Original subtitles

All right, I'm here. We can eat.

Dinner will be a minute, Mike. Carol's at the store.

When it's ready, will it be free?

Yes. Then I'll stay.

Boy, those fish sticks sure smell.

We're waiting for Tartar sauce.

Is Carol back yet?

Relax, Ben. Dinner's going to be a while.

It's not dinner. She was supposed to buy toilet paper.

Mike, do you have any toilet paper?

No, I never buy the stuff.

I steal yours.

Gosh, you guys don't think very much of me, do you?

No.

If you're dumb enough to do it, then you're dumb enough to tell them about

Speak.

Well... Oh, you think you are so cute with that curly hair, unending smile,

unhappy disposition. You make me puke.

What's going on, Carol?

Yeah, and more importantly, where's the tortoise off?

Mike, this is bigger than tartar sauce.

Where's the toilet paper?

We have no tartar sauce.

We have no toilet paper.

We have no groceries. And why don't we have any groceries, Chrissy?

There was a lady who was needy with a dirty face, and I gave her the grocery

money. How selfish can you be?

What is a hungry person doing inside a supermarket?

Don't waste another minute on your crying.

We know we're needed.

The best is ready to win.

In the light of day, I'm not so sure that's such a good idea anymore.

Oh, are you kidding? Down at the free clinic, she's going to meet some people

who are down on their luck, who are not freeloaders, misfits, and losers.

Well, that could happen, yes.

I mean, last night, I couldn't believe the way she was talking, Maggie. I mean,

I don't remember ever being so disappointed in one of our children.

she get that insensitivity?

So you're saying I'm a bad mother?

No, Maggie. Well, excuse me for being a little concerned about our daughter

hanging out with dangerous people. Maggie.

I have been working with these people for six months.

James, there's a reason you've been working with them for months.

Maybe you ought to come down and volunteer.

Well, I've thought about it, and I've just been looking for the right weekend.

I've got an idea. I'll just write you a check.

We do amazing things down there. It's a place I really believe in.

Do you honestly think I'd put my daughter in danger?

No.

And underneath, you know, she's a smart enough girl. I have a gut feeling that

she's going to see this is a very worthwhile experience.

All right, I'm ready.

Let's get this nightmare over with.

Come on, Carol, this way.

Right along here to the right are where all the doctor's offices are. You'll see

that there's, uh... Carol, what are you doing?

rid of all my jewelry excuse me

you uh you dropped this thank you Webster and what have we learned from

this they're watching me they're all watching me all right this

is the main Conference room. This is where all those deadbeats come to fake

their way through group sessions so they can go back on the street and beg,

borrow, and steal from people like you.

Uh -huh.

Carol, I was being sarcastic. I know you were, Dad. And I also know why you

brought me here.

So that I could see that there are other people worse off than me.

Why did you become such a princess?

I am not a princess.

Now can we just get this pointless exercise over with so I can go home and

a nap?

Prescriptions over the phone.

And, um, by the way, I don't think that's a legal drug.

Well, you don't have to be rude about it.

Excuse me, but that is anatomically impossible.

Uh, excuse me, is the food bank open? Um, the hours are one to four. Sign in

here. Last name first, first name last. Oh, I'm not here to get food. I'm here

to give food.

Oh, I'm sorry, I... For your information.

Then and then.

See, I put in long hours at the spa to keep my body lean and mean.

You look familiar.

Do you go to Columbia?

Only to pee.

Hold on.

Stick your nose up in the air like you smell something bad.

No.

Yeah, I know you.

You take the number one train.

Well, I don't know you.

I tell you the New York Times every day.

people get on my nerves, too.

All right, all right.

Let's have all my juvenile delinquents this way. I'm your last hope, so don't

tick me off.

Oh, you.

Oh, I said this way, princess.

Dr. Miller, she's not one of your juvenile delinquents. She's a person of

substance who's just slumming down here. That's right.

You know,

we need people like you.

These white people get on my nerves, too.

You're making fun of me.

No, that was a joke.

You're Dr. Stevens' daughter, aren't you?

Oh, yeah. How'd you know?

I returned your earring this morning.

Oh.

Oh, yes. Right.

Of course.

Nick, isn't it?

No, it isn't. It's Webster.

Webster, Nick. They're very close.

You don't notice people, do you?

Oh, it's nothing personal.

I don't notice important people, either.

Uh -huh.

No. I'm sorry.

I'm just a little uncomfortable. I mean, there is a bucket full of guns right

here.

Why are you volunteering here?

Oh, I'm not volunteering. My father dragged me down here so I could get some

sensitivity. Still kind of early in the day, huh?

Lucky for you, you're here on a day I volunteer.

Oh, you're a volunteer?

Oh, what a relief.

I thought I put my foot in my mouth again. For a second there, I thought you

were one of... them. Oh, ooh, heaven forbid, no.

I know what you're saying. I mean, what is it with these people? I know. Can't

they get a job? Can't they be respectable?

I guess they just like to fool themselves with all these sessions.

Webster, we have to push back your two o 'clock session. They've got Dr. Miller

cornered.

Two o 'clock session?

You're one of them.

My parole officer says I can get six months off my probation if I get a high

school equivalency certificate.

So what are you going to do?

Study. Yeah.

Wish my oldest son was on parole.

All right, Webster, that's all the time we have for today.

And, uh, by the way, I'm real proud of you.

Last year, did you think you'd be going back to school?

No way.

Hey, Carol, how you doing?

Well, I gave back all the weapons, but there was one extra.

That's mine.

Thought we had a breakthrough.

I found this in the copier machine. I think it's an English paper. You didn't

read it, did you?

No.

Then what are all these red marks?

Okay, I read it and corrected it. Force of habit.

Well, what did you think?

It was moving and compelling.

Especially for a street kid, right?

Look, I'm not saying that the spelling wasn't atrocious and the grammar awful.

And I've never heard the word mother used quite so colorfully.

But the idea's behind it.

When you were deciding whether or not to rob the liquor store, I knew how you

were feeling.

It took me two and a half months to pick my major.

I mean, decisions like that can affect your...

Golly.

You're making fun of me again. No.

It's just you're the first person who's read it.

Webster, it's good.

Can you help me make it better?

I'm leaving now.

Carol?

Hey, it's Saturday night. What are you doing going out?

Don't worry, it's not a date.

Come on, you're 19. You don't have to tell me where you're going, who you're

going with, what you're going to be doing, or when you're coming back.

Good.

Because I'm proud of you, Carol.

I was real proud of you today, the way you came down to the free clinic, and,

well, you saw that those people are just like the rest of us. They only need a

little trust and faith.

Thank you.

And not that I have to tell you, but I'm meeting with Webster to help him with

his English paper.

Oh, Webster.

Hiya. You going over to his night school?

No. Library?

No. No? No? Just the two of you.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You think it's the Webster I know from the clinic.

Well, it's not.

It's Webster Thornhill from Columbia.

Oh, yeah. Oh, good. Okay, great.

You have a good time.

Dad, I can't believe this.

What? It's the same Webster.

I am not a hypocrite.

After all this talk about me respecting people and I want to meet with him and

you're upset?

Carol, it's just that, well, you don't know everything there is to know about

Webster. I mean, he is, you know, on parole and... You're right.

I am a hypocrite.

And if you're going to respect somebody, you've got to respect them as much as

you would somebody else. So I'm sorry. You go and help them and have a good

time. Okay?

Thank you, Daddy. All right. Bye.

That's what I brought her down there for.

This is good. It's a good thing.

I'm proud of her.

Can't wait to tell Maggie. Maggie, your daughter is going out with an ex -con.

Maggie, Carol's going out with an ex -con.

Carol!

Where's Carol going? I don't know. I don't have a clue. No, honestly, I

Nope.

Come on, Maggie. Come on.

My time's running out.

Okay. The best I can do.

E -X -C -O -N.

That's ex -con.

I just said, Maggie, don't try to be cute. I don't like it when you're cute.

You're too old to be cute.

Maggie,

why did you use that word? Because it's a triple word score.

Oh, it is.

It is.

When I got paroled, I learned I was no longer a thief.

What I am, I don't know.

But I fear a dark and desperate time might come when I must define myself as

something.

And the only word that comes to mind is thief.

So beautiful.

There's such a sense of hopelessness.

I'll say.

Read the rest.

That's all I got so far.

Well, what are your ideas for the ending?

I don't know.

I was thinking maybe after this high school thing, I'd get some training and

a counselor for guys like me.

Really? Yeah, City College has this program where you go part -time and you

part -time, and there's plenty of jobs in the bad neighborhoods because nobody

wants to work there, and for me, it'd be a short commute.

What are you going to do, Carol?

Well, I'm not sure exactly beyond Columbia.

a top law school, clerking for a Supreme Court justice and not necessarily a

woman, but I wouldn't rule out a career in politics.

So this will be our last meal together, huh?

Oh, no. Uh, some more coffee over here to cut the grease? I told you not to

order the chili.

Hey, uh, have you been in here before?

No, that's why I ordered the chili.

All night long, I've been trying to place your face.

Well, it's right here.

Maybe I saw you in Johnny Carson.

Look, I want to apologize.

I mean, I must have seemed like such a... Princess?

Okay, okay, I was a princess.

Don't get down on yourself.

Must be kind of strange for you to be in this kind of neighborhood.

Well, actually, I commute to Manhattan every day for school.

I see all kinds of disgusting filth. Yeah, but here you don't get to step

them and keep walking with a face like this.

I will have you know that I have lived in the city.

That's the guy that mugged me two years ago.

Thank God.

All right, Maggie, your suspicions were true.

I didn't want to say anything before because I knew you'd be upset, but Carol

tonight has been out with an ex -con.

What? Yes, somebody that I've been working with down at the clinic.

An armed robber.

Carol is out with him now. No, she's not out with him now. She's home safe and

sound, like I knew she would be. And I think we should applaud Carol's newfound

sensitivity and awareness. Come on. Thank you. Thank you.

Jason,

you were saying?

Carol is going to be fine, all right? Let's just finish the game. No, no, no.

Carol is out with an ex -con?

Ex -con is hyphenated. That doesn't count, Maggie. Excuse me, phone.

No, no, no, Mike, just take a message.

It sounds pretty important, Mom. Well, so is this.

Okay.

Guys, how do you spell precinct?

Did you know your daughter was going out with a convicted felon?

Some of us did.

That's not good.

What happened?

What happened was the owner of the diner recognized the suspect as a man who

mugged him a couple of years ago.

The owner called the police, told the guy at gunpoint.

Before we arrived, the suspect rustled the gun away from the guy, and then it

was crazy.

He took ten bucks from a full cash register and fled.

It was a miracle Carol wasn't hurt.

Yeah.

That just doesn't sound like Webster. Webster would be that kind of...

Jason, please.

Oh, honey.

Are you okay?

I think so. Oh, baby.

Let's go home. Daddy, I don't understand what happened. Forget about it. Mom, I

don't want to forget about it.

Daddy, how could this happen?

I don't know.

He was telling me how he wanted to be a counselor and help other kids.

We were laughing.

And then all of a sudden this guy comes and pulls his thumb on him and calls him

a thief.

You're a thief. That's all you are, is a thief.

And Webster's eyes changed.

It was like he died.

And then he just grabbed the gun, took some money, and left.

You're the criminal, Carol.

Mom, he is more than that.

He was trying.

I mean, you should read this essay.

He worked on it so hard.

And then he just left it there like it didn't even matter.

Daddy, I don't understand.

Jason, are you coming to bed? I'm not through yelling at you yet.

Not right now.

I finally got Carol to sleep.

You know what she said to me as she was drifting off?

She actually said that she was glad that she went down to that awful clinic.

Jason, are you listening to me?

She could have been killed.

Damn right, she could have been killed.

Look, Jason, I want to help the downtrodden people just as much as you

when there's a chance that one of our children... Maggie, I put my daughter in

danger. I know that. Yes, yes, it was a silly idea.

My stupid idealism. I believe that just because I go down there and I work with

those people that I can make a difference. I can change them, Maggie.

I'm a fool.

Oh, Jason, I... I never called you a fool. Oh, if anything had happened to

Maggie... God!

Sweetheart, I need a little of your stupid idealism in my life. I can be

-minded.

But you know what? Together we make a pretty balanced person.

Separately, I'm not crazy about either one of us.

Well,

I always thought, you know, I believed that if you were...

A good person, if you treat people with respect, if you're sincere and you're

fair and you're honest, if you believe in God, then nothing can harm you.

Nothing can harm the people you love. And tonight, Maggie, I see for the first

time, it's... I was wrong.

Oh, Jason, just because Webster turned out bad doesn't mean you haven't helped

lot of people down there.

Well, Maggie, how do I know that they wouldn't have gotten better by

How do I know I make a difference?

You make a difference with me.

I just think I want to be alone for a bit.

Jason.

Doc, what are you doing here?

Where else can I go? You came to the wrong place.

I made a big mistake. You made a mistake? What about me? I trusted you,

I trusted you with my daughter. I didn't plan for that. I don't want to hear

about it.

I'm going to call the police.

Well, does Carol all right?

What do you care? I care, damn it, I do. What were you doing tonight, Webster?

Dr. Seaver, tonight, for the first time, I feel like all the stuff we talked

about could really happen.

Then that guy in the diner starts talking about stuff that happened years

saying that I was a thief and that was all I was ever going to be.

Well, he convinced me. Well, you know better.

Yeah, but that would be only because of you. And that's why I'm here.

Because of me?

Yeah, I wouldn't feel so awful right now if you hadn't made me feel so good.

Would you come down to the police station with me?

I need you to come with me.

I'll come with you, Wesley.

I didn't mean for any of this to happen.

I'm... I'm sorry, Doc.

I'm sorry, man.