[voiceover] Everyone thinks they want freedom, or at least they say they do. The chance to choose whatever they want. But choices come with consequences. Every time you make a choice, you also take a risk. Risks that, for better or worse, alter your options for the rest of time. Options. Coke or Pepsi. Betty or Veronica. The wife you leave at work or the one you come home to at the end of the day. Some people think they can have it all. I don't get that.When did having enough stop being enough? And even if you did have it all, where the hell would you put it?
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
[voiceover] This witness once told me there's truth in fairy tales. The problem with fairy tales... and I tried to explain this to him... is that they end too soon. They are, at best, a prologue for the messy chapters to come. Sure, Snow White and Prince Charming may do "happily every after" for a while. But then she comes home to find him banging Rapunzel in the big bed and you've got a different story. There's no truth in fairy tales, not really. Know how you can tell? They're called "fairy tales."
[breaking up a fight between a civilian and witness] All right, cool it, both of you!
AFAngry Father
Who the hell are you?
I'm a sleep deprived mom with a Glock and an itchy trigger finger. Next question.
I've got this dinner with Raf.
Raf? When did this happen? You didn't mention that?
[pointing out Marshall's not telling her he proposed] Oh, by the way, I got engaged. The Isotopes hired him as some kind of coach.
Okay, so this dinner/date, is it dinner or a date?
Dinner with Raf and his wife. Yeah, that's right, he dropped the wife-bomb on me and then ran for cover.
You didn't cancel.
Why would I? I broke up with him. Anyway, he's a friend, I want to see how he's doing.
Don't think so. No, I think.
Here we go.
-- you and Raf didn't work out so how, pray tell, did the story end?
Shoot me now.
You don't do well with unresolved. Understandable, given your decided lack of resolution with your father.
Okay, Freud, kick back and get your feet up. You know, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Mary, it's me.
Okay. Fine. Yeah, fine. So yeah, maybe I'm curious. Maybe I want to see how things turned out.
You just want to see if she's pretty or not.
I hate when you know me.
[voice-over] There's a reason we outgrow fairy tales. Let's face it: happily ever after is a crock, it's a con, a shell game for the sucker on the street. They're just words, pretty words, the equally empty book end to "once upon a time," but our lives aren't determined by some storybook, star-crossed destiny. They're not determined by what we're told is meant to be. Our lives are determined by dumb luck, the actions we take, and the courage we summon at our moments of truth. Unlike fairy tales, real life doesn't come with "the end" in gilded cursive on the very last page. Our stories never end. Happily ever after, for most of us, is really just the beginning. There's a million ever-afters in everybody's lives, because every time you think you've reached the finish line, the gun goes off again.
This is bullshit, Stan. I'm a WITSEC inspector. If I wanted to be a douche bag special agent, I would have gone to douche bag special agent school!
I'm not saying you have to do it.
Look, I don't expect much out of DOJ, but is this office seriously going to bite down this hard on a big fish story peddled by one of its most wanted?!
Listen, my dad is in town for the weekend.
I know.
And his arrival, totally planned, it's thrown me. Just him showing up.
What's your point?
Your dad showed up unannounced, out of thin air, and you're having to be professional at a time when personal issues, for years deeply personal issues, well let's just say "thrown" doesn't even touch it. Mary, talk to me.
I've been talking all day.
Yeah. Okay.
SMSeth Mann
Do you know what your mother would say if she were here? Abigail is the girl we'd always hoped you would bring home.
Thanks, dad. You know, I can't help but notice that ever since you retired that the old, gruff you is MIA.
SMSeth Mann
I'm not finished.
There he is.
SMSeth Mann
The thing is, in marriage there is no guess work, and who you're there for at four in the morning, that's the one. So you've got to ask yourself, is Abigail the girl you always thought you'd bring home?
I remember when I was seven, almost seven, I remember asking someone "what's the point of a partner if you're just going to do it yourself?" My whole life I think I haven't understood that word. Not really. I don't know. I just know a partner doesn't leave you on the doorstep; he follows you there, even at four in the morning.
I wonder what you're dad would say about that.
The same thing he always said: never trust your partner.
[voice-over] Everything's mythical when you're seven-years-old: fathers, mothers, Santa, God, the alleged protective powers of a gold medallion. It's not that certain things seem larger than life, it's just life seems larger, but the world keeps spinning and in a tiny thousand surrenders, or sometimes in one fell swoop, what you'd seen as truly miracle you learn is merely myth. The good news, if you can call it that, is that ultimately you find other myths to believe in, and other men as well. You see the myth for what it is: close up and in its bones, smaller and greater and more like you than you care to admit, and it nevertheless leaves you, always, every single time, sitting foolish on the doorstep awaiting its return.
[voiceover] Ask an artist how he knows he's finished with a painting, and odds are he'll say you never really know. I read somewhere Picasso used to touch up paintings on living room walls smudges on canvas he'd sold years before. Like his relationships, like all of ours, his paintings lingered unfinished, somewhere between not quite dead and pulsing with life.
Hey, so if I were someone who could tell these things, how could I tell if these were fake?
Ever gotten faux jewelry from a guy?
I've never gotten jewelry from a guy, and don't say faux.
[voiceover] Everyone always says life isn't fair. Bad guys get away with the goods and the good die young, but we carry on anyway, because what other choice do we have? In the face of unfair, we carry on, holding on and bracing ourselves and only sometimes forgetting that there's another storm right around the corner. But life, I find, is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. They lurk, ready, any minute now, to shake things up and take your breath away.
So it was just the two of you at the funeral home. Wow. Intimate.
It's her father, Ab. She's my partner.
Marshall, I need you to remove the phrase "she's my partner" from your arsenal. I know she's your partner.
My arsenal?
I don't want to be that girl. Don't make me that girl. The insecure -- yes, she's your partner and she is your friend. Your best friend.
You've got to understand --
When do we come first? I mean, Marshall, skipping an appointment to meet with our minister?
I wasn't skipping.
Cancelling. Last minute because Mary needs you. Again.
Look, Mary and I --
I get it. You know what? I don't get it. I don't even think you do, not really, and until you do, until you figure this out, I think we need to put any appointments with ministers, any anything with ministers, on hold.
Abigail.
Marshall, I love you. This isn't jealousy. This is important for me, important for you. Just talk to her.
This, what we have, it's undefinable, and up until now nothing's ever come along to jeopardize that.
Marshall, you're my best friend. You're my only friend. I mean, forget friend, you're -- you know.
I know. I love that. But that's the problem.
Because you're getting married.
Yeah. I'm getting married. I love Abigail deeply, and because I do that's why I need you to do something for me.
Anything.
I need you to release me. I need to be free enough to have a life with Abigail, and I need you to be okay enough for that to happen, because if you call I'll come. Every time.
Well, I don't know a lot these days. All I know is that more than anything in the whole world, I want you to be happy. So, I'm going to say this once and only once: I want you to marry Abigail. She makes you happy. I like her and I like you together. I know, I hide it well.
Yeah. Okay. So, shall we get on with the rest of our lives?
You first.
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