The Postdoc

The naive and guileless, DR. GERMAINE GIRAULT, who has wanted to be a cosmologist for as long as she can remember, works as a postdoc under the demanding, PROFESSOR ANGELINA HEIDINGER. When the million dollar research proposal they co-wrote wins approval, Germaine is sure her lifelong goal is one step closer to realization. Buoyant, she attends a poetry slam in the evening. There she meets DANIELA DELGADO of campus security, an ex-soldier and fellow poetry lover. Late at night, on their way home, two men accost the women. Daniela sends the chumps packing with bloody noses, but Germaine, suffering from hemophobia, faints at the sight of blood. The next day, Professor Heidinger takes full credit for the project and gives Germaine the boot. Unemployed, Germaine takes a job interview arranged by a friend but is humiliated by a prejudiced hiring manager who hates academics. Afterwards she gets drunk and staggers to the physics department, intending to confront Heidinger. Hours later, Daniela finds Germaine in a pool of Heidinger’s blood, but Germaine claims she blacked out because of her blood phobia and can’t remember what happened. Daniela believes her friend and falsifies an accident report. With Heidinger lying in a persistent coma, the department head moves to secure the grant money by re-hiring Germaine and putting her in charge of the project. However, the events she can’t quite recall weigh heavily on her mind. With increasing frequency she has schizophrenic visions in which Heidinger appears and accuses her and Daniela of a premeditated attack. When the strain becomes to much Germaine accuses Daniela of attacking Heidinger and framing her. It comes to a fight in which Daniella’s gun goes off. Though Germaine’s first inclination is to run, she stays, battles her blood phobia and staunches Daniela’s wound until help arrives. While overcoming her phobia, she remembers what happened that fatal night: Heidinger became belligerent and fell while rushing Germaine. Days later, Daniela and Germaine reconcile; Heidinger is flowed back to her native Germany for further treatment; and Germaine, free of her hallucinations and buoyed by a new self confidence, takes over Heidinger’s group.