Lauren (+ Leslie Trailer) | Ep. 3 of 3 | Feat. Troian Bellisario & Jennifer Beals | WIGS

Permission to enter, Major?
Permission granted.
At ease.
Where I’m from, the Kato Indians have a story.
A woman, she goes and she gets some corn, and she takes it to the mill. Grinds at the corn all day, and she pounds at it. But the more she pounds, the less meal she makes.
And a second woman comes along, and she starts pounding, too. But the more she pounds, the less meal she makes.
And a third woman comes along, and she says, “You know, there’s something wrong with this mill. This isn’t the same old mill we’ve always used.”
So they, they pull at it, and they twist it, and finally they go get an ax and they’re about to cut that mill in two when old Coyote jumps out and laughs.
Coyote had hidden the old mill, and he had turned himself into the new mill, so he could eat all the corn meal himself.
There will not be an investigation.
Whose decision is this? It’s out of my hands.
Is it your decision? It’s consensus.
Is it your decision? It’s out of my hands.
What does that even mean?
The video— Ma’am, what about the video?
The video has been destroyed.
Oh, the video’s been destroyed.
Affirmative, you will not be subjected to that humiliation. You have my assurance.
Ma’am, I do not understand, what is going on here?
I am saying it’s over. The video has been destroyed. This report will be filed as restricted. Your identity not be made public.
The army will provide you with counseling and medical support. It is over. You should be grateful.
You’re dismissed.
How is this over? Nothing is over— Soldier, I said you are dismissed.
I walk out of this tent, and I see Martinez or Romero again, I have to salute them.
Yes, you do.
And if Martinez decides to smoke me because I look at him funny, and he tells me to do 1,000 push ups, I have to get down on the ground and do 1,000 push ups and get up and thank him?
You’re damn right you do.
And if I can’t do that?
Well then you have stepped out from under the tent and it will rain down upon you.
This is bullshit. Parade rest.
That is enough staff sergeant.
No, it is not enough. Ma’am, this is not enough.
Any more of this and I will have no choice but to write you up.
I am sympathetic to you and your predicament, but the powers that be have spoken.
Now whether or not that’s your idea of justice, this great and glorious institution does not care. It is how things have been judged. And you will submit to the judgment.
Now I told you, you are dismissed.
Back home, when I was a little kid, I had this music box with a ballerina in it. And one day my brother twisted and he broke off the ballerina, and he blamed me.
Saying that I had no respect for my father’s household. And I screamed that it wasn’t right.
And I screamed, and I screamed, until eventually my father told me to go stand outside because I was screaming so much.
So I just stood outside in the cold, screaming. And then the snow started falling, and I just stood outside in the falling snow screaming…
Until all up and down the block, all the neighbors came outside to see what this crazy fucking little girl was screaming about.
They called me ‘stub’ after that, it’s short for ‘stubborn.’
And dammit, ma’am, I am stubborn. After my husband was killed in combat, they gave me the option to de-enlist to go home and take care of my baby girl.
But I said no. Because if there was a fight coming, I wanted in, and my baby girl would just have to understand that when she was older.
I came here to fight, that’s what you don’t seem to understand about me, is that I am here to fight.
I will not let you undermine the morale on my base. It is out of my hands, now you get out of my office before I call and have you arrested.
I just want to show you something, ma’am, because somebody sent me a copy of the video, so—
You be very careful now.
—which part do you think undermines morale more, when Romero punches me in the face—
Stop it. —or when Martinez forces me to get down on my knees—
Stop it! —and suck his dick? Be quiet!
There is nothing I can do about it. What I feel doesn’t matter, what I care about doesn’t matter.
And if I stay up at night crying over this or that it doesn’t fucking matter, because you know what they say.
It sucks. Embrace the suck.
Lauren, I know you don’t think I know anything about military custom and I don’t, I think you’re all crazy.
But I know about Private Santoya. She wanted to be a navy seal. Her commander asked her every day in front of the other men if she liked it in the ass.
One day she objected and he called her a ‘cunt.’ A few months later she was at a holiday party and she gets a spiked drink, and gang raped.
No one was prosecuted and she was demoted for having an attitude problem.
I know about Sergeant Brail; she was raped by her commanding officer and then forced to live on the same floor as him.
When she complained her commanding officer forced her to do push ups and cut her food rations. He said shit bags like her don’t deserve liberty.
She shot herself with her service firearm.
You asked me yesterday what I would want in your position. Well, I know what I wouldn’t want.
I wouldn’t want to live with myself knowing I didn’t get the truth out.
What can you do?
You want revenge? I have a cousin who went to my fancy law school, and is now an editor at the Huffington Post.
We email him this video, and tell him the army’s going to bury it. But you have to be ready for what will be coming at you.
It would be war.
That means choosing between what I love and what’s right.
What’s the alternative?
I embrace the suck.