Damage

London 1941

Ivan (Paul Rhys): Does she have a name?
Daisy (Amy Manson): Pearl. After her daddy’s mommy.
Ivan: Where is her daddy?
Daisy: He was on the HMS Princess Charlotte. Sub caught fire six months back.
Ivan: And is Pearl your jewel?
Daisy: She cries a lot. I don’t understand her. It’s like she was left on my doorstep and any minute now the real parents are going to want her back. Sometimes I wish they’d hurry up.
Ivan: What’s the worst thing about thinking that? The guilt. Or the lack of it.

Ivan: Listen to them. Wrecking the place.
Daisy: Do you think we’re going to win?
Ivan: What, the war? Um, I don’t know. It’s, um… My people, we’ve never really been interested in politics. You see, I look at the cogs, not the machine. They’re easier to predict. Like you, Daisy. What will happen to you? You’ll meet someone. He’ll be a fraction of what you hoped for, but you’ll make do and mend. And that will be the first of your dreams to miscarry. You’ll become small and provincial like everyone around you. Wearing your prejudices like medals. That beautiful mouth will become mean and thin and tight. A life that means nothing. Enriches nothing. And when it’s over, not even Pearl will raise a glass.
Daisy: You don’t know that. How can you say that?
Ivan: Because every human life is just another story by the same author.
Daisy: Well that’s not going to be me!
Ivan: You’re unlucky. You have ambition. You’re trapped in a world of dwarves and you can see it for that. It’s not your baby who’s in the wrong place.
Daisy: Where are you going?
Ivan: I move about. Come with me.
Daisy: What? I don’t know you!
Ivan: No. But somehow staying here feels like more of a risk. Doesn’t it?
Daisy: At least wait ’til they’ve sounded the all-clear. {he scoffs and opens the door.} Look at it! It’s dangerous out there!
Ivan: Always. But I’ll make you indestructible.

Annie: Nina!
Nina: Hi.
Annie: Well come here. {they hug}
Nina: How’s George? Sorry that was— How’re you? Fuck it, tell me later. How is George?
Annie: He’s okay.
Nina: What’s happened?
Annie: Um. Do you want to sit down? Um… he’s met someone, Nina. And he’s moved out.
Nina: Ah… What’s she like?

Sam (Lucy Gaskell): You know, it’s like you’re still there. Sat in that house with Mitchell, watching The Real Hustle, surrounded by cups of cold tea. It’s like you’re hedging your bets.
George: I’m not! But I can’t just abandon— I still have commitments, Sam.
Sam: I’m not asking you to abandon anything. I’m asking you to stop giving mixed signals. You know, I know things between us have happened really quickly but that’s what you wanted. You set the speed, not me. You’re nervous now, George. Waiting for the other boot to drop.

Newsreader: Good morning. This is NewsWest. Our headline today: the coroners office in Bristol … a result of a fire in a Clifton funeral parlor. After the fire was extinguished, thirty-one corpses were removed from the building but post-mortem examinations have revealed that there was no smoke in the lungs, leading authorities to assume … deceased bodies being stored on the premises.

Annie: Are you back now? Please tell me that you’ve come back to tranquilize George.
Nina: It’s complicated. I need to speak to him. So he’ll be here tonight for the full moon? I need to speak to him before then.
Annie: Yeah, just hang out. He’s always here. Half his stuff is still here. Thing is, he has moved out but he’s always coming back. It’s like we’ve become his shed.

Nina: How’s Mitchell by the way? What? What’s happened?

Mitchell: Daisy?
Daisy: How did you get out?
Mitchell: Ivan saved me. He saved me, Daisy.

Daisy: This was quick and brutal but it was amateurish. Trust me, it wasn’t the police.

Nina: Hi. You look well. I saw your cage. What a great idea. I can’t believe we didn’t think of it before, so…. Um, Annie told me you’ve, ah, you’ve started seeing someone. She said you’re living together?
George: You told me to move on.
Nina: I know, I’m not… I think it’s good. You must be very happy.
George: What are you doing here?
Nina: I came to see you.
George: Yeah, you’ve seen me.
Nina: Okay, I appreciate you’re angry.
George: Who’s angry?
Nina: I’m sorry I left—
George: I’m not mad. It’s the best thing you ever did.
Nina: I just needed some time.
George: Yeah. I gathered that from the letter. Frankly I’m surprised you didn’t dump me by text.
Nina: George, you turned me into a werewolf. Taking the moral high ground about anything feels kind of ridiculous.
George: So that’s why you’re here. You weren’t sure I felt guilty enough.
Nina: Okay, this has gone completely, this is just… I’ve met some people. They might have a cure.
George: For what?
Nina: Cystitis. What do you think? They knew about us, about werewolves. They have done for a long time—
George: What did you tell them?
Nina: I haven’t told them anything! Christ, do you think I—
George: Who the fuck are these people?
Nina: It was Mr. Kemp who first approached me. He’s a priest. He was a priest
George: Oh, hang on, no. This is about religion.
Nina: There’s a scientist too. Professor Jaggat.
George: Right, so we have a defrocked priest and a mad scientist. Nope. No alarm bells ringing so far.
Nina: George—
George: So this cure, how does it work? Oh my god. This is our first conversation. You disappear for weeks and we’re talking about this.
Nina: They have a facility. That’s where I’ve been. And in it, there’s this chamber that… Look, just meet them. They can explain it better than me.
George: I’m not going to meet them.
Nina: Why not?
George: Because it’s insane.
Nina: Three years ago, if someone had told you about werewolves and vampires and ghosts, what would you have said?
George: This is different.
Nina: How?
George: There isn’t a cure.
Nina: Then we walk away.
George: Fine. Right. Yes, okay, yeah. I’ll meet him, this priest. But what he’s doing—the hope he’s giving you—is cruel.
Nina: Yeah okay, I get it. So later today. Two o’clock only to meet him.
George: Yeah. Two is fine. Back here.
Nina: George. It’s good to see you.

Daisy: You watch the news much?
Mitchell: No. Not really.
Daisy: All over the world you’ve got these pockets of vampires. Some in hiding, some with arrangements like you had here. But things have started to shift. You notice how there’s been lots of accidents lately? Gas explosions, buildings collapsing. They’re fighting back.
Mitchell: They?
Daisy: Humans.
Mitchell: That’s what Herrick was always talking about. Survival of the fittest. Look, it comes down to this, right? There’s always gonna be someone with a bigger stick.
Daisy: So what do we do?
Mitchell: Well we have to wait.
Daisy: I’m not going to fucking wait! My husband died in there.
Mitchell: I know—
Daisy: Ivan, your friend. Don’t you get it? We’re being hunted. We have to retaliate.
Mitchell: And how are you going to do that? Hm?
Daisy: I’m going to track down everyone who knew, and I’m going torture them. I’m going to find who did this, I’m going to kill them.
Mitchell: Daisy! Daisy, wait. Listen, it was the police. I know it was. There’s no need to look for anyone else.
Daisy: I want to hear it from them.
Mitchell: Okay. I know who we’ve got to talk to.

George: Nina’s back.
Mitchell: Get out of here. How is she?
George: She’s weird. She’s met these people and they reckon they can cure her.
Mitchell: How’s that?
George: Oh wait for it, one’s a priest.
Mitchell: You’re fucking joking.
Annie: Kept that quiet. I made her toast and everything.
Mitchell: So what, it’s all like tambourines and shit, is it?
George: Oh no. They’ve got a scientist.
Mitchell: Oh well. If they’ve got a scientist.
George sitting down on Mitchell’s bed: Oof! Gross. Yeah, his name’s called Jaggat. He’s probably from the Pond Clinic. Oh stick around, the vicar’s coming over at two.
Annie: What, he’s coming over here? You’re going to meet him?
George: Too right. They’re exploiting her. They’re exploiting her shock. No, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.
Annie: Mm. Well I’ll lurk in the kitchen, ’cause I am not missing this.
Mitchell: Alright, guys, I gotta be somewhere.
Annie: What? Hang on, wait. Aren’t you worried? These people know he’s a werewolf.
Mitchell: Just because someone knows what you are doesn’t mean they’re a threat, Annie. He’ll be fine. I mean they sound pretty harmless, don’t they? A scientist and that. Right, I’m off. {to George} Are you going to be okay?
George: Hm. I guess. What about you? Any word from Lucy?
Mitchell: No. Her flat’s all locked up. Hey, remember when you said I’d be an idiot if I told her what I was?
George: Sorry Mitchell.
Mitchell: It’s okay. I’ll see you guys later.

Kemp (Donald Sumpter): I’m going to see George Sands.
Lucy (Lyndsey Marshal): Um well, do you want me to come? I met him a few times in the hospital. He might respond better to a familiar face.
Kemp: Better? I shall be nothing short of bubbly.
Lucy: But when you spoke to Nina, did she say anything about Mitchell? In terms of how George is coping since he died. They were friends. They— It was like a friendship.
Kemp: I’m sure he was devastated. No doubt the vampire seduced him too.

George: No, you get back and get in the— Get in the kitchen!
Annie: Father Ted won’t even be able to see me.
George: Yes, but I will. And I will giggle. And Nina will. And she will get snippy.
Annie: No!
George: Oh god.
Annie: You can’t say that. George you cannot say not.
George: Shut your mouth, Annie, actually. You’re being incredibly rude.

Nina: George, this is Mr. Kemp.
George: Alright.
Kemp: It’s an honor to meet you.
George: If you’d like to go through please. {Annie giggles and Nina looks a bit snippy.}

George: So. You know why we’re this way.
Kemp: You’re possessed.
George: I’m possessed?
Kemp: By Satan.
George: Okay. Thank you so much for coming.
Nina: George—
George: I knew this was a waste of time. We’re possessed? That’s your explanation?
Kemp: And how would you explain it?
George: Okay, so this cure. Is it like an exorcism?
Kemp: Not quite. Although I have performed exorcisms in the past. No, our cure, it stems from the application of faith to science. The wolf is unleashed by the tidal effect of the full moon, you would agree?
George: Yes.
Kemp: In our facility we have a decompression chamber into which we would place you, or Nina, on the night of a transformation. The room is then pressurized to negate the tidal effect of the full moon. The wolf is not allowed to manifest. It becomes weaker. It dies.
George: Does it work?
Kemp: You would be the first.
George: Right. Right. So it’s less of an exorcism, it’s more like vivisection.
Kemp: It is not without its dangers. And perhaps you’re saying to yourself, “I’ve survived this long, kept casualties to a minimum. Why risk it?” But we believe, with every transformation, the wolf gets stronger. Until it’s as though the creature infects your life between changes. Has that been your experience, George?
George: I don’t understand. If you’re an exorcist why can’t you just pray it out of us?
Kemp: A possession is different from what you might call a haunting. Although I have helped many stranded and lost souls to pass on. What you have is a demonic spirit. They tend to be more tenacious. Hence the chamber.
George: Do you really believe what we are could be explained by religion?
Nina: You do.
George: What?
Nina: You call our condition a curse. Why is a curse easier to believe than a possession?
Kemp: Nina’s right, George. You can’t cherry pick the aspects of faith that appeal to you. If you believe in God’s miracles you must believe in Satan’s.
George: Yeah, I don’t believe in Satan.
Kemp: Then you’re an idiot! Evil exists. And so do monsters. No one knows that better than us.
George: Nah. Sorry. Still don’t buy it. Just because something can’t be explained doesn’t mean it becomes yours. You don’t have a cure. There isn’t a cure.

George: You know what I find most amazing? Is that you believe it. You, of all people.
Nina: Really? ‘Cause what I can’t understand is why you’re being such a dick.

George: I have my cure. Everything is under control now, thank you.
Nina: The cage is damage limitation, that’s all.
George: You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.
Nina: Look, they are offering back our lives.
George: Oh really? I didn’t realize I was lacking one. I have a job, friends, a girlfriend who won’t leave—
Nina: So do it for her.
George: What do you mean?
Nina: You had the situation under control. How’d that work out for you?

George: What are you doing?
Sam: Hand-washing a cardigan. When I’m done it’ll fit one of Molly’s Barbies.

George: It’s important for me to know that you know that I am a constant now in your life and in Molly’s life. I want to send out a message. “This is who I’m with now!”. Which is why I also think we should get married.
Sam: You’re not serious.
George: Well yeah, as long as I’m back at the old house by eight it should be fine.
Sam: About getting married!
George: Yes. Never been more sure.

Mitchell: Stephen, this is Daisy. Daisy, this is Stephen. The coroner.
Daisy: Hey, Stephen the Coroner.
Mitchell: So. The fire at the funeral parlor. One of the vampires that got toasted was her husband. How long were you together, Daisy?
Daisy: Sixty-nine years!
Mitchell: Sixty-nine years. I mean think about couples nowadays, huh. Anyway, Daisy needs closure. And she’s decided that the best way of getting that is by cutting your throat.
Daisy: It’s healthy to turn anger outward, you see.
Mitchell: I tried explaining to her. I said, he’s not the guy. Sure he’d have known about it, and helped cover it up. What you want to do is, you want to focus your energy on whoever organized it. So we came to a compromise. You tell me who was behind it and we go and annoy them. Daisy, ease up a smidge there, sweetheart.
Daisy: Sorry.
Mitchell: What’d you say, fellah?
Quinn (John Stahl): It wasn’t us.
Mitchell: Eh eh! Wrong answer. ‘Cause you signed off on the cause of death.
Quinn: What else could I to do? None of us knew what had happened. The remains came in, we knew what they were. But all we could do was react. There was no warning.
Mitchell: You need to tell me the truth seriously. Right now. {the coroner starts laughing}
Daisy: He’s laughing! Why the fuck is he laughing?!
Quinn: You don’t know. Whether it was us or somebody else. You’re on the run. Here comes the candle to light you to bed. Here comes the chopper to chop off your head.
Mitchell: Tell me it was you or I swear I will kill you and everyone you know!
Quinn: I wish to God it had been us. I’d have invited every father and mother and child of your victims, and we’d have held hands as we listened to the screams.

Mitchell: Let’s go.
Daisy: Okay, so A. I told you so. And B. {to Stephen the Coroner} You are really rude.
Quinn: You won’t find her.
Daisy: Find who?
Quinn: She’s disappeared, am I right?
Daisy: Who’s disappeared? Mitchell?
Quinn: She came to my office a few weeks back. Said she had this bonkers idea I was working for vampires and didn’t like it. She told me not to worry. Said they’d got a plan. She’d find out where the vampires were gathering, and there was going to be a fire.
Mitchell: What was her name?
Quinn: She only told me her first name.
Mitchell: Tell me now.
Quinn: Lucy.

Mitchell: For years I protected humanity. I wanted to join them and they do this? You’re right Daisy. We’re under attack. You want retaliation? I’ll show you retaliation.

It’s me. The prospect of this scream of time in front of me, it’s terrifying.

Jesus, she’s powerful!

Kemp: It was a pleasure meeting you. Please give my regards to George when he returns. I hope one day to meet him too.

Mitchell: I should never have told her about me. She’s not coming back.
Daisy: I forgive you. It’s not your fault. You weren’t to know. What do we do now? Bonnie and Clyde?
Mitchell: We find Lucy.
Daisy: I don’t think she wants to be found.
Mitchell: She told me once that she prayed at the hospital chapel, so I’ll go speak to the chaplain. Give him a fright.
Daisy: What if he doesn’t know?
Mitchell: Well then, one by one we’ll kill everyone in the world ’til we find her.
Daisy: Sounds fun. But just the two of us, that could take a while.
Mitchell: No. There’s someone else.

George: We can’t carry on.
Sam: What did you say?
George: Who was I trying to kid? What did I think would happen? We were so eager to feel normal and needed, we filled in the rest. We pretended.
Sam: Is that what you really think?
George: This isn’t the life I get now. This is something that happens to other people. You’re wonderful. She’s wonderful.

Annie: Hey.
Mitchell: It’s the ghost.
Annie: Did you have a friend over?
Mitchell: I kissed you once, do you remember?
Annie: Yeah. Sort of.
Mitchell: You know, sometimes I can hear you moving about in a different room and… I just think about your body under those clothes. I think about your skin.
Annie: What? Mitchell, stop it! Shut up.
Mitchell: Do you want to kiss me again? Do you want to kiss me?
Annie: George. Hi.
George: Hey.
Annie: What’re you doing?
George: I’m going to that place, that facility Nina was talking about. I’m going to try that cure.
Annie: But you said that there wasn’t a cure. That belongs with the house.
George: Maybe not, but we have a responsibility to try.
Annie: Is it safe?
George: Safer than not going. We’re monsters, Annie. Immersing ourselves in humanity is deceptive and it’s dangerous, and the sooner we’re away from other people, the better.
Annie: Then I’m coming with you.
George: What? Why?
Annie: Keep an eye on you. God knows what those people might do to you.
George: Annie, he’s a Catholic priest.
Annie: Exactly. {Mitchell coughs in the other room}. There’s someone in there.
George: Who?
Annie: Mitchell.
George: You said someone.
Annie: Go and talk to him.
George: Why’d you say “someone”?
Annie: Just please, go and talk to him.

Mitchell: Ah no, not him again. I thought he moved out! He’s always fucking here.
George: Oh god. Are you drunk? I hate it when you’re drunk. Listen, I need to tell you something important and you’ll probably want to have a wrestle, but, uh, listen. I’m going to that place with Nina and the priest and Professor Jaggat.
Annie: And I’m going to go with him.
George: Yeah. So, ah—
Mitchell: Good. Piss off. ‘Cause I’m getting really sick of your dog hairs on my clothes.
George: Mitchell.
Mitchell: George, get out of here now.
George: What’s going on?
Mitchell: Please. Just take my keys and get out.
George: Mitchell, what’s happening?
Mitchell: George, please!
George: Mitchell, what’s going on?!
Mitchell: Nothing. It’s all good, Georgie. It’s all good.

Mitchell: George, you’re my friend right?
George: Always.
Mitchell: Whatever you are when you leave that place. Stay out of the cities. The cities won’t be safe for much longer.

Annie: We’re not coming back here again, are we?
George: Of course we are. Come on, Annie, please. It’ll be fine.

Chaplain: I could save you.
Mitchell: Excuse me?
Chaplain: I saw you in the hospital. The way George looked at you when you were dying. This isn’t that man.
Mitchell: I don’t get saved.
Chaplain: Well I don’t hand out the contact details of my parishioners.

Chaplain: George risked his life to save you. Why?
Mitchell: Tell me where she is.
Chaplain: What was it about you that he thought was worth saving!
Mitchell: I’ll kill you, you bastard!
Chaplain: That man is still in there somewhere. You have to find him! Because whoever you are, I will tell you nothing! Whoever you are, you stay away from here! Whoever you are, you stay away from Lucy Jaggat.
Mitchell: What did you say?
Chaplain: Just… just leave her alone.
Mitchell: Did you say Jaggat?

Jaggat: Welcome to freedom.