Fortunate Son (2020) s01e07 Episode Script

Ruby Tuesday

Previously on Fortunate Son - Where are you taking me? - You're in hell.
This guy is on the take.
He's got the church bugged.
That's how he knew about the boat launch.
Who the hell is this Lang guy? What does he want? When your confession is made public, the weight of what you have done will weigh so heavily upon you that you will hang yourself right here in this cell.
- Gonna let you say goodbye to your old man.
- No! He's a traitor and I never want to see him again.
Your son is a hero.
What am I gonna say about work, then? You'll think of something.
You're sure the security guard at the draft board office is off shift.
Yes.
- You ready for this? - Yeah.
Travis? Oh, man I'm sorry, man.
Where have you been, man? I saw the takedown and the trees.
I saw the lights.
In Nam, when we walked into an ambush, we had maybe two seconds before it started, and I just kinda froze, like I was back there.
- You're using again.
- Yeah.
That's okay.
Come here.
You're safe now.
These people! It's like they got halfway through packing and just walked out.
"Oops! Too much trouble, we're out of here".
So I come in for the walkthrough, and oh my goodness! Anyway, I thought: "I have no idea where Santa Marta is".
El Salvador.
You know, I'm not really sure where that is either.
But if there are kids who need clothes and toys, then I am happy to help.
It will be very appreciated.
Thank you.
Pam Teller.
- Fast Sales Realty.
- Hi.
Hi.
- You're doing God's work here, Mrs ? - Uh, Howard.
- Ruby Howard.
- When does this mission ship - leave anyway? - Thursday, we hope.
Well, God bless you folks.
One of these days I'm gonna show up on a Sunday.
That is, if I'm not sitting in open house.
Oh, what's that? That's my card.
Just in case you're ever in the market.
You never know, right? Everybody needs a house sooner or later.
- Hey.
- Hey.
I found Travis.
He's a bit of a wreck.
You said you didn't want me in the house if I was using.
I fell off the wagon, so I stayed away.
Where were you? In the bush, the first night.
After that, I broke into a sailboat at the marina.
We were looking for you.
I didn't want to be found.
You know, I can't explain what happens.
I just shut down when it all floods back like that.
I get I don't know, paralysed.
I just can't be around people.
- Hello? - [Ruby Howard?.]
- Yes.
- [I've got a calico package for you.
.]
I think you have the wrong number.
You need to call the church.
[He asked for you.
Said his name is Calvin.
.]
[Truck's coming across tonight.
.]
[Railyard warehouse, south end, 10PM.
.]
Hey, Ellen! Ellen, wait, please! I don't need to know where you've been, if that's what you're thinking.
I could really care less.
But what you did to my professor? Not okay.
I was handling it myself.
You deserved better.
I filed a formal complaint.
But Triskin reinstated my original mark.
After your visit surprise, surprise.
So now, the whole thing gets swept back under the carpet.
You earned that mark.
Now you've got it.
But the matter's how I got it.
You can't just bully people back or nothing ever changes.
You're too complicated for me, Travis.
I don't want complicated.
I figured it out.
We do the same thing, except at a bank.
More money, the faster we get to Cuba.
No, no, a bank is not the same thing, okay? - It has alarms, it has - Okay, yeah, I know.
There's a panic button under the till.
- But what if they don't push the button? - Why wouldn't they? Well, what if they know the person? No, no! Destiny, you don't know my sister, alright? - She's gonna push the button.
- Yeah, but not right away, which can buy us a couple minutes, which could be the difference - between getting one till and two.
- Look, hey, I'm not gonna rob a bank with you.
That's crazy.
Well, maybe you don't want to go to Cuba.
- Maybe you're changing your mind.
- No! Look, Ralph, I'm doing this.
- You can stay behind if you want to.
- I'm not changing my mind.
I just don't wanna rob my sister's bank, okay? Ralph Revolution is a lifetime commitment.
And if you don't have the stomach for it, that's okay.
Maybe you should just stay behind with your family.
I'm serious.
- Maybe we split up right here - Wait, no, no, no.
I don't want that.
I'm going back to do this.
And then I'm going to Cuba.
Hey.
Wait! Hey, wait! Yes! He's just figured out his enveloppe is missing.
The envelope is gone.
I put it in my desk, - and now it's gone.
- [You took it to the office?.]
[Are you nuts?.]
Nobody looks in my desk.
I keep it locked.
[You want me to replace the money you lost?.]
[Is that why you're calling me?.]
[No.
I mean I just thought that you should know.]
[in case somebody broke into my office and took it.
.]
[Like who?.]
[I don't know!.]
[Maybe it was you.
Maybe you wanted your money back.
.]
Lang, you better be playing me straight here, because I am a very valuable asset and Dammit! Goddamn! What a knob.
Yep.
Hi! - Hey.
- So, Travis is back.
He's got some story about being all messed up from Nam.
You believe him? I'm not sure, but I don't know, I look in his eyes and I don't see it.
I don't see a kid who would betray us, so Maybe I should just tell him he can't stay at the house anymore.
No, no.
If he's informing on us, we don't want him to know we're onto him, - so it's better to keep him close.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- Um, there's something else.
I got a call.
Calvin is on the run and he's coming here.
He used the pipeline to get across and needs us to help him disappear.
What, you want me to help him? Ted, he was your friend too.
- Mm-hmm.
- And he needs us.
We can't afford to have him caught.
- Did you ask him to come here? - No.
No.
He's on the run.
It's genuine.
Okay.
I know this doesn't hold up in court yet, but I will take this to internal affairs.
We've got the cash, we've got the transcripts from the illegal bug in the church, and we've got the wiretap.
Which is also illegal, by the way.
It's not enough.
If Kelly's on the take, who's paying him? Lang.
We don't know what he looks like, who he works for, or where to find him.
We need Lang.
We need proof that an American agent is paying off Kelly to influence Canadian law enforcement on Vietnam draft evaders and deserters.
I don't wanna go in until we get Lang.
If I get fired over this, Laura's gonna kill me.
Okay.
We play our final card.
We flush him out and hope he leads us to Lang.
Yeah.
It's time.
Are you eating baby food? What? It's just sweet potato.
It's good! You want some? Ruby! Come on.
Come on.
Uh, get in the back.
You always knew how to make an entrance.
- What went on in Chicago? - They got inside somehow.
FBI or Daley's undercover cops, I don't know.
This kid shows up one day, starts running errands for us.
After a while, nobody can remember whose little brother he is.
Time goes on, and suddenly shit is going wrong.
Cops are at the rally points before we get there, stuff is disappearing, guys are blaming each other, there's fights and jealousy Everyone is armed to the teeth.
And that kid is there, watching us the whole time.
A few of us were going over to Detroit, so we gathered up at Mike's to get an early start in the morning, and the kid's there too.
But around 11, he says he's going out to pick up some smokes.
Next thing we know, the cops come squealing up and there's bullets just flying everywhere.
Mike starts shooting back.
Pedro too.
I took off and managed to get to the alley.
I knew about your pipeline, so I went to the contact - at the Assumption Church.
- Mike? Mike and Pedro are both dead.
The cops, they came in shooting and they didn't stop.
What's going on down there is police organised murder.
If the Canadian police find you, you'll be extradited.
I need to sleep.
I need time to make a plan.
Sorry to land on your doorstep, Ted.
You got away from all that, and here I come, following you to Canada.
Bad betting.
Obviously we can't tell the kids about this.
We need to keep Travis from finding out.
Just to be safe.
Right? - This is so strange.
- Yeah, well try being in my shoes.
Look, you should bring up some more food tomorrow while I'm at work.
I'll take Travis in, I'll tell him I'm gonna find him a job or something, just to keep him out of the way.
Ruby You need to figure something out for Calvin.
You need to keep him moving.
Hey, do you think they have the same stars in Cuba? Of course.
Yeah, but I mean, they gotta look different because they're so far south, right? It's like the earth is this huge shelter world just you know, spinning around the cosmos and we're just hanging on and trying not to puke.
Oh my god.
I'm getting spun out to the edge of the solar system right now.
What is going on? You are so, so stoned.
Wait, what's a tilt-a-whirl, anyway? - Come on, you don't know? - No.
It's like at the carnival.
It's a ride.
You're so, so young.
Hey, listen, if we do the bank, I mean if we do the bank I don't want anybody to get hurt.
They won't.
Ralph, grab your pack.
We're leaving.
Ralph, Ralph.
Get in.
Shit! Hey! Hey! I'm back in the house.
- They bought your story.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I think so.
But everyone's on edge, paranoid.
I think something's going on.
Ruby and Ted were out late last night and they never do that.
Someone new come across? Maybe.
But Ted never goes on those runs.
If they're meeting someone, it's outside the committee.
We've been hoping Calvin Green would make a run for Ruby.
He's implicated in a double homicide in Chicago.
He shot two of his fellow Panthers.
Could be him.
Well, if it is, what do you want me to do? Find out where they're keeping him.
This is important.
I wanna get my hands on him before they move along.
- You understand? - Yeah.
I'm counting on you.
Yes, sir.
- Hey.
- Good morning.
I made some coffee.
Oh! Great.
You know, I was thinking I'd like to stay busy.
The ship for Santa Marta is leaving soon; - you probably need some help.
- Hey, Travis.
Listen, we've been having some personnel issues at Browning and I know you're looking for work.
Yes, he is.
Well, anyway I was thinking with your interest in engineering maybe I could find something for you.
- Uh, yeah, that'd be great.
- Good.
Well, why don't you come in this morning? I'll see if we can set - Well, I was gonna help Ruby.
- You should go with Ted.
If there's a chance for work, you should grab it.
- Alright, yeah.
Thanks very much.
- Good.
Yeah.
Not now.
- Are you deaf? - Good news, Chief.
We found your envelope.
- You don't know what you're messing with.
- Tell us who Lang is.
Go to hell.
We'd like a credible explanation as to what the hell is going on here.
There are levels of authorisation at work here that you have never even dreamed about.
You try to mess with that and you will both go down so hard there will be nothing left of you but a smudge on the pavement.
I want the contents of that envelope back on my desk within the hour, no more questions asked.
Do you understand? - It's a lot for him to take in.
- True.
I'll tell you what.
We'll come back tomorrow, and if we don't like what we hear, internal affairs can sort it out.
How hard would it be to add a person to a shipment to El Salvador? - Who are we talking about? - The person involved is being framed by the FBI and has to get out of Canada before he's caught - and extradited.
- Ruby, you can't ask this.
It's a relief ship.
I've never told you the reason Ted and I came to Canada, but it involves this person, and his safety is very much related to the safety of my family.
And you've hidden him someplace secure? Yes, he's at Leonard Cho's, so he's safe for now.
I need your help, Sandro.
Okay, here's the HR person.
My office is the first door on the left, just down there.
I'll just be a minute.
- Excuse me? - Who are you? Is this Ted Howard's office? - I said: Who are you? - I'm Ted's nephew, Travis.
Nephew? Really? Sorry for my pissy response, it's all classified information around here - and Parker has all these rules.
- Right.
I see that you two have met.
You never told me you had a nephew.
Uh, I am not allowed to take you into the accelerator area, but I can show you the control room.
Come on.
- See ya.
- Yeah.
The ship will be met by a few smaller fishing boats off of La Libertad.
Some treks have been organised to bring the supplies up here to Santa Marta.
That's where Sandro's from.
The village has been nearly destroyed.
Crops and schools have been burned by the military for harbouring rebels.
You could come with me.
Don't.
It wasn't an accident, you know.
What we had.
It happened for a reason.
And none of that has gone away.
Not for me.
We walked away from each other once.
But I'm not sure I can do it again.
Well, you have to.
It should never have happened and it's not going to happen again.
I'll be back tomorrow once things have been confirmed.
Shit.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
Hey, sorry I'm late.
Flat tire.
Must've run over a nail on the way to work.
So, that was a surprise, meeting your nephew.
Something on your mind? I'm afraid that I've been unfair to you.
Ah, here we go.
What? This is the part where you tell me you're not really attracted to me in that way, that you plan to continue to deny the feelings you've been suppressing for most of your life and carry on with your unhappy marriage.
I consider you a friend, and I've felt in need of a friend these past months, these weeks in particular, and maybe that's why I haven't been totally honest with you.
And I like feeling wanted, I guess.
But I can't want you back in the same way.
So I suppose the choice is yours now, because I do value this friendship and I would like to believe that it can continue, but if for you it can't, I just wanna tell you how sorry I am.
I can be a dangerous friend.
What do you mean, this? I don't care about this.
Hey.
I have lots of dangerous friends.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- You went out for drinks? - Mm-hmm.
I thought you were gonna keep Travis away from the house.
Yeah, I did.
I got his application in, I showed him around; that should've given you ample time to see Calvin.
- Is Travis back? - Yeah, he's upstairs.
Okay.
What's the plan for Calvin? Sandro's agreed to let him go on the ship to Santa Marta.
He'll be off the FBI's radar down there.
That's good.
If I could take back what happened in Petersburg, you know I would.
You and I were a good team for a while.
Yeah.
In fact, you were the radical one when we first met.
Mad bomb, that was all you.
That's a long time ago.
I loved your politics.
I loved your way of looking at world affairs.
You had this incredible enthusiasm.
People just wanted to be around you all the time.
Everybody.
They did.
You always seemed to see the bigger picture and know exactly what to do.
It was hard to resist.
You were always about causing a reaction.
Just any kind of reaction.
We made each other better.
Yeah.
We don't have to lose that, you know.
It's still our choice.
I'm not sure it is.
What are you looking at? Birds.
There were so many kinds of birds over in Vietnam.
I just didn't recognise any of them.
Beautiful colours, long tail feathers, strange sounds Nothing was familiar.
Not like these.
I know these birds.
It got so we didn't even know each other.
The guy beside you turned into something you just couldn't recognise.
What happened to you? What did they make you do? They're orders.
You can't say no.
- Oh, hey.
- Hey.
How was the concert? - It was good.
I missed you.
- You were only gone - for a few days.
- Yeah, well You look exhausted.
I knew you were gonna do too much acid.
Actually, I think I did.
Look, I know you don't really give a shit what I think, so That's not true, Ellen.
I mean, you think the wrong things, but you know, I still care.
If you're waiting for Mom and Dad to come and show you what you're supposed to be doing with your life, it's not gonna happen, okay? They have their own shit going on.
Seriously, you need to figure out - some kind of plan for yourself.
- I did.
I'm gonna work in a commune.
I'm saying this because I care about you.
I mean, you're my idiot brother, but we've been through a lot together.
I'm gonna miss you.
Alright.
Never mind.
Hey, Ellen, you uh you working today? Of course I am, Ralph.
I work every day.
- You should try it sometime.
- Maybe you should take the day off.
I don't know, you've fallen sick or something.
- Well? - Yeah.
- She's working today.
- Excellent.
Okay, so we're gonna keep this really simple.
We'll pull up to your sister's till, then the other one.
We can probably only spend, like, three minutes in there, tops, but look at what I got.
I found this water pistol on the playground.
Not bad, huh? I'm not gonna do this.
- She's my sister.
- Ralph, this is this is the dirty money that drives the war in Vietnam, you know? This is the money - that keeps the working class in poverty.
- I'm not doing it.
I'll go with you to Cuba.
I just can't rob my sister's bank.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Why don't you go back to the cabin and I'll come back for you later? Ralph It's okay.
I love you.
Have a wonderful day.
- You okay? - Yeah.
Okay.
What can I help you with today, sir? Can I help you? - Oh my god.
- Empty the till.
Where's Ralph? He's waiting for me.
He'll be fine.
We're going to Cuba.
Just quickly empty the till and let me walk out.
No.
You're not going to Cuba.
You're not doing this.
- It's not your money.
- It's not yours either.
Ellen, we can do this the quiet way or we can do this the loud way.
Do not touch that button.
You don't want Ralph to get caught, do you? Everybody, get on the floor! I've got a gun! You! Open the till! Open the till! - Do what she says! - Okay, okay, okay.
- Come on! - I'm trying! Get on the floor! Excuse me.
Any distinguishing features? Hair colour, for example.
- I don't know.
- Because Mrs.
Montgomery said she had red hair, kind of hippie type? Does that sound about right to you? I don't know.
So you didn't press the panic button for two whole minutes.
- How come? - I I don't know.
Okay.
So far, the answer to every one of my questions has been "I don't know", so let's try this.
Could you recognise the person? I don't know.
Is it someone you know? Someone who hangs around with your brother, maybe? Hippie type girl with red hair? Should I just put down "I don't know" to that? Excuse me for a second.
It was Destiny.
- How do you figure? - She told me.
Uh, okay.
Uh - Hey.
- Hey.
So, it's all confirmed.
- You'll have to work on the ship.
- Of course.
And you'll need to stay in Santa Marta for several months.
The villagers there will take care of you, but as far as they're concerned, you're a Canadian aid worker bringing much-needed supplies.
When will I see you again? The ship leaves Thursday.
I'll take you there.
I meant after that.
You and I won't be in contact anymore.
Your kids are grown, Ruby.
You don't have to stay with Ted.
You could get on that ship with me and we could start a new life together.
No.
You remember what it felt like to do something important? To be together? I know you do.
I think about that night in Petersburg all the time.
I think about the fight Ted and I had before you and I left, and I think about the guilt that hasn't gone away, even now.
And I remember a very mutual attraction.
There are no rules anymore, Ruby.
It's a new world.
No, there are no rules, but there is regret and there are consequences.
- A boy died that night.
- A security guard! While we were saving the lives of hundreds of drafted young black men.
- You threw the can of gas on the fire! - I was angry.
- You told us that the building was cleared.
- It happened! Now, I'm sorry the security guard died, but I'm not sorry about what we did that night and I'm not sorry about what happened between us.
I am.
So so you just used me, is that it? - You got in a fight with your husband.
- Stop it.
Well, what else am I supposed to think? Be ready to get on that ship on Thursday.
I'll make sure you're on it safely, and then that's the end between us.
- [Yes?.]
- I have something for you.

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