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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 107 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.
Robby meets Kevin, a Providence restaurant patron and BC High alum, for a casual catch-up before revealing his real reason for coming: Father Talbot, and Kevin's face tightens as he admits he never even told his wife what happened to him.
Mike sprints through the courthouse only to find the records room locked for the night.
The next morning, Clerk O'Brian finds Mike waiting outside the locked records room and finally lets him in.
This scene
O’Brian walks in. Mike fills out a form at the ‘application for records’ table. He turns to the desk, hands the form to Clerk O’Brian, who reads it.
CLERK O’BRIAN
This is the Geoghan case?
MIKE
Yeah. That’s right.
CLERK O’BRIAN
Those records are sealed.
MIKE
No, that’s a public motion, those
records are public. Look, I work
for the Globe.
Mike shows his credentials.
CLERK O’BRIAN
Good for you.
MIKE
Can I talk to your supervisor?
CLERK O’BRIAN
He’s not in today.
Mike, frustrated, eyes the CROSS the clerk is wearing.
MIKE
What about a judge? You gotta have
a judge who handles these issues.
The clerk eyes Mike.
CLERK O’BRIAN
Sixth floor.