Jimmy:
Earlier you talked about other diseases. Physical conditions, you said. So, okay, if you had—I dunno—lung cancer, would you have told Rebecca then?
Chuck:
If that had been the case, maybe I might have.
Jimmy:
So how is this different?
Male Committee Member:
Mr. McGill, move it along.
Jimmy:
You don't have to answer that. I wanna get down to brass tacks. I want to be very, very specific here. This illness, what does it feel like? You mentioned it's painful.
Chuck:
It is. There's a tightness in my chest, difficulty breathing – and pain, burning pain. Pain spreads everywhere.
Jimmy:
Sounds horrible. Does it hurt right now?
Chuck:
There's always some discomfort, yes. Electricity is everywhere in the modern world. But I very much appreciate the indulgence of the panel for their accommodation here today. I can handle this fine.
[Jimmy makes a signal to Francesca, who leaves the courtroom]
Jimmy:
Right. So with the lights out, you don't feel them?
Chuck:
If the current's not flowing, no.
Jimmy:
I'm sorry about the exit signs. I guess they couldn't kill those for you.
Chuck:
Well, they're not drawing much current and they're far away.
[Francesca comes back into the courtroom, followed by Huell. They take their seats while Jimmy sighs.]
Chuck:
Intensity drops off with distance, per the inverse-square law.
Jimmy:
Oh, whoa. Inverse-square? I'm not a physicist. Could you dumb that down a shade for me?
Chuck:
The farther away it is, the stronger the source needs to be to have an effect.
Jimmy:
Got it, got it. So, if I had a small battery—say, from a watch or something—and I got it close to you, close to your skin, you'd know?
Chuck:
I would feel it, yes.
Jimmy:
Can you feel more current coming from any particular direction right now? From the back wall, or from over there? Or up through the floor– Can you tell us where the nearest source is, right now?
Chuck:
[beat] Jimmy, do you have something in your pocket?
Jimmy:
Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. [pulls a cell phone from his breast pocket and places it in front of Chuck] My cell phone. From this distance you should feel it, and you don't, do you?
Chairman:
Mr. McGill, you were warned to leave your electronics outside.
Chuck:
It's alright. It's alright. May I? [takes the cell phone and opens the back] Just as I thought. There's no battery in here. You removed the battery. That's a sorry little trick, isn't it?
Jimmy:
Yeah, you got me, Chuck. Dead to rights. I removed the battery.
Robert Alley:
Objection.
Chairman:
Sustained. Y-you've taken all the leeway you're getting, Mr. McGill. Wrap it up fast.
Chuck:
God, Jimmy! Don't you know by now this is real, I feel this? It's a physical response to stimuli. It's not a quirk. What do I have to do to prove it to you?
Jimmy:
I don't know, Chuck. Could you reach into your breast pocket and tell me what's there?
Chuck:
[scoffs] What now?
[Chuck reaches into his pocket and retrieves the battery to the cell phone. Startled, he drops it on the floor.]
Jimmy:
Can you tell the court what that was? [picks up the battery]
Chuck:
A battery...
Robert Alley:
Mr. Chairman, please—
[Huell stands up from his seat]
Jimmy:
Do you recognize that man in back? His name is Huell Babineaux, he's on our witness list. You bumped into him in the stairway. He'll testify he planted this fully-charged battery on you over an hour-and-a-half ago.
Huell:
Hour and forty-three minutes.
Jimmy:
An hour and forty-three minutes. Thank you, Mr. Babineaux. [to Chuck] And you felt nothing.
[Jimmy turns on the cell phone and holds it to Chuck's face]
Chuck:
No, no, no. No no, it's a trick, it has to–
Robert Alley:
Enough is enough. I submit that Mr. McGill's mental illness is a non-issue. If he were schizophrenic...
Chuck:
Schizo—!
Robert Alley:
...it would not take away from the fact that the defendant—
Chuck:
I AM NOT CRAZY! [beat] I am not crazy! I know he swapped those numbers, I knew it was 1216! One after Magna Carta, as if I could ever make such a mistake! Never! Never! I just—I just couldn't prove it! He—he—he covered his tracks, he got that idiot at the copy shop to lie for him...
Robert Alley:
Mr. McGill, please. You don't have to go into—
Chuck:
You think this is something? You think this is bad, this—this chicanery? He's done worse. That billboard! Are you telling me that a man just happens to fall like that? No, he orchestrated it! Jimmy! He defecated through a sunroof, and I saved him! I shouldn't have! I took him into my own firm! What was I thinking?! He'll never change. He'll never change! Ever since he was nine, always the same! Couldn't keep his hands out of the cash drawer! "But not our Jimmy! Couldn't be precious Jimmy!" Stealing them blind! And he gets to be a lawyer?! What a sick joke! I should have stopped him when I had the chance! And you, you have to stop him! You—
[Chuck stops when he sees everyone in the courtroom—Jimmy, Kim, Howard, Rebecca, the panel —all staring at him in shock and dismay.]
Chuck:
I apologize. I lost my train of thought. Got carried away. Do you have anything else?
Jimmy:
No. Nothing further.
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