Prodigy Page #2

I think we can both agree

that she suffers

from a severe

superiority complex.

Well, given her advanced

intelligence,

one might excuse

some feelings of superiority.

Oh, not when it escalates to...

You really didn't read the file.

No. Like I, uh, told Ellie,

I like to hear the individual's

version of things first.

Professional

irresponsibility aside,

I think you owe it to yourself

to understand the violence

this patient is capable of.

Well, I trust it'll become clear

in talking with Eleanor.

We would prefer that it didn't.

- [Door opens]

- Man slave reporting for duty.

You told me you were ready.

And you told me you needed

someone with an open mind.

Dr. Fonda, I have a lot

riding on this,

and I don't like the feeling that

you're not taking it seriously.

Everyone has a process, Olivia.

Mine can rub people

the wrong way,

but it is effective.

I need you to trust me on that.

Hey, doc,

celery's not gonna chop itself.

So, uh, how long do you think

this is gonna take?

'Cause, uh,

I got a hot date tonight,

and I am, like, 85% sure that this girl

is a freak, you know what I'm saying?

I'm... I'm sorry.

I'm not sure I follow.

Uh, let's just say I plan on

dipping into the sauce, you know?

I think what he's trying to ask is how

long you think your evaluation will last.

Uh, hard to say. Ellie knows

why I'm here, which, uh,

complicates my approach.

How long does progress in a

case like this usually take?

The walls are built high. They may

prove difficult to pull down.

Well, a meal fit for a Princess.

Or a spoiled little psycho.

[Laughter]

[Door buzzes]

[Door locks]

That looks like orange juice.

You don't like orange juice?

I said apple.

I thought we might try

something different today.

Juice is juice, I suppose.

Excellent.

Let me get you started here.

The situation would be much improved

for everyone if I can use my hands.

I've been emphatically warned

against that.

Open up now.

I suppose you are

more comfortable with this?

Servant of the peasants

that you are?

You seem quite fixated

on socioeconomic status.

I have had enough exposure to you

working-class folks to know what you are.

What are we?

A lost cause.

I don't believe you're qualified to

condemn and entire class of people.

The number of dumpy towns we

pass through might surprise you.

We?

My mother and I.

I see.

And your father?

No one told you?

Colonel birch is my father.

[Laughter]

[Chuckles]

That, uh,

certainly complicates things.

The good colonel

wasn't around much, you see?

Sounds rough.

And you and your mother couldn't

settle into any of these dumpy towns?

In spite of her deficiencies,

she knew that if people

understood what I was capable of,

I would end up

in a place like this.

She didn't want that for you.

Where is she now?

She's dead.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

Why?

Because it sounds like

she loved you a lot.

I don't like that term.

"Love." it's vague, overused.

How so?

Love is the guise under which

selfishness operates.

Parents only love their children so long

as they maintain control over them.

[Chuckles]

And the other side of that,

as a child, did you, uh,

love your mother?

At one point, I was convinced the

affinity I felt for her was love.

However, now I realize

the Harmony our lives shared

was closer to what one might

share with a common house pet...

A realization

that didn't make it easier

when the time came

to put her down.

Put her down?

That's right. You should have

read your file, Jimmy.

So, you, um...

She had become more a hindrance

than the catalyst at that point.

She was holding you back.

That's right.

I'm not sure I follow you.

That doesn't surprise me.

Were you ever in a place

like this with her around?

I was under the impression ink blots

were out of favor in your community.

A lot of people

have given up on them.

Not you.

Well, you find they still hold

value in certain situations.

Let's try a few.

I assumed you were beyond

such rudimentary techniques.

Afraid you might not like

what I see?

All right.

I'm going to hold up a card.

I don't want you to think too...

I know how it works.

Right.

Looks like a dog I found

on a street once.

It had been run over,

its blood running

into the gutter.

World war ll gas chamber,

naked emaciated bodies

piled high.

Ugh. What the...?

[Phone vibrating]

Oh, sh*t.

Gotta take this.

[Door opens, closes]

Hey, anybody else notice that

sudden rise in temperature?

[Laughter] -[Ellie] They're

removing blackened gloves.

But it's messy.

Blood everywhere.

The girl is clearly

toying with him.

Yeah, what is this guy?

An amateur?

Well, she wouldn't have brought him in a

this point if she didn't have a good reason.

She's grasping at straws.

That one looks just like

colonel birch's swollen eye.

Sh*t.

Oh, relax, colonel.

Just a couple of more hours

and we're free.

At the rate he's moving, we're

going to be here all night.

All night? Well, pull him out of there.

We don't have time for this.

[Ellie] A pack of chimpanzees tearing the

flesh off their young and eating it.

Ryan has a point, colonel.

We're moving in circles

with all this.

This is agent price's

little experiment, not mine.

Yeah? Well then, why doesn't she

just adopt the little antichrist

- and let us off the hook?

- Give it a rest, mccrosky.

- [Ellie] Judas hanging himself.

- If I miss this date,

I am going to be

very unpleasant to work with.

[Ellie]

He has been disemboweled.

His intestines dangle with him.

- What do you think... about all this?

- [Ellie] Car accident.

The driver has gone

through the windshield.

His heart is pumping blood

onto the hood.

We won't learn anything significant

about the patient this way.

[Ellie] That one looks

like a battered woman.

Actually it resembles

miss Olivia.

Oh, here we go. -[Ellie] She is

bruised and scarred on her face.

She is moving forward, but I see blood

running down her legs from under her skirt.

[Door opens, closes]

What did I miss?

- [Exhales deeply]

- [Ellie] It is you, Jimmy.

You are sinking into a bog

of some kind.

I'm not sure

you are going to make it out.

- Last one?

- Mm-hmm.

My mother's head

split down the middle.

Blood trickling down

over her face.

How did I do?

There was a distinct trend

in your answers.

You don't say?

It's one of the reasons

I still like this test.

Even if the subject is being

purposely disingenuous,

patterns still arise

within their responses,

which shed light on certain

aspects of the psyche.

This should be interesting.

The dark shapelessness

of the blot

often leads people

to their own fears.

I see.

You, uh, specifically used the term

"blood" four times in ten cards.

It was five times, actually.

Does blood frighten you?

- No.

- What do you fear?

Only what I don't understand.

So you understand blood?

- Certainly.

- Do you have experience with it?

- A little.

- Human blood?

Enough to know

it doesn't make me squeamish.

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