Deirdre was still smiling at the joke as Jackie left the room with her computer tucked under her arm.
Ethan was sitting alone in the living room. When he saw Jackie, he clapped, very slowly. “Smart kid,” he said, “but you have no idea how much trouble you’re causing.” This, more than anything else, made Jackie smile. “Give me the phone.”
Jackie expected Ethan to ask for the phone and knew it was pointless to fight. She took the iPhone out of her pocket and tossed it across the room. “The computer, too.”
“What?”
“The computer, Jackie.” The edge in Ethan’s voice was frightening. “We’ve decided you need to engage more with your surroundings. Burying your nose in your computer screen all day isn’t very good television, now, is it?”
Jackie just stood there. Ethan shook his head, got up, crossed the room, and took the laptop out of Jackie’s hands. She didn’t put up a fight. Ethan went back to the couch.
“You told people not to watch the show.”
“I did,” Jackie said.
“I’m not sure I care, but curiosity is getting the best of me. Why?”
“You really don’t know, do you?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t think there is any way I can make you understand.”
Ethan shrugged his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. Your wings are clipped. You’re going to get in line and do what we say, starting tonight. You’re going to tell America that you were just lashing out because you’re sad about your father’s illness.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re not what?”
“I’m not going to tell America that I was just sad because of my dad’s illness. I’m going to continue to tell them, every chance I get, what a big phony you and this television show are.”
“Don’t be so sure, Jackie. I’ve handled some of the toughest people in show business. I think I can handle a fifteen-year-old girl.”
It was this moment of arrogance, of naked hubris, that gave Jackie all the confidence she needed.
Later that afternoon when Andersona tried to interview her about how wrong she’d been to post the new episode of The Real Family Stone of Portland, Oregon, Jackie answered every one of the questions with a stream of curse words.
ANDERSONA: It must be hard on you, having to watch your father go through this.
JACKIE: Fuck, shit, piss.
ANDERSONA: The YouTube show was all about you lashing out, wasn’t it?
JACKIE: Cock, tits, bitch.
This went on for a full five minutes. When Andersona was done asking the questions she had come to ask, which she read from a prepared script, she left the room without saying a word.
Jackie stayed in the chair and laughed, at first. Eventually emotion overwhelmed her and the laughter turned to tears. She sat there until she was done crying, and then retreated to her room to read a book.
***
The episode of Life and Death that aired that night was made especially for Jackie.
The opening scene was Jackie’s plea, from The Real Family Stone of Portland, Oregon, for people not to watch the show. It dissolved to Jackie listening to Andersona’s question: “The YouTube show was all about you lashing out, wasn’t it?”
The camera shifted to a view over Jackie’s shoulder, showing a concerned Andersona. Jackie’s voice-over, plucked and cleaned up from her conversation with Ethan, was made to seem like an answer to Andersona’s question: “I was just sad because of my dad’s illness. I was a big phony.” Only the most seasoned editor could have spotted the fakery.
“How does that make you feel?” Andersona asked. The editors cut to Jackie cursing, with all the swear words bleeped out. Then back to Andersona to ask the question again. This time the camera cut to Jackie, sitting in the interview chair, weeping.
The credits rolled.
After the commercial break, Ethan, who was furious that Megan hadn’t alerted him that Jackie had somehow recovered a phone, had a small message for her, too. They showed the entire sequence of Megan following Jackie, and even included a bastardized version of her conversation with Ethan in the limousine. In the version that aired, Megan approached Ethan and offered to spy on Jackie if the producers would feature her, Megan, more prominently in the show. Ethan, in a set piece recorded after the fact, refused.
The actions of the two Stone girls were stitched together to show a family splitting apart over the stress of their dying father. Jackie and Megan were shown to be conniving but pitiable characters, with Ethan and Andersona each playing the part of compassionate benefactor.
It was both a high and low watermark for the power and pull of the medium.
***