Original subtitles

Unfortunately, yours is one of them.

Just admitting that helps.

But admitting it isn't enough. You have to take action. And more than that, you

have to take the right action. And then you have to continue to take the right

action.

How do you know if it's the right action?

It works.

And if it doesn't work, you try again.

And again.

Because... Look, no matter how much experience you have as a parent, no

what all the books say, no matter what all the experts say, sometimes in spite

of all your informed decisions, in spite of all your best efforts and all your

love and support, that kid that you love will still continue down the very path

that you know is leading to trouble.

Because that kid is a person, and every person has a certain amount of free

will.

Are you saying it's my job to straighten this kid out?

Or are you saying it's her job to be responsible for herself?

What I'm saying is, you have to quit talking to yourself and go home and have

dinner.

When I see their happy faces smiling back at me, seven

heavens, I know there's no greater feeling than the love of family.

Where can you go when the world don't treat

you right? The answer is home.

one place that you'll find seven seven

seven seven seven seven

What's for dinner? Oh, just another chicken.

Is that okay?

Oh, just another chicken is perfect.

Are you still depressed about Mary?

Yes, I am.

And if I don't figure out where Mary got the money to pay her bills, I'm going

to stay depressed.

I know. The more I cleaned today, the nuttier I got. I thought by now the

of Mary's money would be revealed, so I just kept trying to let it go until that

revelation.

Unfortunately, the more I tried, the nuttier I got.

I can't let it go. Neither can I. I have a feeling that wherever that money came

from will give us some huge insight about Mary.

Or I hope that. But I hope I'm not just hoping against all hope.

I don't even know when all of this started.

What's worrying me is where it's all going to end.

And yet, I'm tired of worrying. I'm tired of being nuts.

I'm tired of being depressed.

We should lift our moods up, both of us.

Why don't I call the Hamiltons and ask them over for, you know, coffee and

dessert? We could talk to them. That always helps. Yes.

Talking will help. Yep.

As well as figuring out where that money came from.

Can't let it go.

Can't. Just can't.

Is Mary home?

She went out at lunchtime. She hasn't been back.

Where do you think she goes? I mean, she can't possibly be looking for a job all

the time.

You'll be happy to know we changed movies today.

Yeah. Thrilled.

You need some help?

I didn't mean to stay at the library so long. I didn't realize what time it was.

I'm just so anxious to get my midterm done.

I thought you had another week.

I do have another week.

I just think I write better when I let something sit for a couple of days and

then go back for a final polish.

It's like when we finish a house.

Me and my habitat friends just sit there in awe that we've done it again.

The next day, we go back and add a few things that make it special.

I just want to do my best work. It's my senior year.

Thank you.

I forgot to ask. Is Mary home for dinner?

Oh, I haven't heard from her yet.

Mom, I'm sure she's just out there looking for a job.

Yeah, are you sure?

I hope. I hope she's just out there looking for a job.

And not doing what?

I don't know.

And none of you know where she got the money to catch up with her bills?

The answer is still no.

She said someone owed her a paycheck.

And the new job at the bookstore, what happened there?

It fell through, I guess. I'm not sure.

I don't know where she got the money, but I'm pretty sure she didn't rob a

Only pretty sure?

Dad, come on.

I just find it strange that she hasn't tried to borrow from the Bank of Simon.

Well,

she may have approached me.

And? And I didn't give her any of my money.

What about you guys?

Papa. Have you loaned your big sister any money?

What was that?

Ruthie. Did Ruthie loan her any money?

You'd have to ask Ruthie. I'm asking you.

I'm sorry.

I'm just worried about Mary.

We're all worried about Mary.

Hello? Matt, it's Mom.

How are you?

I'm fine. I was just going out the door.

I've been calling you all week.

Well, I've been working and studying.

And studying and working.

I'm on my way out to study now. I won't keep you. I just want to ask you a

question.

Last week, it looked like Mary was behind with all her bills, and then

she had cash.

Did you loan her any money?

Where would I get any money?

Well, you work.

Yes.

I work to pay bills, and I pay my bills.

Do you think Simon loaned her the money? Simon says he didn't loan her the

money.

Where could she have gotten it?

Could she be telling the truth? Could someone have owed her a check from work?

I doubt it.

I've already asked her former employers and no one owed her money.

Well, it's not Matt. It's not Lucy.

Or Simon.

You don't think she ate your dad up for money, do you?

Dad, are you okay?

I don't know. I forget.

What?

Just a little Alzheimer's joke, honey. I'm fine.

I just jogged a couple of miles.

Really? Yes, really.

How are you? I'm fine.

You don't sound fine. I can hear it in your voice.

Is everything okay with Eric and the kids?

It's Mary, isn't it?

It seems like she suddenly came into some money. Not a lot of money, but

money to pay her bills. And I was just wondering if you loaned her any money.

Not that I can remember.

Dad, I'm serious.

Ginger is controlling all the finances, so don't you worry about my doing

anything crazy like bailing Mary Mary quite contrary out of whatever debt

in.

You know, I'd love to help her, but not like that.

Thanks, Dad.

Let me know if there's anything...

No, it wasn't him.

You do realize you hung up on him?

Oh, no. I told you I'm nuts.

Hello. Dad, I'm sorry I hung up on you. Who is this?

Dad, it's me. It's Annie. I just talked to you.

Did you?

Dad, yes.

I know.

I know.

I just couldn't resist. If you're going to have a diagnosis, you might as well

use it for something.

Goodbye. I love you.

Goodbye.

Love you.

I called my dad, too.

She hit him up for money while he was here, but he didn't give it to her.

You don't think her little buddies Frankie or Johnny gave it to her, do

they can't afford it. You know what pot costs these days?

What about John?

That's good.

Hello? I thought you were going to the library.

I am.

Did you call to check?

No. I want to talk to John.

Well, he's not home. But I'll be happy to tell him that my mother called.

What? Do you think he could have loaned Mary the money?

No. Are you sure?

I'm sure John wouldn't do that.

Well, could you just ask him anyway?

I will ask him anyway.

When he gets home.

It wasn't John.

Heather. Maybe it was Heather. No, I talked to her at class.

She hasn't even heard from Mary.

I want to confess.

I loaned Mary the money.

I gave her $20 and she paid me back.

Mary needed more than $20.

And she would have gone to Ruthie last, not first.

Which means she did hit up the other kids.

I did it.

Satisfied? Good job. But this isn't going to hold them for long. They're

to keep digging until they find out.

We were all stupid to think we could get away with this.

Calm down.

They're not going to find out.

Have you noticed anything missing from the house?

No. And I think it's totally creepy to think that she might steal something

the house.

On the other hand, it's nice to think that we have anything that's worth any

money.

Uh -huh. How about Hank and Julie? Maybe they laundered money.

Hello?

Hi, Julie, it's Annie. How are you? I'm fine. Good to hear from you.

How's Hank?

Oh, Hank is fine.

Just getting ready to have dinner. It's Annie. Hank says hello.

No, I didn't.

Um, Erica?

Oh, the baby's crying.

Did you guys loan Mary any money?

No. No, no, we didn't. What didn't we do? We didn't loan Mary any money.

No.

No.

They didn't. I didn't think they did.

Annie?

Did we get cut off? No, no.

You haven't noticed anything valuable missing from your house, have you?

No, we haven't.

She hung up again?

Are we missing anything valuable?

The only thing we have of value is our daughter. And I can hear her breathing.

Let's eat.

Has it really come to this?

Interrogating family and friends to find out where our daughter's getting money?

I tell you, it's making me nuttier than a fruitcake.

Robbie.

He works. He has a job. He has money.

He loaned her the money.

I don't think so.

Why don't you think so?

Well, I've paid him a visit.

And he's back with his old girlfriend. And as Robbie says, you've seen my

girlfriend. I want to live.

But he lies. We know he lies.

I hate to say it, but I think he's telling the truth. And I think that it's

lovely bunch of coconuts here who are lying.

All of them.

Matt, Lucy, Simon, Ruthie.

Sam and David would jump in if they could.

You think they're all lying? All of them? Yes, I do.

But Ruthie just ran in here and confessed.

That was a smokescreen.

That's what that was.

She's right. They're on to us.

We've only got 24 hours to get the money back in the bank. Mom always puts it on

the same day every month.

We have to move quickly.

Do you really think they're that devious?

I think they're that protective.

And they love Mary. They don't want to see her in any trouble.

I love Mary, too.

As do I. And we don't want to see her in any trouble.

But truth is, she is in trouble.

And we have to do something about it.

And the question is, what are we going to do?

And how soon are we going to do it?

Thanks for coming over. Sorry we never got together this summer. We kept

meeting, too. Hey, we were busy all summer, too.

So good to see you guys.

How are the kids?

Well, Lynn's doing great. She's practically a grown woman. She's the

we have.

And Ruthie?

Oh, she's not easy, but she's doing well in school.

We just transferred her to Eleanor Roosevelt.

Yeah, she seems to really love school, and she's challenged by it.

It is such a joy when a kid loves to learn.

Keisha, she's taking courses at a junior college while she's finishing up her

requirements for senior year of high school.

Oh, well, Lucy is determined to make her senior year the best year ever.

Yeah, she and a friend are, they're doing like a buddy system for applying

colleges early. She did well on her SAT. She's got an excellent grade point

average.

And John?

Well, sending him away to college that first year was the best thing we ever

did. Well, no, we didn't send him away. He maneuvered that one on his own. Yeah,

yeah, and he slipped up on his own, too. But he came back with a vengeance. He

made up his mind he wasn't going to fail again, and he hasn't.

He's been good for Matt, and we're not really sure that Matt will actually get

into med school, but we love that he's taken up the challenge and he finally

a goal and a job that he's held for more than a year.

Who would have thought?

How's Nigel?

Fine.

And Mary?

Oh, yeah, she's... Well, yeah.

She's... Mary?

Hello?

Matt? Luz?

Why did you answer the phone like that?

I keep forgetting I'm picking up the phone, and every time I do, it's Mom.

What's going on? Why haven't you called me? You know I couldn't call there.

You could if you used your girly voice.

Really? Really.

No. This is the first opportunity I've had. Mom and Dad are downstairs with the

Hamiltons. Why are they with the Hamiltons? I don't know, but they never

company on a school night.

Mom made a cake, a chocolate cake, on a Monday night.

Whatever they called him for, it's something big.

Where's Mary?

That's the million -dollar question.

No one knows where she is.

No one ever knows where she is, and whenever she comes home, she just claims

that she's been out looking for a job.

I thought she'd have a job by now. In fact, I thought she'd have a paycheck by

now, and I thought she would have put the money back in the baby banks by now.

At least some of it. Look, I think they're on to us.

I don't think they know where we got the money, but I think they're on to us,

and we have to get some cash into those piggy banks, and we have to do it ASAP.

I don't have any cash, and I'm in the middle of studying for a test.

Look, I don't have time for this.

I don't have time for this either. I have a paper to write.

I don't know why we're yelling at each other when we should be yelling at Mary.

We can't yell at Mary. We can't find her.

Thank you.

One.

You're going to see that again?

Yeah, it was funny. Do you have a problem with that?

No, I was just thinking that if you're planning to see this one every day this

week like the last one, you might want to give yourself 24 hours between

screenings. Just give me the ticket.

I can't. It's five bucks.

But I just saw it for a buck.

Yeah, that's the day rate. At night, it's five bucks.

If it's already started, I'm going to want a refund.

I'll just put some coffee on and then we can take a peek at the boys.

I hate it. I've been so busy. I haven't spent any time with those boys.

Doesn't it seem like time speeds up? They should get older.

I'm so sorry Mary's given you such a hard time.

Oh, honey.

Well, it helps to talk about it. I feel better. I really do.

I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but you know it's the truth.

You shouldn't wait to do something.

Do it now.

I know I've said it to parents myself, but when it comes to my own kids, it's

just so hard to act because it's so unbelievable.

My girl, who excelled in school for 12 years and was a champion basketball

player, is falling completely apart.

She may be coming undone, but she's not undone yet.

Where could she have gotten that money? I have no idea.

Hey, honey.

Ooh.

Eric!

I think I just found out where Mary got the money.

You know what? We're going to let ourselves out.

This has nothing to do with Mary.

I've been taking money out of their banks for practically their whole lives.

Go on. We're listening.

I was just filling the bank up with rest so you wouldn't notice it was empty.

I'm going to fill this other one.

I'll pay him back. I promise.

You stole $500 from your own brothers? From babies? I'm sorry. I'm really

Punish me any way you want.

And just what did you do with the money?

Uh, I bought a horse.

What's going on? What does it look like?

Your ten -year -old sister's lying about stealing money so the four of you can

cover up for Mary.

Is that it?

Is that the truth?

No, you're wrong. I took it.

I'm very bad. I'm a very bad girl.

No, you're not, Ruthie. I'm a very bad big brother for letting this happen.

Mary asked us all for money.

No one had as much as she needed, so we took it from Sam and David's banks.

Gave it to her. She was supposed to get a job this week and start paying it

back. She's broke.

They went and took her car, they canceled her insurance, and we felt

her.

Go downstairs and take a seat in the living room.

We'll be down in a minute.

pathetic. Really pathetic.

What are we going to do?

We're going to talk to our children.

We're going to ask them what they know and how they feel.

And then we're all going to confront Mary when she comes home.

And then?

I don't know.

But I have an idea.

I heard a car.

Why

is

everyone in the living room?

We're waiting on you.

Sit down. We all have something to say to you. And what if I don't want to sit

down?

What is this? One of your creepy interventions?

No.

No. It's a...

Not an intervention. In fact, we may be inventing something new here.

It's kind of a... prevention.

We just want you to hear what we have to say.

No, I'm going to my room.

Mary, if you go to your room, we're all going to your room.

Because we all feel that you're too close to getting into some real trouble

not to hear us out.

We're your family. We love you.

Buck, if this is about the money... Sit down.

I was taught that life is a school and some lessons are harder than others.

What I've learned over this past year is that you aren't as strong and

determined to succeed at this school of life as I thought and so I haven't given

you as much help as I now realize you need.

I talked to the manager of the pool hall and you must have known I would. You

told me that you quit.

He told me that you were consistently late, had a bad attitude and were on the

phone too much so he had to let you go.

I talked to Pete at Pete's Pizza.

You told me business fell off and he had to let you go. He told me that he let

you go because he knew you were hanging out after work with Frankie and Johnny,

drinking beer with them. He was afraid they were a bad influence on you and he

was worried about your drinking and then driving home.

Oh, please.

I talked to Sergeant Michaels.

He told me that you were pulled over for not stopping at a stop sign and he said

that the officer who issued you that warning ticket

was worried that you'd been drinking.

He was afraid he hadn't done you any favor.

I'm afraid he didn't do you any favor either.

None of us has.

I don't know.

We just kept looking the other way because I don't think we wanted to see

truth.

And the truth is, Mary, that we just love you so much.

You're a wonderful young woman, and you have a lot to offer to the world.

You're really special.

You're really kind.

And I love the way you just love life.

But again, life has some hard lessons to learn. And I think I'd rather confront

you tonight than continue to let you learn those lessons on your own.

Now, I know that you know your two new friends, Frankie and Johnny, smoke pot

and drink, and that they're irresponsible.

Do you also know that he hits her?

They have serious problems.

And we don't want their serious problems to become your serious problems.

I'm sure you haven't forgotten that you're still on probation.

If you get arrested for drunk driving or possession of marijuana, you could go

to jail.

I can't let you go to jail, Mary.

I can't.

Especially not because you're just mixed up about what you want to do in life.

You know, I thought if we gave you some time to figure that out, maybe you

would. But I'm afraid time's up.

I think in trying to find yourself, you've actually lost yourself.

You're not the first person that's had that happen, but before you get too lost

and confused, we want to help.

I was hoping that you would ask for our help, but maybe that's just too hard for

you to do right now.

You must know how much I love you, Mary.

I really do.

I love you.

I'm sorry I haven't been around much.

You're important to me.

What happens to you is important to me. What happens to you is important to

everyone in the family.

But I've been watching you, and I really haven't been interested in being a part

of what's going on in your life.

So I've pretty much avoided you, and maybe I should have cornered you and

you my take on what you're doing a lot sooner.

I see so many young women who are losers, mostly in the emergency room or

checking into drug rehab at the hospital.

I don't want you to be a loser.

It's too easy to be the bad girl. You're better than that.

I know I'm not perfect.

I know I don't have all the answers, but I can tell you this.

The most powerful thing I ever did for myself was to make up my mind to become

responsible person.

And I still haven't built up to being responsible 24 hours a day, but I'm

getting better at it.

And I'm hoping sharing this with you will help you to just make up your mind

become a responsible person.

If you can't do it for yourself, maybe you could consider the rest of us and

much we need you to be responsible.

Whatever you do affects us all. I know you know that, yet you act like you

care.

All of us have to strive to be the best we can be.

Not because anything less is unacceptable, but because anything less

misery.

I can see you're miserable.

You are.

This is not the best you can be. You can do better.

I want you to do better. I'll do anything I can to help you do better.

You just have to make up your mind that's what you want to do, and I'm

you. We all are.

We love you.

I love you.

I love you, too.

This is hard.

Okay, I want to do this.

You're my big sister.

I might look up to you.

Or I did.

You've always been better at school than I am. You've always been better at

everything than I am.

And that at times has made me feel inferior.

Yet most of the time, it's given me something to work toward.

Because I wanted to be like you.

But I don't want to be like you anymore.

And I can only say that because I know that you don't want to be like you.

You don't want to get fired from one bad job after another.

You don't want to lie to Mom and Dad and the rest of us.

You don't want to have bill collectors calling trying to find you.

That's not you.

You're that tall, beautiful, smart woman with a basketball in her hands and a

brain in her head.

I know you don't play basketball anymore, but maybe you could, or maybe

could play some other sport.

Because... It seems that when the team went down, you went down with it.

Basketball has always been your identity.

And maybe having the team fall apart may have caused you to lose your identity

for a while, but come on.

You're more than a former high school basketball player. You're an athlete.

And that's an identity you can use your whole life.

You need to compete. You need to be physical.

You need the discipline of training. You thrive on all that stuff.

No one's locking you out of every sport in the community.

You have to get back out there, and I'm willing to help you in any way I can.

But I think this is something you have to do on your own.

You can do it. You've come from behind to win before.

And you've still got what it takes to be a winner.

If that's what you want, I mean.

Okay, I think that's all I wanted to say.

Wait.

I did say I love you, didn't I?

I know I'm known as the Bank of Simon, and you all laugh at that, but...

Here's what I like about money.

It tells you right who you are in numbers.

Not words that can hurt your feelings or make you mad.

Numbers are undisputed facts.

And the fact is, your numbers say trouble.

It's simple. You don't make as much as you spend.

and you don't make enough to meet your obligations.

You'd see that if you looked at the numbers.

But I know you don't like to do that.

But you have to.

I can help you set up a budget and a payment schedule if you want, but even

you don't want, take my advice.

Don't spend anything else until you pay off your debt, and then don't get into

debt again.

And the first thing you have to pay off is your personal debt.

The money you owe Sam and David.

Now, I know a lot of people would put that off to last, and maybe a

finance guy would tell you to pay your institutional lenders first.

But I'm your brother.

And I'm telling you that morally the right thing to do is to pay people

especially relatives.

And when you see that little column of debt Mark, Sam, and David reaches zero

balance, that zero is going to say right who you are, just like I said.

It's going to say that you, Mary Camden, care more about your family than

anything else.

It's going to say that you keep your promises to your family more than anyone

else. And when you start seeing the rest of those little columns of debt go down

week after week, the page is going to tell the facts of your debt recovery.

a beautiful thing.

And I want you to have a beautiful thing.

Because I love you.

I must be at the wrong meeting.

I don't know where all this chummy advice and gushy stuff is coming from.

Because I thought we were off to tell you how mad we are. I'm mad.

Really mad.

Selfish. You don't care anything about the rest of us.

So I don't know why we're all supposed to care so much about you.

You act like you're the center of the entire Camden universe.

I'm tired of eating a cold dinner every night because we're all hoping you'll

come home and eat with us. I'm tired of you waking me up every night when you

clump up those stairs.

I'm tired of Mom and Dad fighting about you.

I'm tired of covering for you.

And I'm not doing it anymore.

You made me lie to Mom and Dad.

You never came home to have pizza with me like you promised.

All you care about is you.

Matt.

Lucy. Simon.

Would you go upstairs with Ruthie?

I can't take much more of it.

Yeah, that's exactly how your father and I feel.

Look, I get it, all right?

I'll do better.

No, Mary, I don't think you do get it.

See, that was the portion of the program I would rate G for general audiences.

Now we're moving on to the adult stuff that your mother and I wanted to talk

about with you alone.

I searched your room, found this.

Okay, so you found a joint, but it hasn't been lit. I haven't smoked any of

But why else would you have it except to smoke it?

And where'd you get it?

From Frankie and Johnny? You're not supposed to be hanging out with Frankie

Johnny. And how long have you had it?

Too many questions? Too fast? Can't think of a lie?

How about Frankie must have borrowed your jacket and left it in there. But

when? Life gets so complicated when you don't tell the truth.

I can't believe you searched my room.

Are you communists? I have rights, you know. I guess I just can't explain this

often enough.

A right is something that can never be taken away from you.

For example, you have the right to be indignant now, and I can't take that

But privacy, well, privacy is a privilege when you live with your

And privileges get taken away.

Now, we knew you were headed for trouble.

But we had no idea that you were this far down the road.

I'm not in trouble.

It depends on your definition of trouble, I suppose.

When Hank and Julie told us about your babysitting fiasco, they told us you had

your friend's baby at their house and there was a beer sitting on the table. I

don't know. That sounds like trouble.

I think having a joint is trouble.

Have you tried smoking marijuana?

Well, even if I did, what is so wrong with just experimenting?

I mean, what's the harm in just trying it?

Everyone is going to try it sometime.

First of all, not everyone.

For example, not me. And secondly, let me see if I can answer the what's the

harm question.

I suppose for some people, nothing ever comes to the fact that they tried

smoking pot.

But for other people, plenty.

comes from the fact that they tried smoking pot.

Lifelong illegal habit.

The need to try other harder drugs. Addiction to those drugs.

Arrest. Conviction.

Jail time. Those kinds of things.

The question really is, to which people do you belong?

There's no way of knowing.

But experimenting to find out... That's quite a risk, don't you think?

I think it is.

especially for someone who's on probation.

Mary, we've given this a lot of thought.

We see that you don't know what to do for yourself, and we're not surprised.

It took us a long time to come up with a plan ourselves.

A plan?

I know that the colonel offered to help you, and you turned him down. We have

decided to accept. What are you talking about?

We're talking about Winter in Buffalo. That's what we're talking about.

Your grandparents are finding that George's real father has taken up a lot

his time and they now have enough free time to focus on you. What?

I don't know if you've noticed lately, but you have six brothers and sisters.

You've gotten more than our fair share of attention and energy. We have to do

what's best for everyone.

So what is best for everybody is to ship me off to Siberia to live with old

people? Yep, that's basically it.

You'll live with your grandparents.

George will move into the guest house with his dad for the time being.

You'll work at the community center for the homeless with your first couple of

paychecks going to Sam and David.

Then starting in January, you and Grandma Ruth will take a course together

the community college there.

Okay. What are my other choices?

You don't have any other choices.

We're taking you to the airport. You're catching the red -eye to New York

tonight. What about my car?

As of today, the car's in my name.

We'll keep making the payments until...

We decide to do something else.

And what am I going to drive in Buffalo?

It really is the least of my worries.

Once he feels he can trust you, I'm sure the colonel will make you a deal on

driving his Impala.

It's a classic.

Yeah, and what if I say no?

What if I don't want to do this? What if I am not going to do this?

You tell us.

You come up with a better plan before it's time to leave for the airport, and

we'll consider it.

I put two suitcases in your room.

We're pulling out of the driveway at nine.

I thought I told you to stay out of here.

Look, I'm going to be out soon enough, and then you can have the whole place to

yourself.

Please don't leave like this.

How did you think I was going to leave?

I am being sent off to live with the Colonel and Grandma Ruth in Buffalo.

You know what Buffalo is like and you know what they're like.

What made you think I was going to be happy, huh?

What? I didn't know anything about it, okay?

And maybe Mom and Dad are more concerned with your safety than your happiness.

Get out!

Is that how you're going to say goodbye?

Yeah.

This is how I'm going to say goodbye.

And you can tell the rest of them to stay out of here because I don't want to

talk to any of you!

Mary's really, really angry at us.

I know, and I don't care. I'd rather have an angry kid than a dead kid.

Just tell me that we're doing the right thing again.

We're doing the right thing.

She needs to be somewhere safe. She'll be somewhere safe. The Colonel and Ruth

can provide a safe environment.

And we can't?

Evidently, we live close to her new friends, and her friends work in our

community, so it's not that safe around here.

Besides, sometimes it's easier to start fresh in a new place, and it's not

really Siberia, you know.

I mean, they have a beautiful home with a security system.

George's dad was in the CIA, so he's probably much better at espionage than

are.

She loved going there as a kid.

But should we really push our problems off on someone else? Shouldn't we try to

do this ourselves?

Do what?

What are we going to try that we haven't already tried? I don't know, but there

must be something.

Maybe, but... I feel like a surgeon who's been asked to invent a life

surgery for his own daughter.

You know, it's best if someone more objective gives it a shot.

My dad is really great at working with undisciplined kids who need a stern,

loving force in their lives.

Despite the fact that Mary is his own granddaughter, believe me, he can be a

more objective than either one of us.

I know. I just needed to hear you say all of this again, and you may have to

it one more time as we drive away from the airport.

I'll say it as many times as you need to hear it.

I really do think that this is the best thing for Mary, and...

for our family right now. And I feel very fortunate that my parents are

to do this.

Mom feels it'll be good for them too.

They've been kind of winning themselves off George because George and his dad

are doing so well and the Colonel and Ruth are feeling a little less needed

right now.

Well, they won't be feeling that way for long.

I'll meet you at the car.

Mary wouldn't just leave without saying goodbye to her brothers and sisters,

would she?

Don't be surprised if she gets on the plane without even saying goodbye to us.

I hate this.

I have to say I don't.

I feel relieved that we're doing something.

And it's the right thing, Annie.

In my heart of hearts, I know this is the right thing.

Then I'm with you.

Okay.

Let's go.

She's a real piece of work. I can't believe she didn't say goodbye.

We should be back in about an hour.

Ruthie, you should go to bed. I'll come in and check on you when we get home.

Good luck.

Yeah, good luck.

I'll stick around until you get back.

A real piece of work.

It feels so weird.

It's like there's this big empty space in the house and she's not even gone

She might not have said goodbye, but she's gone.

It's hard to believe.

Really sad.

Who wants cake?

You

were

right.

I didn't know how to get myself out of trouble.

I actually tried praying for some way to get out of the mess I was in.

If this is the answer to my prayers, then I'm never praying about anything

again.

Oh,

don't blame your father.

He didn't do this alone. I did it too.

Forget it. I know it was his idea.

Time to go.

I love you.

Just remember what you always said. It's better to have an angry kid than a dead

kid. This is the right thing to do.

I know you know in your heart of hearts.

This is the right thing to do.