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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 76 of 143 · ≈ 2 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.
Sipe's phone call reframes the scope: his 6% estimate implies ninety abusive priests in Boston, not thirteen, and Robby proposes working the directories backwards to find them.
Matt tapes a warning note to his own refrigerator, telling his kids to stay away from the house at 276 Pelton Street.
Matt confirms priest after priest against the growing directory list until the tally lands on eighty-seven, three off Sipe's own estimate, and Robby says he wants to talk to MacLeish.
In his office, Robby calls Jim Sullivan and asks point blank if the number could really be ninety; Jim tells him to stop this before hanging up, and Robby learns MacLeish is stonewalling a meeting.
This scene
Eric MacLeish and a colleague get off an elevator, head out. MacLeish sees Robby and Sacha sitting in the lobby, waiting for him. As they stand, MacLeish turns to his colleague.
MACLEISH
You know what, I’ll catch up with
you, okay?
The colleague heads off.
MACLEISH (CONT’D)
Hey guys, I’m really sorry, I am, I
don’t have any time to talk right
now, but if you call my assistant --
SACHA
Mr. MacLeish, we have reason to
believe that there have been
allegations against as many as 87
priests in Boston.
ERIC MACLEISH
I can’t talk about that.
SACHA
Does that number sound right to you?
ERIC MACLEISH
You gotta be... I don’t have time
for this crap.
He starts to move but Robby steps in his way, angrier than Sacha’s ever seen.
ROBBY
Eric, how many priests did you
settle?
ERIC MACLEISH
You know I can’t tell you, Robby.
ROBBY
You’re gonna give me their names.
And the names of their victims.
ERIC MACLEISH
Are you threatening me?
A beat. Robby controls himself, turns calm. Professional.
ROBBY
We’ve got two stories here. We’ve
got a story about degenerate clergy
and we’ve got a story about a bunch
of lawyers turning child abuse into
a cottage industry. Now, which
story do you want us to write?
Cause we’re writing one of them.
MacLeish recedes. Robby’s got him.
ERIC MACLEISH
I already sent you a list of names.
ROBBY
What are you talking about? To
whom?
ERIC MACLEISH
The Globe. Years ago. After the
Porter case, I got plenty of calls.
I had 20 priests in Boston but I
couldn’t go after them without
press. So I sent you guys a list of
names and you buried it.
ROBBY
I want those names tomorrow.
ERIC MACLEISH
Check your goddamn clips, Robby.
Robby turns and leaves. Sacha follows. They walk a bit.
SACHA
We didn’t find anything in the
clips.
ROBBY
Yeah. Big surprise.