1
00:00:20,660 --> 00:00:23,740
<i>MORDECAI: From whence comes
the purpose of a person's life?</i>

2
00:00:26,500 --> 00:00:29,820
<i>Come it by chance, a casting of the lot,</i>

3
00:00:30,180 --> 00:00:33,700
<i>or does a call of destiny
beckon to each of us?</i>

4
00:00:36,700 --> 00:00:39,140
<i>Many have wondered
about my little Hadassah</i>

5
00:00:39,260 --> 00:00:41,260
<i>and why a simple Jewish orphan</i>

6
00:00:41,380 --> 00:00:45,500
<i>was chosen to stand against
the annihilation of her people.</i>

7
00:00:46,980 --> 00:00:50,020
<i>And yet the mystery of the girl
most know as Esther</i>

8
00:00:50,140 --> 00:00:52,060
<i>begins not where one might think,</i>

9
00:00:52,740 --> 00:00:54,940
<i>but 500 years earlier</i>

10
00:00:55,260 --> 00:00:58,020
<i>with a single act of disobedience.</i>

11
00:01:05,700 --> 00:01:07,500
<i>King Saul of the Israelites</i>

12
00:01:07,620 --> 00:01:09,860
<i>had been sent by the Prophet Samuel</i>

13
00:01:09,940 --> 00:01:14,100
<i>to wipe out
an ancient child-sacrificing enemy.</i>

14
00:01:14,940 --> 00:01:16,620
<i>So pervasive was their evil</i>

15
00:01:16,740 --> 00:01:19,980
<i>that not even their oxen nor sheep
were to be spared,</i>

16
00:01:20,380 --> 00:01:24,340
<i>and above all, no survivors left breathing.</i>

17
00:01:38,940 --> 00:01:43,180
My lord, I give you Agag,
king of the Amalekites.

18
00:01:43,660 --> 00:01:45,900
We have also seized for you his livestock.

19
00:01:46,020 --> 00:01:47,340
Even his queen.

20
00:02:02,260 --> 00:02:05,580
What dark portent bid me haste
to cross this land of ours?

21
00:02:05,700 --> 00:02:07,740
How would you accuse me now,
O Prophet?

22
00:02:07,820 --> 00:02:09,420
I carried out your lord's command.

23
00:02:09,540 --> 00:02:10,540
Then why do my ears

24
00:02:10,660 --> 00:02:14,340
ring with the lowing of oxen
and the bleating of sheep?

25
00:02:15,860 --> 00:02:18,260
Your Majesty, the Amalekite queen,

26
00:02:18,700 --> 00:02:20,020
she escaped.

27
00:02:21,420 --> 00:02:22,660
We have the king.

28
00:02:23,300 --> 00:02:24,620
What is one woman?

29
00:02:24,780 --> 00:02:26,380
You fool,

30
00:02:27,420 --> 00:02:28,820
she is with child.

31
00:02:33,100 --> 00:02:36,540
<i>MORDECAI: While the Prophet Samuel
put a swift end to King Agag,</i>

32
00:02:38,820 --> 00:02:40,260
<i>Agag's queen,</i>

33
00:02:40,620 --> 00:02:44,340
<i>fleeing with the seed of vengeance
growing within her,</i>

34
00:02:44,700 --> 00:02:47,060
<i>the Jews never found.</i>

35
00:03:30,660 --> 00:03:32,380
HADASSAH: Uncle Mordecai!

36
00:03:32,460 --> 00:03:35,380
Rebecca, what kind of housekeeper
do you think you are?

37
00:03:35,620 --> 00:03:38,340
Serves you right
for bringing home your work.

38
00:03:38,460 --> 00:03:40,420
HADASSAH:
The caravan arrived this morning.

39
00:03:40,900 --> 00:03:43,220
Well, Susa is the capital of the new world.

40
00:03:43,300 --> 00:03:44,940
Caravans arrive every day.

41
00:03:45,060 --> 00:03:46,580
Not from Jerusalem.

42
00:03:48,220 --> 00:03:49,660
Well, perhaps
you ought to go back and ask them

43
00:03:49,780 --> 00:03:52,140
if they'll arrive the same time next year.

44
00:03:52,740 --> 00:03:54,900
Next year? You promised.

45
00:03:55,100 --> 00:03:56,780
- Rebecca!
- REBECCA: Fight your own battles.

46
00:03:56,900 --> 00:03:59,620
You don't pay me enough
to fight the battle for you.

47
00:04:02,180 --> 00:04:04,540
- Good morning, Hadassah.
- And where have you been?

48
00:04:04,620 --> 00:04:07,060
I'm sorry, Grandmother,
the markets were really busy.

49
00:04:07,140 --> 00:04:08,500
There's a new caravan in from...

50
00:04:09,940 --> 00:04:12,060
- Sore subject.
- Uncle Mordecai,

51
00:04:12,420 --> 00:04:15,780
does not your own heart
long to see our people restored to glory?

52
00:04:15,900 --> 00:04:17,020
It does.

53
00:04:17,340 --> 00:04:21,180
Did not Cyrus the Great conquer Babylon
and free our people from captivity?

54
00:04:21,700 --> 00:04:22,620
He did.

55
00:04:23,380 --> 00:04:25,900
But do we embrace our freedom
and leave this pagan empire

56
00:04:26,020 --> 00:04:27,780
to embrace our destiny?

57
00:04:28,860 --> 00:04:30,700
- Of course not.
- MORDECAI: Lord,

58
00:04:30,940 --> 00:04:32,460
I pray to you day and night

59
00:04:32,580 --> 00:04:34,220
to give me the patience of Job,

60
00:04:34,340 --> 00:04:35,980
give me the wisdom of Solomon.

61
00:04:36,260 --> 00:04:37,940
And what do you give me?

62
00:04:38,380 --> 00:04:41,340
You give me the endless equivocations

63
00:04:42,020 --> 00:04:44,300
of a beautiful, young woman.

64
00:05:09,620 --> 00:05:10,540
Look.

65
00:05:13,860 --> 00:05:16,140
Hadassah, always dreaming.

66
00:05:17,220 --> 00:05:18,380
Maybe...

67
00:05:19,940 --> 00:05:21,820
Here, then, you be the princess.

68
00:05:27,900 --> 00:05:31,500
<i>While many Jews had forgotten
the acts of centuries past,</i>

69
00:05:31,620 --> 00:05:34,620
<i>the descendants of Agag had not.</i>

70
00:05:35,660 --> 00:05:38,340
<i>For Agag's queen did indeed survive</i>

71
00:05:39,060 --> 00:05:41,140
<i>and gave birth to a son.</i>

72
00:05:43,340 --> 00:05:45,500
<i>And she forged for him a mark,</i>

73
00:05:46,820 --> 00:05:50,420
<i>prophesying that one day
an Agagite would arrive,</i>

74
00:05:51,300 --> 00:05:53,300
<i>a descendant of Agag,</i>

75
00:05:53,380 --> 00:05:56,220
<i>who would finally exact vengeance
upon the Jews.</i>

76
00:05:56,420 --> 00:05:58,980
Hadassah, read us a story!
Read us a story!

77
00:05:59,100 --> 00:06:00,700
A story? You want a story?

78
00:06:18,860 --> 00:06:21,540
- GIRL: Hadassah, help!
- Over here.

79
00:06:33,460 --> 00:06:34,620
Are you okay?

80
00:06:37,380 --> 00:06:39,180
HADASSAH: "And King Saul said to David,

81
00:06:39,900 --> 00:06:41,940
"'You cannot go before this Goliath

82
00:06:42,100 --> 00:06:43,660
"'for you are but a youth.'

83
00:06:43,780 --> 00:06:44,940
"David replied,

84
00:06:45,420 --> 00:06:48,740
"'While keeping my father's sheep,
there came a lion and a bear.

85
00:06:48,820 --> 00:06:50,260
"'And I slew them both.

86
00:06:50,340 --> 00:06:54,380
"'This Goliath shall be as one of them
for he defied the armies of the Lord."'

87
00:06:55,620 --> 00:06:57,860
As will Jesse Ben-Joseph,

88
00:06:57,980 --> 00:07:01,300
should he but take one step closer.

89
00:07:21,060 --> 00:07:22,500
With peace, Haman.

90
00:07:24,420 --> 00:07:27,260
- There's little but random news I bear.
- I judge that.

91
00:07:27,620 --> 00:07:28,860
Rumor has it

92
00:07:29,180 --> 00:07:32,700
Queen Vashti plans not to attend
the King's banquet this evening,

93
00:07:33,340 --> 00:07:34,820
in protest of the war.

94
00:07:34,980 --> 00:07:37,260
Apparently the King has no idea.

95
00:07:38,180 --> 00:07:41,140
Some see random news.
Others, opportunities.

96
00:07:41,740 --> 00:07:44,860
Of course,
this is why you are a dispatch rider,

97
00:07:44,980 --> 00:07:47,260
and I am a prince of the Fars.

98
00:07:47,940 --> 00:07:51,900
Tell me, Agagite, what do you do with
the extra darics you connive from me?

99
00:07:52,500 --> 00:07:54,100
I have 10 sons, my lord,

100
00:07:55,460 --> 00:07:57,500
and a wife that makes many demands.

101
00:07:57,620 --> 00:07:58,700
(CHUCKLES)

102
00:08:00,540 --> 00:08:01,740
Ten sons?

103
00:08:03,540 --> 00:08:05,420
You serve the great king well.

104
00:08:06,420 --> 00:08:08,420
Come, come. Go you now.

105
00:08:08,940 --> 00:08:12,380
Speak of me
as you lavish your wife and sons.

106
00:08:49,380 --> 00:08:51,580
<i>ABIHAIL: Happy birthday, Hadassah!</i>

107
00:08:52,740 --> 00:08:53,980
HADASSAH: A stone ball?

108
00:08:57,340 --> 00:09:00,860
Remember, Hadassah,
it is the glory of God

109
00:09:00,980 --> 00:09:02,460
to conceal a matter,

110
00:09:02,540 --> 00:09:04,580
the honor of kings to seek it out.

111
00:09:11,900 --> 00:09:13,580
It's from the Promised Land.

112
00:09:15,180 --> 00:09:17,540
Your great-grandmother
brought it with her.

113
00:09:17,740 --> 00:09:20,300
And like you, its true treasure

114
00:09:20,460 --> 00:09:23,020
is etched within.

115
00:09:33,940 --> 00:09:35,460
<i>PRIEST: Reconsider my proposition.</i>

116
00:09:35,580 --> 00:09:38,140
There is much need for leadership
in Jerusalem.

117
00:09:39,140 --> 00:09:40,300
More stew, my lord?

118
00:09:41,220 --> 00:09:43,020
I don't suppose that in your entire caravan

119
00:09:43,140 --> 00:09:45,340
you have a cook one half as good

120
00:09:45,820 --> 00:09:47,020
as our Rebecca.

121
00:09:47,260 --> 00:09:49,740
Here you are but a poor palace scribe,

122
00:09:50,020 --> 00:09:52,340
one who passes as a Persian, at that.

123
00:09:53,500 --> 00:09:56,580
Are you a Jew?
Or have you become a Gentile?

124
00:09:57,180 --> 00:09:58,580
We're a small people

125
00:09:58,980 --> 00:10:01,500
caught up in a vast and violent empire.

126
00:10:01,740 --> 00:10:03,060
We have capricious princes

127
00:10:03,140 --> 00:10:05,860
who could order our annihilation
with the flick of a finger.

128
00:10:05,980 --> 00:10:08,620
And your presence in the palace
might prevent it?

129
00:10:11,180 --> 00:10:12,340
Probably not.

130
00:10:12,940 --> 00:10:16,540
Look, tell me what I want to hear about.
Tell me about the Temple.

131
00:10:19,460 --> 00:10:23,780
What ecstasy to stand in the presence
of the Almighty!

132
00:10:24,340 --> 00:10:28,100
Like the intimate embrace
of a husband and wife.

133
00:10:28,700 --> 00:10:33,460
It's so much deeper
than mere mortal love.

134
00:10:34,860 --> 00:10:36,060
Oh, hello.

135
00:10:56,100 --> 00:10:59,780
<i>MORDECAI: Now, it came to pass
in the days of King Xerxes,</i>

136
00:10:59,980 --> 00:11:03,420
<i>who ruled over the empire
of the Medes and Persians,</i>

137
00:11:03,540 --> 00:11:05,780
<i>from Ethiopia to India,</i>

138
00:11:05,940 --> 00:11:07,900
<i>that in the third year of his reign,</i>

139
00:11:08,020 --> 00:11:09,980
<i>he decreed a season of feasting.</i>

140
00:11:10,580 --> 00:11:12,860
<i>Rumors of war were in the wind, however,</i>

141
00:11:12,980 --> 00:11:17,380
<i>and some thought this the King's way
of stalling off a much-debated decision</i>

142
00:11:17,500 --> 00:11:21,340
<i>to march on Greece
in retaliation for his father's death</i>

143
00:11:21,580 --> 00:11:23,100
<i>four years before.</i>

144
00:11:30,980 --> 00:11:32,980
MAN: Queen Vashti, Your Majesty.

145
00:11:40,460 --> 00:11:41,380
Enter.

146
00:11:46,980 --> 00:11:49,780
The night's festivities
hold not your interest, dear?

147
00:11:54,820 --> 00:11:56,980
It is long since you summoned me here.

148
00:11:59,620 --> 00:12:02,340
- Your hands have not been idle.
- Not idle,

149
00:12:04,700 --> 00:12:05,980
not gifted either.

150
00:12:06,460 --> 00:12:08,500
MORDECAI: Later, Hadassah,
we'll discuss this later.

151
00:12:08,580 --> 00:12:10,300
I have run out of laters.

152
00:12:10,860 --> 00:12:12,580
The caravan leaves tomorrow.

153
00:12:13,380 --> 00:12:15,660
Did not the priest even say
it would be good for me?

154
00:12:15,780 --> 00:12:17,500
That he would look after me?

155
00:12:18,580 --> 00:12:21,940
You have so much of your
mother and father in you, you know?

156
00:12:22,380 --> 00:12:24,660
And perhaps
I'm just being a very selfish old man.

157
00:12:24,740 --> 00:12:28,340
Do you really want to go to Jerusalem?

158
00:12:30,460 --> 00:12:31,380
Truly.

159
00:12:34,180 --> 00:12:35,820
Then go with my blessing.

160
00:12:38,500 --> 00:12:39,460
Thank you.

161
00:12:40,580 --> 00:12:41,900
Rebecca!

162
00:12:44,820 --> 00:12:47,420
Yes, well,
I will be late coming back tonight.

163
00:12:47,540 --> 00:12:50,060
The feasting has been extended.

164
00:12:50,420 --> 00:12:51,980
All Susa is invited.

165
00:12:52,380 --> 00:12:53,580
All of Susa?

166
00:12:55,900 --> 00:12:59,220
A drunken brawl is no place
for a young lady of purity.

167
00:12:59,380 --> 00:13:01,820
Then why is a good Jew like you going?

168
00:13:02,580 --> 00:13:04,940
All the scribes have to go!
There is war in the air!

169
00:13:16,900 --> 00:13:18,180
(ALL CHATTERING)

170
00:13:32,420 --> 00:13:35,260
The Queen indeed
holds her own feast in protest.

171
00:13:35,380 --> 00:13:37,340
All is prepared as you have asked.

172
00:13:41,700 --> 00:13:45,660
You do know why the princes have asked
you to extend the feast another night.

173
00:13:48,860 --> 00:13:51,140
You are too late
if you seek me to deny them.

174
00:13:51,260 --> 00:13:52,540
Especially now.

175
00:13:52,660 --> 00:13:56,460
Such clamoring to march upon Greece
and avenge my father's death.

176
00:13:56,900 --> 00:13:59,340
How long have you dreamt
of molding Persia

177
00:13:59,700 --> 00:14:01,860
into a pillar of learning and culture?

178
00:14:02,580 --> 00:14:05,660
A flame to make even
the greatness of Greece but a shadow?

179
00:14:07,940 --> 00:14:09,340
You know as well as I,

180
00:14:10,180 --> 00:14:12,460
this is not something that is won in battle

181
00:14:12,580 --> 00:14:14,140
but in the hearts of men.

182
00:14:14,380 --> 00:14:16,380
You would have me do nothing, then?

183
00:14:18,220 --> 00:14:19,620
You're no warrior,

184
00:14:20,140 --> 00:14:21,340
no soldier.

185
00:14:27,380 --> 00:14:28,900
I'd have you stay,

186
00:14:32,420 --> 00:14:33,860
enhance your kingdom,

187
00:14:36,180 --> 00:14:37,380
preserve your throne.

188
00:15:11,500 --> 00:15:13,180
Looking for someone?

189
00:15:13,540 --> 00:15:15,260
I'm fine, thank you.

190
00:15:15,380 --> 00:15:16,860
You can run back to Rebecca now.

191
00:15:16,980 --> 00:15:18,340
Oh, I'm sure you're fine.

192
00:15:18,460 --> 00:15:20,060
Only tell me, Hadassah,

193
00:15:22,220 --> 00:15:23,620
or whoever you are,

194
00:15:24,100 --> 00:15:26,460
how do you intend to get into the palace?

195
00:15:27,820 --> 00:15:29,740
You didn't come to take me back?

196
00:15:30,540 --> 00:15:33,380
Come, or I shall call you
Hadassah the mouse.

197
00:15:38,820 --> 00:15:39,780
Wait!

198
00:15:41,820 --> 00:15:44,420
I appear to you by the gracious command

199
00:15:44,580 --> 00:15:46,340
of the great king of kings,

200
00:15:46,540 --> 00:15:50,460
the emperor of the world, Xerxes,
son of Darius.

201
00:16:13,940 --> 00:16:14,980
Great king.

202
00:16:15,460 --> 00:16:17,140
(ALL CHEERING)

203
00:16:18,620 --> 00:16:19,540
We drink.

204
00:16:19,780 --> 00:16:23,060
We drink also to my guard,
the immortal 10,000,

205
00:16:23,140 --> 00:16:26,540
but I fear I would soon have to send them
out to conquer new vineyards for me.

206
00:16:26,660 --> 00:16:28,140
(ALL LAUGHING)

207
00:16:30,500 --> 00:16:34,220
Then let us drink to Queen Vashti,
the most beautiful in the land.

208
00:16:36,260 --> 00:16:38,140
Bring forth Vashti!

209
00:16:38,260 --> 00:16:39,500
Vashti!

210
00:16:39,620 --> 00:16:40,820
(ALL CHANTING)

211
00:16:40,900 --> 00:16:42,700
Bring forth Vashti!

212
00:16:44,140 --> 00:16:46,780
They are serious? They demand
Vashti be here before all?

213
00:16:46,900 --> 00:16:48,260
Already rumors circulate

214
00:16:48,380 --> 00:16:50,500
as to why the Queen holds her own feast

215
00:16:50,620 --> 00:16:52,020
instead of attending yours.

216
00:16:52,140 --> 00:16:53,700
They sound riotous, my lord.

217
00:16:53,820 --> 00:16:55,740
They fear a divided kingdom.

218
00:16:56,300 --> 00:16:59,460
My lord,
you know the Queen's position on the war.

219
00:17:02,340 --> 00:17:03,460
Send for her.

220
00:17:06,900 --> 00:17:09,700
They go to fetch the Queen.
She must be lovely,

221
00:17:09,940 --> 00:17:11,900
reigning in a place such as this.

222
00:17:11,980 --> 00:17:14,460
None is more lovely than you, my queen.

223
00:17:18,140 --> 00:17:20,180
- My thanks, fair prince.
- Prince?

224
00:17:22,980 --> 00:17:25,860
Why is it for years you threatened
to join the caravans to Jerusalem,

225
00:17:25,980 --> 00:17:27,380
yet you never do?

226
00:17:27,620 --> 00:17:29,020
What holds you back?

227
00:17:30,700 --> 00:17:32,700
Perhaps the courage to face it alone.

228
00:17:34,820 --> 00:17:36,900
What if you had someone to join you?

229
00:17:44,940 --> 00:17:46,700
MAN: The herald returns!

230
00:17:46,860 --> 00:17:49,100
The Queen asks the King's forgiveness.

231
00:17:49,220 --> 00:17:50,940
She cannot leave her guests.

232
00:17:51,820 --> 00:17:53,780
<i>VASHTI: I'm queen, not a pawn,</i>

233
00:17:53,860 --> 00:17:56,380
and I will not lower my dignity

234
00:17:57,380 --> 00:17:58,940
or shame my reign

235
00:17:59,780 --> 00:18:02,660
by wearing the royal crown
before your drunk

236
00:18:03,540 --> 00:18:05,500
and thinly veiled war council.

237
00:18:06,500 --> 00:18:08,220
MAN 1: What news of the Queen?

238
00:18:08,420 --> 00:18:09,980
MAN 2: Where is our queen?

239
00:18:10,820 --> 00:18:11,940
WOMAN: Queen Vashti!

240
00:18:12,140 --> 00:18:13,300
MAN 3: Queen Vashti!

241
00:18:14,220 --> 00:18:16,100
Am I to be a mockery before my subjects?

242
00:18:16,220 --> 00:18:17,500
Or Greece as well?

243
00:18:17,940 --> 00:18:20,260
- Continue, Cousin.
- Might not this

244
00:18:20,940 --> 00:18:22,420
deed of refusal

245
00:18:22,540 --> 00:18:24,140
travel abroad to all women,

246
00:18:24,260 --> 00:18:26,900
making their husbands
contemptible in their eyes?

247
00:18:27,100 --> 00:18:30,820
Will not it be said by all, "Xerxes
commanded his wife to come before him,

248
00:18:30,900 --> 00:18:32,020
"but she came not"?

249
00:18:32,100 --> 00:18:34,780
Vashti's guilty not only of
disobedience to the crown

250
00:18:34,860 --> 00:18:37,140
but against the protocol of our fathers.

251
00:18:37,460 --> 00:18:38,500
And tell me,

252
00:18:42,340 --> 00:18:44,260
what dictates the protocol?

253
00:18:45,140 --> 00:18:47,420
A royal edict must be issued

254
00:18:47,980 --> 00:18:50,180
and written into the rolls of the land

255
00:18:50,340 --> 00:18:51,500
that Vashti...

256
00:18:53,700 --> 00:18:56,700
That Vashti come no more before the King,

257
00:18:57,540 --> 00:19:01,020
but that her royal position
be given to a new queen,

258
00:19:01,140 --> 00:19:04,060
more worthy

259
00:19:04,900 --> 00:19:05,980
than her.

260
00:19:08,740 --> 00:19:11,580
My lord,
what answer do I send the Queen?

261
00:19:12,300 --> 00:19:13,260
Vashti!

262
00:19:13,500 --> 00:19:15,700
Vashti!

263
00:19:15,820 --> 00:19:17,140
(ALL CHANTING)

264
00:19:28,300 --> 00:19:30,700
The land has no more queen!

265
00:19:44,020 --> 00:19:46,260
I wish not to be queen here any longer.

266
00:19:48,020 --> 00:19:50,140
Mordecai is giving me his blessing.

267
00:19:50,900 --> 00:19:53,820
Let us leave tomorrow,

268
00:19:54,180 --> 00:19:55,140
together.

269
00:20:48,980 --> 00:20:51,100
<i>MORDECAI:
Thus the scribes were assembled,</i>

270
00:20:51,220 --> 00:20:53,060
<i>and a decree sent forth.</i>

271
00:20:53,460 --> 00:20:56,260
<i>The princes did indeed press upon Xerxes,</i>

272
00:20:56,380 --> 00:20:59,220
<i>the king, soon to depart for war,</i>

273
00:20:59,420 --> 00:21:01,540
<i>"Leave behind a queen</i>

274
00:21:02,020 --> 00:21:03,940
<i>"to keep the people unified."</i>

275
00:21:09,500 --> 00:21:11,500
<i>Every maiden was to be considered,</i>

276
00:21:12,020 --> 00:21:15,300
<i>the choicest of whom
to be brought from across the empire</i>

277
00:21:15,380 --> 00:21:16,820
<i>and into the palace.</i>

278
00:21:26,980 --> 00:21:28,900
<i>In accordance with the protocol,</i>

279
00:21:29,220 --> 00:21:32,060
<i>young men were also rounded up</i>

280
00:21:32,180 --> 00:21:33,660
<i>to become eunuchs</i>

281
00:21:33,740 --> 00:21:35,820
<i>who would serve the queen's candidates</i>

282
00:21:35,940 --> 00:21:37,860
<i>during their time of preparation.</i>

283
00:21:42,820 --> 00:21:44,460
<i>MORDECAI: There's no need for alarm.</i>

284
00:21:44,940 --> 00:21:47,420
In all likelihood they will not come for you.

285
00:21:47,540 --> 00:21:50,660
And not all that are taken will be chosen.

286
00:21:50,780 --> 00:21:53,260
Doubtless, the queen
has already been selected

287
00:21:53,580 --> 00:21:55,380
through bribery or chicanery.

288
00:21:55,660 --> 00:21:57,460
How do I keep our laws?

289
00:21:57,860 --> 00:21:59,020
How do I pray?

290
00:21:59,900 --> 00:22:03,020
What excuse do I offer God
for not keeping his commandments?

291
00:22:03,420 --> 00:22:04,940
Oh, Hadassah.

292
00:22:05,740 --> 00:22:08,060
God sees the inward observance.

293
00:22:08,540 --> 00:22:10,540
The court is a dangerous place.

294
00:22:11,500 --> 00:22:13,140
I think it will be better

295
00:22:15,300 --> 00:22:17,340
if you forgot that you were a Jew.

296
00:22:18,660 --> 00:22:20,300
If this is a sin, then...

297
00:22:21,060 --> 00:22:22,740
Then let it be on my head.

298
00:22:23,180 --> 00:22:26,620
Promise me that you will do that
if you're taken. Promise me that!

299
00:22:27,380 --> 00:22:28,540
If I am taken,

300
00:22:29,220 --> 00:22:30,660
I will do as you say.

301
00:22:31,300 --> 00:22:34,380
I should give you a different name.
Hadassah is too Jewish.

302
00:22:37,860 --> 00:22:38,780
Esther.

303
00:22:38,900 --> 00:22:41,820
Esther is a good Babylonian name.

304
00:22:42,020 --> 00:22:44,540
Yes. That's what we shall call you
from now on.

305
00:22:45,260 --> 00:22:46,860
Esther of Susa.

306
00:22:48,580 --> 00:22:49,620
Promise me.

307
00:22:50,340 --> 00:22:52,060
Promise me if you are taken.

308
00:22:53,660 --> 00:22:55,860
I said, "If I am taken."

309
00:22:57,700 --> 00:22:58,780
If, if, if.

310
00:23:00,420 --> 00:23:01,500
But for now,

311
00:23:02,660 --> 00:23:05,340
you should look for me
in the streets of Jerusalem,

312
00:23:06,260 --> 00:23:07,180
dancing

313
00:23:09,220 --> 00:23:11,460
like David before the glory of the Lord.

314
00:23:12,580 --> 00:23:14,620
- Hadassah!
- Who?

315
00:23:23,900 --> 00:23:25,340
Uncle Mordecai!

316
00:23:32,100 --> 00:23:33,060
(GASPS)

317
00:23:43,940 --> 00:23:46,780
MORDECAI: Is this the way
the King's orders are carried out?

318
00:23:47,180 --> 00:23:49,580
Senseless brutality
in the middle of the night?

319
00:24:19,980 --> 00:24:21,860
Father, please show us favor

320
00:24:23,700 --> 00:24:26,380
and turn these dungeons
into someplace wonderful.

321
00:24:32,300 --> 00:24:34,860
Is this the dungeon part
or the wonderful part?

322
00:24:40,260 --> 00:24:41,740
(ALL GASP)

323
00:25:00,340 --> 00:25:01,260
Look!

324
00:25:02,100 --> 00:25:04,500
Sarah, it matches your eyes.

325
00:25:04,780 --> 00:25:07,700
Have you ever found anything
so wonderful in your life?

326
00:25:09,700 --> 00:25:11,260
And Hannah,

327
00:25:11,820 --> 00:25:13,500
was it not made for you?

328
00:25:16,020 --> 00:25:18,380
Am I never going to see my mother again?

329
00:25:19,140 --> 00:25:20,740
Only if you wish not to.

330
00:25:21,220 --> 00:25:23,860
Two, three days, and who knows?

331
00:25:24,140 --> 00:25:25,220
Home you go.

332
00:25:27,820 --> 00:25:31,420
Do you think we're not beautiful enough
to be asked to stay, Hadassah?

333
00:25:32,820 --> 00:25:35,300
Welcome to a brand-new life.

334
00:25:36,140 --> 00:25:39,100
The method of your arrival
was not of my choosing.

335
00:25:39,900 --> 00:25:43,180
I am Hagai, His Majesty's Royal Eunuch.

336
00:25:43,300 --> 00:25:45,940
I have been assigned
to oversee your preparation.

337
00:25:47,580 --> 00:25:48,980
All right, it's okay.

338
00:26:01,860 --> 00:26:02,780
<i>(GIRL SCREAMS)</i>

339
00:26:02,900 --> 00:26:04,740
<i>MAN: Don't let them escape. Kill them all.</i>

340
00:26:11,020 --> 00:26:13,220
Which way to the quarter of the Jews?

341
00:26:18,500 --> 00:26:19,620
<i>(GIRL SCREAMS)</i>

342
00:27:04,260 --> 00:27:05,180
(GIGGLING)

343
00:27:29,180 --> 00:27:30,780
You have a very bad habit.

344
00:27:31,300 --> 00:27:33,340
The palace is no place for children.

345
00:27:33,460 --> 00:27:35,140
You think of me as a child?

346
00:27:36,500 --> 00:27:37,860
Well, you're wrong.

347
00:27:38,460 --> 00:27:40,180
I am much younger than that.

348
00:27:41,660 --> 00:27:43,060
How do they call you?

349
00:27:43,620 --> 00:27:45,540
- Esther.
- Curious name.

350
00:27:46,460 --> 00:27:48,060
From where do you come?

351
00:27:49,740 --> 00:27:51,260
I am of the wind

352
00:27:52,260 --> 00:27:54,300
whose sound is heard, yet none can tell

353
00:27:54,420 --> 00:27:56,580
from whence it comes or where it goes.

354
00:27:57,780 --> 00:27:59,820
Well, we gather within the hour.

355
00:28:00,460 --> 00:28:02,460
Try not to blow away before then.

356
00:28:09,180 --> 00:28:11,020
Another 4,000 talents

357
00:28:11,140 --> 00:28:14,100
for metal, weapons, armor.

358
00:28:14,420 --> 00:28:16,700
And we must not forget
the pay of the mercenaries.

359
00:28:16,780 --> 00:28:19,100
I know this is not a favored opinion,

360
00:28:19,420 --> 00:28:20,820
but if used for peaceful purposes,

361
00:28:20,940 --> 00:28:22,940
such amounts could serve many needs.

362
00:28:23,020 --> 00:28:25,260
Two different ways of life are involved.

363
00:28:25,380 --> 00:28:27,620
The Greeks have no king
and they want none.

364
00:28:27,740 --> 00:28:30,700
It is one thing to beat our chests
and parade our boldness

365
00:28:30,820 --> 00:28:33,180
pretending this is
still the empire of our fathers.

366
00:28:33,300 --> 00:28:36,060
But you hear the costs
of an actual campaign!

367
00:28:36,900 --> 00:28:38,980
If we are not honest with ourselves,

368
00:28:39,420 --> 00:28:42,020
I fear we lose much more
than just our stature.

369
00:28:42,260 --> 00:28:43,980
Then, let us sit back and do nothing?

370
00:28:44,100 --> 00:28:45,380
Let the Greeks conquer.

371
00:28:45,500 --> 00:28:47,620
Let them establish democracy.

372
00:28:49,220 --> 00:28:51,580
Would not the King be the first to suffer,

373
00:28:51,860 --> 00:28:53,140
the first to die?

374
00:28:53,460 --> 00:28:55,420
Or does the memory of his father's death

375
00:28:55,540 --> 00:28:58,940
not stir as deep in his bones
as it does in ours?

376
00:29:00,020 --> 00:29:02,940
I speak to you as one
not without empathy.

377
00:29:03,860 --> 00:29:05,660
I, too, have stood in the battle

378
00:29:05,860 --> 00:29:07,580
and stared into the unknown.

379
00:29:08,140 --> 00:29:11,260
For the very sword that took my eye

380
00:29:12,100 --> 00:29:14,700
took from me my manhood as well.

381
00:29:15,460 --> 00:29:16,700
<i>But be at peace.</i>

382
00:29:16,780 --> 00:29:19,140
<i>This is no warfare that you embark upon.</i>

383
00:29:19,820 --> 00:29:23,060
<i>This is only the life
that a great dreamer could imagine,</i>

384
00:29:23,820 --> 00:29:25,500
<i>or at least it can be,</i>

385
00:29:25,700 --> 00:29:27,500
<i>if you so choose to embrace it.</i>

386
00:29:40,100 --> 00:29:42,860
Think not I heard your
whispered orchestrations that night?

387
00:29:42,980 --> 00:29:44,700
And how you drew even me
into your schemes?

388
00:29:44,820 --> 00:29:47,900
In these troubled times
it is easy to name any man traitor.

389
00:29:48,580 --> 00:29:50,140
I even recall a certain campaign

390
00:29:50,220 --> 00:29:52,380
in Ionia under King Darius,

391
00:29:52,500 --> 00:29:54,420
where someone allowed
the defeated Greeks

392
00:29:54,540 --> 00:29:56,140
to keep their own form of government,

393
00:29:56,260 --> 00:29:57,500
their democracy,

394
00:29:57,660 --> 00:30:00,100
instead of placing the protocol
of the empire in control.

395
00:30:00,220 --> 00:30:01,580
Favoring democracy.

396
00:30:01,860 --> 00:30:04,780
The very doctrine to which
all Persia is opposed.

397
00:30:05,740 --> 00:30:08,540
- I followed orders!
- Come. Come, come, come.

398
00:30:09,540 --> 00:30:10,460
(CHUCKLES)

399
00:30:12,380 --> 00:30:14,700
We trouble ourselves with foolish things.

400
00:30:15,020 --> 00:30:17,420
The King asked me to speak. I did.

401
00:30:17,980 --> 00:30:20,180
I obeyed. As you obeyed.

402
00:30:22,860 --> 00:30:26,180
<i>MORDECAI: With suspicion and mistrust
creeping into palace halls,</i>

403
00:30:26,740 --> 00:30:28,180
<i>Haman the Agagite</i>

404
00:30:28,540 --> 00:30:31,020
<i>found the opportunity
he had been waiting for.</i>

405
00:30:33,420 --> 00:30:35,220
<i>He began to strike out more openly</i>

406
00:30:35,300 --> 00:30:37,580
<i>at the Jews living in the outlying land,</i>

407
00:30:38,020 --> 00:30:41,500
<i>painting them
as the true Greek sympathizers,</i>

408
00:30:41,860 --> 00:30:46,180
<i>setting the stage
for his ultimate act of vengeance.</i>

409
00:31:30,500 --> 00:31:31,460
Look.

410
00:31:43,260 --> 00:31:44,740
I am curious

411
00:31:45,060 --> 00:31:47,660
to whether you frustrate me
out of sincerity

412
00:31:48,020 --> 00:31:50,580
or to ensure
that you're never chosen queen.

413
00:31:52,020 --> 00:31:54,900
You assume I actually care about
being chosen queen.

414
00:31:54,980 --> 00:31:56,220
I am serious.

415
00:31:56,500 --> 00:31:57,700
Serious of what?

416
00:31:57,820 --> 00:31:59,300
Finding a real queen?

417
00:32:00,340 --> 00:32:02,740
Is that why you subject us
to these beauty treatments,

418
00:32:02,820 --> 00:32:04,540
these classes?

419
00:32:04,740 --> 00:32:06,580
You do not like our fine instructors?

420
00:32:06,660 --> 00:32:08,700
They simply neglect to
teach us some things.

421
00:32:08,780 --> 00:32:10,620
- Such as?
- Well, seemingly

422
00:32:10,700 --> 00:32:13,020
anything to do with actually being queen:

423
00:32:13,100 --> 00:32:15,300
the thought well thought,
the word well spoken

424
00:32:15,420 --> 00:32:17,100
and the deed well done.

425
00:32:18,660 --> 00:32:20,460
As it is said in the great books.

426
00:32:20,580 --> 00:32:21,700
You read?

427
00:32:22,380 --> 00:32:23,540
Many tongues.

428
00:32:24,500 --> 00:32:25,420
(LAUGHS)

429
00:32:29,060 --> 00:32:31,660
Before I received your "invitation",

430
00:32:32,820 --> 00:32:34,860
I was reading of
Gilgamesh the Babylonian.

431
00:33:02,660 --> 00:33:05,260
<i>ESTHER: And Utanapishtim
spoke to Gilgamesh, saying,</i>

432
00:33:05,700 --> 00:33:08,500
"Gilgamesh, you look worn out
and exhausted.

433
00:33:08,580 --> 00:33:10,940
"What can I do
so that you can return to your land?

434
00:33:11,020 --> 00:33:13,300
"I will tell you a thing that is hidden.

435
00:33:13,740 --> 00:33:15,740
"There is a plant whose thorns

436
00:33:16,060 --> 00:33:18,060
"will prick your hand like a rose.

437
00:33:18,820 --> 00:33:20,700
"If your hands reach this plant,

438
00:33:21,540 --> 00:33:23,820
"you will become a young man again."

439
00:33:30,900 --> 00:33:33,620
<i>Gilgamesh in the original.</i>

440
00:33:34,020 --> 00:33:35,580
I read translation,

441
00:33:35,940 --> 00:33:37,780
never the original.

442
00:33:40,260 --> 00:33:41,260
You read?

443
00:33:42,900 --> 00:33:45,980
There are few pleasures left
to one such as I.

444
00:33:48,820 --> 00:33:51,300
You offer us Hagai's position, my lord,

445
00:33:51,660 --> 00:33:54,140
if we grant you the privilege
of picking a queen?

446
00:33:54,220 --> 00:33:56,460
- Misgath of Persepolis.
- Misgath?

447
00:33:58,100 --> 00:33:59,540
Of unusual beauty.

448
00:34:00,140 --> 00:34:01,380
But up here,

449
00:34:01,980 --> 00:34:04,540
- empty as a beggar's bowl.
- Consider her family.

450
00:34:04,660 --> 00:34:06,340
Daughter of a rug merchant?

451
00:34:06,740 --> 00:34:08,860
Will they not
also shower you with wealth?

452
00:34:16,180 --> 00:34:17,900
<i>MORDECAI: While there were
certainly worse ways</i>

453
00:34:18,020 --> 00:34:19,980
<i>for the candidates to have spent their days</i>

454
00:34:20,100 --> 00:34:22,300
<i>than myrrh baths and beauty treatments,</i>

455
00:34:22,500 --> 00:34:25,460
<i>none of the rumors of riches and glory
stirred more excitement</i>

456
00:34:25,540 --> 00:34:29,180
<i>than the thought of gaining entry
to the royal treasury itself.</i>

457
00:34:29,500 --> 00:34:32,380
Whatever you chose
for your one night with the King

458
00:34:32,500 --> 00:34:34,820
will be yours for the keeping.

459
00:34:35,260 --> 00:34:38,620
Candidates, choose wisely.

460
00:34:39,980 --> 00:34:42,420
(ALL GIGGLING EXCITEDLY)

461
00:34:54,300 --> 00:34:55,940
You stand not impressed?

462
00:34:56,180 --> 00:34:58,100
It matters not what impresses me.

463
00:34:58,220 --> 00:35:01,500
How is one to choose when
they know not what impresses the King?

464
00:35:01,620 --> 00:35:02,940
Will you teach me?

465
00:35:04,580 --> 00:35:07,220
I will do far more than that. Come.

466
00:35:13,260 --> 00:35:15,020
A recent acquisition.

467
00:35:15,140 --> 00:35:17,660
One, I believe,
the King will find most pleasing.

468
00:35:53,140 --> 00:35:54,660
Esther of Susa,

469
00:35:56,820 --> 00:35:57,740
come.

470
00:36:04,020 --> 00:36:05,780
Seat yourself on the stool

471
00:36:06,020 --> 00:36:07,340
and read the scroll.

472
00:36:07,460 --> 00:36:09,420
It is the chronicles of the King,

473
00:36:09,660 --> 00:36:11,020
the royal diary.

474
00:36:11,780 --> 00:36:14,820
Through these doors
you are no longer a candidate.

475
00:36:15,340 --> 00:36:16,780
You are a servant.

476
00:36:17,780 --> 00:36:19,300
Remember the protocol.

477
00:36:20,180 --> 00:36:22,100
To approach uninvited

478
00:36:22,660 --> 00:36:23,660
is death.

479
00:36:26,020 --> 00:36:27,420
I read for the King,

480
00:36:28,380 --> 00:36:29,300
alone?

481
00:36:30,140 --> 00:36:31,380
Like this?

482
00:37:20,020 --> 00:37:23,020
"Daily entry 23.

483
00:37:23,140 --> 00:37:25,580
"Egyptian wheat reserves were reported

484
00:37:25,700 --> 00:37:30,460
"at half the normal levels
due to a recent drought."

485
00:37:39,740 --> 00:37:42,580
"Admiral Xtes was honored

486
00:37:42,660 --> 00:37:45,500
"for serving twenty years
in the Royal Fleet.

487
00:37:45,580 --> 00:37:49,460
"After a lengthy speech,
he promptly keeled over and died."

488
00:37:49,780 --> 00:37:50,700
(CHUCKLES)

489
00:37:56,100 --> 00:38:00,100
"Twenty-five. Three herd of sheep
were stolen from Dirmalmirah,

490
00:38:00,220 --> 00:38:02,180
"Satrap of Midea.

491
00:38:02,780 --> 00:38:06,100
"He requests that the crown send out
the proper authority."

492
00:38:08,740 --> 00:38:11,620
And so Jacob,

493
00:38:12,740 --> 00:38:16,020
also a shepherd by trade,

494
00:38:16,300 --> 00:38:19,620
was sent off into the far, far-off land

495
00:38:22,940 --> 00:38:26,140
where he came across the fair Rachel
tending her father's sheep.

496
00:38:26,220 --> 00:38:28,260
He was smitten,
and went and rolled the stone

497
00:38:28,380 --> 00:38:31,420
from the well,
and watered her flock for her.

498
00:38:31,940 --> 00:38:33,860
Then Jacob kissed Rachel

499
00:38:33,980 --> 00:38:36,540
and lifted up his voice and wept with joy.

500
00:38:36,660 --> 00:38:39,500
When Laban, Rachel's father, heard of this,

501
00:38:39,620 --> 00:38:44,020
he said to Jacob,
"Should you serve me for nothing?

502
00:38:44,100 --> 00:38:46,260
"Tell me, what shall your wages be?"

503
00:38:46,500 --> 00:38:50,420
Jacob said, "I will serve you seven years
for your daughter Rachel."

504
00:38:50,500 --> 00:38:54,380
So Jacob served seven years
tending Laban's sheep.

505
00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:59,220
And they only seemed but a few days,
for the love he had for her.

506
00:38:59,820 --> 00:39:00,940
Then Jacob said to Laban,

507
00:39:01,060 --> 00:39:04,380
"Give me my wife,
for my days are fulfilled."

508
00:39:04,500 --> 00:39:09,060
So Laban threw a great wedding feast,
but in the dark of the evening

509
00:39:09,180 --> 00:39:11,700
Laban brought
his older daughter in to Jacob.

510
00:39:12,420 --> 00:39:16,180
And, behold, in the morning
it was Leah, not Rachel.

511
00:39:17,220 --> 00:39:20,500
Jacob was shocked. He said to Laban,

512
00:39:20,900 --> 00:39:24,260
"What is this thou hast done unto me?

513
00:39:24,380 --> 00:39:26,780
"Did I not serve with thee for Rachel?

514
00:39:28,860 --> 00:39:31,460
"Why, then, have you beguiled me?"

515
00:39:31,580 --> 00:39:34,900
XERXES: Why, then, have you beguiled me?

516
00:39:39,580 --> 00:39:42,340
I must admit that never before
has such a tale been found

517
00:39:42,460 --> 00:39:44,260
in the pages of a royal diary.

518
00:39:45,140 --> 00:39:48,140
Here I expect to be lulled to sleep
by tedious reports,

519
00:39:48,260 --> 00:39:51,540
instead I'm beguiled by a love story.

520
00:39:51,900 --> 00:39:56,580
And how ends your tale?
This Jacob, he's able to have his bride?

521
00:40:00,900 --> 00:40:03,100
He's able to have her?

522
00:40:07,900 --> 00:40:09,580
Only after serving

523
00:40:11,580 --> 00:40:13,820
seven more years for her, my lord King.

524
00:40:13,900 --> 00:40:17,220
Believeth you in such?

525
00:40:17,540 --> 00:40:19,260
Love?

526
00:40:19,340 --> 00:40:22,660
Is it not the greatest commandment?

527
00:40:22,980 --> 00:40:25,500
No matter what God one serves.

528
00:40:25,580 --> 00:40:28,220
- How do they call you?
- Esther of Susa.

529
00:40:28,300 --> 00:40:30,420
Susa? No.

530
00:40:30,500 --> 00:40:32,900
Nothing good ever comes out of Susa.

531
00:40:34,180 --> 00:40:35,460
Look at me.

532
00:40:40,860 --> 00:40:44,180
Come. Come, if you wish to see what I do.

533
00:40:57,700 --> 00:41:00,980
The Greeks, they have a god
of similar form.

534
00:41:02,060 --> 00:41:05,380
His arms will hold the bow,
whose arrows they say are

535
00:41:06,540 --> 00:41:08,620
tipped with love.

536
00:41:10,700 --> 00:41:13,780
Some archers' arrows are tipped
with poison, my lord.

537
00:41:13,860 --> 00:41:15,140
Sometimes

538
00:41:17,100 --> 00:41:20,940
it's hard to tell the difference.
The symptoms are the same.

539
00:41:24,260 --> 00:41:26,740
Perhaps in another time. Some

540
00:41:27,980 --> 00:41:28,900
other place.

541
00:41:33,300 --> 00:41:35,060
You will read to me again.

542
00:41:42,460 --> 00:41:44,620
You must tell no one of this night.

543
00:42:33,740 --> 00:42:34,660
(GASPS)

544
00:43:04,140 --> 00:43:05,060
(TRUMPETS)

545
00:43:06,940 --> 00:43:07,860
(ALL CHEERING)

546
00:43:44,060 --> 00:43:47,220
- XERXES: My Captain.
- Blame me not for this, my lord,

547
00:43:47,300 --> 00:43:50,060
but the princes have ordered us
to begin bringing you candidates

548
00:43:50,180 --> 00:43:52,700
- by the end of the week.
- You jest.

549
00:43:53,700 --> 00:43:58,020
- I am in the middle of...
- At least you'll get it over with.

550
00:43:58,140 --> 00:44:01,460
Besides, these men might enjoy
seeing some ladies around. No?

551
00:44:04,020 --> 00:44:07,340
(ALL LAUGHING)

552
00:44:13,940 --> 00:44:16,460
They tell me you're called Esther now.

553
00:44:20,420 --> 00:44:21,820
Oh, Jesse.

554
00:44:23,620 --> 00:44:24,860
Hatach.

555
00:44:28,540 --> 00:44:30,900
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
were pagan names, too.

556
00:44:31,620 --> 00:44:33,140
We're in good company.

557
00:44:35,020 --> 00:44:37,620
Their names were Hananiah, Mishael
and Azariah.

558
00:44:38,340 --> 00:44:40,460
They were thrown into the furnace.

559
00:44:40,620 --> 00:44:43,140
But then what happened?

560
00:44:44,620 --> 00:44:47,460
Come on, I found a way out.

561
00:44:47,580 --> 00:44:50,340
And there's a caravan
leaving for Jerusalem tonight.

562
00:44:50,460 --> 00:44:53,020
So we can get out of this place.

563
00:44:53,300 --> 00:44:54,660
Escape?

564
00:44:56,780 --> 00:45:00,100
Jesse, I... I can't leave.

565
00:45:01,780 --> 00:45:02,980
What if...

566
00:45:04,660 --> 00:45:07,980
- What if I'm chosen?
- What if you're chosen what?

567
00:45:09,580 --> 00:45:12,900
What if you're chosen queen?
Look what they've done to us.

568
00:45:14,460 --> 00:45:16,460
What good could come out of any of this?

569
00:45:18,980 --> 00:45:22,300
Perhaps, instead of
asking questions of our trials...

570
00:45:24,340 --> 00:45:26,380
Trials are meant to ask questions
of ourselves.

571
00:45:26,500 --> 00:45:27,900
They cut me!

572
00:45:30,420 --> 00:45:31,660
I know

573
00:45:32,500 --> 00:45:34,100
we can't be what I hoped,

574
00:45:34,180 --> 00:45:36,580
- but...
- Jesse.

575
00:45:38,260 --> 00:45:41,500
I can't leave. I'm sorry.

576
00:45:44,220 --> 00:45:46,420
I'm sorry.

577
00:45:53,860 --> 00:45:55,860
<i>HAGAI: Today it begins.</i>

578
00:45:55,980 --> 00:45:59,180
<i>Each of you will be given
one night with the King.</i>

579
00:45:59,300 --> 00:46:02,740
<i>We gather first to honor
Misgath of Persepolis.</i>

580
00:46:02,820 --> 00:46:05,980
<i>You enter as a peasant
and leave a princess.</i>

581
00:46:13,380 --> 00:46:14,340
Here we go.

582
00:46:14,460 --> 00:46:15,820
(WHINNYING)

583
00:46:17,380 --> 00:46:18,820
Steady her.

584
00:46:23,780 --> 00:46:26,060
I'm so sorry...

585
00:46:26,340 --> 00:46:28,380
- Oh!
- Almost there.

586
00:46:33,060 --> 00:46:34,940
XERXES: By the looks of it,
I must be allowing the candidates

587
00:46:35,060 --> 00:46:36,980
to keep their jewelry.

588
00:46:37,740 --> 00:46:41,060
Perhaps a horseback ride
is not the best idea, my lord.

589
00:46:41,300 --> 00:46:42,460
(GRUNTS)

590
00:46:46,180 --> 00:46:47,140
(EX CLAIMS)

591
00:46:52,340 --> 00:46:55,020
You weep not for the candidates
this evening.

592
00:46:56,980 --> 00:47:00,340
- My throat is sore.
- Your throat or your heart?

593
00:47:01,700 --> 00:47:05,020
It has only been a few days
since you read for him.

594
00:47:07,620 --> 00:47:10,380
A few days is a thousand years.

595
00:47:11,220 --> 00:47:15,940
If Xerxes had found pleasure in me,
surely he would've...

596
00:47:17,660 --> 00:47:20,220
You think a eunuch cannot know love?

597
00:47:20,300 --> 00:47:23,220
Back before I was a cripple of a man,

598
00:47:23,300 --> 00:47:25,180
there was one that held my heart.

599
00:47:27,620 --> 00:47:29,020
What became of her?

600
00:47:31,820 --> 00:47:33,820
I know not.

601
00:47:34,180 --> 00:47:37,460
I never found the courage to return
to face her again.

602
00:47:42,060 --> 00:47:45,380
She is beautiful but delicate,
Your Majesty.

603
00:47:47,300 --> 00:47:49,420
Just one more moment, please.

604
00:48:01,060 --> 00:48:02,940
You may approach.

605
00:48:08,780 --> 00:48:11,180
How do they call you?

606
00:48:13,340 --> 00:48:14,620
(GAGGING)

607
00:48:31,580 --> 00:48:32,500
(CHITTERING)

608
00:48:38,340 --> 00:48:40,620
Esther.

609
00:48:41,660 --> 00:48:44,060
This is your day.

610
00:48:44,220 --> 00:48:46,940
<i>We gather to honor Esther of Susa.</i>

611
00:48:47,060 --> 00:48:50,380
<i>You enter as a peasant
and leave a princess.</i>

612
00:48:57,700 --> 00:48:59,580
You can let go of my arm now.

613
00:49:02,460 --> 00:49:05,780
He will be the fortunate one
to choose you.

614
00:49:07,660 --> 00:49:10,980
He will be the one
to whom congratulations are due.

615
00:49:14,980 --> 00:49:17,860
Esther, my arm.

616
00:49:35,380 --> 00:49:37,420
XERXES: The scroll is on the stool.

617
00:49:37,540 --> 00:49:40,060
You may begin whenever you are ready.

618
00:49:44,060 --> 00:49:45,540
Is there a problem?

619
00:49:46,700 --> 00:49:50,020
Did they not tell you I weary
at this procession of candidates?

620
00:49:51,540 --> 00:49:54,260
I simply wanted someone to...

621
00:49:56,220 --> 00:49:59,540
Wait.
You are the one who read to me before.

622
00:49:59,620 --> 00:50:02,260
You tried to beguile me with love stories.

623
00:50:02,580 --> 00:50:06,900
Did you not think I had the sense
to see through your little parable?

624
00:50:06,980 --> 00:50:09,940
The arrogance! You speak to me
as if I was this Rachel

625
00:50:10,020 --> 00:50:12,220
in need of help to look after
my father's sheep.

626
00:50:12,300 --> 00:50:15,620
- My lord, I meant no...
- And this is how you come to see me?

627
00:50:16,900 --> 00:50:18,900
Your only adornment before your

628
00:50:19,780 --> 00:50:21,100
one night with the King.

629
00:50:22,740 --> 00:50:25,780
It is, Your Majesty.

630
00:50:27,140 --> 00:50:30,460
You consider yourself of so little worth

631
00:50:31,620 --> 00:50:35,580
- that I can purchase your love so cheaply?
- I was taught

632
00:50:38,780 --> 00:50:43,220
that when you visit a king,
rather than expect a gift,

633
00:50:43,300 --> 00:50:45,980
one should bring one to lay at his feet.

634
00:50:55,300 --> 00:50:58,580
This is my most
valuable possession in the world.

635
00:51:03,180 --> 00:51:07,940
It is my past, my present, and my future.

636
00:51:09,260 --> 00:51:11,900
And all of it is yours.

637
00:51:19,460 --> 00:51:24,020
Some would call you foolish indeed,
as they would call your Jacob.

638
00:51:24,100 --> 00:51:28,220
Of all commodities, love is the easiest,

639
00:51:30,300 --> 00:51:32,220
and most cheaply purchased.

640
00:51:35,980 --> 00:51:38,460
If it is for sale, my lord,

641
00:51:40,300 --> 00:51:41,300
it is not love.

642
00:51:42,940 --> 00:51:44,140
Even you.

643
00:51:46,900 --> 00:51:49,660
Even you must have a price.

644
00:51:49,860 --> 00:51:52,220
I am neither a buyer

645
00:51:54,980 --> 00:51:56,660
nor a seller of love.

646
00:51:59,980 --> 00:52:01,660
Suppose, my lady,

647
00:52:02,140 --> 00:52:05,180
a man offered you a more treasured gift,

648
00:52:06,180 --> 00:52:08,940
say, a kingdom.

649
00:52:17,900 --> 00:52:18,820
(CRYING)

650
00:52:23,900 --> 00:52:27,220
The only gift I would accept

651
00:52:28,900 --> 00:52:30,780
is your heart.

652
00:52:34,700 --> 00:52:37,500
Then it is yours.

653
00:52:38,700 --> 00:52:42,020
And you did not serve
seven years to get it.

654
00:52:42,500 --> 00:52:46,260
Tell me Esther of Susa,
who are you really?

655
00:52:48,860 --> 00:52:50,860
Tell me of your people.

656
00:52:51,740 --> 00:52:54,140
Teach me of your ways.

657
00:52:56,420 --> 00:52:57,980
My father taught me

658
00:53:00,500 --> 00:53:02,820
it takes the glory of God

659
00:53:03,260 --> 00:53:05,980
to conceal a matter,

660
00:53:07,100 --> 00:53:10,900
and the honor of kings to search it out.

661
00:53:16,980 --> 00:53:19,180
Then marry me.

662
00:53:22,380 --> 00:53:27,100
And we shall spend an eternity
discovering this truth,

663
00:53:29,100 --> 00:53:30,380
together.

664
00:54:27,620 --> 00:54:30,060
Persians, your queen!

665
00:54:30,620 --> 00:54:31,580
(ALL CHEERING)

666
00:54:36,300 --> 00:54:39,700
Know you how many times I tried to
come for you after that first night?

667
00:54:44,700 --> 00:54:46,580
How many evenings
I spent counting the stars

668
00:54:46,700 --> 00:54:48,860
to keep my mind off of you?

669
00:54:54,940 --> 00:54:57,260
How many excuses I created

670
00:54:57,980 --> 00:55:00,020
just to avoid the other candidates?

671
00:55:13,980 --> 00:55:15,660
Fools.

672
00:55:15,780 --> 00:55:17,380
Misfits.

673
00:55:18,220 --> 00:55:20,100
Donkey-brained caricatures of men,

674
00:55:20,220 --> 00:55:23,740
you guaranteed me that Misgath
would be chosen queen.

675
00:55:23,860 --> 00:55:27,180
Who is she? From whence did she come?
Who are her people?

676
00:55:27,420 --> 00:55:30,220
There is little known about her, my lord.

677
00:55:30,300 --> 00:55:33,500
She is called Esther of Susa. An orphan.

678
00:55:33,580 --> 00:55:36,220
We should've stuck to our first plan
and poisoned Hagai ourselves.

679
00:55:36,300 --> 00:55:37,660
- Quiet.
- Poison?

680
00:55:37,780 --> 00:55:40,980
He did not, my lord.
He is far too impetuous.

681
00:55:41,060 --> 00:55:43,980
- Far too...
- You know about poison.

682
00:55:44,060 --> 00:55:46,020
Of course you do.

683
00:55:46,340 --> 00:55:48,620
You were once the royal cupbearers.

684
00:55:50,620 --> 00:55:54,420
Suppose in theory,
you wanted to poison another.

685
00:55:58,020 --> 00:56:02,780
Suppose... Suppose this other
remained nameless,

686
00:56:03,780 --> 00:56:07,660
but was, in effect, one whom
you had once vowed to protect.

687
00:56:07,740 --> 00:56:09,500
My lord prince...

688
00:56:10,260 --> 00:56:13,580
Come, come. Don't look so distressed.

689
00:56:14,740 --> 00:56:16,340
We plot nothing here.

690
00:56:17,340 --> 00:56:18,860
My lord.

691
00:56:37,580 --> 00:56:38,860
(PEOPLE CHANTING)

692
00:56:51,980 --> 00:56:53,740
From India to Babylon,

693
00:56:54,260 --> 00:56:57,580
my sword has spilt the blood of
traitors against the crown.

694
00:56:58,540 --> 00:57:02,900
Proud, arrogant "chosen ones".

695
00:57:04,060 --> 00:57:06,060
Allowed to return to their homeland.

696
00:57:07,420 --> 00:57:08,820
But do they go?

697
00:57:10,380 --> 00:57:11,660
Do they?

698
00:57:25,700 --> 00:57:27,060
(MURMURS GREETING)

699
00:57:27,140 --> 00:57:28,300
Thank you.

700
00:57:32,700 --> 00:57:34,300
How wonderful are the ways of the Lord

701
00:57:34,420 --> 00:57:37,140
that he should have raised up
my little Hadassah

702
00:57:37,220 --> 00:57:39,220
and made her queen.

703
00:57:40,140 --> 00:57:43,460
Have you told anyone our secret?

704
00:57:46,260 --> 00:57:47,220
No.

705
00:57:47,340 --> 00:57:50,620
If you continue to call me Hadassah,
it will no longer matter.

706
00:57:51,420 --> 00:57:52,980
Will you not join me in the palace?

707
00:57:53,060 --> 00:57:55,060
I could have you named
to any post you desire.

708
00:57:55,140 --> 00:57:57,660
My Lord will take care of me.

709
00:57:58,820 --> 00:58:01,300
Do you take care of your lord?

710
00:58:08,100 --> 00:58:09,660
Remember not his orders?

711
00:58:09,740 --> 00:58:13,260
Procure it not from the palace,
so nothing can be traced back to us.

712
00:58:14,020 --> 00:58:15,860
The Jews have apothecaries.

713
00:58:22,940 --> 00:58:24,180
Where is he now?

714
00:58:25,540 --> 00:58:28,860
- You, over there...
- Why cannot a truce be arranged?

715
00:58:28,940 --> 00:58:30,420
Truce?

716
00:58:31,260 --> 00:58:34,580
That devil Memucan
has beaten me twice in a row.

717
00:58:35,820 --> 00:58:37,300
I fear losing you.

718
00:58:40,220 --> 00:58:42,020
I gave an oath

719
00:58:43,860 --> 00:58:45,180
to my father.

720
00:58:47,140 --> 00:58:49,220
He's the one I fear losing you to.

721
00:58:49,340 --> 00:58:52,660
You must dream. You'll be gone much
in the coming months.

722
00:58:53,180 --> 00:58:54,780
Keep this for me.

723
00:58:56,780 --> 00:58:59,420
- But it is yours. I...
- Then be at peace.

724
00:58:59,620 --> 00:59:01,060
I always return for what is mine.

725
00:59:01,180 --> 00:59:04,500
Will thou sit there all day, my lord?

726
00:59:10,940 --> 00:59:12,700
This one.

727
00:59:21,420 --> 00:59:24,100
MORDECAI: Why would they
buy belladonna off you?

728
00:59:24,220 --> 00:59:28,340
Maybe they seek to poison someone.
Very deadly, very quick.

729
00:59:29,260 --> 00:59:31,340
You sold them poison?

730
00:59:31,940 --> 00:59:35,980
A Jew sells poison
to the King's food tasters?

731
00:59:36,100 --> 00:59:39,060
Have you any idea for whom
it might've been intended?

732
00:59:52,740 --> 00:59:54,660
Please, just allow me to see it.

733
00:59:54,780 --> 00:59:57,860
The scribe says it is
for the Queen's eyes only.

734
00:59:57,980 --> 00:59:58,900
(GIRLS GIGGLING)

735
00:59:59,020 --> 01:00:00,660
That is what she told.

736
01:00:23,820 --> 01:00:25,420
A plot to kill the King.

737
01:00:25,660 --> 01:00:28,980
The King should be notified at once,
my lady.

738
01:00:30,300 --> 01:00:33,300
He and Memucan are a day's ride away
at the training grounds.

739
01:00:33,380 --> 01:00:36,300
Then it would be better, my lady,
if I send for the captain of the guard

740
01:00:36,380 --> 01:00:39,700
- to investigate.
- Who else is closest to the King?

741
01:00:39,820 --> 01:00:41,180
Admantha.

742
01:00:45,940 --> 01:00:47,820
This is treachery.

743
01:00:48,380 --> 01:00:52,660
If my lady will permit, I myself
will bring these two eunuchs to you.

744
01:00:53,580 --> 01:00:56,780
I'm armed, so I doubt the need for force.

745
01:00:56,860 --> 01:00:58,780
That will not be necessary.

746
01:00:58,860 --> 01:01:02,180
The King's new captain of the guard
has gone to investigate.

747
01:01:02,980 --> 01:01:05,860
Time was of the essence, my lady.

748
01:01:27,380 --> 01:01:31,140
If only all shared your loyalty
to the King, my prince.

749
01:01:32,580 --> 01:01:34,860
Captain of the guards.

750
01:01:38,420 --> 01:01:40,780
Master Haman, my lady.

751
01:01:48,620 --> 01:01:50,900
What of the eunuchs?

752
01:01:52,060 --> 01:01:54,980
They are being led
to the gallows as we speak.

753
01:01:55,100 --> 01:01:57,780
I found this about their person.

754
01:01:59,460 --> 01:02:00,780
I interrogated them both.

755
01:02:00,860 --> 01:02:02,620
I'm convinced they plotted alone.

756
01:02:11,540 --> 01:02:14,220
Make sure Mordecai's name
is entered in the chronicles

757
01:02:14,300 --> 01:02:18,620
and that it is certified with my seal so
he may be properly rewarded by the King.

758
01:02:28,260 --> 01:02:30,220
ADMANTHA: Please, help yourself.

759
01:02:30,940 --> 01:02:32,220
Only a bite.

760
01:02:33,820 --> 01:02:36,220
Now I no longer ride the highways,
my appetite suffers.

761
01:02:36,340 --> 01:02:39,300
Then may I assume that your fee
for spying for me will be reduced?

762
01:02:39,420 --> 01:02:41,100
My appetite may be less,

763
01:02:41,180 --> 01:02:42,620
not of my sons,

764
01:02:44,220 --> 01:02:45,420
my wife.

765
01:02:46,900 --> 01:02:49,500
Well, that may cost you more, my prince.

766
01:02:50,140 --> 01:02:51,580
Much,

767
01:02:51,660 --> 01:02:54,060
- much more.
- What might you have done?

768
01:02:56,700 --> 01:02:59,980
I would save the King for last.

769
01:03:00,820 --> 01:03:03,860
As in the palace board game.
Rid yourself first

770
01:03:03,940 --> 01:03:06,380
of all of those pieces
that are closest to him.

771
01:03:06,460 --> 01:03:07,620
One

772
01:03:09,820 --> 01:03:10,900
by one.

773
01:03:25,180 --> 01:03:29,220
- HEGAI: My lady, this is foolish.
- I go with or without you.

774
01:03:29,340 --> 01:03:30,980
There are too many rumors
drifting through the palace,

775
01:03:31,100 --> 01:03:32,620
and not enough answers.

776
01:03:36,820 --> 01:03:38,500
These hinges are well-oiled.

777
01:03:38,780 --> 01:03:40,380
There must be plenty who use it.

778
01:03:40,500 --> 01:03:43,060
Lovers always find a way, my lady.

779
01:03:45,660 --> 01:03:48,540
HAMAN: The time has come,
my brothers and sisters,

780
01:03:48,660 --> 01:03:51,660
where we must root out
those amongst our midst

781
01:03:51,740 --> 01:03:53,900
who seek our wreck and ruin!

782
01:03:53,980 --> 01:03:57,700
When a field of crops is defiled by disease,

783
01:03:57,820 --> 01:04:00,460
do we not set it on fire?

784
01:04:00,620 --> 01:04:01,980
(ALL CHEERING)

785
01:04:02,100 --> 01:04:06,460
I am asked why I choose
to speak against these foreigners

786
01:04:06,580 --> 01:04:08,500
and strangers in our midst.

787
01:04:08,620 --> 01:04:11,940
- The Jew!
- The Jew!

788
01:04:12,180 --> 01:04:13,100
(ALL CHANTING)

789
01:04:15,300 --> 01:04:17,660
No, not the Jew.

790
01:04:18,100 --> 01:04:22,300
I, myself, know many an individual Jew
who I am proud to call friend,

791
01:04:22,380 --> 01:04:26,620
but put these individual Jews together,
and what are Egypt,

792
01:04:27,340 --> 01:04:30,660
Assyria, Babylon in their wake?

793
01:04:46,300 --> 01:04:48,980
Lead me away from here, quickly.

794
01:04:49,700 --> 01:04:51,540
You want proof?

795
01:04:52,380 --> 01:04:53,860
Proof!

796
01:04:55,300 --> 01:04:58,620
Pulled from the royal library,

797
01:05:01,660 --> 01:05:05,220
<i>the great scheme of
the Greeks and the Jews</i>

798
01:05:05,340 --> 01:05:07,860
to conquer the world!

799
01:05:10,380 --> 01:05:13,140
For let me tell you,
the Greeks and the Jew

800
01:05:13,220 --> 01:05:16,100
both live by the same evil doctrine.

801
01:05:16,220 --> 01:05:18,180
All men are created equal.

802
01:05:20,620 --> 01:05:25,140
- Do you believe you are equal to a slave?
- ALL: No!

803
01:05:25,620 --> 01:05:29,260
<i>HAMAN: And you believe neither in
the Jewish God, nor in Greek democracy,</i>

804
01:05:29,340 --> 01:05:32,660
but there are others in the palace that do.

805
01:05:33,820 --> 01:05:37,100
Let me now speak of Memucan.

806
01:05:37,820 --> 01:05:40,460
Prince. General.

807
01:05:40,700 --> 01:05:42,180
Arch traitor!

808
01:05:43,580 --> 01:05:46,140
"For services rendered to King Darius.

809
01:05:46,620 --> 01:05:49,900
"Pacification of the Babylonian provinces.

810
01:05:51,820 --> 01:05:54,580
"Payments made to Haman the Agagite."

811
01:05:56,100 --> 01:05:58,180
When? When?

812
01:05:59,100 --> 01:06:00,620
Ask of Memucan

813
01:06:00,700 --> 01:06:04,180
why he allowed the Greeks of Ionia
to retain their democracy.

814
01:06:05,500 --> 01:06:08,940
Ask whose voice is loudest
against the war today

815
01:06:09,020 --> 01:06:11,540
and you will find out it is he!

816
01:06:14,780 --> 01:06:16,380
"Common year."

817
01:06:18,220 --> 01:06:20,380
Thirteen years ago.

818
01:06:26,380 --> 01:06:28,060
HAMAN: My lady.

819
01:06:38,460 --> 01:06:39,740
Are you alone?

820
01:06:43,660 --> 01:06:48,140
- Highly unsafe.
- I was just finishing.

821
01:06:56,140 --> 01:06:57,580
Please.

822
01:06:59,380 --> 01:07:01,420
Allow me.

823
01:07:20,100 --> 01:07:23,420
- Shall I return this for you?
- Thank you.

824
01:07:27,220 --> 01:07:30,940
Something must weigh heavy
on my queen's heart

825
01:07:31,660 --> 01:07:33,900
in order to be kept up
at this hour, reading.

826
01:07:36,380 --> 01:07:37,860
My queen.

827
01:07:46,140 --> 01:07:49,460
- Is her Highness unwell?
- I'm fine.

828
01:07:50,580 --> 01:07:52,700
Perhaps I should retire.

829
01:07:57,020 --> 01:07:57,980
(COUGHS)

830
01:08:02,940 --> 01:08:05,380
MEMUCAN: You're not scheduled
at the palace for more than two weeks.

831
01:08:05,500 --> 01:08:07,340
She'll be wonderfully surprised,
think you not?

832
01:08:07,420 --> 01:08:09,620
Here, read this, my lord.

833
01:08:13,060 --> 01:08:15,300
You do not appear
to be a traitor, Memucan.

834
01:08:15,420 --> 01:08:17,260
Return with me, and I'll have
Admantha investigate

835
01:08:17,380 --> 01:08:18,940
Haman's accusations immediately.

836
01:08:19,060 --> 01:08:21,500
Haman is my appointment.

837
01:08:21,620 --> 01:08:23,980
And we do need him more than we realize.

838
01:08:24,060 --> 01:08:26,220
Truly, Memucan, at one moment you sulk,

839
01:08:26,300 --> 01:08:29,540
you say your name has been slurred,
now you plead for your accuser.

840
01:08:29,660 --> 01:08:32,740
I have enough lives on my conscience.

841
01:08:32,860 --> 01:08:36,660
Chastise him mildly,
and he will perform his duty well

842
01:08:36,780 --> 01:08:40,100
and be more grateful to you
for your leniency.

843
01:08:40,700 --> 01:08:42,140
Spoken like a true Persian.

844
01:08:42,220 --> 01:08:46,180
Never judging a man before all the good
and all the bad are weighed.

845
01:08:46,540 --> 01:08:48,460
Ride with me.

846
01:08:48,860 --> 01:08:52,580
- MORDECAI: So you burnt the evidence?
- Worry not, action will still be taken.

847
01:08:53,220 --> 01:08:57,020
Lest you forget, this Haman
is now head of internal protection.

848
01:08:57,140 --> 01:08:59,420
And lest you forget, I'm still queen.

849
01:08:59,540 --> 01:09:02,940
Yes, but queen subject to
an ancient protocol that no doubt Haman

850
01:09:03,060 --> 01:09:05,140
knows how to manipulate
far better than you do.

851
01:09:12,500 --> 01:09:14,460
Go not by the main gate.

852
01:09:14,580 --> 01:09:17,300
I wish not for the Queen
to be alerted to my coming.

853
01:09:17,820 --> 01:09:19,060
(COMMANDS HORSE)

854
01:09:19,420 --> 01:09:20,580
You must promise me

855
01:09:21,900 --> 01:09:23,340
that you will not reveal this to anyone.

856
01:09:25,780 --> 01:09:29,180
Any more such promises
and I shall have to take a vow of silence.

857
01:09:32,220 --> 01:09:34,300
Rusty old lovers' gate.

858
01:09:34,420 --> 01:09:37,340
I trust you used it much
in your youth, Memucan.

859
01:09:37,460 --> 01:09:40,780
Who do you think had it installed?

860
01:09:43,380 --> 01:09:45,220
Go now.

861
01:10:01,020 --> 01:10:03,980
My love. Oh, how I've missed you.

862
01:10:04,060 --> 01:10:06,660
- Have you?
- Now, what is that supposed to mean?

863
01:10:06,940 --> 01:10:09,580
You looked flushed. Busy morning?

864
01:10:09,660 --> 01:10:12,140
Not as busy as it could get.

865
01:10:12,220 --> 01:10:13,420
No visitors?

866
01:10:16,180 --> 01:10:19,500
You sent for me, Your Highness?

867
01:10:21,620 --> 01:10:23,780
It appears you have
misplaced our necklace.

868
01:10:23,900 --> 01:10:27,180
I wonder if that is all you have misplaced.

869
01:10:45,740 --> 01:10:47,220
(WOMAN EX CLAIMING PLAYFULLY)

870
01:11:19,420 --> 01:11:22,860
Perhaps Your Majesty would like to send
for one of the concubines.

871
01:11:30,780 --> 01:11:32,580
Perhaps not.

872
01:11:34,620 --> 01:11:36,380
You look so much like your father.

873
01:11:36,500 --> 01:11:39,300
Sometimes I forget
how different you truly are.

874
01:11:39,420 --> 01:11:44,140
Makes me wonder all the more why
you feel such need to follow in his steps.

875
01:11:47,940 --> 01:11:49,740
Give her a few more nights,

876
01:11:53,460 --> 01:11:55,700
and then have her brought to me.

877
01:11:59,740 --> 01:12:01,780
ADMANTHA:
You call that public tirade subtle?

878
01:12:01,860 --> 01:12:03,380
You mock me, Agagite.

879
01:12:03,500 --> 01:12:06,140
I need but report
but once to the King of your arrogance.

880
01:12:06,260 --> 01:12:09,580
And your dreams of kingship die with me.

881
01:12:09,860 --> 01:12:12,660
You might be less harsh on the Jews.

882
01:12:12,740 --> 01:12:14,420
You should make yourself
a laughing stock.

883
01:12:14,540 --> 01:12:15,980
The Jews, my prince,

884
01:12:16,780 --> 01:12:19,580
will be your chief weapon by which
you attain power to the throne.

885
01:12:19,700 --> 01:12:23,500
Think, we plan to take the crown by force
when the King is deep in Greece.

886
01:12:24,180 --> 01:12:25,940
What excuse will you use?

887
01:12:26,540 --> 01:12:28,380
Who attacks the land?

888
01:12:28,860 --> 01:12:30,380
Well, no one, actually.

889
01:12:31,620 --> 01:12:34,940
Unless, of course,
you claim it was the Greek-loving Jews.

890
01:12:36,940 --> 01:12:40,260
Memucan expects an apology,
as you predicted.

891
01:12:40,540 --> 01:12:43,980
Well, an apology is a cheap enough price
to pay for a kingdom.

892
01:12:44,060 --> 01:12:46,620
<i>Invite, then, Memucan to your estate.</i>

893
01:12:46,740 --> 01:12:50,180
<i>Presumably so I can apologize to him.</i>

894
01:12:50,300 --> 01:12:53,580
<i>On the way, however,
he will be ambushed.</i>

895
01:12:54,060 --> 01:12:57,500
<i>- ADMANTHA: By whom?
- By my Jews, of course.</i>

896
01:12:57,620 --> 01:12:59,980
Jews who slew him
for being coupled with them as a traitor.

897
01:13:00,060 --> 01:13:03,380
- And what of Memucan's own guard?
- It's merely an apology.

898
01:13:03,980 --> 01:13:05,940
Perhaps you can suggest to Memucan

899
01:13:06,060 --> 01:13:07,340
that if he arrive with a large number,

900
01:13:07,420 --> 01:13:08,980
I might suspect he'd come
to punish me.

901
01:13:09,060 --> 01:13:11,380
One or two guards my men can handle.

902
01:13:12,220 --> 01:13:14,420
And who'll handle you?

903
01:13:15,020 --> 01:13:16,700
Who but you,

904
01:13:17,500 --> 01:13:18,900
my king.

905
01:13:26,500 --> 01:13:28,660
Prepare to die, Greek-lover.

906
01:13:48,100 --> 01:13:50,100
Admantha's men.

907
01:13:51,260 --> 01:13:53,460
Thank the gods you are unharmed,
my lord.

908
01:13:57,140 --> 01:13:58,140
XERXES: Come.

909
01:14:21,420 --> 01:14:22,580
My queen...

910
01:14:25,700 --> 01:14:27,140
MAN: Your Highness,

911
01:14:27,860 --> 01:14:30,220
blood has been spilled.
You are needed at once.

912
01:14:47,980 --> 01:14:51,260
But lord King,
an accusation by a dispatch ride.

913
01:14:51,420 --> 01:14:54,060
Why did you wait so long
to inform anyone of Admantha's plot?

914
01:14:54,140 --> 01:14:57,340
- Surely you don't...
- My lord, I had to but play the traitor

915
01:14:57,460 --> 01:14:59,140
to catch the traitor.

916
01:15:00,540 --> 01:15:04,260
Where are his witnesses, my lord?
What were my motives?

917
01:15:04,540 --> 01:15:08,780
Let this Haman prove his words
or be forever silent.

918
01:15:08,900 --> 01:15:10,380
But what would he have
me show, my lord?

919
01:15:10,460 --> 01:15:13,420
There are no witnesses
to plans forged in secret.

920
01:15:13,900 --> 01:15:15,340
You will not act like that, Admantha.

921
01:15:15,420 --> 01:15:19,180
And was it not even Admantha
who stirred the crowd into demanding

922
01:15:19,340 --> 01:15:22,820
Queen Vashti's appearance,
knowing she would not come?

923
01:15:23,100 --> 01:15:25,380
All lies. That's lies.

924
01:15:25,540 --> 01:15:28,580
Lies. I stand in a crumbling house of lies.

925
01:15:28,700 --> 01:15:31,860
- Remember before whom you plead.
- Plead for what?

926
01:15:33,500 --> 01:15:35,260
For your life, Admantha.

927
01:15:41,860 --> 01:15:42,940
(CRICKETS CHIRPING)

928
01:15:44,900 --> 01:15:47,620
Is it my foolish desire
to believe these stories I hear

929
01:15:47,740 --> 01:15:50,740
or my glaring inability
to perceive their mysteries?

930
01:15:51,700 --> 01:15:53,100
Perhaps you...

931
01:15:53,500 --> 01:15:56,620
You placed them back
upon the shelf to collect dust

932
01:15:57,340 --> 01:15:59,500
without ever truly completing them.

933
01:16:01,340 --> 01:16:03,620
Who is the one that gathers dust?

934
01:16:03,900 --> 01:16:05,780
I believed I was your Rachel.

935
01:16:07,140 --> 01:16:10,900
But it appears I'm only Leah,
and you serve time with me for another.

936
01:16:11,100 --> 01:16:15,380
No, my lord. It's not what you think.

937
01:16:17,420 --> 01:16:19,540
Nothing is as I think anymore.

938
01:16:20,260 --> 01:16:22,260
Plots slither through the night.

939
01:16:22,420 --> 01:16:26,020
Trust, it decays
like secret gates left to rust.

940
01:16:26,580 --> 01:16:30,260
Admantha is carried to torture
even as we speak.

941
01:16:37,540 --> 01:16:42,020
This Jacob and Rachel,
they are no mere story to you.

942
01:16:42,300 --> 01:16:45,620
Give me some incentive
to believe in who you really are.

943
01:16:45,820 --> 01:16:47,500
Give me some honor.

944
01:16:47,700 --> 01:16:51,340
For if it is truly the honor of kings
to seek out truth in lie,

945
01:16:53,420 --> 01:16:55,060
I am a man of scorn.

946
01:16:57,420 --> 01:16:59,100
I will answer you,

947
01:17:00,500 --> 01:17:03,340
my lord, if you first answer me.

948
01:17:04,220 --> 01:17:05,740
Answer you what?

949
01:17:06,060 --> 01:17:10,020
Why did you summon Vashti

950
01:17:12,180 --> 01:17:14,060
when you knew she would not come?

951
01:17:16,140 --> 01:17:18,820
I am king.

952
01:17:22,060 --> 01:17:23,780
And I need answer to no one.

953
01:17:31,900 --> 01:17:32,820
(CRYING)

954
01:17:36,220 --> 01:17:40,500
<i>MORDECAI: After many days of torture,
Admantha, the great Midian prince,</i>

955
01:17:40,700 --> 01:17:42,500
<i>finally confessed all,</i>

956
01:17:42,620 --> 01:17:46,020
<i>and was dealt with
according to the protocol of the land.</i>

957
01:17:49,180 --> 01:17:53,660
<i>For his brave and valorous services,
Haman the Agagite</i>

958
01:17:53,820 --> 01:17:55,740
<i>was proclaimed a prince of the Fars</i>

959
01:17:55,900 --> 01:18:00,020
<i>to inherit Admantha's house,
wealth, prestige and power.</i>

960
01:18:01,380 --> 01:18:02,860
Pieces are falling into place

961
01:18:02,940 --> 01:18:06,300
we've spoken of, one by one.

962
01:18:08,060 --> 01:18:10,580
Soothsaying does not become you,
Haman.

963
01:18:10,860 --> 01:18:13,780
No, my darling,
I speak of the truth, not of stars.

964
01:18:15,140 --> 01:18:17,620
My burden I would not wish on any man.

965
01:18:20,460 --> 01:18:23,220
The blood of my forefathers
will be avenged.

966
01:18:24,500 --> 01:18:28,180
And the gods will smile down on our son
through our obedience.

967
01:18:28,540 --> 01:18:31,580
And are you mad? This is your plan?

968
01:18:32,260 --> 01:18:34,660
It is not that our allies
are unwilling, my lord,

969
01:18:34,780 --> 01:18:36,500
but they have not fared well.

970
01:18:36,580 --> 01:18:39,180
A storm has robbed the Phoenicians
of a good part of their fleet.

971
01:18:39,260 --> 01:18:42,900
Carthage finds herself short in timber
with which to complete our warships...

972
01:18:43,020 --> 01:18:45,660
Surely the fate of the empire
does not hinge on money?

973
01:18:45,780 --> 01:18:48,780
- Are you ready to furnish it, then?
- No, not I, my lord.

974
01:18:48,900 --> 01:18:51,580
But I'm aware of traitors
within our borders that could.

975
01:18:51,700 --> 01:18:53,900
The Jews? We are not children.

976
01:18:53,980 --> 01:18:55,420
Nevertheless, the money may be raised

977
01:18:55,540 --> 01:18:58,300
by the confiscation
of Jewish wealth and property.

978
01:18:58,420 --> 01:19:01,180
And the Jews will just
hand it over without a fight?

979
01:19:01,300 --> 01:19:02,820
No, of course not.

980
01:19:03,700 --> 01:19:05,740
First we must kill them all.

981
01:19:07,100 --> 01:19:08,820
Every last one of them.

982
01:19:08,900 --> 01:19:12,020
It is the only way to ensure
they do not rise up and seek revenge.

983
01:19:12,140 --> 01:19:14,500
He speaks of women
and children, my lord.

984
01:19:14,620 --> 01:19:16,460
Yes, women and children.

985
01:19:18,620 --> 01:19:19,700
I know.

986
01:19:22,820 --> 01:19:24,420
What is your solution?

987
01:19:24,540 --> 01:19:28,260
Or would you rather, my dear Memucan,
the Greeks and the Jews unite

988
01:19:28,380 --> 01:19:30,860
and, hand in hand,
murder us in our beds while we sleep?

989
01:19:30,940 --> 01:19:34,100
Is the past so mighty
that we must destroy our brothers

990
01:19:34,220 --> 01:19:35,980
to be free of its grasp?

991
01:19:38,540 --> 01:19:42,660
No kingdom was ever so grand
as the Jews' own King Solomon.

992
01:19:42,780 --> 01:19:46,380
He fought not one battle,
toiled through not one war,

993
01:19:47,060 --> 01:19:50,380
but prospered upon the peace
handed down by his father.

994
01:19:51,100 --> 01:19:54,740
Do not make void what your
own father's death has purchased.

995
01:19:54,900 --> 01:19:57,820
- By picking back up...
- Mind your tone, General.

996
01:19:58,420 --> 01:20:00,380
Why thirst you for warfare

997
01:20:01,460 --> 01:20:03,900
when we can drink so deeply of peace?

998
01:20:04,540 --> 01:20:07,300
You speak of peace,
let us speak of the Jews.

999
01:20:07,620 --> 01:20:11,420
They would rather bow down to their own
God than obey the laws of protocol.

1000
01:20:11,540 --> 01:20:14,060
Their prophets even speak
of a coming king.

1001
01:20:14,140 --> 01:20:17,860
A king who will reign over all kings
and set all men free.

1002
01:20:20,380 --> 01:20:23,860
Is that not the very essence of democracy,
my dear Memucan?

1003
01:20:23,980 --> 01:20:26,380
I do believe, under your guidance,
we are undone.

1004
01:20:26,460 --> 01:20:29,620
If we are undone,
we are undone from within, indeed.

1005
01:20:31,900 --> 01:20:33,740
March upon Greece, if you wish.

1006
01:20:33,820 --> 01:20:36,540
But you march
with no general in your lead.

1007
01:20:43,820 --> 01:20:46,500
Then it has not yet been signed into law?

1008
01:20:48,220 --> 01:20:49,900
Not as yet, my lady.

1009
01:20:50,740 --> 01:20:53,660
Perhaps guilt stirs men too hotly at times,

1010
01:20:54,140 --> 01:20:56,180
and they seek the salve of the law

1011
01:20:56,820 --> 01:20:58,500
to ease the burning.

1012
01:21:01,020 --> 01:21:03,180
And what would you have me do?

1013
01:21:04,060 --> 01:21:07,060
I cannot seek him in the library
unless summoned.

1014
01:21:15,420 --> 01:21:17,580
<i>If you arrived first,</i>

1015
01:21:17,660 --> 01:21:21,020
<i>then he in effect
would be seeking you, would he not?</i>

1016
01:21:25,740 --> 01:21:29,420
How came you pass my guard?
I demanded none use the library this night.

1017
01:21:29,500 --> 01:21:31,900
I seek that which you seek, my lord.

1018
01:21:36,700 --> 01:21:37,780
Truth.

1019
01:21:39,980 --> 01:21:42,660
Perhaps the truth
of what exists between us?

1020
01:21:43,620 --> 01:21:45,780
I have come on matters of state.

1021
01:21:45,900 --> 01:21:47,420
Matters of state.

1022
01:21:48,660 --> 01:21:49,740
I see.

1023
01:21:51,620 --> 01:21:53,900
And what matters of state might that be?

1024
01:21:53,980 --> 01:21:56,660
You desire more perfumes?
You request more condiments?

1025
01:21:56,780 --> 01:21:59,220
Surely as queen of the kitchen,
you need not await me here.

1026
01:21:59,340 --> 01:22:03,220
You know as well as I how quickly word
travels throughout the palace.

1027
01:22:04,740 --> 01:22:07,060
Especially when murder's involved.

1028
01:22:07,260 --> 01:22:10,500
You are... You are learned, well-read.

1029
01:22:11,260 --> 01:22:13,620
Offer me a story that
answers my dilemma.

1030
01:22:13,700 --> 01:22:16,780
- I have never pretended with you.
- Never pretended?

1031
01:22:16,860 --> 01:22:18,460
Think you not that I see
Memucan's strings

1032
01:22:18,580 --> 01:22:19,980
dangling above your head even now?

1033
01:22:20,100 --> 01:22:22,740
You care more for these Jews
than you do for me.

1034
01:22:22,820 --> 01:22:26,100
Do you enquire of my burdens,
do you offer me solutions?

1035
01:22:26,300 --> 01:22:27,300
No.

1036
01:22:27,860 --> 01:22:29,460
You just complain.

1037
01:22:29,900 --> 01:22:32,420
- As Vashti did?
- Away from me!

1038
01:22:32,540 --> 01:22:35,020
And come before me no longer,
no matter what pretense you seek,

1039
01:22:35,100 --> 01:22:37,700
or your fate shall be worse than Vashti.

1040
01:22:39,820 --> 01:22:42,620
- But I do love you.
- Love has failed me.

1041
01:22:44,060 --> 01:22:46,980
Knowledge has failed me, thus
I bind myself to the protocol

1042
01:22:47,100 --> 01:22:49,100
of my fathers and to my empire.

1043
01:22:49,180 --> 01:22:51,260
By the next moon, I leave for war.

1044
01:22:51,420 --> 01:22:54,940
And whatever my fate,
it shall no longer be shared with you.

1045
01:23:10,780 --> 01:23:13,300
This was once your favorite reading.

1046
01:23:13,380 --> 01:23:16,420
And though it may no longer
bear the story of love,

1047
01:23:18,660 --> 01:23:20,820
it bears that of one Mordecai the Jew.

1048
01:23:23,260 --> 01:23:26,300
One of whom you wish to destroy
saved your life.

1049
01:23:29,420 --> 01:23:31,900
And you never even honored him for it.

1050
01:23:40,580 --> 01:23:43,420
The casting of the lot, the Pur...

1051
01:23:44,420 --> 01:23:47,860
It has determined upon which day
all the Jews of the kingdom will be slain.

1052
01:23:49,860 --> 01:23:52,420
This day is to be the 13th day
of the month of Adar

1053
01:23:52,540 --> 01:23:54,420
according to the calendar of the Jews.

1054
01:23:54,780 --> 01:23:56,020
Prince...

1055
01:23:59,700 --> 01:24:01,700
The annihilation of a people

1056
01:24:02,740 --> 01:24:07,020
can only be authorized by one
who bears the signet of the King himself.

1057
01:24:16,860 --> 01:24:17,780
(PEOPLE SCREAMING)

1058
01:24:19,500 --> 01:24:21,660
<i>MORDECAI: And those letters were sent
into all the land,</i>

1059
01:24:22,380 --> 01:24:26,460
<i>to slay and annihilate all the Jews</i>

1060
01:24:26,580 --> 01:24:29,620
<i>on the 13th of Adar,
some six weeks hence.</i>

1061
01:24:30,460 --> 01:24:34,380
<i>Both young and old,
men, women and even children.</i>

1062
01:24:35,700 --> 01:24:39,340
<i>And to plunder all of their possessions
for the sake of the crown.</i>

1063
01:25:08,820 --> 01:25:12,380
The scribe insists that
all is dependent upon you, my queen.

1064
01:25:13,340 --> 01:25:14,900
Dependent upon me?

1065
01:25:15,660 --> 01:25:19,020
My queen might wish
to go before the King and intercede

1066
01:25:19,900 --> 01:25:23,940
for those that have no other hope.

1067
01:25:26,980 --> 01:25:28,220
My lady...

1068
01:25:28,620 --> 01:25:30,980
Have you forgotten your protocol?

1069
01:25:31,100 --> 01:25:32,980
To approach the King
unsummoned is death.

1070
01:25:33,060 --> 01:25:36,500
Perhaps in court.
But surely you can visit him in private.

1071
01:25:37,260 --> 01:25:38,740
In his chambers.

1072
01:25:41,460 --> 01:25:42,940
Surely I cannot.

1073
01:25:52,540 --> 01:25:54,460
<i>ESTHER: Obedient I have been.</i>

1074
01:25:55,700 --> 01:25:58,260
<i>I walk before you with a loyal heart.</i>

1075
01:26:00,300 --> 01:26:04,620
<i>And now I stand in the hour of trouble
precisely because of my obedience.</i>

1076
01:26:06,660 --> 01:26:08,340
I beseech you, Father,

1077
01:26:09,540 --> 01:26:11,460
<i>let there be another way.</i>

1078
01:26:12,700 --> 01:26:15,300
<i>Rise up a deliverer and let this pass.</i>

1079
01:26:16,860 --> 01:26:18,260
<i>Let this pass.</i>

1080
01:26:19,260 --> 01:26:20,660
<i>MORDECAI: "'Comfort,</i>

1081
01:26:21,220 --> 01:26:23,420
"'comfort my people,' says your God.

1082
01:26:24,060 --> 01:26:25,540
"Cry unto Israel

1083
01:26:27,220 --> 01:26:29,300
"that her warfare is finished,

1084
01:26:31,420 --> 01:26:33,220
"that her iniquity is removed.

1085
01:26:34,140 --> 01:26:37,500
<i>"The everlasting
neither faints nor is weary.</i>

1086
01:26:38,100 --> 01:26:41,180
<i>"His understanding no one can fathom.</i>

1087
01:26:41,420 --> 01:26:44,980
<i>"He gives strength to the weary
and power to the weak.</i>

1088
01:26:45,660 --> 01:26:48,820
<i>"Even the youth shall faint and be weary,</i>

1089
01:26:49,260 --> 01:26:51,860
<i>"and young men shall utterly fail.</i>

1090
01:26:52,020 --> 01:26:56,380
<i>"But those who wait on the Lord
shall renew their strength."</i>

1091
01:26:57,340 --> 01:27:00,980
Lord, we wait on thee.

1092
01:27:02,900 --> 01:27:04,500
Renew our strength.

1093
01:27:05,060 --> 01:27:06,860
<i>MAN: Clear the way for he who comes.</i>

1094
01:27:06,940 --> 01:27:09,020
Kneel before the great prince.

1095
01:27:09,180 --> 01:27:12,700
Clear the way for he who comes.
Kneel for the great prince.

1096
01:27:13,580 --> 01:27:14,660
You...

1097
01:27:16,740 --> 01:27:19,660
Lower yourself to honor
the great Prince Haman. Kneel!

1098
01:27:19,780 --> 01:27:21,460
- I said kneel.
- Stop!

1099
01:27:30,860 --> 01:27:34,020
- Why do you not kneel?
- I kneel before my king.

1100
01:27:34,900 --> 01:27:37,940
I abase myself
only before the God of my fathers.

1101
01:27:38,220 --> 01:27:41,420
- What's his name, this God?
- The great I AM.

1102
01:27:41,660 --> 01:27:44,820
The one true God,
the maker of heaven and earth.

1103
01:27:45,260 --> 01:27:48,660
The God of Abraham,
of Isaac and of Jacob.

1104
01:27:51,300 --> 01:27:52,380
A Jew.

1105
01:27:52,860 --> 01:27:55,300
Mordecai Ben-Yair.

1106
01:27:56,460 --> 01:27:57,780
Mordecai...

1107
01:28:01,020 --> 01:28:03,380
I shall name my prize pig after you.

1108
01:28:03,660 --> 01:28:07,020
Perhaps I may give you other reasons
to remember my name.

1109
01:28:07,260 --> 01:28:09,140
You will remember mine

1110
01:28:10,060 --> 01:28:11,220
for this!

1111
01:28:17,100 --> 01:28:18,260
Move on.

1112
01:28:22,420 --> 01:28:24,180
MAN: What good did that do?

1113
01:28:24,260 --> 01:28:27,460
You still ended up
on the ground like the rest of us.

1114
01:28:31,580 --> 01:28:33,260
But I did not kneel.

1115
01:28:35,700 --> 01:28:39,580
Come, now, you are a mere three days
from being handed a kingdom.

1116
01:28:39,700 --> 01:28:43,700
We must not let one Jew rob us of our joy.

1117
01:28:43,900 --> 01:28:45,700
That is not good enough.

1118
01:28:47,700 --> 01:28:50,540
Then seek permission
to honor the King's departure

1119
01:28:50,660 --> 01:28:52,500
with a public execution of a rebel

1120
01:28:52,580 --> 01:28:53,500
<i>(ECHOING)</i>

1121
01:28:53,620 --> 01:28:57,220
<i>a symbol of your authority
over those that remain.</i>

1122
01:28:57,340 --> 01:29:02,060
<i>A gallows, 50 cubits high
with Mordecai right...</i>

1123
01:29:20,700 --> 01:29:21,940
The chronicles.

1124
01:29:37,820 --> 01:29:38,860
XERXES: Rise.

1125
01:29:39,260 --> 01:29:41,940
A matter disturbs me.
You may be of assistance.

1126
01:29:42,300 --> 01:29:46,380
I am most pleased, my lord,
for I, too, desire your counsel on a matter.

1127
01:29:46,780 --> 01:29:49,300
A certain man
has rendered great service to me.

1128
01:29:49,420 --> 01:29:52,060
He has received many honors
amongst his people,

1129
01:29:52,180 --> 01:29:54,060
but he once saved my life.

1130
01:29:54,860 --> 01:29:59,220
I feel, despite everything, full recognition

1131
01:29:59,380 --> 01:30:01,140
has not yet been given him.

1132
01:30:01,260 --> 01:30:04,140
What think you, shall be done
for this man in whom the King delights

1133
01:30:04,220 --> 01:30:05,460
to honor?

1134
01:30:06,740 --> 01:30:08,980
Let a royal robe be sent for,

1135
01:30:09,700 --> 01:30:12,180
one his Majesty has donned in public.

1136
01:30:15,660 --> 01:30:16,980
And a horse

1137
01:30:17,980 --> 01:30:21,740
on whose head a royal crest is set.

1138
01:30:24,100 --> 01:30:28,820
Deliver them to
one of the noblest princes of the Fars,

1139
01:30:29,220 --> 01:30:32,380
so that he can array the man
in whom the King delights.

1140
01:30:33,300 --> 01:30:37,100
And then parade this man
through the streets, proclaiming,

1141
01:30:37,260 --> 01:30:41,580
"Thus shall it be done to the man
in whom the King delights to honor."

1142
01:30:43,060 --> 01:30:44,940
Most excellent proposal.

1143
01:30:45,700 --> 01:30:48,620
Go yourself now
and do all you have suggested.

1144
01:30:48,900 --> 01:30:50,100
My lord.

1145
01:30:51,620 --> 01:30:53,140
To a one Mordecai,

1146
01:30:54,940 --> 01:30:57,740
the scribe who
sits within the King's gates.

1147
01:31:01,980 --> 01:31:03,140
Mordecai?

1148
01:31:04,820 --> 01:31:05,940
The Jew?

1149
01:31:21,300 --> 01:31:22,340
My lady.

1150
01:31:23,940 --> 01:31:26,700
- And who is this honored man?
- A scribe.

1151
01:31:28,100 --> 01:31:31,580
A Jewish scribe,
who claims to have saved the King's life.

1152
01:31:35,100 --> 01:31:39,380
I should think you would be honored
by such a privilege given by the King.

1153
01:31:39,460 --> 01:31:40,620
Honored?

1154
01:31:45,900 --> 01:31:48,060
The prestige of Persia is at stake.

1155
01:31:48,500 --> 01:31:50,900
What will it be said of your husband,
the king, that he commands

1156
01:31:51,020 --> 01:31:53,580
his highest prince
to lead a Jew through the streets?

1157
01:31:53,660 --> 01:31:55,180
A Jew, my lady!

1158
01:31:56,180 --> 01:32:00,580
And how is a Jew
any different than you or I?

1159
01:32:00,740 --> 01:32:01,820
They are our enemy.

1160
01:32:03,100 --> 01:32:04,820
They must be destroyed.

1161
01:32:05,980 --> 01:32:09,780
They may be your enemy, but not mine.

1162
01:32:10,140 --> 01:32:12,420
From the way that you defend them,

1163
01:32:14,380 --> 01:32:18,420
- one might almost think...
- One might think what,

1164
01:32:20,300 --> 01:32:21,580
my prince?

1165
01:32:28,380 --> 01:32:31,340
One might think. That is all, my lady.

1166
01:32:33,660 --> 01:32:35,180
One might think.

1167
01:32:42,380 --> 01:32:45,300
HAMAN: Make your way for Mordecai,
the Jew.

1168
01:32:45,420 --> 01:32:46,420
(CROWD CHEERING)

1169
01:32:46,540 --> 01:32:50,380
Make your way for Mordecai,
who saved the King's life.

1170
01:32:50,780 --> 01:32:53,820
He is the man in whom
the King delights to honor.

1171
01:32:55,900 --> 01:32:59,300
All hail for Mordecai, the Jew,
honored of the King.

1172
01:32:59,820 --> 01:33:03,660
Beloved of the Queen.
All hail for Mordecai, the Jew.

1173
01:33:04,380 --> 01:33:07,900
Honored of the King.
Beloved of the Queen.

1174
01:33:09,900 --> 01:33:11,020
(THUNDER CRASHING)

1175
01:33:43,620 --> 01:33:44,740
Guards...

1176
01:33:47,220 --> 01:33:49,980
My queen,
I bring you word from Mordecai.

1177
01:33:50,420 --> 01:33:51,900
You've run out of time.

1178
01:33:54,380 --> 01:33:56,460
When the King leaves
for Greece tomorrow,

1179
01:33:56,540 --> 01:33:58,980
he will appoint Haman as his regent.

1180
01:34:00,380 --> 01:34:03,420
It is our last chance
to stop this edict of death.

1181
01:34:04,380 --> 01:34:07,460
He made me vow to speak his words.

1182
01:34:11,020 --> 01:34:14,620
You will indeed risk your life
if you go before the King...

1183
01:34:15,420 --> 01:34:18,660
<i>MORDECAI: ...but do not think
that if you keep silent</i>

1184
01:34:19,500 --> 01:34:23,260
<i>your position
will save you alone from this edict.</i>

1185
01:34:24,180 --> 01:34:28,100
<i>For if you keep silent,
deliverance for the Jews</i>

1186
01:34:28,740 --> 01:34:31,700
will arise from someplace else,

1187
01:34:32,860 --> 01:34:33,980
but you

1188
01:34:35,380 --> 01:34:36,980
will surely perish.

1189
01:34:38,620 --> 01:34:42,580
Who knows whether
you have come to the palace

1190
01:34:43,740 --> 01:34:45,460
for such a time as this?

1191
01:34:51,420 --> 01:34:54,500
He said to give you this.

1192
01:35:05,820 --> 01:35:09,140
Tell Mordecai to assemble the Jews.

1193
01:35:10,300 --> 01:35:12,180
Ask them to fast and pray.

1194
01:35:13,460 --> 01:35:15,100
I will do the same.

1195
01:35:17,380 --> 01:35:20,300
And in the morning,
arrange for me a litter.

1196
01:35:21,740 --> 01:35:26,020
I will array myself as queen
and go before the King unsummoned,

1197
01:35:28,420 --> 01:35:30,740
even though it is against the law.

1198
01:35:38,820 --> 01:35:40,260
And if I perish,

1199
01:35:42,380 --> 01:35:43,540
I perish.

1200
01:35:44,660 --> 01:35:46,020
(THUNDER CRASHING)

1201
01:35:52,780 --> 01:35:55,900
XERXES: People of Persia,
servants of the crown,

1202
01:35:56,660 --> 01:35:58,860
today we embrace our destiny

1203
01:35:59,460 --> 01:36:03,460
to raid and rule the world over
and stand against the Greeks

1204
01:36:03,860 --> 01:36:06,340
and all who would rob us of our glory.

1205
01:36:07,580 --> 01:36:09,140
MAID: Her crown, quickly.

1206
01:36:10,060 --> 01:36:12,060
The litter will be here any moment.

1207
01:36:14,100 --> 01:36:16,420
- No litter is coming.
- What?

1208
01:36:17,020 --> 01:36:19,700
I do not know what you plan, but...

1209
01:36:20,060 --> 01:36:22,580
The King leaves for the outpost
within the hour.

1210
01:36:22,660 --> 01:36:24,540
I have not time to wait out this rain.

1211
01:36:24,660 --> 01:36:27,420
I am not going to allow you
to kill yourself.

1212
01:36:29,660 --> 01:36:30,700
No...

1213
01:36:32,140 --> 01:36:35,580
- Please tell me you did not.
- What possible assurance do you have

1214
01:36:35,740 --> 01:36:38,580
he would lower his scepter
to spare your life?

1215
01:36:40,020 --> 01:36:43,820
You do not go into a bedroom of a man,
you go into the hall of a king.

1216
01:36:44,380 --> 01:36:47,780
This is not you against him.
This is you against protocol.

1217
01:36:48,220 --> 01:36:49,980
You against the empire.

1218
01:36:51,140 --> 01:36:54,660
Then I... I go as

1219
01:36:56,500 --> 01:37:00,180
David did
before Goliath and the Philistines.

1220
01:37:05,140 --> 01:37:09,140
Those are just stories, Esther.
Do you hear me? Just stories.

1221
01:37:11,500 --> 01:37:16,180
Know you what I love most
about the story of David and Goliath?

1222
01:37:18,900 --> 01:37:23,060
David's victory
came not because he fought well

1223
01:37:26,420 --> 01:37:29,260
but because he believed well.

1224
01:37:30,580 --> 01:37:34,340
Thus I leave you on this day,
your regent, in my absence,

1225
01:37:35,380 --> 01:37:37,820
Lord Haman, prince of the Fars.

1226
01:37:39,020 --> 01:37:41,900
<i>It is my will
that each of you obey him in every way,</i>

1227
01:37:41,980 --> 01:37:44,340
exactly as you would regard your king.

1228
01:38:48,460 --> 01:38:50,900
Unsummoned she comes before the King.

1229
01:38:52,020 --> 01:38:53,180
She does.

1230
01:39:03,980 --> 01:39:05,780
Is protocol not broken?

1231
01:39:08,820 --> 01:39:11,060
- Yes, protocol has been broken.
- Guards!

1232
01:39:24,860 --> 01:39:25,780
(INAUDIBLE)

1233
01:39:56,060 --> 01:39:58,060
(INAUDIBLE)

1234
01:40:12,300 --> 01:40:13,820
(ALL CLAMORING)

1235
01:40:16,180 --> 01:40:17,580
...before the King.

1236
01:40:23,540 --> 01:40:24,460
(SIGHS)

1237
01:40:47,780 --> 01:40:51,220
- We have not time to waste.
- What did he say to your request?

1238
01:40:51,340 --> 01:40:54,140
The timing, the faces... I could not ask it.

1239
01:40:54,660 --> 01:40:56,500
Not there, not in court.

1240
01:40:56,860 --> 01:40:59,260
What then? Do we perish?

1241
01:41:01,820 --> 01:41:05,060
We have but one last chance.
You must help me prepare.

1242
01:41:05,540 --> 01:41:08,580
A king may lower his scepter
to whoever he wishes.

1243
01:41:13,860 --> 01:41:14,860
My lord,

1244
01:41:14,940 --> 01:41:18,700
this day your kingdom
has all but been ripped from your hands.

1245
01:41:22,100 --> 01:41:25,620
This Esther has dishonored you
more than Vashti ever could.

1246
01:41:31,700 --> 01:41:34,260
See not you now
how she has trapped you?

1247
01:41:36,180 --> 01:41:38,940
Inviting us to a banquet
to hear her request?

1248
01:41:40,780 --> 01:41:44,540
If you go,
the people will deem you to be a pawn.

1249
01:41:45,940 --> 01:41:47,420
If you refuse,

1250
01:41:48,980 --> 01:41:49,940
a coward.

1251
01:41:50,020 --> 01:41:51,180
(DOOR SLAMS SHUT)

1252
01:41:53,500 --> 01:41:55,700
There is but one way to proceed.

1253
01:42:35,740 --> 01:42:38,420
Is the meal to your satisfaction, my lord?

1254
01:42:39,860 --> 01:42:41,900
The night draws late.

1255
01:42:44,020 --> 01:42:46,260
Once more I ask for
your petition, my queen.

1256
01:42:59,180 --> 01:43:00,460
My petition,

1257
01:43:02,700 --> 01:43:03,860
my lord,

1258
01:43:06,580 --> 01:43:09,140
is that you allow me to finish a story.

1259
01:43:10,620 --> 01:43:12,900
One that I began many nights ago.

1260
01:43:24,700 --> 01:43:26,700
The story of Jacob, my lord,

1261
01:43:28,340 --> 01:43:31,060
does not finish with marrying Rachel.

1262
01:43:31,180 --> 01:43:33,420
Well, they go on to have 12 sons.

1263
01:43:33,500 --> 01:43:38,100
And like these 12 pillars that surround us,
they became the pillars of a people.

1264
01:43:38,300 --> 01:43:39,540
Surely...

1265
01:43:40,220 --> 01:43:44,380
Surely you do not delay an army
only to finish a children's tale?

1266
01:43:55,580 --> 01:43:58,260
If I still find favor in your sight,

1267
01:43:59,820 --> 01:44:03,660
let my life be given me, at my petition.

1268
01:44:05,260 --> 01:44:07,020
And my people at my request.

1269
01:44:07,100 --> 01:44:10,780
You demand of me your life
and that of your people?

1270
01:44:12,020 --> 01:44:13,340
My dear girl,

1271
01:44:14,580 --> 01:44:19,340
I know not of your people.
You have yet to tell me who they are.

1272
01:44:19,580 --> 01:44:23,860
Had we been merely sold as slaves,
I would have held my tongue.

1273
01:44:24,700 --> 01:44:28,020
This Haman wanted our blood,

1274
01:44:28,700 --> 01:44:32,980
my blood, the blood of Jacob, your Jacob.

1275
01:44:34,300 --> 01:44:36,660
Your Jacob was given a new name.

1276
01:44:37,660 --> 01:44:38,780
Israel.

1277
01:44:41,860 --> 01:44:43,540
As, too, was I.

1278
01:44:44,460 --> 01:44:46,540
You, Esther?

1279
01:44:48,060 --> 01:44:49,180
A Jew?

1280
01:44:52,460 --> 01:44:54,380
Not Esther, my lord.

1281
01:45:04,220 --> 01:45:07,020
Hadassah Bat-Abihail,

1282
01:45:09,060 --> 01:45:11,340
daughter of the tribe of Benjamin,

1283
01:45:12,580 --> 01:45:14,700
child of the most high God.

1284
01:45:16,660 --> 01:45:20,220
Never have I heard
a more pathetic story in my entire life.

1285
01:45:20,620 --> 01:45:22,020
She is no Jew.

1286
01:45:22,740 --> 01:45:24,420
She's another Vashti.

1287
01:45:24,940 --> 01:45:27,140
Seems it not convenient to you?

1288
01:45:27,260 --> 01:45:29,020
An army marches,

1289
01:45:29,780 --> 01:45:32,940
and suddenly she is a Jew.

1290
01:45:37,340 --> 01:45:40,060
Esther is a Jew.

1291
01:45:40,500 --> 01:45:43,300
Your Vashti but protested
the notion of war.

1292
01:45:43,380 --> 01:45:47,780
This queen seeks to counter
the very authority of your rule.

1293
01:45:47,940 --> 01:45:51,700
A Jew? If such were true,
why did she hide it till now?

1294
01:45:51,780 --> 01:45:54,180
Pray, do tell us.

1295
01:46:00,180 --> 01:46:03,980
The Almighty has indeed ordained

1296
01:46:04,460 --> 01:46:08,580
that my words speak not truth unto you.
At least allow my heart.

1297
01:46:16,100 --> 01:46:17,300
For this

1298
01:46:18,540 --> 01:46:22,380
which I have offered you,
my most precious in all the world,

1299
01:46:22,620 --> 01:46:25,980
the very identity etched within me.

1300
01:46:40,740 --> 01:46:42,540
Well, is something supposed
to be happening here?

1301
01:46:45,860 --> 01:46:49,060
The stars... Do you not see them?

1302
01:46:58,380 --> 01:47:00,020
Do you not see them?

1303
01:47:05,780 --> 01:47:07,060
A mockery.

1304
01:47:28,580 --> 01:47:31,380
Perhaps not how
you had hoped it would end?

1305
01:47:33,180 --> 01:47:35,380
Imagined you that I would beg?

1306
01:47:40,380 --> 01:47:42,540
Think you I will beg?

1307
01:47:43,300 --> 01:47:44,780
Beg for my life?

1308
01:47:45,140 --> 01:47:49,180
Beg like my forefather Agag
before your sword?

1309
01:47:49,820 --> 01:47:52,140
Would you like me to beg for you?

1310
01:48:03,740 --> 01:48:04,660
Oh,

1311
01:48:07,180 --> 01:48:09,060
please, my lady.

1312
01:48:12,940 --> 01:48:15,100
Please, Your Highness.

1313
01:48:16,180 --> 01:48:19,860
Please spare me.

1314
01:48:20,820 --> 01:48:25,100
Spare me my life. You are a lady of mercy.

1315
01:48:25,780 --> 01:48:26,940
Spare me.

1316
01:48:27,860 --> 01:48:30,540
I beg for forgiveness.

1317
01:48:30,660 --> 01:48:35,020
Spare me, spare me, you Jew!

1318
01:48:35,620 --> 01:48:36,580
(GRUNTS)

1319
01:48:37,620 --> 01:48:40,020
Would he also assault the Queen,

1320
01:48:40,780 --> 01:48:41,980
my wife,

1321
01:48:44,020 --> 01:48:46,500
while I am in my house?

1322
01:48:50,580 --> 01:48:54,740
Harbonah has informed me that
the gallows post stands in Haman's yard

1323
01:48:54,860 --> 01:48:59,620
even as we speak. Apparently
intended for one Mordecai the Jew.

1324
01:49:00,420 --> 01:49:01,900
Hang him on it.

1325
01:49:02,740 --> 01:49:03,700
No!

1326
01:49:04,140 --> 01:49:05,060
No!

1327
01:49:06,580 --> 01:49:07,500
(GROANS)

1328
01:49:14,580 --> 01:49:16,100
What made you come back?

1329
01:49:18,420 --> 01:49:19,580
I saw them.

1330
01:49:24,340 --> 01:49:25,900
I saw the stars.

1331
01:49:27,500 --> 01:49:28,420
(RELIEVED CHUCKLE)

1332
01:49:40,820 --> 01:49:43,020
<i>MORDECAI: Thus with one faithful act</i>

1333
01:49:43,100 --> 01:49:46,580
<i>has a new generation redeemed
the time of centuries past</i>

1334
01:49:46,740 --> 01:49:48,780
<i>and stepped into their destiny.</i>

1335
01:49:48,900 --> 01:49:52,860
On this day, I give you your new prince,
and master of audiences,

1336
01:49:53,980 --> 01:49:55,260
Mordecai Ben-Yair.

1337
01:49:55,580 --> 01:49:58,380
On the day appointed for their destruction,

1338
01:49:58,820 --> 01:50:01,700
all Jews shall have the right

1339
01:50:02,100 --> 01:50:03,740
to protect themselves

1340
01:50:03,860 --> 01:50:07,700
and shall be entitled to take
all the property of their attackers.

1341
01:50:08,980 --> 01:50:11,020
<i>And I send forth this story</i>

1342
01:50:11,100 --> 01:50:14,300
<i>enjoining all to keep a day
of feasting and gladness.</i>

1343
01:50:14,420 --> 01:50:18,900
<i>A celebration to be passed on and retold
through every generation,</i>

1344
01:50:19,020 --> 01:50:20,780
<i>to be known as Purim,</i>

1345
01:50:20,860 --> 01:50:24,140
<i>or the casting of the Pur
that determined its time.</i>

1346
01:50:25,020 --> 01:50:29,220
<i>While we continue onward in the face
of a world filled with uncertainty,</i>

1347
01:50:29,340 --> 01:50:33,060
<i>we can rejoice,
for hidden within its mysteries</i>

1348
01:50:33,620 --> 01:50:35,860
<i>is the honor of a king.</i>

1349
01:50:36,420 --> 01:50:39,780
<i>Thus dictated, I order this decree sent out</i>

1350
01:50:39,900 --> 01:50:42,620
under the great seal of Mordecai,

1351
01:50:43,220 --> 01:50:44,780
prince of Persia,

1352
01:50:45,820 --> 01:50:46,900
a Jew.