I am going to kill Nancy with the ax,
I'm gonna shoot Mr. Kinnear when he comes back.
(GUNSHOT)
You'll help me if you know what's good for you.
Otherwise, you'll be blamed for it all.
The sentence is death by hanging.
GRACE: Jamie's testimony was the end of me.
Nothing is going on, so nothing can stop.
Oh, no, no, no.
Perhaps we should consider Jerome DuPont's neuro-hypnotic experiment.
Have you ever been hypnotized before? SIMON: Please.
I should certainly hope not, sir.
Sooner or later, we will get to the bottom of it.
It would be a relief to me, sir,
to know the whole truth at last.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
Dr. Jordan, a pleasure.
No, it is kind of you to spare me the time.
(SIMON CLEARS THROAT)
(EXHALES)
You saved the life of Grace Marks,
against considerable odds.
I'm curious to find out exactly
how you managed it.
We lawyers always welcome a chance to show off.
But, before we get down to it...
Sherry? No, thank you.
You acted for both Grace Marks
and James McDermott, I believe.
Yes. Though, that was wrong, in retrospect,
as their interests were in conflict.
But, the practice of jurisprudence was
so much laxer then.
Why did McDermott take so long to accuse Grace, I wonder?
Well, until the very last,
he was hoping for a commutation,
since she had been given one.
And he could not accuse her without
knotting the noose very firmly around his own neck,
as he'd have to admit to the ax play and so forth.
Whereas, Grace could accuse him with relative impunity.
Just so. Hmm.
Nor did she flinch when the moment came.
(SPEAKING FRENCH)
That woman has nerves like flint to me.
She'd have made a good lawyer, if a man.
So, you've met Our Lady of the Silences?
Is that what you call her?
Yes, I've been spending a good deal of time with her,
trying to determine...
Whether she's innocent?
Whether she is insane.
Or was, at the time of the murders.
Which, I suppose, is innocence of a kind.
Well, I see our fascinating Grace
has been leading you on a merry chase.
Not so merry.
I must admit I've been baffled.
What she says has the ring of truth.
Her manner is sincere,
yet I can't shake the suspicion
that in some way...
I cannot put my finger on, she is lying to me.
Lying? Mmm.
A severe term, surely.
Has she been lying to you, you ask?
Let me put it this way.
Did Scheherazade lie? Not in her own eyes.
Indeed, the stories that she told
ought never to be subjected to the harsh categories of Truth or Falsehood.
See, perhaps Grace Marks needed to be telling you
just what she told you in order to achieve the desired end.
Which is?
To keep the Sultan amused.
To forestall your departure, and make sure that you'd
stay in the room with her for as long as possible.
What on Earth would be the point in that?
Amusing me won't get her out of prison.
Isn't it obvious?
The poor creature has fallen in love with you.
A single man, more or less young, not ill-favored,
appears to someone so long sequestered,
deprived of masculine company.
You are doubtless the object of her waking daydreams.
Surely not.
I say, surely so.
I had the very experience myself,
or the twin of it.
I had to pass many hours with her
in her jail cell in Toronto,
as she spun out her yarn for me
to as great a length as it would go.
I mean, she was besotted with me.
One hand placed on hers, and she would have
thrown herself into my arms.
Indeed.
And, I will admit, I was tempted.
I mean, she was very young and tender then.
Though prison life has no doubt hardened her.
(COUGHS)
There has never been any suggestion of that.
In my case.
Well, I was very lucky.
As was Grace, in fact,
that the Kinnear murder was tried before the other.
I mean, they had death sentences
pronounced on both of them for his murder
and it was deemed unnecessary to go through the details of the second case.
So, Grace was never even tried
for the murder of Nancy Montgomery.
And if she had been?
Well, I wouldn't have got her off.
Public opinion would have been too strong for me.
She would have hanged.
But in your opinion, she was innocent.
On the contrary. No. (CHUCKLES)
In my opinion, she was guilty as sin.
GRACE: What were you doing in Toronto, Dr. Jordan?
Were you talking to people,
trying to find out if I was guilty?
You wouldn't find it out that way.
You don't understand yet
but from the things others have done to you.
You were getting thinner.
I believed you were prey to some nagging sorrow.
Dr. Jordan.
Grace. What have they done?
What have they done to your hair?
I had too many marks against me for talking.
(GROANS)
(WHIMPERS)
(EXHALES)
I have been thinking while you were away.
I've been thinking what I will tell you.
I have been thinking, too, Grace.
I wonder if it's time we tried
other methods to access your memories.
Dr. DuPont has said he is willing to try hypnosis.
All you will have to do is sit in a chair
and go to sleep when Dr. DuPont tells you to do so.
How would...
(SNIFFS)
How will Dr. DuPont put me to sleep?
He will explain all that tomorrow.
I hope...
In this way, we'll bring back your memory.
I am not at all sure I want it back.
But, if it will help I will do as you wish.
Mmm.
GRACE: Look.
Lydia has left her keepsake album.
I wonder if she wanted you to find it?
SIMON: What would you put in a keepsake album, Grace?
A piece of cotton from my penitentiary nightdress.
A square of bloodstained petticoat.
A strip of kerchief,
white with blue flowers.
Love-in-a-mist.
I will see you tomorrow, Grace.
I will watch and listen.
Yes, Doctor, I know you will.
I wonder if I was named after the hymn.
I hope I was named after it.
I would like to be found.
I would like to see.
Or be seen.
I wonder if in the eye of God,
it amounts to the same thing.
As it says in the Bible,
"For now, we see through a glass, darkly,
"but then face to face."
If it is face to face,
there must be two looking.
All right.
It is time.
Well, I see that you are all assembled.
And may I say, I am deeply
gratified by both your interest and your trust.
Grace, you may sit here.
Are you quite comfortable?
Grace, there is nothing to be afraid of.
No one here wishes you any harm.
I have explained to Grace that she need only listen to my voice,
and simply fall asleep.
Is that understood, Grace?
Very good.
Now, this is a completely scientific procedure.
And so I implore you to please
banish any and all thoughts of mesmerism,
or other such fraudulent acts.
Please remain silent until after Grace has fallen fully asleep,
at which point you may converse in low voices.
Is that understood? Excellent.
Let us begin.
Grace, you are getting heavy.
Very, very heavy.
Your limbs are of such a weight,
they are pulling you to the ground.
You cannot move.
Your eyelids are being weighed down.
You are feeling drowsy.
Very, very drowsy.
And now, your limbs are floating, drifting.
As you slowly sink down, down,
down, as if through water.
Grace, can you still hear me?
Yes.
JEREMIAH: Good.
Are you sleeping, Grace?
Yes. Very good.
When you awake, you will remember nothing of this.
Now, Grace, I want you to go deeper.
And deeper.
Now, Grace, please lift up your right arm.
Your arm is an iron bar, which no one can bend.
Would anyone care to try?
No one?
So be it.
(STRAINING)
(CHUCKLES)
I am using all of my force.
Very good, Grace. You may lower your arm.
Her eyes are open.
Which is normal and of no import.
In this condition, a subject may be able to discern
many things,
even with their eyes fully closed.
Shall we proceed?
She looks so odd.
JEREMIAH: It's to help with the concentration.
The inner sight, you see, is keener
when hidden from outward view.
Well, Dr. Jordan,
we may now travel safely into the past.
What is it exactly that you wish for me to ask her?
Ask her about the Kinnear residence.
Which part of it? One must be specific.
The verandah. The verandah.
Grace...
You are now on the verandah, of the Kinnear home.
What is it that you see?
GRACE: I see flowers.
The sunset.
I am so happy. I want to stay here.
SIMON: Ask her to get up and walk into the house.
Tell her to go towards the trapdoor in the hall,
the one leading to the cellar.
JEREMIAH: Grace, go into the Kinnear home.
(TRAPDOOR CREAKS)
(GASPS)
GRACE: It's like there's a spirit in the room.
I'm frightened. Open the drapes!
Not yet.
JEREMIAH: You must maintain your composure.
I beg of you. This is not a seance.
Shall we press on?
Ask her whether she had relations with James McDermott.
Grace.
Did you ever have relations with James McDermott?
(IN DIFFERENT VOICE) Relations?
What do you mean?
Really, Doctor, you're such a hypocrite!
You want to know if I kissed him, if I slept with him.
If I was his paramour, is that it?
Yes.
Whether I did what you'd like to do
with that little slut who's got hold of your hand?
(GASPS)
(LAUGHS SOFTLY)
You'd like to know that, so I'll tell you.
Yes.
I would meet him outside, in the yard.
I'd press up against him,
and let him kiss me, and touch me all over, Doctor,
the same places you'd like to touch me,
because I can always tell.
I know what you're thinking when you sit
in that stuffy sewing room with me.
But that was all, Doctor.
That was all I'd let him do.
I had him on a string. Mr. Kinnear as well.
I had the two of them dancing to my tune.
Ask her why.
I would breathe like this.
(MOANING SOFTLY)
I would twist and twine.
After that, he'd say he'd do anything.
But why?
Oh, Doctor. (SCOFFS)
You are always asking why.
Poking your nose in, and not only your nose.
You're such a curious man, Doctor.
Curiosity killed the cat, you know.
You should watch out for that little mouse beside you
and her little, furry mouse hole, too!
(CHUCKLES)
This is an outrage. Lydia, come with me!
Modesty must take second place to the interests of science.
Please remain seated.
But this is a spirit. A spirit that has taken hold of Grace.
This is not science!
I must insist on quiet!
Ask her
if she was in the cellar of Mr. Kinnear's house,
on Friday, the 28th of July, 1843.
Grace, the cellar.
Picture the cellar.
Go back in time, descend in space.
(INHALES DEEPLY)
GRACE: Yes.
Along the hallway,
lift the trapdoor,
down the cellar stairs.
Barrels, whiskey, vegetables
in boxes full of sand.
There on the floor.
Yes, I was in the cellar.
SIMON: Ask her if Nancy was there.
GRACE: Oh, yes, I saw her.
As I can see you, Doctor.
And I can hear you, too.
Was she alive? Was she still alive?
She was partly alive.
Or partly dead.
She needed to be put out of her misery.
Did you help to strangle her?
It was my kerchief that strangled her.
Such a pretty pattern it had on it.
It was a shame to lose that kerchief.
I'd had it such a long time, it was my mother's.
I should have taken it off Nancy's neck.
But James wouldn't let me have it,
nor her gold earrings, neither.
There was blood on it,
but that would have washed out.
LYDIA: You killed her.
I always thought so.
Give me your handkerchief!
(GASPING)
GRACE: The kerchief killed her.
Hands held it.
She had to die. The wages of sin is death.
(GROANING) Come on.
(PANTING)
DIANE: Grace, I thought better of you.
All these years you've deceived us.
You've deceived yourselves.
I am not Grace.
(CHOKING)
(STAMMERS) Stop... Stop.
(CHOKING)
Grace knew nothing about it.
(HUMMING)
(THUDS)
I've killed her.
You are not Grace.
If you are not Grace, then who are you?
You must answer. I command it.
You can't command. You must guess.
The spirits speak through others, in a trance.
But sometimes they lie, you know.
I am not lying.
I am beyond lying.
It may be James McDermott, come to accuse Grace.
Not James, you old fraud.
Please, Mrs. Quenell. This is no spirit.
I believe that what we are witnessing right now
is a purely natural phenomenon.
Nancy then. The spirits are often rude, they call us names.
Some cannot tolerate to be dead.
GRACE: Not Nancy, you stupid fool.
Nancy can't say a word,
not with her neck like that.
Such a pretty neck, once.
But Nancy isn't angry anymore.
She understands.
Nancy is my friend.
She wants to share things.
Come, Doctor,
you like riddles.
You know the answer.
I told you it was my kerchief,
the one I gave to Grace,
the one she kept with her after I...
Not Mary.
Not Mary Whitney.
I told James to do it.
I was there all along.
JEREMIAH: There? GRACE: Here.
Where I am now, with Grace.
I was so cold,
lying on that floor,
and I was alone.
I needed to keep warm.
But Grace doesn't know,
she's never known.
They almost hanged her,
that would have been wrong.
I only borrowed her clothing for a time.
Her clothing? Her earthly shell.
Her fleshly garment.
She forgot to open the window,
so I couldn't get out.
But I wouldn't want to hurt her.
You mustn't tell her. Why?
You know why, Doctor.
Do you want to see her back in the asylum?
I liked it there at first, I could talk out loud.
I could share things.
But they didn't believe me.
They wouldn't listen.
I was not heard.
Grace. Stop playing tricks.
I am not Grace.
Is that really you? Don't be afraid.
Speak the truth.
You see?
You're all the same,
you won't listen.
You don't believe me,
you won't hear.
She's gone.
You can always tell when they go back to their own realm.
You can feel it in the air. It's the electricity.
Grace.
Grace Marks, can you still hear me?
Yes.
JEREMIAH: Good.
I am going to bring you up now.
Grace, you are now lighter than air.
Nothing is weighing you down
as you float up, up, up.
Up out of the depths.
You see the light above you
as you break the surface of the present.
When I snap my fingers, you will be fully awake.
(IN HER NORMAL VOICE) I must have been asleep.
Do you remember anything?
Anything of what has just happened to you?
No.
I was asleep.
But I must have been dreaming.
I dreamt of my mother.
Floating in the sea.
She was at peace.
You, uh, (CLEARS THROAT) you may feel a little dizzy.
Frequently the case.
Mrs. Quenell, would you see that Grace
is brought to a bedchamber where she may lie down?
Ladies and gentlemen, I am at a loss.
I believe that these are two distinct personalities,
which both coexist within the same body,
and yet have different sets of memories altogether.
They are, for all practical purposes,
two entirely separate individuals.
If you'll accept, that is...
That we are what we remember.
SIMON: Perhaps. (CLEARS THROAT)
But, we are also preponderantly what we forget.
The other voice, whatever it was, was...
Remarkable, for its violence.
Dr. Jordan, what will you say about this in your report?
I shall have to consider my position very carefully.
I have always believed Grace
to be innocent, or hoped rather.
But, if what we have witnessed is a natural phenomenon,
then who are we to question it?
Was she really in a trance or was she
play-acting and laughing up her sleeve?
I know what I saw and heard
but she may have been showing us an illusion.
Dr. Jordan, I take great exception to this.
SIMON: No.
If I describe what I witnessed in my report,
and it found its way into any
petition submitted on her behalf,
it will immediately scotch any chance of success.
Dr. Jordan, let us think more on this.
I cannot write the report you desire without perjuring myself.
The safest thing to do would be to write nothing at all.
But there are all those hours you spent with Grace,
which must add up to much more than just...
The fact is I can't state anything with certainty
and still tell the truth, because the truth eludes me.
Or Grace eludes me.
Dr. Jordan, please reconsider.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(MOANING)
(SIGHS)
I always wanted to do that with someone else.
Not you.
(SOBBING)
(THUDS) (GRUNTING)
(SOBBING)
SIMON: Dear Reverend Verringer.
The experience of witnessing
what we saw together in the Governor's parlor
has raised many questions for me about hypnotism and mesmerism.
I wonder if they provide an opportunity
for women to say what they think,
and to express their true thoughts
and feelings more boldly, and in more vulgar terms
than they could otherwise feel permission to. (LAUGHS SOFTLY)
I wonder about Grace's violent childhood
and her experience as a young woman.
Abused constantly, harassed on every side.
(DOORKNOB RATTLING)
I wonder how much repressed rage... (SOBBING)
...she must have carried with her as a result.
The question is,
was this rage directed towards Nancy Montgomery
and Thomas Kinnear, resulting in their murder?
Or at me,
therefore making her confession
during her hypnotism a fraud designed to hurt me.
One thing is certain.
I cannot write a report for your committee.
I must forget Grace Marks.
He will not be returning to Kingston.
He is gone.
GRACE: When I heard you went off so quick,
and without sending any word to me,
I was very distressed, Dr. Jordan.
I could not understand it,
that you would go without a goodbye,
after all the talking we had done together.
They also said you were to write a letter
to the government on my behalf,
to set me free,
and I became afraid that now you would not do so.
I remembered when Jeremiah claimed to see into the future
after looking at my palm,
and said that all would come out well in the end.
I wondered if he was only trying to comfort me.
Thank you.
GRACE: I was afraid of falling into hopeless despair
over my wasted life.
And I was still not sure how it happened.
SIMON: Dear Reverend Verringer.
I must admit that I have come very close
to nervous exhaustion during the last two years
since I was in Kingston.
Thank you, ma'am.
SIMON: Not to know,
to snatch at hints and portents,
at tantalizing whispers. It is as bad as being haunted.
Sometimes at night her face floats before me in the dark,
like some lovely and enigmatic mirage.
I have intimations of some vast discovery,
still though, as yet,
I wander in darkness, led only by marsh-lights.
Murderess.
I'm almost thankful
that the prospect for a peaceful resolution
between North and South is not hopeful.
As it will be a relief to have a duty of some kind set before me.
No matter how deplorable the occasion for it.
Your brain-sore and weary, but affectionate friend,
Simon.
Grace, I have the most astonishing news.
Your pardon has come through.
From Sir John Macdonald and the Minister of Justice in Ottawa.
Isn't it wonderful?
Is it not a cruel joke?
Oh, no.
It is really true.
You are pardoned.
(SOBS)
GRACE: It was strange to realize that I would not be
a celebrated murderess anymore.
But seen perhaps as an innocent woman
wrongly accused and imprisoned unjustly.
And an object of pity, rather than of horror and fear.
It took me some days to get used to the idea.
It calls for a different arrangement of the face.
(BELL TOLLS)
I wished to turn and look back,
but I remembered Lot's wife.
I did indeed have a sort of regret.
For the penitentiary was the only home I'd known for almost 30 years.
To go from a familiar thing into the unknown
is always a matter for apprehension.
And I suppose that is why so many people are afraid to die.
May I ask about the home I am to be a servant in?
What has the household been told about me?
There is a surprise awaiting you, Grace.
I cannot tell you what it is,
but it is a good surprise.
I will tell you that it concerns a man,
a gentleman.
What gentleman?
I cannot tell you.
But he is an old friend of yours.
GRACE: The only gentleman I could think of, sir,
was you, yourself.
Here's our man.
Grace, don't you know me?
I would have known you anywhere.
Jamie Walsh.
We'll give you two a moment to yourselves.
The last time I saw you...
It was your testimony that changed
the minds of judge and jury so much against me.
I've been overcome with guilt
for the part I played in your conviction.
I was only a young lad at the time,
and no match for the lawyers.
They led me into saying things.
It's all right, Jamie.
You needn't feel guilty anymore.
It is the sort of thing that could happen to anyone.
I beg you to forgive me.
You are forgiven.
Grace, this is my farm now.
It's mine.
Although I'm not a millionaire I can offer you a good home.
In this country, you are not judged by what you come from
but by what you have.
I do not want you to marry me out of guilt.
I've always had very warm feelings for you, Grace.
All right then.
GRACE: It has been many years since I was 16 years of age
and first went up the long driveway to Mr. Kinnear's.
Now I am on my own verandah,
and the scene before me is so peaceful.
You would think it was a picture.
We have white and red Leghorns
and a Jersey cow for the cream and cheese.
There is nothing better.
We have two horses, Charley and Nell,
who are a great pleasure to me
and good company when Mr. Walsh is not here.
Our cat is named Tabby.
She is the color you might expect and a good mouser.
And a dog named Rex. And a dog named Rex.
(KNOCKING)
(DOOR CREAKS)
Mr. Walsh wanted to employ a girl as well,
but I said I would prefer to do the work of the house myself.
I wouldn't want have a servant living in,
as they pry too much and listen at doors.
I know my secrets are safe with Jeremiah,
as his are safe with me.
(DOG BARKING)
On the whole, Mr. Walsh and I agree,
and things go on very well with us.
But there is something that has troubled me, sir.
It is one of the reasons I have written you this long letter.
It is this.
To think of the sufferings I have caused you.
You did not cause me any sufferings, Jamie.
It was the others that caused them.
Also, having plain bad luck and bad judgment.
Tell me again.
Tell me again about the lunatic asylum.
Tell me again how you were ill-treated.
Often the doctor would visit.
He would put his hand up my leg.
He said it was to check my progress.
(SOBBING)
GRACE: He likes to picture the sufferings I have endured.
(YELLING)
(BANGING AT DOOR)
(SCREAMS)
He listens to all of it
like a child listening to a fairy tale.
I must confess that it reminds me of you, Dr. Jordan.
You were as eager as Mr. Walsh
to hear about my sufferings in life.
Your cheeks would flush
and if you'd had ears like a dog,
they would have been pricked forward
with your eyes shining and your tongue hanging out
as if you'd found a grouse in the bush.
And, as with Mr. Walsh,
I may have changed some of the details of my stories
to suit what I thought you wanted to hear.
It did make me feel
I was of some use in this world.
Could you ever forgive me?
GRACE: He insists on being forgiven,
and who am I to refuse him such a simple thing.
I had a rage in my heart for many years against Mary Whitney.
And especially against Nancy Montgomery.
Against the two of them both for letting themselves
be done to death in the way that they did.
So I don't feel quite right about it.
Forgiving him like that.
Because I am aware that in doing so
I am telling a lie.
Though, I suppose it isn't the first lie I've told.
As Mary Whitney used to say,
"A little white lie is a small price to pay
"for peace and quiet."
SIMON'S MOTHER: How is he doing?
Have you seen any progress since the last time?
He still has no memory of recent events.
I see no improvement in his speech.
It has been years now
since your son was wounded, Mrs. Jordan.
I believe this will be his permanent state.
I wish I had better news to share.
I don't believe my visits are of any use at this point.
Thank you, Doctor.
Simon.
Simon, how are you feeling today?
GRACE: I think of Mary Whitney frequently these days
and of the time we threw the apple peelings over our shoulders.
And it has all come true, after a fashion.
Just as she said,
I married a man whose name begins with a "J".
And, as Jeremiah said, way back then,
I first had to cross over water three times,
and all will be fine in the end.
And I really am here.
I open and shut my eyes and pinch myself,
but it remains true.
Although I have made many quilts in my day,
I am finally making one for myself.
The pattern of this quilt is called
"The Tree of Paradise,"
and I am changing it a little
to suit my own ideas.
On my Tree of Paradise,
I intend to put a border of snakes.
Without a snake or two,
the main part of the story would be missing.
The tree itself is of triangles in two colors,
dark for the leaves and a lighter color for the fruits.
But three of the triangles in my tree will be different.
One will be red,
from the petticoat I still have that was Mary Whitney's.
One will be faded yellowish, from my prison nightdress.
And the third will be a pale pink cotton,
cut from the dress of Nancy's
that she had on the first day I was at Mr. Kinnear's
and that I wore when I was running away.
I will embroider around each one of them,
to blend them in as part of the pattern.
And so, we will all be together.
(SIMON'S MOTHER READING) And so we will all be together.
Grace...
(THEME SONG PLAYING)