- Marissa Morgan: Her name is Tally North. Since the age of ten, she has been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. She lacks empathy for others, exhibits severely stunted emotions, and is prone to violence.
- Benny Colón: Isn't that what we used to call a sociopath in the good old days?
- Marissa Morgan: Actually, she used to be his patient, so this is kind of personal.
- Benny Colón: It's gonna be tough trying to get a jury to sympathize with a sociopath. Juries usually like to see remorse in their killers, and there's not gonna be any.
- Jason Bull: I know you're angry with me...
- Tally North: Dr. Bull, you know better than anyone, I'm largely incapable of anger.
- Jason Bull: Well, whatever you call it, however you process it, I'm sorry if you felt abandoned. You know, when I closed my practice back then, it was to start a whole new business, something called trial science. I work with lawyers, and we help to figure out the best way to try a case. I know I haven't seen you since you were fourteen, but I don't think you're gonna find anyone out there who understands you better. And it would mean a lot to me to help you. You understand they wanna put you in prison for the rest of your life?
- Tally North: Yes. I do understand that.
- Jason Bull: Did you do it, Tally?
- Tally North: Well, I was mad at him. He was filing for guardianship. He wanted to lock me up, get me institutionalized.
- Jason Bull: Did you do it, Tally?
- Tally North: Well, I'll tell you, Dr. Bull, because I know you'll understand. I have no idea. I honestly don't remember.
- Jason Bull: You had one of your blackouts?
- Tally North: Must be. One minute, I was having it out with my brother at the party, and the next I was waking up covered in blood, with Torin dead on the floor. I honestly don't remember what came in between. You still want to help me?
- Benny Colón: Reasonable doubt. Uh, you look up in the dictionary, and there'd be a picture of all of us sitting here today. There'd also be a definition. Something along the lines of... "Lack of proof that prevents a judge or a jury from convicting a defendant for the charged crime." Only Torin North and his killer know exactly what happened in that room. But you've heard all the evidence. Or have you? I've yet to hear a single piece of evidence that points to my client having done this. But I've heard a great deal to suggest an alternate theory. I believe that... Torin walked in on his best friend, Blake Lambert, standing over his semi-conscious sister. Her shirt ripped, her arms bruised. And he was fiercely protective of his sister. So he did what any brother would do. Blake fought back. Grabbed the scissors from Tally's desk and plunged them into his best friend's neck. And as Torin's blood spilled on an unconscious Tally, he had a moment of regret. He doesn't suffer from ASPD, anti-social personality disorder. No. No, no. He's just an old-fashioned rapist who suddenly realized that he might have killed his best friend, so he tried to stop the bleeding. Realized that wasn't going to work, so he wiped the murder weapon, and left Tally passed out on the bed. So that when she came to, confronted with her brother's slain body, and having no memory of what happened due to the flunitrazepam, she'd be forced to carry around the knowledge that she might have done this. That it was her fault, her doing, her crime. But she didn't. She didn't do it. Tally is simply just another victim, and-and... what an obscene joke that is. You know, the person responsible for this crime is trusting that you, the jury, will lean on your own preconceived notions on what it means to be a sociopath, what it means to be devoid of emotion, what it means to be mentally ill. The killer's counting on it. And so is the ADA. But Tally and I know you know better. In fact, she's betting her life on it.
- Marissa Morgan: The night of the murder, Tally was arguing with her brother, Torin. The whole party, a hundred-some people, saw them going at each other.
- Danny James: Well, I don't understand. How can she be angry if she can't feel emotions?
- Marissa Morgan: It's complicated, but what sociopaths like Tally do feel are emotions involving themselves. That's why you don't get joy or sadness, because those are emotions that come from connections to other people. But conviction? Determination? Those are self-contained and self-generating.
- Chunk Palmer: All right, so let's cut to the chase. Does she have an alibi?
- Marissa Morgan: If she does, she doesn't remember.
- Chunk Palmer: Well, that's pretty damn convenient.
- Marissa Morgan: Agreed. The thing is, she is prone to blackouts, and swears she can't remember anything that happened between the confrontation at the party and waking up to find her brother's dead body on the floor.
- Marissa Morgan: According to Bull, she has suffered from fugue state blackouts since she was a child.
- Benny Colón: Fugue state blackouts? Was she asleep? Was she awake?
- Marissa Morgan: A fugue state is a dissociative episode where sufferers experience temporary amnesia and a lack of awareness of themselves or their actions.
- Chunk Palmer: Okay, so what's the big guy say? Does he think that this fugue thing is a credible defense? Does he think that the jury will buy into it?
- Marissa Morgan: No. Bull wants to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. If Tally was in a fugue state during the murder, she lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of her conduct when she killed her brother.
- Benny Colón: Terrific. I'm gonna go back to the conference room, comb through my law books, see if I can find any insanity plea precedents. With any luck, I'll fall into a fugue state.
- Jason Bull: You want to tell me what I'm looking at here?
- Tally North: I was just doing what you taught me. Fill in the blanks. When you have a blackout, sketch the things you know, and then try and sketch the things you don't. Make the unconscious conscious, isn't that what you always told me? The only things I know are the things I'm hearing in court, so I started there. Just trying to process the memory loss, see if it would jog something. For the record, it didn't.
- Jason Bull: Mm-hmm. Oh, Tally. I think I may have given you some horrible advice.
- Tally North: What do you mean?
- Jason Bull: I think I inadvertently had you draw yourself into a guilty verdict.
- Marissa Morgan: You sure about this next move, Bull?
- Jason Bull: "Sure" is a strong word. I prefer "what other choice do we have?".
- [he nods at Benny]
- Benny Colón: Tally... are you sad your brother's dead?
- Tally North: No.
- [murmurs in the courtroom]
- Jason Bull: [to Marissa] If I were you, I'd pull a couple of dollar bills out of my wallet and stare at 'em, 'cause that's the last green you're gonna be seeing for a while.
- Tally North: I know it must be hard to understand how I work. What goes on in my head. I just don't feel the same things you do. I don't get happy. I don't get sad. I find it really hard to care about anyone other than myself. Of course...
- [feigning crying]
- Tally North: ...I can make you think I care.
- [stopping]
- Tally North: But it's a trick. Something I learned when I was very young. I could do it when I fell off my bike, or... when I didn't get something I wanted for my birthday. And then one day, I realized "Oh. This is what they wanted me to do when my goldfish died. I can do that for them." And before you ask, yes. I know something is missing. Something is... broken. Wrong. And I feel really lonely because of that. I'm a part of a world that I don't totally understand. And one that, for the most part, seems really frightened of me.
- [Benny glances at Bull, who gives him a small nod]
- Benny Colón: So I'm gonna ask you once again. Tally, are you sad that your brother's dead?
- Tally North: My brother was the only person who ever loved me. He just did. Even though I couldn't love him back. Why would I want to make that go away?
- Marissa Morgan: Oh, my goodness, we just picked up a green.
- Jason Bull: You sound surprised. I told you I was sure it would work.
- Tally North: You have new glasses, Dr. Bull.
- Jason Bull: It's nice to see you, too, Tally. It's been twelve years.
- Tally North: I like them.
- Jason Bull: Thank you. I heard about your parents. I tried calling, but my numbers didn't work. I sent you a card.
- Tally North: Okay. I didn't see it, but I think I might have been in a hospital in Indiana around then. Are you here because you want me back as a patient?
- Jason Bull: I came here to see if I could help you. Legally, psychologically.
- Tally North: So you can leave me again?
- Jason Bull: I know you don't feel much, but I have always felt badly about that.
- Tally North: It's okay. I survived. I won't lie, it would have been nice to have you around for all my teenage rites of passage. But I guess that's what the eight other therapists I ended up going to were for. Although, it was difficult to talk to the one that was molesting me about how much I disliked him molesting me.