INT. – LOS ALAMENDROS RESORT – PENTHOUSE SUITE – NIGHT
[Emptied dinner plates are on the coffee table, and Peggy and Bette are having a drink (a tiny bit tipsy), curled up on opposite ends of the couch, talking about art. Soft piano music plays in the background.]
Peggy: Photography is my new passion. I bought a Salvador Dali etching this week, and a Duchamp. But my favorite purchase, by far, is my new Carla Marie Freed.
Bette: Oh, god, she was brilliant. She was completely brilliant.
[Bette leans forward and sets her drink on the coffee table.]
Peggy: Poor, wretched addict.
[Peggy reflects in silence. Bette sighs.]
Peggy: What is your favorite Carla Marie Freed photograph?
Bette: That’s, just, that’s (laughs) so difficult, I … (shakes head, smiling)
Peggy: Oh, please, don’t be such a pussy! Favorite Carla Marie Freed photograph, post haste!
Bette: Um…
[As Bette thinks, Peggy raises her brows, waiting.]
Bette: I — I would ha — I would have to say, it — it’s “The Last Time I and You?” (smiles)
[Peggy closes her eyes and smiles.]
Bette: I’ve never seen the original. I mean, she destroyed all of her negs, you know. Even the reproductions are just… (sighs) I mean, she photographed the same woman for 12 years.
[Peggy raises her brows and nods.]
Bette: Can you imagine that? I mean, you — can you imagine that act of… looking. Looking, and seeing, and then re-seeing. Just to try to get to the truth of someone. Y’know, I mean, there is incredible mystery, and — and passion in that work. You know? (sighs) (smiles)
Peggy: (smiles) I met her, just before she died. Yeah, it was in some… bistro in New York. She was high as a kite. And, you know, I was introduced to her, and she told me to go fuck myself.
[Bette and Peggy laugh.]
Peggy: I totally loved her.
Bette: (smiling) Oh, that’s funny.
Peggy: Just loved her. (whispering) Loved her.
[Bette smiles. Peggy thinks for a moment.]
Peggy: C’mere. Follow me.
[Peggy gets up and goes to the back of the room. Bette follows, smiling.]
Peggy: Close your eyes.
[Bette closes her eyes. Peggy carries over an almost-life-sized, framed photograph that’s wrapped in brown paper.]
Peggy: Keep them closed!
[Peggy stands the picture up before Bette and rips the brown paper covering off. Bette smiles widely.]
Peggy: Open ’em.
[Bette opens her eyes. Over several seconds, her smiles begins to fade and her expression changes to a mixture of of intense euphoria, deep artistic recognition and sadness. Her eyes well with tears.]
[We see the photo – it’s a Carla Marie Freed photo, in black and white, from the same set of photos being taken in the opening scenes of this ep. The woman Carla was photographing stands in the center of the picture, arms to her sides, hands slightly upturned, eyes on the camera. A whispy, ghostly silhouette of Carla stands beside the woman, facing her, frozen in the act of “looking.” It’s a very striking image.]
[Peggy smiles at Bette’s reaction.]
[Bette is overcome.]
INT. – LACEY’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
[Shane sits by the open window, in her underwear, having a cigarette, staring out into the night. A police siren is heard in the distance. Lacey is on the bed in the center of the room, wrapped in sheets, staring at her. Slow music plays in the background.]
Lacey: I’m so happy.
[Shane looks at her. After a moment, she puts out the cigarette in an ashtray, gets up, and puts on her jeans.]
Lacey: Where you going?
[Shane gathers up her shirt and boots.]
Shane: You promised.
[Lacey nods.]
Shane: Allright. See ya. (heads for door) Be good, okay?
[Lacey stays on the bed, looking lost.]
INT. – TIM & JENNY’S HOUSE – NIGHT
[Jenny grabs her keys and leaves the house. She locks the door behind her.]
INT. – LOS ALAMENDROS RESORT – PENTHOUSE SUITE – NIGHT
[Bette and Peggy sit on the edge of a bed, talking.]
Peggy: You can’t imagine how jealous I am of you right now.
Bette: (huffs) You’ve been waiting to burst into tears and make a complete fool of yourself?
Peggy: You – you know Stendahl?
Bette: The French art critic.
Peggy: He went to Florence. He saw the Caravaggio.
Bette: And then he burst into tears, and then he fainted. The work of art was so beautiful and moving, he couldn’t withstand the impact. The “Stendahl Syndrome”.
Peggy: “My head thrown back, I let my gaze dwell on the ceiling. I underwent the profoundest experience of ecstacy I had ever encountered.”