Original subtitles

Previously...

Guess who got a gig

at the Garden State Mall

opening up for Shawnee.

What if I wanted to back out?

The armed forces take commitments very seriously.

That's her.

She ain't gonna bother you no more.

My uncle owns the Golden Pavilion

and 20 other restaurants.

I want a percentage of your business.

Lou Thomas, he the one who told me.

That shit fuck up your whole life.

You're the fucking disease, nigga.

I'm sorry.

It's not good for people to see us together.

Ronnie got a girl.

That bitch from the bodega

was at my house with him.

I'll have to confirm what you are saying

with my own people before I will give you my approval.

You always gonna be that scared little bitch.

That girl from the Upper East Side overdosed,

and Shannon got dragged into it.

Then that other police officer came to speak with me,

and he suggested that maybe she was complicit after all.

It was Malcolm Howard.

As long as they don't talk to any

of Howard's old girlfriends, he'll be okay.

What about that task force bullshit?

What they getting into?

They ain't got nothing on nobody.

No suspects at all.

Tell us something good

about Marvin Thomas.

You gonna hurt somebody,

somebody who ain't you.

Your mom is competition out here, Kanan.

She's getting our product.

That shit's Kanan's.

That's the work he and Ronnie been running.

He also kicking it with some old heads.

Kanan fucking with Snaps and Pop?

I need y'all to step away from my son.

This shit is about us now.

And nobody fucks with us.

That's right.

The most fucked up lies

are the ones we tell ourselves...

...the ones we need to get through the day...

...to get through this fucking life.

But the biggest bullshit we tell ourselves

is that this shit gonna get better,

that tomorrow ain't gonna be as fucked up as today.

And we keep saying it and saying it

until we don't even believe our own bullshit anymore.

$10.95.

Are you planning on paying or not?

'Cause that's how this works.

You pick out what you want, you give me the money,

and then you pay for it.

You're only halfway there.

Gonna work a little different this time.

I wouldn't do that, my nigga.

Hey, you fucker!

Are you fucking kidding me?

Juliana people never late.

Let's go.

It's only been, like, two minutes.

Go.

Five-O?

Nah.

Let's go, go.

Easy, easy.

Yo, we blazin' on these motherfuckers or what?

'Cause you know I'm ready, nigga.

No.

Who that?

That's the nigga who gonna tell us

we out of business.

Come.

Come.

I'm afraid my cousin...

won't be able to work with you anymore.

Juliana is dead.

Your business relationship

and any other kind of relationship

you may have had with her...

is done.

The only reason you're not dead

is that your investors asked me to spare your life.

This about Raq?

This is about me.

I gave my word that I would not supply heroin

to South Jamaica,

and I am a man of my word,

which is the reason you're still breathing.

Move out.

Hey, baby.

Hey.

Look like you already ordered?

I'm gonna get the same thing I always get.

So you nervous?

Always.

Nah, you gonna be great.

And I'm gonna be that crazy auntie

screaming for you on that stage at the top of my damn lungs.

Here you go.

Thank you.

Look, I know it's a hectic day for you.

But...

...this came to the house.

It looks like you used our old address by accident,

so they forwarded it to the new spot.

I changed the address,

but I guess this one got through.

I ain't look at the name on it.

I figured it was Kanan, so I opened it.

The Army?

For real?

That's what you want?

I don't know.

I-I thought it was.

But I'm not sure no more.

So you tell your father yet?

Can't even guess what he's gonna say about it.

Probably take a lot of really deep breaths.

Yeah. That man and his breathing.

Look, I ain't the one

to offer no life advice to nobody.

Shit, every day that passes,

I realize how little I know about things

and how much I gotta learn.

But...

...I want you to be happy, Juke,

and if you can find that happiness in the Army,

go find it.

But if it's here singing on that stage, do that.

Grab that.

Be that.

'Cause all I want for you is to find your joy.

That's all I ever wanted for you.

Thanks, Aunt Raq.

I'm tired of you kids growing up.

Why couldn't you stay little for longer?

You and Kanan talkin'?

We ain't really got much to say to each other right now.

I could go check on him if you want.

I'm not here to talk about Kanan, all right?

I know I've been talking to you about Kanan your entire life.

And that shit ain't never been right.

It ain't never been fair.

I'm here to talk about you.

You and only you.

You still got a hell of an ear, Shirl.

Music is music.

The good ones always grab me.

Raw.

Rough.

But I like 'em like this.

Gives me a chance to mold 'em.

Too slick, and they start telling me how to do my job.

So what's this kid's story?

That's me.

That's me you listening to.

I'm Famous.

Someone's not lacking in confidence.

That's his name.

My real name's Shawn,

but everybody calls me Famous.

I love it. Famous.

I can see it up in lights already.

This is Lowell Gelfand.

He's an old friend of mine.

He owns a few independent labels.

I've only heard this one track,

but color me a fan.

Now, you also do the production?

Nah, that's... That's my man Lou, Lou Thomas.

- Okay. - He does all that.

I told you about Lou on the phone.

He's also incredibly talented.

Right, right.

You get old like me,

you start to get "dain bramage," Famous.

I don't recommend it.

I wanted Lowell to hear some of yours and Lou's work

because I... I thought

maybe you guys could, collaborate.

So what do you think, Famous?

You want to get into some trouble together?

Hell yeah.

Then let's get a meeting on the books,

all of us... Me, you, and the other guy.

- Lou. - Lou.

- Lou? - Yeah.

Have you heard from him?

Yeah, yeah, I've been...

I've been talking to him all the time.

I'm gonna hit him after this

to, you know, make the meeting happen.

You're talented, Famous,

and I'm rich.

And I've been at this long enough to know that

that combination often translates to success.

A'ight.

Lou, open up.

Yo, Lou.

I ain't heard from him in days.

Yeah, he might be in there, you know,

hurt or something like that or fucked up.

I need you to open the door.

I'm not supposed to do that.

Tenants' apartments are private property.

Goddamn.

This place is a fuckin' disaster.

Lou.

Lou!

Fuck.

You ain't heard from him recently?

No.

Your brother is gonna need to hire professional cleaners.

You gonna lock up.

And don't steal nothin'.

I got a "phonographic" memory.

I know where everything at in here.

I need five minutes, that's all.

Captain, I've got Detective Burke's father here.

He says it's urgent.

Send him in.

Captain Burke.

I apologize.

I've been meaning to give you a call.

Internal affairs has closed their case on Shannon.

Found no evidence of any wrongdoing,

so it's over.

You and your family can mourn in peace now.

I don't want them to close it.

I want them to keep it open.

That's why I'm here.

My daughter was set up, Captain, by Malcolm Howard.

He orchestrated this whole thing

to distract from what I'm assuming

is his own criminal bullshit.

Captain Burke, sir,

we have been down this road before.

I know, I know, I know, I know we've been

down this road before.

But I know more now.

Malcolm Howard is a highly-decorated

police officer.

So am I.

I need you to hear me out, Captain.

You knew that motherfucker was gonna cut off my supply,

and you didn't say shit to me.

I guess you heard from the Colombian?

You didn't tell her she was going around him

to his cousin.

That's some dumb shit.

Lucky for you, he came to us first.

Otherwise, you would've ended up like his cousin.

Sit down.

You're welcome, by the way.

My business deader than that bitch is.

Well, you're gonna need to figure that out

all lickety-split and shit, Urkel,

'cause it ain't your money

that you fuckin' losing right now.

This all Raq.

She the one fucking us.

Raq didn't take our money, Ronnie.

You did.

Yeah, she may be fucking you, but you fucking us.

The last thing you want to mess with

is our 401K, nigga.

That boy got mad issues.

Yeah, he do.

Two of 'em.

You and me, baby.

Howard went to Nicole Bingham's father

and told him to file a complaint against Shannon.

Why the fuck would Howard

get the father to file a complaint?

And how do you know he did it?

Doesn't matter how I know.

As for why he did it, I don't have an answer for you.

All I can say is, in my 40 years in the NYPD,

I never heard of a cop going to a civilian

and asking them to press charges against their partner.

The Binghams raised holy hell because they thought

Shannon supplied the drugs that killed their daughter.

But that investigation was dead on arrival.

The Bingham daughter's friend,

someone named Laverne Thomas,

said definitively that it wasn't Shannon

who gave her the drugs.

Laverne Thomas?

Jesus Christ, I forgot about her in all this.

When we made this shit go away, that girl went with it.

Fuck.

- Yes, sir? - Give me Agent Tanner.

Yo...

get the word out on the street that I'm looking for Lou

and I'm paying real money

for the information that get me to him.

Fuck was that?

You seen him?

Liquor store on 157 got robbed last night.

So?

Heard it was Lou.

Agent Tanner, Howard is in line

to take over Queens Narcotics,

which would have him working next to you.

So any issue with him is a problem for your team.

I'm aware.

But again, this is mostly

outside my purview and concern.

That high school girl who died,

the one who OD'd on the Upper East Side,

she was dating a Laverne Thomas.

Laverne Thomas.

- That's... - The daughter.

And if you're thinking we knew this all along

and didn't put two and two together, you're right.

But at this particular moment, that's beside the point.

For now, all that matters is there seems to be

some sort of link between Marvin Thomas,

Detective Burke, and Detective Howard.

I'm not following either of you.

So what we're saying here

is that barring an incredible coincidence,

there is some sort of unholy triangle

between LCN, Marvin Thomas, and Detective Howard.

And Shannon figured this all out.

That's why she was investigating Howard

and his shooting.

Because it was mob-related.

I'm not saying anything

beyond what I learned in the last hour.

What I can tell you, though,

is there's no such thing as coincidence

in South Jamaica.

I told you I wasn't doing this with you no more.

Yeah, well, you here anyways.

Get in.

Lou out here wilin' again.

You motherfuckers are incorrigible.

I thought he learned his lesson

when he had to fix that shit with Scrap's mom...

I don't want to know more about that than I already do.

I need an assist finding him.

Your bullshit don't ever stop, do it?

You thinking I want to come to you with all of this?

You the last motherfucker

I ever want to have a favor from.

But I ain't got nowhere else to go.

My brother needs to be off these streets,

and I can't find him.

And that's bad for all of us, including you.

And it's like you've been saying all along, Detective.

We connected.

Family, whether we like it or not.

Y'all would be the fucked up family that I get.

My bad for being late.

Gonna have to keep this meetup up short.

I got shit to do.

You mind?

- Hungry as hell over here. - Have at it.

It's for the girls, but they haven't touched any of it.

I missed lunch and shit.

Getting close on this story about your daughter.

I spoke to her on the phone the other day.

I guess you call her Jukebox

because you gotta pay her to talk.

And she ain't even mad at you.

Imagine what she like when she pissed off.

You know, I feel like our conversations

have really helped me.

I'm getting better.

And I know you got a lot going on.

I don't want to take up any more of your time

with my bullshit.

I'm good.

You breaking up with me or something?

No, not at all.

It's...

I don't want to be a burden.

How many more times I got to tell you

how this friendship thing work?

It ain't a burden.

I gotta...

I gotta get some flowers for Juke for this show later.

You're coming through, right?

Of course.

This performance will be the last piece

that I need for my story.

See you there.

Is... is Kanan... Kanan here?

Look, I need to talk to him.

Go away.

Yo, K! I... I'm looking for Lou, man.

You always be talkin',

so you don't never hear.

I said go away.

A'ight. A'ight, ease up, Ronnie.

Let him the fuck go, man.

I don't know where Lou at.

I ain't fucking with my family right now.

You got your answer, nigga.

Now go.

Wait, wait. Fame.

Juke got her mall thing today.

Everybody gonna be there.

Me too.

I doubt Lou missin' that shit.

You're going to the fucking mall

when we don't got no business no more?

You don't need to worry about what the fuck I'm doing, nigga.

The bathroom's upstairs.

It's a long walk,

so give yourself enough time to get there if you need it.

And there's a cooler over here,

but make sure the drinks aren't too...

Jukebox, don't worry about who's out there.

Right now, it's only about us here.

Who we are, the work we've put in.

We made an investment in ourselves and each other.

And this is when we realize our return.

This is the payoff.

When you step out there, you're sisters.

Love each other,

and everyone out there will do the same.

I'm proud of you.

And you should be proud too.

You believed in yourselves, ladies.

And right now, that faith has turned into fact.

And no one can take that from you,

no matter what.

You guys are singing to track,

but you need to leave it all out there.

Now go out on that stage

and change your lives, ladies.

Places.

Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir.

Years from now, you're gonna tell people

that you were here to see this group

that's about to take the world by storm.

Folks, this is one of the hottest acts

to emerge from New York in a very long time.

Let's hear it for Jukebox,

Krystal, Iesha,

otherwise known as Butta!

Hey, I wouldn't have called you guys

if the asshole had stayed passed out.

Problem is, he keeps waking up every 20 minutes

and breaking shit.

He ain't paid for none of his drinks, either.

All right, wake up.

Rise and shine, sweetie.

Welcome back to the land of the living.

What's your name?

Lou.

I'm Lou.

Lou Thomas.

Hey, I'ma close my eyes and rest a little bit.

I'll get back to you.

- I promise. - It's him, right?

How about that?

Let's go, Lou.

A friend of ours wants to talk to you.

I ain't got no friends.

Yeah, whatever you say.

Yo, let me get another one.

Hey, hey who's gonna pay for his drinks

and all the shit he broke?

Come on, man, how about it's on the house?

I think it's his birthday.

Fuck his birthday.

I want my money.

Hey, you have a good day, sir.

Your cousin killed it out there, right?

Don Cornelius gonna be knocking on my front door.

Yeah, she did good.

Gonna have a celebration for her in a couple days.

You should come through.

I don't have time for y'all right now.

Why? What you gotta do? Where you going?

Threatening a social worker,

it ain't gonna make your problems go away.

It's gonna make it worse.

I'm not worried.

Well, I make one more phone call,

and they gonna grab you up and put you upstate.

I can make phone calls too.

Stories I could tell.

There's places they can take you.

I don't give a fuck who your daddy is,

was, or wasn't.

I'll pull out my belt on your ass right here, right now.

You don't speak to your mother that way.

It's all right, Marvin.

You know, Ronnie don't see the world

like normal people, Kanan.

I trust him more than I trust you.

He killed his own brother.

That's not what I heard.

I heard it was you that took out 'Nique.

Put him down.

Had them Italian motherfuckers burn him

so you could take all his work.

Your shit with Ronnie been deaded.

You're done.

Out of business.

You don't decide when I'm done.

Not no more.

You gonna let him talk to you like that?

Those record guys stayed for the whole show.

It's a good sign, right?

What you think they saying?

They planning our first stop on our world tour.

I hope it's somewhere warm like Brazil

or Puerto Rico.

What you know about Brazil, girl?

Shit, I know it's warmer than New York.

Yo, you killed it out there today, Juke.

Thanks.

What record label y'all from?

Laverne, I'm Special Agent Preston Tanner

from the Federal Bureau of Investigation,

and this is Detective Arthur Ogden of the NYPD.

We have some questions we need to ask you

regarding your family's connection to organized crime

and other criminal activities.

The fuck we doing, man?

If you're gonna arrest me, arrest me, okay?

How you got me up in here,

this has gotta be a civil rights violation

or some shit.

You know what I'm saying?

The problem child himself.

And he's shitfaced and pretty fucking chatty.

Told us he knocked over a liquor store

for a bottle of whiskey last night.

Shit.

If y'all ever need an assist,

you know I got you.

I'll take it from here.

You can't keep your fucking mouth shut?

Shit, you ain't heard nothing yet.

I can solve damn near

every murder on the South Side for you.

Your sister about to be here soon

to collect your sorry ass.

Until then, shut the fuck up.

It was you.

You told Raq that Scrap was the snitch.

It had to be.

I knew she said someone was inside.

You fucked all that shit up.

Scrap wasn't no snitch.

We put him down behind your word?

You...

you killed that nigga!

You say one more fucking syllable

and I'ma put you out your misery.

You understand me?

One more and you dead.

I'm already dead, nigga.

I been dead.

Yo, G, what's going on?

Yo, breathe, brother.

Breathe.

It's Alice.

What happened to her?

I needed a few minutes for myself,

something to settle me down.

Take the edge off.

What happened to Alice, man?

She likes baths.

So I put her in.

She's old enough to be in there

by herself, right?

The next thing I remember, Amber is waking me up.

And I went in, and she must have slipped.

She's gone, Marvin.

My baby girl drowned, and she's gone.

No.

Hell no.

Damn.

I'm so fucking sorry, man.

They're taking Amber away.

I got nothing.

I am nothing.

Look...

you need help, Gerald.

Real help.

Maybe it's good they take Amber for now

and then you can get right.

I-I'm a piece of shit, a horrible father

and a fucking awful friend.

No, man.

You a good friend.

You...

They said they were gonna put me

in prison, Marvin.

They were gonna throw me in prison

and put my kids in foster homes

if I didn't get them something.

I don't even know what you saying, G.

You're so sad you're not even making sense.

I am making sense.

I've been working with the FBI.

I got caught with some heroin.

It was too much to write off as simple possession,

so they threatened me.

Said they were gonna take away my kids.

And that's when they told me that they were looking at

you and your family.

They knew that I know you from our group.

I'm so sorry.

I didn't give them anything, I swear.

I didn't have anything on you.

You didn't tell me anything.

If I had said no to them from the start,

you wouldn't hate me like you do right now.

And my daughter would still be alive.

It doesn't matter now,

because they're gonna put me away forever for this.

You'll never forgive me, but can you at least

try and understand that I did it for my kids?

Your daughter's dead, Gerald,

because of you.

And I'll probably end up in the pen because of you too.

Everything you've done, you've done for yourself.

You ain't no friend.

You're no kind of father, neither.

You ain't shit.

We know that your dad is the one

who gave the drugs to your girlfriend that killed her.

And we also know that he's been working

with organized crime to sell drugs in South Jamaica.

But we need to know more, which is why you're here.

Y'all don't know shit.

What can you tell us about Detective Howard?

Are he and your dad friends?

My dad?

He ain't friends with cops

or organized crime

or nobody else.

And he ain't done none of the shit you said.

Y'all ain't got nothing.

Because if you did,

you wouldn't be talking to me.

About damn time.

I don't even have no words

for you and your family no more.

This shit defies language.

This motherfucker been talking my ear off

confessing to every crime committed in Queens

in the last 10 years.

Seems like you got

some confessing to do too, Detective.

Some shit you've been keeping real close,

lying to me straight to my fucking face.

Yeah, Marvin called me.

Told me that that task force had a snitch on him

this whole time, that they've been looking at him

for months on all of this Italian shit.

Meanwhile, you telling me we free and clear

and they ain't onto us at all.

All right, yeah.

I did know they was onto Marvin.

And if I'm being honest with you,

I told them they might be looking

in the right direction.

So this whole time you saying we was good

and they've been sizing up my big brother?

We are good, Raq.

They not on you, they not on Kanan, they not on me.

We put this whole shit on Marvin, it all goes away.

We get a clean slate.

Yeah, my brother, he don't get that, though.

He gets life or the fucking chair.

So would you rather it be Kanan or you?

Yo, Marvin gotta take one for the team.

And I bet you even he would understand that.

Raquel, these Feds are not going away empty handed.

We gotta give 'em something, or they gonna keep coming

till they take it all from us.

And shit, if they get to you,

Marvin going down anyway, and so does Kanan.

And so will you.

No shit.

I ain't gonna never sell out my family.

All right, well, fuck it then.

Let's do it your way, and then we all go down.

I'm sick of all this bullshit anyways.

Fuck you and yours, Raq.

Mines is yours, nigga.

Here come the black widow.

There goes the black eye.

Doherty, Gerald!

We're here about Alice, Gerald.

NYPD's letting us bring you in as a professional courtesy.

Car is here.

Probably passed out.

Wanna do the honors?

Gerald?

This piece of shit.

Fuck.

Something...

...popped up that I need to handle.

But before I let you go,

I need to ask you again

if you've ever seen your father

interact with Detective Malcolm Howard.

You fucked up my whole life tonight.

And you really think

I'ma answer your questions?

Take it from me, none of us ever make a clean escape

from our fucked up families.

You think you get out okay,

but then once you're in the clear light of day,

you see all the scars.

And those scars never go away.

They get deeper.

Fuck you, FBI.

You are free to go.

Talk to me.

No chance this was a hit?

Nah, killing himself was probably

the smartest thing this asshole has done in years.

You gonna do me like you did Scrap?

That's my big brother.

Hey, Marvin, she trying to kill me, man.

Don't let her kill me.

How much the newspaper guy give up?

I don't even know.

You can't touch him, Marvin.

That snitch motherfucker scrape his damn knee,

they gonna come looking for you.

Marvin, don't let her kill me, man.

She's trying to kill me, Marvin.

Get him in the car.

N... no.

No, no, no. No, no, no. I...

I ain't-I ain't ready yet, man.

Marvin, I... I ain't ready yet.

Detective Howard?

We need to talk.

What's the word, Cap?

Did you lean on James Bingham

to go to IAD and put in that complaint on Burke?

And tangential to that question

is the nature of your relationship to Marvin Thomas,

our investigation's current target

whose daughter was romantically involved

with the Bingham girl.

And tangential to that,

why the fuck didn't you come to me

with any of this shit?

Are you serious?

You coming at me with this?

First of all, you're the one that told me

that the department couldn't handle

any more bad press,

that Burke's dirt needed to be buried.

So yeah, I went and talked to the girl's father

to see how deep and dark the shit really was.

Because I knew that Burke had fucked with the Bingham girl

and Laverne Thomas.

And honestly, it was worse than what I thought.

It was bad enough that I couldn't make it go away.

So I told the father to go to IAD

to let them figure it out.

Why didn't you go to IAD yourself?

'Cause I ain't a snitch.

And as far as Marvin Thomas, that shit's happenstance.

I don't know nothing about that.

So you and Marvin Thomas

don't have any sort of relationship?

Relationship?

What, are we fucking dating?

I don't have anything to do with Marvin Thomas.

Hey, yo, Cap...

what you getting at, man?

Are you trying to say that I'm in business

with some drug dealer?

Your moms is fucking with our investment.

Messing with our money.

She need to be handled.

So what, y'all don't love me no more?

Don't care or nothing?

I'm your little brother.

We love you, Lou.

Then how you doing me like this, man, if you love me?

You did it to yourself.

So you gonna put me down?

Leave me out here...

in the dark...

all by myself?

I don't... I don't want to be alone like that, man.

Don't leave me out there like that, Marvin.

Please.

Don't leave me alone out here, man.

Marvin, please, man.

Everybody talk real tough

until they looking down the barrel of that gun.

Once they see that strap in they face,

they start sayin' real different shit.

Start making deals with everyone, including God.

Hey, do what you gotta do then.

But don't leave me out here alone like that.

"Let me live, and I'll do right.

Let me keep breathing, and I'll change."

But once you there,

staring your own death in the damn face,

ain't no more deals left to make.

Ain't no negotiating left to do.

Your business here is done, nigga.

Your money ain't good no more.