[Wendy] Previously on Billions...
It's been said one is either a hammer
or an anvil.
Good people have been the anvil for too long.
I've been seeing an outside psychiatrist.
Respectfully, this is separate from what you do.
[Dr. Mayer] I've been expecting you.
Rustle someone's cattle, they're gonna come looking.
I can't afford to let Chuck Rhodes
revert to his nature.
So, you're feeding him some red meat
so you know exactly where he's coming from.
This is Michael Prince's Super PAC filing.
What did you learn?
Potential violation of 52 USC 30121.
I'm not in the market for a performance coach.
I was suggesting therapy.
[Chuck] Time to send a message.
Let's open an investigation on Michael Prince.
Chuck Rhodes is charging us for violations on the Super PAC.
Game on, then.
Nothing for him at the end of that road.
But I have decided that he is dangerous,
and I can't be part of another strongman
entering the world stage.
Before all that stuff-of-life happens,
we are going to win cases aplenty.
I goddamn guarantee you that.
[twangy guitar music]
[sirens in distance]
Hi, my name is John G., and I'm a gambling addict.
[all] Hi, John.
[John] This seemed legit. Proper.
That's what I kept telling myself
to shut down the other voice
telling me to run the other way.
NFTs are an investment, right?
Not a gamble. According to Gary Vee
and all those other guys.
And that is probably true...
for some folks.
Regular folks.
But I should have recognized the rush.
The hunger. That deep-seated...
secret need to lose.
Just lose.
And those shady fucking guys.
Well, there was one shady fucking guy.
Eh, computer nerd. Taiwanese.
Kal Huang Liu.
He had amazing bona fides, but...
he turned out to be a motherfucker.
Scamster.
And I--I can't do anything about it
'cause his daddy is some Asian tycoon
with more lawyers than I've got ass pimples, so, um...
[groans]
So, now I am back to zero.
Less than zero, like that movie says.
And back in G.A. rooms, counting days.
Shit.
Uh, thanks for listening.
Tough one, kid.
Oh, thanks.
You know, it, uh, was Elvis Costello
who came up with "Less Than Zero"
before that, uh, vampire at Bennington did.
[exhales]
Just another thing I fucked up.
No! You're turning it around.
That's why you're here. Why I'm here.
Yeah. Plus, this meeting has the best coffee.
I take an extra train just to drink it
instead of the weak shit that the other meetings have.
Warms my heart.
This is my samovar.
Hm.
I keep it in the closet.
Life's too short for bad coffee.
[chuckles] Yeah.
Wanna tell me a little more about what happened to you?
These ears are for listening to more than just
old British New wave.
[door crashes open]
[man over TV] Whatever it is I'm doing that you don't like,
I'll stop doing it.
[silenced gunshot]
[grunts]
Oh, he is so going down.
Nah, they never do. They know how to brace.
[TV reporter grunting]
Thousand bucks he falls.
These winds are--are like nothing I've ever--
Ronnie, are you all right out there?
Five thou he falls.
Additional two on a head injury.
Booked.
This storm is a doozy.
It was originally predicted to be
a high Category Three hurricane,
low Category Four at a maximum,
but I wouldn't be surprised
if newer reports put it even higher.
And you think we could be dealing with a Cat Five here?
- [groans] - Ouch!
- Yes! - Ronnie, do we still have you?
My Venmo handle is--
LuckBox16. I got it.
You guys.
[reporter] I'm not sure if he can hear us.
Ronnie, do we have you?
[Ronnie] Can you hear me?
We thought we lost you for a second.
Bet my nuts it reaches Cat Five.
Care to make it interesting?
My nuts are fascinating, but how 'bout we go ten grand?
Done.
Whoa. Quick on the draw there.
For a Cat Five, the winds have to be
at least 157 miles per hour.
That's, like, airborne livestock level.
Did you see that motherfucker?
He went down like Dafoe in Platoon,
and they haven't even named the storm yet.
I want in.
Five it goes Cat Five, another three they name it Rachel.
This is really dark, you guys.
Eight K it stays Cat Four,
and five they call her Rosie,
spelled R-O-S-I-E.
So, we're betting on whether or not
people are gonna lose their homes?
That's what we've come to?
Oh, we're already there. Embrace it.
You know, I am kind of okay with this.
Jesus! Wow. Okay.
Learn something about yourself in the strangest times.
I'll throw a fiver on over a million evacuees
leaving in the next 48 hours,
and twelve grand it gets to Cat Five.
And three they name it Rosy, but spelled with a y.
You can't judge, then join--
I'll donate a portion to charity.
Oh, please. There are no good Nazis.
[reporter] The National Weather Service has just announced
their moniker for this surging storm:
Hurricane Rosie.
That's bullcrap!
That's I-E, baby. You owe me, Rian.
You too, Kim.
Five thou in honor of my Nonna Rosalia,
and I want it in cash, just like she would've.
If Rosie hits Category Five, it's going to cost you all
a lot more than those bets.
Southern Property & Casualty
is one of the major insurers down there.
Mike Prince holds several billion worth
of catastrophe bonds issued by them.
If you degenerates were all better acquainted
with Mike Prince's diversified holdings,
you wouldn't be reveling.
Dollar Bill started it.
Yeah, but you doofuses should've known better.
I just got back.
How fucked are we?
Once they declare Cat Five, the bonds are triggered
and used to pay claims.
That's a buzzcut for our total capital.
So, make like Costner in Waterworld
and start praying for dry land.
Anyone who thinks this ends up Cat Five,
you got the ass end of the bet.
Nice. Karl, this is exactly what we're looking for.
DOJ likes to flash. Trendy, visible, winnable.
- Hm. - Yep.
The kid, Kai Huang Liu,
sells sham NFTs,
then erases the point of sale
and launders the proceeds through crypto.
Mm-hmm. Fits the mandate to crack down on crypto fraud.
You don't even know the best part yet.
Tell us the kicker.
Can't wait to.
I've been trawling these gambler anon meetings
for years, just waiting for something good to come--
Please say you actually have a problem
because if you just go to the meetings to solicit--
Yeah, please have a story in your pocket
about losing the rent on, uh, you know,
"Pinochle broke me," something of the sort.
[chuckles] Pinochle broke me.
- [scoffs] - [Allard] Yeah.
I'd swear to it under oath.
Now. Wanna see the kicker?
Mm-hmm.
Liu's pop is a mega-billionaire. Industrialist.
Does thrice-yearly deals with none other
than Michael Prince himself.
[chuckles]
They've been in deep for over a decade.
If we pinch the kid,
they all look real bad.
Karl, that's not just a kicker,
that's a Tom Dempsey.
I'm unfamiliar.
Had half a foot, kicked with a special sawed-off shoe.
Still made 60-yard field goals.
Then, yeah, that's this.
We can get you a warrant for the kid right away, Karl.
Good. Go scoop him up.
"Ooh, a storm is threatening,"
as geriatric Jagger croons.
Are there any actions you'd like me to take
in the face of potentially massive payouts?
No action. We work with whatever happens.
We could likely get rocked.
Then we get rocked.
Ah. Of course.
Other circumstances take precedent.
As they should.
I always liked the way Obama referred to Biden
as his partner publicly,
even though we all knew he was barely listening to the V.P.
when they were in private.
I think Biden would have preferred the opposite.
And, uh, Scooter isn't actually your partner
in owning the business.
No, but...
I'd listen to him as though he were.
I-I truly think of him that way.
And I try to reward him as such.
You find ways to reaffirm your trust and loyalty,
so it continues to be returned in kind.
Yes, but also I love the guy.
That's why made the winning bid at the symphony charity auction:
Scooter's gonna conduct the Philharmonic.
I'm gonna bring him on stage,
introduce him, really blow it out.
I see why that seems like the thing to do.
And for you and Scooter, holistically,
it is the thing to do.
But classical music is pussy music.
That's insane.
Not to the voters.
And to them, people who like it...
are pussies.
Including you.
It's like this.
Al Capone can cry at Pagliacci
'cause he's having a guy murdered at the same time.
Also because he's being played by Robert De Niro.
Anyone else is... effete.
Uh, you used a different word before she walked in the room.
His idiolect changes based on who he wants to affect.
We've barely met, how can you--
I'm a professional evaluator of people,
so I thin-sliced it and--
Well, I'm a professional evaluator of people
and a comms strategist. Words--
Jesus, you-you like shaking people up, don't you?
Like it? I don't know. Just happens.
This is about Scooter conducting.
Regardless what word we use, yeah.
No chamber music for you or Scooter. I have to veto it.
First of all, you don't have veto power.
Second, orchestral, not chamber.
Third, I'm not effete.
Yeah, Mike's no pussy.
[Prince] See?
- I was a college athlete. - Uh-huh.
So, let's throw out the first pitch somewhere that night
instead of going to the concerto.
You think one night at the Phil
is gonna have that much negative impact?
It's not one night.
It's the conversation surrounding it.
Who's your favorite female conductor?
Marin Alsop, Baltimore Symphony.
I hate that you have that answer so fast.
Okay, Baltimore,
who's your favorite Oriole?
Mussina. Even though he retired a Yankee.
Favorite now?
Baseball's kind of dead.
Tell him.
You understand this shit, right?
'Cause as a professional thin slicer of people, you know
classical music makes people feel dumb.
Some people. Absolutely.
But are those people Prince voters anyway?
Big tent.
Let's not write anyone off yet.
Then cancel any and all involvement with the symphony
until they play you into the job
at your inauguration.
But we should have Bocephus anyway.
Wendy, do you have a real lean here?
Michael Prince is a maverick who rewrites the rules.
That's what works for him.
For you.
I don't see why candidate Prince would switch that up.
After all...
he is the buck.
I'm telling you, you've gotta walk this back.
Nope. Gonna march it forward.
Eyes up!
Scooter, stand with me.
Team: this man.
This man of many disciplines, many skills, many talents,
is about to showcase a hidden one.
Two weeks from tomorrow,
he will conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
I'll be introducing him.
All of you will be there cheering him on.
[cheers and applause]
I was really enjoying your fucking act
until you Joe Theismanned my ass.
Like Lawrence Taylor.
- That's what they pay me for. - Hm.
Look, you gotta know you're not always gonna
get your way with him. It's not how we--
You think I'm pissed because I didn't get my way?
Thank you. Thank you.
It means a lot to have the well wishes of this team.
I think you're frustrated because Prince isn't pliable
the way most of your candidates probably are.
They don't start out that way.
But I tell them what to do. They do it. And then they win.
I don't appease.
I don't coax and massage
the way, say, a therapist might.
I look like I get out the scented oils
and Dead Can Dance CDs before I rub your shoulders?
The verbal equivalent. Yeah.
And, uh, I have something for you
to commemorate this moment--
Belonged to Leonard Bernstein.
Greatest of the greats.
This is your time, Scoot.
So proud of you.
[chuckles]
I have been preparing for this opportunity for a long time,
silently, quietly, in my waking dreams.
But I never knew it would come to fruition.
Thank you, Mike.
It would be my honor to share this with you all.
I promise not to disappoint.
Yeah!
[applause]
But for real, though,
your job here, if we boil it down,
is to make everyone else's life a little better, right?
Remove the obstacles in their way.
In a sense.
Today, though, you made mine worse.
Look, he called me in.
To do the thing that I do for him. Not you.
'Cause whatever it was he was getting from you,
it clearly wasn't enough.
If we can connect Eric T. to the real estate fraud,
maybe he'll roll.
We get big sister up from Indian Creek Island,
she finally gets revenge on pops
for ruining her social standing.
[knock on door]
A second, boss.
One moment, Ms. Torre.
Ira.
- Kid's gone. - Gambling kid or criminal kid?
- The scammer. - When you say "gone"?
Got a warrant, entered his place with the agents. Gone.
Either tipped off or knew he'd pushed it.
Phone's off, too.
Figure he's gone to ground?
No. Billionaire's kid, you said.
They don't go to ground, they flee the jurisdiction.
They sure do. Karl...
get Ms. Torre off whatever she's working on
and onto this, interfacing with the agents,
checking ships, yachts,
airplane manifests, all of it.
Ground the family crafts.
If Elon Musk is prototyping jet suits,
find out if our guy's flying one of those back home.
Come on.
When you try to drip poison in someone's mouth,
he may turn his head.
And then a clean kill can turn very messy.
And before long, you have Dan Aykroyd
double barreling semi-automatics at your face.
Ah, yes. Uh, Grosse Pointe Blank.
You know, from treating all your colleagues--
and I can say this without breaking confidence,
since that is what brought you to me in the first place--
I have gotten to revisit so many fine films.
This one I missed first time around,
but I enjoyed it.
Even if its commentary on ambition in the work force
is a bit heavy handed.
I mean, even Shakespeare laid it on a bit thick
when he was really trying to make a point.
Still effective.
which play comes to mind? Answer quickly.
Um, Richard III.
Another work about an assassin of sorts.
I'm sensing a theme.
Yes. Now that I said it...
ah, you asked on purpose to s--
That's good.
Yes, now that I said it, I do feel a bit like...
Richard these days, if more justifiably motivated.
The real Richard was in quite the tough spot.
His family would have lost the throne if he didn't act.
Well, that's the question one asks oneself, isn't it?
If the damage, intended or collateral, is justified--
or even when you know it is justified,
if you can live with the collateral damage.
Change the "you" to "I" when using examples.
It's difficult to do, but try it.
I have to do some things.
I am doing some things that I deem...
necessary.
And these things will help
many, many people.
But they will hurt some other people.
Fewer.
But the hurt ones are folks that I know and care about.
So... guilt.
Well, it's strange
because guilt usually rears up when you--
when I-- do bad things, things that I know are wrong.
But this is different. Justified. And yet--
That's why the trolley problem takes up so many class sessions
when it's taught at Harvard.
We are feeling creatures,
even if it often seems as though we are not.
So, we know we should only
divert the runaway trolley if more people will live,
yet we hesitate if we learn too many nice things
about any one potential victim.
Right. So, how do I execute what I need to,
all the little moves,
knowing that I'm gonna do real harm to people
who've done nothing to earn that fate?
What more can you tell me? In specific.
You've heard that Michael Prince
is running for president?
Well, the thing is, I'm in a position
to really know what damage he will do--
actually, I know what his own conscious mind
doesn't know yet about what damage he will do.
Of course.
It's bad.
For the country. For the world.
He needs to be stopped.
And I'm one of the few people
who can maybe do the stopping.
But...
to do so requires...
Yeah. The very people I've promised to help.
And a few people I've come to really like...
are gonna pay a real price,
Some of them are my other patients.
Yes.
Then... [clears throat] ...for ethical reasons,
we'll need to stop here.
You asked me the questions that brought us here.
I mean, you practically challenged me
to sit here with you,
and now you're going to abandon me?
You wrestling with your ethical dilemma
is not a reason for me to create one of my own.
I'm sorry,
but this is the end of our session.
We found Kai Huang Liu's name
on a private jet manifest.
Shit. Did it take off?
It did.
And yet a slight Russell Ziskey smile
dances around your face, Karl.
Because I know whose jet it is.
And when you find out, you, too,
will get your Ziskey on.
Ready for it.
Kai Huang Liu is on one of Michael Prince's jets.
Prince lent our perp his plane?
Accessory after the fact.
- At least. - Where's the plane now?
Still in U.S. airspace, but we can assume
they're headed to Taipei.
Don't assume. Find out.
I've got a guy at the FAA.
He can update us with nav reports every half hour.
Hm, not good enough.
I have to know how far they can get without needing to refuel.
And background on the pilot. Maybe he'll cooperate.
Prince is gonna deny any prior knowledge of wrongdoing.
We'll worry about that when we get the kid in custody.
Prince has a federal fugitive on his plane.
We have him in violation of 181071.
First, let's indict Liu.
Warrant's still in effect, but we can't serve it
when the perp is 30,000 feet up.
Can we scramble fighter jets and bring them down?
[scoffs] Whoa, Chuck.
I know you mean force the plane to land.
[chuckles] Do I?
Yes, for the record, I do.
[Chuck sighs]
Okay, uh...
Start by alerting the FAA
we have a warrant for Liu's arrest.
They'll notify the pilot of a mandatory return
to his point of departure.
I say wait until they land.
Taiwan is highly cooperative in extraditing to the U.S.
They'll send him back, we'll hold him in jail, pending trial.
Put a lot of pressure on everyone.
I don't want to involve international authorities.
Opens political avenues outside my control,
gives Prince too much room to insulate himself.
[Amanda] Are you sure, sir?
Once that plane leaves our airspace,
it expands the menu of charges we can hit Prince with
- from a hot-dog cart to Denny's. - No.
Let's not make this too elaborate.
Simple story is best.
Okay.
I guess I get that.
My self-defense teacher always says don't go
for the back-spinning heel kick
when you can just knee him in the sack.
Quite so.
You need to ground your plane, Mike.
FAA just reached out.
Which one? And why?
The Bombardier.
who has the Bombardier in the air right now?
Mr. Liu's chief of staff called
and asked for a flight to Taiwan.
His plane had a mechanical issue.
We offered the courtesy.
The courtesy? I mean, my friends and I ask
when we borrow each other's cars.
Mr. Liu pays for the gas and crew when he uses it.
We offer this to him and a few others like him.
He does the same for us.
Well, that's the what, Kate. The why?
An arrest warrant was issued for a passenger on board.
Some kind of a federal offense.
Scooter, raise the pilot for me.
- [line rings] - [man] Yes, sir?
Who's in the air with you now? How many?
Just one passenger. Male. Liu. 22.
No, Kai's 50.
It's the son.
His office said it was for dad.
Of course they did.
He must have used the fact that they have the same name
as a workaround on the manifest.
Fuel status?
We're at 1900 gallons.
Nine more hours in the air.
Enough to get us to the Aleutians to refuel.
No, not anymore. Kill the in-flight monitors first.
Then I want you to fly a loop.
A big one he can hardly feel.
No, no, don't instruct them to--
You can't, Mike.
Stay within US borders, continental,
and keep a clear margin.
I want you to hold that pattern until I can figure out
what the frick is really happening here.
Don't talk to anyone else.
All orders will be direct.
This is Chuck coming after me.
They seem to be keeping the plane in the air.
[Chuck] Pull in our contact at the FAA,
get transcripts of all communication between the pilot
and air traffic, maybe we can learn something.
By not immediately ordering his plane to land,
Prince just ticked off two of the three criteria
for the federal crime of aiding a fugitive.
Mm-hmm.
Defendant's actions were intended to prevent
the fugitive's discovery; and the defendant committed
one or more physical acts-- phone call counts--
to help the fugitive avoid arrest.
It's close to enough to indict Prince already.
All right. Officially indict the kid.
Then, yeah, begin preparing charges against Prince.
And do it Cannonball Adderley style--with tempo.
This is a diplomatic and P.R. disaster.
No, this is a prosecutor harassing a private citizen.
I am all for fighting, but once the FAA,
operating on instructions from the Department of Justice,
orders a plane down, plane needs to come down.
Then we can defend our position.
If the order is legitimate to begin with.
Yes. But first, the order needs to be obeyed.
Aiding a fugitive. That's what they'll whack you with.
I just lent out my plane.
And it was borrowed under false pretenses.
If it doesn't stick in court,
it will in the papers. Like pine tar.
Might stick in court, too.
Let's get the plane to ground,
hand over the kid. Simple as it gets.
Nothing's ever that simple.
Mike and Liu are not just "in business."
They've made billions together,
with agreements that will make billions more.
Plus, we're friends. Trading partners.
And if I hose my trading partner in the way you're suggesting,
no one will ever want to do business with me again.
Also, it won't look good to the business types
whose votes we're courting.
Well, this is a big, hairy
ball-aching problem.
Is that an official political term?
Paints a more vivid picture than "international incident."
[scoffs]
I'm in the process of taking over the national stage,
and while I didn't get here by folding to the first flunky
that gave me an order,
I suppose I can try to work within the parameters.
Kate, can you get somewhere with Chuck directly?
Go to him as though we're complying,
see if there's any way we can get the focus off of us.
Eh, worth a shot.
I'll at least get our point of view on the record with him.
Still no official category designation as of now
but at this point, all signs are pointing
to a Category Five.
So, we're all just gonna sit here and watch
our comp plummet by a third?
Yeah, if it's rated Cat Five, it's gonna be worse than that.
Southern Property & Casualty's about to make us her bitch.
Last Cat Five was years ago.
They may not wanna scare the public.
They don't get to decide.
They just report what it is.
Winds were up to 172 miles per hour.
Rating's empirical. As you just said,
this quarter's screwed.
Maybe the whole year.
[reporter] Breaking news from the National Weather Service.
Shh! Shh! Everyone!
Despite recent readings and reports,
due to the Milch-Bouchard Effect,
a rare phenomenon that causes
inaccurate wind strength readings,
Rosie is officially designated a Category Four hurricane,
not a Category Five as projected.
[sighs]
And once storms hit land, they weaken.
This thing is staying at 4.
[sighs] Madonn', that was close.
[reporter continues low]
I almost had a panic attack.
I thought I heard wheezing.
Pay up, DB!
That's ten Gs from you to me.
You don't have Zelle on push notifications?
Check your account. It's already there.
Nice. Thanks, Bill.
Don't-- Don't thank me.
You won a bet.
Only time I've ever been happy to lose one.
You got off cheap. We all did.
Don't wanna think about if the Cat score went the other way.
Prayers up to Thor, Zeus,
and of course, Oh Mighty Isis:
Thank you for getting Southern Property & Casualty
off the hook.
Is that who you're chalking it up to?
Huh. Fascinating.
You knew.
I know many things.
The delicate smell of a Manzanilla sherry
cask whiskey.
What a point-six waist to hip ratio
looks like from fifteen yards away.
The exact years Susan Anton was partial to mustaches.
"Ass end of it," you said.
And our catastrophe bonds are now suddenly safe.
Like that warden in Shawshank said,
"It's a miracle. Praise the Lord."
Only he said it sarcastically
because he knew it was no miracle
the prisoner had disappeared from his cell.
That it was a secret, calculated effort.
Andy Dufresne's escape was a meticulously planned,
very-difficult-to-work-out, very smart operation.
How did you know?
I saw the issue coming,
so I took steps as I saw fit
for the benefit of the enterprise.
What steps could possibly change
the climatological reality
of an in-process hurricane?
It's all in your core.
- All right, just keep... - All right, bye.
Hey, babe!
You never visit me at the gym.
Never even go to the gym.
I missed you so much I had to come to this
godforsaken land of musk and grotesque effort
- to see you. - [chuckles]
Whoa, that's Roker!
[instructor] Yeah, that was great, man.
- Mr. Roker. - Yeah.
I had forgotten you shared this hour with Chelz.
- It's good to see you. - Good to see you, Wagster.
You want to work in?
No, I never sweat before bedtime.
[chuckles] Look, Al, I need you
to enlighten me on all things hurricane.
Okay, hit me.
How exactly do they get rated?
Wags, this is a multi-agency process.
You've got the National Weather Service,
you've got the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, you've even got the Air Force!
They fly these special planes called Hurricane Hunters,
right into the storm.
They take real-time data,
relay it back to the National Hurricane Center.
It's there, they crunch the numbers
and come up with a hurricane's category.
So, it's a person who makes the actual call.
Exactly.
Fantastic.
See?
While science may be empirical,
bureaucracy is not.
And anywhere human error is in effect,
well, that's where I get busy.
You paid off the hurricane grader.
She's a woman of science,
who happens to be set up with
quite a charitable research grant
when she retires next year.
[Prince] Get him now!
Now!
He wants to see you.
Now, I'm guessing?
If I asked you to guess at what my priorities are,
how would you enumerate them?
Your daughters first. Then--
Don't muck around. Besides family.
You want me to say the presidency.
I'm already fighting my butt off
so some BS aviation scandal doesn't knock me out.
I never thought the bigger threat would come from--
Inside the house. Sure. Not what's happening.
Do you think before you act?
Are you capable of that?
Depends what's in my system. But usually, yes.
Wrong answer. Impulsivity would at least be an excuse.
Okay. Let's go with that, then.
But let's stipulate that my mélange of foresight
and impulsivity is precisely why
I am bespoke for my role here.
I think fast, act faster.
You don't get a special pass for being who you are.
This isn't like extra time on your ACT.
I took the SAT like a real man.
I didn't need to make excuses
for myself then, and I won't now.
Wags, change gears.
They feel there's reason to fire you for cause.
He's going to fire me for single-handedly
saving him from losing
the gross domestic product of Bhutan?
No, because you only had enough theory of mind
to consider one small facet of the issue.
It doesn't take a Kasparov to see the problem you caused.
Thousands of people's homes just got blown away.
Southern Casualty is up to its neck in claims,
and Mike's bonds are pristine.
The press will paint him as a Wall Street scammer
who protected his money at the expense of citizens in need.
If anyone finds out what you've done, my run is G.D. over!
But if those bonds were triggered,
it would have reduced the floor and fund
to stringy, bloody carnage.
We were facing an Act of God. I responded in kind!
[Luke] You think you're a god,
but you caused a domestic crisis
on top of our international crisis
and upcoming cultural crisis.
You're a fucking liability.
Thus spoke the politician.
But I'm a businessman!
Money is politics. Especially mine.
You work for both now.
Then I should have been told what the shot was.
You shouldn't have to be told.
What's bad for the campaign is bad for MPC.
And me. Hurting one hurts all.
Okay.
it's true that now, by the light of day,
I get that there might have been a corner or two
I didn't see completely around.
Good. I think we can all agree
that accepting blame for this and growing from it is change.
That's good for everyone.
Yes. No doubt.
My bad.
I know you know I was trying to help.
I suppose I actually do.
We all do.
Good. And now I will get back to it.
[clears throat]
You know, I was just wondering why you had them call me
to ground the plane instead of having
the FAA call the pilot direct.
Well, I was doing you the courtesy,
before making an incident out of it.
No, you knew you could embarrass Prince
just by having his plane turn around.
But instead, you took the bigger shot,
hoping that he'd defy your order--
that Prince himself would. But...
'Course, Prince would never defy an order like that.
Yet the plane still flies.
Just a holding pattern.
There's a hurricane ripping through the Eastern Seaboard,
in case you hadn't noticed. Flight paths are a mess,
which is why he merely instructed the pilot
to stay in the air until it was safe...
to return.
Follow me, Ms. Sacker.
Come on.
Ira, where are we with the charges?
Full steam ahead.
Preconditions for the crimes have been met.
No, you didn't walk me in here for this.
You walked me in here to see that.
I could say I'd forgotten it was up.
Chuck.
You used to run a tight enough office
that your murder boards were covered when visitors
were anywhere in the building.
I run a transparent shop now.
- So, no need. - Hm.
Did you want me to walk you through
why every one of these leads on Mike Prince
- is a dead end, or...? - Nah, save us both the time.
What you need to know is this:
we're not merely watching and waiting to pounce.
We're gonna tell you what we're gonna do,
and then we're gonna do it.
No stealth needed, especially in this case,
because Kai Huang Liu is a fugitive.
And he's on your guy's plane instead of in my custody
because he's a billionaire's buddy.
Hm. You can't arrest people for having family friends.
If you could, your father's connections would've had you
locked up before your career even started.
Enjoying the privilege of our fathers is something you,
I, and Liu the younger all share.
What sets us apart from him
is we haven't committed crimes under the assumption
that our father's wealthy cronies
are gonna help us get away with it.
No jury's gonna be sympathetic to a rich kid
pulling an NFT scam, not these days.
Neither will they be sympathetic to Prince
colluding to help that progeny avoid justice.
Except no jury's ever gonna hear this case
because you can't prove that my client had prior knowledge
of Mr. Liu's wrongdoing, because he had none.
Let alone prove that Prince knew of your perp's intent to flee,
because he didn't.
You spin faster than a Barry Zito curveball,
but that won't matter once we get Liu back.
I don't need to. I have unassailable evidence:
A decade of my client and Liu Senior
borrowing each other's planes as needed
without direct prior contact,
and Prince's complete phone and email records
from the last 48 hours
proving he had no knowledge of the incident before it occurred,
all of which we will provide voluntarily.
No subpoena necessary.
Hm.
So, what are you offering?
Nothing. Prince will either land that jet now,
or he will go down
like the Rosenbergs in the press.
Or as Aldrich Ames, for anybody
who can't remember the Rosenbergs.
And for those who can't remember Aldrich Ames?
As a fucking traitor.
Oh, you're right, you are transparent now.
Go run back and tell him.
Let me know what he says.
Unless he has the gristle to face me himself.
[door closes]
Lot of good feeling down there about the hurricane situation,
though I imagine it played differently up here.
Of course you do.
I remember your mother telling me that you taught
the members of your chess club how to play poker
in, what, sixth grade?
So that by the time they were in high school
and had some spending money,
they'd be ready to lose it to you.
Sometimes you see the way a game should be played.
And the B-side to that is by the time I was in 11th grade,
I'd decided to save the money I'd won
and throw them all a party-- all of us--
at the end of senior year
because I felt bad about taking the money.
Because you wanted them to know that you could have kept it
but chose to give it back in high style.
No surprise you understand both sides of the insurance problem.
But I came up here for a different reason.
To tell you that you are doing something
that I did not see coming.
Conducting, man!
I'm so psyched about it. I told Mom.
She told the rest of the fam. They're all gonna come.
I'm flying 'em in.
I'll defray the cost of that.
No way. I want to do it.
Since Prince already gave you the baton,
let me make this gift to you.
Man, that baton.
Such a moving gesture.
But also-- and I can only admit this to family--
my throat went dry when I saw it.
- My palms were slick. - That's good.
When was the last time you were nervous?
Been a long time since something mattered this much to me.
And to me alone.
I figured. And I'm happy about it for you.
Yeah.
I am, too.
You see this shit?
If you don't know this is a disaster, you need lessons.
Everything with you people is a disaster.
Or a make-or-break moment.
Just lumping me in with every other politico like that, huh?
What distinguishes you?
There's a question you should have asked before
just deciding where to classify me.
I would think before you therapize someone,
you do an intake, right?
Well, that's also what human beings do when we meet someone,
so we see them beyond just their profession.
Do your job.
see Prince through the Taiwan thing and the hurricane mess.
Then, if you're still here,
maybe I'll take the time.
I-I don't want to sit in that chair
only to have to leave again
before we get anything done.
I came because you texted.
Out of respect.
And maybe to formally say goodbye.
I understand.
You know, if you asked me to tell you
the most challenging work of my career,
it might have been when I was treating an Army chaplain.
This man counseled officers
who sent men to die in battle.
His work centered around removing their guilt.
And as a result, he took it all on himself.
And he had found that his prayers and devotion
were no longer alleviating it.
You were able to release him from that burden?
After five sessions with me,
he quit the Army and the Church.
He became a woodworker.
Because he and I agreed that in his case,
he wasn't really needed.
There were people who could fill that role
more effectively than he at that time.
True believers who didn't harbor doubts.
So, you think someone else can stop what I'm trying to stop?
No.
But I do think there are plenty of good,
well-trained psychiatrists
who can help your colleagues in the way I was helping them.
So, I have referred them out.
Each and every one.
And now...
there is no conflict in doing
this vitally important work with you.
Thank you.
I understand the enormity of that decision.
They're going to lose a lot seeing someone
other than you.
Won't they lose more if I don't help you succeed?
It's clear that you are a rational being
and that what you have determined about Prince
is quite likely the truth.
So, I will help you find a path
to doing what you must.
[exhales]
And yet, all day, I have felt culpable...
out of sorts.
Anxious, even.
Oh. That's normal in the circumstances.
Not for me. I don't get anxious.
When I played college soccer,
I was first up for penalty kicks in OT.
Because you were willing to risk failure to help the team.
You were bonded with your team.
Here, your team is going to get hurt,
financially and in other ways,
as you try to serve the broader interest.
That's true, yes.
But beyond the team, there's one person in particular
who's gonna be collateral damage.
He was never a patient of yours.
He's the guy Prince brought in to run the campaign.
I like him.
He's smart and...
committed and engaged and...
on the kind of upward trajectory few people ever have.
If it weren't for me.
Your face gets a little flushed as you talk about him.
I believe you.
Well...
you're going to have to make many choices along the way,
many sacrifices,
if you are going to carry out your stated mission.
In this room, the mission will be to keep you aligned,
to allow you to remind yourself why you are doing it.
And to give you the chance to say a private prayer
of repentance for each and every one
of the people you love who you are going to hurt.
But that's all of them.
As I see it now, if I succeed in taking Prince out,
I'm gonna have to rough up each and every person
who works there at some point along the way.
Then let's start naming them now.
Feeling the pain, it will cause you
to cause them pain.
And then, you will release it.
Breathe it out.
And move on.
Okay.
Let's do that.
How about we start with the gentleman
who is bringing color to your cheeks?
His name is Bradford Luke.
[indistinct chatter]
Interfering with public use.
Should I add that to the list?
- You want people to hear this? - I'm an open book.
Unlike you.
What do you need to leave me out of this, man?
The kid in cuffs on American soil,
like I told Sacker and she told you.
Do you want that? You sort of do, sure.
A guy like you will always take another feather in his cap.
But do you really even give a darn?
You think I wear this pin cynically?
[chuckling] I know why you wear that pin.
Optics. Pandering.
Nixon popularized the practice, for God's sake.
It's true. Haldeman saw Redford wearing one
in The Candidate and brought the idea back.
Nixon liked it so much,
he had the whole staff sporting them.
But like so many traditions,
most people don't know how it started,
and more people don't care.
They only know how it makes them feel to see it.
And what it stands for.
So, what do you really need?
Withdraw from the race.
Drop your so-called presidential ambitions,
which are really just a tarted-up way
of describing your lust for power.
Go back to your office
and continue with your standard-issue profiteering,
forget about steering our nation,
and I'll back off.
You know, I've had a lot of people
telling me what to do today.
Lot of good advice. Well-intentioned, anyway.
About how I should be doing things and why...
how it'll all look.
It'd gotten to the point where saying "screw it"
and walking away was starting to look pretty good.
Mm.
But then I remembered...
who the heck I am
and how I got to be that guy.
And it wasn't by following somebody else's script.
It was by blazing my own path.
A path that leads to the White House.
So, what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna keep blazing it.
[Chuck] You want to be free of this?
The kid in my cuffs on American soil.
Or you'll be the one in 'em.
He wants the kid, or me to quit my run.
Jesus.
Nothing else will satisfy him.
He's trying to induce you to take an action.
Yes.
So, it's your moral fucking duty
to take a different one.
Yes.
Unless that's what he's actually looking for.
Yes.
What're you going to do?
Take the desired action with a different result.
Lí-hó.
Sorry, I'm gonna need your son.
No, I'm doing it.
But so you feel better about it,
when I'm in office, in two years' time,
I can ensure the closest commercial relationship
Taipei has ever had with D.C.
Specifically, trade route protections
worth billions to you, within my first 100 days.
And your son will be out long before that,
if he's ever in jail at all.
If not, a pardon is certain.
It's not just how it has to be, friend,
it's the only way it can be.
West Side Highway, going south...
I feel like I've seen this movie before.
No, the only way that plane is empty
is if there was a parachute on board.
Get Liu off that plane as peacefully as possible
but be prepared for a forced entry.
Detain the pilot if you have to.
Party crasher.
Hold!
Prince. Thought his text said you could have him.
Let's see where this goes.
If that plane starts to taxi, take out the tires.
Kid gave himself up.
It wasn't his idea.
This man was a fugitive from justice, attempting to flee.
Which is why I ordered my plane to land.
As a U.S. citizen,
nothing is more important than obeying the law.
And as a sworn upholder of those laws,
I'll take it from here.
You'll all report this properly.
You'll all come to learn my plane was taken
under false pretenses.
Now I want to thank...
United States Attorney Rhoades
for calling this to my attention.
I'm so grateful.
[reporters clamoring]
[reporter] Mr. Prince, is there any way
you can make a comment, sir?
[Ira] Attorney's available for photos, no questions.
[Chuck] Fine, take some photos.
[both sigh]
Goddamned guy is going to get a big hit off of this.
Mm-hmm. Maybe.
It wasn't a blowout, but it'll go down as a win.
Now he knows his smallest mistake will be raked over.
And everywhere he goes, we are watching.
It's hard to march toward the presidency
when you're always looking over your shoulder.
I've just made arrangements
to send the Indiana National Guard
to areas hit hardest by the hurricane,
since units in the region are underfunded.
This will get aid to where it needs to be
before and until the FEMA funds kick in.
All on Mike's dime.
Foreign affairs settled. Domestic affairs are settled.
And we're going to help a whole bunch of people.
Today was a good day.
I am so fucking happy it worked out.
Now, no matter what happens,
you will be seen to have done the right thing.
Not merely seen to be, Wags. Doing it.
Even more reason to smile about it.
[exhales]
Every single thing you do now
matters in a way it didn't before.
There are no casual decisions.
And no one borrows your jet.
No one drops by your house for dinner without prior approval.
No employee makes it look like you're using a loophole
to avoid paying out to the victims of a hurricane.
You need to be the kind of person
who sees a hurricane coming--
Yeah. And runs toward it
with bailing buckets and blankets
to wrap folks in.
Now you get it.
You need to assume everything will come out
because it will.
So, take care to handle it in advance
for the win.
It'll feel overwhelming, but that's just what every hour
of every day in the actual job will be.
[sighs]
I can't let you do it.
I know.
I want you to. You need to know that.
You can keep the baton. You should.
And, I promise, after the inauguration,
you'll conduct the National Orchestra.
Maybe do a full run up the Eastern Seaboard.
That would be wonderful.
[chuckles] You don't have to take this so gracefully,
me depriving you of this dream right now.
You gave it to me.
I really wanted to.
I believe you.
I'm sorry.
This is what I signed on for.
To make your life easier
so your journey became longer.
Richer. More fulfilling.
And I've always been rewarded for so doing.
It doesn't change just because it's in a different arena.
What about your life?
Well, you said you had a good day today.
- I did. - Then so did I.
Hold this for me.
Until.
Hand on the Bible lies
Maggots turn to flies
Whole world's gone to hell
Momma's back in jail
Just can't get enough
Think we've had too much
You told Prince you were happy it worked out.
Seemed the only thing to say.
Especially after I screwed up that bad.
You didn't screw up. You tried to take him out
by making him look like an insurance scammer.
Almost succeeded.
Lone gunman-style.
But I guess... fuck.
Guess I'm no assassin.
A clean kill can turn very messy.
Today will only make him more careful and cautious
about what he does and how he appears.
This is all going to be hard.
And messy.
Don't get yourself fired.
We can't-- none of us-- can do this alone.
Or on a one-off attempt. It needs to be full-on
Murder On The Orient Express or nothing.
But are you really prepared to go that far?
I am now. Are you?
Because Prince was right about your impulsivity.
That shit can't get it done at these stakes, so...
will you exercise the discipline required
to really do it right?
I need to know.
I will. And we will.
Together.
Damn right.
A snake will crawl On the earth
To shed its skin
To make more Room for the poison
And the filthy rich Will all be clean
Until you raise your voices
And a louder one Above the rest
Will call himself a rebel
There's the one You know
And there's The one you don't
But they're still both The devil
As I lay me down
Go on Get behind me
Now