"Previously on Nip / Tuck:" "We maybe... have one civil interaction every other leap year." "And now you're offering me your sperm?" "I'd like to accept your offer." "You already have a son, Christian." "Matt." " Christian's my real dad, isn't he?" " Yes." "None of this changes the way that I feel about you..." " the way your dad feels about you." " Does he even know?" "Or have you been lying to him this whole time, too?" "Ms. Ripp, tell me what you don't like about yourself." "How much time you got?" "If you could just be precise." "I banged 92 guys since I hit the streets." "They don't give out ribbons at the 4-H Fair for that, do they?" "I've had five abortions." "Been arrested seven times for disorderly conduct." "Three near overdoses 'cause of the freebase." "But I'm clean now." "This is a cosmetic surgery office, not a confessional booth." "Don't be rude to me." "I see that look in your eye." "All my life, men have been giving me that look." "But I forgive you for it just like I forgive them." "Is Christian to forgive." "Have you sustained injuries or scars you would like removed?" "Would you like to show us?" " Are you claiming you have..." " The stigmata." "Yeah." "That's what I told the church, anyway, but the truth is I did it myself." "It was my biggest sin of all." "You watch out for false prophets." "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they're ferocious wolves." "That's Matthew 7:15." "Can I see your arms again?" "The other side." "Did you lie and tell people Jesus made those cutting marks, too?" "I don't like him." "My civility will increase once I have proof that your check won't bounce." "Yeah, well, that's why I came here." "I saw last week on the news that girl got her face all cut up... and the reporter said y'all fixed that for free." " That was a special case." " Okay, look, you got to help me, okay?" "I think I got an infection or something setting in, because I feel hot." "Then go to an emergency room." "It's not the infection that's going to kill me." "Don't you get it?" "It's the pressure." "Now you got to tell them that I'm a liar... and they will believe you because you're a doctor and all." " I can't face them again." " Face who?" "Sister Rita Claire, who took me into her program at St. Olive." "But mostly the parishioners." "They believe I'm touched by divinity." "So you got to tell them that I did it just for attention." "You tell them that I ain't nothing special." "I ain't nothing but a whore." "Will you please?" "You got to ask them to forgive me." "Please." "Can you believe those poor suckers from her church?" "So desperate to believe in something that they deify a prostitute." "You know what, Christian?" "I understand that want." "I loved being a Catholic when I was a kid." "The drama of it." "The feeling that there was a mysterious man in the heavens... watching out for you." "When did you lapse?" "When I became a pro-choice lesbian." "Scissors." "But I'm thinking about having my kid go to church like I did." "You know, if only for the structure and the comfort of it." "You're pregnant?" "Couple of weeks." "It's early." "Why didn't you tell me?" "What's with the accusatory tone?" "I just found out." "The baby shower's in a couple of months." "You'll have time to buy a new suit." "Trust me." "Well, congratulations to you both." "I just hope I'm as good a godfather to your baby as Christian has been to Matt." "Remember Matt's baptism?" "There wasn't one." "Exactly." "Sean vetoed all the religious nonsense, but kept the party." "A tradition I'd like to follow." "Sorry." "Christening gowns are the cutest." "I'm getting my kid baptized." "Over my dead body." "Easily arranged." "Even though you are not religious... would you come to the ceremony, Godfather?" "I'm religious." "Religion is about believing in a cause larger and more precious than you." "My faith rests in two higher powers, my practice and my family." "Hemostat." "We are praying to the woman inside." "To Agatha." "She has been touched by God." "A nun at our church told us that we could find her here." "I'm sorry, but this is a place of business." "You're going to have to leave, or I'll have to call the police." "But God is here." "With her!" "Please, we need her to help us." "I need her to pray for my baby." "Is your baby sick?" "He is possessed by Satanás." "Mire." "Please, please." "Please have Agatha touch my baby." "Por favor, señor." "Father Malley, the exterior of our office has become a shrine... to a power that does not exist." "What do you propose I do, Dr. McNamara?" "Tell your parish the truth." "That Agatha Ripp is a prostitute and a fraud... who inflicted the wounds herself so she wouldn't be evicted from your shelter... and have to sleep in a halfway house." "Dr. McNamara, I take it you reject the concept of the miraculous." "Organized religion to you is clearly a..." "Borrowed myths." "Your point, Father?" "I understand that two of our parishioners came to you with their 6-month-old." "Yes, they think their child is satanically possessed..." " because he has a caudal appendage." " A caudal appendage?" "A dermal tail adjacent to the sacrum." "But don't you see, Dr. McNamara, because of Agatha... a miracle has occurred." "The child was directed in some divine way to you and your partner... who have the talent to remove the vertebrae... and give the child a normal, productive life." "Not to be rude, Father, but I'll go out of business... if I continue to do pro bono surgeries on devotees... who sadly misinterpret science and natural law... because they're not getting the education it is your obligation to provide." "How is Agatha, Doctor?" "Tomorrow, her sutures come out." "She's been on an antibiotic drip." "She's stabilized." "Does she have family?" "Someone we could discharge her to... who could properly look after her during her recovery?" "I've been searching for that information." "I've called two numbers in Tallahassee, where she's from." "Sister, I'm sorry, but if you can't find someone... who'd be willing to step into a guardian position... we'll have to turn her over to the State." "Agatha will be embraced by St. Olive's... until our investigation is complete... and her stigmata is either accepted by the Vatican... or denied as heretical blasphemy." " Look, stop deluding yourself..." " Would you like some proof?" "Open it." "Those were taken shortly after the discovery... when the wounds were still fresh." "As you can see, Doctor, the stigmata are not circular or jagged... which would denote a puncture with a common ice pick or knife... but symmetrically square and smooth." "Christ's wounds at crucifixion... were said to have been made with a square peg nail." "I believe this to be true." "The Vatican believes this to be true." "But how could Agatha know this?" "I doubt she's ever read a book." "Additionally, Christ's crucifixion wounds were on the wrists, not the hands." "make the mistake of puncturing their palm." "The wounds are slightly odd, I agree with you." "But if you refuse to embrace the possibilities of fraud..." "I would direct the energies of your investigation... toward psychogenic purpuras, rather than miraculous mumbo jumbo." "Psychogenic purpuras?" "A psychosomatic disorder." "The body sometimes creates physical manifestations of pain... to express what the mind cannot." "Induced by what?" "Guilt, shame." "Usually of overwhelming proportions." "If I can acknowledge the science... which gives you such sustenance... why can't you, at the very least, respect the beliefs that I have faith in?" "A faith that not only feeds my soul but those of my parishioners." "Sister, I'll keep Agatha until the end of the week before I involve the State." "Agatha Ripp is psychologically unbalanced... not a candidate for beatification." "I'll share those thoughts with the media... if that what it takes to restore order to my place of business." "Dr. McNamara." "There will come a day, as it does for every man... when you will need more than cold logic... to define you or sustain you." "How's that feel?" "It burns." "I was out in the garden yesterday." "Something must have bitten me." "These aren't bites, Julia." "They're shingles." "Let's run a temp, see if you're fighting a bigger infection." " Normal." " I don't feel sick." "Just a little run down." " No morning sickness?" " No." "Is that bad?" "Morning sickness is a sign that the hormones are kicking in." "But then again, 20%/% of all pregnant women never feel nauseous." "And they have perfectly healthy babies." "Let me see the liner." "Some spotting in the first trimester is normal, right?" "Or is that a sign that something's wrong?" "Isn't shingles a sign of lowered immunity?" "Is something wrong with me?" "You had a complete physical last month." "You checked out fine." "This is emotional." "Don't isolate yourself, Jules." " Tell me what's going on with you." " Nothing." "Just the usual stress stuff, you know?" "Going to school, raising a family." "I guess it just all caught up with me." "An outbreak of shingles usually accompanies bigger life-changing events." "A death, divorce." "Maybe it's because of Matt." "The Ava situation." "It's okay." "This is what happens when you raise teenage boys." "You get stressed." "You're gonna be okay." "You just need to relax." "One day we'll look back on this and we'll laugh." "Yeah." "You examining my panty liner." "That's hilarious." "I'm glad that you came to me with all this." "I was getting the feeling you didn't want me involved in any way with this baby." "I was in a bind." "I couldn't get into my ob-gyn until tomorrow." "Great." "Well, I'll come with you." "Let me know what time the appointment is." " How bad is the outbreak?" " Pretty severe." "I started her on a round of acyclovir and told her to lay low." "I do understand the intensity of her reaction, though." "Julia's never made friends easily... and then when she finally did let down her guard and invited Ava into our family... only to be betrayed?" "Agatha Ripp did at least have one point that makes sense." "That Bible quote, "Watch out for false prophets..." ""they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ferocious wolves. "" "That's what the devil is, you know." "Not some obvious Machiavellian figure with horns and a tail... but a silent foe disguised as friend." "Someone you trust, even love, whom you let into your life... only to find out too late they've made a shambles of it." "Our patient is in twilight." "This is Taylor." "He'll take it from here." "I don't understand." "Sorry, Sean." "I just don't think I'll be able to make it through the surgery." "What's wrong with her?" "We've done surgical procedures on kids before." "Yeah, but not kids with congenital birth defects." "If I was an expectant mother over 40..." "I probably wouldn't want to watch this, either." "Hit it." "We've got an emergency in recovery." "Linda, close." " She might be septic." " Draw a CBC." "Her blood pressure's dropping." "Liz?" "I need a dopamine drip." "Okay." "Agatha, where's the pain?" "God damn it." "Sean, what are you doing?" "Where's the instrument you used to do this?" "Where'd you hide it?" "I didn't do it." "He did it." " There was no one in the room but you." " Jesus came to me again." "I lied the first time when I said I did it myself." "God, please make it stop." "Thank you for calling me." "How is she?" "She's medicated." "She was bordering on hysteria." "Did you find the instrument she used to puncture herself?" "She did it to herself, I know she did." "Agatha is self-destructive... and sadly touched by a madness... that I find terrifying." "May we speak in private?" "When she first came to me and my program..." "I asked her about the cuts on her arm." "She told me she began self-mutilation shortly after her stepfather raped her." "Other girls in my program cut, too." "Agatha was not my first." "They do it to deflect the pain." "But they're creating pain." "The pain of the flesh doesn't compare with the pain of the soul, Dr. Troy." "When I met with Father Malley, why didn't you..." "Side with you, Doctor?" "Say I didn't believe?" "He'd only cut my program further, out of spite." "Sister, I think Agatha injured herself again so she could stay in your shelter." "She was terrified of going back into the county system." "I don't blame her." "Dogs at the pound are treated better." "I fear that Agatha is not a person to Father Malley... but rather a holy relic to shine and display... and only if she helps his cause." "I just pray that God will protect her better interests." "If there is a God anymore." "That's a radical statement coming from someone who's devoted her life to faith." "Yes, well... when you see girls like Agatha... resorting to self-stabbing... to assure themselves protection and food... shining halos worn in youth tend to tarnish." "I'm sorry." "You can help save Agatha, Sister." "You can stop her from continuing to stab herself." "Tell your parishioners that she's a fraud, that it's a continuing pattern of self-abuse." "If Agatha can't barter her stigmata for security, she'll stop." "I can't be public on this, Doctors." "I can't." "He'll cut my programs completely." "You know... there is one thing you could do." "Check the blood coming from Agatha's stigmata against her own blood type." "I don't understand." "According to historical teachings... the blood seeping from a genuine stigmata... belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ." "If Agatha's own blood weeps from her wounds... then she will not be recognized." "The investigation will be closed... and this misguided circus will be over." "You were right to call about the spotting." "The volume's increasing?" "Yesterday I had three stains." "Today, six." "Am I miscarrying?" "There seems to be some bleeding where the placenta's forming." "There's increased nuchal lucency, which, as you know... could be associated with chromosomal abnormalities specific to Down's." "But it might not be." "Unfortunately, Liz, you're going to be swimming in unknown waters for a while." "I'm sorry." "I don't do the unknown very well, Cynthia." "But that's what being a mother is all about, Liz." "You spend your life trusting in the unknowable." "Where does the trust come from?" "Faith." " Why are you doing this?" "It hurts." " To make sure there's no infection." "I've been tested for HIV." "I'm negative." "Don't know how that happened." "Maybe God has plans for you, Agatha." "Just like I like to think he has plans for my baby." "How old's your baby?" "He's still in here." "Couple of weeks." "Well, congratulations." "You seem real nurturing and all." "I'll bet you'll make a good mom." "I tried to be, but I screwed it up." "You're a mother, Agatha?" "Well, they took her from me, the State... on account of she was born with drugs in her system." "They said she could have been born all defected... and that it would have been my fault." "That'd be worse than dying." "She was fine, though." "She was so beautiful." "And I got to hold her for a minute, right when she came out." "She only weighed 3 pounds." "I'm sorry." "I don't mean to spread my misery." "I think something's wrong with my baby." "I can feel it." "I keep spotting and my doctor told me to have faith... and I'm trying, but I need a little help." "Agatha, do you know the Bible story of the woman who couldn't stop bleeding?" "There was this woman who spent all her means... and 12 years of her life... trying to heal from hemorrhaging." "She couldn't touch anything or anyone... because the object of her touch would be deemed unclean." " She was an outcast of society." " Like me." "But one day, Jesus came to preach... and the woman suddenly reached out as he passed... and touched the hem of his garment." "She was one of the only people in the crowd who had faith in him." "And her bleeding instantly stopped." "And Jesus said to her, "Be of good comfort." ""Thy faith has made thee whole. "" "That's a good story." "Is it a story, Agatha?" "I'm not making it up." "No one believes me." "I feel like Jesus." "And I feel like the woman who needs a miracle." "Please." "I want to believe in you, Agatha." "I need to believe in something so badly." "You were right." "It's a boy." "All religious fanatics have been certifiable." "A century ago, the surest way to reach sainthood... would be to suck pus from lepers." "Those people probably weren't touched by the divine... but by a major chromium deficiency." "You got an image?" "Got it." "Now we have similar troubled souls... in search of answers who worship a prostitute." "These people need anti-depressants not religion." "What?" "Is the sample compromised?" "The sample's fine." "It's not Agatha's blood, Sean." "How's the bleeding?" "It stopped." " After I touched you?" " Yes." "Praise be to God." "Wherever she is." "Do you promise me they're not sending me back to that county place?" "You're coming with us, Agatha." "We've missed you." "I get to stay there for a while, right?" "Yes." "You have a safe haven, my dear." "I'll need the evidence before I leave, please." "It's been requested by a higher authority." "I won't feed into your frenzy." "I'm sorry." "We won't release that information." "Because your science wasn't strong enough to dispute faith?" "That's fine." "Proof of His existence will never manifest itself through science." "But He communicates through signs in front of us every day, Dr. McNamara." "You just have to know how to read them." "Come with me, Agatha." " I'm going to run her blood work again." " I've already done it twice, Sean." "I'll run the antibody." "A Dr. Adams for you on Line 2." "Are you sure?" "Are you?" "Relax." "Relax." "We're going to begin now." " How are they?" " They're scabbing up." "Good." "That means they're healing." "I'm going to grab a beer, and then let's go out for dinner." "It's been a rough day." "What's wrong?" "Why was your day so tough?" "The patient we're treating, Agatha Ripp?" "I've turned my office upside down, and I can't find the instrument... she's using to puncture herself." "Then we ran a blood test." "The blood coming out of her wound isn't hers." "I know there's a reasonable explanation behind all of this... but it's bugging the shit out of me that I can't pinpoint it." "It defies all logic." "Sometimes, Sean... you have to be willing to give in to the unknown." "No, I don't." "I'm a doctor." "Every symptom has a cause." "How much do you believe in us, Sean?" " Honey, what's wrong?" " No, please." "Answer me." "I need to know." "I don't understand." "If you believe in us, Sean, if you believe in our love the way I do... then it can override everything, even the truth." "The truth about what?" "The truth about Matt." "Is he sick?" "He's not your son." "What are you talking about?" "I was there when he was conceived." "I pulled him out of you when he was born." "He's everything like me." "Too emotionally shut off." "He's too in his head." "This thing with Ava is completely non-McNamara-like." "I'll give you that." "Is that what you're trying to say?" " Is that what you're saying?" " I didn't mean..." "Just answer me!" "I am Matt's father!" "Christian is." "That's not true." "Christian and you have never been together." "Matt looks like me!" "You're lying!" "Why are you doing this to me?" "Because I can't live with this any longer!" "This is not true." "I slept with him once." "One time." "When?" "I went to him." "I was afraid." "You said you loved me." "You said you wanted me." "I did." "I do... but it was 17 years ago, when I was a girl... and I'd only been with one man, you... and I was terrified that I was missing out on something." " Stop talking, just shut your mouth!" " I have to say this!" "I went to him." "We had sex one time." "Christian would never do that to me." " He's like my brother." " I didn't know, Sean." "All these years, I didn't know." "And then I couldn't live with the not knowing anymore... and I took the test." "I love you!" "Only you." "All this time, it's been a lie?" " My life has been a lie?" " No, that's not true." "You get out of my house!" " Sean, please!" " You're weak." "You've always been weak." "I gave you my whole life to make you strong... and I want you out!" "Get out!" " We need to talk." " About what?" "If you want to go through this pregnancy on your own, fine... but when we have this child, I have rights." "I want to see it, I want to spend time with it." "You can't shut me out forever, Liz." "That wasn't the arrangement." "There was no arrangement, legal or otherwise." "There probably should've been, but we were winging it." "Were?" "You miscarried?" "It wasn't a miscarriage." "You got rid of our baby and you didn't tell me?" "It's my body, Christian, and it was going to be my burden." "So save me the lecture." "I know you." "Cars, women, homes, babies." "You like everything pretty." "I hardly think you'd be equally devoted to a child... that everybody was going to stare at... and not because it was cute, but because it had a birth defect." "I would have loved that kid, no matter what." "I would have helped you." "It would have been difficult, but it would have been fine." "But I didn't have that faith, Christian." "I looked deep within myself, and all I saw was doubt." "I didn't believe that I could take care of a challenged child... when I feel so challenged and conflicted." "The only faith I had at the end of the day... was my gut feeling that I couldn't do it." "If you didn't want a co-parent... who had equal say in whether his kid lived or died... why didn't you make it easier on everybody... and go to a goddamn sperm bank?" "I wanted proof that my child had at least one parent who was beautiful." "It makes life easier, or haven't you noticed?" "That's all I was to you, a goddamn pretty face?" "That's all you wanted from me?" "A guarantee of beauty." "Something I so desperately wanted and never had." "I'm ashamed to say it, but yes." "Sean, what are you doing?" "Sean, no!" "I loved you the most." "What are you doing here?" "I want to learn how to pray." "But you're not a believer." "All of the things I believed in were lies." "I need to put my faith in things I dismissed, things I doubted." "Help me understand." "Please." "You shouldn't have come for me." "I can't guide you." "I can't." "But if anybody should have forsaken God, it's you." "After what you've been through, what you've seen." "Tell me how you didn't." "I did forsake him, a week ago." "But now... look at all those people." "All here because of me... their faith renewed." "But you were right from the beginning, Dr. McNamara." "I'm a fraud." "It was the Sister's idea... and Father Malley wasn't involved." "They were going to close this archdiocese 'cause of poor attendance." "Sister Rita Claire's programs, they would all be over then." "So she talked to me." "She told me I could stay here and be safe... for as long as I wanted... if I would let her do it." "So I did." "And now everybody gets what they want... mostly them." "This going through life with no faith in anything... is the worst hell of all, don't you think?" "So God bless them." "God bless them all." "You stabbed yourself?" "I couldn't do it." "The Sister did it." "That one time you were in surgery, it was planned." "She snuck in... hammered the nail through my feet... left her own blood." "Come along, Agatha." "I'm so sorry." "Please." "I need to believe in something." "Don't you get it?" "There is nothing to believe in anymore." "English" " SDH"