won’t be taking any other meetings today, sir.
Won’t?
Well… [exhales] I… I’ve been waiting here for hours, and you said yourself, yesterday…
I need you to know that I was a booster from day one.
I have stumped for him, I’ve delivered speeches in front of crowds, and I have notes of commendation.
James Blaine.
And Chester Arthur.
Ask any one of them, they’ll tell you about Guiteau.
Guiteau?
That’s me, Guiteau.
I understand, sir.
If you come back next week, I will ensure you meet the president.
Until then, I will place your application on special file for consideration.
That’s splendid. Splendid! Ha!
Uh, next week, you say?
Yes.
Um… next week. Yes, I should be able to make myself available then. Thank you.
[Blaine] All right, so Robert Todd Lincoln for secretary of war.
Your new friend, Senator Bruce, for treasury regist…
What about, um, Hunt for the Navy?
Claims court judge, and he has that thing on his chin?
[laughs]
That one, the… the… the billy goat.
Not a bad idea, actually.
Hm.
I’m sorry, isn’t the First Lady slated to host Wives Club this evening?
No, I told them you were taking over, so just strap on a bonnet.
[chuckles]
For the record, Rutherford Hayes’s wife was so much nicer than you.
[chuckles]
Have we lost you, Jim?
You need some coffee?
I just can’t drive it from my brain, that smug look Roscoe gave me earlier.
He’s enjoying himself.
A wretch like Conkling can only be stamped out by matching him blow for blow, fight fire with fire.
My husband is a famously poor hater.
It’s true.
And I deprecate war, but if it’s brought to my door, the bringer will find me at home.
[Guiteau] Dear Franny, my sweet sister, I’m sorry to have left you last spring without a proper goodbye, but I write you with wonderful news.
I’ve been promised a post in James Garfield’s White House.
Can you believe I staked my bet with a winning horse?
This president is a man who remembers his friends, and oh, did I ever keep the faith!
The probable placement, as far as I can gather, is some sort of foreign consulship.
I think I’d lean towards something in Paris, or maybe Vienna.
[speaking German]
[Guiteau in English] I’m so excited.
I’m already in the thick of learning German and French.
[speaking German]
[Guiteau in English] I often think back to those dark days trapped under father’s roof.
That laugh of his haunts me yet.
Well, this will show him, and the rest.
The downside to being abroad, of course, is I won’t be able to visit with your family for Christmas, but I’ll be sure to mail my gift.
Which reminds me, will George prefer his restitution in cash or check?
I’m so close, Franny.
I promise I’m gonna make it right.
And then I’ll be worthy of your pride.
I will earn your love.
Until next time, au revoir and auf Wiedersehen.
[knocking]
[knocking rapidly]
[cocks gun]
[forceful knocking]
It was only a matter of time before Conkling sent one of his thugs.
Is now a bad time?
You tell your boss James Blaine is no Levi Morton or William Allison.
He will not be cowed or intimidated.
The Secretary of State post is filled.
Well, to be candid, sir, I never assumed that Secretary of State was on the table.
I’d been hoping for a French consulship at best.
Consul… Wait, I…
Yes.
I’m Charles Guiteau, sir.
We worked together in New York City on a campaign.
So you’re not here to cow or intimidate me?
Intimidate you? No. God, no.
I was just in the area and I thought I would stop by and say hello, offer my company for a quick nightcap.
Have any idea what time it is?
Uh, gee, uh…
I… I’d estimate that it was half past.
Oh…
But if you’d just give me five minutes, sir, to impress on you the value that a man like me could have…
[door closes]
[indistinct chatter]
[door opens]
[Joe] Mr. Guiteau.
Charles Guiteau.
The president will see you now.
Me?
[Joe] Please come in.
[solemn music playing]
Is he so great in the flesh?
He’s the most extraordinary man I’ve ever known.
Sir.
Uh, we shook hands, um, the two of us, one time before.
Back in Chicago.
I’m sure you wouldn’t remember. I don’t…
I apologize. I don’t think I do.
That’s okay.
We’re here now. [chuckles] Hm.
Um…
[exhales and chuckles nervously]
[Guiteau exhales awkwardly]
Uh, forgive me.
Um…
You have no clue how hard I worked to get to you.
[Garfield] Oh.
[Garfield shushing]
[exhales nervously]
What can I do for you, Mr…
Uh, Guiteau. My name’s Guiteau. And…
All I want, sir, uh…
Is to be your friend.
Oh.
And I… I wrote this for you. Um…
I… I made it, uh…
It was a speech that I gave at the rally in New York.
Why, thank you. It’s deeply generous.
I mean every word of it.
It’s… You’re an inspiration, sir.
Your story of ascent from poverty to the highest office in the land has kept me going all this time.
A flare of hope at the end of a very long and murky tunnel.
Mm. Hm.
[Guiteau chuckles nervously]
And…
I know, um, this may sound peculiar, but…
I feel in my core that I really do…
Know you, Mr. Garfield.
I’m your man.
Help me.
Sorry?
Help me to succeed like you did.
Open the door.
Let me in. I’m… I’m asking you to…
Well, I’m… I’m begging you.
Tell me.
Tell me how I can be great too.
I’m afraid you misinterpret me, Mr. Guiteau.
You see, we’re all only men.
It is God, not I, who is great.
Who grants us purpose.
[door opens]
[Joe] Sir.
[Garfield] Hm.
There’s been an incident, and it requires your urgent attention.
Uh, it’s lovely to meet you, Mr. Guiteau.
If you’ll excuse me.
[Guiteau] Likewise, sir.
You’ve given me much to consider.
Might I submit myself to be consid…
Decisions will be made shortly.
[door opens]
Dad, she fainted out of the blue.
She was burning up. I don’t…
Okay. Shh.
Darling?
Why? Why is she cold?
[Dr. Edson] It’s malaria.
She’s running hot and cold, sir.
We’re doing everything we can.
Oh.
[somber music playing]
[Mrs. Lockwood] Oh, Mr. Guiteau, this letter came for you today.
Postmarked from Illinois.
Oh, Chicago.
That’s my sister, Fran.
[chuckles affectionately] Franny.
[sighs shakily]
Everything all right?
No, not really.
[breathes in]
She’s written to say that our father died this…
This last July. Uh…
[Mrs. Lockwood] Oh, I am so sorry.
July.
Now, let’s see.
What was I doing last July?
I was still in New York… stumping for the President.
Yeah.
For James Garfield.
James Garfield.
[laughing]
That’s what I was doing.
Hey.
Enough.
[dry chuckle]
[softly] Someth…
If you’re going to sit there and stare, at least help distract me.
[Garfield] Hm.
Go on.
How was the rest of your day?
My day?
[exhales]
There was a gentleman who asked me a very peculiar question.
How he might achieve greatness, as I did.
Well, it sounds like he wanted a job.
And how did you reply to the man?
I said he’d come to me by mistake.
Jim, you…
Did you really?
Mmhmm.
[Crete chuckles]
[both laughing]
You need to give these people something to go off of.
[Garfield grunts]
You know better than anyone I’m the furthest thing from a great man.
Mm.
I realize that dragging us back into this world has taken a toll.
You’re not perfect.
But this is about more than just you, isn’t it?
Take that man from today and many more like him.
They look up to you now.
Well, they ought to find another altar to worship at.
I’m no one’s savior.
No, Jim, you’re their leader.
Your job is to inspire hope.
[coughs] Shh.
And make them believe.
[Crete coughs weakly]
[cries softly]
I can’t do this without you.
I’m not going anywhere.
I promise.
I promise.
[Crete chuckles]
[Garfield] You’re right.
[chuckles]
[gentle music playing]
You are a good man, Jim.
You are.
Now go show those bastards who we are.
Mmhmm.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Blaine] Are you sure you want to do this?
[Garfield] It’s the last option we have to get our men through.
I back down now, my government is his for plunder.
This is akin to exploding a bomb in his backyard.
Conkling will come after you.
He will use everything in his power to destroy you.
I expect it, but there’s a method to quashing any hydra.
First you pick a head and chop it off.
And then…
You cauterize the wound before it has a chance to regrow.
[suspenseful music continues]
[glass shatters]
[Conkling] Fuck!
I bought you that set as a gift.
He has no right, the fucking cocksucker!
[footsteps approaching]
[Arthur] Roscoe!
[door opens]
[panting]
Have you fucking heard already?
Of course, it’s all over town.
He’s taken the New York customs right out from under us, the fucking son of a bitch.
We built that goddamn institution from the ground up! You and me!
No president’s ever named his own collector.
That job is ours.
Do we even know this what’s-his-name?
Robertson. Moralizer. Fucking twat!
There must be something you can do.
The collector controls the ports by which 75% of all federal revenue is earned.
And who was the last collector?
You’re fucking looking at him!
If we lose control of the ports…
We’re crippled.
We are gimped. New York becomes just another state in the Union.
[Conkling] It’s a shot across our bow.
No, it’s Fort fucking Sumter.
Casus belli.
You’re damn right.
[ominous music playing]
Casus fucking belli.
No more pussyfooting from me.
I’m with you on this.
To the end.
Give word to all.
We go to war.
[ominous martial music playing]
Where is everybody?
The president has suspended his calling hours indefinitely.
He can’t do that.
He… He made a promise during the campaign he would meet with his public.
[secretary] You had your audience already, pal.
Go home and bother someone else.
I’m not your pal.
And I need to see him this instant.
We have pressing matters to discuss.
Mr. President! Mr. President!
Mr. President!
[indistinct chatter outside]
Go!
Step aside!
Don’t you even think about it!
Put that down, you devil!
Eat shit! I’m a taxpayer!
Stop!
[mumbling indistinctly]
Oh! Oh, oh!
Mr. Secretary!
My luck to run into you, sir.
[chuckle] Oh!
Good day, sir.
I have, here, in my possession, a note of friendship from the president.
And it’s my understanding that you, as the presumptive Secretary of State, you have a responsibility to fill the open posts in your department.
Good God, sir. Not right now, I beg you.
No, just look here.
I beg you.
This letter is a vote of confidence.
It’s a full-throated endorsement from Garfield himself to put me right in at the… at the French consulate.
You just don’t know when to quit.
Let me put an end to it, then.
The consulship has been filled.
No, no, no. That can’t be right because I’ve been made certain assurances.
You have not.
Read it.
Forging documents is a crime!
You’re lucky I don’t march you to the authorities.
I have forged nothing!
How dare you, sir?
I… I can’t fathom why you would talk to me like that when all I want to do is help.
I am tenacious. I am.
I am, but I persist because I am devoted to this president.
Sir, he does not know you, nor you him.
No, you persist because you are a seeker, an opportunist, and a pest.
And you have no prospect of a job in this administration whatsoever.
[dramatic music playing]
[music turns ominous]
[Guiteau] Mr. President, I write you tonight as a citizen, deeply troubled.
As you are well aware, I’m a day one stalwart of yours.
And I have been trying to be your friend.
But I do not think that you appreciate it.
You’ve chosen to surround yourself with wicked, vindictive men, coldhearted men, who would sooner spit on those under them than offer any sort of leg up.
Was this your great vision?
More of the same?
At the expense of those poor, hardworking souls who trusted you with their vote?
Has it been so long that you do not know that you were once one of them?
You were supposed to be the one who finally changed things.
A president for the people.
I shouted your name in the streets for months until my voice ran hoarse.
I fought for you, desperately.
But you lied to us.
All you’ve done is reinforce the gates.
And what is more, the blame lies in part with me.
I helped sell you.
[cheering]
The worst mistake I ever made in my life was believing in you.
It’s as you said in your speech.
“We stand now at a critical precipice.”
And I know history will remember us for what we do in this moment.
And I see now that God has granted me a special purpose all along.
A destiny waiting to be fulfilled.
[ominous music continues]
Our nation cries out for help.
If its president refuses to heed the call, if he will not fix us, then perhaps…
Perhaps it’s the president himself who needs fixing most.
[music stops]
This here is a self-cocking, .44 caliber British Bulldog.
One of the strongest ever put into the market.
We carry the handle in ivory too, if you want.
But that’ll run you a dollar more than the wood.
[sighs] The ivory.
It’s museum quality.
[suspenseful music playing]
[gunshot echoes]
[closing theme music playing]
* * *
Death by Lightning – S01E04 – Destiny of the Republic | Transcript
Conkling goes on the offensive as Garfield challenges the New York political machine. Isolated and desperate, Guiteau weighs a history-making decision.
[Conkling] America is faced with a peril like never before.
[forceful, resolute music playing]
It’s time for the true patriots to reveal themselves.
Take action.
Today, we bring a reckoning.
I can no longer stay quiet about the dire state of affairs in Washington.
As vice president, having sworn an oath to safeguard our republic, I can’t sit back and allow…
A tyrant!
A corrupted autocrat in sheep’s clothes, hellbent on mining power from the states to stoke his own radical agenda.
[Arthur] It’s tough to admit.
He’s my president, but Garfield has just not been square with those who put him where he is today.
Not a shred of loyalty.
Merely… broken promises.
“Broken promises.”
[Arthur] Broken promises.
Have you seen him lately? Has any of you?
Attribute me directly. Fuck it.
The president now dodges the American people altogether, issuing blanket decrees from the closed doors of his big White House.
[laughs]
Can you imagine?
For a few months, I actually got to be vice president.
[Conkling] I call on every honest, Godfearing citizen to make their voices heard, to march up to Pennsylvania Avenue and demand that their socalled president honor his commitments.
Send him a message.
Loud and clear.
The people will not be ignored!
[music builds]
[opening theme music playing]
♪ I’ll be glad when you’re dead
You, rascal, you ♪
[Levi] This is just about the ports!
Let New York keep its damn collector!
Conkling will call off his dogs.
He’s too powerful an enemy.
He will grind regular government to a halt until you rescind that nomination, sir.
You are some of the most powerful men in Congress!
Conkling casts one look and…
You’re fomenting the discord.
You’re the one that is tearing this party apart on account of, I don’t know, some petty vendetta that you have!
You’re inviting me to knock the teeth out of your mouth…
Really? Violence?!
That’s what you think is going to be the solution?
[clamoring]
[Blaine] Gentlemen, we have work to do!
To do your jobs!
Gentlemen, calm yourselves this instant!
Or I will expel you from this building for good!
That includes you, Mr. Secretary.
[silence]
Now, I made a vow to end the rot in our government.
Spoils, patronage, call it what you want.
It’s no good.
Do-nothings siphoning taxpayer money for jobs that don’t even exist!
Elected officials brazenly peddling their influence at auction.
This is not how democracy endures.
This is wrong.
And all of us know it.
This is our fight.
One day, years from now, each one of us will be judged by what we do in this moment.
How will they talk about us, I wonder.
Hm.
Suspend all other points of order in the Senate until Judge Robertson is heard for the collector’s post.
[Levi] What?
Wait, can… can he do that?
My mind is settled. It will not budge.
I have to see my wife.
Good day.
[Levi] No, wait! Mr. President!
Mr. President, could…
Weren’t you idiots supposed to be a committee of conciliation?
The tide yawed a different way.
Gee, did it?
Then allow me to yaw it back for you.
Any senator that votes to proceed with Garfield’s man, that vote will be his last.
Have you considered that the body might perhaps be swayed more by compassion than by threats?
Your voice makes me want to hang myself, Levi.
How’s that for compassion?
[exhales] Out!
Okay, come on, let’s go.
[door opens]
[door closes]
The seams are starting to show.
What do you feel?
You’ve got more horse sense than any of them.
Can a collector ship really be so important?
Is it worth expending all your capital on one front?
It’s the ports. It’s patronage.
I have no legacy save for this.
No, you are loved.
Don’t you know you’re the most popular man in all of New York?
Patronage or no?
Street vendors on every corner tumble over themselves just to shake your hand.
Parents name their children after you purely out of admiration.
It could all go away in a heartbeat.
You’ve got too low an opinion of other people, what moves them.
A good leader knows when to fight wars and when to bring peace.
You know, Mrs. Sprague…
I might truly be lost without you.
Which is why…
I ended things with the governor earlier today.
I’m ready.
I don’t want to live my whole life in the shadows.
No.
Your husband will blame me for this.
He’ll come after me in the press at a time I need every bit of support.
[pensive music playing]
[chuckles]
Is that all you can think about?
Kate, I have a family back in Albany.
Julia and our daughter.
We’ve hardly been shy.
The entirety of D.C.
already knows about us.
Sure, sure.
That won’t play in Albany.
[cheerful waltz playing]
[loud crunch]
You want me to give up my Senate seat?
Both of us must resign, Tom.
I like being a senator, though.
Relax.
It’s temporary.
A show of protest to cuckold the fucker at the other end of the avenue.
But with our vacant seats, the Democrats get a majority in the Senate, we lose control.
For a few weeks, sure.
During which, chaos reigns the day.
We sit back and watch as Garfield sees his whole agenda sacked and pillaged.
That is, until our friends from New York elect us right back to our old seats by a unanimous vote.
We waltz back into the Senate triumphant with a potent new mandate and a feckless fucking president flinging himself at our feet, Tom.
Remind Garfield he can’t so much as shit without New York’s say-so.
[waltz ends]
[solemn organ music playing]
[priest] First Corinthians, 15:42.
“The body that is sown is perishable.”
“It is raised imperishable.”
“Now I declare to you, brothers and sisters, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”
[ominous music plays]
“We will not sleep, but we will be changed.”
“In a flash, the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.”
“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead, they will be raised.”
[tense music creeping in]
[priest] “O grave, where is thy victory?”
“O death, where is thy sting?”
“The sting of death is sin, and in the power of sin we find law…”
What know ye of Christ?!
[murmuring]
This city gets stranger by the day.
Hm.
[murmuring continues]
Garfield!
Garfield, I need to speak with you.
It will not wait a moment longer.
Certainly.
Do you mind if I do a bit of light packing while we chat?
I’m running dreadfully late as it stands. [chuckles] You’re taking off early?
I’m bringing Crete up to Monmouth to continue her recovery there.
Dr. Edson’s advised a gentler air.
Mm.
Shore’s good for that.
Mmhm.
Brought Nellie there when she got sick.
I’m sorry, Chester. All this time, I’ve never asked you about her.
It’s a funny thing.
Even among my closest friends, the topic of my late wife seldom comes up, so…
Mm.
No matter!
It’s not why I’ve come here today.
Please.
No, no, no.
If it’s all the same…
Surely you’ve read the papers.
You know that I spoke against you.
That sounds familiar, yes.
Does it?
Good.
Thusly, I…
Submit my resignation as vice president.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I don’t accept it.
What?
I’m not going to take your resignation.
Not yet, anyway.
I’d really like it if you’d give the job one more go.
Hang on. Uh, no, you must not grasp…
[chuckles]
[chuckling] I was openly disloyal.
I… I called you all sorts of names in the press.
Then I hope you’ll come to me first next time prior to airing your concerns with the public.
I feel it my duty to explain to you that you really ought to fire me.
I’m a truly bad vice president.
Not always.
You didn’t reject my other nominees on the Senate floor when you had the chance to do so.
I didn’t approve them in, either.
I didn’t even show up to the Capitol!
Eh, sure, but that’s not nothing, is it?
Our politics are not the same!
I’m aligned with Conkling.
In two days’ time, I’ll go to Albany to ensure his and Platt’s reelections.
Well, you must do what you feel is right.
[exhales]
I don’t see your game in this!
For some reason, it eludes me!
There’s no game.
You’ve made your views perfectly well-known.
As your leader at present, I feel it’s incumbent upon me to change them.
They’ll not change!
They will not evolve!
They’re fixed! For good!
Don’t be a stranger, Mr. Arthur.
My door is always open to you.
Fuck!
Finally! You canned the prick.
[Garfield] No.
I’m gonna give him another try.
Another try?
He’s the worst vice president in history.
Perhaps, but I feel there’s some good in him, deep down.
[scoffs]
[Garfield] That, and he’s the only one who knows where the lion’s share of our federal revenue is buried.
Yeah, it would be nice to see that again.
Wouldn’t it?
[giggling]
[Garfield chuckling] Wow.
When’d those two get so chummy?
[indistinct chatter]
What? Really?
[both chuckling] Oh, my.
You’ve been preoccupied.
When was the last time you got any sleep?
[sighs]
I don’t know what I’m meant to do.
Conkling is just…
Too damn powerful.
[Crete sighs]
He bought every man in Albany his seat.
This vote is nothing but a big charade.
He’ll be back on the Senate floor within days, him and Tom Platt.
They’ll demand my head on a pike.
Probably.
Perhaps I can’t… change anything.
I mean, what if I put my nominees, good, honest men, in harm’s way?
I’ve gambled them off on a war I can’t possibly win.
They will still see that there was one man who fought anyway for what was right.
And lost his presidency at that.
Then it’s a good thing that you never wanted to be the president.
[chuckling]
Give it.
Mollie can take me up to Monmouth alone.
You need to stay here in Washington and show them you will not run from the battle.
If you think I’d abandon my wife…
She will survive one week.
You come to me when this is finished.
[Garfield] Mm.
[“A Life on the Ocean Wave” by Henry Russell playing]
[politician] Roscoe, it’s a pleasure having you home.
Pleasure’s all mine.
William, thank you for that banner.
[William] Of course.
Upstate yokel fucks.
They know who butters their bread.
[men chuckling]
[Arthur chuckles]
What? What are you laughing at?
What, you didn’t hear about Tom?
He’s all anybody’s talking about.
Why? He’s duller than a bag of hay.
Word on the street is last night at Delavan House some of our half-breed rivals caught Platt in flagrante.
You’ve been a naughty, naughty boy, Thomas.
Some gal ought to teach you a lesson.
[winding mechanism]
[breathing heavily]
[mechanism clicks]
[grunts]
[banging on window]
[grunts]
[muffled gasp]
[laughing]
[grunting]
[crowd laughing]
[chuckling]
I did not think Tom had it in him.
Well, I guess you never can tell with some men.
Cut him.
What?
He couldn’t keep his cock in his pants for one night.
Now the whole delegation’s openly mocking him.
Come on. It’s just harmless fun.
He’s a clown to them now.
A clown and a cheater.
Men like that don’t get voted back into the Senate.
Either we cut ties, or the weight of him will drag us all under, Chester.
We have known Tom for 20 years.
I’m godfather to his kids.
He has always stood for us, and he is our friend.
You know better than anyone there isn’t any such thing in politics.
Now, we’ll do it quietly.
Swap him off the ticket.
Replace his name with that of some other party loyal.
Can it really be as simple as that?
Murtha!
You want to move to D.C.?
I, uh… Well, the cherry blossoms…
Stupendous. Then it’s settled.
Willie, my boy, welcome to the big leagues.
Now fuck off.
Whatever it takes. That’s our law.
So, what’s the good word, big man?
Chester? Is there something the matter?
Let’s have a walk, Tom.
Just me and you.
Good evening, Father.
It’s been a long time since my last confession, but I have something to ask the Lord.
[priest] He listens always.
Speak freely.
[trembling breath]
I have been charged, you see, with a great and terrible task.
And I know it must be done and that I am the man to carry it out.
There is no other who will.
But… [shuddering breaths]
[somber music playing]
But I’m… I’m scared, Father.
I feel an evil that pervades our earth.
I… I… I see it.
I see it proliferate day by day and infect the souls of other men, and I fear that if left unchecked, it will… it will plunge us into a second great war.
But what is one life when weighed against hundreds of thousands of others that may die if I do not act?
If I’m too weak?
[somber music continues]
It is God that grants me purpose.
[official] Gentlemen, last call for votes.
I mean, they sure are taking their sweet time.
[Conkling] I’d milk it too if I were them.
It’s not often a band of Podunk state senators gets to hold the nation’s fate in their hands.
It’s adorable.
The legislators’ wives, I presume?
They show their faces before every big vote.
[intriguing music playing]
Julia.
Oh, shit.
[intriguing music heightens]
Stop the vote.
Stop the vote.
Stop the vote! Stop the vote!
Stop the vote!
[gavel banging]
The vote’s already been rendered, Mr. Conkling.
[official clears his throat]
[exhales]
[official] The final combined tally.
Thirty-four for Senator Roscoe Conkling, and 50 for Chauncey Depew.
[gavel bangs]
[applause]
[laughs]
[telegraph tapping]
[intriguing music builds]
[Blaine] What is it?
[suspenseful music playing]
Son of a bitch.
Mmhm.
Glory be!
[band launches into a hasty march]
[band stops]
Shut up!
Put our nominees up for a floor vote, every single man!
Do it now!
[lively music playing]
[Garfield] My darling Crete…
I dare say, somehow, we live to fight another day.
It appears Conkling’s invited himself straight out of the Senate.
His and Tom Platt’s seats now belong to us.
Chauncey Depew for New York.
[Lapham] Elbridge Lapham for New York.
What happens now, Mr. Arthur?
We just lost our fucking collector.
William H. Robertson.
[Garfield] Time for us to confirm our men, put them to work, forge ahead on the agenda we swore to the people.
Conkling’s choke hold over this country is finally at a close.
My heart is light for the first time since we left Ohio.
[yelling cheerfully]
Trust that the boys have been keeping me on my toes.
I’m counting down the hours till we’re together again.
Always the same, and forever your own, Jim.
All my life I’ve had to hold my tongue and notch my wins discreetly.
I played the long game just to get my name on a piece of paper.
One they won’t be able to deny.
Now…
Every dollar bill printed in America will have a Black man’s signature on it.
It’s not everything.
But it is something.
[Garfield] Oh, dear.
We’ve been fielding inquiries from every newspaper in the country.
They all want to know how you did it.
Did what?
[Joe] How you won.
How you singlehandedly dismantled the most powerful force in all of politics.
You’re a hero, sir.
How? Nothing’s been done yet.
Three months in office, nearly a hundred days, I haven’t passed a single bill.
My only focus was on some petty partisan feud.
Sir, if you can outplay Roscoe Conkling…
There was no play, Joe.
Make no mistake, we got lucky this time.
Very lucky.
But for so long as America should stand, there will always be more Roscoe Conklings.
Now go enjoy a few days off.
[Joe chuckles] Because after that, the real work starts.
I look forward to it.
I’m proud of you, Joe.
You’re where you ought to be.
[chuckles]
[Garfield] Well, hopefully you’ll enjoy the fireworks this weekend with your wife.
[Blaine] I shall be occupied toasting Conkling’s demise.
[Garfield] Harriet changed the locks again?
[Blaine laughs] You bet.
Robert, you’re Secretary of War now. You…
[sudden bang echoes]
[uneasy music rises beneath the silence]
Dad?
[uneasy music rising]
[gunshot echoes]
[screams and gasps ripple through crowd]
Stop him!
Stop that man!
That’s him!
[panicked murmuring spreads]
He shot Garfield!
[man] Get him!
He shot him!
[outraged exclamations] Grab him!
Right there!
Get back!
I did it! I did it!
Take me to jail!
Now Chester Arthur will be president!
The Republic is saved!
[man 1] Take him away!
[man 2] Take that man!
[Blaine] Move back! Move! Move!
Move, move!
[Joe] Keep them back!
For God’s sake, give him some air!
Move back. Move.
[Garfield mumbles]
[retches]
Water. Water!
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I’m a doctor, Charles Purvis.
Chief Surgeon at the Freedman’s Hospital.
Then go tend to your freed men.
This is the president of the United States.
He won’t be for much longer if you don’t get the hell out of my way.
[Garfield groans]
Sorry, Mr. President.
[groans]
[Garfield groans loudly]
[grunts]
[groaning]
[Garfield groans in pain]
The bullet hasn’t left his body.
[Garfield groans]
I think you’d better telegraph Crete.
[horse whinnying]
You have them put me in a cell with a view of the park.
When this is all over, I’ll have Arthur name you chief of police.
Oh! You’ll want this, no doubt.
Jesus Christ.
[chuckles] It’s quite something, isn’t it?
My little pistol changed the course of history.
[Blaine] Here!
Sarah, have one of the men boil some water from downstairs to fix in place on the lower extremities.
[Sarah] We need boiled water, quickly.
[door closes]
Freedman’s Hospital, you say?
That’s right, sir.
Hold this, please.
And before then, at Camp Barker, during the war…
[grunts in pain]
I believe I… passed through Barker once.
Yes, Mr. President. I remember.
[chuckles weakly]
What are my chances, you think?
They’re not good.
I’d put you at a one in a hundred.
[breathing heavily]
Well, then we’ll take that chance and make good use of it.
[murmuring]
Gentlemen, I believe it possible, but if he’s to have any hope, the offending bullet must be removed.
You will have the entire services of our nation at your disposal.
I require only a probe and scalpel.
[raw grunt of pain]
It’s okay, sir.
[Garfield grunts]
We’ll fix you up.
It would appear our bullet slid on past the first lumbar vertebra…
[wet squelching]
…and has lodged itself further.
[muffled inhale]
[dazed moan]
[Dr. Bliss] Close now, I sense.
Hm.
[Garfield groans]
[groans]
[Dr. Bliss grunts] Doctor?
Thank you.
I need absolute silence.
[Garfield groans]
[wet squelching]
[guttural cry]
It’s all right.
Loss of consciousness is to be expected.
Lacerated tissue or relatively firm coagula.
Probably the latter.
Sir, this probe is damaging your patient, and your equipment is not properly sanitized.
[Dr. Bliss] It’s a critical moment.
We can’t waste time.
Forgive me, sir.
Have you heard of the new research coming out of Europe on antisepsis?
We are not in Europe!
Doctor Purvis, invisible monsters are a thing of superstition, not science.
The methods you question today are the very same which saved thousands of lives in the war.
They are tested and true.
Simply, they work.
[faint sustained note lingers]
[grunt]
Now, sir, do I have your permit to continue with my examination?
[solemn, somber music playing]
Do you think he…
No.
I would know.
[solemn music continues]
[Arthur] They think we’re murderers.
This whole country.
This killer says he did it in my name, that… I’m a friend of his.
We’re to blame.
Will you shut the fuck up?
Some poor jackass from off the street figured he’d make a name for himself.
The inquiry will run its course.
We’ll be clear.
Our president was shot down today like a stray fucking dog.
[Conkling] And he’ll surely fucking die.
He may be dead even now, for all we know, which will, in turn, trigger the process of succession.
What?
Don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking it.
Wrangling over a couple of Senate seats.
No, don’t say it.
We can rebuild what we had back in New York on a national scale, Arthur.
No.
I’ll refuse the job outright.
[laughs] I am not fit to be a president!
The beauty of America, my friend.
After everything we’ve been through, are you so dense you can’t grasp that we’ve just been gifted the biggest windfall in the history of the country?
[tapping]
Stop the cab!
What the hell’s the matter with you today?
To be frank, I’m not totally sure.
But I have a strong compulsion not to ride with you for a moment longer.
So… so what? Your plan is to hoof it all the way back to Washington instead?
Sometimes a man’s just gotta walk.
Jesus.
[bangs on carriage]
It’s nearly 100 degrees out there, Arthur.
Your heart will give out within a mile.
Quit being a shit, get back in the goddamn carriage.
You’re going to hurt my feelings, Chester.
Well, then it’s good there’s no such thing as friends in politics.
You son of a bitch.
You son of a bitch.
[bangs on carriage]
Don’t you turn your back on me!
After everything I’ve done for you!
I fucking made you!
[decisive music playing]
Arthur!
Art…
[music swells]
[music turns languid]
[Garfield] Oh, you’re here. Thank God.
You stay down. Do not exert yourself.
Is it bad? Are you in a lot of pain?
Oh, the upper deck still functions, my dear.
It’s only the hull that’s been damaged.
[Joe] No major organs were hit.
Dr. Bliss says that he’s nearly isolated the bullet’s position, so once it’s out…
We’ll be in good shape.
Okay. And where are the boys?
They haven’t been told yet.
We’ll see to them.
[Crete] All right.
[Joe] It’s okay.
What am I going to do with you? [chuckles] I mean, I leave you alone for one week.
Mm.
There is no time.
We have to make arrangements.
No.
I don’t accept that.
[voice breaking]
I f… I feel it everywhere.
I’m here now, and I’m going to bring you back to life.
[cries]
[Crete] Fight. You are going to fight.
You do not speak to me of death again.
[Garfield cries]
[crowd clamoring]
[clamoring continues]
Hang him!
[brooding music playing]
[clamoring continues]
[crowd clamoring] Guiteau!
What would compel this devil Guiteau to go out and buy a gun?
You can’t parse a deranged mind.
Can he be in league with Conkling?
[Blaine] No.
Conkling may well have created the climate for a Guiteau, but he did not facilitate this.
I can’t help it. I know it’s not right, but I want every one of them to pay for what they did.
[Blaine] Here’s your first victim.
Mrs. Garfield. [panting] Lord, help me, ma’am.
I traveled through the night.
Good God.
You reek of cow dung.
[exhales]
That makes sense.
I hitched a ride to D.C.
in the back of a farm cart.
How’s the president? Does he live?
He does. He’s resting.
Thank Christ. [crying] Thank the Lord.
Mr. Arthur.
[Arthur] I don’t want it.
I didn’t want any of it.
It was ambition. It was…
Chester, pull yourself together.
You’re vice president of the United States.
Fuck if I am.
I quit it all.
What are you talking about?
The American people are afraid.
They are looking to us.
They are looking to you, Chester.
Curse me!
I can’t do it. I’m not fit!
This president put his faith in me, and I shanked him at every turn!
Lord, God, strike me down!
I am naught but a lowdown, dirty pig!
You read me now, Chester Arthur, and you read me fucking well!
Great emergencies can rouse, shall we say, generous and long-dormant traits in men.
If there was even a shred of real nobility in you, I think now is the time to let it shine.
[trembling cries]
So what will you do, Chester?
Will you resign like a coward in disgrace, or will you step up and reform?
Reform.
Reform, ma’am.
I’ll change my ways.
You have my solemn oath.
I will change my ways.
[Crete] Good.
[exhales]
[twisting music playing]
Remember, that’s a $25 royalty for all newspaper use.
Though I will give discounts to the local outlets.
Or will I?
[laughs]
[flash pops loudly]
I want to reaffirm that I bear no ill will towards the president.
It was…
It was an unfortunate political necessity.
My aim was to unite the party once and for all, and to save the Republic.
Yes, I shot him, as I would a rebel pulling down a flag.
How many hundreds of thousands were sacrificed over the course of the war, and to what end?
To protect our greatest of nations.
I sacrificed only one, to that same end.
Though I leave my justification to God and the American people.
Oh, and for added context, look no further than my diary, The Truth, um, soon to be available wherever books are sold.
[chuckles]
[ice water drips beneath clanking machinery]
[Crete clears her throat]
Mm!
[chuckles]
Let’s give it a go.
[Crete] Ready?
Here we are.
[soft chuckle]
[weak swallow]
[coughs]
[chokes]
All right, all right, all right.
[retching] It’s okay.
[spits] Okay. All right, it’s all right.
We’re going to try again tomorrow.
[groans weakly] He’s growing weaker by the day.
It’s the constant battery of well-wishers.
They’re placing strain on him.
We need the wing locked down outside of the immediate family.
When the president talks, he makes use of his diaphragm, which will in turn agitate the liver, pushing the bullet, impaling it deeper in.
He’s breathing. Won’t breathing cause the diaphragm to move just as well?
You’re right, but breathing’s gentle.
Talking is violent.
[wet squelching]
[Garfield groans]
[groans]
[Garfield grunts]
[breathing heavily]
Healthy stream of pus.
I’ve been writing to Chester Arthur.
And he’s not at all like Garfield.
He knows who his friends are, and who, who more stalwart than I that lifted him from… from a cipher to a president.
Charlie…
And very soon, uh, the public will be reading my book.
Your book?
The Truth.
It lays out my thinking in words that’ll move even the most fervent deniers, and I’ve already had a dozen publishers ask for rights, and I’m just… I’m playing them off, one against the other.
You’re speaking about this like it’s some kind of game, Charlie.
Yes, it is!
Well, it is. That’s exactly what it is.
It’s a big game, with winners and losers.
For once, Franny, for once in my fucking life, I am the winner.
And, of course, everything now will be different because I have name recognition to spare to launch my syndicate, The Daily Theocrat.
I did it, Fran.
I did it for us.
[Franny sighs] Look.
[papers rustle]
Look at this.
These people are writing to me every day, offering me support and… and pledging money.
Franny, I was so scared, I thought I was alone!
But they’re here! They were always here!
And now, they’re coming out in droves!
Because I gave them something to believe in.
I have to go.
Huh?
Oh.
Fran?
[tapping on door]
[Franny] Guard?
[Guiteau] Franny?
[Franny] Guard!
[door unlocks and creaks open]
[dramatic music playing]
[crying]
[door slams shut, then locks]
Thank you for coming on such short notice, Professor Graham Bell.
It’s just Bell, Mr. Brown.
If you could show us to the president, we may yet be able to save his life.
The induction balance.
Designed to detect traces of metal in a system by means of an electric current.
Tainter, cue the power source.
[Tainter] Yes, Professor Bell.
[soft crackle]
[Dr. Bliss] We know the bullet’s made a home somewhere in his right side.
Mr. President, if you’d be so kind.
[Garfield grunts] Okay.
[grunts] [Arthur] I got you. I got you.
Don’t you worry, sir.
[Garfield groans loudly] Steady down.
[grunt]
I will require absolute silence, please.
[rapid clicking from device]
What’s happening? What are you hearing?
Something’s not right.
In success, it’s meant to tick, but this isn’t…
It’s gone haywire with excitement.
[Garfield groans]
No, no.
The bullet’s here.
Right where we always knew it to be.
By the liver.
[Bell] Doctor…
I can hear it perfectly.
Is it meant to sound like a sputtering?
[cries in pain] Tainter, shut off the power.
No, no, no, no. Nearly there.
I just need…
[screams in agony] I don’t think he can take much more.
I’m not going to lose him.
[Garfield grunts] Doctor!
Someone hold the patient still!
Dr. Bliss, stop this right now.
I am the ranking physician here!
Drop that scalpel!
Or I’ll drive it through your fucking eye hole.
[Garfield grunts weakly]
[grunting]
[Garfield] What is it, dear?
It’s metal.
The bed, it’s made of springs, so it might have interfered with…
We can still…
[Garfield] No.
But the bullet isn’t the culprit, my dear.
There’s something else in me now.
I’m not going to be able to…
I want you to know how proud you’ve made us, me and your mother.
[cries]
I honestly don’t know what I’m supposed to do without you.
[Garfield, softly] Dear…
You don’t need me.
Mark my words.
You, my brilliant, beautiful daughter, are going to be great.
[poignant music playing]
[knocking on door]
[Dr. Bliss] What’s this about the president leaving Washington today?
He’s asked to be by the ocean to resume his trip up to Monmouth.
No. As his surgeon, I must refuse.
I have watched my husband preyed upon and picked apart.
And I think I’m done.
And he is done.
We are days away from finding the bullet.
I would advise you to choose your next words very carefully, Dr. Bliss.
I think that’s enough.
[elegiac music playing]
[grunts softly]
I don’t even know where to begin.
[Garfield] You will.
I believe in you.
When you see the way, you’ll know.
[hooves clop slowly]
[elegiac music swells]
[elegiac music soaring]
[Garfield, weakly] As a boy, I dreamed of the ocean.
Sailing to parts unknown like some sort of Crusoe.
[Crete] Awfully ambitious dream for a boy that never learned to swim.
[chuckles softly] Well, my head’s always been a bit big for my station.
Well…
Why did I give that speech in Chicago?
I knew what I was doing when I walked up to that podium.
I wanted them to know me.
You gave the speech because what you had in your heart could not be contained to Ohio.
Do you think my name will have some place in human history?
Yes, a grand one.
Mm.
[Crete] But a grander place still in human hearts.
[sniffles]
[solo violin mourns gently]
It’s all right.
[Garfield breathing slow and thin]
I will be right here with you all night long.
[Garfield grunts weakly]
[sorrowful violin continues gently]
[knocking on door]
[sorrowful music soaring]
May the Lord carry him home.
Amen.
Note that the shot migrated left, tucked neatly behind the pancreas.
[soft click]
It would seem the shot interrupted not one of the president’s organs, that the wound healed on its own.
What could have killed him then?
Septic poisoning.
Evidenced by the abscesses throughout the body.
Infection.
I don’t understand.
Do you mean he would have recovered naturally if the bullet had been left alone?
I…
I think we may have made a mistake.
[Conkling] I heard Arthur asked you to stay on.
[Blaine] Mmhm.
Can you imagine?
All the years we spent working for it.
Job’s handed to that fat fuck.
He’s… He’s come a long way.
Truly.
In time, he… he may even make a good president.
[laughs]
I believe it.
[chuckling] I’m not sure he can win in ’84, though.
You really are one craven bastard.
So you won’t be joining my ticket, then?
[both chuckling]
[Conkling] That son of a bitch.
He stole my ports and…
He killed my whole career.
May we see his like again one day.
[somber music playing]
[Guiteau] Fran?
Franny?
[exclaims] Oh! I knew you’d come.
[Crete] I lied to my family.
Told them I was seeing to affairs in New York.
Nobody knows I’m here aside from the warden.
But I… could not let you go.
I had to meet you first.
Well, we have met before, Mrs. Garfield.
We spoke at the ball at your husband’s inauguration.
You struck me as kind, and I pray for all your family…
If you think I welcome prayer from you, you are fiercely mistaken.
I’m not here to give you absolution.
I think about the last question he ever asked me the day he died.
He said, “Do you figure my name might have some place in history?”
That question has some merit in it.
And I said history would remember him grandly.
But it felt…
So strange coming out of my mouth because I…
I didn’t believe it.
My last words to him were a lie.
Because in reality, I know history won’t remember him at all.
Be no reason to.
Be a minor footnote at best.
An idle piece of trivia.
Do you recall poor old what’s-his-name who was shot three months into his presidency?
And they won’t ever know about the man that he truly was.
The hero who waged wars.
Who would slip me stupid little love poems in made-up Latin.
Who would do headstands and sing show tunes just to see his children laugh.
No.
Surely no one will ever know that man.
America may mourn him today, but as the years pass by, they’ll forget.
And I can…
Feel him waning away.
[voice breaks] Even now.
[sniffles]
In no time, he’ll just be another face on the wall.
Lost to history.
But then again…
So will you.
This is your destiny also.
Only in your case, there will be no portraits.
No children will learn your name.
You don’t know what you’re saying.
I do.
In fact, I’m going to see to it myself.
I understand you’ve written a book.
I will make sure it is never printed. Ever.
Not while anyone who cares still draws breath.
You will have no voice once you exit from this world.
I will erase you…
As you did to the man I loved most.
No.
You can’t because you don’t have the right.
I’ve already done it, Mr. Guiteau.
I came here because I wanted you to know when you are on your way up to those gallows…
They will forget you.
Wait.
Wait.
[footsteps recede]
Wait!
Wait, wait!
Wai…
[exhales and chuckles]
I stubbed my toe on the gallows.
[priest] My son.
From Matthew 10, verse 28.
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Also from Matthew, “Except that you become as a child, ye cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
♪ I’m going to the Lordy
I’m so glad ♪
♪ Oh, glory hallelujah! ♪
♪ Glory hallelu… ♪
♪ I saved my party, I saved my land ♪
♪ I’m gone to the Lordy ♪
♪ I’m so glad! ♪
[laughing]
Oh.
[footsteps approaching]
[breathes heavily]
Glory, glory.
Glory.
Glory. Glory.
[crack]
[distant music creeping in]
[music turns solemn]
[Joe] Sir.
Thank you, sir.
[cheering]
[solemn music continues]
[inaudible]
[solemn music builds, grave and moving]
[music ends]
[closing music playing]
♪ So I’m going to the Lordy ♪
♪ I’m so glad ♪
♪ And I’m going to the Lordy ♪
♪ Hahallelujah ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ I’m going to the Lordy ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Whoa, glory ♪
♪ I’m going to the Lordy ♪
♪ I’m so glad ♪
♪ I wonder what I’ll do
When I get to the Lordy ♪
♪ I wonder what I’ll do when I get ♪
♪ I wonder what I will see
When I get to the Lordy ♪
♪ I wonder what I will see when I get to ♪
♪ So I’m going to the Lordy ♪
♪ I’m so glad ♪
♪ And I’m going to the Lordy ♪
♪ Hahallelujah ♪
♪ And love the Lordy with all my soul ♪
♪ Oh, whoa ♪
♪ I’m going to the Lordy ♪
♪ I’m so glad ♪
♪ Glory, I will weep no more ♪
♪ Glory, I will weep no more ♪
♪ Glory, I will weep no more ♪
♪ Glory, I will weep no more ♪
♪ Glory, I will weep no more ♪
♪ Glory, I will weep no more ♪
♪ Glory, I will weep no more ♪
[music ends]
