Synopsis of Flushed
Written by TK
Max is walking her bike through a crowd. Her narration tells us that most of the time she doesn't have trouble fitting in with the masses, but since she was made by humans, somewhere along the line they made a mistake, some wires got crossed, and she's not perfect. She shows up at an Asian herbal stand and greets the woman working there familiarly. The woman tells Max she's in luck, and hands her a bottle of pills. She says that this stuff is getting hard to find. Max is obviously not feeling well, and immediately downs some of the pills. The woman asks her why she seems like she scored a hit of some serious drug when it's just a tryptophan, a food supplement. Max blows it off with a slick comment and pays the woman. Max's pager beeps.
Max shows up at Logan's apartment where he's setting up a nice dinner with candles. He asks if she wants to join him for dinner. She says she's not really hungry. He offers her a glass of wine. She says she's not feeling well and doesn't need wine. The lights go out. Logan says now she has to stay because even she shouldn't be out in a brown-out. They get to talking about the pulse, and Logan talks about how he was on his dad's yacht when the pulse hit. Max says she was staying in a foster home with an abusive father, and when the TV went out he wanted to take it out on his daughter and foster kid, so she and her "sister" were hiding under the stairs. Logan says it's hard to imagine a killing machine like Max putting up with something like that. Max says she was trying not to draw undue attention to herself. Anyway, she used the post-pulse chaos as a good opportunity to ditch her foster family. Logan can now see Max shaking, and asks her if she's okay. She says the seizures are much stronger lately, and the tryptophan isn't helping like it usually does. He offers to call a doctor, but she points out that he couldn't exactly explain what's wrong. As her seizures get stronger, she asks him to just stay with her. He promises not to leave her.
Kendra can't find the money they collected from all the residents of their illegal apartment building to pay off Walter the cop. She thinks they might have been robbed. Max comes home and tersely informs Kendra and Walter that she took the money 'cause she had to buy something and Walter will get it the next day. Walter makes idle threats and leaves. Kendra can't believe Max just took the money like that and doesn't seem to care.
Max shows up at work. Sketchy tells her they've been making excuses for her lateness. She tells Normal she overslept. Normal says he thought she didn't sleep. She says she guesses her body needed to catch up.
Max goes over to Original Cindy and asks if she can borrow some money. Cindy is pissed off because Max stood her up last night. Max says she wasn't feeling well. When Cindy is still upset, Max lashes out at her, saying to lay off it. She asks Cindy for a loan again. Cindy says she doesn't have the money to lend.
Two thugs are shakin' down money from a little Asian food stand. One thug is threatening to burn the proprietor's hand if he doesn't get his money. The other thug is waiting in the nice shiny S.U.V. Max walks by and the thug in the car winks at her. When she smiles back, he asks her to come over to the car. She walks over and he asks her her name. She says it's kinda silly, so she has to whisper it. She gets close to him so she can whisper, and then bonks her head into his. She throws him out of the car and drives away.
At a garage, Max is trying to sell off the car. She can only get $1,000 for it, and the garage guy can only give her the money in the morning.
Max gets home and Kendra and Original Cindy are waiting for her. She says she'll have the money in the morning and heads straight for the bathroom looking for her pills in the medicine cabinet. Kendra and Original Cindy tell her that she won't find her pills in there. They flushed them down the toilet. She has a problem, and she needs to face it, and they'll help her. They think that Max's moodiness and stealing money are a sign of being addicted to drugs. Kendra says she knows that 12-step programs work because she went through one when she was addicted to tattoos. Max, when she realizes that she really doesn't have any pills left, leaves the apartment. Kendra and Original Cindy congratulate each other on an intervention well done.
Max walks through the street, obviously not feeling well. She gets to her Asian herb stand and tells the woman she needs more tryptophan and she doesn't have any money. The woman says she knows Max is good for the money, but she doesn't have any more. Max asks her where she gets it. The woman doesn't want to let Max know her source, but when Max grabs her threateningly, she admits she gets it from an orderly at the hospital.
At the hospital, Max breaks into the dispensary closet and finds some tryptophan which she hurriedly swallows. Meanwhile, and orderly in the hallway notices that someone is sneaking around in the dispensary closet and calls security. Max almost escapes, but a couple security men manage to grab her arms and subdue her. The orderly curses those durn junkies.
Kendra butters up Walter and then tells him she doesn't have the money. Walter calls for backup to get rid of squatters.
The cops are kicking everyone out of the illegal apartment building. Kendra is explaining to a neighbor that Max took the money and now she's disappeared. The neighbor says that doesn't sound like Max. Kendra hopes she'll be able to crash with Original Cindy for awhile.
Max is waiting to be processed. A jolly stranger who is also waiting offers her a handkerchief to clean herself up. She rudely rejects it. She gets her mug shots taken, gets her fingerprints taken, and then has her personal belongings removed and stored. She almost picks a fight with the cop when he says she had $21 on her and she actually had $75. The stranger comes to her rescue with an insult for the cop that takes his attention away from Max.
The delivery people at Max's job are complaining about a package that smells bad. Logan comes by looking for Max. Normal doesn't know where she is. Logan asks Original Cindy. Cindy tells him that Max doesn't need him and his drugs anymore, 'cause she and Kendra flushes Max's pills. Logan explains to Cindy that Max takes those pills for a neurological disorder. Logan gets on his cell phone and asks somebody to do something for him.
Max and the friendly stranger walk into the huge maze of general holding cells. They're all connected and just full of people that almost seem camped out. (It seems more like a concentration camp than anything else.) Max is shaking but holding it together. The stranger introduces himself as Break and tells her to stay close to him and don't talk to anyone. Max tells Break she was arrested for robbery, and Break explains how he runs a retro-clothing store and he hung a poster in his window for an anti-police brutality rally. He says it's not the first time he's been busted and won't be the last. They find a relatively calm area in back to camp out in. Max is shaking much worse now and Break asks if he can help. She says she could really use a glass of milk because it has tryptophan which will help take the edge off. Break says he knows a certain guard with a thing for stilletos that might be able to help. He goes off to find the guard. Max remembers how she used to shake a bit as a child, and when one of her compatriots shook too much and passed out, how she watched his autopsy later, overseen by a cold Lydecker. Max shakes alone in the jail.
Logan finds out from a friend in the police department that a woman matching Max's description was arrested breaking into a hospital pharmacy. She was taken to Langford. Even if he pays off the right people to get it her, it'll take a few days and she probably doesn't have that much time. She could die without tryptophan.
Break got milk from a goat that is kept in a neighboring block. Max, still shaking, drinks it hungrily. She asks if they can get out to the yard and Break tells her not after curfew. She says she's going to break out an offers to take him with her. He says no thanks.
Break and Max are out in the yard. Max gives Break her hat to remember he by. He starts singing opera (quite well) to create a diversion while she makes a break for it. She tries to jump over the fence, but doesn't make it, and the guards get her. Meanwhile, Break gets a beating for his performance. The jail warden spots Max's bar code on the back of her neck.
Logan and Original Cindy pull up to an abandoned area near the water in Logan's car. Cindy is talking to Kendra on her cell phone. She tells Kendra she can stay as long as she wants. Logan says he has an idea on how to handle Walter the cop. Cindy apologizes for yelling at him earlier and says he's okay. She tells Logan that he really likes Max. He says Max is a good girl. Loagn's cop friend shows up and gives Logan the bottle of tryptophan that Max tried to steal. He took it from the evidence locker. Logan says he has one more favor to ask.
Logan's cop friend brings in Original Cindy as a prostitution arrest. As another officer starts to pat her down, she tells him not to mess up her hair-do. Her hair is done up in a big poofy thing.
Max wakes up in a bed in a plain room. A young blonde girl comes in and introduces herself as Maria. She tells Max that she's now in the warden's house. She's still in the jail, but the food is much better. Maria explains that she was living in the jail with her mother, but then her mother died in the riot and the warden and his wife took her in. She does all the household chores. She psyched to have Max around as a sort of sister, and then maybe her dad will stop.... The warden's wife calls out and Maria runs back to work.
Logan is at his computer and finds out that Original Cindy has been put in the same cell block as Max. He stares at a picture of Max, knowing that it's not good that her picture is on file. Herbal Thought comments that Logan has a thing for Max. Logan wonders why everyone keeps saying that.
Cindy finds Break because he's still wearing Max's hat. She says she has to get the tryptophan to Max. Break says that's going to be difficult because Max isn't here anymore.
Maria tends to a shaking sweaty Max. Max remembers when her old foster sister, Lucy, did the same thing. She apologizes to Lucy for leaving her. She remembers how her military training taught her not to engage the enemy unless it was part of the overall objective, and otherwise you were supposed to retreat, so she just ran away. She remembers her old foster father coming in and taking Lucy with him. Then the warden comes in and takes Maria with him. Max clambers out of bed and yells at him to leave Maria alone. Max falls and knocks over a flower vase. Maria says she'll clean it up and goes to get a broom. The warden looks down at Max and says he was tired of Maria anyway and that's why Max is here.
Kendra pays off Walter. Walter tells her it's gonna be another $150 from now on. Kendra is pissed.
Vogelsgang calls Lydecker with the news that a girl with a bar code on the back of her neck is in Langford.
Maria brings some tea to Max. Max just guzzles the little bit of milk that she brought with hit. Max promises Maria that she's going to get her out of here.
Lydecker bursts into the jail with a bunch of soldiers. He asks about a girl with a bar code, but the officers don't know anything. He goes to burst into the blocks themselves. The officer in charge calls the warden to tell him someone is breaking into the jail.
The guard tells Break that he got his friend into work detail at the warden's house. Break thanks the guard and promises him some ladies' shoes when he gets out. Lydecker and his men burst into the jail yelling about checking for bar codes.
Cindy is at the warden's house for work detail and tells Maria to show her where Max is.
The cop gets the warden on the phone and tells him about Lydecker and how he's checking for bar codes.
Lydecker and his men have struck out, even with solitary. They hear that some prisoners are in work detail at the warden's house.
The warden comes running into Max's room where she's still lying in bed. He tells her that he doesn't know who has come looking for her, but she'd better not tell anyone about what's going on here. Max grabs him by the neck, gets out of bed, and holds him up against the wall by his neck. She asks who has come looking for her. The warden chokes out Lydecker. Cindy and Maria come bursting out of the closet where they were hiding. Cindy tells Max to let go of the warden and asks her what was in those pills. Max jokes that it was spinach. Original Cindy grabs the warden's gun and tells him that he's going to help them get out as Max looks out the window and sees Lydecker approaching with his goons. Max makes sure that Maria comes with them.
Max and Maria get into the trunk of the warden's car while Original Cindy sits shot-gun holding the gun on the warden who is driving.
The cop in charge hears that the warden just left in his car and thinks it's strange. He decides to send some men after him.
Lydecker gets to the room where Max was. He's pissed when he sees that she's gone.
The warden's car has cleared the jail, so Original Cindy tells the warden to pull over so they can get Max and Maria out of the trunk. The warden swerves the car, distracting Cindy, and then hits her, getting the gun. He goes to shoot the girls in the trunk, but Max pops out and gives him a beating. A jeep full of cops shows up and Max makes short work of them. Meanwhile, Maria gets a dazed Original Cindy out of the car and they run into the woods. The warden gets up and goes to shoot Max again, but Max takes the cops' Jeep and goes to run down the warden. The warden hides behind his own car, but Max just runs the Jeep into the wardens car which pushes into the warden which pushes into the woods.
Lydecker is back in the front office of the jail. He wants to see all the mug shots of all the females arrested in the last two days. The cop goes to look up the files, but they've all been deleted.
Logan is in front of his computer, happy with his file deletion work. Max calls. Logan thanks God that she's safe.
Maria is sleeping. Max tells Kendra and Original Cindy that she's going to go over to Logan's to talk to him about finding a place for Maria to live. Kendra is tending to Cindy's bruise where she got hit by the warden. Max thanks Cindy for coming in for her. Cindy and Kendra apologize for putting Max in that situation. Cindy and Kendra tell Max that they know something is going on with her and they want her to trust them with the truth. She starts to tell them how she's bio-engineered, but they think she's joking.
Walter the cop is watching TV. Suddenly he gets his very own Eyes Only broadcast showing him a tape of him shaking down Kendra for more money. Eyes Only says this tape won't get out if Walter stops bugging the illegal tenants.
Max is at Logan's apartment and thanks him for finding such an incredible place for Maria to live. She is ready for that dinner he promised her now.
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