A Sentence of Sorts

The Pseudoscientists, Act I, scene 9: Hyde, the scapegoat

(Summary: We have the fall-out to Hyde’s crazy night. The logic here is also rather wobbly, but the idea is that Jekyll is in over his head this time and cannot explain away everything that happened. He agrees to go down to the police station for questioning.)

As Jekyll scrambles to gather himself in his study, the police pour into the Society. They head towards the Creature, surrounding him. The Creature braces itself, ready to fight, but before any violence can break out, Lanyon rushes in, yelling, "Stop!“ 

But when he comes to a halt, he sees that it is only the Creature being cornered. The police look at him quizzically, and he backtracks,  "Oh. No, you can arrest that, I don’t even know what it is!" 

The officers round on the Creature once more, but then Jekyll’s voice is heard: "What on earth is going on here?” Lanyon looks to the top of the stairs, but he is not there. Instead, Jekyll is running in from the street, wearing a robe over his night clothes, as if he has just run out the door from bed. He looks surprised and disoriented, as if he cannot really believe what he is seeing. He gazes around, blinking sleep from his eyes. 

Lanyon steels himself, fully ready to be skeptical of Jekyll’s impressive show of innocence. “Goodness, you couldn’t have brought your bed slippers and a teddy bear*? I’m not sure you’ve made yourself obvious enough." 

Politely, one of the police officers explains what had happened before his arrival. Jekyll listens with concerned disbelief, as if he is really hearing this for the first time, asking, "A dark rider? Do you know who he was?” and exclaiming, “I can hardly believe it. It sounds like something right out of a penny dreadful!" 

Hyde lurks in his shadow-form, smirking as he sees the police officers utterly fooled by Jekyll’s act. But then Lanyon cuts in: Jekyll clearly knows more than he’s showing. The Creature burst out of his Society. Someone must have let him in, or else–

And then Lanyon catches sight of Frankenstein, still knocked out in his cot next to Rachel. "And who the hell is that?" 

Rachel sputters for a moment before collecting herself with an air of shaky defiance. She has been around much longer than the werewolf from the morning, and is thus more familiar with Lanyon’s bile. "Why he’s–he is … Dr. Jekyll’s guest!" 

Lanyon rounds on her, sensing a bad liar. Jekyll cringes internally–he could work with that story, but he would have preferred to make the whole thing up himself. "He is,” he agrees. “Dr. Frankenstein is a scientist of international renown and an old friend of mine.”

This was perhaps a poor choice of words. Lanyon wrinkes his nose. “You’ve never mentioned him to me." 

"A very old friend, Robert.”

“Evidently." 

Jekyll explains in brief that Frankenstein had come to him needing his special care and had arrived in the evening. He had set up his cot and, as he seemed to need rest more than anything at the moment, had left him for the evening and returned to his home. All this business with this strange man hunting him was utterly beyond his knowledge.

Hyde nods along approvingly to Jekyll’s story. Sounds legitimate enough to him! Jekyll adds, "I have a house full of witnesses who can attest to the truth of these matters.”

The lodgers all nod and call out a chorus of agreement. Lanyon sneers at them. “Are those men you have up there, or parrots? I can never tell." 

They are interrupted by the arrival of another officer, out of breath. He announces that the identity of the rider has been discovered–"One Dr. Moreau**. A man of some fame in your community, as I understand it.” At the name, Lanyon bristles and Jekyll looks slightly wary. The policeman pushes on: Moreau, his beasts, and a good gaggle of Jekyll’s Society members are being held at the station, and it’s a terrible mess down there. They need to get things sorted as quickly as possible, and for that, they’ll need Jekyll to come along with him.

Hyde is becoming impatient. Go down to the station? What a waste of time! Can’t Jekyll just charm his way out of things, like normal? 

Jekyll asks the police officer what will be expected of him, and the officer answers: with any luck, he will be able to vouch for the captive lodgers and help with the ongoing investigation. 

Jekyll is concerned: he hopes the police are not planning on convicting the Creature, who was only acting in defense? The officer answers: no, not if Jekyll’s story checks out. But there is one loose end: Mr. Hyde.

Jekyll is forced to feign innocence. “Mr. Hyde? What has he got to do with any of this?” Hyde himself perks up, listening closely.

The officer gives an account of Hyde’s involvement in the night’s drama and how he evaded capture. He says that he hopes Jekyll will be able to help find Mr. Hyde, when the time comes for it. Seeing no reasonable way out of this, Jekyll agrees. He gives the officers the address to Hyde’s personal flat in Soho and says he will come down to the station himself.***

Hyde gives Jekyll a discerning look. He is sure that he must have some trick up his sleeve, even if Hyde himself is not sure what that could be.

The officer is about to lead Jekyll away when Lanyon steps between them. “Officer! I would hate to see you wasting your precious time playing chaperone. I have business at the station myself. It would be no trouble for me to accompany him.” He sees this as an opportunity to get Jekyll alone, for once, and get all this messiness sorted–his way. “Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to catch him if he makes a run for it.”

Jekyll assures Lanyon and the officers that he would certainly have no reason to run in the first place. He is confident, he says, that this is all just a big misunderstanding.

Lanyon chimes in, in a simpering, mocking voice, “Ohh, yes, just a big, silly misunderstanding! Hah hah. We’re leaving.”

*may be an anachronism, haha

**a temp name, this is quite a departure from the actual Dr. Moreau story 

***I know fuckin nothing about how police investigations work. Or how shit is run. No fuckin clue. How do I find this out?

——————————————–

(Lanyon and Jekyll ride alone together to the station. Lanyon plants the idea in Jekyll’s head to betray Hyde. This scene should also hint at Lanyon’s secret desire for Jekyll’s friendship–as well as his total inability to regain it. As of right now, though, this is probably a wordy, indulgent, unmotivated mess. Grunt.)

In the carriage en route to the station, Lanyon leans forward and locks Jekyll with a discerning, thoughtful expression: “So basically, you’re fucked.” Jekyll insists again that he is being dramatic, that he is not sure how he could possibly be … in so much trouble. “Oh, please drop the lobotomized schoolmarm act!” Jekyll relaxes slightly–but only slightly. “Can’t you see I’m trying to help you?" 

Reflected in the carriage window, Hyde rolls his eyes.

Jekyll laughs. "Help me! Is that what you think you’re doing? Because it looked more like you were trying to get me arrested, along with half of the Society.”

Scornfully, Lanyon tells him this is not true. He was trying to humiliate Jekyll, true, expose his beliefs to be lies and his path in life misguided. “But I was only ever trying to enlighten you, my dear Henry!” Hyde scrunches up his nose in confusion. “I never wanted you arrested. Arrested is different. Arrested would be bad for all of us*.”

He explains that being arrested would be public. If Jekyll were found to be involved with this scandal, involved with Moreau, his reputation would come into question. And a reputation, once tarnished, can never really be rebuilt. He would be labeled a mad scientist, and that would be the end of it. He would never be welcome again in any respectable home. Unless, of course, he can make sure that his name remains spotless. That is where Hyde comes in.

“Look, you can blame ALL of this on Hyde. He’s mostly responsible for it anyway. And he wasn’t even one of your experimental scientists. Chalk up everything to him, and you–and those boys of yours–go scot-free. Granted, I’d like you to give up the whole Society in one go … but this will do well enough for now.”

Hyde glares at Lanyon, but he is not surprised. This is just the sort of thing he would expect from him.

Jekyll politely resists: “I can’t believe that would work. I’m not nearly that good at telling lies.” And Lanyon fixes him with such a long, owlish stare that he is forced to retract his statement a little: “All right, but this is an awfully big lie. And it wouldn’t be fair to Hyde." 

"Oh God, who cares what happens to him? You’ve only known him for what, a few months? Do you know what you’re risking here? You have a brilliant mind! You deserve to be at the forefront of the scientific establishment with other brilliant men–like me. Instead you’re wasting your life defending degenerates like Hyde!”

Hyde finds Lanyon’s disgust for him quite funny, but Jekyll is not so amused. He begins to insist that they are not degenerates, that his Society lodgers are good people at heart. They only need a little help in showing it.

Lanyon lets out a long sigh, cutting him off. “I am only trying to help, Henry. We are friends, are we not?**” There is a brief flash of vulnerability from Lanyon. He waits for Jekyll’s reply, but Jekyll is too frustrated with him to agree. The briefest stand-off–these two old friends just don’t trust each other anymore. Lanyon continues more aggressively: “If you don’t extricate yourself from these ruffians, you’re going to end up like … like … ”