Trapped in the Cellar at Ryan's,
Jack and Mary Reunite
(November 1977)(While Mary is asleep, upstairs, Maeve apprises Jumbo of the situation when he calls, trying to find anyone who knows where Jack is. Sometime later, Mary awakens and looks around and is surprised to see Jack not there.)
MARY: Jack? Jack!
(She goes and starts banging on the door, and he comes out of the bathroom.)
JACK: Somebody out there?
MARY: No. (grins) Where were you?
JACK: Shaving. Your mother thought of everything - there's a sink out back. What, you think I busted out of here and left you behind?
MARY: I just woke up and didn't know what was going on for a second.
JACK: I didn't mean to scare you.
MARY: (in her competitive manner) You didn't. I'm fine.
JACK: (smiles) Well, let's have some breakfast, huh?
(He takes napkins out a box.)
MARY: What time is it, anyway?
JACK: I don't know. My watch is busted.
MARY: I suppose it could be the middle of the night.
JACK: Well, whatever, I'm hungry. (she laughs) Hey, do you suppose that the coffee in that thermos is still hot?
MARY: Probably!
(She opens it up and holds it out for him to smell.)
JACK: (smiles) How'd you sleep?
MARY: Alright. You?
JACK: I didn't. I was...thinking.
MARY: Oh, you mean, about a way to get out of here?
JACK: Partly.
MARY: You may have to go back to pounding on the pipe.
JACK: We'll see. Mostly I was thinking that we stopped fighting somewhere along the line. I guess it's when we started to talk about the baby. I asked you a question before, but you'd fallen asleep.
MARY: (uneasy) What question?
JACK: Do you feel the annulment...for real?
MARY: That's a hard question.
JACK: Not really. I just asked you how you feel about the annulment.
MARY: Since I got the official papers and everything.
JACK: Yeah, I've got a whole drawer full of divorce and annulment stuff, and I still don't think any of it's worth a damn.
MARY: Of course the annulment's not worth a damn. You lied to get it!
JACK: True. Listen, I want to tell you this. I did believe that the lies were necessary. I believed it was the kindest thing for you and Ryan - and for me - and I honestly thought that I belonged back on my own. But now I've been thinking that maybe I was...just running. (she looks stunned) Wanna say, "I told you so"?
MARY: (shakes her head) So where does that leave you, now?
JACK: I'm not sure. I was thinking that same thing while you were asleep. I know I don't have that panicked feeling anymore. I mean, I want to get out of this cellar, but I don't want to run away from (pause) from the baby. I don't have a doubt in the world about that. (smiles) I really do love her.
MARY: (smiles) Tell her that, will you? A lot.
JACK: Okay.
MARY: If Ryan can grow up positive that her father cares for her, that's half the battle.
JACK: What's the other half?
MARY: Well, she'll have to deal with the fact that you and I have separate lives. She won't like it, but they tell me children can adjust to just about anything as long as they're sure they're loved.
JACK: Hell of a time to realize this, but I don't want Ryan to have to make that adjustment. That's what I was supposed to do at the orphanage. It never happened. You just get mad and unhappy, and it lasts forever, and I can't have Ryan turn out like me.
MARY: Well, she isn't an orphan, Jack! She'll have me and my family uptown and you and...whoever downtown.
JACK: Whatever man raises her, day by day, it shouldn't be Johnny Ryan, no matter how good a job he did with his own kids. And, if you're thinking about Tom Desmond...
MARY: (preparing for battle) Yes?
JACK: (pause) I'm way off the subject. I started to tell you that I thought, last spring, that I had to be back by myself, that I had to try to get control of my life again - my apartment, my work, my time...
MARY: Your friends...
JACK: Yeah. It isn't working out. (awkward silence) The question that I asked you before, you still haven't answered it.
MARY: (holds out food) You want this?
JACK: (not backing out) No. You still feel married to me?
MARY: (struggling) I can't help the way I am. You know how I am! (nods) There is a bond that's still there, yes, but it's something sad and painful, and I'm hoping to deal with it in time, until finally it's gone.
JACK: (hurt) I don't want to hurt you anymore, but I have to finish saying this.
MARY: Alright.
JACK: I still feel married to you. I still love you. I guess it's too late, but you should know, I want you back. You and Ryan.
(Mary is speechless.)
JACK: (standing up) So, now you know as much as I do.
MARY: It seems to be a little more than I can handle.
JACK: You don't have to handle any of it, you just have to believe me.
MARY: Right.
JACK: Or is that impossible?
MARY: I don't know. I really don't! Not that you're lying - you couldn't say you love me and want me if it weren't true - but it doesn't feel true!
JACK: What does...feel true?
MARY: Jack, I gave up on you because you didn't want me! The annulment, the divorce, trying to keep away from you, trying to make a whole new life...what's right in the middle of that is one fact: You don't want me!
JACK: I really did a job on you, didn't I?
MARY: You really convinced me, yes.
JACK: The day you found Martha McKee with me?
MARY: That day was the worst.
JACK: But there were lots of other days, too? (she nods) Like the time you told me that you were pregnant?
MARY: You were barely out of the accident then. (shrugs) I figured you'd feel better about the baby, once you got well. (gets up) During the pregnancy, I had the idea that you just needed privacy and some peace. No more crowding from my family or from me, with my middle getting bigger every day. So I tried to give you a lot of space, love you from a distance, make you feel secure enough so that you could be relaxed and reach out to me... But the thing is, I couldn't carry it off, Jack! I found some reason for dropping in on you once a week or so, which was dumb, because you only...because all you ever did was kick me out, Jack. (near tears) Every time I went to you, you told me to get out, go away. My God, do you have any idea how that hurt?
JACK: (very pained) I think so.
MARY: And the day you got out of the hospital, after the corrective surgery, just before Ryan was born, oh, I was hoping like crazy that day we'd be lovers again, we'd be parents, we'd be a cozy little family, so I ran all the way downtown and cleaned the apartment and made a meal, and you walked in, and I thought it was starting to happen! You did hold me, for the first time in nine months! And then you told me to get out. (Jack looks heartbroken.) And then, dammit, I still believed you'd come to the hospital for the delivery, and then I believed you'd come to bring us home! And then, Lord, I had to go back for one last kick in the teeth! Martha McKee. That day, I'd had enough. So, no matter what you say now, it's still the way I feel.
JACK: I can't change what I did to you...
MARY: (shakes her head) I'm afraid you can't fix it.
JACK: But I can fix me, and I'm gonna start trying.
MARY: How?
JACK: Being a father to my little girl, for starters, and not running anymore.
MARY: That would be the best work that you could possibly do.
JACK: And the hardest. Please? One word, about Martha McKee. I never had a chance to explain. She spent one night with me. I was having a bad time, and she tried to be a friend. The next morning she said that I'd better make it up with my wife, because I couldn't want or love anybody else. She was getting ready to leave, and that was when you rang the bell. I haven't seen her since, and I haven't been with any other women.
MARY: Something very much like that happened with Tom and me. This weekend we just had, I wanted to make love to him, Jack! I tried. (shakes her head) But I couldn't. He was very good to me. I wished I could be in love with him. But we both know it's a lost cause.
JACK: (whispers) Tell me why.
MARY: If you want me to say I still love you, alright, I do! (tearfully) But you have hurt me and scared me and put me through more hell than I care to remember! I'm glad you want to change. I think you'll do it. But you can't turn into a different person!
JACK: (shakes his head) No.
MARY: And neither can I. I made mistakes with you. I doubt I'd make the same ones again. But Jack, I'm still Mary Ryan, who loves grandparents and traditions and aunts and uncles and singing and pipers. I want all those things in my life and Ryan's!
JACK: Okay, and I'm still the guy who can't share anything. I'm a little better now, but I still don't want dinner parties for ten, and I think I mostly want order. I'll never like surprises - that little, uptight boy from the orphanage is still a big part of who I am.
MARY: (sadly) So, here we are.
JACK: With the same problems we've always had.
MARY: It sounds like it to me.
JACK: (shakes his head, and mutters no) There's a big difference: I want you and Ryan, and I'm not afraid to say so to anybody, even myself. (near tears) I have to hold onto the two of you, because that's where my life is.
(The instrumental version of "Mary's Theme" begins playing in the background.)
JACK: Mary, if we're very careful and keep our heads together, don't you think we can try again?
(The next episode)
JACK: Mary? You look like I said something awful.
MARY: I'm sorry. It isn't awful.
JACK: You don't have to decide to pack your bags and leave with me the minute they open that door. Just tell me if you feel there's a chance.
MARY: A chance we could really be married and happy at the same time?
JACK: Happier than we are apart, yeah.
MARY: I don't think we could go twenty-four hours without a battle.
JACK: We've done pretty well while we've been down here. That's cause we've finally been honest with each other. (pause) No, no, you've always been honest with me. I'm the one who couldn't admit that I was hurting and needed you and was scared to death that you'd leave me. You tried to make me open up every way you could, and then some.
MARY: I don't want you to praise me, or feel guilty.
JACK: I am guilty. I wrecked the marriage.
MARY: You forced it to end, but the truth is it almost never went smoothly. We had our little fights and big fights and silent fights, struggles of one kind or another just about all the time.
JACK: We're both pretty strong personalities, Mare.
MARY: (nods) Yeah, but my personality doesn't want a lifetime of war.
JACK: Well, looking back on it now, it seems to me that most of the war was inside of me.
MARY: Not always.
JACK: Mmm, most of the important stuff, the big things. The thing about the kids, you guessed my problem long before I knew what it was. I didn't want to share you. I was afraid that I'd lose you if there was somebody else. I knew that sometimes, but I couldn't say it out loud so I just kept quiet and I got mad and ran, right into the old brick wall every time.
MARY: "That's the way I am!"
JACK: That's the way I was. Well, let's be honest: That's the way I'm beginning to not be.
MARY: That is an amazing statement.
JACK: Why is it the more I say, the sadder you seem to get?
MARY: Jack, I love everything you're saying! But when I think about us together again, it's a dream!
JACK: We can make it work.
MARY: You need things I can't give you!
JACK: I need people to love, people who love me.
MARY: Not in a marriage, where you're crowded...
JACK: I'm telling you that a marriage is just what I want! A family: you, our kid, a life that means something. I went back to being alone and working, I had all the time and space in the world! I hated it.
MARY: Listen, I know what the loneliness is like. I get desperate with it, too! But I think we have to get through that, come out the other side of it, not turn around and go back!
JACK: I spent the better part of the year alone - completely annulled, completely alone - and this is what I know now: You were mostly right, I was mostly wrong. I'm not asking you to turn around and go back. I'm asking you to start a second time, from where we are right now. Just consider coming back to me. We can leave it at that, for now.
MARY: Oh, I want to say yes! But I have to use my head!
JACK: Can't you do both?
MARY: I'm not sure. (turns around)
JACK: Because I hurt you too much?
MARY: Jack, it was a painful, miserable time all around, for both of us. You feel mellow now because it's just you and me, the situation you've always liked. But you won't feel mellow outside, when other people start getting in the way! Can you see yourself when my father starts to put a little pressure on you?
JACK: Oh, I couldn't live with him, not in the same house. But I could see him a couple of times a week, visit, and be pleasant - even friendly, depending on how he is.
MARY: At best, he would be cold as stone.
JACK: The hard part would be sharing the baby with him. I'll do my damnedest, because Ryan should have grandparents. Especially, she should have your mother.
(They smile.)
JACK: I love your mother.
MARY: (shakes her head, grinning) That's not playing fair!
JACK: Sorry.
MARY: She loves you too.
JACK: (gets up and moves close to her) Look, I can't promise that I can manage Johnny right every time, but I do promise that I'll keep the chip off my shoulder. Everything's gonna be okay with your father.
MARY: I doubt you'd have to see him more than once a week, anyway. Ooohh, I am doing exactly what I don't want to do! Jack, we can't go over the hangups we had one by one and just eliminate them by talking about them! I can't go through that again! I'd be crazy to leave here carrying four thousand promises and all kinds of hopes back down to Weehawken Street! I don't want to fall flat on my face! I've been there, and I don't like the way it feels, and I don't ever want to go through that again, me or Ryan!
JACK: You love me?
MARY: Yes!
JACK: You want Ryan to love me?
MARY: Of course! I'm afraid.
JACK: Of what?
MARY: That you don't really want us. That you think you do now, but deep down...
JACK: Deep down, I love you. How can I convince you of that? You want me to move up to Riverside? I'll do that.
MARY: (stunned) You can't give up the apartment.
JACK: I can't give up you. I'm serious! I mean, if you want a period of courtship, to be sure that I want you, okay, then you can stay here with your folks, and I'll get a place nearby, and we can start like that.
MARY: (laughs) That would be awfully silly!
JACK: It'd be a beginning. I'll do anything to begin again. Tell me what you want.
MARY: No! If we do try again, it should be at Weehawken Street.
JACK: Mary?
(The instrumental to "Mary's Theme" starts playing again and they start to kiss, but instead Jack kisses her forehead.)
JACK: (whispers) Please?
MARY: Yes!
(They kiss, then hug.)
MARY: Oh, let's go home!
(They kiss again, then Mary pulls away for a moment.)
MARY: Wait. Wait! I want to say one more thing!
JACK: You can't! You can't! You've been talking for hours!
MARY: I know! But I...
JACK: You can't have any words left.
(He kisses her again.)
MARY: I do! Wait! Wait! I want you to know (he kisses her again) that I understand how difficult it was for you to do this. To lay it all out and take the chance I might say no.
JACK: You did it a couple of times. The difference is, I did say no.
MARY: Don't!
(She kisses him, then hugs him.)
MARY: I meant it when I said I don't want either of us to feel guilty or sorry. We're through with that. (laughs) It's a little like confession and penance. We don't worry about the failures. Let's just get on with the business of trying.
JACK: Sounds good to me.
(He kisses her again.)
MARY: Anyway, my love, I know it wasn't easy, and you're the one who saved us, cause I don't think I could have tried! At least not for a while.
JACK: When you told me that you wanted it over, and I knew that you meant it, that's when I got more scared.
MARY: (hugs him) Honey, I just wanted to stop hurting! I wanted to be free of you, but I couldn't make that happen! And then I wanted to be in love with Tom and I couldn't make that happen! (pulls away) Will you be nice to him? He's been so good to me!
JACK: I'll try, Mary, but I have to tell you that, five minutes with Desmond, and I turn into Benny Bedini on the docks. (she laughs) Fourteen years, he was so mean that nobody would sit down next to him to eat lunch!
MARY: I'll sit down next to you and eat lunch! (kisses him again) Speaking of which...
(She goes to get more food.)
JACK: Wait, you just had breakfast or dinner or whatever the hell time it is!
MARY: (stops and hugs him) Alright! Oh, Jack, it feels so good to be happy!
JACK: Who do you think really set this up, huh?
MARY: Ma. And Tom obviously had a part in it.
JACK: Frank?
(She murmurs yes.)
JACK: Bless 'em all.
(They kiss, again.)
MARY: Oh, I want to see Ryan so much!
JACK: Me too.
MARY: How do we get out of here?
JACK: (pondering) Or, how do we get them to let us out?
(Upstairs, Jumbo has come to the bar to wait it out. Eventually, Maeve and Johnny go into the kitchen to argue some more about Jack. All of a sudden, Johnny gets distracted.)
JOHNNY: What's that?
MAEVE: What's what?
JOHNNY: I smell smoke.
MAEVE: John, there's smoke coming from the hallway!
JOHNNY: It's from the basement! There's a fire in the basement! My God, he's trying to burn down my building!
MAEVE: Oh, John!
(Maeve summons Jumbo in from the other room.)
MAEVE: Jumbo, come!
(Johnny, then Maeve, then Jumbo head downstairs, as Kevin watches. Johnny storms downstairs and opens the door, and is stunned to see only a small fire in an ashtray and Jack and Mary kissing.)
JOHNNY: Merciful mother...
(Jack and Mary hear him and stop kissing.)
MARY: It's sort of like announcing the election of the Pope.
(Just then, Maeve comes down and looks around, confused.)
MAEVE: What...
JOHNNY: If you don't mind, I'll get a fire extinguisher and put that out before we smoke up the whole house!
(Johnny leaves.)
MARY: It was the only way we could think of to let you know we were ready to come out!
(Jumbo comes downstairs.)
MAEVE: Is it alright if I ask how things are?
MARY: Things are wonderful!
MAEVE: Awww, Mary!
(Mary hugs her.)
MARY: Oh, I was afraid you'd never speak to me again!
(They laugh.)
MAEVE: Oh, Jack!
JACK: Oh, I've got an idea who did this, and all I can say is, "Thank you."
(Johnny comes in and starts putting out the fire, as disruptively as possible.)
MAEVE: Oh, dear God. Well, I can't take all the credit for it. Tom came by one day and said something had to be done, because Mary was still in love with you, and you were still in love with her. We had to get you together to talk, and I said, "Well, the only way possible would be to lock you in a room together." Of course, I didn't mean it, but then he spoke to Faith and she thought of the basement. So then Tom and Frank and I sort of got together and cooperated in the effort.
JACK: Well, then I thank you and Tom and Frank and Faith.
MARY: (sees Jumbo) Jumbo! (hugs him) Oh, I love you! I love everybody! I love the whole world!
(Maeve goes over to Johnny.)
MAEVE: John?
JOHNNY: If you don't mind, I'd like to go on record as saying I don't think you did her any favors.
MAEVE: Oh, John, please, stay, share this with them!
JOHNNY: On the theory that if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all, I am going upstairs.
(He leaves, and Maeve goes back over to Jack, Mary, and Jumbo.)
MARY: Ma, what would you have done if it hadn't worked?
MAEVE: Well, Tom and I were thinking of taking a boat to Ireland!
(They all laugh.)
MAEVE: I'm glad it's not necessary. Would you like to see your daughter, sir?
MARY: Oh...
JACK: I really would.
MAEVE: Oh, she's grown since the last time you saw her!
MARY: How old is she?
MAEVE: Oh, sixteen years, sixteen months...
(They all laugh and head upstairs. Jack and Mary stop briefly as Maeve and Jumbo go on ahead, and look back at the basement, and kiss again. Then they go back upstairs, closing the door behind them.)
