Jo Wilson Quotes

Jenny: I really thought I was better than you. I believed everything he told me about you. God. I'm smart. I'm a scientist. I'm a feminist. I never thought that I would end up in something like this. It happened so slow. I stopped talking to... to co-workers, friends he didn't like. Then my family didn't understand. They got worried. So I just brushed them off and then stopped talking to them, too, and then my circle got smaller and smaller and smaller until all I had left was him. And then I stopped believing myself, things I had seen and heard, things I knew, because he told me I was crazy and I just believed him. He knows me so well. He can zero in on an insecurity and... and make a whole argument turn on a dime, and now it's my fault... it's my fault again. I'm always the one that's wrong. When he started hitting me, it was just barely a surprise. And he told me it was my fault, and I actually believed him. Until you talked to me yesterday, I really believed him. How did I believe him?

Jo Wilson: Because he was good to you in the beginning. And on the good days. Jenny, we're not stupid. We didn't fall for someone who beat us. We fell for someone who made us laugh and feel wanted and loved and seen. Paul is brilliant and charming and persuasive, and the good outweighed the bad until it didn't.

Jenny: I just want you to know you don't have to worry. I didn't tell the police anything.

Jo Wilson: What do you mean?

Jenny: I didn't tell them it was you. But thank you. Thank you so much. (few second later...) Wait. I-I was in the hotel. He got mad and went for a walk and told me to stay p... It wasn't you?

Jo Wilson: I swear to God it wasn't.

Jenny: Who do you think did it?

Jo Wilson: An avenging angel?

Jo Wilson: Jenny, it's okay if you don't want to talk to me. You don't have to say a word. Just please listen. There was a dinner party with his colleagues. I talked too much to the man sitting next to me. Paul said that I made a fool out of him. I laughed because it seemed so... I laughed. And his eyes went dark, and that's the last thing that I remember before waking up the next morning with my eye swollen shut. I thought it would be the only time. I'm sure that you did the first time, too. But he just got smarter after that. He made sure that no one could see the bruises. He would apologize and then tell me it was my fault all in one breath, and he was so persuasive. He told me I was wrong so many times that I believed I was wrong. He told me I was crazy so many times that I believed that I actually was crazy. The last time, I woke up to him kicking me in the back because he'd read my e-mail and saw the name of a man that he didn't recognize. He kicked me so hard, he broke my ribs and almost ruptured my kidney. If I hadn't have escaped that night... Say the word, and I will help you. I will get you out of this right now.

Paul Stadler: I'm really happy for you, Jo. I hope this brings you... some real peace. You deserve it. We both do.

Jo Wilson: You don't deserve anything good. You're a monster.