RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN

--- title: RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN type: slide slideOptions: controls: false help: false slideNumber: false ---  <style> .present { color: yellow; text-align: left;p padding: 0 2rem; } .present h2 { font-size: 70%; text-transform: uppercase; color: yellow; opacity: 0.7; } </style>  --- [MUSIC] --- ## MARKIE: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for coming out to Raven theatre! --- ## MARKIE: My name is Markie Gray. I’m the Managing Director here. --- ## MARKIE: A few quick housekeeping things, --- ## MARKIE: This is a great moment to turn off your cell phones or anything else that makes noise, it can be very distracting to our performers. --- ## MARKIE: Also please keep your mask on over your nose and mouth the entire time you’re in the theatre. Thank you so much for keeping us all safe. --- ## MARKIE: We at Raven want people to react to our plays. If something up here makes you laugh, please laugh! --- ## MARKIE: If something makes you cry, cry! Our actors love it, they feed off of it, please have whatever reaction feels authentic to you. --- ## MARKIE: We are a not-for-profit theatre, which means everything you see up here is only possible through donations from folks like you. --- ## MARKIE: If you are moved by what you see up here today and you would like to help us make more of it, --- ## MARKIE: please consider donating! You can do so at our box office at intermission or after the show. --- ## MARKIE: Finally, we're very proud to partner with Matt Bivins at Caption Point to provide Closed Captions for this performance. --- ## MARKIE: If you'd like to learn more about our Captioning services, you can chat with us after the show or by calling or emailing our box office. --- ## MARKIE: That’s enough from me, thank you so much for being here, and please enjoy _Right to be Forgotten_! --- [MUSIC] --- ## SARITA: So of course he wants to know why we're all laughing, and I say it's nothing, some stupid joke and he wants to know the joke. --- ## SARITA: So I say "it's not a joke, it was a study, it's boring, nevermind", but of course now he wants to know what the study is, --- ## SARITA: Like he has a *right* to know everything that goes on in the lab down to like, when we go to the bathroom-- ## DERRIL: Bosses. --- ## SARITA: Right? But he won't give it up and all my co-workers have like, *conveniently* disappeared, --- ## SARITA: Or like remembered they have to clean the beakers or something, --- ## SARITA: So finally I have to tell him--! ## DERRIL: No. --- ## SARITA: Yes. I have to tell him: it was this study that found 79% of people say the worst part of their day is ## DERRIL/SARITA: Talking to their boss. --- ## DERRIL: That's ... wow. --- ## SARITA: Can you even? --- ## DERRIL: I probably would've quit. --- ## SARITA: (laughing) No. --- ## DERRIL: Maybe not quit. Maybe just jumped out a window? Or left a note and moved to a cave in the backwoods of Maine or something? --- ## SARITA: You're funny. --- ## Derril: Really? No one's ever said that to me before. --- ## SARITA: I have a screwy sense of humor. I get it from my dad. --- ## SARITA: When the doctors told him he had ALS, he was like, --- ## SARITA: "Finally, an excuse not to go to the gym!" --- ## DERRIL: I'm sorry he's sick. --- ## DERRIL: Take from my hands, to soothe your heart A Little honey, a little joy --- ## DERRIL: That we may follow Persephone's bees You can't untie a boat that was never moored --- ## DERRIL: Sorry-- ## SARITA: That's nice. --- ## Derril It's Mandelstam. --- ## SARITA: Mandel--? ## DERRIL: A Russian poet. --- ## DERRIL: Stalin exiled him to Siberia and orderd all of his works destroyed, --- ## DERRIL: But his wife committed them to memory and had them republished. --- ## SARITA Wow. --- ## DERRIL: When you get a PhD in Comparative Literature: --- ## DERRIL: You know lots of weird stuff, but nothing of real value. --- ## SARITA: I think weird is good. I hope I have weird kids one day. --- ## DERRIL: Maybe I can help you with that. --- ## SARITA: (laughs) ## DERRIL: That was a joke. --- ## SARITA: I know. that's why I laughed. --- ## DERRIL: Um, so, I know this is just, a coffee or whatever, but.... you're great. --- ## SARITA: No... --- ## DERRIL: No, you’re so great... --- ## SARITA: Come on. --- ## DERRIL: You are. --- ## SARITA: It’s you, you’re just really easy to-- ## DERRIL: No... --- ## SARITA: You listen, which is like... --- ## DERRIL: (in a British accent) In my line of work I don’t have to talk much, so... --- ## SARITA: (in a British accent) You must be, like, brilliant. --- ## DERRIL: No, no anyone can get into a PhD-- it’s just finishing it that’s... --- ## DERRIL: it helps if you’re a little anti-social. --- ## SARITA: (laughs) You don’t seem anti-social to me. --- ## DERRIL: That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. --- ## DERRIL: Um, but, because you’re great, because I haven’t had a date go this well in.. --- ## DERRIL: Well, if I’m being honest-- ## SARITA: Be honest. --- ## DERRIL: It’s been... --- ## SARITA: Me too. --- ## DERRIL: So I just have to tell you that my name isn’t really Arthur. --- ## SARITA: Oh. Okay-- ## DERRIL: Arthur Rimbaud, it’s not my real name. --- ## SARITA: It’s just your online name, your dating name or something? --- ## DERRIL: Yeah. Yes. Well no, it’s a 19th century French-- --- ## DERRIL: But also... --- ## DERRIL: (deep breath) But also I didn’t want to give you my real name because if I gave you my real name you’d Google me. --- ## SARITA: I’d Google you. --- ## DERRIL: And then you’d never go out with me. --- ## SARITA: I’m sure that’s not true. --- ## DERRIL: I don’t mean like you personally, you Sarita, would never go out with me. I mean no one would go out with me. --- ## SARITA: ...because...? --- ## DERRIL: It’s not true, what’s there-- ## SARITA: The internet? --- ## DERRIL: ...or rather, it’s not that it’s not true, it’s that most of it’s not true, and I was young- ## SARITA: What’s on there? --- ## DERRIL: -and I was never good at social cues, really-- ## SARITA: What does it say? --- ## DERRIL: It says um... that I... --- ## DERRIL: Y’know it’s not... let’s just call it a-- ## SARITA: You’re not a, are you some kind of criminal, rapist criminal thing? --- ## SARITA: Cause that’s so something that would happen to me- ## DERRIL: No, no. Not a rapist. Or a criminal. --- ## DERRIL: I was young. And I thought I loved this girl and... --- ## DERRIL: I followed her. --- ## SARITA: You followed her. --- ## DERRIL: I followed her around school and it was creepy and weird and if anyone ever did it to a friend of mine, or if I had a daughter, --- ## DERRIL: if I’m lucky enough to have a daughter some day, I don’t even know what I’d-- ## SARITA: You’re a stalker. --- ## DERRIL: No. Stalker implies obsession, intention of harm, and I had neither. I was just... --- ## DERRIL: Besotted. For a few messed up months of my life, a decade ago. --- ## DERRIL: But you’re going to look me up and it won’t say I was a kid with a crush. --- ## DERRIL: It’ll say that I was a kid with a crush who’s violent, who ruined the lives of multiple women, who is everything that’s wrong with men and America. --- ## DERRIL: You’re going to see hundreds of posts and links that use my name and my face and have nothing to do with me or what I did when I was 17. --- ## DERRIL: He’s going to terrify you, the me you meet online, because he terrifies me. --- ## DERRIL: So maybe I shouldn’tve told you, but it’s like a disease or something, --- ## DERRIL: like herpes, like when do you tell someone, right? When’s the right time for that? --- ## SARITA: So you’re a stalker and you have herpes. --- ## DERRIL: No, that’s not what I-- Cause you’d have to be a pretty successful stalker to get herpes, right? --- ## DERRIL: Sorry, that’s not funny. --- ## SARITA: Yeah. It’s definitely not. --- ## DERRIL: You said weird is good...? --- ## SARITA: I mean, but it has its limits. --- ## SARITA: So are you going to tell me? Your real name? --- ## DERRIL: It doesn’t matter. You’re never gonna call me again right? If I call... Never gonna return my calls. --- ## SARITA: I might. --- ## DERRIL: Derril. Derril Lark. --- ## SARITA: That’s a unique name. --- [MUSIC] --- ## MARTA: I believe women, Mr. Lark. As a default. Always. --- ## DERRIL: And you should. We all should. --- ## MARTA: Don’t do the Sensitive Man thing. I hate the Sensitive Man thing. --- ## DERRIL: You’d rather I was an Insensitive Man? --- ## MARTA: No. I don’t like those either. --- ## DERRIL: I was a minor-- ## MARTA: Barely. --- ## DERRIL: I didn’t hurt anyone... --- ## MARTA: Ha. --- ## DERRIL: Physically, physically I didn’t-- ## MARTA: There are other types of hurt. --- ## DERRIL: I know that. --- ## MARTA: Change your name. --- ## DERRIL: I did. --- ## MARTA: Your name’s not Derril Lark? --- ## DERRIL: It is. But for six months it was Dresden Malkin. --- ## MARTA: Because you thought that would make you less conspicuous? --- ## DERRIL: Dresden is my middle name. Malkin is my mother’s maiden name. --- ## DERRIL: I wanted it to be-- ## MARTA: A Harry Potter character? --- ## DERRIL: Part of who I really am. --- ## MARTA: But you’re not Dresden Malkin anymore. What happened? --- ## DERRIL: I went through all the steps. Social security. Credit cards... --- ## DERRIL: But someone figured it out. Linked my new name to my old one... --- ## MARTA: So you went back to Derril Lark. --- ## DERRIL: Everything I’ve ever accomplished has that name on it. All my research... --- ## DERRIL: I was the youngest scholar ever to have a paper in The Journal of Literary Semantics and Intersectional Symbolism. --- ## DERRIL: And anyway it turns out, being just part of who I am... isn’t really enough for me. --- ## MARTA: A stalker with integrity. I like it. --- ## DERRIL: I’m not a stalker. --- ## MARTA: There’s no news sources, so that’s good. --- ## DERRIL: It wouldn’t have been public at all, but there was this blog... --- ## MARTA: “High School Girl Blog.” Brilliantly generic. --- ## MARTA: And much sexier sounding than my “Middle Aged Woman Eating Cobb Salad Blog”. --- ## MARTA: You told me this happened ten years ago. --- ## DERRIL: It did. --- ## MARTA: The last post is from Thursday. --- ## DERRIL: At first it was just one anonymous blogger writing about things I did, and things I didn’t do. --- ## DERRIL: Then girls from other schools started using the hashtag, Lurking Lark, posting stories about men doing horrible things, all referencing me. --- ## DERRIL: There’s comments, YouTube videos, links to Instagram posts, TikToks. --- ## DERRIL: It took on a life of its own. But if you go to the archives, the first post, you’ll see-- --- ## MARTA: "Derril Lark is a disgusting pervert. There’s a girl at school he’s obsessed with." --- ## MARTA: "She was sick last week and he went to her house three times." --- ## MARTA "Her parents had to tell him not to come back--" ## DERRIL: “--but today at school I caught him staring at her. Creeps can’t help themselves.” --- ## MARTA: And there’s your picture. What’s the filter on there, sketchy molester? --- ## DERRIL: It comes up first in my image search. I tried paying this company to knock it down but the blog’s so popular... --- ## DERRIL You can see why I want it removed. --- ## MARTA: Honey, Stevie Wonder could see why you’d want this removed. But if Google turned you down it’s not going to be easy. Or cheap. --- ## DERRIL: I know. --- ## DERRIL: That’s why I was hoping you might take the case pro bono? --- ## MARTA: Pro bono. --- ## DERRIL: I’ve done research. This could be a landmark case. The first of its kind in the United States. --- ## MARTA: I don’t represent stalkers pro bono. --- ## DERRIL: I really wish you’d stop-- ## MARTA: Oh relax. Haven’t you noticed by now that I’m the world’s funniest attorney? --- ## DERRIL: I have actually. --- ## MARTA: This is a tough case, Mr. Lark. Have you heard of the Communications Decency Act? --- ## DERRIL: Yes. --- ## MARTA: Search engine’s aren’t liable for the content of their links. --- ## DERRIL: But what about the Right to be Forgotten? California passed a law-- ## MARTA: You mean The People’s Republic of California? --- ## MARTA: It was a ballot proposition, that won’t work for you-- ## DERRIL: In Europe, people have the right to remove information-- --- ## MARTA: The last time I was in Europe, I got a cone of french fries with mayo on top. --- ## MARTA: Mayo! It was delicious. But we don’t do that here either. --- ## DERRIL: You took that case, the guy who was hacked by the NSA-- ## MARTA: And I lost. --- ## DERRIL: But you took it. And that consumer privacy case against Amazon-- ## MARTA: Which got thrown out. --- ## DERRIL: But you took it. You’re not afraid to take them on. --- ## MARTA: How miserable are you? --- ## DERRIL: I’m... deeply miserable. --- ## MARTA: Are you suicidal? --- ## DERRIL: No, but I’m a terrible procrastinator so I think maybe I’ve just been putting it off...? --- ## MARTA: So you don’t want to kill yourself? --- ## DERRIL: No. --- ## DERRIL: But I want him to die. --- ## MARTA: Him? --- ## DERRIL: The me that lives online. I wish he’d never even existed. --- ## DERRIL: I’m not suicidal. I’m homicidal. --- ## MARTA: Do me a favor. Don’t say that on the stand. --- ## DERRIL: Admittedly, I will require some coaching. --- ## MARTA: Have you spoken to her? The girl you-- ## DERRIL: No, how would I-- ? --- ## MARTA: You’re the stalker. I’m sure you can find her. --- ## DERRIL: I told you, I’m not a stalker-- ## MARTA: You followed her. --- ## DERRIL: For a few months, because I thought-- ## MARTA: You could scare her into wanting you? Loving you? --- ## DERRIL: NO. I just liked her! And I didn’t know how-- ## MARTA: That’s not an excuse. There is no excuse for scaring women. --- ## DERRIL: I know that. --- ## MARTA: How do I know you know that? --- ## DERRIL: The truth is, sometimes I think I was lucky. That I was so painfully, prodigiously clueless I had to be “spoken to.” --- ## DERRIL: Because I really didn’t know. I remember sitting in the principal’s office, --- ## DERRIL: it was like the moment a foreign language suddenly makes sense. --- ## DERRIL: French. Russian. Then-- Human. “You are making her uncomfortable, Derril.” --- ## DERRIL: Books saved me. They taught me about human nature. And how we all fail. Not just me. --- ## DERRIL: I have tried to move on. I joined student organizations. Made friends. I went clubbing. Once. --- ## DERRIL: I had a job I loved, in a bookstore, until the manager pulled me aside... he’d seen this thing online. --- ## DERRIL: Because always, there is this Other Me, this Not Me, shadowing everything. --- ## DERRIL: And now I’m about to graduate. I want to teach. And I met someone... lovely. --- ## DERRIL: She told me her dad’s sick. So I quoted her Mandelstam. --- ## MARTA: Mandel what? --- ## DERRIL: He’s a Russian-- ## MARTA: Did you tell her your name? --- ## DERRIL: Yes. --- ## MARTA: And she hasn’t called back. --- ## DERRIL: And I’m starting to think I’ll never... I know it sounds small, but... --- ## MARTA: It doesn’t sound small. There’s nothing small about loneliness. --- ## MARTA: Mr. Lark, what you have is a Barbara Streisand problem. --- ## DERRIL: Who? --- ## MARTA Babs? (singing) "Don’t tell me not to live, just sit and putter, life’s candy and the sun’s a ball of butter." --- ## MARTA: "Don’t bring about a cloud to rain on my parade!" --- ## MARTA: Anyway, she’s fabulous. And so is her house. --- ## MARTA: And because she didn’t want people seeing pictures of her fabulous house, she sued the photographer who took them. --- ## MARTA: Because of that, she drew the attention of thousands of people who otherwise wouldn’t have given a hoot about her Malibu chateau. --- ## MARTA: Which is to say, there’s no way you can remove yourself from the internet --- ## MARTA: without simultaneously drawing attention to yourself and everything you want gone. --- ## DERRIL: I know that. --- ## MARTA: Then why do it? --- ## DERRIL: Because I’m tired of them getting to decide who I am. --- ## MARTA: Them? --- ## DERRIL: It. --- ## MARTA: How do you feel about public speaking, Mr. Lark? --- ## DERRIL: Generally positive, as long as I’m not the one doing it. --- ## MARTA: So I guess that’s something else we’ll have to work on. --- ## DERRIL: So, you’re -- You’re taking the case...? ## MARTA: Your payment will be thanks enough. --- ## DERRIL: What about the pro bono? --- ## MARTA: Like I said, your payment will be thanks enough. --- ## DERRIL: We’re suing. --- ## MARTA: No. You can’t afford to sue. But the state can. We just have to give them a little incentive. --- [MUSIC] --- ## DERRIL: I’m sorry to interrupt but-- ## MARTA: Don’t apologize. --- ## DERRIL: We all know the sponsors of today’s conference are the tech companies themselves-- ## MARTA: Get on stage as quickly as possible. --- ## DERRIL: Well, my life has been ruined by lies proliferated by these companies. ## MARTA: They’re going to try to take the mic-- --- ## DERRIL: Why is a corporation’s right to information more valuable than a citizen’s right to privacy? --- ## MARTA: They’ll try again. You have to move around the stage-- --- ## DERRIL: They’ll stop me. Forcefully. --- ## MARTA: Good. The more force, the better. The State’s AG doesn’t touch this unless there’s press. --- ## MARTA: I hope security throws you to the wall, smashes your face in and breaks every bone in your body. --- ## DERRIL: You hope that-- ? --- ## MARTA: Run around the auditorium if you have to. --- ## DERRIL: That’s ridiculous. --- ## MARTA: Ridiculous is what we want. Ridiculous goes viral. Do you have a cat? --- ## DERRIL: No, I’m allergic-- ## MARTA: Because it would be good to have a cat on stage. --- ## DERRIL: I have a ferret. --- ## MARTA: You have a ferret? --- ## DERRIL: It’s an emotional support-- nevermind. --- ## DERRIL: There’s just so many of them... And they all look so smart with their glasses and lanyards. --- ## MARTA: Derril, this is not an “academic symposium.” It’s a lobbying event funded by Silicon Valley --- ## MARTA: so that people with .edu emails can explain to people with .gov emails --- ## MARTA: why the most powerful companies on Earth should have only the teeniest tiniest widdle bit of regulation --- ## MARTA: while still controlling everything the internet says and knows about you. --- ## MARTA: Not one person in that room is going to ask a single honest question unless you do it. --- ## DERRIL: I know, it’s just... ## MARTA: What do you want, kid? Really? --- ## DERRIL: I want... to be Erased. I want to turn on my computer and not be there. --- ## MARTA: Then get in that room and tell them that. --- ## DERRIL: Aren’t you coming? --- ## MARTA: I have to stay back to make sure the special effects work. --- ## DERRIL: Special effects? --- ## MARTA: There’s gonna be a fog machine. Get in there. Make ‘em bleed. --- ## MARTA: Annie! --- ## ANNIE: Marta? It’s been-- ## MARTA: I know- --- ## ANNIE: You look- ## MARTA: Beleaguered? Ancient? --- ## ANNIE: Luminous. --- ## MARTA: You weren’t going to say that. --- ## ANNIE: Now I guess we’ll never know. --- ## ANNIE: How’s Ben? You’re still--? --- ## MARTA: Trapped in a happy marriage. He’s building things now. --- ## MARTA: Sideboards. Dressers. He’s revolutionizing the coffee table. --- ## ANNIE: I bet. --- ## MARTA: Your daughter? Bea? She must be-- ## ANNIE: Fifth grade. --- ## MARTA: Fuck we’re old. --- ## ANNIE: She’s good. Happy. --- ## MARTA: A happy daughter. Now that’s an achievement. --- ## MARTA: I had a feeling you’d be here. You work for some big tech companies, right? --- ## MARTA: Trade associations-- ## ANNIE: My firm does. --- ## MARTA: When we were at the Eastern District, Campbell always gave you the corporate stuff. --- ## ANNIE: You got your share of decent cases. --- ## MARTA: Immigration. Civil rights. The human stuff. Where’s the money in that? --- ## ANNIE: Isn’t that what you wanted? --- ## MARTA: Who knows. At least I never had to choose. --- ## ANNIE? How is it, your own practice? --- ## MARTA: Exhausting. But it’s nice to be in charge. What cases to take and why. --- ## MARTA: I’ve got this one case-- heartbreaking. I took it almost pro bono. --- ## ANNIE: Almost. --- ## MARTA: Brilliant kid. PhD candidate. But he did something stupid when he was 17 --- ## MARTA: and now it’s all over the internet and he can’t move on. --- ## ANNIE: That’s why you’re here. --- ## MARTA: He wants to file a suit to get his name removed, but come on, he’s never going to win. --- ## ANNIE: Not in this country. --- ## MARTA: But it does make you wonder: how many kids like him are out there? --- ## MARTA: Decent, boring Americans whose lives are being derailed by a some social media post? --- ## MARTA: So I thought: why not make a little noise? You know, force the issue a bit? --- ## ANNIE: Marta, tell me I don’t need to call security. --- ## MARTA: You don’t need to call security. --- ## ANNIE: And why is that? --- ## MARTA: Because this is a free country and peaceful individuals are allowed to speak their minds at sham corporate academic policy symposiums? --- ## ANNIE Where’d you park? --- ## MARTA: Why? --- ## ANNIE: I want to know if you’d like to be dragged out the front of the building or the back. --- ## MARTA: The back, thanks. The front lot was full. --- ## ANNIE: (into the phone) I need security at the auditorium now. --- ## MARTA: Same Iron Annie aren’t you? And here I thought you’d changed so much. --- ## ANNIE: I didn’t change at all. --- ## MARTA: You went from wanting to save the world to not giving a fuck about it. I call that change. --- ## ANNIE: I still give a fuck about the world, but the world I give a fuck about got a lot smaller. --- [Behind them, there’s some kind of DISTURBANCE. Yelling, things falling.] --- ## ANNIE: I advise you to get your client out of that room. --- ## MARTA: Or what? You’re calling the police? You’re not doing that. --- ## ANNIE Why not? --- ## MARTA: Because no matter how far down the corporate rabbit hole you’ve fallen, deep inside there’s still a little refugee girl --- ## MARTA: who believes in her hardworking, immigrant heart that denying a peaceful citizen the right to speak his mind is an assault on all of humanity. --- ## ANNIE: You want me to call the police. --- ## MARTA: Why would I want that? --- ## ANNIE: So all the tech nerds and policy dweebs in there can put it online, make your almost-pro-bono a celebrity. --- ## MARTA: They’re going to do that anyway. --- ## MARTA: You know Gen Z; if they don’t hit record, it didn’t happen. --- ## MARTA: Sure you don’t want to call the police? There’s nothing more dangerous than a good internet video. --- ## ANNIE: Consider the security guards a gift. Next time you won’t even get in the building. --- ## DERRIL: Where were you? --- ## MARTA: Just coming in. --- ## DERRIL: It’s too late. --- ## MARTA: No it’s not, come on-- ## DERRIL: I mean, I already did it. --- ## MARTA: You did it? --- ## DERRIL: I took the mic, people were recording it, --- ## DERRIL: and when I said these companies are ruining lives they tried to take the mic-- ## MARTA: Beautiful! --- ## DERRIL: so I started running-- ## MARTA: Fabulous! --- ## DERRIL: I was running like an idiot-- ## MARTA: You were running like an idiot! And they were taping it! --- ## DERRIL: Yeah. Yes. Yes. --- ## MARTA: We’re going to a bar. --- ## DERRIL: I don’t drink. --- ## MARTA: That’s ridiculous. Let’s go. --- [MUSIC] --- ## ALVARO: Y’know, you’re the only lawyer I know who charges by the PR stunt. --- ## MARTA Thank you. --- ## ALVARO: It wasn’t a compliment. --- ## MARTA: The compliment is you meeting with us. Because you know there’s something here worth taking on. --- ## ALVARO: Is that why we’re here? I thought it was because the Journal ran a picture of your client under the headline, --- ## ALVARO: “Local Student Demands Right To Be Forgotten; Falls Off Stage.” --- ## DERRIL: Mr. Attorney General, --- ## DERRIL: in the real world when a minor commits a crime, his record is sealed. --- ## DERRIL: When a businessman fails, he can claim bankruptcy and start over. --- ## DERRIL: But on the internet, there is no starting over, because there is no forgetting. --- ## DERRIL: And depending, ludicrously and arbitrarily, on where you live, there is no correcting. --- ## DERRIL: How is it fair, Mr. Attorney General, --- ## DERRIL: that a kid in San Diego can petition for information to be removed, mistakes erased, --- ## DERRIL: but a kid in Lansing can’t? --- ## DERRIL: Which is why, Mr. Attorney General, --- ## DERRIL: I submit to you, Mr. Attorney General, that this may very well be the consumer protection issue of our time. --- ## DERRIL: Because when it comes to the internet, Mr. Attorney General, --- ## DERRIL: we are both the consumer and the consumed. --- ## DERIIL: Thank, you, Mr. Attorney General. --- ## ALVARO: How long did you practice that? --- ## DERRIL: All night. I took ten 5 hour energies, which is 50 hours of energy. Which, it turns out, is too much energy. --- ## MARTA: He likes you. You like him. Take on the case. --- ## ALVARO: Of course I like him, he’s a constituent. But this is a legislative issue. --- ## ALVARO: Make a poster, lobby your state senator. --- ## ALVARO: That’s how California, Virginia got their data privacy laws-- ## MARTA: The internet is bigger than state law. --- ## MARTA: Every American is at risk of being permanently defamed or humiliated online. --- ## ALVARO: I don’t serve every American-- ## MARTA: No, but you have the power, as an AG, to force a judge to write an opinion. --- ## MARTA: Which might just force Congress to write a law, if they can still remember how. --- ## ALVARO: The AGs are already looking into big tech. --- ## MARTA: For anti-competitive behavior. No one wants to touch The Right To Be Forgotten. --- ## ALVARO: Because it’s a First Amendment non-starter. --- ## MARTA: The First Amendment gives people the right to free speech, not search engines. --- ## MARTA: This is a personal issue, human. And you’d be the first one fighting for it. --- ## ALVARO: The timing is tough. The election. --- ## MARTA: The timing is perfect. Because this can help you win. --- ## MARTA: Pew found 74% of Americans want the power to keep things about themselves from being searchable online. --- ## MARTA: You start looking into this and you are on the side of the people. --- ## DERRIL: You’d certainly have my vote. --- ## ALVARO You couldn’t bring me a kid who wasn’t a stalker? --- ## DERRIL: I’m not-- ## MARTA: He had to do something. Whoever it is, whoever’s the first, had to do something. --- ## MARTA: Otherwise it’s just a libel case. --- ## ALVARO: So you were looking for someone who was guilty. --- ## MARTA: Not looking. Waiting. --- ## MARTA: I know this seems like a bad case, but it’s the opposite. --- ## MARTA: He was an oblivious nerd who changed his behavior as soon as he was told to stop. --- ## MARTA: No charges were brought. And since then? He’s done everything right. --- ## MARTA: He could be a productive member of society. If we let him. --- ## ALVARO: If that’s all he really did. --- ## MARTA: I checked with the principal. And others. --- ## DERRIL: You checked? ## MARTA: You thought I was just gonna take your word for it? --- ## MARTA: (then, to Alvaro) Didn’t you ever do a stupid thing for a crush? --- ## ALVARO: I never followed anyone home. --- ## MARTA: I did. Now he’s building side tables on my front lawn. --- ## ALVARO: I get it. Adolescence is tough. That doesn’t mean there’s enough here to take on all of Silicon Valley. --- ## ALVARO: Sorry about your life, kid, but I need an issue that makes voters feel something. --- ## ALVARO: And they’re not feeling it for you. --- ## MARTA: What if I told you the girl, the one he followed, she forgives him? --- ## ALVARO: Is that true? --- ## DERRIL: Yes. --- ## MARTA: She told him they were just kids. And she knows most of what’s online is bullshit. --- ## ALVARO: And she’s willing to come forward and say that? --- ## DERRIL I, well-- ## MARTA Yes. --- ## MARTA We’ll ask. --- ## MARTA: Think about it. A promising young man who deserves a second chance. --- ## MARTA: A kind-hearted young woman willing to give it to him. They could both move on with their lives. --- ## MARTA: But the internet won’t let them. --- ## MARTA: Every one of us in our souls feels the injustice of that. --- ## ALVARO: Look, I’ve had a lot of lies posted about me. I know the damage it can do. --- ## MARTA: That’s why I thought you’d be sympathetic. What was that campaign finance thing? Michigan Attorney General takes giant load from Killer Cock? --- ## MARTA: (to DERRIL) They make porn. Not the tasteful kind. --- ## ALVARO: And I never took a dollar from them. Let alone a-- ## MARTA: Load? --- ## ALVARO: And there’s not a doubt in my mind that keeping out-of-date and untrue things online forever is an unfair business practice. --- ## MARTA: Which is exactly the claim you could bring. --- ## ALVARO: But there’s a lot of pressure against this. --- ## MARTA: Pressure from who? --- ## ALVARO: So it has to be airtight. If the girl’s willing to come forward, I might be interested. --- ## ALVARO: Might. --- ## MARTA: We’ll be in touch! --- ## DERRIL: Did you just have a stroke? --- ## MARTA: Why, is my face drooping? --- ## DERRIL: You lied to him! --- ## MARTA: That wasn’t lying. It was keeping him in the room. --- ## DERRIL: By lying. --- ## DERRIL: She’s not going to come forward. Why would she? --- ## MARTA: Maybe when she sees what you’ve been through she’ll realize you’ve suffered enough. --- ## MARTA: Maybe she forgives you. --- ## MARTA: How do you know if you don’t ask? --- ## DERRIL: I don’t even know where she is. --- ## MARTA: You’re the stalker, I’m sure you can figure it out. --- ## DERRIL: STOP SAYING THAT. --- ## MARTA: Give me a reason to. --- [MUSIC] --- ## MARTA: Annie! --- ## MARTA: We have to stop meeting like this. --- ## ANNIE: And yet here you are, standing outside my office. --- ## MARTA: I flew in for the Smithsonians. Love the Air & Space. --- ## MARTA: A reminder of how great this country used to be when our technological ambitions were a little grander than just 280 characters. --- ## ANNIE: So you’re here to see me. --- ## MARTA: I’m here to see the Air & Space. --- ## MARTA: And you. --- ## ANNIE: Unfortunately, I don’t like to keep senators waiting-- ## MARTA: See this freaky thing happened. --- ## MARTA: I had a meeting with Alvaro Santos, you know him-- --- ## ANNIE: Doesn’t ring a bell. --- ## MARTA: and he tells me there’s pressure against him taking my Right to be Forgotten case. Pressure from whom? --- ## MARTA: I ask, but of course he can’t tell me that. It wouldn’t be one of your clients, would it? --- ## ANNIE: I don’t know, Marta, I have a lot of clients. --- ## MARTA: And a lot of senators. --- ## ANNIE: And a lot of senators. --- ## MARTA: But I’m glad I ran into you. --- ## MARTA: Because after we saw each other at that symposium thingy, it got me thinking about when we worked together. --- ## MARTA: I started going through old emails. It’s amazing what you find. --- ## MARTA: For example, there was this hilarious email telling me to lay off the dairy because my IBS was acting up and you didn't want to get caught at the Christmas party alone. --- ## ANNIE: What are you getting at Marta? --- ## MARTA: Just something I’d forgotten. --- ## MARTA: We were friends, you and me. --- ## ANNIE: We weren’t friends. We were survivors on the same desert island. --- ## MARTA: No, we were friends. Then you left, went to the Dark Side. --- ## ANNIE: Marta, you’re clearly about to threaten me with something, --- ## ANNIE: and I’m sorry to cut off the preamble, as I can see how much you’re enjoying yourself, --- ## ANNIE: but I am running late. So would you mind getting to it? --- ## MARTA: I’m not threatening. I’m begging. In a threatening tone. --- ## MARTA: Leave this one alone. Santos doesn’t see merit, fine. --- ## MARTA: But don’t bury it because it’s in the best interests of the internet and its all powerful overlords. --- ## MARTA: Give the kid a chance. --- ## ANNIE: Or? --- ## MARTA: Well, gee. I guess the internet may start knowing things about you you’d rather it didn’t. --- ## ANNIE: You’re going to put our old emails online? --- ## MARTA: No, that’s boring, old news. --- ## MARTA: I’m going to put your affair with Santos online. --- ## ANNIE: I’m not having an affair with Santos. --- ## MARTAL: Right, technically he’s having the affair, since he’s the one who’s married. --- ## ANNIE: No one’s having an affair with anyone. --- ## MARTA: You haven’t slept with him? --- ## ANNIE No. --- ## MARTA: Not even at that swanky Attorneys General snogfest in Hawaii? --- ## MARTA: I wasn’t invited, but an enviro lady lawyer I know saw you slurping out of his martini glass... --- ## ANNIE: I’m in “government relations.” 90% of my job is getting people drunk. --- ## MARTA: Except she also saw you leaving his room. --- ## ANNIE: Bullshit. --- ## MARTA: Maybe. But I’m willing to bet somebody saw it. Aren’t you? --- ## ANNIE: I thought you said we were friends. --- ## MARTA: We were. --- ## ANNIE: Friends don’t blackmail each other. --- ## MARTA: Maybe not good friends... --- ## MARTA: Santos is sympathetic to our cause. No surprise there. --- ## MARTA: When someone posts a bogus story about you taking bribes from porno producers, --- ## MARTA: it does open one’s mind to the pernicious powers of the news feed. --- ## MARTA: But something’s holding him back. --- ## MARTA: So I looked into his campaign contributions. Your clients have given a lot to helping him win this election. --- ## MARTA: They wouldn’t want him to lose because he was cheating on his wife with their lobbyist. Right? --- ## ANNIE: Why are you standing up for this kid? It’s not for the money. --- ## MARTA: I owe him one. --- ## ANNIE: For what? --- ## MARTA: I’m his biological mother. --- ## MARTA: Just kidding. --- ## MARTA: I know it’s hubris to hope you’ve noticed, but I’ve built a bit of a reputation for taking on tech cases. --- ## MARTA: The future and all that. --- ## ANNIE: I have noticed. I’ve also noticed you’ve lost most of those cases. --- ## MARTA: I know! It’s the strangest thing. --- ## MARTA: I’m a really good lawyer. And yet I just keep losing. --- ## ANNIE: Maybe you’re not that good. --- ## MARTA: Or maybe these giant and ever-growing corporations have so much power they’re operating outside the law. --- ## MARTA: Your clients have created facial recognition technology that can’t tell the difference between two Black faces. --- ## MARTA: That “learns” who we’re most likely to vote for then convinces us to stay home on election day. --- ## MARTA: That helps women find abortion pills, and then helps authorities find those women. --- ## MARTA: And that information, it lives forever. Without our input, without our consent. Profiling everyone of us, --- ## MARTA: And sending that data to who and for what purpose? --- ## MARTA: Well I've been profiled, a few times in my life. I know what it does to you, your family. --- ## MARTA: And the idea that we can be categorized -- permanently -- online; That there is no review process; no removal.... --- ## MARTA: Boy, that really does piss me off. ## MARTA: boy, that just really pisses me off. --- ## ANNIE: And that’s why you’re willing to defend a troubled predator? --- ## MARTA: Is that what you’re going to label everyone who comes forward to claim this “perfect memory” of the internet isn’t so perfect after all? --- ## MARTA: Are we all “troubled predators”? --- ## ANNIE: Not all. But some. --- ## ANNIE: And since it’s impossible to know who’s who, none of us should be allowed to hide the truth. --- ## MARTA: And what if it’s not true? --- ## ANNIE: “The answer to free speech is more free speech.” --- ## MARTA: Did you read that in a fortune cookie? --- ## ANNIE: No, the US Constitution. It also said my lucky numbers are 10, 12, 41 and 8. --- ## MARTA: You were always funnier than they gave you credit for. --- ## ANNIE: Who’s they? --- ## MARTA: You know, the people who knew you. --- ## MARTA: If we weren’t friends, how come I was the one you cried to when the boss stuck his fingers up your skirt? --- ## ANNIE: Like I said, same desert island. --- ## MARTA: That’s what did it, right? No more good guys. --- ## ANNIE: Please. Do you know how many “inspiring mentors” had “called me into their office” by the time that happened? --- ## MARTA Why is it that nobody ever tried to molest me? --- ## ANNIE: There’s still time. --- ## MARTA: Leave this one alone, Annie. Don’t make me put your little love affair online. --- ## MARTA: Because you know, once something’s on the internet... --- ## MARTA: it really does seem like you can never get it off. --- [MUSIC] --- ## DERRIL: Thank you for meeting me-- ## EVE: I brought a gun. --- ## DERRIL: Okay. --- ## EVE: And my friend is right over there. --- ## DERRIL: She looks nice. --- ## EVE: She isn’t. --- ## DERRIL: Okay. --- ## DERRIL: So you’re an art teacher now-- ? ## EVE: How do you know that? --- ## DERRIL: Facebook. That’s how I found you. --- ## EVE: Which is fucking creepy. --- ## DERRIL: It’s just Facebook. --- ## EVE: Easy for you to say. --- ## DERRIL: There’s nothing easy for me to say to you. --- ## EVE: What do you want Derril? --- ## DERRIL: I want you to know that I asked for the stuff online, the links, about me, to be removed. --- ## EVE: Removed? --- ## DERRIL: De-listed. There’s a form you can... But they refused. --- ## DERRIL: So I got a lawyer. And we went to the state’s Attorney General with it, --- ## DERRIL: and he feels we’ll have a better chance... “optics” or whatever... --- ## Derril: if you were willing to speak out with me. --- ## EVE: What? --- ## DERRIL: If you were willing to talk about what happened and say... ## EVE: Say what? --- ## DERRIL: That you, I guess... --- ## DERRIL: Forgive me. --- ## EVE: I used to think you ruined my life. --- ## DERRIL: Okay, maybe this wasn’t a good idea-- ## EVE I gave you that much power. --- ## EVE: I’d have panic attacks and I’d try to figure out the last time I felt normal was. --- ## EVE: Do you know when it was? --- ## EVE: It was the day you came to my house because I was out sick and you didn’t know I was faking it. --- ## EVE: My mom told me this boy stopped by with soup. And I was actually like, that was sweet. --- ## DERRIL: You thought that? --- ## EVE: Weird, but sweet. But then... --- ## DERRIL: I came back. --- ## EVE: Twenty minutes later. And twenty minutes after that. --- ## EVE: I heard my mom: "she’s napping, Derril, please leave her alone." --- ## DERRIL: I was worried about you. --- ## EVE: You didn’t even know me. --- ## DERRIL: I know that now. But at the time, I know how crazy this sounds... --- ## DERRIL: I thought we had a connection. --- ## EVE: My whole senior year, when I should’ve been having fun, planning for prom. --- ## EVE: But instead everywhere I turned, you were there-- ## DERRIL It wasn’t a year-- --- ## EVE: It felt like a year. --- ## DERRIL: A few months. And then when the principal-- ## EVE: The principal? Do you know who long he knew before he...? --- ## EVE: Why do you think that was? --- ## DERRIL: I don't know. --- ## EVE: Months of you waiting by my locker. Lurking. --- ## DERRIL: I was trying to... ## EVE: Terrify me? --- ## DERRIL: Talk to you. --- ## EVE: Is that why you followed me home after soccer practice? --- ## DERRIL: I wanted to make sure you were safe. --- ## EVE: From who? The pervert who was always there --- ## EVE: always trying to “accidently” brush past me in the hall-- ## DERRIL: I never touched you. --- ## EVE: You’d stand by the door. --- ## EVE: The bell would ring and you wouldn’t move- --- ## DERRIL: I don’t remember- ## EVE: Of course you don’t. But I do. --- ## DERRIL: I never would’ve done anything ## EVE: But you did. You did, Derril. --- ## EVE: I woke up afraid every morning. --- ## EVE: The way some people wake up hungry or cranky, I woke up... --- ## EVE: with dread, that school would be, that you would be... there. --- ## EVE: Always there. You know why I’m here, now? --- ## DERRIL: To tell me how mad you are. --- ## EVE: No. Like you said: I’m a teacher. --- ## EVE: Middle school. Girls at their most vulnerable. --- ## EVE: I look at them and I think what terrifying things await you? --- ## EVE: So I want to be completely sure that you’re different now. --- ## EVE: I want you to look me in the eye and say it, and if I don’t believe you, I swear to God... --- ## DERRIL: “To live without hope is to cease to live.” --- ## EVE: What the hell does that--? ## DERRIL: I’m getting a PhD. --- ## DERRIL: I’d like to teach, like you. I won’t be able to. --- ## DERRIL: I’m almost 28 years old. I’d like to meet someone. --- ## DERRIL: Start a family... --- ## DERRIL: My dad died, junior year of college. Cancer. Mom, two years later, also cancer. --- ## DERRIL: I started going to Church because I thought, it must be me. I’m malignant. --- ## DERRIL: I’m sorry for what I did to you. --- ## DERRIL I honestly don’t believe I would’ve ever hurt you. --- ## DERRIL: I just wanted to be near you. I thought you were pretty. You smiled a lot. --- ## DERRIL: And I took that away. And for that I am Deeply. --- ## DERRIL: Completely and Eternally. Sorry. --- ## DERRIL: Are you still going to shoot me? --- ## EVE: Sounds like it might be doing you a favor. --- ## EVE: I’m sorry, about your parents. --- ## DERRIL: Thank you. --- ## EVE: Your mom worked in the school office. --- ## EVE: She was nice. I remember the day we finally met the principal. --- ## EVE: He called her in. I thought, that sucks, your boss has to tell you your kid’s... --- ## EVE: She was nice. --- ## DERRIL: She was. She was... my best friend really. --- ## DERRIL: I know how cool that sounds. --- ## EVE: So what, they just scrub it clean? How do they know what to remove? --- ## DERRIL: I guess there’s an algorithm, anything containing my name --- ## DERRIL: plus the words stalker, stalking, creep, follower, freak, pervert... --- ## DERRIL: or I give them a list? Links to remove? That blog-- ## EVE: That blog’s even bigger now. --- ## EVE: All these girls sharing stuff-- ## DERRIL: Do you know who she is, the blogger? --- ## EVE: No. --- ## DERRIL: I could never figure out how she knew what she knew... --- ## DERRIL: Unless you told her. --- ## EVE: You think I wanted all of this out there? You think that was fun for me? --- ## DERRIL: No, I don’t. --- ## EVE: Why me? --- ## EVE: It’s something I... --- ## EVE: Of all the girls at school... --- ## EVE: Why? --- ## DERRIL: Dan Michowski. --- ## DERRIL: You remember-- ## EVE: Yeah. --- ## DERRIL: He called me gay, beat me up. One day, in English class, --- ## DERRIL: every time I raised my hand he made a fart sound. --- ## DERRIL: Everyone was laughing. --- ## DERRIL: And you told him to stop. --- ## EVE: I don’t remember that. --- ## DERRIL: You told him to stop and when you did, --- ## DERIIL: you looked at me, right at me. --- ## DERIIL: And common language fails to express the meaning of that moment. --- ## EVE: You know what they asked me, when I applied for my first teaching job? --- ## EVE: “Is it safe to hire you?” --- ## EVE: They felt bad, having to ask. --- ## EVE: But they had to ask. Because on there... --- ## EVE: I am A Victim. Always. --- ## EVE: And now you just want it all erased. --- ## DERRIL: Don’t you? --- [MUSIC] --- ## MARTA: They told me it was impossible to kill this one, which gives me an odd sense of achievement. --- ## DERRIL: She’ll think about it. --- ## MARTA: So she doesn’t hate you anymore? --- ## DERRIL: I was unable to determine that. --- ## MARTA: I should have gone with you. --- ## MARTA: I always know when people hate me. --- ## MARTA: It’s one of my gifts. What exactly did she say? --- ## DERRIL: I told her I want to be erased from the internet. --- ## DERRIL: She said she wants me erased from her life. --- ## MARTA: And you weren’t sure if she still hates you? --- ## DERRIL: I didn’t want to go to her at all. It was your idea. --- ## MARTA: But it was your idea to listen to my idea. --- ## DERRIL: You’re my lawyer! --- ## MARTA: Didn’t anyone ever tell you never listen to a lawyer? --- ## DERRIL: She gave me her number. Said I could follow-up. --- ## MARTA: Derril, you slayed! Let’s hug! --- ## DERRIL: I'm not hugging you. --- ## MARTA: Because of your personal space issues? --- ## DERRIL: Because I'm mad at you. --- ## DERRIL: “Privacy is the essential ingredient in democracy.” --- ## MARTA: That’s good. Who said that, Lincoln? --- ## DERRIL: #mylifemystory --- ## MARTA: No, that’s a Jefferson hashtag. --- ## DERRIL: You’re tweeting in my name. --- ## MARTA: I told you you needed to sign up for Twitter. --- ## DERRIL: And I did. --- ## MARTA: But you weren’t using it. --- ## DERRIL: I had nothing to say. --- ## MARTA: No one on Twitter has anything to say. They just say it. --- ## MARTA: It’s the 21st century, Derril. --- ## MARTA: You can’t start a movement against social media without social media. --- ## DERRIL: I understand you’re trying to make this bigger than me. --- ## MARTA: Because it is. --- ## DERRIL: But you can’t just tweet for me, --- ## DERRIL: you can’t speak in my name- ## MARTA: I’m your lawyer-- ## DERRIL: But you’re not the one who has to live with it! --- ## DERRIL: It’s everywhere. Like a virus, spreading. --- ## DERRIL: “Accused stalker takes on the internet.” --- ## DERRIL: “Stalker claims he deserves to be forgotten.” It’s everywhere. --- ## MARTA: Which is why you need to be everywhere too. --- ## DERRIL: I can’t. I’m one person. And not even a whole person. --- ## MARTA: You will be. Lets call her. --- ## DERRIL: No. I scared her. --- ## DERRIL: I didn’t mean to. It never even occurred to me I could. --- ## DERRIL: I was this skinny broken out nothing. I had two friends and one of them was a book. --- ## DERRIL: I thought she couldn’t even see me, how could I scare her? But I did. --- ## DERRIL: And now I’m on there, or you are, so I am, telling the world: --- ## DERRIL: I’m a cause worth fighting for. --- ## DERRIL: Tweeting, posting for me, making me sound strong and defiant. --- ## DERRIL: Like I have every right in the world to be doing this. --- ## MARTA: And you don’t? --- ## DERRIL: I don’t know. --- ## MARTA: You have to know. --- ## MARTA: You have to believe you deserve this or no one else will. --- ## DERRIL: What do you believe? --- ## DERRIL: You really believe I deserve a second chance? --- ## MARTA: What I believe is we need to start talking to each other again. --- ## MARTA: In person, face-to-face like you did. Not online, anonymous, --- ## MARTA: our every word mined for someone else’s outrage or profit-- ## DERRIL: That doesn’t answer the question. --- ## MARTA: It’s not a question I can answer. --- ## DERRIL: You told Santos you were waiting for me. --- ## MARTA: Most of my job is waiting for the right case to walk through the door. --- ## DERRIL: Maybe I’m not the right case. --- ## MARTA: Maybe not. But now is the right moment, and sometimes that matters more. --- ## DERRIL: My whole life I’ve just... disappeared. --- ## DERRIL: I became a broken church bell. --- ## MARTA: A broken church bell? --- ## DERRIL: I stopped ringing. --- ## MARTA: This is a metaphor, right? --- ## DERRIL: And now you want me to ring again. --- ## DERRIL: But it’s not that easy. I can’t just ring after being silent for so long. --- ## MARTA: Of course it’s not easy. --- ## MARTA: Fuck easy. Fuck church bells. --- ## DERRIL: Don’t say fuck church bells. --- ## MARTA: Fuck church bells, Derril. You are not a fucking church bell. --- ## MARTA: You are a person. You have a mouth and a brain. Neither of which is required to communicate on Twitter, by the way. --- ## MARTA: Don’t tell me not live, just sit there! Life's candy in-- ## DERRIL: Please don’t sing Streisand right now. --- ## MARTA: You could have changed your name. --- ## DERRIL: I did. --- ## MARTA: But you left breadcrumbs. Middle name, mother’s maiden. --- ## DERRIL: They would have found me anyway. --- ## MARTA: You don’t know that. Six months and you went right back to Derril Lark. --- ## DERRIL: Because it wouldn’t have made a difference-- ## MARTA: Why not try another one? --- ## MARTA: One of those depressing poets you like so much? ## DERRIL: That’s absurd-- ## MARTA: It’s not. --- ## MARTA: You can still do it. Do it now! --- ## DERRIL: No. --- ## MARTA: Why? --- ## DERRIL: Because I don’t want another name! My mother called me by this name, my father... --- ## DERRIL: When you name something you give it value. --- ## DERRIL: When you take that name away, say it doesn’t matter... --- ## DERRIL: If it doesn’t matter what my name is, if I could be anyone, --- ## DERRIL: then I could just as easily be no one. --- ## MARTA: Derril, you could have done the easy thing. --- ## MARTA: Even on the internet there are ways to hide. You made your choice. Now fight for it. --- ## MARTA: Let’s call her. Give me your phone. --- ## MARTA: You didn’t tell her you have a ferret, did you? --- ## DERRIL: No. --- ## MARTA: Thank god. --- ## MARTA: Eve? This is Marta Lee, Derril Lark’s attorney... --- ## MARTA: I’d love to find a time to sit down with you, answer any-- --- ## MARTA: Okay. But, just, would you tell me-- I understand. Okay. Thank you. --- ## MARTA: She had to run, she’s got a class. --- ## DERRIL: Okay. --- ## MARTA: But she’ll do it. --- ## DERRIL: What? --- [MUSIC] --- ## ANNIE: Thanks for coming. --- ## ALVARO: Zoe’s in Florida with her sister. --- ## ANNIE: A month before the election? Shouldn’t she be campaigning for you? --- ## ALVARO: I’ll be lucky if she votes for me. --- ## ANNIE: I heard you’ve been meeting with Marta Lee behind my back. --- ## ALVARO: Y’know it’s been two years and I still don’t know if you’re really a lobbyist or a spy. --- ## ANNIE: And I don’t know how you could be stupid enough to take this on a month before the election. --- ## ALVARO: We’re still in the margin of error. --- ## ALVARO: I need something to push the needle. --- ## ALVARO: And this is the kind of thing that could get somebody noticed. --- ## ANNIE: Noticed for being one of the only states in the nation --- ## ANNIE: where a sexual harasser can have his past erased from the internet? --- ## ANNIE: That’s really what you want to be known for, at this particular moment? --- ## ALVARO: What we need at this particular moment is open dialogue about our past mistakes, --- ## ALVARO: dialogue that allows us to move forward. --- ## ALVARO: If you don’t think there are a lot of people who would vote for that, --- ## ALVARO: you haven’t been paying as much attention as I thought. --- ## ANNIE: And if you don’t think there’s a lot of people who will skin you alive for defending a criminal predator, --- ## ANNIE: you haven’t been paying attention either. --- ## ALVARO: He isn’t a criminal. --- ## ANNIE: You know how these stories can spin out of control. --- ## ALVARO: These companies can provide half the worldwith a delete key, --- ## ALVARO: but they can’t extend the option to the country that made them? --- ## ANNIE: Because the country that made them values the right to free speech. --- ## ANNIE: Which is something I also value, because I came from a place where there wasn’t any. --- ## ALVARO: What place? --- ## ANNIE: (with her childhood accent) Annie Zahirovic of Sarajevo. Very nice to meet you. --- ## ALVARO: I didn’t know. --- ## ANNIE: I guess we never stopped fucking long enough to actually get to know each other. --- ## ANNIE: (normal accent) I was ten when we left. --- ## ANNIE: Mom and I moved to upstate New York and mom became a nursing aid. --- ## ANNIE: She was a lawyer before the war. Both my parents were. --- ## ANNIE: Five years ago, mom calls me: “Anna, they arrested Peter Brankovic!” --- ## ANNIE: He was our neighbor in Utica. His daughter used to babysit me. --- ## ANNIE: Turns out, a few years before she was braiding my hair, --- ## ANNIE: her father lined up a dozen Muslim children and shot them in front of their mothers. --- ## ANNIE: And then they moved to America. The Land of Fresh Starts. --- ## ALVARO: You must have seen terrible things. --- ## ANNIE: What I saw was how quickly people could forget. --- ## ANNIE: One day we were neighbors. --- ## ANNIE: And then we were strangers. --- ## ANNIE: And then we were enemies. --- ## ANNIE: Because the government said we were, so the media said we were, --- ## ANNIE: and no one was allowed to say otherwise. --- ## ALVARO: So this isn’t just about your clients not wanting to give up control over the internet? --- ## ANNIE: Of course it is. But it’s also about something essential to democracy. --- ## ANNIE: And to me. Living with the messy truth. --- ## ANNIE: Because when individuals have the right to erase the unflattering, the uncomfortable, --- ## ANNIE: it’s only a matter of time before powerful institutions start doing the same. --- ## ALVARO: My family is from Manilla. They were there when Marco shut down the free press. --- ## ALVARO: Controlled what you could say and who you could say it to. --- ## ALVARO: The Phillipine court passed the Right to be Forgotten over ten years ago. --- ## ALVARO: Because they know, from experience there is no freedom without privacy. --- ## ALVARO: and you’re not going to convince me your clients in their glass boxes --- ## ALVARO: and Teslas are the ones who should get to take that privacy away. --- ## ANNIE: You could take this on any time. Why now? --- ## ALVARO: The girl he followed came to my office last week. She wants to come forward. --- ## ANNIE: And say what? --- ## ALVARO: That he’s not the monster the internet claims he is. --- ## ALVARO: That she forgives him. And she’s a teacher now. --- ## ANNIE: It’s a good show. --- ## ALVARO: It’s more than that. --- ## ALVARO: I know what it’s like to have shitty things said about you online. --- ## ALVARO: But I’m a public official, that was my choice. --- ## ALVARO: There’s a lot of people, a lot of kids, who didn’t get to make that choice. --- ## ALVARO: There are lives being ruined by these vicious, nasty things that live forever. --- ## ANNIE: Sometimes the truth is vicious. --- ## ALVARO: And sometimes it is complicated, and human. The laws are way behind the technology on this. --- ## ALVARO: So I’m sorry, Ms. Zahirovic, --- ## ALVARO: but as long as that girl forgives him, I’m taking it on. --- ## ANNIE: Oh god. Idealists really piss me off. --- ## ANNIE: Fortunately for you, nothing turns me on like things that piss me off. --- ## ALVARO: Go somewhere with me. When the election’s over. --- ## ALVARO: Someplace where we can stop fucking long enough to actually get to know each other. --- ## ALVARO: Where we can be-- ## ANNIE: Anonymous. --- ## ALVARO: Ourselves. --- ## ANNIE: The lawyer, Marta Lee. She knows about us. She’s threatening to put it online. --- ## ANNIE: Rich, isn’t it? --- ## ALVARO? What does she want? --- ## ANNIE: For me to back down. --- ## ALVARO: But you can’t? --- ## ANNIE: No. I can’t. --- ## ALVARO: Then I guess we’re done here. --- ## ANNIE: I guess we’re done. --- [MUSIC] --- ## DERRIL: Hi. --- ## SARITA: Hi. --- ## DERRIL: I know you’re probably here to break up with me, but you look nice. --- ## SARITA: I can’t break up with you. We’re not together. --- ## DERRIL: I know. Of course I know that. I didn’t mean “break up”- ## SARITA: This is like, only our second date. --- ## DERRIL: Right. So that’s what this is, a date? --- ## SARITA: No. I don’t know. --- ## SARITA: The first time you called, I was like- --- ## SARITA: he’s sweet and smart and he’s not playing games and --- ## SARITA: isn’t that what you’re always saying you want? --- ## SARITA: But the second time you called I was like: he’s sweet and smart --- ## SARITA: but maybe the only reason he likes you is because he’s a stalker. --- ## SARITA: And then you didn’t call for a week so I was like, --- ## SARITA: maybe he’s not a stalker and also why isn’t he calling me? --- ## SARITA: But then you texted me so I was like, oh my God, it’s been over a week, --- ## SARITA: why is he still texting me? And then I thought: --- ## SARITA: maybe it’s because he really likes you. --- ## SARITA: But then my tragic lack of selfconfidence kicked in and I was like: --- ## SARITA: maybe he really likes you because you’re damaged and that’s weakness --- ## SARITA: and he likes weakness because he’s deranged. But then I was like, if he’s --- ## SARITA: deranged why do I want to text him back so bad? --- ## SARITA: And then I got drunk and I did text you back. But then I got sober --- ## SARITA: and I was like, what the crap am I doing? --- ## SARITA: And then you texted me back three times and called me --- ## SARITA: and my friend Harper was there and she was like, “I’m calling the police.” --- ## SARITA: And she did but I told them it was a joke -- --- ## SARITA: which they really didn’t think was funny and --- ## SARITA: neither did I cause I was like, is this what it would be like if we were dating? --- ## SARITA: Would all my friends be like, he’s a sicko and worried about me and --- ## SARITA: then confront me and then give up on me and I’d have you but nobody else? --- ## SARITA: Would I become a shut-in, like a battered wife, --- ## SARITA: with no one in my life except the man I can’t even trust? --- ## SARITA: So then I got drunk and told you to never text me again. --- ## SARITA: And then I kind of missed you. --- ## SARITA: And then my dad died. --- ## SARITA: And then the flowers came. --- ## DERRIL: I saw your post. --- ## SARITA: Nobody does that anymore, send flowers, real flowers. --- ## SARITA: They send like, pictures of flowers. --- ## DERRIL: My dad died when I was in college. I missed a semester to read to him. --- ## DERRIL: James Patterson, Dan Brown, terrible stuff, but... I know what it’s like. --- ## SARITA: It sucks. --- ## DERRIL: It really does. --- ## SARITA: He’d been sick so long, I’d kind of forgotten it was gonna happen. --- ## SARITA: My sister was at the funeral with her husband-- “Michael.” --- ## SARITA: He’s so boring sometimes I step on his foot to see if he’s actually alive. --- ## SARITA: My brother was there with his new girlfriend. She’s adorable. --- ## SARITA: I was alone. --- ## SARITA: Which was good, because mom needed someone to hold her up. --- ## SARITA: But then I thought: I wish there was someone here to hold me up. --- ## DERRIL: You mean me? Because I would. I could. I’d like to- --- ## SARITA: I don't know Derril. I went online, I read all the stuff.. --- ## DERRIL: It’s fake. Most of it. --- ## SARITA: But not all of it. And the problem is, I don’t know what to believe. --- ## SARITA: I want to believe you, but I also don’t want to be --- ## SARITA: The Stupid Girl who liked a guy and ignored all this stuff and ended up in a closet somewhere... --- ## DERRIL: A closet? --- ## SARITA: Or like a freezer. --- ## DERRIL: I’m not a murderer. --- ## SARITA: I know. --- ## DERRIL: I’m not a murderer, or a rapist, or even a criminal. --- ## SARITA: I know. I shouldn’t have said freezer... --- ## DERRIL: I’m just a guy who likes old poetry. And you. --- ## SARITA: I like you too, Derril. But you’re not normal. --- ## SARITA: And I don’t think I am either which is why I thought I owed it to you to say this in person: --- ## SARITA: It’s not going to work between us. --- ## SARITA: Even though there’s like this huge, hopeful part of me that totally wishes it could. --- ## DERRIL: I met with her, the girl, woman, Eve is her name...I told her how sorry I was. --- ## DERRIL: And now we’ve talked a few times. --- ## DERRIL: She agreed to speak out, tell them that most of the stuff online never happened... --- ## DERRIL: And that the stuff I did do, she forgives me for it. --- ## SARITA: Wow. That’s great, Derril. --- ## DERRIL: And I’m going after them, the tech companies, to make them --- ## DERRIL: remove everything that’s on there, all the lies-- ## SARITA: I know, I saw your TikToks. The ferret one was cute. --- ## DERRIL: Thanks. --- ## SARITA: And then I saw all the comments, those terrible, terrible... --- ## DERRIL: It’s gonna be gone. The blog, the lies about me... --- ## DERRIL: If we win this, it’s like I won’t even exist on the internet. --- ## SARITA: That’s weird. --- ## DERRIL: It’s better. --- ## SARITA: My dad had a Facebook page. Boomers. --- ## SARITA: The last thing he posted was a picture of pudding. --- ## SARITA: “Pudding from Mira,” he wrote. --- ## SARITA: That’s my mom. She makes really good pudding. --- ## SARITA: Then a couple days after he died there was a new post: --- ## SARITA: “Don’t worry everybody: Turns out there’s pudding in heaven too.” --- ## DERRIL: Who wrote it? --- ## SARITA: Me. It made my mom laugh, so she started doing it too. --- ## SARITA: “God makes one hell of a tapioca.” --- ## SARITA: “The chocolate mousse up here’s so good it’s like you’ve died and... wait.” --- ## SARITA: My sister says we’ve got to let him go. But he was a great dad. --- ## SARITA: And he loved pudding. And I don’t want to let him go. --- ## DERRIL: Can I... hug you? --- ## SARITA: I don’t know. --- ## SARITA: Yes. --- ## DERRIL: There’s going to be a press conference so my name’ll be out there more and more. --- ## DERRIL: And I understand why you wouldn’t want --- ## DERRIL: to be associated with that. --- ## DERRIL: But in a while-- when it’s all gone-- maybe you could... --- ## DERRIL: maybe we could just... --- ## DERRIL: try again? --- [MUSIC] --- ## ANNIE: These are beautiful. --- ## EVE: They try really hard. --- ## ANNIE: When my daughter was little she brought home this hideous finger painting. --- ## ANNIE: I said, is it a hippo? No mom, she said. --- ## ANNIE: It’s you. --- ## EVE: Are you one of the parents, or-? ## ANNIE: I’m a lawyer. --- ## EVE: For Derril? --- ## ANNIE: I’m working on his case. Marta Lee told me you’re coming forward on his behalf. --- ## EVE: I’m just trying to help. --- ## ANNIE: And why is that? --- ## EVE: I guess I just feel like everyone deserves a second chance. --- ## ANNIE: That’s a nice thought but I know a lot of people who don’t. --- ## EVE: I thought you said you were his lawyer- ## ANNIE: I’m working on his case. --- ## ANNIE: And I don’t like surprises. --- ## EVE: Like what? --- ## ANNIE: He’s desperate for this to work, understandably. --- ## ANNIE: If he offered you something- ## EVE: Like a bribe? --- ## ANNIE: Exactly. Or if he threatened you- ## EVE: He didn’t threaten me. --- ## EVE: He didn’t offer me anything except... --- ## ANNIE: Except? --- ## EVE: Just... like... a chance to move on. To be someone who was never... --- ## ANNIE: Stalked? --- ## EVE: Scared. --- ## ANNIE: But you know he can’t do that. Not really. --- ## EVE: Of course I know that. --- ## ANNIE: Wiping your history off the internet doesn’t change the truth. --- ## EVE: Unless what’s on the internet isn’t really the truth. --- ## ANNIE: Derril Lark never stalked you? --- ## EVE: He did. But there’s context. Context I was too young to understand. --- ## ANNIE: So you feel for him. You really do forgive him. --- ## EVE: For what he did to me... I don’t know. --- ## EVE: But the things that aren’t true, the people he didn’t hurt... --- ## EVE: How do you get forgiveness for something you didn’t even do? --- ## ANNIE: I don’t buy it. --- ## EVE: I’m sorry? --- ## ANNIE: There’s some other reason you’re coming forward, and I need to know what it is. --- ## EVE: I have this student. Lily. She’s chubby and loud, always wants attention... --- ## EVE: Every year I give out this assignment to research major artists. --- ## EVE: And it doesn’t take long, on Google, to find the prostitutes. --- ## EVE: Manet, Picasso, they all painted prostitutes. --- ## EVE: Someone put Lily’s face on a Cezanne, posted it online. --- ## EVE: A nude, spread... --- ## EVE: She tried to kill herself. ------ ## EVE: Because she didn’t think it would ever go away. --- ## EVE: And the truth is, she’s right. --- ## EVE: I guess I think this could be my chance to change that. --- ## ANNIE: Well, I can see why he liked you. You’re a very good person. --- ## EVE: I’m not really. --- ## ANNIE: You must be. And brave. --- ## EVE: No. --- ## ANNIE: You are. To put yourself through this, put yourself out there. --- ## ANNIE: Because you know they’re going to dig up everything about you. --- ## ANNIE: Once you make yourself a public figure... it’s all fair game. --- ## ANNIE: So if you have any secrets, anything you’re trying to hide... --- ## EVE: You’re not Derril’s lawyer. You don’t work with Marta. --- ## EVE: I think you should leave. --- ## ANNIE: There are other ways to help your students. --- ## EVE: You wouldn’t be here unless you didn't think Derril had a really strong case. --- ## ANNIE: Derril is a weirdo with no money and no connections. --- ## ANNIE: He’s got absolutely nothing, unless you help him. --- ## ANNIE: So help him, if that’s what he truly deserves. --- ## ANNIE: But if he doesn’t... --- ## ANNIE: He ripped open your life once before. --- ## ANNIE: Don’t let him do it again. --- ## EVE: I asked you to leave. --- [MUSIC] --- ## ANNIE: Marta! --- ## MARTA: Annie! --- ## MARTA: When you buzzed I thought you were the lunch guy. --- ## ANNIE: I ran into him on the way. --- ## ANNIE: Cobb salad, extra blue cheese, extra bacon? --- ## ANNIE: You know that’s not really a salad, right? --- ## MARTA: My doctor told me to eat more bacon. Gives the heart a challenge. --- ## ANNIE: So this is where the magic happens. --- ## ANNIE: Where lives are saved and “American values” are upheld. --- ## ANNIE: At least the view’s nice. --- ## MARTA: Actually, that brick wall really captures the sunset beautifully. --- ## MARTA: I see my station in life is making you jealous. --- ## ANNIE: I guess the brick wall’s always greener. But I’m not just here to judge and insult you. --- ## ANNIE: I saw that you’ve got a press conference scheduled with Santos. --- ## MARTA: I know. It’s so annoying when our elected officials think their own thoughts. --- ## MARTA: Though I suppose I should thank you, for giving him permission to do so. --- ## ANNIE: Oh, I haven’t had anything to do with it. --- ## ANNIE: A conspicuous failure that’s led to no shortage of reprimands. --- ## ANNIE: My bosses are “just shocked” I couldn’t get rid of it. --- ## ANNIE: One of them actually “tsked” me. --- ## ANNIE: I didn’t know men still did that. --- ## MARTA: For one of Washington’s top law firms they seem incredibly scared of an actual legal challenge. --- ## ANNIE: That’s what I said. But it got me thinking: About control. --- ## ANNIE: Because that’s what all of my clients want, ultimately. --- ## ANNIE: Which, when you think about it, is a very human thing for a corporation to want. --- ## ANNIE: God knows I want it. --- ## ANNIE: So I called Santos. --- ## MARTA: You broke it off. --- ## ANNIE: There was nothing to break off. I told you we were never together. --- ## ANNIE: Then why did you call? --- ## ANNIE: Just to say hi. But see now there’s nothing for you to put online, --- ## ANNIE: and even if there were, you wouldn’t, because Santos is your man now --- ## ANNIE: and to endanger him would be, well, pretty fucking stupid. --- ## MARTA: So what? You’re here to tell me you’re gonna find another way to crush my case? --- ## MARTA: Seems like the kind of thing you could’ve emailed. --- ## ANNIE: No. I’m here because my bosses want to offer your client a deal. --- ## ANNIE: We remove the links. --- ## ANNIE: He signs an NDA and gets exactly what he wants: to disappear. --- ## MARTA: So it helps him but no one else. --- ## ANNIE: It helps him without setting a dangerous precedent. --- ## MARTA: A necessary precedent. --- ## ANNIE: I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that. --- ## MARTA: No. --- ## ANNIE: Don’t you think you should talk to your client first? It’s his life. --- ## MARTA: I don’t need to talk to him. He knows what we’re fighting for. --- ## MARTA: Drop the nondisclosure. --- ## ANNIE: Oh come on, that’s the only part I like. --- ## MARTA: You’re not going to silence him. --- ## ANNIE: I thought that’s exactly what he wanted. --- ## MARTA: Things have changed. --- ## ANNIE: This was always your problem, Marta. --- ## ANNIE: You care about the cause more than the people in it. --- ## MARTA: Your bosses wanted you to make an offer, but you didn’t want to. --- ## ANNIE: You’re damned right I didn’t. Because where I came from, --- ## ANNIE: we deserve the Right to Remember, not Be Forgotten. --- ## MARTA: Oh come on. There’s a big difference between whitewashing a genocide and erasing some gossip blog. --- ## ANNIE: How do you know? You, your client, Santos... --- ## ANNIE: you all think the tech companies shouldn’t have the right --- ## ANNIE: to decide what information lives on the internet. --- ## ANNIE: Then who should? The government? Which government? --- ## MARTA: The people. --- ## ANNIE: I guess you and I have very different ideas of what “the people” are capable of. --- ## MARTA: We used to have the same idea of that. --- ## ANNIE: That’s right. Before I “changed,” as you keep saying. --- ## ANNIE: But I’m not the one who resorted to blackmail to move my case forward. --- ## ANNIE: So who’s changed Marta? --- ## MARTA: I guess we both have. --- ## MARTA: Truth is I looked at those old emails and I don’t even recognize her. --- ## MARTA: Me. Us. --- ## MARTA: You were actually sweet. --- ## ANNIE: Fuck you. --- ## MARTA: Some of the time. --- ## MARTA: I wasn’t lying about us being friends. I really thought we were. --- ## ANNIE: Then I guess you should’ve called once or twice after I left. --- ## MARTA: You went to the enemy. --- ## MARTA: After all the all-nighters, --- ## MARTA: talking about how we were going to fight for the little guy, --- ## MARTA: stand up to the money. Fuck our loans! --- ## MARTA: I was so disappointed. --- ## ANNIE: And then, I came to understand there’s more than one way to make a difference. --- ## ANNIE: And I had a daughter to support all on my own. --- ## ANNIE: But you wouldn’t know that, would you? --- ## ANNIE: I went through divorce, a custody battle, --- ## ANNIE: going back to Bosnia to find the truth about my father, --- ## ANNIE: that he was beaten like a dog and left in a gutter... --- ## ANNIE: It’s been an eventful few years. And you never called. --- ## ANNIE: So you can take your disappointment, multiply it by 10, --- ## ANNIE: and shove it up your self-righteous ass. --- ## MARTA: You could’ve picked up the phone. --- ## ANNIE: I did. --- ## MARTA: No you didn’t. --- ## ANNIE: Twice. --- ## ANNIE: On your birthday. --- ## ANNIE: I even sang. --- ## MARTA: I forgot. --- ## ANNIE: Then I guess it never happened. --- ## ANNIE: Right? --- [MUSIC] --- ## ALVARO: Where the hell is she? --- ## ALVARO: There’s twenty reporters out there and they’re all about to leave. --- ## MARTA: Why don’t you start without her, you and Derril? --- ## ALVARO: Don’t fuck with me, Marta. --- ## MARTA: It was just an idea. --- ## MARTA: Call her again. --- ## ALVARO: I want you to know I don’t like you. --- ## MARTA: Heavens, is that any way to speak to a lady? --- ## ALVARO: And I really don’t like the way you do things. --- ## MARTA: Fair enough. But I wasn’t blackmailing you. I was blackmailing her. --- ## ALVARO: She’s not the one who’s running for election. --- ## ALVARO: She’s not the one who’s married. --- ## MARTA: No, she’s not. --- ## MARTA: And I’m sorry. --- ## MARTA: But I’m also tired. --- ## MARTA: I am so fucking tired, --- ## MARTA: of losing to giant, brainless, soulless corporations --- ## MARTA: with the money to hire people like her to buy people like you. --- ## ALVARO: Lucky for you, so am I. --- ## ALVARO: But if you ever think of putting that shit online --- ## ALVARO: just know you will have an enemy in the AG’s office --- ## ALVARO: for the rest of what might be a very short career. --- ## MARTA: Yes sir. But you should know, I’m not the only one who knows. --- ## MARTA: You’re trying to keep a secret in a world where secrets don’t exist. --- ## MARTA: It’s cute, but it’s stupid. --- ## ALVARO: Are you trying to piss me off? --- ## MARTA: I’m trying to help you. Because you’re one of the good guys. --- ## MARTA: We need people like you. --- ## MARTA: Which is why I’m offering a bit of friendly unsolicited advice: --- ## MARTA: keep your married dick in your pants and don’t sleep with your lobbyist. --- ## ALVARO: I took this on because I believe in it. --- ## ALVARO: But I’m not willing to throw myself under a bus for it. --- ## ALVARO: No girl, no story. --- ## ALVARO: No story, no case. --- ## MARTA: You called her? --- ## DERRIL: Texted, several times. --- ## MARTA: Fucking texted! What is it with your generation and the complete inability to talk? --- ## MARTA: CALL HER! --- ## DERRIL: Eve- I told you-- ## MARTA: Eve! You’re late, we forgive you, traffic’s a bitch, --- ## MARTA: let’s go/let’s go-- ## EVE: I’m sorry, I just, I saw all the news trucks in the parking lot and... --- ## EVE: I couldn’t get out of my car. --- ## DERRIL: Let me get you some water. --- ## MARTA: We really don’t have time-- ## EVE: Thank you. Water would be good. --- ## MARTA: Okay. Eve. Look at me, mano a mano. Womano a womano. --- ## MARTA: You’re nervous. I understand. --- ## EVE: The whole drive here I was telling myself, you can do this... --- ## EVE: because I want to, I do, but I don’t think I can. --- ## MARTA: Eve, you sat in my office, we met with the AG, you made a decision-- ## EVE: I know, but that was before. --- ## MARTA: Before what? --- ## EVE: Before I realized if I do this --- ## EVE: everything I’ve ever done will be dug up, will be looked into- ## DERRIL: You realized. --- ## EVE: It was brought to my attention. --- ## MARTA: By who? --- ## EVE: I don’t know her name. --- ## MARTA: I do. She’s a lobbyist for the tech companies. She was lying to you. --- ## EVE: That’s what I thought at first, but she’s right. --- ## EVE: Why wouldn’t they dig into me? --- ## EVE: And I tried to convince myself I was strong enough, but... --- ## EVE: There are things about me that could come out. --- ## MARTA: What things? --- ## MARTA: What things? --- ## DERRIL: She created the blog. --- ## MARTA: What? --- ## DERRIL: High School Girl Blog. It was you. Right? --- ## EVE: I was scared. I needed to write it down, to tell someone, --- ## EVE: and I felt like there was no one I could tell, so... --- ## DERRIL: You told everyone. --- ## EVE: I never thought anyone would read it, but they did... --- ## MARTA: So you kept writing it. Making things up-- ## EVE: I was helping people. --- ## EVE: Girls wrote to me, they’d been followed too. --- ## EVE: I was helping-- ## MARTA: You were lying. --- ## EVE: I wasn’t lying. He followed me. He frightened me. --- ## MARTA: He stopped. You didn’t. --- ## EVE: I did. I haven’t posted anything about him in-- ## DERRIL: “Derril Lark keeps showing up outside her dorm.” --- ## DERRIL: You posted that a year after the last time I saw you. --- ## DERRIL: I wasn’t even in the same state. --- ## EVE: It was metaphorical. I didn’t mean you actually showed up. --- ## MARTA: You’re fucking kidding me. --- ## EVE: It felt like you were there. It felt real. --- ## MARTA: But it wasn’t. --- ## EVE: I know that. And I know I should’ve stopped earlier. --- ## EVE: But I was a teenage girl. I was a kid, just like he was. That's why the principal let him go. --- ## EVE: He wasn't even suspended. He was free to keep following me. --- ## MARTA: You have to tell them. --- ## EVE: No-- ## MARTA: You were lying about him online for years --- ## MARTA: and there was nothing he could do about it. ## EVE: It’ll be everywhere. I could lose my job-- --- ## EVE: I’ll take it down, the blog. --- ## MARTA: It’s been re-posted thousands of times in thousands of places! It lives forever. --- ## EVE: Please-- ## MARTA: You’ve kept that thing alive for ten years! --- ## EVE: BECAUSE I WANTED HIM TO SUFFER. --- ## EVE: He was the deranged psycho that stole my safety, my childhood! --- ## EVE: I wanted him to suffer. --- ## DERRIL: But you don’t anymore? --- ## EVE: No, I don’t. --- ## EVE: I didn’t know I couldn’t turn it off. I didn’t know it wouldn’t end. --- ## EVE: I was just... typing. Just hitting the keys. --- ## EVE: It made me feel powerful. --- ## EVE: And I needed to feel powerful. --- ## MARTA: You’re right. --- ## MARTA: You deserved to feel powerful. --- ## MARTA: And you created something that made a difference. --- ## MARTA: But you decided to do this now because you’re ready to move on. --- ## MARTA: Now you have the power to free yourself and save his life. Tell them the truth. --- ## EVE: Everything good I’ve done, all the women I’ve helped, they’ll turn on me and... I can’t. --- ## MARTA: Then I will. --- ## DERRIL: No. --- ## MARTA: Derril-- ## DERRIL: You won’t. --- ## MARTA: Derril, this is our/only-- ## DERRIL: Marta. You won’t. --- ## MARTA: Why? --- ## DERRIL: Because I know what will happen to her. --- ## DERRIL: The trolls, the backlash, the hate... --- ## DERRIL: I know what they’ll do. I’ve lived with it for ten years. --- ## MARTA: And if you don’t go out there and tell them what she did, --- ## MARTA: you’re going to keep living with it. --- ## DERRIL: I know. --- ## MARTA: You’re making a mistake. --- ## DERRIL: Maybe. But it’s the only one I can live with. --- ## EVE: Thank you. --- ## MARTA: Don’t thank him. --- ## MARTA: I’m your lawyer and-- ## DERRIL: The case is over. --- ## DERRIL: I don’t need a lawyer anymore. --- ## MARTA: We’ve worked too hard. I’ve worked too hard. --- ## DERRIL: There will be someone else. There are thousands of us. --- ## DERRIL: More every day. The right case will walk through your door. --- ## DERRIL: He may even be comfortable with public speaking. --- ## MARTA: I guess I have some explaining to do. --- ## EVE: You knew it was me the whole time. --- ## DERRIL: I thought maybe, but I wasn’t sure. --- ## DERRIL: Then, when you said I stood by the door after class, “the bell would ring and I wouldn’t move.” --- ## DERRIL: But my mother worked in the office. --- ## DERRIL: I was terrified of being late for class, --- ## DERRIL: having to hand her a tardy notice... --- ## DERRIL: it’s on the blog. I know it’s how you remember it. --- ## DERRIL: But it never happened. --- ## EVE: I really thought it did. --- ## EVE: It felt like it did. --- ## EVE: I don’t know how to make sense of what happened between you and me. --- ## EVE: I know I was right to feel what I felt. --- ## EVE: I know you were wrong to do what you did. --- ## EVE: But everything else is so confusing and muddy and... You were so much bigger in my head. Scarier. --- ## EVE: You were the Lurking Lark, like a comic book villian. But then when we met, when you apologized. --- ## EVE: I hadn't realized how much I needed that. I hadn't realized how much I needeed you to be something real. --- ## EVE: I thought that was something we could show the world, the power of that. --- ## DERRIL: Thank you, for trying. --- ## EVE: You thought we had a connection. --- ## EVE: I guess you were right. --- ## MARTA: Santos told me to never to call him again, but I’m sure he was joking. --- ## MARTA: The reporters want to know why he walked out, --- ## MARTA: why he’s dropping this right before the election. --- ## MARTA: We could still go out there-- ## DERRIL: Marta, it’s over. --- ## MARTA: You don’t have to tell them about Eve but-- --- ## DERRIL: You know how many death threats I got today? --- ## DERRIL: You know how many I’ll get tomorrow if I go out there... --- ## DERRIL: and for what? Why? --- ## MARTA: Because those cases in Europe started with individuals coming forward, demanding change- --- ## DERRIL: But we don’t put mayo on our french fries. --- ## MARTA: Don’t you know by now I was just trying to impress you with my cynicism? --- ## MARTA: It doesn’t have to be today. --- ## MARTA: Go home, read some weird Russian poem about suffering. --- ## MARTA: I’ll call the reporters. We could do it... Thursday. --- ## MARTA: A lot of people would come- ## DERRIL: Who? --- ## MARTA: A lot of people. Some people. --- ## DERRIL: Maybe I’ll change it. My name. --- ## MARTA: Don’t do that. --- ## MARTA: They offered you a deal. --- ## DERRIL: What? --- ## MARTA: To remove all the links but sign something so no one would know. --- ## DERRIL: You didn’t tell me. --- ## MARTA: I didn’t want you to take it. --- ## DERRIL: How could you not tell me? --- ## MARTA: I wanted us to win. I wanted to change things-- --- ## DERRIL: To be famous. --- ## MARTA: No. Maybe. But that’s not all. I wanted to change things. --- ## MARTA: For the Next You. --- ## DERRIL: And you knew I’d take the deal. --- ## MARTA: I knew I would, if I were you. Anyone would. --- ## DERRIL: And now the deal? --- ## MARTA: It's gone. I’m sorry Derril. I’m so sorry. --- ## DERRIL: It’s the craziest thing. --- ## DERRIL: All of you people who want everyone to know about you... --- ## DERRIL: Who want the world to know about you. --- ## DERRIL: And I just want to disappear. --- ## MARTA: You still have some attention, a platform. --- ## MARTA: Tell the country this is something we all deserve. --- ## MARTA: Tell them why it matters. --- ## MARTA: Promise me you’ll be there Thursday. --- ## MARTA: Promise me. --- ## MARTA: And forgive me. Please forgive me. --- [MUSIC] --- ## ANNIE: You know the loser doesn’t usually hold a press conference. --- ## MARTA: My client is condemned, eternally. Might as well get some coverage. --- ## MARTA: Feel like he made a difference. --- ## ANNIE: Feel like he made one, or you did? --- ## ANNIE: Where is your client anyway? He is coming, isn't he? --- ## MARTA: I didn't expecting to see you here. --- ## ANNIE: Someone has to “manage the narrative.” --- ## MARTA: That’s right. You’re not a lawyer. You’re a storyteller. --- ## MARTA: And we’re the kids on the rug. Eagerly awaiting storytime. --- ## ANNIE: Don’t blame me for this. It wasn’t the right case. --- ## ANNIE: You should’ve waited. --- ## MARTA: Maybe. --- ## MARTA: Don’t tell me you’re writing the AG’s statement on this. --- ## ANNIE: We won him the election, it’s the least he could do. --- ## MARTA: You buried that link. --- ## ANNIE: What link? --- ## MARTA: The anonymous one I posted about Alvaro Santos fucking his lobbyist. --- ## ANNIE: Maybe the algorithm just didn’t find it relevant. Or truthful. --- ## MARTA: Two days before an election? It’s too convenient. --- ## ANNIE: It’s incredibly convenient. Thank God for small miracles. --- ## MARTA: There’s nothing miraculous about it. --- ## ANNIE: How do you know? Maybe God’s just an algorithm too. --- ## MARTA: I don’t think so. --- ## MARTA: What I think is that an average kid can’t control what’s said about him online, --- ## MARTA: but an elected official, with the help of a lobbyist... --- ## MARTA: A lobbyist he’s sleeping with... --- ## ANNIE: I had nothing to do with that link disappearing. --- ## MARTA: And neither did your clients. --- ## ANNIE: That’s right. --- ## ANNIE: And even if they did... how would anyone ever be able to prove it? --- ## ANNIE: Besides, weren’t you the one arguing the internet shouldn’t be used for revenge? --- ## MARTA: You intimidated my witness, ruined my client’s life. --- ## MARTA: And it’s my civic duty to reveal who’s pulling the strings. --- ## ANNIE: Bullshit. --- ## ANNIE: You’re just a sore loser. You always were. --- ## ANNIE: The irony is, for someone who hates losing as much as you do, --- ## ANNIE: you really should’ve picked the other side. --- ## MARTA: I guess it’s too late now. --- ## ANNIE: No, it’s not. You know more about tech law than anyone, other than me. --- ## ANNIE: And we’d rather have you working for us than against us. --- ## MARTA: Are you offering me a job? --- ## ANNIE: I’m offering you an incredibly well-paying job, --- ## ANNIE: with a gorgeous office and every benefit under the sun. --- ## MARTA: Except one. Fighting for something you actually believe in. --- ## ANNIE: So that’s a no? --- ## MARTA: I’m still thinking. --- ## ANNIE: The firm has it’s own barrista. --- ## MARTA: In that case... fuck no. --- ## MARTA: But you know, you could come work for me. You looked good in my office. --- ## ANNIE: Marta, no one looks good in your office. --- ## MARTA: You told me this was personal for you. --- ## MARTA: No one should be able to censor the past. --- ## MARTA: And then that link disappears. --- ## MARTA: Was it all bullshit? --- ## ANNIE: No. It wasn’t bullshit. --- ## ANNIE: And it wasn’t easy. --- ## ANNIE: And I’m not proud. --- ## MARTA: I’ve spent years railing against the internet. It’s unchecked power. --- ## MARTA: How inhuman and inhumane it is. But it’s not inhuman at all. --- ## MARTA: Our selfishness and anger. Our need for connection, for vengeance. --- ## MARTA: Our desire to be seen and heard and known... --- ## MARTA: It’s me. --- ## MARTA: You came. I didn’t know if-- ## DERRIL: I happened to be in the neighborhood, so. --- ## MARTA: Was that a joke? Did you make a joke? I’m gonna cry. --- ## DERRIL: You look familiar. Do I--? ## MARTA: She’s the lawyer, the lobbyist-- --- ## DERRIL: Oh. You’re the enemy. --- ## ANNIE: You can just call me Annie. --- ## MARTA: She wouldn’t be here if they weren’t afraid of you, Derril. --- ## MARTA: Of all the “yous” coming forward. --- ## DERRIL: Is there anyone in there, reporters? --- ## MARTA: Yes. --- ## ANNIE: Two of them. --- ## MARTA: It doesn’t matter how many there are. They’re here, and so are you. --- ## DERRIL: You said I wasn’t a broken bell. --- ## DERRIL: I’m not sure you’re right about that. But I can still make noise. --- ## MARTA: That’s a metaphor. --- ## ANNIE: You’re clearly pretty bright. Why not move to Europe? --- ## ANNIE: Start over. People do it all the time. ------ ## DERRIL: Maybe I will. No reason to stay here, now... --- ## DERRIL: I was close to something, before, but... --- ## ANNIE: A job? --- ## MARTA: A woman. --- ## DERRIL: A really... weird, funny, lovely woman. --- ## ANNIE: You know what they say about fish in the sea. --- ## DERRIL: They don’t have internet access? --- ## ANNIE: That’s right. --- ## DERRIL: I read about you. --- ## DERRIL: “Silicon Valley’s Secret Weapon.” --- ## DERRIL: You don’t seem as scary as you do online. --- ## ANNIE: Neither do you. --- ## ANNIE: But how can we ever know for sure? --- ## MARTA: What a twat. --- ## MARTA: Come on, let’s go in. --- ## DERRIL: I need a minute... Go in without me. --- ## DERRIL: Please, Marta, go. Someone has to get the fog machine working. --- ## DERRIL: What should I do with this God-given flesh and blood? --- ## DERRIL: For joys so quiet as to live and breathe, --- ## DERRIL: Who will receive my gratitude for these? --- ## DERRIL: I'm both the gardener and flower one, --- ## DERRIL: In this world's dungeons I am not alone. --- ## DERRIL: On the glass of the eternal one can see --- ## DERRIL: The traces of my breath and of the warmth of me. --- ## DERRIL: Henceforth it bears a pattern which is mine --- ## DERRIL: Even to me unknown from recent times. --- ## DERRIL: Let it be drained, the turmoil of the day - --- ## DERRIL: The lovely pattern won't be crossed away. --- ## SARITA: Mandelstam? --- ## DERRIL: What are you doing here...? --- ## SARITA: I don’t know. --- ## SARITA: I tried to stop thinking about you, but then I kept thinking about you, --- ## SARITA: in the way how when you try to not do something you do it more, like chocolate, --- ## SARITA: or when someone has something in their teeth. --- ## SARITA: And in my lab welook for ways to re-use materials. --- ## SARITA: Car seats from cardboard, insulation from wine corks. --- ## SARITA: One man’s trash, that kinda thing. --- ## SARITA: I had this idea, I know it’s gross, but tampons. --- ## SARITA: Cause that’s a lot of waste, all that single-use plastic, and --- ## SARITA: maybe we could make something cool, like umbrellas or...? --- ## SARITA: Anyway, what I’m trying to say is: --- ## SARITA: I don’t know what’s going to happen with you and me. --- ## SARITA: But I don’t think you’re a single-use plastic. --- ## DERRIL: You don’t? --- ## SARITA: And when I saw online your case went away but you were goingto speak anyway, --- ## SARITA: all by yourself, I thought... --- ## SARITA: I thought maybe you could use someone to hold you up. --- [MUSIC]

Syntax	Example	Reference
# Header	Header	基本排版
- Unordered List	Unordered List
1. Ordered List	Ordered List
- [ ] Todo List	Todo List
> Blockquote	Blockquote
Bold font	Bold font
Italics font	Italics font
~~Strikethrough~~	~~Strikethrough~~
19^th^	19^th
H~2~O	H₂O
++Inserted text++	Inserted text
==Marked text==	Marked text
[link text](https:// "title")	Link
![image alt](https:// "title")	Image
`Code`	`Code`	在筆記中貼入程式碼
```javascript var i = 0; ```	`var i = 0;`
:smile:		Emoji list
{%youtube youtube_id %}	Externals
$L^aT_eX$	L^aT_eX
:::info This is a alert area. :::	This is a alert area.