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tear from the other's cheek.

VALERIE (V.O.)
In 2006, I starred in "The Salt
Flats." That's where I met Ruth.
We fell in love.

We pull back and see we are on location for a movie and the
two women are being filmed.

INT. CONDO - NIGHT - FLASHBACK

Ruth and Valerie sit on the couch watching television. On
the table behind them is a bouquet of violet carson roses.

VALERIE (V.O.)
Every Valentine's Day she sent me
roses and, oh god, we had so much.
Those were the best three years of
my life.

The two women stare at the newscast in tears, the sound of
marching coming from the set's speakers.

VALERIE (V.O.)
In 2010, they came.

EXT. LONDON STREET - DAY - FLASHBACK

The sound of marching explodes as columns of men in brown
uniforms and jack boots fill the streets.

VALERIE (V.O.)
And after that there were no more
roses...

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM

Rossiter presses his elbow onto Evey's neck, holding her
submerged.

VALERIE (V.O.)
Not for anybody.

Rossiter lets Evey up. Her red burnt lungs gulp at the air.

VALERIE (V.O.)
After the takeover, they started
rounding up the gays. They took
Ruth while she was out looking for
food.

Evey blinks hard, black fireworks exploding in her eyes.

VALERIE (V.O.)
Why are they so frightened of us?

She wheezes, on the edge of unconsciousness.

VALERIE (V.O.)
They burned her face with
cigarettes and made her give them
my name. She signed a statement
saying I'd seduced her.

The interrogator's voice melts into a slag heap of sound with
the hot, rhythmic pounding in her ears.

VALERIE (V.O.)
I didn't blame her. God, I loved
her but I didn't blame her.

Rossiter uncuffs Evey, slipping the black bag over her head.

VALERIE (V.O.)
But she did.

Evey's knees buckle as he forces her to stand.

VALERIE (V.O.)
She killed herself in her cell.
She couldn't live with betraying
me, with giving up that last inch.
Oh, Ruth.

Evey weaves down the hall. Rossiter shoving her from behind.

VALERIE (V.O.)
They came for me. They shaved off
my hair. They held my head down a
toilet and told lesbian jokes.
They brought me here and pumped me
full of chemicals.

The cell door swings open.

VALERIE (V.O.)
I can't feel my tongue. I can't
speak.

Rossiter yanks the hood from her head and pushes her in.

VALERIE (V.O.)
It is strange that my life should
end in such a terrible place but
for three years I had roses and
apologized to nobody.

The iron door slams shut, lock ringing in the stale air.

VALERIE (V.O.)
I shall die here. Every inch of me
shall perish...

Evey rolls to her knees.

VALERIE (V.O.)
Except one.

She crawls for the rat hole.

VALERIE (V.O.)
An inch. It is small and fragile
and it's the only thing in the
world that's worth having.

Her shaking hand pulls the letter from the stone crevice.

VALERIE (V.O.)
We must never lose it or sell it or
give it away. We must never let
them take it from us.

Evey clutches it like a rosary as she begins to cry.

VALERIE (V.O.)
I don't know who you are but I hope
you escape this place. I hope that
the world turns and things get
better and that one day people have
roses again.

She holds the note to her face, her tears soaking into the
fragile paper.

VALERIE (V.O.)
I don't know who you are but I love
you. I love you. Valerie.

Slowly, Evey slips away, succumbing to blackness.

EVEY (V.O.)
I had come to know every inch of
those four walls in that dark hell
and they knew every inch of me.
Every inch...

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM

Loud lights blare against Evey's solemn face.

EVEY (V.O.)
Except one.

A typed document sits on a small tray table in front of her.

INTERROGATOR
"My name is Evey Hammond. On the
5th of November 2019, I was
abducted by the terrorist known as
codename V and then taken against
my will to an unknown location."

Rossiter hovers just behind her as the Interrogator reads her
confession.

INTERROGATOR
"Once there, I was systematically
brainwashed by means physical and
psychological. I was frequently
subjected to sexual abuse during
this period."

Evey's expression is unchanging.

INTERROGATOR
"Eventually I was terrorized into
helping him commit the murders of
Derek Almond, Dr. Delia Surridge,
and Anthony Lilliman, Bishop of
Westminster."

Rossiter drops a pen on the table.

INTERROGATOR
"I, the undersigned, swear that the
above statement is genuine and that
it was not signed by means of
intimidation."

The pen slowly rocks to a stop.

INTERROGATOR
We'd like you to sign that for us,
Miss Hammond. Where we've put the
little cross.

She blinks.

EVEY
No.

INTERROGATOR
As you wish.

Rossiter begins unbuckling Evey's restraints.

INTERROGATOR
Escort Miss Hammond back to her
cell, Rossiter, where she will wait
while you arrange a wet detail of
six men.

He forces Evey to her feet.

INTERROGATOR
Then take her out behind the
chemical sheds and shoot her.

INT. CELL

The door opens behind Evey as she rereads Valerie's letter
for the last time.

ROSSITER
It's time, unless you want to
change your mind.

She holds the tattered piece of toilet paper to her chest.

ROSSITER
Sign that statement. You could be
out inside three years. Perhaps
they'd find you a job with the
Finger.

Evey closes her eyes.

EVEY
Thank you but I'd rather die behind
the chemical sheds.

Her last words hang in the air.

ROSSITER
Then there's nothing left to
threaten you with, is there? You
are free.

He turns and leaves.

EVEY
What?

She listens as his footsteps fade down the hall, the door
hanging weirdly open.

Evey takes a few tentative steps toward the door and sticks
her head out into the empty hall, peering down both ways.

Slowly, she emerges from her cell, retracing her path down
the hall that her blindfold never allowed her to see.

Quietly inching along the wall, Evey peeks around a corner,
gasping at the rigid guard standing off to the side. There
is something about the man's frozen stare that keeps her from
running.

Evey straightens and crosses to the guard.

It is a mannequin.

She touches him, the wheeled platform he is mounted on
rolling back against the wall.

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM

The door creaks open as Evey enters the room where for so
long she was questioned and tortured.

She crosses to the frozen Interrogator sitting at his desk.

Her finger brushes lightly against the plastic hand, then
Evey raps a knuckle on his hollow wooden head. Around his
neck a small speaker hangs from a cord.

Evey drifts uneasily into a back room where a discarded
prison guard's uniform hangs on a rack. On a table next to a
wig and pair of gloves, the rat looks up at her through the
bars of its tiny cage.

She moves through another door, the wind suddenly knocked
from her chest as she finally sees where her prison was
built --

INT. SHADOW GALLERY

V steps from the shadows.

V
Welcome home, Evey.

EVEY
You...

Her mouth hangs open.

EVEY
You did this... to me.

Evey's rail thin figure begins to shake.

EVEY
You did this to me!

She stumbles against the wall, unable to support herself.

EVEY
You -- You hit me and -- and cut my
hair. It was you. It was just you
all this time.

She doubles over, covering her face as she bursts into tears.

EVEY
You tortured me. You tortured me --

Evey looks up at him, body shivering as he quietly glides
toward her.

EVEY
Oh god, why?

V
Because I love you, Evey. Because
I wanted to set you free.

EVEY
Love?

A look of horror twists her starved face.

EVEY
Set me free? Don't you realize?

Slender fingers ball into fists.

EVEY
Don't you realize what you did to
me? You nearly drove me mad!

Disgust and anger light up her eyes.

EVEY
I hate you.

Her little, wiry body coils tight as she circles him.

EVEY
I hate you! Set me free? You put
me in a prison to set me free?!

V
You were already in a prison.
You've been in a prison all your
life.

EVEY
Shut up! I don't want to hear it.
I wasn't in a prison. I was happy!
I was happy here --

V
Happiness is the most insidious
prison of all, Evey.

EVEY
That's warped! That's evil and
it's wrong! What gives you the
right to judge? Who are you to say
what's not good enough?!

V
You were born in a prison, Evey. I
didn't put you there. I just
showed you the bars. You've been
in a prison so long, you no longer
believe there's an outside world.

She wheels away from him, covering her ears, trying to get
away from his voice.

EVEY
Shut up! You're mad! I don't want
to hear it!

V
That's because you're afraid, Evey.
You're afraid because you can feel
freedom closing in on you. You're
afraid because freedom is
terrifying.

Evey falls, stumbling through the labyrinth of the Shadow
Gallery.

EVEY
I can't feel anything! There's
nothing left to feel! Don't you
understand?

V
Don't back away from it, Evey.
Part of you understands the truth
even as part pretends not to.

She collapses, head pounding.

V
Woman, this is the most important
moment in your life. Don't run
from it.

EVEY
I don't know what -- Oh god -- I
can't breathe --

V couches next to her.

V
Good. You're almost there. Go
closer. Feel the shape of it.

EVEY
What are you doing to me? I can't
breathe --

V
You were in a cell. They offered
you a choice between the death of
your principles and the death of
your body.

He cradles her as she hyperventilates, tears streaming down
her face.

EVEY
I feel -- I feel like I'm going to
burst.

V
You said you'd rather die. You
faced the fear of your own death
and you were calm. Try to feel now
what you felt then.

EVEY
Oh god -- I felt --

The mask hovers over her.

EVEY
Like an angel --

He squeezes her shuddering body.

EVEY
Oh god, V, I'm so scared. What's
happening to me?

V
The door of the cage is open, Evey.
All that you feel is the wind from
outside. Don't be afraid.

Gently, he lifts her.

V
Try to walk. The lift will take us
to the roof.

EVEY
The roof? Outside?

He helps her to an open elevator.

EVEY
I -- I don't want to be
blindfolded.

V
No, Evey. No more blindfolds.

The cage in the elevator rattles shut.

EXT. ROOF - NIGHT

The two figures stand in the door of the roof access, a
raging tempest oozing from a split sky.

Something draws Evey out into the storm.

Slowly, she walks beneath it, the wind and rain pounding
against her thin frame. Evey lets the coarse slipover fall
to the ground and stares straight up into the storm, naked,
the elements soaking into her very being.

V moves up behind her.

V
Do you feel it?

EVEY
Everything's so -- different.

V
I know. Five years ago, I too
stared beneath a night like this.
Naked under a roaring sky.

A low rumble of thunder washes over London.

V
The night is yours, Evey. Seize
it. Encircle it within your arms.

His words buffet against her with the sheets of rain.

V
Bury it in your heart up to the
hilt.

She raises her arms to embrace the raging torrent.

V
Become transfixed and
transfigured --

A jagged bolt of lightning shatters the sky.

V
Forever.

EXT. NEW GOVERNMENT BUILDING

Finch gets out of a police car and looks up the black face of
the modern building. He sighs and taps his pipe against the
heel of his shoe.

DASCOMBE
Finch!

Finch turns to find Dascombe hurrying towards him.

DASCOMBE
Do you know what this is all about?

FINCH
No, but I can guess.

DASCOMBE
What?

FINCH
"Remember, remember, the fifth of
November."

DASCOMBE
Oh come on. He's long gone. He
has to be. He did what he came to
do and it's over.

Finch chews on his pipe.

DASCOMBE
Isn't it?

FINCH
Not for us.

He turns and heads into the building.

FADE OUT.

FADE IN:

EXT. NEW GOVERNMENT BUILDING - DAY

A dark November sky hangs like a shroud over the building.

LEADER (V.O.)
A year, gentlemen.

INT. COUNCIL CONFERENCE ROOM

The heads of each department are gathered around a table of
black granite.

Peter Creedy, sitting back out of the lights, is the new head
of the Finger.

LEADER
I have given you almost a year and
you have given me nothing.
Nothing!

He glares at Finch.

DASCOMBE
Now Adam, there is no one better
than Finch and you know it.

LEADER
Yes, Mr. Dascombe, I do know it.
It is that very fact that keeps me
awake at night, wondering if
perhaps there is a reason that Mr.
Finch has failed.

FINCH
What are you saying?

LEADER
I'm