Billions (2016) s04e11 Episode Script
Lamster
Previously on Billions Tomorrow is Rebecca Cantu's first day as CEO of Saler's.
I want it to be a bad one for her.
With Taylor effectively in control of Kling, they also control the supply of household appliances that Saler's sells.
And if Taylor decides to cut the flow of those appliances? It'll gut you.
The deal requires you walk away from the voting nonsense.
Blockchain.
Your pilot program.
So that's what Jock needs.
Dr.
Rhoades, your medical license is under review.
There is still, somewhere inside of you, someone who knows right from wrong.
This hearing is your chance to reclaim that person.
Just share what you need to get you out of this.
Whatever our understanding, it can't just be verbal I've taken the liberty.
Did they paper this fucking deal? Now that it's just the three of us, I have to say, I did not know the nature of that conversation.
You have to tell him everything.
So he can defend us, whatever may come.
You mean about the idiot who stands to lose the most? Baby brother.
You suddenly showing up here Must mean you want something.
The one thing you do with those hands better than fight.
There's a safe? You bet your ass there is.
Dad it's the crack of dawn.
Holy shit, Sonny.
I'm being bugged.
Okay.
Slow it down.
Spell it out.
Breathe.
I'll breathe later.
But for now, fucking listen.
I was at home, alone - Ha! - Ohh.
You are not fast enough or strong enough to outrun me.
Well, then, you better come and mount your quarry.
But first, prime me, baby.
Ohh! Whoo! Somehow I found myself on the floor.
Making a home repair as I am wont to do, when Mom is out of town.
If you were on the floor Oh, fuck, I don't even want to say it.
Cuz then I'll have the goddamned image in my head.
They didn't fix the wood stain perfectly.
That's how I knew.
I left it in the wall.
So they wouldn't know what I know.
But what I know, Sonny Boy, is the government is on to me.
- Well, us.
- Oh.
Shit.
They might've heard me talk about Jock.
What I've been planning.
Okay.
You need to go on the lam, Whitey Bulger style.
Or better, DB Cooper.
Never caught.
The document.
I need to go back.
- Get it out of the safe - Your apartment isn't secure.
They could be ready to pick you up.
I'll send someone.
Can't.
It's a biometric lock.
Oh.
Terrific Well, I'll have to speed up everything on the Jock front Ah, fuck! If they got a warrant for your place, I could also be Tell whomever you send I'm sorry for the mess, but me and Roxanne, when we get down, well, we don't fuck around.
Brogan.
I need you to do a service for me.
Recognize the voice? I do.
And my debt to you.
You will be part of a detachment formed for specific purpose to deliver the final, fatal blow to Jock Jeffcoat.
Now, find a spot where 5 men can meet, and I'm sorry, can you hold please? Are you fucking kidding? One of the very men I need is on the other line.
Ira, old pal, you're next on my phone sheet Jesus, that's like three weeks early.
Can I Okay, I'll see you later then.
Forget arranging a location.
I know where we're meeting Can't.
It's a biometric lock.
Terrific Uh I'll have to speed everything up on the Jock front Oh, fuck! If they got a warrant for your place, I could also be So the shit train was just the beginning.
Yeah.
Seems to be.
What exactly is Rhoades coming after me for? That I don't know.
But I upped the physical surveillance on him.
Well, that's a start.
Here's an improvement: You scoop up that old man and you sweat him 'til the truth pours out.
Would love to.
But haven't been able to locate him.
He took Chuck's advice.
He's gone to ground.
You are a United States Attorney.
You find his wrinkly fucking ass.
Uh, I saw it once.
And actually, the old guy keeps it together.
Still I take your point.
Pearlsang Appliances is still your business.
- You'll still run it.
- Except now you'll own it.
And you want us upping production by twenty percent.
We can't sell more if we don't have more.
You get it done so we won't have to get in there and do it for you.
Because believe you me, you do not want Rebecca Cantu stalking your assembly lines.
When you put it that way, let me get with my people and figure out how we can run the factories around the clock.
Saler's looks forward to selling the fuck out of your and soon to be our appliances.
The meeting is happening.
Then drop what you got on Pearlsang.
Sometimes I really love this job.
It is the time of year that you've all had circled on your calendars since the moment you hopped aboard.
But Royal Rumble was two months ago! Thirty enter.
One remains.
Similar, actually, because it's comp time.
I'm not doing meetings.
I'm not going to force you to justify your existence.
The numbers already do that.
Still, I know some of you have been anxious.
Both about your performance and mine this past year.
So know this: I can afford to pay you all full freight, which you'll find is more than you made at any of your old shops If you leave your money in the fund for at least the next twelve months.
If you insist on drawing your pay immediately, and at your discretion the payout will be 60 cents on the theoretical dollar.
I'll await your individual decisions by end of day tomorrow.
Fuck! Motherfuck.
I don't know where it leaves me.
But that's a smart approach for Taylor in a year they're trying to conserve resources.
So's asphyxiating every third person, but frowned upon.
Especially by the guy who'd be the first one smothered.
Thanks.
Thank you.
She got a premium for a mediocre fucking company.
Yeah, well, that is what makes Taylor Mason so good.
Makes you do things compromise your approach in ways you never usually would.
You admire it.
I like to celebrate a really good kill.
Connects me to my spiritual side.
You're a sick twist.
I like to celebrate that.
- Axe.
- Yeah? Kitchen's all ready for you.
Thought you'd be with your wife today.
The hearing.
Instead of skull-dugging around here like Philip Marlowe.
You just compare me to Bogie? That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all week.
Wendy didn't think it was a good idea for the State AG to be sitting behind her creating the impression he was trying to influence things.
And you? Yeah.
Same.
Didn't want me there seeming like I'd asked her to do what she was accused of.
So she's better off without us.
Yeah.
For today.
For a few hours anyway.
And maybe still not.
But get on with it.
I need a man with a certain set of skills.
Your man.
To get into a safe.
And the room that safe is in.
A tough safe.
Ah.
A safe that lies outside the bounds of your authority.
Yeah, I got the guy.
You know I do.
But, Chuck, I'm not some USO girl dispensing donuts and dances here.
Taylor Mason should be in a numbered fucking jumpsuit.
If my dad and I get fitted for them first, that's never gonna happen.
You keep telling me why you can't get it done and what you need to do first.
Your days were never so full or disorganized when you were gunning for me.
Maybe this isn't personal enough for you.
You need me to make it fucking personal? Taylor Mason didn't just betray you.
They fucked with Wendy a dozen different ways.
So, yeah, I can get that happy hate going if I need to.
But I've also given my word.
More than once.
And that should fucking count, too.
You can use my man.
Give me what he needs to know about this safe and he'll know it.
Confirm nothing.
Admit nothing.
If Taylor doesn't show, they have nothing.
Unless you give them something.
So, don't.
I can't tell you to lie.
I can only tell you that they'll never be able to prove it, and it's the perfect solution to all your problems.
I hope so.
Is that what your clients say? Do they always feel good when they avoid punishment? Just move on with their lives? Real criminals are different than you and me.
Something about the mind-set of someone who does those things.
By the time I get 'em, they are long past wondering who they are.
They already know.
They just want to get away with it.
Maybe I'm not so different.
You are.
And later, you may feel some remorse.
Which you will deal with, Doctor Rhoades.
But for now For now, I do what you said.
Thank you.
We are here today to explore serious charges against Doctor Wendy Rhoades.
First, if she acted in a medical capacity and, if so I did.
Give me a minute with my client I am a doctor.
Taylor Mason was my patient.
I failed to respect patient confidentiality and used information revealed in session for my own personal gain or if I didn't technically gain, at least my own ends.
Can you repeat that? Yes.
Because it's the truth.
I got us a table at Oh.
I see.
This changes nothing.
Everybody at Axe Cap is and will remain deeply fucked in the head.
We will all need your help as a coach and a human.
Thank you.
But I, uh finally feel myself again.
- You don't look it.
- Hmm.
My face will catch up.
It just needs to relax into itself first.
Wendy confessed to the Medical Board.
Ding dong, the witch is We don't celebrate.
Wendy merely did the right thing.
That's all.
We move forward.
This is some detailed fucking intel you brought here.
I know the agent who bugged the place.
And he just gave you the roadmap? In a manner of speaking.
Nice.
Well, I cased the place myself anyway.
Great.
So you know how to do it? I do.
But it's a pass, bro.
What the fuck, man? You're Bill Belichick, I just brought you video of the Jets' signals and Compare me to that fat fucking sweatshirt sausage one more time Oh.
Nah, it's it's a positive comparison.
You're smart like him.
Yeah, well, I'm smart enough that I only got caught once in my career because I knew which jobs not to take.
This is one of 'em.
You only got caught once because I made the other ones go away.
I literally got one thing in my life that I'm proud of The time you cropdusted that pedo Father Collins.
Okay.
Two things.
But you're the other one.
And this ain't you, bro.
Catching the bad guy is as me as it fucking gets.
So, yeah, I'm asking you, guilting you Whatever it takes to get you to pull this.
Do I have to remind you which one of us stayed home to look after our blessed mother Is blessed some kind of synonym for drunk bitch now Easy there.
And in this case, yeah.
Yet I stayed.
Okay, little bro.
I'll do this thing We will.
Whoa, whoa.
Wh You want to come with? You're fucking killing me.
I know the document we're looking for.
That's what we're taking? A piece of paper? Not taking it.
Hold on.
Y-You know how it is once a Scotsman's drawn his dirk He can't return that blade to the sheath until it's tasted an Englishman's blood? Well, I can't open a safe without taking something.
No.
You can and will.
Because otherwise, I can't use it legally.
I need to read the thing, photograph it, and use the info to get a warrant to come back for it.
You don't actually wonder why people hate lawyers Oh.
No, I get it.
A safe cracker is far more interesting at parties.
The time table's been turbo charged.
We gotta do this today.
Tonight.
As we used to say before a schoolyard scrap: Tonight, long stick goes boom.
I bear bad news from Hall.
You need to back out of the deal with Pearlsang.
- They're about to go radioactive.
- What the fuck? They're gonna be publicly outed as practitioners of slave labor.
- Well.
Maybe we can - Child slave labor.
- Temple of Doom shit.
- How the fuck Hall said it was well-buried, but Taylor's man broke someone and leaked it.
Sorry, guys.
Well, that deal is dead.
I mean, he said Temple Of Doom.
Okay, shit.
We can still buy that other appliance company I had my guys look into Cardinale.
Won't work.
Saler's doesn't have the cash.
Last week's price was five billion.
This week's with one fewer rival for us to leverage it's gonna be even more.
What if you bought it? I thought about suggesting that but figured you wouldn't wanna be the damsel in distress.
Oh.
I'm the dame safeguarding my company.
And while Taylor may be the locomotive, you are kinda the one who tied me to the tracks in the first place.
So you might as well rescue me, too.
Revisionist fucking history.
I told you all about the baggage.
You asked me to come in.
You asked me to stay in.
Because I knew you'd always find a way to make good.
Like you said you would.
And sometimes that's strong-arming, sometimes it's sweet-talking Sometimes that's spending five billion dollars to help you keep your Barbie fucking Dreamhouse alive? With leverage, you'd only have to put up half, Ken.
Oh.
It's always easier to open up someone else's wallet, isn't it? Before I met you I went deal to deal, scooping up businesses and profits.
And then you wanted to be my partner on a deal or two, and now I can't make a move without a booby trap going off in my face.
Fine.
This is brutal to the bank account.
Even for me.
But, eh, I'll take it on.
Really? For you.
Thank you.
But dinner's on you for a while.
Why are we here? To end the Attorney General of the Unites States.
How the fuck are we going to do that? By proving his hatred of blockchain voting is motivated by corruption.
Which it is.
Or why else would he let a caboose of crap sit in his front yard to pay for it.
Oy.
I need Jock's wrath like I need a loch in kop.
Shein.
I will try to shield you from it.
And yet I have the right to call on you gentlemen And now I have.
For I have done a service for each of you.
For your bankroll, your security, your family.
None of this explains though why we're here.
Naturally because my most trusted counselor is tethered to this locale for the foreseeable.
Ira, are you a father again? Not yet.
The contractions are 15 minutes apart.
So we could have done this at the fucking track.
I have been banished from the birthing suite until right before the baby comes.
She says I make her nervous.
- Taiga? - No.
The doctor.
She says my anxiety is catching.
The doctor is a woman.
You trust that? We all have to pretend we do.
Mm.
Well, back to the present century, and the magic of childbirth aside, here is what I need from each of you: Halloran, you know who the biggest supplier - of voting equipment is.
- Bougle-Tek.
Right you are.
Now, they most benefit financially from Jock keeping things the way they are.
So we hit them every which way.
- Ira, you're gonna sue 'em.
- For what? Oh.
Something public and scary.
Eisen, you will use your scummiest PI with no respect for data security laws to work the ex-wife of Trent Fiske, Bougle-Tek's CEO, and worm your way into his finances And locate any payments that might have - gone from him to Jock.
- Indeed.
Halloran, you will solicit a bribe from the company.
- How would I go about - Mm-hmm.
Brogan, you have horses.
Jock has horses.
You will move one of your prized horses next to his and, under the guise of visiting, you will kill Jock's horse.
- Okay.
- What? Je No.
No more killing animals.
I was fucking with you.
Okay.
But Jock and Fiske are in the same stable.
Find out how that's not a coincidence.
Are their trainers passing notes for them? Are payments hidden in bales of hay? I don't fucking know, but you are going to.
And what are you going to be doing? Oh.
I myself will be doing my usual boogie inducing mistakes through temptation, misdirection, obfuscation and conflation-slash-corruption of the ideals that built this great nation.
For good and noble purpose, of course.
- Sure.
- Oh, yeah.
Of course.
Okay, now, the entire federal machine is set against us and closing in.
So move fast and break Jock.
We followed him to the hospital.
We've been tracking his little gang, and they are deep in research on something to do with you and elections Uh huh.
You have any idea why I don't answer your questions.
And you don't waste time asking 'em.
The more info I have, the easier I can stop Rhoades.
The way you stop Rhoades is you keep him off balance.
You can't let him find his carencia.
God.
Do they teach a man nothing about bullfighting anymore? Carencia.
Place in a ring where the bull feels most safe, where he draws his full power.
The whole afternoon, the matador is trying to keep him away from there.
And if he lets up for one second, and that bull finds his carencia Well, it doesn't matter what went before because a goring is coming next.
Understood.
Now, on the subject of on the run, what of the lamster, Rhoades Senior? FBI is up on his credit cards and bank accounts.
There was a transaction at a gas station up the Thruway.
Could be a misdirect.
Well, run it down and wind up facing the right way.
We want our arms around that fucker.
Hey.
I need you to liquidate our position in Corwell Pharmaceuticals at the open.
Like fuck you do.
That's my DB stock P of the year.
Yeah.
It's made 9% that's solid.
But I need to free up some cash.
Pimp rule 101: You don't sell your best girl 'til she loses her hip flexion.
- This sucker is still - I have to say that's really gross Yeah, Dollar Bill, that's a really poor analogy.
- Nobody can own - They're right.
Do it again, I'm gonna wash your mouth out with soap.
And I need the cash to lever up to buy five bill worth of washer-dryers.
I'll send you a few other positions to dump out of.
Tell me I'm not fucking crazy.
I can't do that.
Because lying makes me break out in hives.
Despite your grotesquerie, you are correct on this one.
So, how long will they suspend your license for? It could be up to three years.
Ah.
Well.
You can petition to have it shortened is what I'm saying.
For good behavior? If I don't shiv someone in the yard or use a rock pick on my cell wall? So do you regret what you did? I certainly don't understand it I don't regret it.
It had to be done.
I was trying to advise, knowing you as I do, that confessing while making a deal was the better course.
But you chose only the former I guess I had enough pain and guilt sloshing around inside me I thought it best to just throw it all up.
Sure.
The ol' boot and rally.
But on the other side, your throat burns, and your mouth doesn't taste too good.
And you start wondering if the better course might've been to just keep it all down.
You do.
You wonder.
But you know you had to.
Right.
Shall I open a bottle then? Oh.
I don't want this to turn into a Cassavetes movie.
The drinking, the yelling.
Who said anything about yelling? Let's not tempt fate.
Alright.
I think Ira is in for a long night.
We all are.
That the night porter? Yup.
Well.
Let's go.
So how One-thousand eighty-two permutations on the combination.
Should only take two, three hours.
Are you fucking kid Yes.
I'm fucking kidding.
Twenty-nine bucks.
You went to law school.
I also went to school.
They called me Mr.
Magneto.
Magnet again? System disarmed.
Handy being friends with the FBI.
It's fucking cheating.
I can't believe we came all the way up here and we're not even gonna steal anything.
I told you: don't fucking steal anything.
And no more talking.
The rest of the place is Hey.
Yeah, just Fuck.
The tray.
Whew, you feel that?! Adrenaline shakes? Fuck yeah.
You get what you need? I had bits and pieces before, but it's all spelled out here.
So, yeah, I did.
Let's go.
So you're all good.
I am.
Weird way for us to come back together Ahh, I'm glad we did I got a parting gift for you, baby bro.
From the fucking safe? I told you.
I couldn't return the dirk without getting it wet.
Fuck it.
Thanks, Jackie.
For all of it.
See ya.
I'm thinking of holding office hours.
Uh.
Yes, you should be in your office during working hours.
No.
More like a professore.
Selflessly lowering his learned mane so that young matriculants can climb up his ivory tower, sit at his feet, and savor of his erudition.
I shall call it Compliance Corner.
O-Okay, that's, um, something you can do.
Only I'm I'm afraid to.
Or Or rather I'm afraid that people won't come.
I'm afraid deep down people don't like me.
Don't respect me.
Don't even fear me.
Get the fuck out of here.
You lying sack of coffee beans.
You think I'm a fucking charity case? Your problem is overconfidence.
Absolute, unassailable, unjustified Now, now.
Let's be respectful And I'm not so hard up I need handouts from you.
You know, I should have come up with an actual bad idea.
'Cause Compliance Corner is just so money Out! What? It's my money.
It's not technically your money yet.
- It's mine.
- Oh, my God.
Really? What Where is the confusion here? This is about comp? About what to say to you about comp.
- What's the issue? - I think it sucks.
You're using hedge fund social pressure to dissuade us from insisting on up-front payment when, if given that money today, I could generate more with it.
Plus, the entire choice you've foisted on us, is a false one.
If you can't afford full payment, you could just pay your most valuable people - the mois of the world first.
- Are you finished? Not really.
I think you started this whole place because Axe took you for granted and now you're doing the same thing to us.
It's not like you're short because you're waiting for a ship to come in with beaucoup doubloons.
You're on a revenge jag.
And that's a journey that requires you to dig two graves and neither needs to be mine.
Fuck you, math man.
If you're such a genius, why can't you count to loyalty? We've all fucked up.
Maybe not Lauren.
But the rest of us.
And each time, Taylor's had our back.
They've earned our faith.
But if that concept doesn't compute, then yeah Remember what happened when Taylor was on this side and didn't like it? They were willing to walk away and prove they could do better.
Are you willing to do that? No.
Because you're not a leader.
You're a grumbler.
Well, it's not grumble time.
It's comp time.
Make your choice.
I made mine defer and trust in Taylor but you do you.
Defer.
And trust.
Thanks for letting me know.
Kiss ass.
Mnh.
What exactly do we know? Well, it's a shocker.
Not the shocker You know.
One in the stink to all of us.
From Jock.
Seems the man is not interested in honoring actual election results.
Did you put Jock together with the CEO, Fiske? Jock did come through for him landing government contracts, insulating him from investigations.
But there's no financial trail.
They resist traditional bribes.
The payoff works a little different.
Rigged elections.
Two governors so far.
And there's a senate seat coming up in Texas where they're banking on the same machines being in play.
Ahh.
Someone down there will say that? They'll say there were massive irregularities that resolved in a way so statistically unlikely that I'd have a better chance being mistaken for Matthew McConaughey.
Will anyone go on record about the voting irregularities? No fucking way.
You want proof, you're gonna have to pick apart the raw votes.
Which they've certified and buried.
But they are there.
Okay.
You have done well for me, my gallant knights.
It's me.
I think you know I wouldn't be calling you if it weren't important that we meet Hey.
Any ideas surface besides me being the house? Nope.
Moving forward.
I didn't intend to pressure you Oh.
You did mean to.
But I think you should know: immune to pressure.
Yeah, but, you should know: a 'no' is not a deal breaker with us.
Nah.
It's gonna be great in the end.
I've negotiated a price to buy Cardinale.
Good.
Well it's the wrong type of disgusting.
It ends with a billion, and it starts with a six.
Well.
Lucky for me I have access to that.
And I've got about a thousand good loads left in me but neither of us should spend it all in one throw.
What's this, a fucking ambush? It's an intervention.
You can't do this, tatanka.
If you proceed to buy this company, you'll be outside all risk parameters.
And in violation of Axe Capital's bylaws.
Not to mention the opportunity cost, exiting these positions now could be a ten figure mistake.
And the main company isn't juicy enough to squeeze that out of.
You'll be lucky if Saler's is even standing after another round of Taylor's attacks.
The only reason hedge fund managers make a move like this is ego.
A legacy play.
To strap themselves to some noble brand.
But while someone in this might be trying to do that, - it ain't you.
- It's the broad.
Which means you'd have to notify all the investors that you're completely P-whipped.
You all fucking done? I set the risk parameters, Spyros so push them.
They're my bylaws, I can change them.
I just did.
Paper that, Orrin.
You don't like me selling out your positions, tough shit.
They aren't your positions anyway, they're mine.
And if you can't find a way to pick up the returns then why the fuck are you here instead of someone who can? I am the sun that warms you and the air that you fucking breathe.
Don't forget it.
I'll change the risk model but I'll email myself and Wags that it was at your direction.
Copy me.
I'll recommend outside counsel willing to jerk around your by-laws Keep going and you'll find yourselves taking a dive through plate glass.
Continue liquidating.
And close the damn deal.
Axe is in Colonel Kurtz territory.
He's up the river, walled off and hunkered down.
You have to go after him.
You're the only one who can.
You're a terrible actor.
Worse than Spyros.
There is literally no way in which I am worse than Spyros.
Unless you mean worse as a sycophant and no, if I wanted to toadie, I could stoop lower and lick boots better.
No.
This is the real deal.
This is why you are here.
Because when fearless leader forgets every once in a while that he does need to fear the almighty you bring him back to himself.
You restore equilibrium.
This isn't a fire drill, it's the Fyre Festival and a full on fucking disaster.
He needs you, Wendy.
Okay.
Tell me what I need to know I've gotten everyone's comp decision.
They've all deferred.
Well, everyone's comp decision but yours.
I want to be paid in full.
Today.
I don't want the money locked up in the fund.
It's not you, it's me.
In case you break up with me.
I like you too much to be here if that happened.
You are so good.
You didn't need to.
- I was raised well.
- Mm.
So.
Why'd you reach out? Something truly new or more of the same? You've known since day one that Jock Jeffcoat is not fit by mien, character, or basic respect for humanity to lead the Department of Justice.
But he was appointed by a man who was elected so you told yourself a story about why you had to soldier on.
As did you.
As you would still if you didn't come at him and lose.
You had a hand in that.
They say if you jump right before the elevator hits the ground that it rips right through you all the same.
I'm living proof that ain't the case.
Jock is eyeballs-deep in election fraud.
Rigging stealing elections.
You can prove that? No.
But you can.
You can open a DOJ investigation and lay your hands on the raw vote totals.
Jock would snuff that out and snuff me out before I saw a single butterfly ballot.
No.
From you, he'd never see it coming.
You're like that Sade song come to life Kate "Smooth Operator" Now, know that's high praise from me.
Indeed.
If you'll listen to me, I can coach you on how to keep this on the DL.
Avoid Jock's detection until it's too late for him to do anything but take it.
You can't like who Connerty has become.
You can't like who you have.
Use your skills for good again.
For right.
You could've been anything you chose to be a prosecutor.
Maybe this is a reminder of why you did.
Or it'll end up in the trash.
Stop selling.
You're the guy who taught me everything.
Take me through the steps.
How would you have me work it? I'm glad you still feel that way.
You piggyback on the subpoena power of an already convened grand jury You think I stole an election? Chuck thinks that.
Two actually.
Another on the way.
You believe him? Not a word out of his lying mouth.
But I thought you should know his plan of attack.
He wanted me to flow an investigation through the Civil Rights Division knowing that's generally not an area where you paid much attention.
Oh.
Well, that's a bit unfair and a little unkind.
As a young prosecutor, no one put more Klansmen behind bars.
Even sent a few to the chamber.
Watched 'em wriggle and twitch without an ounce of sympathy.
Laudable commitment to justice.
Yeah.
I have that.
So do you.
With a laudable swath of ambition as well.
Well, I do have my eye on the next rung.
Mm-hmm.
Well, you can't have Connerty's job.
Don't want it.
Too much scrutiny from you.
No.
I was thinking something with more maneuvering room.
Head of the Civil Rights Division.
That'll look good when you run for office.
Right? But first, we must break Chuck's fever.
And the surest route is apprehending his padre.
So, if you will add your labors to Connerty's on that.
Hmm.
Cleared out over two billion today.
I feel like that's a lot of money.
Even for you.
Yeah.
It is.
That's why I'm here.
The truth is, I can't be your counsel on destroying Taylor anymore.
That took me to my worst place.
I know.
Why I didn't ask.
But I can still counsel you.
I'm not gonna say, "Don't compete against Taylor.
" But I am gonna say, compete on the battlefield you're meant to.
And take solace in beating Taylor's returns.
That really doesn't seem like enough.
Yeah.
You need an enemy.
Or you think you do.
Like without that gravitational pull you'll go flying off into nothingness.
No edge, no drive.
No Axe.
I don't need an enemy.
I have an enemy.
What if you didn't? What if you just put this to fucking bed? That what you think you did at the hearing? In a sense, yes.
Doing the right thing eventually becomes the thing that makes you feel right.
It's It's not the hedonic experience, believe me It doesn't happen quickly.
Doesn't charge you with endorphins the way the perfect combo of salt, fat and sugar does.
But it does last longer.
It does nourish you.
You really feel all of that already? Right now I'm a little down about losing my medical license.
More than a little.
But underneath that yeah, I-I I can feel the spark.
I think we might not run on the same kind of fuel.
Taylor's my responsibility.
I brought them into the world.
I need to be the one to take them out.
You do have a code.
Rebecca's inside the circle, so she gets the special treatment.
Taylor's outside, so they get the other special treatment.
It gasses you up, as you say, but it doesn't burn clean.
Especially not as we get older.
The only times I've ever seen you truly fuck yourself were when you narrowed your whole gaze to retribution.
That's not happening here.
I see the field.
And I get that vengeance didn't agree with your system.
But we're built different.
I guess I really have lost my touch.
Well, just because I'm not listening to you, doesn't mean I don't value you.
It really kinda does.
It's thirty hours of labor.
And counting.
She's a fucking yoga champion, Ira.
What does that have to do with anything? I don't know.
I just thought it sounded reassuring.
Hey.
She's gonna be fine.
Alright? I just can't believe you're starting all over.
Neither can my kids, but I'm not dead.
After every loss, after every great big kick to the grundle, we start over.
We fall in love again.
We make new life.
And hopefully new and different mistakes.
What's the matter? Dad didn't check in.
You think they have him? Ooh.
- That [BLEEP.]
sucks.
- Yeah.
Oh, the amount of goddamned pot these little girls smoke back in the day they'd have been called 'grasshoppers.
' Well, they're exaggerating a little.
Me? I never liked to get too stoned.
Only enough to make you want to fuck.
Oh.
You just need a nice sativa blend A what? Oh, what's up, little Bess? FBI! Let me see your hands! Don't you lay a hand on her! We are running down some promising leads and This could be the call.
Connerty No, I'll be right there.
Good work.
We have him? Through the woman? Tied Rhoades Senior to her via a college account.
Credit card pinged at an upstate hotel.
Looks like the Thruway hit was real.
I'm heading there now.
Can you let Jock know? Easy breezy.
Good luck finishing off the Rhoadeses.
You don't have to do it.
Nope.
I went to war with my own people on the deal.
Triumphed.
And I am poised to move on Cardinale.
Should consummate tomorrow AM.
And it means a lot to me that you would do that.
But, as I said, you no longer have to.
I thought I would outlast you.
That the other moves would be beyond your cash reserves You were right about that point.
But I was wrong about Axe.
And how far he would go against me.
And for you.
Maybe not this far for either.
But for both? He's backing me.
In a day's time I won't need your company.
I can't let that happen.
I'm waving the white flag.
Willing to go back to supplying you.
Under the old rates? Just like it was before I came into the picture.
Tempting.
That would save Saler's and Axe a bundle.
But I would have to make you a brutal fucking deal.
Take controlling interest of Kling.
Strip you of all decision-making.
But without buying me out.
I want you to have flesh in the game.
Invest me in Saler's wellbeing.
And tie you to any future suffering in order to prevent it.
Ingenious.
I'm open to that You cut a fucking deal with Taylor? I am grateful that you were willing to buy me the Heart of the Ocean but a gift like that that's too much.
Even if I am the one who asked for it.
I saw the dynamic change, the friction that it already had created between us.
So I let you off the hook.
You also let my arch fucking foe off the hook.
I wasn't thinking about them.
I was thinking about us.
And your company.
Yes.
And that.
C'mon You already understand the wisdom of the move.
And in time, you'll appreciate that it was the best thing for everybody.
Let's talk about what you can do with the few billion that you don't need to spend anymore.
And why aren't we drinking yet? Thank you.
Mr.
Rhoades, my name is Waylon Jeffcoat.
I know who the fuck you are.
I thought you might, yet I thought I'd observe a familiar courtesy maybe tell you about a few other courtesies you might not know are currently being extended to you.
This is an unofficial, casual conversation.
You're not under arrest.
If you answer my questions, it's possible that neither you nor your boy need be clapped in iron.
I don't really want that.
I just want Chuck broken.
Stripped of his office, and his law license, and this futile vendetta that he's directed my way.
Where you come from, maybe you sell your progeny because there's not enough polk salad to feed all the little mouths.
But I'm not saying a damn thing to help you hurt my boy.
Do you have any idea what it smells like in prison? Is it dick? I'm betting dick.
Well.
That certainly is one of the notes you will detect.
You, sir, will have all the time in the world to dig out every subtlety off the back of your tongue, as you will be spending the rest of your life there.
Away from the people and the acts that you love.
Everything that you have spent a lifetime building will be torn down by these very hands.
Even before it's finished.
Or you could keep it.
That Elysian Fields project of yours.
I could make sure it's shielded from your criminality.
Which we have abundant evidence of.
- From the wires - Fucking wires And from witnesses There are no Goddamn witnesses.
Because I haven't committed a crime.
Excuse me.
Ask him about "the idiot.
" Who is that? The guy who secretly brokered his land deal.
Better: tell him we have the guy.
But who the hell is it? I don't know.
But that's what he referred to him as.
Okay.
Cards on the table.
The cretin that helped you snag the land.
Uh.
What is it you so lovingly call him the idiot? We have him.
And he's singing like Hank Williams, the elder.
Telling us all about your cheatin' heart.
That would be bad news for me.
Yeah.
If it were true.
So if he's in the next room, bring him in.
I can't let you have that access.
Then just tell me his name.
I'm in the information intake business, not the reverse.
What I fucking thought.
So what now? You gonna hold me on some trumped up charge or you gonna turn me loose? Mm.
I think I'll just keep you right here.
Get a material witness order.
Ice you.
Until this whole thing shakes out cleaner than a choirboy's pecker.
He jumped when you said it.
Yeah.
So we know where to put the pinch bar Only we don't fucking have one.
We don't have the fucking idiot.
We don't even know who the motherfucker is.
No but I know how we can.
It's on the recording.
That the taint team stonewalled me on.
- The thing's locked up in - Well, unlock it, son.
Jesus Christ.
The Lord doesn't put knowledge before us so that we can remain ignorant.
I'm not legally allowed to If I order it, it's fucking legal.
Now, you get your hands on that fucking tape and that fucking idiot.
We've got to get on the list for preschool right away.
We will, baby, we will There's a word for what it takes to do what you did.
To reverse yourself like that on Kling.
Is it being dead tired? Or beaten? - Mastery.
- Thank you.
But I think it may also be a little of the other things.
I'm ready for this war to finally be over.
Do you think it is? Well, now that his girlfriend's company is safe.
I think it just might be.
What's the thing.
You said I could get back into the game, if I found something good.
- Always.
- I think I found it.
Good for Axe Cap.
Good for you.
Maybe bad for someone else you care about.
But you can weigh that.
Saler's has always had too much toxic debt.
There was no place they could really put it.
Until now.
Yeah.
Now they do.
You have always been a stone and steely assassin, Victor.
Born that way.
The kind of destruction you're considering, the collateral damage, the relationships that'll be ruined or pushed to the brink You ready for all that? Just to finally see the blood seeping out of Taylor's armor onto the battlefield? If I'm not, why am I still wearing my armor? Anything I can do to help? Not on this.
No.
Go find Wendy.
No one knows better than you how to pad the blow of a shitty day.
Two Carte Blanche.
Enjoy.
I don't know if you're aware, but I am also an unlicensed doctor.
A medicine man of sorts, and surgeon of the drinking arts.
I'm going to place a steady stream of prescribed medications before you and you are going to quaff deeply and repeatedly.
And a little flicker of the warm and giddy will grow and spread.
And we will laugh about the days of yore.
And we will toast the comrades who have fallen and yet may fall.
And you will forget the vicissitudes of the last few days and you will remember who you are.
And who's that? The only woman I've ever enjoyed drinking with.
Well, then there's one thing we should do Get properly fucking drunk.
I want it to be a bad one for her.
With Taylor effectively in control of Kling, they also control the supply of household appliances that Saler's sells.
And if Taylor decides to cut the flow of those appliances? It'll gut you.
The deal requires you walk away from the voting nonsense.
Blockchain.
Your pilot program.
So that's what Jock needs.
Dr.
Rhoades, your medical license is under review.
There is still, somewhere inside of you, someone who knows right from wrong.
This hearing is your chance to reclaim that person.
Just share what you need to get you out of this.
Whatever our understanding, it can't just be verbal I've taken the liberty.
Did they paper this fucking deal? Now that it's just the three of us, I have to say, I did not know the nature of that conversation.
You have to tell him everything.
So he can defend us, whatever may come.
You mean about the idiot who stands to lose the most? Baby brother.
You suddenly showing up here Must mean you want something.
The one thing you do with those hands better than fight.
There's a safe? You bet your ass there is.
Dad it's the crack of dawn.
Holy shit, Sonny.
I'm being bugged.
Okay.
Slow it down.
Spell it out.
Breathe.
I'll breathe later.
But for now, fucking listen.
I was at home, alone - Ha! - Ohh.
You are not fast enough or strong enough to outrun me.
Well, then, you better come and mount your quarry.
But first, prime me, baby.
Ohh! Whoo! Somehow I found myself on the floor.
Making a home repair as I am wont to do, when Mom is out of town.
If you were on the floor Oh, fuck, I don't even want to say it.
Cuz then I'll have the goddamned image in my head.
They didn't fix the wood stain perfectly.
That's how I knew.
I left it in the wall.
So they wouldn't know what I know.
But what I know, Sonny Boy, is the government is on to me.
- Well, us.
- Oh.
Shit.
They might've heard me talk about Jock.
What I've been planning.
Okay.
You need to go on the lam, Whitey Bulger style.
Or better, DB Cooper.
Never caught.
The document.
I need to go back.
- Get it out of the safe - Your apartment isn't secure.
They could be ready to pick you up.
I'll send someone.
Can't.
It's a biometric lock.
Oh.
Terrific Well, I'll have to speed up everything on the Jock front Ah, fuck! If they got a warrant for your place, I could also be Tell whomever you send I'm sorry for the mess, but me and Roxanne, when we get down, well, we don't fuck around.
Brogan.
I need you to do a service for me.
Recognize the voice? I do.
And my debt to you.
You will be part of a detachment formed for specific purpose to deliver the final, fatal blow to Jock Jeffcoat.
Now, find a spot where 5 men can meet, and I'm sorry, can you hold please? Are you fucking kidding? One of the very men I need is on the other line.
Ira, old pal, you're next on my phone sheet Jesus, that's like three weeks early.
Can I Okay, I'll see you later then.
Forget arranging a location.
I know where we're meeting Can't.
It's a biometric lock.
Terrific Uh I'll have to speed everything up on the Jock front Oh, fuck! If they got a warrant for your place, I could also be So the shit train was just the beginning.
Yeah.
Seems to be.
What exactly is Rhoades coming after me for? That I don't know.
But I upped the physical surveillance on him.
Well, that's a start.
Here's an improvement: You scoop up that old man and you sweat him 'til the truth pours out.
Would love to.
But haven't been able to locate him.
He took Chuck's advice.
He's gone to ground.
You are a United States Attorney.
You find his wrinkly fucking ass.
Uh, I saw it once.
And actually, the old guy keeps it together.
Still I take your point.
Pearlsang Appliances is still your business.
- You'll still run it.
- Except now you'll own it.
And you want us upping production by twenty percent.
We can't sell more if we don't have more.
You get it done so we won't have to get in there and do it for you.
Because believe you me, you do not want Rebecca Cantu stalking your assembly lines.
When you put it that way, let me get with my people and figure out how we can run the factories around the clock.
Saler's looks forward to selling the fuck out of your and soon to be our appliances.
The meeting is happening.
Then drop what you got on Pearlsang.
Sometimes I really love this job.
It is the time of year that you've all had circled on your calendars since the moment you hopped aboard.
But Royal Rumble was two months ago! Thirty enter.
One remains.
Similar, actually, because it's comp time.
I'm not doing meetings.
I'm not going to force you to justify your existence.
The numbers already do that.
Still, I know some of you have been anxious.
Both about your performance and mine this past year.
So know this: I can afford to pay you all full freight, which you'll find is more than you made at any of your old shops If you leave your money in the fund for at least the next twelve months.
If you insist on drawing your pay immediately, and at your discretion the payout will be 60 cents on the theoretical dollar.
I'll await your individual decisions by end of day tomorrow.
Fuck! Motherfuck.
I don't know where it leaves me.
But that's a smart approach for Taylor in a year they're trying to conserve resources.
So's asphyxiating every third person, but frowned upon.
Especially by the guy who'd be the first one smothered.
Thanks.
Thank you.
She got a premium for a mediocre fucking company.
Yeah, well, that is what makes Taylor Mason so good.
Makes you do things compromise your approach in ways you never usually would.
You admire it.
I like to celebrate a really good kill.
Connects me to my spiritual side.
You're a sick twist.
I like to celebrate that.
- Axe.
- Yeah? Kitchen's all ready for you.
Thought you'd be with your wife today.
The hearing.
Instead of skull-dugging around here like Philip Marlowe.
You just compare me to Bogie? That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all week.
Wendy didn't think it was a good idea for the State AG to be sitting behind her creating the impression he was trying to influence things.
And you? Yeah.
Same.
Didn't want me there seeming like I'd asked her to do what she was accused of.
So she's better off without us.
Yeah.
For today.
For a few hours anyway.
And maybe still not.
But get on with it.
I need a man with a certain set of skills.
Your man.
To get into a safe.
And the room that safe is in.
A tough safe.
Ah.
A safe that lies outside the bounds of your authority.
Yeah, I got the guy.
You know I do.
But, Chuck, I'm not some USO girl dispensing donuts and dances here.
Taylor Mason should be in a numbered fucking jumpsuit.
If my dad and I get fitted for them first, that's never gonna happen.
You keep telling me why you can't get it done and what you need to do first.
Your days were never so full or disorganized when you were gunning for me.
Maybe this isn't personal enough for you.
You need me to make it fucking personal? Taylor Mason didn't just betray you.
They fucked with Wendy a dozen different ways.
So, yeah, I can get that happy hate going if I need to.
But I've also given my word.
More than once.
And that should fucking count, too.
You can use my man.
Give me what he needs to know about this safe and he'll know it.
Confirm nothing.
Admit nothing.
If Taylor doesn't show, they have nothing.
Unless you give them something.
So, don't.
I can't tell you to lie.
I can only tell you that they'll never be able to prove it, and it's the perfect solution to all your problems.
I hope so.
Is that what your clients say? Do they always feel good when they avoid punishment? Just move on with their lives? Real criminals are different than you and me.
Something about the mind-set of someone who does those things.
By the time I get 'em, they are long past wondering who they are.
They already know.
They just want to get away with it.
Maybe I'm not so different.
You are.
And later, you may feel some remorse.
Which you will deal with, Doctor Rhoades.
But for now For now, I do what you said.
Thank you.
We are here today to explore serious charges against Doctor Wendy Rhoades.
First, if she acted in a medical capacity and, if so I did.
Give me a minute with my client I am a doctor.
Taylor Mason was my patient.
I failed to respect patient confidentiality and used information revealed in session for my own personal gain or if I didn't technically gain, at least my own ends.
Can you repeat that? Yes.
Because it's the truth.
I got us a table at Oh.
I see.
This changes nothing.
Everybody at Axe Cap is and will remain deeply fucked in the head.
We will all need your help as a coach and a human.
Thank you.
But I, uh finally feel myself again.
- You don't look it.
- Hmm.
My face will catch up.
It just needs to relax into itself first.
Wendy confessed to the Medical Board.
Ding dong, the witch is We don't celebrate.
Wendy merely did the right thing.
That's all.
We move forward.
This is some detailed fucking intel you brought here.
I know the agent who bugged the place.
And he just gave you the roadmap? In a manner of speaking.
Nice.
Well, I cased the place myself anyway.
Great.
So you know how to do it? I do.
But it's a pass, bro.
What the fuck, man? You're Bill Belichick, I just brought you video of the Jets' signals and Compare me to that fat fucking sweatshirt sausage one more time Oh.
Nah, it's it's a positive comparison.
You're smart like him.
Yeah, well, I'm smart enough that I only got caught once in my career because I knew which jobs not to take.
This is one of 'em.
You only got caught once because I made the other ones go away.
I literally got one thing in my life that I'm proud of The time you cropdusted that pedo Father Collins.
Okay.
Two things.
But you're the other one.
And this ain't you, bro.
Catching the bad guy is as me as it fucking gets.
So, yeah, I'm asking you, guilting you Whatever it takes to get you to pull this.
Do I have to remind you which one of us stayed home to look after our blessed mother Is blessed some kind of synonym for drunk bitch now Easy there.
And in this case, yeah.
Yet I stayed.
Okay, little bro.
I'll do this thing We will.
Whoa, whoa.
Wh You want to come with? You're fucking killing me.
I know the document we're looking for.
That's what we're taking? A piece of paper? Not taking it.
Hold on.
Y-You know how it is once a Scotsman's drawn his dirk He can't return that blade to the sheath until it's tasted an Englishman's blood? Well, I can't open a safe without taking something.
No.
You can and will.
Because otherwise, I can't use it legally.
I need to read the thing, photograph it, and use the info to get a warrant to come back for it.
You don't actually wonder why people hate lawyers Oh.
No, I get it.
A safe cracker is far more interesting at parties.
The time table's been turbo charged.
We gotta do this today.
Tonight.
As we used to say before a schoolyard scrap: Tonight, long stick goes boom.
I bear bad news from Hall.
You need to back out of the deal with Pearlsang.
- They're about to go radioactive.
- What the fuck? They're gonna be publicly outed as practitioners of slave labor.
- Well.
Maybe we can - Child slave labor.
- Temple of Doom shit.
- How the fuck Hall said it was well-buried, but Taylor's man broke someone and leaked it.
Sorry, guys.
Well, that deal is dead.
I mean, he said Temple Of Doom.
Okay, shit.
We can still buy that other appliance company I had my guys look into Cardinale.
Won't work.
Saler's doesn't have the cash.
Last week's price was five billion.
This week's with one fewer rival for us to leverage it's gonna be even more.
What if you bought it? I thought about suggesting that but figured you wouldn't wanna be the damsel in distress.
Oh.
I'm the dame safeguarding my company.
And while Taylor may be the locomotive, you are kinda the one who tied me to the tracks in the first place.
So you might as well rescue me, too.
Revisionist fucking history.
I told you all about the baggage.
You asked me to come in.
You asked me to stay in.
Because I knew you'd always find a way to make good.
Like you said you would.
And sometimes that's strong-arming, sometimes it's sweet-talking Sometimes that's spending five billion dollars to help you keep your Barbie fucking Dreamhouse alive? With leverage, you'd only have to put up half, Ken.
Oh.
It's always easier to open up someone else's wallet, isn't it? Before I met you I went deal to deal, scooping up businesses and profits.
And then you wanted to be my partner on a deal or two, and now I can't make a move without a booby trap going off in my face.
Fine.
This is brutal to the bank account.
Even for me.
But, eh, I'll take it on.
Really? For you.
Thank you.
But dinner's on you for a while.
Why are we here? To end the Attorney General of the Unites States.
How the fuck are we going to do that? By proving his hatred of blockchain voting is motivated by corruption.
Which it is.
Or why else would he let a caboose of crap sit in his front yard to pay for it.
Oy.
I need Jock's wrath like I need a loch in kop.
Shein.
I will try to shield you from it.
And yet I have the right to call on you gentlemen And now I have.
For I have done a service for each of you.
For your bankroll, your security, your family.
None of this explains though why we're here.
Naturally because my most trusted counselor is tethered to this locale for the foreseeable.
Ira, are you a father again? Not yet.
The contractions are 15 minutes apart.
So we could have done this at the fucking track.
I have been banished from the birthing suite until right before the baby comes.
She says I make her nervous.
- Taiga? - No.
The doctor.
She says my anxiety is catching.
The doctor is a woman.
You trust that? We all have to pretend we do.
Mm.
Well, back to the present century, and the magic of childbirth aside, here is what I need from each of you: Halloran, you know who the biggest supplier - of voting equipment is.
- Bougle-Tek.
Right you are.
Now, they most benefit financially from Jock keeping things the way they are.
So we hit them every which way.
- Ira, you're gonna sue 'em.
- For what? Oh.
Something public and scary.
Eisen, you will use your scummiest PI with no respect for data security laws to work the ex-wife of Trent Fiske, Bougle-Tek's CEO, and worm your way into his finances And locate any payments that might have - gone from him to Jock.
- Indeed.
Halloran, you will solicit a bribe from the company.
- How would I go about - Mm-hmm.
Brogan, you have horses.
Jock has horses.
You will move one of your prized horses next to his and, under the guise of visiting, you will kill Jock's horse.
- Okay.
- What? Je No.
No more killing animals.
I was fucking with you.
Okay.
But Jock and Fiske are in the same stable.
Find out how that's not a coincidence.
Are their trainers passing notes for them? Are payments hidden in bales of hay? I don't fucking know, but you are going to.
And what are you going to be doing? Oh.
I myself will be doing my usual boogie inducing mistakes through temptation, misdirection, obfuscation and conflation-slash-corruption of the ideals that built this great nation.
For good and noble purpose, of course.
- Sure.
- Oh, yeah.
Of course.
Okay, now, the entire federal machine is set against us and closing in.
So move fast and break Jock.
We followed him to the hospital.
We've been tracking his little gang, and they are deep in research on something to do with you and elections Uh huh.
You have any idea why I don't answer your questions.
And you don't waste time asking 'em.
The more info I have, the easier I can stop Rhoades.
The way you stop Rhoades is you keep him off balance.
You can't let him find his carencia.
God.
Do they teach a man nothing about bullfighting anymore? Carencia.
Place in a ring where the bull feels most safe, where he draws his full power.
The whole afternoon, the matador is trying to keep him away from there.
And if he lets up for one second, and that bull finds his carencia Well, it doesn't matter what went before because a goring is coming next.
Understood.
Now, on the subject of on the run, what of the lamster, Rhoades Senior? FBI is up on his credit cards and bank accounts.
There was a transaction at a gas station up the Thruway.
Could be a misdirect.
Well, run it down and wind up facing the right way.
We want our arms around that fucker.
Hey.
I need you to liquidate our position in Corwell Pharmaceuticals at the open.
Like fuck you do.
That's my DB stock P of the year.
Yeah.
It's made 9% that's solid.
But I need to free up some cash.
Pimp rule 101: You don't sell your best girl 'til she loses her hip flexion.
- This sucker is still - I have to say that's really gross Yeah, Dollar Bill, that's a really poor analogy.
- Nobody can own - They're right.
Do it again, I'm gonna wash your mouth out with soap.
And I need the cash to lever up to buy five bill worth of washer-dryers.
I'll send you a few other positions to dump out of.
Tell me I'm not fucking crazy.
I can't do that.
Because lying makes me break out in hives.
Despite your grotesquerie, you are correct on this one.
So, how long will they suspend your license for? It could be up to three years.
Ah.
Well.
You can petition to have it shortened is what I'm saying.
For good behavior? If I don't shiv someone in the yard or use a rock pick on my cell wall? So do you regret what you did? I certainly don't understand it I don't regret it.
It had to be done.
I was trying to advise, knowing you as I do, that confessing while making a deal was the better course.
But you chose only the former I guess I had enough pain and guilt sloshing around inside me I thought it best to just throw it all up.
Sure.
The ol' boot and rally.
But on the other side, your throat burns, and your mouth doesn't taste too good.
And you start wondering if the better course might've been to just keep it all down.
You do.
You wonder.
But you know you had to.
Right.
Shall I open a bottle then? Oh.
I don't want this to turn into a Cassavetes movie.
The drinking, the yelling.
Who said anything about yelling? Let's not tempt fate.
Alright.
I think Ira is in for a long night.
We all are.
That the night porter? Yup.
Well.
Let's go.
So how One-thousand eighty-two permutations on the combination.
Should only take two, three hours.
Are you fucking kid Yes.
I'm fucking kidding.
Twenty-nine bucks.
You went to law school.
I also went to school.
They called me Mr.
Magneto.
Magnet again? System disarmed.
Handy being friends with the FBI.
It's fucking cheating.
I can't believe we came all the way up here and we're not even gonna steal anything.
I told you: don't fucking steal anything.
And no more talking.
The rest of the place is Hey.
Yeah, just Fuck.
The tray.
Whew, you feel that?! Adrenaline shakes? Fuck yeah.
You get what you need? I had bits and pieces before, but it's all spelled out here.
So, yeah, I did.
Let's go.
So you're all good.
I am.
Weird way for us to come back together Ahh, I'm glad we did I got a parting gift for you, baby bro.
From the fucking safe? I told you.
I couldn't return the dirk without getting it wet.
Fuck it.
Thanks, Jackie.
For all of it.
See ya.
I'm thinking of holding office hours.
Uh.
Yes, you should be in your office during working hours.
No.
More like a professore.
Selflessly lowering his learned mane so that young matriculants can climb up his ivory tower, sit at his feet, and savor of his erudition.
I shall call it Compliance Corner.
O-Okay, that's, um, something you can do.
Only I'm I'm afraid to.
Or Or rather I'm afraid that people won't come.
I'm afraid deep down people don't like me.
Don't respect me.
Don't even fear me.
Get the fuck out of here.
You lying sack of coffee beans.
You think I'm a fucking charity case? Your problem is overconfidence.
Absolute, unassailable, unjustified Now, now.
Let's be respectful And I'm not so hard up I need handouts from you.
You know, I should have come up with an actual bad idea.
'Cause Compliance Corner is just so money Out! What? It's my money.
It's not technically your money yet.
- It's mine.
- Oh, my God.
Really? What Where is the confusion here? This is about comp? About what to say to you about comp.
- What's the issue? - I think it sucks.
You're using hedge fund social pressure to dissuade us from insisting on up-front payment when, if given that money today, I could generate more with it.
Plus, the entire choice you've foisted on us, is a false one.
If you can't afford full payment, you could just pay your most valuable people - the mois of the world first.
- Are you finished? Not really.
I think you started this whole place because Axe took you for granted and now you're doing the same thing to us.
It's not like you're short because you're waiting for a ship to come in with beaucoup doubloons.
You're on a revenge jag.
And that's a journey that requires you to dig two graves and neither needs to be mine.
Fuck you, math man.
If you're such a genius, why can't you count to loyalty? We've all fucked up.
Maybe not Lauren.
But the rest of us.
And each time, Taylor's had our back.
They've earned our faith.
But if that concept doesn't compute, then yeah Remember what happened when Taylor was on this side and didn't like it? They were willing to walk away and prove they could do better.
Are you willing to do that? No.
Because you're not a leader.
You're a grumbler.
Well, it's not grumble time.
It's comp time.
Make your choice.
I made mine defer and trust in Taylor but you do you.
Defer.
And trust.
Thanks for letting me know.
Kiss ass.
Mnh.
What exactly do we know? Well, it's a shocker.
Not the shocker You know.
One in the stink to all of us.
From Jock.
Seems the man is not interested in honoring actual election results.
Did you put Jock together with the CEO, Fiske? Jock did come through for him landing government contracts, insulating him from investigations.
But there's no financial trail.
They resist traditional bribes.
The payoff works a little different.
Rigged elections.
Two governors so far.
And there's a senate seat coming up in Texas where they're banking on the same machines being in play.
Ahh.
Someone down there will say that? They'll say there were massive irregularities that resolved in a way so statistically unlikely that I'd have a better chance being mistaken for Matthew McConaughey.
Will anyone go on record about the voting irregularities? No fucking way.
You want proof, you're gonna have to pick apart the raw votes.
Which they've certified and buried.
But they are there.
Okay.
You have done well for me, my gallant knights.
It's me.
I think you know I wouldn't be calling you if it weren't important that we meet Hey.
Any ideas surface besides me being the house? Nope.
Moving forward.
I didn't intend to pressure you Oh.
You did mean to.
But I think you should know: immune to pressure.
Yeah, but, you should know: a 'no' is not a deal breaker with us.
Nah.
It's gonna be great in the end.
I've negotiated a price to buy Cardinale.
Good.
Well it's the wrong type of disgusting.
It ends with a billion, and it starts with a six.
Well.
Lucky for me I have access to that.
And I've got about a thousand good loads left in me but neither of us should spend it all in one throw.
What's this, a fucking ambush? It's an intervention.
You can't do this, tatanka.
If you proceed to buy this company, you'll be outside all risk parameters.
And in violation of Axe Capital's bylaws.
Not to mention the opportunity cost, exiting these positions now could be a ten figure mistake.
And the main company isn't juicy enough to squeeze that out of.
You'll be lucky if Saler's is even standing after another round of Taylor's attacks.
The only reason hedge fund managers make a move like this is ego.
A legacy play.
To strap themselves to some noble brand.
But while someone in this might be trying to do that, - it ain't you.
- It's the broad.
Which means you'd have to notify all the investors that you're completely P-whipped.
You all fucking done? I set the risk parameters, Spyros so push them.
They're my bylaws, I can change them.
I just did.
Paper that, Orrin.
You don't like me selling out your positions, tough shit.
They aren't your positions anyway, they're mine.
And if you can't find a way to pick up the returns then why the fuck are you here instead of someone who can? I am the sun that warms you and the air that you fucking breathe.
Don't forget it.
I'll change the risk model but I'll email myself and Wags that it was at your direction.
Copy me.
I'll recommend outside counsel willing to jerk around your by-laws Keep going and you'll find yourselves taking a dive through plate glass.
Continue liquidating.
And close the damn deal.
Axe is in Colonel Kurtz territory.
He's up the river, walled off and hunkered down.
You have to go after him.
You're the only one who can.
You're a terrible actor.
Worse than Spyros.
There is literally no way in which I am worse than Spyros.
Unless you mean worse as a sycophant and no, if I wanted to toadie, I could stoop lower and lick boots better.
No.
This is the real deal.
This is why you are here.
Because when fearless leader forgets every once in a while that he does need to fear the almighty you bring him back to himself.
You restore equilibrium.
This isn't a fire drill, it's the Fyre Festival and a full on fucking disaster.
He needs you, Wendy.
Okay.
Tell me what I need to know I've gotten everyone's comp decision.
They've all deferred.
Well, everyone's comp decision but yours.
I want to be paid in full.
Today.
I don't want the money locked up in the fund.
It's not you, it's me.
In case you break up with me.
I like you too much to be here if that happened.
You are so good.
You didn't need to.
- I was raised well.
- Mm.
So.
Why'd you reach out? Something truly new or more of the same? You've known since day one that Jock Jeffcoat is not fit by mien, character, or basic respect for humanity to lead the Department of Justice.
But he was appointed by a man who was elected so you told yourself a story about why you had to soldier on.
As did you.
As you would still if you didn't come at him and lose.
You had a hand in that.
They say if you jump right before the elevator hits the ground that it rips right through you all the same.
I'm living proof that ain't the case.
Jock is eyeballs-deep in election fraud.
Rigging stealing elections.
You can prove that? No.
But you can.
You can open a DOJ investigation and lay your hands on the raw vote totals.
Jock would snuff that out and snuff me out before I saw a single butterfly ballot.
No.
From you, he'd never see it coming.
You're like that Sade song come to life Kate "Smooth Operator" Now, know that's high praise from me.
Indeed.
If you'll listen to me, I can coach you on how to keep this on the DL.
Avoid Jock's detection until it's too late for him to do anything but take it.
You can't like who Connerty has become.
You can't like who you have.
Use your skills for good again.
For right.
You could've been anything you chose to be a prosecutor.
Maybe this is a reminder of why you did.
Or it'll end up in the trash.
Stop selling.
You're the guy who taught me everything.
Take me through the steps.
How would you have me work it? I'm glad you still feel that way.
You piggyback on the subpoena power of an already convened grand jury You think I stole an election? Chuck thinks that.
Two actually.
Another on the way.
You believe him? Not a word out of his lying mouth.
But I thought you should know his plan of attack.
He wanted me to flow an investigation through the Civil Rights Division knowing that's generally not an area where you paid much attention.
Oh.
Well, that's a bit unfair and a little unkind.
As a young prosecutor, no one put more Klansmen behind bars.
Even sent a few to the chamber.
Watched 'em wriggle and twitch without an ounce of sympathy.
Laudable commitment to justice.
Yeah.
I have that.
So do you.
With a laudable swath of ambition as well.
Well, I do have my eye on the next rung.
Mm-hmm.
Well, you can't have Connerty's job.
Don't want it.
Too much scrutiny from you.
No.
I was thinking something with more maneuvering room.
Head of the Civil Rights Division.
That'll look good when you run for office.
Right? But first, we must break Chuck's fever.
And the surest route is apprehending his padre.
So, if you will add your labors to Connerty's on that.
Hmm.
Cleared out over two billion today.
I feel like that's a lot of money.
Even for you.
Yeah.
It is.
That's why I'm here.
The truth is, I can't be your counsel on destroying Taylor anymore.
That took me to my worst place.
I know.
Why I didn't ask.
But I can still counsel you.
I'm not gonna say, "Don't compete against Taylor.
" But I am gonna say, compete on the battlefield you're meant to.
And take solace in beating Taylor's returns.
That really doesn't seem like enough.
Yeah.
You need an enemy.
Or you think you do.
Like without that gravitational pull you'll go flying off into nothingness.
No edge, no drive.
No Axe.
I don't need an enemy.
I have an enemy.
What if you didn't? What if you just put this to fucking bed? That what you think you did at the hearing? In a sense, yes.
Doing the right thing eventually becomes the thing that makes you feel right.
It's It's not the hedonic experience, believe me It doesn't happen quickly.
Doesn't charge you with endorphins the way the perfect combo of salt, fat and sugar does.
But it does last longer.
It does nourish you.
You really feel all of that already? Right now I'm a little down about losing my medical license.
More than a little.
But underneath that yeah, I-I I can feel the spark.
I think we might not run on the same kind of fuel.
Taylor's my responsibility.
I brought them into the world.
I need to be the one to take them out.
You do have a code.
Rebecca's inside the circle, so she gets the special treatment.
Taylor's outside, so they get the other special treatment.
It gasses you up, as you say, but it doesn't burn clean.
Especially not as we get older.
The only times I've ever seen you truly fuck yourself were when you narrowed your whole gaze to retribution.
That's not happening here.
I see the field.
And I get that vengeance didn't agree with your system.
But we're built different.
I guess I really have lost my touch.
Well, just because I'm not listening to you, doesn't mean I don't value you.
It really kinda does.
It's thirty hours of labor.
And counting.
She's a fucking yoga champion, Ira.
What does that have to do with anything? I don't know.
I just thought it sounded reassuring.
Hey.
She's gonna be fine.
Alright? I just can't believe you're starting all over.
Neither can my kids, but I'm not dead.
After every loss, after every great big kick to the grundle, we start over.
We fall in love again.
We make new life.
And hopefully new and different mistakes.
What's the matter? Dad didn't check in.
You think they have him? Ooh.
- That [BLEEP.]
sucks.
- Yeah.
Oh, the amount of goddamned pot these little girls smoke back in the day they'd have been called 'grasshoppers.
' Well, they're exaggerating a little.
Me? I never liked to get too stoned.
Only enough to make you want to fuck.
Oh.
You just need a nice sativa blend A what? Oh, what's up, little Bess? FBI! Let me see your hands! Don't you lay a hand on her! We are running down some promising leads and This could be the call.
Connerty No, I'll be right there.
Good work.
We have him? Through the woman? Tied Rhoades Senior to her via a college account.
Credit card pinged at an upstate hotel.
Looks like the Thruway hit was real.
I'm heading there now.
Can you let Jock know? Easy breezy.
Good luck finishing off the Rhoadeses.
You don't have to do it.
Nope.
I went to war with my own people on the deal.
Triumphed.
And I am poised to move on Cardinale.
Should consummate tomorrow AM.
And it means a lot to me that you would do that.
But, as I said, you no longer have to.
I thought I would outlast you.
That the other moves would be beyond your cash reserves You were right about that point.
But I was wrong about Axe.
And how far he would go against me.
And for you.
Maybe not this far for either.
But for both? He's backing me.
In a day's time I won't need your company.
I can't let that happen.
I'm waving the white flag.
Willing to go back to supplying you.
Under the old rates? Just like it was before I came into the picture.
Tempting.
That would save Saler's and Axe a bundle.
But I would have to make you a brutal fucking deal.
Take controlling interest of Kling.
Strip you of all decision-making.
But without buying me out.
I want you to have flesh in the game.
Invest me in Saler's wellbeing.
And tie you to any future suffering in order to prevent it.
Ingenious.
I'm open to that You cut a fucking deal with Taylor? I am grateful that you were willing to buy me the Heart of the Ocean but a gift like that that's too much.
Even if I am the one who asked for it.
I saw the dynamic change, the friction that it already had created between us.
So I let you off the hook.
You also let my arch fucking foe off the hook.
I wasn't thinking about them.
I was thinking about us.
And your company.
Yes.
And that.
C'mon You already understand the wisdom of the move.
And in time, you'll appreciate that it was the best thing for everybody.
Let's talk about what you can do with the few billion that you don't need to spend anymore.
And why aren't we drinking yet? Thank you.
Mr.
Rhoades, my name is Waylon Jeffcoat.
I know who the fuck you are.
I thought you might, yet I thought I'd observe a familiar courtesy maybe tell you about a few other courtesies you might not know are currently being extended to you.
This is an unofficial, casual conversation.
You're not under arrest.
If you answer my questions, it's possible that neither you nor your boy need be clapped in iron.
I don't really want that.
I just want Chuck broken.
Stripped of his office, and his law license, and this futile vendetta that he's directed my way.
Where you come from, maybe you sell your progeny because there's not enough polk salad to feed all the little mouths.
But I'm not saying a damn thing to help you hurt my boy.
Do you have any idea what it smells like in prison? Is it dick? I'm betting dick.
Well.
That certainly is one of the notes you will detect.
You, sir, will have all the time in the world to dig out every subtlety off the back of your tongue, as you will be spending the rest of your life there.
Away from the people and the acts that you love.
Everything that you have spent a lifetime building will be torn down by these very hands.
Even before it's finished.
Or you could keep it.
That Elysian Fields project of yours.
I could make sure it's shielded from your criminality.
Which we have abundant evidence of.
- From the wires - Fucking wires And from witnesses There are no Goddamn witnesses.
Because I haven't committed a crime.
Excuse me.
Ask him about "the idiot.
" Who is that? The guy who secretly brokered his land deal.
Better: tell him we have the guy.
But who the hell is it? I don't know.
But that's what he referred to him as.
Okay.
Cards on the table.
The cretin that helped you snag the land.
Uh.
What is it you so lovingly call him the idiot? We have him.
And he's singing like Hank Williams, the elder.
Telling us all about your cheatin' heart.
That would be bad news for me.
Yeah.
If it were true.
So if he's in the next room, bring him in.
I can't let you have that access.
Then just tell me his name.
I'm in the information intake business, not the reverse.
What I fucking thought.
So what now? You gonna hold me on some trumped up charge or you gonna turn me loose? Mm.
I think I'll just keep you right here.
Get a material witness order.
Ice you.
Until this whole thing shakes out cleaner than a choirboy's pecker.
He jumped when you said it.
Yeah.
So we know where to put the pinch bar Only we don't fucking have one.
We don't have the fucking idiot.
We don't even know who the motherfucker is.
No but I know how we can.
It's on the recording.
That the taint team stonewalled me on.
- The thing's locked up in - Well, unlock it, son.
Jesus Christ.
The Lord doesn't put knowledge before us so that we can remain ignorant.
I'm not legally allowed to If I order it, it's fucking legal.
Now, you get your hands on that fucking tape and that fucking idiot.
We've got to get on the list for preschool right away.
We will, baby, we will There's a word for what it takes to do what you did.
To reverse yourself like that on Kling.
Is it being dead tired? Or beaten? - Mastery.
- Thank you.
But I think it may also be a little of the other things.
I'm ready for this war to finally be over.
Do you think it is? Well, now that his girlfriend's company is safe.
I think it just might be.
What's the thing.
You said I could get back into the game, if I found something good.
- Always.
- I think I found it.
Good for Axe Cap.
Good for you.
Maybe bad for someone else you care about.
But you can weigh that.
Saler's has always had too much toxic debt.
There was no place they could really put it.
Until now.
Yeah.
Now they do.
You have always been a stone and steely assassin, Victor.
Born that way.
The kind of destruction you're considering, the collateral damage, the relationships that'll be ruined or pushed to the brink You ready for all that? Just to finally see the blood seeping out of Taylor's armor onto the battlefield? If I'm not, why am I still wearing my armor? Anything I can do to help? Not on this.
No.
Go find Wendy.
No one knows better than you how to pad the blow of a shitty day.
Two Carte Blanche.
Enjoy.
I don't know if you're aware, but I am also an unlicensed doctor.
A medicine man of sorts, and surgeon of the drinking arts.
I'm going to place a steady stream of prescribed medications before you and you are going to quaff deeply and repeatedly.
And a little flicker of the warm and giddy will grow and spread.
And we will laugh about the days of yore.
And we will toast the comrades who have fallen and yet may fall.
And you will forget the vicissitudes of the last few days and you will remember who you are.
And who's that? The only woman I've ever enjoyed drinking with.
Well, then there's one thing we should do Get properly fucking drunk.