In Henry, Henry one actor embodies two warring personalities – one a guilt-ridden, obsessive ex-priest who never goes out, the other a mild alcoholic, who holds down a low-level job. When Henry Two takes a drink and slurs a little, Henry One shows no sign of alcohol. Although the duality is apparent to the audience, other characters see an eccentric middle aged man who occasionally talks to himself.
The Henrys clash over digging up the past, when, as a young priest, Henry caught his charismatic mentor – Father Bryant – abusing a child. But he fell for the older man’s entreaties that exposing him would damage the faith of those who need it the most. Henry agrees to watch his every move and keep him away from children. Three months later, Henry vomits from a stomach virus and discovers that Bryant has drugged him. He finds only pillows under blankets in Bryant’s room. Panicked, he runs into the rectory courtyard, where he hears moans from a utility shed and catches Bryant with another child. Bryant admits to drugging Henry twelve times, while he abused another dozen children. Henry murders Bryant with an iron rake. Henry Two came into existence to dispose of the body and deal with the police. In their fight, Henry Two accuses Henry One of creating more victims by not exposing Bryant after catching him the first time. Act One ends with Henry’s botched murder/suicide attempt. Recovering in the hospital, they watch a news report about child sex trafficking and become obsessed by the possibility that someone like Bryant was leading a vast trafficking network. They contact FBI Special Agent Maria Ramirez, who interviewed Henry while investigating Bryant decades earlier. She tells Henry that Bryant is a hero on the Dark Web for raising pedophilia to a spiritual level. Though skeptical of Henry’s insights, Ramirez is intrigued by his theory: the most dangerous traffickers are fractured selves. Ramirez defies her superiors, who dismiss Henry as a lunatic. Risking her career, she concocts a secret sting, with Henry as willing bait. He uploads quotes from Father Bryant to the Dark Web to gain access to hidden pedophilia files. He meets a handler with two young children in a child’s bedroom, hidden inside an 18-wheeler, where pedophiles meet their victims. Ramirez arrests the driver; Henry rescues the children. But their triumph is short-lived. Thugs abduct Henry. He’s awakened by Father Bryant, who has built a trafficking empire. Delirious with guilt, Henry had only picked up the rake 20 years earlier, then passed out, allowing Bryant to escape. Bryant is about to force Henry into abusing a child, when Henry Two silently retrieves Bryant’s switchblade and slits his throat. A terrified child grabs Bryant’s gun and shoots Henry. As Bryant bleeds out, the children mourn him, revealing their psychological bondage. In the ICU, we hear two hearts beating, slowing, stopping, as Henry, at last redeemed, dies.