That evening, Erin is in her apartment going over the case, she grows tired. Moment later, we see her in bed as our view zooms in on her watch just as it clicks on 3 A.M and then the second hand stops.
The trial begins with Ethan Thomas making his opening statement. As she listens, Erin notices her watch has stopped at three o'clock. Ethan gives a compelling speech that Emily did indeed have a medical condition and Father Moore's irresponsible actions resulted in her death. He shows the jurors before and after pictures of Emily. One, a smiling vibrant Emily, the other, the day she died, a grotesquely emaciated face. The jurors gasp at the sight of the latter photo.
After he concludes his opening statement, Erin options to reserve her opening statement until the presentation of the defense's case. The first to be called to the stand by Ethan, is Dr. Vogel. She testifies about the phone call she received regarding the dorm room incident. The next person called to the stand, is Dr. Mueller who testifies that Emily was suffering from epilepsy. Mueller suggests that this would account for her behavior and reactions - apparent siezures, losing consciousness, involuntary muscle contractions, and even hallucinations.
Mueller testifies about his examination and the medicine prescribed. He implies that Father Moore's advice to Emily resulted in her death, inciting Erin to object. When Erin cross examines Mueller, she casts doubt by pointing out that it's possible Emily's condition was psychosis which has nothing to do epilepsy. Mueller looks shell shocked that his medical assessment of Emily looks less than professional.
Erin visits Moore at the jail, while walking towards his cell, she stops and notices the cell next to his, is now empty. Before they get started on their discussions, Father Moore warns Erin that there are dark powerful forces surrounding the trial and she should be careful. Demons exist whether she believes in them or not, and her involvement in the trial might open her up to their attacks. Erin dismisses the warning and prefers to focus on the defense. Moor shares with Erin about Emily's stay at the hospital.
Erin meets with Jason to discuss Emily. He tells Erin about the University Chapel incident and how she was seeing demonic faces on other people. Jason stayed by her side till the end. He confides that what they shared was like a nightmare, but he wouldn't give up a single minute with her. She woke him up to things he never felt before. He never knew how dead he was until he met Emily.
Later, Erin is at a bar having a drink when she overhears a news broadcast from the bar's television. James Van Hopper, acquitted last year from a murder trial, murdered a young couple in a suburban home and may have known the victims. Erin is floored by the news and is visibly upset. She goes to the bathroom to regain her composure where banging doors and a lady in black appears, an uneasiness fills Erin with tension.
That night she is seen asleep in bed while the alarm clock rolls to 3 A.M. Erin opens her eyes and notices a strange smell. She gets out of the bed, flicks the lights on, and checks the fire alarm and the stove in the kitchen. Suddenly, the lights go out and she sees that the clock has stopped. Erin pours herself some water when she hears a door creaking.
She turns and sees light pouring into the apartment caused by the opening of the front door. Frightened she accidentally drops the glass, it shatters on the floor. Slowly she makes her way to the front door and sees that the door is wide open. She quickly slams the door and locks it. Erin returns to be bed, but just lays there wide eyed.
At the same time, we see Father Moore sleeping in his jail cell bed. He wakes up, sensing something. He peers out the bars and sees a dark figure moving. Moore grips the bars hard in fright and begins praying. He looks again and the dark figure can no longer be seen.
The next day, Erin arrives in court late, which the Judge Brewster (Mary Beth Hurt) lectures her about being on time. Ethan calls up Dr. Briggs (Henry Czerny), a published expert in neuro-psychiatry. He determines the cause of Emily's death was due to the shut down of her bodily functions due to numerous physical traumas exacerbated by malnutrition. He attributes her demise to a rare psychotic epileptic disorder and if she had continued her medication, she would be alive today.
In cross examination, Erin gets Briggs to admit that the label psychotic eplileptic disorder was something that he created, it's not a common known illness. However, she's left defenseless when Briggs asserts he would have used electro-shock therapy even against her will, if it meant saving her life.
The judge calls recess till the next day. Erin apologizes to Father Moore for being late, she didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. He is curious what kept her awake. She dismisses the question. But he warns her that she is under attack. Whether she believes or not, she is in a spiritual battle. The forces of darkness are trying to keep her away from the light. After Moore leaves, she expresses her frustation to Ray, (JR Bourne), her assistant, that they are losing the battle and need to find a medical expert to testify in their favor.
Later, she meets with Ray who has gathered a stack of books on possession. Erin comes up with a radical new strategy. Seeing that the prosecution is putting up a seemingly solid medical case, Bruner decides to try to show that Emily may have actually been possessed. The Church won't allow other members of their parrish to participate in the trial, so she requests Ray to seek out an expert who approaches possession from a scientific perspective.
The next day, Erin makes her opening statement. She contests that Emily may have actually been possessed. Erin explains that Emily was suffering from something that neither medicine nor psychology could explain, and that Father Moore as well as her family realized this and tried to help in another way. She calls Nathanial to the stand and he testifies that they seeked and relied on Father Moore's guidance.
He tells the courtroom about Emily's behavior surrounding the insect eating incident. Ethan cross examines him, exposing the fact that Nathanial knows nothing of the medical symptoms Emily was experienceing by throwing at him a list of technical medical references. Nathanial mentions that there was a history of mental illness in his family.
She calls in an anthropologist, Dr. Sadira Adani (Shohreh Aghdashloo), to testify about various cultures' beliefs regarding spiritual possession approached by a scientific study. Adani believes Emily was a Hyper-sensitive, a person vulnerable to possession. Ethan is beside himself and objects to this, as he called her, a "witch doctor throwing monkey bones."
The judge requests a private consultation where Erin and Ethan bicker over the validity, but Brewster rules in favor of Erin. Adani continues that it was Gambutrol that caused the failure of the exorcism, the drug locked Emily into the possessed state. Ethan tries to discredit her profession in his cross examination and points out that since she's never used Gambutrol on one of her subjects, her expert input is nothing more than just her "theory."
Later during court recess, Ray delivers good news to Erin that Dr. Cartwright, who was present at the exorcism, is willing to testify. Moments later, Erin is talking with Moore and is extremely upset for withholding that information. But Moore explains that he promised Cartwright to keep his involvement confidential.
Soon after, Erin meets with Dr. Cartwright, who preferred to stay out of the trial, but doesn't want to see Father Moore put away. He shares some of the disturbing things he witnessed in Emily already explained. He explains to Erin that when Emily was not in the demon's grip, she was completely lucid and aware of the separate entities. Before leaving, he gives a tape recorder, which contains the recording of the exorcism.
Erin visits Father Moore in jail and informs him that Dr. Cartwright will testify. She's considers that a huge boost to their defense, but Moore wants to know when does he get to testify. She's evasive about giving him a clear answer. When he asks her again about dark forces and demonic attacks, she confides in him about an incident after Briggs testified. She was out for a walk to clear her head and came across a gold locket. It had the initials ECB, her initials, her name is Erin Christine Bruner.
Of all the odds that it would be her to find that locket sets her wondering. She questions if that was a sign, but it also gave her the feeling that she is on the right path regarding her role in the trial. She's not wearing locket now, but Moore recommends she should. She brings back his attention on his testimony. Even though the Church expects Erin to talk him out of testifying, she's decided to not even try. She feels that if the Church wants to avoid embarrassment, they need Moore to walk out of there a free man.
That night, Erin is in bed and the clock reads 3 A.M. She wakes up startled when she hears a noise in her apartment. She gets up to investigate and when she peers into the living room, she can hear the tape recording of Emily screaming during the exorcism. She's part confused and part frightened how it could have started playing on it's own.
The next day, Erin calls Father Moore to the stand. He testifies his part in the chain of events including getting authorization to perform the exorcism and his incident with the black-robed dark figure, a sign to him that the game is on. Ethan tries to mock Father Moore during his cross examination by painting him as "God's gunslinger facing down the devil." Erin angrily objects to the harrassing of her witness. Judge Brewster browbeats Ethan for stooping to such tactics. Ethan gloats to the jury when Moore admits he has seen the dark figure ever since.
Erin requests a redirect, she approaches Moore, bringing the tape recorder with her. Ethan objects to allowing the tape recorder as evidence, but Erin points out all proper procedures were satisfied to allow it. Father Moore is allowed to play the tape. They hear the complete audio dialogue detailing the exorcism as explained earlier, including speaking in tongues. After listening to the tape, Father Moore recounts the remaining incidents already explained and admits he advised her to stop taking the drugs.
On Ethan's turn, he contends that her speaking in tongues can be explained by her having gone through Catholic Catechism, in which she could have learned the ancient languages, and that she had studied German in high school. The priest admits that her learning those languages is possible. He further points out the human dual sets of vocal cords and how one can learn to use both vocal cords in his attempt to discredit the dual voices heard on the tape.
Ray approaches Erin and whispers to her that Dr. Cartwright is a no show. She requests the judge to allow a recess. Once again Ethan objects claiming the defense has already presented their case in "dramatic fashion." Brewster is also growing impatient but grants the recess. She excuses everyone till tomorrow morning. Erin meets with Ray outside, she's upset that they lost a star witness. Ray tried everything to track him down but found him nowhere.
Shortly after, Erin walks outside and sees the doctor on the street. He looks distraught and says he can no longer testify, but he does believe in demons. He states intensely he knows what the demons can do. At that moment, Dr. Cartwright is terrified when spotting something behind Erin. On a drive ramp, a large trail of blood is smeared across the pavement. Erin turns to look behind her but she immediately hears screeching tires and turns back to the doctor. A car slams into him as he crashes through the windshield, killing him.
Later that night, Erin is pouring herself a large shot of whiskey straight, trying to calm her nerves. Gunderson enters her office and is livid about Erin going against the Church's orders to not allow Father Moore to testify. He tells her she has screwed up the case beyond all repair, but the Church feels replacing her now would draw more unnecessary attention to the trial. However, Karl warns her that if she calls the priest to the stand again, she will be fired.
Erin visits Moore at the jail and delivers the bad news his friend Dr. Cartwright is dead. She concedes they have lost the trial, without his testimony, it's over. Father Moore implores passionately that he must finish telling Emily's story, but she insists she can't. Moore gives her the letter from Emily for her to read and reconsider. She takes it and reads it later that night.
The next day, Erin calls the priest back to the stand. She is now wearing the ECB gold necklace. Gunderson is seated among the crowd, furious that she ignored his ultimatum, he storms out of the courtroom. Moore continues Emily's story and believes one day she will be recognized as a saint. Erin asks, "Why did God allow Emily to be possessed by demons and then die?" The judge overules Ethan's objection to Erin's question.
Father Moore reads the letter aloud to the courtroom describing her vision of the Virgin Mary. She concludes the letter by saying "In the end, good will triumph over evil. Through my experience, people will know that demons are real. People say that God is dead, but how can they think that if I show them the Devil?" Erin continues questioning Moore so that he can share to the jury about stigmata and explains what they mean.
The prosecution counters that Emily, who had a tendency to injure herself, could have received the stigmata wounds from a barbed wire fence on her property. He tries to nullify the impact of Emily's letter by dismissing Father Moore's beliefs as archaic and irrational superstition. He states that Emily suffered because she was sick, not because she was a saint. Ethan focuses on the facts only to the jury and shows an enlarged post-mortem photo of Emily one more time. He implores they do not believe the defense's "creative" explanation.
Erin delivers a closing statement emphasizing the possibilities as opposed to facts. She recaps details that show Father Moore cared for Emily and is innocent of fatal neglect. Soon after, the jury have submitted their verdict. Father Moore is found guilty of negligent homicide. However, the jury spokesman adds that they would like to recommend a sentence of time served. The judge accepts the recommendation, despite Ethan's objection. Father Moore is guilty . . . and free to go. Both sides of the trial are floored by the decision.
Erin is offered a partnership at her firm for saving Father Moore from extended jail time, but she refuses and in fact quits. She goes with Father Moore to Emily's grave where he tells her he can't go back to the parrish. Once he had looked into the darkness, he will carry it with him for the rest of his life. Moore chose the epitath for her grave (which Emily recited to him the day before she died), from the second chapter, twelfth verse of Philippians: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling".
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