The Descendants

My friends on the mainland think just because I live in Hawaii, I live in paradise.

Like a permanent vacation.

We're all just out here sipping mai tais, shaking our hips, and catching waves.

Are they insane? Do they think we 're immune to life?

How can they possibly think our families are less screwed up...

...our cancers less fatal...

...our heartaches less painful?

Hell, I haven't been on a surfboard in 15 years.

For the last 23 days...

...I've been living in a paradise of IVs and urine bags and tracheal tubes.

Paradise?

Paradise can go fuck itself.

This is Elizabeth Thorson King, my wife.

Twenty-three days ago...

...she was launched from a powerboat during a race and hit her head.

Almost drowned.

When I heard about the accident and about the coma, I wasn't even in town.

I was on Maui, on business, and we hadn't spoken in three days.

In a way, we hadn't really spoken in months.

If you're doing this to get my attention, Liz, it's working.

I'm ready now.

I'm ready to talk. I'm ready to change.

I'm ready to be a real husband and a real father.

Just wake up.

Please, Liz, just wake up.

Hey, Noe, what's up?

Matt, Scottie's teacher's on the phone.

She says it's urgent.

Okay, put her on.

We don't think these photographs...

...are appropriate for Scottie to be sharing with her classmates.

Some of them went home quite disturbed, and we got some angry calls from parents.

Yeah, she's kind of been going to town on this whole picture-taking thing.

I had no idea. Mr. King, we see this every day.

Children acting out in school when something is wrong at home.

And your family is facing a devastating crisis.

Have you been engaging Scottie in talking about everything that's going on?

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Encouraging her to express her feelings?

That's crucial. Mm-hm. I understand.

What's the matter with you, showing those pictures of Mom for your art project?

I'm a photographer, Dad, a real photographer.

No. You're overdoing it, is what you're doing.

I saw it in a book.

Some famous photographer lady took pictures of her mom in the hospital...

...while she was dying, and they're considered art.

That's what I'm doing.

First of all, your mother is very sick, but she isn't dying.

And second of all, we don't share personal stuff with strangers.

What's going on with your mom is private.

I'm hungry. Can we get burgers? No.

The last time I took care of Scottie by myself was when she was 3.

Now she's 10, and I have no idea what to do with her.

But I wanna eat now, not in an hour.

And with Elizabeth in the hospital, she's testing me.

I'm the backup parent, the understudy.

This is Matt King. I'm returning your call. How can I help you?

It's your daughter Scottie.

She's been texting some awful things to my daughter, Lani, and I'd like her to stop.

Huh.

"We all know you grew pubes over the summer."

I mean, my daughter can't help it if she's developing a little early for her age.

You think that's nice? Well, that's not like her at all.

She's usually very sweet.

As you may know, her mother isn't well. Maybe this is how she's dealing with it.

I'm very sorry about your family situation, Mr. King...

...but my daughter comes home from school in tears.

Yeah, no, I get it I'm sorry.

Scottie's the one who should be sorry.

I want her to come over and apologize...

...and I don't ever want her to text my daughter again.

If she doesn't apologize, I'll take it up with the dean.

You can't buy your way out of this.

Can you give me an address?

Thank you for coming by.

Hi.

I forgot to mention Scottie said she didn't wanna be Lani's partner at the rock wall...

...because she didn't wanna fall into my daughter's butt crack.

That doesn't even make sense. Ah.

Shirts off. Shirts off.

Good, good, good, good job.

I don't think she has any idea.

That was very good, Bobby Brown. Yeah. Here.

Because she goes, "I'm living at this. I'll meet you out in front." So...

Scottie, you have something you wanna say to Lani?

Sorry.

He knows he's going away for a while.

If he's got a chance, he's bolting. Great. Well, it was nice meeting you both.

You should come over for a swim or a hike or something, okay?

I don't think she's sorry at all.

- She's gonna keep on doing it, I can tell. - No, she won't.

Look. Scottie, you're gonna stop, right?

And you're really, really sorry, right?

Seems like every time I forget to pray, we don't catch a guy for three days.

I know, I'm telling you, man.

Oh, and, Mr. King? Yeah?

Good luck with the sale.

They say your decision will have a major impact on Hawaii's real-estate world.

Not to mention the whole landscape of Kauai.

Hundreds of millions of dollars, yeah?

Yeah. It's a big decision.

My husband's family's from Kauai. Hanapepe, born and bred.

They hope you don't sell. You don't say.

All that traffic it's gonna make.

As if Liz's coma weren't enough already...

...the whole goddamn state is following my decision...

...on who's gonna buy 25,000 pristine acres on Kauai...

...that my family has owned since the 1860s.

A lot of my cousins are broke, and the sale will make us all very, very rich.

My family meets in six days to approve a buyer.

But ever since my father died, I'm the sole trustee...

...which means I alone hold all the cards.

My great-great-grandmother was Princess Margaret Ke'alohilani...

...one of the last direct descendants of King Kamehameha.

She was originally supposed to marry her cousin...

...but she fell in love with Edward King, her haole banker...

...whose parents had been missionaries.

Between his land deals and her huge inheritance...

...generations of their descendants, all of us...

...have watched the past unfurl millions into our laps through leases and sales.

Now something called the rule against perpetuities...

...is forcing us to dissolve the trust...

...and we're selling our last huge parcel of virgin Hawaiian land.

Unlike a lot of my cousins, I haven't blown my share of the trust money.

Just like my father before me...

...I live only on the income from my law practice.

I don't want my daughters growing up spoiled and entitled.

Liz always accuses me of stinginess, but I agree with my father.

You give your children enough money to do something, but not enough to do nothing.

Matt.

Your cousins are here.

Not only am I the sole trustee, but I specialize in real-estate transaction law...

...so a few of the more involved cousins have been meeting with me to analyze bids.

Hey. How's it, Matt?

Cousin Hal, Cousin Milo, Cousin Stan...

...Cousin Six, Cousin Wink, Cousin Connie...

How you doing? Okay?

...and Cousin Dave, both of whom oppose the sale entirely.

- Good to see you. - Don't be fooled by appearances.

In Hawaii, some of the most powerful people look like bums and stuntmen.

All right, so where are we?

Proposals are virtually the same.

Hotels, shopping centers, condos and golf courses.

I have some major concerns...

A Chicago group is offering half a billion dollars.

But we're leaning towards a lower bid from a guy named Don Holitzer.

He's actually from Kauai. Made a fortune in Silicon Valley.

Old Cousin Hugh is pushing us in that direction, and I say, why not?

The money would come from Hawaii and stay in Hawaii.

There's nothing about saving the heiau. You know, it's ridiculous.

And there's no beach access like they say, and that's really, really...

Elizabeth's gonna make it out okay. I know it.

It's not her time yet.

She'll wake up.

Scottie and Alexandra will have their mother back.

And we'll talk about our marriage.

I know I can make things right.

I'll sell the land, quit my practice, and buy her whatever she wants.

A big boat. A house in France.

We'll take a trip around the world, just the two of us.

We'll get close again, like the early days.

I wish I had better news, Matthew.

But Dr. Chun and Dr. Mueller and I agree that her condition...

...it's deteriorating.

She has no eye movement, she has no pupillary responses...

...she has no brain-stem reflexes whatsoever.

I mean, the machines can keep her alive, but the quality of her life would be so poor.

Basically the way it is now.

She'll never be the way she was, Matt.

Never.

We know that now.

Look, uh ""

I can't tell you how sorry I am to tell you this.

And you do have your daughters.

There's just nothing more that we can do.

So if we do go ahead and take her off the machines...

There's no "if."

It's "when." I have a legal obligation. You know that.

How long will she last?

Well, it's hard to say.

It could be a few days, it could be a couple of weeks.

For planning purposes, I think you should work off the shortest possible scenario.

I know I've gotta get the ball rolling on the organ donations right away.

Matt.

Elizabeth has many friends.

She has a big life.

If you're gonna let everybody know to say goodbye...

...which is the typical protocol for these situations, you start now.

Then when the last day comes...

...they'll feel more ready.

Or as ready as they can feel for something like this.

I'm so sorry, Matt.

Hey. Hey. There he is.

How's it going? What's going on?

She was looking a little pale lately, all cooped up here.

I know she'd be mortified if nobody helped her out with some lipstick and blush.

I know she'll grill me.

Of course, Kai's getting her caught up on the latest gossip.

Well, I don't wanna start from scratch later.

Oh, and, Matt, uh, on the way here...