I got nothing to say to you, Johnny Clayton!
Let’s just get on with 11.22.63 The Truth Recap! Spoilers and gross bits ahoy!
Sadie has just been led down to Jake’s basement and heard his recordings of Lee and Marina Oswald, she runs out of the house and Jake follows her into the street. He tries to calm her down and make her listen, but she tells him to not touch her and asks what she just heard. He tells her it was a drama and they were just actors, but she won’t believe him and tells him that everything he has said to her is a lie. She tells him to stay away, and he lets her go.
Jake gets dragged into Principal Deak’s office, Sadie has told him about the recording and Deak asks him to resign, quoting the moral clause in his contract. Deak tells him to get his things, and take his seedy, porn loving ass elsewhere. Jake say goodbye to Miss Mimi, and tells her that it might be for the best, she politely disagrees.
Jake and Bill go and case General Walker’s house the day before the assassination is due to take place. Jake is still not sure if he is a patsy for the CIA, or a lone crazy pants. It all hinges on tomorrow night, if he acts alone, Jake will have to take him out. They go through the scenario, the shooting takes place at 9pm just as the church next door is letting out from a service, planned so Lee can blend in to the crowd. The window he shoots through is large, and the shot seems to be an easy one, but history shows that Oswald misses.
Bill asks why Lee would want to shoot both Walker and JFK, as Walker hates the Kennedy’s and is currently flying his flags upside down in protest of the current government. Jakes tells him he doesn’t know, but it doesn’t matter why, their current concern is if he shoots. The only thing they have to go on is that Walker and Kennedy are shot with the same gun and the same bullets.
Jake is prepping for their stakeout, checking the cars over, getting an emergency supply box ready, waiting for the past to push back. He’s even packed his diapers again. Bill asks him what happens after tomorrow, and Jake tells him that if he has to kill Lee, he’ll try to not get arrested and head straight back to Lisbon, Maine and straight back through that rabbit hole. Come out the other side, see what America and 2016 looks like, and hope that they made it better. Bill says “What about me? Do I come with you?” The silence that follows answers his question, and Jake tells him he’ll leave him the wagering book. He should be able to make enough to get himself a house, build a good life.
The next morning, they load up the car, and Jake decides to head back to Jodie. He has to sweep the house, get rid of any trace of Jake Amberson. Bill asks “What about Sadie?” and Jake says that it’s for the best, that he came back to the past with a mission, and its time to focus on that now.
He clears everything out, destroys the tape, and is heading out the door when the phone begins to ring. Hello, this is the past calling, I’m here to fuck your day right up. Jake answers and its Johnny Clayton, he’s at Sadie’s and wants to continue their conversation from the other day. Sadie yells in the background “Jake! Don’t come!”. Johnny leaves the phone off the hook, and there’s Sadie at the kitchen table. A white pillow case over her head, drenched in blood.
Jake calls Bill and tells him he’s on his own today, he has to make sure he’s there to witness the shooting. If it’s Lee, he’ll have to take care of him, alone. Bill panics and asks why, but Jake is already gone. He’s running, those short little legs going flat stick. He gets to Sadie’s and Johnny invites him on back to the kitchen and tells him to have a seat beside Sadie.
Jake tells him that he doesn’t have to do this, and Johnny tells him that he is doing the talking today, and brings out his gun. Sadie is crying and goes to touch her face through the pillow case but Johnny tells her to keep her hands in her lap like a lady. He asks Jake “Are you curious to see what she looks like?” and removes the case. Sadie has a long cut down the side of her face and is bleeding profusely, Johnny says “She’s not going to be pretty anymore.” He tells Jake that marriage is all about compromise, so when Sadie left he thought she just needed some time to sort things out, but when he found her something was different. She had dirtied herself, Johnny says “Dirty little bird”. But stains can be cleaned, right?
Well, so Johnny thought until Jake told him what Sadie had said about him. Personal details that should stay between a man and him wife, so Johnny says, and yes I am highlighting this sentence;
“So, you did this. You did this! Mr Jacob Amberson, cock boy! You turned my wife into your dirty bird whore! Sticking your thing into her wormy hole.”
He digs his thumbs into her face, and Jake begs him to stop telling him that they never had sex. Johnny tells him he’s lying, he heard them, “I listened to the rutting. Squealing, you’re just like little pigs. He asks Jake if her loves her, and when he says yes, he tells him to kiss her “Stick your tongue into her whore mouth, cock boy!” Jake gives her a gentle kiss, and Sadie whispers “Get ready.”
Jake begs to bandage her face, and Johnny replies that he doesn’t need to worry about that, they’re almost done. All Jake has to do is have a drink, a drink of that tall glass of Westover bleach in front of him. No way in hell Jake is gonna drink that, “Oh, yes you are. Yes, you are, cock boy! You’ll drink that whole glass because if you don’t, Sadie dies.” Sadie knocks a glass fruit bowl off the table, and it smashes all over the floor. Johnny grabs her by the hair, and Sadie tells him she’s sorry it was an accident.
Johnny lectures Jake about seducing another man’s wife, while Jake tries to slide a piece of broken glass closer with his foot. Sadie starts to laugh, and Johnny tells her there is nothing funny here. Sadie says “Well, sure there is. All this because I told him your dirty little secrets? Well, I didn’t even tell him about your grandmother. She liked to wash you, didn’t she? She liked to wash you real good.” Johnny tells her to stop, but Sadie continues “They took her away because of you, Johnny.” Johnny starts to scream “Shut your mouth! Shut your filthy mouth!” Johnny puts the gun to Sadie’s head, Jake goes for the glass, and the doorbell rings. And breathe. Whew! That was some fucked up dialogue right there, thanks Mr King!
Bill continues on with his self-destructive ways and knocks on the Oswald’s door while Lee is sleeping off a late shift. He coaxes Marina out with a cigarette and they sit on the stairs to smoke. She tells him that she’s been trying to make a pie, and Bill reminisces about the pies his sister Clara used to bake him before she died. Died at the hands of one Mr Frank Dunning. He shows her the only photo he has of her, and they get closer on the stairs. The door opens and it’s Lee, come to see why Marina isn’t still folding the laundry. Marina and Bill jump apart and Marina rushes back inside. Bill apologises if he woke Lee, he was seeing if they had any ice, their freezer is broken. Lee looks at him and asks is he has ever read any Marx? Bill says no, and Lee goes and gets a copy of Marx on Economics, gives it to him and says “You read it, and then we’ll talk”. Bill asks if it’s any good, and Lee says that it tells the truth and shuts the door in Bill’s face. Jesus, Bill you idiot.
At Sadie’s, it’s some kids from the school come to present Sadie with a raffle prize she won. Jake tells them that Sadie isn’t well and he has to go, he mouths at them to call the police, and go! He shuts the door and Johnny tells him that if he hears sirens, he will cut off Sadie’s nose right in front of him. Johnny gets back to trying to make Jake drink the bleach, telling him is he drinks it then Sadie will live. He raises the glass and at the last minute throws it in Johnny’s face. Johnny screams and fires off a shot, and Jake and Sadie make a run for it but only get as far as the lounge room.
Johnny yells and cries and starts firing the gun at anything vaguely person shaped, “I hear you, and I smell you. Bellies on the ground like vermin.” Jake throws his watch to the other side of the room and Johnny turns and shoots in that direction. Jake grabs the nearest weapon, that just so happens to be a poker, and lodges it in the side of Johnny’s head. The gun drops, and Johnny tries to pull the poker free. There’s another gunshot and Sadie has just put one through his chest. He collapses on to the sofa, dead. Stick that up your wormy hole, Johnny!
The ambulance arrives to take Sadie to the hospital, the driver tells Jake they’ll take her to Parkland Hospital in Dallas. The Sheriff arrives to ask Jake some questions, not willing to let him leave the scene. Principal Deak arrives and recognises the Sheriff as one of his past students, he tells him that they are going to the hospital, and they can ask their questions there. As they leave Deaks says “Did you kill that son of a bitch?” Jake confirms it, and he replies “Good.”
At the hospital, Dr Jones tells them that Sadie is in surgery, and that it may take all night. She’s in a critical condition and he can’t make any promises, but they have their best surgeons on it. The Sheriff asks begins to ask his questions, specifically about their breakup and the fight they had out in the street earlier that week. Jake asks if her saw her face, there has to be fingerprints on the knife or something. The Sheriff continues with his line of questioning and Jake cracks and tells him that Sadie broke up with him because he kept things from her. She was open and trusted him, but he couldn’t do that, and he doesn’t deserve her. “Then that crazy fucker came and cut her, and he tried to kill her and me both. So the truth is yeah, it felt fucking great when I cracked his skull because he deserved it, and you can put that in your book.” The Sheriff closes his notebook and tells him there is no need, and that his prayers are with Miss Dunhill.
Bill is in position at General Walker’s, and it’s almost 9pm. There’s not sign of Lee yet and Bill is getting worried. He hears some rustling and tries to locate where it is coming from. Right on cue church lets out, and Bill is suddenly distracted. A woman is leaving the church, and a friend calls her Clara by name. It’s Bill’s sister and he takes off after her. He catches up with her in the graveyard but when he turns her around, it’s a different girl, it’s not his sister. A gunshot rings out, and Bill has missed seeing who fired the shot. The past has picked Bill this time, oh man.
Jake is waiting at the hospital when General Walker arrives to get treatment for the shrapnel wound to his arm, the shooter has missed as history told us. Jake watches him pass by and calls Bill. Bill tells him what happened and is inconsolable, he sobs down the phone to Jake, but Jake drops the receiver and walks away.
The doctor finds Jake and tells him he’s sorry, that even with the finest surgeons in Dallas, they thought that they’d be able to do much more. No one at the hospital had ever seen a facial wound of that severity, and they just don’t have the technology. Jake is devastated and says “Sadie died because you don’t have the technology?” The doctor is horrified and replies “Oh my good God. No, she’s not dead! I’m talking about the scar on her face. It’ll be severe, but she’s not dead.” Motherflipper! Jake sets off on another stumpy legged run to Sadie’s room.
Sadie is pleased to see him, and tells him that is she looks as bad as she feels, she must be a sight. Jake tells her she’s never looked better, and that he can’t do this without her. He tells her that he lied to her, and he’ll never do it again. Jake tells her that he’s from the future and that he was born in 1978. Sadie starts to laugh, and clutches at her bandages, telling him not to make her laugh. Jake is dead serious though, and she realises that he’s not joking. She asks him if he’s really an English teacher, where he’s really from, where he went to school. Jake tells Sadie he loves her, and she replies “You don’t think it’s too soon for that? We just met.” Jake replies “Well it’s good to meet you. And it’s not too soon for me.”
Bring It On Home To Me by Sam Cooke starts to play, and I’m not crying, you’re crying! Sheesh, what a roller coaster of an episode that was! So many feels!
