EPISODE 15Arc II: The RiseDraft
The Confrontation

Reign and Vance face off. Neither blinks.
**FADE IN:**

**INT. EMPTY RESTAURANT - NIGHT**

Reign sits opposite Damien. She looks defeated.

REIGN
You win. I’ll give you Jonathan.

DAMIEN
(a smug smile)
I knew you’d see reason.

**EXT. PARKING GARAGE - LATER**

The exchange. Damien and his men wait. A car pulls up. Reign gets out. She opens the back door. Jonathan is not there. She is holding a laptop.

REIGN
He’s not a key you can hold, Damien. He’s a signal.

She opens the laptop. On the screen is a live, high-definition video of Mayor Thompson, speaking directly to the camera.

MAYOR THOMPSON (on screen)
I am confessing to the cover-up of my daughter’s hit-and-run. A cover-up orchestrated and facilitated by a rogue government agency, led by Damien Cross...

Damien’s face turns to stone. He realizes what’s happening.

DAMIEN
What have you done?

REIGN
That feed is streaming to every major news outlet, every blog, every social media platform on the planet. Your career is over. Your agency is exposed.

Damien’s phone starts ringing, then buzzing incessantly. His world is exploding. He looks at Reign with pure hatred.

Reign closes the laptop and gets back in her car. She drives to the safe house. Jonathan is waiting, watching the news on a small TV.

JONATHAN
The empire is gone.

REIGN
Yes. But we’re alive. And we’re free.

He looks at her, a new respect, a new understanding, in his eyes.

JONATHAN (CONT’D)
What now?

Reign smiles, the first genuine smile in a long time.

REIGN (CONT’D)
Now, we build something new. Something they can never touch.

**SMASH CUT TO BLACK.**

**ON SCREEN TEXT: THE EMPIRE IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN.**

**END OF EPISODE 15**