Episode 6: Fallout

November 18, 2019·54 min·4 clips

Jen looks Faulkner in the eye and tells him he abused her two-year-old daughter after gaining their trust.

The host starts in a place of dread. She has spent a year on this story, talking with victims, an anonymous pedophile, and Warhead himself, but the interview with Benjamin Faulkner's family lands differently. The room in North Bay, Ontario, feels plain and hot, which somehow makes the conversation worse. Small domestic details sit beside the thing no family should have to discuss. In court, Kathy is asked what she feels after hearing what her son has done. She does not give a clean answer, because there is not one. She talks about love, sadness, and restraint. She remembers canoe trips, time outdoors, and quiet talks with paddles moving through lake water. Faulkner hears all of it. As Kathy describes the person she still recognizes, he wipes his face, then breaks down harder. But her mercy stops short of closeness. She asks for him to be protected, and also says she does not want him near. That line is the episode's hardest part. Rob speaks too. Then Faulkner rises with the big speech he has mentioned. He is nervous and reads fast enough that the court reporter tells him to slow down. The statement turns inward. He talks about anxiety, fear, depression, and hiding his desires. The host hears the imbalance. In the end, the fallout is not loud. It is parents asking for mercy with a locked door behind it, and a defendant still mostly talking about himself.

As heard by us

A restrained courtroom episode that keeps grief, mercy, and self-justification in view.

The episode moves away from the larger case and stays with the human cost in court and at home. Kathy Faulkner speaks about her son with grief, love, and a kind of hard-earned restraint, while also asking for mercy and for him to be kept safe.

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Why you'd press play

You want a courtroom scene where love, mercy, and the crime all sit in the same room.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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