Black Earth Rising (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - The Eyes of the Devil - full transcript

BLAKE GAINES: This is a problem for you?

Not for me, Blake,
but it clearly is for them.

And they pay the bills,
or at least their church does.

Then have them speak to my clerk.

It's your bonus.

- You don't think I deserve it?
- A fee of this size...

...who does?

Me.

For the work I do for you.

Ordinary mortals
would never have to work again.

Ordinary mortals
wouldn't touch this case.



We are all ordinary mortals
in the eyes of the Lord.

Yeah, well, the Lord doesn't pay my bills.

And nor will we.

If I decide to sue you,
it won't matter how many church fétes

you have under whatever tin roof it is
you come from,

there won't be enough beady bracelets
in the whole of the fucking Congo

to pay for your defence.

- Just as I thought.
- What did you think?

I am looking into the eyes of a devil.

No. That was me.

Last time I met with your client.

And trust me, when I look into
the soul of things, I look deep,

and I did not like what I saw.

In him?



Or you?

Pay the piper, Padre.

Or I'lIL pipe the rats right back.

Actually...

...I'm a pastor.

Yeah?

Then go boil some milk.

See you, fellas.

(VOMITS)

(CONTINUES VOMITING)

(GASPS)

(WHEEZES)

KATE: I wasn't supposed to be here.

My mother was due
to talk with you today.

But instead you've got me.

My mother wanted two things for me.

First, to defeat the evil
that had touched me, and, second,

for that evil to see me grow stronger than
it could ever have imagined possible.

When I came here as a student,

it wasn't a thirst for knowledge
that drove me,

or revenge, or anger,

or even gratitude for
the marvellous generosity of others.

No.

The only thing that drove me was fear.

Fear...

...that whatever it was I had escaped from
would catch up

and devour me the moment I stopped.

So Ididn't.

I pushed on,

higher, faster, further.

Until two years ago,
when I came to an abrupt full stop.

Self-inflicted.

Because that's when I realised...

...that it doesn't matter

how far you think you've gone

or who tries to help you get there.

I could never outrun

what was chasing me.

Never.

Because once you've been
touched by evil...

...it never lets go.

It worms its way inside of you...

...sits there...

...grows there...

...until the day you suddenly realise

that the thing you're most afraid
of being caught by...

...it's already there...

...right in the heart...

...of you.

And nothing you can do
will ever defeat it.

I'm sorry about that.

(FAINT COUGH FROM AUDIENCE)

SAMSON: Mr Gaines, sir! I am so sorry.
They... They... They just told me.

I would have brought the car
around the front.

BLAKE: It's all right.
I just decided to call it a day.

SAMSON: A weekend?

BLAKE: Oh, yeah, so it is.

SAMSON: So, where to, sir?

BLAKE: Why do I have so many houses,
Samson?

SAMSON: Because you are a rich man, sir.

BLAKE: Mmm.

If I had a man who loved me,
that'd be the only home I'd need.

I've shocked you.

Really?

Hm. You'll get used to it.

"What does it profit a man to gain
the world, only to lose his soul?"

Ha!

And there was me thinking
I'd cover myself in all this...

- (CAR UNLOCKS)
- ...bulletproof glass.

So, where to, Mr Gaines?

You choose.

Jura House.

Good choice.

Today I want to talk to you about...

...greed.

One day...

...Jesus said to the crowd, "Watch out...”

(ENGINE REVS)

“Be on your guard
against all kinds of greed.”

(ENGINE REVS)

Then fesus told them this parable.

(ENGINE REVS)

“The grounds of a certain rich man
yielded an abundant harvest.

(CAR DOOR SHUTS)

“The rich man thought to himself,
‘I have no place to store my crops.'

“Then the rich man said,
‘This is what I will do.

"I will tear down my barns
and build bigger ones,

‘and there I will store
my surplus grain.”

- Samson.
- Morning, Mr Gaines.

BLAKE: Hmm. Are you looking
to drown the Maldives?

- SAMSON: Sorry, sir?
- BLAKE: What are you up to?

SAMSON: Just putting them all
back in order.

BLAKE: Hmm.

You got anyone here with you today,
Mr Gaines?

- Why?
- Well, help shunt these beauties around.

No-one I'd trust.

Well, you've got me, sir.
We can do it together.

Do you mind jumping in the 981?

What for?

I think the GT3 deserves
pole position, don't you?

I'll give it a go.

SAMSON: Mr Gaines, sir.

Do you have your phone on you?

Why?

There's a problem with the front gate,
just in case they call.

No, I don't.

It's fine. I... I've got mine.

Good.

PASTOR: “ ‘And I will say to myself,

"You have plenty of grain left
for many years.

” ‘Take life easy.

"fat, drink and be merry."

- There's no key...
- (ENGINE REVS)

- Hey!
- (HORN HONKS)

What the fuck are you doing?

(QUIETLY) My name is not Samson.

I can't hear you.

My name is not Samson.

- Oh?
- No.

It is Nkanza a Nkanga
of the House of Kinlaza.

OK.

I come from a line of Congolese kings.

Good for you.

But now only God is my master.

Oh.

PASTOR: “And God said
to the rich man, "You fool...

”* this very night
your life will be demanded from you.”

(FAINT WHIRRING)

(COUGHS)

(AIR BLASTS)

Fuck it.

(HORN BLARES)

(HORN CONTINUES)

(FURNACE BLASTS)

PASTOR: This is the parable
of the rich fool.

With God his only master.

CONGREGATION: Amen.

ALICE MUNEZERO: Breaking the soil.

Harvesting the crops,

cooking the food.

Always.

My father said my mother even sang
when giving birth to me.

I know she sang me to sleep,

every night.

Always.

Nothing happens “just like that".

We went into exile
27 years before the genocide.

The Belgians had gone.

The Hutus had come to power
and the Tutsis were being thrown out.

We stayed for as long as we could

until we could not stay any more.

We lived by the river

where the water ran slow.

My father said that,
should we ever journey south,

we could never get lost,

because all life returns
to the bend in our river...

...and the dead, too.

And that is where we first saw her,

sitting with her family,

younger than me and half my weight.

But still she had managed
to pull them out.

She would not move

until my mother, having packed
our world in three sacks,

claimed her as the last fruit
from our fields,

tied her to her back

and sang us all the way to Uganda.

It took many, many months

before Bibi Mundanzi
began to sing back.

And then she claimed us as her family,

and my mother claimed a new daughter.

Until one day, again,
we found her by the river.

It was poison from the water,

but when the others saw her,

they thought the poison came from her

and they became afraid
of my white-eyed sister.

So my mother sang us north again,

until the whispers did not follow.

And there we stayed.

There we grew.

There we took back our lives.

And then, one day...

...we took back our country...

_..my sister and I.

And the white eyes of Bibi Mundanzi

were never seen again.

So, there you go.

Sisters? I never realised that.

- She was never my sister.
- Close enough.

Well, now she has become
the mother of our nation.

No longer a sister, now a parent.

With draconian house rules,
would you not say?

- Who else knows?
- It is no secret.

That she's a witch?

She is not.

There was a time.

You might want to use that.

Jawbones and tooth rattles?

I'm going to pretend I did not hear that.

Ours is a modern society,

looking to take its place
in a modern world.

There is no magic in it.

(FOOTSTEPS)

Why did you give Kate that piece of cloth?

- It belongs to her.
- Why now?

You know why.

It feels pretty manipulative.

Having another Chuck Yeager moment,
Mikey?

Yes, I am.

As a matter of fact, if I'm not
wearing a space suit these days,

I find it increasingly hard to breathe.

We have not been comfortable
with any of this for over 20 years.

Why don't we just tell her
and have done with it?

Because we agreed, all of us -

you, me, Eunice and Eve -

the moment she hears the truth,
everyone else has to hear it, too.

You want to talk about manipulation,
talk about my sister.

The constitution, the penal code,
political space, press freedoms.

And you want to call her to account
on any of that?

Then this is the only way to do it.

By using the personal history

of an extremely traumatised
28-year-old woman.

Oh, Michael...

...you are forgetting...

...in my country...

...we are all traumatised.

Every single one.

Me included.

And all I am trying to do is to help us
to come to terms with it.

Please...

...help me?

(MONITOR BEEPS REGULARLY)

(MONITOR BEEPS)

(BEEPS INCREASE RAPIDLY)

(BEEPS RETURN TO REGULAR PATTERN)

So, what is it?

(DOCTOR SIGHS)

I have to tell you,
you are something of a conundrum.

To have these kind of seizures
as a child is not so unusual.

Neither it is so for them to go away
once you enter adulthood,

but for them to return
at a mature stage of your adult life...

...that is rare...

...s0 much so, it's possible that
your suffering is not epilepsy at all.

What else could it be?

Your past.

Your present.

Trauma has many ways
of finding a way out,

particularly if it's been suppressed.

You Westerners are so self-centred -
everything about the me.

Hm... There's nobody else in the room.

I am president of my nation.

Of course.

And now is not the time for my nation
to be seeing a shrink.

So we'll go with the TVNS.

- Iwill feel it?
- A local tingling, no more.

It's a device you attach to your ear.

- Visibly?
- Yes.

It cannot be visible.

It's like a hearing aid thing.
In fact, that's what you can say it is.

I will say that I have been deafened
by the guns of liberation.

If I were you, President Mundanzi,

I'd try and find a way
of telling them the truth.

If you were me, you would know
that there's only so much truth

that my country can hear.

Maybe that's why I'm going deaf.

(VOMITING)

(TOILET FLUSHES)

(HE CHUCKLES)

Well, then he'd be ahead of the CIA.

We are ahead of the CIA?

Yeah.

But it's probably good
that you're going back now.

She is here.

She knows you're about to go.

Are you all right?

Yes.

- Are you sure?
- Yes!

MARY: That is not a very good way
of going about it.

- BIBI: I had to see you.
- MARY: Everyone was watching.

BIBI: The college is being told
there's a problem with your visa.

It'll be sorted by this afternoon.

And you keep telling me to be discreet.

I couldn't just leave.

I chose this clinic so I could be close.

You're two hours away.

Better than half the world.

Are you OK?

I'll be fine.

- Well, what is wrong?
- My hearing.

It's fine, it's nothing.

Was it a good lesson?

Bernoulli's equation.
It's part of fluid dynamics.

My daughter, the astrophysicist!

I got most of my education
beneath a tamarind tree!

And look where that got you.

I hate all of this.

What else can I do?

Give it up!

- You've got everything you need...
- Except a mother!

Don't be cross.

What else do you expect me to be?

I have spent half of my life
living with strangers

and now L...I don't even know who you are.

Except this woman I have to meet
in weird places

surrounded by dangerous-looking men!

It is hard.

No. Navier-Stokes equations are hard,

but this is impossible!

- But you are safe.
- From what, Mumma?

Nobody in my life wants to kill me.
It is only in yours!

Do you think that's fair?

That I have to live my life
because of your choices?

Tell me about your boyfriend...

I'm not going to tell you
about my fucking boyfriend!

Not least because I told you already.

Joseph. His name is Joseph.

Joseph and Mary -
that has got to be good, huh?

Actually, we had an argument.

About what?

What do you care?

How are you going to fix it?

By sending in the army?

I want you to be happy, that is all.

I want a mother.

That is all.

I don't want her like this.

I'm sorry.

When are you going?

Now.

Well, then go.

It's OK, I have a few...

More minutes? Really? How wonderful!

I am so lucky!

I have lost years, Mumma! Years.

And I am never going to get them back!

A father that I never knew
and a mother who never knew me!

How is that for an upbringing?

(ENGINE STARTS)

You're not wearing your ear thing.

Hmmm? No.

You don't have to wear it all the time?

Just a few hours a day.

When we arrive back,
be sure that you are wearing it then.

"Deafened by the guns of liberation."

I like that.

- Yes?
- Mm, completely.

You have a knack for this sort of thing.

- Maybe I should run for president.
- Ha! You already have.

Hmm. Three times.

It was the right thing to do.

The only thing.

(SOFTLY) I'm tired, David.

I know.

(SIGHS)

So, Patrice Ganimana. It looks like
we have a good chance to extradite.

Even from the UK?

I'm working on it.

Huh.

The old world is falling.

As I said.

See?

Stay strong.

All will be well.

(SIGHS)

(SLOW MUSIC)

Are you allowed to do that?

Why are you here?

Give me your phone.

What?

Give it to me.

Why?

- You want me to help you?
- No.

- You do not trust me?
- No.

Last time I gave you Father Patenaude.

Yeah. And took a man's eye out.

- He was a liar.
- And you're not?

Then tell me who you work for.

Someone who wants to keep you safe.

- That's... That's not an answer.
- It is if you're in danger.

-Am I in danger?
- Yeah.

Who from?

Please, give me your phone.

- Why?
- I cannot watch you all the time.

Yeah, I don't want you
to watch me at all!

- And they know it.
- Who's "they"?

So if someone comes, and they might...

...you should call me.

- This is ridiculous.
- Wasn't before. Isn't now.

Unlock it.

A, double H.

"Ahh"?

Ha-ha.

That lawyer you spoke to
worked for Ganimana.

You are following me.

He's dead.

How?

Dead.

So, any trouble?

- Call "Ahh".
- I'm serious!

Stay away from Patrice Ganimana.

(FAINT VOICE IN NEARBY ROOM)

Passion fruit?

(APPLAUSE IN NEARBY ROOM)

Maybe melon. Do you want some?

So?

- So? What do you expect me to say?
- Whatever you think.

He's right. Stay away from Ganimana.

- He works for you?
- Me?

If I had access
to an extra-judicial hit man,

do you think I'd be wasting
my time here

presenting the Infrastructure Projects
Team Of The Year?

KATE: So whose is he?

My guess - Bibi Mundanzi.

Which means the table stakes
you're playing at are pretty fucking high.

No.

No, she wants Ganimana extradited.
Why would they want to keep me away?

Unlike you.

I hoped the UN would pick him up.

Well, it didn't work out that way, did it?

- No, it didn't.
- So, now it's just down to them.

Them?

Why did David Runihura go and see you?

Itold you, I can't say.

Was it for a file, Michael?

On Patrice Ganimana,

drawn up by Eve, by my mother, in '97?

He came to see you.

He wants me to fly out there

and write a report on the state
of their judiciary.

And you said yes?

Think I just have.

I pay your bills, Kate.

And I think I've also just resigned.

The Rwandan judiciary
does not have the capability

of trying a transfer case,
not on their own.

KATE: Says who?

MICHAEL: This country, last year - six.
Right to a fair trial.

KATE: A lot of other countries disagree.

MICHAEL: And they're looking to you
to prove the British judiciary wrong?

That's a pretty tall order, Kate,
even for you.

Well, you didn't seem to think so
when you had me working for Alice.

Then you had me.
Out there, you're on your own.

No. No, I'll be with people willing
to prosecute the very man you're not.

I'd like nothing better than to see
Ganimana brought to justice.

If, when he does,
that's what actually happens.

You know what's really unsettling?

It's not just your behaviour,
it's my mother's.

To discover she'd even drawn up
a file against this guy,

but instead of prosecuting the fucker, she
decides to go for Simon Nyamoya instead,

a man who brought
the genocide to a close!

- It wasn't like that.
- No?

So why is Patrice Ganimana
sitting two miles away,

with you doing nothing to help?!

Where's that file?

You're being played.

Hmm.

Yeah, I think I am.

Stay away from Ganimana.

- Says you and your paramilitary buddy.
- He's very dangerous.

Yeah, took a guy's eye out.

Ganimana.

Because of Blake Gaines?
I looked it up.

Suicide.

Working for a man who's pure evil,
I think I'd do the same.

Which is why I want you
to stay away from him.

And that's why I wanted you to help!

Not like this.

(APPLAUSE IN NEARBY ROOM)

What's that...

...that Yeats poem...

...about it all going to shit?

You're better educated than I am, Kate.
Eve made sure of that.

Well...

It's a shame, then...

...because only I can know...

...how your centre...

...couldn't hold.

(DOOR OPENS)

(DOOR SLAMS SHUT)

KATE: Tell me about Alice Munezero.

There is a tale of a young prince,
weak and jealous...

...who thought he would make
a better king than his older brother.

So, one day, the old king gave his sons
a bundle of tied sticks

and asked them to break it in half.

But try as they might, neither could.

So then, the old king cut the cord,

and, handing out the sticks one by one,

the princes found
that they could snap each without effort.

"This is the importance of unity,"
the old king told them.

Whereupon the youngest prince,

holding the two halves of a broken stick,

plunged each into the heart
of his father and elder brother,

killing them.

And from then on,

the young prince was free to rule
the kingdom alone and uncontested.

For this story to work for Alice Munezero,

you need only change her gender.

They're sisters?

Of experience, yes.

But only one knows
how to truly lead a nation.

Bibi Mundanzi.

Your president broke her own promise
to your country.

She ran for a third term.

And she was elected
by 91% of the electorate.

And do you know why?

Because everything she does
improves our country.

It was unconstitutional.

The constitution was changed
by 95% of the electorate.

And is that how you do things
in your country?

If it doesn't work for you,
you just change the rules?

(LAUGHS)

I believe your country recently made
changes to fixed-term parliaments.

It's what progressive governments do.

- Yours is a dangerous precedent...
- No.

A tiny cartel of Western elites,

conspiring to manipulate international
justice, in an attempt to do what?

What are your friends trying to do?

Who are my friends?

Alice. Michael Ennis. Who else?

Looking to destabilise
one of the most forward-thinking states

in the entire African continent!

That is a dangerous precedent!

And that needs to be stopped. Now.

You know they are lovers.

Then.

And now.

That's not possible.

Except...it is.

Everyone has been lying to you.

Everyone.

You have to help us.

(FOOTSTEPS)

(LINE RINGS)

(MAN WHEEZES)

MAN: Hello?

KATE: Hi, my name's Kate Ashby.

I believe you may know my mother,
Eve Ashby.

Yeah.

Sorry to hear what happened.

Bad business.

So the reason I'm calling is because your
number is on my mother's mobile phone

and I notice she called you
a couple of days before she died.

Is that right?

Yes. And I was just wondering if you
can remember what it was she called about.

Oh, she... She wanted to look at a file.

File? What file?

You and I would need to eyeball
each other before I told you that.

Why was she asking you for it?

Because I'm the one who's got ‘em.

Sorry?

In storage.

You've got...

All the company files, yeah.

Because?

Because I'm Mark Viner.

1 used to be her head of chambers
when she first started out.

Hmm?

When I retired, I closed the firm.

Your mother went on
to join that Ennis fella.

When exactly was that?

December 97.

But up until that time she was working...?

For me, yes.

Sir, if I was to come out to your house,

would you allow me access to that file?

You'd have to have legal authority.

I work for my mother's firm.

Then I can't see why not.

Would tonight be too late?

(HEAVY RAINFALL)

(CAR UNLOCKING SYSTEM CHIRPS)

(THUNDER)

(SHRIEKS)

Ms Ashby?

My name is Daniel Drewe. I'm a solicitor.

No, sorry, I'm in a rush.

Er, could you?

My client requested that I make contact
with you. He would like to meet with you.

Now, if that's at all possible.

- Who's your client?
- Patrice Ganimana.

I have a car waiting.

- To go where?
- Here, in London.

I'll follow.

Forgive me, but I believe
you're the one being followed.

Which represents an unacceptable risk
to my client - again, on my advice.

It depends on how much
he wants to see me.

No, I'm afraid on this point, Ms Ashby,

it depends on how much
you want to hear what he has to say.

The car's just over there.

- He-He's not in hospital?
- He's on rounds of chemotherapy.

- He's been freed?
- House arrest.

- In an embassy?
- Friend's house.

On an embassy street?

It's a big house.

KATE: Some friends.

(DOOR CLOSES)

I will admit, I'm surprised.

I said I didn't think you'd come.

He said he knew you would.

Please.

(CLOCK TICKS QUIETLY)

Bonsoir.

Je savais que...

(GASPS)

(CLOCK TICKS LOUDLY)

(STIFLES A SOB)

You... You fuck, fucked...

Fucker, you fucker!

(IN FRENCH)

(SIGHS)

Je vous en prie.

Bien sir.

Imbécile.

Penser.

And I did not kill your mother.

You killed Simon Nyamoya?

No.

- He was your enemy.
- Yes.

You wanted him dead.

Of course. But it wasn't me.

Someone did it for you.

I did not order it. It was not me.

And I did not kill your mother.

So?

You want to put me in jail.

- Yes!
- Don't.

You won't. No-one will.

Why not?

I'm already there.

I spend every second of my life

living with what happened.

- With what you did?
- Every second.

So you admit you're guilty?

I was born at the wrong time,
on the wrong side.

That is not what I said!

And I have paid the price.

No.

No, no, no, no, no, you haven't.

A million people paid the price.
You just have to live with it.

Nothing you could do to me could be worse
than what I already live with.

Not enough.

Nowhere...near.

Don't try to put me in jail.

Oh...

I'm going to try very, very hard.

They won't let you.

Who's "they"?

The people I'm trying to save you from.

The people who own this?
Shouldn't be too difficult to find out.

Whoever you think owns this
is not who you should be afraid of.

Then who should I be?

They will kill you.

They will kill anyone who tries

- to stop them...
- From doing what?

Repeating the past.

That's weird, because
killing was so much a part of it!

There.

I have saved you.

From what?

Whether you like it or not.

You have nothing on me.

No, you are free...

...and I cannot follow.

Next time I see you,
you'll be in the dock.

If that should be,
then you won't ever see me again.

God bless you, Kate Ashby.

You still believe all that?

Oh, yes. It is of Him I am most afraid.