Industry (2020) s04e04 Episode Script
1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn
1
So, I've pitched this piece
on dating discourse.
You know, like, body count.
"She's a four, but maybe six
after five pints."
Age, income bracket.
All of it's numerical.
That car's been idling outside
for two days.
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ELAINE JORDAN: You know that girl
who fucks 1,000 guys
in 24 hours for content?
I mean, she wasn't fucking a person.
She was fucking a number.
I mean, her spirit was dominated,
well gang-raped, almost,
by market logic, essentially.
Yeah, individuals
reduced to abstraction.
Kierkegaard.
ELAINE: Yeah, but why is it you
have to take something modern,
and then you make it
for cunts? It's
(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
Someone's fucking jimmied the window.
- Shit! Fuck!
- (CUTLERY CLATTERS)
My fucking keys have gone.
ELAINE: Why do you lease
a Mercedes anyway?
Where's that money coming from?
Do you owe again?
Look, do me a favor, yeah?
Could you just take Matty
for the week, all right?
- While I sort this shit out.
- (ELAINE SCOFFS)
Okay, we need to formulate
some sort of custody agreement
so you cannot keep doing this.
- Also, you look like shit.
- All right.
It's the fucking Ritalin,
it's my skin
ELAINE: Well, what is the excuse
for the rest of it then?
Because you keep saying,
"Oh, I'm working flat out,"
and then I hear stories
of you out on benders
- and sharking random women.
- Well, hang on, you're in a fucking relationship!
- (ELAINE SHUSHES)
- JIM DYCKER: (WHISPERS) All right?
- (MATTY DYCKER BABBLES)
- You don't have jurisdiction over my sex life.
- We literally fucked once.
- (SCOFFS)
You do realize
that absolutely no one knows
- that you exist, right?
- (SCOFFS)
(SOFTLY) Fuck off.
- (BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- (GRUNTS SOFTLY)
(SNIFFLES, SIGHS)
(EXHALES)
- (DISTANT SIREN WAILING)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(PILLS RATTLING)
(SNIFFLES)
(EXHALES)
(SNIFFS)
(GROANS SOFTLY)
(GROANS)
(GLASSES THUD)
(CELL PHONE RINGING, VIBRATING)
(GASPS SOFTLY)
(BREATHES SHARPLY)
(SIGHS) Edward, hiya.
- (OVER PHONE) Sorry, what time is it?
- EDWARD BURGESS: Who cares?
Good news. We've heard
from Tender's counsel.
I think they've come in way too hot.
Their response to the "Tender,
investigated" piece,
it's as subtle
as a Slade song in truth.
Injunction, threat, defamation.
I mean, it's a real dog's dinner.
And I did a little digging,
and it seems upper management there
are a proxy
for the Norton Media Group,
so I'm happy to send you to Accra.
(INTRIGUING SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JIM: Look, thank you, Ed.
You won't regret it.
BURGESS: Listen,
the main thrust of all their ire
is collusion and market manipulation
between you and these short sellers.
I mean, that's a shot
in the dark, right?
Uh
BURGESS: Tell me you aren't inveigled
- with these fucking short sellers.
- (GROANS)
Huh? (CHUCKLES)
Yeah, I'm not I've spoken to them,
- but, you know, tangentially.
- Oh, "tangentially."
Like, "elliptically"?
Whatever the fuck.
Just clean the slate
with those contacts, okay?
Yeah. Look, man, I'm
I'm working on a follow-up.
Far more meat on the bone.
Major discovery
in Sunderland, all right?
BURGESS: Well, I don't
like being woken by bullies.
And it's in the public interest
for us to respond aggressively,
especially if Tender have designs
on the UK consumer
with this new banking app.
I'll get legal to word
a stern and curt rebuke.
If I know anything about people
who go this nuclear this early,
you can bet your loneliest penny
the cunts have a glass fucking jaw.
- JIM: Yeah.
- BURGESS: Okay, bye.
- (BREATHES HEAVILY)
- (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JIM: Oi!
- Hey, what?
- JIM: Why are you watching my house?
What? Brother,
I'm waiting for my girl.
Get the fuck off my street, yeah?
Brother came here all tooled up
looking like some hard wanker, yeah?
Get the fuck away from my car, bro.
(HAWKS, SPITS)
- Fuck!
- LEO GRAYSON: Pussyhole faggot.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
HARPER STERN: (OVER PHONE)
All we've done
is share non-private information.
Your article was a non-event.
It helped our short
for all of 20 minutes.
Well, proving a connection
might be enough.
Now, I've started working
on an air-gapped computer
so it can't be hacked.
But you're calling me
on my work phone?
When are you publishing the follow-up?
I can't say.
- You can't or won't?
- (INHALES SHARPLY)
Bro, we gave you the Sunderland piece.
You write it up and disseminate it.
- That was agreed.
- Uh, no, it was never agreed.
Oh, fuck off. It was fucking implied.
Come on. You're not being fair at all.
Yeah, I think you fundamentally
misunderstood my ethics here.
It is important from here on out,
we deny any kind of communication.
(SCOFFS) And that's ethical, is it?
No, it's sensible.
I appreciate your time.
If he doesn't publish again soon,
what's our next negative catalyst?
Market's pricing this app launch
as a positive one.
- Stock climbs any higher, we'll face a margin call.
- Um
We feed the Sunderland piece
to another reporter.
How long a lag time
to get it understood,
- past seniors, printed?
- Why don't we self-publish?
We'll just get Sweetpea
to write it up,
like Hindenburg, GlassHouse,
that sort of beat.
It's too clear a conflict of interest.
Okay. Well, obviously,
we would use
the appropriate disclosures.
One wrong word,
we open ourselves up to a civil suit.
Plus, our name has no cachet.
Who gives a solitary fuck
about "SternTao's view"?
It doesn't matter if Tender
is a house of cards
if we don't have any breath to blow.
Don't you think
I fucking grasp that by now?
Fuck!
- (DYNAMIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- HENRY MUCK: I wanna see the mortgage piece
more prominent on the landing page.
And And wipe the fucking
crypto component off it.
I've given that note
three fucking times.
And yes, Robin, that is
a user-over-profit decision
because the UI
is part of the messaging
and the messaging is everything.
Yeah, the tone matters to our backers
in government too.
And why is the phrase
"Pierpoint powered by Tender"
so prominent on the UI?
Whitney cleared that.
This is his brainchild.
Has been for some time.
Okay, I didn't stake myself
on the build of this app
to facilitate Pierpoint giving
the already upwardly mobile
a fucking clickable option
to passively compound their wealth!
Okay?
ERIC TAO: Bannerman.
You wanna give us
a state of play, please?
KWABENA BANNERMAN: Yes, sir.
Two hundred and fifty million
assets under management.
Eric's five percent of fund,
ten bucks.
Pierre, the anchor, 100 bucks.
Further 140 million
when we combine
all other invested parties.
With Kenny as our primary broker,
we borrowed a further
250 million via Deutsche.
That's our margin.
Hundred percent gross leverage?
KWABENA: Yes, 250 million equity,
250 million margin.
(DYNAMIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
We remain excited
by the potential synergies
of the partnership showcasing
Al-Mi'raj-Pierpoint's
wealth management offering
- within the Tender app.
- You know, I've long thought
that the copy should be
"Tender powered by Pierpoint,"
not "Pierpoint powered by Tender."
Our lawyers went back and forth on it
while red-lining,
arguing points of construction.
We have the investment managers.
We have the customer base.
That's baked in for you
in exchange for a platform
and a route to more retail customers.
By any metric, to any investor's eyes,
Tender is the more
valuable asset here.
The market caps are moving
in opposite directions,
and we see this simply as offering
a dinosaur a digital future.
Why am I here negotiating something
I assumed had already been negotiated?
That isn't what this is.
We wanted to illustrate
how amenable we've been
in the hope of asking you
to, uh, solidify the partnership
with a further
billion-dollar investment.
I really think we're missing a trick
by not featuring Henry
more prominently.
What does that mean, and what
would it even look like?
Leaning into the tech side of fintech.
A buzzy launch. Named entertainment.
Charli XCX expounding on the virtues
of a digitized spending report
to track her nocturnal trips
to the ATM.
Yeah. Yeah! But a public launch,
with translation to socials,
it's still achievable.
It might be smart to de-risk a little
ahead of Tender rolling out their app
because streets expect it
to land and rally.
HARPER: Guys, we can't just
start throwing down longs.
Then we'd be like any other
run-of-the-mill long/short.
What if Dycker's next article
lands as flat as his last one?
Not with the Sunderland piece.
SWEETPEA GOLIGHTLY:
Yeah, and when is that coming?
Yeah, FYI, we are edging from gray
to fucking black
on market manipulation stuff.
SWEETPEA: Oh, I've been speaking
with the former CEO,
Jonah Atterbury.
I haven't spoken business
with him yet.
I'm just softening him up.
- HARPER: Is he replying?
- Oh, yeah.
He is replying!
WHITNEY HALBERSTRAM: You
know, it's an open secret that Al-Mi'raj
is divesting Pierpoint
back to the market piecemeal.
Pierpoint's a fucking legacy name.
It's, uh, sun-bleached font
on signage.
Gym bags on eBay. Ironic Fincore.
Tombstones for
a once great thing now dead.
We are modernity
knocking at your door,
offering a leg up.
And for that,
all we're asking for is, uh,
- is a pittance.
- (PEN CLICKING)
HENRY: When does the, uh
when does the press release
go out and to who?
ROBIN WILLIAMSON: Tabled for
1:00 p.m. PST, Thursday.
Right, so there is time
to go bigger if we want to.
ROBIN: Usual channels, TechCrunch,
Wired, Breaking Banks podcast.
YASMIN KARA-HANANI:
Yeah, I think that Henry
should feature
on more lifestyle podcasts.
There should be a fucking tariff
on podcast equipment.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) Right, well,
I want a redraft of the release
and my notes enacted,
and we can go from there.
(CLEARS THROAT)
- (DYNAMIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
- (SIGHS SOFTLY)
- (KNOCK ON DOOR)
- (DOOR OPENING)
Yo.
What's up?
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
- Henry isn't happy
about how the app launch
is being positioned.
WHITNEY: 'Cause your husband
hasn't landed
on something he likes.
Robin says you want
to "eventize" the launch?
Yeah, there should have been a laid
to eventize it from the start.
(GROANING) We gotta stop using
the word "eventize"
like it's a serious word.
YASMIN: I don't think this is funny.
You know, if I had a proper job title,
a role in the comms department,
this would have been done properly.
You want to work directly under Robin?
I want to give Henry a pulpit.
If Henry wants to be prominent,
if he wants
to be responsible for this,
I'm not gonna get in his way.
But I'm a little disappointed in him.
Thought I was hiring a rock star.
He was like a fucking ghost
in our meeting with PRA.
Yeah, his confidence is coming back.
WHITNEY: Slowly.
(INHALES DEEPLY)
Have you ever thought
about laying a path
in the company for Hayley?
What do you see in her?
YASMIN: I think she may have
some information
that could help us with Dycker.
But she might need some sweetening.
Mm.
Bright young things attract
bright young things.
Speaking of, when was
the last time you spoke
to your friend, Harper, by the way?
- You guys still close?
- Why?
I got a suspicion her venture's short.
- (CHUCKLES) Um
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
She's probably being spurred on
by her former boss.
They're sort of
a poisonous double act.
They like to enable
each other's worst instincts
just 'cause
Well, 'cause they're fucking insecure.
I can, um
I can think of a comms angle
to deal with them.
Great.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- (RISHI RAMDANI BREATHES DEEPLY)
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
What was it, two black cross?
Whatever's most premium.
Red, 180.
BANKER: One, please.
Do you only do coke?
You don't carry
any liquid 'shrooms, do you?
No, mate. (SIGHS)
Can't be front office
with a pinstripe that chalky.
Unless you're at a povvo dive
like Royal Bank of Scotland.
(CAR DOOR SLAMS)
No, don't fucking touch it yet.
I told you.
Please.
Please, Daddy.
- (MELANIE DOVER SUCKS, PANTS)
- (RISHI PANTS)
If you want more treats,
you'll say it.
MELANIE: I'm a good little
whore for Papi.
- (MOANS, SUCKS)
- ("ALL OF MY TOMORROWS" PLAYING OVER RADIO) ♪
- (MOANS, PANTS)
- (CELL PHONE VIBRATING)
- Get off.
- (MELANIE GASPS)
- Yeah, hi. Hello, Mary.
- MARY SMITH: (OVER PHONE) Hello.
Yeah, I, um
Yeah, I I wasn't expecting
to hear from you.
MARY: I hope you're well.
Yeah, as as well as, I guess.
Um, yeah, and and you?
MARY: We thought
we'd make arrangements
for you to see Hugo.
It was important that we got
a few things in order before
RISHI: You You
No, no, you you
you don't owe me an apology.
MARY: (SIGHS) This isn't an apology.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, no.
Of course, of course. Um
MARY: Let me send through the details.
You know, whenever, whenever.
I'm very
- MARY: I'll send those through, thank you.
- You (SIGHS)
I would give
All of my tomorrows ♪
They took my kid away from me.
Maybe they've got their reasons.
You ever tried shutting the fuck up?
(SIGHS)
One more thing.
Do you know the WebHorizon guys?
WHITNEY: They asked Jonah and I
to attend a bunch of times,
but I always passed 'cause I, uh,
never thought the two of us
were aligned enough about
the future of the company
to share a stage
and have it not be a
stock-negative event.
Well, it it might be
a bit late in the day
for them to accommodate us,
but if I say
that Henry's presenting
a government darling
and then float the idea
that the Business Secretary
might attend,
it may combat the negative press
coming out of FinDigest.
- You can make that happen?
- (SCOFFS)
WHITNEY: I mean, it would flatter
the programmers, for sure.
Let me proffer it. See where I get.
Great. And have FinDigest
responded to legal yet?
WHITNEY: That piece
was so undercooked,
it undermined whatever point
they were trying to make.
But, uh, Louisa says
they're doubling down.
(DRAWER SLAMS)
Okay, I'm gonna speak to Percy.
He's the business editor
at the Sunday paper.
- (DRAWER LOCK CLICKS)
- Robin's on board?
He will be.
Fuck yeah.
I got a 3:00 p.m. to Accra,
but I'll be back soon.
Twenty-four hours.
YASMIN: God, that's a long way
for such a short trip.
WHITNEY: Small management issue
which requires some hand-holding.
Hayley. (SNAPS FINGERS) Do me a favor.
Assist Yas with whatever
she needs at the launch.
What, you don't need her in Ghana?
WHITNEY: She's supposed to split
the load with Henry,
so let her take
half of his load off you.
- (DIAL TONE RINGING)
- (INHALES, CLEARS THROAT)
JAY JONAH ATTERBURY: (OVER PHONE) Hey.
Jonah Atterbury?
- JONAH: Yeah, speaking.
- (HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS) ♪
SWEETPEA: Did I get you at a bad time?
Oh, just interrupting the prologue
to a story
that I won't be able to finish.
You know, your voice
sounds like I imagined.
- Hmm.
- JONAH: Normally, chicks want
some kind of payment
before getting personal so fast.
Um, Jonah, I actually have
a slightly ulterior motive
for my call.
I work as a research analyst.
We believe your former employer
is misrepresenting
- how they make their money.
- What the fuck?
- Please don't hang up.
- JONAH: Sorry, but, uh
So much of this work
is just finding nuggets
of encouragement, okay?
- (SLURPS)
- People only open up
if the incentive outweighs
their incentive to stay silent.
Yeah, I'm a little loaded
for riddles right now,
and trust me (INHALES)
I don't need your money. I mean
I imagine that you have a bone to pick
with Whitney Halberstram.
You know, since he fired you.
Well, I'm in the middle of suing
the prick for defamation.
- What the fuck is this?
- Well, he shit on you, right?
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- JONAH: That fey little shit.
I loved him.
SWEETPEA: In your legal complaint,
- is there anything that could help me?
- STRIPPER: Hey, baby.
- Um, well, my, uh
- STRIPPER: Want a private dance?
or our correspondence
was subpoenaed.
My team have access to gigs of emails.
Would you share them with me?
I can just ping you my email.
JONAH: So, anything not
pertaining to me is redacted.
I don't see how that would be useful.
The more I think about it,
the more I I see I was
blinded by history with him.
- SWEETPEA: How do you mean?
- Um, small things.
I noticed he'd check the stock price
like an ECG last two years.
Down days, he'd mope around,
suicide watch.
Up days, he was a prince.
Me coming to him with a question,
leaving with two more.
Rabidly social. Never seemed to fuck.
I also never saw him drunk.
Clients, investors, auditors,
he'd drown them in Cristal,
leave them butt-fucked
by a hangover lobotomy.
"Ooh, boy, that cad from Tender
parties like
a pre-crisis Florida realtor."
Oh, well, thank you, Jonah.
I, um (INHALES DEEPLY)
I hope I brought you pleasure
in unexpected ways.
Listen, if you're gonna
play me like this
do me the courtesy
of burying him deep enough
that his kind don't respawn.
- I will.
- (ELEVATOR CHIME DINGS)
Why the fuck is Whitney
in Africa again?
Guy sold me a fucking dummy.
I don't want to be a host
for another capital markets
vulture like Pierpoint.
The vision
was meant to be utilitarian,
not some defibrillator
for a zombie bank.
You still control how it's perceived.
Whitney's spoken to WebHorizon
about allowing you
to make more of a splash.
You're gonna be on
the main conference live stream.
I'll make sure it's picked up
by all the trades.
HENRY: Yeah.
Why are the two of you colluding
on what are clearly
executive decisions?
"Colluding"? Henry, we're strategizing
about how to maximize your potential.
We both see it as integral
to the success of the co
Actually, you know what? Fuck that.
I see it as integral to your success.
Okay? To our family's.
Yeah, a press release will allow us
to frame the narrative
and control the audience.
Robin's words sound
completely dead in your mouth.
Look, I get it.
You've stood on stages before
and been embarrassed.
- But, look, just come here.
- Not in here.
- Not in here.
- Who are you afraid of?
I don't have it in me
to be torn apart again.
Do you believe in this company?
Do you have any idea
how tiring it is to have people
constantly question your integrity
because you fucked up once?
- Once!
- (BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Listeners will lean in
to the belief of the teller,
so go and tell it.
(SIGHS)
You always make me chase
the most egoistic part of myself.
Do you know that?
'Cause without it, Henry,
nothing would fucking happen.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
Thanks again
for introducing us to Moritz.
He's a real firebrand.
ALEXANDER NORTON: His "In
Defense of Jus Sanguinis" piece
was a bit of a poke in the eye,
even for me.
PERCY CULSON: You think
he actually believes this stuff?
Oh, who cares?
As long as people are clicking.
NORTON: Your husband said
he was in a product meeting.
Our tech editor said
he now expected Henry at WebHorizon.
It's all smooth sailing.
Well, we're supposed
to be waiting for Robin.
He's our head of comms,
- but I think we should just crack on.
- So, what are we thinking?
Some kind of inside look at Tender?
- Henry's second act?
- Robin Williamson, comms.
We'll take any winning highlights
you can offer,
but there's a strategy
around the rollout.
I actually wasn't thinking
about any kind of puff piece.
It's more of a, uh, tip
towards a scandal.
We've been made aware
of direct contact
and conspiracy
between the business press
and predatory hedge fund activity.
We shouldn't let this flare up
any more than necessary.
We're using legal.
YASMIN: Legal tennis
won't show any teeth
and it won't stop another article.
I don't think Whitney agrees
with stoking this particular fire.
WHITNEY: (OVER SPEAKER)
Actually, I do.
Hey, Robin, please don't speak for me.
We should be proactive against anyone
trafficking fake news.
FinDigest put a hit piece out
on Tender
full of vague
and unsubstantiated allegations,
and they're in league
with people who stand to profit
off of harming us.
Fat cat fund managers,
City lawlessness.
When are we not telling this story?
YASMIN: I think this is
a unique set of circumstances.
I mean, hamstringing
a government-backed success
before it starts to run,
benefiting the UK consumer,
I mean,
there's a public interest angle.
Burgess at FinDigest
is a bit of a twat.
Sort of virtue-signaling,
man-of-the-people shyster.
I think our readers will enjoy hating
on the hypocrisy of it all.
NORTON: Public stoning of hypocrites
is like bloodletting.
Makes us feel better
about our own hypocrisies.
- YASMIN: Mm-hmm.
- And we have proof of this?
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
WHITNEY: (OVER SPEAKER) I do, yes.
Can coordinate.
I'll send you the photos.
Let us sidebar and decide on the shape
and how alarmist to go
with the presentation.
Thank you, Yasmin.
- Good nose.
- Thanks.
WHITNEY: (OVER SPEAKER)
Yasmin, stay on the line.
Robin, you're not needed now. Thanks.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
WHITNEY: Is he off?
YASMIN: Yeah, he's gone.
Yeah, Robin's not aggressive enough.
He's a little bitch. Sorry.
Uh, what proof do you have for Norton?
WHITNEY: I have photographic evidence.
I'll send it to you.
Harper Co., whatever the fuck
they're calling themselves,
they don't have the capital
to touch us.
I'm gonna invite her in.
She needs to see the scale of things
so she knows how much
she's bound to lose
if she plays in the dirt.
Do you think she's short
because of Dycker?
(SCOFFS)
Morality might as well
be fucking Latin to her.
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Does he, um
does he know who I am?
We've not been to our house
in Biarritz since, uh
HUGO RAMDANI: Um, yeah
MARY: Well, it's a hard place to be,
given how much time
we used to spend there together.
Practically, we're slightly
worried about the disrepair.
We need to visit soon.
RISHI: Oh.
(SCOFFS)
- "Hugo Smith."
- MARY: Yes.
That will be the surname
on his new passport
so we can take him abroad.
Not permanently, of course.
- Just on holiday.
- HUGO: I made a little cup of tea.
MARY: If you sign off
on the name change
- I made a tea for Mummy.
- we can look at setting some further visitation.
Will I ever get to be alone with him?
MARY: Oh, I don't think
that would be a good idea.
You don't get to set
any terms, I'm afraid.
HUGO: I made a
Yeah.
Yeah. (SNIFFS)
- Uh
- (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Hugo will grow up in a house of love.
I promise you.
I appreciate you being civil with me.
MARY: Oh, Rishi,
any anger I feel towards you
is dwarfed by the scale
of my faith in God.
Every choice you've made
denies it, but
even a man like you
doesn't stand outside His grace.
(SOMBER MUSIC RISES) ♪
Yeah.
(HUGO BABBLING)
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
ATTENDEE 1:
Here's a good spot, d'you think?
ATTENDEE 2: Yeah.
I think here's great.
- Hi, hi. How are you?
- Hi.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
HAYLEY CLAY: Hey. (PANTS)
Hi. (SIGHS)
- (BREATHES DEEPLY)
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
The FinDigest journalist
is in the audience.
Let him watch.
Oh, unless
if he's making you uncomfortable
then we can tell him to leave.
No, no, it's not him.
I just I don't I don't know.
I don't know, I just don't
really feel like I can
ground myself, you know?
- Do you suffer from anxiety?
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
I do sometimes.
Try magnesium.
Just after what happened
between us (BREATHES HEAVILY)
uh, and
and your husband and
whether it was right, like
professionally, even personally.
Well, we're all consenting adults.
Right.
And (SCOFFS)
you enjoyed it.
So, it can't be that
that's making you uneasy?
Calabasas?
I mean, you're the one
that instigated it, right?
The way you've looked at me
since we met.
Maybe you're sublimating experiences,
making a good thing bad.
That loser hack,
he came into your house
under false pretenses.
You don't remember what happened.
I mean, God knows what happened.
The price of his action
is your trauma.
You can't let him take away
your agency as well.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're probably right.
YASMIN: I am. (CHUCKLES) I am right.
It was assault. Oh! (SIGHS)
(SIGHS, KISSES)
- (PANTS)
- (KNOCK ON DOOR)
- Yeah? (EXHALES)
- WHITNEY: Yo.
Just wanted to wish you good luck.
HENRY: Get the fuck in here
for a second.
What is this fucking disappearing act
you keep pulling in Africa?
I was just smoothing
the adoption of our app.
Yeah, I'm not comfortable
with the Pierpoint relationship.
Okay? This app shouldn't be
some Trojan horse
for capital markets apparatus.
We're not a fucking broker!
WHITNEY: Well, you couldn't be
more wrong.
Why should investment planning
only be the purview of the elite?
Give the man his broker.
- Yeah, but my role here
- (SIGHS)
isn't gonna be ambassadorial, okay?
I want it
to be financial and strategic.
I don't wanna have to keep
checking my corners.
WHITNEY: I agree. Total transparency.
Which is also
what the app is offering.
Like we promised. ISAs, ETFs.
You're giving people the dignity
of being able
to choose for themselves.
Pierpoint totally fucked
the valuation of Lumi.
(SIGHS) Come on, man.
Is it even really Pierpoint anymore?
- Hey.
- (DRAMATIC SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Go out there.
Tell them about your conscience.
It's just a speech.
It's just a day. It's just a speech.
It's just deliverance.
Don't bullshit me.
Henry, I hired you
'cause I look at people like you
and I innately believe in them
more than I believe in myself.
Fuck knows what that says about
the fascism of our neurology,
but everything in me screams
you are more, I am less.
You're a man
I'm incapable of lying to.
(CLEARS THROAT)
You'll be great, okay?
You got this.
(DRAMATIC SYNTH MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
How you became
the Labour prime minister's
appointed pet,
I will never understand.
- Pussycat with nine lives.
- Thank you for
uh, the humility (HESITATES)
in introducing me.
I I really do, um,
appreciate your belief.
LISA DEARN: You have
your wife's frankly
inappropriate relationship
with a certain
precocious junior minister
in my department
to thank for this.
Do you know how ugly
political sketch artists make me look?
- And they're right to mock my hypocrisy.
- FLOOR MANAGER: Ms. Dearn?
Toeing the party line,
that's it. Good luck.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Thank you.
- First, let me restate
- I I really don't think I can do this.
- No.
- (BREATHES HEAVILY)
Do you think
I could have a (STAMMERS)
a Lorazepam or something?
I don't know
if that constitutes a relapse.
Tender is at the vanguard of a sector
we have championed
since coming into government
Listen, if you need to,
of course, of course you can.
Why would you say that to me?
You know that's not an option.
You're meant to talk me down
off the fucking cliff.
Are you testing me?
Henry, are you using again?
Its aims align with our core values.
Equity and transparency
for the British consumer
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
How dare you say that to me now?
No, I don't
Why can't you accept that I want
what's best for you?
- LISA: I'm pleased to introduce to you this afternoon
- (SOFTLY) Oh, fuck.
- Tender's CEO, Henry Muck.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
You're gonna be amazing.
(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(CLEARS THROAT)
Uh
"So much of of money,
its, uh, its structures
and, um, and trading
are deliberately blackboxed.
For every winner,
there must be a loser.
Fine for a market.
Not fine for a society.
Let, uh Let Tender 2.0
be the opening salvo
against this hard reality.
Now, uh, I'm not a neoliberal cultist,
hopped up on the the lie
that the market
is the solution to everything.
Uh, interests can be
co-opted, of course.
We are We're not an NGO.
We're looking for value
for our shareholders.
But, um
But I would like it known
that we have put our our conscience
at the heart of all we do here
at Tender."
- (INDISTINCT WHISPERING)
- (CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
Uh, allow me to be, um
be sincere with you all
for a moment, um
and tell you about my conscience.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I have failed prodigiously.
(CHUCKLES)
I have succeeded
unfairly.
It's a matter
of public record. (CHUCKLES)
If you are sick of listening to me,
I understand, believe me.
But this is how I see the world,
even with the the blinkers
of of my privilege,
and perhaps especially
because of them.
And if you think I am incapable
of seeing the world that way,
then you are saying I am inhuman
that I am incapable of empathy.
No.
I am only human.
(ROUSING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
He's laying it on a bit thick.
Will anyone buy this?
If he buys it, then they will.
We have to believe that we can change
the intransigent structures
and expectations
of where we happen to be born
and to whom.
This is the bedrock
of our app's philosophy.
Frictionless,
transparent access to the full suite
of banking and investment products,
demystifying the complex world
of finance
for all members
of the Great British public.
Now, observe the cumulative effect
of what happens
when you give people that power
and stop patronizing them
with handouts,
admonishing their vices
and sneering at their virtues.
Today
I offer you my sincerity.
And sincerity is now
the world's rarest commodity.
Not here.
Not at Tender.
Not under my watch.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
- ("HAPPYNESS" BY MOLLY NILSSON PLAYING) ♪
Thank you.
Let me walk you
through our first offering.
- (SONG CONTINUES) ♪
- So
My sincere thanks
to all of you for coming today,
and if you have any further questions,
we'll meet
in the press room afterwards.
- Thank you.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
See what happens
when you listen to me?
- (HENRY LAUGHS)
- (LAUGHS) Dude!
- (HENRY SIGHS)
- WHITNEY: Good?
- It may happen in your life ♪
- (HENRY LAUGHS)
That you find a word
That can describe ♪
- WHITNEY: Good job.
- HENRY: Good?
All the rooms
That I have lived in ♪
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
Does Tender have plans
around AI integration?
Uh, yeah, we have hopes
that on a two-year roadmap,
we'll see AI-powered financial advice,
predictive analytics,
and spending controls.
JIM: Can you tell me, um,
rather than what Tender hopes to do,
uh, what Tender actually does?
Hey, I'm sorry,
can you repeat the question?
Yeah. (CLEARS THROAT) Uh, Tender.
- Sorry, wh wh what does it do?
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(SCOFFS) What do you mean,
what do we do?
JIM: Well, it's a pretty
straightforward question.
But Mr. Halberstram,
given how quickly
you severed all ties with me
- after I profiled you
- ROBIN: (WHISPERS) The FinDigest writer
who's trying to fuck us.
Well, I take it
you loathe simple questions.
WHITNEY: You're our friend
from FinDigest, right?
It's a great piece, by the way.
Really well-researched.
What is it that we do?
We are a successful payment processor
leveraging our existing user base
to, uh, make targeted acquisitions
and become a market leader
in the UK fintech space.
JIM: Right, it's just
a growing number of people
think your numbers don't stack up.
Well, you're trying
to prove a prejudice,
so everything you look at
is prejudicial.
These people you're speaking about,
do they brief you
or do you brief them?
Or does it matter
so long as you're making money
while you twist the knife?
Right, you're not denying
anything though?
We are regularly audited
by Ellis & Jung.
We have equity analysts
poring over our balance sheet.
What is there to spotlight
other than the brutal success
of our story?
And your processing facilities
in Sunderland?
We've got outposts
that process payments all over Africa,
Europe, Asia-Pac, and the UK,
including, but not exclusive to,
the North East.
JIM: It's just, you see,
I think your fixation
on the future is, uh,
it's a smokescreen
for the lies of your past.
WHITNEY: (SIGHS) Okay.
Well, we'll happily sidebar.
We have investor days.
We have earnings calls.
- We're wide fucking open.
- ROBIN: Next question.
- (JOURNALISTS CLAMORING)
- ROBIN: Yes, Hannah Murphy at the FT.
HANNAH MURPHY:
How do you intend to cater
to an older, potentially
AI-naive demographic?
HENRY: Uh, well, thank you, Hannah,
for the, um, sensible question
this time.
Um, no, I I think you're right.
AI is the great unknown of our time
- JIM: Blue? Right.
- It was blue. Yeah, uh
JIM: Really? I blame
Peter Risdale for everything
- James. Can we talk?
- JIM: Yeah, mate.
No, I'm just putting the final touches
- on the article.
- BURGESS: Now.
- JIM: All right.
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
Oh, my dad used
to look at me like that.
What is it?
- This may run tomorrow.
- (JIM SIGHS)
BURGESS: My name,
your name, short sellers.
You know, corrupt,
money-grabbing enemies
of British innovation.
They've even managed to link
this Eric Tao bloke
to the fucking cultural revolution.
And there's heavy allusions
to you being a drug user,
- which you're not, are you?
- (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Yeah, you know what? No, no.
You know, displays of
brute force in a velvet glove?
It's disgusting,
and I'd love to brain Norton
and scatter the pieces
all over his chessboard.
But I can't.
- What's this say?
- Well, you (HESITATES)
Yeah, of course I've spoken
to short sellers.
BURGESS: It says
"cavorting with short sellers,"
- does it not?
- JIM: Well, being "in league" with them
is a fabulist construction.
(HESITATES) They're They're
fucking meaningless words, man.
They're words. That
That is what Halberstram does.
Where Where
Where's the proof of profiting?
(HESITATES) You know what?
Let's Let's
Let's start here, all right?
When I'm targeted this cheaply,
I expect the support of my editor.
Oh.
Look, why are we prostrating ourselves
to anonymous pictures?
It's It's blackmail.
BURGESS: I'm not perfect.
I spent a lot of my early years lying.
Then I stopped,
and my world got better.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
Who is Hayley Clay?
(SIGHS)
She (SIGHS)
She works at Tender.
BURGESS: Okay, well, you coerced,
and according to the complaint,
- assaulted her.
- No, no.
- I never fucking touched her.
- BURGESS: They're pressing charges.
They're weighing charges.
That's what it says.
Ed, Ed, Ed, I didn't touch her.
BURGESS: Well, even if
I wanted to believe you,
what the fuck were you doing
in her fucking house?
What am I supposed to say?
- And I can't, in good conscience
- JIM: I was I was
I was doing my job.
- I was looking for
- BURGESS: James.
- I was just trying to get a story. I didn't
- BURGESS: James. James!
I can't, in good conscience,
not make this
an internal disciplinary matter
and recommend your termination.
Come on. Ed.
- No, no, no, no, no. You
- BURGESS: What do I do?
- I'm sorry.
- Mate.
- You don't have to do that.
- BURGESS: You're intrepid.
- You're fucking smart.
- (SIGHS)
And in your gut, I know you know
that when you went to her flat,
you were making a fatal
fucking error of judgment.
(BREATHES SHAKILY) Mate, I need
(SCOFFS) I need this.
BURGESS: I can't
I can't do anything now.
SWEETPEA: I'm burning my retinas out
trying to parse
these Atterbury emails.
- HARPER: Anything material?
- SWEETPEA: Not really.
I mean, Whitney never really
talks about business,
at least in writing.
I mean, maybe that's
the unredacted correspondence.
One thing that is interesting though,
is his most active interlocutor
is a guy called Tony Day.
I mean, they speak pejoratively
about Jonah,
mostly from Tony's side.
It reads like sycophancy to Whitney.
It's like playground bullying.
Who is Tony Day?
SWEETPEA: Oh, based in Accra.
I looked up his CV online.
A Durham alum.
Decade-vet Morgan Stanley ops.
Drops to Daiwa Securities.
Maybe redundancy or firing?
Lands in Accra in 2011
when Ghana's GDP growth
is batshit, like low teens.
Has a failed telecom biz.
Has a failed high-speed rail thingy.
And then, all of a sudden,
he's the CFO of Tender in Africa.
Meteoric over promotion
even for a White guy.
- (MOUSE CLICKING)
- SWEETPEA: And look at this.
(INTRIGUING SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SWEETPEA: When have you ever seen
a 50-million-dollar acquisition
closed with a novelty check?
That's what they paid
for this third-party processor,
SwiftGC.
It's artificial, right?
Like, gut read?
- Presentation as pretense.
- Hmm.
He looks like the hated chairman
of a lower league football team.
Not a (CHUCKLES)
Not the CFO of a multinational
payment processor.
It's a big song and dance. It's cheap.
I wonder if anyone's flown to Accra
and knocked on their door.
WHITNEY: I'll call you back.
- You wanted to see us?
- WHITNEY: Yeah, I did.
I want to propose a reshuffle.
Yas is gonna be
co-running communications
for us going forward.
- On what grounds?
- Forward-looking ones. (SIGHS)
Whitney, you know I won't stand
to share the post,
especially with someone
so ill-qualified.
I think qualifications
are secondary to instincts.
I also anticipated
that you'd have too much pride
to share the post, in which case
Yas, if you'd like to do the honors.
Do what?
WHITNEY: Your first task as, uh,
my new Head of Communications.
I don't follow.
Let him go. Fire him. Dismiss him.
She doesn't have the power to do that.
Well, she does
if she accepts the post.
- Do you accept it?
- I do.
- WHITNEY: She accepted it, so
- We can work together.
- Uh, I don't think we can.
- Right.
So, I guess you're dismissed then.
- You're kidding me, right?
- You're a little bit, uh,
trad for what we want to do next.
This isn't a startup.
You should Google
the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Good luck.
Thank you.
You did a great job on Dycker.
You stopped the story
from running, deserve this.
YASMIN: Well, those photos
seemed to tell the whole story.
Yeah.
Hayley's yours if you want her,
but you, me, Henry
we ride together, we die together.
(PENSIVE DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Whitney gave me the green light
to promote you.
Comms role, under me.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
- You okay? About earlier?
- Oh, yeah. Sure.
It's not like I haven't been
sexually harassed before.
I was a child model for fuck's sake.
You're promoting me because
you really rate me, right?
- Yeah, of course.
- Phew!
Thought it was because of how good
- I sucked your husband's cock.
- (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I wonder, why did it feel like
it was your cock in my mouth?
I liked that.
An ex-boss told me, uh,
an anxiety relief thing once.
- (SIGHS) Breathing exercises?
- No.
No, he said, "Hayley, baby,
when it all gets too much,
just remember, not a single one of us
gets out of this alive."
- AUTOMATED VOICE: Doors opening.
- (ELEVATOR CHIME DINGS)
(ELEVATOR DOORS OPENING)
Thank you, Mommy.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
FERDINAND SCHARZWALD:
So, I just got off the phone
with Wilhelmina,
CEO of Al-Mi'raj-Pierpoint.
They offered the financing
we asked for
in the form of a CoCo.
(SIGHS) A contingent convertible bond.
So, they're protecting their downside.
Have they seen something
they don't like?
WHITNEY: It depends
how you look at it.
It's a good bridge
while we grow our deposit base,
repayment only gets triggered
if stock falls
beneath a certain threshold,
which we know it won't,
not with the momentum we have.
Yeah, well, given how distressed
an asset Pierpoint is
and how readily Al-Mi'raj wants rid,
it might be smart to deploy some cash,
silently buy some equity in it.
Gives us leverage
in the partnership longer term.
Means we can finesse them a little.
I think that's very smart.
HENRY: You could see the hard-on
in Dycker's knickers
when he thought he was calling us out
- in front of an audience.
- (WHITNEY CHUCKLES)
FERDINAND: Can I just say,
I followed your speech online
and it was just what was needed.
A man possessed. Brilliant.
- (DOOR CLOSING)
- (FOOTSTEPS RECEDING)
Thank you for, um,
everything you said to me
before I went out.
Your belief meant a lot.
Permission to speak out of school?
- HENRY: Please.
- (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
WHITNEY: Some people
see people as just, um,
moving parts in a social process.
Objects that can either help
or hinder.
There's few things
more toxic in this world
than privileged people
who are intellectually insecure.
(SNIFFS)
HENRY: You see, that's quite loaded.
(WHITNEY CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
HENRY: If you want to insult my wife,
have the good grace
to come out and say it.
I see people differently.
You have an innate worth
that supersedes
the life you were born into.
I believe that about myself too.
It's what I live to achieve
and I yearn to do.
Show the world my true value.
Well, we helped each other do that.
At least for a day.
(PENSIVE MUSIC RISES) ♪
(MUFFLED ROCK MUSIC PLAYING
OVER SPEAKERS) ♪
- (SNIFFS, SOBS)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
RISHI: No, no, I'm going for a piss!
- Fuck.
- (DOOR OPENING)
RISHI: Nah, these shitters
are horrific for doing gear.
Oh, shit. (BREATHES HEAVILY, SNIFFLES)
- You all right, mate?
- All right.
JIM: I know who you are,
by the way. (SNIFFLES)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- JIM: You know.
(BREATHES SHARPLY) Sorry,
I just had to say something.
I'm sorry about what happened
to your wife. (SNIFFS)
You know, for what it's worth,
I think they demonized you.
- (INHALES DEEPLY)
- I deserved it.
(EXHALES, SNIFFS)
I remember the skew of coverage.
And it would have been very different
if you weren't you
and, you know, she wasn't
you know, no offense,
but posh and White.
They said the guy who, um,
who went down for it
was, um, schizophrenic, right?
Or Or BPD, or something,
some diminished responsibility thing.
Yeah, her family are fighting
the manslaughter charge.
He got hospital disposal.
Brain went west
after years of smoking
weapons-grade skunk.
(LAUGHS) So his lawyer argued.
JIM: Fuck's sake.
- Mate, you saw it?
- Do you want a cigarette?
- Eh?
- Cigarette?
DEZ WATKINS: Oi!
Fuck off, you urchin! Go on! Fuck off!
I've seen him operate outside here.
He looks for wasted people.
Them fags are laced
with some fucking spooky PCP
or some shit.
It'll fuck you up, then he'll
take you round the corner,
and he'll turn you over
for your wallet and your watch.
Right. Ch Cheers, mate.
- Cheers.
- No worries.
London's full of shit-heels
on the take.
- Yeah.
- Do you want a pint?
Yeah, mate, let's go.
- Do you want a pint?
- DEZ: Oh, I could go an half.
("PERFUME (ALL ON YOU)"
(BY PARIS ANGELS PLAYING) ♪
Stella.
That one's on me, lads.
Take a look and tell me
What to find ♪
- (SNORTS)
- (SNORTS)
Mate, I'm flying to Accra next week.
I can still self-publish.
Someone will fucking pick it up.
Trust me.
RISHI: I I have to admit
something though.
- I have to admit something.
- Hey, hey. Hey, what what
I know you too. I know you too.
I I did I did a little work
for Harper Stern
- Huh?
- before that silly cunt ghosted me.
Oh, right. You've been following me.
Well, I I looked
into you a little, yeah.
- (JIM LAUGHS)
- (LAUGHS)
Ah, you broke into my house.
I was just wondering
whether to short Tender PA.
I thought there might be
a little edge.
You think I'm the type to tell you
when to fucking pile in
before publishing?
RISHI: We are all just trying
to secure our future, aren't we?
JIM: Did you follow me tonight?
Be honest.
RISHI: I I just
I just wanted a pint.
- And that pub is full of them.
- (SONG PLAYING LOUDER) ♪
- Pints?
- Nah. Women.
I've got the disease, mate.
I love birds.
Then what the fuck
you doing there, man?
- What?
- It's a fucking gay bar.
- (CHUCKLES)
- (LAUGHS)
I met this one bird, yeah?
Hayley. Hayley.
Fucking corporate smoke show.
She fucking threw it on me, man.
Fucking asked me
to go down on her, yeah?
So I do. I fucking look up
she's fucking passed out. (SNIFFS)
Hope you stopped, mate!
- (LAUGHS)
- Fuck off.
- (RISHI SNORTS, GROANS)
- I'm fucking sick of it.
I'm sick of the fucking
forced discourse
between the sexes, right?
Not everything has to be
a fucking minefield these days.
(SNORTS, GROANS)
I mean, she gave me
her fucking consent, man.
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
Can I ask you a really, uh
really prurient question?
- (SONG STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
- (STEREO WHIRRING)
- ("VIENNA" BY ULTRAVOX PLAYING) ♪
- Yeah.
- What was it like (SNIFFLES)
- (CLEARS THROAT)
you know, just, uh,
seeing your wife die like that?
(SONG PLAYING LOUDER) ♪
- What?
- Fucking sorry, mate.
Fucking No Oh!
Whoa! Stupid fucking question.
(SNIFFLES) Forget it.
(SNIFFS)
You dissociated, right?
- Right?
- Yeah. Yeah.
JIM: Mate, I saw
this fucking girl, right,
getting fucking DP'd
on my feed the other day.
You know, these blokes
just fucking (CLAPS, GRUNTS)
Just fucking sharing her, mate.
You know, jacked guys.
Must have been, like, fucking 18 max.
(ECHOES) Yeah,
just black Air Force Ones,
and all tech fleeces,
fucking balaclavas.
You know, the "mandem"
just fucking (GRUNTS)
Just fucking coming all over her face.
Fucking cum, tears,
real fucking horror show,
- you know, mate?
- It's
It's It's like I'm
It's like I'm
I'm I'm watching it,
you know, but
it really isn't me.
- It isn't, uh
- Hey, mate.
Can you fucking turn
the music down, man?
(SONG INTENSIFIES) ♪
This means nothing to me ♪
- (JIM SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
- Oh, Vienna ♪
DIANA RAMDANI: (ECHOES)
the worst kind of person,
because he might be sick and selfish,
but you feed off his sickness.
I bet you have no idea
what it's like to feel love!
JIM: We used to be
creatures of action.
And now well, now
we're just inter-passive
spectators, you know?
RISHI: I never
I never once dreamed of her.
You know, good or or or bad.
because we've become
means of production.
(ECHOES) Right? We just
We just age
without getting old, right?
Stuck on a wheel of production
and consumption.
I mean, it's bread and circuses, man.
Streamed in glorious 4K.
Maybe I should
I should just kill myself.
(CHUCKLING) Eh?
No, man. Suicide, mate?
- Don't make me laugh. (CHUCKLES)
- (LAUGHS)
JIM: You are too selfish
to conceptualize a world
without yourself in it,
having every base need catered for.
Our granddads, yeah?
They used to fucking
paint Marilyn Monroe
on the side of a fucking plane,
and then they'd use that plane
to firebomb Dresden.
They'd be lucky enough to meet
one Marilyn-class type lady
in the flesh in their lives.
But us, man, we fucking jerk off
to a dozen gang-banging,
squirting Marilyns before dawn,
and we wonder why
we don't have the get-up-and-go
to go die in a war.
We're on a ghost ship.
A fucking system that can incorporate
any critique, just turn it
into a marketable commodity.
Didn't think about it, mate.
Nothing has depth.
Nothing has traction. Nothing
Nothing's fucking serious, right?
We're just steam
on a mirror. (SNIFFLES)
You're gonna die
a fucking spectator, yeah?
A priest at the altar
of your own fucking ego.
Oi! Fucking hell, mate.
Turn the fucking music down, will you?
RISHI: You know what?
Go fuck yourself,
- you little fucking slug!
- (LAUGHS)
RISHI: You You You
are like the freak at the afters
who doesn't know
when to shut his fucking hole!
- (LAUGHS)
- RISHI: Why are you laughing?
You don't know
what it's like to be a father!
No, I fucking do, actually, mate.
You know what?
It fucking doesn't change a thing.
You're in his life.
You're out of his life.
- He's fucking damned either way.
- That's such bullshit!
JIM: You know what
I dream about, yeah?
I dream about the fact
that all my friends
are richer than me.
And when I don't dream about that,
I dream about a faceless
fitness influencer
making a pornographic payday
out of her own fucking privacy.
Fucking, mate!
I am not going to ask you again.
Turn the fucking music down, yeah?
- (INHALES SHARPLY)
- And it's on us, man.
We've built an interface
with the world
which gives us what we want,
but not what we want to want.
This means nothing to me ♪
DEZ: Sorry, lads,
I'll, um I will
I've got (HESITATES)
I'll go and get some more beers.
JIM: Fuck yeah.
Good idea.
I like that idea.
(GROANING)
(SIGHS)
- (SNIFFS) We're out.
- (RISHI GRUNTS)
- (SNIFFS)
- I'mma use the gentleman.
I need a slash.
- Oh. (GROANS) Hello!
- (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
("SET YOU FREE"
BY N-TRANCE PLAYING) ♪
- Oh, oh, yeah ♪
- (SNIFFS)
When I hold you, baby ♪
(FAUCET SHUTS OFF)
Feel your heart beat Close to me ♪
(RISHI BREATHES HEAVILY)
When I hold you, baby ♪
Feel your heart beat
Close to me ♪
(SNIFFS, SNORTS)
(GROANS, PANTS)
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
When I wake each morning ♪
And the storm Beats down on me ♪
Mate.
Mate!
Mate? Mate, come on! Mate?
Come on. Come on.
Wake up, wake up, wake up.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
Hey, mate!
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
- (BANGING ON DOOR)
- Shit!
Evening, sir. There's been
a complaint about the noise.
(CHAIN RATTLES)
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
OFFICER 1: Sir? Sir, open the door!
OFFICER 2: Can you please
just open the door, sir?
- Sir!
- (KNOCKING ON DOOR)
OFFICER 1: Sir, open this door.
OFFICER 2: I'm afraid we're
gonna have to breach the door, sir.
Oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪
(BREATHES HEAVILY, GRUNTS)
(GRUNTS, BREATHES SHAKILY)
(LOUD THUDS ECHOING)
(DOOR BREAKING)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER OVER RADIO)
- OFFICER 1: Check down there.
(BREATHES SHAKILY, WHIMPERS)
- OFFICER 2: Clear.
- OFFICER 3: Clear.
- OFFICER 1: Control priority.
- (PANTS)
OFFICER 1: Can I get
an ambulance to hurry up?
We've got an adult male,
unconscious. Not breathing.
Possible drugs overdose.
OFFICER 2: There's a man
on the balcony.
- (BREATHES HEAVILY)
- OFFICER 1: Sir!
Only love can set you free ♪
(BODY THUDDING)
("FOREVER YOUNG"
BY ALPHAVILLE PLAYING) ♪
- (PANTS, GROANS)
- (AMBULANCE SIREN WAILING)
(GASPS, PANTS)
Let's dance in style
Let's dance for a while ♪
(WHIMPERS, BREATHES HEAVILY)
Heaven can wait
We're only watching the skies ♪
- Hoping for the best But expecting the worst ♪
- (GROANS, PANTS)
Are you gonna drop
The bomb or not? ♪
Let us die young
Or let us live forever ♪
We don't have the power
But we never say never ♪
Sitting in a sandpit
Life is a short trip ♪
- OFFICER 2: Show me your hands!
- (WHIMPERS)
OFFICER 2: Put your hands
behind your back now!
Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay.
- Can you imagine When this race is won? ♪
- (HANDCUFFS CLICK)
Turn our golden faces Into the sun ♪
Praising our leaders
We're getting in tune ♪
The music's played
By the the madman ♪
sync & corrections awaqeded
Do you really want
To live forever? ♪
Forever and ever ♪
Forever young ♪
I want to be forever young ♪
Do you really want
To live forever? ♪
Forever young ♪
(INSTRUMENTAL PLAYING) ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
So, I've pitched this piece
on dating discourse.
You know, like, body count.
"She's a four, but maybe six
after five pints."
Age, income bracket.
All of it's numerical.
That car's been idling outside
for two days.
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ELAINE JORDAN: You know that girl
who fucks 1,000 guys
in 24 hours for content?
I mean, she wasn't fucking a person.
She was fucking a number.
I mean, her spirit was dominated,
well gang-raped, almost,
by market logic, essentially.
Yeah, individuals
reduced to abstraction.
Kierkegaard.
ELAINE: Yeah, but why is it you
have to take something modern,
and then you make it
for cunts? It's
(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
Someone's fucking jimmied the window.
- Shit! Fuck!
- (CUTLERY CLATTERS)
My fucking keys have gone.
ELAINE: Why do you lease
a Mercedes anyway?
Where's that money coming from?
Do you owe again?
Look, do me a favor, yeah?
Could you just take Matty
for the week, all right?
- While I sort this shit out.
- (ELAINE SCOFFS)
Okay, we need to formulate
some sort of custody agreement
so you cannot keep doing this.
- Also, you look like shit.
- All right.
It's the fucking Ritalin,
it's my skin
ELAINE: Well, what is the excuse
for the rest of it then?
Because you keep saying,
"Oh, I'm working flat out,"
and then I hear stories
of you out on benders
- and sharking random women.
- Well, hang on, you're in a fucking relationship!
- (ELAINE SHUSHES)
- JIM DYCKER: (WHISPERS) All right?
- (MATTY DYCKER BABBLES)
- You don't have jurisdiction over my sex life.
- We literally fucked once.
- (SCOFFS)
You do realize
that absolutely no one knows
- that you exist, right?
- (SCOFFS)
(SOFTLY) Fuck off.
- (BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- (GRUNTS SOFTLY)
(SNIFFLES, SIGHS)
(EXHALES)
- (DISTANT SIREN WAILING)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(PILLS RATTLING)
(SNIFFLES)
(EXHALES)
(SNIFFS)
(GROANS SOFTLY)
(GROANS)
(GLASSES THUD)
(CELL PHONE RINGING, VIBRATING)
(GASPS SOFTLY)
(BREATHES SHARPLY)
(SIGHS) Edward, hiya.
- (OVER PHONE) Sorry, what time is it?
- EDWARD BURGESS: Who cares?
Good news. We've heard
from Tender's counsel.
I think they've come in way too hot.
Their response to the "Tender,
investigated" piece,
it's as subtle
as a Slade song in truth.
Injunction, threat, defamation.
I mean, it's a real dog's dinner.
And I did a little digging,
and it seems upper management there
are a proxy
for the Norton Media Group,
so I'm happy to send you to Accra.
(INTRIGUING SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JIM: Look, thank you, Ed.
You won't regret it.
BURGESS: Listen,
the main thrust of all their ire
is collusion and market manipulation
between you and these short sellers.
I mean, that's a shot
in the dark, right?
Uh
BURGESS: Tell me you aren't inveigled
- with these fucking short sellers.
- (GROANS)
Huh? (CHUCKLES)
Yeah, I'm not I've spoken to them,
- but, you know, tangentially.
- Oh, "tangentially."
Like, "elliptically"?
Whatever the fuck.
Just clean the slate
with those contacts, okay?
Yeah. Look, man, I'm
I'm working on a follow-up.
Far more meat on the bone.
Major discovery
in Sunderland, all right?
BURGESS: Well, I don't
like being woken by bullies.
And it's in the public interest
for us to respond aggressively,
especially if Tender have designs
on the UK consumer
with this new banking app.
I'll get legal to word
a stern and curt rebuke.
If I know anything about people
who go this nuclear this early,
you can bet your loneliest penny
the cunts have a glass fucking jaw.
- JIM: Yeah.
- BURGESS: Okay, bye.
- (BREATHES HEAVILY)
- (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JIM: Oi!
- Hey, what?
- JIM: Why are you watching my house?
What? Brother,
I'm waiting for my girl.
Get the fuck off my street, yeah?
Brother came here all tooled up
looking like some hard wanker, yeah?
Get the fuck away from my car, bro.
(HAWKS, SPITS)
- Fuck!
- LEO GRAYSON: Pussyhole faggot.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
HARPER STERN: (OVER PHONE)
All we've done
is share non-private information.
Your article was a non-event.
It helped our short
for all of 20 minutes.
Well, proving a connection
might be enough.
Now, I've started working
on an air-gapped computer
so it can't be hacked.
But you're calling me
on my work phone?
When are you publishing the follow-up?
I can't say.
- You can't or won't?
- (INHALES SHARPLY)
Bro, we gave you the Sunderland piece.
You write it up and disseminate it.
- That was agreed.
- Uh, no, it was never agreed.
Oh, fuck off. It was fucking implied.
Come on. You're not being fair at all.
Yeah, I think you fundamentally
misunderstood my ethics here.
It is important from here on out,
we deny any kind of communication.
(SCOFFS) And that's ethical, is it?
No, it's sensible.
I appreciate your time.
If he doesn't publish again soon,
what's our next negative catalyst?
Market's pricing this app launch
as a positive one.
- Stock climbs any higher, we'll face a margin call.
- Um
We feed the Sunderland piece
to another reporter.
How long a lag time
to get it understood,
- past seniors, printed?
- Why don't we self-publish?
We'll just get Sweetpea
to write it up,
like Hindenburg, GlassHouse,
that sort of beat.
It's too clear a conflict of interest.
Okay. Well, obviously,
we would use
the appropriate disclosures.
One wrong word,
we open ourselves up to a civil suit.
Plus, our name has no cachet.
Who gives a solitary fuck
about "SternTao's view"?
It doesn't matter if Tender
is a house of cards
if we don't have any breath to blow.
Don't you think
I fucking grasp that by now?
Fuck!
- (DYNAMIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- HENRY MUCK: I wanna see the mortgage piece
more prominent on the landing page.
And And wipe the fucking
crypto component off it.
I've given that note
three fucking times.
And yes, Robin, that is
a user-over-profit decision
because the UI
is part of the messaging
and the messaging is everything.
Yeah, the tone matters to our backers
in government too.
And why is the phrase
"Pierpoint powered by Tender"
so prominent on the UI?
Whitney cleared that.
This is his brainchild.
Has been for some time.
Okay, I didn't stake myself
on the build of this app
to facilitate Pierpoint giving
the already upwardly mobile
a fucking clickable option
to passively compound their wealth!
Okay?
ERIC TAO: Bannerman.
You wanna give us
a state of play, please?
KWABENA BANNERMAN: Yes, sir.
Two hundred and fifty million
assets under management.
Eric's five percent of fund,
ten bucks.
Pierre, the anchor, 100 bucks.
Further 140 million
when we combine
all other invested parties.
With Kenny as our primary broker,
we borrowed a further
250 million via Deutsche.
That's our margin.
Hundred percent gross leverage?
KWABENA: Yes, 250 million equity,
250 million margin.
(DYNAMIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
We remain excited
by the potential synergies
of the partnership showcasing
Al-Mi'raj-Pierpoint's
wealth management offering
- within the Tender app.
- You know, I've long thought
that the copy should be
"Tender powered by Pierpoint,"
not "Pierpoint powered by Tender."
Our lawyers went back and forth on it
while red-lining,
arguing points of construction.
We have the investment managers.
We have the customer base.
That's baked in for you
in exchange for a platform
and a route to more retail customers.
By any metric, to any investor's eyes,
Tender is the more
valuable asset here.
The market caps are moving
in opposite directions,
and we see this simply as offering
a dinosaur a digital future.
Why am I here negotiating something
I assumed had already been negotiated?
That isn't what this is.
We wanted to illustrate
how amenable we've been
in the hope of asking you
to, uh, solidify the partnership
with a further
billion-dollar investment.
I really think we're missing a trick
by not featuring Henry
more prominently.
What does that mean, and what
would it even look like?
Leaning into the tech side of fintech.
A buzzy launch. Named entertainment.
Charli XCX expounding on the virtues
of a digitized spending report
to track her nocturnal trips
to the ATM.
Yeah. Yeah! But a public launch,
with translation to socials,
it's still achievable.
It might be smart to de-risk a little
ahead of Tender rolling out their app
because streets expect it
to land and rally.
HARPER: Guys, we can't just
start throwing down longs.
Then we'd be like any other
run-of-the-mill long/short.
What if Dycker's next article
lands as flat as his last one?
Not with the Sunderland piece.
SWEETPEA GOLIGHTLY:
Yeah, and when is that coming?
Yeah, FYI, we are edging from gray
to fucking black
on market manipulation stuff.
SWEETPEA: Oh, I've been speaking
with the former CEO,
Jonah Atterbury.
I haven't spoken business
with him yet.
I'm just softening him up.
- HARPER: Is he replying?
- Oh, yeah.
He is replying!
WHITNEY HALBERSTRAM: You
know, it's an open secret that Al-Mi'raj
is divesting Pierpoint
back to the market piecemeal.
Pierpoint's a fucking legacy name.
It's, uh, sun-bleached font
on signage.
Gym bags on eBay. Ironic Fincore.
Tombstones for
a once great thing now dead.
We are modernity
knocking at your door,
offering a leg up.
And for that,
all we're asking for is, uh,
- is a pittance.
- (PEN CLICKING)
HENRY: When does the, uh
when does the press release
go out and to who?
ROBIN WILLIAMSON: Tabled for
1:00 p.m. PST, Thursday.
Right, so there is time
to go bigger if we want to.
ROBIN: Usual channels, TechCrunch,
Wired, Breaking Banks podcast.
YASMIN KARA-HANANI:
Yeah, I think that Henry
should feature
on more lifestyle podcasts.
There should be a fucking tariff
on podcast equipment.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) Right, well,
I want a redraft of the release
and my notes enacted,
and we can go from there.
(CLEARS THROAT)
- (DYNAMIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
- (SIGHS SOFTLY)
- (KNOCK ON DOOR)
- (DOOR OPENING)
Yo.
What's up?
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
- Henry isn't happy
about how the app launch
is being positioned.
WHITNEY: 'Cause your husband
hasn't landed
on something he likes.
Robin says you want
to "eventize" the launch?
Yeah, there should have been a laid
to eventize it from the start.
(GROANING) We gotta stop using
the word "eventize"
like it's a serious word.
YASMIN: I don't think this is funny.
You know, if I had a proper job title,
a role in the comms department,
this would have been done properly.
You want to work directly under Robin?
I want to give Henry a pulpit.
If Henry wants to be prominent,
if he wants
to be responsible for this,
I'm not gonna get in his way.
But I'm a little disappointed in him.
Thought I was hiring a rock star.
He was like a fucking ghost
in our meeting with PRA.
Yeah, his confidence is coming back.
WHITNEY: Slowly.
(INHALES DEEPLY)
Have you ever thought
about laying a path
in the company for Hayley?
What do you see in her?
YASMIN: I think she may have
some information
that could help us with Dycker.
But she might need some sweetening.
Mm.
Bright young things attract
bright young things.
Speaking of, when was
the last time you spoke
to your friend, Harper, by the way?
- You guys still close?
- Why?
I got a suspicion her venture's short.
- (CHUCKLES) Um
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
She's probably being spurred on
by her former boss.
They're sort of
a poisonous double act.
They like to enable
each other's worst instincts
just 'cause
Well, 'cause they're fucking insecure.
I can, um
I can think of a comms angle
to deal with them.
Great.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- (RISHI RAMDANI BREATHES DEEPLY)
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
What was it, two black cross?
Whatever's most premium.
Red, 180.
BANKER: One, please.
Do you only do coke?
You don't carry
any liquid 'shrooms, do you?
No, mate. (SIGHS)
Can't be front office
with a pinstripe that chalky.
Unless you're at a povvo dive
like Royal Bank of Scotland.
(CAR DOOR SLAMS)
No, don't fucking touch it yet.
I told you.
Please.
Please, Daddy.
- (MELANIE DOVER SUCKS, PANTS)
- (RISHI PANTS)
If you want more treats,
you'll say it.
MELANIE: I'm a good little
whore for Papi.
- (MOANS, SUCKS)
- ("ALL OF MY TOMORROWS" PLAYING OVER RADIO) ♪
- (MOANS, PANTS)
- (CELL PHONE VIBRATING)
- Get off.
- (MELANIE GASPS)
- Yeah, hi. Hello, Mary.
- MARY SMITH: (OVER PHONE) Hello.
Yeah, I, um
Yeah, I I wasn't expecting
to hear from you.
MARY: I hope you're well.
Yeah, as as well as, I guess.
Um, yeah, and and you?
MARY: We thought
we'd make arrangements
for you to see Hugo.
It was important that we got
a few things in order before
RISHI: You You
No, no, you you
you don't owe me an apology.
MARY: (SIGHS) This isn't an apology.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, no.
Of course, of course. Um
MARY: Let me send through the details.
You know, whenever, whenever.
I'm very
- MARY: I'll send those through, thank you.
- You (SIGHS)
I would give
All of my tomorrows ♪
They took my kid away from me.
Maybe they've got their reasons.
You ever tried shutting the fuck up?
(SIGHS)
One more thing.
Do you know the WebHorizon guys?
WHITNEY: They asked Jonah and I
to attend a bunch of times,
but I always passed 'cause I, uh,
never thought the two of us
were aligned enough about
the future of the company
to share a stage
and have it not be a
stock-negative event.
Well, it it might be
a bit late in the day
for them to accommodate us,
but if I say
that Henry's presenting
a government darling
and then float the idea
that the Business Secretary
might attend,
it may combat the negative press
coming out of FinDigest.
- You can make that happen?
- (SCOFFS)
WHITNEY: I mean, it would flatter
the programmers, for sure.
Let me proffer it. See where I get.
Great. And have FinDigest
responded to legal yet?
WHITNEY: That piece
was so undercooked,
it undermined whatever point
they were trying to make.
But, uh, Louisa says
they're doubling down.
(DRAWER SLAMS)
Okay, I'm gonna speak to Percy.
He's the business editor
at the Sunday paper.
- (DRAWER LOCK CLICKS)
- Robin's on board?
He will be.
Fuck yeah.
I got a 3:00 p.m. to Accra,
but I'll be back soon.
Twenty-four hours.
YASMIN: God, that's a long way
for such a short trip.
WHITNEY: Small management issue
which requires some hand-holding.
Hayley. (SNAPS FINGERS) Do me a favor.
Assist Yas with whatever
she needs at the launch.
What, you don't need her in Ghana?
WHITNEY: She's supposed to split
the load with Henry,
so let her take
half of his load off you.
- (DIAL TONE RINGING)
- (INHALES, CLEARS THROAT)
JAY JONAH ATTERBURY: (OVER PHONE) Hey.
Jonah Atterbury?
- JONAH: Yeah, speaking.
- (HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS) ♪
SWEETPEA: Did I get you at a bad time?
Oh, just interrupting the prologue
to a story
that I won't be able to finish.
You know, your voice
sounds like I imagined.
- Hmm.
- JONAH: Normally, chicks want
some kind of payment
before getting personal so fast.
Um, Jonah, I actually have
a slightly ulterior motive
for my call.
I work as a research analyst.
We believe your former employer
is misrepresenting
- how they make their money.
- What the fuck?
- Please don't hang up.
- JONAH: Sorry, but, uh
So much of this work
is just finding nuggets
of encouragement, okay?
- (SLURPS)
- People only open up
if the incentive outweighs
their incentive to stay silent.
Yeah, I'm a little loaded
for riddles right now,
and trust me (INHALES)
I don't need your money. I mean
I imagine that you have a bone to pick
with Whitney Halberstram.
You know, since he fired you.
Well, I'm in the middle of suing
the prick for defamation.
- What the fuck is this?
- Well, he shit on you, right?
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- JONAH: That fey little shit.
I loved him.
SWEETPEA: In your legal complaint,
- is there anything that could help me?
- STRIPPER: Hey, baby.
- Um, well, my, uh
- STRIPPER: Want a private dance?
or our correspondence
was subpoenaed.
My team have access to gigs of emails.
Would you share them with me?
I can just ping you my email.
JONAH: So, anything not
pertaining to me is redacted.
I don't see how that would be useful.
The more I think about it,
the more I I see I was
blinded by history with him.
- SWEETPEA: How do you mean?
- Um, small things.
I noticed he'd check the stock price
like an ECG last two years.
Down days, he'd mope around,
suicide watch.
Up days, he was a prince.
Me coming to him with a question,
leaving with two more.
Rabidly social. Never seemed to fuck.
I also never saw him drunk.
Clients, investors, auditors,
he'd drown them in Cristal,
leave them butt-fucked
by a hangover lobotomy.
"Ooh, boy, that cad from Tender
parties like
a pre-crisis Florida realtor."
Oh, well, thank you, Jonah.
I, um (INHALES DEEPLY)
I hope I brought you pleasure
in unexpected ways.
Listen, if you're gonna
play me like this
do me the courtesy
of burying him deep enough
that his kind don't respawn.
- I will.
- (ELEVATOR CHIME DINGS)
Why the fuck is Whitney
in Africa again?
Guy sold me a fucking dummy.
I don't want to be a host
for another capital markets
vulture like Pierpoint.
The vision
was meant to be utilitarian,
not some defibrillator
for a zombie bank.
You still control how it's perceived.
Whitney's spoken to WebHorizon
about allowing you
to make more of a splash.
You're gonna be on
the main conference live stream.
I'll make sure it's picked up
by all the trades.
HENRY: Yeah.
Why are the two of you colluding
on what are clearly
executive decisions?
"Colluding"? Henry, we're strategizing
about how to maximize your potential.
We both see it as integral
to the success of the co
Actually, you know what? Fuck that.
I see it as integral to your success.
Okay? To our family's.
Yeah, a press release will allow us
to frame the narrative
and control the audience.
Robin's words sound
completely dead in your mouth.
Look, I get it.
You've stood on stages before
and been embarrassed.
- But, look, just come here.
- Not in here.
- Not in here.
- Who are you afraid of?
I don't have it in me
to be torn apart again.
Do you believe in this company?
Do you have any idea
how tiring it is to have people
constantly question your integrity
because you fucked up once?
- Once!
- (BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Listeners will lean in
to the belief of the teller,
so go and tell it.
(SIGHS)
You always make me chase
the most egoistic part of myself.
Do you know that?
'Cause without it, Henry,
nothing would fucking happen.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
Thanks again
for introducing us to Moritz.
He's a real firebrand.
ALEXANDER NORTON: His "In
Defense of Jus Sanguinis" piece
was a bit of a poke in the eye,
even for me.
PERCY CULSON: You think
he actually believes this stuff?
Oh, who cares?
As long as people are clicking.
NORTON: Your husband said
he was in a product meeting.
Our tech editor said
he now expected Henry at WebHorizon.
It's all smooth sailing.
Well, we're supposed
to be waiting for Robin.
He's our head of comms,
- but I think we should just crack on.
- So, what are we thinking?
Some kind of inside look at Tender?
- Henry's second act?
- Robin Williamson, comms.
We'll take any winning highlights
you can offer,
but there's a strategy
around the rollout.
I actually wasn't thinking
about any kind of puff piece.
It's more of a, uh, tip
towards a scandal.
We've been made aware
of direct contact
and conspiracy
between the business press
and predatory hedge fund activity.
We shouldn't let this flare up
any more than necessary.
We're using legal.
YASMIN: Legal tennis
won't show any teeth
and it won't stop another article.
I don't think Whitney agrees
with stoking this particular fire.
WHITNEY: (OVER SPEAKER)
Actually, I do.
Hey, Robin, please don't speak for me.
We should be proactive against anyone
trafficking fake news.
FinDigest put a hit piece out
on Tender
full of vague
and unsubstantiated allegations,
and they're in league
with people who stand to profit
off of harming us.
Fat cat fund managers,
City lawlessness.
When are we not telling this story?
YASMIN: I think this is
a unique set of circumstances.
I mean, hamstringing
a government-backed success
before it starts to run,
benefiting the UK consumer,
I mean,
there's a public interest angle.
Burgess at FinDigest
is a bit of a twat.
Sort of virtue-signaling,
man-of-the-people shyster.
I think our readers will enjoy hating
on the hypocrisy of it all.
NORTON: Public stoning of hypocrites
is like bloodletting.
Makes us feel better
about our own hypocrisies.
- YASMIN: Mm-hmm.
- And we have proof of this?
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
WHITNEY: (OVER SPEAKER) I do, yes.
Can coordinate.
I'll send you the photos.
Let us sidebar and decide on the shape
and how alarmist to go
with the presentation.
Thank you, Yasmin.
- Good nose.
- Thanks.
WHITNEY: (OVER SPEAKER)
Yasmin, stay on the line.
Robin, you're not needed now. Thanks.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
WHITNEY: Is he off?
YASMIN: Yeah, he's gone.
Yeah, Robin's not aggressive enough.
He's a little bitch. Sorry.
Uh, what proof do you have for Norton?
WHITNEY: I have photographic evidence.
I'll send it to you.
Harper Co., whatever the fuck
they're calling themselves,
they don't have the capital
to touch us.
I'm gonna invite her in.
She needs to see the scale of things
so she knows how much
she's bound to lose
if she plays in the dirt.
Do you think she's short
because of Dycker?
(SCOFFS)
Morality might as well
be fucking Latin to her.
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Does he, um
does he know who I am?
We've not been to our house
in Biarritz since, uh
HUGO RAMDANI: Um, yeah
MARY: Well, it's a hard place to be,
given how much time
we used to spend there together.
Practically, we're slightly
worried about the disrepair.
We need to visit soon.
RISHI: Oh.
(SCOFFS)
- "Hugo Smith."
- MARY: Yes.
That will be the surname
on his new passport
so we can take him abroad.
Not permanently, of course.
- Just on holiday.
- HUGO: I made a little cup of tea.
MARY: If you sign off
on the name change
- I made a tea for Mummy.
- we can look at setting some further visitation.
Will I ever get to be alone with him?
MARY: Oh, I don't think
that would be a good idea.
You don't get to set
any terms, I'm afraid.
HUGO: I made a
Yeah.
Yeah. (SNIFFS)
- Uh
- (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Hugo will grow up in a house of love.
I promise you.
I appreciate you being civil with me.
MARY: Oh, Rishi,
any anger I feel towards you
is dwarfed by the scale
of my faith in God.
Every choice you've made
denies it, but
even a man like you
doesn't stand outside His grace.
(SOMBER MUSIC RISES) ♪
Yeah.
(HUGO BABBLING)
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
ATTENDEE 1:
Here's a good spot, d'you think?
ATTENDEE 2: Yeah.
I think here's great.
- Hi, hi. How are you?
- Hi.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
HAYLEY CLAY: Hey. (PANTS)
Hi. (SIGHS)
- (BREATHES DEEPLY)
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
The FinDigest journalist
is in the audience.
Let him watch.
Oh, unless
if he's making you uncomfortable
then we can tell him to leave.
No, no, it's not him.
I just I don't I don't know.
I don't know, I just don't
really feel like I can
ground myself, you know?
- Do you suffer from anxiety?
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
I do sometimes.
Try magnesium.
Just after what happened
between us (BREATHES HEAVILY)
uh, and
and your husband and
whether it was right, like
professionally, even personally.
Well, we're all consenting adults.
Right.
And (SCOFFS)
you enjoyed it.
So, it can't be that
that's making you uneasy?
Calabasas?
I mean, you're the one
that instigated it, right?
The way you've looked at me
since we met.
Maybe you're sublimating experiences,
making a good thing bad.
That loser hack,
he came into your house
under false pretenses.
You don't remember what happened.
I mean, God knows what happened.
The price of his action
is your trauma.
You can't let him take away
your agency as well.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're probably right.
YASMIN: I am. (CHUCKLES) I am right.
It was assault. Oh! (SIGHS)
(SIGHS, KISSES)
- (PANTS)
- (KNOCK ON DOOR)
- Yeah? (EXHALES)
- WHITNEY: Yo.
Just wanted to wish you good luck.
HENRY: Get the fuck in here
for a second.
What is this fucking disappearing act
you keep pulling in Africa?
I was just smoothing
the adoption of our app.
Yeah, I'm not comfortable
with the Pierpoint relationship.
Okay? This app shouldn't be
some Trojan horse
for capital markets apparatus.
We're not a fucking broker!
WHITNEY: Well, you couldn't be
more wrong.
Why should investment planning
only be the purview of the elite?
Give the man his broker.
- Yeah, but my role here
- (SIGHS)
isn't gonna be ambassadorial, okay?
I want it
to be financial and strategic.
I don't wanna have to keep
checking my corners.
WHITNEY: I agree. Total transparency.
Which is also
what the app is offering.
Like we promised. ISAs, ETFs.
You're giving people the dignity
of being able
to choose for themselves.
Pierpoint totally fucked
the valuation of Lumi.
(SIGHS) Come on, man.
Is it even really Pierpoint anymore?
- Hey.
- (DRAMATIC SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Go out there.
Tell them about your conscience.
It's just a speech.
It's just a day. It's just a speech.
It's just deliverance.
Don't bullshit me.
Henry, I hired you
'cause I look at people like you
and I innately believe in them
more than I believe in myself.
Fuck knows what that says about
the fascism of our neurology,
but everything in me screams
you are more, I am less.
You're a man
I'm incapable of lying to.
(CLEARS THROAT)
You'll be great, okay?
You got this.
(DRAMATIC SYNTH MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
How you became
the Labour prime minister's
appointed pet,
I will never understand.
- Pussycat with nine lives.
- Thank you for
uh, the humility (HESITATES)
in introducing me.
I I really do, um,
appreciate your belief.
LISA DEARN: You have
your wife's frankly
inappropriate relationship
with a certain
precocious junior minister
in my department
to thank for this.
Do you know how ugly
political sketch artists make me look?
- And they're right to mock my hypocrisy.
- FLOOR MANAGER: Ms. Dearn?
Toeing the party line,
that's it. Good luck.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Thank you.
- First, let me restate
- I I really don't think I can do this.
- No.
- (BREATHES HEAVILY)
Do you think
I could have a (STAMMERS)
a Lorazepam or something?
I don't know
if that constitutes a relapse.
Tender is at the vanguard of a sector
we have championed
since coming into government
Listen, if you need to,
of course, of course you can.
Why would you say that to me?
You know that's not an option.
You're meant to talk me down
off the fucking cliff.
Are you testing me?
Henry, are you using again?
Its aims align with our core values.
Equity and transparency
for the British consumer
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
How dare you say that to me now?
No, I don't
Why can't you accept that I want
what's best for you?
- LISA: I'm pleased to introduce to you this afternoon
- (SOFTLY) Oh, fuck.
- Tender's CEO, Henry Muck.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
You're gonna be amazing.
(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS) ♪
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
(CLEARS THROAT)
Uh
"So much of of money,
its, uh, its structures
and, um, and trading
are deliberately blackboxed.
For every winner,
there must be a loser.
Fine for a market.
Not fine for a society.
Let, uh Let Tender 2.0
be the opening salvo
against this hard reality.
Now, uh, I'm not a neoliberal cultist,
hopped up on the the lie
that the market
is the solution to everything.
Uh, interests can be
co-opted, of course.
We are We're not an NGO.
We're looking for value
for our shareholders.
But, um
But I would like it known
that we have put our our conscience
at the heart of all we do here
at Tender."
- (INDISTINCT WHISPERING)
- (CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
Uh, allow me to be, um
be sincere with you all
for a moment, um
and tell you about my conscience.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I have failed prodigiously.
(CHUCKLES)
I have succeeded
unfairly.
It's a matter
of public record. (CHUCKLES)
If you are sick of listening to me,
I understand, believe me.
But this is how I see the world,
even with the the blinkers
of of my privilege,
and perhaps especially
because of them.
And if you think I am incapable
of seeing the world that way,
then you are saying I am inhuman
that I am incapable of empathy.
No.
I am only human.
(ROUSING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
He's laying it on a bit thick.
Will anyone buy this?
If he buys it, then they will.
We have to believe that we can change
the intransigent structures
and expectations
of where we happen to be born
and to whom.
This is the bedrock
of our app's philosophy.
Frictionless,
transparent access to the full suite
of banking and investment products,
demystifying the complex world
of finance
for all members
of the Great British public.
Now, observe the cumulative effect
of what happens
when you give people that power
and stop patronizing them
with handouts,
admonishing their vices
and sneering at their virtues.
Today
I offer you my sincerity.
And sincerity is now
the world's rarest commodity.
Not here.
Not at Tender.
Not under my watch.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
- ("HAPPYNESS" BY MOLLY NILSSON PLAYING) ♪
Thank you.
Let me walk you
through our first offering.
- (SONG CONTINUES) ♪
- So
My sincere thanks
to all of you for coming today,
and if you have any further questions,
we'll meet
in the press room afterwards.
- Thank you.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
See what happens
when you listen to me?
- (HENRY LAUGHS)
- (LAUGHS) Dude!
- (HENRY SIGHS)
- WHITNEY: Good?
- It may happen in your life ♪
- (HENRY LAUGHS)
That you find a word
That can describe ♪
- WHITNEY: Good job.
- HENRY: Good?
All the rooms
That I have lived in ♪
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
Does Tender have plans
around AI integration?
Uh, yeah, we have hopes
that on a two-year roadmap,
we'll see AI-powered financial advice,
predictive analytics,
and spending controls.
JIM: Can you tell me, um,
rather than what Tender hopes to do,
uh, what Tender actually does?
Hey, I'm sorry,
can you repeat the question?
Yeah. (CLEARS THROAT) Uh, Tender.
- Sorry, wh wh what does it do?
- (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(SCOFFS) What do you mean,
what do we do?
JIM: Well, it's a pretty
straightforward question.
But Mr. Halberstram,
given how quickly
you severed all ties with me
- after I profiled you
- ROBIN: (WHISPERS) The FinDigest writer
who's trying to fuck us.
Well, I take it
you loathe simple questions.
WHITNEY: You're our friend
from FinDigest, right?
It's a great piece, by the way.
Really well-researched.
What is it that we do?
We are a successful payment processor
leveraging our existing user base
to, uh, make targeted acquisitions
and become a market leader
in the UK fintech space.
JIM: Right, it's just
a growing number of people
think your numbers don't stack up.
Well, you're trying
to prove a prejudice,
so everything you look at
is prejudicial.
These people you're speaking about,
do they brief you
or do you brief them?
Or does it matter
so long as you're making money
while you twist the knife?
Right, you're not denying
anything though?
We are regularly audited
by Ellis & Jung.
We have equity analysts
poring over our balance sheet.
What is there to spotlight
other than the brutal success
of our story?
And your processing facilities
in Sunderland?
We've got outposts
that process payments all over Africa,
Europe, Asia-Pac, and the UK,
including, but not exclusive to,
the North East.
JIM: It's just, you see,
I think your fixation
on the future is, uh,
it's a smokescreen
for the lies of your past.
WHITNEY: (SIGHS) Okay.
Well, we'll happily sidebar.
We have investor days.
We have earnings calls.
- We're wide fucking open.
- ROBIN: Next question.
- (JOURNALISTS CLAMORING)
- ROBIN: Yes, Hannah Murphy at the FT.
HANNAH MURPHY:
How do you intend to cater
to an older, potentially
AI-naive demographic?
HENRY: Uh, well, thank you, Hannah,
for the, um, sensible question
this time.
Um, no, I I think you're right.
AI is the great unknown of our time
- JIM: Blue? Right.
- It was blue. Yeah, uh
JIM: Really? I blame
Peter Risdale for everything
- James. Can we talk?
- JIM: Yeah, mate.
No, I'm just putting the final touches
- on the article.
- BURGESS: Now.
- JIM: All right.
- (MUSIC FADES) ♪
Oh, my dad used
to look at me like that.
What is it?
- This may run tomorrow.
- (JIM SIGHS)
BURGESS: My name,
your name, short sellers.
You know, corrupt,
money-grabbing enemies
of British innovation.
They've even managed to link
this Eric Tao bloke
to the fucking cultural revolution.
And there's heavy allusions
to you being a drug user,
- which you're not, are you?
- (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Yeah, you know what? No, no.
You know, displays of
brute force in a velvet glove?
It's disgusting,
and I'd love to brain Norton
and scatter the pieces
all over his chessboard.
But I can't.
- What's this say?
- Well, you (HESITATES)
Yeah, of course I've spoken
to short sellers.
BURGESS: It says
"cavorting with short sellers,"
- does it not?
- JIM: Well, being "in league" with them
is a fabulist construction.
(HESITATES) They're They're
fucking meaningless words, man.
They're words. That
That is what Halberstram does.
Where Where
Where's the proof of profiting?
(HESITATES) You know what?
Let's Let's
Let's start here, all right?
When I'm targeted this cheaply,
I expect the support of my editor.
Oh.
Look, why are we prostrating ourselves
to anonymous pictures?
It's It's blackmail.
BURGESS: I'm not perfect.
I spent a lot of my early years lying.
Then I stopped,
and my world got better.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
Who is Hayley Clay?
(SIGHS)
She (SIGHS)
She works at Tender.
BURGESS: Okay, well, you coerced,
and according to the complaint,
- assaulted her.
- No, no.
- I never fucking touched her.
- BURGESS: They're pressing charges.
They're weighing charges.
That's what it says.
Ed, Ed, Ed, I didn't touch her.
BURGESS: Well, even if
I wanted to believe you,
what the fuck were you doing
in her fucking house?
What am I supposed to say?
- And I can't, in good conscience
- JIM: I was I was
I was doing my job.
- I was looking for
- BURGESS: James.
- I was just trying to get a story. I didn't
- BURGESS: James. James!
I can't, in good conscience,
not make this
an internal disciplinary matter
and recommend your termination.
Come on. Ed.
- No, no, no, no, no. You
- BURGESS: What do I do?
- I'm sorry.
- Mate.
- You don't have to do that.
- BURGESS: You're intrepid.
- You're fucking smart.
- (SIGHS)
And in your gut, I know you know
that when you went to her flat,
you were making a fatal
fucking error of judgment.
(BREATHES SHAKILY) Mate, I need
(SCOFFS) I need this.
BURGESS: I can't
I can't do anything now.
SWEETPEA: I'm burning my retinas out
trying to parse
these Atterbury emails.
- HARPER: Anything material?
- SWEETPEA: Not really.
I mean, Whitney never really
talks about business,
at least in writing.
I mean, maybe that's
the unredacted correspondence.
One thing that is interesting though,
is his most active interlocutor
is a guy called Tony Day.
I mean, they speak pejoratively
about Jonah,
mostly from Tony's side.
It reads like sycophancy to Whitney.
It's like playground bullying.
Who is Tony Day?
SWEETPEA: Oh, based in Accra.
I looked up his CV online.
A Durham alum.
Decade-vet Morgan Stanley ops.
Drops to Daiwa Securities.
Maybe redundancy or firing?
Lands in Accra in 2011
when Ghana's GDP growth
is batshit, like low teens.
Has a failed telecom biz.
Has a failed high-speed rail thingy.
And then, all of a sudden,
he's the CFO of Tender in Africa.
Meteoric over promotion
even for a White guy.
- (MOUSE CLICKING)
- SWEETPEA: And look at this.
(INTRIGUING SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SWEETPEA: When have you ever seen
a 50-million-dollar acquisition
closed with a novelty check?
That's what they paid
for this third-party processor,
SwiftGC.
It's artificial, right?
Like, gut read?
- Presentation as pretense.
- Hmm.
He looks like the hated chairman
of a lower league football team.
Not a (CHUCKLES)
Not the CFO of a multinational
payment processor.
It's a big song and dance. It's cheap.
I wonder if anyone's flown to Accra
and knocked on their door.
WHITNEY: I'll call you back.
- You wanted to see us?
- WHITNEY: Yeah, I did.
I want to propose a reshuffle.
Yas is gonna be
co-running communications
for us going forward.
- On what grounds?
- Forward-looking ones. (SIGHS)
Whitney, you know I won't stand
to share the post,
especially with someone
so ill-qualified.
I think qualifications
are secondary to instincts.
I also anticipated
that you'd have too much pride
to share the post, in which case
Yas, if you'd like to do the honors.
Do what?
WHITNEY: Your first task as, uh,
my new Head of Communications.
I don't follow.
Let him go. Fire him. Dismiss him.
She doesn't have the power to do that.
Well, she does
if she accepts the post.
- Do you accept it?
- I do.
- WHITNEY: She accepted it, so
- We can work together.
- Uh, I don't think we can.
- Right.
So, I guess you're dismissed then.
- You're kidding me, right?
- You're a little bit, uh,
trad for what we want to do next.
This isn't a startup.
You should Google
the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Good luck.
Thank you.
You did a great job on Dycker.
You stopped the story
from running, deserve this.
YASMIN: Well, those photos
seemed to tell the whole story.
Yeah.
Hayley's yours if you want her,
but you, me, Henry
we ride together, we die together.
(PENSIVE DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Whitney gave me the green light
to promote you.
Comms role, under me.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
- You okay? About earlier?
- Oh, yeah. Sure.
It's not like I haven't been
sexually harassed before.
I was a child model for fuck's sake.
You're promoting me because
you really rate me, right?
- Yeah, of course.
- Phew!
Thought it was because of how good
- I sucked your husband's cock.
- (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I wonder, why did it feel like
it was your cock in my mouth?
I liked that.
An ex-boss told me, uh,
an anxiety relief thing once.
- (SIGHS) Breathing exercises?
- No.
No, he said, "Hayley, baby,
when it all gets too much,
just remember, not a single one of us
gets out of this alive."
- AUTOMATED VOICE: Doors opening.
- (ELEVATOR CHIME DINGS)
(ELEVATOR DOORS OPENING)
Thank you, Mommy.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
FERDINAND SCHARZWALD:
So, I just got off the phone
with Wilhelmina,
CEO of Al-Mi'raj-Pierpoint.
They offered the financing
we asked for
in the form of a CoCo.
(SIGHS) A contingent convertible bond.
So, they're protecting their downside.
Have they seen something
they don't like?
WHITNEY: It depends
how you look at it.
It's a good bridge
while we grow our deposit base,
repayment only gets triggered
if stock falls
beneath a certain threshold,
which we know it won't,
not with the momentum we have.
Yeah, well, given how distressed
an asset Pierpoint is
and how readily Al-Mi'raj wants rid,
it might be smart to deploy some cash,
silently buy some equity in it.
Gives us leverage
in the partnership longer term.
Means we can finesse them a little.
I think that's very smart.
HENRY: You could see the hard-on
in Dycker's knickers
when he thought he was calling us out
- in front of an audience.
- (WHITNEY CHUCKLES)
FERDINAND: Can I just say,
I followed your speech online
and it was just what was needed.
A man possessed. Brilliant.
- (DOOR CLOSING)
- (FOOTSTEPS RECEDING)
Thank you for, um,
everything you said to me
before I went out.
Your belief meant a lot.
Permission to speak out of school?
- HENRY: Please.
- (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
WHITNEY: Some people
see people as just, um,
moving parts in a social process.
Objects that can either help
or hinder.
There's few things
more toxic in this world
than privileged people
who are intellectually insecure.
(SNIFFS)
HENRY: You see, that's quite loaded.
(WHITNEY CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
HENRY: If you want to insult my wife,
have the good grace
to come out and say it.
I see people differently.
You have an innate worth
that supersedes
the life you were born into.
I believe that about myself too.
It's what I live to achieve
and I yearn to do.
Show the world my true value.
Well, we helped each other do that.
At least for a day.
(PENSIVE MUSIC RISES) ♪
(MUFFLED ROCK MUSIC PLAYING
OVER SPEAKERS) ♪
- (SNIFFS, SOBS)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
RISHI: No, no, I'm going for a piss!
- Fuck.
- (DOOR OPENING)
RISHI: Nah, these shitters
are horrific for doing gear.
Oh, shit. (BREATHES HEAVILY, SNIFFLES)
- You all right, mate?
- All right.
JIM: I know who you are,
by the way. (SNIFFLES)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- JIM: You know.
(BREATHES SHARPLY) Sorry,
I just had to say something.
I'm sorry about what happened
to your wife. (SNIFFS)
You know, for what it's worth,
I think they demonized you.
- (INHALES DEEPLY)
- I deserved it.
(EXHALES, SNIFFS)
I remember the skew of coverage.
And it would have been very different
if you weren't you
and, you know, she wasn't
you know, no offense,
but posh and White.
They said the guy who, um,
who went down for it
was, um, schizophrenic, right?
Or Or BPD, or something,
some diminished responsibility thing.
Yeah, her family are fighting
the manslaughter charge.
He got hospital disposal.
Brain went west
after years of smoking
weapons-grade skunk.
(LAUGHS) So his lawyer argued.
JIM: Fuck's sake.
- Mate, you saw it?
- Do you want a cigarette?
- Eh?
- Cigarette?
DEZ WATKINS: Oi!
Fuck off, you urchin! Go on! Fuck off!
I've seen him operate outside here.
He looks for wasted people.
Them fags are laced
with some fucking spooky PCP
or some shit.
It'll fuck you up, then he'll
take you round the corner,
and he'll turn you over
for your wallet and your watch.
Right. Ch Cheers, mate.
- Cheers.
- No worries.
London's full of shit-heels
on the take.
- Yeah.
- Do you want a pint?
Yeah, mate, let's go.
- Do you want a pint?
- DEZ: Oh, I could go an half.
("PERFUME (ALL ON YOU)"
(BY PARIS ANGELS PLAYING) ♪
Stella.
That one's on me, lads.
Take a look and tell me
What to find ♪
- (SNORTS)
- (SNORTS)
Mate, I'm flying to Accra next week.
I can still self-publish.
Someone will fucking pick it up.
Trust me.
RISHI: I I have to admit
something though.
- I have to admit something.
- Hey, hey. Hey, what what
I know you too. I know you too.
I I did I did a little work
for Harper Stern
- Huh?
- before that silly cunt ghosted me.
Oh, right. You've been following me.
Well, I I looked
into you a little, yeah.
- (JIM LAUGHS)
- (LAUGHS)
Ah, you broke into my house.
I was just wondering
whether to short Tender PA.
I thought there might be
a little edge.
You think I'm the type to tell you
when to fucking pile in
before publishing?
RISHI: We are all just trying
to secure our future, aren't we?
JIM: Did you follow me tonight?
Be honest.
RISHI: I I just
I just wanted a pint.
- And that pub is full of them.
- (SONG PLAYING LOUDER) ♪
- Pints?
- Nah. Women.
I've got the disease, mate.
I love birds.
Then what the fuck
you doing there, man?
- What?
- It's a fucking gay bar.
- (CHUCKLES)
- (LAUGHS)
I met this one bird, yeah?
Hayley. Hayley.
Fucking corporate smoke show.
She fucking threw it on me, man.
Fucking asked me
to go down on her, yeah?
So I do. I fucking look up
she's fucking passed out. (SNIFFS)
Hope you stopped, mate!
- (LAUGHS)
- Fuck off.
- (RISHI SNORTS, GROANS)
- I'm fucking sick of it.
I'm sick of the fucking
forced discourse
between the sexes, right?
Not everything has to be
a fucking minefield these days.
(SNORTS, GROANS)
I mean, she gave me
her fucking consent, man.
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
Can I ask you a really, uh
really prurient question?
- (SONG STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
- (STEREO WHIRRING)
- ("VIENNA" BY ULTRAVOX PLAYING) ♪
- Yeah.
- What was it like (SNIFFLES)
- (CLEARS THROAT)
you know, just, uh,
seeing your wife die like that?
(SONG PLAYING LOUDER) ♪
- What?
- Fucking sorry, mate.
Fucking No Oh!
Whoa! Stupid fucking question.
(SNIFFLES) Forget it.
(SNIFFS)
You dissociated, right?
- Right?
- Yeah. Yeah.
JIM: Mate, I saw
this fucking girl, right,
getting fucking DP'd
on my feed the other day.
You know, these blokes
just fucking (CLAPS, GRUNTS)
Just fucking sharing her, mate.
You know, jacked guys.
Must have been, like, fucking 18 max.
(ECHOES) Yeah,
just black Air Force Ones,
and all tech fleeces,
fucking balaclavas.
You know, the "mandem"
just fucking (GRUNTS)
Just fucking coming all over her face.
Fucking cum, tears,
real fucking horror show,
- you know, mate?
- It's
It's It's like I'm
It's like I'm
I'm I'm watching it,
you know, but
it really isn't me.
- It isn't, uh
- Hey, mate.
Can you fucking turn
the music down, man?
(SONG INTENSIFIES) ♪
This means nothing to me ♪
- (JIM SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
- Oh, Vienna ♪
DIANA RAMDANI: (ECHOES)
the worst kind of person,
because he might be sick and selfish,
but you feed off his sickness.
I bet you have no idea
what it's like to feel love!
JIM: We used to be
creatures of action.
And now well, now
we're just inter-passive
spectators, you know?
RISHI: I never
I never once dreamed of her.
You know, good or or or bad.
because we've become
means of production.
(ECHOES) Right? We just
We just age
without getting old, right?
Stuck on a wheel of production
and consumption.
I mean, it's bread and circuses, man.
Streamed in glorious 4K.
Maybe I should
I should just kill myself.
(CHUCKLING) Eh?
No, man. Suicide, mate?
- Don't make me laugh. (CHUCKLES)
- (LAUGHS)
JIM: You are too selfish
to conceptualize a world
without yourself in it,
having every base need catered for.
Our granddads, yeah?
They used to fucking
paint Marilyn Monroe
on the side of a fucking plane,
and then they'd use that plane
to firebomb Dresden.
They'd be lucky enough to meet
one Marilyn-class type lady
in the flesh in their lives.
But us, man, we fucking jerk off
to a dozen gang-banging,
squirting Marilyns before dawn,
and we wonder why
we don't have the get-up-and-go
to go die in a war.
We're on a ghost ship.
A fucking system that can incorporate
any critique, just turn it
into a marketable commodity.
Didn't think about it, mate.
Nothing has depth.
Nothing has traction. Nothing
Nothing's fucking serious, right?
We're just steam
on a mirror. (SNIFFLES)
You're gonna die
a fucking spectator, yeah?
A priest at the altar
of your own fucking ego.
Oi! Fucking hell, mate.
Turn the fucking music down, will you?
RISHI: You know what?
Go fuck yourself,
- you little fucking slug!
- (LAUGHS)
RISHI: You You You
are like the freak at the afters
who doesn't know
when to shut his fucking hole!
- (LAUGHS)
- RISHI: Why are you laughing?
You don't know
what it's like to be a father!
No, I fucking do, actually, mate.
You know what?
It fucking doesn't change a thing.
You're in his life.
You're out of his life.
- He's fucking damned either way.
- That's such bullshit!
JIM: You know what
I dream about, yeah?
I dream about the fact
that all my friends
are richer than me.
And when I don't dream about that,
I dream about a faceless
fitness influencer
making a pornographic payday
out of her own fucking privacy.
Fucking, mate!
I am not going to ask you again.
Turn the fucking music down, yeah?
- (INHALES SHARPLY)
- And it's on us, man.
We've built an interface
with the world
which gives us what we want,
but not what we want to want.
This means nothing to me ♪
DEZ: Sorry, lads,
I'll, um I will
I've got (HESITATES)
I'll go and get some more beers.
JIM: Fuck yeah.
Good idea.
I like that idea.
(GROANING)
(SIGHS)
- (SNIFFS) We're out.
- (RISHI GRUNTS)
- (SNIFFS)
- I'mma use the gentleman.
I need a slash.
- Oh. (GROANS) Hello!
- (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
("SET YOU FREE"
BY N-TRANCE PLAYING) ♪
- Oh, oh, yeah ♪
- (SNIFFS)
When I hold you, baby ♪
(FAUCET SHUTS OFF)
Feel your heart beat Close to me ♪
(RISHI BREATHES HEAVILY)
When I hold you, baby ♪
Feel your heart beat
Close to me ♪
(SNIFFS, SNORTS)
(GROANS, PANTS)
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
When I wake each morning ♪
And the storm Beats down on me ♪
Mate.
Mate!
Mate? Mate, come on! Mate?
Come on. Come on.
Wake up, wake up, wake up.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
Hey, mate!
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
- (BANGING ON DOOR)
- Shit!
Evening, sir. There's been
a complaint about the noise.
(CHAIN RATTLES)
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
OFFICER 1: Sir? Sir, open the door!
OFFICER 2: Can you please
just open the door, sir?
- Sir!
- (KNOCKING ON DOOR)
OFFICER 1: Sir, open this door.
OFFICER 2: I'm afraid we're
gonna have to breach the door, sir.
Oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪
(BREATHES HEAVILY, GRUNTS)
(GRUNTS, BREATHES SHAKILY)
(LOUD THUDS ECHOING)
(DOOR BREAKING)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER OVER RADIO)
- OFFICER 1: Check down there.
(BREATHES SHAKILY, WHIMPERS)
- OFFICER 2: Clear.
- OFFICER 3: Clear.
- OFFICER 1: Control priority.
- (PANTS)
OFFICER 1: Can I get
an ambulance to hurry up?
We've got an adult male,
unconscious. Not breathing.
Possible drugs overdose.
OFFICER 2: There's a man
on the balcony.
- (BREATHES HEAVILY)
- OFFICER 1: Sir!
Only love can set you free ♪
(BODY THUDDING)
("FOREVER YOUNG"
BY ALPHAVILLE PLAYING) ♪
- (PANTS, GROANS)
- (AMBULANCE SIREN WAILING)
(GASPS, PANTS)
Let's dance in style
Let's dance for a while ♪
(WHIMPERS, BREATHES HEAVILY)
Heaven can wait
We're only watching the skies ♪
- Hoping for the best But expecting the worst ♪
- (GROANS, PANTS)
Are you gonna drop
The bomb or not? ♪
Let us die young
Or let us live forever ♪
We don't have the power
But we never say never ♪
Sitting in a sandpit
Life is a short trip ♪
- OFFICER 2: Show me your hands!
- (WHIMPERS)
OFFICER 2: Put your hands
behind your back now!
Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay.
- Can you imagine When this race is won? ♪
- (HANDCUFFS CLICK)
Turn our golden faces Into the sun ♪
Praising our leaders
We're getting in tune ♪
The music's played
By the the madman ♪
sync & corrections awaqeded
Do you really want
To live forever? ♪
Forever and ever ♪
Forever young ♪
I want to be forever young ♪
Do you really want
To live forever? ♪
Forever young ♪
(INSTRUMENTAL PLAYING) ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪