Smoke (2025) s01e09 Episode Script

1
["Dialing In" playing]
Telephone ♪
Calling me ♪
Who put all that shit in your head? ♪
Saying things ♪
Telling things ♪
Till you break ♪
Filthy water ♪
Bubbles up ♪
Who put all that shit in your head? ♪
[wind howling]
[police radio chatter]
[shutter clicks]
[sirens wailing in distance]
We contacted a few of the people
on the task force he was running.
They're outside.
[overlapping chatter]
You all worked the arson case
with Captain Burke?
He in there?
Pending confirmation from
the medical examiner, of course.
Was it a homicide?
Body was found
on the floor by the entryway.
Not the place one normally
picks for a lie-down
only to be overcome by smoke inhalation.
Who has tactical command of
this task force after Captain Burke?
Agent Hudson, ATF.
Your command is over, Agent Hudson.
We'll be handling the investigation.
You just turn over
any files to our office.
Copy that.
I understand the target
of your investigation was a Dave Gudsen.
Where's Mr. Gudsen now?
At his ex-wife's.
Where he spent the night.
Clearly he stepped out.
Uh, no. No, he didn't.
[scoffs] The head of an arson task force
is murdered in an arson
and you want to sell me some shit
about there being another suspect?
Look, I don't blow surveillances, okay?
[scoffs]
Well, you blew this one.
Well, see, that's the thing.
I didn't.
What's your rank?
I don't have one.
I'm, um, retired.
[Pearson mutters]
I remember you.
Oh, and I remember you.
Hmm.
You're that fuck-up.
Gregorio.
Esposito.
Aw. Well, exit my crime scene, Esposito,
and stand down on anything
to do with this investigation.
You were Sergeant Pearson
in the back of that black-and-white
behind Ronnie's Road House.
Get him out of here.
Your safe word still Fräulein?
[Pearson sighs]
Detectives will take your statements.
Anyone else on this task force
that I should be talking to?
[phone buzzing]
[breathes deeply]
Harv.
["The Sky is Broken" playing]
Uh, don't-don't-don't
don't go in, Michelle.
What?
Anybody with eyes could see there
was something going on between you two.
If that's him in there
Wait, hold on. There's a body in there?
Positive ID pending.
But height
- [sighs] No.
- build
- No, no, no. Man
- other factors add up.
Listen, go wait by the car.
All right.
People are gonna wanna talk to you.
[sighs]
Hmm. You all right?
Yeah. All right.
[police radio chatter]
[police radio chatter continues]
Kehoe, you get a hold of the neighbors?
Nah, she's out of town,
but I left a message on her cell.
Detective Calderone, we haven't met.
No, ma'am, but you spoke
to my class at the academy.
[chuckles]
The "They Think It's About Law,
But We Know It's About Order" speech?
Yes, ma'am.
What'd you think?
Cold hard truth, ma'am.
Steven.
Captain Burke.
He was your training officer.
- You did a a tour under his command.
- Yeah.
He formed this task force with you.
We're running the names
of anyone violent he put away
- that hit the street recently.
- Yeah.
Looking into his estranged wife
and her brothers,
and checking to see
if he fucked over anyone on the job.
Hey, it happens.
But you know where our head's at.
Yeah, the arsonist
we've been investigating.
How close were you to him?
Hey.
The arsonist.
- How close?
- We were getting there.
And this is Gudsen we're talking about?
Yeah. David Gudsen.
He's the lead arson investigator
for Umberland.
[sighs]
I heard he beefed
with Captain Burke the other night.
Yeah.
I also understand
he has a license to carry
and is known to go around strapped.
Oh, yeah. He is, ma'am.
If that is Steven Burke in there
my Words with Friends enemy,
my good pal
smartest cop I ever knew,
[chuckles] which is
is a low fucking bar, but still
there are not adequate words
to describe the fecal holocaust
that I will rain down
on the person responsible.
[sniffs, sighs]
[line ringing]
Shit.
- Yo, Benji.
- Yo.
- What's up?
- What's up, bud?
Yo. How come you park in a driveway
but you drive in a parkway?
Always a pleasure, Terrance.
[phone buzzes]
[grunts]
- Pick up, pick up.
- [Benji] What?
Benji, Benji, I'm on a burner.
Fuck you on a burner for?
I need help.
Hold up. G.I. Jane, the Combat Queen
Yeah, yeah. I'll eat shit later.
This one has a clock on it.
Proceed.
And while no official statement
has been given,
Channel 6 has confirmed the name
of the man renting the home
was Columbia Police
Captain Steven Aaron Burke.
Now Columbia firefighters responded
to the scene just after 3:00 a.m.
and have been working
tirelessly to douse the blaze.
The official cause
of the fire remains unknown
- [Reba] I gotta go, kid.
- and while sources indicate
that the fire is under control
- Means you gotta go.
- authorities urge the public
- to remain vigilant and to check
- I'm about to be framed.
- [chuckles]
- for updates at columbiametrosafety.gov.
I'm not fucking around.
No one says "I'm about to
be framed" in real life.
I'm fucking saying it
'cause it's fucking happening.
Yeah, yeah.
Don't "yeah, yeah" me.
Don't do that.
What say we dial it down a notch?
[mutes TV]
If someone came around
asking questions, I was here.
Reebs. Reebs.
I was here all night.
How'd I know?
- What?
- I was on two Lunesta
and a massive sex hangover.
I slept like a rock.
[Gudsen] I was here.
I can't swear to that with any certainty.
So, no.
No, you weren't.
[whistling]
[phone buzzes]
Hey, hey. What's up?
[surveillance detective] Gudsen's mobile.
All right.
Let me know where he lands.
[surveillance detective] He's about to.
He's going to work.
Yeah. Of course he is.
[firefighter, on comm]
We're knocking it down,
but it's got wings.
Burning leaves riding the wind,
embers, all sorts of incendiaries.
[fire chief] We're bringing in copters?
[firefighter] Ah, could obscure it.
We're gonna need more eyes and more axes.
[sighs]
[Gudsen] When can I get my car back?
That's your question?
It totaled?
Oh, yeah.
Where do they take totaled vehicles?
The totaled vehicle emporium, Dave.
[chuckles]
I don't know where they fucking take it.
Probably the impound lot.
I didn't do it.
The fire at Burke's house.
I know you guys have got this crazy idea
I'm a firebug but
"Crazy idea." Yeah.
I didn't do this.
Or any of them.
You did Old Sully's.
I know it.
And Burke was days away
from putting 20 fires on you.
Now he's dead.
So
say that to me again, Dave.
I am innocent!
Look
[sighs]
I was at Reba's last night.
All night.
Uh-huh. Yeah, I heard that.
I did.
Reba got a back door in her house?
I know a lot of those houses
have back doors.
Hey, what was it you said to me once?
Oh, yeah.
"If I go down
you go down."
You take your best shot,
you repugnant piece of shit.
You killed a kid.
Close my fucking door
on your way out of here.
[door opens, closes]
[footsteps approaching]
I'm sorry about your
friend.
I know you think I
set these fires but I
We're past "think."
So, arrest me.
Once I have what I need, I will.
And what's that? Evidence? [chuckles]
[Calderone sighs]
- [Gudsen] Proof?
- [Calderone sighs]
Eyewitnesses who can place me
anywhere near these fires?
Oh, no.
Wait. Yeah, I remember.
A work of fiction I'm writing.
In your work of fiction
you sure do light a lot of fires.
Ah, no.
- I don't.
- No?
No.
Donald does.
[Calderone] Oh.
- Yeah.
- Donald. Right.
And-And why does
Donald light these fires?
[footsteps approaching]
Hey. What up, Syd?
Uh, suspicious fire
in the Glass District.
- [Gudsen] Oh.
- Might want to check it out.
Okay. [sighs]
You know what this is?
This is one more fucking fire
I didn't set.
[grunts]
[police radio chatter]
[tense music playing]
[tense music continues]
[police radio chatter]
- [lab tech] You the fire investigators?
- [Gudsen] That's us.
I've got it all on video.
[Calderone] Oh.
Well, that's great news.
[lab tech grunts] Well, maybe. Maybe not.
I'm Autumn, by the way.
Investigator Gudsen, Detective Calderone.
Uh, can I put this on the hood?
It's a rental.
[Autumn] This is the lab.
That's what went up? The lab?
Second floor, yeah.
We're a research lab.
The first floor is
was a graphic design studio.
Uh, we're developing new technologies
to derive carbon-free fuel from water.
So we work with hydrogen.
The temperature is
strictly maintained at 66 degrees
to keep combustible
gases from doing that.
Wait Wait a minute.
Where's the point of origin?
There was none.
Because the temperature rose in the room.
Uh, by design.
The thermostat is password protected
and I'm the only one with remote access.
The device log contains entry at 4:00 a.m.
from an IP address that I can't trace.
What happened to the sprinklers?
They never activated.
Same person who hacked into the climate
control disabled the sprinkler system.
Huh.
Okay, so
this fire could have been started
from blocks away.
Well, this fire could have
been started from Paris.
[phones buzzing]
Mrs. McClaren, Detective Kehoe.
Still at the airport?
Is there a TV there?
You may want to look at it.
Yes, ma'am.
Everything around your house I'm afraid.
Uh, when was it
that you were arriving again?
Mm-hmm. I would recommend
staying away from the area
until the state of emergency is lifted.
Yes, ma'am.
[birds chirping]
[engine revving]
It's the sawmill.
How do you know?
Sawdust, any dust really,
is as combustible as gasoline.
The finer the dust,
the more likely it is to ignite.
So why are we driving into it?
[chuckles]
We're not.
We're driving up behind it.
It's moving east, so are we.
So, why not let the firefighters fight it
and go back to
the office until we're needed?
Because I want to talk.
Okay. If this is your usual bullshit,
pull over and I'll hail a cab.
Why? Should I talk about my mom?
By all means, motherfucker.
- [scoffs] Come on.
- [chuckles]
First girl who ever rejected me?
[imitates crying]
- [Calderone sighs]
- My father's drinking?
[groans]
[gasps]
First fire I ever saw?
- Start there. Yeah.
- [laughing]
Neighbor down the street.
I was 12.
[blows]
Flames shot through
the roof like they were
like they were returning to God.
Windows inside the house were all pop,
pop, pop.
It was beautiful.
Look. Look at that.
[engine revving]
["Jump Into the Fire" playing]
Anything that can kill us like that
we should hate.
But do you hate fire?
No.
[sighs]
You might even love it.
Do you?
[sighs]
Yeah, absolutely.
[song continues]
[thunder rumbling]
Oh, shit.
- What the fuck are you doing?
- We're going to the dance.
[song continues]
- Slow down.
- [Gudsen cackles]
Stop the car, Dave.
Live a little! [grunts]
Stop the car!
- I said stop the fucking car!
- [exclaims]
[laughs] Or you'll shoot me?
I will blow your goddamn brains out.
- Slow the fuck down.
- [groans]
All our associates
are busy helping other customers.
- I'm not playing with you.
- Would you care to continue holding
- or try back at a more convenient time?
- Stop the fucking car.
Oh, fuck! Fuck!
- Stop the fucking car!
- [yells]
You want me to stop this car, Michelle?
Stop the fucking car!
Yeah, with pleasure.
[Calderone grunts]
[Gudsen gasps, sighs]
[shuddering, grunts]
[Gudsen grunts]
[grunting]
[song continues, distorted]
No.
[laughing]
[song continues normally]
[mouthing words] No.
[mouthing words] No.
[grunting]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[grunts]
- [groans]
- [engine revs]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[screams] Oh, shit.
- [engine revs]
- [grunts]
[grunting]
[groans]
[grunting]
[grunting continues]
- [grunts]
- [gasps] Jesus
[panting]
[laughing]
- [Calderone grunts]
- [Gudsen groaning, coughs]
[Calderone grunts]
[Gudsen coughs]
[both groaning]
[coughing]
[panting]
[panting]
- [breathing heavily]
- [gagging]
[panting]
- [coughs]
- [Calderone sighs]
[thunder rumbling]
- [gasps]
- [Calderone panting]
- [coughs]
- [Calderone panting]
You
- You have the right to remain silent.
- [Gudsen gagging]
[Calderone] Anything you say
can and will be
- used against you in a court of law.
- [rain tapping]
[thunder rumbling]
[sighs]
Hmm.
[toy squeaks]
[sighs]
[grunts]
[grunts]
- [bell chimes]
- [crowd cheering]
[Benji] There it is.
[thunder rumbling continues]
[groans]
[chitters]
All right, well,
we'll be there in ten minutes.
- [grunts]
- All right.
Hey, what are you
charging me with by the way?
[laughs] Oh, let me see.
Where do I begin?
Uh, attempted murder of a peace officer.
Assault. Reckless endangerment.
[Gudsen] Failure to properly signal?
[Calderone] Oh, we could
- We can add that, yeah.
- [Gudsen laughs]
Yeah, you still got
a whole lot of nothing.
[laughs]
Who's living the dream now, motherfucker?
Hey, Espo.
How's the early-onset cirrhosis, huh?
You read him his rights yet?
Yeah, with-with a gun in my mouth,
so technically I'm not sure it counts.
- [groaning] Fuck.
- Well, that sucks.
'Cause I've been
dreaming of it for years.
[Gudsen grunting]
Well, I guess I'll just have to settle
for the DNA on the glove that came back.
Oh.
- The one at Burke's crime scene, huh?
- [Ezra] Yeah, yeah.
- It was a match.
- Really?
I believe the phrase
the lab used was a "perfect match."
For you, David.
[Ezra, Calderone laughing]
- [sighs]
- [groaning] Oh, fuck.
All right. Can I book
my prisoner, please?
Thank you.
[groans] Shit.
Damn it.
[Pearson] He lawyer up?
[Calderone] No. Not yet.
[Pearson] Why is he here?
I'm her ride.
You tuned Gudsen up pretty good.
Uh, he tried to kill me.
[lieutenant] Oh, we don't make judgment.
I'm just asking.
Will he talk to you?
I think I'm the best shot we have.
Because he wants to fuck you, Detective?
Because he wants to fuck me, Captain.
Well, we already have the DNA match.
Yeah, I've seen DNA
fall apart in court, Captain.
More than once.
So have I.
All right, listen, he wants to talk.
He-He-He wants to crow about how
much smarter he's been all these years
while we were chasing our goddamn tails.
In my experience, guys like this
never own what they do.
Is there a place
I can clean up around here?
[lieutenant] I'll show you.
Okay. Anyone have a brush?
Yeah.
Thanks.
[sighs]
[Pearson] Hey.
Your time is up.
[in German] Ja, Mein Fräulein.
[sniffles]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[Steven] They'll
figure it out eventually.
If this frame-up doesn't hold,
and I have my doubts that it will,
then they'll reopen the investigation.
Cops don't stop
when other cops get killed.
There's no cop killer who's roaming
the streets of this country scot-free.
We avenge our own.
And our batting average is a thousand.
It'll just take one person who guessed
that we were fucking to say something.
And they'll start looking at you.
Asking where you were that night.
Pinging your cell.
Running a magnifying glass
over every detail
that you've forgotten that you forgot.
[panting]
[sighs]
Oh, shit.
[line ringing]
[Pearson] You're on a very short leash.
[Calderone] Understood.
[lieutenant] Don't let him in your head.
[chuckles] Way too late for that.
[sighs]
[chuckles]
Hi.
Hiya.
And your friends behind the mirror?
Captain Pearson.
Lieutenant Durrell.
I'd wave, but
[Calderone] You seem pretty chill
for a guy charged with murder,
arson, attempted murder.
I get how this got so confused.
I do.
I have no idea how my DNA
ended up on a glove.
So I see your position there
and I'll grant you it
until I'm exonerated.
But this other stuff?
Attempted murder of a police officer?
She never wears her seat belt.
Like, ever.
She's got a cut-off latch plate
she sticks into the buckle in her car.
She was screaming about the fire
and some other fire when she was a kid,
and then she shoots out
the fucking window.
[Calderone chuckles]
I lost control of the car and it crashed.
[Calderone] You're being charged with
first degree murder of a police captain.
Didn't do it.
DNA says otherwise.
As I understand it,
the DNA was found on a glove
[Calderone] Mm-hmm.
and that glove was found
on the back side of the property.
I-I don't know what that proves.
- Proves that you, an arsonist
- Arson investigator.
dropped your glove
while fleeing a crime scene.
[Gudsen grumbles]
Feels thin.
[Calderone chuckles]
You enjoying yourself?
I had nothing to do
with Captain Burke's death.
The D and C arsons?
Nope.
- The book you're writing?
- Book.
Fiction.
Hmm. With details about unsolved arsons
that only an arsonist could know.
Or the arson investigator.
If he's any good.
In your work of fiction on page 173,
Donald, the arsonist,
improvises his incendiary device
by using a scrap of paper
and some charcoal dust.
The same method used
In the Hancock Hardware Store fire
in Clarkston in 2019.
- Right.
- Right.
I investigated that fire.
Oh.
[grunts]
But you listed the cause
of the fire as inconclusive.
Yeah. Your notes it says that, um,
it "could've been caused
by a lit cigarette
left to burn in the lumber aisles."
If you say so.
So where did the scrap of paper
and charcoal dust come from?
The wonders of imagination.
Hmm.
Were you aware
of an independent investigation
into the Hancock Hardware fire?
Independent?
Yeah. You see,
your inconclusive findings made, uh
[clicks tongue]
any lawsuits difficult to defend.
Hancock would have gone bankrupt.
They weren't fans of that outcome.
So their investigator
found evidence of arson
caused by
"a scrap of lit paper
and some charcoal dust."
Their independent investigator's report
was sealed.
So the only person who could've known
the true cause of the Hancock fire,
who did not see the report,
would have been
The arsonist. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or the lawyers.
Or the people who tried to sue
and were shown the evidence.
Or Or the private investigators
who like to blab at the local bar.
They could have Let me think, uh
So no matter how many facts
I present to you,
you-you just got an excuse?
[laughing] Yeah, yeah.
Because I am innocent!
I ask for a motherfucking warrant
And I deliver a motherfucking warrant.
Yeah, you do.
I got my father's thumbs.
Nothing else, but
I look at my thumbs and there he is.
Same exact thumbs.
Where do you see your mother?
[sighs]
Same place you see yours.
The place nobody should go looking.
Not if they want to keep loving you.
Do you think you deserve
to be loved, Dave?
I didn't make me.
If somebody installs faulty brakes
in a car and the car crashes,
is it the car's fault?
Cars do not have choice.
[laughing]
And people do?
What have you done in your life
that makes sense to you?
[Calderone laughs]
[Gudsen] Who have you loved?
[sighs]
Who have you hurt?
[laughing] Oh.
Yeah, we act out of appetite.
We call it a hundred different things
but it's just
"I'm hungry, I'll eat.
Now."
Is appetite a choice?
Fuck no.
It's just appetite.
[Calderone] When you look in the mirror
do you even see yourself?
Or do you see Donald?
Oh.
I see me.
I see me.
[scoffs]
You see a fat little girl.
[laughs]
A fat little girl whose mother was
willing to broil her like fucking sirloin.
[breathing deeply]
[laughing]
It was a good idea.
Come on.
He didn't walk to the fires, okay?
And he didn't use the wife's car.
So, if he was going to
disguise himself for the cameras,
the disguise,
it-it would have to be in this car.
Want to open the rocker panels, Popeye?
[chuckles] Cute.
Nah, too hard to get to.
He would probably want the disguise
to be really handy.
You check, uh, the glove box?
No. That slipped my mind.
All right, smart ass.
What was in it?
Nothing. It was just the door.
So
So, no-no-no box in the glove box?
The crash moved it.
That's right.
[sighs]
[chuckles]
[grunts]
- Holy shit.
- What have we got?
[groans]
- Son of a
- Mm-hmm.
Son of a bitch.
Not bad.
[Dawn groans]
[Ezra chuckles]
Oh, that fucker
[laughs] Yes!
Oh, you
lucky-up-to-now-cocksucking-motherfucker,
but your time is up.
[chuckles]
[phone buzzing]
[sighs]
[phone chimes]
[scoffs]
Your vehicle, the
the one that was in the crash,
yeah, they-they searched it.
They found this.
And this.
And, uh, lookee here.
Well, that proves nothing.
That is the fucking uniform
for the D and C arsonist, my good man.
I hope they had a warrant.
[laughs] Oh, yeah, they did.
[laughing]
I had nothing to do with these arsons.
Mm-hmm. Sure. Sure.
That's not me.
No. That's not me.
[laughs]
- That's not me.
- Oh, Dave.
- Just fucking own it, man.
- That's not who I am.
Huh. Huh-uh.
That's not me.
[chuckles] That's not me.
I'm a hero.
[sighs]
[sighs]
You did these crimes, Dave.
[sighs]
[sighs]
[scoffs]
- [Emmett] Mom?
- In here.
Are these trash or not sure Oh!
[glass shattering]
[breathing heavily]
I'm not that person.
That's not who I am.
["Don't Leave Me This Way" playing]
I know who I am.
So do I.
Don't leave me this way ♪
I can't survive ♪
I can't stay alive ♪
Without your love, oh baby ♪
Don't leave me this way, no ♪
I can't exist ♪
I'll surely miss your tender kiss ♪
Don't leave me this way ♪
Oh, baby ♪
Sub extracted from file & improved by
Now come on down
and do what you got to do ♪
You started this fire down in my soul ♪
Now can't you see
it's burning out of control? ♪
Come on satisfy the need in me ♪
'Cause only your good loving
can set me free ♪
- Set me free, set me free ♪
- Yeah ♪
Don't, don't you
leave me this way, no ♪
Don't you understand
I'm at your command? ♪
Oh, baby, please ♪
Please don't leave me this way ♪
No, baby ♪
Don't leave me this way, no ♪
I can't survive ♪
I can't stay alive ♪
Without your love ♪
Baby, don't leave me this way ♪