How i Died S3 E04: Quod Erat Demonstrata

Transcript: How i Died S3 E04: Quod Erat Demonstrata

This transcript is adapted from the episode’s original script, so the final audio may differ slightly.

INT. ER – NIGHT

[Jon enters through the ER doors. He's assaulted with familiar sounds of a bustling emergency room. Raaj walks by.]

Raaj: Jon! Late night surgery?

Jon: Hey Raaj; I'm not back at the hospital, but I am picking up bodies for Stiffs'.

Raaj: Ohh, shit. That's right. Bummer.

Jon: I was paged to the ER for pickup. Any idea where?

Raaj: Ah. Yeah… Nearly DOA when we dropped her off. I don't know where they took her though.

Jon: Thanks. I'll figure it out.

[Jon wanders around the ER for a few seconds, looking behind curtains for a sheet-covered-gurney. He throws back a curtain.]

Patient: Hey!

Jon: Sorry!

[Amelia finds him.]

Amelia: Jon.

[He spins around.]

Jon: H-hey Amelia… look, I know you said I shouldn't come through–

Amelia: We moved the body to the morgue downstairs to make it easier for you.

Jon: Oh, so you knew that I was picking up…

Amelia: Howard told me when I called.

Jon: Got it. So I'm just going to…

Amelia: This was a pretty smart thing you did.

Jon: What do you mean?

Amelia: The new job. (beat) You look good. Happy.

Jon: I wouldn't say happy, but… If you have a minute, would you want to walk and t–

[The ER doors bust open behind him.]

Raaj: (in the distance) We've got a GSW, massive bleeding–

Amelia: Gotta go.

Jon: Oh, yeah, sure. Hey, I appreciate you…

[She runs off.]

Jon: Being… civil… Right.

INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY – NIGHT

[Jon is walking down the hall. He spots Crowley by the morgue door.]

Jon: Crowley? What are you doing here?

Crowley: Waiting for you.

Jon: Why? (whispering) Shouldn't we only be meeting in secret?

Crowley: Knock it off. This isn't a meeting.

Jon: Then why are you waiting for me outside the morgue?

Crowley: Because I can't have you going in there.

Jon: Ha. Nice try. I need to pick up a body; the ER called.

Crowley: I know. But I only found out after. And you can't go in.

Jon: Seriously. Let's go in.

[He tries to push past her. There's a shuffle and some jingling as she pushes him back.]

Crowley: Don't you fucking–

Jon: What the hell Crowley? What gives?

Crowley: You can't just listen to me and not ask questions? Just this once?

Jon: Do you know me at all?

Crowley: Fuck. (beat) We found a new purple body.

[Jon starts pushing into the morgue again. Crowley stops him.]

Crowley: Will you just– Stop it! I can't have you in there during this.

Jon: That's exactly where I need to be.

Crowley: First of all, you're not a doctor here anymore. And I'm trying to put together a case we can use in court. Do you know how it would look if I just let a random civilian inside of a homicide investigation autopsy?

Jon: I'm not a random person though. We're working together on this.

Crowley: Not on paper. Not yet at least. I can't have any of this getting found out before we take it to Grant.

Jon: I told you we should've had this conversation in private.

Crowley: We shouldn't have this conversation at all. Just go wait in the bay and I'll have Nathan bring the body up to you.

Jon: I still have my job to do. I won't touch anything, so officially I can still go inside the morgue. I won't even act like I know what's in there.

Crowley: Somehow, I don't believe that.

Jon: Come on. Letting me in will help.

Crowley: How? You're going to just magically get information by osmosis now?

Jon: Something like that. Now let me in!

[Jon pushes forward again. This time, Crowley lets him through. He opens the door. She doesn't follow.]

INT. MORGUE – NIGHT

[Jon enters the morgue. Klark is thrown off by him.]

Klark: Doctor Spacer? I– Have you talked to Fran?

Jon: Haven't seen her. Why?

Klark: No… no reason. You're here for a body.

Jon: The one on the table? Under the sheet?

Klark: No, actually. This one. All set for you. Here you go.

Jon: Don't I need to sign for it?

Klark: Yes. Absolutely; good reminder.

[Klark hands Jon the chart. Jon takes it.]

Jon: Are you alright doctor Klark? You seem a little… thrown off.

Klark: I'm fine, ha. Just a little bit of an off day.

Jon: I'm sure. Well… This job can be tough on the psyche; take it from me. Don't let it get to you.

[He pats Dr. Klark.]

Klark: (curt) Hmm, well.

Jon: Say, I think I left something of mine in the office before I got fired. Do you mind if I just…

[Jon starts walking further in.]

Klark: Doctor Spacer, I'd really prefer if you just took the gurney and left. I have to get back to an important autopsy.

Levant: Doctor Spacer, huh?

[Jon notices the ghost near the body.]

Jon: Yes. Yeah, of course. I'll step outside.

[Jon signs the chart.]

Klark: Thank you.

Jon: Here's the form.

[Levant comes closer, going with Jon.]

Levant: You're just the man I was looking for, you know that?

[Jon pushes the gurney out of the morgue.]

Jon: (whispering) How do you know me?

Levant: Why, we spoke on the phone, of course. My name is Maureen Levant.

[The door slams shut behind him.]

INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY – NIGHT

[Jon is just standing there.]

Crowley: Spacer?

Levant: Are we just going to stand here?

Crowley: Helloooo? What did you see in there?

Jon: Who is this body?

[He unzips the body bag.]

Crowley: What the fuck are you doing?

Jon: It's–

Levant: Not me, dear.

Jon: Then that means…

Levant: Oh yes. I was most certainly the other body in there.

Crowley: What in the hell are you doing? Close that up.

[Crowley re-zips the bag.]

Crowley: Get it together. What did you tell Klark?

Jon: Crowley, I need you to trust me.

Crowley: With what?

Levant: Ah Sheriff Crowley, right? Poor girl.

Jon: I need you to call me on your cell. Right now.

[Jon starts pulling out his cell.]

Crowley: What the fuck are you on about?

Jon: I'll call you. Just answer. Put me on speaker and then I'll mute myself.

Levant: Interesting. I was told you weren't allowed to practice any more. Seems like you didn't really need to in the first place, did you?

[Crowley's phone starts ringing. Jon motions toward her.]

Jon: Answer it!

[She pulls it out. It creates that weird feedback sound until Jon mutes himself.]

Jon: I'm muted. Put it on speaker and then put it in your pocket.

Crowley: I am not risking this case just so you–

Jon: Crowley! I need to know exactly what Klark finds in there–

Crowley: And I'll relay it to you tomorrow.

Jon: I need word for word. As he discovers things. What if he's covering something up for Kim?

Crowley: For fuck's sake, Spacer.

Jon: Please, Crowley. You have to trust me.

Crowley: No. This is idiotic and incredibly- –

Jon: The victim is Maureen Levant. She's an employee of Springfield Corp.

Levant: Aww, so you do remember me. (to self) Although "employee" is sort of a underplaying it, but still…

Jon: The real one. The one that's still active.

Crowley: How could you possibly know that?

Jon: I just do. And I think this case might give us the info we need… I need you to do this. Please. Trust me.

[Crowley waits. She grunts, annoyed.]

Crowley: My finger will be inside my pocket, hovering over that End Call button. If I so much as hear a peep from you, I swear…

Jon: Cross my heart. I won't unmute. I just need to hear this.

[She groans.]

Crowley: Fine. Go… wait in your car or something. Fuck.

[She goes inside the morgue.]

Levant: Smart.

Jon: I have so many questions for you.

[Jon starts pushing the gurney.]

Levant: I have some for you as well. Namely, did you always know you could see the dead, or am I just lucky? Or rather… unlucky. Perhaps both.

Jon: So you know you're dead?

Levant: I would hope so. Or what I was just having done to my body is really going to hurt in the morning.

Jon: No; you're definitely dead, it's just that–

Klark (O.S.): There you are. Did you catch Jon?

Crowley (O.S.): I did… You didn't let him see the body did you?

Klark (O.S.): Of course not.

Crowley (O.S.): Good. Let's get started then.

Jon: I need to listen to this.

Levant: Sure; sure. Who wants to listen to the ghost explain what happened when you can listen to a clumsy autopsy through a muffled speaker. I mean, I'll just fuck off right now, eh?

Klark (O.S.): Jane Doe number 34. Doctor Nathan Klark and Sheriff Fran Crowley present for autopsy.

Jon: No, I need to talk to you, too.

[Jon presses the maintenance elevator button.]

Levant: You sure you've got reception on this elevator?

[Jon pushes the gurney on. The doors close.]

INT. ELEVATOR – NIGHT

[Jon waits a moment, barely able to hear the phone over the hum of the elevator. Finally, he hears Klark again. He sighs in relief.]

Klark (O.S.): Sorry sheriff. I don't usually talk during these unless there's a note to make.

Jon: Phew.

Levant: Close one.

Crowley (O.S.): All good. You have Spacer's notes about the previous victims?

Klark (O.S.): I do. But we don't know that this body is connected. We should be going in with an open mind for discovery of the evidence presented, not coloring it by assuming it's a pattern.

Levant: A pattern, eh? I'm not the first victim to die this way?

Jon: No. And Klark is being dumb. Your body is purple for fuck's sake.

Crowley (O.S.): The victim's body is purple for shit's sake.

Jon: Heh.

Levant: This is fun. We're having fun, right?

Jon: Sorry; just… What happened to you? Do you remember?

[The doors open. He pushes the gurney out.]

INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY – NIGHT

Klark (O.S.): Beginning external exam. If you want to look, please don't touch anything.

Levant: Oh nothing out of the ordinary. You called me, looking for top secret information, then I came here to find you, and now I'm dead. That's a pretty typical Tuesday for me.

Jon: It's Thursday.

Levant: Seems I've lost some time then, eh?

Jon: Do you know who killed you? Was it a doctor?

Levant: Ah ah. Quid pro quo, Clarice. You asked me a question and now it's my turn.

Jon: We don't have time to play a game.

Levant: Sure we do! I've got all the time in the world. If you don't want to play, I can wait. Or float my way back to Springfield Corp. HQ and I'm sure they can answer my queries.

Jon: They won't be able to see you.

Levant: Oh pish-tosh. I'm sure someone would figure something out.

Klark (O.S.): I'm seeing some track marks on the arms here.

Crowley (O.S.): I saw that. There's more by her toes.

Klark (O.S.): Good catch. I wonder why the toes…

Crowley (O.S.): Maybe she was a user. Could those be old?

Jon: Fine. What do you want to know? Why I was looking into Springfield Corp.?

Levant: Of course not. I know that already — you thought we were hiding something to do with this town. We weren't; everyone here knows.

Jon: Knows what?

Klark (O.S.): Those marks look to be about the same age as the ones on her arms.

Levant: It's my turn, thank you very much. (beat) When did you start seeing ghosts? After you arrived here?

Jon: No. Since I was a kid.

Levant: And when was that? What age; what year? (beat) I'll give you two questions next. Just answer me!

Jon: I remember my first ghost around age four. My mom thought I had an imaginary friend.

Jon: So did I for a while, until I realized what was going on.

Levant: What year? What city?

Jon: '93 in Baltimore. And you owe me a bunch of answers now.

Levant: That means you were…

[Jon opens the maintenance bay door, exiting.]

EXT. SIDE OF HOSPITAL – NIGHT

Klark (O.S.): There's a contusion on the side of her head, here.

Crowley (O.S.): Enough to kill her?

Jon: Did you see who grabbed you, or where they took you?

Klark (O.S.): No. This isn't blunt force trauma. It looks like a bruise. Maybe a small impact.

Crowley (O.S.): You can see a bruise through the rest of the purple skin?

Levant: Hardly. Bastard got me from behind. One pinch and I was out. Woke up who knows how much later, strapped to a table.

Jon: A table?

Klark (O.S.): Here; look. A small puncture on the side of her neck, right by the jugular vein.

Crowley (O.S.): Another track mark?

Klark (O.S.): No; smaller. This one appears to have healed, too.

Jon: Someone drugged you. The bruise must've been from hitting your head.

Crowley (O.S.): Someone drugged her. She collapsed and hit the ground.

Klark (O.S.): I can certainly test for substances, but we'll like be unable to confirm that.

Crowley (O.S.): Can you get a sample off the impact wound? Maybe we can track where she got attacked.

Jon: That's a good point. Why were you even here? In Springfield.

Levant: I was ordered to come. Seems you'd caused quite the stir around here.

Jon: You were here for me?

Levant: Of course.

Jon: Why? Wait, ask me a damn question so we can keep going.

Levant: I'm good. I got everything I needed.

Jon: That was it?

Crowley (O.S.): Do you think you'll be able to ID her?

Klark (O.S.): Possibly with a DNA match if she's in the system. If not, maybe some other identifiable markers. Anyone reported missing?

Crowley (O.S.): Sure. Twenty, thirty people at any given time. But none matching her description.

Levant: Mhm. I'd rather observe at this point. I'm a scientist, Jon, and you're purely fascinating. Well, now that I know what you can do at least. Before that you were pretty boring if I'm being honest. In hindsight, it would've been a shame to kill you, given your…

Jon: Kill me? You were here to kill me?!

Levant: Well don't act like it's such a damn surprise! A company's got to protect its assets! And you mentioned the "B"-word, which I'm now assuming you learned from a ghost here, which means no one talked. Good for them; real shame for this situation though. Someone should come study you instead. Can I pass a message along in this state?

Jon: I knew I found some connection! I need to tell Crowley. I can't believe you were coming to kill me…

Klark (O.S.): Beginning internal exam.

[There's faint cutting sound in the background, until a buzz saw picks up a few moments later.]

Jon: That means… they stopped you… Did Joy know you were coming for me?

Levant: Who on God's flat Earth is Joy?

Jon: The person who attacked you. Maybe you didn't get a good look at them… Did you hear them talk?

Levant: I was high as a fucking kite, Jon. And let me tell you, I've been glonky before, but never like that. Whatever they had me on was quite the concoction.

Jon: So you didn't see them?

Levant: No, Jon. I didn't see them. I didn't hear them; didn't feel them; taste them; nothing. The lights themselves were so blinding I could barely see even before they eclipsed me.

Klark (O.S.): The internal organs seem to be degraded…

Crowley (O.S.): Just like the other victims…

Jon: They what?

Levant: Eclipsed me. Overshadowed. Cast a shadow over me as they learned. Surely you can pick up on context clues.

Jon: I'm trying to solve a series of murders. I'd rather you just speak English than have to rely on context clues.

Levant: I am speaking English, and quod erat demonstrata, my boy.

Jon: You know what I mean. Is there nothing else you can remember? Anything at all.

Levant: If you're able to do this, and presumably have spoken to the other victims, how has this killer eluded you and your… very competent police force for so long?

Jon: It wasn't until recently that we even knew for sure that someone was killing people.

Levant: And you can't glean any other information from my fellow ghosts, eh? Nothing useable?

Jon: The killer's MO is the same each time. Some sort of abduction followed by experimentation with a deadly mixture of injections. Your organs and blood vessels start to perforate. Except in a few cases, the ghosts have retained something left over from being alive. You don't feel any pain or have any sensations, do you?

Levant: I don't think so. (beat) Actually… Yes. Something odd just occurred to me — a smell that sent my memory back there.

Jon: You… smelled the killer?

Levant: Olfactory is the strongest memory- triggering sense, you Neanderthal.

Jon: You ran through the rest of your senses, but you didn't mention the smell!

Levant: Well I didn't smell my kidnapper. I smelled… the place. And at first I thought it was just hospitals that smelled like this. But we've been outside for quite some time now and it's the only thing I can smell — bleach.

Jon: Bleach.

Levant: Oh boy, your energy is a fun one. Do you ever get excited by anything? I'm a ghost telling you that I can still smell! Good lord.

Jon: Bleach isn't a very helpful smell, especially if they've been doing this for a while. Bleach is used to clean up… anything. Disinfect an area, especially when dealing with blood and other chemicals. It could be anywhere.

Levant: (mocking) Bleach isn't a helpful smell, Maureen. Haven't you got a stronger detail to give me, Maureen?!

Klark (O.S.): I found something.

Jon: Shhh. Shut up.

Levant: I wasn't saying anything. I mean I could, though. You know I do love to talk.

Crowley (O.S.): What is that?

Klark: I… I have no…

[There's gross fluid sounds as Klark pulls something out of the body.]

Crowley (O.S.): Is that a…

Klark (O.S.): An audio tape?

Jon: Oh shit…

Levant: That's disturbing. Glad I'm not there to see whatever they pulled out of me.

Jon: Shit. Shit!

[Jon starts panicking and pacing.]

Crowley (O.S.): Bag it off to the side. We'll have a tech analyze what's on it.

Klark (O.S.): Did she swallow this, or was it put inside her?

Crowley (O.S.): Guess you've got a long night ahead of you.

Levant: Why are you pacing? It wasn't shoved inside of you!

Jon: I know what that is.

Levant: Another special gift of yours? Maybe I haven't finished asking my questions.

Klark (O.S.): I'm not seeing any scarring on the esophagus…

Crowley (O.S.): So no swallowing it…

Jon: No. I'm just 99% sure because I've… I've been getting tapes from the killer.

Jon: My own autopsy tapes, re-recorded over with messages back and forth.

Levant: So you've been communicating with a serial killer. How fantastical. And, they were the one who killed me, eh? You sure you didn't ask them to?

Jon: Of course not. I'm trying to stop them. But if they killed you… they must've known who you were or why you were here. Who ordered you to come?

Crowley (O.S.): What about inserting it? Wouldn't they have to cut her open to… ummm….

Levant: Ordered is such a strong word. More like I was asked to sort out a situation thanks to my skills in diplomacy, any my cheery demeanor.

Jon: Come on. Who?

Klark (O.S.): Not if they went…

Levant: You know, I'd really rather not know where they found that tape now.

Jon: Levant… who called you about me?

Levant: Well, after you called me, I decided to keep an eye. It wasn't until I got another call from a fellow… worried onlooking. You might know them, actually. A lawyer here who used to help represent Springfield Corp. In some legal battles back in the day. But of course it's been so long that he's been promoted.

Levant: I just can't remember what title of office he holds now…

Jon: District Attorney… Grant?

Levant: Oh you do know William then.

Crowley (O.S.): I'm going to step outside for a moment.

Jon: Double shit. Today just keeps getting worse.

Levant: Tell me about it.

[There's a muffle from the phone. Crowley talks through it, suggesting she's outside of the morgue.]

Crowley (O.S.): Spacer, are you still there? Are you hearing this?

[Jon pulls out his phone and hangs up.]

Levant: No more need for the insider information?

Jon: I can't talk to her now… She…

Levant: She doesn't know about your little tet-ah-tet with this Joy person, huh? Keeping a little piece on the side, eh?

Jon: She can't know. Not yet.

[Jon starts pushing the gurney toward his car.]

Levant: Where are we headed now then?

Jon: The woods.

Levant: Oh good. Love the woods.