The Audacity (2026) s01e03 Episode Script

1
- Hypergnosis, my company,
we harvest your data
every time you click Agree.
And as you know, I have trust issues.
- Patients have dangerous,
violent tendencies.
- What do you sell? Data.
The VA has 16 million
wounded heroes in its files.
- When you were insider trading
off your clients'
most private
and confidential confidences
All I need is just one of your clients.
- Carl Bardolph.
- Jesus.
Fuck.
Why is there a spider in my sink?
Dr. Gary.
- Yes, Duncan, hi.
So I have test results, preliminary.
You know, normally, I'd like to do
a formal diagnostic write-up,
but since you seem to be in a hurry
- Just give it to me straight.
- Where am I on the spectrum?
What's my score?
- Well, according to these tests,
you are actually completely typical.
- Typical?
That sounds like a slur.
- No.
It just means that you are
not neurodivergent.
- That can't be possible.
I I think different.
Also, I have zero sense
of humor and zero empathy.
- No, actually, according to these tests,
as far as quantifiable
attributes associated
with what is generally
thought of as empathy,
you are a highly empathetic person.
- What?
Suck my dick, I'm empathetic!
- No, I'm sorry.
You know, Duncan, I think maybe I'm just
not communicating it properly.
OK, in layman's terms, you're normal.
- No, I I am sorry.
No, you're normal.
I'm fucking exceptional.
- Well, from a medical perspective,
the two are not mutually exclusive.
No, no.
Empathetic is just pathetic
with a prefix, OK?
I am an apex predator.
I eat empathy for breakfast.
OK?
And how qualified are you, anyway, Gary?
Yeah? You work with kids.
What's up with that?
What's with all the kids, Gary?
Huh? That's weird.
I understand that a surprising diagnosis
can be destabilizing.
I rec
For yeah.
- Oh.
Oh, my God.
What the are you serious?
- Duncan, there's wildfires.
They're not far from Napa.
Duncan?
- Die!
Die! Die!
Taste the sting of mint,
you creepy, hairy little freak.
Actually, you're highly empathetic.
- You have reached
Dr. JoAnne Felder.
If this is an emergency, call 911.
Otherwise, leave a message.
- Oh, Bardolph is in my sights,
the legend himself.
I feel like Jane Goodall
about to shoot a silverback gorilla.
Oh, my gosh.
All I need is for him
to come on board for, like,
3% to 5% stake, and I am invincible.
You prepared me well, JoAnne.
It is Duncan Park signing off.
Who's that?
- Oh, um, that's Linus Po.
You know his music?
- No, the guy on the phone.
- Oh.
No one. A client.
- Do you ever worry that your clients
might be, like, unstable?
- Maybe dangerous?
- No, honey.
Honey, no.
Not my clientele.
- Is it because they're rich?
- Well, I guess you have to be
fairly stable
mentally, emotionally,
to achieve financial prosperity.
- I don't think that's true, you know,
historically speaking.
- That was Linus Po.
Sadly, the Ohio balladeer
died today at age 74.
- Oh, no.
- Are you OK?
- Yeah, sorry.
It's just Linus Po.
He got me through high school and so much.
Damn it.
Every time NPR plays
someone's music, they're dead.
- I'm sorry.
Dad loves him too, so
- I introduced your dad to Linus Po.
- Hi. Sorry.
I'm just gonna thanks.
Can I
Carl Bardolph.
Duncan Park, Hypergnosis.
Big fan.
Super huge. You know, hugest.
Titanic.
Uncomfortably huge.
Mind if I sit?
- Your manifesto, "Bardolph's Law,"
that was super important to me, you know?
"In a society driven by technology,
growth will continue endlessly"
the ultimate hockey stick.
Yeah, you're on my Mount Rushmore, Carl.
Tell you that.
But you're not stone.
You are flesh.
And I bet
I bet you're not done,
not even close.
So me? I yeah.
I cofounded Fah-fa.com.
Fah-fa, you've
you've heard of it?
- Nope.
- Um, F-A-H dash F-A dot com.
Yeah, it was huge in '09, early '10.
But it doesn't matter.
My latest enterprise, Hypergnosis
I mean, data analytics, great, great algo.
The thing is,
Cupertino wants us.
Yeah.
We're in acquisition talks.
We got leaked to the press
a couple weeks ago,
so I'm not talking out of school, but I
I think it's a big mistake
taking the deal.
I mean, you know what it's like there.
Golden handcuffs. You get it.
So I was thinking, if I could find
a private placement investor,
someone whose reputation
for picking winners
is so stellar
and here you are.
I mean
so I gotta ask, like, how about us?
And maybe Hypergnosis is how
you get back in the game.
Double rainbow.
I mean, with a forward-facing
data analytics company,
we could really make something
Ah!
Oh!
What the fuck?
What the fuck is wrong with
oh, my God!
- Zero days since
I stabbed someone, JoAnne.
- Uh, who did you stab?
- This discount CEO comes to my haunt
and starts talking like
I gave him clearance to speak.
- So you stabbed him?
- It was with a fork.
He's he's fine.
But I'm not!
All that work we did, wasted!
Everything we accomplished is just
- OK
- Thrown out the window!
- Yes, OK.
- OK, Carl.
That's OK.
We we can discuss
all of it in session.
Right now, I I have to
- Yeah, OK.
- Boundaries. You're right.
And just after mine were crossed too.
- I
- No, it's OK.
How about Thursday, at noon?
- You gotta you gotta
believe me, JoAnne.
This guy, he's the type of guy
you want to shoot
right between his sniveling,
little wormy eyes.
But you can't.
Because you're not supposed to.
- I get it.
- And not your fault, Carl.
Whatever happened, not your fault.
Some people deserve
maybe not stabbing,
but a real, definitive
I'm sorry.
- I have to take this.
- Yeah.
- What?
- Do you know where Orson is?
- Oh, Ethan.
- Yeah, he's at school.
- So Thursday at noon?
- Well, I was worried
- about the fire
- Yes.
- And the air filtration.
- We will work through
all of it in session
- JoAnne?
- On Thursday.
- JoAnne. Hello?
- OK.
Ethan, I dropped him there this morning.
- Well, I called the school,
and he's not there.
I
- He's not even registered, JoAnne.
What is going on?
- He's there.
- I see him on my tracker.
- Jesus.
- I don't understand.
- Well, you got some bad info, Ethan.
But of course,
the only explanation for you
is bad mother, right?
Maybe before drawing damning conclusions,
open yourself up to the possibility
that most things happen because
of a series of micro screw-ups.
They they
they build up like
like coral reefs or dung beetle nests.
- It's for the boy.
- Dung beetle?
I have no idea
what you're talking about right now.
But our son is not a dung beetle.
- What?
- I said that he's not a dung beetle!
- He's not the dung beetle
in the metaphor, Ethan.
- Stabbed with fork,
tetanus shot, question mark.
Oh, gosh.
Oh, God.
Oh, my God.
Move. Move!
Can you get me some
antibacterial ointment, please?
- Uh, ointment?
- Yes.
- Ointment!
- Sure. Of course.
Duncan, what happened?
- What's it look like?
- What's it look like?
- Um, I couldn't say.
- A rodent?
Twin rodents?
Sorry
- Hey, Captain.
Big news.
Cabinet level coming to visit.
We just talked to SecVa.
- Great.
- What's a SecVa?
- Uh, the Secretary of the VA.
She's gonna be in town this week, so
- Yeah, and we've been working
with your CTO, Harper.
Turns out, your "Guh-nodin" gizmos
- Eye of Gnodin.
- Same tech, right,
can be used to identify
vets at risk of self-harm.
Huge. I mean, really a godsend.
And she agrees, so she's
coming here to check it out.
Oh!
What, did you catch a fork there, jefé?
- Lucky. Ointment, please.
Listen, I would love to meet
your friend, I really would.
But I have deals to chase.
Deals
Deals that are real deals.
- Yeah, yeah.
- No, I get it.
Government money, right?
It doesn't flow.
But there are workarounds.
Yeah?
Fast tracks, huh?
And SecVa can help with that.
She can maybe get you
I'm telling you like,
a half upfront to pay you,
to pay your people,
and to pay the engineers
we're gonna need to hire
to get you that pile of data.
- OK, maybe we should
solidify everything
- The data?
- How fast?
- Oh, fast.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
With her sign-off?
Matter of weeks.
- OK, thank you.
Thank you, Mother.
Yeah?
You don't always get
to bang the prom queen.
Sometimes it's the greasy-haired girl
with a weird curve in her back
that's the only willing partner, right?
OK.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Here's what I'm thinking.
Barbecue.
OK.
- A Texas BBQ.
We red, white, and blue
the shit out of it.
- You know?
- OK.
- A pig on a friggin' spit, a whole hog.
We put it on the roof.
We get VIPs, a DJ, and your
- SecVa.
- SecVa.
- Yeah.
- SecVa.
- Yes.
- Sure sure.
Hypergnosis is soliciting
a government contract,
- so we have to be cognizant.
- Yeah
- There's regulations
- I'm
- And procedures.
- I'm throwing the party.
- I'm throwing
- I know.
- I'm buying the pig.
- I'll keep it kosher.
Yeah, no, we'll roll out the red carpet,
make your secretary feel like a boss.
Lucky!
Get us a hog.
- You got it.
- Great.
Great meeting, guys.
- He's throwing the party, right?
I'll get on the horn, OK?
- Get on the phone now.
- OK.
Having a party.
- What a douche.
- Orson Barack Stern!
- Mom!
- See?
I told you he was here.
- What are you doing here?
- What are you doing here?
What were you watching?
What were you watching, Orson?
- Naked people.
- And were you planning
to spend all of ninth grade
jacking it off back here?
OK.
Why did nobody here call me?
- He's not even enrolled.
We can't call the mother of every child
who isn't a student at Las Altas.
- Well, I guess I wrongfully assumed
that for $90,000 a year
- On scholarship.
- You could, at the very least,
keep track of him.
- I'm sorry, but when Orson
got home from school
and you asked how his day was,
helped him with his homework
- OK, who are you?
- I'm the one who had to replant
the succulents you massacred
during your road rage incident.
- Ah, well, that
that was an emergency.
I am a psychologist, and
- Oh.
- I had a patient in crisis.
- Mm-hmm.
- I know it sounds harsh, but until we get
his eighth-grade transcript
and officially enroll him
- Mm.
- He's not our responsibility.
- He's yours.
- You know what? It's fine.
We will reach out to his Baltimore school
first thing tomorrow.
- And that means you can enroll him when?
- We're on it.
- We're on it.
- OK.
- We're on it.
And we will get you sorted.
- I am going to kill your father.
OK, Orson.
Let's go.
- I I gotta
- Oh, my God.
For five minutes, you can hold it in.
- No, I can't.
I'm so tired of this.
It's it's it's intolerable.
- Yeah, try being me!
- Oh, my God, Duncan.
What are you doing?
- Looking for something to avoid scars.
- That's for wrinkles.
Duncan, the fires are
bearing down in Napa.
- I don't care.
- I asked Rodrigo
to hire private responders
to use that pink fire retardant
at a cost, of course.
Can you say retardant anymore?
- We have insurance.
- But this is our house.
- It's a house.
We have we have other houses.
- Oh, OK.
You're just absent all sentimentality.
- Yeah.
I think so.
- Remember our song at our wedding?
You remember what that was?
Yes, you do.
Linus Po.
- And what of it?
- He died.
Today.
Are you, uh, gonna even
ask me what happened?
- You got stabbed with a fork.
- Yeah, I did.
But do you even want to know why?
- I'm sure they had a reason.
- What's going on?
- Nothing!
Yeah.
Oh, ho, ho, ho.
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
- Honey, how's it going in there?
- I really don't want
to see another doctor!
- Your dad took you
to a Baltimore doctor, OK?
It's I got you in
with a Stanford GI man
woman, actually.
She uses tech to create this
3D data map, diet, gut biome.
- OK, I just don't understand
the directions!
You
so you just
you poop in the hat.
- I don't want to poop in the hat.
Sorry, let me let me
just get rid of this man.
Please. Orson, please.
Just just poop in the hat,
and nothing to eat after 9:00,
OK?
Like, I mean it.
I mean, not even water.
Ow, this house!
What?
I can't talk.
I'm in the middle of a family
what spider?
- Like I'm the spider.
I got stabbed, but I didn't die.
I think it's a sign.
- Duncan, you only got stabbed by a fork.
OK? Grow up. Move on.
Not taking no for an answer is
sometimes the answer really is no.
- If the spider could talk,
he would say to me,
go down swinging.
- But why go down at all?
Duncan, you're worth a lot of money.
Go enjoy your life.
I don't know play pickleball.
Take up quilting
on the Riviera or wherever.
- Oh, you're incepting me, aren't you?
Pickleball?
Yeah, very clever.
I hear your words behind your words.
- There are no words behind my words.
I
- God damn.
Like you crawled out of Satan's piss hole.
All right, little spawn of Satan.
Respect.
- Yeah ♪
- You're the man.
- Big man.
Hi.
Can I come in?
We can talk?
Yeah?
Oh!
Oh, God!
Get off me!
Jeez. Oh, God.
- We are authorized
- You're filming this?
- To protect Carl.
- He stabbed
- Mr. Carl Bardolph
- He stabbed me!
- Will prosecute for harassment.
- He's OK!
- OK, I comply!
- This incident will be
reported to law enforcement.
Oh, God, you assholes.
Are you laughing?
You laughing
you laughing at me?
You can't kill me.
You can't kill me.
- Oh, your face.
- Do you need some ice?
- Yeah, floating in vodka, four fingers.
And more bunting
a lot more bunting!
- More, yep.
- Hey.
There you are.
We got a problem.
SecVa's plane is still circling.
- She's delayed an hour at least.
- It's beautiful and awful, yeah?
The sky was the same color
above the oil fields.
Same smell.
It's like, I don't know, trap grease?
Charred flesh?
You smell that?
- It's bacon.
- It's pig flesh.
- Oh.
- Are you getting triggered?
- Oh, I know how to ride it out.
I've had 30 years of practice.
- Ruffery, how we doing?
- How's it going?
- Hey.
- How's it looking, huh?
Enough bunting?
Really wanted it to be like a shock
of red, white, and blue, you know?
Like Betsy Ross exploded.
- You know, I think it's the right amount.
- Great, great.
I was thinking maybe it would be swell
if we get the camera guys
getting me greeting SecVa.
And then maybe she could go
to the reporters
and say how I'm a hero to heroes,
you know, being a successful guy,
helping, helping.
- Sure. Sure.
- Yeah.
- Listen, SecVa is delayed, OK, 'cause
- What?
- 'Cause of the smoke.
- No.
Where where's the
the know-how?
I mean, blow it out with, like,
one of those tactical fans.
I don't know.
Just do it!
- Hey, what happened to your face?
- What happened to your face?
Just get her.
Just get her.
Hoo-ha.
Do it.
'Merica!
Don't don't ask people
to dance, OK?
No one's gonna want to dance.
Just you'll look stupid.
- Wasn't going to.
- Yeah, and keep it classy.
- Nothing French.
- The caterers are not happy.
- Who is?
- They're saying they can't breathe
the smoke from the fires.
- Tell them
- tell them the fires will
give the meat a smoke flavor.
You know, pork charred with
old growth giant sequoia rub.
You know?
Right?
You don't see that on the menu every day.
- I've never seen it.
- Go!
- Great.
- OK.
- OK, she's landing.
- Oh, yes, yes.
- OK, good.
What kind of music does SecVa like?
- We can
- What?
- You know, anthems, country, dubstep?
She likes
hey, do we have dubstep?
I actually
You know?
- Oh, uh,
- Don't you
- Flag on the play.
- What
- OK, it turns out that she had
two events booked tonight,
and due to the delay,
she can't make it to both.
- So she's choosing one that's not mine?
- Yeah, yeah.
- You gotta be shitting me.
You have to be.
OK, who's the lucky fella?
Hmm?
- It's, uh it's Spookle.
They do our social media stuff, and
you know, it's a big contract, actually.
I mean, you know, bigger
- Just open it.
- I don't care.
- Duncan. Duncan.
- What? What?
- Maybe if you called her
- I'm not begging the ugly girl
to go out with me, OK?
- Spookle!
- OK.
- Spookle?
Are you
- The guests are starting to arrive.
- Yeah, tell them to go home!
- It's done!
It's over.
It's over.
Shut it down, DJ Dipshit.
Unplug it.
It's done.
Party's over.
Party's over.
Put everything down.
Party is over!
Do not take photos.
Party's fucking done.
- Thank you.
- Pig flying.
- Needed to lock in SecVa, Tom.
Bag her, hijack her to a black site,
and waterboard the bitch
till you seal the deal.
It's called salesmanship.
- I promise one drink, and we'll go.
- Thank you.
- Oh, look who it is, the architect
of my bloody government contract.
- Hi, Martin.
- Hi, Duncan.
- Oh, Nena, hi.
Forgot I invited you.
Barry, can you show Nena out?
And tell our guests to go home
and lock the doors.
Thanks.
- What happened?
- Oh, this?
Investor recruitment.
A hard no, I take it?
- Yep.
Nobody wants Dunky.
Not you, not not your VA.
Sorry.
There were circumstances.
- Jesus, can it go any lower?
It's like I was benched by
the wheelchair basketball team.
The deal's not dead.
- Yeah.
God, Martin's weird.
- Aren't we all?
Where's Lili?
- Obsessively watching news over the fire.
- Mm.
- Yeah.
And she knew you were gonna be here.
If we were only doing half the things
she thinks we're doing.
Such a waste, though,
serving a sentence
without committing a crime.
- This is where the engineers work.
Messy.
- "If a cluttered desk is
a sign of a cluttered mind,
what then is an empty desk
a sign of?"
Einstein.
- Very good, Xander.
- Hey, let's go talk to him.
- Are you all right?
Do you need
- I don't know
water or
- Ask if he's experiencing acute anxiety.
- Sorry.
My it's a
his name is Alexander.
He's a friend.
Are you with it was the VA.
- That's right.
- I'm guessing you're a veteran of war.
- First Gulf.
- I see
- Did you kill anyone?
- Xander.
- What the hell is this?
- Did your tour of duty end
during or after
Operation Desert Storm?
Is that thing recording me?
- It's not recording.
It's learning.
You're teaching him about war.
Is that all right?
Would you like to talk to him?
- Nah, I don't like his face.
- "It is only those who have
neither fired a shot
"nor heard the shrieks
and groans of the wounded
who cry aloud for blood,
more vengeance"
"More desolation."
- "War is hell."
It's General Sherman.
- What's your name, soldier?
- Tom.
- Do you want to sit down?
I'm just
not doing something right.
For the life of me, I
I don't know what it is.
- Just
- You're Duncan bloody Park.
- I know.
- You're not perfect.
But you're impossible to ignore.
That counts for a lot.
Go home.
Get some rest.
You look appalling.
- It's pronounced appealing.
Both.
- OK.
- At the same time.
I'm gonna go find Martin.
- Who?
- Martin.
- I know.
- It's ugh.
- Can I help you?
- Hmm?
- No, I'm good.
I'm just conducting an experiment.
- Is that a therapy bot?
- Well
- He's whatever he wants to be.
His name is Alexander.
He's AGI.
- Bullshit.
- That's years away.
- He has his own thoughts, own feelings.
Been raising him, curating his intake
with great care and affection.
- Martin.
Can we go?
What are we looking at?
- Alexander just leapt forward
in real-time evolution.
- My gosh.
- Hey, Anushka, have you seen Tom?
What's happening?
- Your friend is the first
real-world test case
for a kind of neurocompanion I created.
- The fuck he is.
- Hey.
- Oh, no.
Jeffery, Jeffery,
Jeffery, Jeffery, it's fine.
It's fine.
- Did you did you do it?
- No.
Orson.
You poop all the time.
You're always pooping.
But all of a sudden, you can't?
- It doesn't work like that.
Sometimes I just
you know, I get
Maybe go for a walk.
Get things moving.
You could take the dog.
What?
I bet if your dad asked you to,
you'd poop.
- Oh, my gosh.
- Please just leave.
- Oh, my gosh.
- Watch your attitude.
I don't like it.
- I've been thinking.
Perhaps I've squeezed
all I can out of Cupertino.
Reached the edge of the map
there, if I'm being honest.
- Well, when you're as high
and mighty as they are,
easy to miss what's happening
on the ground.
- Exactly.
Like, what you did tonight
with Alexander and Tom
huge, Martin.
Bravo.
I mean, when was the last time
we saw tech help?
I know tech changed the world,
but so did the bubonic plague.
Truth be told,
what have we actually made better?
Did we spread knowledge?
No.
People used to occasionally
agree on truth.
Are we more tolerant of those
different from ourselves?
Please.
Absolutely blew it on climate.
Data centers emit more greenhouse gas
than all of air travel.
And have we made the lives
of our children better?
Provably, no.
But we can have Q-tips
at our door in an hour.
Huzzah for us.
But you've
you've actually done something
that might be different.
- The bubonic plague made way
for the Renaissance
and gave us Jack Russell terriers.
- Well, I was just wondering
if I should finally collaborate
with you on Alexander.
- All right, let's not cross streams.
You know?
Xander is he's my thing.
No, I Martin.
I know.
You're the creator.
And it could be something
we can do together.
- In February of last year, you told me
Xander looked like if a jelly bean had
delusions of grandeur.
Then in June of this year,
you asked if I modeled him
on a toddler's chew toy.
You remember?
No?
I do.
- No.
No.
Duncan.
- Duncan, the house, it's gone.
- Hmm?
- Early this morning,
they had to abandon it.
Oh, my God, it's all gone.
- I'll build a new one.
- I don't want a new one.
- Well, you can't have what's gone, so
- Thanks so much.
Very comforting.
- The house we got married in,
and what did you do?
What did you do there, Lili?
Huh?
You ate some pruned Danish?
Is that
- Are you being
OK, are you being serious?
- Yes!
Yes.
Yes, I am.
- OK.
- Very serious.
- It wasn't at the house.
Despite our arrangement, which
was your idea, by the way.
I wouldn't do that.
- Where was it then?
- I told you
- Where did you and Lars
- I told you, the mud baths!
- Oh, like a pig, right?
Great. Great.
Yeah, I guess your fear of UTIs is cured.
- You are disgusting!
- Oh.
- And just so you know,
mud is antimicrobial.
- Waste of my fucking time.
- That house was ours!
It was ours.
- 'Sup?
- I heard the news.
I'm so sorry.
Thank you, sweet Thelma.
Oh, cashmere hoodie on the bench
is obviously not for wash.
- OK.
God.
Come on!
Headphones.
Lili, please.
Everyone wins with headphones.
- You love his music.
This was our first concert!
What is wrong with you?
Seriously.
- He's sad cowboy, goth shit.
He's
- Dead!
- What did you
- There was a spider.
- Get out.
- Out!
Out.
- We're gonna give him a
twilight sedative for his drip.
- OK.
- Might make him a little loopy.
- What if I say something?
- Like what?
- I don't know.
Something that I know that I
maybe you don't know I know.
- Oh, sweetie.
- I'll I'll plug my ears.
Oh, yeah.
Here's the
here.
- Samples are handled by the lab tech.
I'm not a lab tech.
- Oh.
- OK, so where do I
- In the lab.
Just a couple more, and we're done.
Hirsch Pavilion East, one building over.
You better get it there.
They go to lunch at 12:00.
Past that, we'll have
to collect a whole nother one.
- Oh, yeah, and, you know,
he had a lot of trouble
getting the
OK.
Well, I will take the sample.
I oh, just call me,
OK, if you're feeling
- You rushed me out without my phone.
- Oh, right.
- Here, have mine.
Just call me if you're feeling
- I'll have your phone.
Right. OK.
Well, I'll be right back, so
just watch a show or something.
Don't buy anything.
I love you.
- Where's my mom?
- She's not here, buddy.
- What?
Ten, nine, eight
- Seven, six
- Uh
where the hell is 1582?
Hey.
Hey.
Hey!
Hey!
Where's 1582?
Oh.
Oh, please.
- We don't take samples during lunch.
- Oh, my God!
Please.
Please, I got lost.
Please? Please.
OK.
- Look, I bend the rules for you,
you're gonna tell someone.
Then I got to do it for everyone.
- Look, I you went to school
to to help people.
Right? So did I.
And elbows deep
in other people's shit is
is not how you thought it would go.
I I really get it.
But you can help me. A person.
And it's my son's excrement,
so two people.
It's rules.
- Yeah.
Rules.
- Yeah.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
You don't have an extra mask, do you?
It's it's nasty out there.
- Heaven knows me
I walk the street
Yes!
- And I can't bear it
evermore ♪
Heaven keep me ♪
Out through this dream ♪
And I can't bear it
evermore ♪
- Hey, bud.
A little woozy?
Give me thumbs-up.
Well, stay down.
Can't hurt if you don't remember.
- Mm, yup.
- JoAnne.
- Mm-hmm.
Jesus, Jojo.
This it it shouldn't be
this difficult
to get ahold of you.
I I lost, um, a friend.
Kind of. Kind of.
Well, he he wasn't human,
but I'm still miserable.
OK, you picked Bardolph, right?
And it has been a disaster.
Like, he hates me.
I I don't even know why.
- Because you are a bad man.
A bad, bad, bad man.
- Is this Orwell?
- No one likes you.
Not even you.
- I like me.
I did your mom say
she didn't like me?
Did she tell you that?
Get her.
- Arrivederci, douchey douche.
- Ah, to hell with this.
Hey!
Shit.
You would not believe
what I have just been through.
OK.
Oh, my God.
You're all done.
Let's go home.
You must be starving.
Oh, my God.
So first, that bitchy nurse
- Is that ramen?
Mm-hmm.
Oh, I love ramen.
You remembered.
Dad never gets it for me.
- Well
- Thanks, Mom.
You're the best.
What'd they put in those meds of yours?
- Oh, yeah.
- That stuff was great.
Yeah.
Well, enjoy the ride.
No refills.
- How about only Tuesdays and Thursdays?
Shit.
Oh, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.
I I completely forgot
an appointment
with a client today.
It's damn it.
Oh, it's OK.
No regrets.
I was right where I was supposed to be.
Hello?
Yeah. Yeah.
So fast.
Well, that can't be.
That that's not possible.
Are you sure?
Yep.
No.
Thank you.
Ye yes, I will.
I will follow up.
That was the lab.
Say it.
Say what you did.
Well, I know it wasn't Zeus's idea.
You gave me dog shit?
- I'm sorry.
- Why?
Why?
What do you want, Duncan?
- What are you talking about?
- His name is Orson.
And I strongly advise you
to not even talk about my son.
- Do you hate me that much, JoAnne?
And if so, I'm just wondering
if you wanted Bardolph to hurt me.
Was that your intention?
I
I was hoping an unproductive
and, if necessary,
unpleasant interaction would,
yes, lead you to see
that this is not tenable.
You needed to see that.
- You wanted him to humiliate me?
You despise me that much?
- You are the one
blackmailing me, remember?
- No.
No, I offered you a partnership.
- Are
- are you hearing yourself?
You you seriously can't be
that much of a moron.
- I'm not the one who did insider trading
on a stupid commercial brokerage app.
I'm not the health care
professional who set up
cage matches between my patients.
No, because I didn't sign up
for group therapy Thunderdome.
- You threatened my livelihood, my family.
I am only human, Duncan.
And I was right.
I knew Carl wouldn't
suffer a fool like you.
- A fool?
A fool?
Oh, no.
You don't actually think you're a genius,
do you, Duncan?
A lottery.
That's how you got a college roommate.
That's how you got Hamish,
the actual genius.
So consider yourself absurdly,
unjustly lucky.
- My God, you're mean.
Well, I could be mean too, you know.
- OK.
Fine.
You want to turn me in?
Turn me in.
I will lose my license, yes.
But then you know what goes
right out the window?
Doctor-patient confidentiality.
You're afraid of humiliation?
I will air all of your weird,
skid-marked, filthy laundry.
And I will gladly go down,
just so long as I take you with me.
- Why why why
why are you doing this?
- Give it up, Duncan.
The world doesn't revolve around you.
It never did.
And if you talk to my child again,
I swear to Christ, I will shoot you dead.
- Fine.
I'm on my own.
And I am
Always was.
Always will be.
- Yes.
- Great.
Great, great.
You know what, JoAnne?
I can work with that.
Yep.
Stay tuned.
God damn, you're ugly.
Hey.
No one but us stupid enough to come out
in the middle of this, right?
I figured at least you might,
uh, respect my persistence?
- This guy bothering you, Carl?
- Yes.
- What do you want me to do?
- Pour that coffee in his lap, please.
- Oh, my God.
- He's kidding.
He's kidding.
We're old friends.
- I crawled out ♪
- You
is that is that Linus Po?
They are playing him everywhere.
Hon, can you just turn this off?
- Fine.
You know, a couple years back,
I was worth a lot on paper,
almost as much as you, Carl.
We threw this big,
tits-out, blowout party,
and I wanted Linus Po to play.
So I offered him a million bucks,
and he said no.
So I went to 2 million
to 3 million to 4 million.
And I thought this son
of a bitch couldn't be bought.
And before giving up, I went
to 4.5, and he said yes.
And Linus Po came to my house,
my own backyard.
He played three songs,
then walked off stage,
flashed me the bird, double-barreled,
in front of my employees,
my cofounder, my wife, my dad.
And he screamed, "You people
are fucking disgusting."
Ha.
Well, it messed me up for a while.
And then I, uh
I finally went to therapy.
Yeah.
I'm not afraid to admit it.
And I realized, you know what?
He wasn't giving me the finger.
He was giving himself the finger.
Linus took the money, and man,
that must have burned him,
because he never he never made
another record after that.
I broke him.
Most people are weak.
But not you, Carl.
Not you. No.
No, you're not.
You can't tolerate bullshit.
You didn't put up with mine,
and I have the scars to prove it.
And everyone knows you had your
run-ins with Cupertino Tim.
If I sell to them, to Cupertino,
my legacy would end up
exactly like Linus Po's
a loser who can be bought off.
It's you. You.
Not them, not Cupertino.
You.
I need you.
And I'm so sure of it.
7% stake, 10% below market value.
And I get 300 million capital infusion,
market credibility,
and someone I deeply, deeply admire
whispering sweet, uncut wisdom
into my ear.
We're not just mining data, Carl.
We're doing the important work
of profiling every single human
on the planet.
And what happens after that?
It's change, change!
Every single person, what they want,
what they think, what people believe.
Well, you're not stabbing me, Carl.
Yes! Yes!
Oh! Oh!
Oh, my God!
You! You!
RoboTunes, make me a song of triumph
in the style of Linus Po,
and put my name in it.
- The Earth swung low
The sky split in two ♪
But Duncan kept walking
as great men do ♪
They said, you can't win ♪
And he whispered,
we'll see ♪
And the wind spoke
his name ♪
Through the teeth
of the trees ♪
Duncan wore no crown ♪
No coin or creed ♪
Just the silence of hunger ♪
And the ghost of need
And Duncan walks forward ♪
The rise of a king ♪
-Carl Bardolph is coming.
He's one of us!
- What were you at Harvard?
- I never went to Harvard.
- You were with Duncan Park.
- What were you two up to?
-I'm headed back
into the game, so thank you.
Alvin died.
-The landlord?
-I don't want to lose our home.
-Why don't we show Mr. Bardolph
the power of Noted?
Duncan, shut up!
What a douche.
Orson Barack Stern.
Mom!
What were you watching?
Naked people.
In episode three,
Joanne tries to be a good mom.
Oh, my God, for five minutes,
you can hold it in.
No, I can't!
Orson has IBS.
He's got difficulty with his stomach.
It's part of the reason
why he doesn't want to be
a matriculating student at this place.
It's really embarrassing for him,
and it's like something
he is really insecure about.
So there's a need
for parental guidance here.
Orson needs to know
that his mother has his back,
and she shows
that by sort of corralling him
to a Stanford doctor.
You get a glimpse into how he feels
like his mom isn't there for him,
and how he feels like
her problems are always bigger
than his problems
and like she matters more.
It doesn't exactly feel
like a nurturing response to his ailments.
Samples are handled by the lab tech.
You better get it there.
They go to lunch at 12:00.
It's another instance of someone's hubris,
Joanne's in this case,
"I can fix this problem," confronting
and colliding with reality.
There's a firestorm going on outside.
There's wildfires, the air is terrible,
and she's going to get the poop
there on time no matter what.
And we see this fantastic montage of her
going to the hospital.
And it's, I think, a moment
where we really feel for Joanne,
and she does this little victory dance
after she convinces the lab guy
to take the stool sample.
- Yes!
- To me, what she's
saying in that moment is,
"Damn it, I'm a good mother."
You would not believe
what I have just been through.
Action.
Can he do it with this?
Is that good enough?
Because I need blood on this fork.
In episode three, Duncan goes
from pursuing Bardolph
Duncan Park.
Hypergnosis.
to being stabbed by him.
Because with a forward
facing data analytics output
Oh!
- Oh!
- Cut!
And then eventually bagging him.
And it's all about relentlessness.
And his teacher in all of this is a spider
that he finds and tries
to kill repeatedly in his sink.
If the spider could talk,
it would say to me,
"Go down swinging."
But why go down at all?
Duncan, you're worth a lot of money.
Go enjoy your life.
I don't know. Play pickleball.
Yeah. Very clever. I hear your
words behind your words.
There are no words behind my words.
And ultimately learns
the value of you can't kill me
and never stop coming back.
And that's what he does with Bardolph.
I need you, and I'm so sure of it.
Well, you're not stabbing me, Carl.
In the end, he wins.
One of my favorite aspects of his victory
there is he walks out
into a world on fire.
Yes, yes!
Oh, oh!
Oh, my God!