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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 98 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.
Mike, racing down I-95 toward Providence for a flight-school lead, gets Garabedian on the phone and begs him to hold off refiling the newly public documents; Garabedian refuses and hangs up.
Weeks later, Sacha emerges from the T-stop as autumn sets in over Boston.
In a nearly empty bar, Phil Saviano angrily confronts Sacha for going silent on victims for six weeks since 9/11, accusing Spotlight of abandoning the story before storming out.
This scene
Marty’s working at his computer. Ben knocks.
BEN
Marty, you gotta a second?
MARTY
Sure.
Marty turns as Ben walks in.
BEN
Robby’s itching to get his team back
on the church story. At this point,
I think we’re covered on 9/11.
MARTY
Okay. Sounds right.
Ben starts to leave when --
MARTY (CONT’D)
Ben.
(then)
I, uh, wanted to say thank you for
taking the lead on 9/11. All the
politics at Logan and Massport, I
wasn’t the person to do it. You’ve
done an excellent job over the last
six weeks.
Ben is completely caught off guard.
BEN
Oh. Well... thanks.
(awkward, exiting)
Good night.
MARTY
Good night.