Teaser

A suburban home—the parents are in a tizzy getting ready for the morning, packing lunches. Mom knocks on the bathroom door, where we hear water running in the background and calls out for her daughter, Liz, to get ready, as she needs to leave for school in five minutes. The girl doesn’t answer, and the mother opens the door to find Liz sprawled on the floor in a towel, with cuts oozing blood up and down her arms and a razor blade sitting in her hands. On the mother’s scream, we cut to:

CREDITS

Act 1

A hospital. Amanda is there, talking to a young doctor, who is giving her a briefing on Liz’s health condition. He notes that the most obvious cuts are on the arms, but there are also thin cuts all over her body—on her legs, thighs, and stomach. Amanda asks if the cuts are indicative of a suicide attempt. The doctor explains that it doesn’t seem like a suicide attempt because the cuts are all small and thin—not enough to cause someone to bleed out. What happened to Liz this morning was unusual. She’d actually slipped and cocked her head against the wall, causing her to pass out. “So it wasn’t the blood loss that caused her to lose conciousness?,” Amanda asks. The doctor nods.

Amanda’s meets with Liz’s parents. They both deny having any idea of Liz’s self-mutiliation. They had noticed that Liz always wore big, baggy clothes to school, but they hadn’t thought anything of it—had simply thought it was the current style. Amanda expresses her doubts to the parents, who continue to deny knowledge. Amanda asks for their consent to have Alice examined by a psychologist. The parents reluctantly agree to allow Alice to talk with their daughter.

Act 2

Amanda drops into Alice’s office to drop off the medical files. Amanda notes that she finds the disorder a little strange. Alice explains that it’s actually surprisingly common—a lot of girls use it as an expression of anger. It’s also relatively common among boys who tend to manifest it through banging their head against a wall. A lot of these children have become so jaded and numb to the world that they’ll do ANYTHING just to feel something, even when it’s something dangerous. Alice says she’s going to talk with Liz this afternoon,

Alice meets with Liz in a stark hotel room—the bandages are evident on her arms, as are the tiny, hairline scars that trace her arms and lower legs. At first, Liz denies being involved in self-mutiliation. Slowly, Alice draws Liz out of her shell and gets her to admit she’s been cutting herself for almost two years now. Alice asks Liz how it started.

LIZ

At first, it was an accident. I nicked myself while shaving my legs. And…I liked the way it felt. I liked the pain—it felt good to feel SOMETHING. Every day, was just the same, and numb—this was…different. And then, I couldn’t stop. I had to do it, or my day just felt incomplete. I couldn’t stop.

As Liz breaks down into tears, we fade to commercial.

Act 3

Case conference in Jack’s office. Alice and Amanda explain Liz’s case. They take the position that while Liz needs help, they believe it would be better to leave her in her parents’ care on the condition that her parents get her help. Jack scoffs—he says that he’s not familiar with the condition but that it’s just sick and wrong—how can a parent not know that their child is cutting herself up? Alice and Amanda try to speak up and explain that it’s not that strange a disorder—relatively common among young girls, but Jack shouts them down, demanding that the DCFS move to terminate custody. Terrence nods and the meeting breaks up.

Alice and Amanda drop by Terrence’s office and attempt to persuade him to throw the case. Terrence says that he agrees with them in principle—this isn’t the best use of the DCFS’s legal resources, but that there’s an order, and that he’s not in a position to disobey it—Jack’s in charge here. Alice and Amanda both say they won’t testify on behalf of the DCFS in the matter. Terrence nods and says that he’ll respect that choice, but that they’ve got to be willing to deal with Jack if he raises hell about it. They both agree that they’re willing to take the heat as we cut to commercial.

Act 4

Court—the judge calls the case of In re Elizabeth M. Terrence approaches and makes his appearance for the state. He says that he’s going rest on the medical data. He calls the doctor to the stand, who explains the medical condition Liz is experiencing and notes that if she continues to cut herself, she runs the risk of an excessive loss of blood. On cross, the parents’ attorney gets him to admit that he’s not a psychologist and can’t explain why Liz is mutilating herself. He’s just a physiologist.

The parents’ attorney calls Liz’s mother to the stand. Liz’s mother explains that they’ve already found a therapist willing to take Liz in as an outpatient and are willing to take whatever measures they have to in order to ensure the safety of their child. Liz’s mother also notes that she and Liz’s father have medical insurance and can cover all costs associated with their daughter’s therapy. Terrence briefly crosses her, getting her to admit that until her child passed out, she had no idea that her child was cutting herself up.

With that, both sides rest and the judge issues her ruling from the bench. She notes that while it’s clear that Liz has a substantial psychological disorder, one that could endanger her life if left unchecked, the state has failed to show evidence for terminating custody over the general presumption that families should not be broken up. She denies the state’s motion to terminate custody.

Terrence returns to the office and finds Alice and Amanda waiting for him in his office.

TERRENCE

We lost this one.

ALICE

I hope you won’t be upset if I say I’m not exactly upset.

TERRENCE

Might’ve been different if you two testified, though.

AMANDA

You didn’t ask.

TERRENCE

I knew you’d fight me.

ALICE

But don’t you also know that Jack would have ordered us to testify if you’d asked him to?

TERRENCE

Maybe.

AMANDA

Either you’re not as smart as I thought you were, or you have something else going on.

TERRENCE

Well what do you think it is?

Fade to credits.