Jonathan Hirsch

This is all my fault.

I did this from beginning to end.

And this is where sort of drives at the heart of this being kind of a moral tale is

Kent does something that I still can't imagine having the ability to do myself, which is he forgives Bart for what happened.

Yeah, I don't know if I could do it either.

So he said like that first night in the hospital, I forgave everyone who was involved in this.

It is a gift of God that allows me to do this.

I think he gave me the gift so that when I found out that it was my son, it would be a legitimate forgiveness.

Almost like God was sort of priming him to forgive his son for something that would be unforgivable.

You know, Cooper, when we've been talking about this case, I keep thinking back about my favorite novel when I was a teenager, which probably says a lot about me.

It's Crime and Punishment.

Yeah, dark Russian novel about murder and crime.

Anyway, for those who haven't read it before, the main character is this guy, Raskolnikov.

He's this poor student at a university in St.

Petersburg.

And he develops this theory that superior individuals can transcend moral laws.

If the person deserves it, basically, you can kill someone without feeling guilt or regret.

You can kind of sit above morality.

Yeah.

And he commits the crime of murder, but then is consumed with guilt and regret and can't really transcend the human emotion that is associated with taking the life of another person.