Original subtitles

Mr. Richards?

Mr. Richards?

How long has Mr. Richards got?

Check my crystal ball.

Candy, we can't predict the future. All we can tell is that the sand is getting

low in the hourglass.

Maybe I should go sit with him. He shouldn't be alone.

He won't even know that you're there.

Let the man die in peace. That was the way he wanted it.

Oh, no. When my grandfather died, we were all there singing hymns to him.

probably what killed him.

Hey, Joe.

What do you need?

Oh, yeah. I wish you'd stand by because it looks like Mr. Richards is on his way

out. He's almost out of sand.

I thought he was doing better.

Yeah, but he started to go downhill this morning.

Mr. Richards?

I knew it.

I knew you'd come.

What took you so long?

Well, Henry, God's timing is not our timing.

Oh, to everything, there's a season, huh?

And you know what?

I'm looking forward to this one.

You know what?

People like you make this job a whole lot easier.

Yeah, but Dr. Charles said he thought that Mr. Richards was rebounding.

Well, you know the way it goes around here.

I want to go be with him.

Oh, Candy.

Looks like you missed him.

Diane, page Dr. Charles and have him call it.

Arthur, come with me.

Yeah, sure.

You're very good at this, you know.

Thank you. Thank you. I've had a lot of practice.

I've been in here quite some time.

I've prayed a lot of prayers.

I know.

See, it's rough to be the last one

to go.

But maybe there'll be a bigger welcoming committee.

Right? Right.

Right.

Oh, wait.

I forgot my Bible.

Henry, it's time.

But there's somebody here who needs help.

Promise.

Promise me you'll come back and get my Bible.

It's all in there. You know what to do with it.

There's a perfectly healthy person here who's dying.

Promise me you'll come back and help.

I promise.

Go on. We'll wait right here for you till you come back.

Who is it, Tess? Who's he talking about?

God only knows, baby.

When you walk down the road

Heavy burden, heavy load

I will rise and I will walk with

you

I'll walk with you till the sun don't even shine.

Walk with you every time I tell you I'll walk

with you.

Walk with you. Believe me, I'll walk with you.

You look so beautiful.

Arthur, get a gurney. And Diane, get the pulse ox machine out of there and take

it to 302. And Candy, stop.

Cry on. Yes, ma 'am.

Andrew, it shouldn't take too long.

No, it shouldn't.

Oh, here he comes now.

I see you kept your promise.

That was strange, wasn't it? Yeah.

I've never gotten an assignment from an assignment before.

And you still haven't.

We take our orders from the Father, not from human beings. I don't care how nice

they are.

Then what are you doing here? Are you listening to me?

The Father sent us here, not Mr. Richards.

And our assignment is to minister to the people on the third floor of this

hospital. And so here we are. But what about Mr. Richards' Bible?

And the healthy person who's dying, did he tell you who it was?

Well, he started to, but then once, well, once we got there, you know.

Are you listening to me at all?

Mr. Richards is not omnipotent.

And he is not omnipresent.

What Mr.

Richards is, is dead.

Now, maybe something is going on here. And Mr. Richards thought the way to

handle it was to help one person. But God says there are a bunch of people up

here who need help.

And this is just what I believe.

I just believe this.

If we listen to the living God instead of the dead Mr.

Richards, everything is just going to work out fine. How does that sound to

huh?

But on the other hand now, You did make a promise, Andrew.

And you have got to keep it.

So go on in there and get the Bible and we'll see what's in it.

Come on, Hed.

Aren't you just a wee bit curious?

Absolutely not.

I'm thorough.

Gone.

The Bible's gone.

I'm not in the mood for this, Rita.

Neither am I. It's fine. Will you just leave it alone? It's fine when I say

fine.

You all were sure making a lot of racket out there a minute ago.

Don't you know there are people dying in here?

Yes. Mr. Richards beat you to it.

Lucky him.

What do you think happened to Mr. Richards' Bible?

I don't know.

But I know a few chapters that nurse ought to read.

Special delivery for Mrs. Rita Lasky.

Morning, Rita.

Well, today we have an excellent porridge.

Not too hot.

Not too cold.

Just right.

Oh, yeah.

And, uh, also, I, um, I got you something else.

Robert Frost?

Candy said he's your favorite poet, although she referred to him as Jack

Yeah, well, Candy's an idiot, and you are too pushy.

Well, you know, as Mr.

Frost said, freedom lies in being bold. He also said, good fences make good

neighbors.

I'll tell you what, why don't you do me a favor? You stay on your side of the

fence, and I will stay on mine.

Okay?

See you later.

It's sad to see people who don't have family and friends to share their last

days with.

Well, because they're not here doesn't mean she doesn't have any.

She has family? Where?

On the other side of the fence.

I don't know what they told you downstairs, but on this floor most of

patients are terminal. So we don't worry too much up here about the rules,

visiting hours, how many visitors, that kind of thing. That's very kind of you.

Whatever. We get a pretty big turnover on this floor.

I was going through my reports and I noticed that Mr.

Richards died today in 374. I was wondering, should I do some follow -up,

know, notify family or collect personal effects?

No family. No stuff to return.

No, don't.

No, he had a Bible. Maybe Candy put it on her card. Candy, what happened to Mr.

Richard's Bible?

Gosh, I don't know.

Did he have a Bible?

Can you read if you're in a coma?

First patients read Alasky 376.

And miles to go before I sleep.

Hello, Rita.

My name is Monica. I work with social services here at the hospital.

It says here you're a truck driver.

What kind of rig do you have?

18 -wheeler with an anteater?

Double axle, the cab over Pete?

An anteater.

Yeah, my husband and I used to do the long haul from Miami to Fresno every

I never met a truck driver who read Robert Frost.

Yeah, well, I never met a prissy little social worker who knew from Big Regs.

I did some homework.

What do you want?

The hospital thought I might be able to help you take care of some pending

matters that need attention.

pending matters.

You mean like stuff I gotta do before I die?

Gotta clean up all the loose ends?

Well, I could get you some help if you wanted to make out a will, or I could

contact family members.

The only thing I've got to my name is a 20 -year -old semi collecting dust in

the impound yard in Fresno.

The government can have that for all I care.

And I don't have any family. So you can keep your dime.

Well, it says here that you have a sister, a nephew, and two nieces.

That doesn't make them family.

Look, I told you that I don't need your services, Monica.

That wasn't so bad, was it?

It's no worse than the rest of them.

Looks like you're getting used to it, huh?

Getting used to it?

Getting tired of it.

All these brain scans seem pretty pointless to me.

I don't know what else they expect to find.

Maybe they're looking for signs of intelligent life.

Just a little joke. I'm trying to lighten the mood, okay?

Yeah. That's what everybody tries to do.

Keep it light so you don't remind me about the golf ball sitting on my brain.

I know what I have, Andrew.

You don't have to be afraid to talk about it. I wish somebody would.

Okay.

Well, the tumor is not shrinking

with the steroids, so what do you think?

What tumor?

Gotcha.

Just keeping the mood light.

Yeah, just don't go so hard on me my first day, all right?

Are you going to be comfortable hanging around a dying person?

I think I can handle it.

They said my odds were only so -so of surviving the surgery, but they never

I might not survive all the pre -surgery tests.

You know, I think that you're going to do just fine on both.

I'll tell you something, John.

You, my friend, have got one great attitude.

This isn't attitude.

This is faith.

Well, faith is pretty hard to beat.

With faith, you can get through anything.

Faith's not going to get me through this.

Faith is going to get me around this.

What does that mean?

Can't explain it exactly.

But I just have this feeling that there's going to be a miracle.

And I'm going to be fine.

You know, John, I believe in miracles.

I've seen miracles.

But sometimes miracles don't look the way we expect them to.

I'll know mine when I see it.

Besides, miracles are happening to me all the time.

Don?

Hey, baby. How are you?

I'm great. I missed you, though.

Say hello to my new chauffeur, Andrew.

Hi. This is miracle number one.

And this is miracle number two.

Wait. Wait. Come back here.

Excuse me. Please don't go.

Come back.

Hey. Hey.

Hey. Diane, check her PRN order.

Please, not yet. Please.

Did you see him?

Rita, calm down. Did you see him? We didn't see anybody. He was here.

He was right here.

The angel.

The angel of death was right here.

Rita? Huh? What did you mean, the angel of death?

The angel of death.

Came for me.

With a message.

A message from God.

Some morphine.

Relax. Rita, let the medication take effect. We can talk about the angel

God's plan for me.

Did you ever notice when dying people hallucinate, they never see elephants or

basketball players?

It's angels.

It's always angels.

Except with snakes. We get a lot of snakes, too.

You'll get used to this.

This is getting really interesting.

I'd say it's getting crowded.

Tess, did Rita really see an angel? I don't know, baby, but if she did, nobody

told me anything about it.

Bye. So what was all that about?

That was just a little excitement in the neighborhood.

Hey, is this a good time?

Yeah, it's over there.

I have a hard time holding on to things these days.

Yeah, we'll get this cleaned up in no time.

Poor lady found it pretty wild.

Mrs. Lasky?

She saw an angel.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, but, you know, she's been under a lot of sedation.

I wouldn't mind seeing an angel.

Was she taken? Eh, she didn't make it up.

It's real.

What makes you think so? Because there's an angel on the floor.

Yep, the angel of death visits everybody sooner or later.

They're all upset, depressed, nervous.

And the angel comes.

They're happier, peaceful, more accepting.

Did you see the angel?

No, I've just heard the stories.

Maybe that's how it'll come.

What? My miracle.

Maybe an angel will bring it.

Surgery's getting pretty close.

Rita?

Are you feeling better now?

The angel?

That was quite an episode.

Sometimes drugs can have an unusual effect on people.

That was real.

There was an angel here, a real angel with the most amazing wings

and feathers like clouds.

Did you hear a voice?

Oh, yeah.

He told me that my suffering was part of God's plan.

His cancer came into my body so that a little child could grow up and become a

great humanitarian.

Or a leader.

Or at least a better person than I was.

No, Rita, no. And he said that my reward was that I get to spend eternity with

Jimmy.

My husband.

And he's waiting for me right now.

And he wants me to hurry.

He wants me to hurry up and die.

No, Rita, God would never ever trade you for someone else.

God didn't give you this cancer.

He's not asking you to die because someone else deserves to live more than

do. God loves all his children, and when they suffer, he weeps.

You do believe me, don't you?

You do believe in angels.

I believe there are angels.

I don't believe in angels.

I believe in God.

And when an angel says something that's not from God, then...

It's not an angel.

But this angel did come from God.

Believe me.

Dinner time.

No, thanks.

I don't need to eat anymore.

Okay.

I've heard of you.

I'll come get it.

Good morning.

Morning. I'll be down at the pharmacy.

Yep.

They're all still here.

What? I know your morning ritual.

Before you even get yourself a cup of coffee, you come and check the board to

see who made it through the night.

You're an old softy.

Get a life, Arthur.

Hi, Candy. Hey, where's Diane? I got her that magazine.

She went to the pharmacy. It looks like Dr.

Charles has to up John Minori's pain meds. That's too bad.

Yeah, looks like he had a bad night.

Good morning.

Morning. You might check on Peterson in 380, and Rita Lasky has refused her last

two meals. Why don't you see what that's about?

Of course.

I was wondering about Mr. Richards.

What about him? Did he ever mention seeing the angel?

Yeah. Funny, though. He did not like the angel.

Right up until the end, told everybody to ignore it. The angel of death is a

fraud.

Funny old guy.

You really must eat, Rita.

No, I mustn't. I was hoping you'd have something to say to your sister.

Well, that doesn't matter now.

Well, maybe she has something to say to you.

Monica, forgive me, but you're interfering with God's plan, so I'm

to ask you to leave.

Nice fish, Andrew.

Oh, yeah.

I got it for John Minori. Thought it might keep him company.

Oh, somebody's already been doing that today.

Oh, yeah?

The angel visited him.

Please, Andrew.

I know what you're trying to do.

But you didn't see the angel. I did.

I heard what he said.

John, you were out of it.

Not much.

I saw an angel.

It had wings and feathers.

Bright light.

Angels don't have wings, buddy.

How do you know?

I... You were hallucinating.

I wish I was.

But it was real.

It told me the truth.

It was hard to hear, but I heard it.

I'm gonna die, Andrew.

God's going to take me home.

And the sooner I realize that and stop waiting for a miracle, the sooner

I can prepare myself to say goodbye to

my wife and my baby.

Well, one thing we know for sure, hallucinations don't lose their

But who would pretend to be an angel when they're really human?

Maybe someone who's dying when they're perfectly healthy.

That's got to be who Mr.

Richards was talking about.

Joe said that he saw the angel and he knew it was a fraud.

Then we have to find the Bible.

He said it was all in there, so maybe there's a name or a note.

Well, I never had a question it didn't have an answer for.

We've got to find that pretender before any more damage is done.

Can I help you?

Actually, I thought there was a lost and found here, and I was hoping to find

Mr. Richard's Bible in it.

What is the big deal with Mr. Richard's Bible, Monica?

Rita Lasky is not eating, and John Minori has lost his spark.

Frankly, he's not going to make it through surgery this way.

If you feel some urgent need to find something, then why don't you find the

angel? Because this angel of death is killing our patient's will to live.

I thought you thought they were hallucinations.

I did.

I found this in John Minori's room last night.

I thought you were the angel.

Oh, right. I work a 12 -hour shift.

I start IVs and I change meds and I take vitals.

And then at the end of my day, I rush to the linen closet and put on a feather

costume, sneak into people's rooms and tell them to hurry up and die.

Right. You sure got me figured.

I know it's ridiculous.

The problem is...

That's exactly what someone is doing.

I got your message.

John, what do you need this for?

I've wasted too much time, Andrew.

I've got no more to waste.

Is this about the angel?

Just turn it on, please.

Please.

Hi, honey.

And little guy or little girl, whatever you turn out to be,

I'm your daddy.

And tomorrow's a big day.

Doctor said I got 50 -50 chance of surviving the surgery.

It's funny, I thought those were pretty good odds.

Now I know I'm just kidding myself.

I want to say goodbye now.

John.

Please, don't give up.

I know what the angel said.

What kind of angel comes and takes your hope away?

An honest one.

Are you thinking great thoughts?

Would you mind a little company?

A little company would be lovely.

I only have a few minutes. I usually go down and help out Betty in the daycare

center on my lunch break.

You would be amazed what little kids can do with just peanut butter and

crackers.

I bet those kids love you.

Do you have any brothers and sisters?

No.

Hi, guys. Can I sit? Oh, yeah. You know what? Actually, I should get going.

Here, sit here.

Do you remember if Mr.

Richards had a Bible?

I was thinking about that. Now, he had a book.

It was a black leather book.

But it was really, really, really old.

So I threw it away.

Well, there you go.

See ya.

Candy, I'll be right back.

Well, at least we know what happened with the Bible.

We still don't know who the impersonator is, though.

Well, baby, we have to move on and help those we know need us.

Now, I'm going to go and find that Bible.

And you work with Rita Lasky because her time is running out, sweetheart.

Okay?

I'm not eating.

Rita, you are dying because you have cancer.

Because cancer is a terrible and ruthless disease in an imperfect world.

because God has chosen you for some kind of sacrifice.

That's not how God works.

That is not what the angel said.

That was not an angel.

That was an impersonator.

Someone dressed up with wings, perhaps.

Who appeared to you when you were heavily sedated.

Why?

I don't know.

A cruel joke, perhaps.

But I suspect that it was someone who was really trying to help the patients

here to face death.

Someone with the right intentions, but the wrong information.

And it's hurting people like you.

That angel was the only thing in my life, besides my husband,

who made me feel like I mattered.

Ah, Rita.

There is someone else, but if you starve yourself, you'll never hear what she

has to say.

It's too late now.

I don't even know where my sister is.

I do.

You do?

Would you like to see what a real angel looks like?

You weren't stupid.

You were just desperate to find some meaning in your life and there was

there to offer it to you.

It looked like the truth.

It sounded like the truth.

That's all I saw was an angel.

What do you see this time?

Love.

Yes.

And God is love.

And he loves you so much, Rita.

So much that you don't have to do anything that matters to get his love.

have to do is to accept it.

It's funny how feeling his love makes me

feel my own.

I want to tell my sister that I'm sorry.

I want to tell her that I'm proud of her.

Oh, you know, she was... She was a really smart college kid.

And now she's the vice president of a bank. I just figured she'd be so ashamed

of me.

So I stayed out of her life.

I really miss her.

Oh, God.

Oh, I really need her right now. I really do.

I really do.

She's on her way, Rita.

She's looking for you, too.

Will you wait for her, huh?

Will you?

Tell me something good.

Rita's sister just walked in.

Good. Just in time.

How's John doing?

Surgery's tomorrow.

Well, I found it.

Mr. Richards' Bible?

Don't ask me how I found it, but it had to do with hip boots.

Is there a letter inside?

A message? A name?

That's what we're going to find out right now. Come

back.

I think I may have found it.

Now! Want to go now?

Hey, you!

Hold it, chicken

little. The sky is falling.

What do you want?

Arthur, how could you do that? God wants me to.

No. Arthur, no, he doesn't. No.

No. You don't understand.

All right? So just leave me alone.

No, no, no. Let him go. Let him go.

Maybe you should look at this first.

I'm beginning to think that Mr. Richards was smarter than all of us.

We were looking for the imposter behind the angel.

And Mr.

Richards, God bless his heart, was looking for the broken soul.

God, please, just take me home.

I want to go home.

I just want to go home.

I want to go home.

Oh, God, please.

Just take me home.

I could have killed you, Andrew.

What are you doing here?

I'm here to help you. I don't need your help.

Okay?

I'm going home.

God is taking me back home now.

It's not your time to go to God yet. How do you know?

Because I'm the angel of death.

I don't even know what to say to that.

I don't want to talk.

Just listen.

No. No!

Please don't!

Don't!

You can't run away, Arthur.

We're going to settle this right now.

First of all, are we straight to the fact that you were not an angel?

Of any kind?

That you were not sent here by God?

I was... I was just trying to do something important.

I thought...

I thought God would like it.

No.

Arthur, you took the truth of God's love and you twisted it around.

God does not trade one life for another life.

And yes, miracles do happen and we should always be expecting them.

And people should never hurry up and die.

Arthur, you've been messing with people's souls.

And you've been messing with your own.

What is God going to do to me?

God loves you.

Not the fake God that you've made up for yourself. The real God.

The one that knows all about you.

And that real God wants the real Arthur back.

God knows me.

Yes, he does.

You know something? There's also somebody else who managed to get a

the real Arthur.

This is a page from Mr. Richard's Bible.

You know, when everyone else was seeing an angel, Mr. Richard saw this healthy

man with this dying soul.

And he was too sick to tell you.

But he did manage to send you a message.

It's right here.

For Arthur.

Arthur.

I will seek that which was lost.

And bring again that which was

driven

away and will bind up that

which was broken

and will strengthen

that which was sick.

How did your soul become so sick?

How did your heart become so broken?

Arthur, who was it that left without saying goodbye?

Who did you lose?

Toby.

Toby.

Are you doing well?

Yeah, I'm working at a hospital now.

I just can't keep up.

Lifeguard, security guard, well, you always did like to fix people.

Yeah, I know. I never really thought about that before, Mother, but I

think I know why.

Really?

Yeah.

Do you?

I don't think that I can do this.

Do you remember that day that Toby died?

Yes. Yes, I do.

I told you that we were walking together and that Toby ran

ahead of me and flipped.

But that's not true.

I left him. I left him home alone.

He was there all by himself.

I wasn't there for him.

Arthur. I just want to say that I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I tried.

But I couldn't tell you the truth.

And then... And then after a while, I couldn't tell you anything at all.

I've always, I've always tried to be the kind of person I thought Toby

would be. You know, I just, I've always tried to help people.

I've always tried to be there for people when they're in trouble.

But now I've just, I screwed that up too.

Please, Arthur.

I forgive you. You forgive yourself.

John, can you hear me?

There you are.

Let's go.

No.

John, listen to me.

I'm not an angel.

I was wrong about everything.

This is very... It's very hard for me to explain.

But you kept talking about this miracle.

That you were expecting.

And I didn't think that you were going to get it.

And I didn't want to see you wait any time.

And not get to say goodbye to somebody you loved.

Like I did.

And John, I am sorry.

It's all right, Angel.

are definitely angels.

John, I'm the real angel of death.

And I'm going to be with you in surgery today.

But that doesn't mean you're going to die.

But I do.

You don't give up hope.

And you fight for life.

And one way or another,

God will make sure that you receive it.

There are miracles, John.

Real miracles.

And you remember that.

Your wife is in the waiting room, John.

Is there something you'd like me to tell her?

Yeah.

Tell her I'll be back.

And you will, too.

Miracles are happening every day.

Hey, how long is this going to take?

Forever.

Monica?

Rita.

Told me all about you.

Oh, really?

You're an angel, right?

Yep. The real thing.

Fine, but I'm not cleaning up anymore feathered.

Diane, get a gurney for 376.