Original subtitles

WOMAN: Can you imagine what they’d do to you

if you’d slept with him?

They’d call you a slut behind your back.

They’d start rumors saying that you were the one chasing him,

that you’re crazy,

that you made up the whole thing for attention,

as if your life doesn’t matter as much as his,

like his innocence is more valuable than yours.

That’s because it is.

WOMAN: ♪ My own world ♪

♪ Living inside myself ♪

♪ Myself ♪

♪ Living for no one else ♪

♪ Then I see your face ♪

♪ I don’t want to face it ♪

♪ No more ♪

♪ So I look away ♪

♪ I don’t want to face it ♪

♪ No more ♪

♪ Fine, I’m thinking ♪

♪ What I’m saying ♪

♪ I don’t ever know ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

♪ ♪

- What Ashlee said in class yesterday...

she was wrong.

That is absolutely not true.

This is not your fault.

[pensive music]

Mr. Ridley is an adult,

your teacher.

He was in a position of power over you.

♪ ♪

What he did was criminal,

and he’s going to jail for it

with or without your testimony.

Another young woman came forward,

and she’s pressing charges.

- It was Polly.

- So you do know about Polly.

♪ ♪

Is that why you shot him?

- I didn’t shoot him.

♪ ♪

[bell ringing, indistinct chatter]

[foreboding music]

♪ ♪

SMILEY: Oh, my God. There’s so much blood.

Oh, my God.

[ringing and indistinct chatter continues]

[computer scrapes]

♪ ♪

[ringing stops]

[somber music]

- I haven’t turned this over to the police yet,

but at some point, I’ll have to.

♪ ♪

You can’t let Tyler take the blame for what you did.

- I’ve strayed away from Tyler’s plans once.

I know better than to stray away again.

♪ ♪

- You know I was never Tyler’s biggest fan,

but he didn’t pull the trigger.

- It doesn’t matter.

His father will get him off.

- How will you live with yourself then?

♪ ♪

- I don’t know. I--I don’t know.

♪ ♪

- I wish that I could go back in time

and see everything clearly faster

so that I could’ve stopped this from happening to you.

It was my job to protect you, and I failed.

- I’m ruined. I’m damaged. - No. That’s not true.

- Oh, yeah? Tell that to the whole school.

Everybody blames me. - I know.

I know it seems impossible to block that out right now,

but you do have people that love you,

and those are the people that you listen to.

- I don’t even know what love is anymore.

I feel so tricked.

- He tricked all of us.

- You know, Tyler wanted someone to stand behind him.

Kevin--he wanted me to stand beside him.

I thought Tyler was just a boy

and that he was a man.

He said I deserved more, that I deserved everything.

[sniffles]

And I thought it was true.

- I know. - [sniffles]

But it wasn’t, was it?

And I wasn’t special in any way.

I was just a target,

a trophy he could hang on his wall, like an animal.

He just collected me.

- That’s what he does.

- Yeah. I was always right.

This was rape.

[sighs]

I’ll testify against him.

Polly shouldn’t have to go through this alone again.

- Neither should you.

And neither should Tyler.

In his own truly misguided way, he loves you.

And I know that you loved him too.

- [sniffles]

I did it, Ms. Maynor.

I shot Kevin.

[dramatic music]

- And the gun?

Where did you get the gun?

- I bought it when Tyler was acting crazy,

and I thought--

[sighs]

Please, just make this week over.

- You can do this,

and I am gonna be with you every step of the way.

[phone buzzing]

Hi. You’ve reached Alana Maynor.

Please leave a message.

OFFICER VERITAY: Alana, this is Officer Veritay.

The DNA results came back.

Ridley is the father.

♪ ♪

Alana, you got him.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

MAN: Spoke with Kevin today.

He’s concerned about a student

in his guitar class, Polly Campbell,

feels she shows signs of depression,

instability, self-harm.

♪ ♪

[knock at door]

- More bad news?

- Uh, nothing you need to worry about.

What’s going on?

- Tell her.

- Mr. Ridley’s been texting me.

He said the doctors cleared him to leave the hospital.

- Does that mean they’re just letting him go,

like nothing happened?

♪ ♪

[machine beeping, footsteps tapping]

♪ ♪

- Did you come to gloat?

My lawyer says that if I plead guilty,

make a full confession,

he can get some of the charges dropped,

and I’ll still probably do a year in jail thanks to you.

- A year?

But Brianna’s 17. - Almost 18.

- Polly was 15.

15 years old and pregnant.

- And she told me she had a miscarriage.

- Can you even hear yourself?

You are blaming everybody else.

Kevin...

these kids are scarred for life.

A year isn’t enough.

- It’s not enough for you that I got shot down?

What? You want me to rot too?

- I want you to explain how you can justify any of this.

- They needed me, Alana, just like you needed me.

Your father was dying...

- No. - And I came.

- You cannot use my dad

or--or Liddy’s family life

or Brianna’s insecurities to rationalize your behavior.

- I wasn’t rationalizing. - You look for weaknesses

like a shark searches for blood in the water.

- That is not true.

I’m an excellent teacher.

I have helped hundreds of students.

- The good that you’ve done has been negated.

- You sit there, and you judge me.

You don’t know anything about my past,

what it was like for me as a kid.

- No. - Know who my dad was when--

- No, no, no, no, no! You don’t get to do that!

We’re all wounded! We are all broken!

It’s not an excuse!

- You know, John was right.

You’re not capable of empathy.

- No. I understand

that it is our job as adults to fix ourselves

so that we don’t go around brutalizing

the generations behind us.

You can’t use your past as an excuse

to destroy these girls’ lives.

[knock at door]

- It’s time.

- You can have him. I’m done.

- I loved Polly...

And Brianna.

It wasn’t a lie.

- Kevin, everything you say is a lie.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

- I have heard about the new charges, and no,

I do not have a comment.

I’m sorry.

I’m hanging up on you right now.

And this is your doing?

- No. This was his doing. - No.

I didn’t mean that-- [sighs]

[sighs] I’m sorry.

I haven’t slept in days.

- Neither have I.

♪ ♪

- Is this an accusation?

- It was Polly’s accusation.

- I followed procedure on this.

I forwarded this to Barth. He never got back to me.

- She came to you first.

She told you he was harassing her.

- Polly Campbell was mentally unstable.

She had already tried to kill herself.

- Because Kevin made her crazy.

He made her think that she was delusional,

and you dismissed her,

and you shuffled her off to a counselor

that you knew was incompetent.

[sighs]

You were supposed to protect her.

- I was protecting the school.

- No, you had to protect your reputation.

♪ ♪

- Okay.

What’s done is done,

and Kevin is gonna get exactly what he deserves.

Alana, you and I--

we’ve got to get back to rebuilding this community.

♪ ♪

- You know, the night of the shooting,

I felt so blessed to be alive.

And I thought I got out relatively unscathed.

But he took something from me too.

He took you.

- No. Alana, don’t do this.

- [whispers] I’m sorry.

But you have to resign.

[birds chirping]

- Look who’s trying to sneak in the back way.

- Trying to.

- You know, I think people will notice you’re around again

whether you go through the front door or the back.

- Yeah, I, uh,

just needed a second to not have that happen yet.

[chuckles]

Oh, man.

[grunts]

Dude, if I smoked, this would be the day I’d hit you up.

- Couldn’t be done, son.

I’m clean.

- No way. - For real.

No deals, no vapes, nothing.

- Scared straight, seriously?

- Does it get any scarier?

- No, man. It doesn’t.

[pensive music]

- Have you seen Brianna?

- My dad said the attempted manslaughter

charge won’t stick.

She shot a serial rapist.

No jury will convict her for that.

- Yeah. She deserves a medal.

- Her parents won’t let me near her.

They’re gonna move out of state,

give her a fresh start.

- Sorry. - Yeah.

- Would you have really gone to jail for her?

- You know, she only did what I would’ve done

if you hadn’t have talked me down that night.

Bro, I owe you.

- Well, your memory loss about the gun--

- Mm. - I figure we’re even.

- Okay.

[sighs]

- It’s just a door.

Come on.

I’ll walk with you.

- Okay.

[phone beeps]

- [sighs]

- Hey. - Oh, hey.

- [laughs]

I’m late, and, um,

this time, that really was an apology.

- Welcome back. - Good to see you.

- Hey. - Hey.

- Hey, dude. - Hey, what’s up?

- Hey, man. - Hey.

[laughter]

Hey, um... [chuckles]

I know you’re not much of a hugger, but--

- Welcome back, Tyler.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- How’d I do?

- Next stop, college.

- Really?

- Yeah. You’re going to ace this.

Just remember, the answers are all in the text,

so if you read carefully, you’ll be fine.

- [exhales] Okay.

- Some guy left this under his plate.

Looks like it’s for you.

♪ ♪

- What is it?

- Did you do this?

- No.

- Is this happening?

No. I can’t believe this is happening.

Oh, my God.

[laughs]

- [mouths words] - Oh, my God.

♪ ♪

- John Roosevelt Smiley reporting,

and no, this is not your graduation PSA.

This is, in fact, our time capsule,

because even though the story of our year has been exploited,

it hasn’t been told by us.

[bright music]

We are the alliance,

and this is our story.

Are you guys ready? - Yeah.

- Yeah. - All right. And...

[button clicks]

The outside world has only seen

what they wanted to see about us,

not everything we’re capable of...

- Who knew? Me in college, right?

I’m thinking a business degree

with an emphasis on music management.

I’ve already got my first clients.

- [singing indistinctly]

SMILEY: Not how we’re capable of change...

- It’s been great to be collaborators

and best friends again,

even if we are still debating

between Los Angeles and Nashville.

- [whispers] Los Angeles.

- [laughs]

♪ ♪

- Okay, so this is from two years ago.

That’s Charlie, my dog.

SMILEY: And taking risks we never knew

we were capable of taking...

- Okay, so I have my pack, which is...

[grunts] Nice and full.

Whew.

And...I have my passport.

And once I get to England,

I’m probably just gonna wing it.

I mean, Harvard can wait a year for me

if I even want them once I get back.

SMILEY: Even if things didn’t turn out

exactly like we planned.

- [laughs] Duke it is,

just without Brianna.

I ended up changing my major from law to public policy.

I need to be on the ground,

working with community organizers

if we’re really gonna make a difference.

♪ ♪

SMILEY: And we lost a friend along the way.

- It’s different here.

That’s okay.

You know, I’m getting stronger every day.

[pensive music]

I want to help girls who’ve been through this

and stop it from happening in the first place

and teach girls not to turn on each other

and, when they see someone in trouble,

to have the courage to join them in the fight.

SMILEY: We can move forward

because we know if it all goes to hell,

someone here has our backs,

and someone has hers.

- Oh, my God. [all talking at once]

- Wow. - He’s so hot.

- So much cuddlier than a whiteboard.

[laughter]

[bright music]

♪ ♪

- Bye, everybody. - Bye.

- Smiley out.