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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 123 of 143 · ≈ 2 min on screen
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.
The cost comes due: 9/11 steals six weeks, Saviano accuses them of abandoning survivors, sources go quiet, and even finding Law's damning letters isn't enough to end the fight over when to publish.
Mike finishes reading Bishop D'Arcy's 1984 letter to the stunned team, and Robby refuses to rush the Law story to press before nailing the full scope of ninety priests, triggering a furious blowup from Mike who storms out.
At home, Sacha's frustration boils over at a jammed dishwasher rack just before Mike shows up at her door still shaken from the fight with Robby.
On her porch, Sacha admits to Mike she's stopped going to church with her grandmother because the anger became too much to sit through, and Mike confesses the letters cracked something in him.
This scene
The posh bar of one of Boston’s oldest hotels. Robby is at the bar, a glass of red wine in front of him.
PETER CONLEY
Looks like a long day.
ROBBY
Hey Pete.
PETER CONLEY
I’m sorry to make it longer. Brian?
Peter Conley sits, nods to the barman: ‘the usual.’
ROBBY
Anyone ever said no to a drink with
you, Pete?
PETER CONLEY
Sure. The trick is to keep asking.
(raising his glass)
For Boston.
ROBBY
For Boston.
(drinks, then)
So, you here for the Cardinal?
PETER CONLEY
No, no, I wouldn’t presume to speak
for the Cardinal.
(then)
You gotta a lot of people here who
respect you, Robby, respect your
work.
ROBBY
Good to know.
PETER CONLEY
It’s ‘cause you care about this
place. It’s why you do what you do,
it’s who you are. But people need
the Church more than ever right now.
You can feel it. And the Cardinal
may not be perfect but we can’t
throw out all the good he’s doing
over a few bad apples.
Robby lets this sink in. Nods as if in agreement.
PETER CONLEY (CONT’D)
I’m bringing this up with you
because I know this is Baron’s idea.
His agenda. And I gotta tell you,
honest to God, I don’t think he
cares about this city the way we do.
How could he?
Robby looks at Conley. A long beat.
ROBBY
This is how it happens, isn’t it,
PETER CONLEY
What’s that?
ROBBY
A guy leans on a guy and suddenly
the whole town just looks the other
way.
Stung. Pete downs his drink. Gets up.
PETER CONLEY
Robby, look. Marty Baron is just
trying to make his mark. He’ll be
here for a couple years and he’s
gonna move on. Just like he did in
New York and Miami. Where you gonna
go?
He starts to go.
ROBBY
Pete?
(Pete turns)
When we do run the story, I’m gonna
need a comment from the Cardinal.
Conley takes it. Then smiles.
PETER CONLEY
We’ll talk again later. Good night,
Robby.