TEASER
ACT 1, SCENE 1 INT: MAYOR’S HOME – NIGHT
The other MASKED MEN walk into the room and corner in the MAYOR APOSTOLOU.
MAYOR:
If you hurt me, they’ll never stop gunning for you. You’ll die. You hear me? Do you want to die? Huh! Or do you want money? I got money. Take it. Answer me! What do you want from me?
A MASKED MAN #1 kneels in front of the MAYOR.
FLASH BACK to (EPISODE 8 ACT 3, SCENE 11: REV’S KITCHEN)
OMAR:
Don’t give into it.
AMED:
We’re here for you. Always. Just tell us what you need.
SISTER looks over all their faces. She is breathing heavily.
HARD CUT BACK TO ACT 1, SCENE 2
The kneeled down MASK MAN #1 is also breathing heavily and lifts his mask to reveal…SISTER.
SISTER:
The truth.
MAYOR:
The truth? About what?
MASKED MAN #4:
He’s lying. He’s holding back.
SISTER:
It’s what men like him do best. Lie. Cheat. Steal. Hide. Your privilege shields you, and you only show your ass when it’s all threatened.
MAYOR:
I know you. You look familiar.
SISTER:
Shut up! You get away with so much with that big mouth, but tonight, the masks are falling down. I want the truth even if I have to tear every institution that you’ve built brick by brick.
MAYOR (LAUGHS):
That stupid protest. You’re crazy if you think you can get away with this. (beat) Christina!
SISTER:
Shut up.
MAYOR:
Help! I’m…
SISTER slaps him. MAYOR is shocked.
MAYOR:
I have guards outside. The police will be here any minute.
MASKED MAN #2:
You’re the only one in this wilderness, Mayor, and you alone. No one can help you now, but you. This is the reckoning. This is about stopping those who do harm to Astro City, and it’s divine intervention that will eventually put to rest one lost soul in particular.
MAYOR:
Is this about that whore? Do you want me to say I killed her? Cause I didn’t.
MASKED MAN #3 reveals himself to be OMAR.
OMAR:
No, I did, but it had to be done for the Reckoning. Her death was a sacrifice.
MAYOR:
OMAR? I plucked you from a dead-end desk job. You were living off scraps until I found you! But I guess a nigger can’t change its nature.
OMAR:
Neither can you, you racist asshole.
MAYOR:
I never understood how Melissa found out so much about me. I should’ve known you were the one feeding that cockroach intel.
OMAR:
I wasn’t. She’s just brilliant at what she does, but this has nothing to do with me or Melissa.
MAYOR:
How long have you worked against me? How much did they pay you?
OMAR:
Is your head so far up your ass that this can only be about money? This is about stopping you and honoring the life you took. That was until I found out it was all connected. It was about justice all along.
MASKED MAN #2:
I could force him to speak.
SISTER:
No. I want him to mean it. I want him to feel every bit of it. Look into my eyes. Do you even remember him? How he was forced to walk barefoot until the gravel cut his heel? Then you left him in the middle of the road no better than roadkill. The world protected you and swept my son under the rug.
MAYOR:
I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!
MASKED MAN #4:
He’s lying again. He knows.
SISTER:
Why my son? Why Josh?
MAYOR’S face settles on the truth.
MAYOR:
That was so long ago.
SISTER slaps him.
MAYOR:
I was drunk, high, and I hated my father.
SISTER slaps him again.
OMAR:
The truth, George. Not excuses.
MAYOR:
Why did I do it? Because. I could.
FLASH BACK
TITLE CARD HALLOWEEN 1985, THE HEIGHTS
ACT 1, SCENE 2 INT: EXPENSIVE HIGH RISE – NIGHT
A young GEORGE APOSTOLOU is lying next to a girl whose long hair is draped all over his face.
MAYOR (V.O.)
You know the adage. When the cats away, the mice will play? Funny thing is I always thought of myself as the cat, and everyone else was mice.
GEORGE gets up to start stumbling his way through the house. He’s throwing a Halloween party.
MAYOR (V.O.)
I was a predator. Everyone knew it. My whole damned school knew it. My father, the illustrious senator, knew it too, but he was too busy to stop me. No one could.
The guests are all white and waspy. Drinks and drugs flow abundantly. GEORGE is the loudest and most intoxicated.
MAYOR (V.O.)
Eventually that day, I took my dad’s most expensive wheels for a spin, got pulled over…
FLASH CUT TO EPISODE 1, ACT 1, SCENE 5 EXT AC – THE HEIGHTS
JOSHUA BIRDSONG stops at a scene of blue-and-white flashing lights. From his POV, a police car has pulled over a DARK TINTED, BLACK TOWN CAR.
Two POLICE OFFICERS step out of the police car armed with flashlights. The beams scan the exterior of the TOWN CAR quickly.
One of the OFFICERS stops and swings his beam of light at JOSH. JOSH’S vision is washed in light and he can only make out the OFFICER’S silhouette
FROM THE POV inside the car, GEORGE is smiling cockily.
CUT BACK TO ACT 1, SCENE 2 INT- APARTMENT
MAYOR (V.O.):
And they let me go after calling my parents. That proved I was untouchable, feared, until Josh showed up.
GEORGE opens the apartment door. Outside the door is JOSH BIRDSONG wearing his costume. GEORGE bursts out laughing.
MAYOR (V.O.):
It wasn’t a costume party. Only the desperate would go to such lengths to please me. I’m used to desperate people grasping at me.
People start to gather around GEORGE and laugh along with him. JOSH rips off his hood and his eyes have grown small and tight.
MAYOR (V.O.)
If you don’t fit, you don’t belong. Period. Accept the world for what it is, but he didn’t. He opened his mouth.
JOSH:
Fuck you cracka. Fuck your cracka money. Fuck your cracka friends. Fuck your whole cracka life. You ain’t better than me on your best day. You ain’t better than anybody. You ain’t nothing but common, you rat-soup eating-ass mothafucka.
JOSH turns and walks away. GEORGE is laughed at instead and he isn’t happy.
MAYOR (V.O):
I don’t know what came over me.
FLASH OF THE GOATMAN.
MAYOR (V.O.):
I grabbed whatever I could and went after him.
GEORGE grabs a gun and hops into the black TOWN CAR/DEATH CAR.
CUT TO:
JOSH’S SNIFFLING. He wipes tears from his face with his balled up ghost sheet. His back is illuminated by beams of flashing lights that blink at him twice. He turns around.
His POV a dark tinted, black town car hums silently parked in the street. Its headlights look like cat eyes. Its grill looks like teeth. This is a DEATH CAR.
JOSH:
Leave me the fuck alone!
The DEATH CAR flashes him again.
GEORGE behind the wheel smiling.
MAYOR (V.O.):
It was a game of cat and mouse. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t common.
JOSH:
I’m not playing anymore!
The CAR strikes JOSH full on with it high beams.
JOSH flinches back.
MAYOR (V.O.):
Yes! I did it! I made him take off his shoes and run. Because I could. And after a while I knew I couldn’t let him go. I couldn’t let him go home and tell anyone what happened. That would’ve been the end of me.
FLASH OF THE GOATMAN
JOSH is running down the street, a look of horror on his face. From various quiet and dark parts of the Heights you can hear the echoes of his cries go unanswered.
JOSH:
HELP! SOMEONE!
THE DEATH CAR is right behind him. The CAR speeds up.
CUT BACK TO ACT 1, SCENE 1: MAYOR’S HOUSE – CONT’D
MAYOR:
Eventually, I got tired of playing.
OS Laughter is taunting as a hyena.
OS SINGLE GUNSHOT
MAYOR:
And I shot him. Twice. I was untouchable again.
OS ANOTHER GUNSHOT
MAYOR:
Then I went home and partied.
SISTER is crying. OMAR is holding her up.
OMAR:
You’re a monster.
MAYOR:
You can’t do anything else to me unless you’re gonna kill me. Do that and you’re no better than me.
SISTER:
I don’t want you to just die. I want you to suffer!
MAYOR:
I was young. I redeemed myself. I served my country. I served this city.
SISTER:
You call what you do redemption?
MASKED #2:
No. There’s more you have left to do. So much more of you to redeem.
MASKED MAN #2’s hand leans in and covers all of the MAYOR’S face.
MASKED #2:
And then you can die.
CUT TO BLACK
END OF TEASER
END OF ACT 1