- Anna Manheim: You know why people like us don't trust anybody? Because we never have to. Knowing isn't trusting.
- [first lines]
- [There is a long aural montage of strangers talking, presumably overheard in their thoughts by Joshua]
- Emily: [Emily is chatting on the phone while walking down a busy street at night] I'm supposed to trust you? Trust is earned, my friend. Anyway, get your ass down here. If you take too long, I may be gone.
- Joshua Lazarus: [She enters a nightclub and sits at the bar. Joshua approaches her] Hi. My name is Joshua.
- Emily: I'm Vanessa.
- Joshua Lazarus: Vanessa. You are a...
- [he rubs his forehead with his index finger]
- Joshua Lazarus: ...Virgo.
- Emily: I'm not an obvious Virgo.
- Joshua Lazarus: It was obvious to me.
- Emily: [She smiles] You're very intuitive.
- Joshua Lazarus: You could say that.
- [He pauses]
- Joshua Lazarus: Vanessa. You're name's not really Vanessa, is it?
- Emily: [She's embarrassed] Emily.
- Joshua Lazarus: That was the Argentinean Finance Minister. They want me to bankrupt him because he's not playing ball. They can't have that.
- Sandy: That's awful. I should just say no when they ask to hire one of you. And they always ask for you or Kira. You're the only scopers they consider level-headed. Anyway, I'm sorry to make you do these abominable government jobs, but the Home needs the money.
- Joshua Lazarus: You don't have to justify yourself to me, Sandy. You saved my life.
- Joshua Lazarus: I started hearing the voices again.
- Sandy: Can you control them?
- Joshua Lazarus: For now.
- [He pauses]
- Joshua Lazarus: How long do I have?
- Sandy: From the recurrence of the voices, sanity is generally lost within a month. I'm so sorry.
- Joshua Lazarus: Don't be. I've had enough time. Thank you for being straight with me, Sandy.
- Sandy: [Sandy rises and pulls a pill bottle out of his pocket] Here. These are stronger. They should help a little. Make sure you take them regularly!
- [He grimaces]
- Sandy: I'm needed back at the Home, Josh.
- [He pulls some papers from his inner coat pocket]
- Sandy: So... you should decide this now. Don't make the same mistake Bobby made.
- Joshua Lazarus: [Josh looks unhappy] You decide for me. I mean it.
- Sandy: Have you visited Bobby recently?
- Joshua Lazarus: No. I can't.
- Sandy: The NSA insists on permanent restraints, even with the sedation.
- Joshua Lazarus: Yeah. Just...
- [He picks up a pen. A tear rolls down his face]
- Joshua Lazarus: Nothing, uh... sentimental with, uh, with the ashes.
- [He wipes his eye]
- Joshua Lazarus: You promise me?
- Sandy: When you feel like the voices are becoming too much, come back to the Home.
- [Josh and Anna run into each other at a market]
- Anna Manheim: Hi!
- Joshua Lazarus: Hey.
- Anna Manheim: You're staying on the outside?
- Joshua Lazarus: We don't believe in being in people's heads if they don't want us there. Unless they're normals.
- Anna Manheim: Who's 'we'?
- Joshua Lazarus: There are others like us. Not many.
- Anna Manheim: You know, when I said, yesterday, "Get out," I didn't mean you had to get out of the house. I meant, get out from...
- [she touches her forehead]
- Anna Manheim: ...here. I wasn't prepared for it.
- Joshua Lazarus: You are now?
- [He focuses, and they appear, facing each other, in the dark, dreamy area that is telepathy]
- Joshua Lazarus: Better this time?
- Anna Manheim: Better.
- Joshua Lazarus: You're fuzzy, you know.
- Anna Manheim: I know - I thought it had to be this way, but you're not.
- Joshua Lazarus: [He smiles] We'll fix it for you.
- Anna Manheim: I'm - it's okay, it doesn't bother me.
- Joshua Lazarus: Don't worry. It's an easy technique.
- [Joshua has just met Anna in the market and returns to the car, where Bridger is waiting for his report]
- Bridger: What'd you get?
- Joshua Lazarus: Well, some vodka for me, and...
- [teasing her]
- Joshua Lazarus: ...for you, a laxative. Cherry flavor.
- Bridger: [She's not amused] What did you get from the girl?
- [Joshua is in a restaurant when Anna enters and takes a seat, many tables away. She shuts her eyes and concentrates. He enters her mind, where she is sitting in a room with rectangles of different colors on the walls, as in paintings by Mondrian]
- Joshua Lazarus: Nice place you have here. Very... organized.
- Anna Manheim: [Teasingly] Are you talking to me? I don't recall inviting you in.
- Joshua Lazarus: No, I was talking to the busboy. He's a telepath, too.
- Joshua Lazarus: We need order. It's how Sandy teaches us to deal with the chaos.
- Anna Manheim: Who's Sandy?
- Joshua Lazarus: Sandy taught me everything. Who trained you?
- Anna Manheim: What do you mean?
- Joshua Lazarus: I mean, who taught you to use your abilities?
- Anna Manheim: No one.
- Joshua Lazarus: That's not possible. You can't fight the voices on your own.
- Anna Manheim: You don't have to fight them. It took me years to learn that.
- Joshua Lazarus: I don't follow you.
- Joshua Lazarus: You missed my birthday, by the way.
- Kira: Happy belated condolences.
- Joshua Lazarus: Both made it to 28, huh? What are the chances of that?
- Joshua Lazarus: I'm... I'm... good.
- Kira: [She looks skeptical] You're "good."
- [Referring to scopers:]
- Kira: We don't do "good."
- [Bridger - who's a woman - corners Joshua in the men's bathroom]
- Bridger: [Referring to the "unknown scoper" whom Joshua knows is Anna] Who is it?
- Joshua Lazarus: I don't know yet.
- Bridger: Well, that's bullshit. I mean, you got a lousy poker face, Lazarus. You're lucky you can cheat.
- Joshua Lazarus: You spend a lot of time here in the men's room. Is there something I should know?
- Joshua Lazarus: You ever think about what it'd be like to grow old?
- Kira: Nope. Just like I don't think about what it'd be like to be a frog - 'cause it ain't gonna happen.
- Anna Manheim: I've been wanting to ask you, how could you be so unethical with my father? It's not like you.
- Joshua Lazarus: [He looks down, then meets her eyes] I'm just doing my country's bidding. The NSA loves us. We're like wiretaps without wires. No warrant required.
- Anna Manheim: Give me a real answer, Josh.
- Joshua Lazarus: Sandy teaches us that these jobs are for the greater good, and the NSA payments he uses to help other scopers.
- Anna Manheim: I don't like that term, "scopers." It's an ugly word, and you use it to justify the ugly things they make you do. How would you like it if I were cheating your father?
- Joshua Lazarus: I haven't seen my father in twenty years, so...
- Anna Manheim: You've been taught to keep everyone out, but if you let everyone in, you'd be happier.
- Joshua Lazarus: No thanks. All that selfishness, the million petty hatreds and prejudices, it's too much.
- Anna Manheim: There is the other side. There is the rose that blooms in the lover's heart.
- Anna Manheim: [She smiles at him] You just have to let yourself see it.
- Anna Manheim: [Referring to the postcard she gave him] Look on the other side.
- [He turns it over. She has written, "To many years together." He looks up at her and her smile fades]
- Joshua Lazarus: Anna, I should... I should tell you more about Windman's Syndrome. You have a chance. You're only 26. Maybe they can find a... a cure in time for you.
- Anna Manheim: I'm not actually 26. I'm sorry. I made you think I was 26.
- Joshua Lazarus: [He is stunned] You can't lie in a merge.
- Anna Manheim: Well, I kinda did.
- [She giggles]
- Joshua Lazarus: So, then, how old are you?
- Anna Manheim: [softly, but smiling] I just turned 31.
- Joshua Lazarus: That's not possible.
- Joshua Lazarus: Anyway, they don't... they don't trust me anymore. They wanna send me back to New York.
- Anna Manheim: Then I'm coming with you.
- Joshua Lazarus: They'll be watching me. They always are. If they see us together...
- Anna Manheim: What else can I do? I'm in love with you.
- Joshua Lazarus: I'm so used to being alone. I thought it had to be that way.
- Anna Manheim: I think we deserve some happiness.
- Joshua Lazarus: We don't have much time left.
- [after 20 years, Joshua finds his father in a temple]
- Joshua Lazarus: Hello, Abba. It's me, Abba.
- [His father hugs him and begins to weep]
- [after re-introducing himself to his father, Joshua agrees that he was taken away from his parents for being "sick," using the Russian word]
- Ephraim Lazarus: [delighted] So! You remember some Russian, too!
- Joshua Lazarus: A little bit.
- Ephraim Lazarus: And what else you remember?
- Joshua Lazarus: I remember the... the numbers.
- [He frowns down at his father's arm, where the sinister numbers have been imprinted]
- Ephraim Lazarus: Yeah.
- Joshua Lazarus: I remember trying to rub them off, but I couldn't.
- [On the verge of Windman's Syndrome, Joshua is confronted by a voice in his sleep that eventually appears before him as a circus clown]
- Clown: Fine. You want face-to-face? You got it. You want me to take off the mask?
- [the clown removes its mask but the same mask is beneath it]
- Clown: Get the point?
- Joshua Lazarus: Exactly what do you want from me?
- Clown: You have to leave. Soon. Get away.
- Joshua Lazarus: How?
- Clown: That's your problem.
- Joshua Lazarus: Why?
- Clown: Because you know something you shouldn't. I have to go now.
- Joshua Lazarus: I'm just supposed to take your word for it?
- Clown: I'm just telling you what you already know. Just think of me as your conscience talking. Make sure you take the girl. She knows it, too.
- Joshua Lazarus: What does it matter if I'm going to be dead in a couple...
- Clown: You have more time than you think.
- Joshua Lazarus: This is weird, having to guess what you want. No wonder normals are so terrified of sex.
- Bridger: Hello, Lazarus. Oh, you look a little too conscious for my liking. It's amazing how these drugs keep you mind-reading freaks talking, even when you're semi-comatose.
- Joshua Lazarus: What'd I get?
- Bridger: Hmm? Oh, you're more coherent when you're conscious, but then, of course, you're much less cooperative.