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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 101 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two
The Boston Globe's Spotlight team pries open the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up of child abuse — one sealed record, one silenced victim at a time.
Robby's Spotlight team operates comfortably inside its own routine, prospecting a modest police-corruption story under a departing editor's cover.
Baron's outsider question exposes what the paper has never done: investigate whether Cardinal Law knowingly protected an abusive priest.
The team sets aside its own project and enters unfamiliar territory: survivor networks, a hostile plaintiff's lawyer, and a legal fight to unseal church records.
The team pays the cost of the work — hearing survivor testimony, chasing MacLeish's stonewalling, and combing church directories for a hidden pattern of reassigned priests.
The directory search and Sipe's estimate deliver what they set out for: confirmation that the abuse spans dozens, then eighty-seven, priests across Boston.
Marty tells Ben the team should go back on the Church story now that 9/11 coverage has wound down, and thanks him for carrying the burden of that coverage.
In a Miami motel room, Mike learns from Robby that Garabedian has refiled the sealed documents, meaning any paper can now claim them first.
Robby tells Mike to catch the next flight home, then shares an awkward moment with Sacha as she hands him an old 1993 clip about twenty accused priests that visibly rattles him.
This scene
Matt sits up in bed. Checks the clock. 4am. Can’t sleep.