[insects chirping]
[door creaks]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
[leaves crunching, twigs snapping]
[door slams]
[thudding footsteps]
[door slams]
♪ ♪
‐ [whines]
[typewriter keys clack]
JOY: [voice echoing] Mom?
‐ [panting] JOY: Mom?
Mom, what are you looking at?
♪ ♪
Did something happen?
ANNIE: [panting]
‐ Mom!
[intense music]
♪ ♪
[music fades]
[dog growling, barking]
[barking, growling continue]
[suspenseful music]
ABDI: [grunts]
♪ ♪
[tape ripping]
[dog snarling, barking]
[Abdi panting]
♪ ♪
[grunts]
[barking continues]
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
[barking continues distantly]
[engine humming]
[gravel crunching, brakes squeal]
[engine stops]
[door latch clicks]
Guys, c‐‐can you help, please?
NURSE: Yeah. Yeah.
JAMAL: Yo, can we get some help, please?
NURSE: Where is he?
[car creaks]
Got him. JAMAL: What happened?
I got him, I got him, I got him.
Mr. Merrill? Can you breathe?
POP: [groans softly] JAMAL: All right.
NURSE: Watch your step. Watch your step.
[music fades]
[keys jingling]
[tense ambient music]
♪ ♪
[keys jingling]
♪ ♪
[car door slams]
[dark music]
♪ ♪
‐ [breathing heavily]
♪ ♪
[shrieks]
[beetles buzzing]
[birds chirping]
♪ ♪
[engine rumbling]
[brakes squeal]
♪ ♪
[leaves rustling]
[crow calls]
♪ ♪
[door creaking]
♪ ♪
[door creaks shut]
[wood creaking]
[bird wings flutter]
♪ ♪
[wings flutter]
♪ ♪
[metal clattering, wood creaking]
♪ ♪
HASSAN: [speaking Somali] ‐ [gasps]
[sinister music]
♪ ♪
[shell crunching]
♪ ♪
[breathing shakily]
♪ ♪
‐ [speaking Somali sharply]
[shouting in Somali]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
[foreboding music]
♪ ♪
[muffled indistinct chatter]
♪ ♪
NADIA: Pop, take it easy.
POP: What happened?
‐ You've had a stroke‐‐ a mini one.
‐ What?
What happened?
NADIA: I got this, Jamal.
[indistinct announcement over PA]
[monitor beeping slowly]
You tell me what happened.
Do you remember‐‐ ‐ What? What?
What‐‐why‐‐
NADIA: Abdi brought you here.
I've been looking for him.
He won't call me back. ‐ He should have left me there.
I would have left me there.
‐ Left you where?
Pop?
[indistinct chatter]
POP: Did I hurt him?
Is he okay?
NADIA: What?
Did you hurt Abdi?
[tense music]
‐ I‐‐I don't know.
I don't know.
♪ ♪
‐ What do you mean, you don't know?
[sighs]
[retreating footsteps]
Abdi, please call me.
[music fades]
[pencil scratching]
[knocking on door]
‐ Hey.
Wanna go look for a dead guy?
JOY: What?
CHASE: [smacks lips]
Is your mom here?
JOY: She went to work.
CHANCE: Love what you guys haven't done with the place.
‐ Yeah.
‐ So, uh, dead guy.
Sounds weird; hear me out.
Ace Merrill‐‐you know, the shitty landlord, rapey‐eyes dude?
They say he's dead.
‐ Oh, my gosh.
‐ It's fine. He sucked.
Anyway, we're gonna go find the corpse.
Usually dump them in the lake.
Everything bad in this town starts at Castle Lake.
So are you in?
It's gonna be a hike, but I got snacks.
Brownies.
‐ Um, my mom‐‐
um, I think I‐‐
‐ You're fucking 16, right?
‐ We're gonna be leaving town like any second now.
‐ Oh.
Getting out of this shithole already, huh?
Keep the phone.
Find a McDonald's somewhere and hit me up.
‐ Wait.
I'll come with.
CHANCE: Sweet.
Bring a bathing suit.
Or not.
[door creaks, slams]
[The New Basement Tapes' "Duncan and Jimmy"]
♪ ♪
[laughing]
SINGER: ♪ And take your stand ♪
♪ Tip your hat to the world ♪
♪ Button up the bowtie and dance all around ♪
♪ Once again with the fat Hawaiian girl ♪
♪ Duncan and Jimmy walk side by side ♪
♪ Nobody walks between them ♪
‐ Anchors aweigh.
VERA: Well, if anyone sees an old man's head bobbing, that shit's mine.
I call dibs. ‐ What?
‐ Warden of Shawshank 86'd himself in this lake.
They found the body but not the head.
♪ ♪
SINGER: ♪ Freighter man, freighter man ♪
♪ Which way's the freighter gonna run tonight? ♪
♪ Take me down to Jacksonville ♪
♪ Or just leave me be wherever it seems right ♪
♪ Duncan and Jimmy walk side by side ♪
♪ Nobody walks between them ♪
♪ Duncan and Jimmy walk side by side ♪
[muffled music continues]
♪ ♪
[music resumes normally]
♪ ♪
[phone ringing]
‐ Abdi? ANNIE: My pills!
The recipe‐‐ what did you give me?
‐ Who's this? ANNIE: Anne Ingalls!
It's your employee.
NADIA: Anne, it's really not a good time.
‐ My pills, they're all wrong.
Something is messed up. Did you change the recipe?
‐ I replaced one with generics, but they're exactly the same.
ANNIE: Something's wrong!
I'm having visual hallucinations!
NADIA: If your symptoms are getting worse,
then come in and I'll refer you.
Anne, I can't do this right now.
I have a family emergency. I'll be in contact.
‐ [breathing heavily]
[muffled chatter]
VERA: Who knows how many bodies are at the bottom of this lake?
TIMOTHY: Vera knows all about bodies.
Her dad was in Shawshank. VERA: He was set up, okay?
And then they shut down the prison
and he was sent to Ohio.
Stop dishing all my family trauma.
At least my dad doesn't beat me.
‐ He isn't available to beat you...
VERA: Okay, whatever. ‐ He's in a fucking supermax.
‐ Guys, less family therapy, more trawling for dead bodies.
‐ Well, Chance doesn't have to worry about parents because Chance is emancipated.
‐ "Emancipated"? Like, free?
‐ As a fucking bird. VERA: Language.
Joy's mom hates those F‐bombs, Chance.
TIMOTHY: Vera.
VERA: What would happen, do you think, if you just dropped one?
A big old "fuck" right in her lap.
JOY: It wouldn't be good, I think.
I‐‐I know 'cause... [both laugh]
She has all these rules to protect me,
and even if they're dumb or stupid, you know,
I know why she's that way.
And‐‐and, I mean, who cares
if I can't say some stupid word?
Who cares if I can't say some dumb...
fucking word?
Who cares if I can't say "fuck"?
VERA: Whoa‐‐whoa, there. ‐ Fuck, fuckity‐fuck.
Fuckle‐fuck! Fuck!
[all laughing]
W‐what? [laughs]
VERA: How are those brownies, Crash?
[laughs] ‐ Are‐‐are they...
[stammers] Oh.
Was there something in those? ‐ Oh, I don't know.
CHANCE: Breathe. I hardly put any in there.
‐ Is the talking normal? TIMOTHY: Hilarious.
VERA: So funny.
CHANCE: Hey, uh, Timothy, can you row a little bit?
My arms are getting really tired.
TIMOTHY: Yep, gotcha.
Oops! VERA: Are you kidding?
God! CHANCE: What the fuck?
VERA: Well, I am not getting in.
My asthma. TIMOTHY: I can't reach it!
CHANCE: Well...
I threw it right to you. ‐ Aww, man.
VERA: What are you‐‐ what is she doing?
JOY: I'll get it.
TIMOTHY: Do you know how cold that is?
[all laughing, chattering]
[eerie music]
[muffled, inaudible chatter]
[rhythmic muffled whirring]
[eerie groaning]
[distorted splashing]
JOY: There's a weird sound down there.
CHANCE: How many brownies did you eat?
VERA: Hey, Chance, stop!
Stop! CHANCE: It's too fast for you.
VERA: Stop it!
Oh, my God, you're so annoying!
CHANCE: I almost fell! ‐ Good.
CHANCE: Ooh! ‐ Stop!
‐ Hey, you know what? You're a fucking mermaid.
JOY: [laughs] Thanks.
VERA: Well, mermaids are monsters, actually.
Disney lies, so‐‐
And I'm giving you swim lessons for your birthday.
‐ No, you're not. VERA: Yeah, I am.
‐ No‐‐
VERA: Well, too bad, 'cause I'm giving you‐‐
Stop! ‐ [laughs]
See you later. VERA: See ya.
‐ Peace.
‐ Bye, Joy.
JOY: Bye.
‐ That was, um...
pretty badass...
especially while high for the first time.
[both laugh] JOY: Yeah.
CHANCE: [sighs]
Do you feel normal again?
‐ Think so.
‐ Ah, that's too bad.
[birds chirping]
[quiet, tender music]
[phone chirps]
♪ ♪
Keep your phone on.
♪ ♪
[door opens]
[door shuts]
♪ ♪
JOY: Mom, I'm sorry‐‐
I was, uh...
I was just at the gas station getting some food.
What is all this?
I'll get your pills.
‐ No.
No, I think she poisoned me.
JOY: What?
‐ The doctor...
at the clinic.
The one you like so much.
Her pills made me worse, not better.
They made me do a bad thing.
‐ What bad thing?
‐ When I say this...
You have to hear me out.
I killed a man.
[tense music]
‐ What?
‐ The dirty bird
with the dirty look on his face.
‐ Ace Merrill?
‐ He came here...
and he threatened you.
Threatened us both...
in the vilest language, Joy.
So...
I ended him...
♪ ♪
Right there.
♪ ♪
But then I cleaned it up so good
I can't find a trace of it.
♪ ♪
Not a single speck of him,
but I swear...
I did it.
And then I took him to the pit and I threw him in the hole.
JOY: Mom, uh‐‐
ANNIE: That's not even the worst of it,
because he came back.
That Ace...
♪ ♪
After.
♪ ♪
‐ "After"?
ANNIE: After I...
I saw him.
‐ I‐‐I don't understand.
‐ Me neither, but I killed him, Joy.
I killed him.
[both breathing heavily]
♪ ♪
All I know...
is I try so hard to be there for you.
♪ ♪
To be my best self and not the other one.
♪ ♪
‐ Mom...
y‐you must have...
‐ What?
Imagined it?
♪ ♪
I killed that man,
and then he came back.
And he'll come again...
to finish it.
‐ Mom...
♪ ♪
‐ You believe me...
don't you?
♪ ♪
[breathing shakily]
♪ ♪
[weeping softly]
JOY: I love you, Mom. ANNIE: [grunts]
[melancholy music]
[groans softly]
No...
No, no, Joy, we said...
[stammers] For emergencies.
No... JOY: I love you, Mom.
ANNIE: Joy, no, no.
[body thuds]
[weeping] They're for emergencies...
[bell tolling]
[indistinct chatter]
[engines rumbling] NADIA: [speaking Somali]
ABDI: [speaking Somali]
‐ Eh? ‐ Mm‐hmm.
[birds chirping]
[passing engines rumbling]
NURSE: Wheelchair to admitting.
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
[door latch clicks]
♪ ♪
‐ You piece of shit.
♪ ♪
‐ Hello, Pop.
‐ Where the fuck you been?
[monitor beeping steadily]
‐ Derry.
‐ You're a murderer now?
Your own fucking family?
Trying to burn Nadia's house down.
The hell is wrong with you?
‐ That was a mistake.
‐ "Mistake"?
Your whole goddamn life's a mistake.
JAMAL: All right, stay down, Pop.
ACE: My whole life, yes.
‐ The fuck you talking like that for?
Thought you were dead, you fucking moron!
JAMAL: Take it easy‐‐ ‐ The fuck out of here!
JAMAL: Take it easy, take it easy.
[door slams]
♪ ♪
[dramatic opera music]
SINGER: [singing in foreign language]
♪ ♪
[engine revving]
♪ ♪
[sirens wailing]
♪ ♪
[engine revving]
♪ ♪
ANDERSEN: [over PA] Pull over, asshole.
[sirens wailing]
[thunder rumbles]
Hey, fuck nuts, get out of the car.
[song continues over radio]
[radio chatter]
♪ ♪
[thunder crashes]
Right now, asshole!
♪ ♪
Hey!
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ [breathing heavily]
[phone buzzes]
[message notification]
[phone buzzes]
‐ [breathing shakily]
ANNIE: Joy.
[stammers, grunts]
Come‐‐come untie me.
Little love, please.
[phone buzzes]
Please, Joy.
[headboard thumping]
Little love. ‐ [sighs]
Are you ready?
‐ For what?
‐ Your pills.
‐ When we made this‐‐ this plan, you and I...
If for ever I had‐‐ I had a spell...
The thing is, little love, we never talked enough
about what a genuine emergency might look like.
‐ You said you killed a man.
‐ Yes.
‐ You said the man you killed came back to life to kill us.
♪ ♪
It's an emergency when you see things that aren't there, Mom.
‐ Well, see, I‐‐
‐ Take your pills.
‐ They aren't the right pills.
‐ They are. I checked.
It's the right recipe. 40, 20, 10.
ANNIE: Don't you see, Joy?
‐ The plan is‐‐is that I don't let you out until you take your pills.
‐ The medicine is wrong so the plan is off, Joy!
‐ That's what you said you'd say when we made‐‐
‐ Joy, jiminy Christmas!
‐ If you need water.
‐ [breathing heavily]
Wait!
♪ ♪
I'll take them.
Just give them to me. I'll take them.
[sighs] Get it over with.
JOY: Okay.
[pills rattling]
[insect chirps]
Open.
ANNIE: Okay, little love.
♪ ♪
Untie me now.
♪ ♪
‐ Not yet, Mama.
You're not ready.
[fabric rustles and chair creaks]
♪ ♪
You didn't kill anyone.
Ace Merrill is still alive.
♪ ♪
‐ Sweetie...
♪ ♪
JOY: Let me know if you need the bedpan.
[retreating footsteps]
♪ ♪
[door shuts]
♪ ♪
[mice squeaking]
♪ ♪
ANNIE: [spits]
♪ ♪
[engine rumbling]
‐ No, Kevin, no, no.
Just because I made more money than you last year‐‐
no, that doesn't mean that child support flip‐flops.
Uh‐huh, yeah.
Mm‐hmm.
[gasps] Oh!
[stammers, laughs] Oh, excuse me.
Uh... [clears throat]
Valerie Blount, Blount Real Estate.
‐ John Merrill.
‐ "John" as in, uh, Ace Merrill?
‐ Mm‐hmm.
‐ Uh, shall we?
Uh, you know, the house was originally built
by, uh, a millionaire, Hubie Marsten,
back in the '20s.
‐ A gangster who practiced black magic.
Lost his mind, shot his wife, hanged himself.
‐ Mm, can't fool the locals.
[keys jingling]
ACE: Do you have children?
‐ Uh... [laughs]
Um, yes.
One, middle school.
Pretty much takes care of himself these days.
‐ But you're still able to have children...
right?
VALERIE: Uh‐huh.
That's a... [laughs]
That is a funny question.
[door creaks, opens]
Uh...
Oh, this shouldn't be here.
Hello?
Um...
Hello?
Uh, can you just wait one sec?
[muffled thud, creak]
[muffled thud]
Is somebody here?
[muffled thud]
[sinister music]
[gasps] ANDERSEN: [gasps, coughs]
‐ [gasps] Oh...
[gasps]
ANDERSON: [hollers, groans] VALERIE: [gasps, exclaims]
‐ [panting, coughing]
The car... [wheezing]
‐ Ugh‐‐oh! [gasps, screams]
Oh, my God!
[pills rattling]
[thunder rumbling]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ [gasps] Joy!
[body thuds]
[whimpering, choking]
♪ ♪
[gasping]
♪ ♪
[thunder crashes]
‐ "Ian held her stiffening body as Orpheo tumbled on, heedless,
"through the lashing bracken of Shadow Wood
"as the adder's venom worked its way deeper,
black tendrils reaching for her heart."
It's late.
‐ [sighs]
You know, I used to read to my father.
Tried to, anyway.
I'd always jumble up the words.
[rain pattering]
JOY: Mom?
ANNIE: Yes?
‐ What's in that? The lockbox.
‐ Just papers.
[thunder rumbles]
‐ Show me.
‐ Nothing but nonsense in there, Joy, honestly.
‐ Then why does it need a big lock,
and why can't I just look inside?
[alarm beeping]
[alarm stops]
[pills rattle]
‐ I feel so much better, little love.
Thank you...
for everything.
[thunder rumbling]
[pills rattle]
[shuffling footsteps]
[thunder rumbling]
[rain pattering]
[grunting softly]
[tense music]
[gasps]
♪ ♪
[thunder rumbles]
♪ ♪
[grunts]
[grunting]
[glass shatters]
[glass scraping and thunder crashes]
[door rattling]
♪ ♪
‐ If you're really better, Mom...
tell the truth.
♪ ♪
‐ About what?
‐ Everything.
♪ ♪
Now, Mom.
♪ ♪
[thunder rumbles]
What are we running from?
You're not getting out of that bed
until you tell me the truth.
[thunder rumbles]
[retreating footsteps]
‐ He didn't want you.
Your father, he didn't want you.
And I did...
so I took you and I ran.
♪ ♪
I didn't expect the police to understand what he was,
and lo and behold, they did not.
I told a lot of lies to a lot of people...
but I told you only one...
because I didn't want you to be afraid.
♪ ♪
‐ Why would I be afraid?
‐ Because he's coming for us now.
♪ ♪
He's a very bad man, Joy,
and he's not gonna stop.
He'll never stop.
That's why you have to untie me‐‐
so I can protect you!
‐ You said Dad was a hero.
That he died in a war.
‐ Yes.
♪ ♪
It was just better.
It was better, Joy, i‐if you were running
towards the Laughing Place and not away from‐‐
‐ You said lying is the worst thing
that people who love each other can do.
‐ I know, I did, and‐‐and it is.
‐ How could you?
ANNIE: Everything I do
is because I believe in a better world, Joy.
And that takes work, Joy.
Hard work.
Sometimes when we're on the road,
we're rounding a cloverleaf, I look out the window
and I look at all that dirt and that grit‐‐
the ugliness going by and I think,
"Well, Annie, you're wasting your time."
♪ ♪
[stammers]
♪ ♪
I look at you... [laughs]
♪ ♪
And the sun just...
rises. [laughs, sniffles]
♪ ♪
You are my better world, Joy.
[weeping softly]
And, yes, I've done bad for you...
♪ ♪
And I'll do it again.
I will do the doggone worst
to protect you from the monsters,
and I'll feel just fine about it.
I won't give them the satisfaction
of a single regret... [sniffles]
Because the only thing that matters is you.
♪ ♪
My‐‐my world.
♪ ♪
My little world. [weeping softly]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
[stammers] Joy...
♪ ♪
‐ You didn't take your pills! ‐ You listen to me.
You listen very carefully‐‐ ‐ You lied again!
‐ No.
[knocking on door]
Don't‐‐don't answer.
Please, don't answer. That could be him.
‐ "Him" who? Dad?
Ace Merrill? You don't even know, do you?
They‐‐they're all just monsters out to get us!
ANNIE: You're fudging right they are!
[door slams]
[panting]
[grunting]
♪ ♪
[grunting, panting]
♪ ♪
[knocking continues]
♪ ♪
[grunting]
♪ ♪
[strains]
[grunts] [panting]
♪ ♪
[crunch]
[gasps, groans]
[whimpering]
♪ ♪
[knocking continues]
♪ ♪
‐ Is your mom here?
JOY: She's... sick.
She can't come to the door right now.
[rain pattering]
‐ But everything's okay?
‐ Sure.
‐ It's just that she called me very upset
and... didn't show up for work.
‐ It‐‐it was the stomach bug,
but... she's all better now.
♪ ♪
‐ [groaning]
♪ ♪
[strains]
♪ ♪
[groaning]
‐ Are you sure you're okay, Joy?
Your mom sounded like she was having some pretty serious symptoms.
‐ You should have sent her to‐‐to a head doctor.
♪ ♪
You don't know anything about her.
[suspenseful music]
[crunch]
[gasps, cries out]
[panting]
♪ ♪
JOY: Mom!
Mom!
Mom.
ANNIE: [hollers]
Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy!
Oh, dear God. Joy, I didn't mean‐‐
No, no, Joy!
Joy, Joy, Joy!
I‐‐I didn't mean...
[door slams]
[panting]
♪ ♪
[thunder rumbling]
♪ ♪
Joy!
♪ ♪
Joy, where are you?
♪ ♪
[hyperventilating]
[panting]
[door opens] [thunder crashes]
[sinister music]
[door closes] [typewriter key clacks]
♪ ♪
[slow, heavy footsteps]
♪ ♪
[footsteps continue]
♪ ♪
[thunder rumbles]
TALL MAN: You know how this story ends.
♪ ♪
You're going to kill her.
♪ ♪
[thunder rumbles]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
‐ Bad Robot.