A Girl Named Jo (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Stand by Me - full transcript

(intense melody playing)

- [Jo] Previously on A Girl Named Jo,

- Listen, next week's my
family's annual garden party.

Come, we'll sneak into my dad's office

and see what turns up.

He keeps everything in here.

- What's that?

- The letter we found in my dad's office.

We both know our love is wrong,

but understand this love is the only right

I've ever felt.



Love, F.H.

Sure isn't my father's handwriting.

Just one day of investigating my mother,

then I promise we'll go
back to finding yours.

- [Jo] Fred Holstein.

- Hey!

- Jo, I forgot to tell you,

please don't kill me.

- What is he doing here?

- Thank you, again, for inviting me.

- Brave of you to come here.

- There's actually something I wanted

to talk to you about.

- You should know, I don't
go on dates with boys.



- Ginny!

- Oh! Franklin Hoover!

- How many F.H.'s could there
possibly be in one town?

- It's that chambers girl.

- She's a bad influence.

- [Cathy] It's not her, it's me.

- Everyone give a round of applause

for the biggest phony in
Attaway, Virginia Fitzroy.

- [Jo] There's probably
a perfectly logical

explanation for this.

- [Cathy] Look, maybe
it's not even your mom.

I mean, the picture's really blurry.

- [Jo] It's my mom, Cathy.

- [Elderly Cathy] Jo
and I should have known

that when you bring back ghosts,

somebody's bound to get spooked.

(loud slam)

(intense music)

(hanger clangs)

(cup clinks)

- Allen!

(tired sighs)

Thanks for the coffee.

Must've fell asleep
watching Johnny Carson.

- Yeah, well, better get going.

(sniffles)

(door slams)

♪ I know her name is Jo ♪

♪ Her last name, I don't know ♪

♪ When I close my eyes, I'll visualize ♪

♪ Little girl named Jo ♪

- I'm coming, Junior!

I forgot my lunch.

(bag crinkles)

- What? What is this?

- Why were you going through my stuff?

- I thought it was a school project,

okay, but this, it looks like-

- It looks like mom.

Because it is mom from after the fire.

- What're you trying to say?

Jo, your mother is not alive.

- How would you know?

You thought she died in the fire.

- What, after all these years
she never wanted to reach out?

- Maybe she's in trouble?

Maybe she got injured
and couldn't find us.

Like, the dad, from A Little Princess.

- That was the Shirley Temple movie.

In the book, the dad really is dead.

- [Junior] Jo, c'mon we're
gonna be late for school.

- Jo, there's an explanation for this.

I promise, but please don't
go digging in the past.

- I thought you'd be
different from everybody else.

But no one's on our side.

- Our side?

- Gotta go.

(upbeat rock music playing)

- Still 102. I knew you should be playing

around in the park at night

with your feeble constitution.

- Can I watch tv?

- It's bad for your eyes.

I'm going to lunch in Crown Lake.

Try to sleep.

- I'm not tired.

- Then read a book.

- Six students from the student body

will be elected to the Phoenix Court,

the princes and princesses of Attaway,

then at the dance we'll
announce the king and queen.

- Late again, Miss Chambers.

That's another demerit.

Any questions, class?

- How do we know your not
stuffing the ballot box

to get yourself elected?

- Mrs. Jenkins is tallying
the ballots herself,

you'll have to fill them out by noon

at our office by the library.

You know where that is right, Alice?

- Bobby, you gave seat
four's tuna melt to seat two.

- Oh, sorry, I'll go-

- No, no, no I fixed it.

Seems like you just do the exact opposite

of anything I ask.

(exhales)

- I get the feeling we're not talking

about tuna melts here.

- They're my kids,

they're all I have in the world.

You come waltzing in from outta town

after how many years-

- Wait, is this about tryouts?

I was just trying to be helpful.

Junior should be out in
the world making friends,

not cooped up back here all day working.

- I'm trying to teach him

to make responsible choices.

- Are you ever going to forgive me?

- Seat three needs ketchup.

- Have you spoken to your mom?

- I'm not speaking to her

and she's not even acknowledging me.

- I'm sorry.

- I'm not.

- Well, Uncle Bobby saw the photo.

- How?!

- I had a Xerox in my bag.

- Hey!

What?

- [Together] Nothing!

- Okay, then what were you
two just talking about?

- Math homework.

- Phoenix Fest.

- Okay. You think I'm stupid?

F.H., the secret rendezvous
in Ms. Jenkins office?

Just tell me. I have something
I need to tell you, too.

- Fine.

- But you can't tell anyone.

- So, here's the story.

(funky music playing)

(sniffs)

(exhales)

- Mrs. Jo Fitzroy, Mr. Ray Chambers.

Oh! Juicy.

- Then, she attacked her mom.

Claws out, red face, spit flying.

- Oh my goodness!

- How unattractive!

- If you ask me, she's too unstable

to be planning Phoenix Fest.

- She won't get my vote.

(scoffs)

- She better not! I mean, even Betty

would be more fit for queen than Cathy.

- So what do we do?

- Well, I've been thinking.

- Jo's uncle found the
photo copy this morning

and that's that.

- Okay.

- Okay?

- Okay.

- Jo, at the party, I
said there was something

I needed to tell you.

It's this.

- I don't understand.

Does Lenny Alvarez work for your parents?

- This is a personal check.

How'd you get this?

- Came in the mail this morning.

- So you went digging in
Lenny's trash without us?!

- Can't be.

- What?

What, what can't be?

- I wasn't always Allen Powell.

That's my mom's name.

I was born Allen Alvarez.

Lenny is my father.

- I could've sworn that you just...

Your dad killed my mom.

- Jo, he's innocent. That's
why I came back here,

to prove it.

This photo could be the key.

- This whole time, you following me,

it's because you're Lenny's son.

- It was like that, and
then I got to know you.

- How could I be so stupid?

- At least hear him out, Jo.

- You said it yourself,

nothing that happened that day,

could be taken at face value.

Can't that be applied to my family, too?

- We can't blame him for
his father's mistakes.

If anyone should understand that, it's us.

- So you're on his side?

- I'm not on anyone's side!

- You don't get it.

You've never had to deal with anything

in your entire life.

- That's not fair.

- Maybe people like you can pay their way

out of their problems.

- It's not my fault your
dad works a blue collar job.

- Yeah, poor penniless Jo Chambers.

- That's not what I said.

- Same old Cathy Fitzroy.

Spoiled, spineless, and meek.

Cathy needs a boy, or her mommy, or me

to tell her what to do.

Well here's my last order:

leave me alone.

(dramatic music)

- It would be so swell to be on the Court.

- Forget about that,

we've got the big Millwood
game to worry about.

- You boys only care about sports!

(announcement bell chimes)

- Children, this is Miss Jenkins.

We've tallied the votes!

This year's Miss Phoenix
Fest Court is as follows:

Derrick Snyder, Melanie
McLaughlin, Alice Hargrove,

Laurence DuPot the Third,
Thomas "Junior" Chambers,

and Cathy Fitzroy.

Your king and queen will be
announced at Phoenix Fest.

Thank you!

(announcement bell chimes)

(gloomy music playing)

(net swishes)

- Nice job, Junior.

You're gonna be our
secret weapon in the game.

- Screw these Chambers kids.

They don't know their place in this town.

- They've positively infected poor Cathy.

She made a big deal about
running Phoenix Fest,

now she and that raggedy Ann Jo

have totally ditched
the last few meetings.

- What're you trying to say?

- That maybe your moves are best served

at the diner.

- I don't think you
wanna do this right now.

- Try me.

- [Coach] Gentlemen!

- Forget this.

- I feel like we're betraying Jo.

- We're helping Jo.

My dad's innocent, and the truth

will set him free.

(door clicks open)

Let's go to my room.

- Whoa, I thought this
was our investigation.

- If I had known you were
working the same case,

we could have combined forces.

(silverware clinks)

- Bobby!

(sigh)

I'm so glad you're back.

Okay, so Allen is Lenny's son,

and I showed him the picture of mom

and that's when Cathy and him-

Dad, I'm sorry. I can explain.

- No, I think it's time for me to.

Your Uncle Bobby, he told
me what you've been up to.

- (under her breath) Thanks a lot, Uncle.

- It's not your Uncle
Bobby's fault. It's mine.

Look, there are things that I need

to explain to you.

- Like what mom was
doing outside the factory

after the fire?

- Your mom died in the fire, Jo.

- She was outside.

- She made it outside alive.

But then she went back in.

Jo, she went back inside
to save another woman,

who was trapped.

Look, it's hard for me to
talk about your mom, Jo.

That's why I don't do it much.

And I see now that that was my mistake.

I'm sorry, it's just me most of the time.

Not your Uncle Bobby.

There are things that I
just don't know how to do.

- Dad, you really don't have to apologize.

- Look, all the same,

I'm sorry for everything.

- These were all I could
recovery from the Attaway Times.

If you look at this picture,
you can see Jo's mother.

It looks exactly like the
picture Mrs. Jenkins gave me.

- Well, look closer.
That's the last person

to ever talk to her.

Look at her hand.

- She's wearing a ring.

- Which looks exactly like-

- That woman's ring.

- Fiona Hovac? I thought
her name was Jane Hovac.

- Jane was the other woman
who died in the fire,

but the lady standing next
to Frances isn't Jane,

that's Jane's mother, Fiona Hovac.

- Do you think there's a chance

she could still be alive?

- Only one way to find out.

(mysterious music playing)

(upbeat melody)