Episode 3

09/23/2018 | 52m 42s | Video has closed captioning.

As Nella seeks answers from the elusive miniaturist, she must take charge of a household facing a life-or-death struggle.

Aired: 09/23/18

Expired: 03/21/21

Rating: TV-14

Buy Now:

From:

Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning

Funding & Distribution
Transcript

Funding for MASTERPIECE is provided by Viking and Raymond James with additional support from public television viewers and contributors to The MASTERPIECE Trust, created to help ensure the series’ future.

Support provided by:

Open in new tab

LINNEY: This is "Masterpiece."

NELLA: You knew he would never love me.

LINNEY: Previously on "The Miniaturist."

Do you know what they do to men like my brother?

They drown them.

No more secrets.

You have my word.

We saw his devilry.

With a boy.

You're nothing to him.

(grunts) FRANS: The boy says your husband attacked him.

NELLA: You have to leave now.

Take me with you.

They need you here.

My God, Marin.

What have you done?

LINNEY: "The Miniaturist."

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (footsteps approaching) What were you thinking, Marin?

A girl in Assendelft died trying to lose a baby with poison.

(pouring liquid) How far gone are you?

Six...

Seven months.

Perhaps more.

How did you hide it?

I let out my skirts and bound my breasts.

Soaked my rags in animal blood so Cornelia wouldn't suspect.

Tell me.

Is it Frans's?

He was just angry about the sugar, Marin.

He loves you.

Tell him about this.

Once he knows, he will not harm Johannes because he knows it will endanger his child.

(quietly): You don't understand.

If he survives, this child will be... stained with his mother's sin, with his father's sin.

(sobbing) It's a baby.

Not a devil.

CORNELIA: Animal blood on her rags to fool us.

She always was clever.

(fire crackling) The crib... Did you know?

No, of course not.

Then why is the doll of Madame Marin carrying a child?

What are you talking about?

How could you betray us like this?

You know how rumor spreads.

NELLA: I didn't order it.

It just came.

(whispering): Then who is it that is spying on us?

I don't think she's a spy.

"She"?

She sees our lives.

I think she's trying to help us, trying to warn us... How has she helped us?

The Seigneur is gone.

Otto too, and now Marin carries the shame of the man who wishes to destroy us.

Look.

This was white when it arrived.

This is witchcraft.

She's not a witch.

How dare she send you things like this?

What else does she know?

(banging on the door) SOLDIER: Open up!

It's the militia.

NELLA: Marin?

They cannot see you like this.

Especially Frans.

Cornelia?

(banging continues) (labored breathing) GUARD: St. George's Militia!

Open up!

(labored breathing) (banging continues) (labored breathing stops) We're here under the jurisdiction of Schout Slabbaert.

A young man has been attacked on the Eastern Islands and there are witnesses to back it up.

Now go and fetch your master.

I said good day.

I told you, he's not here!

Frans, all of you.

You are better than this.

Go and catch your thieves, your murderers.

My husband has helped make this republic great.

What he is is a sodomite.

Now get out of my way.

Search the house!

NELLA: Frans.

Search every room!

NELLA: Frans.

Frans, please!

Listen to me!

MAN: Sir!

Sir!

They found him!

Where?

On a ship by the docks, about to set sail.

They're taking him to the Stadhuis now!

GUARD: To the Stadhuis.

(panting) If you follow them, you'll be arrested as well.

Where is your heart, Marin?

I would never abandon my brother.

To fight them in the open is to invite certain defeat.

Then I will find another way.

♪ ♪ (birds squawking) (door closes) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (keys rattling) (metal clanging) (door squeaking) (man screaming in the distance) (water dripping) (door clangs) Bribing officials?

We need all the friends we can get.

(distant screaming) Thank you.

They seem to think food is an option here.

What have they done to you?

It's nothing.

Tell me, was it love?

I don't know.

By telling me lies, he made me see the truth.

The way sometimes a painting is more beautiful than the thing itself.

It was a painting of love.

But I couldn't tell the difference, nor did I care to.

You can fight this, Johannes.

You're powerful, rich.

You make Frans Meermans change his mind.

I have let his anger stew, and now he is determined to take his revenge.

Jack, then!

Nella...

I'll pay him off.

Nella!

It won't make any difference.

(soft groan) What if we had a child?

To prove the lie.

And where are we going to get one of those in a couple of weeks?

(distant groaning) I'm glad you came, Nella.

I don't deserve you.

I wish I'd been enough.

You have been a miracle.

Rezecki.

I take her everywhere I go.

The red's gone.

From the wound.

I don't understand.

Must have worn it off.

(door closes) Marin.

What were you thinking?

If any of the neighbors saw this arrive, what would they think?

The same as you.

MARIN: I know you want this child for yourself.

Marin, that's not true.

But it would be convenient, no?

Well... so what if we did pretend the child was mine?

Would that be so awful?

It would prove that Johannes has the same desires as other men.

Don't you want him to live?

(chuckling): This child will be far from convenient.

But no one will take it away from me.

No one.

(dice rattling) (Marin gasps) It's kicking me.

We'll need a midwife soon.

Do you know the law?

A midwife must write down the name of the father.

If we don't tell her, she'll report that too.

(dice rattling) Talk to Frans, Marin.

Tell him about his child.

You speak of things of which you know nothing.

Do you want to know the truth?

Johannes stopped my marriage.

But it wasn't his decision.

(dice rattling) It was mine.

I told him to.

You?

By the time I was a woman, I ran this household, and with Johannes away, I was head of it.

Was I supposed to give up my freedom for a man?

(dice rattle) I thought it a kindness to let Frans believe I was forbidden than to know I didn't love him enough to sacrifice my liberty.

I never meant it to twist this way.

(dice rattling) (tapping game piece) It is his child you're carrying, though.

(dice rattle) Isn't it?

I have taken things from my brother I was not meant to take.

(sighs) ♪ ♪ "Don't let sweet weapons stray."

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hanna!

Hanna!

Some of it is rotten.

NELLA: Very little... Madame.

A few were refined in Surinam.

But the rest were all refined here, in the city.

How much for the Amsterdam stock?

30,000 guilders.

Impossible.

We are bakers of cakes, not sellers of sugar.

Its quality alone will guarantee it sells.

The craving for sugar shows no sign of abating.

The more the Burgomasters forbid it, the more people will yearn for it.

The prices will rise.

A hundred Amsterdam loaves for 900 guilders.

If it makes a profit, we'll be back for more.

3,500.

1,100.

2,000.

I have other buyers coming this afternoon.

1,500.

Done.

♪ ♪ CORNELIA: Madame!

Johannes is to appear today!

(indistinct chatter) (chatter continues) Look.

There's Agnes.

CORNELIA: What's she fiddling with?

(indistinct chatter) The sugar, Madame.

We've already promised half the loaves we took this morning.

Arnoud wants to send some to The Hague, where he has family.

I'm sure it won't be long before we come to you for more.

(door opens) (crowd gasps, indistinct chatter) Seigneur... Seigneur!

SLABBAERT: Good people of Amsterdam.

We have made success for our city.

But we have remained righteous.

We have not wasted ourselves in the surfeit of our fortune.

But here before you is a man who took another path.

He considered that he was above the family... (crowd murmuring) ...above the city, above the Church... (crowd grumbling) above the State.

Above God himself.

(grumbling grows louder) You accuse me, sir.

But the truth of the accusation is yet to be tested.

You deny the charge?

If I am to defend myself, I'm entitled to know the specifics of the accusation.

On Sunday the fourth of January, Jack Philips says that you attacked and sodomized him.

(crowd gasps) And left him so badly beaten that he could barely walk.

And then you tried to buy his silence.

Is that specific enough for you?

If any such thing happened, it was not me.

My conscience is clear.

Ha!

We have witnesses that are ready to swear on the Holy Bible that they saw you.

JOHANNES: Then they are lying.

(Slabbaert chuckles) You are married?

I am.

And what sort of a husband are you?

Well, I am still in one piece.

(soft chuckles from the crowd) SLABBAERT: You have no children.

Why not?

(crowd murmuring) I have been married but four months.

How often do you lie with your wife?

That is between me and her.

(crowd murmuring) You are late to marry.

JOHANNES: She was worth the wait.

(chuckling from the crowd) You have, over the years, employed many apprentices.

A preponderance of young men... Are not all apprentices young men?

...more than any other senior member of the Company.

I have the figures here.

I have more money and more business than most of them.

But isn't that why I'm really here?

(crowd grumbling) Who will take my business if I drown?

Will it be you, Schout Slabbaert, dividing it up, or will you lock it in the Stadhuis coffers?

(crowd grumbling grows louder) Silence!

You insult the city of Amsterdam!

Bring in the plaintiff!

(crowd murmuring) (door opens) (chatter continues) Are you Jack Philips, by trade a delivery boy and a stower?

I am.

But by trade an actor.

The others by necessity.

Hand him the Bible.

Do you swear to tell the truth for us today?

I swear.

And do you recognize this man?

Oh, look at him, boy!

Do you recognize him?

I do.

(crowd murmurs) And what charges do you bring against him?

That he sodomized me against my will, stabbed me in the chest when I resisted, and offered me money for my silence afterwards.

His attack produced the wound that you bear now?

He only just missed my heart.

And how did he behave before he... seized you?

He was in a frenzy, sir.

I pushed him away.

I told him to leave me alone.

But he took me by my coat sleeves, and he pushed me up against the walls of his warehouse.

And then?

He... he...

He used me.

(crowd gasps) He sodomized you?

JOHANNES: Lies...

Lies... this is all lies!

You said he wouldn't speak to me!

Silence, Brandt!

You'll get your chance.

Now, lad, you are entirely sure, and you swear before God, that the man who assaulted you was Johannes Brandt?

Answer me, boy!

♪ ♪ (softly): Tell them the truth, Jack.

Tell them.

♪ ♪ Enough!

Take him away.

Wait!

Show us the wound.

SLABBAERT: What?

He says this attack happened on the fourth of January.

What difference does it make?

Six days ago.

What is your point, Brandt?

If he is telling the truth it will still be fresh.

But if he received it in a different place, at a different time, a fortnight ago or more, say, it will have begun to heal.

So, show us, Jack.

Show us the wound.

(crowd murmuring) Show us!

♪ ♪ (moans) (crowd gasps) SLABBAERT: Enough!

Guards, get him out, take him away!

He cannot show us because he knows that it would prove he is lying.

Silence, Brandt!

You saw the boy.

He's in no condition.

Court is adjourned.

(crowd grumbling) Till tomorrow, 7:00.

(indistinct chatter) Go to Marin, make sure she's all right.

I have to talk to the Meermans.

♪ ♪ So that's what you were playing with.

Seigneur!

Please wait.

Johannes has sold your sugar.

Not all of it, but a substantial amount.

Where did you get that?

Just put it away!

It's me, isn't it?

What else did the Miniaturist send you?

Evil hints and vile mockery.

"It's the truth," Agnes kept saying.

"It's the truth."

So, I had her cabinet burned, and I went to the Kalverstraat to have the Miniaturist arrested.

The spying little villain had fled.

A thousand guilders?

You think you can buy my silence with a thousand guilders, when hundreds of thousands could have been made?

Well, my future's been ruined because of your husband's neglect!

If he is released, he can sell more.

There are ready buyers.

I need money.

Not promises.

Seigneur, it is time for this to end.

We both know it's not about the money or the English boy.

You think Johannes ruined your life.

I know about you and Marin.

I understand your wife might be jealous, but... Be quiet, woman!

You keep your vicious imagination to yourself!

It wasn't him.

It wasn't his idea.

What do you mean?

It was not Johannes who refused you.

It was Marin's decision.

But she did not want to hurt you, and so he agreed to take the blame.

(scoffs) You lie.

You lie to save his neck!

If you don't believe me, ask her.

(groaning loudly) CORNELIA: Feel it.

It's beating so fast.

Her waters, it's starting.

We have to fetch a midwife.

(gasping): No, no!

Marin, we can buy her silence.

(panting): We don't even have money for firewood.

We have enough.

I just need you and Cornelia.

I saw my brother and sister born.

I think I know what we need.

Clean cloths, hot water, fresh sheets.

And a knife for the cord.

(groans loudly) Marin.

Marin, when the pain was bad, my mother used to pace.

Now please, I need you to stand.

(groaning) Marin?

(groaning loudly) Cornelia!

(groaning) No!

(groans loudly) I can see it.

Marin, it's time to push.

(crying): I can't, I can't.

Marin, please, one more try.

You're almost there.

(groans loudly) (moaning) NELLA: Oh, Marin.

(knife scrapes) You did it!

A little girl.

It's a little girl!

You did it.

You did it, Marin.

(Marin panting) ♪ ♪ What's wrong with it?

What's, what's wrong with... ♪ ♪ (baby crying) (sighs with relief) (baby fussing) Thea.

Her name is Thea.

(fussing) (bells tolling) Eight.

Eight bells.

Johannes's trial started at 7:00, I have to go.

You can't leave me, Madame.

CORNELIA: I don't know what to do, and Marin... (shivering) Find Smit's List.

Bring a midwife, or a wet-nurse, someone who understands what's happening here.

But Madame, the child... Give the woman whatever it takes to keep her quiet.

If there isn't enough in Johannes's chest, sell the silver.

Seigneur Meermans, your wife's reluctance to enter into details is understandable.

But I must ask you to be more forthright.

Now, you have known Johannes Brandt for many years, is that correct?

FRANS: We worked together as young men.

He was engaged in selling your stock of sugar.

Were you satisfied with his conduct of the business?

Yes, I was.

(quietly): Lies!

SLABBAERT: So, there's no reason for you to bear any animosity towards him?

None whatsoever.

So you would say that, up till now, he has been a good merchant and a good man.

You are under oath.

A good merchant, perhaps.

But Johannes Brandt has always pursued his will with, or I'd say his desires, with unbending insistence.

Now Seigneur Meermans... (crowd murmuring) ...tell us what you witnessed when you came to check your sugar.

As we walked towards the warehouse doors, we heard voices.

When we went round to the back, Seigneur Brandt had pushed a young man against the side of the building.

(crowd murmuring) The boy's face was up against the brickwork.

Both their breeches were round their ankles, their hats knocked off.

Is that young man in court now?

I could, um...

I could see the lust in Brandt's eyes.

He, um...

He scooped up his breeches as we approached, and...

He beat him, didn't he?

Frans, you don't have to do this.

Rapidly.

And ferociously.

Frans... And he stabbed him, deep, close to the heart.

Just as the victim testified.

Didn't he?

(forcefully): Didn't he?

(crowd murmuring) (quietly): Yes.

(murmuring grows louder) Witness has testified to the truth of the accusation.

The Schepenbank will now consider its verdict.

Surely, I have a right to speak in my own defense?

(scoffing): Oh, come now, Brandt.

What is there you could say?

(grunts) (crowd gasps, murmurs) (exhales) Very well, then.

Am I the only sinner in this room?

Am I?

I will not apologize for who or what I am.

But the allegations against me are false.

Lies concocted out of envy, jealousy... (sighs) ...bitterness.

Citizens of Amsterdam, we are better than this.

I have worked for this city from the moment I was old enough.

I've sailed to lands I never knew existed, not even in my dreams.

I've fought for, and seen men die for this republic on hot beaches and high seas, risking our lives for the glory of the land that gave us birth.

I sponsored apprentice after apprentice, but exploited no man's need.

I never perjured myself or corrupted another with bribes.

I took a wife, I tried to make her happy, as she made me.

And my reward... ...is this.

Well... ...enough.

The purpose of a trial is to discover the truth, and you deserve no less.

So I will give it to you, in full.

Yes...

...I know Jack Philips.

(crowd murmuring) Perhaps I even loved him.

(murmuring grows louder) But I never hurt him, nor offered any insult to his body.

Frans Meermans I once considered a friend.

But long ago I caused him great pain, and he, perhaps rightly, has never forgiven.

If the story he has told here is his manner of revenge, it does not make it true.

Nor does it prevent me from forgiving him.

(crowd murmuring) Now that you have heard me... (shaky breathing) ...you may do with me what you will.

(crowd murmuring) (murmuring continues) The court must retire to further consider its verdict.

(crowd murmuring) Cornelia!

Marin!

They couldn't agree a verdict.

If we can persuade Frans to recant... What is it?

(Thea fussing) Marin?

(faintly): No.

No...

It's not possible.

There was nothing I could do.

I'm Lysbeth Timmers.

Your maid found me in Smit's list.

You told me to, Madame.

She's a wet-nurse, not a midwife.

I birthed four children of my own.

(Thea fussing) She shouldn't be swaddled like this.

♪ ♪ Shh... (fusses) Dear God... what is this?

I didn't agree to this.

(Thea fusses) (crying) ♪ ♪ (fussing continues) You will be amply rewarded for your help.

A guilder a day.

Four.

Two.

Three.

Given the circumstances, I'm sure you'll agree.

(fussing continues) We are going to keep Thea, aren't we?

We're already bribing new people to keep our latest secret.

Where will this ever stop?

I'll die before I let anything happen to that child.

Did you know?

About Otto and Marin?

I wanted it to be Meermans'.

Why?

She looks peaceful, doesn't she?

A map.

For her travels.

I have come to report a death.

We have yet to announce a verdict.

Not Johannes; his sister, Marin.

Yesterday afternoon.

Oh.

A godly woman, despite her brother.

How did it happen?

A fever.

She'd been ill for some time.

I wondered why I hadn't seen her the last few weeks.

However, if you have come to bury her here, I'm afraid that is impossible.

Why?

A godly woman, you said so yourself.

You know why.

Johannes is innocent.

But even if he were not...

The men at St. Anthonis will help you.

I have no room.

I will not have her buried beyond the city walls!

She was a woman of Amsterdam.

She worshipped here.

You have a duty to bury her.

(coins rattle) Not for myself, you understand.

There is a small space in the east corner of the church.

Room for a modest slab, no more.

And the finest elm for the coffin.

On the slab, do you wish for an epitaph?

"Things can change."

Johannes Brandt, you are charged on three counts.

On the first, that of assault on the boy Jack Philips, I, Pieter Slabbaert, Schout of Amsterdam and these four members of the city Schepenbank, find you... ...not guilty.

(crowd murmuring) And on the second count, attempted bribery, we find you... ...not guilty.

(murmuring grows louder) And finally, on the charge of sodomy, the court finds you... ...guilty as charged.

(crowd gasps) (crowd talking indistinctly) Your punishment shall be to be weighted down at the neck and to be drowned in the sea, this Sunday.

And may God have mercy on your sinning soul.

♪ ♪ (indistinct chatter) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I mean you no harm, I just need to know.

♪ ♪ I have had enough!

(crying) ♪ ♪ (gasps) ♪ ♪ (door opens) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ WOMAN 1 (fading): "Please, I have come to see you several times but still you do not answer."

WOMAN 2 (fading): "How did you know?

I feel a madness creeping in..." (Peebo burbles) ♪ ♪ (gasps) Peebo!

♪ ♪ He... came in through the window.

I thought you were a ghost.

Or a sorceress.

You were angry with me.

I heard you downstairs.

Please.

You have the answers.

I know you do.

I have to save my husband.

How?

How do I save him from this?

Oh, I'll pay you!

Whatever it takes!

This is why I hide.

I don't understand.

Nobody does.

Everyone thinks I am the one who can tell them what to do.

I am just a maker of small things.

No.

Marin's baby, you knew.

I knew because I have eyes.

The woman, I saw how she walked.

How she bound her breasts.

The sugar, in Agnes's hand.

It went black, just like the Meermans'.

Because it was real sugar.

The cradle.

There's no way you could have known what Marin would order.

Neither did she.

She saw what I had made, and she liked it enough that she ordered a copy.

Rezecki, the dog.

The wound.

There's no way you could have known.

There's no way anybody could have known!

Sometimes... ...things come into my head.

It's like a voice you hear carried on the winds that you can't make out.

It's just a word, here or there.

Things... people... ...sometimes dogs.

Everyone wants answers.

But I have none.

Sorry.

I know it is not what you want to hear.

You should take him back.

He would not like the journey to Bruges.

You're leaving?

Tonight, with my father.

But you wrote me notes.

So many of them.

Please.

You have to help me.

My father tried to teach me to make clocks.

But the ones I made would never keep time.

Eventually I said to him, "Teach me what you do to make the clocks keep time."

He laughed and said, "I haven't done anything for months now.

Your clocks keep better time than mine."

(sighs) You had learned how to do it without even knowing.

Things can change, yes.

But they already have changed, because of things you've done.

(water dripping) (startled breathing) (softly): Nella.

It's so good to see you.

Tell me, how are you?

How's Marin?

Oh, you know... Too many herring dinners?

Tell her not to come.

Don't think I could bear it.

(weeping) Come now.

Don't drench me with your tears.

(sniffling, weeping) Did you bring my best clothes?

(sniffles) Nella.

I mean it.

Don't be sad.

The secret in life, as in business, is not to care too much.

Always be prepared to lose.

(keys rattling) (rattling stops) (rattling continues) How much did you give him this time?

Five guilders.

To stay until dawn.

(sniffles) (footsteps approaching) (keys rattling) (pounding on door) PELLICORNE (voiceover): "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want... "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: "he leadeth me beside the still waters.

"He restoreth my soul: "he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness "for his name's sake.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, "I will fear no evil: "for thou art with me; "thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

"Thou preparest a table in front of me "in the presence of mine enemies: "thou anointeth my head with oil; "my cup runneth over.

"Surely goodness and mercy will follow me "all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (exhales) ♪ ♪ (exhales) (loud splash) (crowd gasps) (crowd murmuring) MAN 1: He was one of our best merchants.

We're fools.

MAN 2: This will bring the Burgomasters no friends.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Otto.

He's gone...

He's really gone.

♪ ♪ (bird squawking) ♪ ♪ Let's go home.

(footsteps descending) Cornelia, I...