"Dead Metal"
Episode 3
"Dead Metal" Episode 3
Nov. 1972 – San Francisco
Charlotte sits under a Warhol portrait of Mao as two FBI agents enumerate Marin’s alleged crimes – the TransAmerica bombing and the subsequent hijacking and burning of an airliner. Charlotte tells them Marin couldn’t possibly have done this because she was so sensitive as a child. The agents get increasingly frustrated as Charlotte drifts into fantasy and denial.
Nov. 1975 – Boca Grande
Grace explains there is more to Charlotte than meets the eye. We finally see the audience: nerdy college students, senior citizens and other science and history buffs. Grace tells them that Charlotte is defined by her contradictions. She seems sensitive (like young Marin), but she can also perform tasks with the same lack of squeamishness she displayed when killing the chicken.
Dec. 1962 – Copenhagen
Montage: Charlotte and 7-year-old Marin suffer through a nightmare vacation. Marin is sick with fever from her smallpox vaccination, it rains continually, they never leave the hotel. The hotel doctor is very kind, and the hotel manager brings Marin a marzipan carousel because she isn’t able to go out.
Mar. 1974 – Boca Grande
At The Jockey Club, Grace tries to reconcile the different stories. A woman screams – her companion is choking on steak. The maitre’d tries pounding on his back. [NB: the Heimlich was not yet well-known in 1974]. Charlotte jumps up and goes into action. As the man turns blue, Charlotte grabs a steak knife, sterilizes it in a pot of boiling pasta, and performs an emergency tracheotomy, saving the man’s life. Grace can’t believe it.
Days earlier, the final meeting between Charlotte and Marin. She gives Charlotte an antique bracelet she thought was lost, a gift from Charlotte’s mother. “You can keep it,” Marin says, “It’s dead metal.” Charlotte asks her to stay for tea, but Marin says she has a paper to finish for school. She leaves Charlotte alone with her disappointment.
Agent Gorman says Marin hasn’t been enrolled at Berkeley for some time. Charlotte did not know that. But she cuts them off and ushers them out despite their protests. She immediately calls Leonard (in Nicosia – she knew exactly where he was). He is less concerned by the FBI investigating Marin, than he is by the fact that Charlotte is calling from the home phone. “What difference does it make if they’re listening?” she asks, “I’m only telling you what they told me.” The minute she hangs up with Leonard, the doorbell rings. It’s the FBI – it sure seems like they’re listening. This time Charlotte really gives them a piece of her mind: about the phone tap. The agents are shocked. GRACE VO: “I remember the first time my son Gerardo laid eyes on Charlotte.”
Mar. 1974 – Boca Grande
A welcome home party for Grace’s son, Gerardo, who has been in Europe for the past year. Tuck and Ardis Bradley are there, as are all the Strasser-Mendanas, VICTOR: “Why are you even here? Shouldn’t you be off bobsledding somewhere?” GERARDO: “I am a patriot, Tio Victor. I am here because country needs me.” Victor doesn’t like the sound of that. When Charlotte arrives. Gerardo is instantly captivated. She feels it too. The sisters-in-law are not impressed. Victor is bitter. Antonio is disgusted. Grace is amused. When Charlotte goes inside the house, Gerardo asks where Mr. Douglas is. Ardis says he’s in Caracas. Tuck immediately shushes her. Victor can’t believe that the gunrunning husband of his former lover is in the region. Antonio laughs. “Too close for comfort, eh hermano?”
Weeks later, Victor visits Grace in her home biochemistry lab. He is agitated because Gerardo has been observed visiting Charlotte Douglas’s hotel room at all hours. Grace says they’re dating, so what? He says that she’s a married woman and it’s disgusting. Grace ignores the hypocrisy. According to Victor, Gerardo has also been seen with Bebe Chicago, a gay West Indian who has been financing the guerillas who want to take Victor down. Grace tells him his real enemy is not Bebe Chicago, but whoever is financing Bebe Chicago. Victor won’t even admit that she’s right.
Nov. 1972 – San Francisco
Agent Gorman is back at the house on California Street. He plays Charlotte a tape they received from the group claiming responsibility for the bombing and hijacking. A young woman’s voice spouts revolutionary mumbo jumbo. Gorman asks if the voice is Marin’s. Charlotte says she doesn’t think so. That night, Leonard returns from his trip and Charlotte plays him the tape. “It’s definitely her,” Leonard says. “Of course, it is. But where did she get that gibberish?” Charlotte asks. Leonard tells her the book it came from. “I know where they got their rhetoric,” he says, “What I’d like to know is where they got their hardware.”
Nov. 1972 – San Francisco
The FBI agents note the portrait of Mao, implying that Charlotte and Leonard are Communists. Charlotte says Leonard – a highly-paid attorney – received the painting as payment from a client, a movie studio. It’s the least Communist thing she can imagine. They ask where her husband is. “Nicosia. Or Damascus. I’d have to check his itinerary…” They ask her to recount the last time she saw Marin…
MONTAGE: Charlotte and Leonard asleep in the middle of the night. The phone rings and Charlotte answers. As soon as she hears Warren’s voice she hangs up. This happens night after night. TIME magazine runs a photo of Charlotte hiding her face from the camera, the caption: “Reclusive socialite.” She writes a letter to the editor, pointing out the contradiction in terms. She tells Leonard that she never told Warren that she was leaving him, just kissed him goodbye at Idlewild Airport and said she’d be back in a week. “He’s had fifteen years,” Leonard says, “I think he’s figured it out. And by the way, you’ll leave me the exact same way.” She looks at him blankly and says, “Fourteen years. Not fifteen. Fourteen.”
Charlotte takes an afternoon nap on Marin’s bed. The white princess phone rings. It’s Warren. For some reason she doesn’t hang up. “I just heard Marin’s tape on the radio,” he says. Charlotte forces herself to be calm. “Oh, hello Warren.” “I just have one thing to say,” he continues, “Fuck Marin. I’ll be there as soon as I can figure out a flight.”
“YOU’RE SO VAIN” by CARLY SIMON PLAYS AS WE…
CUT TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE.
Photos are intended to represent approximate ages and physical types only.
No actors are involved with, or attached to this project at this time.