Down to a Sunless Sea
"In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,…”
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Kubla Khan)
Stephen: Maybe it’s better to forget and smile, than to remember and be sad.
Stephen: Where did you get that? (scar)
Catherine: Hum….Long story.
Stephen: Do you know I actually think scars are beautiful? They are rather like a road map to a person’s past. Proof that the worst wounds heal…I have scars too, you just can’t see them.
Catherine: I don’t really know what I am feeling.
Vincent: Did you love this man once?
Catherine: Once. And I still feel an obligation for him. I don’t know why. Maybe because of his illness…maybe because of the intimacy we once had.
Vincent: (inaudible)
Catherine: We were happy for awhile…Life seemed so simple then…
Vincent: (vision)
Catherine: What is it?
Vincent: I don’t know.
Catherine: There was such fear on your face….I’ve never seen that before.
Vincent: Are you afraid, Catherine?
Catherine: Of what?
Vincent: This man coming back into your life?
Catherine: Is that what you are sensing?
Vincent: Perhaps.
Catherine: I don’t think afraid is the right word….Curious, maybe…about the road not taken. What my life would have held…and guilty, because I knew I hurt him.
Vincent: Its irrational…I cannot explain it.
Father: Then why don’t you try, Vincent.
Vincent: A powerful image, a foreboding…everytime I think of her.
Father: A foreboding? You mean some manifestation of the empathy you share?
Vincent: No. This is different.
Father: Well, Vincent, I remember the last time a man came into her life….
Vincent: Please, Father, these feelings are real.
Father: I am not disputing the feelings themselves, only the source of the feelings.
Vincent: You think I am the source?
Father: I can understand that…This man is someone with whom Catherine shared the dreams of a lifetime. A life, unfortunately, that you and she could never have.
Vincent: It does not explain the vision…the threat.
Father: The threat to her…or the threat to you, Vincent?
Catherine: I don't understand.
Vincent: I'm not certain myself. I have nothing more than a feeling. An image that evaporates whenever I try to touch it.
Catherine: Are you sure this even has anything to do with me?
Vincent: You provoke the image. The thought of you…even your name, brings it to my eyes.
Catherine: What do you expect me to do? I've told you what I'm thinking. You already feel everything I feel! And now you say I'm in danger, only you can't tell me from whom, or why?
Vincent: Because I don't know myself.
Catherine: Is this fair of you? You know I value your words above all others!
Vincent: Catherine, I fear for you.
Catherine: And I am supposed to take that fear up into the world and live with it? Tonight, when I see Stephen?
Vincent: Don't go.
Catherine: He is my friend, Vincent, and I care about him. He's dying, and at the very least I owe him my trust.
Vincent: Catherine--
Catherine: He's dying, Vincent. And I'm all he has!
Vincent: Have you seen him?
Catherine: They wouldn't let me... Don't be ashamed, Vincent. You only did what you had to do.
Vincent: I know that.
Catherine: I was the one who was unfair. I just thought that you were feeling betrayed. I forgot for a moment how you trust me. I should have trusted you.... How did you know?
Vincent: I knew…because... somehow, somewhere deep inside, you--you must have known.
Fever
Cullen (to Jamie): And the white king is gonna be--guess who? Father! You know, leaning on his stick, books under his arm... He'll fuss and fume, but secretly, he's gonna love it.Catherine(rummaging in box): Just a few odds and ends from around the house.
Vincent(chuckles, pulling item from box): You should…learn to remove the price tags from your "odds and ends.”
Catherine(holding up sweater to Father): My father bought this when he took up skiing, and put it in the drawer after one trip down the slopes. What do you think?
Cullen: It's him…Father, that is definitely you.
Father: The sweater? Yes, well, it's just what I need for when I... go skiing.
Mouse: Time? Easy! Early--come before Mouse. Late--come after.
Vincent: Catherine, your gifts brought much joy today.
Catherine: I wish I could do more. There's so many things I wish I could give you.
Vincent: But you give of yourself--your generosity, friendship--to all of us. There is no more than that.
Catherine: You know what I mean.
Vincent: Well, with what our friends bring to us and what the world Above casts aside, we have everything we need.
Mouse (gives gift to C): You give. I give…Have to go now…Help Father…He’s lost without Mouse.
Vincent (to Cullen): Listen to Father.
Cullen: What are you going to do if I don’t? Kill me!
Catherine: It is a disease that comes from my world. It is called "Greed”.
Vincent: We can’t do this. If we throw this treasure into the Abyss, we admit defeat. It has beaten us…There may be no place for it in our world, but there are others in the world Above who go hungry and homeless. Although, we live apart from them, we cannot deny that we are all a part of each other and this city. We cannot turn our backs while there is a chance to help. We cannot turn our back.
Catherine: I wonder what they must think?
Vincent: That it was a miracle...
Everything is Everything
Vincent (to Geoffrey): You find the words ‘boring’ because you are merely reading them. Words are nothing but cold and lifeless things unless you use your mind and your heart to interpret them.Catherine(forcing Tony to take a bath): Okay. But I want results! Use the soap--don't steal it!
Vincent: What concerns you so?
Catherine: He claims to be a gypsy…He’s lied to me. He stole from me… and yet I can’t help caring about him. I am feeling that somehow… he wants my help.
Vincent: How beautifully you read.
Catherine: I remember the first time you read to me. How safe I felt--the comfort I found in your voice. I wanted to share that.
Catherine: Underneath all the ’bravado” is a very frightened little boy. I can’t imagine what his life is like…
Vincent( to Grandfather): …You will have your grandson back…Can there be a greater treasure?
Tony: Being alone makes you tough.
Catherine: Well, sometimes 'tough' doesn't make loneliness go away.
Vincent: A boy…rejected by his own flesh and blood for the sake of a tradition.
Father: The law and tradition is the only permanence in a gypsy’s life. They are people without a country and they depend upon their laws and their traditions to maintain their culture.
Vincent: Yes, but the cost Father…To be abandon by those you love…The pain would be unbearable.
Tony: I--I've never seen anyone like you before!
Vincent: There's never been anyone like me before.
Vincent (to Tony): The truth makes you strong.
Tony: Wait! I owe you…and a Gypsy never forgets. Thank Vincent for me.
Catherine: I will…Maybe I will see you around..
Tony: Count on it!
Catherine (to Vincent about Tony): I think he stole a piece of my heart.
Vincent: You helped him find his way home again, Catherine. No one could ever give a child a better gift.
Catherine: It came from both of us.
Episode readings:
"Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 4, lines 100-120. (BTW, Vincent is Romeo)
"The Elephant’s Child” in Just So Stories by Rubyard Kipling
Music at recital: Beethoven’s "Minuet in G”
To Reign in Hell
Vincent (narrator to the children): Our world is in mourning now…Though it is painful, each of us must try to find meaning in what has come to pass. We must find hope in this time of great sorrow and sacrifice. We must never forget what has happened or why, so that the story will live always and so that one day you can tell your own children.Child: Tell us, Vincent.
Vincent: It began a long time ago, when our world was very young. There was a man, who, with Father, helped to plant the very seeds of our civilization. But even then his evil side began to grow, until it overshadowed all that was good. He was banished, yet we were never truly free of him. And then one night, his evil visited the world Above…
Father: I know Paracelsus. As twisted as his mind may be, it's still very complex, filled with designs and structures. No, Vincent, I assure you: if he intended to kill Catherine, he would have done so already... He's luring you, calling you away from this place of safety.
Vincent: I have no choice but to try and find her.
Father: I know.
Vincent: Why is he doing this, Father?
Father: Why? Because in his mind you are the one person that prevents his return to this world, a world which he still considers to be his own. Know the consequences of this action may stretch far beyond Catherine.... The whole future of what we've built here is in balance. Vincent, you must be careful. Expect anything. Remember, Paracelsus has misled you before.
Vincent: I haven't forgotten.
Father: Whatever he tells you, remember this: there's a truth beyond knowledge.
Vincent: I will remember, Father.
Vincent(to Winslow & Pascal): You are my friends…I accept your help……Then we go, together, the three of us.
Catherine: Why? Why have you brought me here?
Paracelsus:Must there be a reason?
Catherine: Yes.
Paracelsus: I was exiled from my home, from the world I created, by the man you call Father. Even then, he wouldn't allow me to live in peace.
Catherine: I know the story. Fifty people died because of you.
Paracelsus: I killed no one. They died because they were fools.
Catherine: They were weak. There's a difference!
Paracelsus: Ah, but you're not weak, are you, Catherine? You're strong. Intrepid.
Catherine: What do you want with me?
Paracelsus: Once a person is visited by violence, everything changes. Isn’t that so? Meeche(sp) said, ”That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.” Well, I am stronger now!
Catherine” You still have not answered my question.
Paracelsus: Vincent is the answer to your question. He is all that stands between Father and me, in more ways then one. (Shows C burns on face) And this is why I must destroy him!
Catherine: I am not afraid.
Paracelsus: You will be. You see, Vincent is also coming here to watch you die.
Vincent(after hearing Narcissa’s warning): She is my life. I am bound by my heart to go on.
Narcissa: Vincent, the man, who you know as Paracelsus... He is not alone. There are those down here who follow him, protect him. They are the simple ones, the lost ones.
Pascal: Um...
Winslow: What is it?
Pascal: I don't think I can make this jump.
Winslow: I can't hear you.
Pascal: I said I don't think I can make this jump! OK!
Winslow: You're afraid, aren't you?
Pascal: I'm not afraid--I'm just not... especially fond of heights.
Winslow: Okaaaay... How about if I count to three, and if your butt's not off of here by then I'll push you. One... two... THREE! (Pascal jumps)
Psacal (down rope): Winslow!
Winslow (eyeing rope.)Yeah! Yeah! I’m coming… Shoulda gone on that diet. Well, it's too late now!
Pascal: I studied everything he ever wrote. The early manuals were brilliant. Codes, schematics... It's hard to believe he's the same man.
Vincent: Paracelsus is not the same man. What he's done proves that.
Pascal: Oh, I know that. It still makes me sad... All that intellect and energy, just...
Winslow: You got a heart like a soft-boiled egg, you know that?
Winslow: I remember Paracelsus from when I was a kid. Times were bad, resources were scarce, people were scared. Paracelsus took advantage. Oh, he was convincing. Smart. People started to follow him.
Vincent: Not Father.
Winslow: He was the one that saved us. He reminded us that we were family…that we had to stand by each other. Oh, you'd have been proud of him. His strength. His conviction! Without him...
Vincent: Paracelsus might have prevailed.
Winslow: But... he was never the same after that.
Vincent: Why?
Winslow: Because once, they were friends.
Winslow: So what's on your mind? You've been awfully quiet ever since we left this morning.
Vincent: I'm just... thinking. Wondering.
Winslow: About Catherine.
Vincent: If she's really in danger, why can't I feel her fear?
Winslow: We'll get her back, don't worry.
Winslow: Vincent... I want you to know that I'm not just doing this because of Paracelsus. It's for Catherine, too, she's... a good woman. I always said that. What's between you two is something I've never felt, myself. But seeing it--I know it's real. I believe in it.
Vincent (Winslow’s Eulogy): Winslow loved all of us fiercely. We were his family. Nothing could ever change that for him. Not conflict, nor anger... not even death. Winslow will always be a part of us, in our hearts. Let us remember him for his strength and his courage. ..He'll continue to live through us, through our memory of him. (inaudible) Now is the time to mourn…and the pain will soften, I promise.
Paracelsus: Vincent is close.
Catherine: I know.
Paracelsus: You're really not afraid to die, are you?
Catherine: No.
Paracelsus: Not even as you watch the stage being built... Don't you feel anything?
Catherine: Sadness.
Paracelsus: About dying?
Catherine: About you. And the world you helped create. Vincent has told me. Your vision. Your ideals. All wasted.
Paracelsus: Taken from me.
Catherine: Still--wasted. Now all you want to do is destroy…Something. Someone you don't even know.
Paracelsus: Then you perceive my life to be... contradictory?
Catherine: No. Tragic.
Paracelsus: Don't you see? It doesn't end with your death, or Vincent's. This is only the beginning.
Catherine: The beginning? Of what?
Paracelsus: Reclaiming what is mine. After all these years, I've decided to go home!
Paracelsus: Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven, eh Vincent?
Vincent: Paracelsus.
Paracelsus: Milton, actually.
Paracelsus: Now it is your turn to listen. To know my pain, my grief of seeing the only things I ever loved torn away…but it wasn’t just me, there were others…You. You were betrayed, Vincent. You call him 'Father,' but it was I who found you, wrapped in rags, starving. It was I who named you 'Vincent.' And it was I who cared for you all those months. Even Father didn't think you'd live. But I--I fed you, I... bathed you. And you did live. Don't you see, Vincent? He wouldn't let me take you. When I was exiled he made me leave you behind! I loved you. You were mine…You don't believe me.
Vincent: What would you have me believe…that you loved…and are now capable of this?
Paracelsus: Now is the time for retribution!
Vincent: Then…you never really knew love.
Vincent: Catherine... On the journey, I felt for the first time, as if somehow you were lost to me. I knew you were in danger and yet I could sense no fear.
Catherine: I was afraid, Vincent, but I couldn't allow myself to feel the fear.
Vincent: You didn't want to draw me.
Catherine: I couldn't.
Vincent: You would sacrifice so much...
Catherine: I would sacrifice everything, for you.... What Paracelsus said, about your past--
Vincent: Before I left, Father told me something that I am just now beginning to understand. He said that there is a truth, beyond knowledge…beyond everything you could ever hope to know.
Catherine: Yes.
Vincent: And that truth... is love.
Vincent(narrator): So, you see…Winslow knew the truth all along. He valued love enough to die for it, as something worth protecting at any cost. He knew it as the force to bind us together, and in the end, his death allowed our love to live.
Ozymandias
Elliot: Mr. Maxwell, I already have a key to the city and you would be amazed at how few doors it unlocks.Elliot: ...I hate to sleep. It is such a waste of precious time.
Catherine: We all need to sleep. We need to dream.
Elliot: I know about dreams…
Elliot (showing picture of Tower): This is the stuff dreams are made of.
Catherine: You have built skyscrapers before…
Elliot: They were just…buildings…This…I have waited my whole life to build this tower. Look at it. It is 152 stories of offices and apartments and shops. Theatres. Botanical Gardens. 9 restaurants. A six story waterfall in the Atrium…A city within a city!
Catherine: Restaurants and a waterfall will not make it any less…less…
Elliot: Large?
Catherine: It is going to impact the lives of thousands of people. It will change the whole neighborhood, the city.
Elliot: Change is not always bad, Cathy…
Elliot (showing the slides): I remember the first time I saw the skyline of New York. Empire State. Chrysler Building. I looked at them and I knew this was where I belonged. This was a town where anything was possible. This town made me what I am, Cathy…And now, I am going to give something back.
Vincent (with C in the painted tunnels): Your world and mine…She tells our stories on these walls. Reminds us that we are all part of one great city.
Catherine: She must be an extraordinary woman to take bare, gray walls and fill them with so much color and beauty.
Vincent: Elizabeth is a mystery even to us. No one knows when she left the world Above or why. She refuses to speak of such things.
Vincent (after explosion rocks tunnel): Most excavations stop well above our levels, but this new tower sinks its roots deep into the earth, deeper then any building has ever gone before.
Catherine: The Burch Tower?
Vincent: …If it is not stopped…Father thinks it will be the end of our world.
Elizabeth: Vincent! Come closer, Child! Come see what I have been doing. (shows painting of V and Erilk)
Vincent: It is as if you saw it with your own eyes.
Elizabeth: I did…in a way. You are not my only visitor, you know. Mouse brings me my paints. Sometimes Mary comes or Sarah. They tell me stories and I put the stories on the wall…So, it is not magic after all. I leave that kind of thing to Narcissa.
Vincent: You have your own magic.
Elizabeth: …I am not finished! You have to finish what you start.
Elizabeth: This is my life, Vincent. Here on these walls…You didn’t think I was going to live forever, did you Child?
Father: The excavation will reveal at least four levels, possibly five or six. And even if we start sealing up all the surrounding tunnels today, there is no way to minimize the exposure. Evacuation is the only answer.
Vincent: Elizabeth says they are her life. Who are we to tell her she is wrong.
Vincent(about Mouse’s plan): Your heart does you credit.
Catherine (to Luz):…Sometimes our commitment can blind us.
Father: It is all being taken away from us, Vincent. The work of a lifetime…Everything we built, lost.
Vincent: What is lost can be found again, built again. As long as we have each other our world will survive.
Father: I wish I could believe that.
Mouse: Look, just another stupid tower. They’ve got plenty Uptop. Don’t need this one.
Elizabeth(about Mouse):…He is a rather odd boy…Have you noticed?
Elliot: Trust is a two way street.
Catherine: You cannot barter for trust, Elliot…and I cannot tell you what you want to know. I made a promise.
Elliot(about Mouse): Why should I let him go?
Catherine: Because I am asking you to.
Vincent: Catherine will not fail us.
Father: …Mouse is such a wild spirit…
Vincent: Whatever happens, Mouse will survive. He survived for years by himself. A shadow. Moving about. Stealing bits of food. Watching us…
Father: Until you caught him. I remember how he kicked and screamed…
Father: Mouse, I hope this experience has taught you a lesson.
Mouse: Yes.
Father: Good.
Mouse: Shouldn’t get caught.
Vincent: Your heart is full of turmoil.
Catherine: It’s Elliot…It was so easy when I thought I was falling in love...and even easier when I was certain he was evil.
Vincent: Now, you see him as he truly is…good and bad, strong and weak…Capable of great deeds and great wrongs. A human being.
Catherine: Yes and with human feelings…I feel like I am trading on his feelings.
Elliot: I never felt like this before…After I released your friend, my security foreman called me up and, very politely, asked me if I have lost my mind.
Catherine: You did the right thing.
Elliot: Yeah…I seem to be making a habit of that with you…Cathy, I am in love with you! I have had other relationships, but from the very first moment I set eyes on you, I knew you were different. Then…when you walked out of my life---that was really different---and I wanted you twice as much.
Catherine: Because you could not have me. That is obsession, Elliot, that is not love.
Elliot: At first, yes…But when you came to me and you needed my help, right then I knew I could make you mine. I know desperation when I see it…When someone has something I want I take it. I go for the win that is what I do, what I am…No, it is what I have become…But not that day. Why?
Catherine: Because you are a decent man who could not turn his back on a friend.
Elliot: I don’t have any friends, Cathy. Somewhere on the Way Up friends became…inconvenient.
Catherine: Love can be inconvenient too.
Elliot: You don’t have to tell me that. Do you think I want to be this out of control? I feel like a 14 year old boy, confused and awkward and scared. I’m never scared, Cathy. I don’t allow myself to be scared. And despite everything, I’d rather be right here with you more than anywhere else on earth. There is nothing I can do about the past, but there is plenty we can do about the future together. Cathy, I am asking you to marry me.
Catherine: Elliot…
Elliot: Don’t say anything. Not now. All I ask is for you to think about it, seriously, after you have had a little sleep.
Catherine: Sleep is not going to change anything…
Elliot: It might. Give me that much at least. I did not ask for this, Cathy, but it is real and I do love you. And I would do anything in this world to make you happy, if you give me the chance.
Joe (about Luz): the next time they need a name for a hurricane, I know what I am going to suggest.
V: Catherine, no!
C: I have to. It's the only way. With Luz discredited, nothing stands in the way of the tower. Elliot leaked the story, I'm sure of it. Luz stood in his way, so he removed her, and used me to do it.
V: How can you even consider a union with such a man?
C: He's a human being, strong and weak, good and bad. You said so yourself, Vincent. And he loves me, as much as a man like Elliot can love.
V: But you do not love this man!
C: No. But there is more at stake than just me here. The painted tunnels, Elizabeth, Father and Mouse, all the children who have found safety Below. And you, you most of all…Vincent, you have risked your life for me a hundred times. How can I stand by and watch your world be destroyed when I have the power to save it?
V: I cannot allow you to sacrifice yourself in such a way.
C: I'm sorry, Vincent, but it's not your decision. I'm going to marry him. I have to.
Catherine: Yes, Elliot, I will marry you.
Elliot: Oh, that is wonderful! Oh, you won’t be sorry………
Catherine: I want you to halt construction on the tower.
Elliot: Stop the--- Is this a joke?
Catherine: No joke. You said you loved me, do anything for me…
Elliot: O, Cathy...No,no,no… You don’t understand…The tower is the most important thing in my life besides you…the two of us on top…watching down below…taking in the sights…
Catherine: No! It can’t be!
Elliot: Yes!
Catherine: It is just a building, Elliot. People are more important than buildings, more important then dreams even…If you pick up that phone and stop that tower right now, I will know you believe that too…And I will marry you…trust you.
Elliot(anguished): I can’t!
Catherine: I understand.
Vincent: I thought I would never see your face again. When you walked away from me, there was such resolve in your heart.
Catherine: That was the hardest thing I have done in my life.
Vincent: And the noblest.
Catherine: Every step was like a knife inside me. All my love for you was calling me back.
Vincent: But a greater love drove you onward. Your strength saved us all…Yet…I share your melancholy.
Catherine: I was just thinking of Elliot…Vincent, you helped me find the best part of who I am…But Elliot, he has lost more than his tower, he has lost himself.
Vincent’s reading:
Ozymandias byPercy Bysshe
I met a traveler from an antique land,
Who said - two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
A Happy Life
Charles Chandler: Every year when this day comes around it brings something different. I cannot believe its been 20 years.Catherine:…The loss of her and what that meant…her memory…all the things we never got to share…what would she think of me now?
Charles Chandler: She very much wanted you to have a happy life.
Nancy: …Is there a man in your life? Are you in love?…..That is a very enigmatic look.
Catherine: It’s rather complicated.
Nancy: Oh, it always was with you. The guys you ended up with never understood you.
Catherine: This one does!
Nancy: …Does he make you happy? That's all that matters, Cathy.
Catherine: I didn't know that she'd been sick for a long time. I was ten when she died.
Vincent: Your sadness must have been overwhelming.
Catherine: It was. But what I felt this morning, what I feel now, is deeper and more terrifying than anything I felt then.
Vincent: Yes?
Catherine: Loss. A terrible feeling of loss…and not just my mother, for a part of my life. A safety. A simplicity. Things that I've never been able to know before. I saw an old friend today, and I looked at her and I knew that she had those things. I was happy for her but... it made me sad.
Vincent: Perhaps these feelings, these memories, are calling out to remind you.
Catherine: Of what?
Vincent: Of something you need.
Catherine: I don't know…
Vincent: Of what you long for.
Catherine: My life is full of complications and risks. I don't know how to have a simple life.
Vincent: Catherine, your mother's memory reminds you of your aloneness. Of the family you lost when she died. Of all the friends you left behind when our paths crossed. Because that secret that you carry now, our secret, sets you apart--from your past, your friends, even from the family you are yet to have, the children waiting to be born. Catherine, the burden you bear with that secret is your aloneness... Know that our bond, our dream, exists at the cost of all your other dreams. Know that, Catherine.
Catherine: It's worth it.
Catherine(talking to Crafton): …Like my life is impossible…like I will never be able to find happiness…Everything seems hopeless…everything…my life. What use to make me happy suddenly makes me---feels painful, tragic.
Catherine: It's a relationship I'm involved in… A relationship I've never talked about with anyone....
Crafton: Is it that he doesn't want to take part in your life? Or, you don't want him to?
Catherine: He can't.
Crafton: Why not?
Catherine: He's... not able to. He has to live separate and part from me, from my life…for reasons I'm not able to go into.
Crafton: Do you want to end it?
Catherine: No. I don't want to.
Crafton: What do you think you're getting out of this relationship?
Catherine: Everything. He gives me everything. All the things I never had before.
Crafton: So what's the problem?
Catherine: A part of me wants to go and be with him, live with him in his world... And a part of me is just a woman living in New York and trying to be happy.
Crafton: And that feels impossible.
Catherine: It is impossible.
Father: What is it? What's distracting you so? As if I had to ask.
Vincent: She's in great turmoil.... Don't worry yourself about me, Father.
Father: I sometimes feel... I'm standing on the bank of a raging river, watching you try to swim across. How can I not worry? I'd be a fool. And yet Vincent, at the same time, I have to marvel at your courage.
Vincent: Catherine swims across that river as well. She faces the same dangers, shows the same courage. And in many ways the toll on her is even greater.
Father: You really think that's so?
Vincent: On her side of the river there is no one standing on the bank, watching. On her side of the river there is no one praying for her safe passage. On her side of the river, Father, there is no one but Catherine.
Father: Then I shall stand watch, and pray, for both of you.
Catherine: He's overcome tremendous hardship. He's suffered great pain. Yet, he has the most beautiful spirit. The most generous heart of anyone I've ever known. And it pains me to know that we can never have a life together.
Crafton: How can that fulfill you?
Catherine: It does fulfill me, in ways I never knew existed! It's the rest of my life that doesn't seem to fit.
Crafton: Then how can you find the happiness that you say you want? ... You do want to be happy? ... Well, it's just that I'm wondering, whether or not you’re using this impossible, problematic situation with Vincent to avoid a commitment to the real thing.
Catherine: It is the real thing.
Joe: You know, you work yourself too hard, and I take advantage.
Catherine: We all work too hard.
Joe: But I pushed it. I knew you were trying to prove yourself.
Catherine: And you gave me a chance to. It’s OK.
Joe: I owe you, Radcliffe.
Vincent: I'm here.... Catherine... Tell me.
Catherine: Tonight I went to a piano recital. I was actually feeling okay. And then I sat down, and he started to play the Grieg Piano Concerto, the one that we heard in the park that night.
Vincent: Was it beautiful?
Catherine: Yes, it was beautiful. And I kept remembering how much you loved it. And I wanted you there with me, so badly. It became unbearable to me. Almost physically painful! I just had to run. I actually ran from it. What are we going to do? We have to do something, before there's nothing left for either of us!
Vincent: This was the risk we faced.
Catherine: And now, what?
Vincent: Now…Perhaps we awaken from our dream, return to our lives.
Catherine: No. Let me come Below, let me live in your world. Let me try!
Vincent: Catherine, you have a life Above. To leave now would be to turn your back on who you are, who you've become...that you must never do.
Catherine: Vincent, what am I to do?
Vincent: Oh, you're in such pain, I know.
Catherine: Vincent... I don't think I have the strength to continue.
Vincent: Then you mustn't continue.
Catherine: Maybe if I just went away for a while--
Vincent: Catherine, it must end!
Catherine: No!
Vincent: It must.
Catherine: I don't want that! How can you say that?
Vincent: To see you in such pain, because you dare to love... knowing that I'm the reason, the cause of that pain, is more than I can bear to live with! It mocks our dream. So it must end.... Catherine, you have a life, waiting to be lived….Let the memory of what we are, of what we shared, remind you that love, in its deepest and purest form, exists.... Use that memory to give you the courage to love someone else.
Catherine: I can't.
Vincent: You must.
Vincent (voice over): What we shared will never die. I'll always be with you. Goodbye, Catherine. Be happy.
Catherine's dream:
Catherine: Oh, Vincent.
Vincent: You hair... the sunlight in your hair is so beautiful. Catherine... The colors, it's like another world.
Catherine: I feel like I'm seeing it for the first time.
Vincent: Where shall we go?
Catherine: Everywhere! I want to show you everything!
Vincent: And we can go together?
Catherine: Yes, together!
Vincent: Catherine, how can this be?
Catherine: Because it's what I wished for. More than anything!
Vincent: I dreamed of this.
Catherine: The two of us, in the sunshine.... Vincent, you are so beautiful.
Vincent: Catherine, I'm a part of you. What you see in me is the beauty in your heart.
Catherine: It's all so perfect. This moment. I've never been so happy.
Vincent: If only it could last forever.
Catherine: It can. It will! I love you so much!
Catherine: It just tears me apart that we can never share a life together.
Nancy: You’re sure there is nothing else you can do?
Catherine: I’m sure.
Nancy: Then maybe it’s enough…
Nancy:…but it is not the only path…
Catherine: I guess the anniversary of my mom’s death reminded me of all those choices. Forced me to look at myself and wonder what would she think of me, would she be proud. Does my life honor her memory? All these things, I don’t know.
Nancy: Cathy, of all of us, you're the one that's come the greatest distance and gone the farthest. I mean, when you were in law school we used to joke about you majoring in "Fashion Law!” You've overcome a terrible accident, you've changed your life. Now you're giving to others. You have this extraordinary relationship. You should be so proud of yourself. We're all so proud. And to hell with what anyone else thinks about what you should or shouldn't do!
Nancy: When all is said and done, you've got to follow your heart. It's the only thing you can ever really count on.
Catherine: That's what Vincent always says.
Nancy: Will we ever meet him?
Catherine: I'm beginning to think that anything is possible.
Catherine: You said, Follow your heart. It can’t wait.
Catherine: Oh, forgive me! Forgive me for doubting! What we have is all that matters! It's worth everything!
Vincent: Everything?!
(The kiss that should have been)
Chamber Music
Joe: …You're really attracted to these culture types, aren't you?Catherine: I don't think you could call what I'm attracted to a”'type.”
Joe: No, but you know what I mean. These smooth guys who go to concerts, and know all about wine, take you to all the right places...
Catherine: Not exactly.
Joe: Well, all I'm saying is there must be a reason you haven't hooked up with one of these guys yet.
Catherine: Any theories?
Joe: I'm only talking as a friend now.
Catherine: I'm listening.
Joe: Well, obviously you're not getting what you need. Maybe you need something else.
Catherine: Joe, I hesitate to ask, but I'm dying to know. What do you think I need?…Tell me.
Joe: Radcliffe, you need someone who's more, ah...
Catherine: More...?
Joe: ...More solid. You know? ... More a... down-to-earth kind of guy. You know what I mean?
Catherine: I think I do.
Catherine: Ah, I love this part.
Vincent: Yes, it's beautiful...What makes you smile?
Catherine: Everything! This is a wonderful spot.
Vincent: I've spent many an evening here. I've heard all the great music... here.
Catherine: The sound is remarkable. It's like we're in the first row.
Vincent: We're just under it.
Catherine: I have been coming to concerts in the park all my life. It's strange to think there might have been nights we were listening to the same music... that you were so close!
Vincent: I come here, and the music engulfs me and...I can feel the presence of everyone sitting just above us. You'll see--when the music ends, you'll hear fragments of conversations echo throughout the chamber and--and footsteps... And then, all will be very still again.
Catherine: The stillness... didn't it make you feel...
Vincent: Alone? ... Sometimes…and sometimes I found a wonderful peace in that stillness.
Catherine: ... Lightening!
Vincent: I think it was.
Catherine: Vincent, it's raining! (Vincent offers his cloak) No…Vincent, it's wonderful!
Catherine: I don't think I'll ever be able to hear Schubert's Unfinished Symphony in quite the same way.
Vincent (voice over): "She walks in beauty like the night.”
Vincent (voice over): And now there is only the city…and the night…and me.
Vincent: Rolly???
Flashback:
Eli: This boy has a precious gift…we’ve got to protect it.
Father: Eli, part of our dream here has always been to offer a place of encouragement to those whose gifts have been overlooked and unappreciated.
Eli: A couple of years ago he was in here asking for money. Took one look at him and I knew he was on the drugs. The boy, the gift... everything was gone. He looked like a ghost.
Vincent: The ghost of someone we knew and loved…… I want Rolly to know there are still people that hold him in their hearts.
Flashback:
Father: Extraordinary!
Miss Kendrick: And sad.
Vincent: Why sad?
Miss Kendrick: He does not know what he is playing. He is just coping what he has heard, like a little robot or parrot. He has no understanding…
Father: But you cannot deny that there is a gift.
Miss Kendrick: It’s a gift, but right now it is an empty gift.
Vincent: Rolly’s gift was immense. It was fragile. He become lost to us. I don't think there's ever been a young person in our world with more promise and more desire. Catherine, I must see him.
Catherine: Are you sure he wants to see you, Vincent, to be reminded of that terrible loss.
Flashback:
Father: You'll have to admit that Rolley at the keyboard is a temptation that isn't easy to resist.
Flashback:
Father: Mouse, what in the world have you got there?
Mouse: Found it! Up top! For Rolley!
Father: Some kind of keyboard?
Miss Kendrick: It's from a concert grand piano!
Father: Mouse, what did you do? I hope you didn't wreck this piano.
Mouse: Found it.
Miss Kendrick: But where's the rest of it?
Mouse: Up Above, down Below, in between... Mouse took it apart.
Father: I was afraid of that.
Mouse: Took it apart, bring it down, put it together... so Rolley can play.
Father: I'm sorry, Mouse, but one simply does not find a concert grand piano!
Mouse: Mouse did!
Father: Where?
Mouse: In the park.
Father: The park?
Mouse: ... Underground... under platform.
Father: The concert platform, in the park. You disassembled a grand piano under the concert platform in the park.
Mouse: Two more there. Just as big!
Father: I don't think I want to hear any more of this.
Miss Kendrick: Oh, Rolley, when Mouse finishes putting that together for you, you're going to give some recital, aren't you?
Rolley: I'll play it for everyone!
Father: Then uh, maybe they won't... miss it?
Vincent: "There is a piano in a chamber deep beneath this city waiting for you to play. It’s yours…come back…play it for us.”
Vincent: He won't come back.
Catherine: You did everything you could...
Vincent: Catherine, I feel as if we'll never see him again...
Catherine: But he knows now, that you'll wait for him, that you love him...and Vincent, as long as you do, there's hope.
Remember Love
Vincent’s reading: excerpt from Fern Hill by Dylan ThomasAnd as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the Sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away…
Catherine: It was beautiful. Why did you stop?
Vincent: Sometimes I can see it all so clearly…I use to come here when I was a child. Wonder about how it would feel to lay in a meadow under the warm summer sun…or see the night sky full of stars.
Catherine: When I was a girl, we spent our summers at a lake in Connecticut. I had a secret place too, a glen. I would lay there in the tall grass and feel like I was the only person on earth. Safe.
Vincent: Yes.
Catherine: And if I sat very still, the deer would walk by and not ever see me. I could almost reach out and touch them. It seemed…enchanted. It seems so far from the city, like a different world, but it is only two hours away. I wish you could see it.
Vincent: So do I.
Catherine: If only we could be there.
Vincent: We are there. You are taking me there with your words, showing me.
Catherine: I would love to share it with you…It seems so unfair. You of all people would appreciate how magical this place is..
Vincent: Catherine…
Catherine: If you saw it you would know in an instant…and then is would be ours.
Vincent:<sigh> I would want nothing more.
Catherine: Maybe there is a way…
Vincent: Please…Don’t even…
Catherine: All we need is a way to get out of the city and up there safely…A van. We could drive up at night. No one is even there at the lake this time of year. Maybe we could really do it…Vincent, let me try to arrange it. If I can…Will you come with me?
Vincent: It is something that I have never dared wish for.
Catherine: To go there, to share that with you…Would mean so much.
Vincent:<sigh> Then…we must try.
Father: Have you both gone completely mad?!
Vincent: Not at all.
Father: I cannot believe you could seriously envision something so foolhardy and dangerous!
Vincent: You over-state the risk.
Father: Any risk is too great…surely that is apparent. For Catherine to suggest such a thing…
Vincent: An innocent dream, Father, borne of love.
Father: An irresponsible dream borne of selfishness!
Vincent: No!
Father: Yes!…Yes, I know because I have had the same dream for you myself…over and again for so many years. Ever sense you were a young, I wanted nothing more then to be able to show you the sun, the mountains…things for which you only have words for.
Vincent: This is not merely for myself, Father, but for Catherine as well. This is a chance for us, no more then a moment, the briefest moment…free from the perils and urgency of the time we share.
Father: Vincent, your love for Catherine and hers for you is something that warms all of us…But you have a responsibility beyond that, a duty to those down here in this community that depends on you. Who look to you for truth and strength, for hope and protection. Without you their world would be a very dark place.
Vincent: And what about my responsibility to Catherine? Who gives so much and asks for so little? How can I deny her, Father?
Father: Vincent, if I thought it was in anyway possible…
Vincent: It is possible…and there are ways!
Father: Nonsense!!! Suppose something goes wrong? Suppose you are discovered?
Vincent: Am I unable to fulfill even her slightest wish? Tell me, Father, are we forever bound to accept a poem for a sunset?
Father: Vincent, you cannot do this! (Vincent stalks out) Vincent!
Vincent(to Pascal, Jamie, Mouse): A place, a special place that Catherine wishes for me to see…unlike anywhere I have ever been, a lake in the mountains, a place of her childhood. I want to go…to be with her……This is a quiet place, a safe place.
Jamie: Just be careful, Vincent. We need you.
Mouse: Come back quick.
Pascal: Sounds dangerous.
Vincent: But to live as well as we can, there are risks we must take.
Pascal: This a risk for all of us…If anything should happen to you---I don’t even want to think about it---It would be awful. Vincent, you are an important part of us.
Vincent: It was a dream, Catherine.
Catherine: No…
Vincent: A beautiful, impossible dream that we dare not have.
Catherine: But for a moment…I thought it would be possible.
Vincent: So did I…If the slightest thing should go wrong, if anyone were to see us…it would ruin everything that we already have.
Catherine: I know…I’m sorry. I should have never asked.
Vincent: I am the one who should apologize. You ask for so little and there is so much I wish to give you…and so much that I can never give you…
Catherine: And so much more you do. You must believe that, Vincent. Some people don’t even have dreams.
Vincent: One day…we will see that lake, I promise you.
Catherine: And until then, we will keep on dreaming.
Dream begins---
Vincent: Catherine?
Angel: I am the image of her in you. I am your heart, your mind.
Vincent: Am I dreaming?
Angel: Call it what you will…Sleeping…Waking dream.
Vincent: I remember thinking…that there would be less pain for those I love (if he had never been born or lived)
Angel: Nothing of what you knew…remains.
Angel: Remember love.
Paracelsus: I have no scars.
Paracelsus (quotes Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil): He shall be the greatest who is the lowliest, the most hidden, the most deviating; a human being beyond good and evil.
Vincent: Beyond good and evil is only death.
Paracelsus: Take the beast!
Pascal(quotes Shakespeare’s Hamlet): Now, cracks a noble heart…Good night, sweet prince.
Vincent: Gone. Everything…gone.
Angel: You were not there to stop him (Paracelsus). Knowledge and beauty are fragile things; they need protection.
Vincent: But I was only a baby.
Angel: But even as a baby, you were a symbol to the community and when you died hope and possibility died with you. People lost heart.
Vincent: Is there nothing I can do for them?
Angel: Nothing…It is already done.
Angel: Mouse has no language. You were not there to reach out to him.
Vincent: There was no one else?
Angel: No, no one.
Vincent: There was a child, a baby, found among the garbage of St Vincent’s Hospital.
Jacob: Wrapped in rags.
Vincent: You took him in and raised him as your son. But he was not an ordinary child, he was different from the others……What happened to the child? Tell me.
Jacob: He died…he died.
Vincent: She(Catherine) is gone.
Angel: Is she?
Vincent: I have no sense of her.
Angel: She never knew you.
Vincent: You said she is still alive.
Angel: She did not die, but her spirit is gone.
Vincent: Catherine’s spirit could never change; never.
Angel: You were not there to strengthen her heart.
Angel: Nothing is ever lost. We are all on the same journey…We create that journey for each other.
Vincent: I do not know what to believe…
Angel: Yes, you do…Remember love.
---Dream ends
Vincent: Catherine! It was a dream…a terrible dream…Everything was changed…I could not wake up.
Catherine: Its over now…I’m here.
Vincent: Yes. I thought I had lost you.
Catherine: Vincent, don't you know you could never lose me? We could never lose each other as long as we remember…
Vincent: Remember?
Catherine: Remember love.