HE WAS A MONSTER, LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON - TODD & VIKI
Just before Todd’s second wedding to Blair, when she is pregnant with Starr, Todd is determined to find out about Victor Lord from Viki. He has tried before and her personalities prevented him from knowing the truth. This time in an amazing two scenes he finds out the monster his father was and is terrified he is the same and his daughter will be in jeopardy. I think Victor Lord appeared in Viki before she got a hold of herself and told Todd the truth about the abuse from their father. Todd’s reaction is total devastation at what Viki endured and the possibility that he could harm his daughter because of his genetics. Viki later at the crypt assures him he will not end up like their father and gives him hope in his future to marry Blair. She tells him to be happy. These two scenes are an incredible acting job on both ES & RH’s part, huge kudos. I miss the closeness of Todd & Viki, I don’t like the way their relationship is at present and I long for the old days between them.
TODD: Look, if you want me to leave, I’ll leave.
VIKI: (very hesitant) What.....what do you want?
TODD: Okay. Well look, this may be my only shot at happiness with....with Blair, I mean I....I don’t want to screw it up. I don’t even know if I can ask you for help.
VIKI: (evading) I don’t know if I can give you any help. What do you need?
TODD: I need to know about my father, about your father. But every time I even mention his name you totally wack out so I don’t know if I should ask.
VIKI: I don’t know what our father has to do with you getting married.
TODD: You told me that I was just like him and you didn’t mean a compliment when you said it, now I....I don’t know what you meant. But I feel if....if I knew more about him maybe I could avoid making his mistakes cause....cause he’s not somebody.....(he trails off) He’s not the kind man I want to be.
VIKI: (vehemently) No! No he was not the kind of man you would ever want to be. Not at all.
TODD: Just tell me about my father, that’s all.
Scene break
TODD: You told me that I was better off not knowing my father. You said life with Victor Lord was a living hell! Now what did you mean by that?
VIKI: You don’t want to know!
TODD: Try me.
VIKI: Todd, (she crosses up a few stairs) please you asked for my help, I’m giving it to you. This is it, just forget about your father, forget that.....
TODD: (cuts her off) Come on, Viki is that what you’re doing?
VIKI: Go, marry Blair and be happy!
TODD: Why do you think I’m here? There’s no way I could be happy with myself or with Blair until I know who I really am and what kind of a man my father was.
Scene break
TODD: When Blair and I get married tomorrow, I want it to work, I....I want the family, the marriage, the whole damn thing. And you see this Viki, (points to his scar) it’s just there, it’s always there, to remind me of....of my anger and that there is something broken and twisted inside of me and I want to get past the anger and I want to fix what’s broken, but how can I do that if I don’t know how I got here or how I got to be the way that I am. Now it doesn’t matter what you think of me, I am still your brother, now please help me.
VIKI: You don’t understand what you’re asking. You don’t realize what.....
TODD: (Viki takes a step up the stairs) Look, there’s nothing you can say that....that’s going to shock me. (impassioned) Now I need to know the truth about Victor!
VIKI: (half turns not facing him, music is ominous, lighting dark, she has turned into Victor Lord) Get out of my house! I have nothing to say to you.
(Todd’s eyes widen)
Scene break
VIKI: (as Victor Lord, threatening) Get out of my house. You are not wanted.
TODD: Viki, I know you in there somewhere. Okay, don’t let this.....guy take over, whoever he is. (reaches his hand out to her)
VIKI: Stay away.
TODD: Come on, Viki fight him. You can beat this, you can beat this. (music changes, Viki is back)
VIKI: (she comes to the bottom of the stairs quickly, extremely frightened) What happened?
TODD: (he can’t speak at first, a long pause) He was a monster, Victor Lord.
VIKI: (tears in her eyes) Yes, he was.
TODD: (not looking at her, afraid he knows the answer) What did he do to you?
VIKI: He abused me, sexually. (Todd whispers; “I’m sorry” tears in his eyes) He raped me. Starting when I was just a little girl. He raped me for years. (she clutches onto the bannister for support)
TODD: (Todd is devastated) Oh, God, like father, like son.
VIKI: Todd.
TODD: (he is crushed) Oh, God! It all makes sense now, every.... (he crosses to the door)
VIKI: Where are you going?
TODD: Well, I think it’s time I paid a visit to dear old dad. (he walks out the door, the camera follows him outside, an overhead shot shows him leaning against the door dazed, then slowly he stumbles off)
Later - Todd is in Victor Lord’s crypt
TODD:
(Todd is sitting on the floor of the crypt throwing stones at Victors tomb. He replays Viki’s confession of what their father did to her) Hell of a wedding present to find out you’re a chip off the old block. (throws stones more viciously, then gets up and slowly circles Victor’s tomb) I guess the Lord of the Banner left a few parts out, huh? Like how you raped your own daughter, I guess I’ll just publish, a revised edition, set the record straight. You and I, two of a kind, and to think you made my mother dump me so that you wouldn’t have a bastard running around ruining your good name. (Viki enters the doorway behind him)
VIKI:
Thought I’d find you here. (Viki looks uncomfortably at the tomb) Andrew called, they’re waiting for you at St. James, you’re going to be late for your wedding.
TODD: There isn’t going to be a wedding. (he puts his wedding ring on the tomb) Not today, not any day.
Scene break
VIKI: (Viki approaches tomb slowly, Todd watches her, she reaches out shakily then picks up his ring) You told me last night how happy you and Blair were that you were going to be married, this is all because of what I told you about my father.....
TODD: Our father. (looks at Viki) Our father, the rapist.
VIKI: I should never have said anything, I’m sorry.
TODD: You don’t need to be sorry. You’re not the one who dragged his own daughter to bed. Look, I’m glad that you told me. I was starting to think that caring about somebody was going to make me into some kind of a decent human being. (quietly) No way. Not with his blood running through my veins. (points to the tomb)
VIKI: Todd!
TODD: Look, I’m a rapist. Like father, like son. Blair and I are expecting baby, you know that?
VIKI: You told me, that’s wonderful.
TODD: She thinks it’s going to be a girl. And that....(he cannot finish the thought and walks away) I just...just need to stay away. (he sits looking lost) We can’t get married.
VIKI: Why?
TODD: Look, I don’t have a great track record, Viki, okay? What if I wind up like the old man? What if something should happen to my own daughter?
Scene break
VIKI: (she is sitting with him) You’re afraid of losing control, I know that. Two of my alters are extremely violent, one of them burned my house down, tried to destroy the Banner. If I didn’t believe that there was hope, that I would be able to control them, I wouldn’t be here at all, Todd, I would have myself put away permanently so I could never hurt anyone again.
TODD: Well, what makes you so sure that there’s hope?
VIKI: Well, my doctor said she’s seen proof of it with other patients. But I have to learn to do is accept these ‘others’ as a part of me and then eventually I will be able to control them, and it’s too bleak not to believe.
TODD: But, you and I are not the same. I mean with all your wacky parts you’re still basically a good person. I’m totally poisoned by the old man’s genes.
VIKI:
No, because I had a mother, who was kind and good and loving, very much like my friend Irene, your mother.
TODD: (little surprised) She was a sweet woman, huh?
VIKI: Yes, she was, very. (she stands, crosses and looks down at the tomb)
TODD: (he sighs, looking at her) You’re a very strong woman, Viki. What he did to you was the sickest thing anybody could ever do to a kid.
VIKI: (crying) He said he loved me. He said he only loved me, and what he did to me was just the sickest anyone could do.
TODD: (he stands quietly) I’m sorry, Viki.
VIKI: So am I, Todd, so am I. (she cries in her hands, he puts his hand on her shoulder in comfort)
Scene break
VIKI: Despite the awful man that he was, and despite the damage that he did to me and to you, I still believe that murder under any circumstance is immoral, is wrong and whoever did it, whoever killed him is held accountable.
TODD: Yeah, well I could care less, the way I see it, the man lived too long.
VIKI: He’s gone Todd, he’s gone. (impassioned) And all I can do now is try my damnest not to let what he did to me destroy the rest of my life. The worst is over, thank God, and I have faced it and you have too. And you even have the chance to make up what he did to you with your own child.
TODD: But what if I just screw up another kid?
VIKI: Do think that C.J and Sarah are screwed up?
TODD: No, they’re great kids.
VIKI: Well, their mother, your sister, has the same parents that you have and carries the same genes inside her. Now whatever you think of Tina, she’s not evil, she’s not violent. She’s loving and she’s kind and she’s basically good. And she’s managing to raise two really wonderful kids. (he looks lost) So can you. So can you. (she crosses to the entrance) Todd, leave this place, leave him behind you. Go get married. Let yourself be happy with Blair and your baby. Believe in yourself. (he looks up at her, there is hope on his face)
