Rectify. From the producers of Breaking Bad. So you know you are heading in the right direction.
And then some.
I liked Breaking Bad. A lot. But I was completely blown away by Rectify. It is by far the best thing I have seen on television in a long time. At least given the frame of mind I am in “here and now”.
But here’s the thing: When I tried to explain to others why this is the case I was never quite able to really put it into words. I still can’t.
Here’s a man who may or may not be guilty of the crime he was convicted of – a crime for which he spent 19 years in prison. The brutal rape and murder of a 16 year old girl. A crime he confessed to.
But then again, for him, being in prison or out of prison: what’s the difference? Outside he’s like a fish out of water. And it’s really painful at times to see him flopping about. He seems just catatonic at times.
And Daniel it seems was a strange boy even before the crime. And he’s all the stranger now. But I like strange.
Nineteen years on death row. And now he is back in the town where the whole thing started. And here are all of these folks [some in and some out of the family] with all of these turbulent reactions. And somehow he has to reboot his life and deal with his own turbulent reactions to theirs. And this is a small town. In the deep South. So here not only does everyone have an axe to grind but sooner or later you are bound to run into them.
The story unfolds by shifting back and forth between the time Daniel was in prison and the present. And that is important because there is no way you can understand him now if you don’t truly grasp what it was like for him then. What he had to endure and how he went about enduring it.
This post encompasses season 1. Season 2 is now being aired on the Sundance Channel. Or, rather, what’s left of the Sundance Channel. Along with IFC, those fucking corporate bastards have all but gutted it.
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectify
trailer: youtu.be/Cw-TTr3sK8o
RECTIFY [2013] Season One
Created by: Ray McKinnon
Season 1 episode 1: “Always There”
[b]Ted Jr.: Sheriff still believes he was in on it. A lot of people do.
Tawney: Well, you don’t think that, do you, that he could’ve done somethin’ that horrible to her?
Ted Jr.: Well, I sure did. I mean, he was convicted. What would a rational person think all these years? Now, hell, I don’t know. I never even met the guy.
…
Ted Jr.: Come on, Tawney. What was I supposed to do? Go down to death row and introduce myself? “Hi, I’m Ted-- I’m, uh, your new stepbrother, and I’m gonna be takin’ over the business you thought would be yours one day.” I mean, why torture the guy? I hate to say it, but we all thought he’d be dead by now anyway.
…
Roland Foulkes [at press conference]: I’m just here to remind ya’ll of a few things that seem to have gotten lost in this DNA hysteria. Daniel Holden confessed to raping Hanna. He confessed to killing Hanna. Now, where I come from, we put a lot of stock in that sort of thing. And please–please, don’t-don’t report that he was exonerated. The sentence was vacated on a technicality, which sure as hell does not make him an innocent man.
…
Daniel: Over the past two decades, I have developed a strict routine, which I followed religiously, you might say, a way of living and-and thinking, or not thinking, as was often the point of, well, the point. Now, this way of being didn’t encourage the contemplation that a day like today could ever occur, or a tomorrow like tomorrow w-will be for me now. I had convinced myself that kind of optimism served no useful purpose in the world where I existed. Obviously, this radical belief system was flawed, and was, ironically, a kind of fantasy itself. At the least, I feel that those specific coping skills were best suited to the life there behind me. I doubt they will serve me so well for the life in front of me. So, I will seriously need to reconsider my world view.
…
Amantha [on the first trip to town]: Is this, like, weird?
Daniel: It’s not unweird
…
Foulkes: Just forget about the confession for a minute. He was found sitting beside the girl’s corpse, just holding her hand, speaking gibberish half the time, and the other half saying how sorry he was. He didn’t go get help. He didn’t scream out. He spent the morning gathering wildflowers to put in her hair, CJ.
…
Kerwin: “Of Human Bondage”? You want me to read a book called “Of Human Bondage”
Daniel: It’s not that kind of bondage.
Kerwin: I would hope so. Hey, will I be glad when you get past your dead white man writin’ about white Europe stage.
Daniel: I am on kind of a jag.
Kerwin: I got somethin’ I think you’ll appreciate, too. It ain’t modern times, either. It’s about black folks owning slaves in the South before the Civil War. Free men buyin’ their brothers and sisters for–Hey, man, just read the book.
Daaniel: I’m hooked already.
Kerwin: Then, I’ll give your dead Somerset Maugham a shot when you’re done. But, if it don’t grab me early, I’m settin’ it down.
…
Daniel: Well, I can’t quite get a handle on the concept of time yet. There have been moments here today where I feel like I’ve only been gone a few weeks, and I’m still in high school. But mostly, it seems like I was always there. So, you may have to tell me, mother.
Janet [mother]: Tell you?
Daniel: When it’s time for me to leave.[/b]
Season 1 episode 2: “Sexual Peeling”
[b]Amantha: There are people around here, mom, who wanna see Daniel dead, people who would do it themselves, if they thought they could get away with it. We should at least get him a cheap phone.
…
Ted Jr.: Can we be frank?
Daniel: I would hope so.
Ted Jr.: Do you plan on workin’ at the store?
Daniel: I hadn’t really thought about it, Ted.
Ted Jr.: Look, my daddy’d kill me, if he knew we were having this conversation. He’d just as soon give you the keys to the store and walk away, if that’s what you wanted. And I would, too, for that matter. Point is, there are small town politics involved here with your, uh, your ongoing situation and all. You know, some people have made up their minds about things, and there’s just nothin’ that’s ever gonna change 'em. You know, they’re just dug in. People are funny that way.
Daniel: But, not “ha-ha” funny.
…
Daniel [telling Ted Jr. about the first time he was raped in prison]: A certain element of guards were less supervised. So, it, uh, created an environment for things to occur.
Ted Jr.: Things-- what-what, uh, what kinda things?
Daniel: Encounters, I guess. Well, not by chance, more like an initiation of sorts.
Ted Jr.: Initiation?
Daniel: Yeah. Maybe it was when they first saw somethin’ akin to optimism on your face, or a bit of peace, or just that moment when you began to believe that you could survive it in some paradoxical way. I don’t know why they did it. Justification’s a slippery slope, Ted. So, one mornin’, you go off for your weekly shower, and this group of inmates with particular compulsions suddenly appear. You understand at once why they’re there, but there’s nothin’ you can do about it. You can fight it, some symbolic gesture to your manhood, but you can’t stop it. So, it happens…repeatedly. You finish your shower and get dressed. Word gets back before you do. Decent guys on the row won’t look at you now. They’re too embarrassed for ya. Then, there are the ones who, when you pass by their cells, they look at you with the basest form of curiosity, Ted, like you were some freak show, and they wanna get all their money’s worth because, more than anything, they’re aroused by another shame. You know? Then, there’s a very special group on the row who look at you with this look, like-- how can I describe it for ya, Ted, so you can really understand it? It’s like they can pull you into their cell and not just do things to ya, but literally consume you, take your breath, eat your heart, and shit you out like you were nothin’.
…
Ted Jr.: He did it.
Tawney: What?
Ted Jr.: I believe he did it. Maybe he wasn’t alone, but he was damn sure in on it.
…
Daniel [to Tawney]: I’m just so aware that most of what I draw on from inside my head are things I’ve read about. My real life experiences are actually rather narrow.
…
Daniel: The place where I was had no windows. Just these thick walls surrounded by more thick walls. So, I never knew if it was rainin’ or even heard the loudest thunder.
Tawney: It’s so sad.
Daniel: Oh, it’s-it’s not as bad as it sounds, because I-I didn’t sense things in a normal way. I didn’t miss them. If-if I couldn’t sense them, I-I-- they weren’t real to me.
Tawney: What was real to you, Daniel?
Daniel: The time in between the seconds. And my books and my friend. Now that I’m here in this world, where everything’s marked by hours, or dates, or events, I find myself in a state of constant anticipation.[/b]
Season 1 episode 3: “Modern Times”
[b]Reporter: Daniel Holden was released from prison this week How do you feel about that?
Hanna’s mother: I feel upset. Sure do.
Reporter: So, you still believe Daniel Holden is guilty?
Hanna’s mother: What? Guilty? He’s as guilty as there’s a hell waitin’ on him! Daniel Holden murdered my baby girl, and he was convicted to die. Why ain’t he dead, huh? Why ain’t you dead, Daniel Holden? Why ain’t you dead?!!
…
Foulkes: I don’t think that boy’s ever been extremely happy in his whole damn life.
Jon: That’s hard to say. He’s never really had a life.
…
Foulkes: You mind if we get real?
Jon: I always try to keep it real, senator.
Foulkes: I don’t give a rusty rat’s ass where the jizz landed. This case was airtight from the moment we pried that poor dead girl from that boy’s clammy hands.
Jon: Not so much where it landed, as whose it was. That thorny little issue’s gonna stick to you forever.
…
Mr. Gaines [Daniel’s lawyer during the trial…to Jon]: Humans don’t change that much in 50 years. Or 100, or 1,000. It’s the laws that change. The rules of civilization. We just repeat ourselves. Everybody with a part to play.
…
Mr Gaines: I had to play my part, too, to the bitter end.
Jon: Mr. Gaines, please.
Mr. Gaines: I could tell you
Jon: Tell me what?
Mr Gaines: I’m not so sure we didn’t come from goddamn monkeys. Going to nowhere. Sorry-- wish I could help ya. Just don’t let all this technology lull ya, son.
Jon: How’s that?
Mr. Gaines: Into thinking we’re in modern times. Watch yourself.
…
Jon: What the hell was that about?
Amantha: We have to go.
Jon: Well?
Amantha: That was Hanna’s brother all grown up. Little Bobby Dean. I watched Daniel go to death row. He buried his sister, and then, we went to algebra class together.[/b]
Season 1 episode 4: “Plato’s Cave”
[b]Daniel: It’s like I’ve been lookin’ at shadows on a cave wall.
Janet: As in “Plato’s Cave”?
Daniel: Yes.
Janet: I haven’t thought about that since–
Daniel: Our book report.
Janet: Well, I was more of an advisor.
Daniel: I didn’t really understand the allegory back then. But, I will say this, mother. Plato was onto somethin’.
Daniel: He was considered fairly astute.
…
Tawney: Is there a church in prison?
Daniel: There was, but I was only ever allowed visits by the chaplain.
Tawney: Oh, you’d meet with him?
Daniel: I-I would’ve met with the executioner had he stopped by.
…
Tawney: What sort of things would you talk about? I mean, with the chaplain?
Daniel: Well, Flannery O’Connor, for one, he was a big fan.
Tawney: Did you ever talk about where you think you’ll go when you die?
Daniel: It was kind of expected in the setting.
Tawney: Did he come to any conclusions?
Daniel: That it wasn’t worth pondering.
Tawney: But, of course it is. It’s what makes us human.
Daniel: I-I think what makes us human is the ability to choose to ponder or not to ponder. I-I focused more on preparing for the act itself rather than the result of the act.
Tawney: The act?
Daniel: Of dyin’, of-of-of lettin’ go.
Tawney: Why can’t you do both?
Daniel: Some do. Finding peace in-in not knowin’ seems strangely more righteous than the peace that comes from knowin’.
Tawney: Even if that knowin’ might be true? What?
Daniel: You-you make a better case than the chaplain.
Tawney: I don’t pretend to know everything, Daniel, but I care about you, and I would just hate it, if you went to Hell.
Daniel: You’re my Beatrice. From “The Divine Comedy”.
Tawney: I-I don’t know what that is.
Daniel: She was Dante’s guide, his salvation.
…
Kent: The price of steel, China, regulations all eatin’ his ass up, just like all of us. But then, last year, boom, tornado-tornado-tornado, all within a half hour of his business. He gets in on this deal. You know how much he makes? A hundred and eleven thousand dollars. And he’s just a subcontractor.
Ted Jr.: Jesus, just tornados?
Kent: Mm-hmm-- exactly. Gives subcontractors a cut. Mexicans do all the work. God willing, the creek does rise, we could be clearin’ six figures by the end of next year.
Ted Jr.: Government money?
Kent: And that tit don’t quit.
Ted Jr.: That’s exactly the damn problem, though. It’s government.
Kent: Piss on the boot, Ted. You-you gonna get mad at me for tryin’ to help you put food on your table? It’s all gone to shit. Honest pay for an honest day’s work-- that’s dead, son. The game’s rigged. Somebody’s gonna get on this gravy train. Might as well be us.
…
Tawney: I never told anyone this, not-not even Teddy, but I can see and feel God in all things.
Daniel: Like Thomas Aquinas.
Tawney: I don’t know much about him.
Daniel: He felt that God revealed himself in nature.
Tawney: Yes, yes, I-- that’s what I feel or sense.
Daniel: He believed that supernatural revelation was faith and natural revelation was reason, and the two were not contradictory, but complimentary.
…
Tawney: Could you ever accept Christ into your heart?
Daniel: I don’t think Buddha would mind making room, or Confucius. Nietzsche might grumble.
Tawney: You’re so smart.
Daniel: Not really. I’ve just spent long hours in the prison reading room.
…
Daniel: I-I’m sorry. I’m not trying to do anything. I’m just…
Tawney: No, it’s okay. Everybody needs to be held.
Daniel: It does somethin’ to ya not to be touched in any positive way for so long. You begin to vacillate between bein’ repelled by touch and seeking it out in any form, even the most negative.[/b]
Season 1 episode 5: “Drip, Drip”
[b]Kerwin: It’s weird, isn’t it?
Daniel: What is?
Kerwin: That I know exactly when I’m gonna die.
Daniel: That’s very sad, Kerwin.
Kerwin: It has its pluses. You can grieve your own death.
…
The Stranger [to Daniel]: There she blows. Somebody made that up. It’s the beauty that hurts you most, son, not the ugly.
…
The Stranger [handing Daniel a wad of cash]: Hey! You did me a solid. It’s yours.
Daniel: I don’t want any.
The Stranger: You can’t get nowhere in this world without money.
Daniel: Hey. Are you real?
The Stranger: Am I real?
[The Stranger laughs maniacally]
The stranger: I want some of what you’re takin’.
[he drives off]
…
Tawney: I believe there’s been a miracle, a real miracle. It was the most beautiful thing, Teddy. It strengthened my faith.
Ted Jr.: What happened?
Tawney: Daniel’s gonna be saved.
Ted Jr.: What…?
…
Ted Jr.: S-so, you invited him to our church?
Tawney: Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do as Christians?
Ted Jr.: Well, of course, it is, Tawney. But, I mean, our church? Honey, they’re practically the last group that buys tires from us.
Tawney: Well, that’s not gonna stop.
Ted Jr.: What? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Tawney: What doesn’t?
Ted Jr.: I mean, look, the Holdens have never been religious people. I mean, none of 'em. And I’m pretty sure Amantha’s a full-blown atheist, and if she does believe in God, she probably hates his guts.
…
Ted Jr.: I think you see the good in everybody you meet, Tawney. But, I’m here to tell you not all people are good. I know good, decent people, people I’ve known my whole life, people I would trust my own children with, that believe in their hearts that he is a cold-blooded killer. And you can’t dismiss that just because you don’t want it to be true. Now, look, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Okay? For you, for mom, for dad, Jared, hell, even Amantha. All I’m saying, is for him to be on death row all those years, knowing what was facing him, and he didn’t do nothin’ to get right with the Lord, and then he gets out, and in six days, he gets testified to by some pretty, young woman and all of a sudden, he’s filled with the spirit! I’m sorry, but that seems pretty damn suspicious to me.
…
Amantha: Daniel, we think that you should consider holding off - going through with the…
Daniel: Being saved?
Amantha: Maybe you should sleep on it. Have you been gettin’ much sleep?
Daniel: Can you guarantee I’ll be here?
Amantha: What do you mean?
Daniel: It could happen at any time.
Amantha: What could?
Daniel: Anything–anything could happen at any time. Oh and now, I don’t have time.
Amantha: Time? Daniel? Daniel, please?
Daniel: Please what? Please be the way you want me to be?
Amantha: No. I just want you to be happy.
Daniel: I will be happy. When I’m cleansed, I will be happy.
Amantha: But, Daniel…
Daniel [becoming ever more distraught]: I’m not even sure if I’m alive!
…
Tawney [after Ganiel is baptized]: God is releasing your pain.
Daniel: Where does it go?
Tawney: He takes it.
Daniel: You make me so happy, Tawney.
Tawney: It’s Jesus who makes you happy, not me.
Daniel: What? You know, the goat man told me it’s the beauty, not the ugly, that hurts the most.
Tawney: The goat man?
Daniel: I was with him today. We-we walked, and we gathered all the goats together. And there was this girl, and she had a head of another girl in her hands, and-- but, she had a goat’s body. And that was after I-I’d gone to her window.
Tawney: Whose window?
Daniel: And we wrestled. I knew I was wrestling with myself. And he could’ve won. He had me, but he helped me up, and we walked together. And the tall man at the store led me back-- back to my father.
Tawney [increasingly perplexed]: To your father?
Daniel: To Ted’s, back to Ted’s, and to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and-and finally, back here to you.
…
Daniel [to Tawney]: Maybe there is a God…
…
Ted Jr.: Cut the shit, buddy. It’s me you’re talkin’ to. I don’t buy your lost soul lie for a minute. You didn’t wanna get right with God. You wanted to get right with my wife, right in bed with her.
Daniel: No-- no-- that’s not true.
Ted Jr.: Listen. You want a piece of ass? Then you go pick up some skank at the bar, but you stay the hell away from my Tawney. You hear me? She’s out of bounds, off limits. Is that clear enough?
Daniel: Yes. I-I shouldn’t be around her.
Ted Jr.: Hell, I’m not sure you should be around anybody. Stay the hell away from me while you’re at it.[/b]
Season 1 episode 6: “Jacob’s Ladder”
[b][Jon is listening to the tape of Daniel’s interrogation]
Cop: What’d you do after you strangled her?
Daniel: I, um, I went and got some flowers. Wildflowers. Jacob’s ladder.
Cop: Come again?
Daniel: It’s a wildflower.
Cop: And then, what did you do?
Daniel: I-I put the flowers in her hair.
Cop: Was she naked?
Daniel: Um, yeah, she was naked.
Cop: And how did she get unclothed?
Daniel: Uh, I had taken her clothes off. Before I raped her.
Cop: What’d you do then, Daniel?
Daniel: I sat with her. I sat with her and held her hand.
Cop: Why’d you hold her hand, son?
Daniel: Didn’t seem right to leave her alone.
Cop: Why not?
Daniel: She seemed so real.
Cop: Real? What do you mean, “real?”
Daniel: Alive.
…
Jon: I think either you move back to Atlanta, or let’s get you a gun, if you’re gonna stay here in this place.
Amantha: Jon…
Jon: No, and don’t tell me that you’ve dealt with this before, because you haven’t dealt with this before, Amantha. You were 12 years old. You were living with your parents. Daniel was already in jail and on his way to death row. That’s what kept the bad guys at bay back then, not you!
…
Daniel: You know, just not used to contemplating all the variables one might encounter. I mean, there were variables inside prison, but wasn’t like out here, where it’s…you know, and if you don’t have the-the years of experiences. The–there isn’t the-the repetition of everyday living to make things mundane. Because-because mundane is-is calming and soothing. Mundane isn’t out of the ordinary. And when everything is out of the ordinary… it can be too much sometimes, you know? Like finding you behind this door, when I-I didn’t even consider there could be somebody else behind this door, but my sister. You know, your-your mind puts it together, of course. But, I mean, even just the door opening is still very unreal. Does that make sense?
Jon: Of course. Daniel, it does.
…
Daniel: Do you think I could ever make it out here, really?
Amantha: Of course you can, and you will.
Daniel: I don’t believe in anything.
Amantha: Well, what about me, and mom, and your new brother?
Daniel: I’ve caused you all so much pain.
Amantha: No, Danny. They caused us all so much pain.
…
Amantha: I love you.
Daniel: I love you too.
[they both start to sob]
Daniel: We’re a leaky family.
…
Kerwin [on his way to be executed he stops at Daniel’s cell]: Look at me. Look at me, brother. Daniel? I know you didn’t do it.
Daniel: How do you know?
Kerwin: Because I know ya. Because I know ya. Because I know ya.
Guard: We have to go.
Kerwin: Bye, brother.
…
[Tawney listens to a message from Daniel on her phone]
Daniel: Hello, Tawney. I just wanted to let you know that I’m doin’ okay. Doing better, and-and I hope you’re doing okay, and Ted. I’m going away for a while, to get better or different. That’s all. Good-bye.[/b]"