Michael and Elliot - from their Bernstein-Fox days
photo courtesy of K. James
I just got the script for the Episode First Day/Last Day, the episode when the Michael and Elliot Company officially closes. The script I have was owned by the actor who played Al Taubman, the man who owned the department store that Michael and Elliot thought of working for after their business folded.
This scene, is long, but one of my favorites of the entire series. Michael and Elliot come to a crossing, in both their friendship and their partnership. They argue. My favorite quote of the scene from Elliot to Michael: What's to know? You're nothing but good intentions wired together with guilt.
The following is directly from the script:
INT. THE MICHAEL AND ELLIOT TEMPORAL FISTULA OFFICE - DAYS
Hang on, here's where it starts to get weird. The idea is to run two scenes with two sets of Michaels and Elliot's; one real time, the other back sixteen months when the first saw the empty office. All four of them may be in one or two shots, but this meant to be more of a dance than an optical nightmare. Elliot is throwing away much more than Michael is. Toys, games, a horse made out of paperclips and an art gum eraser.
Michael watches him. Behind Michael the past Elliot crosses to the glass wall (There's no cross awareness on the part of the two pairs they occupy the same space, but are separated by time and therefore completely unaware of each other).
PAST ELLIOT: Look at the way the light comes in. People come to see us, we'll be backlit. Very impressive.
The past Michael shares his shot with the present Elliot who reaches under his desk space and comes up with a large presentation folder. The thing contains sketches, articles, proofs, all of which Elliot quickly assigns to the black bag, During this:
PAST MICHAEL: Ground floor offices are like the easiest ones for burglars to break into.
PAST ELLIOT: I get the impression you're looking for reasons not to do this.
PAST MICHAEL: No, I'm just being realistic, that's all.
Suddenly the rhythm of disposal is interrupted. Elliot's hand hovers over the next item in the folder: The pastel sketch of Nancy he kept at Bernstein- Fox. It's partially torn now, shows signs of countless push-pins, and parts of it have been smudged. Elliot looks up to see Michael watching him.
ELLIOT: I could throw this out. It wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't be symbolic. Sure.
Before Michael can say anything, Elliot rips the drawing down the middle. The tearing of the picture is Elliot's undoing. He collapses back into the chair, the two pieces of the sketch in his hands. In the far corner of the room the Past Michael pulls open the fuse box door.
PAST MICHAEL: Look at that.
ELLIOT: Look what I did. Maybe I got some pictures of my kids I can rip up.
PAST MICHAEL: Only two forty amp breakers.
PAST ELLIOT: What? You planning to run search lights in the parking lot? Come on.
ELLIOT:This is really it. This is the bottom, isn't it?
Past Michael closes the fuse box.
PAST MICHAEL: Let me see that lease again.
Past Elliot hands him a document when he goes through.
ELLIOT: I can't go through with this. I have to get out.
MICHAEL: This has to be done.
ELLIOT: Not today. Not by me. I can't.
MICHAEL: We have to be out of here. This is the last day. We have to do this.
Elliot?
ELLIOT: I can't. Understand? I can't.
He drains the last of his beer. Michael watches in disbelief as Elliot folds the flaps on his box and reaches for his coat.
PAST MICHAEL (checking the lease) Twenty dollars a square foot.
MICHAEL: So, I'm stuck with it? I have to clean up after you? Is that the deal?
ELLIOT: What's that supposed to mean?
PAST MICHAEL: Five thousand square feet.
MICHAEL: It means you can't split and leave me holding the bag this time.
ELLIOT: This time?
MICHAEL: This is grown-up time and you have to get on with your life.
PAST MICHAEL: On a ten year lease.
ELLIOT: Get on with MY life? I'm the one trying to keep things going. YOU'RE the one who wants to cash in what we've done.
MICHAEL: What we've done? What we've done?
PAST MICHAEL: (he gets the total and is stunned) That's a million dollars.
PAST ELLIOT: No, it isn't. Is it?
MICHAEL: We're in debt up to our eyes. I've got like forty thousand in personal credit card float hanging over my head like an eighteen percent boulder. These are the facts. They have to be accepted. We've failed, Elliot. We have failed.
Elliot: We have not failed! This business may have failed, but we have NOT failed.
PAST ELLIOT: You look at little green there.
MICHAEL: That's just semantics. It doesn't change anything.
ELLIOT We can't change anything if we settle for Taubman. There's more. There has to be more.
MICHAEL: What if there isn't? What if Taubman and the job you booted ends up being the best we could have? What about that? Hope..I mean..the baby is coming. There's no stopping it. At night, I lay awake and I swear I hear it in there, next to me...ticking like a bomb.
ELLIOT: At least you've got a wife to go home to.
MICHAEL: I didn't say that.
ELLIOT: You were thinking it.
MICHAEL: How do you know what I'm thinking?
ELLIOT: 'Cause you got a glass head is how.
MICHAEL: You don't know me. You don't know a fraction of me.
ELLIOT: What's to know? You're nothing but good intentions wired together with guilt.
MICHAEL: Okay. Fine. Yes, at least I have a wife to go home to AND a child who sees me on weekdays AND a house, AND I have never, NEVER been unfaithful to my wife.
ELLIOT: You hypocrite.
MICHAEL: I'm a hypocrite? I'm a hypocrite?
ELLIOT: Making virtue out of cowardice; you don't have the guts to sleep around on Hope.
MICHAEL: It takes guts to totally screw up your life and ruin your marriage?
ELLIOT: Where'd you get that line? Hope? That sounds like wife-driven rhetoric to me.
PAST MICHAEL: We can't do this.
PAST ELLIOT: What?
MICHAEL: The hell with it. The hell with you. I'm not feeding you anymore justification. It's pointless.
ELLIOT: No guts.
Michael's hand snaps out and grabs the front of Elliot's sweat shirt.
MICHAEL: I'm warning you, don't push any more buttons. I've had it. I'm through carrying you.
ELLIOT: You've been carrying me?
MICHAEL: Yes.
ELLIOT: That's rich. You've been riding my coat-tails since Bernstein-Fox.
MICHAEL: Oh yeah?
ELLIOT: Yeah.
MICHAEL: Then how come Taubman offered me a job and not you?
That breaks over Elliot like a wave. Nothing moves for a moment.
PAST MICHAEL: It's ....the other numbers, the bank loans, and the line of credit, they were bad enough, but a million.
He starts to hyperventilate. The PAST Elliot helps him sit on the floor.
PAST ELLIOT: Hey, don't freeze up on me, buddy.
Michael releases Elliot's shirt.
ELLIOT: You'd go to work for that creep?
MICHAEL: I don't know.
ELLIOT: He insulted us.
MICHAEL: Sometimes you just have to eat it, all right? You've got to cut your losses.
ELLIOT: We were supposed to make something here.
MICHAEL: It didn't work. No matter what lies we tell each other...
ELLIOT: Lies?
MICHAEL: The facts are the facts.
MICHAEL: You screw the facts! You son-of-a-bitch.
Snap. Michael packs.
ELLIOT: Hurry up. You got people waiting for you. Snap it up there. you don't want to be late.
Michael finishes packing and reaches into his pants pocket. He takes out his key chain and yanks the office keys off the chain. He reaches for Elliot's hand. Elliot snaps it out of reach.
ELLIOT: No.
MICHAEL: Take them.
ELLIOT: No.
MICHAEL: Take them.
ELLIOT: I'm not taking anything from you. Put 'em down. Put 'em down on the desk.
MICHAEL slaps the keys on the desk, grabs his box and heads for the door. Michael is gone. Elliot kicks the desk, the chair, the bag of garbage. He takes his box, the keys, the beer can and heads for the door. In the outer office he turns and looks back at the space. He leans back and fires the beer can at the plate glass. Elliot exits. Looking down we ding the Past plate glass. It hits and sends a long vertical crack through the plate glass. Elliot exits. Cheating down we find the Past Elliot and Past Michael on the floor under the broken glass.
